Book I Read in March

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room is one of those books that I felt like I got asked about over and over when it came out; as in, "Have you read Room yet?"  I finally got around to it about three years later - I'm so on top of things.  And, just like last month's book about a woman's dead husband and sick only child, I have no idea why it would be in my best interest to read a book about a young mother and her son who are trapped in an 11x11 room for five years just a few months after giving birth to my first child with whom I stay home all day, but that's what I did. 

And I LOVED THIS BOOK. 

Narrated by five-year-old Jack, who has never been outside the shack his mother's kidnapper has kept her in for the past seven years, his tiny world is contained entirely in a space shared by himself and his Ma.  She has created a fulfilling life for him the best she possibly can considering the circumstances, but it can only last so long, and Jack's mind is totally blown upon hearing the news that the world outside Room is real.  While this would be a gripping story no matter how it is told, seeing it all through Jack's innocent eyes and reading it through his limited-knowledge, child's voice makes the whole thing so compelling and addicting that I would have easily read it all in one sitting if I could have.  This is a new addition to my all-time favorites list, no question.

[Author Emma Donoghue just came out with a new novel a few days ago:  Frog Music.  Adding that to my to-read list!]

Books I Read: This Winter + A Rearranged Bookshelf

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Hmmmm, what to read as your first book after you've just had a baby?  How about a memoir about a woman whose husband suddenly dies one night at the dinner table, while their only child is in a coma due to an unexplained neuro issue on and off for the next year?  Sign me up!  Who knows what possessed me to pick this one up as my "before going to sleep"book when AA started to going to bed in his own room, but I did...and while it basically destroyed me emotionally (but so did the Olympics, so...), it was an absolutely beautiful read.  It was brutally honest to the point that Didion shared thoughts and feelings I almost can't imagine she would have been willing to share with even her closest friends, and it was just a heartbreaking, stripped bare portrait of marriage and family and death and recovery that will resonate with me for a long time to come.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

First off, prettiest book cover ever, huh?  Secondly, I picked up this book because I had seen many, many "best of 2013" lists in which this novel was at the top.  WORTH IT.  Weaving in and out of the lives of 6 people who met at an arts camp in the late 70s, the plot explores how a shared experience among teenagers can continue to have a ripple effect throughout our lives.  I also felt super connected to the characters for a couple of reasons:  I, too, went to an arts camp as a teenager, for modern dance!  [However, I didn't thrive quite as well as these kids...I spent the entire 2 weeks basically unable to walk because I was so sore from our daily Pilates sessions, which I had never done before!]  Also, the adult versions of the characters all live in a very authentic New York City, which of course has a special place in my adulthood as well.  [At one point, two characters meet up for brunch at "a place on Amsterdam with popovers as big as a baby's head" - this is a real place, and I've been there!  It's called Popover Cafe!  Though it apparently closed at the beginning of the year :( ]  Connections like those aside, this novel is really just a story about people and their lives and their friendships and how life can be interesting if we just make it be so.


Yesterday, I did that thing where I accidentally start organizing something I didn't mean to organize and rearranged our bookshelves!  Here they are, in our upstairs loft space, which I love.

I was looking for a new book to read, but all our books were just sort of haphazardly thrown up there and I kept running across books I had already read.  So I decided to separate all our books out to see just how many there even were that I have yet to read.  Of the 18 shelves, this is what I ended up with:

2 shelves of knick knacks
3 shelves of photo albums
1 shelf of games
1 shelf of coffee table books (should these go on a coffee table, by definition?  Probably)
2 shelves of college textbooks (whyyyy do we keep these?)
1 shelf of travel books

AND

4 shelves of books I have read
4 shelves of books I haven't read!

I gotsa to get to reading!  Not only that, of the 4 unread shelves, one entire shelf of that is Christian theology and philosophy books, so I've got the perfect opportunity and a host of books to choose from to expand my mind and explore my faith even further.  We will be moving again in August, but I'm going to see if I can get one more entire shelf read before we have to pack up again!

Book I Read in April

I feel like I hardly ever get a chance to read, so I'm shocking myself with the ability to even keep up with one book a month!

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Serena Frome is a 20-something woman in London in the 1970's (how perfectly does this book cover depict that?!) who goes to work for MI5, which is a British intelligence agency.  She can technically be classified as a "spy," though she would be considered quite a lowly one, and this book focuses mainly on just one of her assignments, which ends up impacting her life significantly.

Reading the back cover of this book, I fully expected it to be this epic spy novel with twists and turns and a couple of shoot outs, but I should have known better having read a few of McEwan's other novels (Atonement, On Chesil Beach).  This story is much quieter, and much more of a story of Serena's life as a regular civilian intersecting with her life as an intelligence agent.  There are events and things that happen to her that end up being not at all as they seem (and one somewhat major revelation/twist), but it's nothing that's going to end the world or cause a terrorist to get away.  This is a story about a woman who is a spy, rather than spy story.

This was one of those books that I couldn't tell if I liked it as I was reading it, but every time I put it down, I continued to think about it.  Because of that, I'm going to call this a solid "like," though not a quite a "love," and I continue to be a fan of McEwan in general (if you haven't read Atonement, I encourage you to do so at your earliest possible convenience).

Books I Read in March

Suri's Burn Book by Allie Hagan

We all already know and love the Tumblr this book is based on.  Though it occasionally feels a little bit wrong, "Suri's" snarky commentary about the other Hollywood families is completely entertaining.  My favorite parts of this book were a section called "Celebrities Who Should Have Babies" (like Leo & Kate, or Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams [sorry, Eva, we're not going to just forget that easily how things used to be]) and a part where she talks about the celebrity child cliques she wishes she could be in (like the Spice Children [all the Spice Girls' kids]).  Her constant reminders that she made her photographic debut on the cover on Vanity Fair, in photographs taken by Annie Liebowitz, on a cliffside in Telluride, after 6 months of speculation if she even existed, make me giggle every time.  If you like Suri's Burn Book online, you'll like it in real life book form too.

(Also, I must thank Heidi for sending me this one for a birthday present!)

The Three Marys by Eva J. Gibson

Though I have about a million qualms with the cover image of this book, I thoroughly enjoyed working through this one with my Bible Study girls.  It is an in-depth study of the roles that each of the three Marys mentioned in the New Testament (Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary of Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene) played in Jesus' life and as examples of Christianity (see what I mean about the cover?!  It looks like it should be a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book).  While only seven chapters long, each chapter gives a dozen study questions, which vary between reading comprehension, journaling, and personal reflection - a great variety for a Bible study book.  The many, many passges from the Bible it asks you to read (especially those comparing all four accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John regarding the same event) are so nice to dive really deeply into and get a full perspective.  Wonderful read - maybe our best pick yet!

Book I Read in February

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother when she was 11 and taken in to a boarding school.  In her final year at school, she becomes the leader of her school's six houses in the territory wars that take place every year with the kids from town (the Townies) and the military school kids (the Cadets), but she also must deal with the mysterious disappearance of someone else very close to her, and how that might be connected with her mother.  Also, this book is set in Australia, so I'll give it extra points for that!

All that being said, there are two other stories woven in and out of our modern day one that quite frankly confused me to no end.  By the time I was three-quarters of the way through the book, I figured out the gist of it, but it still wasn't clear to me.  It also took me a big chunk of the book to figure out what exactly the "territory wars" entail.  At first I got the feeling that they were really serious, and kids might actually die, but as it turned out, that was not the case - kids from opposing sides date and occasionally someone gets beat up or kidnapped for a few hours.  I just couldn't put my finger on what the intention was.

I have heard many, many, many wonderful things about this book, and I did find it compelling and rather heartbreaking, but I spent too much time being mildly confused about who was who and what was what to really enjoy it to its full extent.  Also, maybe I would be less confused if I didn't read books while sitting on the street all night in 36 degree rain waiting for SNL tickets.

It's been awhile since I read a book that really grabbed me from the get-go so I couldn't put it down.  Looking forward to having that reading experience again!  Any suggestions?  Here are all the books I've read the past couple of years.

Book I Read in January

I only finished one this month (because I spent the first half of the month attempting to read this!), but here are all the rest, if you're looking for book recommendations.

Night by Elie Wiesel
Perhaps the most famous Holocaust memoir out there, Night is the autobiographical account of a teenaged Jewish boy's experience during World War II, as his family is removed from their village to a ghetto and soon end up as prisoners in several Nazi concentration camps.  My goodness, this story will haunt you.  It is harrowing, graphic, and heart-crushing, as you would imagine that it would be.  Interestingly enough, there has been a considerable amount of criticism over how much truth is found in this book, and whether it can rightfully be classified as a memoir or if it should be labeled as fiction.  I think it doesn't really matter.  Even if the specific events of this story didn't actually happen to Elie, other survivors' and witnesses' accounts have assured us that these things did happen.  That much cannot be argued.  Also, though this book is translated from its original Yiddish, Wiesel's naked, stark method of storytelling remains intact, and makes for an entrancing read.  Tissues needed.

Book I Read Half Of And Then Just Went to the Movie Instead

You probably could have guessed it:  Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.

I had great intentions of reading the whole book before I saw the movie (because I've never seen the musical either).  Then I found out the book is 1500 pages long.  No, thank you.  So I found an abridged version that was *only* 600 pages long.  Do-able.  And I tried, I really did.  I got through Fantine's depressing existence and Cosette's childhood and I was really loving Jean Valjean's unwavering morality, and then I got to Marius and we started talking about French politics...and I just. could. not. go. on.  I'm sorry, Marius!  You're just too boring!

So, with knowledge of only half of the story, I gave in and we just went to see the movie instead this weekend.  (Just in time, too, since it did quite well for itself at the Golden Globes last night!)  I honestly ended up with mixed feelings about it, possibly more on the bad side than the good, but I'll just stick to what I loved and leave out the parts I wasn't so crazy about.

• Anne Hathaway deserves every good word, pat on the back, accolade, and audience member tear she gets for this.
• Amanda Seyfried looks awesome in bonnets.
• The hoodrat child is the best.
• Hugh Jackman, I would like for you to come rearrange all my furniture with your brute strength while singing me lullabies.
• Samantha Barks, your waist is so small it rivals Scarlett O'Hara's, and you sang "On My Own" almost as good as Joey Potter.  Just kidding, you were obviously better than Joey, but thank you, Dawson's Creek, for the first time I ever heard this song and my many years of not realizing it wasn't written specifially for your show.
• There is always hope.  Always.  If these wretched, miserable peasants don't let it die, nor should you.  Hope is found in love, and, as ol' 24601 lets us know:  "To love another person is to see the face of God." 

Vive la France!  Vive la Revolution!

Books I Read in November

The Love Dare by Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick

This Christian romance book is based on the cheese-tastic movie Fireproof starring Kirk Cameron!  Silliness aside, this book takes you through 40 days of "dares" to go through, each one reminding you of a certain Biblical principle on marriage and the way to treat your spouse.  I read through this book with my Bible study girls, and we didn't let our husbands know that we were Love Daring them, which was sort of fun and sneaky.  Everyone can use a nice reminder every once in awhile of what a gift from God your marriage is and how important it is to take the time to care for it the way you must in order for it to fulfill its purpose, so it was fun to go through these dares, and I might pick it up again every few years!

Reached by Ally Condie
This is the third and final book in the Matched/Crossed series, a favorite of mine from the dystopian theme currently taking over young adult books.  I can't say too much about the plot without just spoiler-alerting the first two books, but here's what I can say:  While the first book followed only Cassia's point of view, and the second followed Cassia and Ky, this one follows all three of our main characters:  Cassia, Ky, and Xander.  I actually really enjoyed the constant changes in perspective, as the three of them were often in completely different places working on completely different missions, sometimes not even knowing where or what the others were doing.  I also just realized that I can't remember how this book ends, even though I just finished it a week ago, so that might be a good indication that I was somewhat disenchanted by the plot, but, like the previous two books, I find the prose absolutely enthralling.  It reads like poetry or a song, and the author's choices of what she includes and what she very purposefully leaves out is so intriguing.  Hey, Hollywood:  I know we're already started on the movies of Divergent, but let's do this series next!

Book I Read in October

I'm a little ashamed of myself for only managing to read one book in the month of October, considering that for about 2/3 of the month I've been laying in bed recovering from surgery!  I actually have started two other books (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Magicians), but just haven't found much motivation to finish them, but I'll try to power through!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
 If I was only going to read one book, I am so glad this was the one!  Told in the form of letters written by Charlie, a high school freshman, to a mystery person that we never meet, this book (a very short read) spans his freshman year of high school and a million ups and downs within that year.  All we know is that Charlie admires this mystery person because they "didn't sleep with that person at that party when they could have."  And thus begins our look into Charlie's mind and the slightly off-kilter way that it works.

I found this book to be immensely important as a young adult novel.  It tells the story of a high school experience from a perspective that is too often overlooked.  Charlie is an outcast struggling to find his place, but as you read his personal letters you find that his struggle is unique in that it is felt so deeply it becomes dangerous.  Charlie's a weird kid:  his reaction to most situations is crying, he doesn't understand simple social constructs, he sees and experiences things but lacks the ability to comprehend them as they are happening, and yes, he's a wallflower (and one could argue probably falls somewhere on the autism scale).  But I absolutely and completely loved that Chbosky chose to put this high school experience down on paper.  It is largely opposite from my own high school experience on the surface, but the deep running feelings of confusion and loneliness and out-of-placeness are something we've all felt at least an inkling of at one point or another.

Additionally, I have wanted to read this book for a long time because it is often banned from libraries.  I wrote my senior thesis in college on the dangers of banning books from our schools, so this is an issue I feel extremely strongly about.  I once was included on an e-mail thread from a former boss discussing with a school board how Perks should be removed from the school library.  Here was the kicker:  Not one of the adults included on the thread had ever read the book.  Because they had heard that it contained mentions of child abuse, rape, masturbation, and homosexuality (without any idea of the context of those mentions), they deemed it worthy of their censorship.  I have huge issues with this that could fill a 30-page college paper (literally, as I have already written it), but here's what I concluded when I read this book:  It is a heart-breakingly beautiful depiction of a teenage boy struggling violently with personal issues and searching for a place where he can fit, and that story could not be less dangerous to a high school student. 

I've seen lots of other bloggers who have read this book and given reviews that are basically the opposite of mine, but I adored it.  If you've read it, I would love to hear your view!

Book I Read in September

The next four books I plan on reading/re-reading are all coming out as movies in the next few months, and I want to read all the books first!  Want to join me?  They will be:  Cloud Atlas, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Les Miserables, and The Great Gatsby.

This month, I only finished one of them, but it was a tremendous, dense, complicated one, to say the least.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Scott read this one first and has been begging me to read it for the last year, and I finally did!  There doesn't seem to be a whole lot you can say about this book without simply giving up the intricacies that unfold as you make your way through the book, but I'll do my best:  Cloud Atlas is a set of six stories - completely different eras, settings, and characters - that are connected only by very (seemingly) thin threads.  As you read each section of the book, written brilliantly in completely and totally unique voices and styles, you get caught up in each of the individual plots, and then begin discovering connections between them all.  I truthfully didn't really know if I liked this book or not until I was well over halfway through, at which point I found myself thinking about it constantly when I wasn't reading it (always a good sign!).  The film comes out on October 26th, and critics and audiences have been having mostly really strong reactions - either loving it or hating it.  We're hoping to love it!  There is an incredibly epic, over-five-minute long trailer out there, but I think it gives a little bit too much away, so I'll leave you with this regular-sized trailer instead.

Books I Read in July

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
I don't even want to describe what this book is about, because when it's written out, it sounds, well, odd, but here goes:  This is the story of a hermaphrodite.  A grown man looking back on his childhood as a girl.  Okay, now that that's out of the way, let me go on and say:  this was the most moving book.  Incredibly moving.  Because it's not just his childhood that Cal reflects on, but it's also the lives of two generations of his Greek family before him.  It's an exploration of family and personal history, and how these are intertwined, and how the actions of our parents and grandparents continue to affect us in the present day, and what that means for us.  Oh, and it's beautifully, beautifully written.  Loved it.  Incredible.  Read it.
P.S. Y'all, it won the Pulitzer.




Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs
I've been working through this book for the last couple of months with my Skype Bible Study girls.  Although I found the way Higgs writes her commentary to be a little too "look how funny and irreverent I am!", I did enjoy the book on the whole.  Some of the stories of these "bad" women I either hadn't heard or just plain didn't remember hearing if I had (Michal? Guys, David burned her bad and she wasn't so nice in return), and some were a nice refresher and excuse to dig deeper into them (Delilah, you minx).  It's comforting to read the stories and be given the proof right there in black and white of God's promise that we are covered by grace, no matter how bad we think we've behaved.





...and thus hopefully ends my book-reading drought!  Guys, these are the first two books I've finished since April!  I'm hopping back on the reading wagon.

Books I Read in April

Fight Like a Girl by Lisa Bevere
I didn't really read this entire book in April, but I did finish it this month!  This was the most recent book chosen by some dear friends who I Bible study with via Skype every week.  In it, Bevere outlines why we shouldn't feel diminished or limited or offended by our status as women; we should, instead, take the would-be insult "you fight like a girl" as a compliment!  God instilled characteristics, desires, and abilities into us as women that only we have and only we can reach.  Fulfilling those paths will empower us like never before.  We aren't equal to men; we aren't meant to be.  We are different from men, in amazing, wonderful, necessary, intentional ways.  While a few of the chapters didn't resonate with me (just because I didn't necessarily relate to the struggle that she was writing about), we all three enjoyed the book as a whole, and the message is one that needs to be heard by women everywhere.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Lucky Linderman is one of the best characters I have yet to read in young adult fiction.  Just knowing the premise of this book, I didn't really think I would relate to it:  Lucky, who has just finished his freshman year of high school, is tormented by a bully constantly, though his parents aren't willing to help him stand up for himself.  But at night, in Lucky's dreams, he meets up with his grandfather, a POW/MIA, in the jungles of Vietnam, on what he believes is a mission to help Grandad escape.  I am glad to report I was completely wrong.  Lucky, as a narrator, is so truthful, so sympathetic, and so much stronger than he knows.  The journey he goes on in the month or so this book covers, both in reality and in his dreams, is incredibly moving and reassuringly realistic.  This is a fantastic read.

Books I Read in March

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I finally got around to reading this book after Scott's aunt lent it to me at Christmas!  If for some strange reason you haven't ever heard of this book or the movie version (could that be anyone in the whole world?), it follows two black house maids and a white woman, who is an aspiring writer, living in Mississippi in 1962.  Perhaps my favorite thing about this novel was Stockett's incredible telling of the story through all three of their voices - each one distinct and unique, humorous and heartbreaking.  Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter are all fighting to break the boundaries that unjustly surround them in their daily lives, and the story is quite moving (again, which I'm sure you know by now due to both this book and the movie!).  I very much enjoyed this book, but did anyone else feel like the ending wasn't quite the walking-across-the-football-field-fist-pumping moment you wanted it to be?  I'm sure in reality, the triumphs made by the people in this movement were gradual and small at first, but I felt so invested in these women, I wanted their victories to be even bigger!

 Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
I loved this book as a 27-year-old woman, but if you know of any teenager who is struggling with being true to him/herself, or finding real friends who love them the way that they are, or standing up for things they know are right, recommend this book to them.  Our two main characters, Jennifer and Cameron, have a shared (and traumatic) past from their early childhood, and are forced to deal with these mutual memories years later in their late teens.  At its heart, this is a story about what it's like to be a genuine friend to someone, no matter what either of you have gone through separately or together, and how to love yourself as who you were born to be, not who you think you should be.  I read it all in one day, and I laughed and cried in mostly equal measure.  Fabulous.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

If you are a female between the ages of 22 and 34, and you feel any connection whatsoever to any of the following chapter titles:
 
I Forget Nothing:  A Sensitive Kid Looks Back
I Love New York and It Likes Me Okay
The Exact Level of Fame That I Want
Someone Explain One-Night Stands to Me
Non-Traumatic Things That Have Made Me Cry
These Are the Narcissistic Photos in My Blackberry

...just go read this book this weekend.

Books I Read in February

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
This one I read on recommendation from my mother, who has been bitten by the reading bug (I think my sister and I's endless obsessive conversations about HP and HG have contributed to that)!  Also recently a movie starring Katherine Heigl, this is the story of a down-and-out 20-something woman named Stephanie Plum who becomes a bounty hunter (how's that for a career choice?!), basically because she needs extra money fast so she can stop selling her own furniture in order to eat and buy gas.  She finds herself hunting down someone she, ahem, had relations with in high school, and hijinks ensue.  I did like Evanovich's dry writing style and sense of humor, but I didn't end up loving this book.  The humorous and lighthearted tone felt wrong to me when the subject matter (murder, prostitution, rape, female mutilation) was often so serious.  Nonetheless, it did make a good don't-have-to-think-about-it-too-hard read.  And, for those who have never heard of these books like I hadn't, this was actually first published in 1994 (which sometimes leaves you wanting to scream, "Just use your cell phone!!!!!" before you remember they weren't commonplace), and the series is now up to 18!

Sugar and Spice by Lauren Conrad
Despite my borderline disgust with the first book in this series, I went ahead and read the second.  I have good news and bad news about this one.  The bad news is:  This one is also written on a 5th grade reading level.  Actual dialogue from the book includes, "OMG!  Awesome!" ...  The good news is:  there was some actual character development!  There were plot points I did not find completely predictable!  There is someone named Liam!  Again, this is one of the easiest breeziest reads in the world, and I powered right through it in just a few hours, and I still (hate to admit that I) enjoyed it (and laughed not with it, but at it) quite a bit (sort of).

Crossed by Ally Condie
I didn't even know what the cover of this book looked like because it is the first book I have ever read on my KINDLE!!!!  I got my Kindle for Christmas, but have had a stack of "real" books I've needed to make my way through first, but finally, I got to read on a technologically advanced tiny computer!  Anyway, this is the sequel to a young adult book I read last month - Matched.  It continues the story of Cassia, alternating chapters from her point of view and from Ky's, as they search for each other, for answers, for words, and for the rebellion.  I enjoyed this book just as much as I enjoyed the first (this time we get to meet some new characters, discover some heartbreaking back story, and do some rock climbing!), I think in part because I love the way that Condie writes.  Poetry plays a huge part in the story of these characters, and the way that she uses phrasing throughout the rest of the book reflects that in a really beautiful way.  The third installment of this YA series will be released at the end of the year - yet another dystopian trilogy I can add to my list of loves!

Books I read:  January, Over the Holidays, October, August, July, June, May, April, last winter

Book I Read in January

Book Club/YA pick
Matched by Ally Condie
I only managed to finish one book this month, but with it I discovered a new guilty pleasure!  I think I enjoyed this book way more than I really should have.  Following the dystopian theme that's all the rage now among YA lit, Matched is the story of Cassia as she comes of age in a future society where everything is decided for you based on analysis of your personality, or predictions of your future behavior, or even the sins of your family members.  We first meet her at her Matching banquet, when she finds out who the Society has decided she will marry.  But soon enough, Cassia begins to notice the cracks and fissures in this supposedly perfect society, which makes her question everything she's always known.  Let the rebelling commence!  My favorite thing about this society:  Poetry is used a black market currency!  Awesome!  Sure, it's the same basic concept as Hunger Games or Uglies, right on down to the love triangle, but it's a good read, well-written, and has some smoking hot tension between a couple of the characters.  Matched is part one of a trilogy (Book 2, Crossed, is out now; Book 3 comes out later this year), so lucky for me, it's also the guilty pleasure that keeps on giving!

P.S.  Books I read:  Over the Holidays, October, August, July, June, May, April, last winter

Books I Read Over the Holidays

Book Club Pick:
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
This book is brilliant.  I was a little nervous before I read it, to be perfectly honest.  The word "lolita" has become part of our regular vernacular to describe a sexually (ahem) advanced young girl, so I knew the basis of what this book would be about:  an older man and his (ahem) relationship with a child.  And while, yes, that is the plot of this book in the fewest words possible, it is not simply a disturbing tale of a sick man.  It is also humorous and heartbreaking and surprising and terrifying and frustrating and witty.  Told from the point of view of Humbert Humbert, who falls deeply and madly in love with 12-year-old Lolita herself, the writing alone - its completely beautiful syntax and clever plays-on-words - is worth the read.

Young Adult Pick:
L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
This book, by great contrast with the previous one, has absolutely, atrociously, unbelievably horrible writing.  I don't think I'm kidding when I say it is probably written on a 5th grade reading level.  Ugh.  However, as an unashamed fan of reality television in almost all of its forms, I did genuinely enjoy reading this (ahem) fictional account of a girl named Jane who moves to LA and is cast on a reality show.  It is quite clearly a retelling, in large part, of Lauren's experiences on Laguna Beach and The Hills (our heroine even has a crush on a guy named Braden...uh, pretty dang similar to Brody...), and I found it really interesting to read about it from the angle of the person who actually starred on the show.  This is obviously a super quick read that requires no extra thought - maybe save it for a plane, a beach, or a pool!

Classic Pick:
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
I've wanted to read this book ever since the characters on Gossip Girl performed a play based on it.  Yep, it isn't my English degree that leads me to read classic American literature, but a teenage TV show.  In the end, though, I don't care what led me to read it because I adored this book!  Set in New York high society at the end of the 19th century, it follows Newland Archer and his struggle between his duty to tradition and conventionality, and his desire to break out of his societal prison.  There are two women in his life - one that represents each side of his struggle - and his decision between the two tortures him.  I was truly surprised to find my heart aching for this character up until the very last word.  A really beautiful (and occasionally very humorous!) classic American tale.

P.S. Books I read in October, August, July, June, May, April, last winter

Books I Read in October

Book Club Pick:  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Ernest Hemingway had many wives throughout his life (4 to be exact), and this book is the fictionalized account of his first marriage from his wife's perspective.  While we all know how this book is going to end (she is the first wife, after all), you easily get swept up along with Hadley and Ernest in their incredible European life during the Jazz Age of the 1920s.  They hang out with people like Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, spend months on extended vacations in the Alps and Pamplona, and live in a tiny Paris apartment above a dance hall.  It all seems very romantic and adventurous, but under the surface of it all, Hadley has found herself married to a man who will always cherish and honor his writing and himself above his wife.  It is truly heartbreaking to read the demise of their marriage in Hadley's voice.  At book club, we had a fabulous discussion about talent vs. mediocrity and dependence vs. love.  Not all of us loved this book, but I did!  Definitely recommend.

Epic Scottish Romance Pick:  Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The author picture at the back of this book shows a middle-aged woman, wearing a black cloak (in modern day times), grinning excitedly in front of Stonehenge.  Imagine what that lady's ultimate romantic fantasy would be.  This book is that.  Basically, it follows an English woman named Claire, who lives in the mid-20th century, but suddenly and magically finds herself in the Scottish Highlands in the early 1700s.  There are lots of red-headed people in this book, lots of Scottish accents, lots of talk of Scottish clans and tartans, lots of people almost dying, lots of journeys, and lots of lovin'.  In fact, in just the last 20 pages I read one person's hand got nailed to a table and another person got attacked by a wolf and killed it with her bare hands.  How could there be that much all crammed into one book, you ask?  Easy.  It's 850 pages long.  And get this:  It is the first in a series of 7.  SEVEN.  People apparently go nuts over these books.  I'm not one of those people.  I liked this first one, I just don't have any desire to read any more.  It isn't really my cup of tea, but if anyone out there really loves Scottish history and/or ginger men in kilts, this could very well be your cup of tea.  (Oh, and P.S.  I'm still not actually finished with it.  95 pages to go.  It's NEVER ENDING!)

P.S. Books I read in August, July, June, May, April, last winter

Books I Read in August

Well, actually, I only read one book this month, but it was a good one!

Little Bee by Chris Cleave
My friend Brian recommended and lent this book to me, and I'm so glad he did!  I don't want to tell you too much about the actual story (because the back of the book actually instructs me not to...seriously, it says "Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.").  I can tell you the basics though:  this is a story told from two different perspectives, one teenage refugee girl from Nigeria, and a 30-something British women's magazine editor.  Their lives have already been intertwined before this novel even begins, and continues to be as the story progresses.  Cleave does an excellent job writing through both women's voices, a fairly amazing feat in my eyes considering how different their respective worlds are.  Both have seen and felt tragedies, some almost unspeakable, and while it has the potential to be a very sad book, Cleave has some humorous moments of relief provided by the language barrier of the Queen's English and one very hyper child who thinks he is Batman.  This book explore several topics that I either know very little about, or rarely read books about, so it was a nice departure for me.  All in all, a good read!


Anyone else read this one?

Books I Read in July

YA pick:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This is a Holocaust book, one of many that have been written for the young adult genre (The Devil's Arithmetic, Number the Stars, and, of course, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, which is often required reading in schools).  However, its slightly different point of view on the subject makes it extremely interesting:  Death himself tells us this story through his own eyes, recounting the millions of people he "collected" during this time in history, and the story of one girl's experiences in particular.  It honestly took me quite a while to get into this book; I thought the pace was slow and there was a ton of foreshadowing that I found really confusing.  However, like so many books, once I got far enough in, I was completely hooked and there was no way I was going to let this story go.  Liesel, our little book thief (but she steals for good reason, I promise!) finds herself given up by her mother to live with a foster family in a tiny village in Nazi Germany.  The book follows a few years of her life as her foster parents (you will adore her Papa - I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about how great he is), her neighborhood, and her town are horrendously affected by the terrors of the Fuhrer.  While the story itself is well worth the read, the language that Zusak uses makes it all the more haunting; he uses some of the most beautiful and unexpected similes and metaphors I have ever read in my life (if I was still teaching middle school, these would be some great examples!).  Warning:  this is a lay-in-your-bed-crying-when-you're-finished sort of book.

Grown-Up Pick:
You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
People magazine recommended this one to me.  This novel is actually a series of short, loosely connected stories offering a glimpse into the lives of the men, women, and families of Fort Hood (a gigantic military base in Texas).  I lived on an Air Force base in England while I did my student teaching my last semester of college, and the military lifestyle has been sort of fascinating to me ever since, and this book gave me an even better idea of what it would be like to actually be a military spouse.  If you're the type of person that likes endings to be wrapped up and tied with a pretty bow, this book probably isn't for you.  Each story is beautifully, honestly told--some tragic, some mysterious, some inspiring--but the end of every single chapter left off without perfect resolution.  Perhaps as a reader we're supposed to imagine for ourselves what happened next.  All in all, it was a quick read that I really enjoyed.

P.S. Books I read in June, May, April, last winter

Books I Read in June

Book Club Pick:
One Day by David Nicholls

You may have already caught wind of this book as it has been made into a movie starring Anne Hathway and Jim Sturgess that comes out later this summer that looks like it could be a good one, if you ask me!  Minus Anne's fake British accent.  Anyway, this story follows two friends, Emma and Dexter, over a span of 20 years, checking in on them on July 15th of each of those years.  They are at times friends, at times estranged, at times on the brink of love, and at times right in it.  It's a somewhat light-hearted, somewhat heart-breaking, little romance story.  Did I love it to death?  Yes.  Their story took enough turns that I wasn't expecting to keep me interested, the wit of the dialogue was spot on, and it's written with a certain amount of realness that anyone who has been "just friends" with someone they knew they weren't really "just friends" with can relate to.  Was I also left crying hysterically in my bed at the end?  Yes, I was.  You have been forewarned.

Completely Random for No Reason Whatsoever Pick:
Monster:  The Autobiography of an L.A Gang Member by Sanyika Shakur, AKA Monster Kody Scott

I have absolutely no explanation as to why I read this book except that I bought it at a used book sale at the public library in Conway, Arkansas.  Besides the fact that autobiography/memoirs are my favorite genre of literature anyway, I suppose I was also drawn to this book simply because the author's upbringing and life experiences are completely, utterly opposite from mine (the streets of South Central L.A. versus a small, rural Oklahoma town).  To say this book was violent and disturbing at times would be an understatement, but the author's eventual transformation from gangster into revolutionary is an interesting one.  Also, I'm glad the cover of my book was partially ripped off and I couldn't see that picture on the front, because it scares the bejeezus out of me.
 

Soon-to-be-a-movie Pick:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling, of course!

This one is obvious, right, people?!?!  In anticipation of the greatest movie of 2011 coming out in (now) 16 days, I just had to re-read this one.  Unfortunately, I read it all in three days (and so did Brittany!) and now I still have the 16 days left to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  I could argue for hours the virtues of the entire Harry Potter series, but if for some reason you haven't read them yet...at least go watch the first seven movies and join the rest of the world for the eighth!  You would not be sorry!  AHHHH ELDER WAND HOGWARTS RON HORCRUX PROTEGO VOLDY DISAPPARATE HARRY DIADEM FORBIDDEN FOREST HERMIONE I AM SO EXCITED!!!!