Distant Land of My Father, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, Suite Francaise

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything and that means it's doubtful that anyone is reading, since no one noticed.

Some great books I've read lately and would highly recommend:
The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Lisa Murphy
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

I've had to pick up some books with lighter subject matter after all these stories of strife and struggle, but they are all amazingly told.

2006 List of Books

Books I read in 2006

I realized I don't have my list of 2006 books on here.
I tried to start a "staring" system of my recommendations but everything was ending up with 2 or 3 stars, so I only highlighted my highly recommended books.

Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
Hotel due Lac, Anita Brooker
The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar
Truth and Beauty, Ann Patchett
A Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Snow, Orhan Pamuk
Rapture of Canaan, Sheri Reynolds
Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner
Dogs of Babel, Carolyn Parkhurst
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
Haunted, Chuck Palachiuk
The History of Love, Nicole Krause
Halfway House, Katherine Noel
The Sea, John Banville
Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proux
Vince & Joy, Lisa Jewell
Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon
Keys to the Kingdom, AJ Cronin
The Last Days of Dogtown, Anita Diamant
Alejento Blue, Monica Ali
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Bloody Shame, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith
For the Sake of Elena, Elizabeth George
Lipstick Jungle, Candace Bushnell
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
In the Cut, Susanna Moore
The Girls Who Went Away, Ann Fessler

2005 List of Books

Full list of books I read in 2005:

Great Failure, Natalie Goldberg

All the Fishers Come Home to Roost, Rachel Brown

The Fourth Hand, John Irving

Blindness, Jose Saramgo

The Optimisist's Daughter, Eudora Welty

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg

Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd

Devil in the White City, Erik Larsen

The Bee Season, Myla Goldberg

Matilda, Roald Dahl

Writer's Life, Ellen Gilchrist

Forever, Pete Hamill

What Was She Thinking, Zoe Heller

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, JK Rowling

A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby

The Drowning Tree, Carol Goldman

Diary of Anne Frank

The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler

Crossing California, Adam Leger

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

Mr Maybe, Jane Green

Portuguese Irregular Verbs, Alexander McCall Smith

Stiff, Mary Roach

A Suitable Vengence, Elizabeth George

Sleep Toward Heaven, Amanda Eyre Ward

Emperor of Scent, Chandler Burr (AWFUL)

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

How to Be Lost, Amanda Eyre Ward

The Ha-Ha, Dave King

The Reader, Bernard Schlink

Early Leaving, Judy Goldman

The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell

Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier

The Mango Season, Amulya Malladi

I am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolffe

Inner Circle, TC Boyle

Favorite Books of 2005

Favorite books from 2005:

Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseni: I can't say enough about this book. It rips your heart open and touches you to the core. I read this on a plane and had to finish before we arrived because I knew I couldn't put it down.

Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon : A great story that is dramatic, mysterious and adventurous. For anyone who loves books, it is a great ride into the world of fiction.

Bee Season, Myla Goldberg: This book had been recommended to me many times and I finally had the opportunity to pick it up. Goldberg crafts an amazing story about the dysfunctional Naumann family -- Eliza's success in spelling bees, her brother Aaron's religious search and their mother's kleptomania. In the end, you get a peek inside each characters thoughts and fears.

The Ha-Ha, Dave King: The story of Howie, a Vietnam vet who can't speak, write or read and Ryan, the 9 year old son of an ex-girlfriend, who ends up in Howie's care when Ryan's mother goes into rehab. It's a touching and engrossing story, making you laugh and cry.

Sleep Toward Heaven and How to be Lost, Amanda Eyre Ward: Both of Ward's books suck you in and you don't want to put them down. Both center around 3 main characters and how their lives intersect. Ward focuses on the relationships between women and family and touches you deeply.

Inner Circle, TC Boyle: A fictional account of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey's work and world. A great example of Boyle's work, though Drop City is still my favorite.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach: Exactly what the title says, Mary Roach entertainingly follows the different routes human cadavers can take. It may seem surprising that this subject matter can be called "entertaining" but Roach provides color commentary that is laugh out loud funny.

All the Fishes Come Home to Roost

I just finished All the Fishes Come Home to Roost by Rachel Manija Brown for one of my book clubs.

All the Fishes Come Home to Roost is a memoir about a young American growing up in India. Her parents decide to live in an ashram to worship Baba, the God they believe in. Some of the stories were entertaining and it seems that the author has come to terms with the abuses she suffered while growing up. Overall, it felt a little juvenile - almost like it was written for elementary schoolers. But I guess that's the place she is writing from.

Some of my favorite books

Some of my favorites:










The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier
Lucky, Alice Sebold
Drop City, TC Boyle
In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Possession, AS Byatt
She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb
Collected Stories, Ellen Gilchrist
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

About Mrs. Sherman

Mrs. Sherman was the librarian in my elementary school. She took her job and her library very seriously. I can remember her instilling in us as kindergarteners that books had feelings and that we should treat them well, not write in them and keep them dry and safe. If you neglected to follow one of these rules, she warned shaking her index finger, we would hear them cry in pain.

Fast forward to a fall afternoon. I'm in first grade. I am carrying my Strawberry Shortcake lunch box whose handle had broken off earlier in the day. On top of that I have balanced the two library books I had carefully selected during our weekly visit to Mrs. Sherman's sanctuary.

It had been raining for several days and though the rain had stopped, puddles still dotted the sidewalks. As I hurried to the bus home, my carefully constructed pile began to tilt. With horror I watched as one of my library books slid from the pile.

In slow motion, the book flipped end over end. I imagined all the possible outcomes - landing in a puddle, pages folded or torn, the loud cry that would be emitted when it finally reached the ground. By some miracle the book managed to land softly, standing on its long edges.

As I bent down to retrieve the book, I was relieved to hear only silence.

What began as a little bit of fear has become a deeply ingrained appreciation for books. To this day I hate to make marks in books and I always use a bookmark. And for this, I thank Mrs. Sherman.