Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Hands down, this should be the next book you read.

Did you know that during the Holocaust, thousands of French Jewish citizens were rounded up by French (not German) authorities, held in a stadium for a few days in inhumane conditions, and then shipped to concentration camps? That the men were separated immediately from the women and children? That the children then were separated from their mothers? They weren't sent to be held until further notice, they were sent to be executed. No work camp...just death.

Me neither.

This book is interesting enough because it educates you about a subject that, in my opinion, has mostly been hidden from public knowledge in the past. Sure, materials about it exist (See Wikipedia page here) but, much like the Armenian Holocaust, it's not something most people learn about in school. Heck, maybe it was just the schools I went to, but no one I've talked to knew anything about this particular event. Just quite interesting to me, the events from the past that get sort of glazed over in favor of exploring other horrors.

Anyway, the book is fiction, so it's definitely not an entirely accurate historical account, but as I understand it it sticks to the facts as much as possible. It's told from two points of view - one of a little girl named Sarah who is part of the roundup in 1942, and one of a female journalist in present day who discovers Sarah's particularly tragic story.

Honestly the best book I've read in a while.

I mean...

I could make excuses but they would take a long time to type so I'll just admit I'm a bad blogger and leave it at this. I'll give you the short and sweet of the books I didn't blog, and honestly, unless they were included in the list on the side of my blog, I've forgotten that I read them and will not be telling you about them...sorry :-(

1. A million miles in a thousand years by Donald Miller - I believe this is the newest book by the author of Blue Like Jazz (he's a pretty famous author of Christian books) but this one is notably not about themes of Christianity, etc. The essential premise of this work of non-fiction is that it should be your mission to make the story of your life one worth telling. It's all about the author's own self-exploration of whether or not his own life meets that criteria. Interesting but not so interesting that I couldn't put it down.
2. To Have and to Hold by Jane Green - Listened to this on tape as I drove from Ohio to Maryland. Definitely kept my attention. About a woman whose husband cheats on her, she knows he cheats on her. Basically the idea of whether a cheating husband who you love is better than no husband at all. Interesting and moderately trashy.
3. Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland - In the vein of The Girl with the Pearl Earring, a book about the story behind a painting. Great book, very interesting read.
4. Born Round by Frank Bruni - LOVE. Love anything about food, honestly, but especially love this as it's the (true) story of Bruni's life from childhood, his lifelong struggle with his weight, his identity, his sexuality, etc. All intertwined, he's a hilarious and introspective author. AND while I was reading it I tweeted at him and he tweeted me back!! Therefore even if I had hated the book in reality I would have loved it from then on. But really, good reading.
5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - Conclusion of the Hunger Games series. Awesome. Downloaded exactly at midnight on my Kindle the day it was released, read it very quickly after that. Very good. Have you read the Hunger Games series yet? What are you waiting for?!?
6. Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore - Meh. Basically trashy gossip-rag literature set on Capitol Hill. Only interesting because it was written by the daughter of former vice prez Al Gore so you have to wonder if it was (way) more accurate than if it were written by anyone else. As a former Congressional intern, it was an interesting read and quite accurate when it talks about the social life of Capitol Hill staffers, but let's be real, the ending could be seen roughly 20 pages into the book.

What else have I read since the above books? I promise that if I could remember, I'd tell you. I re-read Harry Potter books 1, 2, 3 and 7 in anticipation of the release of Deathly Hallows Part 1. Prior to that...you know, I know I was reading something good because I can remember the bookmark I was using while I was reading it, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I hopefully will remember soon and then will tell you what it was. Hopefully.

The Associate and The Broker by John Grisham (two separate books)

This is out of order. I read both of these after I read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years but I figured these would be easy to get off my plate and therefore make my list look like I'm more up to date on blogging than I currently am.

Have you read a John Grisham book before?

No? Where the hell have you been in the last 20 years? Read one. Any one of them. But if you choose Playing for Pizza you then have to read another one (one of the courtroom dramas) to really know what he's about.

Yes? Then I'm not going to waste your time writing about these books.

The thing about Grisham is that if you've read one, you've read them all. It's the same thing with Picoult or any other author who has written as many books as either of them. The details change but the general ideas and structure are the same. Is that bad? Some people think so. I don't. It's like knowing what your mom's spaghetti tastes like. Sometimes you'd rather have steak, but when you want spaghetti, you're eating it for the comforting sensation as well as the taste itself. Grisham is your mom's spaghetti :-)

I needed good books to read during the week between my old job and my new job as I laid around by the pool. These were perfect. Every book has a purpose. These served theirs well.

My name is Memory by Ann Brashares

If you want a romance novel that won't make you feel trashy, read this.

My name is Memory by Ann Brashares was, in a way, somewhat of a reinterpretation of Romeo & Juliet, which let's be real, is the greatest love story of all time. A little dramatic? Yes, but sometimes I feel like one can only be affected by other's experiences when those experiences are super dramatic and therefore have the extra emotion to go around.

ANYWAY. In a few words, this is the story of a love as old as time. The premise is that reincarnation exists, and that there are a few people who are gifted enough to recognize that fact and remember their previous lives. Those people find their true mates in some early life and then spend the rest of their lives searching for that person in the rest of THEIR lives. Does it always match up? No, sometimes he comes back as a baby and she's back as an 80 yr old woman (she doesn't just pop into the 80 yr old woman's body, she's actually lived the entire life. It's not always clear how long they spend in between lives before being reincarnated). Their strong connection draws them together life after life even though she's unaware of the connection. The problem is that the strong connection can go both ways - both positive and negative. Meaning that while your partners can follow you throughout your lives, so can your enemies. It wouldn't be as interesting if the sweet didn't come with the sour, right?

So it's a story we've heard before, but told in a completely different way, which I really appreciated. Oh, and one of the characters attends UVA in one of their lives. But the author clearly did not go to UVA, nor did she know anyone who went to UVA because the terms she uses (Jefferson Park Avenue instead of JPA, for example) are not terms a Wahoo would use. The student also appears to live in Hereford which is a little strange. But we'll give her an A for effort. When is it ever NOT great to have a romance and UVA in the same book?

The girl who kicked the hornet's nest by Steig Larsson

I am smiling as I type this because I know what I'm about to do to you.

I think The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was the best of the three (two that came before already reviewed on this blog). Does that mean that you have to read all three? It means you should. Could you read the second or the third without having read what came before? Yeah, if you wanted to, but why would you do that to yourself? WHY?

I picked this book up a couple of months ago when I was flying around the country interviewing to get a new job. This particular purchase happened as a result of being marooned in Minneapolis due to a tornado. Well, back it up. I guess, really, I hope they serve beer in Hell was the airport purchase. This book was purchased the next day after I had finished I hope they serve beer in Hell (hey, I spent a lot of time sitting around at airports those two days) and needed something to get me through the rest of the weekend.

Something to note about me: I need to have the option to read at all times. I can have a book with me and not WANT to read it, that's fine, but not having the option at all is torture. Another note, I was so excited to buy this book that I sprinted up the stairs at the B&N in Old Orchard (Chicago) and fell down. Smooth.

But this is about the book, not me. Side note, I wonder if I just stopped writing about books on this blog if anyone would actually notice or if I'm seriously just doing this for my own benefit.

So the book. I can't say much unless I know you've read 1 and 2. Basically, in 1, there's a bad person trying to hurt a good person. A good person helps the other good person stop the bad person. In 2, there's a bad person trying to attack the other good person (the one who helped in book 1). So, the first good person helps the second. Also in 2, a bad person tries to help the bad person hurt the good person. Now in 3, the good people are trying to catch the bad person who helped the other bad person in 2. That was extremely confusing and clearly did nothing to describe how good these books are, but it did at least demonstrate one point - these three books are interconnected. You're able to develop complex relationships with and feelings about the characters as you follow them through the three stories (am I the only one who does that?), which I think always makes things more interesting. Oh, and no, I didn't give anything away...because you're never entirely sure who's good and who's bad. Which is kind of awesome.

All three books make you think, but in a "where is this book going?" rather than a "where is my life going?" way, and sometimes that's exactly what you need. They're a great escape.

I hope they serve beer in Hell by Tucker Max

I don't know if I ever would have picked this book up had I not been stuck in the Minneapolis airport during a tornado. I was pretty sure I was going to want to go on a murderous rampage once I finished the book, but then once I started it I realized that the very knowledge of the fact that I was probably going to hate the book made it easier for me to accept it. Low expectations, etc.

So if you haven't heard of Tucker Max - he's basically famous for being a womanizer. He became famous through his website (www.tuckermax.com) where he told the ridiculous (yet apparently true) stories of his sexual and drunken escapades, and eventually put up a date application for women who wanted to go out with him (for whatever reason) - I imagine that maybe these women thought that they could be the ones to tame the beast...yeah, they weren't.

This book is basically just a collection of all the posts from his website. It's disgusting, for sure, and I wouldn't recommend to anyone that they read this book only because I don't want to be responsible for exposing people to the types of things he's done. I read it more as research on the enemy than anything else. I'd say really it's just disheartening. Are there more men out there like Tucker Max? Surely, or he wouldn't be so famous - there are at least thousands of men who WANT to be like Tucker Max. And there are thousands of women who think that's ok.

Which is just kind of sick.

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

Short and sweet: Giffin is a Wahoo (law school). If that's not enough to convince you that her writing is good, then take my word for it. It is. Read her books.

My affinity for Giffin's writing has nothing to do with her status as an alumna (alumnus? whatever) of The University. It doesn't hurt though.

I've read all of her novels. I've liked all of her novels. This one was interesting. It explores one single relationship from the perspective of two people (only one of whom is directly involved) who are affected by its existence -- the wife and the mistress. And get this - you don't hate the mistress. Do you hate the husband? Clearly. I don't know if I could ever find an author talented enough to make me like the cheating husband. But you don't hate the mistress, and I think that's a sign of what a good author Giffin is. Nothing feels contrived. It all feels like something that could really happen to someone you know (although I hope not to any of you...or myself).

It's not funny, it's not lighthearted, but it's not so heavy that you feel like you have to put it down (or in the freezer). It'll make you think.

My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster

Short and sweet: if you're looking for funny/sarcastic, this is the book for you.

You've heard of Lancaster before if you've read this blog (or hopefully even if you don't read this blog, but I'd appreciate knowing that you read the blog). Annie I believe was the one who gave me her first book (Bitter is the New Black) as a gift and I've been a fan ever since. I wasn't thrilled with her last book (Pretty in Plaid) mostly because I've come to expect so much from Lancaster - but My Fair Lazy really redeemed her. Keep in mind this is all relative. Lancaster is one of my favorite authors so what I would deem a disappointing effort from her is still better than most other authors.

ANYWAY - My Fair Lazy is about Lancaster's love for all things reality tv related - she watches the shows, talks about them, blogs about them, thinks about them, etc. Eventually she realizes that her addition to reality television may not be doing much to make her cultured. Maybe pop cultured, but not generally cultured. So she sets out on a self-assigned life mission (life steps, as my friend John would say) to step outside her comfort zone and learn more about herself and the world she lives in. The result is funny - and I think sends a really good message. It's always good to step outside your comfort zone, yes, but there's something to be said for examining your comfort zone in the first place and learning what it says about you. Are you ok with it? If you are, you're golden. If you're not, explore a little. And along the way, maybe read one (or more) of Lancaster's books.

Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout

The word that immediately comes to mind when I think of Olive Kittridge is melancholy...but it's a beautiful kind of melancholy. You know how it is when it's a rainy Saturday in the middle of the summer? When everything is silent and all you can here is the pitter-patter of the raindrops on the roof, on the asphalt outside? That's what this book is like. It's cool breezes and raindrops.

Olive Kittridge is the story of a small town...somewhere...Massachusetts? I have no idea. Somewhere on the East Coast, I know that. So essentially it's a collection of short stories about different members of the community but every short story ties back to Olive. She's one of the members that holds everyone else in the community together - even though individual members of the community appear to not like her very much.

I love the way that Strout told the stories. She told 95% of the stories - she got you to a certain point, told you a certain amount about the characters, and let you get the rest of the way on your own, let you form your own assumptions. I loved that. I loved how much she inspired me to feel and think about the characters she introduced me to.

This book has nothing to do, really, with what happens to the characters throughout their lives - it has everything to do with the characters themselves and how they react to the world around them, and that's why I loved it so much - it was a study in personalities, an exercise in human nature. Don't you love stories like that? When it's like you're a fly on the wall and you learn things about people that you normally wouldn't get to hear?

This isn't one of those books with a happy ending or an unhappy ending, because it's not really a story that ends - it's just about people. How fragile people are, how delicate their egos are. Kind of makes you feel small...I like feeling that way every once in a while.

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I must admit, when I first heard about the premise of The Hunger Games, I was not all that interested in picking it up. It's a story about the North America of the future - when the United States have disbanded and the new government ("The Capitol") has divided North America into 13 districts. There's an uprising in District 13 that leads The Capitol to create an annual tournament called the Hunger Games, to which each district must send one male and one female "tribute." The tributes are locked in an arena specially designed for the games and must remain there, fighting each other and the elements until only one remains, essentially just to show that the government has ultimate control over the lives of all its citizens. Sounded a little bit sick and twisted to me, but so many people recommended it to me that I figured I had to give it a shot.

And I was so happy I did. I devoured The Hunger Games, and then went out and bought the sequel (Catching Fire) within an hour of finishing the first book. Yes, the subject matter is sick, but the story is great. It's YA fiction (like the Twilight Saga) so there's plenty of drama. Lots of twists and turns - and it isn't as gruesome as you might expect. Collins tells the story she wants to tell without relying on blood and guts as much as she could have. I literally found my heart racing during tense moments in the plot, which I think is evidence of great writing. I also always think it's fun to read books set in the future - you've gotta wonder, what's going to happen? Look at how much the country and society have changed in the past 50 years, 100 years - which is such a relatively short amount of time - what's going to happen in the next? Your guess (or Collins') is as good as mine - but let's hope Collins isn't spot on.

I can't tell you much about Catching Fire without giving up information about The Hunger Games, but one criticism I will throw out there is this - I think Collins should have only written two books instead of three. Mockingjay - the final book of the series - is due out in late August. Granted I haven't read Mockingjay, so I can't say whether she could have fit all of the material into two books, but Catching Fire was definitely a transitional text. The first half of Catching Fire was spent wrapping up The Hunger Games, and the second half was spent setting up Mockingjay. Maybe Mockingjay will be able to stand on its own, and the set up needed to be left to another book to cut down on the length - but I felt like Catching Fire should have been divided into an Epilogue and a Prologue for the two other texts. Letting it be a book on its own, giving it that weight of expectation (especially after all the action of The Hunger Games), sort of set it up to fail. I felt like it couldn't carry the amount of story that it needed to. Was it released in that way to build anticipation and set the stage for sales of Mockingjay? Maybe, but I think The Hunger Games really ensured the success of its sequel through its own success.

All that said - don't miss out on Catching Fire. Just because it was used to bridge what I assume are going to be two great books doesn't mean it doesn't tell an important part of the story. Don't miss out on either of them...go get them now (I'll wait for you to come back). Perfect poolside reading for the summer!

Recommendations for all my teacher friends...

Check out this list of memoirs re: the first year of teaching...

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

During the week or so that I was reading The White Queen by Philippa Gregory, when people asked what I was reading and how I was liking it, I told them the title and then I followed it up with what I usually say about Gregory - she basically writes drugstore smut and disguises it as historical fiction.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Does it seem like that's a recurring theme? I read books that are basically some varying degree of chick lit, but if you don't look out you could actually learn something in the process - but maybe that's really the point of reading. Food for thought.

ANYWAY, overarching themes aside, Gregory is done with writing about the Tudor dynasty of England and has moved on to the Plantagenets and the House of York (the dynasty that came before the Tudors). This book is the first in a new series - and I'm sure it'll be just as good (and popular) as the series about the Tudors.

This book focuses on Elizabeth Woodville - "The White Queen" - who was rumored to be a witch, or at least have tendencies towards witchcraft, which are explored in the book and add a new element to Gregory's writing. I didn't particularly enjoy that aspect of the book - it felt like Gregory was using it as a crutch to add an additional element of excitement to the story, whereas usually the brilliance her books (as far as I know, let's be real, I'm not any historical expert) is that they just rely on the known facts about the historical figures to build her stories. I kind of thought that her whole point was that there was enough drama in the truth and therefore there was no need to spice it up. Granted, she has to take some liberties in writing her dialogue - it's not like that was recorded anywhere - but this just felt like more than usual. That may be a welcome departure for some people - so don't let me turn you off from reading the book entirely. Just a comment.

As in all good drugstore smut, there is romance and intrigue. There's war, there's royalty, and as stated before there's witchcraft. Pretty good elements that add up to a pretty good story.

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant

So, did I give Sacred Hearts a ringing endorsement by forgetting that I had read it for 5 months?

Should you read it? Yeah, if you're looking for something entertaining that won't make you think too hard. You also might just learn something about history in the meantime.

The basic story is that there's a young woman named Serafina (that's her nun name...I don't recall her "real" name) whose father forces her to enter the convent to avoid her having a scandalous love affair with her voice coach. Serafina has a wonderful singing voice, so the convent is invested in her staying so that they will receive increased donations from the public who come to hear Serafina sing in the choir. There's a lot more politics involved in the running of a convent than I would have previously imagined, but I suppose one has to realize that politics are everywhere. Dunant is a talented author - her use of description and detail really transport you to the historical setting (16th century Italy) - and she manages to make the reader care about a romance between a young woman and a man who we never really meet.

There's suspense, there's romance. It was a great vacation read as I drifted around the lazy river at the resort, but the story is over the second you close the back cover. If you're looking for something that will stay with you, this probably isn't it. I like to think of certain books as rebound books - the kind that you read after a book that greatly impacted you in order to "get over" the previous book - this is one of those.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

Listen, Gilbert. I tried. I really did. I tried, and tried, and tried to read your sophomore novel, even while being tempted by all the other great books that are out there.

I couldn't deal with it. I don't mean to typecast you as an author, but you wrote, and we loved Eat, Pray, Love. Why couldn't you just continue in the same vein?

I couldn't finish. It's pretty rare that I leave a book unfinished. Committed (at least as far as I read) was basically a whiny account of the fact that Gilbert's lover (the man she met in EPL) was barred from entering the United States, so they had to get married to get him citizenship, a move that they never saw on their horizon previously. While plotting how they were going to pull off said marriage without being able to get him back into the US, they traveled around the world and studied marriage in different cultures around the world. That's as far as I got.

My bottom line is this -- I feel like she set out to write something when she wrote EPL. When she wrote Committed, though, I think she just set out to write anything. And there's a big difference.

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - very good. In my opinion, not as good as the original, but good nonetheless. I think one of the best parts of the original book was how intertwined everything/everyone was. The same plot device exists to a certain degree within this book, but not with the same intricacy, which was a bit of a disappointment. That said, though, still better than the majority of the books I've read recently. So should you read it? Yes.

The main players are back - Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander - but while the last story focused much more on Mikael Blomkvist and his vendetta, this one is the story of Lisbeth's. I think my favorite thing about Lisbeth is just how unlikeable she is. I think she's an especially interesting female character given that she was created by a man, but I love that she is so complicated and generally just...prickly. I don't always consider myself to be the most simple or likeable person, so I found it easy to relate to Lisbeth (even though yes, I will agree she is a little more extreme than I am in pretty much every sense of the word).

I don't want to tell you too much about the plot - I want you to discover it all on your own - but basically there's a murder, someone is framed for said murder, and the whole thing winds itself up and then works itself out from there. Same pace as the first novel (extremely fast paced), same great characters, just not quite as many connection points in the web.

The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes

Long story short: I expected more from Marian Keyes.

I love Keyes' work and have read everything she's published. I was disappointed in this book. It's basically the story of the inhabitants of one apartment building - kind of the "Love Actually" of books in that you meet a cast of characters and then eventually figure out how A is related to B who is related to C, so on and so forth. Six degrees of separation, etc. It's told from the point of view of...I don't know what to call this narrator. If I were to say exactly what he/she is, I'd give away the ending of the book, so I can't do that, but basically it's a third-person omniscient narrator.

The voice of the narrator is a little too peppy/optimistic for me, especially when contrasted with the actual characters in the novel - each of whom is supremely screwed up in their own way (not at all saying this isn't realistic).

All in all, I don't think I'd recommend this book, which hurts to write about Marian Keyes. Usually her work is slightly depressing/serious but all in all optimistic...but this time the positive doesn't really outweigh the negative, both in terms of the subject matter and the writing.

Sorry, Marian.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

"I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there's some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true."

That quote is from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's also how I feel about the book. I read it at a time when I hadn't found a really good book in a while.

If you're not going to read the rest of the post, then just read this part - you should definitely read this book.

It's written entirely in the form of correspondence - and it's just an incredibly sweet story. It's about the island called Guernsey in the English Channel and how they were essentially cut off from the rest of the world when they were occupied by the Germans. In order to avoid getting in trouble for being out after curfew one night, neighbors create the literary society...and that relatively random event causes their lives to be intertwined from that point forward.

One member of the literary society, Dawsey, comes across a book at a used book store that he enjoys - so he writes to the original owner of the book and asks her if she knows where he can get more of that author's work. The woman who he writes to is an author and after they correspond for a while, she wants to do a piece on Guernsey's "literary society" - so she goes to visit, and never wants to leave. It was only supposed to be a temporary visit, but even as she leaves behind a sophisticated life in London for the less cosmopolitan life in Guernsey, she finds a different kind of happiness.

The story is just really sweet. And the basic premise is that books can bring people together and make them happy. How could I not love it?

True Confections by Katharine Weber

I read this months ago. Literally. I'm sorry I stopped blogging for a while, but let's be real, did any of you really care? I didn't think so.

I'm gonna keep these short and sweet.

True Confections is a novel about a dysfunctional candy family. They're in the candy business - they're not made of candy. They're human. But the book probably would have been more interesting if they had been made of candy ("someone ate jimmy today").

So the whole thing is told in the form of a deposition - I liked that aspect of it. I'd never read a book written in that manner before. So that was pretty sweet (no pun intended). Basic story - candy family. Woman marries into candy family. Woman claims to be the only person who ever did any work in candy family. Woman thinks she deserves more. There's a big fire. People claim the woman started it and that it was arson. So she's defending herself.

I know I read a lot and I should have gotten over this by now, but there's almost nothing that pisses me off more than an unreliable narrator. You have to believe them. You're in a position of vulnerability - they're your only source of information. And they're going to lie to you? What's that about? Who would like that feeling?

Anyway. I don't really recommend that you read this book. I read it because it was recommended to me and there was candy involved. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped to.

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

So, I wrote this entire post earlier in the week, left my computer, came back, and it was gone.

I was displeased.

So I will do my best to recreate my earlier post but I can't offer you any guarantees.

OK, so, Friday Night Knitting Club was recommended to me by a friend over a year ago and I just got around to reading it - or rather, I remembered a while ago, requested it from the library, it came in, I picked it up, finished what I was reading before, and here we are. It took me a while to get through. It was a much slower read than Jacobs' other novel that I had read previously (reviewed here), but it was also much less superficial. The thing that bothered me the most about this novel (after finishing it) was that the best part of the book comes right smack dab at the end. No, I don't mean like the last 5 words, but within the last 10 pages, and that drove me insane, because it didn't allow for a standard denouement (yeah I just used that word). Instead, it was like, bam, in your face, book over, peace out. No time for resolution, for closure. Is it a coincidence that there are two books after this one in the Knit series? That's what I want to know. Did Jacobs always intend for these to be a series or did they only turn out that way after the success of FNKC? Because if I had read FNKC before the sequel had been written, and then the book had ended the way it does, I would have been pissed. Even so, I still feel kind of slighted. Books need to be able to stand on their own without relying on a sequel to clean up after the mess they've made.

Anyway, now that I've probably completely turned you off from ever reading this novel, I'll tell you what it's about...

Georgia Walker is a single mother who lives in NYC and owns her own knitting/yarn store. The store (Walker and Daughter) serves as the hub in this novel, home base for the cast of crazy characters that float in and out of Walker's life. I say single mother because technically she is - her baby daddy is absent from her daughter's life (until a few pages into the novel, that is), but in reality her daughter is being raised not only by Walker herself, but also by Anita, Georgia's mentor and fellow shopkeeper, and Peri and KC and Marty and...you get the idea. People like hanging out at the store and will often stick around to ask for help on a knitting project, and eventually a club of sorts is formed out of the regulars who always seem to be around on Friday nights.

The novel centers around the lives of the Walker women, but what I think it's really about in the end is the strength of female bonds, and the importance of knitting together a safety net for yourself. There are a couple of male characters in the book but they sort of seem to just add spice to the mix - they're not really what this is about. Walker has this great cast of characters in her life, and they irritate her from time to time, but I came to think of the friends in her life as different threads in her safety net - some of them are weaker threads, others are stronger, but when they all come together, she can lean on them and they'll support her when she needs it. So yes, knitting is what this novel is about in the literal sense but I think it's what it's about in the metaphorical sense as well - knitting together the support of the friends in your life to hold yourself up when you need it.

Did you see that coming?

Me neither.

OK, so this isn't a book...

But you should still read it.

I already posted a link to this article on my other blog so you may have already seen it from me, but if you didn't, check it out. An article written from the perspective of a single mother who argues that it's better for women to settle and marry men they don't necessarily feel are "good enough" for them than it is for them to be alone. Not saying I agree or disagree, just that I find it really interesting.

Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts

Bed of Roses is the second book in the Bride Quartet by Nora Roberts. For someone who isn't sure I ever want to get married, I sure love weddings. I love reading wedding magazines, attending weddings, hearing about weddings of people I don't even know, etc. I'm just not sure I can ever imagine having one myself.

That said, obviously I enjoyed this book in the same way I enjoy reading about people who can cook really great things - it's something I love to hear about and something I appreciate, but just not something I am sure I can imagine myself doing someday (I just thought about explaining the cooking thing by saying "I don't like to touch meat" but then I knew that would lead this post down a different route).

But I digress. Not sure if I explained this when I wrote about Vision in White, but the quartet is about a group of friends (4 friends, imagine that) who run a wedding planning business. They each handle separate parts of the business (One does flowers, one does photography, one does catering, and one is the business manager), and the quartet is about their lives as they run the business together.

The thing that irritated me about Bed of Roses is that Roberts tried too hard to hit the reader over the head with the fact that this is the 2nd book in a series. I'm not sure if she set out to write the series, or if she only decided upon the series idea based upon the success of Vision in White (do I seriously read these books?), but Vision in White was a much more stand-alone novel/story than Bed of Roses. In this story, she left loose ends that obligate you to read the next two books in the series (yet to be published). Will I do it? Yeah, probably. Will it still annoy me? Possibly. And it's all a little bit too neat. Four friends, who run a wedding planning business, all of whom fall in love and get married within the span of a few years? Unlikely. Granted I'm not sure if that's how the other two books will turn out. If it isn't, I'll respect Roberts more. I hate reading books and knowing what's going to happen 10 pages before it does - or entire novels before it does, in this case.

Don't worry, I'm not writing this to tell you what a smart person I am - but rather to emphasize just how transparent Roberts' writing is. Meh. I guess that's what you get when you read a series of books that are essentially wedding planning porn.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

My friend Molly recommended that I read Love Walked In while I was on vacation in Jamaica (again, please send me your recommendations, I love them!). I really enjoyed Love Walked In - it was lighthearted enough to work as a vacation read, but serious enough to not feel like I was killing brain cells by reading it.

The title says it all - it's essentially the story of how love walked into the main character's life as she just sort of went about her day the same way she always did. I hope the same thing will happen to me someday - I'm really not all about going "husband hunting" and trying to meet the love of my life. I'm more into letting it happen the natural way. I guess we'll see if someday that changes (such as, if the natural way doesn't work and I change my views on potentially not wanting to get married...ever). At first, it (love) looks exactly like she always expected it to (maybe that's how she recognized it in the first place), but then as time goes on, the greatest love in her life becomes more for an extension of the original love than for the original love itself. Love evolves - as it naturally does.

Anyway, I don't want my story to turn out quite how this story did (without giving too much away I will just say there is a child involved, we all know how I feel about children), but the idea of sort of letting love fall into your lap appeals to me (lazy). Don't get me wrong - when I find it, I'll work hard to keep it.

I will say this, though - the series of events that takes place within the book is not all that feasible, but isn't that usually the case with most dramatic events that eventually change your life? I guess it wouldn't really be worth reading a book in which everything is predictable and commonplace. Reading about situations such as this one make you think - what would I do if I were in that situation? My answer is: not what the protagonist did (which will become funny to you if you read the book).

So what would you do if the person/thing you fell in love with turned out to be/come with more than originally met the eye? I guess that's where you figure out if it was love all along. I haven't really been in one of these situations, but from my perspective, I think love would flex to accommodate and encompass everything it needed to - whereas something weaker (lust? infatuation?) would splinter and break. Maybe my answer will change someday when I meet (I just typed "meat" and it totally changed the meaning of the sentence and broke my serious mood) the person for whom my love will accommodate all things. I'll be here, looking forward to the day when that love walks in.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

It's been a while since I've been in love.

I think by the time you reach my age (ah, the ripe old age of 25) you have probably been in love at least a time or two. Sometimes after you've been in love, even though the feelings are never quite as intense the second time around, you just keep going back. I've gone back to Harry Potter a time or two, but finally I've found something worth moving on for. Don't get me wrong - I'll always be faithful to HP. He'll always be one of my first loves, but I've found something magical with Grossman's 2nd novel (I couldn't resist the pun, sorry).

My friend Paul lent it to me and I was so happy he did - this is why I ask for recommendations so often. I never would have picked up The Magicians without his recommendation. So please, please, please, if you have favorite books you think I may not have read, please send their titles my way!

I mentioned Potter in part because Grossman mentions Potter multiple times throughout the course of the novel. The Magicians is the story of a boy who is very much like me in that he finds himself always feeling a little bit out of place - daydreaming about other worlds, other places (predominantly magical places) in which he thinks he would probably fit in better. The thing that makes me jealous, though, is that Quentin's daydreaming/fervent wishing eventually leads him to stumble into a magical world - and then through that world into one that is even more magical. Who knows, maybe eventually I will have the same fate (fingers crossed).

I need to make a very specific and important distinction here -I very much love movies and books about magical worlds. But I love them when they start in the normal world. The thing that appeals to me is the idea that someday I could fall into the same circumstances. Those people who start in magical/different worlds don't really appeal to me. I started in a normal world and so far my only way out is books.

You will never, EVER catch me saying a bad world about Harry Potter, but one thing that is GOOD about The Magicians that is in stark contrast to the Harry Potter series is the fact that the characters in The Magicians and its target audience are slightly older than HP, and therefore the storyline is able to be a little bit more mature and a little bit darker and more cynical - which appeals to me. As Paul says, you can't appreciate the sweet without the sour...so I think the dark side in The Magicians intensifies your appreciation of the light. At times it's laugh out loud funny - and at others it really tugs on your heartstrings. Harry Potter has sweet and sour as well, obviously, but I would liken Harry Potter more to Sour Patch Kids (there is nothing wrong with that! Sometimes that's exactly what you want!) and The Magicians to...I don't know, tart lemonade? That metaphor got away from me, but you know what I'm trying to say. Same themes, different levels of...maturity.

You never forget your first love, but often you outgrow that relationship. Sometimes it's just the natural course of things. As you move on in your life, often when you fall in love again, you see some of the same things in them as you did in your first love. Lucky for me, that was what let me know that my relationship with The Magicians was likely to turn out well. And it did. So well. Please do me a favor and read this book so I can do you the favor of having been the one to recommend it to you.

And once you read it, you will know what this means - I desperately want a cozy horse for my birthday.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I tried to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo twice before I eventually succeeded on my third try. Why? Because the first 40ish pages are complete drivel. Well, not drivel exactly, but rather...really dry, intense financial-speak that I couldn't possibly care less about. I complained to a friend who said that I had to try to persevere and it would be worth it. And I'm here with the same advice for you.

If you liked The Da Vinci Code or other books like it, you'll like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Same sort of suspense, same sense of mystery. You're along for the ride and trying to figure out the clues before the characters in the book. There isn't the same involvement with secret societies or ancient symbols, but the mystery is just as good. One thing I will say that was kind of funny is that the main character is a TOTAL male whore. It didn't add much to the story - for me at least - but it made me wonder if Larsson thought that it would make his book so much better if he added sexytime. Really? I guess you can't have all suspense all the time, but for me in was kind of just a distraction from the part of the story I was actually interested in. Anyway, even with the small distraction of the male slutteny, I do plan to read the sequel - The Girl Who Played with Fire and then eventually, when it comes out in May, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

So I usually think that Jennifer Weiner is a pretty reliable author. I read everything new she puts out, and I believe that I've read all of her past works. Generally, if you're looking for a light, entertaining read, you can rely on Weiner (I just burst out laughing).

Anyway, Best Friends Forever irritated me a little bit. It's the story of one of those friendships - which I think all women have been in at this point - where there are two people who don't quite seem to make much sense being friends with one another. One of them is bright and shiny, and the other is dark and twisty (thanks, Grey's Anatomy). I am and always have been, without exception, the dark and twisty one in those relationships. The other part that comes with being a dark and twisty person is that you're an acquired taste, so you have to work at having friends sometimes. You end up taking care of yourself, and then by extension, being "the responsible one" who often takes care of other friends as well. Now, before you start defending yourselves, college friends/sorority sisters, I'm not talking about you. We all know that our friendships are all fair and balanced - each taking care of the other when they need it - but that's why we're all so close, I think. We all look out for each other. I'm talking about other people, other friendships. The thing is, when you're bright and shiny, everyone likes you. You get away with a lot. You're not necessarily quite as responsible for yourself. So if a bright and shiny comes into contact with a dark and twisty, they tend to have a successful if somewhat dysfunctional relationship. The bright and shiny gets taken care of by the dark and twisty, and in return provides some light/sunshine. The dark and twisty gets to feel needed. I promise this all relates to the book.

Maybe if you are a bright and shiny you will like this book more than I did. I just hated watching the dark and twisty character get totally dominated by the bright and shiny character. The thing is that you're supposed to grow out of whichever extreme you are to become...normal. I am still kind of dark and kind of twisty, but I have my bright and shiny moments. Just like I think that those who used to be bright and shiny had their dark and twisty moments. These characters didn't. They were two extremes. It was annoying. I felt that they lacked the development they should have had at the ages they were meant to be (late 20s, early 30s...I think) and that annoyed the hell out of me. I wanted them to grow up. I wanted to jump into the plot and give both of them a good ass-kicking for being so immature.

Alright, so maybe I'm being overcritical. But you have to remember, people, that I spend more time socializing with the characters in the books I read than I do with actual live people. So I am quite critical of those characters I encounter in my book-life.

So yeah. I guess take my criticisms with a grain of salt. That said, I would recommend Weiner's earlier books more highly than her most recent two.

Recommendations?

Hello fellow readers,
I'm going on vacation for the week of Jan 18-22, and I would love to hear what you think I should read. I'll be on the beach so anything too heavy/depressing/life changing is probably not going to be what I'm going for. I already have two recommendations from trusted friends in the queue:

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love)
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

probably will also get Nanny Returns, the sequel to The Nanny Diaries, but I would love to have any other recommendations you would like to throw my way! I will be downloading books on the Kindle to ensure that I don't have to pay the overweight luggage fee (it's happened before, solely due to books).

Thanks, can't wait to hear what you have to say!
B

I read a lot.

Just in case you doubted that I do, in fact, like books more than people- I just counted. I read 53 books in 2009. Slightly more than a book a week, not including those books that I read and forgot to blog about. A little bit sick. But a lot bit awesome.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

I could write a very short review of this book. Basically, it's The DaVinci Code in DC. Obviously the details of the plot are very different - while this book does touch on Christian themes it has nothing to do with the search for the Holy Grail. Given that it is another novel with Robert Langdon as the main character, it spends a lot of time discussing symbology as is relates to secret societies, and given that it is set in Washington, DC, it has much to do with the government of the United States and how the aforementioned secret societies could be involved in matters of national security.

I'm not going to lie, I fall for Brown's work hook, line and sinker. I loved DaVinci Code and I may have liked The Lost Symbol even more given that it was set in my hometown. I love learning about symbology and secret societies (while Brown's plot details are fictitious, the societies and rituals he references are factual), and Brown manages to write fiction that is just as thrilling as watching an action movie. I may or may not have stayed up until 4 am last night/this morning to read this book. No, it's not as redeeming as The Help, but it's wonderful in its own way. There is a place for thrillers and heartwarmers in the book world just like there is a spot for each in the movie world, and The Lost Symbol fills its appointed place splendidly.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Have you heard of The Help? It's been on the Best Seller list, so I'd be surprised if you hadn't. That is, of course, if you're a huge book nerd like I am. Anyway, I put myself on the waiting list at the library and tried to be patient while I waited for my turn to come. I was so excited...and when my day came I raced to the library to pick it up and start reading.

I wasn't disappointed. I don't think you'd be either. The Help is a story about race relations in Mississippi in the 60s, specifically relationships between black maids and their white employers. I don't claim to know anything about that type of relationship, but I suppose now I know more than before I read the book. Obviously it was a sensitive topic, a little bit uncomfortable, but I feel like usually the exploration of uncomfortable topics provide the reader with greater benefits in the end than staying in one's comfort zone.

It's told from multiple different points of view - 2 different black maids and 1 white employer. The white employer is somewhat of a social radical and she sets out to write an expose about what it's like to be a black employee of a white person in Mississippi. She interviews over a dozen maids and compiles their commentary into a novel. Her exploration of this topic, while secret, eventually leads her to cut off ties with the people she has always called her friends.

I've never been to Mississippi. I can't say how far the culture with regards to race relations has come since the 60s, but luckily most of the views found in The Help have long since gone out of style. It makes you wonder, though, what beliefs do we have today that will be viewed as comparably ignorant in 40 years?

The story is compelling and the narrative is beautiful. The plot sucks you in and makes you think about your own beliefs, and what you would be willing to do, how far you'd be willing to break out of your own comfort zone to stand up and fight against something you thought was wrong but everyone else thought was right. Definitely worthy of its spot on the best seller list.

The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow

I was really excited to receive The Girls from Ames as a Christmas gift. I had seen it mentioned in magazines and on the internet and wanted to read it, and it was especially fitting to receive it from a girlfriend since it is the true story of a group of friends from Ames, Iowa.

The book made me really happy to have a group of close girlfriends. It tells you all about the different benefits that women who maintain close friendships with other women throughout their lives enjoy, including a longer life span. Part of this particular group of women has been friends since elementary school, but the group was complete by high school, and they've stayed friends into their forties. Reading this book, you learn about the role that the group has played for each individual member throughout their life, supporting them through unimaginable hardship some of them have endured. It's heartwarming and inspirational - it reinforced for me just how imperative it's going to be throughout my life to make sure the women who are important to me know how important they are.

Read it, and pass it along to a girlfriend (or guy friend? I guess I shouldn't exclude them, although the book does state that the occurrence of this kind of lifetime friendship among men is much more rare than among women) when you're done. Pick up the phone and remind your friends how much you love them. To my friends - I love you guys and I can't wait until we're in our 40s and we can have a book written about us and how we've always been there for each other.

Being Committed by Anna Maxted

I have not told you about Anna Maxted on the blog before. I should have, as I adore her. As far as I can tell, she has 5 published novels –

• Getting over it
• Running in Heels
• Behaving like Adults
• Being Committed
• A Tale of Two Sisters

I have now read at least 3 of them…possibly four but it was a while ago so I’d have to go back and check. I know I’ve read A Tale and Behaving like Adults, and I just recently finished reading Being Committed. I think I’ve also read Running in Heels but I’d have to check again to be sure. Regardless, I really enjoy her work and do plan to read all of her novels.

She’s a fiction author based in the UK, and while her work is usually mostly humorous, it always deals with a bigger, deeper issue at some point in the novel. It comes across as very British – dry, sarcastic humor used to cover up a deeper issue until it comes to a head. Her work is entertaining and insightful.

Being Committed is the story of a young woman (Hannah) who is having commitment issues at age 31 and is forced to dig into her past (including an infidelity in her parents marriage as well as a failed previous marriage of her own) to discover what is preventing her to move forward into her future. Hannah is selfish, sarcastic, unmotivated, and quite funny. Rather how I imagine I would come across were I to be a character in someone’s novel. It was somewhat refreshing to find a character who, at age 31, wasn’t particularly bothered to get married. Finally, someone acknowledges that there are things that should be dealt with prior to marriage – and it’s better to get them out of the way first. Then again, I’m dragging my own opinion into this instead of giving it an objective review, so I should probably back up (but not enough to delete what I just wrote. Anyway, point is, this isn't a romantic comedy of a novel. It's better than that. It doesn't give you, or its characters, all the answers on an unrealistic platter (or any platter for that matter).

I think when it comes down to it, I like Anna Maxted so much because she writes life the way that I would like to live it - dealing with the big issues when necessary, but with humor.