What I've been reading

Book club last week was interesting. Most people loved the book My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. One woman even said it was the best book she'd ever read! I didn't love it, thought it was okay. One thing everyone did agree on was that the Mom had no redeeming qualities. She clearly favored her oldest daughter (and maybe she had to), ignored her son and used her youngest daughter. Nobody liked her. Next month we're reading Secret Girl, a memoir by Molly Bruce Jacobs. One of the women in the book club sold her house for her last year, so there's a local connection. I heard the book is pretty good.

I don't feel like I've been reading a whole lot lately, so I was surprised when I looked at what I had checked out. There's quite a bit on there including several books I know I'm not going to read.

My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult - Last month's book club book. Better get that back in!

Saving Agnes, Rachel Cusk - I started this book but I'm having trouble getting into it. I need to decide if I'm going to commit to reading it, or put it aside for something else. So far it's okay, just hasn't grabbed my attention.

Crossing Over: One Woman's Exodus from Amish Life, Ruth Irene Garrett - I enjoyed Rumspringa so much I thought I'd try another book about Amish life. I didn't get very far in this one. It's very anecdotal and not quite what I was looking for. I need to return it.

Coupon Girl, Rebecca Motew - This is another book that I've finished and haven't returned yet because I'm lazy. It was a light read that was okay. It took me a while to finish it. At one point, Mark saw me reading it and said "Haven't you been reading that forever?" I'm usually a pretty speedy reader, so if he noticed that I was still reading it, it must've taken too long. What was interesting was that it gave a sort of behind the scenes look at those coupon mailers that you get every so often and immediately throw out. Or at least I do. Kind of interesting. I didn't get her attraction or interest in Barton though. After the first weirdo scene in her apartment, I'd be running from him.

Babylon By Bus, or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling "Yankees suck" t-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq, where they became employed by the Occupation in jobs for which they lacked qualification and witnessed much that amazed and disturbed them, Jeff Neumann - I just started this book and I think the title basically says it all.

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler - This is a strange little book about The Museum of Jurassic Technology in California. I haven't read much of this book, but from what I can gather, the exhibits are mostly made up but have intrigued many people, including the author of this book. I think farther along in the book they discuss the early history of museums, which I'm interested in, but I'm not sure I'm going to get that far.

What do you Do All Day?, Amy Scheibe - I haven't started this one. It's a book about a stay at home Mom and I heard it's similar to I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson.

Swapping Lives, Jane Green - I started this last night so I haven't read very much yet. There are 2 women, a career woman in London and a former lawyer, current stay at home Mom in CT that are both not quite happy with their lives, and think they each want what the other has. They switch places through a magazine contest and... I don't know what happens yet. I've read and enjoyed other books by Jane Green so I thought I'd read this one too.

I'm embarrassed to admit there are probably one or two books around the house that I own and have also started and not finished. Off the top of my head, I know I'm reading Topaz by Leon Uris. I really need to commit to finishing one or two books at a time and not have all these books going at once.

My Sister's Keeper

I finished the latest book club book last night, 2 whole days early! It was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I didn't want to read it and voted for another book. It's about a young girl who's dying of cancer. Her parents went to a geneticist and had another baby who was a genetic match to be a donor for this girl. The idea was to use the cord blood, but Anna ended up being a donor for most of her life. She finally decides she doesn't want to be a donor anymore, even though it means her sister will die. There's more to it than that, but I'm not going to ruin it for someone who wants to read it.

The part about the donor made me think a lot, but that wasn't why I didn't want to read it. Since becoming a Mother, I've found it very hard to hear or read about kids who are dying or have died. I love my little guy so much I can't imagine my life without him. Can't even imagine. Being a Mom is the best, but it's also terrifying. There are so many things that go on that are a danger to your child, and most of them you can't control. I do everything I can to make sure his world is safe and happy and it's not enough. Anything could happen - an accident, disease, whatever - and it's out of my control and that makes me sick to my stomach. This book was one big reminder of this and it was really hard for me to read.

We meet Monday night and I'm sure we'll have an interesting discussion.

Right now I'm reading two other books. One is a biography of Edith Wharton, one of my favorite writers. The other is Saving Agnes. I can't remember the author's name. I'm not very far into either of them.

Dinner with Anna Karenina

Two books I've read recently are Dinner with Anna Karenina by Gloria Goldreich and Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst. Dinner with Anna Karenina interested me because it's about 6 women in a book club and I wanted to find out what they read, how their book club was organized, how they interacted. I didn't really like it as much as I had hoped. The women in the book club seemed too...something. Like they were characters (which I know they are) and not like real people. The author certainly did try to explain why they are the way they are and show how they changed over the course of the year, but I didn't find them particularly likeable or believable. They didn't seem like people I'd want to be in a book club with, and it wasn't the kind of book club I'd want to be in. The author mentioned several times throughout the book that this book club was different and somehow more literary and insightful than other book clubs. This is probably true, but I'd rather have my casual fun book club than one that was more like homework. It just didn't appeal to me.

Speaking of book club, in my last post I mentioned that I must have missed where the book came back to the point that the main character was going to die if she didn't make changes in her life. Well, as it turns out I did because I'm a moron. It was where the main character's roommate says something like "if we hadn't taken that trip, you would've been in your room when the fire started and you would've died." How I missed that when it was so obvious, I have no idea. We had a really good discussion about the book and I really enjoyed our last meeting. This month we're reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. This is the second book we've read by Picoult. The first was Vanishing Acts.

I wanted to read Lost & Found because it was based on The Amazing Race, which is one of my favorite shows. If I ever went on a reality show (which I won't) it would be that one. The book was pretty good. It gave a behind the scenes look at how a reality show like that works, how the production staff interacts, or could interact, with the cast. I'm sure the interaction between the camera crew and a contestant in the book hasn't happened in a real show. The cast of the show was also similar to the usual cast on The Amazing Race - a mother/daughter team, a gay couple (although this one had a twist), best friends, brothers, the couple who wants to see if their relationship will work out (it didn't). All in all, an entertaining book and more serious than you might expect.