Redeployment

Redeployment by Phil Klay

This is a great story collection that left me wanting to read more by this author and more about the characters in each of the stories. At the end of almost every story I wanted to read more, find out what happened next. Even though the characters in each story had different backgrounds, specialties and experiences, each seemed real, well thought out and believable. I'm looking forward to read what Phil Klay writes next.

Rating: 5 Stars 

Five star books

This is a list of the books I've read lately that I've enjoyed the most.

Longbourn by  Jo Baker
Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole
Mary & O'Neil: A Novel in Stories by Justin Cronin 
Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan
Middle Men: Stories by Jim Gavin 
Chasing Shackleton: Re-Creating the World's Greatest Journey of Survival by Tim Jarvis
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan 
A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout
I Shall be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe
One More Thing: Stories & Other Stories by B.J. Novak
The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich
What in God's Name by Simon Rich
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell 
The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel by Cathy Scott-Clark
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Letters from Skye

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

This was one of those books that was hard for me to put down. I love epistolary fiction and this book didn't disappoint. There was a moment or two when I wanted to talk the main characters out of a bad decision, but overall I liked them. This book was recommended to me because I liked The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. I can see the similarities, but I liked Letters from Skye a little more. It seemed a little more realistic and I felt that I knew the characters a little better, maybe because the focus was a little narrower.

Rating: 5 Stars 

Wake: A Novel

Wake: A Novel by Anna Hope

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

This book had an interesting perspective on WWI. It was about the post-war experiences of three women of different ages and how they were dealing, or not dealing with the losses they and those around them had faced. I didn't feel connected to the characters by the end of the book. That may have had something to do with the way the chapters jumped from character to character. The book took place over five days but the flashbacks gave you a broader perspective.

Rating: 3 Stars

The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel

My posting is very erratic, and shockingly it's been 3+ years since I posted. I've been doing a LOT of reading though, and have even been reviewing some books on Goodreads. I'll share some of those here, as well as the other books I've been reading.

The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel by Cathy Scott-Clark & Adrian Levy
This was an interesting book about an event that I'm sure I heard about but don't remember at all. It's amazing what people can do in extreme situations and at the end of the book I wanted to know what happened to those who survived. The authors included many different perspectives - hotel staff, guests, the police, the terrorists themselves. 

Rating: 5 Stars

2010

I read a lot less in 2010 than I have in previous years. Here's the list:

January 2010

1. Testimony - Anita Shreve

February 2010

2. Skeletons at the feast - Chris Bohjalian

3. Name dropping -Jane Heller

4. A reliable wife - Robert Goolrick (book club)

March 2010

5. Normal people don't live like this - Dylan Landis

6. Upside down inside out - Monica McInerney

7. True colors - Kristin Hannah (book club)

April 2010

8. The year of living biblically - A.J. Jacobs

9. The office of desire - Martha Moody (book club)

10. Confessions of a serial dater - Michelle Cunnah

11. The life and soul of the party - Mike Gayle

12. The wedding diaries - Linda Francis Lee

13. True love (and other lies) - Whitney Gaskell

14. Not quite a Mom - Kirsten Sawyer

May 2010

15. LoveHampton - Sherri Rifkin

16. The department of lost and found - Allison Winn Scotch

17. Everyone is beautiful - Katherine Center (book club)

18. Straight up - Deirdre Martin

June 2010

19. Nothing but trouble - Rachel Gibson

20. Sizzling sixteen - Janet Evanovich

July 2010

21. Wedding season - Katie Fforde

22. My name is Mary Sutter - Robin Oliveira (book club)

23. I am Ozzy - Ozzy Osbourne

August 2010

24. Simply irresistible - Rachel Gibson

25. Chasing Stanley - Deirdre Martin

26. Natural born charmer - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

27. The lucky one - Nicholas Sparks (book club)

28. Daisy's back in town - Rachel Gibson

September 2010

29. Orange is the new black - Piper Kerman

October 2010

30. The lace reader - Brunonia Barry (book club)

31. Wish you were here - Mike Gayle

November 2010

32. This charming man - Marian Keyes (book club)

33. The junior officer's reading club - Patrick Hennessy

My favorites were probably Skeletons at the feast & The year of living biblically.

July 2010

Of the three books I read in July, I am Ozzy was definition the most interesting. In a sort of frightening and horrific way. Reading what his life has been like for the past 40 years, it's hard to believe he's still around. For some reason I enjoy the rock star bio. Of the three that I've read recently, I like Slash the best. I am Ozzy & The Dirt (about Motley Crue) were probably tied. Both held my interest and made me want to learn more about the people in the book.

We read My name is Mary Sutter for book club this month. It was pretty interesting although a bit slow at times. Mary was very socially awkward and didn't relate well to people, unless she was delivering their baby. It was really interesting to learn about the options that were and were not available to women at the time, and also to learn about the appalling conditions around the time of the Civil War.

1. Wedding season - Katie Fforde
2. My name is Mary Sutter - Robin Oliveira (book club)
3. I am Ozzy - Ozzy Osbourne

January 2009

Here's the list of books I read in January.

1. The double bind - Chris Bohjalian (book club)
2. Testing Kate - Whitney Gaskell
3. Girl most likely to - Poonam Sharma
4. Accidentally engaged - Mary Carter
5. Celebutantes - Amanda Goldberg

None of them really stand out to me as great reads. Lots of light, easy reads. The Double Bind was pretty good and had an interesting twist at the end.

2008 - Part 2

Here's the 2nd half of 2008:

July 2008

85. Ten-year nap - Meg Wolitzer (book club)
86. How to talk to a widower - Jonathan Tropper
87. Names my sisters call me - Megan Crane
88. More than it hurts you - Darin Strauss
89. Starting from square two - Caren Lissner
90. Queen of babble gets hitched - Meg Cabot
91. Up and out - Ariella Papa

August 2008

92. The Ice Man: confessions of a Mafia contract killer - Philip Carlo
93. The big girls - Susanna Moore
94. Not another bad date - Rachel Gibson
95. So much for my happy ending - Kyra Davis
96. The other side of the story - Marian Keyes

September 2008

97. The shack - William P. Young (book club)
98. Don't you forget about me - Jancee Dunn
99. Lost on planet China - J. Maarten Troost
100. The Ex-debutante - Linda Francis Lee

October 2008

101. Bel canto - Ann Patchett (book club)
102. The chocolate lovers' club - Carole Matthews
103. The blood of flowers - Anita Amirrezvani
104. The 19th wife - David Ebershoff (book club)
105. The breakup club - Melissa Senate

November 2008

106. Sleeping arrangements -Madeleine Wickham
107. A Cedar Cove Christmas - Debbie Macomber
108. Not yet drown'd - Peg Kingman
109. Jack with a twist - Brenda Janowitz

December 2008

110. The marching season - Daniel Silva
111. The last undercover - Bob Hamer
112. Being committed - Anna Maxted
113. The lost memoirs of Jane Austen - Syrie James
114. 21 steps to happiness - F. G. Gerson
115. Irish girls about town
116. The English assassin - Daniel Silva
117. I love you, Beth Cooper - Larry Doyle

A Year

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I posted anything. I actually did a lot of reading in the past year. Here's the first half of the year.

January 2008

1. Becky: the life and loves of Becky Thatcher - Lenore Hart
2. The little lady agency - Hester Browne

February 2008

3. Big boned - Meg Cabot
4. Tangled up in you - Rachel Gibson
5. Plum lucky - Janet Evanovich
6. Just a taste - Deirdre Martin
7. First lady - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
8. The happiest baby on the block - Harvey Karp
9. Second chance - Jane Green
10. Matarese circle - Robert Ludlum
11. Undomestic goddess - Sophie Kinsella
12. Turning thirty - Mike Gayle
13. Learning curves - Gemma Townley
14. Lost and found - Jane Sigaloff
15. A girl's best friend - Liz Young
16. Dinner for two - Mike Gayle
17. What men want - Deborah Blumenthal
18. The girlfriend's guide to surviving the first year of motherhood - Vicki Iovine
19. School of fortune - Amanda Brown
20. The big question - Chuck Barris
21. Mr. Commitment - Mike Gayle
22. The last summer (of you and me) - Ann Brashares
23. Lady Macbeth - Susan Fraser King

March 2008

24. Remember me? - Sophie Kinsella
25. Fieldwork - Mischa Berlinksi
26. The dowry: a novel of Ireland - Walter Keady
27. The Accidental mother - Rowan Coleman
28. My legendary girlfriend - Mike Gayle
29. Joanna's husband and David's wife - Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
30. Nine months - Sarah Ball
31. The big beautiful - Pamela Duncan
32. The last empress - Anchee Min
33. Momzillas - Jill Kargman
34. Past secrets - Cathy Kelly
35. An arsonist's guide to writers' homes in New England - Brock Clarke
36. Mozart's sister - Rita Charbonnier
37. Mommy tracked - Whitney Gaskell
38. The outcast: a novel - Sadie Jones
39. Roommates wanted - Lisa Jewell
40. Acceptance - Susan Coll
41. The English American - Alison Larkin
42. Never on a sundae - Wendy Markham
43. Bidding for love - Katie Fforde
44. The guardians: a novel - Ana Castillo
45. What do you do all day? - Amy Scheibe
46. Spin cycle - Leslie Carroll

April 2008

47. Best of friends: two women, two continents, and one enduring friendship - Sara James
48. Babyland - Holly Chamberlin
49. I hope they serve beer in hell - Tucker Max
50. Covert: my years infiltrating the mob - Bob Delaney
51. Breaking news: a stunning and memorable account of reporting from some of the most dangerous places in the world - Martin Fletcher
52. Songs without words - Ann Packer (book club)
53. Those who save us - Jenna Blum
54. The cure for modern life - Lisa Tucker
55. Everyone else's girl - Megan Crane
56. Knitting under the influence - Claire LaZebnik
57. Frenemies - Megan Crane
58. Certain girls - Jennifer Weiner
59. Anonymous lawyer - Jeremy Blachman
60. Working at the ballpark - Tom Jones

May 2008

61. When Washington was in vogue - Edward Christopher Williams
62. Whatever makes you happy - William Sutcliffe
63. Practically perfect - Katie Fforde
64. Letters from Yellowstone - Diane Smith
65. Restoring Grace - Katie Fforde
66. Paradise fields Katie Fforde
67. The Kommandant's girl - Pam Jenoff
68. The gold coast - Nelson DeMille (book club)
69. Summer of my Southern discomfort - Stephanie Gayle
70. Accidental It girl - Libby Street
71. Hollywood girls club - Maggie Marr
72. Going Dutch - Katie Fforde
73. Wanderlust - Chris Dyer

June 2008

74. Chasing Harry Winston - Lauren Weisberger
75. How Nancy Drew saved my life - Lauren Baratz-Logsted
76. You'll never nanny in this town again - Suzanne Hansen
77. Happiness sold separately - Libby Street
78. Moloka'i - Alan Brennert (book club)
79. A good Indian wife - Anne Cherian
80. Second thyme around - Katie Fforde
81. Passion, betrayal and killer highlights - Kyra Davis
82. The diplomat's wife - Pam Jenoff
83. Fearless fourteen - Janet Evanovich
84. Alphabet sisters - Monica McInerney

LibraryThing

I've been keeping track of what I've been reading on LibraryThing, so I haven't been posting too much here. Or at all, I guess. I joined the 50 book challenge in 2007 and again in 2008. So far this year I've read over 50 books, so I guess I've already achieved my goal. Yay me. For some reason the past few days, I haven't been able to update the thread where I'm keeping track of the books I've read so I decided to post them here so I won't forget that they were. Hopefully the problem is fixed soon so I can update my list.

Knitting Under the Influence - Claire LaZebnik
Everyone Else's Girl - Megan Crane
Frenemies - Megan Crane

I'm currently reading Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner and I'll probably finish that today.

Long time

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I have been reading.

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer - This was an interesting book. For some reason I'm fascinated by polygamy, probably because it's something I can't imagine ever doing and don't understand anyone else agreeing to be part of. I guess if you grow up with something and are taught to believe that it's the right way to live and the only way you're going to get to heaven you might have a hard time going against it. I did think it strange that even though she saw how awful it was for her Mother and her Mother was actively against it for her own children, she did it anyway. I'm glad she had a happy ending and found a relationship that was more fulfilling for her, and that most of her children chose a different path than she did.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - I read this for book club and probably wouldn't have otherwise. It's one of those books where there was so much hype I was sure the actual book wouldn't live up to the high expectations. It was actually really good. It's hard to believe that people actually live in conditions like that. I can't imagine living in a place where it's possible my friends or families will be killed by a stray bomb. I also can't imagine living in a place where I'm not allowed to walk down the street by myself and have to wear a head to toe covering. I understand that other cultures are different from my own, but it makes me glad that mine isn't like that.

Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang by Colton Simpson - I'm fascinated by gangs and by prisons. I love watching the Supermax shows on tv. I'm not sure why. This book gave an inside look at both of these. Again, this book showed a life that is so far removed from my daily experience it's hard to even imagine. There was so much random killing and for what seemed like no good reason.

Right now I'm reading Getting Stoned With Savages by J. Maarten Troost. I had previously read The Sex Lives of Cannibals by the same author. So far I like it and I like his style of writing. His titles kind of crack me up, but I wonder what people thought in the dentist office this morning when they saw the title of the book I was reading!

Killing Pablo & The Grand Complication

I recently finished Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden. It was lent to me by a friend and was a really good book. I didn't know a thing about Pablo Escobar before reading this book so everything was new to me. It really is a different world in Columbia and it's hard to even imagine how common kidnappings and murders must have been at that time. It doesn't seem like it's that bad now, but maybe we just don't hear about it. I was interested to read how much control Pablo had over everything, including the jail he had built for himself and his friends! The leve of corruption was horrible. It was also amazing to read about the resources that went into the manhunt. All of the different police and military acronyms got a little confusing, but that shows the extent of the manhunt. Mark Bowden also wrote Black Hawk Down which was made into a movie of the same name. The incident in Black Hawk Down actually took place at a similar time and is mentioned in Killing Pablo.

I also read The Grand Complication by Alan Kurzweil recently. Several people in the Librarians who LibraryThing group posted that this was their favorite Library/Librarian book. I can't think of what mine would be, but it probably won't be this one. I thought it was okay. Maybe I had high expectations because of what other people had written about it.

I also have checked out:

Room for Improvement, Stacey Ballis - This is just sitting on my shelf. I probably won't read it.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah - This is our next book club book. It looks really good. It's the memoir of a boy soldier (ha!) from Africa. He now lives in the US and is attending school.

Secret Society Girl: an Ivy League Novel, Diana Peterfreund - I just checked this out. I think it's about a woman who is invited to join a secret society at Yale, or maybe another Ivy League school.

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky - I've heard really good things about this book. It's about a Jewish woman in Paris in the 1940s. While not autobiographical, there are many similarities between the author and her character's lives. The author was sent to Auschwitz where she died a month later. Her daughters took her incomplete novel with her and it was published 60+ years later.

The True & Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters

I just finished The True & Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters for book club which meets tonight. Since I chose it, I'll lead the discussion. While I was at my parents house I read Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy. I always enjoy her descriptions of life in small town Ireland and her characters. They're real people with real problems.

Other books that I have checked out:

The Third Victim & The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner - my Mother in Law is reading them on vacation. I'm not sure I've read anything by Lisa Gardner.

I Stink! by Kate McMullan, The Big Book of Things that Go, A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman and Road Construction Ahead (video) - These are all for Ryan (shocker!) I should probably get him his own card. His favorite, by far, is Road Construction Ahead. We'll watch it and he'll ask to watch it again, which has never happened. He can always hope.

The Grand Complication by Allen Kurzweil - Several people in the Librarians who LibraryThing Group posted that this was their favorite Library/Librarian book so I had to read it. I'm not sure if it's my favorite, but it's interesting and different so I'll probably finish it.

The Midnight Choir, Gene Kerrigan - I don't even recognize this title.
Room for Improvement, Stacey Ballis - Haven't started it.
The Man of My Dreams, Curtis Sittenfeld - I picked this out as a book club suggestion and didn't suggest it. I started reading Prep by the same author and never finished it. I'm not sure if I'll read this.
The Quality of Life Report, Meghan Daum - A book club suggestion that wasn't chosen. Not sure if I'll read it.
A Hole in the Universe, Mary McGarry Morris - Another book club suggestion that wasn't chosen. Not sure if I'll read it.
Lion Eyes, Claire Berlinski - Another possible book club suggestion that I didn't suggest. Not sure if I'll read it.
Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Patterson - There is a book discussion group at the Library that is reading this. I checked out the Library copy to myself in case we needed an additional copy for the group. I think I read it years ago.

But Enough About Me...

We discussed The Fig Eater at our most recent book club. Only two of us finished the whole book and one woman read about half of it. It was a strange book, lots of references to gypsies and their superstitions. I would say that overall I didn't like the book, but it was fun to discuss it. There was a lot of "how about that part when the woman did this" and "why would somebody do something like that" and I think the other women at book club that night were wishing they'd read the book so they had some idea what we were talking about. I suggested the three books for next time:

The True & Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters, by Elisabeth Robinson (this is what we're reading)
The Quality of Life Report, Meghan Daum
A Hole in the Universe, Mary McGarry Morris

I've read several other books recently. The first, On Wings of Eagles, by Ken Follett. This book had been on my shelves with the other Ken Follett books and I had assumed it was fiction. I was surprised to find when I started reading it that it was a true story. It was a story about breaking two men out of an Iranian prison. The crazy thing was that they worked for Ross Perot's company and he was the one who decided to pursue the rescue mission after diplomatic efforts failed. It's still not clear why they were detained, but it appears that the Iranian government didn't want to pay for work that had been done and also thought that Perot's company had been involved in bribing officials. I really enjoyed the book and can't believe a movie wasn't made of this crazy story.

I also read But Enough About Me... by Jancee Dunn. This book was laugh out loud funny to me at various points. The parts I enjoyed most were her stories of growing up in New Jersey with her family and some of the interviews that she described. She grew up in the 80s so a lot of the things she described I remembered from my own childhood. It was very funny. She also went to the University of Delaware, which was a coincidence.

This morning I finished Nearlyweds by Beth Kendrick. It was cute and an interesting premise. Three women find out that the paperwork for their weddings wasn't properly filed and they're not really married. Two of the women stay with their "husbands" and one doesn't. It was predictable in that the two I hoped would stay together, did. I enjoyed it though.

Someone posted a link to this on LibraryThing and I thought it might be fun to do. A friend of mine posted this, or something similar, on her blog a while back but I never finished it.

Instructions: In the list of books below, bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won't touch with a ten-foot pole, put a + in front of the ones on your bookshelf and * the ones you've never heard of. The books in regular font I haven't read and am not sure I want to.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) a favourite
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. +Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. +The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. +The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. +Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. +Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. +The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. +The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime & Punishment(Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. +War and Peace(Tolstoy)
64. Interview with a Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) -
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) Saw the play, does that count?
70. +The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. +Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the time of cholera (Marquez)
73. +Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. +The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. +Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. +Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. +Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. +Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. +The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. +The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

The Fugitive Wife, The Calling & The Fig Eater

The last book I read, The Fig Eater by Jody Shields, was the one I liked least of the three most recent books I've read. It's our book club book for this month and we meet on Monday. I finished it much sooner than I usually do b/c another woman in my book club asked to borrow it. There were a lot of things I didn't like about it. I didn't really like a lot of the characters, I didn't like all the flashbacks and the sayings that were spread throughout the book. It just seemed like a lot of different things were thrown together, and then not really followed up on later in the book. I'll be interested to see what other people thought about it on Monday.

I did like both The Fugitive Wife and The Calling. In The Fugitive Wife, by Peter Brown, Essie has run away from her husband and ended up in Alaska. You don't find out until quite a ways into the book why she ran away, and it wasn't as a result of a single, dramatic event. It seems like it built up for her and then after her son died, she had just had enough and couldn't go back. Even though Leonard sounds like an awful husband, I couldn't completely dislike him. When he shows up in Alaska and she chooses to stay with him instead of Nate, I couldn't really blame her for her decision. I wanted to believe that he had changed, and at least wanted to have a good life with Essie. Then again, I wasn't too upset when she ended up going to Nate after all. I skimmed some parts of the book, mainly dealing with the birds, but did enjoy learning about life on the farm and in Nome.

The Calling: A Year in the Life of an Order of Nuns by Catherine Whitney was very interesting. I didn't go to Catholic school so I haven't had much experience with nuns. I'm fascinated by them and was interested in learning more about how exactly they live. One thing that surprised me was learning that, at least in the order that she was describing, they did not receive support from the diocese and had to support themselves. One question that she asked that wasn't answered was whether or not this type of life is dying out as fewer and fewer people join these orders. It seems like that will eventually be the case.

I'm not reading anything right now, but have a few books waiting for me at the Library. Hopefully one of them will appeal to me. I have to pick out three books to present at book club on Monday night and really don't have anything in mind yet.

Innocent Man

We discussed Innocent Man by John Grisham at our last book club. I liked it. For the most part it held my interest and I wanted to know what happend, even though the title clearly told you he's innocent. It's so hard to believe that people are convicted, even today, on such flimsy evidence. It seemed that because the police and detectives wanted him to be guilty, he was, regardless of the evidence or lack thereof. What was really interesting was that even at the end, they were still considered suspects! We're reading The Fig Eater by Jody Shields for next month.

The other book I read recently was How This Night is Different, a book of short stories by Elisa Albert. In general, I like short stories and I enjoyed this book. The stories were about different people, all Jewish, and their experiences in life. I'm not Jewish so it was interesting to read about customs and events that are different than what I've experienced.

Currently I'm reading two books One is The Fugitive Wife by Peter Brown about a woman who ran away to Alaska to escape a bad marriage. The other is The Calling: A Year in the Life of an Order of Nuns, a memoir by Catherine Whitney. I am Catholic, but didn't go to Catholic school, so I haven't had much experience with nuns. Should be interesting.

I've been reading a lot more lately, partly because I joined the 50 Book Challenge group at LibraryThing. As of January 26th when I started the challenge, I'd read one book. Since then, I've finished seven more and feel like I will probably be able to do it.

Dearly Departed & A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies

I recently finished Dearly Departed by Elinor Lipman and A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies by Ellen Cooney. I bought Dearly Departed a while ago at Atlantic Book Warehouse and it's just been sitting on my shelf. I'm not sure why I hadn't read it yet. I've read a few other books by Elinor Lipman and reading this one made me remember why I had enjoyed the others. I like her style of writing and enjoy her dry humor. This wasn't necessarily a funny book, but certain passages made me laugh out loud. She seems to write the way she's thinking and that's something I can never do. My writing always seems dull and stilted to me, and I don't think that's how I'm thinking. If that makes any sense. While I did enjoy it, I was left with a few questions at the end of it. If Miles was paying child support the whole time, why didn't he ever acknowledge that he had a daughter. Sunny never seemed to consider that. I think she would've liked to have had a father.

I didn't like A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies as much as I'd hoped to. The premise is interesting and certainly made me want to read it! The hotel in the title is a women's hotel where the male porters discreetly visit the women guests, if you know what I mean. The book went on too much in Charlotte's head and not enough in the present. I would've liked more development of some of the other characters, the guests at the hotel, Mrs. Petty, Hays. You only saw them from Charlotte's persepctive which wasn't enough.

Right now I'm reading The Innocent Man by John Grisham for book club. We meet next Monday.

Plum Lovin' & Braving Home

I recent finished 2 books, Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich and Braving Home by Jake Halpern. Plum Lovin' is sort of an offshoot of the Stephanie Plum series. This was had a Valentines Day theme and there was another one that had a Christmas theme. I liked this one better than the Christmas one, but I definitely like the numbered books better than either of these. Again, her car didn't blow up which is something I keep waiting for. Someone did get chained in a bathroom which happens quite frequently. Or at least more often than you would imagine it happening.

The second book, Braving Home, was really good. It told the stories of 5 people who lived in what other people might consider impossible to live locations, and have actually stayed there through horrible weather and natural disasters. The one that interested me the most was the man who lived in Grand Isle, Louisiana. He, and others on the island, mentioned Hurricane Betsy and the destruction that came with it many times. They also seemed resigned to the fact that there would be other hurricanes, and that a bad one was due to come sometime soon. This book was written and published pre-Katrina and I can't imagine that much of the island was left after Katrina came through. The few articles I've read say that the residents are rebuilding their homes and their lives. I can't even imagine.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the epilogue. I often wonder when I finish books, even ficition books, what happened to the characters after the book ended. The author went back and revisited each of the 5 people he had spent time with before. All 5 of them were just as determined to stay put in their homes and never leave.