Read it: Mysteries

Ok, I am hooked on mysteries... I can't help it. Sometimes with contemporary lit I get so bored. It is so stylized and usually a let down. What I do like about mysteries is the predicatability; there is a murder, the murder is solved. I also like the unexpected twists. I may have it solved but there is usually something I did not see coming.
This would be the case with Kate Morgenroth's book, They Did It With Love. This is a chick lit mystery. There are a ridiculous amount of characters and sometimes it can be a little tedious. It moves along fairly quickly. I think this book is best read in a short period of time since there are so many characters to keep straight. I liked it though. I was hoping she would set it up as the first in a series but I doubt that is the case.
The other mystery of late is Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman. Lippman has a series but I really enjoy her stand alones (also enjoyed, What the Dead Know). This book was a good quick read. She really depends on the reader making a lot of assumptions only to totally demolish them in the end...very sneaky. I think that is pretty intense and skillful , to write a book knowing the assumptions of the reader is making ...mind-blowing!

Read it: A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam

I judged a book by the (beautiful) cover and boy, am I glad I did! This is an excellent first book by Bangladeshi born writer Tahmima Anam. Anam delivers a powerful story about Rehana and her young adult children trying to survive during the liberation war fought against Pakistan. Anam does a good job capturing the strong bond between mother and child as she becomes as involved in the liberation of Bangladesh as her children. This story is very moving and has a surprise ending. It is the first in a trilogy, I look forward to more from this new author.
(you probably cannot tell from the picture but the design on the front has a layered, stamp look---it is really pretty)

Read it: Happiness is an Inside Job: practicing for a joyful life by Sylvia Boorstein PhD

This is the first time I have ever read a "self-help" book, however, I do think I picked a good one. I just liked the title, and was unsure what the book was about. I really enjoyed it and it has helped me tremendously. I like(d) to dwell on things a little too much, especially things I have no control over, sometimes constantly re-living the past, or imagining the future, anything but living in the present.Sylvia teaches you why and how to avoid this through Buddhist concepts. She is good at explaining things and gives really good examples to illustrate. The book is well written. Sylvia teaches and when reading the book I feel like she is speaking to me. I feel like this book has made a big impact on me already. I will probably read more by her, read similar books or re-read this one. Many of the things she talked about I naturally do. I think you can choose to be happy even when life throws you challenges.

The cold is getting better. I canceled my doctors appointment this am. I still have a few days to go I think, but feeling 100% is on the horizon! I am also happy that I will not need to take an anti-biotic.

Read it: The Innocent Man by John Grisham

I had been wanting to read this and finally made time for it as a book club selection. I am usually not a big Grisham fan (pretty indifferent, I guess) but I do like my non-fiction. This story is really compelling as he follows the life of Ron Williamson, an all-American small town boy whose only dream is to play major league baseball. Williamson is drafted to play but things don't go as planned. He turns to drugs and alcohol to assuage his lost dreams and mental illness (bipolar). He (and his friend Dennis Fritz-sentenced to life) spent 11 years on death row for a crime he did not commit.
The Innocent Man addresses the American justice system in a fact-based, thoughtful book. Whether or not you are for or against the death penalty, it is not hard to see that the judicial system constantly mocks justice with corruption, prejudice and inefficiencies.

What I also find is heartbreaking is the many years Ron spent getting inadequate care for his mental illness. Part of it you can definitely blame on the system (not being kept on meds while being incarcerated, being over medicated by prison staff, being taunted by prison staff, etc) , but also with mental health problems that is just the nature of the beast. It is very difficult for families to cope with adults who suffer from mental illness and get them the help they need.

Grisham does a great job stepping back and giving people a look at the big picture. I think knowing that the injustices suffered were part of the system is an important part of the book. Also, I think if the injustices were an anomaly, I would probably be less interested and outraged.
Grisham does a fair job writing this, not great but straightforward. I feel like he did the same job anyone else would do, but being John Grisham got some instant recognition.

My cold feels like it could be easing up some. I have an appetite for food with flavor and to celebrate Jerry is making Chicken Parmesan. I have a doctors appointment in the morning but who knows, maybe I will be able to skip it. I look forward to being less couch-ridden, however it did allow for some quality reading time:)

Read it: Chocolat by Joanne Harris

I had to read this for work. It was ok. Better than what I imagine the movie to be, but then again, how bad can a movie be if it has Johnny Depp in it. The books was told from the perspective of several main characters. This really got tedious sometimes, not adding to character development or furthering the plot. Many times I wanted to put it down but....
I also found the ending a little confusing and that stinks because I had to suffer through to get to the ending.

Read it: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

This as a quick, entertaining read. Garden Spells is a first novel by Asheville native Sarah Addison Allen (click on her name for her excellent website including recipes mentioned in the novel). Her novel is very reminiscent of Alice Hoffman with lots of magical realism. The main character, Claire, is a caterer who prepares food using flowers and herbs from her special garden (the book includes a back of the book glossary of uses for different flowers). Her and her family are known for their special gifts but this is more of a burden in a lot of ways. Everything changes when her long lost sister returns home.
I look forward to checking out Allen's next novel!

Read it: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

This is Marisha Pessl's first novel (she is an Asheville, NC native by the way). I liked it but it is not for everyone. It is the life story of Blue Van Meer told in the form of a research paper complete with the occasional illustration and parenthetical documentation. At first it is really clever after a while it is annoying and tedious. Skimming is a good idea in the middle of the book. The ending was good enough to suffer through the middle. I think if you liked House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski then you may enjoy this book. It is a cross between it and Secret History by Donna Tartt sprinkled with McSweeneys. The main plot of the book revolves around a cliquey, elitist group of friends and their mysterious leader/ prep school teacher. Blue collects clues to unravel the teacher's identity and discovering a lot about herself at the same time.
Also, the book has a really cool website: http://www.calamityphysics.com/main.htm

Watched it: Masterpiece Theater

I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!
PBS's Masterpiece Theater is showing Jane Eyre Dec 30 and Jan 6
Then....
They are showing all 6 Jane Austen novels beginning in 2008!!! They call it Sundays with Jane
Holy Cow!
I am so excited...too excited really....

Read it: NOT!

Sometimes I pick up books and do not finish them...they deserve acknowledgment. You may think "gee, if she didn't like it, it must be good"
It doesn't mean the book was bad, just not for me
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy: Just could not do it. I read quite a bit. McCarthy is a very skilled author and I can appreciate that...sometimes, I just did not know what was going on and that is no fun. One thing he did that I thought was effective, was using short sentences. The sentences were sometimes not even nouns and verbs. I think this made for a very intense novel. I did see the movie though:)
[a funny story about the movie...Jerry and I were in a shop for people with more money than taste and the shop owner was talking really loud in a really Southern accent about "We jes' saaaw this movie las' niiight, it wuz weird, it wuz called "Too Much Country for Too Tough Men", needless to say we make up our own unique title every time]
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris: This was a NYT Book Review notable book of 2007. It is about corporate life. I've been there, so I thought this would be entertaining. The problem I had with it was that it was written entirely in first person plural. Yep, everything was "We...". I get it---corporate culture , lack of identity, getting on my last nerve...also, I read that the book was more like loosely tied together stories. I really like a plot that goes from one end of the book to the other. So, probably not bad but I'd rather just watch Office Space. [when I had my old job I would not let Jerry watch this movie if I was home when it was re-running on Comedy Central, I was like "please, I have to go there tomorrow"] We did not like this book, we were not amused. Then we returned it to the library.

Read it: Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki

I read this (amazon, wcpl) last weekend. It was a quick read. It was very soap opera-y with lots of delicate twists, turns and difficult to believe coincidences in the plot. The writer was a little clumsy and haphazard. For example, there is lots of emphasis put on names, naming things etc. The characters spend a lot of time discussing names...who knows why really. All of these instances were overly obvious and then totally forgotten in the end. The main plot revolves around lying, necessary lying and frivolous lying etc.

I know this review sounds...negative...but I still enjoyed to book. It was not too demanding, entertaining and a bit on the fluffy side. A more serious version of Indian chick-lit? a poorly written Brick Road? By the time you start to wonder if you like it is over.

So you need something like reading an Indian tv melodrama...and sometimes you do... this is the book for you!
P.S. the author's name is fun to say
Roopa Farooki
Roopa Farooki
Roopa Farooki

Read it: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Yeah, I am still on my classics reading jag. I l-o-v-e-d Jane Eyre. I found it to be very readable for a classic, moreso than Pride and Prejudice and just as entertaining. I think the dialogue wasn't as clever as it was in P&P but that is ok. Jane Eyre is a compelling character and Charlotte Bronte is an excellent story teller. I think I remember reading Wuthering Heights back in high school or college, I will probably read it again soon. If you are thinking about reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, I really think I would consider reading Jane Eyre first or at least a really good synopsis (sorry Karen!)
Next I am going to read a couple of contemporary novels and then onto The House of Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne.

Read it: Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison

Look Me in the Eye (amazon, WCPL) is a memoir written by John Elder Robison, the brother of Augusten Burroughs ( a famous memoirist in his own right, Running with Scissors, Dry, Sellevision). John grows up in a truly dysfunctional family and finds out at age 40 that he has lived his whole life with Aspergers Syndrome. John describes in a very forthright manner the challenges he encounters growing up. He faces many obstacles trying to socialize with others without really knowing how. He also is very skilled mechanically and carves quite a niche for himself by creating special effects for concert tours in the 70's.
As a writer, Robison not very frilly, but that is understandable given his Aspergian nature. Sometimes he tells a little too much detail just to relate an amusing or interesting anecdote. Overall, his story is a fascinating glimpse into the world of Aspergers.
* My co-worker, Gerald, told me John Elder Robison was interviewed on the Diane Rehm Show. He said it was very enlightening. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but hope to soon.

Read it: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair (amazon, WCPL)was the best thing I have read in a while. Fforde creates and alternate world in which a special operations team fights and investigates crime involving literature. It was a great and witty adventure as Thursday Next tries to put an end to Hades Acheron. There is time travel, there is shape shifting, there are people naming themselves John Milton because they love the poet so much and don't forget the dodo named Pickwick *plock plock*

The WSJ review describes it best and most accurately :
"Filled with clever wordplay, literary allusion and bibliowit...combines elements of Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but its quirky charm is all its own."

If you think this sounds too high falutin or snooty, it is not!

The best thing about this book is that it is the first in a series. There are 3 more novels centered around Thursday Next and her work in SO-27!

Read it: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I have read a lot of new fiction lately so I decided to dust off a classic. Actually the book was brand new since the library system I worked for replenished its classics collection. I only wish I'd returned it in the pristine condition, but books are for readin' and sometimes that's not pretty!
I really like the novel even though I had to muddle through at times. I was used to the quick pace of contemporary literature so it was nice to be forced to slow down. I hope to see the BBC mini-series soon. I have not seen a cinematic representation of this book before, which was nice because I really did not know how it ended until the end. I usually prefer books with a not so tidy ending but every once and a while I cheer for the protagonist and want a happy ending with a bow on top. I am glad their pursuit of love was requited!
The next classic I will pick up is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.