It's been a year since we last talked about books. Looking back on the 5 books I had to look forward to reading at that time I can say I wish I could read 4 of them all over again. I guess I could read them all over again but it wouldn't be the same because, ya know, I've already read them.
In the past year I've read some good and some not so good books (as is often the case with books). The 5 I'm going to tell you about today are at a minimum "really good" with one that I'd say is absolutely GREAT.
The Woefield Poultry Collective isn't a book that everyone would think is really good but if you read this blog of mine, chances are you will. The book is well written, funny, and revolves around Prudence Burns a twenty-something New Yorker who inherits her Uncle's derelict farm and pledges to bring it back to life without an "iota of related skills or experience". It's an easy, enjoyable, fast read. Plus of course, there are chickens in it, so .....
Sous Chef I loved. It was written by New York City Sous Chef Michael Gibney and outlines a typical 24 hours inside a restaurant kitchen in real time. I have no idea how this would read for someone who isn't a food or restaurant lover, but for someone who is ... it's a really good read. Gibney takes you through his day and life working in an upscale New York restaurant kitchen, laying out what every person in the kitchen is responsible for, how they do what they do and what kind of personalities the business attracts. What makes it exceptional is that Michael Gibney isn't just a good writer for a chef, he's a good writer period. Named one of the 10 best non-fiction books of the year by Time.
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby was recommended to me by someone I trade reading recommendations with all the time. We pretty much trust each other's judgement. I say "pretty much" because she once made me read Swamplandia which I hated and I once made her read Middlesex which I don't think she ever even got through. I had given up on Nick Hornby around 3 novels ago but my friend convinced me to give Funny Girl a try. I like Nick Hornby again. I don't About a Boy or High Fidelity like him again, but I do like him again. In Funny Girl, Hornby introduces us to Sophie Straw. A small town girl who becomes a sitcom star in 1960's London.
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt is the absolutely great book on this list. And it's the one I recommended to my friend in exchange for Funny Girl. The book brings us into the life of a young girl whose uncle has died. Here's the Amazon description.
"1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart."
Tell the Wolves I'm Home is charming and touching and funny and sad.
City of Thieves was the book I read immediately after Tell the Wolves I'm Home, so it was doomed from the very beginning. I have no idea how I heard of it or came across this book but I loved it. Sometimes that's the way isn't it? When you have low expectations of a movie, show, song or book and then really like it .... well the good parts seem maybe even better than they really are. I don't think that's what happened with City of Thieves. I think it really is a great book that I would have loved regardless of how low my expectations of it were. The book is a fictional account based on the real life stories of the author's grandfather who lived through World War II in Russia. I haven't done the synopsis justice so read the Amazon version. I think charming is what I'd describe this book as. And likeable. And thought provoking. Had I known when I picked it up that it was written by the executive producer, writer and show runner for Game of Thrones I never would have read it. Which would have been stupid.
With those 5 books under my belt, I can now look to the growing stack on my dresser and bedside table. Which I LOVE having. For someone who loves reading, having a stack of books you're looking forward to is like a candy addict having a dresser drawer full of Snickers.
Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs is a cookbook, chicken book, garden book, story book all rolled into one. Written by chef Signe Langford (who gave me her lemon curd recipe a couple of months ago for my mother's birthday cake) and photographed by Donna Griffith (who has photographed my house many times for magazines). The book also features quotes and tips from guest chefs and chicken owners including Lisa from Fresh Eggs Daily and ... me! And yes. The lemon curd recipe is in the book.
All the Light We Cannot See is one of those books I'm so looking forward to reading that ... I don't read it. It's been on my bedside table for a good 6 months now because I know I'm going to love it. I haven't met a Pulitzer Prize winning book yet that I haven't loved. For me the Pulitzer Prize is a way better indication of quality than an Oscar is for a movie. Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan. Really??? All the Light We Cannot See fits into one of my favourite book categories, books about WWII. And that's pretty much all I need to know about it to be excited to read it. 1. Pulitizer Prize winner 2. Based on WWII.
Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling is the book I want to read but always choose a "book-book" instead. But I've made it a point that right after the heaviness of All the Light We Cannot See, I'm going to read Mindy's book. Because I love Mindy. And then I'm sure I'll order and read her latest book.
The Illegal by Lawrence Hill is the latest from the author of one of my favourite books. The Book of Negroes, or Someone Knows My Name as it was titled in America for some bizarre reason, is a MUST read for everyone. The Illegal, focuses on a runner from a (fictionalized) corrupt African country that is discovered as an illegal refugee. I've managed to make what I'm sure is an incredible book sound fantastically boring but I'm sure it will be anything but.
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows, co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, takes place in my second favourite book setting ... the small town. I wasn't completely in love with The Guernsey Literary book, but I liked it enough to give this other small town tale of the author's a shot.
As always feel free to leave your own book choices in the comment section and by the end of the day we'll have enough book recommendations to get most of us through the next year of reading and gift buying. Speaking of gift buying, according to The Christmas Pledge today you're supposed to make a list of everyone you have to buy for. If you want to get even further ahead you can put the name of one of these books by their name, order it and have your gift buying underway.
Or don't. But remember. You could end up like Julie.
Lynn
You rock Karen. Just ordered two of the books you mentioned!
P.S. Say 'hey' to Edgar, and perhaps he'd enjoy Charlotte's Web? [wink]
Karen
Consider him "heyed". ~ karen!
Karen
WAIT. which books did you order? ~ karen
Lynn
Woefield Poultry Collective and Tell the Wolves I'm Home ~ can't wait!
(I love Amazon almost as much as I love The Art of Doing Stuff!)
thanks for all the happiness (and other good stuff) you bring us.
Nancy
Found Happy Hens and Fresh Eggs on Half.com (new) for $0.75 (US) plus shipping
Glenda
I just finished The Reckoning by Carsten Stroud and had a few late nights as it was hard to put down. It's the third book of a trilogy - Niceville and The Homecoming are the first and second books. Supernatural story with lots of twists and turns and great characters. Stephen King calls it “an authentic work of American genius.” It is a little (okay a lot) gruesome in parts but for some reason I can read gruesome but not watch it on the screen. Two of my favourite books of all time are I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb and The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. I'm also a big fan of the Outlander series - book and TV show. I love reading all the recommendations and have just discovered audio books from my library as my eyes get a little tired in the evening.
awesomesauciness
Little book, so sweet and sad and funny and touching.
It's "A Man Called Ove"
Karen
That book looks GREAT! ~ karen
MaggieB
My sister absolutely went on and on and on about how I had to read this book, so she brought it out to Germany when she came visiting this summer. Everything that awesomesauciness said. My sister even bought two copies for our parents and told them to read it at the same time (bossy she is!) so they could talk about it. Hang on - why didn't I get a copy to keep?!!!!
judy
I can't read as much as I would love to but I'll let you in on a small secret. Men retire in old age-Woman....not so much.....I feel like a jumping jack-husband with Alzheimer's so lots of wandering around searching for something that is gone and will never return.
I am not complaining,after 56 years -I'll take my husband alive and with me in any state as opposed to the alternative-but concentration on anything for more that a few minutes just isn't possible and I find it so strange that the retirement of books and conversation slipping gently,contented into the end of Life- instead is making all decisions- from what car to buy-clean the gutters ourselves or pay $150.00 to have it done followed by a deluge of leaves back in the gutters 20 seconds after the truck departs.
Paying the bills and scheduling Drs and Dentists ---too much of that for sure. AnyHoo a book that really touched me is The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Another post apocalyptic but very interesting and written in such a way that really drew me in.
I f you haven't drunk the day, every day dry for beauty and happiness (not happening in your life?) Look outward-get outside your head into the sunshine and fresh air or take a walk in the rain and splash in all the puddles ....I know every old person says "it goes by so fast" but we only know that is true looking back-living it can seem endlessly long. You are a treasure Karen..wonderful to be a smile in the lives of so many. Thanks.....
Karen
Thanks YOU Judy. ~ karen!
kari
Cannot wait to read the Woefield Poultry Collective. I might read it aloud to my 5 chickies. :-) And, therefore, I want to read Happy Hens and Fresh Eggs too, b/c I my chickies will be even happier after I read them The Woefield Poultry Collective of course, and so then I will have to do some comparative research!
Jenifer
Thanks for all the recommendations...I've queued them up on Goodreads...can't wait get started!!
Karen, you mentioned never having met a Pulitzer Prize winning book yet that you didn't loved. Did you read The Hours by Michael Cunningham? Didn't like it at all. (The movie was good though.)
My recommendation Possession by A.S. Byatt. Initially I had a hard time getting into it so I set it aside for 6 months and went back to it. Couldn't. Put. It. Down. LOVED it!! Definitely one of my all time favorites!
From Goodreads:
Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once an intellectual mystery and triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets. As they uncover their letters, journals, and poems, and track their movements from London to Yorkshire—from spiritualist séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany—what emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passions and ideas.
Kristin ferguson
I loved Guernsey Literary Pie, and will enjoy reading this new novel. If someone buys it off my wish list. I read All the Light We Cannot See recently--I liked it but in the end didn't LOVE it. My sister and I exchange books often, and she gave me Tell the Wolves I'm Home at the same time I gave her The Rosie Project. Two very dissimilar books, but both wonderful. The funny thing about Tell the Wolves I'm Home is that it seemed very familiar to us: My sister and I were about the same age as the sisters in the story (in the 1980s) and we had an uncle who died of AIDS. I was older, had skipped a grade, and was very involved with drama and performing arts, and we were not as close with each other as we wanted to be. The big difference was that we actually both strongly disliked our uncle. And he wasn't an artist.
Kristin ferguson
I read that book when it came out, and I was in the middle of it while traveling and accidentally left it in Florida. I went to a lot of trouble to have it sent to me afterwards. Loved it.
Karen
Which book? Possession? ~ karen!
Kristin ferguson
Sorry, that response wasn't in order properly. Possession!
Sboo
Seeing many favorites here! My most treasured book recommendations come from my dad, who is a voracious reader. He and mom got me The Girl on the Train for my birthday a few months ago and it was one of those books you devour in 2 days flat.
Karen
Eep! That's one of those recommendations that everyone loves ... but me, lol. Like Game of Thrones. I know everyone loves it, says it's great but I just couldn't get excited about it. But I would still recommend The Girl on the Train because I'm an anomaly and most people would really like it. ~ karen!
Kristin ferguson
I have Girl on the Train and started to read it but couldn't get into it. I became confused right away with the hopping around in time. I will go back to it at some point.
Cathy Reeves
Me too!! Then I revisited it, got to the end but not without shouting at the book.." Just wrap it up FTLOG!!"
Jan in Waterdown
Gotta say that book just didn't do it for me. I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging so didn't care what happened to them. I felt the same way about "The Goldfinch" and I know that was a biggie. I don't think I even bothered to finish it and that's rare for me.
Ev Wilcox
Thanks for the great ideas. all! Have made a list. Will try to hold off till winter, though!
Paula
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, my all time favorite book. It was recommended to me by my chemo doctor in the midst of my breast cancer treatments 26 years ago. It's a big book with lots going on but it got me through chemo so maybe that's why I loved it so much. I reread it a couple of years ago and still loved it. Not my kind of story so I was really surprised that I even got through the first chapter. There are other really great books for me but this one stand out as the first best book I've ever read.
Karen
I know I read it but can't remember a thing about it Paula, lol! I can't even remember if I liked it. The most inspiring thing about your comment is your breast cancer treatment from 26 YEARS AGO. Way to kick cancer's ass. ~ karen!
Paula
Don't know if I kicked any ass. I did listen to my doctor and hung with the treatments no matter how much I wanted to quit. I might have had a crush on him so I didn't want to appear weak. HA! Still do live that man.
ET
Paula, I agree with you about Pillars of the Earth. I read it maybe 20 years ago because it was in the guest room bookshelf when I visited my sister - would have never read it otherwise. Reread it again recently and still found it fascinating.
Karin
I agree - Pillars of the Earth is one of my all time faves. If it weren't so long I would reread it regularly.
CBuffy
Karen, this one links to The Bean Tree... thank you so much for doing all this work for us! You'll likely see a return on this! (maybe a whole $1.50 from me!) LOL
joanne
That is my all time favourite book as well. I have recommended it to so many people. What a great historical fiction book!
Joslynne
I just finished Etta & Otto & Russell & James, by Canadian Emma Hooper and I really enjoyed the talking coyote! A super interesting writing style and lovable characters (love 84 year old Etta - go girl!!)
marilyn
all the light..tried..didnt
Karin
So I immediately clicked on the link for Woefield and read the synopsis. Then I went to my library website and they didn't have anything for that title BUT there was a Home to Woefield with the exact same synopsis and publish date. Two titles for one book? Am I losing my mind? Gonna read it regardless!
Karen
No, I think it came out, maybe only in Canada, or with a smaller publisher or something and then it came out again with a different title (and presumably different publisher). Same book. ~ karen!
Karin
Thanks! I like the Canadian title better! And also thanks for linking all the titles; you are so good to us!
Karen
Yes, but don't forget that I stand to make at least a dollar by the end of the day so not completely altruistic. ;) Maybe $1.50 even. ~ karen!
Catherine Vosper
"Unbroken" the movie was ok but the book is fantastic...a documentary, very well done...and disturbing!
Karen
WOW! It has a complete 5 stars on Amazon! You rarely see that. And that's after close to 26,000 reviews! Adding it. ~ karen!
Becky
Unbroken was really good. Elin Hillebrand has a new book out but I haven't read it.
If you like Unbroken, you will proably like Boys in the Boat about the mens 8 rowing team who won the 1936 Olympics. It is very interesting--insight into the propoganda of Nazi Germany prior to WWII, the depression, as well as the world of rowing. Sounds like a strange combination. Fascinating book! I don't think I know anyone who has read it, that hasn't liked it.
City of Thieves is a good book, as was Middlesex (the Virgin Suicides--terrible). Have you read Sun Going Down (first 65 pages are not good but the rest makes up for it)?
Mary W
OK, I'm going to try again - for 3 years I've extolled the virtues of this book. It takes about 3 hours to read if you skip all the beginning which is not really part of the book - just there to provide pages enough to get you to buy it. You. Will. Not. Be. Sorry. Recommending - Taa-Daa: WHO MOVED THE CHEESE. It won't take you to some foreign country, won't give you chills, or get too excited, but it will get you to think if only for a short time. Enough time to make it last in your head and recommend it to someone else. Over and over again. 3 years running.
Karen
omg, you with the cheese book, lol. I keep not reading it because it isn't a "book-book". It's a self help book, which I don't read because well ... I don't feel like I need any help, lol. Plus I think they'd just be boring beyond belief. BUT, I will now add it to my list on Amazon. If I don't like it, I'm comin' after YOU Mary W. ~ karen!
Donna
Read the cheese book for work. lIked it. And yes, it did make me think. When the HR director handed out the copies I actually laughed at loud that I had to waste time I didn't have reading this silly book. But it takes very little time and I was actually glad I read it.
Donna
Su
I highly recommend any of the books by Julia Keller.... she writes about a district attorney in a small West Virginia town..... very good reading.... murder mystery....
and Emily Griffiths.... her main character is a forensic anthropologist in England.....
oh and Anna Quindlan - her latest I read was Still Life....loved her books!
and Marisa De Los Santos.... her books are lovely stories.... and John Grisham novels... I had not read any of his until last summer and now I am devouring them.... and last but certainly not least Liane Moriarty....
Sally
I am currently reading a book called "The Nines Lives of Charlottoe Taylor" by Sally Armstrong , who was the first english (female) pioneer in the new world, where she ended up settling in Tabusintac, NB after a long and eventful life. My cottage actually looks out on her old property, and I haven't been so inspired by a story of fortitude and perseverance in a very long time. Feld England with her black butler, only to arrive in Jamaica and have him die of yellow fever , while she is pregnant, makes her way to the baie de chaleur and is determined to make her own way. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially the homesteading/pioneer lovers out there!
kari
This sounds awesome! Thanks!
Anna Lee
I will start this by saying I hated Swamplandia too - and I love to read and was very surprised by this. So that means my recommendations to you are good. One of the best books I read this year was We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. It's hard to explain without ruining it (twists come early on) but it made me laugh and made me cry - and was beautiful. I'm currently reading Slade House by David Mitchell which is just came out - and loving curling up with it before I go to bed even though it gives me WEIRD dreams. Spooky, scary without being gory horror - just right for a cold Oct/Nov night. I'd also recommend to you anything by Louise Erdrich or Helen Oyeyemi - I eat their books right up.
Penny
Oh yes, Slade House is an excellent read! Check out David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks, too. Same universe inhabited by Atemporals, same flawless use of many narrative voices, same feeling of utter loss when you turn the page and see just the Acknowledgements left to read!
I'd just like to mention
Penny
*oops, Fat Finger Syndrome strikes again, sorry*
. . . like to mention bookcrossing.com if I may. This is a brilliant source for free books and you get to read reviews or 'journal entries' by real readers. Since joining the group I've never been without an ample supply of free reading material, my social life has improved due to the local meetups, I get more exercise by 'hunting' books released locally and I get emails from the books I've released from all over the world.
Christina andrecyk
Woefield was great! Did you know there is a sequel out?
Karen
I did! ~ karen
Kirsten
Hi Karen,
I recently had 8 weeks of recovery after surgery......I read a lot of books! A couple that I particularly enjoyed are The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant, Some Luck by Jane smiley, and of course I've been waiting for the new John Irving and it's finally here!! Will be starting Avenue of Mysteries any minute now. Enjoy!!
Kirsten
janpartist
I'm afraid after The Red Tent I found The Boston Girl somewhat predictable and boring.