Hold on a second. I absolutely cannot relax in unnatural fibres. Hold on.
long pauseeeeeeeeeeeeee
O.K. I just changed my sweater. Holy crap, I haven't worn acrylic since 1982. I think it's quite possible the sun is made entirely out of acrylic. If I'm hot I can't relax, and if I can't relax I can't write. Writing's not unlike pooping. Any little thing can throw you right off. And today, I'm writing about reading, so if I were hot I might get irritated and confused and read about writing which would leave you folks with a blank post. Although after rereading my first few sentences here, reading a couple of chapters on how to write might not do me any harm.
My mother tells me I could read by the age of 4. I've been reading everything that's got in my way ever since. (except chicken banning by-laws) There are very few things in life that give me as much pleasure as a night table filled with a stack of books waiting to be read. Conversely, nothing gets me more anxious and agitated than nearing the end of a book with no remaining stack in sight. (except maybe an acrylic sweater)
The way some of you are always in a fit over what to have for dinner, I'm always in a fit over what to read. So ... I figured you too might be in need of some book inspiration. So I have for you today a list of my 5 favourite books from the past year and 5 books I'm looking forward to reading this year.
I've included synopses from either the Chapters or Amazon online site so you get a basic idea of what the book is about. Plagiarism in a post about reading and writing, is my gift to you.
Last Year
Table of Contents
Blood, Bones and Butter (non-fiction)
The Inadvertant Education of a Reluctant Chef
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a prickly marriage that nonetheless yields lasting dividends. By turns epic and intimate, Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion.
synopsis from chapters.ca
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett
Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who''s always taken orders quietly, but lately she''s unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She''s full of ambition, but without a husband, she''s considered a failure. Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town...
synopsis from chapters.ca
Boy's Life
by Robert McCammon
Robert McCammon delivers "a tour de force of storytelling" (BookPage) in his award-winning masterpiece, a novel of Southern boyhood, growing up in the 1960s, that reaches far beyond that evocative landscape to touch readers universally.
Boy's Life is a richly imagined, spellbinding portrait of the magical worldview of the young -- and of innocence lost.
Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson -- a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake -- and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him. From an ancient mystic who can hear the dead and bewitch the living, to a violent clan of moonshiners, Cory must confront the secrets that hide in the shadows of his hometown -- for his father's sanity and his own life hang in the balance....
synopsis from amazon.com
The Lacuna
by Barbra Kingsolver
In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.
Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.
Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption.
With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.
New York
by Edward Rutherfurd
Edward Rutherfurd celebrates America’s greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga, weaving together tales of families rich and poor, native-born and immigrant—a cast of fictional and true characters whose fates rise and fall and rise again with the city’s fortunes. From this intimate perspective we see New York’s humble beginnings as a tiny Indian fishing village, the arrival of Dutch and British merchants, the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the convulsions of the Civil War, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the trials of World War II, the near demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the 1990s, and the attack on the World Trade Center. A stirring mix of battle, romance, family struggles, and personal triumphs, New York: The Novel gloriously captures the search for freedom and opportunity at the heart of our nation’s history.
Synopsis from amazon.com
This Year
Steve Jobs Bio
by Walter Isaacson
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.
Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.
synopsis by amazon.com
The Book Thief
by Marcus Zusak
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.
synopsis from amazon.com
Little House on the Prairie collection
by ... seriously? Well O.k. ... if you really don't know ... Laura Ingalls Wilder
Set during the pioneer days of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Laura Ingalls Wilder's books chronicle her life growing up on the Western frontier. For the first time in the history of the Little House books, these new editions feature Garth Williams' interior art in vibrant, full color. Come along for the adventure with this collector's set of the first fiveLittle House books.
synopsis from amazon.com
The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
synopsis from amazon.com
The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
In this mesmerizing debut, a competition between two magicians becomes a star-crossed love story.
The circus arrives at night, without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within nocturnal black and white striped tents awaits a unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stand awestruck as a tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and gaze in wonderment at an illusionist performing impossible feats of magic.
Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves. Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is underway - a contest between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in "a game," in which each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. Unbeknownst to them, this game is a duel to the death, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.
synopsis from chapters.ca
If I'm being totally honest with you, 2011 wasn't a good year for me and books. I started a few I couldn't finish. Books I thought I'd love, but clearly didn't. Books by Ian McEwan, Jonathan Franzen, and old favourites like John Irving. I'll try them again later. Except maybe the Jonathan Franzen. I always give a book a second chance. Except maybe Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Years ago, I tried to read Lonesome Dove. A few times. I hated that book. I hated it the first 5 or 6 times I picked it up. I always got to the same point in Chapter 1 and gave up. This went on for years. Then one day ... I was in the right mood. The right frame of mind for that particular book. That book, that struggle of a book, became my favourite book of all time.
O.K. folks. Your turn. What's your favourite book from last year? You can lie to me if you want and just say your favourite book in general 'cause there's no way I'll ever know that you didn't read it last year. If I ever find out though, I'll forever think of you as a liar and banish you to the depths of hell. Wrapped in acrylic. While reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.
Sherri
I give any book 50 pages to hook me. If it doesn't, I pass it on to a friend and let him/her give it a try. Best book ever, imho, is TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I never get tired of that one and read it every few years. Close second for me is a book by Stephanie Kallos, BROKEN FOR YOU. It's filled with quirky characters, wonderful humor and great plot twists. I read I'LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE by (singer/songwriter) Steve Earl last summer and loved it. I bought this fiction novel because of the cover art and my love for Earle's music; this is one time when I could judge a book by its cover. I also loved the Hunger Games trilogy and Stieg Larsen's Girl... series. If you liked reading Larsen, try out another Scandanavian author, Jo Nesbo. I read all of his books that I could get on Kindle, finishing up with his most recent, THE SNOWMAN. You'll never feel quite the same about snowmen again if you read this one. Please read BOSSYPANTS, by Tina Fey. Each chapter is self-contained so it can be your bathroom book and will make you laugh as you poop. And finally, just discovered author, John Rector. I've read his book, COLD KISS and next book on my list is ALREADY GONE. He writes great mystery/suspense/thriller.
Karen
Is it necessary to read the other books before The Snowman do you think? ~ karen
Sherri
Not necessary, but I read as many of them as I could get on my Kindle (all but one were translated and available!). The only advantage to doing that is to become more familiar with the main character, Detective Harry Hole. I think THE SNOWMAN as a stand alone book does a good job of relating his dappled history so go ahead and start with it. If you like it, you can always go back and read the others. Happy reading!
Sherri
I just read that Jo Nesbo has a new book, THE LEOPARD. As soon as I can find it, I'll read it!
Trish Gannon
It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one with a reading addiction.
Last year was not a good year for books... I've read most that have been listed, but prior to last year. (Though I have yet to get through the Book Thief.)
Two of my most recent 'great' books (last five years are so) are not on the lists yet, however, so I'm excited to share them: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. They have it all. Great stories, compelling characters, and a richness of words you can happily drown in.
Karen
Trish - The Thirteenth Tale is one of those books I keep putting up and then putting back down again, LOL. Haven't bought it yet. ~ karen
carla
Do not pick it up unless you have time to read it in one sitting. Good stuff.
Bobbi
Cutting for Stone
All of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher...not at all like the TV Series of the same name
Hunger Games trilogy
Dragon Tattoo trilogy
The Snowman
Debbie from Illinois
Karen, I reread the Little house books last summer while swinging in my hammock. My Grandmother lived in a little sod hut in South Dakota when she was a child.
Karen in Seattle
Karen
Try these this year:
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Anything by Rohinton Mistry
If you liked The Help, read The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar and discuss.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
The City of Theives by David Beniof
The Kitchen House by Katherine Grissom
I've really enjoyed reading all your followers suggestions! Stay warm and safe this winter.
Ann
Loved Edgar Sawtelle til the very end. Wasn't happy to find that no one got any justice at the end. Sad endings are one thing, but I just wanted a tad bit of justice.
Robin
I was telling everyone to read Edgar Sawtelle ...when I was about have finished with it. Well..when I finished...I felt like throwing it across the room! It was like someone other than the author wrote the ending. I know in real life some things don't make sense, but this was TOO MUCH!!
Karen
Robin - LOL. I forgot about how angry the end made me. Hated it. Loved the majority of the book then HATED the end. ~ karen
Liz
Finally someone mentions City of Thieves! Absolutely amazing book.
Kim
Since you loved Lonesome Dove so much, I wonder if you have read Terms of Endearment? ( surely you have ) After I did so many years ago, I found out that you really should start with Moving On, which was out of publication at the time and I had to check it out at a library. Then I read All My Friends are Going to be Strangers as these three books are part of a series. If you read Terms first, you have missed so much! I love Larry McMurtry.
Erika
Venetian Masque - Rafael Sabatini
At Home: A short history of Private Life - Bill Bryson
Cast In Ruins - Michelle Sagara
Lover Unleashed - JR Ward
Snuff - Terry Pratchett
Ghost Ship - Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Erika
At Home is the history of the how the structure of the home/house as we know it today developed from mud huts to current houses, due to societal and technologial changes. Very fascinating.
Venetian Masque - set in Venice during the period Bonaparte is menacing the world, it is about a half-english half-french nobleman who assumes the identity of a representative of the French Republic and proceeds to run all over Venice posing as a French agent with two identities to the the French, and an English agent to the English and Venetians, all the while playing his own game trying to win the woman he loves from an arranged marriage with a bounder. To complicate matters, there is another French agent who pretends to be his widow, as he was believed guilletined three years prior. It was written in 1800-something, so a bit old fashioned, but if you like that kind of writing, it's a fantastic book. Not quite threatening to my nomber one book of all time - The Phoenix Guards - but def. in the top five books to be stuck on a desert island with.
arlene
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Whitney
Oh... The Book Thief. Truly it is my all time favorite book EVER! It sent me on an emotional roller coaster that was completely unimaginable. I cannot say enough good things about it. You will LOVE it. :)
jane
Last Night I finished Freedom, please give it another chance I think it will be worth your while.
last year:
Read the Little House Collection to my kids (8 Girl, 11 Boy and yes my son enjoyed it)
Cutting for Stone-excellent
Liz S.
I'm reading Geek Love right now and just ordered the Night Circus. One of my favorites that I read last year was the Time Traveler.
jen
I've tried to get through The Book Thief for years. I simply cannot do it. LOVED the Hunger Game series, though I have met a few people that just didn't like it (they seem to be few & far between). I've also read The Night Circus and enjoyed it, though it wasn't my favorite. I'm with you on Freedom. My husband bought me the book after hearing an interview with the author and I just couldn't stand the writing or the characters or really anything about it.
Last year I read lots of books that were wonderful - loved Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Into the Whirlwind (about Stalin's reign of terror).
Patricia
The Hunger Games Trilogy was Ah-mazing!!!! So funndy that you chose this post today. I've been harrassing everyone in my office, home, public transit etc to read this book:
Glass Boys, by Nicole Lundrigan.
This is the first novel by the Newfoundland native. Very compelling and I warn you highly addictive. Your only regret from reading this book is all the duties and obligations you'll most likely ignore as you wont be able to put the damn book down once you've picked it up!!!
TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!
Jackie
The Night Circus was my favorite book last year! Its fantastic and beautiful and magical. Highly recommend to everyone.
Amy
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Jan
West With The Night. A female pilot who flew from Britain, aiming for New York, but landed in a Canadian bog. She was a contemporary of the Out of Africa group. Beautifully written, and must be read yearly.
Jen A
Have you read "Lamb" by Michael Moore. (not the doucmentary guy, he's the author guy). If you have and a good sense of humour, it's ridculously funny.
julie s
It's *so* ridiculously funny and sacrilegious in the best way possible!
Jeannine
'Lamb" is by Christopher Moore. One of the funniest books I've read, ever. Hilarious premise- Jesus and his boyhood friend, Biff and all their adventures all over the ancient world.
Lucy
How could I forget that one? It was incredible -- and incredibly funny.
Joanne
Like you, I get a little antsy when I realize that my book supply is getting low. I usually call everyone I know and tell them I'm in need...and they give me tons.
Have you read anything by Lori Lansens? The Girls and Rush Home Road are both awesome reads.
The Hunger Games \Trilogy was fantastic. Happy Reading.
joanne
Still Alice, by Lisa Genove
Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
Room, by Emma Donoghue
Strangers at the Feast, by Jennifer Vanderbes
The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton
A Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus
I agree with recommendations of Sarah's Key and The Help.
But I can't seem to get into either The Lacuna, or The Girl with The ___" series.
Can't get into the "Girl with the ... " series...
Can't get through Lacuna.. have been trying... and am ready to put it aside.
Still Alice (a fictional 1st person account of a Harvard professor who is diagnosed with early onset Altzheimers. funny, poignant, sad & memorable) -- is the book I always recommend and haven't found anyone who doesn't like it.
Ann
Yes, on Forgotten Garden. I also read the Distant Hours also by Kate Morton. Good but maybe not quite as good as Forgotten Garden.
Karen
Oh! I forgot! I read that last year too. Good, easy read. ~ karen!
LaineyDid
'The Paris Wife'. It's a fabulous read about Hemingway's first wife and transports you to Paris in the twenties.
It's reminiscent of the charming film 'Midnight in Paris' when Owen Wilson goes back in time. If you haven't seen it, I recommend renting it :)