Here’s the list of books I’ll be reading for book club this year. Feel free to join in. I’ll try to post reviews as I read them:
January: “The View From Mount Joy” by Lorna Landvik
February: “Behind The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle
March: “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan
April: “One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd” by Jim Fergus
May: “The Lace Reader” by Brunonia Barry
June: “Ahabs Wife” by Sena Jeter Naslund
July: “The Island” by Victoria Hislop
August: “The Secret Between Us” by Barbara Delinsky
September: “The Life of Freya Stark” by Jane Geniesse
October: “A Gesture Life” by Chang Rae Lee (my choice! I’ll probably read it before October)
*Alternate Books:
“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larson & Reg Keeland
“A Case of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hamif (also my choice, which I STILL haven’t gotten around to reading)
With a little help from Random.org, Kristen of Frugality in the Making was declared the winner of my Amazon.com gift card.
Kristen told me “I always have to have a book to read. If I run out, I will read my 12 yr old son’s books.” So naturally, when I told her she was the winner I asked her what book she is reading right now. Mother of Pearl is her current book, though before that she was reading her son’s Alex Rider book, and there you have it — she is a woman of her word. I hope she uses the gift card to buy herself a new slew of books.
In honor of Kristen’s love of books, here is an old post of mine, from way back in 2006:
The Written Word is a Wonderful Thing
Well, I was visiting the lovely Toddled Dredge and saw a meme that I couldn’t pass up.
1. One book that changed your life: Animal Farm by Orson Welles. (EDITED SINCE 2006: I feel the need to leave it as Orson Welles, because that is how I originally typed it. I always mix him and George Orwell up, because, well, I’m an idiot). Because without this book, I would have had no idea that animals could so cruelly mistreat and brainwash one another to unlimited degrees. That’s exactly why we should continue to support the meat industry. Allegory? What’s that?
2. One book that you’ve read more than once: The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. I don’t really like the movie, but the book is total horrid fascination.
3. One book you would want on a desert island: The complete comedies of William Shakespeare. Perhaps you think I should go for something more thought provoking, but frankly, if I’m all alone on a desert island, the last thing I’m going to want to ponder is life, the universe, and everything—I AM ALL ALONE ON AN ISLAND. I’m pretty sure my answer would be life sucks, the universe is rotten, and everything is against me. I’d rather have things to laugh about.
4. One book that made you laugh: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Those people know how to throw a mad, swingin’ party, yo.
5. One book that made you cry: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. The problem is, I don’t know if I was crying at what we’ve done or what I’m not doing now.
6. One book that you wish had been written: The Greatest Novel of Our Time by Me. I’d settle for A Novel by Me.
7. One book that you wish had never been written: It’s a toss up between Scarlett, the Sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and Babywise. Probably Babywise, because nobody ever took Scarlett seriously.
8. The book that you are currently reading: Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman. Fooking hi-larious. Stop what you’re doing and go buy it and read it. No, I’m serious. Do it.
9. One book that you have been meaning to read: What are you doing still reading this????? I just told you to stop! Go read Killing Yourself to Live. Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
