books read in january 2013

One of the goals I set for myself for the new year is to read 36 books (an average of three books per month). Since I am currently unemployed, I decided to pack in as many books as possible in this first month of the year (giving myself a little breathing room to allow for life to get more hectic down the line). Here are the books I've read in January of 2013:

1. Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
2. The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
3. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
4. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
5. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed

All nonfiction, mostly memoirs, and all written by women. It might be time to dig into a meaty novel in February. I'm looking forward to three upcoming selections from my book club - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The News from Spain by Joan Wickersham, and the Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.

There is more to say on the subject of what I've read so far this year, and what I plan to read in the remaining eleven months, but, I have the flu and I am TIRED.

Image from Pinterest. Found here. 

Happy reading!

how did I do?

(It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog, and I have no idea if anyone even reads it anymore, but I thought I'd keep it going if only as a way to keep track of the books I read.) 


A while ago (over two years ago actually), I posted this list of books that were on my post-semester reading list. It's been a few semesters since I posted that list, so let's see how I did. 


1. The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch 

2. Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer

3. Fools Crow by James Welch

4. In the Woods by Tana French

5. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger *(loved it) 

6. Shadow of the Wind: A Novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon *(loved it)

7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

8. So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger

9. People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks *(really liked it)

10. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski *(it was okay)

11. The Likeness: A Novel by Tana French (book #2 in a series - follows "In The Woods")

12. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin *(didn't finish it - I liked the story, I didn't like the writing, and I got distracted by other books)


Yikes, 4.5 books out of twelve - that's just a smidge over 33%. And, I had already read one of the books when I made the list, so, really, I did terrible! What happens is that my list of books to be read next is constantly changing because I am easily distracted, and I will often read a book that isn't on my list. I've been avoiding bookstores for the past few months because I am trying not to buy any more books until all of the unread books I own have been read - a serious challenge for someone who's been known to suggest bookstore browsing as a date night activity. So far, I've been pretty good about sticking to my no new books rule - I even survived a trip to the amazing Powell's Books in Portland, OR (I LOVE THAT PLACE), where I bought only one book, "Shakespeare: The World as Stage" by Bill Bryson (which I allowed myself to buy because I am taking a Shakespeare class this semester, and I thought the Bryson book would make good supplemental reading). 

I did get a decent amount of reading done this summer (and, of course, I have read many other books in the two-and-a-half years since the above-mentioned list), including:


1. Little Bee: A Novel by Chris Cleave *(After all of the hype, I was let down by this story)
2. Bossypants by Tina Fey *(I literally LOL'd - she is a funny lady, and a good writer) 

3. The Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin *(Chick-lit - I've enjoyed Giffin's other books much more than this one) 
4. Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent *(I love reading books about natural birth - very readable and at times very moving, though, of course, very one-sided when it comes to a view of birth and birth options)
5. The Early Birds  by Jenny Minton *(An interesting read about one woman's IVF journey - honest, if a bit self-indulgent at times, brought up a lot of questions about infertility and infertility treatment) 
6. Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips *(Chick-lit to the extreme, but, let's face it, super readable)
7. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway *(I LOVED this! Paris, in the '20's, in the rain...) 
8. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen *(Incredible, compelling, a bit depressing, and a somewhat exhausting read)
9. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien *(A great book about the Vietnam War - "lyrical" is the word I might choose)
10. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver *(I am a little over halfway through this book - it's a great thought-provoking memoir about a family's quest to eat only what they grow/raise for an entire year. I really enjoy Kinsolver's writing)
11. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese *(One of the best stories I have read in years - a wonderful, sad, and beautifully written book)

And there you have it.

I am now in week three of my last semester as an undergraduate student (I'm on the eleven-year B.A. plan), so my list of non-school books to read next will have to wait until December. In the meantime, I am going to be reading some great books this semester, including: nine of Shakespeare's plays (of which I have previously read only three); Homer's The Odyssey; Virgil's The Aeneid; The Seven Voyages of Sinbad in The Arabian Nights; Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe; Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore; Feminism is For Everybody by bell hooks, and other feminist literature. It's going to be a challenging, but very interesting, semester's worth of reading.

In case you're interested, here is what is currently on my post-graduation (!) reading list, aside from finishing Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and reading the Bill Bryson book about Shakespeare:

1. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
4. Middlemarch by George Eliot
5. Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth
6. The Collected Stories of Grace Paley
7. John Adams by David McCullough
8. The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss
9. Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
10. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
11. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
12. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
13. A novel in Spanish - it's been a while since I've read a book in Spanish, and I really need to do it because it is so useful in keeping me fluent in my native tongue. Any recommendations? Please don't say Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I just can't get through his books (in English or in Spanish)!

So many books to read in one lifetime!

Hamming it up with the Compact Edition of the OED at Powell's Books in Portland, OR this past summer.

All this reading for school means it's time for a new pair of glasses. I'm excited for my cute new pair to arrive.

My basket of post-semester reading material, waiting for me to graduate so that I can dig in. Note that I keep a dictionary in the basket, so that I can get better about looking up words I don't know (otherwise I jot them down on Post-it notes, and I never get around to actually looking up the words).

Happy reading!


P.S. My personal blog has moved --- it can now be found here. 

oh, heathcliff!

I did it! I FINALLY read Wuthering Heights! It only took me about 13 years. I have wanted to read this book for ages, but every time I tried to start it I just could not get into it. I finally picked up an audio version at the library a few weeks ago, and I started listening to it on my commute to and from work. At first, I found the book a little dry, and I almost gave up - but, I stuck through the first few chapters, and, sure enough, I was soon totally and completely hooked. That mysterious little gypsy child Heathcliff captured my imagination, and he wouldn't let me rest until I found out what became of him - blast him! I found myself taking the long way home from work, praying for red lights, sitting in my car in my driveway - anything to lengthen my listening time. Then I found myself reading it online (I don't actually own a copy of this book) - it was Wuthering Heights at any free moment I had. I just finished the book this weekend, and, I have to say, it's one of the best stories I've ever read. I've never read Jane Eyre, but I am sure Emily Bronte kicked her sister's butt in the story-telling department - SO good! I'm now craving either a stage or movie adaption of this story - I need to see this stuff acted out. I'll bet the BBC has an excellent version of Wuthering Heights --- I'm also willing to bet that there are some truly terrible adaptions of this book out there! I'll have to do some research.

Anyway, if you've ever found yourself picking up and putting down Wuthering Heights over and over again, do yourself a favor and get started with the audio version - it's a very captivating entry into the dark and tortured world of Heathcliff and Cathy. Next up on my audio/reading list is Anna Karenina - another classic of which I have never been able to get past the first few chapters. Let's hope Tolstoy tells as good a story as Emily Bronte did - especially since AK is about 8 million pages long.

P.S. For the record --- Heathcliff is a total monster! Who are the crazy women who always refer to him as their utmost idol of romantic manhood? I mean, really! And, also, I love Hareton Earnshaw! And Nelly Dean, too. Seriously - READ IT. So good.

sarah's key

I just finished reading "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay, and, I have to say, after all of the hype, I was underwhelmed. I did get through it pretty quickly, so I couldn't have disliked it that much (it takes me forever to get through a book I am hating), but it's definitely not one I was sad to see end or one that I will reread. The book is two story lines that intersect --- Sarah is a young Jewish girl in Paris during WW2, and Julia is a journalist in modern day Paris who learns about Sarah and her family while doing research on the Vel' d'Hiv roundup of 1942.
What I enjoyed about the book were the historical lesson (before reading it I had never even heard of the Vel' d'Hiv roundup), and parts of Julia's story (a marriage to a cocky Parisian on the rocks, a sweet relationship with her precocious daughter, life in France as an ex-pat, etc.). What I disliked about the book was that I didn't feel Sarah's story was fleshed out fully enough,  and, toward the beginning of the end of the book I really started to tire of Julia's somewhat hard-to-believe obsession with Sarah's life story (and some of the  strange actions that that obsession led her to take). Finally, the ending was very removed from the rest of the story (to me).
All in all, it's not the worst book I've ever read, but it's certainly not a great literary achievement - especially considering the rich subject matter. Perhaps in the hands of a different writer this story could have reached its full potential.
Recent WW2-related books I've read, and really enjoyed, are: "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky, and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I can, and do, recommend both of those books confidently.
Next up is another story about a young girl during WW2 (whoa, my book club seems to be WW2 obsessed!)  - "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. I've heard great things about this book, and I am looking forward to digging into it tonight. Right now it's a gorgeous sunny end-of-winter day, and I just want to go out and play!
Happy reading, friends.

A Moveable Feast

I am reading A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and I just love it.  I have a total fascination with the Lost Generation, the artists of all types who lived in Paris during the 1920's.  This book contains his memoirs of his life in Paris.  I absolutely love it.  It sort of reminds me of Jack Kerouac's On the Road in that the writing seems really simple and is just about things that he sees and people he interacts with and stuff he does and while that could get boring, it just doesn't.  It makes me wish that I was alive during the 1920's (fyi, my FAVORITE era) and could have been one of those people sitting in sidewalk cafe's with a glass of wine, writing away or finding inspiration for my next painting.

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."  

-Ernest Hemingway

the anne books

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Anne of Green Gables books (all eight of them), are my favorite books of all time. My parents gave me a boxed set of the books as a Christmas present when I was 9 years old. I still have this exact set, and I think I've read each book about 30 times over the years --- I just LOVE them. Anne is, in my opinion, one of the best characters in literature, and the Anne books instilled a life-long love of reading and imagination in me. Even as an adult, I love to occassionally pick up a well-worn copy of one of my favorite of the Anne books (usually, "Anne of the Island" or "Rilla of Ingleside" - about Anne's youngest daughter - but it sometimes varies depending on my stage in life), and curl up on the couch and immerse myself in the familiar stories. Tonight, it's snowy and cold --- a perfect night to curl up with "Anne's House of Dreams" (since my husband and I just bought our first home!), and to daydream about one day going to Prince Edward Island (where the story takes place), and visiting the Green Gables house.

My Anne books - I've had them for over 17 years!

My awesome husband gave me this first-edition of the second book, "Anne of Avonlea" for my 24th birthday.

A gift from an aunt --- this book is filled with recipes and craft ideas inspired by life in Victorian Canada.