It's 2009; What Are You Reading?

[sophie]

I just finished reading Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner. I really bought it for my daughter because she likes her books. I really enjoyed it. I think that alot of us have been in situations where we were the fat friend with a popular skinny friend. By the way, my best skinny friend is fighting a weight problem now too.. This book makes you realize that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

As for Julie and Julia I agree that the language was something to get over and I felt that 9/11 was handled sort of awkward manner.
take care
Sophie

[beachgal]

Sophie, Jennifer Weiner is one of my FAVORITE writers. If you enjoyed BFF, make sure you check out Good in Bed (and then the sequel, Certain Girls). I'm sure you'll adore Cammie and understand where she's coming from. I alternately cried and laughed (sometimes minutes apart) while reading it. What a great book!

I finished The Next Thing on My List and really loved it. Though I'd certainly stick it under the "chick lit" category, I was pleasantly surprised by the realism of the ending and the deep nature of the lessons June learns while doing the list. It really made me think about my own life. While there's a traditionally pat ending to the main issue of the book, the side issues aren't tied up in the ways you expect. Strangely enough, I found them far more satisfying once I got over my shock. Definitely worth a read!

I'm now working on the audio book Away by Amy Bloom. It's the story of a Russian Jewish woman who thinks she is the only one to live through an attack on her family by a pogrom. She comes to America and starts a new life in NYC (involving the golden age of Jewish theatre) before going on a long journey to find her daughter, who she thinks may have survived the pogrom after all. I was thrilled to note that the book didn't start with the pogrom attack, and that the tone of the novel is light and funny, full of interesting characters. My grandfather and his family had to escape from Russia after a pogrom attack on his uncle, so I'm fascinated with learning more about what that time period was like there, as sad as it is.

What's everyone else reading? After checking out an author event with Jennifer Weiner on Barnes and Noble's website, I'm interested in checking out Susan Isaacs's books. Has anyone read her? I also found two new books I'm dying to read: one of them is Weiner's Best Friends Forever and the other is a new one by Sophie Kinsella that sounds fascinating. It's called Twenties Girl and here's a synopsis from Amazon:

Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?

When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie–a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance–mysteriously appears, she has one last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man.

Sadie, however, could care less.

Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different “twenties” girls learn some surprising truths from each other along the way. Written with all the irrepressible charm and humor that have made Sophie Kinsella’s books beloved by millions, Twenties Girl is also a deeply moving testament to the transcendent bonds of friendship and family.

[JessieW]

I'm going to have to find those Jennifer Weiner books at the library. I love her stuff.

Maybe I could try the Kinsella since it isn't a Shopaholic. The Shopaholic books make me want to break out in hives and murder the main character. But Can You Keep a Secret by her is one I loved.

I cannot stress how much I have LOVED the Leisha Kelly books I've read the past year. There are five in the series (although technically they're two series, they are continual): Julia's Hope, Emma's Gift, Rorey's Secret, Rachel's Prayer, and Sarah's Promise (as well as a Christmas book thrown in). I just finished Rachel's Prayer and I cannot wait to read the last one.

The series is about a family who lost everything in the Great Depression and moved to Illinois to be near family and have a job. The family fell through, and they find themselves living on a farm and surviving off the land. They become very close to the neighbor family, which has 10 kids. The books are just wonderful, full of faith, historical events, and love. I just adore them.

[beachgal]

Oooh, Jessie, the Leisha Kelly books sound wonderful!!! I'll have to look for them.

I loved Can You Keep a Secret, too. I was also fairly fond of Remember Me? though I can totally relate to wanting to bonk the main character of Shopaholic over the head at times. I like her books enough to read more, but the stupidity of the main characters can really get to me.

[Kim_Star060404]

I've been re-reading SBD Supercharged since I'm doing P1 over again, but I have The Knitting Circle and The Birth of Venus waiting for me. I'll probably start one tonight.

[beachgal]

Oh, I think I remember loving The Birth of Venus, Kim. How's it going with Supercharged? I know I need to read it, but it's hard to do when there are so many books in my TBR pile!

I bit the bullet and ordered both Best Friends Forever and Twenties Girl off the B&N website--I had a coupon and the prices were the same or cheaper than Sam's Club, plus free shipping, so I figured why not treat myself? With the gift card, they're only $8 of my money. And I think I can resell them on Alibris when I'm done, since I very rarely re-read anything. That means more money for books, maybe!

BTW, I thought of an interesting thing while listening to Amy Bloom's Away (which is very colorful and interesting!). The author in this novel is telling the story of a woman who moves through the lives of many other characters. As the main character, Lillian, moves on from one place to the next, the author tells us what happens in the rest of the life of the characters she (apparently) will not meet again. What do you think about this? I like knowing what happens to them--usually in novels, you don't know the ending for many of the smaller characters--but a part of me is a little sad to think that they definitely won't be in Lillian's life again. There are one or two characters whose lives are not explained, which makes me wonder if Lillian is likely to see those ones later on. On the other hand, maybe the author didn't think they were important enough to talk about? That's the hard part--I think if you're going to tell the rest of some of the characters' stories, you have to do so for everyone, otherwise it's an odd technique. Would love to hear your take on that!

[Kim_Star060404]

Hey, Laurie! I read through the Phase 1 chapter of Supercharged and I really like it so far. I'm on Day 3 of P1 right now and I lug the book everywhere for reference. There are some new recipes as long as some old favorites and the exercise program seems to be a really great option for first-time exercisers. The program is a little on the low-intensity side for me, so I've just plugged in my usual workouts to the suggested formula.


I put aside The Birth of Venus to read The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. I started it yesterday morning during jury duty and love it so far! I've gotten through about half of the book and really can't wait to finish it. I decided to be a good girl for once and not stay up all night reading. I do need my beauty sleep!

After that, I'll finish The Birth of Venus and then I'm waiting for The Time Traveler's Wife to arrive in the mail. We're reading it for an online book club I'm in and I can't wait to get into it.


I'll have to look into Away, Laurie. Our library just started lending audio books on cd (we're so behind the times ), so maybe they'll have it. As far as the closure of the characters in the story, I think I agree with you. It would be nice to know what happens to the sub-characters in any story, so I think it should be all-inclusive or nothing at all.

[beachgal]

Kim, thanks for the info on Supercharged! Did you stop The Birth of Venus because The Knitting Circle was more compelling or because you didn't like The Birth of Venus?

So, I finished Away and while I think it's definitely worth reading, I was incredibly disappointed in the ending. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but let's just say that the narrative stops suddenly, as if the author got tired and just decided to tell us what happens without describing how the people got there. Ugh. Not sure why that is...but the beginning of it is worth the read. The descriptions of life during that time were riveting and I feel exceptionally blessed to be living in our day and times with all the wonderful safety and health we enjoy.

I'm off to get something new at the library for the car. I'm on page 468 out of 528 pages in Vice Versa and very ready to be done with it--but I'm so close that I figure I need to finish it off. I wish I could speed through non-fiction like I do with fiction! Does anyone else have that problem?

[emileigh]

It is great to read all these suggestions. Now that Jennifer Weiner's new book is out (Best Friends Forever) maybe that's the one to get, especially since my daughter likes her also and can read it after I finish.

Earlier this summer I read Happens Every Day by Isabelle Gilles. This was a memoir about a marriage breaking up. It was one of those books that I didn't really want to put down until I finished it.

I love it when i get a book that I can't wait to get back to reading. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen often enough.

[beachgal]

Emileigh, I haven't gotten to BFF yet, but I have my copy waiting at the top of my TBR pile. The book I'd borrowed from the library got first billing, since it has a due date, but BFF is next. After that is the new one from my favorite author, Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger. I've been putting it off because it's not only veering from her usual setting (Victorian England) in favor of her new favorite--post WW England--but because she's changing genres as well, and that was one of the reasons I love her writing. We'll see what happens...this is her first official "gothic" novel, and I know she adores that genre (especially the work of Wilkie Collins, which I really enjoyed, after reading his work on her recommendation), so it might be fantastic. Anyways, I've been putting it off in fear that I'll dislike it.

In the meantime, once I finished Vice Versa (thank goodness...it was really bad near the end!), I moved on to several wonderful books!

I read Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella in about two days--I nearly couldn't put it down! What a fantastic read! Here's my review from Visual Bookshelf:

What a fantastic, fascinating read! This has to be my favorite of all of Kinsella's books, and one in which I was rarely frustrated by the human foibles of the main character, Lara. I absolutely loved the character of Sadie, and the details of life in the 20's (which were seamlessly wound into the narrative) were totally fascinating! I was shocked that anyone would stay on in a job like Lara's, but I loved how Sadie's impact on Lara's life made so much of that situation--it made me feel that it's truly possible to turn something horrible into something wonderful. There was so much hope and humor in this book and I learned so much about life! I really feel like I took some well-needed medicine disguised as something enjoyable and delicious, like Godiva chocolate. I'd consider this a must-read, especially if you are feeling stressed, life-weary, or disconnected from family and friends. Enjoy!

After that, I read a book for my new book club (cannot wait for the first meeting...we're picking books for the whole year!): Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout. Here's my review from Visual Bookshelf:

I'm not sure I can write a review of this book that does it justice--it's truly a remarkable read. However, I can say that I have lately been quite an escapist in my reading, feeling inclined to read only hopeful and happy books and avoid stories that emphasize the enormous amount of pain that seems to exist in our world today. This book is not one of those "hopeful and happy" ones, at first glance. I had to read it for my book club, and though I loved the concept (a series of short stories featuring crusty Mainers), I was dismayed to find that every story stripped away the layers that hide our true selves and true lives from others, and revealed a lot of blackness underneath. There was some light and hope in the stories, such as the way three neighbors conspire to help a child, and the love two find in the process, in "Starving," but overall, the tone is neither light, nor happy. It is not, however, lacking in hope, and when I got to the end, I found that Strout had created a satisfying (and seemingly, realistic) balance between illustrating the sadness of our lives and throwing a light on the perfect beauty of finding kinship, joy, and comfort in spite of it. I highly recommend this book, especially to those who are "getting on in years" as a way of finding our own balanced views of old age, relationships, and the possibility of change and finding happiness in the midst of sorrow.

In the meantime, I picked up a new audio book for the car. When I pick something out of the selection at the library (which is fairly small), I tend to go for things that I might not have otherwise read. This one really caught my eye: There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to ****: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble by Laurie Notaro. Here's the synopsis:

The first novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club is a rollicking tale of small-town peculiarity, dark secrets, and one extraordinary beauty pageant.

When her husband is offered a post at a small university, Maye is only too happy to pack up and leave the relentless Phoenix heat for the lush green quietude of Spaulding, Washington. While she loves the odd little town, there is one thing she didn’t anticipate: just how heartbreaking it would be leaving her friends behind. And when you’re a childless thirtysomething freelance writer who works at home, making new friends can be quite a challenge.

After a series of false starts nearly gets her exiled from town, Maye decides that her last chance to connect with her new neighbors is to enter the annual Sewer Pipe Queen Pageant, a kooky but dead-serious local tradition open to contestants of all ages and genders. Aided by a deranged former pageant queen with one eyebrow, Maye doesn’t just make a splash, she uncovers a sinister mystery that has haunted the town for decades.

It's a riot so far--and I think all of us can relate to Maye's experience with the sound our thighs make rubbing together when we wear pantyhose... Oy!

Since finishing Olive, I moved on to a book by an author that was highly recommended by Jennifer Weiner in a recent interview. She said, "If you haven't discovered Susan Isaacs yet, you're in for a treat!" calling Isaacs her favorite author. I'm reading her novel, Shining Through and really like the writing style, though I'm a bit frustrated with the main character, who seems to be mooning over an absolute jerk. We'll see...

What's doing in your reading life?

[Kim_Star060404]

Hi, Laurie! Twenties Girl sounds like a book I need to check into! The Lorie Notaro book sounds interesting as well.

I'm currently reading The Time Traveler's Wife for my Facebook book club and I'm enjoying it so far. I read about half of it while waiting for a thunderstorm to pass in our tent Friday night. I thought about picking it up before bed last night, but I'm so anxious to find out what happens, that I know I'd stay up way too late reading through the end. I'm going to save that for Friday night.

I'm still working my way through Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and am also perusing The Big-*** Book of Crafts by Mark Montano for Christmas gift ideas.

[rdw1]

Just got back from vaca and read a thousand splendid suns and it was a GREAT read. I loved it, I still haven't read the kite runner but I plan to since I liked this one so much! i bought it @ sortfloorbooks.com as well as several other ones for around 2-3 bucks a piece. I also read speak, which was supposed to be a teenage book I guess but I enjoyed it too. I also started Pride and Prejudice and I am finding it difficult to read- just because of the time when it was written I suppose. About the only time I read a lot is on vacation but I will be on vacation again in 4 weeks so I am wanting to keep the trend going we'll see!

[Kim_Star060404]

Just finished The Time Traveler's Wife and have to say, that the ending tarnished the whole book for me. I probably got too emotionally involved. The writing was good, but I couldn't help but be mad at Clare at the end.

I just assembled a new bookcase, twice the size of my old one, and gathered all the books I had stashed around the house to put in it. Well, it wasn't big enough! Lol! But, I did find a stash of books that I bought and hadn't read, so I'll be reading The Other Boleyn Girl next.


Laurie: I forgot to answer your question from last time. I stopped reading The Birth of Venus because I had checked both books out from the library and had already read that one and not The Knitting Circle. I had already re-checked them once, so I wanted to get at least one read before I returned them! Lol!

[beachgal]

Oh, Kim, I hate it when the ending is disappointing. I felt a little bit that way about the book I just finished. Are you going to see the movie? Some of the people in my new book club last night saw the movie (the club read the book last year) and really liked it, though they said if you haven't read the book, they'd think the movie would be hard to follow. Are you loving Animal, Vegetable...? That was such a convicting book for me. I saw the movie Food, Inc. with a friend a couple weeks ago, and it was a similarly convicting experience. The authors of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto were both in the movie and spoke eloquently. I'm sure their books are excellent too.

rdw1, I know we've agreed in the past, but we're diametrically opposed on your two books: though I loved the amazing writing in Thousand Splendid Suns, I thought the book was inexorably depressing and horrific, leaving me with absolutely no desire to go near The Kite Runner, especially since I heard that it's even darker and sadder than Thousand. On the other hand, Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite books. I've actually read it several times, which is rare for me. Sorry to hear it isn't grabbing you.

So, yes, you read right, I'm in a new book club! A dear friend of mine that I made in the last book club left us for this one and got me in this month. What a great group of intelligent women it is! My last group was full of wonderful people, too, but they were all mothers of young children, so it was hard for me to "fit in," and they also had several policies in place (which seemed to be well-liked) that didn't work for me. This one is run much more to my liking (as if I get to judge... ), and I'm really looking forward to our next meeting, when we'll get together just to pick the books for the rest of the year. It'll be so much fun! This month, we read Olive Kittridge. I think I already reviewed it here. We had a lively, introspective conversation about the book, and I learned a lot from others' insights.

Though I'm still working my way through There's a (Slight) Chance (which is chock full of hilarious and over-the-top characters) on CD, I finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters last night. It was absolutely fabulous--and though my heart will always belong to my first Waters book, Tipping the Velvet, this one is certainly equal to it. I think it's one of her very best, and cinches the fact that she can write exceptionally well in more than one genre. I want to write a really thorough review of it and post it online...if I do, I'll post some of it here. But suffice to say that this book grabs you by the lapels and does NOT let you go until you have turned the last page and collapse in a spent heap. The suspense is incredible--Waters's ability to keep you on the edge of your seat, hair on the back of your neck raised, and all of your senses on alert is absolutely breathtaking--and I found myself reading until nearly 3 on Monday night because I simply could not put it down!

The characters are so vividly painted that you can literally see them before you. I was especially impressed by Waters's exceptional ability to narrate the book from a male character's perspective. There's very little actual "gore," if any, in this ghost tale, but there is tons of suspense. I think it's worth reading just for Waters's amazing writing talent. However, I was disappointed that the mystery of "why" was never truly answered. I won't say more, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I did feel a bit disatisfied by the ending.

So, I'm off to the library after work to pick out something new. I have plenty on my TBR pile at home, but I've been avoiding the library to get some of the home ones read, and it's time for a little change.

[CyndiM]

Thanks for the review Laurie. The Little Stranger is actually on its way here. Now I'm looking forward to it even more