This might be my favorite thread yet! I just finished "The Post-Birthday World" by Lionel Shriver and "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen, and would highly recommend both. I have also been on an Amy Tan jag lately, rereading most of her stuff. I borrowed her nonfiction "The Opposite of Fate" on CD from my library, and it was wonderful. In it, she discusses her writing process and how she weaves her family history into all of her stories. Plus, hearing her read it on CD was just great.
My book group is reading "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai. I haven't started it yet...anyone out there read it?
I listened to Amy Tan read "To Save a Drowning Fish" (or something like that...). Great title, great book! Highly recommend.
Archy - Neruda is one of my faves. I've only read one book by Fuentes (El Espejo Enterrado), but I loved it. I definitely want to read more.
Right now I'm on The Grapes of Wrath. Eh, it's not mindblowing yet. I'm only about 8 chapters into it, though. I made the mistake of reading the timeline in the beginning of the book so I already know who dies.
Sheila, I nearly picked up Water for Elephants the other day -- it looks good. I've been wanting to get the new books by Haruki Murakami and Ian McEwan, because they're two of my absolute favorite authors, but I can't afford any hardcovers right now!
In the summer, I like to read breezy, easy chick lit sometimes. People would be surprised by that, as I'm an English teacher and I love classic literature, but sometimes you want something mindless. I'm currently reading a mindless British chick lit book by Carole Matthews, and it's fun. I'm also reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and it's incredibly bleak and depressing but beautifully written. I also picked up a fun book called Pretty Little Mistakes -- it's like a "choose your own adventure" book for adults. You can pick it up at any time and find a new, different ending. It's a fun little diversion.
A good book to lose yourself in, however, if you want a big juicy classic, is Steinbeck's East of Eden. And I will always recommend anything by Margaret Atwood and Haruki Murakami.
I'm headed on vacation and every summer I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" (yes, Lisa, I know...cliche) but it touched me the first time I ever read it and touches me still. Those southern childhood summers are SO FAMILIAR! So, I'll be taking that on the plane with me. Also, Khaled Housseni (The Kite Runner) has a new book out called "A Thousand Splendid Suns" that I'm nearly DYING to buy. I'll break down for sure in the next couple of days. I've heard it's even better than "The Kite Runner" but I can't imagine it's true!
Tricia, I would never fault anyone for rereading To Kill a Mockingbird! I get to reread it every year with my 9th graders, and I'll always love it! I love introducing it to young people, too, because many of them respond quite well to it.
I want to read Hosseini's new book too, because I LOVED The Kite Runner. I think I read somewhere that they're making it into a movie, and I too read that the new one is even better!
Lisa - I just knew you were a sister! You are the first well-read individual I've encountered that doesn't roll their eyes a little at the "To Kill a Mockingbird" thing. But, I read other things, too! That's just a small indulgence each year.
I considered (very seriously) becoming an English teacher or professor. The thing that kept me from it was my fear of teenage peoples! hahaha I think of it everytime you mention your classes. I would LOVE to be responsible for coming up with reading lists for people.
And one last thing on Housseini. Can you believe that was his FIRST novel???? Come on. That's outrageous!!! I have told numerous people that it could easily be on my list of top 5 books EVER. When certain lines stick with you and pop into your head even a year after reading then you know it was great.
Another "to kill a mockingbird" fan here. I read it at least once a year. I also love to reread Agatha Christie's books, even tho I know most of them by heart. My new love is J.A. Jance. Someone loaned me one of her books, and I just had to read both series from the beginning. I especially love the Bisbee Arizona sheriff series (her name is joanna brady), since I'm an Arizona person, and recognize all the places she talks about.
i have not read it yet but i cannot wait to get myself a copy.. its a book called "skinny b*tch" (i added the star so it wouldnt censore the whole word) google it.
^^ I hate the title and don't feel it represents what the authors are trying to convey at all. (Sho wants to be "skinny"? HEALTHY is where it's at!).
You probably know everything that the book has to share, but it is a lot of savvy advice about eating more whole foods, avoiding HFCS and hydrogenated oils etc. and it's good for beginners to the vegan way of eating.
I was out on vacation and got a few emails from people asking me to join Good Reads but I really didn't have time to check it out. A friend of mine at work who is an avid reader started bugging me, "Have you signed up yet? Have you signed up yet?"
Totally addicting site for all you readers out there. You sign up and give your ratings of books. You can write reviews and "friend" people to see their taste in books. It's really a lot of fun to see who agrees with you on which books. Kinda like Netflix's friends if you've seen that.
Do I think it's the next myspace? Maybe for us old farts that still read in bed and think libraries are cool.
Goodreads sounds like a good idea...
Anyone on bookmooch.com (or paperbackswap.com or other sites of that ilk)? It's sooooo cooool because you can often find out-of-print books for free!
Quote:
BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books.
BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.
Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.
No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.
Points for entering books: you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into our system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every five you receive.
Help charities: you can also give your points to charities we work with, such as children's hospitals (so a sick kid can get a free book delivered to their bed), Library fund, African literacy, or to us to thank us for running this web site <grin>.
World wide: You can request books from other countries, in other languages. You receive 3 points when you send a book out of your country, to help compensate you for the greater mailing cost, but it only costs the moocher 2 points to get the book. John Buckman, who runs BookMooch, has lived in California, England, France and Germany, and was frustrated by the vast number of books that were printed in just one country and not available in the other countries (for example, many books are published in Britain and never made available in America).
Wishlist: you can keep a "book wish list" that will automatically arrive to you when you have the points and/or the book becomes available in our catalog.
Feedback score: each time you receive a book, you can leave feedback with the sender, just like how eBay does it. If you keep your feedback score up, people are most likely to help you out when you ask for a book.
How we pay our bills: We tap into Amazon's book database, and if you follow an Amazon link from our web site, we receive a commission from Amazon if you buy that book instead of getting it free from BookMooch.
Why "Mooch"?: dictionary.co.uk defines "mooch" as: "to obtain something without paying for it, or to borrow something without intending to return it" as in "You're old enough to get a job and stop mooching off your family." And so, the word fits this probject: BookMooch is a way to get books without paying, and without any intention of returning the book. This is the American definition of "mooch" and one of two British definitions. The other British definition is "to walk or act slowly and without much purpose" as in "Stop mooching about in your room and do something useful!" which isn't an entirely appropriate definition for this web site, but it is funny so we'll just live with it.
Why create this?: if you're passionate about books, you know how emotionally difficult it is to throw a book away, even if you will never read it again. You want to find a good home for your books, have them find someone who appreciates them. Also, you may be interested in trying a lot of books out, and keep the ones that are great. It's a great crime to have a book disappear, out of print, for none to read. BookMooch keeps books in circulation, and finds new readers for them. If you're interested in getting free books, you can donate to charities, the points you gain by giving your books away.
Who are we? BookMooch is conceived, designed, written and administered by John Buckman (pictured above). John also runs the online record label Magnatune as well as several other web sites with his wife Jan. The graphic identity of the site is by Claudy Niesen, and the illustration is by Andrice Arp.
and don't feel it represents what the authors are trying to convey at all. (Sho wants to be "skinny"? HEALTHY is where it's at!).
