A Brief Note

I'm sorry to say that my newly established blogging schedule will be interrupted for the next few weeks, but it's for a fantastic reason.  I found out that I got a job!  And it starts in two weeks!  And I need to find a place to live!  Ahhh!  I will be moving about two hours away from my current location, so commuting isn't an option for me.  I have been doing a lot of searching and making phone calls to set up appointments to see some places later this week.  Hopefully, I will find something quickly so I can move before I start working.  Until I'm settled, the blogging (and reading) will be sporadic at best.  I hope to be back soon!  :)

Saturday Sentiment

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves."

-

James M. Barrie

Booking Through Thursday: Disaster!

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks:

You’ve just dropped your favorite, out-of-print book into a bathtub, ruining it completely … What do you do now?

Well, I honestly don't think this would happen to me as I avoid the water and book combo for this very reason.  But if it did, I would probably have a mini freak out while at least trying to save my book.  Once I recovered my senses, I would tell myself it's not the end of the world and try to find another copy online.  Hopefully, it never comes to this!

Thoughts: Eat, Pray, Love

Title: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Year: 2006
Pages: 334
First Line: "When you're traveling in India - especially through holy sites and Ashrams - you see a lot of people wearing beads around their necks."

I LOVE this trade paperback cover of Eat, Pray, Love.  It has always appealed to me.    The book itself?  Not as much.  Yet, with the recent release of the movie starring Julia Roberts (which I would like to see), I decided to give it a try.  I was surprised to find that I enjoyed reading Eat, Pray, Love and especially appreciated the way Gilbert structured her memoir. 

I know that many people dislike, even hate, this book.  I certainly didn't agree with everything Gilbert did or wrote about, but I can't fault her simply because she got paid to travel and write this book.  I would love for somebody to pay for me to do that.  The idea of traveling abroad by myself for a year is terrifying to me.  I wish I were brave enough to tackle such a feat.  I'm a bit of a homebody, but maybe one day I will do some traveling of my own.  One of the main reasons I liked Eat, Pray, Love is that Gilbert's life is so different from mine and she doesn't have a typical travel experience.  Despite any differences, I found her to be very likable.  Most of all, perhaps, Eat, Pray, Love made me want to go eat pasta in Italy. 

I want to share one of my favorite little stories in the book.  Gilbert has just attended a soccer game with her friend Luca while in Italy: 

"That's what sports fans in America would do if their team had just lost.  They'd go to a bar and get good and drunk.  And not just Americans would do this - so would the English, the Australians, the Germans... everyone, right?  But Luca and his friends didn't go out to a bar to cheer themselves up.  They went to a bakery.  A small, innocuous bakery hidden in a basement in a nondescript district in Rome.  The place was crowded that Sunday night.  But it always is crowded after the games.  The Lazio fans always stop here on their way home from the stadium to stand in the street for hours, leaning up against their motorcycles, talking about the game, looking macho as anything, and eating cream puffs.  I love Italy." (page 70)

I think I would also love Italy!

My Rating: 4 of 5

Top Ten Tuesday: Words I Love

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and The Bookish.   

Top Ten Words I Love (in no particular order):

1. egregious - "extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant" - I use this word as often as I can use it appropriately.  I have always loved it. 
2. minion - "a servile follower or subordinate of a person in power" - Let's be honest; who hasn't thought about having some minions running around to do their bidding?  Oh wait, maybe it's just me.  :)
3. conspicuous  - "easily seen or noticed; readily visible or observable" - I have a thing for amateur sleuths and their stories.  This word seems necessary to any sort of sleuthing. 
4. schnapps - "any strong, dry spirit" - I'm not much of a drinker, but I enjoy saying this word. 
5. ambiguous - "open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations" - If I had to choose one word to describe my future right now, this would probably be it. 
6. vortex - "something regarded as drawing into its powerful current everything that surrounds it" - Do you have a word that just makes you laugh every time you hear it?  This is that word for me. 
7. diaphragm - "the partition separating the thoracic cavity from the abdominal cavity in mammals" - Hiccups?  No way.  It's much more interesting to call them a spasm of the diaphragm. 
8. superfluous - "being more than is sufficient or required; excessive" - What is not to love about saying this word? 
9. aficionado - "an ardent devotee; fan, enthusiast" - It feels so much more sophisticated to call oneself an aficionado and it's fun to say. 
10. drawl - "to say or speak in a slow manner, usually prolonging the vowels" - I'm a sucker for a sweet Southern drawl. 

All definitions from Dictionary.com.  

Teaser Tuesday: The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

This week's teaser comes from The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life From Your Books by Steve Leveen.  

"You probably already have some books at home that you plan to read.  I suggest that you expand this to a whole new level: a to-read library in which you gradually accumulate shelves of books, in different categories, that you plan to read - a Library of Candidates that evolves from your list." (page 16)

Well, that certainly makes me feel better about owning books I haven't yet read!  :)

Saturday Sentiment

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading.  Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.  Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.  It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity."

-

Christopher Morley

Booking Through Thursday: Film to Paper?

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks:

Even though it’s usually a mistake (grin) … do movies made out of books make you want to read the original?

I love watching movies, so any excuse to watch works for me!  I usually try to read the book before I see the movie though.  In most cases, I've already read the book and then the movie comes out a few years later.  However, I recently read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert because of the release of the movie.  I wasn't really interested in it until I saw the movie preview with all that beautiful scenery.

Thoughts: A Short History of Nearly Everything

Title: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Author: Bill Bryson
Year: 2003
Pages: 478
First Lines: "Welcome.  And congratulations.  I am delighted that you could make it.  Getting here wasn't easy, I know.  In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize."

A Short History of Nearly Everything is the first book I've ever read by Bill Bryson and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Slightly intimidating at first, A Short History of Nearly Everything proved to be surprisingly easy to read for a "science" book.  This is definitely not a textbook, but I finished with the sense that I had added to my knowledge base.  Bryson's wit and humor made sometimes less than exciting topics engaging.  It seemed that Bryson also infused some lesser known personal details about many of the famous scientists, which furthered my interest in the book. 

My Rating: 4 of 5

Thoughts: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Year: 2010
Pages: 398
First Line: "I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather."

NO SPOILERS HERE!
I don't know what I can say about Mockingjay since most people have already read it and written about it.  I liked Mockingjay, but not quite as much as The Hunger Games or Catching Fire.  It seemed a little slower than the first two books, but had several plot twists that I had never considered.  My only complaint is that it ended too quickly.  There should have been more than a few pages to wrap up the ending.  It left me feeling a little unsatisfied and almost cheated.  Nevertheless, I was happy with the way Mockingjay concluded. 

My Rating: 4 of 5

Teaser Tuesday: Whiskey Sour

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.




This week's teaser comes from Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath.

"'There were four black and whites already at the 7-Eleven when I arrived.  Several people had gathered in the parking lot behind the yellow police tap, huddling close for protection against the freezing Chicago rain.  They weren't there for Slurpees." (page 1)

Saturday Sentiment

"I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves."

 -

E.M. Forster

Book Blogger Hop

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy-for-Books.

This week's question comes from:
Books Are A Girl's Best Friend

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

 
This is my first Book Blogger Hop and this week's question comes at the perfect time for me.  I just decided to start adding ratings to my posts.  I haven't specifically listed what my ratings mean yet, but they are going to be based on how much I enjoyed reading the book.  I'm going to use 1 - 5, with 5 meaning that I loved what I was reading and probably wanted to start rereading it immediately!  I've seen so many cute and unique rating systems on other blogs.  Maybe I will come up with something a little more creative, but for now I think it's best to keep it simple. 

Happy Hopping!
 - Kelly

Thoughts: Olive Kitteridge

Title: Olive Kitteridge
Author: Elizabeth Strout
Year: 2008
Pages: 270
First Line: "For many years Henry Kitteridge was a pharmacist in the next town over, driving every morning on snowy roads, or rainy roads, or summertime roads, when the wild raspberries shot their new growth in brambles along the last section of town before he turned off to where the wider road led to the pharmacy." 


There was a somewhat extended period of time between the day I started reading Olive Kitteridge and the day I finished it this summer.  Elizabeth Strout structured the novel as a series of short stories, so perhaps that lended itself to my lengthy reading.  There were times when I would read several stories in a row and times when I would read one story a week.  Regardless, all of the stories related to Olive in some way, even without her physical presence in a particular story.

I'm not sure what I expected from Olive Kitteridge as the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner.  However, the writing was gorgeous throughout the entire book.  It's the amazingly detailed descriptions that have stuck with me since I finished it, more so than the individual stories.  In fact, the stories were actually quite sad.  I can't say that I thought a single character was genuinely happy.  It seemed that the people of Crosby, Maine (the location of the novel) had more than their share of pain.

Olive, in particular, suffered a great deal.  In my opinion, she caused much of her own pain.  There were many instances when I just wanted to give her a good shake and tell her to stop acting that way, that she could help herself.  I doubt she would have listened to me, though.  There were also times that I sympathized with Olive, but mostly Olive showed me that I never want to be stuck in a self-defeating cycle of loneliness and anger.

My Rating: 3 of 5

It's here!!!!!

Mockingjay has just arrived!!  I know what I will be doing the rest of the day!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and The Bookish. 

This week's topic appealed to me because there are so many books I'm ashamed to say I haven't read!  Oops.  Maybe listing some here will remind me to read these books sooner rather than later.  Here are ten of them, in no particular order. 

1. The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis
That's right.  I've never read a single one of these babies.  I've seen the first two movies and I liked them.  I'm not sure why I didn't read these books as a kid.  I was probably too busy reading Little House on the Prairie repeatedly... 

2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Somehow I missed having to read this in school.  I'm starting to feel like that happened quite a bit.

3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
I know I will like this, but don't ask me why I haven't read it yet.  Embarrassing. 

4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
I'm supposed to be reading this as a bonus for the Classics Challenge.  I need to start it soon!

5. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
This is a book that I just feel like I am supposed to read.  I think I've been consciously avoiding it more so than others.

6. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
Never read any of these either.  Again, I really liked the movies.  I think I may have started reading the first one a while ago, but couldn't get into it.  I need to give it another chance.

7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
So far I've missed out on this pop culture phenomenon.  I have a copy waiting to be read though!

8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Well, I haven't watched the movie because I knew I wanted to read the book first.  A small victory!  I've had a hardcover copy that I got on the cheap at the library book sale for about three years.  Lame. 

9. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Wow.  This isn't even a long book.  I do remember some people having to read it in high school, but for some reason I didn't...?

10. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Okay, at least I've tried to read this several times in the past.  Of course, I've always failed.  One day I will prevail... maybe.  :)

Teaser Tuesday: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.




This week's teaser comes from The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.

"I detected instantly that she didn't like me.  It's a fact of life that a girl can tell in a flash if another girl likes her." (page 85)

Pardon my mess!

I'm experimenting with the look and content of the blog.

And I'm Back...

After taking a somewhat unplanned break from the book blog this summer, I have decided to try to resume my ramblings on a more regular basis.  Even though I haven't been blogging, I have been reading!  As a way to ease back in, I've completed the meme of reading questions from this past week's Booking Through Thursday.

1. Favorite childhood book?
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I used to read the entire series over and over.  I was obsessed.  I still have my cherished box set of the series. 

2. What are you reading right now?
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
None at the moment since I'm trying to finish the ones I already have checked out!

4. Bad book habit?
Buying books I want to read and then not reading them for several years

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
Whiskey Sour by Joe Konrath
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Book Lust by Nancy Pearl
More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl

6. Do you have an e-reader?
No

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
Usually one at a time, but lately I've been reading something fiction and something nonfiction at the same time

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I'm motivated to read more and be better about documenting what I like in a book.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
I've liked everything I've read this year, but if I had to pick, I'd say The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey because it's not something I want to own or think I'll ever read again.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
I loved The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Not very often

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
I mostly read fiction and I love a book that makes me laugh or has a touch of romance in the storyline.  I've been trying to incorporate more nonfiction into my reading list and tackle some of the classics that I haven't read yet. 

13. Can you read on the bus?
Maybe.  It depends on the type of road (because I sometimes get motion sick) and how much noise is around me. 

14. Favorite place to read?
Somewhere quiet.  Usually I read in bed, but I like to go outside if the weather is nice. 

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I will lend my books occasionally, but I've had too many of my belongings returned in poor condition to lend to just anyone these days. 

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
No.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Never.  I hate it!  It feels like a violation. 

18.  Not even with text books?
Nope.  I don't even highlight.  It's too distracting for me. 

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
Since it's the only language I speak fluently, I'm going to have to go with English. 

20. What makes you love a book?
I love books that make me smile, books that make me reach for pen to jot down a phrase or a passage that I like, and books that leave me wanting more. 

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
Immediately wanting to reread the book.

22. Favorite genre?
Fiction.  I'm choosing not to be more specific because I like a lot of different kinds of books. 

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Nonfiction, but I'm getting better.

24. Favorite biography?
I don't know that I have a favorite, but I really enjoyed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. 

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Not what I think of as a typical self-help book, but I do read some Christian living books.

26. Favorite cookbook?
I've found a lot of great recipes in the Taste of Home cookbooks.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
I don't know that anything has been overtly inspirational...


28. Favorite reading snack?
I don't care what I'm drinking while I read, but I like to drink it with a straw.  If I'm eating while I'm reading, I'm usually eating pretzels. 

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Nothing comes to mind, but I plan on reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo soon and I hope it doesn't disappoint. 

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
With movies, I usually feel the opposite way of the critics.  I'm not really sure about books.  I don't think I've paid too much attention in the past. 

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I try not to be mean about anything, but I'll be honest about my feelings and why.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
I used to be able to read in French, so it would be nice to brush up on those skills again.  It would be beneficial for me to read and speak Spanish.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
I think The Fountainhead may have intimidated me in high school when I started reading it.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
I've had a copy of Anna Karenina waiting to be read for about five years....

35. Favorite Poet?
I like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Rudyard Kipling best. 

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Usually between one and ten

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Occasionally, but not too often.  I try to limit myself so that it doesn't happen. 

38. Favorite fictional character?
Right now I'm a big fan of Katniss Everdeen.  Throughout my whole life I've loved Stephanie Plum. 

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Nobody is standing out, but I was always intrigued by Aro in the Twilight books. 

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Whatever is next on my reading list.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
Not more than a few months.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
I have a bad habit of making myself finish a book because I want to know how it ends.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
A lot of noise and movement in my line of vision.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
I'm a fan of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
I liked Twilight at first, but now that I've removed myself from the craziness I can see that it's really not as great as I once thought. 

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
Textbooks aside, probably around $75

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Hardly ever.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Lack of time might make me put a book down for a while before picking it back up.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes.  Although right now they are all packed away in boxes, which makes me sad. 

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Definitely keep.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
I don't think so.  There are some books that I'm just not in the mood to pick up right now.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks made my sense of injustice flair. 

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
I wanted to love Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series (A is for Alibi, etc.), but after reading the first two, I just wasn't into them enough to keep going.  I might give them another try someday. 

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Cozy mysteries and Nicholas Sparks

Teaser Tuesday: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

 My teaser this week is from Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout:

"He was as much a stranger up here now as any tourist might be, and yet gazing back at the sun-sliced bay, he noted how familiar it felt; he had not expected that.  The salt air filled his nose, the wild rugosa bushes with their white blossoms brought him a vague confusion; a sense of sad ignorance seemed cloaked in their benign white petals." (page 31)

Thoughts: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot last night since it was due back to the library today.  What an incredible book!  It is the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose immortal cells, called HeLa, have been essential in furthering modern medicine.  It is the story of Henrietta's family, particularly her daughter Deborah, and their quest to learn about Henrietta and her cells.  Yet, it is also the story of Rebecca Skloot, as her interest in HeLa cells spurred her desire to meet the Lacks family and tell Henrietta's story. 

This book has its share of joy and triumphs, but it is also filled with injustice, racism, and sadness.  I am so glad that Rebecca Skloot spent a decade of her life trying to learn about Henrietta and her family.  This is a story that needed to be told a long time ago, as you find out in the book.

Yes, a significant portion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks deals with science.  But it does not read like a book about science.  So many of the Lacks family's personal struggles and stories are told that at times you feel almost intrusive.  However, you never stop rooting for Henrietta's family.  You empathize with the injustice and hardship.  Most of all, you are thankful for Henrietta's immortal cells and all the wonderful medical cures, vaccines, and research they have allowed. 

If you want to learn a little bit more about Henrietta and aren't sure if you want to read the book, I recommend reading this piece done by CBS Sunday Morning in March 2010.  It's a nice summary and hopefully will make you want to read the book!

Teaser Tuesday (May 18): The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

My teaser is from Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:

"The cells were growing, but Mary didn't think much of it - other cells had survived for a while in the lab.  But Henrietta's cells weren't merely surviving, they were growing with mythological intensity." (page 40)

Thoughts: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I first heard about The Hunger Games through other book blogs a few months ago.  I was on the waiting list at the library, but I finally got it last week.  A few chapters in, I knew I liked it, but I was able to stop reading.  I was worried about that before I started since I knew that people were so crazy about it.  That was Wednesday.  Then, on Thursday night, I decided to read a few more chapters...

I stayed up until 2am finishing The Hunger Games.  Not so much for the plot because I knew it would turn out alright, especially if so many people loved it and there are two more books in the series.  It was really more about the characters.  I wanted to keep reading about Katniss and Peeta.  I love both of these characters so much.  I was captivated by them, their situation, and their interactions with each other. 

I've already started reading Catching Fire, the second book in the series.  The third and final book doesn't come out until August, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do until then.  Maybe this plan wasn't that well thought out.  I probably should have waited a little while longer to start The Hunger Games.  :)

With a bit of coincidental timing, this review of The Hunger Games at English Major's Junk Food came through my Google Reader just before I started the book myself.  I like what she has to say and if you want to know a little bit more about the plot (which I have neglected to talk about), you should check it out. 

Thoughts: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

It's been a while, but I have been busy with finals and end of semester things.  I also graduated on Saturday!  Woohoo!  I did manage to read The Help by Kathryn Stockett this past week.

The Help is a fantastic book!  I think most of the book blogging community have already read it, but if you haven't, you should probably go find a copy immediately!  It was that good.   I was hooked after the first few pages.  The Help is told through the alternating perspectives of three women: Miss Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny.  Here is the description from Goodreads:

"Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t."

Thoughts: Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There is Lewis Carroll's sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which I wrote about here.  Going into Through the Looking-Glass, I was hoping to find more of the story presented in the movie adaptations of Alice.  Some more of the characters were introduced, but I didn't find much more of the movie storyline.  Though, this book does feature Carroll's famous poem "Jabberwocky." 

I especially liked this description of snow that Alice gives near the beginning of the book before she falls asleep:

"'Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty?  How nice and soft it sounds!  Just as if some one was kissing the window all over outside.  I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently?  And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'" (page 156)

Like the original book, this adventure takes place in a dream.  However, Alice questions whether it was her own dream or not.  Also present in this book are Alice's cat Dinah's kittens, Kitty and Snowdrop.  Kitty, a black kitten, and Snowdrop, a white kitten, become the Red Queen and the White Queen in the dream, which is based on a game of chess.  Much like the first book, Alice meets an array of bizarre characters who challenge and puzzle her with words.  Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There is a delightful continuation of the adventures Alice begins in Wonderland.

Thoughts: Three of Anna Quindlen's Short, Nonfiction Books

Ever since my high school English and Creative Writing teacher told me that my writing reminded her of Anna Quindlen, I have been meaning to read some of her work.  So, last week I finally got around to reading three of her short, nonfiction books: A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Being Perfect, and How Reading Changed My Life.  I can't say much about my writing, but I enjoyed Anna Quindlen's books immensely and can at least appreciate the compliment now.

In all three of these books, Anna Quindlen's writing is fresh and insightful.  Her advice, though nothing I haven't heard before, was a welcome reminder to enjoy life.  I especially liked all of the literary references present in How Reading Changed My Life as Quindlen demonstrated the evolution of her reading.  I identified with many of her thoughts about reading and books in general.  For example, on page 20 she writes, "We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind."  More often than not, I read in bed and had never thought of it this way before, but I like it.

I also liked these lines from Being Perfect: "This is the hard work of life in the world, to acknowledge within yourself the introvert, the clown, the artist, the homebody, the goofball, the thinker.  Look inside.  That way lies dancing to the melodies spun out by your own heart." (page 19)  I'm sure these words appeal to me because of the musical reference at the end.

I have another nonfiction book by Quindlen checked out of the library and waiting to be read.  She also has a few novels that I intend to check out, too.  To end, some truth from How Reading Changed My Life: "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road.  They are the destination, and the journey.  They are home." (page 70)

Thoughts: The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

I recently finished The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey.  This was a beautiful debut novel about a man suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.  As someone who is about to begin a career working with older adults, I can say that Alzheimer's Disease is and will continue to be a major problem.  Approximately 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's Disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association.  Alzheimer's Disease has no cure and is the most common cause of dementia. 

The Wilderness is told from the perspective of Jake Jameson, a 65 year old architect who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease.  While it is impossible to truly understand what it feels like to have Alzheimer's Disease, I think Harvey gives a moving portrait of a Jake's mind as it unravels due to the progression of the disease.  I got the sense that Harvey did her research before writing the book as well.  I was familiar with the tests given in the book to measure Jake's mental status, such as the one described in this passage:

"One cannot be expected to remember everything, and in fact remembering everything is a hindrance to living; if an event comes as a thousand details the brain needs to forget nine hundred of them in order to derive any meaning from that event.  So a woman with dyed red hair, coarse skin, and a pen in her hand has explained.  But, she has also explained, too much forgetting is bad.  He had wanted to take her to task over this: Define too much, define bad, who do you think you are, do you think I am a child?  I'm going to say three words and I'd like you to repeat them after me: house, shoelace, picture.  He does not remember what answer he gave, only that he wished for the woman to look away as he strove to meet her ludicrous demands; and he knows that he must, despite an effort, have failed to please her." (page 47)

Given that his memory is deteriorating, the details and stories of Jake's life are not always presented logically, if they are ever explained at all.  Each chapter is in Jake's present, which is why it is sometimes difficult to understand his thoughts or references.  However, the chapters are interwoven with stories from his past, which explain some of the thoughts and memories he tries to remember in the present.

This book is filled with beautiful descriptions and language.  I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Alzheimer's Disease, but also to others who may not be as interested in that aspect.  Simply put, this is a moving novel that everyone should be able to find a way to relate to their own life.  There are so many passages from The Wilderness that I would like to share, but I'll leave you with this one:

"Since he dragged the police into his disease things have changed; suddenly he is a liability, suddenly nothing he says or does can be trusted, as if it used to be quite an informal kind of illness and now it becomes official.  The timeline is a mass of crossings out and corrections.  He feels to be the supremely unconfident author of his life.  Question marks appear against words, then he deletes the question marks, thinking that if he doesn't question the truth there is no question about it.  It is only him, as the woman says, only him who is confusing things." (page 227)

Wordless Weekend

A Favorite Poem

Since it is National Poetry Month, I thought I would share one of my favorite poems: "If I can stop one heart from breaking" by Emily Dickinson.  This has become more than just a poem to me over the years.  It's kind of a life motto. 


If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

   - Emily Dickinson

Thoughts: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

With all the hype surrounding Alice these days, I thought it was time to actually read the book.  I grew up with the animated Disney movie and I recently saw the new one in 3D.  (Johnny Depp was pretty creepy as the Mad Hatter.)  Reading this also counts towards The Classics Challenge. 

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a fast and fun read.  I found it incredibly charming.  I enjoyed the wit and humor that Carroll injected into the characters and their conversations.  As a child, I think I was scared of the Cheshire Cat in the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked him in the book.

Since all of my knowledge of the storyline came from watching the movies, I felt like the story was moving quite slowly at first.  I kept thinking that the plot I knew about had to happen.  After all, it is a very short book.   Having finished reading it, I can now say that a considerable portion of the book is left out of the movies and some of the story in the movies is not in the book.  That being said, I'm wondering if the movies cover the story presented in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.  My copy of the book has both so I plan on reading the sequel as well. 

If you like a story that is slightly out of the ordinary and sometimes just plain ridiculous, yet filled with logic and plays on words, then Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a must read for you.  There are many funny passages I could quote, but I think I will end with the last paragraph of the book.  Alice's older sister is thinking about the adventure Alice has just told her about.  There is something about these words that make me happy and leave me feeling hopeful:

"Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days." - Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, page 144

Drop Everything and Read Day

Did you know that today is National Drop Everything and Read Day?  I didn't until a few moments ago.  National D.E.A.R. Day is celebrated every year on April 12, which is Beverly Cleary's birthday.  According to the official website, "National D.E.A.R. Day is a special reading celebration to remind and encourage families to make reading together on a daily basis a family priority."

While I don't have children to read to, this day seems like a good reason for anyone to stop and read for a little bit.   The D.E.A.R. website has some good resources for celebrating the day.  I found the "Favorite D.E.A.R. Books" interesting.  It is a list of children's books compiled by age.  There is also an additional list of multicultural titles. 

I enjoy looking through children's books every now and then.  I wish I had a record of what I read as a child because I read a lot!  My mom took me to the library all the time.  I hope to pass that on if I ever have a family of my own one day. 

Teaser Tuesday: The Wilderness (April 6, 2010)

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

My teasers this week are from The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey.

"Dogged by these uncertainties, willing her ghost to come, he rid the house of milk, knowing Helen's near phobia of it.  For months he settled for black coffee and found himself remembering those days, so far back - before Alice's birth - when she did drink it, when she loved it, when her freckled skin itself was like cream dusted with cinnamon, when she would tell him his eyes were washed with milk, and when she loved the cherry blossom that curdled on the branches."  (page 35)

100 Mile Fitness Challenge

Today I signed up for the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge.  This is the third round of this challenge and it runs April 1 to June 31, 2010.  I have opted to try for 100 miles.  You can find out more about the challenge here, but basically I will try to walk 100 miles before the end of the challenge.  Progress is updated every Friday on the challenge blog and I will post about my progress here as well from time to time.  I hope this gets me moving!

Book to Movie: The Last Song

Well, I just got back from seeing The Last Song.  It came out today.  I hadn't planned on seeing it opening day, but it just sort of happened.  I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with Miley Cyrus.  She did a better job than I though she might.  Of course, the part was written for her, so I'm sure that helped. 

I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who might read the book or see the movie, but I did like both of them.  They are a little different, though.  As everyone knows, books are usually better than their movies, in part because of the details.  I wasn't expecting this movie to have every detail that's in the book, but I was expecting more consistency with the storyline.  Although the ends are essentially the same, the means are pretty different in places.  Some because of left out details for sure, but other parts were in blatant contrast with the story as presented in the book.  I think it was effective for the movie.  I guess I just expected it to be the same since Nicholas Sparks wrote the screenplay before writing the book.  (Weird?  I think so, but apparently it was because they wanted to shoot the movie last summer.)

In summary, I enjoyed both the book and the movie.  If I had to pick, I would probably say I liked the book better.  However, I liked the movie a lot more than I expected.  Although reading the book beforehand certainly helps fill in the details not explained in the movie, it is not necessary before seeing the movie.  In fact, the movie does well on its own.  (At the very least, you wouldn't have to keep thinking about what is different from the book!) 

Thoughts: The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

I read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks last Thursday.  Last year, I kind of decided that I wouldn't read more Nicholas Sparks because I wanted happier endings!  Then, I started seeing previews for the movie version of The Last Song.  Unfortunately, it looked like something I wanted to see.  Eventually, I gave in and bought the book because if I was going to see the movie, I had to read the book first.  Anyways...

To my surprise, I actually enjoyed The Last Song by the time I finished reading it.  Sure, it won't become a classic, but it worked as a quick escape.  I had a hard time with the character Ronnie at first.  She annoyed be so badly that I was tempted to stop reading.  (It's kind of how I picture Miley Cyrus in real life.  She plays Ronnie in the movie.)  Of course, she evolved and got less annoying as the book progressed.  I don't want to give away the ending, but I was satisfied.  It seemed more real to me than some of his other books, like it would actually happen in real life.  Needless to say, I liked The Last Song much better than the last several Nicholas Sparks books I've read.

I'm planning on seeing the movie, so I'll post something about that later.  It comes out on Wednesday, March 31.

Booking Through Thursday: March 25

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme about (mostly) books and reading.

Question:
Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)
 
Answer:
Until recently, I would have said straight through.  However, since I started reading Bill Bryson's  A Short History of Nearly Everything, I have started and finished two other books.  This is very unusual for me because once I start a book, I like to finish it before moving on to another.  It has nothing to do with not liking  A Short History of Nearly Everything either.  I really enjoy Bryson's writing.  I feel like I am revisiting science I already know while learning a whole lot more that I don't.  I think it's just that at the end of the day, I don't always feel like learning more.  I want to read something fun and escape for a while. 

Well, in the interest of wrapping this up, I think I'm usually a no breaks kind of girl.  Being nonfiction and broken into distinctive chapters, for me, A Short History of Nearly Everything lends itself to taking breaks, more so than a work of fiction ever would. 

The Classics Challenge 2010

I am signing up for The Classics Challenge.  It runs April 1 - October 31, 2010.  Until I see how life goes these next months, for now I'm going to do the Classics Snack level, which is to read four classics.  I hope to only read from what I already own and haven't yet read, but I will allow myself to check out a book from the library if it strikes my fancy.  


Here are some potential selections:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Persuasion by Jane Austen
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather 
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Completed reads linked to my review:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

There is also a bonus in this challenge to read a book that will likely be a future classic.  I think I can handle that.  A list is being compiled on the challenge blog.  Since I own and have been wanting to read The Poisonwood Bible and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I will choose one of those for the bonus.

(updated September 4, 2010)

Teaser Tuesday: A Short History of Nearly Everything

This is my first Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can play along!  Just do the following:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's my teaser:

"Even at speeds approaching those of light, these are fantastically challenging distances for any traveling individual.  Of course, it is possible that alien beings travel billions of miles to amuse themselves by planting crop circles in Wiltshire or frightening the daylights out of some poor guy in a pickup truck on a lonely road in Arizona (they must have teenagers, after all), but it does seem unlikely."

page 27, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything

Thoughts: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

(This is the first review I've ever written, so bear with me while I figure out my style for the blog.  I was always good at writing papers in English in school, but this is a completely different way of writing.  I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me!)

I finished Joanne Fluke's Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder yesterday.  I checked it out of my local library while I was home for spring break.  Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder is the first book in the Hannah Swensen mystery series.  Hannah owns a bakery called The Cookie Jar.  Her police officer brother-in-law allows her to do some snooping after she finds a local man murdered in the alley behind her shop. 

I picked up this book because I saw on goodreads that it was similar to Janet Evanovich's Stephenie Plum series (which I adore!) and I wanted some fun reading for break.  Having read the entire Stephenie Plum series multiple times, I am always looking for a similar series.  While not as good the Stephenie Plum series, I enjoyed reading Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.  It was light and quick.  Perhaps one of the best parts is that recipes are included throughout the book.  Since I love new recipes, especially dessert recipes, I found that aspect very appealing.  I wrote several of them down to try.

I guess I need to figure out a rating system for the blog, but I gave Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder 3 out of 5 stars on goodreads.  Basically, I liked it well enough, but I didn't love it.  I am interested in reading some more of the series in the future to see how the characters develop.  I'm leaving myself open to the possibility that my fondness for the series could increase.

Book Fair Finds

I am so lucky to live within an hour of the Green Valley Book Fair.  It runs for a few weeks, six times a year.  I try to go every time it is open because I always find some amazing deals on great books.  Basically, it is a huge warehouse full of books discounted between 60-90 percent off retail price.  Awesome!

Today, it opened for the first time this year.  My sister and I drove there this morning and got there soon after it opened.  It was so crowded!  Even though it was hard to leisurely peruse the books, I couldn't help but think how great it was to see so many people interested in books.

Here is a list of what I bought today:

American Lion by Jon Meacham
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature by Daniel J. Levitin
Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The American Presidents: Biographies of the Chief Executives, from George Washington through Barack Obama by David C. Whitney
The First Ladies Fact Book: The Childhoods, Courtships, Marriages, Campaigns, Accomplishments, and Legacies of Every First Lady from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama by Bill Harris
The Taste of Home Cookbook
Taste of Home Cookies

I have only read two of these books before: The Little Prince and A Midsummer Night's Dream.  I've read The Little Prince in English and in French.  I also read A Midsummer Night's Dream in high school and loved it.  My 10th grade honors English class actually put on a performance of it and I was the director.  It was a lot of fun.

I got a great deal on the two Taste of Home cookbooks.  I'm looking forward to trying out some of the recipes.  I love cookbooks and am happy to add these to my collection.

As you can see, I was pretty bad today.  I bought a lot of books!  Now my TBR pile is even bigger, but I couldn't just leave them there for such great prices.

Rory Gilmore Books Project

I'm signing up for the Rory Gilmore Books Project as my first challenge ever!  I love Gilmore Girls and always wanted to be reading what Rory was reading.  Imagine my delight when I found out that other people felt the same way!  This is a perpetual challenge, so I have plenty of time to read all of the books.  My post of the book list can be found here. 

Rory's Book List

This is the list of books read by Rory in the television show Gilmore Girls.   Thanks to Shona of Shona's Book Shelves for compiling the list for the Rory Gilmore Books Project.

Books I have read are in bold.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H.R. Mencken

My Life As Author And Editor by H.R. Mencken

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Emma by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

The Group by Mary McCarthy

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

The Divine Comedy by Dante

Carrie by Stephen King

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Don Quixote by Cervantes

Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Christine by Stephen King

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Art of Fiction by Henry James

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Ulysses by James Joyce

Out of Africa by Isac Denison

The Art of Fiction by Henry James

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore

Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman

Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Howl by Allen Ginsburg

Selected Letters of Dawn Powell : 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell

Rita Hayworth by Stephen King

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin

The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Savage Beauty:The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal

The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir

Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare

The Iliad by Homer

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Shining by Stephen King

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Several biographies of Winston Churchill

The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

Selected Letters of Dawn Powell : 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell

The Return of the King: Lord Of The Rings – Book 3 by J.R.R.Tolkien

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Hamlet by Shakespeare

Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry

Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman

Rapunzel by Brothers Grimm

David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Candide by Voltaire

The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx

The Bhagava Gita

Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

Othello by William Shakespeare

Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

What Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell

Fletch by Gregory McDonald

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway

Complete Novels by Dawn Powell

Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/ Angels on Toast/ A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell

What Color is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles

The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche

High Fidelity by Nick Hornsby

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Emily the Strange by Roger Reger

The Graduate by Charles Webb

The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

Inferno by Dante

Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner

Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days (3.1)

A Bolt From The Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy

Shane by Jack Shaefer

Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky

The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield

The Manticore by Robertson Davies

Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Harry Potter – Book 1 by J. K. Rowling

Henry V by William Shakespeare

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare

Fiddler of the Roof by Joesph Stein

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath

We Owe You Nothing- Punk Planet: the Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker

Marathon Man by William Goldman

Deenie by Judy Blume

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Woolf

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Love Story by Erich Segal

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Babe by Dick King- Smith

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Gidget by Frederick Kohner

The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan

Archidamian War by Donald Kagan

The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan

Stuart Little by E. B. White

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

Mutiny On The Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Eloise by Kay Thompson

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Europe Through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves

The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo

Selected Hotels of Europe

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton

Walt Disney’s Bambi (Based on Original Story by Felix Salten) by Felix Salten

Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective byDonald J. Sobol

The Fellowship Of The Ring: Lord Of The Ring – Book 1 by J.R.R. Tolkien

Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi

I’m With the Band by Pamela Des Barres

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

The Hobbit, The Sofa and Digger Stiles (4.3)

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Wurthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Cujo by Stephen King

1984 by George Orwell

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James

A Room With a View by E.M. Forster

Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky; translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Pushkin: A Biography by T.J. Binyon

Ethics by Spinoza

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

The Gospel According to Judy Bloom

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

It takes a Village by Hillary Clinton

R is for ricochet by Sue Grafton

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. WhitE

The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay

Sexus by Henry Miller

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan, Jeffrey L. Williams, Vincent B. Leitch

R  is for Ricochet, S is for Silence by Sue Grafton

A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

The Vanishing Newspaper by Phillip Meyers

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

The Canterbery Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty

New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Sanctuary by William Faulkner

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Good Soilder by Ford Maddox Ford

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Bitch In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

George W. Bushisms : The Slate Book of The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg

Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington

Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret

Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy

Daughter of Fortune by Isabelle Allende

The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

Novel and Fiction Pulitzer Prize Winners

Books I have read are in bold.  

[Novel: 1917 – 1947] [Fiction: 1948 – present]

1918
His Family by Ernest Poole

1919
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

1921
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

1922
Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington

1923
One of Ours by Willa Cather

1924
The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson

1925
So Big by Edna Ferber

1926
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

1927
Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield

1928
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

1929
Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin

1930
Laughter Boy by Oliver Lafarge

1931
Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes

1932
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

1933
The Store by T.S. Stribling

1934
Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller

1935
Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson

1936
Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis

1937
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

1938
The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand

1939
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

1940
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

1942
In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow

1943
Dragon’s Teeth by Upton Sinclair

1944
Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin

1945
A Bell for Adano by John Hersey

1947
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

1948
Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener

1949
Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens

1950
The Way West by A.B. Guthrie

1951
The Town by Conrad Richter

1952
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

1953
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

1955
A Fable by William Faulkner

1956
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor

1958
A Death In The Family by James Agee

1959
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor

1960
Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

1961
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

1962
The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor

1963
The Reivers by William Faulkner

1965
The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau

1966
Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter

1967
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud

1968
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

1969
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

1970
Collected Stories by Jean Stafford

1972
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

1973
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty

1975
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

1976
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow

1978
Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson

1979
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

1980
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

1981
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

1982
Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike

1983
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

1984
Ironweed by William Kennedy

1985
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie

1986
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

1987
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor

1988
Beloved by Toni Morrison

1989
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

1990
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

1991
Rabbit At Rest by John Updike

1992
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

1993
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

1994
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

1995
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

1996
Independence Day by Richard Ford

1997
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser

1998
American Pastoral by Philip Roth

1999
The Hours by Michael Cunningham

2000
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

2001
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

2002
Empire Falls by Richard Russo

2003
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

2004
The Known World by Edward P. Jones

2005
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

2006
March by Geraldine Brooks

2007
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2008
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

2009
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2010
Tinkers by Paul Harding

2011
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

2012
No winner selected

101 Great Books Recommended for College Bound-Readers

This list is from the CollegeBoard.  Books I have read are in bold. 


Beowulf
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
A Death in the Family by James Agee
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Inferno by Dante
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Selected Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Tomas Hardy
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Beloved by Toni Morrison
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Selected Tales by Edgar Allen Poe
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Antigone by Sophocles
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Candide by Voltaire
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Native Son by Richard Wright