What Cara is Reading

The Other Boleyn Girl

Next up on list:

Ugly Americans
Known World

What Jenn is Reading

I'm reading "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer...I guess most people read this in high school. I'll give more of an update later.

Krissy's Top Ten

Okay, here goes:

Shopgirl - Steve Martin
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
Shutterbabe - Deborah Copaken Kogan
America (the book) - John Stewart
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
You Shall Know Our Velocity! (paperback version) - Dave Eggers
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Jenn's Top Ten

Top Ten in no particular order:
"The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosinski

"Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden

"Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown

Lynn's Top Ten

Edit away!

Welcome back, Oprah.

Me and Oprah, we think alike. Gotta love James Frey. If you haven't given this book a shot yet, let me take this opportunity to once again recommend it!
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Oprah returns to touting new books
September 23, 2005

NEW YORK --After two years of celebrating the past, Oprah Winfrey has decided to welcome back the present.

Her latest book club pick, announced Thursday on her television show, is "A Million Little Pieces," James Frey's graphic memoir of substance abuse. It marks two departures from Winfrey's recent choices: It's a contemporary book, and a work of nonfiction.

"I've decided I will open the door to all books as potential Oprah's Book Club selections," she said Thursday. "I feel this will give the book club a whole new range of opportunities to explore the world through words."

Frey's book was first released in 2003 and paperback publisher Anchor Books has commissioned a new printing of 600,000. "A Million Little Pieces" was No. 1 on Amazon.com as of Thursday night.

Three years ago, Winfrey announced she was cutting back on book club picks, saying it had "become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share."

Since 2003, Winfrey has recommended "classics," including John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" and Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth." She recently completed a "Summer of Faulkner," picking a trio of novels by the Southern writer.

Last spring, more than 100 writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Jane Smiley and Jhumpa Lahiri, wrote an open letter to Winfrey that urged her to "consider focusing, once again, on contemporary writers" and suggested that her abandonment of newer works was hurting sales.

The Shipping News - Annie Proulx

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

This one came highly recommended and although it didn't QUITE live up to its reputation, I enjoyed it. It was SLOW goings for a while there and I actually put it down to read another book before I finished it, but once I got used to her unique writing style and got the characters straight in my brain, I really enjoyed it. But I don't ever want to live in Newfoundland ... (Sorry Cara!)

Approved -- 3 bookmarks -- although I think I am going to recommend we alter the bookmark scale a bit -- 4 just isn't enough. If we were using a 5 point scale, this would be a 3, maybe a 3.5. What do you guys think?

Moens OUT!

Shopgirl - Steve Martin

This was a great read...short and simple and addictive almost. I really connected with Mirabelle - Steve Martin was so good at writing a sharp, witty storyline and describing her thoughts regarding both the boredom and hopes in her life.

I think it was Leah who was saying she has a hard time with male authors writing from the female perspective? Well I think he pulls it off really well here. I'd be curious to see if this is just my opinion or if others agree. I think Steve Martin just nails it. He tells the story of Mirabelle who works as a shopgirl serving the glamorous at Saks (or one of the other upscale dept. stores) in Beverly Hills but leads a seemingly uneventful, simple life. The story begins as one of her customers makes a move on her and they both learn a lot about what they want in life.

I recommend everyone to read this. Especially since it is becoming a movie soon, right?

My verdict - 3.5 bookmarks. Very close to 4.

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters - Julian Barnes

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes

So this came highly recommended and although it was a bit like pulling teeth getting through it, I AM going to recommend it ... HOWEVER ... be warned that it is tough to get through. Each chapter is a different narrator and a COMPLETELY different style ... but they all relate to each other so it's interesting. If you're going to read it, I can recommend chapters to choose from -- but then again, since they all relate to each other, maybe you don't want to skip any (although let me tell you, I WANTED TO SKIP SOME).

So bottom line .... I ... give it ... 2.5 bookmarks?

Oh PS -- it's not like a chronological take on the history of the world -- it is just ... it's a bit out there. The End.

Approved?

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

I did enjoy this book, and the main reason is because of the unique perspective it gave on life in Afghanistan. Through the voice of a young boy (who grows to be a middle-aged man in the book), it describes how the Afghanistan went from a wonderful, peaceful place to live to a war torn country, eventually taken over by the Taliban.

At times, I felt the writing was a bit predictable and inconsistent (some of the events/outcomes were a little too obvious). But overall, it is worth the read. It has good character development - readers feel connected to the narrator, Amir. It often even stirs up strong feelings toward him. Do you love him or hate him? And the historical take-away from it was certainly worth it. I like it when I finish a book and feel like I learned something new, which I did from reading this.

I give this book 2 1/2 bookmarks. (but for me, 4 bookmarks is pretty much the best book ever! so 2 1/2 is pretty good, but not my favorite or necessarily life-changing)

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

I uploaded my own image! Yay.

So I read this book a few months ago and would love to hear other people's opinions on it, if they have read it already. It was a sometimes tortuous 800 pages to get through...some parts were a bit dry for me, talking a lot about farming issues of the olden days, but I read that Tolstoy had issues with that so was voicing his opinions through his character. Levin, I think his name was? How quickly I forget.

All in all, I did enjoy it. I really felt for the characters and felt like they were my friends. I was sad when it all ended and the stories were done. However, a piece of advice to those who haven't read it and choose to...I read a version that had a preface before the book. I chose to read it midway into the book, and it totally gave away the ending! PLEASE, for goodness sake, do not read this if you get this version as it reveals a HUGE spoiler. I was so upset and it really changed the rest of the 400 pages or so I had left. I don't understand why they call it the preface. Wouldn't it have been better at the end, after we know what happened? Bleh.

I give this book 3 out of 4 bookmarks.