Narrowing last years books to ten was a bit difficult, and truth be known this list is really 12 considering I crammed The Hungar Games trilogy together as one entry. But it's my blog and I can do what I want...and so in no particular order...
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Tigers Wife
The Language of Flowers
The Descendants
The Hungar Games (trilogy)
Turn Right at Machu Picchu
Killer Stuff and Tons of Money
The Paris Wife
The Mistress of Nothing
and...drum roll....the best of the best...
Unsaid
1.08.2012
12.17.2011
November is Chilly -- Read a Good Book!
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Sixteen-year-old Margo Crane fancies herself a modern day Annie Oakley who can shoot her own food and take care of herself. Pretty smart except she regularly has sex with the wrong kind of men. After the violent death of her father, she takes to…drum roll….The River, in search of her long-lost mother. Yawner. Even the sex is a yawner.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
15-year-old Esch struggles with trying to snag a man who only wants her for sex. Her brother Skeetah struggles with saving his beloved pit bull, China. Meanwhile Hurricane Katrina is moving in. I didn’t like the book. I couldn’t put it down but I didn’t like it. Which brings to mind some kind of food addict who knows the Ding Dongs aren’t healthy but they can’t stop shoving them in their mouth.
The Litigators by John Grisham
Finley & Figg is a dumpy law office strategically located on a busy street corner with lots of accidents. Perfect for ambulance chasers. The two partners, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg are like an old married couple whose future looks pretty boring. That is until Harvard-educated, up-town lawyer David Zinc, stumbles drunk as a skunk into their office. Grisham like the old days – darn good book. ♥♥
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
Natalia’s life is woven from the thread of her Grandfathers tale about the Tiger’s Wife. And her life is also unraveling as she follows in her Grandfathers footsteps to become a doctor. Anyway, between her current project of inoculating orphans against disease and trying to find her dead Grandfathers belongings, the true “Tale” reveals itself. ♥♥♥
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Victoria Jones has one good memory – the knowledge she gathered while at her last foster home. When she ages out of the foster program, she becomes homeless but manages to maintain a small flower garden. Somehow (it is fiction after-all) she lands a job selling flowers, where she meets her match in the secret language of flowers – a guy named Grant. Sometimes sappy but all-in-all great book. ♥♥♥♥
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Where just yesterday was a simple farmer’s field -- now stands a wonderful black and white circus that mysteriously appeared during the night. The Le Cirque des Rêves is so entertaining, the food so indescribable that a flock of people follow it – think rock band groupies. But within the circus wall there is much more going on than animal acts and yummy circus food. The circus is a stage for a competition between two young magicians, Celia and Marco. I had visions of this being the best book of the year, until half-way through when the thought vanished like Celia’s Dad. Not number one or even a close second -- but worth reading. ♥♥
Sixteen-year-old Margo Crane fancies herself a modern day Annie Oakley who can shoot her own food and take care of herself. Pretty smart except she regularly has sex with the wrong kind of men. After the violent death of her father, she takes to…drum roll….The River, in search of her long-lost mother. Yawner. Even the sex is a yawner.
15-year-old Esch struggles with trying to snag a man who only wants her for sex. Her brother Skeetah struggles with saving his beloved pit bull, China. Meanwhile Hurricane Katrina is moving in. I didn’t like the book. I couldn’t put it down but I didn’t like it. Which brings to mind some kind of food addict who knows the Ding Dongs aren’t healthy but they can’t stop shoving them in their mouth.
The Litigators by John Grisham
Finley & Figg is a dumpy law office strategically located on a busy street corner with lots of accidents. Perfect for ambulance chasers. The two partners, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg are like an old married couple whose future looks pretty boring. That is until Harvard-educated, up-town lawyer David Zinc, stumbles drunk as a skunk into their office. Grisham like the old days – darn good book. ♥♥
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
Natalia’s life is woven from the thread of her Grandfathers tale about the Tiger’s Wife. And her life is also unraveling as she follows in her Grandfathers footsteps to become a doctor. Anyway, between her current project of inoculating orphans against disease and trying to find her dead Grandfathers belongings, the true “Tale” reveals itself. ♥♥♥
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Victoria Jones has one good memory – the knowledge she gathered while at her last foster home. When she ages out of the foster program, she becomes homeless but manages to maintain a small flower garden. Somehow (it is fiction after-all) she lands a job selling flowers, where she meets her match in the secret language of flowers – a guy named Grant. Sometimes sappy but all-in-all great book. ♥♥♥♥
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Where just yesterday was a simple farmer’s field -- now stands a wonderful black and white circus that mysteriously appeared during the night. The Le Cirque des Rêves is so entertaining, the food so indescribable that a flock of people follow it – think rock band groupies. But within the circus wall there is much more going on than animal acts and yummy circus food. The circus is a stage for a competition between two young magicians, Celia and Marco. I had visions of this being the best book of the year, until half-way through when the thought vanished like Celia’s Dad. Not number one or even a close second -- but worth reading. ♥♥
10.30.2011
October: Scary Good Books
Don’t Let’s Go To the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
Alexandra actually lives how we all dream of as children – little or no parental supervision in a wild country filled with animals and open spaces to explore. If even half of it is true she’s lucky to have lived through it. ♥
Faith by Jennifer Haigh
No matter what I write it doesn’t do justice to the story. So, the basics -- Art is a popular pastor and finds himself in the middle of some unsavory accusations. Faith is a sharply-written book about family and how far loyalty goes. ♥
The Abbey by Chris Culver
Ash Rashid is almost ready to retire, when his niece is killed and he’s forced to look at a case that doesn’t stack up.
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Every once in a while there comes along a book written in a way that is so fresh and new that describing it will not only NOT do it justice, but sound so different and weird as to actually drive potential readers away. So…know this is a wonderful book with the force of poetry and a story that is steeped in culture, sadness, lightness, and hope. ♥♥♥
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmm
Full disclosure: I read that this was a soon-to-be-released motion picture with George Clooney so I simply had to read it. Set in Hawaii, the King family, descendants of Hawaiian royalty are deciding to sell a huge chunk of the islands. Unfortunately Matthew King’s wife Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat-racing accident. ♥♥♥
Unsaid by Neil Abramson
During Helena’s career as a vet, she had escorted thousands of animals to the other side. But newly dead, she’s not doing so well and is basically haunting her husband. She not only leaves him a houseful of animals, but a not-so-loving mysterious life as an animal researcher. Enter Cindy-- a ‘signing’ chimpanzee who is scheduled for a research experiment that will undoubtedly kill her. Quite possibly the best book of the year. ♥♥♥♥
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Julie Otsuka’s debut novel (2003) is about the Japanese internment camps. See full glowing review about her style above. ♥♥♥
White Heat by M.J. McGrath
Set in the Arctic, White Heat is the story of half Inuit and half outsider, Edie Kiglatuk – who makes her living as a guide. When a man is shot and killed on one of her "authentic" adventures she is suspicious of the events and tries to discover what actually happened. ♥
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