I'm sorry to say that I don't remember them all.
!. We were the Mulvaneys (Joyce Carol Oates)- very depressing and long, but a good book overall.
2. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything in Italy, India, and Indonesia (Elizabeth Gilbert)- A new divorcee has a lot of money to blow, goes to Italy to gain lots of lbs and learn the language, then to India to lose the weight by yoga-ing for three months, and then goes to Bali to find a medicine man she doesn't even know and then ta-da, finds love in the worst of cliches. The first part had potential, but no wonder some guy wrote a male version entitled Drink, Play, F&*$, in which a dude goes to Ireland, Vegas, and Thailand. My friend Nora and I made fun of this book a lot.
3. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)-- This was the second time I read this book and most of it was at the credit union, while supposedly working online. Reading this was in preparation for our honeymoon to Prince Edward Island. I'm so happy that I visited the fictional Green Gables!
4. Ahab's Wife- another book that seemed to have a lot of hype, but was completely unbelievable and a little bit insulting to those from the South, or anyone who has studied history. Oh, and I hate to give it away, but the Ahab's widow, the heroine, marries Ishmael at the end. Not worth six-hundred pages.
5. This Side of Paradise- F. Scott Fitzgerald set the tone for the 1920's. I also read the short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and liked it.
6. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)- Now I consider this one of my favorite books and I wish I had read this earlier in my life. Atticus Finch is one of the greatest fictional heroes of our time.
7. Dancing Girls (Margaret Atwood)- A short story collection by one of my favorite authors. There were some very twisted stories in here, but Atwood is always full of surprises.
8. Delta Wedding (Eudora Welty)- I had to read a book in the tradition of the Southern gothic genre. This novel expertly paints a portrait of a Southern family, rich in secrets, heritage, and tradition.
9. Witches of Eastwick- A really weird book by John Updike, who recently passed away. Although I enjoyed the book, I'm not sure if I will be reading the sequel- The Widows of Eastwick.
10. A Passage to India (E.M. Forster)- A commentary about British-Indian relations in the 1920's. The British are not portrayed too positively here.
11. 1984 (George Orwell)- Whoa, this book is crazy. Although I was totally intrigued and couldn't put it down at times, I enjoyed Huxley's Brave New World much more. The kids at school are reading it now and the reviews are pretty mixed, but some of them just don't want to read at all.
12. Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald)- Another of Fitzgerald's novels and one of his best. Beautifully written about an unhappy couple oozing with the glitz of the 1920's and the inevitable downfall.
13. My Life in France (Julia Child)- a love letter to French cuisine by my new idol, Julia. Read about it in my last journal entry.
There are many more to come in 2009, including my current read, The Beautiful and the Damned, by Fitzgerald.
3 comments:
I'm reading Eat Pray Love right now, well, sporadically, but it'll be my plane book tomorrow evening. It's just okay for me so far, though I'm having a difficult time identifying with the situation. Very few people can just pick up and go to three countries because they're having a rough time. I'm holding out though. If it doesn't work, I've got something else.
Well, what I really meant was that it was an overrated book (like every book club read it, you know) and it is totally unbelievable.
The first part (in Italy) really was the best for me and the one I could most identify with!
btw, you should sign up for goodreads.com!
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