Smitten...with this cookbook

I swung by our amazing library on Monday during my lunch break to pick up a book I had on hold that had come in (Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, which was very good) and did a quick peruse of the "what's new" shelves.  I've been a Smitten Kitchen follower for years, and being in quite the meal rut lately, I of course snagged the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.

Later that night I kicked back on the porch swing while Oscar and Ninja played in the backyard and started tabbing recipes....2 pads of post-its later....

I basically tabbed every other recipe.  It all just looked SO good, and her obsessive recipe testing guarantees it's not going to be a flop.  So far, I've made the zucchini ribbons with almond pesto (very tasty, though I sliced the zucchini too thick and need to try this one again; user error on my part as I can do like 1 setting on our mandolin grater) and the shaved asparagus pizza with her rushed pizza dough.  Oh. My. Goodness.

Never in a million years would it have occurred to me to thinly shave asparagus (which sounded really hard, but was a piece of cake with a potato peeler) and put it on top of a pizza.  I'm also a huge tomato sauce fan, so a sauceless pizza.....but I took one bite and fell in LOVE, this was out of this world.  Full disclosure:  Ryan got his own pizza with tomato sauce, cheese and mushrooms.  The asparagus was too "weird" for him.  

I will say, the next time I have this on the menu, I'll make the dough on a Sunday, freeze it then grab it out of the freezer the day I want to make it. Even with it being a "rushed" pizza dough recipe, it still took 45 minutes just for the dough, and that's too long for a weeknight dinner.

I haven't been this fired up about cooking in I don't know how long...maybe never?  There's a killer veggie ratoutille that WILL be made when our CSA ramps up at the beginning on June, popcorn cookies (with actual popcorn kernels in them, the anticipation is killing me on this one), lemon bars (for Ryan), a fruit breakfast crisp, shells with peas and a light alfredo....I could go on and on, and probably will as I start to cook my way through this!

I am a big library user, and really only buy books at garage sales or thrift stores.  But this book might be what I spend my $25 Barnes and Noble gift card on, that's how amazing it is.  I have stuff to make for dinner for weeks now!

Have you made anything particularly tasty lately? I know some of you are doing the Whole30 Cleanse, (Jessi I am super sorry about that Tiramisu recipe from earlier this week!),  I'd love to hear about some of the recipes you're using for that! 

It All Ends Here

Or, my un-asked for opinion on the last Harry Potter movie.

I rocked the premier with the sisters and Alli's sweet boyfriend Chris. We all wore Harry Potter shirts Alli made for past movie releases. Mary and I are way too lazy to just make our own. We got to the theatre last Thursday at 7:20 to get in line for Part 1 at 9 p.m. We watched part 1, then had an hour wait until they started part 2 around 12:25. (REALLY WEHRENBERG)

Friday at work sucked, but it was worth it! We were in line behind Hagrid-and the guy was huge. He even had an umbrella!

We decided that me and Alli are Ravenclaws while Mary is a Gryffindor. Can you tell me and Mary apart? Having a sister who grows up and suddenly looks just like you is like getting a twin in your 20s. Kinda freaky!

I loved the movie, but I do have a major issue with the director changing sh*t just for giggles. Little, minor things....like, do you honestly think you can improve upon the book? Because you can't. I really hated that Harry didn't go into the headmaster's study after killing Voldemort to see Dumbledore crying tears of joy as all the other headmaster's applauded. And he didn't fix HIS wand with the Elderwand before he destroyed it! AHHHH. I did appreciate the focus on the trio of Ron, Harry and Hermione. I thought that was very sweet. And I cried and cried when his parents, Sirius and Lupin showed up. No surprise there, I bawl my eyes out at that part in the book. I guess the movie was just like every other HP movie-some parts honored the books while some didn't.

I do think they could've made it longer. And had more battle scenes. And extended the epilogue a bit, especially to include Teddy.

I'm so sad it's over. Harry forever!

Did you catch the final installment yet?

I just finished reading....

Lots of books! Some good, some bad, one or two AMAZING. I was like a fat kid with cake.

I started reading The Taking by Dean Koontz on the way down to Alabama.

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Ryan is a big Dean Koontz fan, and I picked this copy up at a used bookstore for $1. The book was written in 2004, and Ryan says his stuff goes downhill post 2000. The beginning was good, and the ending was great, but the middle went ON and ON and ON. The plot is pretty out there, but I really liked the way he wrapped it up. I'm not mad I wasted the time reading it, but I won't pick it up again either.

Next I read Falling Angels, by Tracy Chevalier, who also wrote The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

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The book seemed more about the setting than anything else-an elaborate Victorian cemetery. It was almost as if the author had a picture of this place in her head and that's what made it down on paper the best. The plot was not nearly as well developed as the background.


The Help, by Kathryn Stockett was SO GOOD.

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I'm sure this is old news for most of you; the book is a best seller and it's been out for quite a while. But I loved it from start to finish. It was by far the best book I have read in a bit. The book chronicles a young journalist fresh out of Ole Miss who decides to interview the domestic help of Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60's, fueled by her friend Hilly's campaign to require separate bathrooms for black maids. There's a movie coming out with Emma Stone playing Skeeter- I can't wait!

Then I read another Chevalier book, The Lady and the Unicorn.

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Once again, it seemed like Ms. Chevalier took one "thing" and built the story around that. In this book, it was a series of famous tapestries. Not my favorite book by any means, but she did tell you what happened to all the characters at the end, which I always appreciate.


After that I picked up What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth: Radio Shangri-La, by Lisa Napoli.

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This was a documentary-esque book about a woman who works for NPR who travels to the remote country of Bhutan, where the GDP doesn't exist....instead, there's a Gross Domestic Happiness measurement. I loved it, and it made me want to find out more about that little country. This is a great travel book that really takes you to Bhutan.


I also read Portrait of an Unknown Woman, by Vanora Bennett.

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This was all about Sir Thomas More's adopted daughter, Meg Griggs. Sir Thomas More was a big muckety-muck in King Henry the VIII's court who stubbornly clung to Catholicism and refused to recognize the king as higher than the pope-which ended in his execution. Sir Thomas More was famous for his revolutionary schooling of his family, particularly the women. This book did drag a bit but it was a really good piece of historical fiction basted on real life events.


Rounding out my beach vacation was The Beach, by Alex Garland.

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I liked this much more than I thought I would! A group of travelers stumble upon the location of a legendary and secret beach in Thailand, and the people they find there have created their own world in paradise. This reminded me of Lord of the Flies but with grown ups. And fields of marijuana.


I also picked up Swampandia! by Karen Russell, Bad Men by John Connolly, Love Among the Ruins by Robert Clark, Being Dead by Jim Crace, and A Secret Gift by Ted Gup, none of which I could finish. I got 2/3's of the way in to Swamplandia! but just couldn't power through. I get maybe 5 pages into to about half of the books I read and just put them down-there are too many good books out there to force myself to slog through a book I don't enjoy.


I love gorging myself on books on the beach! I also signed up for the adult summer reading program at my local library, like a nerd. I LOVE it.


Are you doing any summer reading?

I just finished reading....

Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married, by Gary Chapman.

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Same guy who wrote the Five Love Languages. Most "self-help" books make me feel like crap about my marriage-all I do is pick out the stuff I'm doing wrong. Not helpful. But this book was quite the confidence booster; I picked out lots of stuff that Ryan and I OWN at! Like the chapter on "solving disagreements without arguing." Granted, we're human and we argue, but we aren't hateful to each other about it. We're both totally fine with "apologizing being a sign of strength" and that we "married into each other's families". Domination!

The book honestly wasn't that helpful, but I did get from it a sense that we started our marriage off well, that our foundation is good. So...nothing I didn't know all ready.

Though Ryan still thinks the "love languages" are comical.

Also, the author comes across as kind of an *ss to his wife.

Are you a Gary Chapman fan? Do self-help books send you into a downward spiral of "my marriage is DOOMED!"?

I just finished reading....

Lake with No Name, by Diane Wei Lang.

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I didn't like the protagonist very much at all. Does that make a book hard to read for you? It does for me. The author of this book lived through some pro-democracy protests in China in 1989 (Tiananmen Square), which I was really looking forward to reading about. Unfortunately the book was mostly about her dumb relationships. I just couldn't like the girl...she kept making such idiotic choices. The parts of this book that talked about what it was like to be a University student in China at that point in time were really interesting, and I'm glad I read the book, but I won't read it again or recommend it due to the needless/dumb relationship stuff. If I want that I'll watch the Real Housewives.

What are you reading right now?

Books

How awesome is this!

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It's a desk made from books! I would've but the spines out, but this gives it a much lighter look, don't you think? Maybe I can get Ryan to make me one like this....

I just finished reading...

...lots of books. I am way behind!

Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, by Kathryn Joyce.

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This was scary. The Christian Patriarchy movement, where women must obey their husbands without question and happily bear as many children as God blesses them with is chronicled. I wish the author would've gone more in depth of the women's every day lives, but she focused on leaders of the movement and their philosophy. The movement is just twisted and champions the breeding of children to increase their political prowess.

The Year of Living Biblically, by A. J. Jacobs.

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This is the second time I've read this book, and I really want a copy for myself so I can read it again. It's hysterical. The author goes an entire year following the Bible as closely as possible. He meets with a wide variety of religious personalities, from Hasidic Jews to a snake handling Tennessean. He had a great deal of respect for everyone he dealt with, and he really drove the

point home that it's impossible to NOT pick and choose what you honor from the Bible. Fun fact: The author's wife got mad that he wouldn't sit on seats she had sat on when she was on her period because they were "unclean."

The Well and the Mine, by Gin Phillips.

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A very ethereal Southern novel, very Kaye Gibbons-esque. The setting is a poor mining town and the book is mostly a character sketch. It was a great light read.

City of Thieves, David Benioff.

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This was so good! I've read lots of WWII novels, and this was an entirely new perspective. The book is about a Russian Jew (I think he was Jewish? But I'm positive that he was Russian) escapes from a besieged Russian city alongside a Russian deserter to steal eggs for a Russian general's daughter's wedding. They are stuck in enemy territory full of starving people and have to get the eggs and make their way back. They strike up quite a friendship, and you see a side of WWII that you don't see all that often.

The Stand, by Stephen King.

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BEST STEPHEN KING NOVEL EVER. Yes, this book does indeed warrant all caps. I am a big Stephen King fan, and this was the best one. You should read it. If you're going to read it, stop reading this now, spoilers ahead!

It's all about a flu that sweeps the planet and kills off 99.8% of the population. This is a fatty book and will take you a while to read. I was reading this book during the wedding and brought it along with me in case of downtime...HAHAHAHAHA. Anyway the superior (so superior its sometimes tedious) character development that is typical of Stephen King sets up a large variety of characters. The book culminates in a massive battle between good and evil with the vindictive God of the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures and not the forgiving God of the New Testament. It rules. I read it, then turned around and read it again. So good.

World War Z, by Max Brooks.

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This was super funny. If you liked The Zombie Survival Guide Manual, then you'll like this.

The Lives of Pearl S. Buck, by Irvin Block.

I love Pearl S. Buck, and this was a biography about her. I loved hearing about her early life in China and about the writing process for books.

Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain.

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Loved it. This was another 2nd reading. I got this book for pennies at a thrift store. It has some coffee damage, but who doesn't like to enjoy a good cup of coffee while they read a book? Bourdain details the gritty behind the scenes life of professional kitchens. Lots of profanity and real life stories of restaurants made me feel like I was waitressing again!

Dragon Seed, by Pearl S. Buck.

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I landed this pretty copy at an antique store for $3. This wasn't my favorite Buck book (that would be Imperial Woman), but it was still good. It was all about WWII in China. Holy crap do women get the short end of the stick in wartime.

Blooms of Darkness, by Ahron Appelfeld.

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Not so great, I wouldn't recommend it. This was about a Jewish boy who hides with a Russian prostitute during WWII. It was very ehhh. The plot was really weak and there was no connection to the characters.

Mockingjay, by Suzanna Collins.

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This was the last in the Hunger Games trilogy. While I wasn't crazy good about the ending, I was glad that the author didn't tack some happily-ever-after ending on. The characters had been through so much, it just wouldn't have been honest. The trilogy was wonderful, you should read it if you haven't! Be sure you block aside some serious time, you won't be able to put them down.

Joy Comes in the Morning, by Suzanna Collins.

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SO GOOD. This book is all about a female reform Rabbi who works a lot with hospital patients. I loved the descriptions of the Jewish prayers when waking up and before eating, I really want to look them up. This book was great, I highly recommend it.

A Desert in Bohemia, by Jill Paton Walsh.

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This was all about Communist Russia from the end of WWII until the present day. One family was followed throughout the years, and the loss of their property was chronicled. It was OK, but I wouldn't read it again.

I feel like I've been on a book binge and need a vacation from reading! The last 5 or so books I picked up I couldn't get into, so I'm on a bit of a hiatus. I'm working on quilts, which I can't wait to show you!

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading...

I'm a bit behind, so we'll go 3 for 1!

Portrait of a Marriage by Pearl S. Buck.

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I really dig Pearl S. Buck, but this book sucked big time. It was terrible. It's all about this rich New York artist who marries a Pennsylvania farmer's daughter. Cliches about the "simple folk" abound endlessly and the artist is 100% worthless, he won't help her do anything and produces little income. I've decided that I only like Mrs. Buck's novels about Asia, the rest seem to be unfortunate.

The Saint of Lost Things, by Christopher Castellani.

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This was also pretty lame. It's about a young Italian woman who marries a guy who takes her back to America. They live with her in-laws and work all the time and then can't get pregnant, and her hubs is kind of an *ss. Though the ending was good, it wasn't worth all the nonsense in front of it, so I wouldn't recommend this book.

Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanca.

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OK this book was amazing. It starts out as a series of e-mails sent anonymously by a Saudi Arabian woman about her and her upper class friends and the dating scene in Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal to interact with the opposite sex for the most part. It was fantastic, I think I read it in under 24 hours. Dating and marriage are so much more complicated over there, and so different. Women will have boyfriends for years they only correspond with via phone or e-mail. Anyway I loved it, you should check it out!

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading....

This is Not the Story you Think it Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness by Laura Munson.

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Remember her article in the New York Times? Her husband walked in one day and said that he didn't love her. She looked him right in the face and said "I don't buy it." She felt in her gut that the problem was his and that she could wait it out. So she never acted the victim, never treated him like someone who had deeply betrayed her...and it all turned out OK. She went on to write this book and I am so glad I read it. It really shows how to ride out a rough patch in a marriage by not accepting the mentality of a victim and by refusing to wallow.

The front part of this book was on the slow side, but the last half was super worthwhile.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading....

The Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, by Geraldine Brooks.

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Geraldine Brooks was a war correspondent in the Middle East for years, and she spent an incredible amount of time with Islamic women in many different economic and religious situations. She details how Islam is tied into numerous governments, and she also talks about where many of the (oppressive to us) rules impressed upon women come from. It was super interesting to me to find that the basis for so many of the rules women must adhere to (not driving, the hijab, obtaining permission from their husbands before they can leave their homes) does not come from the Quran. The religious leaders in these countries have made big assumptions based on what they think the Prophet would want, which is sketchy to me. I do that all the time with Jesus, but he was crystal clear when he told people to love others as they love themselves. Anyway, it was surprising to me how little foundation there is for these rules, and how the men are taking advantage of people's faith to subjugate them.

I'm off the soap box! I also read another Geraldine Brooks book a week or so ago, this one about an ancient haggadah call The People of the Book. A haggadah (to my understanding) is the book Jewish families use during Shabbat dinner to guide them through the order and the prayers. A book preservationist is put in charge of preserving a haggadah saved from a museum in Sarajevo during the war. She finds small artifacts throughout the book-a thin white hair, a wine stain, an insect's wing, and through all of these you learn the story behind the sacred book. I really enjoyed the format of this, it was very engaging.

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And last night I stayed up until 11:30 to finish the sequel to the Hunger Games, Catching Fire. When I read the first book I stayed up until midnight, so don't start this book unless you can commit to a marathon reading session! The sequel was really good, but it did get started off a bit slower than the first book. I really enjoyed it, and for a young adult novel it was well done. The last book comes out in August, I believe, and with the cliff hanger ending I will be more than ready!

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I just started Karen Armstrong's new book, "The Case for God," and it looks like quite the text, so I think it's going to take me a while.

What are you reading right now? What's on your summer reading list?

I just finished reading....

The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel.

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Love love LOVE, couldn't possibly say enough good things about this book. I first read this a couple years ago and I remember being incredibly bored by the amount of time he spent in the lifeboat, but that bit went by so much faster on this 2nd reading. The parts about religion I could read over and over, and I have a sermon on my MP3 player based off a reading from this book I love to listen to when I run. Anyway, this book is about young Piscine, known as Pi, the son of an Indian zookeeper. On the ocean voyage to his family's new home in Canada, the ship they are traveling on sinks, and Pi is thrust into a life boat with some of the zoo animals. It's a fabulous book, definitely in my top 5 favorite list.

Also Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster.

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This is about an orphan girl named Judy who grew up in an orphanage called the John Grier Home. One of the trustee's notices her academic success and sends her to college. In exchange she is to write a letter a month detailing her life at school. You can't help buy love Judy and want to be her friend...she's so confiding and honest. You also get a great peek at the day-to-day life at college years ago. This is a super fast read and an old standby of mine, I think I read it at least once a year.

I have GOT to go to the library, that is happening tonight.

What are you reading right now?

Books I want to read

To be updated continuously because the little scraps of paper I have books written down on are started to fill up my drawers.

Every Man Dies Alone, Hans Fallada
God is not a Christian nor a Jew nor a Muslim now a Hindu....God Dwells with Us, in Us, Around us, Carlton Pearson
Couple Skills: Making Your Relationship Work, McKay, Fanning, Paleg (it actually works quite well but I'd like it to stay that way)
His Needs, Her Needs: Building an Affair Proof Marriage, William Harley (see above)
The Proud Villeins, Valeria Anand
The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experient, AJ Jacobs

I just finished reading.....

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, by Fannie Flagg.

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I love Fannie Flagg when I need a pick me up, don't you? And her characters are so wonderful - they stick with you. This book is about a rambunctious 10 year old named Daisy Fay with a fun-loving alcoholic daddy and a prim and proper mother who gets herself in to sooo much trouble. The ending is perfect and this book is such a great feel good book, read it if you need to be cheered up.

Also just finished The Cherished Wives by Valerie Anand last night.

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If you dig historical fiction, read this book. It was so good....and oh how I am glad to live now, where I have rights as a woman. This book follows several generations of Whitmead women who always seem to be limited by the power hungry men in their lives. The first Whitmead woman you meet, Lucy Ann, has to deal with a controlling husband who leaves her for years at a time while he's in India, blames a miscarriage on her and refuses to let her interact with people that he has not pre-screened and approved. You also meet Lucy Ann's daughter in law, Emma, and Emma's daughters, and they all have to deal with the crazy isolation that Lucy Ann did. I am definitely going to look into more of Ms. Anand's books, this was wonderful. The ending was absolutely chilling.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading....

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, by Elizabeth Gilbert.

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It was really good, though boring in parts. It actually made me slightly worried about getting married, it looks like marriage doesn't necessarily always work out that well for women. She covered all the bases, from finances to motherhood and everything in between.

I'm taking away from this the idea that no prescribed equation works for marriage. What works for Ryan and I might not work for you and your partner, and vice versa. I also gathered that there is no "secret to a happy marriage." "It's a hold on tight and buckle in, this is going to be a crazy ride" kind of a deal, you know? This book showed me that you have to let go of what you think a perfect marriage is and work with what you've got.

I will definitely read it again, I actually really want to buy it so I can refer to it periodically.

Have you read Committed yet? What did you think?

I just finished reading...

The Invisible Mountain by Carolina de Robertis.

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So, SO good, go read it. One of the best books I've read in a while, I've put it on my "definitely read again list." The story is about 3 generations of women in Uruguay, and it was fantastic. Abuela marries a carnival magician from Venice and they have a daughter named Eva. Eva is a poet and has a tough relationship with her dad. Eva has a daughter named Salome who gets involved with some idealistic revolutionaries, and Salome has a daughter as well.

It was so well done, so well written. The characters were so real. There was some brutal stuff in here, such as sexual abuse, so be prepared for that if you read it. I highly recommend it.


Also, Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.

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She also wrote The Glass Castle, which is one of my favorite favorite books. I had really high expectations since I enjoyed The Glass Castle so much, and I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed. This book is based on her grandmother's life, and is told from her grandmother's perspective. It was choppy, the narrative didn't have hardly any flow at all. The best part was the end, where the author's parents meet. I'm glad I read it, but I won't be reading it again (I've read The Glass Castle 5-6 times, I won't do the same with this one).

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert is finally mine! I've been on hold for it at the public library and my sister is picking it up for me tonight.

What are you reading?

Twinkle Sews

I saw this book in Barnes and Noble last week and I want it so bad:

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Look at that neckline, it's gorgeous. Usually there's maybe 1 thing I want to make out of every 50 or so patterns I see...but want to make 95% of the things in this book. Unfortunately the reviews on this are not good at all. The patterns used are on a CD, and almost everyone who reviewed the book said that they are a nightmare to print out and put together. Also, it does not look like this book is meant for a beginner, which I very obviously am.

Sigh. Maybe someday! Right now I need to focus on sewing things I can successfully complete without too much frustration, and I don't think this book fits that bill.

I just finished reading....

Devotion, by Dani Shapiro.

This was a memoir written by a former orthodox Jewish woman who is now a very liberal reform Jew. I had no idea that keeping kosher means 2 sinks and 2 dishwashers! The book was about her spiritual journey. It was good, a very reflective book, but she never really fills you in on what spiritual conclusions she reached, which is kind of why I read the book. But I did learn quite a bit about Orthodox Jewish customs. I had no idea that Orthodox Jewish women sometimes cover their hair with wigs to fit their modesty requirements, so I definitely learned a little bit about the different customs. I don't think I would recommend it to anyone though, because it was kind of rambling and no ends were ever tied up.

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Also The Angel Maker, by Stefan Brijs.

This was really good. It's all about a brilliant doctor who dabbles in cloning, to disastrous effect. The interesting part of this though is the story of the doctor's childhood and religious convictions woven throughout the narrative. And the ending was very fitting. I loved all of the Biblical tie ins. A very refreshing read, even though the subject matter was on the brutal side of things. I was confused about who they were talking about when they suddenly switched to the doctor's childhood story, but I figured it out eventually.

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And La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith. He's a pretty famous mystery author, according to my librarian sister. This was a super light read, a story about a woman on the English homefront during WWII who starts an orchestra to boost moral. It was kind of a middle-heavy book in that the beginning was very brief, the middle was very thorough and longish, and then everything was wrapped up in less than 15 pages. So kind of odd, and lots of holes were there that left me wondering about what else happened. The ending was very sweet though.

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That catches me up....last night after I finished the Smith book, I started The Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis. Her prose is blowing my mind, listen to this:

"He had always been a force that kept her on the ground. His company formed a sphere, a raw keen humming place, that encompassed them and all their hidden thoughts, so that she had known before he said it that he planned to leave."

"...her pen moved and moved without her hand seeming to push it, forming the spires and spikes and loops of cursive words, sharp t's and j's, y's and g's with knots at their base as though to tie themselves together, tie women back together, and as she wrote the loops grew large, as if more rope were needed to bind what had blown apart inside her, and not only inside her but around her, her before her, in her mother's days, her grandmother's days...."

I am so hooked, the kind of hooked where my to-do list is now being used as a bookmark, where nothing else will get done until I'm finished with this book. Sunday afternoon while Ryan's at work, I think I might spend the whole time reading.

My reading has really picked up since Alli and I cut off our cable! We now have the Internet only, and if we want to watch something it's on Hulu or a DVD. The first week sucked but now I don't even miss it...and I don't lose huge stretches of time to a Bravo marathon!

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading....

The Custodian of Paradise, by Wayne Johnston.

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It was meh. The author set it up so you couldn't NOT finish it, though, so I suffered through til the end. The story is about an eccentric woman in Newfoundland who has a drinking problem and survived TB. This is where I spoil the plot line, so just a warning. At 16 she gets pregnant with twins. She is shipped off to New York to live with her mom who abandoned her when she was 6. She is locked in a room so that everyone thinks her mom is the one having the babies. She never sees the babies and returns home to Newfoundland where she is to act as if she never were pregnant. The story is told as she lives on a deserted island where she is trying to avoid her mysterious "Provider" who showed up on her way home after giving birth.

The plot line sounds intriguing, but stretch that out over 500 pages and it's a big snooze.

I also just read Ray Bradbury's collection of short stores, We'll Always Have Paris.

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Normally I am not a short story fan. I get too attached to characters to lose them so quickly. This collection of stories was wonderful. They were all so clever, and so vague. I'm typically a fan of stories that tie up all the loose ends (I'm unimaginative like that) but I didn't mind a bit with this book. It was a really quick read, and most of the stories were no more than 5 pages long. It was nostalgic, as many of the stories focused on picturesque small-town life.

Every book I picked up in January was fantastic, but I've started at least a dozen books and put them down because they weren't worth finishing. I'm just not having a lot of luck this month!

I just started The Angel Maker by Stefan Brijs, it is really good so far.

What are you reading?

For the Bibliophile

Sara is hosting an amazing giveaway, go enter for your chance at some good books!

I just finished reading....

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park, by Steve Kluger.

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It's a young adult novel my sister Allison (the one who works in the youth department of the public library, and she's in school to be a high school English teacher) said that I had to read it, because the character development is outstanding. She was entirely correct on all accounts. The characters were so vivid, so wonderful. The book wasn't a straight through narrative. One character would present their side of the story through newspaper articles, letters, e-mails, instant messanger, etc. It was a really unique way of telling the story.

The novel is about 4 kids living in Boston. They fall in love, they find out so much about themselves, they grow up. It was amazing, a really good light read that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

What are you reading right now?