Good reads!!

Hi ladies!

I wanted to pass on some suggested titles, in case you're needing something new to read before our next book club meeting. Before I list them, though, I want to suggest you all get on your library's hold list for The Help by Kathryn Stockett. That is our next reading selection, and since it is currently on the NY Times Bestseller List, it will probably take you a little while to get your hands on it. It took me between 2 and 3 weeks to get my copy a few months ago. I am SO excited that is Julie's choice! It is an excellent book.

I'll write just a bit about each one. All of the titles can be clicked on to take you to amazon.com so you can read more about them. Some of these I've read recently; others were a while ago.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan--another debut novel. I love debut novels! The best word to describe this book is captivating. I thought about making it my next book club choice, and maybe I still will. It is a fascinating read that provokes a lot of thought about women, motherhood, marriage, etc. It is the fictionalized account of the true story of Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney.

The Piano Teacher by Janice Lee--Nan recommended this to me, and it was a very enjoyable read. I had no previous knowledge about Hong Kong during WWII, and that's what I love about historical fiction--learning about history in a very painless way.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield--My mom lent this one to me. I thought it was very intriguing. To be honest, I don't remember a lot about it, other than there were some parts that I didn't remember about which kind of surprised Nan when I then lent it to her--oops! But just a little bit, obviously, since I didn't remember it. This one has popped up on a lot of recommended reading lists.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum--This one is also showing up on a lot of lists lately. My mom also found this one for me. It is also historical fiction, sent in Weimar, Germany, during WWII. You know me--I don't like sad things, so Nazi Germany is not my first choice for a novel. This book is set in present day too, however, and flashes back to WWII. It is a very interesting storyline about an adult daughter who knows she came from Germany to America with her mom shortly after the war, but her mom absolutely refuses to talk about the war. The daughter is a professor of German history, I think, and she decides to conduct interviews of Germans who lived in Germany during WWII to record their side of the story, similar to the Shoah project, which records Jews' stories. It is not a true story, but obviously similar stories really happened. There is one scene that is so heart-wrenching I still feel haunted by it, but other than that, if I can read it and deal with the storyline, you can too.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving--I haven't read this book since college, but this and the book below titled Paula where the only 2 books in college that made me connect so emotionally to the characters that I actually cried. I was an English major, so I read a heck of a lot of books; therefore, it meant something that they moved me so much. The ridiculous movie Simon Birch is based off of the first hundred or so pages of this, but the book is NOTHING like the movie in terms of cheesy-ness, and it does not end like the movie does. Such a great book!!



84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff --I just picked this up today, and the entire time I read it this afternoon, I was smiling. It is delightful. It is one that I saw as an "if you liked Guersney . . ., You'll like this" recommendation. Unlike Guernsey, it is a true story. And it reminds me some of one of my favorite all-time books, which is the next one.



Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther --I always hesitate to recommend this to people a. because I love it SO much that I don't even want to hear about it if you don't like it :) and b. because I can't tell if anyone else would like it. I just relate so much to the main character; I've never met a character in print who was so much like me. You'll just have to look it up yourself to see if it sounds like something you'd like.


Paula by Isabel Allende This is another one I haven't read since college, but it is by an author I studied quite a bit in college. It is very moving and is a true (sometimes with some exaggeration) story. It is part of my favorite genre, which is magical realism. You can click on the title to read more about it.


Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer--I mentioned at the last book club how I used to teach this book. It is all about mountain-climbing, and I learned so much from it.


Life of Pi by Yann Martel--I also used to teach this book, and this one pops up on a lot of lists as well. I don't even know how to describe how much I love this book. It is just one of my favorite kinds of stories, about someone surviving by sheer determination and wit, and it is extremely well-written. There are gorgeous, descriptive passages all over it, so much so that when I think about this book, I think of all the colors that were in my mind as I read. It has a slow but interesting start, though it definitely picks up once the ship wrecks (I'm not giving anything away with that).


Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares Talking about books I taught reminds me of how much I love this series for teenage girls. I really, really loved these books. If you want something light and fun to make you feel like a teenagers again, read these. Oh, and of course, they are a million, trillion times better than the movies.


Okay, I'm thinking of a few more now that I've gotten going, but I better do some other things. I hope this list is interesting to some of you! Please let me know if you read any of these, and also, PLEASE post your own recommendations too!! I could really use some new good books.
:)