November Reading
78. Traveling with Pomegranates: a mother-daughter story
by Sue Monk Kidd and Anne Kidd Taylor
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 282
79. The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 371
80. The Floating World
by Cynthia Gralla
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 292
81. The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 282
82. Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid
by Dennis Leary
Genre: Humor
Pages: 240
83. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
by Rhoda Janzen
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 241
84. The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science
by Jill Price with Bart davis
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 247
85. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 253
86. Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India
by Madhur Jaffrey
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 296
87. The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 438
I've gotten so bad about doing this (an I'm pretty sure that barely anyone reads this anymore), that I am just going to hit the highlights of November and December in order to concentrate on doing the year in books list in a timely manner.
Traveling with Pomegranates: a mother-daughter story was enjoyable and made me want to go to Greece. I liked learning about Sue Monk Kidd's inspirations for her book The Secret Life of Bees (too bad that book wasn't any good).
I avoided The Kite Runner for a while because it was so popular. It's not great, but it is a good story and worth reading. Amir and Hasan come of age in pre-revolutionary Afghanistan. Amir is the son of a wealthy businessman and Hasan is the son of Amir's father's servant. The boys are close childhood friends until the guilt of a terrible secret causes Amir to force Hasan and his father to leave. Amir is haunted by Hasan's fate, until the revelation of another family secret gives him the chance to redeem himself. It gets a little Oprah's Book Club in places, but it gave me new insight into Afghanistan and is overall well done.
The Floating World by Cynthia Gralla is a strange novel that reminded me of Haruki Murakami's work. Liza leaves college to travel to Japan to learn the dance of utter darkness. She encounters master dancers, mysterious lovers, political activists and a group of terrorist geishas as she descends deeper and deeper into Toyko's nightlife.
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen had some pretty funny moments. If I hadn't been trying to reach a goal of 100 books this year, I wouldn't have bothered to finish The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. It's supposed to be a satire of Margaret's Thatcher's years of power in England, but it is definitely the British kind of funny (as in not very). Nick Guest, a gay young man, moves in with the wealthy Fedden family, has a series of romantic adventures and works on his thesis about Henry James. Gerald Fedden, the father of Fedden family is a conservative Member of Parliament. The novel finally starts to have some soul in the very end when a scandal that Nick inadvertently causes leads to Gerald's downfall, but it's a lot of boring reading for a small payoff. I never realized that a book with so much graphic gay sex could be so deadly dull.
by Sue Monk Kidd and Anne Kidd Taylor
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 282
79. The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 371
80. The Floating World
by Cynthia Gralla
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 292
81. The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 282
82. Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid
by Dennis Leary
Genre: Humor
Pages: 240
83. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
by Rhoda Janzen
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 241
84. The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science
by Jill Price with Bart davis
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 247
85. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 253
86. Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India
by Madhur Jaffrey
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 296
87. The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 438
I've gotten so bad about doing this (an I'm pretty sure that barely anyone reads this anymore), that I am just going to hit the highlights of November and December in order to concentrate on doing the year in books list in a timely manner.
Traveling with Pomegranates: a mother-daughter story was enjoyable and made me want to go to Greece. I liked learning about Sue Monk Kidd's inspirations for her book The Secret Life of Bees (too bad that book wasn't any good).
I avoided The Kite Runner for a while because it was so popular. It's not great, but it is a good story and worth reading. Amir and Hasan come of age in pre-revolutionary Afghanistan. Amir is the son of a wealthy businessman and Hasan is the son of Amir's father's servant. The boys are close childhood friends until the guilt of a terrible secret causes Amir to force Hasan and his father to leave. Amir is haunted by Hasan's fate, until the revelation of another family secret gives him the chance to redeem himself. It gets a little Oprah's Book Club in places, but it gave me new insight into Afghanistan and is overall well done.
The Floating World by Cynthia Gralla is a strange novel that reminded me of Haruki Murakami's work. Liza leaves college to travel to Japan to learn the dance of utter darkness. She encounters master dancers, mysterious lovers, political activists and a group of terrorist geishas as she descends deeper and deeper into Toyko's nightlife.
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen had some pretty funny moments. If I hadn't been trying to reach a goal of 100 books this year, I wouldn't have bothered to finish The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. It's supposed to be a satire of Margaret's Thatcher's years of power in England, but it is definitely the British kind of funny (as in not very). Nick Guest, a gay young man, moves in with the wealthy Fedden family, has a series of romantic adventures and works on his thesis about Henry James. Gerald Fedden, the father of Fedden family is a conservative Member of Parliament. The novel finally starts to have some soul in the very end when a scandal that Nick inadvertently causes leads to Gerald's downfall, but it's a lot of boring reading for a small payoff. I never realized that a book with so much graphic gay sex could be so deadly dull.