Recommended Reading: January 2009
Did you read anything great over the holidays? Anything new appear under your tree? Let us know what you're starting, currently reading, or just finished that should be at the top of our lists.
Please be sure to add the title, author's name, and a brief description of the book, your thoughts and comments.
Please be sure to add the title, author's name, and a brief description of the book, your thoughts and comments.
Hey Jennie! I actually joined a local book club that pairs food and books (we each bring a dish inspired by the book) and we are currently reading Salt and Saffron written by a Pakistani author named Kamila Shamsie. I will let you know my final opinion as well as our group consensus after we meet (and what I decided to cook!)
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Okay, I have a confession. I've been going through a major vampire fiction phase. It all started around August/September with Twilight. I polished off the 4 books in that series in short order. (They're long, but you get through them fast. Kind of like Angel Food Cake.) While they have their faults, I found them totally entertaining.
Then, I read Sunshine by Robin McKinley. A more adult vampire tale. It was pretty good.
I have now finished the entire Southern Vampire Series (which HBO's True Blood is based on). That was like 6 books or something. I really liked the first one, but the other 5 weren't as good. One or two of them read like a good old romance novel. Yikes.
Anyway, I guess that's less of a recommendation and more of a confession. I just had to fess up.
I've also been re-reading the Lord of the Rings, which is excellent. Can't wait to read them to my kids.
On the non-fiction front I'm reading a book called Mindless Eating, which is a really fascinating look at environmental cues that cause people to eat more than they think they're eating. Written by a researcher who does awesome experiments to test how much people will eat in different environments. Sounds boring, but it's super cool.
Oh -- and I also recently read V for Vendetta, which is a graphic novel. It's cool. My nerd husband made me read it. Next, he wants me to read Watchmen.
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After finishing the Twilight series I too am on a vampire kick. So glad I am not the only one. I will have to try Sunshine. I started the first True Blood book (I LOVE the show, but sadly left it on an airplane and couldn't bring myself to buy it again. It seemed exactly the same as the show anyhow.
I read the book Hunger Strike recommended by Stephenie Myer on her website and really liked it. It is written for young adults, but the story is quite good.
I read the first book in the NightWorld series, but it was pretty weak, so I not sure if I will continue with that.
I seem to be on a kick of reading teen trash, then something heavy, then back to trash.
I read a few other books including the Killer's Wife and just started Shining City.
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I guess historical fiction must be my favorite genre because those seem to be the books I recommend here. On this very FRIGID day in Minnesota, I basically holed up and read like crazy. THOSE WHO SAVED US by Jenna Blum was what kept me reading today. The book cover describes the book like this. "For 50 years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only 3 when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer. Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the heartbreaking truth of her mother's life."
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