BBAW 2010 is already working its networking magic. I’ve connected with a new awesome blog that is just up my alley, The Broke and the Bookish. I’ve also been reading a few posts from Dead White Guys and the writer is quite the funny lady. Both are worth a click.
And interestingly enough, both participate in B&B’s Tuesday Meme – Top Ten Tuesday. So I’m going to give this a whirl for a while, because let’s be honest, I’m tired of teasers. And, it sort of goes against my no spoiler review policy, doesn’t it? Nobody loves surprises and hates spoilers more than Stack of Spines.
So here’s my list, in no particular order.*
1. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving – not like anything I’ve read before; all the Owens I know are a trip
2. The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follet -EPIC and worth all 1000 pages and then some
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini – changed my worldview
4. Le Petit Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery – read this in French in High School and I’m sad I may not be able to again
5. A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley – King Lear on its head and awesome feminist commentary
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling – just #4 is my favorite – the mermaid egg + bathtub scene? best in whole series
7. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen – you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you
8. The Giver - Lois Lowry – dystopias are awesomely disfunctional
9. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen – love the characters
10. The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield – a love letter to reading
11. Columbine – David Cullen – best work of non-fiction I’ve ever read; I’m also fascinated with Columbine
*I’m going to be a rulebreaker. Rest assured I don’t cut in line or steal your newspaper off your porch on Sundays for the coupons. But I live in College Football Country and am a Midwestern Ohio State fan, so my list is technically called Big Ten and it has 11 books. It goes to eleven. (I’m sorry I couldn’t make eleven louder.) Don’t hate me.
I underestimated just how tragic Loving Frank is, both the book and the act. In one of the most fascinating and horrifying works of Historical Fiction I’ve come across, Nancy Horan weaves an emotional tale fraught with themes as close as interpersonal relationships and large-scale as the early Twentieth Century Woman Movement.
The Heretic’s Daughter takes place during the years preceding and at the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials, but I think it does a disservice to the novel to market it as a Salem Witch Trial story. To say that time period is overdone would be a tad of an understatement, no?
After my initial irritation that I waited so long to read 
Since my husband’s Master’s program has picked up this summer and we cut back our cable, I find I have a lot more time to be productive in the evenings. And, the long daylight hours make it infinitely more tempting to have dinner al fresco with a good book.
I will finish all 3 by the first day of school – August 24, 2010.
I really had a hard time with Hillary Clinton’s account of her years in the White House – at first. The beginning was slow and erratic, but eventually Clinton fell into a productive and thoughtful writing pattern. I’d read Bill Clinton’s My Life a few years ago and was interested to hear her side of the story. Most of all, I wanted to know the question that burns on most people’s minds – why did she stay in her marriage after Bill’s infidelity? Clinton’s thought process is most assuredly outlined within the presidential pages.
Revolutionary Road is a book about depressing people leading depressing lives. Suburban and tragic is about the best way to describe The Wheelers, with a bit of ethereal wit. I wanted to be depressed right along with them, to be totally honest; they made me want to form a melancholy club. Lately I’ve found myself reading a lot of lighter beach-read type books and needed a real literary downer, and this one didn’t disappoint.
