Retro Reads

Plain Truth
by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult does some crazy stuff with books.  An Amish girl kills her unborn baby. 
I mean, who does that?
This is one of my favorite Picoult novels. 
Before she just started messing with my emotions.
I liked it.  I really liked it.

Retro Reads

Good Grief
by Lolly Winston

The cover of this book defines chick lit.   Bunny slippers.
It's an easy book to read.  Sad and depressing though.
In this case, judge a book by it's cover.

Retro Reads

Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy

I felt so good reading this book.  I read so much crap and fill my head with so many insignificant details all day long.  It feels freeing to take time with a book and know you are connecting with scores of others in your generation and other generations who have embraced the same words.

And yes, Oprah made me do it.


I was exhausted when I finished this book.  It took almost the entire summer of 2004 to complete.

Favorite Quote:
" The eternal error people make is imagining that happiness is the realization of desires."

Nuff said.

Retro Reads

Let's Roll
by Lisa Beamer


What a horrible string of books.
Reading this book made me feel manipulated.  I was hoping for a heartfelt book about 9/11 but instead read ramblings from a non-author.  I feel bad being critical of a woman who experienced loss but . . .
No thank you.

Retro Reads

The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant

This was a Vanaheim Book Club selection.  I was in need of a book to get me interested after getting stuck in Anna Karenina.  I loved this book.

The plot: Alessandra Cecchi grows up in the Florentine Renaissance and is married off to her brother's lover.  She has an affair with her painter and ends up in a convent. 

Thrilling turn of events that I did not expect.

Retro Reads

The Jane Austen Book Club
by Karen Joy Fowler

Nowadays, books are really cutesy.  The shelves are flooded with books that appeal to foodies and those that like to travel AND those that really like Jane Austen.  This book hit the scene before all the rest.  So it was novel and fun.  And then they started adapting Jane Austen books for the vampire lovers.

I'm not sure I would think much of this book now.  Probably just as satisfying to watch the movie.  Or better yet, just eat a big tub of popcorn with junior mints dumped in.

Retro Reads

Peace Like A River
by Leif Enger

I loved this book.  I thought it was poetic and beautiful.
My favorite line:  "I have the substance of things hoped for."
Plus, I think it has one of the greatest titles ever.

This was Leif Enger's first work.  This is a man just meant to tell a story.
Others didn't like it quite as much as I.
Not sure why.  This book will never leave my shelf.

Retro Reads

The 5 People You Meet In Heaven
by Mitch Albom

I read this book b/c Tuesdays with Morrie was THE BOOK of our honeymoon.  We laid by the pool and drank those frozen strawberry drinks with backscratcher straws (I can't remember their names ???) and read Albom.

And I had to give the guy a chance. 

Apparently, this book left me feeling quite spiritual and peaceful.  "the secret of heaven - that each affects the other and the other affects the next; and the world is full of stories, but the stories all are one."

Come again?

I should probably read this one again with an entirely new perspective.  But I may be a little too cynical now, sadly.  Which is not to say that I don't believe in Heaven.  I just don't believe in the Heaven that is all sweetly wrapped up and tied with a red ribbon - Albom style. 

And now I've done it.  Written about politics and religion in this blog.  My bad.

Retro Reads

Consequence of Choice
by Slovie Solomon Apple

Back when I lived in Falcon Heights, I had a neighbor named Sue Apple.  She was 92 at the time and sadly is probably now deceased.  She'd always wanted to write a book and so she did.

It wasn't half bad. And it was really long.  And if she can do it, I probably could too.