the one with the yellow cover.

Well, I finally read an Emily Giffin novel.  It was a bit exhausting.

I felt by the end of Baby Proof that I really didn't know the character.  Didn't know what she looked like, what she ate for dinner, how she styled her hair.  Honestly, I just really hated this book.  Nuff said.

Guess I'll have to stick with Curtis Sittenfeld & Jennifer Weiner if I really want to delve into the chick lit world.

And stay away from the pastel books.

They really don't look good on my book shelf.

the one by Anna.

What a blissful week it has been reading a book I love.  A vacation from nasty, grueling books that are tedious chores to get through.  A book with characters I can relate to, free from shock tactics of sex and gratuitous violence.  A book with heart.

What I love about Anna is that she gets grief.  She lost her mom in her twenties to ovarian cancer.  My favorite passage in this novel takes place when Mary Beth questions another's grief.  She says "whatever she did was fine.  That's what I've learned.  It's fine.  Whatever you manage to do."  Life should be about more than just managing but some days we can only do our very best.

I was charmed by the ending of this novel.  I have a dream about moving to Vermont someday and living in a barn and having antiques and cooking chicken tetrazzini for my family and learning to be a master gardener.  But the life I envision now will ultimately be disappointingly different and much, much grander than I could ever imagine.

I know I shouldn't reveal the last sentence of the book but darn it, I love it.
"This is my life.  I am trying."

Can't wait to meet Anna tonight.

the one that is really sick.

The Cement Garden is the first novel that Ian McEwan ever published and it really makes me question the author's lucidity and values.  This book is chillingly morbid and dark as it explores themes of sexuality and death.  Four children are left orphaned by the death of their two parents.  What ensues after they are left to their own devices in their home is nothing short of awful. 

I don't know what to do with this book now.  It feels wrong on my book shelf.  I can't believe I was gifted this book by a member of the Stillwater Book Club. 

Perhaps being totally creeped out by a book is a sign that the author has extraordinary skill in expression and imagination.  But something this bad cannot be good.  I think I might be done with McEwan now.

the one I didn't pick

I am in a book slump that only Anna Quindlen can save.   Thanks be that she is coming to MN and launching a new book April 13th.  And yes, I will be first in line.

The Outlander by Gil Adamson was picked by Diane in my Stillwater Book Club.  A woman who normally has exquisite taste in books.  We all pick duds sometimes.

The only good thing to say about the novel is that it has a pretty cover.  Matt almost picked it up recently at BNoble because of his pretty cover theory.  Let's just say that I will continue to pick the books around here.  I mean, really.  It's true what they say about never judging a book by its cover, you know?

This was a book about a women who killed her husband and runs off into the Wild West in a state of despair and madness.  I skipped paragraphs at a time and annoyed my husband endlessly with exclamations of "I hate this book." I didn't throw it across the room but I certainly thought about it.
 
Bring on Anna!