Retro Reads

Same Sweet Girls
by Cassandra King

This was a Vanaheim book club selection.  I'm going to blame it on Sarah :)
I don't have much to say about this book. 
Very predictable and little plot development.

Retro Reads

Digging to America
by Anne Tyler

Funny.  I picked this book up at BNoble Har Mar on a "sick day."  Finished it over the weekend.  I must have REALLY needed a book fix.

Anne Tyler is an extremely consistent author.  This book was spot on.  Memorable characters.

It just works.

Retro Reads

Under the Banner of Heaven
by Jon Krakauer

This was a FASCINATING book.  Sarah Jane Kipling raved about it and Matt nearly begged me to read.  Talks about the extremes of religious belief - Mormon fundamentalism. 

It was hard to endear myself to anyone in the book.  Polygamists, drug addicts, pedophiles, liars.  Wasn't clear on what the book's agenda was.  At moments it felt like a Jerry Springer episode.

Mormons confound me.  They are excellent bloggers though . . .

Retro Reads

The Tenth Circle
by Jodi Picoult

This book was the first book read in the House of Newport. 
Matt bought it for me at BNoble Woodbury. 

The Tenth Circle is totally depressing - about a family's disintegration after their teenaged daughter is raped by the local hockey star.   Not exactly a mood lifter.

But a quick, manipulative read that you pretty much tear through . . .

Retro Reads

The Devil in the White City
by Erik Larson

I think this was the first book that Matt and I shared together.

But more significantly, I got this book from Kate (along with chili) when my mom was sick.
Kate is simply the. best. friend. ever.

This was a pretty cool book.  It inspired an Erik Larson on Matt's side of the shelf.  Nobody in the book club liked it - except for Kate and I.  But we know what's what.

I loved learning about Chicago and the World's Fair.  Larson's sense of place is divine. 

It's one of those books that I'll not easily forget. 

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.