Monthly Archives: December 2008

My top reads of 2008

This year I read 130 books.  That’s wayyy more than I’ve read in any other year of my adult life, and 30 more than my goal for the year.  When I made my goal of 100 books this year I truly wasn’t sure if I could do it.  I’m amazed that I’ve surpassed it by so much and inspired to set an even higher goal for next year.  I went through the list of what I’ve read this year and picked out my favorites for the year.  I have chosen 10 fiction books and 5 nonfiction books that were my absolute, must-reads of the year… without further ado, here they are (click on book titles to get to my reviews).

Top Fiction Reads of 2008:

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

2. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

3. Love Walked In – Marisa de los Santos

4. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

5. We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver

6. Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri

7. Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe – Jennie Shortridge

8. Nefertiti – Michelle Moran

9. The Wednesday Sisters – Meg Waite Clayton

10. Just Listen – Sarah Dessen

Top Nonfiction Reads of 2008:

1. Escape – Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

2. What Matters – edited by David Elliot Cohen

3. Choice – edited by Nina de Gramont and Karen E. Bender

4. An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore

5. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down – Anne Fadiman

I have read a ton of great books this year, in addition to the above 15.  My complete list of books read in 2008 with links to reviews can be found under the “2008 Books” header at the top of the main blog page.

Based on my progress in 2008, I will be setting a goal of 135 books for 2009.  I am pretty sure I can make it happen, although I do want to read a few longer books this next year.  We’ll see how it goes.  I also went a little crazy on joining challenges, so we’ll see how that goes.  Check out my challenge blog for more details on all the challenges I’m participating in.

Thank you, everyone, for such a fantastic first year of blogging for me.  When I started this blog, I knew basically nothing about blogging and had never even heard of book blogging.  This blog has grown so much since then and it’s all because of you guys.  Happy New Year, everyone, and here’s to a fabulous book-filled 2009 for all of us. :)

World Citizen Challenge

Since the moment Eva announced her World Citizen Challenge, I knew immediately that I would participate.  I finally have taken a look around her suggested reading lists and decided on the books that I’ll choose from for the challenge.  I’ll be participating at the post-graduate level, which means reading seven books with at least one from each category.  Here are the possibilites for what I’ll be reading:

Politics:

History:

Economics:

Culture/Anthropology/Sociology:

Worldwide Issues:

Memoirs/Autobiographies:

Also, check out my progress in 2009 on this challenge and all the other challenges I’m doing on my NEW CHALLENGE BLOG(!!!) <— click on it, you know you want to. ;)

The challenge blog isn’t too snazzy yet but I’m working on it… for now I just have all the challenges set up on their own pages, which is a huge step from the “organization” I had of my challenges on this blog.

Thanks, Eva, for hosting the World Citizen Challenge!  I’m super excited to start reading. :)

Review: Red Highways

Red Highways: A Liberal’s Journey into the Heartland – Rose Aguilar

A Liberal's Journey Into the Heartland Cover

From the book jacket -

Rose Aguilar breaks the shallow stereotype of red-state voters and reveals what matters most in the heartland, what makes it tick, and what gets its citizens to the voting booth.

Red Highways goes beyond the sound bites to explore the ways our great national pastime of political mythmaking oversimplifies real Americans and flattens three-dimensional people into idealized one-dimensional voters.  The result is a very readable romp through the heartland – one that proves Barack Obama was right when he said there are no red states or blue states, just the United States of America.

This book was fascinating.  When Ms. Aguilar contacted me and asked if I’d like to read her book, I thought the idea sounded pretty interesting and I was very curious about what she did with the premise, where she took this grandiose idea to travel around the country, talking to strangers about their politics.  Red Highways totally surpassed any expectations I could have had for it.  The conversations Aguilar had with “red state” Americans were so interesting… she really showed that these places are not solely made up of conservative Republicans, that in actuality there is just as much diversity in some of these areas as in big cities such as New York or Chicago.  The book made a really good case for just talking about politics with friends, neighbors, family, whoever you spend time with, because so many of the people Aguilar talked to explained that they were Democrats or even moderates but were afraid to make that information public among their Republican friends, neighbors, and church families.  The funny thing was, Aguilar would find several different people in the same group that said this… they were all hiding the same “secret” (and my guess is that you’d find the opposite to be true in places like San Francisco – people too afraid to admit they’re conservatives).  

Not only is this book interesting, but at just over 200 pages it is very accessible.  It written in an easy, conversational type style which makes it a book that just about anyone could easily pick up and get through in a relatively short amount of time.  Which is fantastic, because I think that Red Highways is something everyone should read, especially those of us liberal Northerners unfamiliar with the “red states”.  This was a really eye-opening read for me and I got a lot of insight about stereotypes we all have, myself included.  

The only thing I might add to this pretty great book would be a touch more analysis.  Aguilar explains that the main thing she learned from this project is how important it is to get out of your comfort zone, engage with people who think and believe differently than you do – and as someone who lives in San Francisco, she stated that her regular interactions tended to be with people just like her.  What she points out here is an excellent take away from Red Highways, but I feel like there could be so much more.  I feel like this book is packed full of discussions, analyses, etc., and I think Aguilar could have gone into a bit more depth with her own thoughts about what she experienced.  I also think that a bit more depth of this nature would help the book be more of a “scholarly” book – the type that can be read in high school and/or college classroom poli sci classes.  I am being kind of picky about this, though, because truly there is a lot to take away from this book and it is such a worthwhile read.  I encourage everyone to pick it up and share with family and friends (especially those who disagree with you!).

Thank you, Ms. Aguilar, for sending Red Highways out to me. 

Review: The God of Animals

The God of Animals – Aryn Kyle

godofanimals

From the book jacket -

When her older sister runs away to marry a rodeo cowboy, Alice Winston is left to bear the brunt of her family’s troubles — a depressed, bedridden mother; a reticent, overworked father; and a run-down horse ranch. As the hottest summer in fifteen years unfolds and bills pile up, Alice is torn between dreams of escaping the loneliness of her duty-filled life and a longing to help her father mend their family and the ranch.

To make ends meet, the Winstons board the pampered horses of rich neighbors, and for the first time Alice confronts the power and security that class and wealth provide. As her family and their well-being become intertwined with the lives of their clients, Alice is drawn into an adult world of secrets and hard truths, and soon discovers that people — including herself — can be cruel, can lie and cheat, and every once in a while, can do something heartbreaking and selfless. Ultimately, Alice and her family must weather a devastating betrayal and a shocking, violent series of events that will test their love and prove the power of forgiveness.

Nothing about the book description itself jumped out at me.  I’m not sure what exactly led me to pick up The God of Animals – I’m assuming it was a review I read or something – but I am so thankful that I did because I can’t stop thinking about this book.  It’s not the type of book I would say that I “love” but the best way I can describe it is haunting.  The characters will not soon leave my mind and I know I’ll be thinking about it for quite some time.

If you are an animal lover, especially a horse lover, this is not the easiest book to read.  I know absolutely nothing about horse training, so I can only guess that Kyle wrote these parts of the book accurately, but I need to throw out a warning that there is a LOT of very detailed scenes depicting abuse of the horses… it was very, very hard to read and I was near tears during some of the passages.  This one thing, however, is probably the only aspect of the book that I didn’t enjoy, and truthfully I think the details added helped the believability of the book… but I did not like to read about these details in particular, it was just really hard for me.

The writing in this novel is simply beautiful.  Every word, every sentence, was obviously chosen so carefully to make every single aspect of the book a crucial element of the story.  Now, I am a person that can never love a book based on beautiful writing alone (if the story/characters don’t do it for me, the writing can never save the book), so I also have to make perfectly clear that the story also captivated me.  It was not a page-turner type of story, exactly, but one that made you slowly fall into rhythm with the characters and their lives, a story that kept you turning pages because you started to care and had to find out how things turned out.  At least, that ‘s the way the book felt for me – like I started developing relationships with these people (especially Alice) and I couldn’t turn away from them without knowing how their lives turned out.  The God of Animals is most definitely a sad book overall – there are a lot of observations about class, poverty, mental illness, and abuse (of animals, not of people) – but it ends with a note of hope and for me, the ending was exactly what I needed.  It completely satisfied me while still seeming true to the characters and their lives; not at all artificial or forced.

Overall this was a stunning book that I truly recommend.  It may not go up there in my top ten, but I will not soon forget these characters and I’m very glad that I got to spend some time with them while reading The God of Animals.

More reviews:

Review: Certain Girls

Certain Girls – Jennifer Weiner

A Novel

From the book jacket -

Readers fell in love with Cannie Shapiro, the smart, sharp-tongued, bighearted heroine of Good in Bed who found her happy ending after her mother came out of the closet, her father fell out of her life, and her ex-boyfriend started chronicling their ex-sex life in the pages of a national magazine.

Now Cannie’s back. After her debut novel — a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) version of her life — became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She’s happily married to the tall, charming diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky and has settled into a life that she finds wonderfully predictable — knitting in the front row of her daughter Joy’s drama rehearsals, volunteering at the library, and taking over-forty yoga classes with her best friend Samantha.

As preparations for Joy’s bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie’s world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception — the story her mother hid from her all her life. When Peter surprises his wife by saying he wants to have a baby, the family is forced to reconsider its history, its future, and what it means to be truly happy.

Radiantly funny and disarmingly tender, with Weiner’s whip-smart dialogue and sharp observations of modern life, Certain Girls is an unforgettable story about love, loss, and the enduring bonds of family.

Jennifer Weiner is a “chick lit” author that I really like.  This is the fourth book of hers that I have read (Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and Little Earthquakeswere the first three) and the fourth that I have totally enjoyed.  What was great about Certain Girls was the fact that I got to revisit Cannie Shapiro, who I really enjoyed reading about in Good In Bed.  I also loved the format of giving both Cannie and her daughter Joy a voice in the book – the story was told in alternating chapters between the two of them.  It gave a fresh perspective, with half of the story being told by a thirteen-year-old girl.  Also, I found myself sympathizing with both characters as they struggled to create a healthy mother-daughter relationship and resolve their differences. 

Something that Weiner always does a fabulous job with is writing great, likable characters.  The majority of the characters in this novel were complex, interesting, and people that I could see myself being friends with in real life.  I loved all of them, especially Cannie and Joy, and I desperately hoped that the two of them would just “figure it out” and start to get along – I wanted Joy to realize how much her mother loved her, and I wanted Cannie to understand that Joy needed a bit of independence at her age and maturity level.

The ending to Certain Girls totally surprised me.  I liked it, more than I like most “chick lit” endings – but that’s all I plan to say about that. :)

I would recommend reading this book if you’ve enjoyed anything of Weiner’s in the past, or if you’re a person that likes more literary “chick lit”.  This is a great novel with fantastic characters and wonderful writing.

Review: Escape

Escape – Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

From the book jacket -

When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.

Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.

Escapeexposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

I knew that I would be swept up in this book from the moment I picked it up, based on what I’ve heard from other bloggers and reviews… and I was not a bit wrong about that.  Carolyn Jessop’s harrowing tale of life as the third wife (out of five when she lived there, up to nine I think after she left) to a very important man in the FLDS church, Merril Jessop, was absolutely riveting and I could not put this book down.  I was both horrified and fascinated by what I read and I can’t recommend this book enough.

Here’s the thing.  I have read about the FLDS before, I have studied a little bit about polygamy, and I thought I had a decent understanding of this group of people.  But until I learned about it from the perspective of someone that’s lived it, I had no clue.  What people need to understand about this cult (because it is a cult, and Jessop says the word cult time and time again in her book) is that these people are completely brainwashed.  They are living in a world that is so far removed from reality that they have absolutely no idea how the world works – they have little to no education, they are taught that they are the property of their church, they do not know about basic human rights, or even about the existance of the constitution of the United States, and they are taught that anything from the outside is to be cast aside, feared, and not trusted.  So even if they WERE told about their basic rights, or some details about how they could safely live in the “outside”, they wouldn’t believe it.  Now Jessop is a little different because when she was growing up in the FLDS, a few children from the most elite families were allowed to go to college to become teachers or other professionals within the community – and she was the lucky one chosen from her family.  So not only did she have a full(ish) high school education (rare for FLDS kids), she also got a four year bachelors degree from a university (although she had to still live in the FLDS on weekends while she was getting the degree).  That allowed Jessop to begin to think for herself and she slowly began to feel like her lifestyle just wasn’t fair – not to her, not to her children, and there were a few times she even took pity on her abusive husband, Merril.

The other thing is that if the issue with the FLDS was just polygamy, then ok – we’d be dealing with a lifestyle issue, a family choice, and I personally don’t think that anyone has the right to make choices for anyone else’s families regarding personal issues or lifestyle issues.  However, marriages and parenting in the FLDS are both characterized by terrorizing, intimidation, scare tactics, complete submission to the male head of household, irrationality, and most of all – physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, including both rape and neglect.  Abuse should not ever be tolerated.  Jessop’s story definitely cemented the fact that, in my opinion, this cult needs to have a LOT more investigations, scrutiny, whatever, to get these women and children away from these abusive, horrific living conditions.  I don’t care what your personal beliefs are – in fact I fully support people choosing alternate lifestyles – but when there is abuse, that is where I personally draw the line.  I cannot believe that this is allowed to happen, and these women and children are so brainwashed to believe that enduring this awful life is their way to get to heaven.  I’m sorry, but the God I subscribe to could never condone or support such a thing, and I’m sad that we are allowing this to happen in the United States.

Reading Escapewas a profound experience for me (as you can probably tell).  I highly recommend it, I think that as citizens we should all be educated on what’s happening in our country (there’s also an FLDS sect in Canada, fyi).  I’m actually picking up Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall next, just because now I feel the need to learn even more about the FLDS.

Other reviews-

Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

harrypotterFrom the back cover -

Ever since Harry Potter had come  home for the summer, the Dursleys had been so mean and hideous that all Harry wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.  But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature who says that if Harry returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does.  For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls’ bathroom.  But then the real trouble begins – someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone.  Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever?  Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told?  Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects… Harry Potter himself!

There are a few things I really love about this second installment in the Harry Potter series.  I like how the friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione really develops in the book – they truly begin to trust each other, to rely on each other, and back each other up.  I especially love reading about their friendship having read the other books already – I know how much stronger it gets throughout the series and it’s fun to read the beginnings of it.

I also love the way J.K. Rowling gives us pieces of information about Voldemort and Harry’s parents, and the whole thing, by only allowing Harry access to small pieces of information.  It is great to be on this journey with Harry and learn about all this stuff as he learns it – if the readers got too much information, the books wouldn’t be nearly as fun or interesting or suspenseful.

Last, I love the way Dumbledore’s character really starts to develop in this book.  Harry really starts to trust him, and this book begins to show the depths of Dumbledore’s wisdom.  This book has one of my favorite quotes from Dumbledore in it, “It is our choices, Harry, that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

If you haven’t already read this series yet, well, you should.  That’s all I have to say on the matter. :)

Other reviews -

Merry Christmas! and other holiday love

Merry Christmas Eve!  I hope all of you are having safe and wonderful holidays – if you celebrate Christmas, I hope it is magical and fun, and if you don’t, well, enjoy the day off from work tomorrow. :)

As for me, my husband and I are going to have a busy couple of days.  First – the bad news.  I am sick with some sort of flu/cold type thing (this is seriously my 6th or 7th time being sick this year… NOT FUN), and we have about a billion inches of snow on the ground, with no indication that it’s letting up any time soon.  However, it’s Christmas, so I plan to ignore those two factors and concentrate on more pleasant ones.

Today we are going to Christmas services at our church at 1 pm, then my husband and I will go out to lunch together, and do a little Christmas Eve food shopping for our get together tonight.  At 4 pm, we’ll head on over to my grandma’s church for services there – something we do every year.  After church we’ll go back to my grandma’s house with my mom, stepdad, two brothers, sister, niece, aunt, uncle, and cousins to celebrate with my mom’s side of the family – dinner, some gifts, some board games, etc.

Tomorrow we’ll head on over to my dad’s sister’s house to spend the day with my dad’s side of the family.  We will spend tomorrow with my dad, stepmom, brothers, sister, niece, aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandparents.  We’ll do much of the same – lots of food, some gifts, maybe games or movies, just general Christmas hanging out.  

Saturday, after working all day, my husband and I will go to his grandma’s house on his dad’s side and celebrate with that side of the family – it’ll be his dad, stepmom, grandma, brother, sister, aunt, and uncle.  We’ll mostly just have dinner and some gifts.  After that, we’re headed out to a holiday cocktail party at a friend’s house.

Sunday and Monday I’m off work and Monday is my BIRTHDAY!  I’ll be 25.  I think this is the first year that I truly feel my age; in the past, I would always think “I can’t believe I”m actually this old!”.  But a lot has happened in the past few years and I can finally say that I really feel my age.

End of January we’ll head out to Florida to visit my husband’s mom, stepdad, and sister.  Then we’ll cap all this winter nonsense off with a 7 day cruise to the Western Carribbean during the first week of February!  

Whew.  That’s a lot of holiday cheer.  

Anyways, happy holidays to you and yours – wish all of you an enjoyable few days, hopefully with family and/or friends, regardless of what you’re celebrating and who you’re celebrating it with.

Oh and one more thing – thank you all for being such great blog pals this past year.  I started my blog November of 07, as many of you know, and it has grown tremendously since then.  I truly appreciate and value each and every one of you – your comments mean SO much to me.  I have loved getting to know all of you through your blogs and my own.  I know that our friendships will continue throughout next year and I’m sure I will add plenty more bloggy friends to my life.  I love you guys!  Happy holidays. :)

Outlander series? and reading dangerously

I’ve been thinking about reading the Outlander series for a few months now, after hearing several bloggers state that Gabaldon is their favorite author and the books are some of their favorites of all time.  Well, when I heard about The Outlander Challenge, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to read these books!  So I’m going to officially join this challenge.  So, blogger friends, any input on these books?  Love them?  Hate them?  Heard of them?

I also plan to participate in My Year of Reading Dangerously.  The challenge is super flexible, allowing participants to decide which 12 books they deem “dangerous” and read them throughout the year.  I don’t have a complete list yet, but here is what I plan to start with:

The Awakening – Kate Chopin

Divisadero – Michael Ondaatje

Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier

Five Smooth Stones – Ann Fairbairn

The Gravedigger’s Daughter – Joyce Carol Oates

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

What do you guys think?  Does it sound like a good idea to read “dangerously” for a year or just a stupid one? ;)

Review: Bitchfest

Bitchfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine – edited by Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler

bitchfestFrom the back cover -

Bitch was launched in the mid-’90s as a xerox-and-staple zine covering the pop landscape from a girl’s-eye view.  Both unabashed in its love for the guilty pleasures of consumer culture and deeply thoughtful about the way that culture reflects and impacts women’s lives, Bitch stands today as a touchstone of hip, young feminist thought, looking with both wit and irreverence at the manner in which pop culture informs feminism – and vice versa – and encouraging readers to think critically about the messages lurking behind their favorite television shows, movies, music, books, blogs, and the like.

Bitchfest offers an assortment of the most provocative essays, reporting, rants, and rave reviews from the magazine’s first ten years, along with new pieces written especially for the collection.  Smart, nuanced, cranky, outrageous, and clear-eyed, Bitchfest is a recent history of feminist pop-culture critique and a taste of feminism’s future.

Having been a reader of Bitch magazine for the past couple of years, I’ve had my eye on this book for awhile.  It definitely did not disappoint.  The writers that are represented in this collection are some of the smartest, most thought-provoking women I’ve read, and their essays are not to be missed.  I strongly recommend this book for fans of Bitch magazine, but especially for those who have not yet experienced much feminist thought.  This is a really good anthology because it mostly focuses on pop culture, which everyone experiences on a daily basis.  I loved reading this collection and I wholeheartedly recommend reading  it.