I'm still not sure how I feel about You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel. I don't love it yet, but neither do I hate it. I just preferred Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn. Mr. Lethem, I'll give you another chance. I'm putting The Fortress of Solitude on my reading list.
This was a good book. I'm just not sure I was ready for it. I'm still shaking. Aside from September 11th, the themes reminded me very much of Nicole Krauss's (Foer's wife) The History of Love. Anyone know if this was intentional? Both books stand alone, but also complement each other nicely without being overdone. (Am I making any sense?)
My nonfic pick of the month. I used this book as a reference for a
class project. Emailed the author with a question and received a
quick, personal reply. It doesn't get better than that.
Finished reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to the kids this month. Haven't seen the movie. Glad we read the book together first. Great time. The kids didn't even mind my frequent stumbling over Lewis's winding prose.
All in all, a great month for books!
Books Purchased:
- The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick
- The Best American Nonrequired Reading – Dave Eggers (editor)
Books Borrowed:
- Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms - Will Richardson
- The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
- The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
- The Selected Stories of Richard Bausch - The Modern Library edition
- A Walk in my World: International Short Stories About Youth - Anne Mazer (editor)
- You Don't Love Me Yet - Jonathan Lethem
Books Read:
A new favorite...a little different, intelligent...dystopian but not despondent. A good read. Trust me.
Love, love, love this series (and the Best American Short Stories series). BANR is more eclectic than BASS, and includes different genres--fiction, nonfiction, comics, graphic novels--and was expanded this year to include transcripts, screenplays and shorter items, including the "Best American First Sentences of Novels of 2005."
The Glass Castle ranged from interesting to almost unbelievable. But, for some reason, I believed every word. (Please, Jeannette Walls, restore my faith in the veracity of memoir before it shatters into a Million Little Pieces.)
The Other Boleyn Girl is the book group pick I'm almost embarrassed to include here. Definitely more romance novel than historical novel. I'll just say that I prefer the Showtime series about the Tudors to Gregory's romp.
(I'm having trouble posting this, so look for part 2 tomorrow.)
Tell us two truths and a lie about yourself.
1. Bagging groceries causes me to panic.
2. On a whim, I once flew to France for a weekend.
3. I truly believe President Bush is much smarter than he lets on.
Book: Show us a great comic book.
Do graphic novels count? These are my favs:
Been meaning to read:
Video: Show us your favorite TV show or movie with puppets.
This was the inspiration for my original requiredReading blog - nonrequired reading that everyone should read. Good stuff. Important stuff. With a little bit of nonsense thrown in for good measure. :-)
Includes Michael Lewis's Wading Toward Home.
Now that my first semester has finally come to an end, I'm back to reading. Here's my first list. Please don't judge. Some of these are for my book group, one was for class, and the rest are my picks. I have to say, I'm tempted to flag at least one of the book group selections or remove it from the list. But, no. (At least not yet.)
Books Purchased:
- The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick
- The Best American Nonrequired Reading – Dave Eggers (editor)
Books Borrowed:
- Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms - Will Richardson
- The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
- The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
- The Selected Stories of Richard Bausch - The Modern Library edition
- A Walk in my World: International Short Stories About Youth - Anne Mazer (editor)
- You Don't Love Me Yet - Jonathan Lethem
I'm struggling with how to handle the discussion portion of this thing. I've hijacked Mr. Hornby's formula, with insufficient forethought, I'm afraid. While I enjoy comparing his lists of purchases and reads each month, the highlight is his discussion. Problem is: I'm no book critic. I tried it once in another blog. It turned out to be my final post.
So, I'll leave it with the list for now. I'll try posting my "Books Read" and "Read Online" as the month progresses. Hopefully, this blog (and I) will continue.
I originally called this blog "requiredReading," posting things I believe people should read before spouting off on current events, politics, the environment, etc. You know, just basic information you should read before jumping into a heated political discussion and calling your opponent "ignorant" or "stupid"--lest you expose your own ignorance and stupidity.
I now find this premise--my premise--to be quite possibly as presumptuous and offensive as the very idiots I was attempting to enlighten. So, I'm changing my premise--hence, my blog--to something equally as presumptuous, but (hopefully) not nearly as offensive.
"My Reading List" is born a blatant rip-off of Nick Hornby's Stuff I've Been Reading column from The Believer, with two additions. As an MLIS student and future librarian, I'm appending the heading "Books Borrowed" to Mr. Hornby's established categories of "Books Purchased" and "Books Read." I may also add "Read Online," because, well, it seems appropriate for this forum.
RequiredReading for conspiracy theorists:
Connie Meskimen of Hot Springs, AK exposes the REAL culprit in global warming
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Recent Comments
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LittleGreenBook said:
What a combo of books! I had been eyeing You Don't Love Me Yet but hadn't picked it up yet.... read more
on Stuff I read: May 07 (part 2) -
Yen said:
This is a good choice. I was thinking more along White Teeth by Zadie Smith, but that may be too... read more
on QotD: Modern Classic -
beba said:
Yep, you beat me to it - I think Life of Pi would make a fabulous HS reading list addition!DaVinci... read more
on QotD: Modern Classic -
Renee said:
Hi Michael, Thanks for the [tig]! LMK if you get to read The Brief History of the Dead and what... read more
on Stuff I Read: May 07 (part 1)
Yeats is Dead was a fun read. I liked the idea of different authors each writing a chapter ... and... read more
on Stuff I read: May 07 (part 2)