<p>This is a “reading” spinoff from the "what are you listening to now?’ thread.
I have just finished two of the most interesting books I’ve ever read. I thought they might be relevant to the crowd in this forum.
“Gilead” is one of the most beautifully crafted novels I have read. It takes the form of a long letter from an elderly father to his young son. The father knows he won’t be around much longer. So, he has written a long letter telling of the family history. While the novel touches on many topics, it centers on the relationship and differences between sons and fathers. It makes timely reading for parents about to send children off to college, although college is not mentioned.
“Blink” is a nonfiction book describing what is known about how humans make snap decisions. It turns out that sometimes these are pretty good and not entirely illogical. The book also tells of the dark side of this kind of decision making. The relevance to this forum is that it made me more comfortable with some of the seemingly snap decisions some of our children make regarding choice of college.</p>
<p>I recently completed The Rule of Four which was sort of fun because it takes place on a college campus (Princeton).</p>
<p>I am reading Strapless, John Singer Sargent and the fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis. It’s about a famous painting and is utterly fasinating. I like non-fiction though.</p>
<p>Before this book, I read The Great Fire by Shirly Hazzard. It’s an older book (in paperback now), it is so beautifully written.</p>
<p>I just read Gilead and liked it very much. I’ve been a fan of hers since Housekeeping–it’s about time she wrote another novel!</p>
<p>For me, in the last year, “Heavenly Days” (or anything else by James Wilcox), “The Kite Runner,” “Money” or anything by Martin Amis, all of Patrick O’Brian. On college themes, love it or hate it, no one I know can put “I am Charlotte Simmons” down.</p>
<p>Am currently making my way through I am Charlotte Simmons. I don’t love it or hate it but am just trying to figure out how I feel about it. I find all of the characters are very unappealing, including Charlotte, they’re like caricatures which, I suppose, is possibly the point? </p>
<p>Prior to Charlotte, I read what has become one of my favorite books of all time, The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy. For Michael Chabon fans, The Final Solution, is a quick and interesting read. I also enjoyed The Kiterunner. Next in my reading pile is Anne Tyler’s The Amateur Marriage.</p>
<p>Next in my reading pile is Charlotte Simmons. For anyone who hasn’t read it, * Accept my Kid, Please*, which I read on the plane, is a winner.</p>
<p>Currently reading Founding Mothers. Very informative, very thought-provoking re women’s roles in our history and a fluid read. Just finished Barbara Erenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America. This is a sharp counterpoint to the lives we here on cc lead, as it is an inside view of life in a minimum-wage world. I found her tone a little off-putting, but for those of us who haven’t seen minimum wage since high school…</p>
<p>I am reading Accept My Kid, Please, right now. It is so much like my friends son, I can’t wait to give her the book. I like reading mysteries as well. We are going to NYC and WashDC at end of month…any suggestions</p>
<p>Not much time to read now (CC consumes too much of my free time!). But I loved Reading Lolita in Teheran, The Interpreter of Maladies and the Namesake.</p>
<p>Just read ?title “The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night” by Mark Haddon - very good. I have read “Nickel and Dimed”,too, it was thought provoking ,but I agree the tone is off-putting. I know a number of people who are or have been living in that “minimum wage” world, and none of them are trying to make a living at Walmart in the way that the author tried to do, and would think it to be nuts. What was thoughtful about it was the notion of what happens when someone with few skills is suddenly divorced or abandoned by a breadwinner, or loses a good paying job but has significant debt.
Slogging through Stephenson’s “Baroque Cycle” (I’m a 3 books at once type), and read another SHopaholic book just to get to sleep.</p>
<p>Marite, also loved The Namesake, trying to get H to read it.</p>
<p>Thank you for mentioning Gilead. I wasn’t sure I would like it but it truly is one of the most beautifully written and moving books I’ve read. Don’t be turned off by the cover description – this one is a real sleeper that I recommend whole heartedly.</p>
<p>I’ve mentioned it before but The Kite Runner is also excellent. And, I enjoyed the Bookseller of Kabul too. They are particularly interesting to read back to back - but read the Bookseller of Kabul first.</p>
<p>Our bookgroup is reading “as I lay Dying”, everyone whined that they read it in college- but it was my suggestion and I didn’t attend a 4 yr college- so …</p>
<p>Next we are reading “When the Emperor was divine” a story told by each member of a Japanese American family interred during WWII. The book has been chosen as part of Seattles" If we all read the same book" program, and the librarian in charge of book groups has several local residents who are interested in meeting with book groups to dicuss their own experiences in the camps. Should add a great deal to our experience of the book, and I hope for her to retell her stories, she was 20 at the end of the war.</p>
<p>Thank you, Carolyn for mentioning “Gilead”. It was a Christmas gift to me from an associate who is the most voracious reader I’ve met. He usually has three books going at once and is reading at an amazing speed. He described it as the second best book he had read in his life. It was so good he slowed up and read it at conversational speed so that he could enjoy the writing. With a recommendation like that I waited until I could read it without any distraction of time constraint.
“The Kite Runner” I got from my wife’s bedside stand. She’s an English teacher so the selection is always good (and the price is right). What a powerful story of sin, guilt and redemption. If you’re a guy, it’s hard to look “manly” when you’re reading this in public with tears in your eyes.</p>
<p>
citygirlzmom, I’m reading The Murder Room now, the latest by P. D. James. Just getting into it, but she never disappoints! Lots of psychological insight, gorgeous descriptions of London and the British countryside, and always a page-turning story. She’s 80 now - I hope she’s got a few more in her.</p>
<p>Combining the party thread and book reading thread. Dig, I hope you’re reading.</p>
<p>Apparently, we are on the wrong track focusing all our attention on getting into the right colleges (S/D) and the right parties (ourselves). We should be sending applications (!) to the right book groups, where they have wait lists, rejections, essays, adcoms… the whole nine yards. </p>
<p>PS nowhere in the article does it mention “fit.” Apparently, these book group snobs have not reached the higher level of consciousness that prevails here at cc.</p>
<p><a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110990529683970434,00.html?mod=weekend_journal_primary_hs[/url]”>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110990529683970434,00.html?mod=weekend_journal_primary_hs</a></p>
<p>Best reads lately included “9 Parts of Desire” and “Reading Lolita…” (for book group) and “Middlesex” (which my book group vetoed, but I loved)…I loved “Interpreter of Maladies”- best short stories I have read in forever, but found “Namesake” predictable. </p>
<p>Our next book group book will be “Composing a Life” by Mary Catherine Bateson. I have read and re-read it. She is the anthopologist/sociologist daughter of Margaret Mead. The book talks about how women create lives for themselves in a non-linear manner…and we will read her follow on book as well. Good reading for those of us at that “stage” of life where some re-creating might be inspirational! </p>
<p>We have friends who send out a book review list in lieu of a Christmas letter…they own a small bookstore in Ct. They provide material for a year of reading fun!</p>
<p>Competitive book group admissions, what will come next…</p>
<p>A friend recommended Hugo Hamilton’s “The Speckled People” and I loved it. Murder Room was fun, but I did not like The Rule of Four. Found it to be weak and thought it was published just because the authors were ivy grads and it was trying to ride the DaVinci Code coattails. (Which it did, I guess). Am into the beginning of “Will in the World” so far, so good, and “Prep” is on the on-deck circle (spot on my bedside table for the next to be read).</p>
<p>In the middle of Molokai , by Alan Brennert, a page turner. Just finished Once a Runner ( best book ever written about running!) and of course Accept My Kid Please, a laugh outloud book. I have a long list of folks in line to read it.Thanks for that suggestion!!</p>
<p>Lucia, Lucia by Adrianna Tritigani (something like that) - just a really enjoyable, light read - have also read her other books “Milk Glass Moon” Big Cherry Holler" and “Queen of the Big Time” - enjoyed them all, but I htink Lucia is my favorite…if you are Italian, you’ll be able to relate - just finished “Prep” which I found much more enjoyable than Charlotte Simmons - that one was work for me - and I didn’t like any of the characters - just finished Anne Rivers Siddons newest "Islands’ - didn’t think it was one of her better ones…but I always enjoy her books…I just couldn’t get into “Kite Runner” - must have been my mood at the time…I’m going back to it some day …and “The Curious Incident of the Dog…” is on my list…I’ll have to try “Gilead” too as I liked ‘Housekeeping’</p>