Monday, May 18, 2009

BOOKS

It turns out that since finishing grad school I've rediscovered my love of reading. As a kid I was totally the shy girl who loved reading. My favorites... Baby-sitter's Club, Sweet Valley High, and morbidly all these books about teenagers with terminal illnesses with titles like 6 Months to Live. Then, I'd say some time around Junior High or High School I totally stopped reading for fun. But I'll tell you one of the best things about not being in school is that no one is making me read or telling me what to read. I get to pick! Here are some of my favorites from the last few months.


Have you ever read a mediocre book and when you finish it you're in a hurry to start another book to get the taste of the past book out of your mouth? (eg - Memory Keeper's Daughter... I hated that book and I'm pretty sure I started another book like an hour after finishing it) Well with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao it was the exact opposite experience. It took me at least a weekend to finally pick up another book from my to-read stack and even then I was really sad to be leaving those characters behind. I just wanted to have Oscar and Lola and Beli and La Inca in my life a little longer. So just read it. And bonus - have a spanish-speaking friend translate the little Spanish bits in it and you'll learn a lot of Spanish swears.




Thanks to Kaylene for recommending I Capture the Castle to me. I cannot believe I survived my late childhood and adolesence without this book in my life. I was hooked from the first line.... "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." Brilliant. Totally charming. Like a more hormonal and quirky Jane Austen. I giggled to myself throughout most of the book and found myself interrupting conversations to read passages to my roommates. Just brilliant. Totally adorable.

5 comments:

Preethi said...

I totally want to read both of these now. And I felt the same way about The Memory Keeper's Daughter (gag), but my reaction was the exact opposite. When I read a really fantastic book, I can't wait to pick up another because I'm so overjoyed at the sensation of meeting such great characters. With a bleh book, though, it takes me forever to start reading another because I'm so discouraged with its blehness.

Aaaand, I miss you. And wish you were here to give me a sewing tutorial.

Kaylene said...

let us always recommend books to each other... (i am loving the book you suggested to me. so much. so much).

(julie) said...

I love book friends so much. And I love that Kaylene recommended I Capture the Castle to me and I am recommending it to Preethi. And that Preethi recommended The History of Love to me and I have since recommended it to Kaylene and she is loving it. Magic.

Cassie said...

I just feel bad because I never learned how to read.

BirdieMann said...

Thanks for the recommendations! I already added them to my goodreads list.