My Favorite Books
-- A Reading List (1999 - 2005)
Six years has passed
since I retired, so there's been some time for reading. Although I buy
some of the books I read (almost always trade paperbacks), there's also a bit of
serendipity involved -- some apartments we've rented came with an eclectic
selection of books; visiting friends have left a finished book or two behind;
town libraries usually open their stacks to us; and there are book exchanges at
hotels, golf clubs, etc. I just browse and see what strikes me.
I rate books on a 1 to 5 scale, 5 being "The Best!" These reviews are compiled from my yearly lists and include only books rated 4.3 or higher. I'm always looking for recommendations, so if YOU'VE read a great book lately or have an all-time favorite to recommend, do let me know at witta@aol.com!
| Chocolat
Joanne Harris |
Talk about a great title! This was my favorite book of the year in 2000, and no, it's not a cookbook. This enchanting tale chronicles change in a small French town. Newcomer, Vianne Rocher (a witch? a gypsy?) brings with her the whimsical world of chocolate and is thrust against the narrow world of The Church as portrayed by Father Reynard. As the weeks of Lent pass, the winds change and so does the town. Dick also loved this book and rates it a 5. The movie was OK, but nowhere near as good as the book. | 5 |
|
My Other Life
Paul Theroux |
This was my first, but not be my last, Theroux novel. This man can write, and he's amazingly creative and imaginative. This fake autobiography assumes Theroux has lived a different, "other life". He's still an author, still wrote his famous books such as The Mosquito Coast, but who knows what else in this story is real. Clearly he's lived in some of the places in the book and done some of the things he describes. Each section of the book is distinctive and fascinating. | 4.8 |
|
The Prince of Tides Pat Conroy |
This is one of my all-time favorite books, and although I haven't reread it lately, I just had to add it to this list. As with Chocolat above, the movie was good, but the book was way better. The story spans forty years in the life of Tom Wingo and his poet sister Savannah, now in a mental hospital. Set in the South Carolina low country, this incredible story is hard to put down. | 4.8 |
|
Breakfast at Tiffany's and Other Short
Stories Capote, Truman |
With the movie, Capote, now out, Truman is back on the best seller list. He writes so marvelously, making the characters and stories come to life with simple but compelling prose. Breakfast at Tiffany's, the Holly Golightly story, is one of his most famous -- deservedly so. An easy read that's highly recommended | 4.8 |
|
Eiger Dreams -- Ventures Among Men and Mountains
Jon Krakauer |
Krakauer has been mountain climbing and writing about it for over 20 years. I listened to him read his best-seller Into Thin Air about a deadly ascent of Mt. Everest and was spell-bound. This earlier book, a compilation of 12 essays, comprises articles about climbing written for magazines in the late 1980's. It's absorbing and entertaining. I still can't fathom the mind-set of a mountain climber, but this book provides some clues. (Dicky liked it, too.) | 4.7 |
| The
Vintner's Luck
Elizabeth Knox |
Set in 19th century France, with each chapter heading relating to wine making, this is the magical story of Sobran Jodeau's life and his continuing relationships with his surroundings and his "real" and personal angel. Dick thought this one was a 3. | 4.7 |
|
The Power and the Glory Greene, Graham |
This short novel (written in 1940) is set against the backdrop of the Mexican government's persecution of the Catholic Church. A priest, fallen yet still a believer, is on the run. We see him from many perspectives, often his own. We feel for him and with him, as he inevitably finds his end. The writing is strong, sharply defining the characters and illuminating the scenes. A classic. | 4.6 |
|
Me Talk Pretty Someday Sedaris, David |
This group of short stories and vignettes about Sedaris' life is filled with fun and humor. He has a unique perspective on things, and I found that the more I read, the more I enjoyed the book. Definitely Recommended! | 4.6 |
| Typical
American
by Gish Jen |
This book was devoured over Christmas by my friend Jennifer and thereafter by me. It's the story of a young Chinese family as they lose their way in America, trying to make it in the land of opportunity, while not wanting to become assimilated into a "typical American." The writing is delicious. | 4.6 |
| Kitchen
Confidential
Bourdain, Anthony |
Bourdain is a well-regarded chef at a busy NYC restaurant, Brasserie Les Halles, and he's just starting doing TV cooking. This eye-opening look at life inside a restaurant kitchen is an autobiographical gem, full of fascinating and entertaining details about food and cooking. Don't let the first couple of chapters put you off, it gets MUCH better. A must read for foodies. | 4.6 |
|
The Stranger at the Palazzo D'Oro Theroux, Paul |
I really like Theroux's writing. This collection of short stories is full of evocative detail, making time and place come to life. The title story is set in a decadent palace resort in a small Italian village. A traveling twenty-one-year old American stops at the Palazzo, envying the life of the rich residents. He is offered an opportunity to become friends with the Grafin, a rich countessa. As the story unfolds, he learns more about himself and discovers her secrets. We get to peer into his psyche and, as a plus, voyeuristically enjoy some hot sexual intrigues. | 4.6 |
|
The Devil in the White City Larson, Erik |
This historically accurate narrative juxtaposes the chronicling of Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, a marvelous American achievement and an interesting story, with the almost-unbelievable facts of Dr. H. H. Holmes murders of scores of young women and children. | 4.5 |
|
The Sound and the Fury Faulkner, William |
My first Faulkner. A somewhat confusing, yet fascinating book. The story of the Compson family is told in the first person from five perspectives. The punctuation could have been greatly improved, though it is part of its charm, but the story and it's nuances are totally engrossing. Still powerful today. | 4.7 |
|
Reading Lolita in Tehran Nafisi, Azar |
An unlikely intersection of veiled women and classical writers. This memoir about a literature professor and her advanced reading group pits the characters of Nabokov, James, Fitzgerald and Austen against the backdrop of ideologues at the University of Tehran, the turbulent times in Iran after the fall of the Shah, and the ascendance of Ayatollah Khomeini and the religious right. A fascinating glimpse into recent history. | 4.5 |
|
the curious incident of the dog in the
night-time Haddon, Mark |
This NY Times bestseller, was June's book club selection at the Verona WI library. I was sick the week I picked it up, and -- for the first time EVER-- I can say I finished the book in a day! Christopher is a 15 year-old autistic savant; he loves math and has a photographic memory. His quest for a dog murderer leads him to discover things about the lives of his father and his (not- so-) dead mother. This novel is surprisingly entertaining, as we view the world from Christopher's perspective. | 4.5 |
|
Uncle
Tungsten Sacks, Oliver |
Oliver Sacks is a renowned psychologist and writer. But in his youth he was a bookish boy in WWII London who was in love with chemistry. In this (slow-starting) memoir of his youth, he manages to bring chemical elements and the history of chemistry to life. Aside from his family history, which just made me envious, this is a wonderful read, especially if you're a chemist like me! | 4.5 |
| Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
J K Rowling |
This is a book for children and adults who are happy to enter into the fantasies of childhood. It's all the rage, the world over. The Sorcerer's Stone is book 1 of 5 that have been published, with 2 more to come. Yet, I didn't think it was a particularly good read ( a DNF), though Dick lapped it up. Instead of reading this book, listen to it on tape. Jim Dale narrates, making the magical story come alive while keeping all the characters straight and voices separate. A great listen and lots of fun. | 4.5 |
|
Harry
Potter and the J K Rowling |
This fourth book in the Harry Potter series is my favorite so far. Though somewhat predictable, following the fantasy adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione, is a treat. We don't actually read the Harry Potter books; instead we listen to audiotapes, letting Jim Dale narrate. He does a great job of creating separate voices for all the characters. Plain and simple fun! |
4.5 |
|
The Dogs Bark: Public People and Private Places
|
This collection of prose pieces spans 30 years of Capote's sharp, subtle observations. His writing makes the people and places he chronicles come alive, be it in Tangiers, New Orleans or Brooklyn. This is the first of his books that I've read, but there will surely be more. | 4.5 |
|
The Woman Warrior
|
I read this ingenious memoir 20 years ago and liked it then as well. It's full of ghosts and manages to entertainingly obscure the line between imagination and reality. The Chinese American author writes of her life growing up in an immigrant family in one of California's Chinatowns. The book is full of humor, fantasy and insights. | 4.5 |
|
The Hours
|
This short, 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning novel chronicles a day in the life of 3 women, one of whom is Virginia Woolf. It's about life and creativity; also it's about death and the pressures of living with mental illness. It's a fascinating study, superbly written. | 4.5 |
| Kowloon Tong
Paul Theroux |
Last year, it was "My Other Life"; this year my second Paul Theroux. This guy can write! The imminent turnover of Hong Kong to the Chinese sets the stage for this short novel. As the book works its way towards its inevitable ending, your feelings about the characters build as the tensions between them rise. Who will disappear next? (RLB - This book sucks big time. Theroux takes a long time to acquaint you with characters you won't particularly like and then makes a bit of a (admittedly somewhat intriguing) charge toward a fairly obvious ending. Racism abounds.) | 4.4 |
| The
Great Train Robbery
Michael Crichton |
This fascinating historical novel is based on England's Great Train Robbery of 1852. It's full of interesting insights into Victorian life, yet makes for great reading as it unfolds the fascinating background of how the robbery was engineered, with numerous twists and turns. |
4.4 |
| Ahab's
Wife Naslund, Sena Jeter |
Una is an unusual woman who leads a patchwork life. Over time she moves from the Kentucky home of her youth to the close-knit life of a lighthouse island, to a life at sea, to a gentile life in Nantucket. We live her adventures, connect with her emotions and her husbands (including Captain Ahab), and learn about life. A long book (670 pp) that would have been great if 20% had been edited out and some loose ends tied up. | 4.4 |
| Animal
Dreams Kingsolver, Barbara |
I love the way Kingsolver writes and puts together a story, so I've read most of her books. This one is a re-read. It wasn't as good as I'd remembered, perhaps because it seems preachy to me now, having read the Poisonwood Bible, which I liked yet thought was TOO preachy. As Codi returns to her roots in the southwest desert, she finds her way back from a self-imposed separateness. As the story of the Noline family unfolds, Hallie, Dad Homer, and friend Loyd provide the foreground, while the Contra war in Nicaragua provides the background. | 4.4 |
| Empire
Falls Russo, Richard |
This book won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Like Corrections, below, it's a long book, with lots of character development. Not a lot happens until the end, but as the book slowly unfolds like a rose in the summer sun, we learn about Miles Roby, his family and his history and the people of the Maine town where he grew up. | 4.4 |
|
Crow Lake Lawson, Mary |
Mary Lawson's writing is impressive -- clear yet not overly showy. Crow Lake, her first novel, is set in poor rural Canada. Kate Morrison is seven when fate changes her life. Brothers Luke and Matt must unite to overcome hardships, struggling to reconcile their dreams with their new realities. The pace of this story of family love and misunderstanding is just right, keeping the reader wanting more. | 4.4 |
| Dinner
Along the Amazon Findley, Timothy |
This is collection of 12 short stories by one of Canada's favorite sons. The stories span many years of Findley's writing and demonstrate his skill in setting a time and place, making you feel like you're right there, almost able to touch the characters. | 4.4 |
|
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Rowling, J.K |
Book 5 in the Series is long and starts slowly. We had the 17 tape version to listen to between Palm Springs and Vancouver and weren't too keen until about tape 3 or 4! Then things finally took off, as the world of Hogworts and imagination collide. | 4.3 |
|
The Kite Runner Hosseini, Khaled |
An interesting story well told. Afganistan in days gone by; a boy and his faithful servant friend. A bit of insight in mankind, and a great scene where the boys kite fight and run to capture the loser's kite. Near the top of the NY Times bestseller list for half a year. | 4.3 |
|
Alias Grace Atwood, Margaret
|
This fictional story is based on fact. It's 1800 and Grace is a young, 16 year-old who is an accomplice to murder, perhaps even a murderess. Perhaps she's insane, or just a calculating, evil siren. This account to her psychiatrist doctor of her story (and his) is both entertaining and intriguing. Atwood's writing is crisp and easy to read. She seems to have made a great effort to include every "saying" ever written in the text. There seems to be "a place for everything". | 4.3 |
| cafe
europa by Slavenka Drakulic |
Slavenka Drakulic is a journalist and writer, now in her fifties, who grew up under Yugoslavia's Communist rule. Published in 1996 these essays shed light on the chasm in attitudes between Eastern and Western Europeans. Married to a Swede and having a home in Croatia, she discerningly observes the legacy wrought by the past, helping us understand the Eastern Europeans outlook and mind-set today. | 4.3 |
|
The Corrections
Franzen, Robert |
This is a wonderful, LONG book. The writing is top notch (one simple example, "Denise watched the sky stick forks of lightening into the salad of trees on the horizon...") and thought-provoking. This story, about the dysfunctional Lambert family, is full of insights, sadness, confusion and humor. Enid's desire to have the family together for one last Christmas brings to the fore the struggles, fears and facades that comprise family relationships and humanity. | 4.3 |
| The
Secret Life of Bees
Kidd, Sue Monk |
It's 1960's in South Carolina, and motherless, fourteen year old Lily and her black maid, Rosaleen are in trouble. They run away from home, eventually arriving at the Black Mary Bee farm. Here they find motherly love in all its many manifestations. | 4.3 |
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