Science (non) Fiction

I stole this from Kari, who was not exactly sure what this list is, but it has something to do with the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program, though she couldn’t find this list on their website to verify that claim. Apparently the NEA estimates that the average adult has only read six of these books. At least, that is the statistic that is bandied about the internet. So, basically, this is a random unverified list with a random unverified statistic attached to it. But let’s see how I do anyway, shall we? (Hint: more than six.)

Here’s how it works:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in red the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your blog

And I think I’ll stick with Kari on this one and not mark things red - I’ll note on the side if I loved it.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - One of my all time favorites.
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - I’ve read the first 1.5 books. I should finish.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - I could re-read this every single year.
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - I think you probably know how I feel about these.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - I admit to never reading this yet.
6 The Bible - I read through the whole thing in a year sometime in college.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - Hate.Hate.Hate. Have tried too many times.
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - I enjoyed them, despite the controversy.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - I am not, in general, a fan of Dickens.

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - One of my favorites growing up.
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - I haven’t read it since high school.
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - I do love this book.
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - I’ve started this one, but never finished.

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - Again, not a huge fan of Dickens.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - I always want to read this after I see the movie.
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - I wish I’d read it in time to see the movie.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - Haven’t read it, don’t plan on it.
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Love this growing up.
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - I want to re-read it as an adult.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen - Another favorite.
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - I love me some Jane.
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - The one I’ve re-read most often.
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - Hard to forget.
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I doubt that I will ever try this one.
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving - One of my favorites from this current year.
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - I went through a Wilkie Collins phase.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - The whole series.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - I have read some Hardy. I liked The Mayor of Casterbridge.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - Strange.
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - I never had to read this one.
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - Really powerful.

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - I’ve always wanted to read this.
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - This is tied with P&P for first place.
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Again, I’ve tried several times and failed miserably.
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez Do.not.like.

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - This one was ok.
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Very good.
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - Started it, hated it.
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - One of the few I enjoy. (maybe because of the musical - hehe)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - I grew up loving this.
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - The only one of his I really enjoy.
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - So depressing.
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - I’ve read parts in French too.
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - I love me some Dumas. (and the movie is good, too)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - Why have the whole collection and separate works on here?
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - I’ve actually never read any of his stuff, I think.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - I have tried many times. One day I will succeed.

So that’s 43. Not bad, I guess. I do love book lists. And that several book club books made it on the list. How many have you read?

So here it is, the long-awaited book list for 2007, the whole point of me keeping track of what I read this past year. All in all, it was a really good year for me, reading-wise at least - having an idea ahead of time of what I wanted to read next really kept me moving and kept me from watching too much trashy tv or re-reading too many old favorites. I’ll list my favorites from this year at the bottom.

1. Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
2. Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
3. Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst
4. The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult
5. Thirty-three Swoons by Martha Cooley
6. Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
7. Speaking with the Angel edited by Nick Hornby
8. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
9. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
10. Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner
11. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
12. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
13. Good Harbor by Anita Diamant
14. Everyone Else’s Girl by Megan Crane
15. The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory
16. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
17. Intuition by Allegra Goodman
18. On Agate Hill by Lee Smith
19. The Faith Club by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner
20. Heat by Bill Buford
21. Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir
22. The Last Girls by Lee Smith
23. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
24. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (re-read)
25. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
26. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregor
27. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling (re-read)
28. English as a Second Language by Megan Crane
29. Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras by Jeff Henderson
30. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling (re-read)
31. The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
32. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
33. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
34. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry
35. Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell
36. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling (re-read)
37. The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King
38. Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
39. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (re-read)
40. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling (re-read)
41. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling (re-read)
42. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
43. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
44. Possession by A.S. Byatt
45. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
46. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
47. Callander Square by Anne Perry
48. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
49. The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman
50. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg
51. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
52. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (re-read)
52. Father Melancholy’s Daughter by Gail Godwin.
54. Evensong by Gail Godwin
55. The Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig
56. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (re-read)
57. Patron Saint of Liars by Anne Patchett
58. The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig
59. Atonement by Ian McEwan
60. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
61. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
62. The Alchemyst: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
63. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
64. Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters
65. 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
66. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
67. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
68. The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters
69. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
70. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
71. Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
72. Run by Ann Patchett
73. Digging to America by Anne Tyler
74. Looking for Alaska by John Green
75. The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
76. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
77. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

All right, so favorites from this year:
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. Long anticipated conclusion to my favorite series, and well worth the wait.
2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Beautiful writing, intriguing story, this is what really kicked off my Patchett fandom.
3. Digging to America by Anne Tyler. Such an incredible story, and really well-told. I definitely cried at the end, which is awesomely moving.
4. 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. I don’t know if this will end up being my favorite from the series, but I really enjoy the series as a whole - witty and ironic and full of life.
5. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I didn’t necessarily love reading this book, but it has definitely stayed with me longer than most books. Really powerful and well written.
6. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. Way better than I expected this to be, and much deeper than I thought it could be. One of the lighter favorite books.
7. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I wasn’t sure which of his books to put on here, but this one is one that I will be more likely to re-read (as opposed to Kiterunner). A really beautiful and moving picture of life in Afghanistan.
8. Father Melancholy’s Daughter by Gail Godwin. I loved this prequel to Evensong, and I enjoyed being able to carry the story over into that second book - but I related more to Margaret in this one than in Evensong.
9. Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson. Such a fun book, full of dark humor and southern-isms and family idiosyncrasies.
10. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. One that I will definitely need to re-read again to fully understand, but it was still incredible the first time through.

There were a few disappointments, but overall it was a good list. I’m open to suggestions for what to read in 2008, and tell me what you read and enjoyed in 2007!

I had a reunion this weekend in Charlotte, reuniting several generations those of us who participated in a fantastic children’s choir. The choir, Musical Heirs, was pretty influential in my life, inspiring a love of music that led to voice lessons, multiple choir memberships and continues to this day. The reunion was leading to a concert on Saturday, which turned out really well, I think. And I got to spend time with some of my favorite people (Frances and Alexa, and little Aria ), which made the whole weekend worth it! (Frances, you’ll email me the pictures, right?) Also great that I got to see Dad from the first time since his return from Africa!

I’m house- and dog-sitting for some friends from church, which is really fun - they have a beautiful house, and quite literally insisted that I have friends over while they’re gone. So I’m having some friends over for lunch after church this weekend, and will try to plan another get-together before I go back home. It’s nice having a full-size kitchen to play in, and the dogs are fun to play with.

I’ve fallen behind in detailing my reading lately - they’re all listed here in case you’re wondering what I’m reading these days - currently I’ve left off in the middle of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, originally so I could read A Thousand Splendid Suns (which was amazing!), and I’m now more than halfway through Love Walked In, which I’m really enjoying a lot. I had a really good time reading Spellman Files, a PI story with a strong Veronica Mars feel. And I’ll be reading Possession and The Same Sweet Girls for book clubs (or virtual book clubs ) in the next few weeks. Which will have delayed my Harry Potter re-read such that I’ll be closer to finishing book 6 in the weeks before book 7 is finally released.

And I’ve recently found out that Over the Rhine’s new album, The Trumpet Child, will be out August 21st, with the ability to pre-order starting July 2nd! w00t! Based on what I’ve heard in the concerts I’ve been to, I think this could easily take the ‘Favorite OtR Album’ slot. I’m crazy excited about this CD, especially that we don’t have to wait til later in the year like I thought we might.

So my dad is in Africa (at an orphanage about an hour outside Nairobi), and he may be able to check the internet a bit more often that we can (or at least I can) reach him by phone. So I will try to keep this a bit more updated with the goings-on in my life, at least so Dad can stay up-to-date.

Mom and I spent the weekend together (Dad’s gone, clearly, and Matthew just moved to CA) - I drove home Friday night, we had dinner with one of our favorite people (Valerie!) and then leisurely drove up to Mars Hill Saturday morning (well, actually afternoon), stopping at antique stores and crafts shops along the way. We toured the (beautiful) B&B where we were staying (Dad, it’s that huge white house next to the Baptist church right off campus - just up the street from the Deli) and then drove around campus, noting all the improvements and incredible new buildings going up, and around town. We ate at a newish ‘casual dining’ place on Main Street, and retired early to our lovely suite of rooms upstairs and read. We slept in (well, I did, at least) and had a very nice breakfast before checking out and heading to church at the UMC church (where I went my last few years in college) - it was nice to see some of the same faces, even though a lot of people were out of town. We did get to meet up with my favorite biology prof from college and we took her out to lunch in Weaverville and got to chat about the college and students and possible jobs (*much fingernail biting*). Very good times.

It was a great weekend, though coming back was a bit of a shock, like we’d been away for much longer that a day or two. I did go on a nice long walk with Beth when I got back into town (after stopping off at the lab of course) - we walked around Ardmore (TONS of houses for sale!) and caught up on the crazy-ness going on in each of our lives. To come from MHC, where we’ve been talking about the possibilities of me teaching there in the near future, to go back to Winston, where I already feel so settled and comfortable and established (sometimes), it was all a bit … jarring. Anyway, I’ve got a lot to think/pray about, and talking with Dan sometime in the very near future. (We did, for the first time in a while, talk about a date for me graduating sometime in the near future - I think I’ll be shooting for early fall, with the knowledge that I can push that off a bit farther into the fall if need be - I’ve really got to get my second paper underway then…)

Let’s see… what else… I finished Life of Pi by my book club discussion - very interesting read, but I’ll save my thoughts for after the discussion, which should be really good, I think. I’ve started The Boleyn Inheritance (Philippa Gregory again), which continues the story of Henry the VIII’s 3rd and 4th wives (I think) - good and entertaining so far, as I expected - she’s a really good story-teller, and I’m already interested in the time period, so I’ve been quickly absorbed. (It’s a bit confusing at times, because I read Innocent Traitor a few weeks ago, which is about what happens after Henry dies and his son takes the throne and immediately after. So this is jumping back in history a bit. hehe)

Well, I’ve got a busy week ahead of me - I promise I’ll write more later on. I love you, Dad!

I found this really cool site - www.goodreads.com - you can sign up with a profile and keep track of the books you’ve read, what you thought of them, add books you’d like to read in the future, and see what other people are reading and what they think of them. My profile is here. Very cool! I’ve added all the books I’ve read this year so far, plus what I’m reading now, plus some books I’ve liked in the past (just off the top of my head really). I even got Geof to add a sidebar panel (towards the bottom) that shows what I’m currently reading and my last few books, automatically updated when I change my profile at goodreads. So now you can keep up with what I’m reading, even if I don’t get around to writing a new post with my thoughts on each book. Oh, and you should go sign up and then we can be ‘goodreads friends’ and talk about books we like!

I’ve been really slack about keeping y’all up-to-date with what’s going on, mostly due to laziness is actually writing about anything. Here are some bullet points to get things going:

~ Matthew is now officially in California. and So happy and excited for him, but really sad that he’s that far away - I do think we’re closer emotionally than we have been in a long time, so hopefully that will compensate some for the distance. He’ll be staying with some friends of ours out there, and he’s actually already got at least a short-term job already in the works, at Dreamworks (I think), thanks to his friend Adam who’s already out there. Keep up with his journey here.

~ Dad is heading to Africa for his third trip to the orphanage outside of Dubai, Kenya. Since he’ll be gone for a while and Matthew was leaving, we celebrated Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Matthew’s going-away all at the same time last weekend. Good times! Many thanks to Alisa for taking some great pictures of Matthew and me that we framed for Mom and Dad as gifts - I think they were a hit. He’ll be helping out with carpentry and maintenence projects, like he has on past trips. You can keep up with Dad’s trip through the links at the right - one for his page, and one for the orphanage.

~ Mom and I are going to be having a girl’s weekend next weekend, spending the night at a bed & breakfast, going back to my alma mater Mars Hill. It’s actually graduation weekend there, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find fun stuff to do while we’re there. It’ll be great to be back up there, and see the town from a different perspective, and spend some good girl time while the boys are gone.

~ I’ve finished a few more books recently, which you can read about here. I’ve just started Life of Pi (Yann Martel) for a book club, and I think I might break my rule and read two books at the same time, because I’ve got a non-fiction book that I don’t think I’ll be able to just read all the way through - Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life was featured on NPR a couple weeks ago, and as I’ve decided that I need to learn more about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, I’m excited about this one - but I think it’ll be easier if I read it along with whatever other book I’m reading so I don’t get bogged down too much. And I’m going to have to start my re-read of the Harry Potter books, in preparation for the new movie and the last book, all happening this summer!

~ Things I’m currently enjoying: Iron Chef America (well, almost anything on Food Network right now), Gilmore Girls (two more episodes til the SERIES FINALE! ), Nintendo Wii (the only game system I’ve ever wanted to own - soooo fun!), my nursery babies (so cute), and lots of phone time with the brother (enjoying that while I can).

~ I’m getting a haircut this week (finally), and while I considered doing something more dramatic (shorter, maybe), I think I might let it grow and donate to Locks of Love, since it’s already pretty close to that long anyway - but it might frustrate me enough between now and then to just cut it off… we’ll see…

OK, that’s enough for now.

So I went to see Music and Lyrics over the weekend (first movie I’ve ever seen by myself in the theater) - very cute and sweet movie, nothing ground-breaking, but fun - and apparently Drew and Hugh did their own singing (which I didn’t discover til I went to buy the soundtrack and looked to see who they dubbed in for their voices and realized they didn’t dub!) - who knew they could sing? So fun! (As Kari pointed out, I got all my money’s worth in just the first 5 minutes of the movie, when Hugh stars in a 1980s-style pop video, complete with tight white pants, mullet-style hair and awesome dance moves. The rest of the movie was icing on the cake - hehe.) I may have to watch it again, if not buy it, when it comes out on DVD. (Especially if Drew and Hugh do commentary!)

I also finished (a while ago) The Faith Club, written as a conversation between three women of different faith backgrounds (Islam, Christianity and Judaism). There’s a strong universalist slant, especially as the book progresses and the women discuss their common beliefs. Definitely an interesting read, and makes me want to learn more about the issues surrounding the Israel/Palestine conflict (something about which I know way too little). (Kari, I think it will make for a very interesting discussion book, for the record - even in a homogeneous group of people, but especially in a more mixed population.)

I’m also keeping up my interest in the Tudor dynasty (and all the resulting drama that came along with them) as I’m now reading Innocent Traitor by Allison Weir (about Jane Grey - it covers more of the Protestant/Catholic drama going on at the time than The Other Boleyn Girl, largely I guess because those debates weren’t going on quite yet in England). I’m also anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first three episodes of the new mini-series The Tudors, about King Henry the VIII’s reign (with Mr. Jonathan Rhys Myers as Henry - whoohoo!). So excited!

Also, tonight is Over the Rhine! in concert in Charlotte at the Visulte Theater!!! Their new album is coming out later this year, so I’m really hoping they’ll play up the new music, since I’ve loved what new music I’ve heard them do in other concerts. (I am, however, getting to be too old for late night Monday concerts - how am I supposed to get a good day’s work done tomorrow after the excitement of tonight?!?!) It won’t be quite the big group we had around this time last year, but there will be at least a few of us, back to represent our peeps for OtR.

OK, so I haven’t written about the books I’ve been reading for a while now - sorry! They’re all listed with brief summaries/thought on my books page, but I haven’t posted anything about the more recent ones. I will try to quickly remedy that now.

Good Harbor by Anita Diamant. I remember loving her book The Red Tent, which was a re-telling of the Biblical story of Dinah and talked a lot about women’s lives in that time, so I was excited to find this one. But it was, well, it was just not my favorite - it’s about a frienship between two women, and I just didn’t think anything was properly fleshed out as far as depth of character goes. Not really bad, just not really good.

Everyone Else’s Girl by Megan Crane. A fun chick lit book about returning home after living as an adult, and the resulting awkwardness and difficulty in meeting exes, etc. Fun and quick to read.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. Told from the perspective of Mary Boleyn, Anne’s older sister, a mistress to Henry VIII (before Anne married him) and mother of two illegitimate children with him. A strong focus on the power struggle behind getting Catherine of Aragon off of the throne, and the resulting schism within the church, as well as the issues surrounding being a woman in that time. As Kari said when she wrote about it, it helps to have a basic understanding of the history of the time, as there is quite a bit of fictionalization that goes on, including giving credence to some theories that the treason charges against Anne and her brother (charges of an incestuous relationship and a homosexual ring at court) were actually true, which most historians would agree was just a ruse to get Anne off of the throne to make way for Jane Seymore (thanks Kara!). I would recommend the book, but it is looooong (650 pages), but I read the last 100 pages on the elliptical at the YMCA in an hour, just because I needed to know how it ended (I mean, I know how it ended historically, but I needed to know how the novel wrapped things up).

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. This is one of the most difficult books I’ve ever read, not in terms of actual reading (it was very well written) but in terms of dealing with the trauma of the events that happen in the book. It’s about two boys growing up in Kabul Afghanistan in the ’70s and follows their lives through 2002. It’s very disturbing, but also (from what I’ve read about it) very accurate to the time and place, and that makes it actually more disturbing in a way. There are things that are specific to Afghan culture and religion, but there are definitely strong themes of guilt, secrets, family relationships and plenty of other things to relate to. I think I would have to read it again (I actually listened to it on CD in the car, which was probably not a good way to do such an emotionally charged book) to pick up on a lot of things, but I need to give it a little while - it’s too fresh and raw right now.

Intuition by Allegra Goodman. Kari recommended the book and asked me to fact-check if possible, cause the story revolves around a cancer research lab in a high-power cancer institute. The research of one post-doc starts to go marvelously well, and soon there are questions being raised by a fellow post-doc about the validity of said research, and it all snow-balls from there. For Kari’s benefit, the science seemed quite accurate, and it was really only talked about in the beginning, so non-scientists can still enjoy the book even if they get lost in the science. I remember Kari mentioning this when she read it, but had forgotten about it by the time I read it, but the story is told from each person’s perspective (not in first person), such that each person’s story is told as if there are the main protagonist and their version of truth and right vs wrong is correct. Which is an interesting and perhaps more realistic way to tell the story (especially this story), but it takes some getting used to - I was thinking all the way through the story that eventually the ‘truth’ was going to come out, that we would find out that he really did cheat, or that she really was making things up, but the ‘truth’ was left fairly ambiguous, though there is some closure at the end. Kari said she liked that there was no clear bad guy, and I agree that that’s more realistic, but in the end, I kinda like having that bad guy to boo, you know? Still a good read, and from what I’ve seen of her books, quite different than the rest of her stuff, so that’s good that she can write across several genres of fiction.

Oh, and I also checked out this strange book from the library, because I was looking for anything else by Audrey Niffenegger (who wrote The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I loved). And it turns out she wrote this bizarre ‘visual novel’ that’s basically a story told in these ephemeral aquatints that she apparently worked on for years and years. But it was straaaange, and I’m not counting it on my list (it took me 15 minutes to flip through). It’s called The Three Incestuous Sisters and well, it was wierd.

So I’ve now started On Agate Hill by Lee Smith (another Kari recommendation) and I’m hoping to get some time at the beach this weekend to read that and maybe one more - I’ve got a new one from Kari called The Faith Club about three women from Christianity, Islam and Judaism who talk about their faith with each other, but I’ve already got a few more out from the library that I need to read so I can turn back in. We’ll see…

What are you reading these days? Any suggestions for summer reading?

~ I am currently completely addicted to plums - I think I’ve eaten a full dozen in the past few days. Oh, and green grapes too - Whole Foods has had them both on sale lately and I’ve been stocking up!

~ I’m newly intrigued by ‘Dancing with the Stars’ - I’ve never watched any of the previous seasons, though I was aware of them. But it’s really fun, and my addiction doesn’t have anything to do with my long-standing crush on Joey Fatone, not. at. all.

~ I have a hair appointment tomorrow evening and I’m debating about doing something more exciting than I’ve done the last several times - thought? opinions?

~ Don’t you love having a glut of books to choose from? I finally got online with my library card and reserved a whole bunch of books I’ve been wanting to check out, and of course they all came in at the same time, so I now have to figure out how to prioritize what I’m reading. I put aside the Jodi Picoult book I was reading (Harvesting the Heart) so I can start one of the library books since they have to go back soon (starting with The Other Boleyn Girl). I’m hoping to get some time to make a dent in the pile at the beach next weekend (Isle of Palms, here we come!).

~ Redeemer’s Women’s Conference is this coming weekend, and I’ve been marginally involved in some of the behind-the-scenes planning - it’s actually been more fun than I originally anticipated, and I’m enjoying meeting more of the women in the church than I would normally have the chance to meet.

I finished Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love this week, and it’s been really hard for me to think of what I wanted to say about the book. It was very good, beautifully written and very compelling - it took me a while to read, but that was mostly because I read it in spurts and missed several days of reading completely, and that’s actually probably the best way to read the book, because there are so many confusing twists and turns that reading it in dribs and drabs would make it even more confusing. The story switches narration mainly between Alma, a young girl dealing with the death of her beloved father, and Leo, an old Polish man who is seeking desparately not to disappear into oblivion. Their stories become connected in a way that seems almost impossible at the beginning, tied in with the fate of a novel written fifty years earlier called ‘The History of Love’.

What Kari said about the book being about survival really resonated with me, as that seemed like the biggest theme of the book - Leo’s concern with not disappearing, Alma’s attempts to become prolific at outdoor survival, Leo’s drive to make sure that part of himself is left behind, it’s all about survival, making sure that the life we lead leaves at least a small mark on the world when we die, that something is different because we were alive. And the book communicates that powerfully, I think.

My favorite part of the book, however, is early on during one of the exerpts from the novel ‘The History of Love’ (confusing that that’s the title of both ‘books’). The author is talking about the ‘Ages’ throughout history, and in this part he’s talking about the Age of Silence, when communication was only through gestures and there was no spoken language developed.

During the Age of Silence, people communicated more, not less. Basic survival demanded that the hands were almost never still, and so it was only during sleep (and sometimes not even then) that people were not saying something or other. No distinction was made between the gestures of language and the gestures of life. The labor of building a house, say, or preparing a meal was no less an expression than making the sign for I love you or I feel serious.

I thought that was an amazing statement of the concept that love is about action, that it’s less about feelings and emotions and more about the things we do that let people know that we love them. Of course it’s much easier to say the words ‘I love you’ but to actually show someone that love means something more than words is much more difficult, but also more worthwhile in the end.