akowen's '09 75 books

#1 The Secret of Lost Things: A Novel ~ Sheridan Hay
Fascinating story. Read Moby Dick first for background, although there are tons of literary references. The Arcade has to be Strand Books in NYC, right? I've only been there once, but it took me right there as I read.

Do you think it's necessary to read Moby Dick before Secret? I'd like to read Hay's book, but Melville is a bit much for me, unless I cheat and read the abridged version (which I would hate to do, I guess I'm a purist).

Well, The Secret of Lost Things is now on my TBR. Thanks for the tip!

Welcome to the group, akowen!

I am with drneutron, and putting The Secret of Lost Things on Continent TBR. It sounds very good.

>#2 alynnk

I read The Secret of Lost Things and no, I don't think it is necessary to read Moby Dick (which I did not like) first.

OK, you're right. You don't have to read Moby Dick first to appreciate this book, but isn't it one of those books we all tell ourselves we should have read, but could never bring ourselves to do it? I guess I wanted a better feeling of Melville as I read The Secret of Lost Things, but that is my personal stretching.

#2 Love's Hidden Blessings: God Can Touch Your Life When You Least Expect It ~ Sue Monk Kidd
Pulled this off the shelf in our theological library to begin to get a flavor of more of Kidd's writing. The first I read was The Secret Life of Bees as a book club read; one of our members had delved into Kidd's writing on the feminine divine. This fluffy book doesn't go there at all, which I knew.

Looks like this will be an interesting thread :)

#3 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ~ Mary Ann Shaffer
I loved this book! So fast to read, but funny and lovely in its simplicity.

#4 The Uncommon Reader ~ Alan Bennett
English humor again. Wonderful!

I just read those two too, good you enjoyed them too.

#5 Stuck in Neutral ~ Terry Trueman
This YA book was recommended to me by a school library media friend--she and I are both awed by the story. 114 quick pages, but truly profound.

#11: Looks like a good one. Thanks for the recommendation!

#6 This One is Mine ~ Maria Semple
I half expected this to be a fluffy California story even though I read about it in a respectable place. It ended up that I liked it.

#7 Little Audrey ~ Ruth White
Like Walls' The Glass Castle but written for kids and not quite as desperate.

#8 Essays of E.B. White ~ E.B.White
Who thinks of reading essays? (I know some people do.) When a friend told me how wonderful this collection was, I had to see for myself. What delightful writing! Such a treat to read.

#1: Sounds like something I would enjoy. Thanks for the recommendation!

>14 akowen: I've been surprised by how many people here in the 75ers do read essays. Thx for the heads up (I haven't been one of them up to this point... the future will tell :)

#9 Savage Beauty: the Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay ~ Nancy Milford
Incredible research to write this book. I loved the detail and learning about this beloved poet.

#17: *sigh* Yet another one for the Continent.

#10 Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks and a Writer's Life ~ Kathleen Norris
Trying to read all of Kathleen Norris. Amazing research. Sometimes too detailed for me, but told in a very insightful way.

#11 The 39 Clues: the Maze of Bones (Book One) ~ Rick Riordan
A school librarian mentioned this book and its continuing series with each book written by a different author. Involving kids in reading by also connecting them with an online game, collectible cards, and eventual prizes seems ingenious to me. It was a fast read, but will I actually follow through on the series?

#12 Speak ~ Laurie Halse Anderson
Young Adult book that won several prizes including the Printz in 2000. Ingenious way of slowly telling the story.

#13 Telex from Cuba ~ Rachel Kushner
Americans in Cuba during the 1950's, their world amidst the Cuban rebellion.

#14 The Time Traveler's Wife ~ Audrey Niffenegger
I loved this book. Some avid readers in my life said this was a book they couldn't put down. It sounds like science fiction, doesn't it, but don't be fooled. This is a wonderful, sensitive, touching love story.

#15 Things I Want My Daughters to Know ~ Elizabeth Noble
English setting. Mother dies and daughters struggle and grow without her.

#16 Blue Genes: a Memoir of Loss and Survival ~ Christopher Lukas
A family's (genetic) history of depression, suicide, and death.

#17 My Life in France ~ Julia Child
Makes me really want to see Paris. And hang pots and pans on my kitchen walls.

#18 Three Cups of Tea ~ Greg Mortenson
I started this book a while ago and didn't get very far. Glad I tried again because this is a lesson in humanitarianism that Americans especially should read. It brought the names and places we hear endlessly in the news into the realm of real people and their lives.

#19 People of the Book ~ Geraldine Brooks
I listened to this a year ago in the car on the way to New York. When my new book club had it on the agenda I read it again. A well-written, fascinating read either way.

#20 Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope ~ Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak with Mark Tabb
Picked it up off the New Nonfiction shelf at the library because I had seen the families interviewed on TV and were fascinated by their story. The book has a strong Christian bent.

You've been doing some good reading lately!

#26 I really like Geraldine Brooks, but have not yet read People of the Book yet, although it's on my TBR pile. I need to bump it up. Have you read March and/or A Year of Wonders? I thought both were excellent.

I want to read both of these Brooks books. Thanks for the encouragement.

#21 I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti ~ Guilia Melucci

#29: How did you like I Loved? Just curious.

#11 Stuck in Neutral - I'm with you on this book - I just loved it, and also his Inside Out. Have you read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - it is an amazing memoir.
I'm also a fan of Geraldine Brooks and The Time Traveller's Wifeis one of my all time favourite reads.

Message 29: I thought I Love, I Lost , I Made Spaghetti was just a fluff book. I had read a review that talked about its hilarity; that coupled with Italian food (recipes included) sounded good to me for a quick read, but I could have done without. In fact I was rushing through it to get to something else I would hopefully like better.

Message 31: I haven't read The Diving Bell but I watched the movie recently. Depressing and hopeful and awesome story all at once.

Book #22 Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World ~ Vicki Myron
Why did I love this book so much? I found myself apologizing for it as a I carried it around, but I ended up being so touched by it.

#32: I would read it as a fluff book as well. I love cooking and am constantly on the lookout for new recipes, so when I can combine reading and recipes, I am a happy camper.

Book #23 Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession ~ Anne Rice
The first thing I have ever read of Anne Rice. I wouldn't have read her pre-conversion books. This book helped me see what is going on with her and her writing.

Book #24 Interred with Their Bones ~ Jennifer Lee Carrell
A mystery with too many details to keep straight. Chosen by my book group.

Book #25 Sisters ~ Prue Leith
English author again. My heritage--what can I say?

Book #26 Garden Spells ~ Sarah Addison Allen
Simple story of love and finding one's self.

#37: I really enjoyed Garden Spells by Allen. Her follow up book, The Sugar Queen is good as well if you are interested.

Book #27 The Song is You ~ Arthur Phillips
What a well written book! Over and over a description was written like none I've ever read before. This book treated unrequited love (if that's really what it was) in an extraordinarily unique way.

#39: I am going to look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation.

Book #28 The Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague ~ Geraldine Brooks
After reading People of the Book, I wanted to read something else by Brooks. This was a good read too.

Book #29 The Professor and the Madman ~ Simon Winchester
Intrigue related to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary--nonfiction.

Book #30 How to Buy a Love of Reading ~ Tanya Egan Gibson
Even halfway through this I was asking myself, "Why the hype about this book?" In the second half I figured it out. Good book.

#42: Catey just brought the Gibson book home from the library the other day. I am going to have to look at it.

Book #31 Digging to America ~ Anne Tyler

Book #32 The Double Bind ~ Chris Bohjalian
Wow, what an ending!

Book #33 His Illegal Self ~ Peter Carey

As usual Anne Tyler's style of writing from the inside of families is captivating.

Book #34 The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe v. Wade ~ Ann Fessler

Book #35 Sunrise Over Fallujah ~ Walter Dean Myers

Book #36 The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal ~ Lily Koppel

#48: What did you think of The Red Leather Diary?

#48 What fascinated me the most about The Red Leather Diary was that this diary that had been plucked out of a New York dumpster was the story of a young girl who lived life to the fullest in 1920's Manhattan, thus giving the potential author, Lily Koppel (already a journalist). a fascinating story of society, people, and places of the time. For Koppel to have realized the gem she had discovered and actually find its author alive to complete the story is also amazing. The endless details of relationships got boring after a while, but what would one expect in an adolescent's diary? I enjoyed the book more for its historical perspective than the teenage angst.

Book #37 Beat ~ Amy Boaz Early Reviewer book (see review)

Book #38 How Sweet It Is ~ Alice J. Wisler Early Reviewer book (see review)

#50: I enjoyed the book more for its historical perspective than the teenage angst.

I would probably enjoy it that way, too. Thanks for the additional information!

Book #39 The Last Bridge ~ Teri Coyne Early Reviewer book (see review)

#54: I will have to find a copy of that one. It looks pretty good!

Book #40 Summer Reading ~ Hilma Wolitzer
So-so story. Nothing extraordinary.

I hope your next read is better for you!

Book #41 Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading and Threatening ~ Robert Meyers
Wish I didn't have to read this one. It was helpful, though.

Book #42 The Map of Love ~ Ahdaf Soueif
Egypt and the British Occupation in early 1900's. A moving love story between two people of differing cultures.

#59: I am going to look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation.

Book #44 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life ~ Barbara Kingsolver
Great book. I see why so many have said that before.

Book #45 The Knitting Circle ~ Ann Hood
The girl who helped with my blood donation today said, "You must really love to read if you're reading a book about knitting for your book club." And I had to answer "yes." But this book about knitting really did have some substance.

Book #43 I accidentally deleted Love in the Time of Cholera ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Don't want this book off the list because I now consider it a "Favorite."

Book #46 Long Ago in France ~ M.F.K. Fisher
After reading My Life in France and seeing the movie, Julie & Julia, a friend of mine gave me this delightful little book to continue to revel in food and France.

Long Ago in France looks like a book I would enjoy. Thanks for the recommendation!

Book #47 Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously ~ Julie Powell
Saw the movie. Enjoyed the book.

Book #48 Sarah's Key ~ Tatiana de Rosnay
An event in the history of the Holocaust that I did not know about--the rounding up of French Jews in Paris by the French police to be held in the Velodrome d'Hiver (known as the Vel d'Hiv) before being shipped to French camps and then to Auschwitz. The story of the children is heartbreaking. This story was told without being sappy or nostalgic.

#66: I am looking forward to reading that one, if I can ever get my hands on a copy.

Book #49 A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop ~ Rembert G. Weakland
Being from Milwaukee and missing our former archbishop's pastoral leadership, I had to read this book. He deals with his horrid "loss of name" openly and honestly from the very beginning, but it is the rest of the book that reminds us that this was a truly wise and holy man who was not afraid to stand up for what he thought was right--namely the Church as Christ meant it to be. I love his style; even all the minute details were eye-opening and educational. I just wonder if those who reject him will allow themselves to read his story and open their hearts to the human being that has written it.

#68: Do you think that someone who is not Catholic can appreciate the book?

Book #50 Betrayal at the Vel d'Hiv ~ Claude Levy
The meticulous research of the event around which Sarah's Key was told: the July 16, 1942 roundup of Jews in and around Paris by the French police to aid the Germans in their Final Solution. This was my educational follow-up to reading that novel; the novel was right on and the facts are horrifying.

#70: I will look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation.

Book #50 March ~ Geraldine Brooks
Great historical fiction. The story of Papa March from Little Women} created from biographical information of Louisa May Alcott's actual father and fitting in with her novel.

Book #51 The Year of Living Biblically ~ A.J. Jacobs
Both informative and highly humorous in places.

#72: I really need to locate March (I own it) and read it!

I have enjoyed both of the Jacobs' books I have read, but I must say, he has the most long-suffering wife on the face of the planet.

Book #52 Still Alice ~ Lisa Genova
Everyone who is in some way touched by Alzheimer's should read this book.

Book #53 Girl in Hyacinth Blue ~ Susan Vreeland

Book #54 The Game of Kings ~ Dorothy Dunnett

#75: How did you like the Dunnett book? I own several of hers that I have yet to read.

#55 Mrs. Bridge ~ Evan S. Connell
#56 Mr. Bridge ~ Evan S. Connell

Book #57 Hiking the Camino: 500 Miles with Jesus ~ Dave Pivonka
The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela where St. James is said to be buried in Spain.

Book #58 Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation ~ Sheila Weller
Tons of details--names, "he said, she said"--slow this book down, but in the end it is a fascinating story of that generation, especially if you lived through the 60'2 and 70's.

Book #59 Jesus Wept: When Faith and Depression Meet ~ Barbara C. Crafton

Book #60 Love First: A Family's Guide to Intervention ~ Jeff Jay
A Hazelden publication. Up-to-date information given in a helpful style.

Book #61 The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring ~ Richard Preston

#82: That one looks pretty good to me. I have read a couple of Preston's books before, but not that one. I am adding it to the BlackHole.

Are you joining us for the 2010 challenge? The group is up and running!

I was just thinking that I still have 5 days left of 2009 to get a few more books in! But yes, I will try again for 75 in 2010.

Book #62 Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey through His Son's Addiction ~ David Sheff
This book can help parents who are crazy with their child's addiction to know that they are not alone. In the description of the journey, one can take away some semblance of acceptance, letting go, maybe even the elusive serenity.

Book #63 Walter Holtkamp: American Organ Builder ~ John Allan Ferguson
An obscure title about one of my passions--and a hometown builder.

Book #64 The Apple: Based on the Herman Rosenblat Holocaust Love Story ~ Penelope J. Holt
Early Reviewer book.

Book #65 My last book of the year--only 10 short! I'm pretty pleased at that.

The Irresistible Henry House: A Novel ~ Lisa Grunwald
Early Reviewer book.

Happy New Year!