Orange is the New Black
Agree with Onward that it takes a while to get into, but then it’s great. Also much easier to get into the second and third books.
Just finished yet another enjoyable book that was recommended here - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. The author writes beautifully and I loved the structure of a series of short stories that were tied together by the title character. The stories were Olive was a central character were my favorites, and I think those were also the strongest. A very enjoyable book, one of those where I was sad when I reached the last page.
^^^ I’ve had an eye on Olive Kitteredge myself. Glad to see good remarks. (I have so many books I want to read at the moment. :P)
‘Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet’ by first time author Jaimie Ford. It’s a really quietly emotional story of youth, lost love and family relations amidst the Japanese relocation in Seattle in the 1940s, as well as a story of present-day revelations. The depiction of 1940s seattle cultural scene is fascinating.
“Girl in Translation” by Jean Kwok
For anyone who’s interested, Ken Follet’s *Pillars of The Earth *is coming to television on Starz Channel, staring this Friday I believe. It has what appears to be a wonderful cast. I hope it can capture the spirit of the book.
[The</a> Pillars Of The Earth](<a href=“http://www.starz.com/originals/ThePillarsOfTheEarth/Pages/title.aspx?src=starz_mktg&med=referral&cmp=pillars]The”>http://www.starz.com/originals/ThePillarsOfTheEarth/Pages/title.aspx?src=starz_mktg&med=referral&cmp=pillars)
My apologies if this has already been noted.
I’m reading ‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett and am thoroughly enjoying it!
^^^masslou, I couldn’t put that one down. You may be interested in this thread if you missed it earlier: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/839908-help-february-cc-book-club-selection.html?highlight=book+club[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/839908-help-february-cc-book-club-selection.html?highlight=book+club</a>. For a book that puts a much rosier spin on southern ladies and their “help”, you may want to read “Saving CeCe Honeycutt.”
I also loved “Olive Kitteredge.” Have read it twice. An earlier book by Elizabeth Strout, “Amy and Isabelle,” is also wonderful.
Another recommendation, an excellent book I just finished, is “Blame,” by Michelle Huneven.
I just finished “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova. I couldn’t put it down and am haunted by it days later. It is about a brilliant 50 year old Harvard PHD who develops early alzheimer’s.
Very well written. Very disturbing.
I read “Still Alice” earlier this year, and have thought about it many times since.
And here’s another vote for “The Help.” I often avoid blockbuster books because I find them disappointing, but this one lived up to the hype. And it will soon be a movie.
I read Still Alice a few weeks ago and found it a very interesting book. I only know a couple of people whose parents have Alzheimer’s or dementia but it bothers me when I think that surely someone that I know now will eventually get one of the other.
^I know a brilliant university professor just a few years older than me who had to retire early because of Alzheimers. She is fully aware of having it (still functions well.) I can’t imagine the fear and horror she must feel.
Recently reread Nick Hornby’s collection of columns from The Believer magazine. The book is called “the Polysyllabic Spree” and it comprises columns on the subject of what books he’d bought and/or read each month.
The book is funny, insightful, and enormously useful. I’ve discovered several great authors because of his recommendations. And then I found there were two more collections of the columns (“Housekeeping Vs the Dirt” and “Shakespeare Wrote for Money”) that were equally entertaining and informative.
He’s such a good writer; even if you never cared about any book he writes about, his takes on them are so original, generous, and funny that they’re worth reading anyway. Along the way, he touches on all kinds of subjects, from writing to politics to autism (he has an autistic son) to movies to music–well, you get the idea. Highly recommended.
Hornby’s own novels are good, too, of course!
Oh, and I’m in the middle of a collection of essays by the Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten called “the Fiddler in the Subway”. Excellent and incredibly readable. A real find.
“She’s Come Undone” by Wally Lamb.
[Amazon.com:</a> A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel (9780805212143): Meir Shalev: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Pigeon-Boy-Novel-Meir-Shalev/dp/0805212140/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282224079&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Pigeon-Boy-Novel-Meir-Shalev/dp/0805212140/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282224079&sr=1-1)
I thought this book was like a tone poem about home, family, love, set in Israel with the story of messenger / homing pigeons literally and symbolically migrating through the book…just lovely. I will say I gently wept most of the time reading it! But that may have as much to do with kiddo leaving again for college as with anything =).
Just this minute finished “The Art of Racing in the Rain.” Loved, loved, loved it! Wonderful and sad all at the same time. Not too long; a pretty easy read – but filled with great observations/comments on life. The “racing” refers to car racing, of which I know next to nothing, but that doesn’t make any difference in terms of enjoying the book. Excellent!
CBB - was that not the best ending in the whole history of the earth???