Me in Place

Here is the book list for January 2010. It was a good month of reading, but none were standouts, except the very first one.

NB: I did not buy one single book this month!  I determined I would only get books from the library or read ones I already have on my shelf. Which leads me to my next point, which is THANK YOU! to reader Mike who, when I found out he and his family, including reader Kris, were in Vegas and had eaten at The Burger Bar and I emailed and said, OH! The Burger Bar! That’s Chef Hubert Keller’s restaurant! (The fact that I know this and not basic geography facts would be why I’m only a 69% Jeopardy player). Anyway, I said, hey, if you see an autographed cookbook by Hubert Keller, pick it up and I’ll pay you back. Kind Reader Mike got the book for me and then even said I didn’t have to pay him back – it was a gift. How kind was that? Here’s the book:

Sorry it’s blurry, but still…how fun is that? Maybe this should be the start of a new collection – autographed cookbooks!

Here is the rest of the booklist for January. The only one I’d recommend to you is the second one, The Informant, which I own, so if you live by me, you’re more than welcome to borrow it.:

1. Across Five Aprils; Hunt, Irene; 224; 1/4 (school)
SASR (Short Attention Span Review): This was my third time through the book, and each time it just bored me more. Just rambles. But! A great intro to what it would have been like to live through the Civil War as a kid. Rating: 5)

2. The Informant; Eichenwald, Kurt; 567; 1/3
SASR: Wow. What a crazy, crazy story! I really enjoyed this book – definitely the best book I’ve read this year. (Little joke there for ya.) Although the names can be hard to keep straight at times, this is a book about the price fixing schemes of a large corporation located close to us (ADM in Decatur). A man is used as cooperating witness with the FBI – but is he really helping? Or just confusing the matter with his lies? Made into a movie starring Matt Damon (which we haven’t seen yet – but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it.). Additionally, here’s a Link to article in World Magazine. Rating: 8

3. Storm Surge; Gutteridge, Rene; 348; 1/5
SASR: Third book in a trilogy of mysteries written by a Christian author. Good, light entertainment. Creepy and suspenseful. A little too much focus on the romance stuff. No man I know would notice whether a girl was wearing mascara or not – and this guy kept noticing it… which, instead of being “sweet”, I found rather creepy.
Rating: 7

4. Juliet, Naked; Hornby, Nick; 390; 1/12
SASR: Book by author of High Fidelity and About a Boy – if you liked either of those books or movies, you’d like this. The title is in reference to an acoustic CD released by a musician who hasn’t done anything in about twenty years. A man and woman who are living together review the CD with two totally different views on it and….then the story happens!

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Larsson, Steig; 590; 1/14
SASR: I read this because I kept seeing it everywhere. Heavy on the R rated torture scenes, it was also a good mystery and definitely a page-turner. It centers on a journalist who is hired to write a history of a large family and to attempt to solve the mystery of a girl’s disappearance many years before.

6. Chateau of Echoes; Mitchell, Siri; 384; 1/15
SASR: I always enjoy Siri Mitchell’s books. They’re light, escape reading, but better written than most Christian lit. This one focuses on a recently widowed lady who lives in a chateau in France. Journals were found on the property written by a girl in the 1500′s. How do the two women’s lives intertwine?

7. The Other Queen; Gregory, Philippa; 438; 1/24
SASR: I have read most of Gregory’s books and have previously enjoyed them, but this one was scattered and not that interesting and  – if you know even a little English history – you know what’s going to happen, so there’s no suspense. However, I don’t want to disparage Gregory’s writing! She usually is much more interesting, so if you want a good English monarchy book to read, try her “The Other Boleyn Girl” (or rent the movie).

Total Pages January: 2,941

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