I finished all but Eating Animals, Intimacy, and The Town that Food Saved. I am almost finished with the first two, but I'm going to save The Town that Food Saved for another time. Maybe in the spring, when I am looking forward to our community market opening up again for the summer season. It seems that it would be more timely then. And the excitement of the season might help push me past the very, very slow way the book starts.
Here are the seven (nine? I can't remember which of these wasn't on my official list - hey, maybe I read more than I thought. Or I'm dipping into November?) that I read:
An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor - I love this book. I want this life. I also love that she started the chapters with quotes, and their sources ranged from Thich Nhat Hanh to Louis L'Amour.
Good People by Marcus Sakey - I picked this book up off my shelf one night and said, "I'll just read a few pages before bed." Four hours later, I was finished and exhilarated. I could not put it down. It started fast and was fast and intense all the way through. If you like a quick read with a lot of action, this is a good choice.
Madapple by Christina Meldrum - I like the way that the story was told. I would have loved this in junior high, although my Southern Baptist upbringing would have ensured that I was scandalized by it - not by the adult themes - just the spiritual mystery. Of course, that would have made me love it more (and hide it from my mother).
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett - A common critique of avid readers is that we spend all of our time with our noses in books, reading about the world instead of experiencing it. I suppose I get the point. When it comes to the Amazon jungle, though, I'm at peace with that. Through this book, Ann Patchett gave me as much of a jungle experience as I ever need to have, and I am richer for it (without the threat of malaria or death by snakebite, thank you very much). And on top of that, I got a graceful discussion of research ethics. Amazing imagery and, as always, amazing characters. I loved it.
Bossypants by Tina Fey - I laughed until I cried at least five times. I especially loved her chapter where she responded to comments posted by online "critics." I already had a lot of respect for her, but now I would list her as one of my heroes.
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown - I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like this one very much. It was okay. The best description I have heard of it was one reviewer on Goodreads who said, "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is not all rainbows and ice cream sundaes as the cover of this novel depicts, but more closely resembles a train wreck that also catches on fire, blows up, and then drowns." So if you're into that, then, um, give it a read?
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson - This book started slow and ended slow. It read like a soap opera. The characters weren't interesting to me, so the dramatic things that they did and the dramatic things that happened to them weren't interesting to me either. It wouldn't be a bad beach read. The writing wasn't terrible. I made it through. But that's it.
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami - I love the way he writes. Every time I read it, I stumble across passages where I stop and think, "Wow. I bet that was beautiful in its original language." Alas, I do not know Japanese. Why can't I learn everything?!?! I haven't read a lot of his stuff, but I like what I have read. The reviews I've read list this as one of his not-so-great, but I enjoyed it. When I was about halfway through, I found out that it was number four in a series. Oops. So maybe next I'll go back and read 1-3. It was easy to follow anyway.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - The first forty pages were painful. So many people had recommended it - even people who don't typically read a lot - so I was confused. I found myself exclaiming aloud, "Natalie read this? Natalie?!?" The first forty pages took just as long for me to read as the last 420 pages. I say this not to discourage you from reading it but to illustrate how very, very worth reading the last 420 pages of the book are. They are so worth getting through those rough (albeit necessary) first forty. This was my favorite book that I read this month. More than Murakami - more than Patchett - I loved this book.
Books for this month:
1. Intimacy by Henri Nouwen
2. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. Good Things by Mia King
4. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
5. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson
6. Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum
7. The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
8. A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren
9. What the Other Mothers Know by Michelle Gendelman, Ilene Graff, and Donna Rosenstein
10. A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents by Liza Palmer
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