Tuesday Book Club
As I mentioned last Friday, my gift to myself last week was ditching a book that did not bring me happiness. Which prompted Mother Reader to talk about the topic in a much wittier way than I could have, so please give yourselves the treat of reading this.
It just so happened that right as I was getting out of that book relationship, I caught the Oprah show last week where she hosted an elaborate dinner party for Sidney Poitier in celebration of his memoir Measure of a Man. I’d forgotten how much I love his quiet dignity and self-possession, and so the next day I went out and bought the book. As did, apparently, many, many others.
Bookstore clerk: Wow. You’re like the twentieth person this morning. What’s going on?
Me: Well, he was on Oprah yesterday. For her book club.
Bookstore clerk: That woman could be President! I know she’s said she’ll never run, but everyone does what she says, you know? She should seriously be President.
Me: Yeah, well . . .
Bookstore clerk: You’re buying this just because of her?
Me: [thinking] Just give me the [bleep] book.
So yes, I did buy it on the strength of her recommendation and on the display of Mr. Poitier’s fineness at that dinner, and while the memoir was good, it wasn’t great. Or maybe it just didn’t touch me the way it did Oprah.
Great is Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, which will continue to occupy the slot for Best Memoir (at least for me) until something equally funny, honest, deep, and enlightening comes along. Sorry, Mr. P.
But I’m still happy I read it, and I’m escstatic that I gave myself permission to get out of my bad relationship with that other book. Freedom!
So what did all of you read this week?
Technorati Tags: Tuesday Book Club, Book Clubs, Reading Clubs, 50 Book Challenge, Reading, Books, Book Reviews, Book Recommendations, Memoirs, Autobiographies, Measure of a Man, Eat Pray Love
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:30 am
Finished God Emperor this week. I’m not going to continue in that series, I don’t think.
Also re-read a Robert Asprin book. Hit or Myth Not sure why. Just picked it up and read it.
Started on Memorial Day by Vince Flynn.
Bought Casino Royale on DVD.
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:53 am
Casino Royale. Daniel Craig . . .
I’m sorry, where was I?
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:12 am
Finishing up Fanged & Fabulous by Michelle Rowen.
Also, purchsed Writing Magic, Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine from the school book fair. I chose this one for my kids, but I ended up reading it myself and enjoyed it. A very kind read, while remaining informative and helpful. Even though it is for ages 10 and up, I would recommend it to anyone wanting to read a writing how-to.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:53 am
Well,I’m nearly finished with The Robber Bride(I don’t read Atwood very often but when I do find one that suits me,it’s so hard to get out of that groove). Still in the midst of a few other titles and just recieved a great couple of Booksfree selections: Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik(book 2 in her Termeraire series)and Windwalker by Nastasha Mortert.
I’ve been reading Mortert’s upcoming new book,Season of the Witch,and it’s so intriguing that I wanted to check out one of her earlier titles. Oh,and Robin has declared me her offical book taster,so I may try reading The Road. My birthday is coming up soon,so I can get someone to give it to me(or some cash towards it)as a gift:)
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:56 am
Heather, that’s a great suggestion. I often turn to kids’ books to give me a good baseline of information. That’s how I prefer to do my history and science research. So why not read a kids’ book on writing?
Lady T, no pressure on The Road. Sounds like you’re reading plenty on your own. Just keep reporting in. I’m sure I’ll see something I like and can’t resist (much like all the addictive TV shows you keep enticing me to watch with your weekly reviews. Curses!).
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:15 am
I read Angel’s Choice by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. I read it in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. Utterly riveting. It’s about teen pregnancy, but in a totally, non-sensationalized way.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:24 am
Diana, I assume that’s YA?
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:41 am
I’m out of town (double dipping at a Marriott, Patrick, plus bonus points for multiple stays this month) but I made the effort to get to a computer because I just had to see the after picture of your desk: OMG! I’m very proud of you, you did a terrific job! Just keep putting those CD’S on loud and racing against them and your whole house can be decluttered.
As for reading i am resisting giving up the book I wrote about last week-I can;t let the book win- I’m going to get through that book no matter what. Aside from my battle with that book, I read a Pony Pals, a couple of Newsweeks and a 2 1/2 year old back issue of the New Yorker.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:18 am
I, also, loved Eat, Pray, Love! Bought the hardback and read it twice, in fact.
Another good memoir is Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain. It’s sweet, honest, and gives another portrayal of Ireland that I didn’t know about. Follow-up to that is her second book, Almost There.
Loved her memoirs!
Am currently reading My Dream of You, her novel.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:24 am
Thanks for the recommendation, Occidental Girl. If you read Eat, Pray, Love twice, I think I’d better respect your tastes.
Deborah, do you think this is like saving someone’s life, and now you become responsible for it? Thank you for giving me the strategy I needed to finally dig out of my heap o’ piles. Please check up on me at least every quarter to make sure I’m doing the necessary upkeep.
As for not letting the book you’re reading win, are you sure you want to keep giving more hours of your life to a book that doesn’t improve your life or make you happy in some way? I’m just saying.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:45 am
I spent my weekend hugging strangers.
Does this get me a “Get out of Tuesday Book Club Free” pass or something?
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:02 am
I don’t know, Molly. That’s a pretty specific exemption. I’ll have to check the rules.
Did any of the strangers smell bad?
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am
Are you sure you are double-dipping at Marriot? I looked and it gives me the option for one or the other, not both.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Wow. Okay. This week I read Abhorsen by Garth Nix (third or fourth time through…can’t quite recall) and then…ah…didn’t read anything until Saturday, when I bought I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter (in glorious paperback) and the seventh volume of Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa. I read the FMA first, finished within the evening, and started on Love You, Kill You. Finished that Sunday night. Good books all around, though my favorite of the three is still Abhorsen. Something about apocalyptic necromancer fantasy that you’ve just got to love (that and this volume of FMA didn’t stand alone at all). Love You, Kill You was a lot of fun, though. (Read: Abhorsen’s polar opposite. And yet I love them both anyway. Strange.)
Now I’m rereading Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer for something like the…tenth time? Maybe?
(I reread things constantly. I’m almost to where I can recite large portions of books, the Artemis Fowls especially. It’s slightly creepy.)
Sorry for rambling on your blog, Robin. I tend to do that a lot.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Ramble on, Miri! I always like to hear what you have to say. Boy, did you read up a storm this week! Good going!
April 3rd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
No, no. They were lovely people. One even told me that I have a kind vibe or something like that. How librarian of me.
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:29 pm
i was so busy cleaning–i almost forgot–i finished a book–hurrah! one down 49 to go. at rb’s recommendation, seconded by laura, “eat, pray, love.” i enjoyed it.
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Annette, I recall your reluctance to reading Eat Pray Love, so I’m glad you enjoyed it!
This week, I read Nearlyweds by Beth Kendrick. It was a nice easy read about three women who get married and then learn their marriages aren’t valid.
For the memoir lovers out there, I highly recommend the memoir Come Back - currently Target’s book club pick. It’s excellent. Very different from Eat Pray Love, so I can’t say which I like better. They aren’t comparable, really. But it was great.
I’ve got to go find the “after” picture of Robin’s office!
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Thanks for the memoir recommendation, Laura. I do love to mix it up with some real life every now and then.
But not too often. Shudder.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Another memoir recommendation: “The Glass Castle.” Wow, was it great. Very remarkable. And I’m a huge fan of “Eat. Pray. Love” even though a) I don’t like Italian food, b) I suspicious of yoga, and c) I’m not spiritual by any means. In other words, “Eat. Pray. Love” was an awesome book because its author took a reluctant reader and charmed her anyway
This week I finished reading a fun book for Middle Grade readers, “Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times.” Also I began reading “The Inheritance of Loss,” which I would have rather listened to, ’cause I have so many books to review, but it never came out on audible.
Oops…put me in the rambling camp!!
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
make that: “I AM supsicious of yoga.” Yikes.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Kelly, no matter how you say it, it still cracks me up that you’re suspicious of yoga. What did yoga ever do to you? Overstretch your hamstrings?
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I am listening to “Boy Proof” by Cecil Castellucci (almost finished). And I read the second book in Margaret Peterson Haddix’s middle grade series Among the Hidden series (”Among the Imposters”). Oh, and I read a YA memoir called “I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree”, by a Schindler’s list survivor.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Jen, love the idea (and the title) of that YA memoir. Sounds like something I should read. In fact, all three books sound intriguing. I need to increase my rate so I can get to all these great books you all have been reading.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
It’s technically after 1:00am, Wednesday morning, but…I just finished Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Good job, Kimmy. But get some sleep!
April 4th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Oh, don’t worry, I did!
April 4th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Running late here…. re-read The Hobbit, and all 3 volumes of LotR (I wasn’t feeling particularly well this week…. when that happens, I read….)
April 4th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Vc, all in one week? Man . . .
Hope you feel better!
April 4th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Oh, I’m okay now - mostly it was my own fault…. I had a head cold, and was trying to prevent my allergies from making it worse, bought the wrong kind of Claritin, didn’t read the box; this was the kind with pseudoephedrine in it (to which I’m fairly allergic) - so I had one night when I got NO sleep (since I took the caplet in the evening and Claritin is “non-drowsy” *sigh*), and a couple of days when my system was anything but happy with me….
Just glad I realized what the situation was before taking another one, which probably would have landed me in the hospital.
April 5th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Robin, Are you unaware of how yoga threatens christianity?
http://www.yogadangers.com/
This is almost as big as evolution!
April 6th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Patrick, I just got back from yoga, and remembered your comment here. I followed the link, and YOW. Those are some pretty gnarly statements, such as yoga summoning demonic forces, yoga being a form of idolatry, etc.
I guess everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, huh? Good thing we have some freedoms in this country.