Recently Read:

The Paris Wife – Enjoyed this very much and my obsession with Hemingway continues!

The Glass Castle – I put this off forever because I knew how much I would love it.  Sounds wonky but I do that sometimes.  Pleasure delay for book nerds?

Room – It was pretty good, I don’t know if it was worth ALL of the hype that it received but I would recommend it.

Trans-Sister Radio – I enjoyed this book right up until the end, which I hated.  Why Chris Bohjalian WHY?!!!!!!!!!!

The Art of Racing in the Rain – Not a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but it was the heart-warming tear-jerking kind of book that everyone loves.

This is Where I Leave You – blogged about this below.  Hysterically funny.

How to Talk to A Widower – I enjoyed This is Where I leave you more, but this was a good read as well.  Sad though.  A bit too sad.

The House at Riverton – Disapointed in this historical fiction.  I thought the writing sucked as well.  IMO.

Dark Places – Not as good as Sharp Objects, but just as dark and twisted.  I am a fan of Gillian Flynn.

Swamplandia! – I was stoked to read this, and though it would probably make me look like more of an intellectual in the world of contemporary fiction to say that I liked it, I’m afraid I cannot.  The narrative had promise, and it was certainly original but it just was not my cup of tea.  Like a bunch of short stories edited together. Yuck.

A few YA Fiction Reads:

Hate List – I thought this was a great read.

Twenty Boy Summer – No.

Perfect Chemistry – Yes.

I know there’s more but the little scrap of paper I was writing them all down on has disapeered.  Shocker.  I’m so ADD.

Here are a few that I had to return to the library before I had a chance (or was inclined) to read:

Turn of Mind – Despite all of the awesome reviews, I just couldn’t get tempted enough to start it.

Aunt Julia and The Scriptwriter – This was a book club selection but I knew I wasn’t going to make the meeting (and it didn’t really tempt me), so back to the library it went.

The Tigers Wife – I kind of started on this but never got really involved.

A Discovery of Witches – Just haven’t been in the mood for that sort of thing.

Please tell me if I need to run back to the library to read any of these!!!

What’s next?

My Name is Mary Sutter

Summer Rental – I know, I know, but I love Mary Kay!

The Lantern

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Olive Kitteridge

Whew…and that’s all I can recall for now.  If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them as usual!  Ciao!

Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid by J. Maarten Troost

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book really enlightened me in ways I had not anticipated. I had no idea that China has the pollution issues that it does. I had no idea the pollution is so bad in Beijing you can’t really see the sun. I had no idea people in China spit all over the place. I had no idea China has something called mobile execution vans. Get my drift? It’s safe to say I have no future plans to visit. There were some positive things mentioned but they were few an far between. Troost tried to make this humorous, but instead its just kind of depressing. If China is the future, its anything but bright. That being said, I do now want to read Tom Scocca’s book about China called Beijing Welcomes You. Looks interesting and maybe it will teach me there is more to China than pollution and spitting…we’ll see.

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/20…

All this being said, please do not miss Mr. Troost’s other books, they are hilarious and I love that I have found yet another writer who cracks me up!!!

The death of Judd Foxman’s father marks the first time that the entire Foxman family-including Judd’s mother, brothers, and sister-have been together in years. Conspicuously absent: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd’s radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public.  Via Goodreads.

This is where I leave you is by far the funniest, raunchiest, seriously smart book I have read in a while and possibly ever?  Judd Foxman is currently in a tailspin after walking in on his wife having explicit relations with his boss.  Reading how this scene plays out in the book made me laugh so hard my kids came running out of their rooms to see what I was laughing about.  Of course, I couldn’t tell them the details.  ”It’s adult,” I said, sending them back to their rooms with annoyed looks on their faces.

A few weeks later, Judd has to return home when his father dies after a long battle with cancer.  His family of non-devouts Jew’s, are forced to sit shiva to honor their father’s last wish.  Non-senimental at best, Judd’s family has mastered the art of dysfunction and wisecracking.  Everyone in the Foxman family has their own unique personality including his younger brother Phillip, the “Paul McCartney of our family: better-looking than the rest of us, always facing a different direction in pictures, and occasionally rumored to be dead.”

Jonathan Tropper is wickedly funny and heartwarming at the same time.  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the Foxman family, and was sad to see them go when the Shiva ended.  I’m thrilled to have found a new writer to love, and I’m glad to see he has many more books published for me to delight in. HIGHLY recommended!!!!!!!

This book was freakin great, not so much in a literary way but in a human way. This is how we are as people, all fucked up and flawed and yet beautiful at the same time. I liked it, loved it in fact.

View all my reviews

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/being-ernest-john-walsh-unravels-the-mystery-behind-hemingways-suicide-2294619.html

Kinda Cute, I think. Find it here. ref=sr_list_2&ga_search_query=book+paper+wreath&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=&includes%5B0%5D=tags&includes%5B1%5D=title&filter%5B0%5D=handmade

Amazon.com Review

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What I liked:  Well, this was definitely a page turner.  I read this very fast, and stayed up past midnight to finish it which I never do, because sleep is precious people, I mean really.  It has a good build up to a crazy plot twist, and it really delivers on the mystery and suspense level, however I’m not sure I would have passed this off as literary fiction.  Which brings me too…

What I didn’t like:  The dialog in the book is pretty bad, especially the parts in which she is talking to her shrink (whom we never hear one peep from the entire book, she could have been talking to the wall for all we know).  First off, she sounds like some 1950′s police detective…Say Doc, you must think I’m a really screwed up broad eh???  Not a quote but an example, it was almost laughable.  Also, I felt the book teetered on voyeurism at times.  I caught myself wondeing, why do I want to read in such detail about a woman being tortured, beaten, and raped repeatedly?  Am I weird?  I dunno, sometimes it made me feel dirty is all I’m saying.

Recommend?  Sure, it’s a good read that will keep you engrossed, but go into like you might be reading a mass market paperback that someone lent you, don’t expect a Booker Prize winner, but yet still a couple of levels above James Patterson.

Two Words: Read it.