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Tracy's Book List 2008


everydayxangels

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:readingtwo:LIST:readingtwo:

 

Blue - ARC

Purple - Bought

Gray - Library

 

Currently Reading:

Half in Love

July

22. Half in Love - Maile Meloy

21. My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolt Taylor

20. All That is Gone - Pramoedya Ananta Toer

June

19. 'person of dubious parentage' of Istanbul - Elif Shafak18. Madapple - Christina Meldrum

17. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri

16. How To Breathe Underwater - Julie Orringer

May

15. The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler

14. The Ginseng Hunter - Jeff Talarigo

April

13. Am I Blue? - ed. by Marion Dane Bauer

12. One Thousand White Women - Jim Fergus

11. Gardens of Water - Alan Drew

10. In Times of Siege- Githa Hariharan

 

March

9. Red Azalea - Anchee Min

8. Palace of Illusions by Divakaruni

February

7. Fifty Days of Solitude by Doris Gumbrach

6. The Red Tent by Anita Diament

5. The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

 

January

4. Atonement by Ian McEwan

3. Verses by Ani DiFranco

2. My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

1. Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks

Edited by everydayxangels
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To Be Read

 

Purple - Bought

Blue - ARC

Bold Black - read

Starting Count:56

 

Adele - Mary Flanagan

American Purgatorio - John Haskell

Anthem by Ayn Rand

'person of dubious parentage' out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison

Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears - Mingestu

Best American Essays of the Century

Bittersweet - Nevada Barr

Blink - Malcom Gladwell

The Blue Place - Nicola Griffith

Chamber Music - Doris Grumbach

The Chelsea Whistle - Michelle Tea

City of Night - John Rechy

Closer - Dennis Cooper

Complete Claudine - Colette

Cry of the Dove - Fadia Faqir

**** by Inga Muscio

The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

Enchantress of Florence - Rushdie

Evening by Susan Minot

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Girl From The Coast -Toer

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Half of a Yellow Sun - Adichie

The Hakawati - Rabin Alameddine

The Hero's Walk - Anita Rau Badami

Hotel Dulac by Anita Brokner

House by the Sea - May Sarton

House of Glass - Toer

House of Rain - Craig Childs

House on Fortune Street - Margot Livesey

The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh

I am a Strange Loop - Douglas Hofstadter

If Today Be Sweet by Umbringer

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Greenberg

Kabul Beauty School by Debora Rodriguez

The Known World by Edward Jones

Last Child in the Woods by Louv

Love Rules - Marilyn Reynolds

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Madapple by Christina Meldrum

March by Geraldine Brooks

The Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard

A Mind Apart by Suzanne Antonetta

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Outspoken - Michael Thomas Ford

The Philospher's Apprentice

Pope Joan - Donna Cross

Razor's Edge by Maugham

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Same Sex and the City - Levin & Blitzer

The Sea by John Banville

A Seahorse Year - Stacey D'Erasmo

She's Not There - Boylan

The Sorcerer King b Frewin Jones

Stone Garden by Molly Moynahan

Stonewall - Carter

Teaching Community - Bell Hooks

This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Walters

Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler

Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks

 

Edited by everydayxangels
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Advanced Readers Copy

 

I work in a bookstore and publishing houses will send books that they are planning on releasing months later. It's not just for unknown authors, we'll get some Picoult, Joyce Carol Oates, etc. but more so than not, it's unknown authors.

Lucky lucky you!

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I finished Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks. It's about women in Islamic states and the it definitely has a liberal/feminist slant the gist of it was that Islam was once a very liberating and accepting faith, but The Koran's words have gotten skewed and diluted to fit what extremists want them to. I found it to be educating and fascinating.

 

I'll be posting a review shortly.

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I have just started My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger and I am loving it. I think I needed a break from all the depressing things I've been reading lately; the book about Islamic women, the Bell Jar, etc.

 

Gah! and it's good! It's witty and intelligent. It tells the story of 2 brothers (not-related) who have been through everything together, one helped the other when his mother died, now that one is helping the other come out of the closet. And my favorite character, Alejandra Perez, a former Mexican Ambassador's daughter, is the witty intellegent part. The author uses her character to inject the story with factual history. (she mentions the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, Japanese Internment Camps within the firs 50 pages).

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I Finished My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger and have moved on to Atonement by Ian McEwan. I am finding it to have lovely writing and I knew it would be literary and slow, but I didn't know it was going to be this boring. I won't give it up because I have heard such wonderful things, but can someone remind me just one more time?

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paused Atonement for a feminazi book called Woman's Inhumanity to Woman. And then I paused that to read Ani DiFranco's compilation of artwork, lyrics and poetry called Verses. Didn't take me more than an hour, but I'm going to count it anyway.

 

I love that woman to pieces. I read it, and I think how could anyone create something so politcal and beautiful at the same time. It's a lovely lovely piece of work.

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I finished Atonement, and I thought the first half was enjoyable, the second half was a snoozer. I found myself just not caring, but I've never really cared for war stories. I think to see the movie will be enjoyable.

 

I have just started People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, and I am 75 pages in. It is a spectacular novel. She's writing about restoration, something I thought that would not interest me in the slightest, was fascinating. It's about a prayer book that has always been rescued from war. There was always someone to save this unusual volume.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished People of the Book the new one by the great Geraldine Brooks. She did something really great with this book. She took the topic of ancient scriptures and manuscripts and weaved in the history with the restoration artist. I thought it was wonderful. A must read for anyone who liked anything by Geraldine.

 

I am now reading The Red Tent, and naturally, I am loving it. I am not sure why exactly I am adoring it as I am, but I think it is spectacular. I think it's the folklore and a more novelized account of the old testament.

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  • 3 months later...

Wow, it's been a while. I guess I'll give a re-cap:

 

Fifty Days of Solitude by Doris Gumbrich:

It's a slim little thing about Doris' intentional solitude to write, self-actualize and think without influence form the outside world. I loved it, as it is something I would love.

 

The Palace of Illusions by Divakaruni

I know that Divakaruni had written another spectacular book Sister of my Heart, though I have not read it, I love her writing style. This was more about Indian folklore and myths. Not my usual read, but I enjoyed it. And the cover was beautiful.

 

Red Azalea - Anchee Min

I had heard about this book for quite a while and I got around to reading it. It tells Anchee's surreal experience in Communist China where people are treated more as machines than humans.

 

In Times of Siege - Githa Hariharan

Tells the story of a fiesty young woman and her caregiver older professor who confront censorship in New Delhi.

 

Gardens of Water - Alan Drew

A horrible earthquake hits Turkey and it tells the specific story of one man and his family. His son was crushed under the rubble and was saved only because of an Americans wifes self-sacrifice to save him. He despises the American but he owes him everything for having is only son saved. Very political but also very personal.

 

One Thousand White Women - Jim Fergus

I wasn't that effected.

 

Am I Blue? - Ed. Marion Dan Bauer

A YA novel about coming out gay.

The Ginseng Hunter - Jeff Talarigo

This book is easily going to make my top 15 books of 2008. I can't even explain it's complexity. It was so delicate and real. Completely literary and lovely. It tells the story of a single secluded ginseng hunter. His precious solitude is imposed upon by the war and poverty going on.

 

The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler

It is such a necessary read for women. I've read better feminist books, but I love what Eve stands for and I loved the mainstream and realistic approach of it.

 

How to Breathe Underwater - Julie Orringer

I have never read such perfect depiction of the human condition before. Kids and teenagers just falling between the cracks. Loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Been out of the loop around here. Still reading though!

'person of dubious parentage' of Istanbul - Elif Shafak

Two families spanning two generations and two continents are connected in a plot twist I didn't expect. I am going through a serious Eastern culture novel-fest. Just so good.

 

All That is Gone - Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Continuing on that Eastern culture note, I read this short story collection and I enjoyed it very very much. It might have been that the translator did such a good job, but I loved the prose demeanor to the book. So fantastic.

 

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolt Taylor

I only read the first half of this book, as the scientific part of this book interested me. It was about Jill Taylor, a brain scientist, who awoke one morning to find out that she was having a stroke. It was fantastic having that kind of knowledge about the way the brain works as hers was deteriorating. The science and the asymmetry between the right side of the brain vs. the left was incredibly interesting. I saw her TEDtalk on her experience (highly recommended, by the way) and I was so excited when I found out there was a book too.

Half in Love - Maile Meloy

Ten short stories that take place for the most part in the South/rural areas. I'm halfway through the collection and I am finding all of them to be incredibly interesting and fast paced.

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