Saturday, January 31, 2009

January Reading List

A couple years back I tracked the books I read each month. I liked having a record like that, so I'm starting back up. While it looks like I didn't read much this month, I actually read a ton while researching a writing project I completed and doing more research for another project. This month, for fun, I read:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls. I read this one on Alexa's suggestion (thanks, Alexa!) It was an interesting story, and I liked the fact that it was non-fiction. The author clearly had a great love for her parents, even though they were selfish and mentally unbalanced. I did like that it showed sometimes people choose a certain way to live, but I also wondered about all the early memories she shared. She seemed to remember way too much about her toddler years, which left me with a bit of disbelief about her story.

Bread Alone: A Novel I really wanted to like this book, but I didn't. The story wasn't new in any way, and I found myself skipping ahead and skimming just to get finished with it.

Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters This was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the stories I read. I never thought about how useful George Foreman's grills were for the homeless population, or how they cooked at the racetrack during NASCAR events. My complaint about this book? They printed a lot of the text in yellow . . . which was extremely difficult to read. Maybe this was an issue only with the hardcover edition, but it was distracting and disappointing to me. I struggled to read the yellow text, but my old eyes just couldn't manage much of it, so I know I missed chunks of the book. Not sure why a decision like that was made?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:20 AM

    I thought the same thing - how could she have such good and vivid memories? - perhaps she elaborated? But she didn't say in a preface or anything that she had - so? Well, maybe she had a great memory. I know because I moved around alot, sometimes I can remember a lot more about my very early childhood than some people just because I can associate my memories with certain people and places - they don't all blend together...

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  2. Yes, I guess I would have felt better somehow if she had mentioned something in a preface, or even as an afterword. I moved quite a bit growing up, too, and while I have many memories -- I couldn't recreate my toddler and preschool yeas the way she did. And I can't imagine her parents were much help in writing her book. I still like the story, but I doubted the truth of it bc of that.

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