November 2006

100 Notable Books of 2006 Meme

1 Comment / Meme, Reading Lists /

Here’s a link to the NY Times list so you can find authors and brief descriptions if you need them.  Play the normal way – bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you are sure you will never read (I rarely cross any out).  (my italicized books are either already on my reserve list or have been on my reserve list and returned to the library unread – because I ran out of time.) 

FICTION & POETRY

ABSURDISTAN

AFTER THIS

AGAINST THE DAY

ALENTEJO BLUE

ALL AUNT HAGAR’S CHILDREN

APEX HIDES THE HURT.

ARTHUR AND GEORGE

AVERNO

BEASTS OF NO NATION

BLACK SWAN GREEN

BROOKLAND

COLLECTED POEMS, 1947-1997. By Allen Ginsberg

THE COLLECTED STORIES OF AMY HEMPEL

THE DEAD FISH MUSEUM

DIGGING TO AMERICA

THE DISSIDENT

THE DREAM LIFE OF SUKHANOV

EAT THE DOCUMENT

THE ECHO MAKER

THE EMPEROR’S CHILDREN

EVERYMAN

FORGETFULNESS

GALLATIN CANYON: Stories. By Thomas McGuane

GATE OF THE SUN

GOLDEN COUNTRY

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

HIGH LONESOME: New & Selected Stories, 1966-2006. By Joyce Carol Oates

THE INHABITED WORLD

THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS

INTUITION

THE KEEP

LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH

THE LAY OF THE LAND

LISEY’S STORY

NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS, 1964-2006. By Ishmael Reed

OLD FILTH

ONE GOOD TURN

ONLY REVOLUTIONS

THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ISLAND

THE ROAD

SKINNER’S DRIFT

SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS

THE STORIES OF MARY GORDON

STRONG IS YOUR HOLD

SUITE FRANÇAISE

TERRORIST

THE TRANSLATOR

TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES.

THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT

A WOMAN IN JERUSALEM

NONFICTION

THE AFTERLIFE

AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy

ANDREW CARNEGIE

AT CANAAN’S EDGE: America in the King Years, 1965-68

AVA GARDNER: "Love Is Nothing."

THE BLIND SIDE: Evolution of a Game

BLOOD AND THUNDER: An Epic of the American West

BLUE ARABESQUE: A Search for the Sublime

CLEMENTE: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero

CONSIDER THE LOBSTER: And Other Essays

THE COURTIER AND THE HERETIC: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World

THE DISCOMFORT ZONE: A Personal History

EAT, PRAY, LOVE: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

FALLING THROUGH THE EARTH: A Memoir

FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

FIELD NOTES FROM A CATASTROPHE: Man, Nature, and Climate Change

FLAUBERT: A Biography

FUN HOME: A Family Tragicomic

THE GHOST MAP: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic — and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

THE GREAT DELUGE: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast

THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina

HAPPINESS: A History

HEAT: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany

IRAN AWAKENING: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope

JAMES TIPTREE, JR.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

JANE GOODALL: The Woman Who Redefined Man

KATE: The Woman Who Was Hepburn

LEE MILLER: A Life

THE LOOMING TOWER: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

THE LOST: A Search for Six of Six Million

MAYFLOWER: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN AMERICA: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA: A Natural History of Four Meals

ORACLE BONES: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present

THE PLACES IN BETWEEN

PRISONERS: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide

PROGRAMMING THE UNIVERSE: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos

QUEEN OF FASHION: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution

READING LIKE A WRITER: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

REDEMPTION: The Last Battle of the Civil War

SELF-MADE MAN: One Woman’s Journey Into Manhood and Back Again

STATE OF DENIAL

STRANGE PIECE OF PARADISE

SWEET AND LOW: A Family Story

TEMPTATIONS OF THE WEST: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond

THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW: A Memoir

UNCOMMON CARRIERS

THE UNITED STATES OF ARUGULA: How We Became a Gourmet Nation

THE WAR OF THE WORLD: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West

THE WORST HARD TIME: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

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The Fourth Bear

2 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Thank goodness! I actually enjoyed The Fourth Bear! OK not as much as I have enjoyed all of the Thursday Next books but I did enjoy it a lot. Tons more than the first Nursery Crimes book.

In the Humpty Dumpty book I didn’t much care for Mary Mary and I found Ashley a ridiculous character entirely. This time around, I liked them both. I also loved Punch & Judy. I’m still not thrilled about Prometheus and that whole storyline but I can overlook that now.

So what do you think – is The Gingerbread Man a cookie or is he cake? It’s important that you know for sure which he is…

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Was my grandmother a Deadhead??

5 Comments / Foodie, Friends & Family /

It wasn’t enough for Rosanne to be channeling my grandmother, now the Impulsive Buy people have got me wondering if my grandmother was a closet Deadhead.  Didn’t she have some dancing bears? 

I do know that she had an AMC Pacer and she LOVED McRibs.   

That whole Rocky Horror Picture Show thing, that’s just going too far.  I cannot even begin to think about my grandmother knowing anything about RHPS much less being a fan.  Nope, not going to think about that.  Ever.

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Goodnight Nobody

1 Comment / 2006, Books in Bed, Chick Lit /

I should have known – I lost my entire post about Goodnight Nobody. That’s a sign that I either shouldn’t speak badly about Jennifer Weiner and nobody cares about my half-hearted boycott of her work or that my boycott should be more than half-hearted.

Goodnight Nobody was no Good in Bed, nor was it any In Her Shoes. It wasn’t even a Little Earthquakes. It was ok. Nothing to write home about or to convince others to read. It isn’t making me regret my decision to drop Jennifer Weiner as my favorite chick lit author or my decision not to rush out and get her books as soon as they hit bookstores. No, I’m not going to change my mind about her book of short stories either.

Goodnight Nobody was ok. Not great, but ok.

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A Banned Book: Fun Home

2006, Banned Books, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, GLBT, Non-Fiction /

I don’t really DO graphic novels (or comics). They just aren’t my thing, I know that and I avoid them. But when I heard Fun Home was being challenged and banned, I decided to give it a try. I do like Dykes to Watch Out For, in small doses, so I had high hopes for Fun Home.

High hopes indeed. Fun Home is excellent. And it totally needed to be a graphic novel instead of just a written word piece. What a family, what a story, what a terrific job Bechdel did telling her story.

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