true boy tales: so many books, so little time. unless you're on vacation.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

so many books, so little time. unless you're on vacation.

Have you discovered goodreads.com? I know, it's been around a long time but I resisted joining it. I didn't want another type of social media taking up more time that I didn't even have to waste in the first place. But frankly, it's really hard to find really great books. I've read a lot of duds lately. A lot of pretty-goods and I-liked-its but not a lot of greats or I-couldn't-put-it-downs. Hard to believe that the last time I added a book to my blog list on the right (anything that's 5 out of 5 stars in my opinion) was a full year ago!!
Enter goodreads.com where I can see the average rating of any book out there. So instead of just going by one person's opinion (either from someone I know or a review from a magazine), I can verify it with hundreds of people's opinions and make sure it averages over 4 stars. It's awesome.
I read two "I-couldn't-put-it-downs" on my trip and got half-way through a third (two new ones added to the side-bar). Which frankly, having so much time to read is half the fun of traveling for me. I don't get a whole lot of time to read at home and if I am, it means I'm ignoring some mess that I should be attending to (or possibly a child or two).
I think I chuckled out loud at this line from Half-Broke Horses:

"I wished I could read every book in the library. Sometimes after I finished a particularly good book, I had the urge to get the library card, find out who else had read the book, and track them down to talk about it."

Oh, how I relate! I wish I had time for a book club! Which books have been your favorites lately? #bookwormsunite

#heaven

1 comment:

Katie ChiaramonteJanuary 20, 2013 at 6:54 PM
I was just thinking today that I had to tell you about this book I just finished called "Lives other than My Own", by Emmanuel Carrere. It's a hard book to categorize as it's semi-autobigraphical, semi-biographical and semi-fiction. It's a really interesting read stemming from Carrere's experience with the Tsunami in the South Pacific. It's a quick, short read that gets a little technical toward the middle, but is still one of the best books I've read in a while. I have a couple more in my back pocket.
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for the book lovers {my recent favorites}:

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan: An incredibly haunting medical memoir. There's a lot of medical info to read through but I didn't find those parts boring and difficult to wade through. I thought she shared just enough. But if you like a book that's easy to read, this isn't it. I couldn't get this one out of my mind for a very long time. An unforgettable true story.
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes and What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty: I'm just going to lump these two together because they're in the same category. I'm calling them deep chick lit. A perfect summer book to get lost in. Read them. Both. I promise you from the bottom of my heart that you will LOVE them. (I liked them both way better than Where'd You Go, Bernadette.)
These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner: Most of my favorite books have a main character with a whole lotta grit. I wasn't quite sure about this one when I first started it but, oh, did it sweep me in and not let me go til the last page. I also love a book that makes me "emote out loud" as I like to think of it. This one had me smiling all the way through and crying my eyes out at the end. It follows a young girl through her life in the Arizona Territories in the late 1800's. A must read for anyone who likes Historical Fiction.
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill. I LOVED this book. Its a very well researched historical fiction novel about a young girl kidnapped from her village in Africa and sold into slavery. It follows her through her whole life and the unbelievable heartache and trauma she lives through. I've been telling people I liked it as much as Unbroken but the main character is so much more endearing and has so much spunk.
Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison. I have a thing for modern day memoirs of utterly heartbreaking stories (Like Breaking Night and Blackbird). This is a Foster mother's first-hand account of the children she took in over the years and the unbelievable trauma they went through before they came to her.
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. I loved this lighthearted yet emotional story of a strong woman making the best of a hard life in the Southwest, beginning in the 1930's. I love her writing style--just cuts to the point of every story without too much "fluff" and yet tells it in a way that you can picture everything in vivid detail. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, is one of my all-time favorites, and this true-life novel about her grandmother didn't disappoint.
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Modern day fiction about a girl raised in Foster homes and her struggles throughout life. She learns about the Victorian Era language of flowers and that becomes a huge part of her life. I finished it in two days. An easy read but very emotional and moving.
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. The true story of a man's experience after Hurricane Katrina when he decided not to evacuate in order to look after several properties he owned. Quite an unbelievable story and so hard to believe this happened in the US only a few years ago.