The Help

If you have not yet read The Help, make it next on your list! It is the story of three women in 1960's Mississippi, Skeeter a recent college grad, and Aibileen and Minny, the "help" in the white families' homes. They want to change the way things are and get their own life stories out there, despite the danger it puts them in. It's a fantastic book and I can't recommend it enough. It was our December Book Club book and we didn't actually discuss it because not everyone had finished it, but since everyone has since finished it and is dying to discuss, it is our topic at our next Book Club meeting!!! It took several chapters to get into it, as I found it difficult to read at first due to the southern dialect--might be a good one to experience as an audiobook--but once I got used to it it was great! Enjoy! :)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I just finished "reading" The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on my way home from work today (I almost didn't get out of the car this morning when I arrived at work because I knew I was nearly finished!) and it was just delightful. It is written as correspondence exchanged among the characters (friends, acquaintances, strangers). It's a light hearted story with characters that you can't help but love immediately. Oh, and if you "read" it as an audiobook, it you'll be saying things like lovely, delightful, and extraordinary (with an english accent) in no time at all! It was just lovely :)

Dockside -- Lakeshore Chronicles Book 3

Yep, another sappy chick story. They are all the same formula, but now I know all the players so I keep reading. Help me!

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

We listened to this in the car prior to Christmas.  Short stories that are dripping with sarcasm and maybe a little anger -- but truth is slipping between the lines ever so subtly.  We found ourselves laughing at the incredible antics within the stories despite their cynical drawl.

2009 Book List Recommendations -- Maureen Corrigan's

1.  The Woman Behind the New Deal (Kirsten Downey)

2. Fordlandia (Greg Grandin)

3.  Dancing in the Dark (Morris Dickstein)

4.  Happens Every Day (Isabel Gillies)

5.  The James Deans (Reed Farrel Coleman)

6.  The Believers (Zoe Heller)

7.  A Gate at the Stairs (Lorrie Moore)

8.  Brookly (Golm Toibin)

9.  The Man in the Wooden Hat (Jane Gardam)

10. The Financial Lives of the Poets (Jess Walter)

Source:  NPR.com Best Books of 2009

The Christmas Clock ....by Kat Martin

This is a little feel good novel -- more like a short story.  There is never any doubt about where the story is headed from the very beginning, but the brevity of the  work makes that bearable.  Very quick read - recommended for a plane ride.

The Winter Lodge by Susan Wiggs (Book 2 of the Lakeshore Chronicles)

I just finished the 2nd book in the Lakeshore Chronicles series.  This is another piece of sappy chick-lit, but oh-so pleasant to listen to in the car after looking at spreadsheets all day.
Easy and happy -- the guy always gets the girl and vice versa.  :-)

The Girls From Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow

I just finished this book based a  friendship between high school girls who managed to maintain a connection over decades despite geographical challenges, differences in religion, variable socio-economic situations, and different home life philosophies.
I did enjoy reading about how they maintained their connection.  Quite honestly though, while I was reading about their bonding during highschool, I couldn't shake the idea that they were a mean girls clique.  I wonder how a sequel "All the Other Girls from Ames" would read?

READING LIST -- "For Heartbreak"

1.  Anna Karanina by Leo Tolstoy
2.  The Beans of Egypt Maine by Carolyn Chute
3.  The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
4.  Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
5.  The Famished Road by Ben Okri
6.  The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
7.  Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price
8.  Heartburn by Nora Ephron
9.  Middlemarch by George Eliot
10. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Taken from 1001 Books for Every Mood

READING LIST -- "For Intrigue"

1.  All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
2.  Brotherhood of Rose by David Morrell
3.  The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
4.  The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
5.  The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
6.  The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
7.  Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
8.  The Last Spymaster by Gayle Lynds
9.  The Pelican Brief by John Grisham
10. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
11.  Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy by John Le Carre
12.  The Untouchable by John Banville

I have ready # 3 and # 9.    #9 is one of Grisham's best novels.
Does anyone else have comments on any of these?

Taken from 1001 Books for Every Mood.