Books I Loved That I Never Reviewed

Compared to a lot of other book bloggers, I haven't been reviewing books for very long. I started this blog a year after I graduated from college, so that leaves many books that have gone unmentioned here. Below are some of my favorites that I read pre-blogging:

1. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868): This is for sure my all-time favorite detective novel (not that I have read very many) that was so much fun to read. A very well-written page-turner full of colorful characters that you shouldn't pass up.

2. White Noise by Don DeLillo (1985): Still my favorite DeLillo, if you are going to read one book about the 20th century, I think this one should be it.

3. Disgrace by JM Coetzee (1993): This one is pretty dark but if you can make your way through, it's worth it. At it's core, it examines race relations in post-apartheid South Africa.

4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2004): Confession: I have read this book three times and I love it even more with each read. It is a romance novel with a dose a sci-fi, but still smart and and I love it. It will always be a book that I won't hesitate to pick up and reread when I need a good love story in my life.

5. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (2007): This is a truly heart-breaking read that examines a subject I feel is important for those removed from it to learn about: child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

6. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (1860): This is my all-time favorite bildungsroman (yes I like it more than Jane Eyre) and if you are interested in Eliot I think this is a great place to state.

7. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature by Steven Pinker (2007): I think this is the most interesting of Pinker's books I have read. He combines his vast knowledge of language and human behavior to examine what the words we use say about ourselves.

8. Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr (2009): This is a hysterical and intelligent look into specific words in our ever-changing vocabulary. It reads like an amusing dictionary. If you are a nerd about words, this is for you.

9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884): A children's classic that I read as an adult, this novel is about the nature of freedom and the meaning of human connections.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish
photo via Pretty Books

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

The Night Bookmobile was originally published as a series of installments in the London Guardian. In 2010 it was published in its entirety as a book. Ever since I read the first few installments of The Night Bookmobile in The Guardian I've wanted to get my hands on this book. Then my wonderful sister bought it for me for Christmas and I have been saving it for a cozy night.

I've been a fan of Audrey Niffenegger since The Time Traveler's Wife, a novel that I really love. After reading Her Fearful Symmetry I knew that Niffenegger wouldn't disappoint me. The Night Bookmobile is not less magical than her earlier works. The book centers on one woman who comes across a bookmobile late at night. After stepping inside she soon discovers that this bookmobile houses everything she has ever read.

This is a story that book lovers can appreciate. It's fun and nostalgic, but includes a dark twist that is consistent with Nifenergger's work. It touches on the solitude that comes along with reading and what one gives up to continually read. It also explores the magic of books themselves - the deliciousness that is holding a book in your hands, petting the spine and turning the pages - and the enjoyment of revisiting books from our past. It highlights the idea that what we read makes us the people we become.

This is a short graphic novel so if you come across it, I'd suggest taking 30 minutes out of your day to read it. It's worth it.

Publisher: Abrams, 2010

Books for Christmas!

I know I am about two weeks overdue on this post, but we all know how busy this time of the year can be - family commitments, vacations, shopping - all that good stuff. Anyhow, I got two fabulous books that I had on my Christmas list from my lovely sister: 1001 Books to Read Before You Die and Audry Niffenegger's The Midnight Book Mobile. Both are new, which is exciting for me since I buy almost all of my books used.

I'm super excited about 1001 books because it's basically a Bible of books. Each of the books featured on the list are included in this book, as well as interesting photos and critical insight.

Each title is listed in chronological order, from earliest publication year to the latest. I was also lucky enough to get the revised and updated 2010 edition.

I couldn't be more pleased. I'm sure I will discover many wonderful new authors this year.

A Few Things I'm Excited About

1. I know I've mentioned it before but I can not WAIT for The Night Bookmobile to be published in book form. It was a serialized graphic novel that was in the Guardian, but as of September 1st I'll be able to read the whole thing in a book. Did I mention it's by the one-and-only Audrey Niffenegger?

2. NPR Books Podcasts: This week I discovered that you can subscribe to the NPR book reviews and author interviews - All Things Considered - and upload them to your iPod. I've always kind of turned on NPR and hoped I would stumble across it, which didn't always work so well. Subcription? Yes please!


3. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. I've read a couple of reviews here and there and it sounds like this book has the potential to be amazing. I've got to track it down soon!

4. Eclipse on June 30th. I'm sorry I had to say it.

5. The Harry Potter Theme Park that opens this Friday, June 18th. Not that I'm planning to be in Orlando anytime soon, but at least I know I've got the option!

Just In Time For My Birthday!

It was finally announced that Audrey Niffenegger's graphic novel The Night Bookmobile will be for sale as of September 1st. Yay, just in time for my birthday!

So, for any of you who don't know what to get me...

To Read or Not To Read

Everyone and their sister (including mine) has read the Twilight series. While I don't have anything against YA novels, I do look down on mainstream literature, if you even want to call it that. (Unless of course, I find it before it becomes mainstream - i.e. The Time Traveler's Wife and Harry Potter.) So, I've been avoiding the Twilight series at all costs.

Err - actually just the books. I'm kind of in love with the movies. It's the 13-year-old girl in me. I've seen Twilight about six times and went to see New Moon on opening night. I should also confess I think about Edward Cullen multiple times a day. Is is possible to be completely infatuated with a fictional character? Yes. Do I wish Edward Cullen was a real person so I could do unspeakable things to him and make him fall in love with me? Yes!

Now that I'm embracing my inner teenage girl, heartthrob crush and all, I secretly want to borrow the series from my sister and jump in. Should I stick to my standards and shun Stephanie Meyer like I shunned Dan Brown after finished The DaVinci Code? Or should I give in to that teenage girl inside me and embrace Twilight like 17 million people have?

I'm thinking since I fantasize about Edward on a regular basis I already have given in to the Twilight phenomenon so my reading the books won't make any difference. That makes perfect sense, right?

Yet Another Reason To Love Audrey Niffenegger

As I was tooling around on Audrey Niffeneffer's site earlier today I found this little treasure of a response to a reader hoping to find e-book versions of her work:

I am not opposed to the existence of e-books; I know lots of people are wildly enthusiastic about them. But I have spent my life working with books as an art form and I am devoted to physical books. E-books in their current incarnations are still imperfect and they threaten the arts of book design and typography. As a book conservator I am also nervous about the digitization of books: will they be readable one hundred years from now? Or will thousands of books simply vanish as platforms and programs change?

E-books have certain advantages (they are searchable) and disadvantages (they are not beautiful objects in themselves and don’t display images very well). I’m sure they will improve over time, though. I don’t know when or if my books will become e-books. Writing me hostile e-mail about this will not hasten my desire.

Thank you, Audrey! I couldn't agree more. And, even more exciting news, she has started to work on her third novel, entitled The Chinchilla Girl in Exile. I was also informed that "The Night Bookmobile," a story published in weekly installments in The Guardian, will be published as a graphic novel in 2010. If you haven't read this story you can read the first part for free online and will probably want to buy the rest. It's widely creative and appealing to any book lover.

Book Worth Reading: Her Fearful Symmetry

She said, "I know what it's like to be dead.

I know what it is like to be sad."

And she's making me feel like I've never been born.

-The Beatles

While I am partial to Audrey Niffenegger, I am still going to insist that you read Her Fearful Symmetry – Niffenegger’s second novel following The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Her newest novel isn’t exactly a departure from the themes that filled TTTW – namely love that transcends time and place - but Her Fearful Symmetry is most definitely darker than her debut novel and is read as a Gothic Romance. Page by page this novel becomes more eerie and bizarre, but still contains descriptions of romance and love that only Niffengger can employ.

He panicked: How will I remember everything about Elspeth? Now he was full of her smells, her voice, the hesitation on the telephone before she said his name, the way she moved when he made love to her, her delight in impossibly high-heeled shoes, her sensuous manner when handling old books and her lack of sentiment when she sold them. At this moment he knew everything he would ever know of Elspeth, and he urgently needed to stop time so that nothing could escape.

While this novel stands ahead of many others published this year, it won’t be a hit of The Time Traveler’s Wife proportions, nor, in my opinion, should it be. However, Niffenegger had a lot to live up to after her debut and I think she yet again managed to offer an original love story written in beautiful prose.

With that being said, let’s pretend I don’t LOVE Audrey Niffenegger and have an unbais opinion. I would probably mention the ending is given away 50 pages before it actually happens because the conclusion is so painfully obvious after the second it’s alluded to. I may also critique a few of the main characters underdevelopment and suggest the most memorable character was the obsessive compulsive crossword puzzle writer who wasn’t even essential to the plot.

But, I do love Audrey, so read it.

Is It August 14th Yet?

The month of August is going to be a very exciting month. Not only will it mark my sixth month anniversary since moving to the city (August 15^th), and not to mention my sister’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Mel!) but it also brings something I have been waiting three years for. That’s right, my all-time favorite book, The Time Traveler’s Wife, is finally premiering as a movie.

The movie was originally due to release on Christmas day of 2008, but to my dismay it was pushed back (Merry Christmas, Brenna. You will now have to wait 8 more months for the one present you were most excited about). My patience is wearing off. Is it August 14^th yet?

I couldn’t be happier with the casting: Eric Bana as Henry and Rachel McAdams as Claire. My only concern is that IMDB has not listed Ingrid as a character. I’m going to be upset if she is not included, as she is an important character that reveals much about Henry before he met Claire.

Check out the trailer here.

And, it goes without saying, if you haven't read it yet pick up a copy asap. You will not be disappointed.