Diane Setterfield: The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
A fat, Gothic novel full of ghosts and mysteries and lots and lots of plot. Yowza. Get yourself to the library now!
Kathleen Kent: The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel
It's such a cliché to say a book is heartbreaking. This is a story of a 9-year-old girl and her mother, imprisoned during the Salem witch trials. Finding a place in your family, in your community, in your own heart, seems like it ought to be simple, automatic even, but this girl's struggle cut right to the middle of me.
Simonetta Agnello Hornby: The Almond Picker: A Novel
What if the main character died on--or even before--the very first page? And everything you learned about her came second-hand, through the voices and memories of the people who knew her? And few of them knew her well enough to say or remember anything true? Well, you'd have a lovely mystery on your hands. And a compelling look at the human tendency to create reality instead of witnessing it.
Amy Bloom: Away: A Novel
I love a fat, 500-page novel with an eloquent, omniscient narrator who can see so far into all the character's futures that I'm left with no worries, only peace, at the end. This novel is pretty much everything I ever wanted, and it's not even 250 pages long. You'll be riveted. It'll take you three days, max.
Tracy Kidder: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
It's so hard not to look away from pain and suffering and poverty. Paul Farmer does not look away. He's right there, fighting on the losing side, because it's the right thing to do. I'm glad I read this at the start of the holiday season. I need the perspective.
Luis Alberto Urrea: The Hummingbird's Daughter
The first book for the new book-club year. I started early because it's a nice thick book, and I often have a hard time getting a whole book read in a month (so sad), but then I read it all in about four days. It's fabulous. Makes Mexico seem like it has a magic, majestic soul.
Dodie Smith: I Capture the Castle
How did I manage to check this out of the library at the same time as Cold Comfort Farm? I must have seen them recommended together somewhere. Turns out, this is exactly the sort of novel CCF is spoofing. Happily, I'm enjoying it anyway. If you get a wild hair to read both of these, do read CCF first.
Stella Gibbons: Cold Comfort Farm (Oxford Bookworms Library)
I'd never read any of the genre of novels that this book is meant to spoof, but I enjoyed it immensely anyway. It was especially fun to read semi-aloud in my horrific British accent. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that my edition had awful cover art. I like this cow so much better.
Charles de Lint: Widdershins (Newford)
If you liked Neil Gaiman's American Gods, give this one a try. I liked them both, and think I need to check out The Onion Girl which is evidently the beginning of these characters' stories.
Lauren Groff: The Monsters of Templeton
If this book had sprouted an extra head or a bunch of tentacles while I was reading, thereby assuring that there would have been even more to read, I would have been ecstatic. This is a really good one!
Philippa Gregory: The Other Boleyn Girl
Fiction is definitely my preferred means of learning about history--that's awful, I know, but it seems marginally better than movies, yes? This book is great: very informative with plenty of um, well, OK, sex.... Sex makes history more interesting, don't you think?
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
I'm just a little way into this book and it's so mesmerizing--like watching a big spider weaving an impossible web. I can't wait to get back to it.
Jim Fergus: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
A crazy, beautiful, utterly doomed solution to a problem that likely couldn't have been fixed any way at all. There are so many characters with so many conflicting opinions--all right, all wrong, all so human. I loved this book.
Lisa See: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
I was mesmerized by this novel. The setting is so rich and the story so sharp. I'm not sure I can forgive the narrator, but I can definitely identify with her. Everyone has something to be ashamed of, don't they? Also, compared to foot-binding, high heels seem pretty inconsequential....
Barbara Kingsolver: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
I've said before that I'm not the gardener in this family, and I'm afraid I have that lifelong fear of dirt that Kingsolver disdains, but I've never read anything before that made me want to grow all my own food. And raise chickens. And maybe cows. Goats, too...
Michael Malone: Dingley Falls
I woke up one morning last week to hear Nancy Pearl on NPR say that she's been rereading this book every two years since it was first published in 1980. That's a recommendation I'm willing to take, and I'm loving this town and (almost) all of its inhabitants. Malone's narrator is removed but very tender, and all of these folks seem very, very real.
Joss Whedon: Fray
Shocked, I am shocked to find myself recommending a comic book, but here's the thing: I loved it. It even made me cry a little. If you loved Buffy and Angel, read this.
Erin Hart: Haunted Ground: A Novel
A moody, modern-day archaeological mystery set in Ireland and populated with creative people--singers, musicians, painters, even a weaver who dyes her own wools. There are several storylines going all at once which keeps it interesting, and while some of the details are gruesome, it's never a scary book.
Ingrid Hill: Ursula, Under
This is so good, I almost can't stand to read it, because I know the more I read, the sooner it's going to be over. I'm going slow on purpose. And if you see me crying or laughing or grinning like a crazy person on the bus, this book is totally why.
Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex: A Novel
Wow. This is a great book. You'd think that the narrator would resent his incredibly inbred family (grandparents are siblings; parents are cousins) for the compounded genetic mutations that result in his hermaphroditism. Instead, he's unfailingly warm, affectionate and empathetic. I couldn't help but love every character. But damned if I could figure out why his older brother is named Chapter Eleven...
that pie looks delicious. and all your food sounds wonderful... i was paging through your boyfriend's book this weekend trying to decide what to make myself. i wanted everything and made nothing. hmm.
Posted by: stephanie s | October 07, 2008 at 07:17 AM
Wow, it all looks delicious. And sounds like fun!
Posted by: Emma | October 08, 2008 at 04:50 AM
Your pies are just beautiful, and your pie crust cookies are like a siren song. I totally agree about dinner parties. It is my favorite way to see friends. Once you get your favorite people sat down facing each other around the table, with delicious food between them, the interaction is invariably a blast. My parents didn't give parties per se, but our table always made room for whomever we might drag home. Big plates of food and big crowds of people are how I remember it.
Posted by: dana | October 08, 2008 at 08:12 PM
numm...pie crust cookies. I have an idea of how to make them, but can give me a quick rundown of the recipe...what a great idea. I love to bake too...Wendy
Posted by: Wendy | October 09, 2008 at 07:48 PM