Book-ish

I've been pretty sporadic with reading for fun this year. I had a few lulls while I was still in school, and then binged when I was flying back and forth all over creation. I've had some winners and a few that I couldn't get into at all. If anyone's curious, here's a not-so-brief recap, in no particular order.

1) The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje. Wonderfully well-written, but not nearly as good as the movie, which I don't say very often. I appreciated that it was set in Italy, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped to.

2) Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock and The Hidden Staircase, aka Nancy Drew 1 & 2. I used to love the Nancy Drew books; I had the first forty or so in hardback, and most of the others up to about 120 in paperback. They were my favorite, and I was very excited when they were released in digital format. However, I regret reading them as an adult in the 2010s. Nancy has evolved over the years, as of course have I. These two books were written in the 1930s and I found the plot so ridiculously simple and implausible that I just couldn't connect, which left me quite sad.

3) The Inheritance Cycle, by Christopher Paolini. Magic, dragons, and epic journeys. I loved all four of these books and will probably reread them often.

4) It Ain't Sauce, It's Gravy, by Steve Martorano. (Subtitled Macaroni, Homestyle Cheesesteaks, the Best Meatballs in the World, and How Food Saved my Life.) Very formulaic book about an Italian chef growing up in a mobster-family in Philadelphia, but worth it for the recipes. The meatballs really are tasty.

5) Yes, Please by Amy Poehler. This was a quick read and I can really hear Amy Poehler narrating this story. It wasn't as funny as I hoped and had some really trite and cliche advice, but the advice is still good and the pictures and SNL inside-scoop stories were nice little bonuses that met my expectations. I still want to hang out with her. Preferably with Tina Fey and my high school friends, and fair amounts of alcohol and french fries.

6) The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean. By all rights, this book shouldn't be on the list, as I started it three times and couldn't finish. But I really WANT to finish it and I'm going to one day! It's based on a true story of a man and an Indian tribe who got into trouble for poaching orchids in South Florida. I've never seen the Spike Jonze movie Adaptation, but it's based on this book. Maybe that's how I'll break back into this story.

7) Spiced: A Pastry Chef's True Stories of Trial by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen, by Dalia Jurgensen. Another cooking/chef's memoir book, because I generally like the genre. Too much sex and not enough food; could have been better, but if it's your thing, go for it.

8) The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, by Libba Bray. Fantasy novels set in the last years of the 19th century, about a young girl who discovers a family secret and her own magical access to the realms. I liked the insight into the day-to-day life of a teenager in a British women's boarding school, but wasn't crazy about the whole realms thing. The third book was the longest, and I wish the first and second books had been shortened and combined. Those are pretty minor complaints though. If either of those things sound like your scene, go for it.

9) A Day No Pigs Would Die and its sequel, A Part of the Sky, by Robert Newton Peck. I'd read both of these in middle school but never since. There are some graphic scenes about animal husbandry and butchery, and I remember disliking these books as a kid. As an adult, however, I recommend them. Also, now I want to read more about the Shaker faith.

10) The Ruins, by Scott Smith. Ugh. Set in Mexico, this is the story of some friends who go exploring in Mexico and get roped into something strange. It's creepy and full of nightmare-inducing images. Loved it! It reminds me of some of Stephen King's work in a good way, and I think there may be a movie based on this story. If so, I plan to find and watch it, preferably during daylight hours.

11) The Maze Runner Trilogy, by James Dashner. It started off strong and went downhill from there. I watched the movie based on the first book, but I probably won't watch the rest of them.

12) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. This was recommended to me by a friend, and I zoomed right through it. A sweet story of two siblings who run away from home and live in one of New York's most famous museums for a short period of time.

13) The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The first and probably last book of Tolkien's I'll ever read. I'm glad I read it, but just don't care all that much about this world.

14) Portnoy's Complaint, by Philip Roth. Hated it. An entire novel about a grown Jewish man bitching about his mother, undergoing the trendy psychoanalysis of the 1940s and 50s, and masturbating entirely too much.

15) Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia. The first in a fantasy series about a young girl who can cast magic and a teenage boy who wants to get the heck out of his small town. I haven't gotten to read any of the remaining books yet, as they're all on hold at the library, but I look forward to them.

16) The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt. A story of two assassin brothers in the 1850s. I picked this book up because it was on the book club shelf at my local library, and it was a good read. Even though I wasn't crazy about any of the protagonists and the skewed power relationship between the two brothers, it was an interesting look into the gold rush era.

17) How to Build a Girl, by Caitlin Moran. I really did not like this one. Maybe the author's British sensibility and humor just isn't a good fit with mine. It's a semi-autobiographical look into a teenage girl's excursion into music criticism, drugs, and sex. She turns into a horrible person, and though she kind of redeems herself in the end, by that point I didn't care much.

18) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Perhaps one of my favorites of the year. A teenage boy leaves his reservation school to attend a white high school twenty miles away. His Indian friends think he's a traitor and the white kids don't know how to handle someone who's so different from them. He doesn't quite know how to fit in either, and manages through drawing his own comics and joining the basketball team. It's pretty funny, though he doesn't shy away from difficult topics such as Indian alcoholism and bullying. Two thumbs up.

19) Every Secret Thing, by Laura Lipman. A crime novel about two little girls charged with murder. Whoa nelly. This book creeped me the heck out. In a good way. This was a standalone book and I guess the author has published a crime/mystery series that I'm itching to get my hands on now.

20) Behind Every Man: The Forgotten Women Behind the World's Famous and Infamous, by Marlene Wagman-Geller. Some fun trivia, speculation, and alternate looks at a male-dominated history. I think there were something like 40 vignettes in this book, and I wish there were 40 more!

21) Black Rose Trilogy, by Renee Bernard. Romance book that also has about twelve layers of scheming and revenge. A breezy summer read.

22) The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins. A mystery novel from the viewpoint of three British women. An alcoholic, her ex-husband's current wife, and the woman a few doors down from the ex who did a short stint as the nanny. The alcoholic commutes on the same train every day and spies on her old neighborhood. When the nanny goes missing, the alcoholic gets involved. It reminded me a bit of Gone Girl in that I wasn't crazy about the main characters, but it was a pretty gripping story.

23) Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn. Chicago journalist has to go back to her tiny, gossipy home town to report on a series of murders. I enjoyed it far more than Gone Girl, and if you're a mystery lover this should be on your list.

Worth mentioning, I've already read all of the Harry Potter books again this year, as well as Pride and Prejudcie and two of its fan fiction sequels (the Linda Berdoll ones, if you're wondering). I'm sure I've forgotten some of the other books I've read, as I have a random library of Kindle books that did not come from the library which I typically delete when I'm done. Those are most likely to be romance novels that I pick up when traveling or don't have the time or energy to get into a "real" book. Also, we listened to three classic novels on our road trip to and from France earlier this summer: To Kill a Mockingbird, Call of the Wild, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I think maybe I've got my husband hooked on audiobooks!

If you've got any recommendations, send them my way in the comments or on Facebook!