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- Sep 20, 2011
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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)
Okay, I'll take the plunge. I've been lurking. I'd planned on typing out my list after I'd completed half of the books, but decided that's going to be too cumbersome, so here we go.
1. Loose Ends: Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett. Completed. I like Patchett's writing, but I can't say I liked Lucy Grealy enough to fathom how anyone put up with her for years.
2. What You Read: Mopsa the Fairy by Jean Ingelow. Completed. Highly episodic. One of the few books I really liked as a kid that I didn't reread multiple times. For this challenge, I got a reprint. Unfortunately it's formatting is terrible. But I still liked the book's details.
3. What Your Great-Grandparents Read: The Sketch Book by Washington Irving. Completed. A mixed bag. Some great, some soporific.
4. No Cliff Notes This Time: Othello by William Shakespeare.
5. You Really Shouldn't Have: Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. Completed See review and story of how I got this book below.
6. I've Met Them: Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen.
7. Support the Home Team: Of Marriageable Age by Sharon Maas (AKA aruna)
8. Steady There, Cowboy: Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry.
9. Ripped From the Headlines: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. (Technically a historical narrative about a true 19th Century crime.)
10. Bits & Pieces: a poetry book TBD. ETA: Forty Poems by Juan Ramon Jimenez.
11. & 12. Categories TBD. Most likely: Ye Olde Book Shoppe, Wow. Nice., Still Time for More Chapters, Where Is That, Again?, Holy Moly Crossing the (Color) Line, No Hablo.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal
Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)
Okay, I just finished my You Really Shouldn't Have book: Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. It's the story of a woman who walks away from her family. It begins with a funny police report. But then Tyler seems to want to make the book both profound and funny. For me, it just comes off as kind of vapid, albeit well-written. Especially considering how I got this book.
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: Shortly after we moved to Eugene, my husband made the acquaintance of a bipolar woman. In 2010, she decided he was her best friend. One day in spring, I looked up from a task in the kitchen, and saw her walk through the gate into our backyard and come around to the sliding glass door out the dining room. (We do have a front door, and yes, it's easier to use.) She gave me this book and laughed while I continued my kitchen task while we/she talked. A day or two later, my husband went to check up on her. She told him she was hungry. He told her to get something to eat. She pulled a cucumber out of the refrigerator, and ran outside into the street, and brandished the cucumber at the cars. My husband called the police and got her committed. She started calling us and yelling that she was going to get a gun and kill him.
For some strange reason, I wanted to dump the book immediately, but my husband said to read it first. That's one of the reasons I joined this club, so I could get the book out of the house. The book is better than my experience, but REALLY, SHE SHOULDN'T HAVE.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal