Books, Books, All of the Yummy Books to Read

2005 Reading List (Yearly Round-Up):

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance – Barack Obama
A fine read. I found Barack’s willingness to expose his weaknesses, his humanity, a refreshing experience, mainly because he’s a politician, but mostly because he is a really cool guy.

Freakenomics - Steven Levitt
I suppose this may have been an okay read, had the media not reported every single topic contained therein before I read it. Can’t so much blame the book as I read it only so I would know what everyone was blathering about. If you haven’t read it, don’t bother. It’s old news.

Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
I can’t fathom the reason everyone seemed to love this book so much. I found it boring and depressing. I suspect it was an Oprah book. She digs these sorts of painful reads.

Touch Points – T. Berry Brazelton
It’s official, Dr. Brazelton is my favorite “authority” on child rearing. He encourages parents to treat their children like, get this, little people with desires and needs and opinions. Gasp! That’s just goofy!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
I simply loved this book. Read it.

Runaway – Alice Munro
This is not Alice’s best book. If you haven’t read her, read Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. Even so, I liked it very much. Warning: These are short stories and I believe I may be the only person on the face of the earth that loves a short story.

Spinners – Anthony McCarten
This is a goofy little book that I liked but did not love. I’d recommend it if there weren’t another million books in the world that need your attention

The Name of the Rose – Umberto Echo
I can’t speak to this book as I clearly missed the plot. Why so much with the Latin and the blah, blah, blah, blah?

I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race Conscious World - Marguerite A. Wright
I loved this book. Truly brilliant. ‘Rents of white babies should read this as well.

The Lecturers Tale – James Hynes
Fleck.

Blink – The Power of Thinking without Thinking
Yeah, it was okay. No nearly as good as The Tipping Point.

Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
I liked it very much. Very dark, as is Ms. Atwoods M.O., but also very good.

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Winner of LIBBY’S BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR award. Freakin’ brilliantly written. A wonderful story of an Indian family immigrating to the US. Lahiri is the best writer around.

Snow – Orhan Pulmak
A very good book indeed.

2006 Reading List:

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Crescent - Diana Abu-Jaber
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Don’t Know Much About History
Oh The Glory of It All - Sean Wilsey
The Ice Queen – Alice Hoffman
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
The Losers Club - Richard Perez
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis – Jimmy Carter
Marley and Me – Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog - John Grogan
Libra - Don DeLillo