Say hello to Beth
Golay!
Beth is the marketing manager
at Watermark Books & Cafe and has been with the store since
2001. Her favorite genre is literary fiction, but she also loves creative
non-fiction and reading the classics she should have attempted a long time ago.
Her greatest reading
accomplishment is a toss-up: Reading four books in one weekend (documented
in January 2004) or completing the 1438 pages of Dumas' The Count of Monte
Cristo.
Beth writes our weekly
News & Notes
e-letter and also leads the Watermark Book Club. Check our
events calendar for the
date of their next monthly meeting.
Currently reading (or on the stack.)
A Fortunate Age
by Joanna Smith Rakoff.
The Gargoyle
by Andrew Davidson.
War & Peace
by Leo Tolstoy.
Even though I blew the Watermark War and
Peace Challenge, I'm continuing on my own. Check in with me next June.
Crime & Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
I'm reading this with my Wednesday running
group. We discuss in-between intervals... our own punishment for our eating
crimes.
August 2008
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
by Xiaolu Guo.
Several of my co-readers read and enjoyed Guo's
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, so I thought I'd try
this one. My Olympic tribute (it takes place in Beijing), and... um... it's
short.
Her straight-forward approach is quirky,
irreverent at times, and really quite funny. I love the chapter titles:
fragment 5 - a Mao drawer doesn't prevent
Fenfang from ending up at the police station
fragment 8 - Fenfang cuts herself on a piece of
glass and thinks of Xiaolin
fragment 9 - Fenfang sits on the edge of a
swimming pool but doesn't get in
I'm currently in fragment 9. It appears that
our protagonist is going swimming. I wonder if she'll get in...
(I'm finished now. She didn't get in.)
My Year of Meats
by Ruth Ozeki.
This was one of the "books I should have read a long
time ago" selections for the Watermark Book Club. Apparently 17 other folks
agreed, because we had 18 people there. (18!)
An amazing book providing an in-depth look at the meat
industry. As she did in All Over Creation, Ozeki was able to use her
documentarian background to provide a human face to the numbers and
statistics affected by hormone altered meat.
This morning I was discussing with fellow
grew-up-on-or-near-a-farm Watermarker Mark Bradshaw the different types of
cows and which were easier to fatten. I said, "You should have read My
Year of Meats. Holy cow!" An accidental funny... yet we laughed and
laughed.
The Watermark Book Club meets the third Tuesday of
every month at 6:30 p.m. All are welcome. Our next meeting is September
16th, and we'll be discussing Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin
Lee.
Memory
by Philippe Grimbert.
This beautiful little book is sad and lovely. In it the
protagonist describes the discovery, and later memory, of his family's lives
in occupied France during and after WWII.
I found myself repeating these motions throughout the
book: read, pause, heavy sigh, mark passage with BookDart, shake head in
disbelief and awe, take another sip of wine, continue to read.
For Kings & Planets
by Ethan Canin.
I loved America America. Canin's going
to be at Watermark on September 11, so I thought I'd absorb as much as
possible.
Ethan Canin is just a fantastic writer.
July 2008
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie
Society by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
I've never written as many letters as when I was reading
this. Beautiful, sad, whimsical and--believe it or not--action adventure!
The Boat
by Nam Le.
Epilogue by Anne Roiphe.
It feels a little like schadenfreude to say how much I
enjoyed Anne Roiphe's memoir about grief. To find ones soul mate at all if a
feat to be admired. To be able to describe the loss one feels after 39 years
of marriage is incredible. Damn, I love her voice.
Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken
Kogan.
An amazing book, simultaneously beautiful and sorrowful.
This look at tragedy, postpartum depression, and the despair a mother must
feel to even entertain the thought of killing her young rather than leave
them behind to fend through life without her... it was simply haunting.
Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani.
The Watermark Book Club July selection.
Everybody finished it, and we all loved it!
Gossip of the Starlings
by Nina de Gramont.
I can't exactly remember how the question was posed. I vaguely remember that
several members of the Watermark staff were out with an author following a
reading. "What was the book that did it for you," the author asked. "What
book made you realize the power of literature?" I recall that my answer came
easily. The book is still on my shelf. The exact book--branded with
"Property of Garden Plain High School" inside the flap. "A Separate Peace"
by John Knowles. So when a galley arrives promising in red 14-point type
across the top--"A chilling debut novel in the tradition of 'A Separate
Peace'"--I had no option but to read it.
Read the rest of the
review.
June 2008
Deep Holes by
Alice Munro.
From The New
Yorker, June 30, 2008.
America America by Ethan Canin.
Holy cow. Sarah sure knows how to pick 'em.
I'm going to start ranking the books I read by
the number of BookDarts I leave in them. I'm on page 298 and I count 7 so
far. (I probably would have used more, but I forgot my can o' darts at home.
After 30 minutes of stewing, I broke down and bought a second can to leave
at work.)
America America is available now. And
you really should read it.
-
Finished. Final BookDart count: 13.
Madam President by Lane Smith.
Another great
one from Lane. (We could use you in Washington, Mr. Smith!) Read
Madam President aloud to your favorite little one, and you'll be
laughing along with them.
The Running Novelist by Haruki
Murakami.
From The New
Yorker, June 9 & 16, 2008.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.
Quilter's Catalog by Meg Cox:
Read review.
The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger.
The Watermark Book Club June selection.
May 2008
Just Write by Molly O'Shaughnessy.
City of Thieves by David Benioff.
Paper Towns by John Green.
April 2008
Life at These Speeds by Jeremy Jackson.
This is a re-read for our Watermark Book Club.
If you haven't read this title, you really should.
A Curious Earth by Gerard Woodward.
The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill
Block.
March 2008
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers.
The Watermark Book Club March selection.
Big Plans by
Bob Shea and Lane Smith.
This book, written by Shea and illustrated by
Smith, shows the mess and mayhem awaiting the world if the plotting of a
little boy stuck in a classroom corner comes to fruition.
February 2008
Bicycle Days by
John Burnham Schwartz.
JBS was at Watermark on January 28th for
his new novel, The Commoner. Bicycle Days is his first novel, which also
takes place in Japan.
The Story of a Marriage: A Novel by
Andrew Sean Greer.
From the author of The Confessions of Max
Tivoli. This novel will be released in May 2008. In the front of the
galley is a letter from Frances Coady of Picador USA. Frances writes,
"...this devastating love story comes with a warning--it often produces
tears--and a plea that when you have read it you will not reveal its secrets
to those readers coming after you." By page 67 Greer had shocked me
twice. Typically I might mark one or two well-written passages with a trusty
BookDart. I've marked more than twenty in The Story of a Marriage.
The Sorrows of an American by
Siri Hustvedt.
A compelling read about a psychoanalyst and
his family... sister, mother, niece, and recently deceased father. Each
struggle with ghosts from the past, and some from the present.
January 2008
Half of a Yellow Sun by
Chumamanda
Ngozi Adichie.
The January selection for the Watermark Book
Club. We meet on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Join us.
December 2007
The Rug Merchant by Meg Mullins.
An overwhelming favorite at the book club.
Great read.
Now You See Him by Eli Gottlieb. (due out
January 2008)
I picked this one up at midnight when I
couldn't sleep. I had to tear myself away and force myself back to bed.
Great writing which reads so gracefully... I really didn't want to put it
down: Read
review
November 2007
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by
Steve Martin.
I actually listened to the audio book. It's
read by Steve Martin, which I think is the best way to "read" his
autobiography. He plays the banjo here and there throughout... and nobody
can do his timing any better! At $29.95, the audio book would make a great gift.
The Maytrees by Annie Dillard.
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by
Michael Pollan.
From the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma,
the new book is scheduled to be released on January 1, 2008. From the
cover: "Pollan's last book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, launched a
national conversation about the American way of eating. Now In Defense of
Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time."
4 Months to a 4-Hour Marathon by
David Kuehls.
I know... I'm pathetic. I'm pathetically slow,
too.
Salt River by James Sallis.
I know Bruce is a big James Sallis fan, so I
decided to try one to see if I could figure out his taste.
The Promise of Happiness by Justin
Cartwright.
The November selection of the Watermark
Book Club. Join us on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
Good Dog. Stay. by
Anna Quindlen.
People of the Book by
Geraldine Brooks (to
be released January 2008.)
From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of
March. This novel was inspired by a true story about the Sarajevo
Haggadah. In this fictionalized version, a rare-book expert uncovers pieces
of the book's history through its binding, and as she does so, the reader is afforded a backward
glance at the stories of the people who make up that history. Well
done.
October 2007
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz (to
be released January 2008.)
John Burnham
Schwartz delivers again with this graceful look at a commoner turned
Japanese Empress. Fluid prose. Extremely well-researched. Schwartz is so
skilled at sucking you into total immersion, you have to remind yourself
to breathe.
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay.
Whistling in the Dark by
Leslie Kagen.
A former Literary Feast book filled with humor,
suspense, and a look at childhood before we locked the doors to our home.
Magic Time by Doug Marlette.
Watermark Book Club selection for October.
September 2007
The Accidental by Ali Smith.
Watermark Book Club selection for September.
August 2007
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by
Sherman Alexie.
I loved it! A great recommendation from Sarah
Bagby. And we just received some signed first editions!
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and
the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr.
The author of The Shell Collector and
About Grace receives a year-long fellowship at the American Academy in
Rome. He and his wife leave Idaho with 4-month-old twin boys in tow for this
unexpected gift adventure.
The Middle Place: A Memoir by Kelly
Corrigan.
Corrigan is diagnosed with breast cancer at the
age of 37. She writes of her battle which occurs simultaneously with her
dad's battle with prostate and bladder cancer.
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb.
The Watermark Bookclub selection for August.
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally
Carter.
Started it in July, finished in August. Can I
count it twice?
July 2007
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally
Carter.
Run by Ann Patchett.
Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi.
This is a re-read for our Watermark Book Club
meeting, Tuesday, July 17th at 6:30 p.m. You should join us!
June 2007
Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley.
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.
Richard III by William Shakespeare.
Just finished this with the Shakespeare
Aloud group. Now we're on to A Comedy of Errors.
May 2007
Tallgrass by
Sandra Dallas.
Actually, this one's on my iPod. So if you've
seen me spontaneously break into tears on the treadmill, it was probably only
partially because I was running. This one made me laugh out loud (and I
usually just laugh on the inside), but it especially made me sob.
Fruit of the Lemon by
Andrea Levy.
The May selection for the Watermark Bookclub,
which meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month. Levy won the
2004 Orange Prize for Fiction for her book Small Island.
The Alchemist by
Paulo Coelho.
How Reading Changed My Life by
Anna Quindlen.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona by
William Shakespeare.
The "Shakespeare Aloud" group at Watermark (led
by Mark David Bradshaw) just finished this one. It was great fun! You should
join us for Richard III on May 16th and 30th. We read aloud from 5:30
to 6:30 p.m.
April 2007
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.
Actually... this was an instance where I
actually finished a book I began a year ago. And the second half is
wonderful! A great coming of age story set in rural
England - from the author of Cloud Atlas and Number9Dream.
March 2007
Hick by Andrea Portes.
This paperback original is due in May 2007.
Here's a link to my
review.
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle.
Great book. Take a look at my
review.
February 2007
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
Even though this book was written for young
adults, more adults are reading it. Extremely well written. The book is
narrated by death (I like his personality) and takes place in Nazi Germany. Liesel is a young girl, the daughter of Nazi persecuted Communists, who now
lives with foster parents in Germany. The first book she stole, The
Gravediggers Handbook, was at the cemetery during her younger brothers
burial (he died on the way to the foster home.) The second was picked out of
the ashes after a Nazi bonfire. This book is over 500 pages long, but worth
every minute. One of the few books I didn't want to end.
Sleeping Freshman Never Lie by David
Lubar.
I read this one on Mark's recommendation. I
loved it. A great book for teens or young adults.
January 2007
About Alice by Calvin Trillin.
What a sweet book. And it's even more
heartbreaking to listen to the audio and hear Trillin as he speaks about the
love of his life, Alice.
The River of Doubt by
Candice Millard.
The Watermark Book Club discussed this one at
the January meeting. Who knew that Teddy Roosevelt even had this amazing
adventure? A great book to read or listen to!
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by
Marisha Pessl.
This one was named one of the Top 10 Books of
the Year by The New York Times. It felt as though I was reading it
forever! At page 250 I was only half-way through but all-the-way hooked.
Part erudite, part mystery, at times I felt it was completely over my head.
Narrator, Blue Van Meer, moves every semester with her father, a perpetual
visiting professor. During Blue's senior year, her father decides to stay
put for the entire school year before Blue moves on to Harvard. A
film/cinematography teacher at her high school takes her under her wing and
spatchcocks her in with the "Bluebloods," the odd in-crowd at the school.
The entire year is weird but completely engrossing. Good book.
December 2006
The Keep by Jennifer Egan.
Another one I picked up because I'd heard some
good things about it. Then the same day I began it, I saw that is was listed
as one of the top 100 Notable Books by The New York Times. I think
this is another one of those books that stick with you long after you've
finished reading them. There are three stories going on here. One is the
story of an inmate named Ray. Another is the story he tells through his
writing class or two cousins, Danny and Howie, a near tragedy experienced in
their youth, and a tension-filled reunion 20 years later. The final story is
of Ray and his writing instructor, Holly. Through Ray's writing, we know
that he's a key player in the story of Danny and Howie, but we don't know
who he is because he's using a different name.
November 2006
The Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne.
I picked up this book because it made The
Kansas City Star 2006 List of Notable Books. I read it over Thanksgiving
weekend, which was both eerie and serendipitous, because the book setting is
also Thanksgiving weekend. While I was reading it, I couldn't figure out why
it was "notable" - but now I can't stop thinking about it. Family secrets,
Mark Twain, and a crazy cast of characters indeed make this book notable:
Read review
October 2006
I've looked back though my past Octobers... and
I've never read a book during that month. What do you think that means?
September 2006
The Driftless Area by Tom Drury.
Great book. I'm picking up the author at the
airport for our event at the store... and boy, do I have some questions for
him!
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by
Jonathan Safran Foer.
This is the Watermark Book Club selection for
September. Extremely imaginative and incredibly well-written. I cried like a
baby. Loved it.
The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger.
The author of the short-story collection
Lucky Girls, Nell Freudenberger is making her novel debut with The
Dissident. I'm not sure if it was the family dynamic or what, but I felt
as though I were reading Zadie Smith's On Beauty. But in The
Dissident it's Cece, not Kiki, who holds this family together... then
allows it to drift apart.
August 2006
The Discomfort Zone by
Jonathan Franzen.
I enjoyed Franzen's "personal history" of
growing up in St. Louis. I'm extremely curious about him as both the author
of The Corrections and the one who said "no" to Oprah.
Fallen by David Maine.
Listened to this on the way to Pikes Peak. Wow,
it's good. Now I'll be self-conscious of arching my eyebrow or shrugging.
Saturday by Ian McEwan.
This was the Watermark bookclub selection for
August. Overall consensus: you should read it.
Book of Writers Talking to Writers
edited by Vendela Vida.
I haven't made it though the entire selection,
but I especially wanted to read the interview of Ian McEwan conducted by
Zadie Smith.
The Half Life of Stars by
Louise Wener.
Wener's
The Perfect Play was a hit with the Watermark staff. The Half Life
of Stars was equally terrific. This one comes out in November, so put it
on your "must read" list. (Wener is the former
leader singer of the British band Sleeper. She's witty, clever, and
"brilliant.")
July 2006
A Student of Living Things by
Susan Richards Shreve.
I love the cover. I'm not giving this book the
respect it deserves, as I read it in fits and starts. The location is
Washington DC, and the author gives us a glimpse of what the US would be
like with terrorist attacks and bombings after 9/11.
Specimen Days by
Michael Cunningham.
A re-read for our Watermark Book Club. Can't
say that I liked it the second time around, either.
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have
to Kill You by
Ally Carter.
This is a great summer read for teens,
especially for those who enjoy spikes like Jason Bourne or Sidney Bristow.
The author lives in Chanute, of all places, and we should be proud of this
Kansan. Not only has she written a good book, it has been optioned for film
by Walt Disney Pictures. Congrats, Ally!
June 2006
Brick Lane by
Monica Ali.
I had to take a road trip for work, so I popped
in this audio book. I guess I'm on a "Bangladeshi living in foreign lands"
kick. I like listening to this one rather than reading it. Trying to read
with a broken accent is a bit trying.
Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by
Faďza Gučne.
I've had this book on a stack in my office
since Sarah handed it to me. Then Mark read it and said how great it was and
I feel completely behind! I'm barely into it, and I don't have a first
impression just yet. A teenage girl lives in France with her mother, and her
father has just left them to return to Morocco to marry a girl who might
give him a son.
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.
I met John Green at a dinner in April 2005,
just after his book Looking for Alaska was released. (It was recently
awarded the Printz Award.) At dinner, he told us about this new book he was
working on, about a boy who dated and was consequently dumped by girls named
Katherine. There are 19 Katherines who dump this prodigy, and he sets out to
discover a Theorem to explain why this keeps happening to him... and in the
process, move from the ranks of prodigy to genius. It's a fun book for
teens, but adults would enjoy it too.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
The Watermark Bookclub selection for June.
Sarah always said how much she loved this one, and now I'm so glad we
selected for our June read. A wonderful story about a Bangladeshi family and
their life in the United States. In the story, the grandfather said
something like, "Read the Russians. They'll never let you down." Now I wish
I'd read Gogol's "Dead Souls" when our Watermark Classic bookclub read it...
or "Anna Karenina." Guess what's on my stack now?
May 2006
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.
A great coming of age story set in rural
England - from the author of Cloud Atlas and Number9Dream.
The Man of My Dreams by Curtis
Sittenfeld.
Do not judge her books by their covers! First
with Prep, and now with The Man of My Dreams, the covers for
Curtis Sittenfeld's novels are very deceiving. They are not the "chick-lit"
implied, but well-written novels with dark undertones. Sittenfeld nails the
anxiety of her characters. But with a verbally-abusive tyrant of a father,
how can one not feel anxious about finding the right person?
A Writer's Paris:
A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul
by Eric Maisel.
[Sigh.] If only it could be true...
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose.
A refreshing look at reading, taking the time
to read word by word... sentence by sentence. Prose wraps up with a list of
books to read immediately. The list is longer than I can tackle in my
lifetime.
April 2006
Still Life with Chickens by
Catherine Goldhammer.
An interesting memoir. Everything you need to
know to raise chickens... oh, and it's about life, too.
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips.
The Watermark Book Club selection for April. I
feel I should re-read it. What exactly happened here?
Michael Dirda.
A nice book full of quotations, reflections,
and a glossary of the who's-who you should know not only in the book world,
but in life. Coming in May, this would make a thoughtful gift for the
college graduate.
Golden Country by Jennifer Gilmore.
A story of the American dream in the 1920s and
30s. This is Jennifer Gilmore's debut novel, and she's done a fantastic
job. I wish I knew more yiddish!
The Tender Bar by
J.R. Moehringer.
I enjoyed this more than I anticipated.
Moehringer explains how, abandoned by his father as an infant, he was formed
into a man by the men in his hometown bar. I think his two bosses from the
bookstore in Arizona had more of a hand in forming him... perhaps this should
be called The Tender Bookstore.
Once Upon a Day by Lisa Tucker.
Sarah's so excited about this book, how could I
not read it? This is a great story about love for a family. Tucker does a
great job of keeping the reader interested until the bittersweet end. This
would make a great bookclub read. (Tucker will be at Watermark on April
20th.)
Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters by Kathleen Ragan.
The latest selection of one of my reading
groups. We meet every two weeks to discuss a limited (and quite do-able)
number of pages. The stories of heroines in folktales collected from around
the world are wonderful! Forget what Disney has taught our young women about
waiting for their prince to save them... these women are cunning, clever,
and true heroines.
March 2006
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
I've barely begun this book with a striking
cover. And while I know a book cannot be judged by its cover, the buzz in
the bookselling world tells me I won't be disappointed. Stay tuned.
Okay, I'm back. Elizabeth Gilbert told me that
you know you have a good idea if you tell a friend about it and they laugh.
That's what I would have done if Sara Gruen had told me, as a friend, that
she was writing a novel about a traveling circus in the 1920s. But your
don't read Water for Elephants for its subject matter. Just as you
don't read Life of Pi because you want to learn more about zoo
animals, or The Kite Runner because you enjoy witnessing the rape of
a young boy in Afghanistan. Sara Gruen's book is of the same caliber
as Martel's and Hosseini's. It's the writing we're celebrating here...
and for Water for Elephants it's a kick-ass party. (Publication
due May 26, 2006.)
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis
Buzbee.
Perhaps I enjoyed these essays of a
bookseller in the bookstore world because of the nature of my business.
(When Buzbee listed what could typically be found behind a bookstore
counter, he nailed Watermark!) But
I think that non-booksellers, too, would enjoy this glimpse into our unique
realm. Coming in May 2006.
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire.
The sequel to Wicked, this book was
great. It was nice to visit Elphaba again, even if it was just through the
memories of those who knew her.
Some Fun: Stories and a Novella by
Antonya Nelson.
The Dressmaker
by Elizabeth Birkelund Oberberk.
This is a sweet novel about a dressmaker in a
small town outside of Paris. The elements of sewing, Paris, and the art
world sucked me in. I only wish the book would have been better. The
non-Fairytale ending did redeem it a bit.
February 2006
The Darling by Russell Banks. (A Watermark Book Club selection.)
Writing Brave & Free: Encouraging
Words for People Who Want to Start Writing by Ted Kooser & Steve Cox.
I'd heard a lot of good things about Kooser's
Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets, so I
thought I'd give this galley a run through. Kooser is the Poet Laureate of
the United States and a Pulitzer Prize winner. His advice is both helpful
and generous.
January 2006
Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi.
Coming in May 2006. This is one of the
best books I've read in quite a while. The writing is amazing. The humor is even better. Set in Milwaukee, Red Weather taught
me more about the liquor industry, socialism, communism, and the proud
people of Latvia. This is Toutonghi's first novel, and he's going to
be one to watch.
Tijuana Straits by Kem Nunn.
December 2005
Pathways to Bliss by Joseph Campbell.
November 2005
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Coming in February 2006. Absolutely
wonderful.
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The Preservationist by David Maine.
The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning.
October 2005
Broken as Things Are by Martha Witt.
September 2005
The English Teacher by Lily King.
On Beauty by Zadie Smith.
The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita
Diamant.
The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips.
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham.
August 2005
The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez.
The concept was intriguing, but the writing
and plot lacked something. I'm afraid I can't recommend it.
Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason
Behind the Rhyme by Chris Roberts.
This London librarian looks at some forty
of our favorite nursery rhymes and discovers this history of these verses
lined with religious hatred, political bashing, and sexual
undertones. Read
review.
Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori
Parks.
Sarah Bagby recommended this book to me,
and I finally got around to finishing it! Read Sarah's
review.
Why Read? by Mark Edmundson.
I was first introduced to Edmundson through his
book, "Teacher:
The One Who Made the Difference." This is an "enjoyable" look at the way we
teach, learn, and read.
Read review.
July 2005
The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies.
Read Beth's review.
Straight Man by Richard Russo.
This was a Watermark Bookclub selection...
an earlier work from the author of Pulitzer Prize winner Empire
Falls. Very funny and enjoyable.
June 2005
Hard Rain by Barry Eisler.
Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster.
The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer:
Read Kristie's
review
May 2005
The Wedding Planner's Daughter by Coleen
Murtagh Paratore:
Read review
Saul & Patsy by Charles Baxter:
Read Bruce's review
Hey, Cowgirl, Need a Ride?
by Baxter Black.
Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte.
Thought I'd give some sword fighting a try. I'm
curious.
The Zahir by
Paulo Coelho.
A famous novelist living in France is married
to a war correspondent. After 10 years of marriage, she disappears.
The Zahir is about the obsession which
follows: Read review
April 2005
The Darling
by Russell Banks.
Anonymous
Rex by Eric Garcia.
The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
by Marina Lewyeka.
Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson:
Read review
Sideways: The Shooting Script screenplay
by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Rex Pickett:
Read review
March 2005
Heir
to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick:
Read review
The
King's English by Betsy Burton.
Prep by
Curtis Sittenfeld:
Read review
The
Known World by Edward P. Jones. (Book Club selection)
The
Piano Lesson by August Wilson.
February
2005
Embroideries by
Marjane Satrapi:
Read review
A
Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George.
January
2005
The
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. (Watermark Book Club selection)
The Merchant
of Venice by William Shakespeare.
December 2004
City
of Bones by Michael Connelly. (Mystery Book Club selection)
Love
in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I'd
never read it before, but it's been on my stack for so long. A good friend
re-read it with me so I could discuss it with when I finished. Sometimes you just have to stop and pull one off your stack!
November 2004
Orchard
by Larry Watson.
Our
Watermark Book Club just read this for our November discussion. The
overall consensus was that it is very good. Haunting, sad, a true look at
human nature after the loss of a loved one.
October 2004
(Slow month.)
September 2004
The
Know It All by
A.J. Jacobs.
Funny. Interesting. It was nice to see that I'm not the only one who feels
they've become more and more stupid as they grow older. This thirty-five
year old decided he would read the Encyclopedia Britannica from start to
finish.
The
Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty. (Book Club selection)
August 2004
Wicked
by Gregory Maguire. (Book Club selection)
How
did I miss this book when it was first released? It's got to be one of my
favorite books of all time. Maguire's books show you the other side of the
story for some of your favorite fables. In Wicked, we learn about
the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Her name is Elphaba,
and is she really wicked? Read the book before you see the show on
Broadway!
The
Perfect Play by Louise Wener
I
learned a lot about Texas Hold 'Em! In this very British novel, we follow
a young woman on her quest to find her father, who abandoned her years ago for a
poker game. Great characterization. Loved it.
July 2004
The
Twelve Little Cakes by Dominika Dery:
Read review
Chasing
Shakespeares by Sarah Smith. (Book Club selection)
June
2004
Codex by Lev Grossman.
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell &
Dustin Thomason.
Separation Anxiety by Karen Brichoux.
May 2004
All
Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki. (Re-read. Book Club selection.)
The
Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb.
April 2004
Educating Waverly by Laura
Kalpakian. (Book Club selection.)
March 2004
In Summer by Jeremy Jackson.
The
Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler:
Read review
Reading
Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. (Book Club selection.)
February 2004
Desserts
That Have Killed Better Men Than Me by Jeremy Jackson:
Read review
The
Cornbread Book by Jeremy Jackson. (Re-read. Loved it again.)
January 2004
Life of Pi by Yann
Martel. (Book Club selection.)
The
Last Goodbye by Reed Arvin.
Life
at These Speeds by Jeremy Jackson. (Book Club selection.)
The
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
