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What is Lisa Johnson reading?
Currently reading:
The Host
by Stephenie Meyer.
February 2008
When We Were Bad
by Charlotte Mendelson.
The writing is
very dry British humor. The story is about the Rubin family, the
mother is a popular and beloved Rabbi who has molded her family to
appear perfect to the outside world. However, they are very
dysfunctional and façade that the Rabbi has carefully built has
begun to crack. The humor of the book comes from everyone trying to
maintain the illusions as they are secretly falling apart. I’m not
sure if I like it yet, it hasn’t hooked me. I’ll give it a few more
chapters to see if it picks up.
When I got a
few more chapters into the book I started to like it more. Once
I got to know the characters and figured out everything was
going to come to a head during a very public Passover dinner I
had trouble putting it down.
This book is
for people who would like a smart and witty look at family
dynamics.
January 2008
The Commoner by
John Burnham Schwartz.
I liked it.
The Rug Merchant by
Meg Mullins.
I can see why the
book club liked it so much; there are so many different points to
discuss. Ushman is a great character and one I will continue to think
about in weeks to come.
The Thirteenth
Tale by Diane Setterfield.
A young
bookseller and obscure biographer, Margaret Lea is contacted by the
famous reclusive author Vida Winter to write her biography. Vida has
been writing best selling books for fifty years and given only a
handful interviews over that time. And every interview she gives a
different story about her background. Now dying, Vida wants to tell
Margaret the real story of her life. Or does she? Margaret must sift
through the gothic story Vida is telling for the real truth and in
the process finds the strength to face the ghosts in her own
troubled past.
December 2007
The Cure for Modern Life by Lisa
Tucker.
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan.
November 2007
The Somnambulist by
Jonathan Barnes.
I grabbed this while running out the door to a
book sale, and the opening paragraph grabbed me right back. I'm
still trying to find the words to describe it... especially parts like
when the assassins dress up like English school boys and take out a
crowd of hundreds. When they say they have a couple of hours to kill,
they mean it.
This book tales
place in London, just after Queen Victoria has died and is written
in the more formal language of the time. What it doesn’t have is the
slow moving stuffiness of the time. What is does have is a fading
conjuror who solves unsolvable murders for Scotland Yard, a
religious cult who plan to burn down London to start their own
twisted version of Eden, circus freaks, a timetraveler, a secret
government agency without any accountability and my new favorite
assassins, Hawker and Boone. And of course, The Somnambulist. This
bizarre cast of characters comes together in a final bloody street
battle in London’s financial district.
The
Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes is a witty, fast moving
detective thriller with a touch of the occult.
Published by
Harper Collins, it will be released in Feb. 2008.
The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by
Jane Austen, annotated and edited by David M. Shapard.
I've read Pride and Prejudice over the years, bought the
videos, but I've never gotten as much fabulous background and detail
tidbits as there are in this edition. The annotations not only refer to
the text, but offer insight to history of the time period and Austen's
life. The text of the story is on one page with the annotations on the
facing page. It makes for easing reading... no having to flip to the end
of the book!
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