Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Norwegian Wood

Fiction by Haruki Murakami.

Norwegian Wood
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was another book translated from the Japanese. It was good, but not as good as 1Q84.

According to the jacket, this is the Catcher in the Rye of Japan. Except Toru Watanabe was way more sympathetic a character than Holden Caufield, whom I kind of hated.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

June Bug

Fiction by Chris Fabry.

June Bug
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the book I chose for my book club this month. So, obviously, I recommend reading it.

Here's the premise: "June Bug believed everything her daddy told her. That is, until she walked into Wal-Mart and saw her face on a list of missing children. The discovery begins a quest for the truth about her father, the mother he rarely speaks about, and ultimately herself."

Sounds cool, doesn't it?

Monday, February 27, 2012

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Senator's Wife



Fiction by Sue Miller.

The Senator's Wife

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Now this was a very good book. It really caused me to think about the characters. But I am a big Sue Miller fan.

The only problem was I felt like this book had about the most boring cover I've ever seen.


Barnes and Noble had several other books with the same title and better covers; however, their insides are probably far inferior since Sue Miller didn't write them.

The Senator's WifeSee how pretty?

So although it's true that you can't judge a book by its cover, it would behoove an author to get a good designer, since in fact most everyone DOES judge a book by its cover.

Also it's interesting to see the intense disaprity in the reviews about this book; people either loved it or hated it.

Just to recap: I loved it.

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Weight of Silence

Fiction by Heather Gudenkauf.

The Weight of Silence
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a great book!

My mom recommended it to me, so... Thanks, Mom!

The funny thing is, I remember when I was a kid I could never STAND to read anything my mom recommended. I thought if she liked it, I couldn't possibly like it.

I never did read Little Women or The Yearling as a result. So I probably missed out on a lot, just out of sheer stubborness.

Later she figured this out and stopped recommending books to me.

I'm glad she's started back now that I'm an adult, though.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Encyclopedia Brown


Children's fiction by Donald Sobol.

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret Pitch (Encyclopedia Brown Series #2)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

I've been reading this to my nine-year-old daughter.

But it's not the "updated" version like the one above. It's the old 1960's one from the school library.

And she's actually interested!

I think it's cool I can read something to my kid that I read myself as a kid.

Perhaps even the same copy...

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Zero Day

Fiction by David Baldacci.

Zero Day
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

I just couldn't get into this book. I don't know why.

But it's a new book so the library only lets me have it for seven days...and its time is up.

Sorry.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Wonderland Creek

Fiction by Lynn Austin

Wonderland Creek

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a good book.

It's about a girl who loves books more than real life, which was a sympathetic character to me.

Not that I'm anything like that....

Monday, February 6, 2012

The Night Circus

Fiction by Erin Morgenstern.

The Night Circus
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an interesting book. Weird but good.

First off, is this not a fabulous cover? I wish I'd designed that.

Also this is another sort-of-defying classification book. The library called it "Fantasy," as evidenced by the little blue unicorn sticker on the spine.

(I find the classification stickers amusing sometimes. I mean, there's no unicorns in this book. And the "Historical" sticker has a little blue covered wagon on it. Which looks ridiculous on the spine of a Phillipa Gregory novel. But I digress.)

In any case, this book is pretty darn original. And that's always cool.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Buddha in The Attic

Fiction by Julie Otsuka.

The Buddha in the Attic
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Well, I just said a few days ago I couldn't wait to read this follow-up to When the Emperor was Divine.

Unfortunately it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Mostly I guess that's just because my expectations were too high.

But also this was too short. And too unspecific.

It was still worth reading though.