How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers

First, let it be known that I am a huge Dave Eggers fan. Both A Staggering Work... and You Shall Know Our Velocity are favorites of mine, and I enjoy all his commentary and meta-style of writing. I even find Eggers clever-er and therefore more enjoyable than, say, David Foster Wallace. However, this book of short stories was a bit of a disappointment. Perhaps part of what I like about Eggers is the velocity (npi) his books crank up to....the way that you can be reading for 10-15 pages not realizing it is all an aside. Certainly a short story does not allow for this style, and hence my disappointment. That aside, some of the stories still enchanted, and a few will stick in my mind for a while. But, it was not classic Eggers.

History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Recommended by Sara Coe. This was a book-within-a-book book, which kept me on my toes. The story followed a manuscript from war-torn Europe during WWII to modern-day New York. The characters were a little hard to keep track of, with the exception of the incredibly likeable narrator. I did enjoy the secrets that kept getting figured out as the book unfolded, although I was not crazy about how difficult it was to read. Even Time Traveler's Wife was easier to track than this. The author also employed some strange dramatic devices (one word on a page, e.g.) in places that seemed unnecessary.

The Broker by John Grisham

I always forget how much I like John Grisham until I read another of his legal/political books and fall in love again. Bleachers aside, he is a master at what he does, and this was no exception. With a likeable criminal as its main character, The Broker did not disappoint as a page turner and very high quality airport read.

Twins by Marcy Dermansky

This was another book that surprised me with its subtlety. The beginning reads like a teen novel, but as the story of identical twins who grow up through high school continues, their characters become well developed. While some of the characters are a bit shallow (like the lawyer-parents) and some of the plot turns unusually unlikely, the book as a whole tells an interesting story.

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M.G. Vassanji

Thanks to Christie for this book as a holiday gift. It follows Vic, whose family is from India but living in Kenya, from childhood to adulthood. Colonialism puts him and his family in an interesting place in Kenya, neither black nor white. And this in-between-ness follows him throughout life into a life of government corruption. The characters are wonderful and the story is truly a saga, mixing modern-day chapters with the story of his life prior to that. Recommended.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka

This was a great fun read. It tells the story of two sisters who don't get along coping with their aging father's new marriage to a young Ukranian immigrant gold-digger. The characters are funny (particularly the father and his squishy-squashy problems) and the story is quick and charming. There was a book-within-a-book aspect of it I was not crazy about, but other than that I really enjoyed this one. Even better, I have not been satisfied with the ending to a book in a long time, and this one "hit the spot." Recommended.

More, Now, Again by Elizabeth Wurtzel

I was not the only reader dissatisfied with Bitch, Wurtzel's second book. After Prozac Nation, which is an all-time favorite book of mine, I was expecting to love Bitch. When I didn't, I didn't bother to pick up More, Now, Again for a long time. Something compelled me to try it recently, and I'm glad I did. Like Prozac Nation, More, Now, Again invites the reader into Wurtzel's world. This time, it is a world of drug addiction, and it is told without pulling any punches. Her descent into addiction is tragic. And yet her story as a whole seems uplifting and even inspirational. She treats drug addiction with the same honesty, humor, and grit that depression received in her first book. And drug addiction is clearly identifiable as a disease, just as depression was. (The disorganization and structural problems with Bitch are attributable to the drug addiction from which she was suffering while writing Bitch...which explains a lot.) Recommended, if you like Wurtzel.

Oh the Glory of it All by Sean Wilsey

Thanks to Amy for an autographed copy of this book as a gift. Too bad I was on page 50, and finding the story a little far-fetched, and beginning to hate the author's propensity for putting real historical figures in a fictional book before I realized that this was a non-fiction book. Wilsey certainly lived an unusual childhood and troubled adolescence which he rises out of gracefully towards the end of the book. This was a definite page-turner, and I was sad to leave it at home during a business trip with luggage that did not allow for hardcover books! Recommended.

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel

I had enjoyed Mantel's Change of Climate last year and was looking forward this this. It didn't disappoint. It follows the life of a British woman who moves to Saudi Arabia due to her husband's job. Frances adjusts to life in Saudi Arabia, but is continuously disturbed by the misogyny and anti-Western sentiment. She senses that things are not right with her neighbors and begins to find out a big secret about an empty apartment upstairs. This book was very evocative of place and mood. Recommended.

Moo by Jane Smiley

Every once and I while Mer A. and I agree on a book, and this is one of them. What a funny and delightful portrait of a college going through several financial, political, and social crises. The characters were sympathetic and the storylines compelling. Some parts of the book were laugh-out-loud which I self-consciously adore about reading a book. Recommended.

Family History by Dani Shapiro

I thought this would be a fluff book, a quick read. I found it to be more like Prep or a Jodi Picoult novel in that the topic was treated with good writing and a deep investigation of the emotions and motives of the characters. It followed the lives of a family of four, where the teenage daughter experiences such extreme jealousy towards her baby brother that she nearly destroys the family. Well written and a true page-turner. I fell into this category: "One of those books most readers will finish in one sitting . . . because it is so intense you can't take a break." (Linnea Lannon, Detroit Free Press)

All the Names by Jose Saramago

This was a fabulous book. It was about a man who worked in the Registry in an un-named South American city. He leads a very organized and quiet life for years before becoming involved in a mystery involving a woman whose card he comes in contact with. They mystery is interesting, but this magic of this book is the writing style and mood created by the author and by the lead character. Be prepared for a challenge, though: certain paragraphs are longer than a single page, and dialogue is sparse. Recommended. Strangely enough, Elana recommended a different book by Saramago while I was in the middle of this one. I will probably try that one after a break from Saramago.

Hear Me Now by Sophal Leng Stagg

I did not realize this was a children's book when I picked it up; at least, it seems to be written for a young teen audience. It tells the story of a family surviving during the wars in Cambodia. The writing is nothing special, but the author's story is quite compelling and the horrors she survived horrendous. Interesting complement to many of the Holocaust memoirs I've read.

Top Books of 2005

Family and Friends,

Happy New Year! I hope you are all enjoying ringing in 2006 so far.

2005 was a busy year for me; I continued working on my Master's and started a new job. I also read 46 books. As you may know, it is my custom at New Year's to send the list of my favorite books out as recommendations. This year I am asking for something in return: Please please please send me a recommendation of a book that you read this year and liked--you can see how many recommendations I take from people, they are credited below.

Some notes on the list: First, I was recently talking to some friends about whether I like historical fiction. I said "no" and sneered a bit, but when I look at the list, a decent number of these are set in specific historical epochs. Even more than historical fiction, I note that I enjoyed several fictional books this year that were set in different countries. I hope you enjoy this theme if you end up reading these books. Second, what I struggled with the most in my reading this year was endings. I found very few books that had a satisfactory ending, and I would posit that it is one of the major problems facing authors today. If you send me a recommendation that has a good ending, you get a gold star.

Without further ado....The List.


This year's top three books were the The God of Small Things, Too Many Men, and Everything is Illuminated, in no particular order. GoST and EiI are both books that deal with storytelling and language, while EiI and TMM are both stories about searching for a main character's roots in Eastern Europe. However, despite these similar themes, these books are significantly different in both style and storyline. I qualify them all as "read-at-red-lights" great.

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy - Recommended over the years by Laura B., Emily, and Parth.
This is a book that was recommended to me over and over, but I could never really get into it. This summer I took it on vacation and forced myself to try it again because it was recommended to me again. Obviously, I am glad I did. It is set in India in the late 1960's, and follows a set of fraternal twins and their family and covers various things that befall them. What is most interesting about the book is the use of language. Words are made up and words are capitalized in a way that plays with language and forces the reader to become part of the characters' world. Give it a few chapters if you are turned off by this at first.

Too Many Men - Lily Brett - Recommended by Jenne
Sometimes I think I should just hang out at Jenne's house and go through her bookshelf. I think I basically did that this year, and this was a great, great, pick. This tells the story of a woman who takes her aging father to Poland in an effort to find their history, much of which was destroyed during the Holocaust. The characters are vibrant and likeable (or hate-able) and there are some scenes that just won't leave my memory, ever.

Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
This one was recently made into a movie that I haven't seen. An American goes to the Ukraine to find a women who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. This is interspersed with a second storyline, that of a book the American is writing about the village his grandfather grew up in. The best part of the book is the translator/tour guide whose English is just good enough to be dangerous. It's a laugh-out-loud funny book and a serious journey at the same time.

****After the top three, the following books were very enjoyable and definitely recommended.

Imagining Argentina - Lawrence Thornton
I read this in Argentina which may have something to do with why I liked it so much, but it combined magical realism (a common literature style in South America characterized by everyday people in fantasy-like circumstances) and the historical backdrop of the disappearances of the 1970's during the military rule.

Louisa - Simone Zelitch - Recommended by Jenne
Hungarian woman and her gentile daughter-in-law immigrate to Palestine in 1945. Really interesting cultural situations, great characters.

Island Walkers - John Bemrose
Family on an island and their conflicts with a labor union at the local factory and the beautiful new girl who starts at the town school. Nice side-trips into all the characters' lives, even if their stories aren't necessary for the plot.

Prep - Curtis Sittenfeld - Recommended by Jo
Named one of the New York Times' top books of 2005 (also), this follows the life of a midwestern girl who goes to a fancy northeastern prep school. While the plot was not exceptional, her voice is very clear and at times heartbreaking.

Pompeii - Robert Harris - Recommended by Christie
Historical fiction about the last few days before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvious. The ending is predictable (it blows) but the story and the characters are pretty good. For you scientists out there you will find some good descriptions of how aquaducts are built and the science behind the eruption.

Ahab's Wife - Sena Naslund - seen in Jenne's bookcase
I will fess up immediately to never having read Moby Dick. That said, I enjoyed this story of the woman who became Captain Ahab's wife, largely because of the adventures she has on her own. Plenty of discussion of religion and local politics and a few famous people make appearances towards the end, right when it's becoming a bit tedious as a story. Literature fans will enjoy this one. Take it on vacation, it's 700 pages long.

Wicked - Gregory McGuire - Recommended by Laura R., and Meredith W.
This is a pretty well known book that I somehow had not yet read about the Wicked Witch of the West from Oz, told from her side of the story. A bit long at times, but overall a good read...lots of good political and social commentary, just like the original Oz.

Lovers of Algeria - Anouar Benmalek
A familiar star-crossed lovers story set in Algeria. Maybe I was enchanted by the setting or the fairy-tale nature of the story, but it was an enjoyable read.

Change of Climate - Hillary Mantel - Perhaps recommended by Susan K.?
This is the story of a married pair of retired missionaries in modern-day England and flashes back to their time in Botswana. (See Don't Let's Go to the Dogs, as a nice nonfiction companion book to this.) The story tackles some difficult themes and reads almost too quickly to appreciate the writing.

Unless - Carol Shields
I was a little skeptical about the premise of this book - that a bright college student would drop out of school and start panhandling - but ended up really enjoying it. Told from her mother's point of view, this book ends up being about a lot of things, like feminism and family dynamics and responsibility. I enjoyed reading it, but didn't think it was a great book when I finished. Six months later it is still in my head, so it makes the list.

****If you're still not quenched, or if you're curious, these were pretty good too.

Robber Bride and Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye recommended by Mom. Margaret and I have some issues with her endings. I love reading her books but I always get to the end and find myself disappointed. If you're looking for a good ride, though, these are good choices of hers--Robber Bride about a set of women all victimized by a "friend" who is an adulterer and Cat's Eye about a haunting bully from the main character's childhood. Similarly, Jodi Picoult tends to write a great story with an afterschool special ending... Keeping Faith was one of the ones of hers I liked despite this problem, about a little girl who starts to talk to God.

Goldberry Long's Juniper Tree Burning was a great journey story. (I've characterized a couple books as journey stories. I don't know if this is really a genre, but when I read Huck Finn in high school I think it was designated as such.) While a bit unwieldy in the middle, the story is good, the changing of narration style is intriguing, and the character is complex enough to be interesting.

I don't usually include what I consider to be airport reading in this list, but Dennis Lehane's (Mystic River) Shutter Island, recommended by Jes, was notably good. Neat story about US Marshalls sent to a psychiatric hospital in the Boston Harbor Islands to investigate an escaped patient. This story had some great twists and the writing was appropriately suspenseful.

If you like Chris Bohjalain (Midwives, Trans-sister Radio), try Water Witches. It's an older book of his and less mature than his more popular books. However, the story of women who can divine where water is flowing underground, mingled with an environmental conflict storyline, makes for a good story. If you haven't read him before, then don't consider this representative of his best work.

I tried The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett, recommended by Jo. It was a pretty good page-turner about a woman who leaves her husband and finds herself work at a home for unwed mothers. Not a masterpiece like Patchett's Bel Canto (last year's list), but still a good read.

For those of you who are writers or teach English, check out Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell; I picked it up at a Barnes and Nobles as a "Staff Recommends" book. This book takes the reader through six different stories that are nested within each other like Matreshka dolls. While I didn't think the transitions were smooth, and I'm still trying to understand the theme tying them all together, the writing is so different in each of the six stories that it is a true display of voice that is worth the read.

The Alchemist by Paul Coehlo, recommended to me by Dave N., was a neat fable about following one's dreams. You may find it to be inspiring or at least a nice read. It's short enough to demand relatively little from you. Some of the imagery is very memorable.

The Right Thing to Do by Josephine Hendin is somewhere between A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and My Big Fat Greek Wedding as far as plot. At the heart, it is a father-daughter old world-new world, insulated-independence story about Italian immigrants. It's not a funny book, but it describes a relationship with intense detail and great imagery.

Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor was recommended to me by Meredith A. It's a story of a man who returns to his family home in Memphis to deal with his elderly sisters and father. The story explores the circumstances surrounding the family's landing in Memphis to begin with, and how the patriarch of the family influenced their experiences so strongly.

Several people recommended Birth of Venus by Sarah Dumont to me, most notably Jo. This was one of those books I was statistically likely to enjoy, according to Amazon.com 's software, and one that Barnes and Noble put near several other books I liked. I found this story of a woman growing up in 15th century Florence relatively interesting but slightly boring at times. Probably a great read if you are going to Italy, otherwise it's fine.

For Love by Sue Miller was a story about a married couple and their circle of friends and adultary. Like Jane Hamilton, Sue Miller is a staple for me every so often when I'm at the library and can't find anything that looks good. She does not disappoint.

Jennifer Egan's Look at Me has stuck in my head. It's about a model who gets in a car accident and loses her beautiful looks. As she struggles to find a new identity as a person, she also figures out some strange details surrounding her accident. There's a second main character who shares the model's first name (Charlotte) who struggles with identity in a different way. Overall, a good social commentary, albeit proven by some absurd plot turns towards the end of the story. If you've read this far down, pop this one higher on your list...it was good.

Carol Goodman's Lake of Dead Languages was a spooky story about a woman who returns to her alma mater boarding school to teach and begins to see female students' lives mimic her own tragic time at the school.

****And if you're looking for non-fiction, I'd recommend these:

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America - Thomas Frank
The premise of this book is basically that many communities in the midwest are making political choices that are not in their best social or economic interests, and it seeks to figure out what is causing this dissonance. He does an eerily good job of characterizing the liberal northeasterners which encouraged me to trust his characterizations of the rest of the country. What I liked about this book was not its politics as much as its addressing the issues of polarization and divide facing us today.

The Working Poor - David Shipler
I liked this account of America's poverty problem mostly because Shipler admittedly roots for the people he writes about, so I liked them too. I was surprised at how many people live just a paycheck or two away from the street, and saddened by the discussions of problems with healthcare. While he didn't do a great job of summarizing anything, his problem statement is sound, and his liberalism was reasonably calm, letting the stories make his point without too much soapboxing.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller - recommended by Christie
This is the memoir of a woman growing up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe with an incredibly prejudiced and alcoholic mother. This is not Lincroft, NJ. Much of this book is hard to take as non-fiction, but the challenge of doing so is definitely rewarding.

Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sachs - recommended by Matt E
Sachs' anecdotes of his psychiatric patients who have unusual disorders is a good read, particularly if you are reading something else and need a short break now and then. Individually, most of the stories are interesting, and together they portray an unusual human condition that most of us don't see.

Happy Reading in 2006!!

Love, Sheryl

Top Books of 2004

Hi everyone,

As many of you know, I keep track of each book I read and at the end of the year I pick my favorites. I decided to send the list out this year, so here it is!

Please feel free to forward this to any other bibliophiles you know. All I ask in return is that you send me the names of anything you've read this year that you liked. :)

Have a Wonderful 2005, and keep reading. Love, Sheryl
_____________________________________________________________________

***Best Books from 2004***

I read 60 books this year. Yes, I do work full time, and yes I did start grad school, and no it did not slow down my reading. ;)

Where I remembered, I noted who had recommended a particular book to me. I am trying harder to keep track of that for 2005!

Of my two *favorite* books from 2004, one was fiction and the other non-fiction.

*Fiction Favorite: The Time-Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) This was a book about a man with an epilepsy-like disorder who, instead of having seizures, time-traveled through his own life. As you can imagine, this made for quite an interesting love life for him and his wife. This is one of the best love stories I have ever read; don't be scared off by the sci-fi angle. (Recommended to me by
Jenne)

*Non-fiction Favorite: Appetites (Caroline Knapp)
This is a great book that purports to be about eating disorders but is really a greater discussion of women and the external encouragement they do and don't get to determine and obtain what they want in life. Nearly every woman I know was in this book one way or another. Every woman, and everybody who knows a woman, should read this book.

*********************Top Books: Fiction

Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
Wonderful book. This book follows the story of an Afghani boy and his best friend, who is his father's servant's son. Lots of depiction (show, don't tell) of class differences. Events that happen to them as children follow them through life. Good imagery about Afghanistan. Great interaction between the characters. (Recommended by Christie)

Easter Island (Jennifer Vanderbes)
This follows the stories of two separate women, one in 1912, one in 1973. The former is visiting Easter Island with her husband, who is researching the Moai (statues). The latter is researching pollen fossils as a scientist. Both stories were compelling, as is there inevitable collision. (Recommended by Jenne).

Handmaiden's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
Very unusual story of a world in the future where women exist to either hold social positions or have children--few do both. The main character is immediately sympathetic, and the plot is compelling. Hard to put down.

Empire Falls (Richard Russo)
Very good characters and plot about a small town in Maine. A man owns the town grille, and the story follows him and his daughter and ex-wife. I would call this book close to perfect in terms of composition, language, characters, and plot.

Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)
This was a great read. An opera singer and some priests and goverment officials and aristocrats get taken hostage in a mansion in South America. The ensuing interactions during their captivity are depicted gracefully and in great detail.

The Other Boleyn Girl (Philipa Gregory)
Follows the story of Mary Boleyn, who has an affair with King Henry many years prior to Anne's marriage to him. I read this for my book club a bit reluctantly but ended up really loving the storyline and characters. Maybe this is what my history teacher meant in junior high about history coming alive?

Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
Follows the life (from ancestry) of someone who changes genders as an adult. Very appealing protagonist, although a bit hard to relate to. I suppose we tend to align ourselves in gender as readers. Good read over all. Saga-like in scope.

Bone People (Keri Hulme)
Story of a broken family of Maori people in New Zealand, an outsider who meets them, and the role of love and violence within the family. More poetry and dialect than I usually like, but somehow I liked it anyway. (Seen on Jenne's bookshelf)

Crescent (Diana Abu-Jabar)
American Iranian and her job at a small diner. She lives a very isolated, shielded life, and falls in love. Great characters, nice use of food as metaphor throughout the book (the character even
references Like Water for Chocolate at one point). Read this book, then join me in hoping for a sequel.

Three Junes (Julia Glass)
Family saga set in Scotland covering three summers over a long span of years. Lots of different (good) voices, and a compelling plot line.

Swimming (Joanna Herschorn)
Young child witnesses a violent act that shades her life and the life of those involved for years after. Very eerie story...great characters and a distinct aftertaste even once the book is over.
(Recommended by Allyson Pilcher)

Dive from Clausen's Pier (Ann Packer)
Girl in a long-term high school relationship decides to break up with her boyfriend before college, but he is in an accident and subsequently a coma before she can tell him. Good story and characters, although she is a bit too mature for her age at times (or at least more mature than I was in high school).

*********************Top Books: Non-Fiction

Millenium Problems (Keith Devlin)
Might not be what you expect from a reader, but I am also a mathematician at heart. This book got too hard even for me at the end, but it was cool to read about the fact that there are some major unsolved math problems, and to understand at least the first few (he puts them in order of difficulty).

Riding the Bus with My Sister (Rachel Simon)
This is about a journalist whose sister is mentally challenged, and she spends a year visiting her weekly and riding the public bus system with her. (That is what the sister does all day). At times sweet, and at times sad. Ultimately a triumphant but purposefully confusing moral.

*********************Other Notable Books

***Fiction

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Recommended by Everyone!)
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Recommended by some guy in the airport)
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (Recommended by Christie)
Charming Billy by Alice McDermot
Heaven Lake by John Dalton (Recommended by Christie)
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Little Children by Tom Perrotta (Recommended by Jenne)

***Non-fiction

My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan
(White South African struggles with inherent racism)

Loud and Clear by Anna Quindlen
(Collection of essays)

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
(Cancer survivor struggles more with with body image than with disease)