February 2012 Reads

8    Three Weeks in December by Audrey Schulman
9    A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
10  The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan
11  Wild Thing by Josh Bazell
12  The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillipp Sendker
13  Cripple Creek by James Sallis
14  Arcadia by Lauren Groff
15  Mission Flats by William Landry
16  Salt River by James Sallis
17  The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins
18  The Shadow Patrol by Alex Berenson

I found the debut, A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash, to be a riveting beautifully written novel.  


I loved, loved loved The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillipp Sendker.  It's a wonderful romantic novel that spans five generations.  It was very hard to put down.  


I've been on a James Sallis kick lately.  The two I read this month were great.  


I read The Friends of Eddie Coyle by Higgins, one of my favorite authors, Dennis Lehane has written a new forward.  This was a down and dirty novel about the underworld.  It doesn't try to glamorize being a crook.  It's very well written, but I understand that it's really Higgins only success.


I've read all of Alex Berenson's novels featuring John Wells.  They are exciting stories dealing with the CIA and our wars.  They're well written and I'm hoping for more.

What are you reading?

January 2012 Reads

via

1  Another Bullshit Night In Suck City by Nick Flynn
2  Shelter Me by Juliette Fay
3  Blue Monday by Nicci French
4  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
5  The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
6  Our Man In The Dark by Rashad Harrison
7  The Cove by Ron Rash

A slow month for reading, but I loved several of these books.  Another Bullshit Night In Suck City, was a great memoir.  Imagine having a dad who's a homeless addict.  Nick Flynn is a great writer and poet, I highly recommend you dive into his memoir.

I love John Green!  There, I've said it.  He's considered a YA author, because his characters are teens; but his writing is for everyone.   The Fault in Our Stars deals with young people living their lives to the fullest, even though they have be diagnosed with terminal diseases  Sounds grim, but it's a great read.

The Street Sweeper is the first time I've read Elliot Perlman.  He's a fabulous storyteller.  This novel deals with both the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement.  The subjects are not "uppers", for sure, but I love this book.  Most of my Tai Chi students are readers, so I'm going to pass this one around the class.  The bottom line, according to Perlman, and I agree, is we're all the same, and we're all connected.

Our Man In The Dark, also deals with the Civil Rights Movement.  It's historical fiction and a great debut novel.

After reading two fairly "heavy" novels, I was ready for something lighter.  I tried The Cove, and while I loved the story, it didn't qualify as light.  Set in Appalachia during WWI, it deals with small minds and a tragic love story.  Ron Rash is a wonderful writer, and I highly recommend this read.

What are you reading?

Book Nerd Video

I found this on the blog of one of my quilter friends, Poppyprint.  Quilters are usually readers, too.

What are you reading?