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Title: Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood
Author: Ibtisam Barakat
Genre: Memoir
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 176
Reason for Reading: Palestine
Rating: 8
Where Obtained: Public library
Date Completed: 11.07
Appeal: Memoir
Comments: I never considered what would be like for Palestinians to have their land taken away and given to Israel. This book is a memoir of a girl who experienced the war between the Palestinians and Israel. The author writes beautifully and honestly of what it was like to live through the conflict. It's not a diatribe against Israel; it is just the story of a child living through turmoil in her world. I decided to get the book for my school library, though it may be a little too much for all but the upper grades.
Title: Shadow of the Silk Road
Author: Colin Thubron
Genre: Travel
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 363
Reason for Reading: Was recommended
Rating: 8
Where Obtained: Public library
Date Completed: 11.07
Appeal: Silk Road; history
Comments: I liked this book, but I didn't love it. The idea of the book was initially fascinating to me: Travel down the old Silk Road and see what is still intact, relating a little ancient history and telling stories about the people that used the road in the past.
I loved the ancient history and the stories about the people and places of the Silk Road. What irritated me were Thubron's conversations in his mind with an ancient traveler; these seemed silly to me.
Title: Tales from the Teachers’ Lounge
Author: Robert Wilder
Genre: Essays
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 307
Reason for Reading: I love to read about teachers and teaching.
Rating: 6
Where Obtained: Public library
Date Completed: 11.07
Appeal: Humor
Comments: Don't read this book hoping to find cheery essays about teaching. This book was a misery to read. The essays consist of cruel jabs at the author's fellow teachers, his students, and administrators. Yes, I laughed here and there, but I always looked around to see who was watching me.
I actually put the book down and was going to give up on it, but then I went to see the author at the Texas Book Festival. He seems to be more compassionate in person than he seems in his essays. I decided to give the man another chance and I read through to the end. I can't imagine who I'd recommend this book to; its view of education is bitter and bleak and left me feeling that what I do is pointless in light of the present state of the world.
Title: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Children’s Fantasy
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 308
Reason for Reading: Evil librarians?
Rating: 7
Where Obtained: My library
Date Completed: 11.07
Appeal: Direct address to the reader
Comments: The title is a taunt to all librarians, so it became a must read. They were evil librarians, determined to keep all knowledge from the world. A pleasant little diversion, but I don't think I'll read book two.
Title: Astrid & Veronika
Author: Linda Olsson
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 2005
Page Count: 259
Reason for Reading: Was recommended
Rating: 8
Where Obtained: Bookstore
Date Completed: 11.07
Appeal: Relationships
Comments: Astrid is suffering. Veronika is suffering. Against all odds, they meet and become friends. The friendship heals both of them.
Title: Varieties of Disturbance
Author: Lydia Davis
Genre: Short Stories
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 219
Reason for Reading: Heard a positive review
Rating: 9
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Format
Comments: Short stories? You call these short stories?
Well, it doesn't really matter what you label them....They are fun,
they are innovative, they zing your mind.
Title: Painting Chinese
Author: Herbert Kohl
Genre: Education
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 165
Reason for Reading: Idea intrigued me
Rating: 6.5
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Change your life; change your attitude
Comments: Kohl was feeling down with his life as an aging educator. He wanted to
try something fresh and new. Somehow he ended up in a painting class,
a class to learn to paint the Chinese way, a class for children.
It was just what he needed.
Title: Painting Chinese
Author: Herbert Kohl
Genre: Education
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 165
Reason for Reading: Idea intrigued me
Rating: 6.5
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Change your life; change your attitude
Comments: Kohl was feeling down with his life as an aging educator. He wanted to
try something fresh and new. Somehow he ended up in a painting class,
a class to learn to paint the Chinese way, a class for children.
It was just what he needed.
Title: A Complaint Free World
Author: Will Bowen
Genre: Self-Help
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 140
Reason for Reading: Spur of the moment purchase
Rating: 8
Where Obtained: Target
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Make the world a better place
Comments: A simple idea that is difficult to actually accomplish: Go twenty-one
days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping.
My husband said, "How can you do that and stay married to me?!" A
friend said, "We won't have anything to talk about!"
I'm three days into the challenge and I've moved my rubber band
hundreds of times; I will not give up, nevertheless.
I will keep on trying.
Title: Cider with Rosie
Author: Laurie Lee
Genre: Memoir
Date Published: 1959
Page Count: 231
Reason for Reading: Bookring
Rating: 9
Where Obtained: BookCrossing
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Beautiful writing that captures a time long gone
Comments: Laurie Lee grew up in a rural part of England during the time just after the Great War. His father abandoned his mother with eight children to raise. Lee was almost always hungry and cold. But life never seemed hard; somehow it seemed joyous and delightful.
I was especially taken with the chapter about the devilments children and young people got into during Lee’s time. Back in Lee’s day, as today, terrible things happened. But somehow the village and its people just seemed to deal with them, not making them into events of enormous evil as we seem to do today.
I loved reading about the day to day living of Lee during his childhood. Everything seemed so much more alive then, with things to taste and touch and smell. Lee revels in his life. The stories he tells makes the time seem glorious.
Title: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Author: Elizabeth Taylor
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 1971
Page Count: 178
Reason for Reading: I loved the movie and had to read the book.
Rating: 9.25
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Old age
Comments: Mrs. Palfrey checks into the Claremont Hotel. Her next stop will be a nursing home and everyone knows what is after that. Mrs. Palfrey has had a small life, with few friends, but while she is at the Claremont, she makes some of the best friends of her life, including a friendship with a young man.
Title: Front Porch Tales
Author: Philip Gulley
Genre: Essays
Date Published: 1997
Page Count: 174
Reason for Reading: I’ve liked other books of essays by this author.
Rating: 8
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Simple, honest essays
Comments: More Gulley. I wish I had a preacher like him. Until I do, I’ve still got several more Gulleys to go.
Title: Andorra
Author: Peter Cameron
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 1997
Page Count: 263
Reason for Reading: I read a review of Peter Cameron’s new book in which two of his older books were recommended; Andorra was one of the two. Then I went to a library sale and what did I find? Andorra.
Rating: 9.25
Where Obtained: Library sale
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Great characters in a strange world
Comments: I loved this book. Our main character arrives in Andorra to start a new life, meets new people, and can’t shake his past.
Title: Attitudes of Gratitude
Author: M.J. Ryan
Genre: Self-help
Date Published: 1999
Page Count: 177, but felt much shorter
Reason for Reading: I gave a friend Ryan’s recent book about happiness and she reciprocated with Ryan’s earlier book about gratitude.
Rating: Great advice…if only we could apply it to our every day lives
Where Obtained: Gift
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Gratefulness for everything
Comments: I want to practice these ideas. I think that, if used, they will make for happier lives.
Title: Home Town Tales
Author: Philip Gulley
Genre: Essays
Date Published: 1998
Page Count: 219
Reason for Reading: Liked Porch Talk
Rating: 8.5
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Gulley doesn’t seem to have all the answers.
Comments: I’m glad I read Porch Talk first; Gulley has grown less sure of himself as he has aged and I like that in essays. Still, though Gulley comes across as a little more preachy here, he isn’t so preachy as to curdle your milk.
Title: Run
Author: Ann Patchett
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 295
Reason for Reading: Sometimes I’ve liked Patchett in the past.
Rating: 7.75
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Heredity-environment ideas
Comments: A group of people somehow end up involved with each other and manage to change each other’s lives in unexpected ways.
Title: After the Quake
Author: Haruki Murakami
Genre: Short Stories
Date Published: 2002
Page Count: 181
Reason for Reading: Wishlist book
Rating: 8.25
Where Obtained: A library sale
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Strangeness of Murakami
Comments: After having this book on my wishlist for years, where do I finally find a copy? A library is moving to a smaller facility and is forced to purge its shelves of many extraneous books. A near perfect copy except for gigantic Magic Marker slashes through library information and a big W/D on the inside cover. Murakami takes his usual route through the world of the unusual, but the route always seems purposeful though precarious and strange.
Title: This Year You Write Your Novel
Author: Walter Mosley
Genre: Nonfiction
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 111
Reason for Reading: Again, desperation
Rating: 7
Where Obtained: Randomly, at the library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Simplicity
Comments: In a sentence: If you want to write a novel, you need to write every day. That will do it. You will write a novel. It may not be a good novel, but you will write a novel.
Title: Porch Talk
Author: Philip Gulley
Genre: Essays
Date Published: 2007
Page Count: 170
Reason for Reading: Desperation
Rating: 9
Where Obtained: Spontaneously, at the library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: Thoughtful talk
Comments: Yes, I’d seen these books before, but the big American flag on the front cover along with a blurb about the book citing it was composed of stories about “decency” and “common sense” put me off. However, I desperately needed a book to read and this was all I could find. What a surprise. Not stories about decency and common sense as much as stories about trying to make a life of decency and common sense.
Title: Yes Man
Author: Danny Wallace
Genre: Nonfiction
Date Published: 2005
Page Count: 388
Reason for Reading: What would happen if someone always said yes?
Rating: 8.5
Where Obtained: Library
Date Completed: 10.07
Appeal: There is something uplifting about saying yes.
Comments: Danny Wallace, after a terrible breakup with a girlfriend, gets unsolicited advice from a stranger: You need to say yes more often. Danny decides to try saying yes to everything asked of him for a year.
