Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Top 10 Books of 2014

Sound the trumpets!  Roll out the red carpet!  Ready the ticker tape... Happy 15th day of 2015!!!  I made a completely intentional and artistic decision to wait until today to post, just for the pleasure that such symmetry brings to my life.  Not because I am a lazy, Hulu-addicted procrastinator.

Anyway, I make my triumphant return to blogging with one of my favorite features... Uh, my only feature I guess since I've taken to scraping together a photo heavy blog post every two months.  Today, I bring to you my favorite reads of 2014.  Last year was heavy on the reading for me, I managed to devour 63 books, so I actually had a pretty torturous time decidng which ten were my absolute favorites.  But after reviewing this list, I can recommend any of these books without reservation.  Unless you hate it.  Then the decision was all on you--I can't MAKE you do anything...

So, away we go, in random order, my favorite books of 2014:

1) The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Amazon rating 4.2 stars)
Let 2014 be known as the year that I discovered Neil Gaiman... sorta.  I mean, I saw Coraline when it was in theaters and thought, hey, this guy seems intriguing.  Then I primarily slept through the audiobook of Neverwhere as a passenger on a road trip, waking up every now and then to think, "hey, this sounds good!"  Then I read American Gods and I was like, hey, I quite like this author.  Then I read Ocean and fell truly, madly, deeply.  It is absolutely magical and wonderful, and I cannot impress upon you how much I want you to read this book.  And then be like, "hey, have you heard of Neil Gaiman?" and literally everyone you know will be like, "uh, yes."

2) I Am Livia, Phyllis T. Smith (Amazon rating 4.4 stars)
As much as I enjoy historical fiction, I haven't read much set in ancient Rome. It was fascinating to read more about this period in time that we've all heard so much about--the assassination of Julius Caesar--and the tumultuous years that followed. I particularly appreciate that it was told from the perspective of a strong, powerful woman who has been largely vilified by history. It left me wanting to read much more set in this time and place, which led me to...

3) Memoirs of Cleopatra, Margaret George (Amazon rating 4.5 stars)
Sometimes you just need an epic, sweeping historical novel, and this one fit the bill perfectly. After reading I Am Livia, I found myself incredibly curious to know more about Cleopatra than just what Shakespeare and Hollywood would have us know. This novel follows Cleopatra from her tumultuous, politically unstable childhood in Egypt to her many years spent in Rome and then back to Egypt where she and Marc Antony met their fateful ends, and kept me riveted the entire time.

4) The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver (Amazon rating 4.2 stars)
When I am in the mood for a richly layered, beautiful book with its fair share of grit and realism, I always know I can count on Kingsolver to deliver.  This is the story of Taylor Greer, who has run away from everything she has known in rural Kentucky and start anew in Tucson, Arizona with a broken down car and a foundling child.  Having made it out of her adolescence without getting pregnant, the last thing she wanted was to be stuck in another small town saddled with a kid, but unable to locate the child's parents', she begins to navigate her newfound life and responsibilities.

5) The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern (Amazon rating 4.3 stars)
I'm pretty late to this party, as I have had this book recommended to me for years, but somehow never got around to it. I'm so glad I finally did! It is perfectly gorgeous, slightly creepy, beautifully haunting, and most importantly a gripping story. I could have done with a companion piece that is nothing but descriptions of all the magical, mystical tents!

6) The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman (Amazon rating 4.4 stars)
“...or I can forgive and forget...Oh, but my treasure, it is so much less exhausting. You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day. You have to keep remembering all the bad things...we always have a choice.”  Truly, one of the most heartbreaking, gutwrenching books I've ever read, but at the same time so full of beauty and love.  I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoiling the effect of discovering this story on your own, but come prepared to ponder it long after you turn the last page.

7) You, Caroline Kepnes (Amazon rating 4.2 stars)
When discussing relationships with my friends, I often make the joke that what is a sweet and romantic gesture from a guy you like could just as easily be perceived as creepy and stalkery from a guy you do not. Well. This book kind of put a pin in that theory. As it turns out, a stalker can be pretty good at convincing not only himself, but the eponymous "You" of their love, devotion and complete trustworthiness.  There were a lot of reasons I found this book completely horrifying, not in the least, the times where I found myself identifying and nodding in understanding with one of the most terrifying narrators I've ever come across. This book is dark, but it is compelling. It is engrossing. It takes you to places in your mind that you would likely never go on your own. It's not a story about love. It is a story about obsession and narcissism--two things that are often confused with love.  I'm not saying this is going to be the most enjoyable read of your life, but it will certainly be unforgettable.

8) Life After Life, Kate Atkinson (Amazon rating, 3.6 stars)
"Amor fati... It means acceptance. Whatever happens to you, embrace it, the good and the bad equally. Death is just one more thing to be embraced, I suppose."  This was a really unique take on the concept of living an experience over and over again until you get it right.  It's sort of like Groundhog Day, if it wasn't funny... and Bill Murray had to live through WWI... and WWII... repeatedly.  I got to the end and thought I understood what I had just read, and then the last few paragraphs had me questioning everythng.  Truly a remarkable piece of writing.

9) 12 Years A Slave, Solomon Northup (Amazon rating 4.6 stars)
I think that if someone had kidnapped me and sold me into slavery, I would not be nearly as capable of giving such a clear-eyed history of my experience.  I saw the movie not long after reading the book, and while I thought it was a wonderful adaptation, there was something just so much more moving about reading this story as a first person narrative.  It made it that much more real and compelling.

10) Me Before You, Jojo Moyes (Amazon rating 4.6 stars)
I'm not even sure how to go about reviewing this book, because in the end, it left me with so many feelings that went beyond what was on the paper. I guess that right there says something about the impact of the story. Up until about halfway through, I didn't really get the fuss over the book. It was entertaining, and interesting enough, but it just wasn't grabbing me. Then, the turning point, the moment when you, the reader, and the main character, Louisa, realize the stakes, and suddenly each page turn feels like a race against time. Without giving anything away, this book made me examine a lot of my own beliefs about right and wrong, and honestly, I still don't know what I would want for myself when faced with the situations presented in the book.

You can find my Top Books of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 here.

Top 10 Books of 2013

After taking a break from my Top 10 Books list last year, I'm returning with a list of my favorite books that I read in 2013.  I had this idea in mind that once I had kids, I was never going to have time to pick up a book again, but happily, I found that not to be the case, and I managed to keep up very near pre-parenthood reading levels.  

Unfortunately, I didn't make the time to keep my reading list here updated, so there's absolutely no way I can remember all of the books I read.  The good news is that I read quite a few books on e-reading devices, so I do have at least a partial list!  I've also started including the Amazon rating, to give a less specifically personal opinion of the book.

So, without further blathering on, my top 10 books of 2013, in no particular order:

1) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot (Amazon rating 4.5 stars)
It took me much longer than it should have to pick up this book, but I kept being put off by the fact that it's nonfiction, and typically I'm more of a fiction lover.  What a mistake.  This book traces the history of HeLa, a rapidly multiplying cell used in cancer research, back to an African American woman in the 40s, Henrietta Lacks.  The cells were harvested from her cancerous cervix and stored for use without her consent, and now are one of the most used cells in scientific research.  But more than that, the book is about Henrietta's family and the mystery of her cells and how the author finds herself tangled up in their lives in a way that went far beyond the writing of a book.

2) The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky (Amazon rating 4.5 stars)
Anyone who has ever charted the turbulent waters of teenhood will find something to relate to in the protagonist, Charlie, as he embarks on his freshman year of high school.  Bonus points if you've ever felt like you're on the outside looking in, loved someone you probably shouldn't, or struggled with depression.  This reminded me a little bit of The Catcher in the Rye, but with Charlie being about 100 times more charming than Holden.  I don't always love books about teenagers, but when I do, I love this one.

3) The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (Amazon rating 4.2 stars)
This book is pretty long, but it absolutely flies.  It is the story of a missionary family who moves from middle America to the middle of the Belgian Congo, just as the Congolese people are beginning to lobby for their independence and eventually gain it.  Each chapter is told in the remarkably distinct voices of each of the four daughters--the vapid one, the brilliant one, the relateable one, the little one--and the mother.  It follows the girls through the time in the Congo, and then throughout adulthood as their childhood experiences shape the rest of their lives.

4) Where'd You Go, Bernadette? Maria Semple (Amazon rating 4.3 stars)
I love it when an author is able to find the humor in personality disorders.  Bernadette is a wife, mother, washed-up architect, eccentric recluse, bane of the PTA's existence.  When her daughter, 15 year-old Bee, decides that she would like to take a family trip to Antarctica, Bernadette vanishes.  Throughout a series of letters, emails, memos and official documents, Bee unravels the secrets of her mother's past and the mystery of where she has disappeared to, with plenty of belly laughs along the way.

5) The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (Amazon rating 4.7 stars)
There's a saying, "You'll laugh, you'll cry"... it must have been invented to describe this book.  For a person who doesn't typically love reading about teenagers, it's surprising to discover how many of my favorite books last year had teen protagonists.  Maybe it's time to reevaluate my stance.  I don't think a book has ever haunted me the way this one did.  Hazel, 16, and Augustus, 17,  meet at a cancer support group, and for both of them, it is love at first sight.  But somehow, someway, it is a completely believable love, and their story will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

6) The Silver Linings Playbook, Matthew Quick (Amazon rating 4.4 stars)
I know what you might be thinking--I watched the movie, it was okay, why should I read the book?  Because the book is SO MUCH BETTER.  This is another one where the humor and tragedy in mental and personality disorders is detailed beautifully.  Newly released from a mental facility, Pat is convinced that by becoming physically fit and brushing up on the classics, he will be able to get his life back on track and reunite with his estranged wife, Nikki.  For some reason, everyone else around him from his mom, to his therapist, to a strange girl named Tiffany, has a different idea.  As the novel progresses, we learn that Pat is perhaps not the reliable narrator he would have you believe, and his past is slowly revealed in sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic ways.

7) 11/22/63, Stephen King (Amazon rating 4.5 stars)
What would happen if you could go back in time, and stop the Kennedy assassination?  This is the mission that Jake Epping is faced with, but time has an eerie way of protecting itself and deflecting change.  As Jake journeys back and forth in time, he finds himself torn between the past and the present.  This novel takes the concept of the butterfly effect and how changing one small thing can drastically affect the future, and dials it up to its most haunting level.

8) The Death of Santini, Pat Conroy (Amazon rating 4.0 stars)
Admittedly, if you aren't already a Conroy fan, you probably won't enjoy this.  But having loved The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides, it was fascinating to get a glimpse of the real family behind the fiction.  And horrifying to realize how much of the novels were thinly veiled true stories.  The most riveting aspect of the book was the journey of Pat's relationship with his father, from fear and loathing, to a strange sort of love and respect.  The critics of the book have complained that Pat is self-aggrandizing and plays the victim more often than not, but frankly, I'd expect anyone would have known that already from reading anything he ever published.  You either love him or you hate him.

9) We Are Water, Wally Lamb (Amazon rating 4.1 stars)
What does it say about me that many of my very favorite books are about families keeping deep, dark, destructive secrets from one another?  This one is no different in that regard.  It tells the story of Annie or Anna, depending on who you're talking to, and her longtime husband and three grown children, and the woman that she left them for.  Annie plans to marry at her family home, and as these things happen, her past and her future come to a shocking head as the family comes together for the event.

10) Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh (Amazon rating 4.8 stars)
I've somehow managed to be involved in the blogging world for ::mumble, mumble, cough, cough::8 1/2 years::cough:: and never read Hyperbole and a Half.  I mean, I would see links posted on Facebook from time to time, and I know the meme that it spawned, but I really had no idea what it was about.  I just saw weird comics and was not too intrigued to investigate further.  But when I got my Kindle for Christmas, my dad had preloaded a ton of books on there, and this was one of them.  I was looking for a light read, so I gave it a whirl.  About 3 minutes into it, I was laughing so hard that I was shaking the bed I was sharing with my sister, and she sleepily decreed that I must find another book to read before bed.  And yes, it's incredibly funny.  But it's also incredibly deep.  Her essay/comic on depression blew my mind.

You can find my Top Books of 2009, 2010 and 2011 here.  Happy reading in 2014!

Top 10 Reads of 2011

After a rather lackluster year of reading in 2010, I'm excited to be back with a full top 10 list culled from the books I read in 2011.  I really enjoyed just about every book I read last year (with the exception of Ulysses, now known as the only book I've ever broken up with before finishing), and it was incredibly difficult to pare the list down to the 10 best.  But without further ado, my top 10 books of 2011:

1) The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova
You may know this author from her previous tome, The Historian.  The Swan Thieves retains the same dark sense of foreboding and mystery, and verging ever so slightly and somehow realistically into the paranormal.  The story centers around a psychiatrist who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery as to why his patient attacked a painting of Leda and the swan. 

2) Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
I honestly never expected to enjoy a book about a WWII POW as much as I loved this book.  Louis Zamperini's life seems made for fiction--an Olympic athlete, dashing WWII pilot, and subsequently POW in a ghastly Japanese prison camp.  This book is a riveting page turner, and you'll never think of rice the same way again.

3) The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
I read this book at an especially timely moment in my life, as I was just coming to terms with the fact that I was facing infertility and would be unable to have a baby without intervention, so that may be why it struck such a nerve with me.  This book is set in a sort of parallel world where women are farmed out to families to procreate due to a pollutant that has rendered the majority of the population sterile.  It is a beautifully written story of love and survival. 

4) The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
If I had read this book as a teenager, I would have been desperately in love with the main character, Holden Caulfield.  Holden is a prep school student in the 50s who is saddled with a number of neuroses and a caustic wit.  He wanders the streets of New York and is generally a tragically hilarious mess for the duration of the book, and I dare you not to remember how painfully difficult it is to be a teenager, no matter what the decade. 

5) A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
I read the first three of the Song of Ice and Fire series upon which the television series, Game of Thrones was based, and I found that it really enhanced my understanding and appreciation for the story.  The books are somewhere between Lord of the Rings and a Philippa Gregory novel.  The central plot is loosely based on The War of the Roses in England between the Yorks and the Lancasters, but you don't have to have any knowledge of British history to enjoy the battles of swords, wits and lust that keep the pages turning. 

6) The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly
I've mentioned before my love for exploring the darker side of fairytales, and this novel is exactly that.  In WWII England, a young boy relocates with his family to the English countryside, and when he discovers a mysterious book in his room he discovers a mysterious portal into a fairytale world made up of the creatures found in the book and his own imagination.  In order to return home he must evade the deliciously creepy Crooked Man, a number of horrible villains, and journey to the King where he can find the way home through The Book of Lost Things.

7) Beloved, Toni Morrison
Let 2011 be known as the year I finally gave Toni Morrison a chance and fell madly in love.  Sethe is an ex-slave who endured horrific experiences to gain her freedom, and is now living with her family who is haunted by the ghost of her first baby who died in infancy and whose tombstone is engraved simply with the word "Beloved".  Eventually the haunting seems to take a corporeal form and Sethe must face her past as it threatens to destroy her present.

8) The Trial, Franz Kafka
On a day that starts out like any other, protagonist Josef K. is arrested and accused of a crime--the twist being, no one ever tells him what he is actually meant to have done.  Throughout the book he attempts to defend himself against an undisclosed to us or him accusation, and we are thrust with him into a world of nightmarish confusion, uncertainty and fear.  It is impossible to ever know whether or not Josef K. is guilty, but you will find yourself rooting for him and contemplating the ridiculousness of our own legal system. 

9) The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs
I'm not religious in the least and agnostic at best, but I still find myself fascinated with the study and exploration of religion.  So when I discovered this book about an agnostic Jew who decides to spend an entire year living strictly by all of the rules set forth in the Bible, I was hooked.  It's at times touching, hilarious, and entertaining.  It makes no attempt to mock the Bible or religion and by the end of the book, the author describes the new respect he has gained toward religion, but it's also incredibly funny to read about his endeavors to comply with each and every rule in the Bible from the most well known to the most obscure.

10) The Road, Cormac McCarthy
I pretty much love any novel set in a dystopian universe, and The Road does not disappoint.  It follows and unnamed man and his son who are on a journey south following an unnamed disaster that has virtually leveled the world.  The prose is clear and unembellished and you can't help but feel as though you too are journeying down a grey and dusty post-apocalyptic road, relying on your wits to survive. 

Honorable Mentions:

13 Rue Therese, Elena Mauli Shapiro

Mockingjay/Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay

2010 Top Books

2009 Top Books

Top 5 Reads of 2010

Last year's list of top 10 books read in 2009 was pretty well received, so I figured I'd make it a regular annual feature.  I always love getting book recommendations, and enjoy sharing the incredible books I've come across.  Sadly, due to a pretty short book list last year (the full list of 34 can be found in the "Reading" tab at the top of this page), and the fact that many of them just weren't that great, I could only come up with a top five this go round.

But what a fantastic top five they are!

1) A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
I was initially a bit intimidated by this book.  I had started reading it in college, and abandoned it a few chapters in.  The main character is incredibly unlikeable upon first sight.  It's certainly not a story many can relate to.  But oh my heavens, is it FUNNY!  I rarely laugh out loud when reading a book, but I found myself stifling giggles throughout this entire book.  I was shocked that by the end of the book, I had been utterly charmed by the hapless anti-hero of the novel, Ignatius J. Reilly.

2) The Help, Kathryn Stockett
An amazing look at the racial strains in the South in the early 1960s.  Everyone who has read this book loves it, and with good reason.  It addresses the issues without being preachy, without lowering itself to stereotypes, and with a great deal of heart and humor.

3) The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
This is Kate's second appearance on as many of my top book lists, so obviously I know she is hugely honored.  What can I say, the girl knows how to write a moody, haunting mystery that sticks with you.  This one includes multi-generational secrets, international travel, intensely strong women, a mysterious writer, and an atmosphere that the Bronte's would envy.

4) Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen
I wish that this book were required reading for anyone who wants to spout their opinions on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Muslims, or any combination thereof.  It is the true story of Greg Mortensen, who made an attempt to climb K2 and stumbled sick and emaciated into a small Pakistani village, where he was welcomed in and carefully nursed back to health.  Overwhelmed by the generosity of these villagers, the dirt poor nurse/climber promised that he would be back and he would build them a school.  What follows is an amazingly inspirational journey as Mortensen delivers on his promise plus so much more, while getting to know the people of Pakistan.  The chapter on September 11th was beautifully written, and I had to put the book down more than once to collect myself because I couldn't see through my tears.  If you read NOTHING ELSE this year, please, please read this book.

5) The School of Essential Ingredients, Erica Bauermeister
This book is short and incredibly sweet, telling the story of a group of cooking class students in a small town.  Each chapter focuses on one of the characters, and as the book progresses, their stories begin to intertwine and change one another's lives.  It is a story of love and loss, happiness and sadness, and the descriptive passages are simply beautiful. 

Honorable Mentions:
Colony, Anne Rivers Siddons

Rich in Love, Josephine Humphreys

Stop, Drop, and Read These

Last year I made a quasi-resolution to continue with the chick-lit ban and focus on reading more meaningful works of literature.  Not necessarily Kafka or Dostoyevsky (confession, never read anything by either--they frighten me somehow), but things with a little more heft and meaning than the Shopaholic series (which, confession, I love).  Sadly, that's pretty much the only resolution I did stick with, though I'll admit that I improved greatly in all resolution areas over the year.  But more on that another time.

Today, I want to go back through all fifty books that I read last year and whittle them down to my top ten recommendations.  I read some seriously fantastic books last year, some of which I feel are way too below the radar.  You can see the full list of books I read in 2009 by clicking here, along with a short personal review on some of the earlier reads before I got lazy and dropped that feature of the list.

In no particular order:

1)  Sarum: The Novel of England, Edward Rutherfurd
This tells the story of England's development from the time it fully breaks off from the rest of the European continent through the 1980s, by following the fortunes and pitfalls and five families throughout the generations.  Yes, sometimes the characters were a bit predictable as Rutherfurd seemed to rely on a few specific genetic and personality traits to define each family, but overall a fascinating look at one of my favorite countries told from the perspective of people rather than purely events.

2)  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer
I loved this book so much, I immediately logged on to Amazon to buy everything else Mary Ann Shaffer had written, only to find that she died before she was able to write anything else.  That's the world's loss, but she did leave behind this gem of a story about a tiny English island occupied by Nazis during WWII.  Told entirely through letters, each character's voice is at times charming, intriguing, hilarious, and heartbreaking.

3) The House at Riverton, Kate Morton
Set in England before, during and after WWI, a young girl comes to the home of a wealthy family to work as their maid and becomes embroiled in their relationships and secrets.  A twisty, turny mystery filled with intrigue, romance, and drama.  What's not to love!

4)  Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz
What is it with my obsession with deep, dark family secrets?  Deeply compelling from the first line of this novel--"Ruth remembered drowning"--to the last, I read this one on an airplane and it made the ride go by in the blink of an eye.

5)  The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
If you've been to Sunday school, you've heard the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel.  But who knew that a retelling of this Bible story from a the perspective of Jacob's daughter could be so beautiful and enjoyable.  They should have read us this book at our youth group...

6)  The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Follows the lives of five deeply twisted classics students at a small college in the Northeast and the outsider who befriends them and is sucked into their mysterious world.  Absolutely loved this, but I would recommend at least a basic knowledge of mythology to get the most out of it.  At the very least, have a web browser open ready to look up references.

7)  The Drowning Tree, Carol Goodman
I picked this one up in the morning and couldn't put it down until I'd read it all the way through.  The plot twists and turns throughout the novel and the descriptions of art made me feel as though it was part compelling story and part museum.

8)  The Street of A Thousand Blossoms, Gail Tsukiyama
Beautiful story of a Japanese family spanning the 3 decades before, during, and after WWII.  One of those books where every time something good happens to someone, something heartbreaking happens shortly after, but the characters are fascinating, the prose is the perfect combination of imagery and plot, and it ends on a hopeful note.  Give it the first 100 pages to really suck you in.  Reminded me a bit of Memoirs of a Geisha.

9)  The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
I love how macabre and creepy many of our favorite fairy tales are in their original form, and these even more haunting and spooky retellings were absolutely gripping.  Carter includes her versions of Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood, and Blue Beard just to name a few, and her stories are beautifully eerie and remarkably fresh.

10) Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
Incredible book that I probably never would have read based on the blurb on the back of the book.  It's the story of the perfect couple, living the American Dream and hiding their utterly miserable existence behind the facade of a 1950s nuclear family.  Somehow the characters manage to be both insufferable and sympathetic, and while there's no major twist at the end, I stayed hooked all the way through, laughing on one page, and finding myself squirming uncomfortably on the next.  An at times relatable, at times disturbing book that reminds us, no one ever really knows what goes on behind closed doors.

Honorable Mentions:
The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl

A Cup of Tea: A Novel of 1917, Amy Ephron