Books

I have used my time off from course work to do some fun reading. Here is the list of vacation reads in random order some with and others without comment. As always, proceed at your own risk!

Gypsy and Me by Erik Lee Preminger. After seeing the play Gypsy in New York last week I wanted more information about her life. This book is written by her son and recounts his time on the road with his mother.

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron.

Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicolas and Micah Sparks. After reading The Choice by Nicolas Sparks I wanted to know more about his life.

The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis. Thirteen women in small town California pool their resources to purchase a $13,000 diamond necklace. It changes their lives and perhaps not in ways you might expect.

The Quiet River by P.M. Hubbard This freaked me out...but I am prone to skittishness when seeing movies or reading.

The Reader by Bernard Schlink. The Los Angeles Times calls this Oprah Book Club pick "a formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel." Good description. It has been made into a movie but it is very unlikely that we will see its likes in southern Indiana.

The Kiss by Kathryn Harrison.

The Blue Bedspread by Raj Kamal Jha.

The Pearl Diver by Jeff Talarigo recounts the banishment of those with leprosy in post-war Japan and their lives on islands off the coast. The main character is a former pearl diver who discovers inner strength and a will to do more than survive in her exile but also to find meaning in her life.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. This Pulitzer Prize Award winner can hardly be put down once begun. Deep character development infuses this intergenerational tale of Greek immigrants from the Greek-Turkey wars to Detroit during 1920s to the present. Passing down recessive genes the novel parallels the families' infusion into the culture of their new country and the individuals' coming to terms with their own personal culture.

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb, a novel parralelling the Columbine High School massacre of 1999.

Sadly, my personal reading has come to and end for a time. Now I must immerse myself into textbooks, prescribed rather than selected. I will not bore you with the titles of these tomes but if I gain anything from them that knowledge should come out in subsequent blogs posts (don't hold your breath).