What I'm Reading 2008: Update

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
-Henry David Thoreau

This year I've decided to take Thoreau's advice and will make the time this year to read some of the best books that have been on my mind, or on my shelf, begging to be read. I will keep a running list on my blog of all the books I read this year and will update this entry at the end of each month. I am hoping that this will help me stay on track as I make my book choices over the coming year.

January
1. Jennifer Chiaverini:  The New Year’s Quilt
2. Wallace Stegner: Crossing to Safety
3. Zadie Smith:  On Beauty
4. Jhumpa Lahiri:  The Namesake

February
4. Barbara Ehrenreich:  Nickled and Dimed
5. Robert Twigger:  Angry White Pyjamas
6. Henry David Thoreau: Walden
7. Marilynne Robinson:  Housekeeping
8. Sharon Stasney: Feng Shui Chic
9. Sharon Stasney: Feng Shui Living
10. Sharon Stasney: Feng Shui Your Kitchen

As you can see from above I really immersed myself in Feng Shui in February before starting on the garage. I finally read Walden. I have to say that, while there are chapters that are very worthwhile reading (and have spawned all those quotations we hear and read from Thoreau), there is a lot that is quite tedious in this book. I was feeling very surprised by my reaction and thought I was missing something. However, all the minute details about his life beside Walden Pond and the natural world around him just seemed irrelevant. I can appreciate his level of awareness of living deliberately and attending to details,and also the greatness of his experience. Yet, I came away thinking nature is to be experienced in that detail, not read about. Interesting to read the once, then take a hike in the woods and reread just a few select chapters. I loved Angry White Pajamas. James recommended it me and, like all his other suggestions that I have read, this was spot on. Having lived and trained in Japan (and grading to my own black belt there) there was so much to enjoy in this book. Caveat: don't mess with Japanese riot police officers-levels of training you just don't want to provoke!

March
11. Jennifer Chevalier: Girl with a Pearl Earring
12. Jhumpa Lahiri: The Namesake
13. Alison Fell: The Pillow Boy of Lady Onogoro
14. Laura Childs: Keepsake Crimes
15. Barbara Kingsolver: The Bean Trees

The Bean Trees was excellent and I really enjoyed both Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Namesake. I really enjoy Jhumpa Lahiri's work. It was such a treat to attend her reading at the Seattle Public Library Central branch. The other two books this month I enjoyed less and was in fact disappointed with Keepsake Crimes. As a scrapbooker, I had hoped to enjoy this first book in a series of murder mysteries set in the world of scrapbooking. It just wasn't very engaging.

April
16. Dinaw Mengetsu: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
17. Diane K. Obson: A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
18. Markus Zusak: The Book Thief
19: Seamus Heaney: Beowulf

This was a good month of reading. The Book Thief was such a beautiful, sad, and at times confrontational, depiction of life in Nazi Germany during WWII. Death as narrator is powerful as he relates several encounters, throughout the 1930s and 40s, with a young book thief, a girl called Liesel Meminger. I just wanted to keep going to discover what happens to Liesel as the story unfolds. The story still stays with me. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears was an interesting, and to me somewhat hopeful, first novel about the experience of an Ethiopian exile living in Washington DC, having fled the violence of his home country. Mengetsu's book was chosen for the Seattle Reads program this year. I attended his reading and discussion of the book and it added so much to the digestion of this very worthy novel.

May
20. The Bible: Old Testament: Kings 1&2
21. Kris Radish: The Elegant Gathering of White Snows
22. Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat Pray Love
23. Kiran Desai: The Inheritance of Loss
24. Cecilia Ahern: Thanks for the Memories 

I felt this was a light reading month. My favorite book this month was Thanks for the Memories. A birthday gift from my mother- and father-in-law (thank you so much Ian and Janet). I started it on my birthday near the end of the month and finished it in days it was so good. The Elegant Gathering was an enjoyable read and Eat Pray Love was interesting. I wanted to like The Inheritance of Loss more than I did. I found myself appreciating the skill of the author's writing but felt little connection to the characters themselves. This month I started listening to the Bible on CD. Recorded books has the entire old and new testaments unabridged and our library stocks them all. I've been trying to read the bible from cover to cover since my teens and have given myself the task of finishing the Old Testament this year and the New Testament next year. I think with the CDs I'll finally do it.

June
24. The Bible: The Bible Old Testament: Chronicles 1 & 2
25. Tracy Kidder: Mountains Beyond Mountains

Mountains Beyond Mountains tells the story of Dr Paul Farmer, an infectious disease specialist who founded the organization Partners in Health . I found this Pulitzer prize winning book to be a very well written account of the complexities of this extremely hard working doctor and humanitarian. It was truly inspiring to me as I thought about how much of a difference one person can truly make in the world. I only finished these two this month because I've been working on Ulysses, which has been going very well. Dare I say I'm actually enjoying it! I've read 14 out of the 18 episodes in the novel and while there is confusion at times, it's not a deterrent. Ulysses certainly conveys Joyce's intelligence, creativity and even humour. I didn't expect to feel such admiration. I'm glad I'm reading it.

What I’m reading right now:
James Joyce: Ulysses
Harry Blamires: The New Bloomsday Book
Jennifer Chiaverini: The Winding Ways Quilt
Wallace Stegner: The Angle of Repose

Stegner is a reread for my bookclub, but I'm pleased because I have wanted to read it again. I think it a beautiful story portraying the lives of a young couple, an East coast socialite and a self-educating engineer, as they make a life for themselves in the developing West. And the latest quilting novel from Chiaverini is another warm, homey read, peopled with well drawn characters (almost on a par with Maeve Binchy's) that draw you into their lives and make it hard to leave to go about your own. This is another great reading month.

Related Posts:
My Favorite Things: My iPod
My Favorite Things: Quotations Pt 1: Reading
A Good Book (or Two, or Three...)
So Many Great Unreads