Cool Books I love

Fiction for the fun of it:

These first few books are for pure fun. They are the kind of books you leave in the corners of your house. At moments when you are supposed to be cleaning the living room, or changing your clothes, you find yourself squished in a chair, hoping your husband won't discover the tears dripping down your face.


Always a Bridesmaid – Sarah Webb
It had to be you –Sarah Webb
Second Chance- Jane Green
Pieces of My Sister's Life- Elizabeth Joy Arnold
Happiness Sold Separtley – Lolly Winston

Daddy's Girl- Lisa Scottolinni
Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows- JK Rowling

Fiction retelling old stories:

Last One In- Nicholas Kulish (One of my favorite books of the summer. My husband bought it for himself, and I snuck around reading it. It is about a gossip columnist who gets stuck embedded with the marines in Iraq.)

Saving the World- Julia Alverez ( If you've read In the Time of the Butterflies or How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, this book takes her writing to a new level. She intertwines the stories of a modern author steeped in depression and writers block with the story of a nun who shepards 23 orphan boys who act as carriers of the small pox vaccine. I finished the book two months ago, and the images still run crisply through my memories)

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus- Margaret Atwood ( The Women's Studies Major in me will always drool over any Margaret Atwood book. However, this series takes her writing to another level. She takes the story of the Odyssey and writes it from Penelope's perspective)

Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles- Jeanette Winterson (another favorite author. It is an intriguing rewrite of the story of Atlas. If you like the way she writes, I also suggest reading Oranges are not the Only fruit.)

When Madeline was Young- Jane Hamilton ( I must admit this book had no plot whatsoever, but there was something in it that kept me turning the pages deep into the night)

Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides (I believe this book needs no introduction)

Children of Men P.D. James ( Despite the fact it takes place in the future, it reads like a Jane Austin novel. Fluid and descriptive, I found myself trapped in the landscape and the language more than the plot.)

Nonfiction

Schepping through the Alps – Sam Apple ( a quirky travel book about a Jewish Journalist who decides to follow a shepard around the alps)

Spy Wars- Tenneth h. Bagley ( Fast, compelling read. You keep having to check the front of the book to make sure it is non-fiction)

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East- Sandy Tolan ( Hard to stay focused at times, but it is one of the few books that speaks equally to both sides of the conflict)

Mohammed- Karen Armstrong (one of the worlds foremost theologians whose negative feelings about Israel have left me uncomfortable, but whose deep connection to Islam has taught me a great deal. If you are not interested in a book on Mohammed, I highly suggest you read her autobiography The Spiral Staircase. It tells of her years in a convent and her decision to leave)

Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali ( Read it. Then really think about true Islam)