Books!

Hello fellow lovers of books!

I am behind on my reviews of the latest reads. So here you go, in order from most recently finished:

After reading the longer and heftier titles below, I chose this book because it was nonfiction and interesting to me...it is about a young woman who choses to throw caution to the wind, leave her career and become a cab driver in New York. For the most part I thought the book was interesting. I felt like I learned a lot about how the business of driving a cab works and have more respect for cabbies after reading it. I also learned interested facts like, in New York City, there are 31 water crossings, 138 landmarks, 6,400 miles of streets, and 11,107 street names. And out of the THOUSANDS of drivers only a few hundred are women. I liked the book...but it got a little repetitive and disorganized towards the end. You might just be better served checking out the blog, that inspired the book, rather than reading it. Doesn't look like she posts to it too often any more but you'll get the idea :-)




This book was proudly chosen by me as the 2nd pick of our Books over Brooms book club, comprising of members, Greta and Mom. As of late, they are still working on finishing, so I will not include any spoiler material! This book was really good and am looking to a great discussion. It is a "historical fiction" novel of sorts and is about the life of Mamah Cheney, a woman who had an affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. The book goes back and forth between Oak Park, IL, Chicago, Spring Green WI, and abroad. It raises a lot of questions about women's "roles" as wives, mothers, etc in the early feminist movement. It is a must read I think. If you do, let me know :) I would LOVE to talk about it.




AND last but not least, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. NOW, I am happy to say.....that I read this book before Oprah picked it, and I would strongly suggest just reading it, and then reviewing it with others, or read other people's opinions. This is a MUST read. Along with the Road by Cormac McCarthy, I would put this at the top of my list for best books fo the year. It is a long one, nearly 700 pages, but SO worth it. It is just beautifully written, you savor every page. NOW: I must preface that it is a tragedy.....often compared to Hamlet it does not have a warm and fuzzy, rainbow draped, unicorn frolicking ending. But that should not keep you from reading it, in my opinion. Sometimes life is hard, and it sucks, and that is just one part of this book. But all of the other parts, the relationships between the main character, his family, their dogs.....it is so well written, it helps you see beauty in all things....good and bad. I LOVED THIS BOOK.