Houri - Mehrdad Balali (arc)

For the first few weeks I read this book, every time I went to pick it up I dreaded it. I just didn’t want to face it. It wasn’t that it was poorly written, it was just a really heavy book with some dark material. It was written “based largely on the personal experiences of an Iranian-American journalist, about life in Iran; from the repressions of the Shah to the brutality of the Islamic fundamentalist government.” The main character of the book is Shahed. Much of the story takes place in Iran when Shahed is twelve years old and living under very poor circumstances because his father wastes the family money on other women and parties instead of caring for his family. Shahed is at that youthful age of hunger. He is hungry for food that is always lacking in the home. He is hungry for the shiny material goods he hears are abundant in the West. He is beginning to hunger for the beauty of women. And that is when the beautiful Houri enters their lives and Shahed turns to theft as he dreams of luring her away from her husband.

The tale continues several years later when an adult Shahed returns to Tehran from America to visit his mother after his father’s death and sees what the Revolutions has done to his homeland.

While I started this read with much trepidation because of its dark theme and depressing characters, I finished the last 200 pages finding it difficult to put it down or stop thinking about the story.

I don’t want to give any spoilers to anyone thinking of reading it, but I will say that I found the conclusion somewhat disappointing as there was a sudden revelation that occurred and then a sudden mood change and things wrapped up rather quickly. I didn’t find it believable. But, as always, it wasn’t my story, my revelation, my mood. I cannot say for certain it wasn’t possible. I’ve read several reviews that have been written about this novel and I feel people have judged it too harshly because they didn’t like any of the characters. I think that’s an unfair assessment upon which to judge a story.

Would I recommend this book to others? It is an interesting read of family life within Iran during the time of the Shah and how things have changed for the people there since.

3.5/5 stars on LibraryThing

I Love You Miss Huddleston - Philip Gulley

HBB and I loved this book. Gulley is a Quaker pastor from a small town in Indiana who tells such charming tales of small town life growing up that I felt transported right back to my own childhood. I actually read this aloud over many nights (a chapter at a time, usually, and since HBB is only home on weekends, and we usually go to bed far too late to consider reading, only a chapter every occasional weekend - but this book lends itself perfectly to that type of reading) and it is a wonderful read aloud if the reader can read clearly while simultaneously laughing, too.

His stories are filled with family and friendships and the humorous exaggerations that the young tend to give to their lives. Each chapter focuses on a different part of his youth and each of them shines for a different reason I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a terrific tale with light heartedness. Something different from the norm in today's world, in other words.

4.5/5 stars

Have a Little Faith - by Mitch Albom (arc)

In Mitch Albom's first non-fiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, he writes about the process he goes through over eight year's time of getting to know his Rabbi on a personal level, a human level, so that in the end he can fulfill the Rabbi's request of writing his eulogy. In parallel, he also writes the story of minister Henry Covington, a large black man who as a young man, lived a life of crime but now devotes his life to helping the homeless and addicted in Mitch's current home of Detroit.

As I read the book, I found myself somewhat annoyed with Albom on various occasions. My main annoyance was probably in the simplistic questions he brought to his Rabbi (who I absolutely loved, by the way) about other religions and about Heaven, etc. Was he sounding so unknowing because he really didn't know or because he wanted to make the book available to everyone? At any rate, it felt too simplistic at times.

I was also somewhat put off by an editorial decision made in the book. When Mitch is speaking to the Rabbi, asking him questions, there is no use of quotation marks. But when The Reb answers, quotes are used. Maybe this is a common technique, but it is one I've never seen before, and I found it rather confusing until I finally grew accustomed to it.

Another annoyance was his description of Henry Covington. He could have told us about his being a large man without going on and on about it. It was off-putting to me.

But those are a couple of smaller annoyances in an overall larger picture. The book as a whole? When I got to the end, I decided that overall, it was a good book. Albom had written the eulogy and given us the life of two men in parallel; two men who were larger than life and had been on two very different paths but who had set a course to work for god, whichever god they believed in.

What worked: Rabbi Albert Lewis (The Reb). What a character! He loved to sing and as a result, frequently sang responses to questions people asked him, using showtunes for the melody. He was a humorous man (6 feet tall, but I could never picture him so tall, in my mind he was a little old man) with a wonderful outlook on life throughout his final years. He was dying of untreatable cancer and could not have been always comfortable, but his mood was almost always sunny. I favored the chapters that were about him. His wisdom was immense.

The point of the book? Showing that we could all use a little more faith in our lives, especially in this day and age. Here is one man of god who has always had faith and lived faith. And here is another man of god who has lived a life of crime and only come to god in his deepest, darkest hour and has been living his faith ever since.



3.5/5 Stars

Triple 8 challenge from last year. Updates. I WILL finish. :)

The latest update - September 1, 2009

I. 8 from my To Be Read Pile (I already own them and have been meaning to read…)
1. Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar
2. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
3.Have You Found Her: A Memoir by Janice Erlbaum
4. Wear Your Life Well by Marilu Henner with Lorin Henner (from HarperCollins Publishers www.FirstLookBooks.com)
5.Organize Your Life by Ronni Eisenberg
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
7. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
8. The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett

Finally finished reading Happier! Woohoo!



II. 8 from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
2. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
4. The Human Stain by Phillip Roth
5. A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
6. The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
8. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Read and LOVED Mistry's Family Matters. (I seriously need to get back to writing reviews...)



III. 8 Non-Fiction
1. Leap by Sara Davidson
2. Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
3. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
4. Watchdogs of Democracy by Helen Thomas
5. Organize Your Life by Ronni Eisenberg
6. Boom: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the 60’s and Today by Tom Brokaw
7. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
8. Have You Found Her: A Memoir by Janice Erlbaum

IV. 8 Books Turned to Movies
1. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
2. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
3. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
4. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
5. A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl
6. Cider House Rules by John Irving
7. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran
8. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Finished A Might Heart. I really thought this was an amazing piece of writing by Mariane Pearl. I have not yet seen the movie based on the book, but I intend to.



V. 8 Memoir/Autobiography
1. No More Words by Reeve Lindbergh
2. Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence by Matthew Sanford(1/15/09)
3. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
4. Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas by Sarah Brown
5. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
6. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Shirwin
7. Listening is an Act of Love by Dave Isay
8. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

I finished American Prometheus and found it thoroughly fascinating. I
highly recommend it to anyone interested in reading a very well-documented biography about a man of importance to the history of this country and science.





VI. 8 Women Writers
1. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyers
2. Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel by Anne Cushman (From LibraryThings Early Reviewers program)
3. Gods in Alabama by Joshlyn Jackson
4. The View From Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik (1/07/09)
5. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
6. Eflatun and the Magic Mirror by Kathryn Kranzler
7. Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
8. Body Surfing by Anita Shreve



VII. 8 From Around the World
1. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
3. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
6. Saturday by Ian McEwan
7. A Room With a View by E. M. Forester
8. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson




VIII. 8 by 8 of My Favorite Writers
1. Oh My Stars: A Novel by Lorna Landvik
2. You Suck by Christopher Moore
3. Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
4. Second Glance: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
5. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
6. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
7. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
8. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult


What I had left:

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
The Human Stain by Phillip Roth
A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Cider House Rules by John Irving
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel - a Review

When reviewing The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the novel is written by a psychotherapist. Because this book is marketed as an epic novel, based on the incredible true story of a Chinese princess turned spy. To me, that sounds like a sweeping historical novel that will engage the reader in a tale of daring espionage. Instead, author Maureen Lindley gives a much more psychological view of the main character, Eastern Jewel, who went through much in her youth to form a person who could have easily been broken by adversity but who instead became strong and calculating by necessity.

When she is just a child she is caught spying (one time out of many occasions) on her father having relations with a young girl and is sent to Japan, banished really, to live with his blood brother. In a world where women are treated as second class citizens and men have all of the power, she struggles for the rest of her days to create a life for herself that does not trap her in a situation where she has to serve and please a man for the remainder of her days.

The ways she chooses to do this don't always smack of high morals, but simple survival.

It is a well written narrative. It flows quickly along (in some respects too quickly - some of the historical points were mentioned with barely a word and they truly deserved much more than that, but I suspect the author just didn't have enough background on the subject to know what to write about them) for a quick read. She spends a fair amount of her time seducing men or planning seduction and those are as lyrical as the rest of the book. They fit in seamlessly and do not feel awkward or give the book the feel as some I've written that the rest of the narrative was written as filler around those scenes. That said, I think it is somewhat disingenuous to send the reader off thinking of this book as a "...novel based on the extraordinary life of a Manchu princess..."

If you are looking for something like Memoirs of a Geisha - more of a sweeping epic tale and not so much interior psyche that is completely narrated and without action (it is her personal papers, after all) - then this is not the story for you.

Another update from last year's challenge... (I'm still going!)

The latest update - August 15, 2009

I. 8 from my To Be Read Pile (I already own them and have been meaning to read…)
1. Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar
2. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
3.Have You Found Her: A Memoir by Janice Erlbaum
4. Wear Your Life Well by Marilu Henner with Lorin Henner (from HarperCollins Publishers www.FirstLookBooks.com)
5.Organize Your Life by Ronni Eisenberg
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
7. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
8. The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett

Finally finished reading Happier! Woohoo!



II. 8 from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
2. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
4. The Human Stain by Phillip Roth
5. A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
6. The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
8. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Read and LOVED Mistry's Family Matters. (I seriously need to get back to writing reviews...)



III. 8 Non-Fiction
1. Leap by Sara Davidson
2. Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
3. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
4. Watchdogs of Democracy by Helen Thomas
5. Organize Your Life by Ronni Eisenberg
6. Boom: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the 60’s and Today by Tom Brokaw
7. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
8. Have You Found Her: A Memoir by Janice Erlbaum

IV. 8 Books Turned to Movies
1. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
2. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
3. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
4. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
5. A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl
6. Cider House Rules by John Irving
7. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran
8. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Finished A Might Heart. I really thought this was an amazing piece of writing by Mariane Pearl. I have not yet seen the movie based on the book, but I intend to.



V. 8 Memoir/Autobiography
1. No More Words by Reeve Lindbergh
2. Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence by Matthew Sanford(1/15/09)
3. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
4. Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas by Sarah Brown
5. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
6. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Shirwin
7. Listening is an Act of Love by Dave Isay
8. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

I have finally decided what to do about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Since I decided that I will not be finishing this book, I'm going to read American Prometheus as a replacement. I'm currently reading and loving it. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in reading a very well-documented biography about a man of importance to the history of this country and science. Fascinating.





VI. 8 Women Writers
1. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyers
2. Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel by Anne Cushman (From LibraryThings Early Reviewers program)
3. Gods in Alabama by Joshlyn Jackson
4. The View From Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik (1/07/09)
5. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
6. Eflatun and the Magic Mirror by Kathryn Kranzler
7. Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
8. Body Surfing by Anita Shreve



VII. 8 From Around the World
1. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
3. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
6. Saturday by Ian McEwan
7. A Room With a View by E. M. Forester
8. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Again, I finished reading Family Matters, which helps in this category, as well.


VIII. 8 by 8 of My Favorite Writers
1. Oh My Stars: A Novel by Lorna Landvik
2. You Suck by Christopher Moore
3. Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
4. Second Glance: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
5. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
6. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
7. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
8. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult


What I had left:

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
The Human Stain by Phillip Roth
A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Cider House Rules by John Irving
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence by Matthew Sanford (1/15/09)
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
American Prometheus by Kai Bird
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Summer Reading List - From NPR (a Meme...)

So I decided to create a meme from the NPR summer reading list because I could tell very quickly that there were a lot of books I had already read and I wanted to create a list of great reading I hadn't covered yet. The rest are now in the hopper as potentials for my upcoming reads. Thanks to NPR for a great list!

1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
4. Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding
5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg
10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

11. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
12. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
13. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
14. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
16. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
17. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
18. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
20. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
22. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
24. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
25. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
26. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
27. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
28. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
29. The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler
30. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

31. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
32. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
33. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
34. Beach Music, by Pat Conroy
35. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
36. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
37. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
38. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
39. The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon

41. Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
42. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
43. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice
44. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
45. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
46. Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes
47. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins
49. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
50. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

51. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
52. The Stand, by Stephen King
53. She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
54. Dune, by Frank Herbert
55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
56. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
58. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
59. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

61. Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver
62. Jaws, by Peter Benchley
63. Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner
64. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
65. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
66. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
67. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
68. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
69. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

71. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
72. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy
73. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns
74. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
74. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe [tie]
76. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
77. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
78. The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
80. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett

81. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
81. The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve [tie]
83. All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
85. The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
86. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
87. One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich
88. Shogun, by James Clavell
89. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera

91. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
93. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
94. Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
95. Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
96. The Shining, by Stephen King
97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan
98. Lamb, by Christopher Moore
99. Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen
100. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson