The Tender Bar (ctd)

I just finished reading "The Tender Bar" by JR M (whatever his last name is...).

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. I have been reading more non-fiction lately and I was ready for some fiction, but did check this book out of the library. It was delightful! Well ok, maybe getting drunk night after night is not a delightful thing, but the way JR talked about his relationships with people and his struggles growing up--it was a refreshing style. On some level I think he makes any reader relate to his own journey through life. I want to go to Manhasset NY and find where the old Publicans bar used to be. (It's something else now.) Thanks Sarah for a good pick for book club! :)

The Tender Bar and also Shopoholic and Sister

The book that Sarah chose for book club is called "The Tender Bar" by JR Moehringer (sp?). It's a memoir about a boy growing up in Long Island w/o a dad. His surrogate dad is the guys at the bar. It's an easy read, but I'm afraid that I might not get it finished before book club next Sat night.

I've been listening to more books on CD lately. It really does pass away the 1/2 hour commute for me. I've recently listed to "The Body Farm" by Patricia Cornwell and "Hard Truth" by Nevada Barr. These are two books that I've read before, but I wanted to listen to again.

I'm listening to "Shopoholic and Sister" by Sophie Kinsella now. This is the 4th book int he Shopoholic series. It starts with "Confessions of a Shopoholic" then goes to "Shopoholic Takes Manhattan" and then "Shopoholic Ties The Knot". Becky Bloomwood is the main character and sometimes she grates on my nerves, but she always manages to redeem herself in the end. This book has made me belly laugh out loud and then cry too. I can't wait to see how it ends. These books are the light reads you need in between the heavy ones! :)

Hi Fellow Readers!
I started "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett in mid-March. I am intimidated by the number of pages in this book--a whopping 1000 pages. I am about 200+ into the book and while the story is good, I'm finding that I have to force myself to read it at the moment. So...

I'm moving on to "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson. This book came highly recommended to me by friend Emily. It's nonfiction about a man, Greg Mortenson, who is climbing the mountain K2 in Pakistan. He gets lost and finds himself in this village of people. He sees the need for a school and so begins his mission in life. I am told that this is a very inspiring story and am so far enjoying this book.

My book club met last night and discussed "Eat, Pray, Love" It was a fruitful discussion in which we talked about talking with God, meditation, love and first kisses, food and much more.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I finished Eat Pray Love last week and have been meaning to write about it, but you know how it is when you get busy... This book was really good and I really enjoyed the Italy and the Bali part. I'll admit that I was losing interest in the middle (India) part, but I really did enjoy this book. If you haven't heard about it, you need to check it out. A woman in her mid 30s goes through a terrible divorce and gets a book advance in order to travel around the world. I know, nice, huh? She re-connects with herself with the backdrop of Italy (pleasure), India (meditation/soul), and Indonesia or Bali to be exact (the common ground between pleasure and the soul). It was very easy to read--style was great. I'm anxious to see what everyone in my book club has to say about this book. :)

I'm currently reading "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett (at a whopping 980 some pages it's going to take me awhile to get through this one!). It's excellent so far.

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

This is the sequel to "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory. The story continues from TOBG and explores Henry VIII's relationships with his next two wives: Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. This was a fun story, but quite long (over 500 pages). Gregory's writing is easy to read and follow. I liked that she explored these three women (I forgot to mention Jane Boleyn who was Anne Boleyn's sister-in-law) and talked about how mad some of them were. It was a fun read, too bad I wasn't at the beach for the last half of the book.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

If you haven't already seen the ads, PBS is airing productions of all of Jane Austen's novels on Masterpiece Theatre on Sunday nights. You'll have to check your local PBS station for times. It inspired me to read the rest of her novels--something I'd like to finish in 2008. I have "Mansfield Park" and "Emma" left now.

"Northanger Abbey" was the first novel that Jane wrote although I think it was published posthumously. It is a fun tale of Catherine Morland and how she falls in love with Henry Tilney. Of course Catherine is from a "lower" middle class family and has hardly any fortune and Henry is very well off, indeed! Catherine is very obssessed with the gothic novels of the era (think "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley) and has a very over-active imagination. It almost ruins her changes with Henry, but alas it all works out in the end.

This book was definitely the most light-hearted of the Austen novels that I have read so far. Definitely worth the time though to read it.

The PBS version of this very fun--so if you missed it, I'm sure it will be out on DVD any day now. The gal who plays Isabella Thorpe was also in the Keira Knightly version of "Pride & Prejudice"--she played Kitty Bennett. (Thanks Jennie for that little fact!)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This is the book that Nancy chose for our next book club meeting. I read it when it was first out in paperback so maybe in 2003 sometime. I had forgotten a lot of the plot and all I could remember was that it ended up being Pi and the tiger, Richard Parker on the lifeboat.

I won't go into great detail on the plot just in case someone from book club actually reads my blog and hasn't finished it yet. But, basically Pi and his family are going from India to Canada along with several animals from their zoo on a large ship. The ship sinks and Pi is the only human survivor. He ends up on the lifeboat with a hyena, zebra, orangutan and a Bengal tiger. You can imagine what happens.

The writing style is easy to follow, but some people might find it hard to get going in the book. It was a quick read and interesting, but be prepared for some gory scenes and honest detail about how Pi survives for over 5 months at sea.