- We picked our first book for work book club – Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. I’m looking forward to reading it!
- After Whisper Network, I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Its cover drew me in in my Goodreads feed, so I requested it from the library. It’s set in the early 1900s, and is about January Scaller, a young woman with coppery-red skin who feels out of place everywhere she goes, and is treated as such. She’s living as Mr Locke’s ward, while her father is out collecting treasures for him around the world. When January is seven, she finds a door that takes her to another world. She tells Mr. Locke, but he brushes it off, so she buries the memory for ten years, until she discovers a book in her home about these otherworldy doors. The book encourages her to look for these doors and find a place where she belongs. This actual book is VERBOSE and so descriptive. It took me over 100 pages to get in to it and I was tempted to skim some of the writing, but I ended up enjoying it in the end.
- After that, I started and finished Sourdough, about Lois Clary, a robotics software engineer in San Francisco who’s new to the city, has few friends, spends most of her time working, and is exhausted and unhappy. She’s gifted a sourdough starter from her favorite restaurant when they close, and decides to learn how to cook sourdough bread so she’ll be a less boring person. It turns she loves baking and sharing the bread, and there’s something special about this starter. She auditions to sell her bread at one the markets there, hence the other part of the title – Sourdough: or, Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market. I saw this recommended in BookBub and I’m so glad I got it from the library! It was a fun and easy read, and the author’s take on San Francisco culture seems completely accurate (it should – he lives there). I liked this book so much I want to read his first book, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, which reviewers say is similar – it’s about someone who loses their web design job in San Francisco and begins working at a bookstore which isn’t quite what it seems.
- After Sourdough, I read the memoir Inheritance, which was recommended by Jamie on The Popcast. This is Dani Shapiro’s fifth memoir (doesn’t that seem like a lot?!). I haven’t read any of her other memoirs, so I didn’t know much about her, but didn’t need to to understand this one. In Inheritance, Shapiro finds out via DNA testing that the man she thought was her biological father isn’t. She was actually conceived at a fertility clinic where her father’s sperm was mixed with a donor’s. For all of Shapiro’s life, she’s received commentary on how she doesn’t look Jewish (she has blond hair and light eyes), despite both her parents being so. She always brushed it aside, but as she goes through the journey of desperately trying to find out if her parents knew she had a different biological father and why they didn’t tell her, she realizes she’s always felt disconnected from her family. This was interesting, and an easy read. It was easy to understand how much this discovery threw her life and sense of self for a loop. Very heavy on the navel-gazing though (obviously) and I’m not sure I’m ever in the mood for that.
- After Inheritance, I started a novella, To Be Taught, If Fortunate. It’s only 135 pages, and I’ll likely finish it on the train today! It’s about four astronauts deep in space at the turn of the twenty-second century, searching for a habitable world. I love sci-fi, and this is right up my alley so far!
- I’m thinking about reading my first Stephen King book next year. I asked two fans for recommendations, and one recommended Pet Sematary and the other recommended The Shining. Any Stephen King fans reading this? What would you recommend for your first book of his (poll below)?
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There’s a firm belief I share that Stephen King cannot finish a long form novel to save his life. While IT was good, it was weird and most of his other novels I’ve read do conform to that theory above. To that end, I recommend Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas, three of which you’ll likely recognize.
I saw IT at Target the other day and HOLY CRAP it’s huge! That’s a good idea to start with the shorter stories and get a taste for his writing. Thanks!
I am so excited for you that your book club is going to read “Wild” for your first book! First of all, because it’s one of my favorite all time books and I picked it for my first pick for our book club, and second of all, there were a lot of different opinions about the story which meant a great discussion! (Some of the ladies admitted to me later, when we knew each other better, that they hated the book – LOL!) I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!
Oh interesting! We had a few people saying they didn’t want to read it because they didn’t like the movie, and I was like “come on, give it a chance!” Our group is very opinionated so it should be an interesting discussion 😉
Well, the book is SO much better than the movie, I bet they will be surprised. And you’ll definitely have a good discussion with opinionated people in the club.
I just finished “We Are the Weather” by Jonathan Safran Foer and it got me so fired up – it is an elegantly written and passionate argument for going vegan for the climate, where he weaves in his own personal struggle to do so, as well as the story of his grandmother who survived the holocaust – I wish everyone could read it – I feel like everyone SHOULD read it! And I am seriously thinking of picking it for book club when it is my turn – even though I suspect that most of the members might hate it…or would that be too mean? My turn won’t be for at least a year or so, so I have time to think about it.
Oh, good to hear! I remember not LOVING the movie.
I think he is such a good writer that you could pick it for them to read. I am assuming you read Eating Animals, as well? We went and saw him speak on that after it came out!
Yes, he is a great writer! So cool you got to see him speak – Charlotte and Linda and I saw him a few weeks ago for this new book (yes, I read Eating Animals, too) and we really enjoyed hearing him. It makes reading the book a much deeper experience.
Both you and Linda think I could pick it for book club – I appreciate your support because it feels like taking a big risk but maybe I should just go for it. Something to ponder…
Oh man, I *loved* Wild. I haven’t seen the movie but I LOOOOOVED the novel. Great choice!
The Ten Thousand Doors of January doesn’t sound like it’s for me! Another blogger just recommended that book as a fantasy novel for people who don’t like fantasy, but verbose writing is not for me. I want to read Sourdough, though!
The only Stephen King book I’ve read is Joyland, which isn’t his typical horror novel. But it’s a super good book!
Yay! I can’t wait to see what I think of it! I think I will read it closer to the end of our 3 month period, so late November 🙂
Yeah, I don’t think you’d like The Ten Thousand Door of January either. Some of the reviews say it’s a book for book lovers since she finds that book, but… nah, it’s just a story about doors that leave to other worlds, that’s VERY descriptive. Why do I need to know how everything smells?
Yes to Sourdough though. It was a lot of fun! I just got the other book from the library yesterday!
I will look up Joyland! I am not familiar!
I haven’t read Wild but I watched the movie a while ago. Can’t wait to see your thoughts on the book.
I read Mr. Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore and loved it! I didn’t know about Sourdough but now I want to read that as well.
I bet you would like it if you liked the other one! I got it from the library and can’t wait to read it!
Ooh, I’m really looking forward to reading sourdough (as I feed my sourdough starter on the counter). I’m actually making my first loaf tomorrow, so it will be perfect timing!
I’ll try the “Ten Thousand Doors of January” too! Thanks for writing about that one, I wouldn’t have heard of it otherwise.
I am curious to hear what you think since it’s set in SF! And that IS perfect timing!
Yeah, Ten Thousand Doors of January one took me a while to get in to, so be patient with it 😉