Ok, Zumba is not on my nightstand. I’ve just gone to a couple of zumba classes lately and I must admit they are fun, sort of, if you like looking like an idiot/dork in the back doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing. In yesterday’s class, I noticed how many of the songs seemed to have the word “Zumba!” in them, and I’ve had it in my head ever since. Zumba!
On to the books!
What I’ve Read:
It’s been a busy month! Traveling to that conference certainly helped, as I had plenty of time waiting in airports, or lying in an Adirondack chair on sunny afternoons. However, lately, as my mother would have said, my eyes have been bigger than my tummy. In spite of my best efforts, I have still got an enormous stack still to get through! Sigh. I’m scrambling, not getting to everything, and doing my best. Come along with me…
Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West: I already told you to read this one. A very important book. It’s the story of a young man who was born into one of the North Korea’s labour camps, bred to provide cheap labour, raised almost as an animal, and his mind-boggling escape to the west. Shines a light on a really horrible and desperate situation, and leaves you with a great compassion for this man, who is having to learn as an adult the simple things (love, mercy, trust) that most of us are privileged to learn as infants. Go read it.
Forgotten Country: A gorgeous book. Oddly enough, it also deals with Korea both North and South (mostly South). It’s the story of family, of the loss of a father, of the loss of country and identity. It’s beautifully written and not as depressing as I just made it sound. Highly recommended.
Shadow on the Wall (The SandStorm Chronicles, #1): This is a highly unusual book that I enjoyed very much, except for the graphic violence (I just sort of squint and skim) Recai Osman is a spoiled rich playboy living in Elih, Turkey, which is run by a corrupt and violent morality police whose reign of terror is enforced by brutality against women. Recai morphs into The Sandstorm, who comes out of the sand to stop people. He’s really a Muslim Batman, and Elih, in English, is Batman. Like I said, a very unusual book, but I recommend it.
An Impartial Witness: I’m doing the Bess Crawford Read Along at Book Club Girl, and thoroughly enjoying it. I love Bess! She’s plucky and practical and kind and steady and dependable. She’s a WWI-era nurse. This is the second in the series. She’s in France and has to escort some wounded back to England to a convalescent home (picture Downton Abbey Season 2
) (I know! Isn’t it fun how that show has helped you picture this time period?) One man in particular is badly burned, and the only thing keeping him clinging to life is his love for his wife. He has her picture pinned to his uniform, so Bess sees it every day. On her way back up to London, she sees the wife bidding good-bye to another man in a train station, a man with whom she’s obviously having a very intense conversation. That evening, her murdered body is fished up out of the Thames.
Bess learns of this from a newspaper that she sees a couple of weeks later, and is soon in on the hunt for the killer. I will mention that I had a suspicion early on of who it might be, but I wasn’t at all sure. I loved this one! I read it while traveling, and it was perfect.
The Reconstructionist: A Novel: Ellis works as a reconstructionist, basically examining the scenes of car accidents to figure out what happened and why. He works with his best friend Boggs, a man who drives a green convertible and listens to audio books at top volume (I love his character). However, his own life is on a collision course of sorts–he has a crush on Bogg’s wife Heather, who was Ellis’ half-brother’s girlfriend when they were in high school. He lost track of her after his brother was killed in a car accident. It’s a good book but it ended up missing greatness for me. It also made me a little paranoid of driving. Did I tell you I’m teaching an Iraqi woman to drive? Sigh. That needs to be its own post.
Elegy for Eddie: A Maisie Dobbs Novel: This is apparently ninth in the series, and although it can be read alone, I did feel I would have enjoyed it more with a little more background. Set in 1933 London. Eddie’s a gentle man, “slow” but good with horses. His violent death has the costermongers–peddlers, basically–in his poor neighbourhood suspicious, and they enlist Maisie Dobbs, private investigator and from the same neighbourhood herself, to help. Very good.
Reading:
Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale: Faith Bass Darling wakes up one morning and decides to sell her entire houseful of priceless antiques for “whatever you can afford, dear,” even if that’s 50 cents for a Tiffany lamp worth $40,000. Various people try to figure out what’s going on and, hopefully, get her to stop. Very Southern.
Between a Rock and a Hot Place: Why Fifty Is the New Fifty: This is a hilarious (but, frankly, also sort of scary) and frank account of why fifty isn’t really like thirty, in spite of what we may tell ourselves.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir): You have probably already heard of this book and possibly even read it. It’s very very funny and really strange too.
Why Jesus? Ravi Zacharias looks at the historical figure of Christ in an age of mass-marketed spirituality.
TO READ:
More Like Her What really goes on behind those perfect white picket fences? This is about wanting to be just like someone you admire and envy, and then finding out their life isn’t so perfect after all.
When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man: Set, as any tale with a man named Captain Flint ought to be, on the sea, this tale is about a young man following in his father’s footsteps to catch king crab on the Bering Sea, but he learns that his father may not have been someone worthy of emulation.
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948: This is Madeleine Albright’s account of her early life, and I think it looks fascinating! I’m dying to read it.
The Uninvited Guests
What begins as “an amusing Edwardian country house tale” becomes dramatic and sinister. Seriously I am on SUCH an early-20th-century kick right now. This one looks really really good and it’s getting great reviews too. Can’t wait!
Mean Moms Rule: Why Doing the Hard Stuff Now Creates Good Kids Later: I read author Denise Schipani’s blog, and it’s full of really common sense stuff that, frankly, shouldn’t need a book written about it. Of course you teach kids to eat their broccoli, for Pete’s sake! Life is not about only getting what you want! Manners matter. However, apparently I’m in the minority on this. Looks like a good book.
Secret Heroes: Everyday Americans Who Shaped Our World: I like this kind of history; chatty, everyday stuff about unknown, minor historical figures who nonetheless played key roles in the way things turned out. Examples include a spy who saved George Washington’s life, the first black combat pilot, and America’s first muckracking journalist–a 62 year old woman.
Phew! Wish me luck. I wish I had more time to read. (And frankly, I actually have even more books to get to, but I’m out of time and nearly late to a meeting as it is!)
What are you reading? Anything good? I may not have time right now to add anything to my TBR list, but there’s always next month! Zumba!
13 comments
April 24, 2012 at 8:54 am
Michelle
I’m with you on the “Mean Moms Rule” type books. I used to read a lot of parenting books, but every time I’d get exasperated. Half the time the authors are acting like they invented the concept of “NO,” and the other time they had apparently never heard of it. LOL.
April 24, 2012 at 10:13 am
Meredith
You are my go to book reference. Just so you know 🙂
April 24, 2012 at 10:59 am
LIB
I haven’t told you about Maisie Dobbs!??!! I’m a BAD friend! I’ve read all her books and just put this latest on hold at the library.
I’m reading two very good YA titles. The first is ‘Ready Player One’ by Ernest Cline. The protagonist is a HARD CORE video gamer. It is set slightly in the future (2045) so video gaming has advanced quite a bit. The game that is being played by most of the world was created by a man who was a teenager in (and is obsessed with) the 1980s. Therefore there are lots of references to 1980’s pop culture–very fun.
The second is ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green. It is told first person through the eyes of 16 year old Hazel. Hazel has cancer and doesn’t think she’d minding dying already. BUT THEN she meets Augustus Waters in her Cancer Support Group. Maybe she’d like to stick around for a bit. Funny, touching, sad in about equal measures,
April 24, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Amy
Ha–Why Fifty is the New Fifty looks funny. And I say that as someone to whom 50 is looming on the horizon!
April 24, 2012 at 1:36 pm
mamanschell
I just finished Suzanne Collins Gregor the Overlander series. There are 5 books and they are quick reads. It’s a classic story of the little guy’s destiny to save the world (ie Frodo, King David, etc.) and I can’t get enough of them (apparently).
Now I’m reading “The Confession” per your recommendation. It’s a good story so far, but I’ll admit much slower and mild compared to the YA series I just read! 🙂 The transition is a little bumpy that’s all.
I love love love your ‘What’s On My Nightstand’ posts. I put many on my wish list to pick up later. Thanks for giving the gift of good reads!
April 24, 2012 at 2:54 pm
suburbancorrespondent
I just finished A Mountain of Crumbs. It was awesome! I love first-person accounts that give you a real flavor of growing up in a particular place and time (Soviet Russia, 70’s and before).
April 24, 2012 at 5:53 pm
Dawn Courchaine Mooney
Holy crap, that is quite a list, EDJ!!
April 24, 2012 at 6:16 pm
bluestockingbb
Boy you had a good month!! I enjoy Zumba as well.
Here is my April 2012 Nightstand
April 25, 2012 at 1:03 am
Beth@Weavings
I absolutely love the Maisie Dobbs series. I think I’m going to have to check the Bess Crawford novels–not that I need to start another series! Happy reading.
April 25, 2012 at 5:36 am
Jen E @ mommablogsalot
Wow great (and lengthy) list! I’ve got three tabs open now to check out Forgotten Country, More Like Her and Prague Winter – all three sound really good – like I need any more books to read right now! :OP
April 25, 2012 at 10:27 am
Lisa notes...
I’ve never done a Zumba class…maybe one day I’ll get up the nerve. ha.
My eyes are always bigger than my tummy when it comes to books too. Great way to put it.
I would love to read “Why Jesus?” Ravi always makes me think a little harder than I normally do.
April 25, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Laural Out Loud
I love when you do these posts! I open a tab for my Amazon.com Wish List and add almost all of your recommendations. I can’t wait to read Escape from Camp 14. I read an excerpt from The Bloggess’ book and nearly peed my pants from laughing so hard, but I think I’ll wait to get that one until it’s available in paperback. I’m hoping once my kids are a bit older, I can hunker down and get through my pile, too!
May 11, 2012 at 11:12 pm
silver price
I love non-fiction and I would love this book. That crap going on over there in NK is mind-blowing. I have a recommendation. Even if you don’t read graphic novels, get your hands on Pyong Yang. It is so good. You won’t be able to put that one down either.