I received an e-mail from my mother's 1st cousin, Joan, who sent me a list of what her book club has read. It is a very interesting list and there are definitely some books that I want to read myself, especially after reading her comments on them! Isn't it fun to see what other book clubs have chosen?
Joan and her husband moved from here to Massachusetts after her husband retired. They have been out there about 20 years (maybe?). Joan and my mother grew up together and were always close. I love Joan! She was always an adult that I could connect with when I was a child. I love that we still have such a connection and enjoy many of the same things. Joan is what I aspire to be: an interesting person!
Anyway, here is the list that she sent me:
Hi, Sue, Here are some of the books my book club has read in the past couple
of years. I thought you might be interested. ... Newest read on top.
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder (very pertinent right now)
When Everything Changed by Gail Collins (loved this, loaning it to all my women friends)
Readings on the Women's Suffrage Movement (Eighty Years and More by E.K. Stanton) (This was read on-line)
Banquet at Delmonico's by Barry Werth (not great)
The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel (wonderful)
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason (don't remember it much)
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (wonderful)
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (wonderful)
Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston and/or (don't remember it much)
Swimming Against the Tide by Jim Hightower
The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed (very long and not well written)
Brain Rules by John Medina (didn't read)(or the other brain book, I don't have the name of)
The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (interesting)
Still Alice by Lisa Genova and/or Everyman by Philip Roth (read both)
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (informative)
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (read something else instead)
The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky (about Gloucester and fishing industry)
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (wonderful)
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (interesting)
The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin (about the supreme court, well-written)
Circling my Mother by Mary Gordon (haunting)
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (the following are before I joined the club)
Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt
Salt by Mark Kurlansky
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama
The Inferno by Dante (Robert Pinsky translation)
Desert Queen by Janet Wallach
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Thucydides: An Introduction for the Common Reader by Perez Zagorin
Don Quixote by Cervantes
Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner
Daughter of Persia by Sattareh Farman Farmaian
The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss
Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo
Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
So, what books on this list inspire you to go out and read? I especially am interested in reading When Everything Changed and Circling My Mother. More books for my TBR list!
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