Best re-read:
East of Eden, John Steinbeck.
I read this for the first time in high school and it is a constant topic of conversation between my best friend Katie and I. Steinbeck’s hopeful account of the human condition holds its place in my top 5 favorite books of all time. Timshel, baby.
"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected."
Honorable Mention: The Things They Carried -Tim O'Brien
Best non-fiction:
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson
Mortenson was robbed of this years Nobel Peace Prize. While Obama continues to send troops into the Middle East, touting the importance of war before peace, Mortenson has taken a more radical approach towards the war on terrorism, education. He is creating a future filled with opportunities rather than dispair for the children of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change."
"I've learned that terror doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death."
Honorable Mention: Tender at the Bone -Ruth Reichl
Book that makes me feel homesick:
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
Also a re-read from high school. Tan’s collection of short stories explores strong mother- daughter relationships, love, family and understanding of the past. Set in the foggy hills of San Francisco, she leaves me teary eyed and wanting to snuggle up on the couch at home with my mother.
"Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever."
Guilty Pleasure:
The Twilight Series, Stephanie Meyer
Honorable Mention: The Sex Lives of Cannibals -J. Maarten Troost
Biggest Disappointment:
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
I expected the winner of the Pulitzer to offer more than just footnotes, Spanish lenguaje de la calle and poor character development. There were some chapters in Oscar Wao that I did enjoy but overall it left me feeling as though Diaz’s new style and edgy language were simple a cover for a lackluster plot and over stereotyped characters.
Biggest Surprise:
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
Recommended to me by several people, I’ve been anxious to read this book for a while. Eugenides takes a story filled with incest taboos, pre-teen sexual exploration and the difficult coming of age of a pseudo male hermaphrodite and creates a story of love and pain, growth and family, and grief and hope, that is remarkably relatable to all. He shows us that normal only exists in fairy tales and that it’s our differences that bring us together in this shared experience of life.
"Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." I'd like to show how "intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members" connects with "the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age." I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever. "
Honorable Mention: The Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Niggenegger
Book of the Year:
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
Irving’s tale of Homer Wells and the St. Cloud’s orphanage guides the reader through such an array of emotions you finish feeling that all the compassion, the love, the wit, the hate, the anger and the confusion of this characters is somehow a part of you. One of the most sincere novels I’ve read and by far my favorite of 2009.
"“Here in St. Cloud’s,” Dr. Larch wrote, “ I have been given the choice of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. It is my experience that practically everything is left up to chance much of the time; men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God – we should seize those moments. There won’t be many”"
Honorable Mention: East of Eden, John Steinbeck
