Book Shelf

Besides the archives of books held in my mile-high book shelves, there is TBR stack on my nighstand that looks like this. I got the idea to take this picture because yesterday my copy of Bookmarks, the cover of which looks like this. Every time I see Bookmarks in the mailbox, I anticipate with glee finding that there is at least ONE title in the picture on the cover which I have already read...and this month it was I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman by Nora Ephron.

In case you can't see the details of the books on my bookshelf, I'm going to list them. And maybe you can comment on what you think I should read next, what you would like to see me blog on next, what you think I should immediately put way up high on the mile-high bookshelves and not even bother reading:

Reviving Ophelia (this is in progress, a chapter here and there when I feel like it)
Literary Savannah (will probably read on the plane to Savannah next Friday)
Frommer's Portable Savannah (mostly finished, just referencing occasionally)
I Have Heard You Calling in the Night (currently reading)
Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads (currently reading...no, I'm not crazy...I think it's perfectly normal to have a fiction and a non-fiction book going at the same time)
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee (I'll probably read in early November for a discussion group on November 16)
The Guy Not Taken (loaned to me by Peg who is batting 1000 on book recommendations)
The Thirteenth Tale
Seven Types of Ambiguity (recommended by Amy, please note the no caps in the title)
The Pat Conroy Cookbook (reading now and then)
Reading Lolita in Tehran (mostly there to make me look like a serious reader...I'm kind of scared to read it...that I'll realize I'm not the intellectual I want to be)
Morality for Beautiful Girls (from the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series)
The World is Flat (I've read part of it, liked it, need to get in the mood to get back to it)
The Grapes of Wrath
A Year by the Sea (read some of it, given to me by Ms. Lynn, one of my favorites of Haley's teachers)
The Lone Pilgrim (also from Peg, short stories so I read a story here and there)
One Sister's Song (asked to read by Stacy in PA, but I didn't care for it, but I'm waiting to give it another try...it's written by someone Stacy knows)
The Midwife's Tale (I think my book group in NC read this and I didn't get to it)
The Whistling Season (recommended by Amy during her Block Island Book-a-thon)
Florida (also an old Amy recommendation, I think)
Between, Georgia (recommended by my Mom...not sure why I haven't gotten to it yet)
The Demon Under the Microscope (because I couldn't resist the Entertainment Weekly review)

So hit me with your suggestions, warnings, pleas, etc. I should be blogging on I Have Heard You Calling in the Night tomorrow and ready to read another.

Di

Comments

[Stephanie]

I am almost finished with The Thirteentale Tale and have really enjoyed it!

[amy]

ok, here are my comments on the one's i've heard about and the one's i've read. one aside first: for all of you who saw the movie "The Stone Reader", how many of you turned your heads to read the titles on di's picture of her TBR bookshelf? i remember doing that when watching the movie, and being glad the books were listed on the movie website.

The Thirteenth tale sounds amazing; have read nothing but good things about it and it sounds like a "can't put down book", and when's the last time you read one of those? judging from the three you are currently reading and putting down, not in a while.

A Year by the Sea is great. So is A Midwife's Tale, i remember reading and recommending it (pre-blogs) to others. if it's the chris boyijian (yes, i know it's spelled wrong) book, i think all of his are thought-provoking. if it's the one that takes place in times gone by in maine, then i it's great too.

i HATED Lolita in Tehran. i wanted to like it, but man, it was awful to get through. would be curious if anyone on your blogoverse read it and liked it, if so, what did you like about it? most of the women in my book group and larger circle of readers read it and hated it equally as much.

off to make dinner. oh, my exciting life...

[Vicky]

Too Amy's point, I really enjoyed Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. Even though I liked it, and still have it (in storage somewhere), I had to visit Oprah's Book Club and then Amazon to get the correct spelling of his name and find the title. You see, I suffer at times from "CRAFT" disease (Can't Remember A F*****g Thing)

Then of course, I fell pray to Amazon's very clever marketing ploys and threw something else in the basket. I also enjoyed A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, but not quite as much. (Yes, there is a theme here. I considered a career in midwifery quite some time ago.)

The other titles I have not read, although I have certainly heard of Reviving Ophelia.

[Di]

Unfortunately, it's not the one by Chris Bohjalian which I read and loved years back. This one is by Grectchen Moran Laskas and takes place in Appalachia...it may just not be my cuppa tea. I think I'm going to stop delaying the gratification and read The Thirteenth Tale. Since I took two long naps today, I could be stay up late and read, read, read.

[Shirley]

I really liked a Midwife's Tale. Reading Lolita in Tehran was not as easy to read as The Kite Runner. I listened to it on CD so that made it easier to get through the slow parts. I think it probably did paint an accurate portrait of the sorry state of women in Iran today. We had a good discussion about it in book club.

[amy]

of course, my ulterior motive is that once you've finished the book (about 3am or so?), i'd ask you to bring it to savannah. i'm bringing one bag with clothes in it, and one with books, and i'll still be over the weight/passenger limit!

[booklogged]

With the exception of Morality for Beautiful Girls, I've not read any from you list. I enjoyed the first few in the Mma. Ramotske series, but haven't read any since book 6. They are especially good if listened to because the reader has such a wonderful voice.

[booklogged]

Oops, I just saw The Thirteenth tale on that list. The Demon Under the Microscope sounds really good, scientific.

I love your mile-high bookshelves. And those windows - to die for!