The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath

Title: The Grapes of Wrath

Author: John Steinbeck

Publication Date: 1939

Pages: 496

Genre: Classic / Historical / Fiction

How I Found It: 100 Best Novels list

Date Completed: 12/14/15

Summary: The Dust Bowl forced thousands of families west to promised work in California. Steinbeck's classic follows the journey of one such family.

What I Thought: Steinbeck is an author I feel as though I should love. I really do. I want to love his work. In high school, I enjoyed Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath has long been on my TBR list, even before I took on the 100 Best Novels challenge. When I also put it on my 2015 TBR Pile Challenge list, I had no idea it would be such a chore to finish. It took me nearly the entire year - a fact I was not anticipating in the slightest. 

Steinbeck's prose is beautiful. I would never say differently. The chapters of the novel which focus solely on nameless descriptions of landscape or the mundane moments of the travelers' lives were stunning. I loved the writing and reveled in those pockets tucked throughout the book. It was the rest of the book that slowed me down...

Jesus Feminist - Sarah Bessey

Jesus Feminist

Title: Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women

Author: Sarah Bessey

Publication Date: 11/5/13

Pages: 256

Genre: Nonfiction

How I Found It: It's in the same field as some other books I've loved lately.

Date Completed: 12/1/15

Summary: Despite a title you may or may not find shocking, Bessey presents a rational, grounded argument for the idea that women are equal to men in the eyes of God and, therefore, should be in ours as well. 

What I Thought: If you know me, you don't have to ask if I liked this book or not. The title alone should clue you in as to my feelings about it. Gender issues within my faith have been hot button issues for me the last few years. I've been striving to learn more and explore, as Bessey puts it, "the radical notion that women are people, too." 

This book is far less controversial than some of its ilk. Though the title may set you on edge depending on your particular experiences, Bessey navigates the white waters with grace and kindness. This is not an angry or argumentative book. Rather, she speaks from the heart, calling out to women as though each were her long lost friend, now come to share a fireside chat with her. The gracious tone of the book makes her message inviting and inspiring, rather than potentially debate-inciting. 

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publication Date: 9/10/13

Pages: 445

Genre: Young Adult / Fiction

How I Found It: So many book bloggers love Rainbow Rowell - I had to give her work a try!

Date Completed: 10/3/15

Summary: Cath and her twin sister Wren are starting college in Nebraska. Cath would rather be at home, watching over their bipolar father and writing fan fiction about the Simon Snow series (a total Harry Potter knockoff). College, however, brings new personal challenges are she takes a Fiction Writing course, begins to bond with her roommate, and navigates her own love life.

What I Thought: I honestly did not know what to expect going into this book. I have seen so many other book bloggers raving about Rainbow Rowell's work, but I was wary it would fall into a more cliché YA lit category (i.e. not well written and a little too emotional and romance driven for my taste). I found myself pleasantly surprised when I, too, raced through Rowell's work, enjoying it far more than I had anticipated.

First and foremost, I love how self-aware Cath is. Rowell's decision to make Cath not only aware but snarky about some of the more cliché college moments happening around her kept the story from veering too far into a classic coming-of-age story. 

Paris - Edward Rutherfurd

Paris

Title: Paris

Author: Edward Rutherfurd

Publication Date: 4/16/13

Pages: 809

Genre: Historical / Fiction

How I Found It: I love Paris.

Date Completed: 7/5/15

Summary: Rutherfurd explores the history of Paris through the eyes of six families. He skips around throughout history and generations, centering around the turn of the twentieth century and the building of the Eiffel Tower. 

What I Thought: I put this book On Reserve because of my francophilia. I honestly did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I thought it would be more of a historical learning experience than an enjoyable fictionally driven one. 

Initially, the idea of the book does seem a bit daunting to the reader. How can one be expected to keep multiple generations of various families straight? Honestly, this ended up being far less strenuous than I expected. Rutherfurd provides a simple family tree and timeline in the start of the book to which I continually referred. With that simple tool, it became fairly easy to keep things straight.

Blindness - José Saramago

Blindness

Title: Blindness

Author: José Saramago

Publication Date: 1995

Pages: 379

Genre: Dystopian / Literary Fiction / Fiction

How I Found It: A variety of sources

Date Completed: 6/17/15

Summary: In an unnamed city, an epidemic of blindness suddenly and rapidly sweeps through the population. The early affected are placed in a makeshift quarantine, a feeble attempt by the government to staunch the spread of the ailment. Among the group placed there, an optometrist's wife who is somehow the sole retainer of sight.

What I Thought: This is one of those books you hear of every now and then as a must read, a triumph of literary prowess. Saramago's look at humanity through blind eyes (or, really, they last seeing eyes left) certainly says a lot about the human condition in a unique and terrifying way.

In the beginning, I struggled with this one. The lack of names and the seemingly endless flow of story were hard for me to adjust to. I simply could not find the motivation or desire to read more than ten or twenty pages at a time. Thankfully, in a burst of inspiration, I sought out the audiobook. Somehow, hearing the story, as though I had blind eyes myself, transformed my experience with the novel. Suddenly, it was an oral story, told in Homer's tradition, a method of the sightless and the earliest, easiest form of human storytelling. Changing the delivery method to audio seemed to connect the reader so much more efficiently with the story and its messages.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Title: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Author: Muriel Barbery

Publication Date: 6/5/05

Pages: 325

Genre: Literary Fiction / Fiction

How I Found It: The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Date Completed: 6/13/15

Summary: A secretly intellectual concierge, Renée, and a pragmatically suicidal child genius, Paloma, live in the same Paris apartment building. Their paths slowly begin to overlap as they each step outside of their comfort zone to forge new friendships and experience the world around them in new ways.

What I Thought: I feel pressure to laud the brilliance of Barbery's famous novel. That pressure, I recognize, stems mostly from myself and my desire to agree with academic and philosophic acclaim. Yet, sometimes, I must blaze my own trail with my own opinions, based exclusively on my experience, rather than the self-imposed expectations of academia and high-brow literature.

Was that paragraph too much for you? Yeah, me too.  As was this book.

The Apprentice - Jacques Pépin

The Apprentice

Title: The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen

Author: Jacques Pépin

Publication Date: 2003

Pages: 352

Genre: Food / Memoir / Nonfiction

How I Found It: I love food memoirs!

Date Completed: 4/26/15

Summary: One of the very early incarnations of the celebrity chef, Jacques Pépin offers his life story in this far reaching memoir. He covers everything from his childhood in France, his apprenticeships in rigid French kitchens, his immigration to America, and his years at the top of the culinary scene.

What I Thought: I have heard from many sources that Pépin's memoir is an important, memorable part of the food memoir canon. It is on every list of must read foodie books. Thus, I was harboring high expectations when I placed it On Reserve and, consequentially, finally picked it up this spring.

I want to be clear up front - I liked this book. I simply devoured (pun intended) the early chapters about Pépin's years in France, both his memoires as a boy sent to the countryside during WWII and his early apprenticeships in classic, rigid French restaurant kitchens. I had neer really read about that environment beforel the strict heirarchy, recipes, and rules fascinated me.

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

The Red Tent

Title: The Red Tent

Author: Anita Diamant

Publication Date: 11/1/05

Pages: 336

Genre: Historical / Fiction

How I Found It: On Reserve for ages

Date Completed: 4/7/15

Summary: Based loosely on the Biblical story of Dinah, the daughter of Jewish patriarch Jacob, The Red Tent explores early Meditteranean culture and the bonds between women.

What I Thought: I have heard about this book in passing many times, but still did not know fully what to expect. I was surprised to realize it is based loosely on a Biblical figure. Loosely, being a key word.

The protagonist and heroine of the story is Dinah, daughter of Biblical patriarch Jacob and his first wife Leah. Dinah takes us back before her birth and shares the story of Jacob and the four women who bore his children. Each mother (two wives, two concubines) has her own distinct personality and relationship with Jacob. Dinah celebrates their unique qualities and recognizes each as an important part of the family and family culture.

The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker

The Golem and the Jinni

Title: The Golem and the Jinni

Author: Helene Wecker

Publication Date: 4/23/13

Pages: 486

Genre: Fantasy / Romance / Historical / Fiction

How I Found It: So many other bloggers enjoyed it!

Date Completed: 3/4/15

Summary: Chava, a golem, a creature made from clay at the hands of a mystical rabbi, finds herself in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. Her husband and master died on the journey from the Old World, leaving her alone and confused. Ahmad, a jinni, is released from his lamp after hundreds of years to a life in Manhattan, far from his desert home. The unlikely pair stumbles through this unfamiliar world each trying to blend in with the humans around them.

What I Thought: SO many book bloggers talked about this book last year. Now I understand why.

Wecker weaves a magical story (no pun intended) in these pages. I loved the idea of two mystical creatures, each meant to answer to someone and fulfill that human's desires, finding themselves without their intended masters. Rather, they each, in their own way, struggle to find themselves while simultaneously hiding everything that makes them unique.

Half the Sky - Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

Half the Sky:
Turning Oppression into Opportunity
for Women Worldwide

Title: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Author: Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

Publication Date: 9/8/08

Pages: 294

Genre: Political / Nonfiction

How I Found It: Recommended by multiple people/sources

Date Completed: 2/8/15

Summary: "A passionate call to arms against our era's most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world." 

What I Thought: Where do I start? You must read this book. You must. I cannot recommend it strongly enough or coerce you shamelessly enough. It's not an easy read. Some parts, some realities are difficult to digest and make you want to look away. But Kristof and WuDunn are covering one of the most overlooked, yet most important issues of our time. 

The writing is not perfect and the book is not intended for scholarly research. Rather, it is meant to raise awareness to the atrocities being perpetrated against women around the world. Included in the discussion is sex slavery, maternal mortality, and economic disparities. Like I said, not easy topics, but so important.

Wave - Sonali Deraniyagala

Wave

Title: Wave

Author: Sonali Deraniyagala

Publication Date: 3/1/13

Pages: 274

Genre: Memoir / Nonfiction

How I Found It: On Reserve for quite a while

Date Completed: 1/25/15

Summary: Deraniyagala tragically lost her parents, husband, and two young boys in the December 26, 2004 tsunami. Her memoir explores her journey through grief and mourning and how her life will never be the same.

What I Thought: I had this book On Reserve for so long, I honestly forgot what Deraniyagala's story was. I think I had gotten it confused with the Naomi Watts' movie The Impossible that came out a few years ago. In that also true story, the mother of three sons is eventually reunited with her family. For the first several chapters, I kept expecting Deraniyagala to have a similar miraculous experience. Instead, she was forced to face the most horrible reality I can imagine: losing nearly everyone you love and surviving.

Shadows of a Princess - Patrick D. Jephson

Shadows of a Princess:
An Intimate Account By
Her Private Secretary

Title: Shadows of a Princess: An Intimate Account By Her Private Secretary

Author: Patrick D. Jephson

Publication Date: 10/9/00

Pages: 464

Genre: Royals / Memoir / Historical

How I Found It: As a consequence of my continued obsession with the British royal family

Date Completed: January 19, 2015

Summary: Patrick Jephson worked directly for Her Royal Highness Diana, Princess of Wales for just over seven years. Serving first as her equerry and then private secretary, he shepherded the icon through the finals years of her marriage. His inside perspective on the princess offers a glimpse at her personality, her priorities, and her life behind the glamour the world saw and loved.

What I Thought: My obsession with the royals is no secret. If you know me at all, you know this area of interest might be a little out of control for me. I may or may not have used a Shutterfly coupon code to make my own Duchess of Cambridge themed calendar for 2015. Don't judge me. You wish you could look at Kate Middleton's face and fashion every day this year, too.

On that note, my interest really began long ago with one of the most iconic royals of our age: Princess Diana. Interestingly, it may all have begun for me because I have an aunt who loved Diana as much as I love Kate now. I would sit on the floor of her house and page through books and magazines with the princess's face on the covers. I did my first ever research paper in middle school on Diana's childhood. I remember distinctly the night she died and the subsequent outpouring of emotion from around the globe; I was ten.

2015 TBR Pile Challenge

So, I mentioned on Monday that I want to be more involved in the book blogging community this year. One of the ways I plan to do that is to join some of the great reading challenges that are out there. I figured a great way to start would be with the 2015 TBR Pile Challenge that Adam hosts at Room Beam Reader. 

I think this is a great fit for me. I may not have a book buying problem, but I do have a problem with adding too many books to my On Reserve list and then going years without thinking about them again. 

I have been doing a little better lately reading some of those books, but I can definitely use the extra incentive.

For those of you not in the book blogging community, a TBR Pile is a "To-Be-Read" Pile. I've always just called it my On Reserve list over here because, frankly, it's typically a list of books I have on reserve through the library. If you've never taken a look at that list, I encourage you to do so. I update it every three weeks or so.