You are hereFeed aggregator / Sources / Elizabeth's Books
Elizabeth's Books
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Sat, 2010-08-28 19:55Ever feel that you may have set your expectations too high?
-->One Day by David Nicholls
Tue, 2010-08-24 16:55Gentle readers, take note: I have bought two books this year, One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original) and The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel . They have both been purchased from Andersons in Naperville. Both have been worth every penny, although I'm glad I bought One Day in paperback.
-->Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott
Fri, 2010-08-20 19:07I'm a big fan of Anne Lamott's non-fiction, from Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year to Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith .
But oh my goodness, Imperfect Birds: A Novel is dull.
-->Inkheart by Corneila Funke
Thu, 2010-08-19 16:17You will occasionally hear book people or librarians sneer at those of us who are big Harry Potter fans, as they say, condescendingly, "well, you should really try Cornelia Funke or Phillip Pullman."
-->You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up by Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn
Thu, 2010-08-19 16:04I'm sure that in real life, Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn are kind, charming people. But thank goodness they found each other, because anyone who reads this memoir will want to get away from them immediately.
-->The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Fri, 2010-08-13 14:50The Martian Chronicles is on the list of books I would have never read if I wasn't in a book club. The resident sci-fi fan in my book club tends to pick things that the rest of us initially groan about. But reading The Martian Chronicles is good example of why I love being in a book club - new horizons and whatnot.
-->Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Wed, 2010-08-04 15:52If you didn't know how much of Heartburn was based on Nora Ephron's life, you wouldn't believe it.
-->What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
Wed, 2010-07-28 14:19Is there anything more enjoyable than opening your issue of the New Yorker and seeing Malcolm Gladwell's byline?
-->Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
Wed, 2010-07-28 11:05I have a complicated relationship with Jennifer Weiner that exists completely in my head.
-->The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle
Mon, 2010-07-12 16:01Someday I really will stop being attracted to sad stories of women abused by men. But today is not that day.
-->Catching Fire
Fri, 2010-07-09 15:51
I cannot recommend a better way to bond with your teenager than for both of you to read The Hunger Games and the sequel, Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) .
-->The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Thu, 2010-07-08 16:10I finally broke down and read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because of the number of people who recommended it to me. Plus, there's only so much of being left out of the pop-culture loop that I can take.
-->A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Mon, 2010-07-05 11:45
When a book starts off with a quote from Proust, I'm always wary that I'm about to embark on a ship of pretension. Luckily, after a bit of a slow start, Jennifer Egan takes the reader on a fascinating ride that explores time, loss, and aging, all filtered through a backdrop of music.
-->Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
Fri, 2010-07-02 14:38In my less charitable moments, I think “oh, those people with money, beautiful children and a successful surgeon husbands ... what a hard, hard life they have.”
-->The One That I Want by Allison Winn Scotch
Fri, 2010-07-02 13:42The One That I Want: A Novel is a chick-lit novel combined with a dash of sci-fi and a large walloping of self-help nonsense. After the thrill of Allison Winn Scotch’s Time of My Life: A Novel , it feels like a letdown.
-->The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Thu, 2010-07-01 09:47It's been a long time since a book consumed me to the point where I really didn't want to do anything - eat, work, take out the dog - other than finish it. The Hunger Games is that addictive, to the point where I hollered "nooooo" upon learning that the end of The Hunger Games is only the end of book one, and that author Suzanne Collins has actually written a trilogy. (There are currently 86 people on the Baltimore County library waiting list for the third installment, Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) . It comes out at the end of August).
-->Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Weiss
Fri, 2010-06-25 13:11A few years ago, after reading yet another book involving a plucky teenage heroine and her physically abusive father, I snapped to my book club, "I am so over abuse books."
Which is terrible, because I know that while Me & Emma is nowhere in the same literary ballpark as say, The Bluest Eye (Vintage International) , I know books like those offer a measure of escape and hope for teenagers and women in similar situations. Or, just because I hated The Secret Life of Bees doesn't mean it lacks merit.
-->The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Thu, 2010-06-24 15:43I was at a wedding last week and talking to someone who works in a lab. I mentioned I was reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and that it was about the woman behind the HeLa cells. “Oh, the HeLa cells,” she said, her face lighting up. “Everyone works with the HeLa cells.” Yep.
-->