My Life in France by Julia Child

I just saw the movie “Julie & Julia” and have hopped onto the Julia Child bandwagon.  I found myself enchanted at Meryl Streep’s portrayal of the French Chef and decided that I needed to read about her immediately.

This book starts when the Childs move to Paris for the first time and ends in the early 90s.  We basically get to read about her entire cooking career – from the moment she enters Le Cordon Bleu through her years as “the French Chef” on public television.  You can feel her energy and personality come through this book and it made me sad that she has passed on.  What a character!

I would recommend this book to anyone.

Rage Against the Meshugenah

Rage Against the Meshugenah: Why it Takes Balls to Go Nuts by Danny Evans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Danny Evans is the writer behind the popular blog, Dad Gone Mad. This is his first book.

RATM is a raw account of his dealing with clinical depression as jewish man as well as how this affected his young family. Despite the subject, this book is not depressing.

If you have ever experienced major depression or know someone who is, you should definitely read this book.

If you haven’t, well, you should read it anyway.

Emma

Rating: 3 stars

Premise: A wealthy young lady, with not much to do, occupies herself by playing cupid.  She is really bad at it.

I love the story of “Emma” and there are some truly funny parts. I love the character of Mr. Weston.  He kind of stays in the background but seems to be a generally good guy.  Miss Bates is also well written; you can really get a sense of her manic ramblings.

I was displeased with the anti-climatic resolution to Harriet Smith’s love life.  Her attachments to Mr. Elton and Mr. Knightly occupy much of the story but when it is revealed that she is engaged to Mr. Martin, you feel as though that piece of information was thrown in as an afterthought.

I find Jane Austen’s writing of this story really dull.  If it wasn’t so hard to get through, I would have rated it higher.

Jane Eyre

Rating: 5 Stars

Premise: Jane Eyre is an orphan that goes to live with her Aunt and Uncle Reed as an infant.  When Uncle Reed dies, Aunt Reed sends Jane to a charity school.  After graduating, Jane takes a job as a governess to the ward of Mr. Rochester.  They fall in love.  Too bad he’s already married to a lunatic.

I love this story.  I read the book ages ago but forgot how powerful it is.  When Jane leaves Mr. Rochester you can really feel his anguish at having to settle for a life without his love.    I was in tears.

I don’t want to get in the habit of comparing books to movies, but I think that the time Jane spent with Aunt Reed and also in the charity school is better represented in the movie (specifically the Charlotte Gainsbourgh, William Hurt version).  I just didn’t feel “it” with the book.  However, once she got to Mr. Rochester’s house, the book outdid the movie.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read this ages ago but thought it was worth a current read. I love this crazy story- my favorite part is the Mad Tea Party.

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Need Book Suggestions

I’ve spent the last years reading whatever cheesy chick-lit came my way.  I want to expand my library with the classics.

There is another page on this site called “My Reading List”.  It is a list of books I’ve compiled from various reading lists.  The books I’ve crossed out are those I’ve read and the ones listed in red are the books I have bought and are next on my list to read.

Please leave me suggestions for novels, short stories, poetry, plays, whatever and I will add them to my list.

NOTE:  there are some books on the list that I have read but ages ago.  So I kept them on the list to re-read.

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Deception Point by Dan Brown

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was written between “Angels & Demons” and “The DaVinci Code”. It is not a Robert Langdon based novel.

This book revolves around Rachel Sexton, estranged daughter of a senator that might be the next POTUS, and data analyst for NRO. There is a super secret project in the Arctic and Rachel gets summoned by the President to go up there and give an analysts look at the project.

Then all goes to hell.

I really liked this book – it is approx 700 pages but I was able to read it in one night. It’s full of action and, like other Dan Brown books, has a lot of science involved. It also takes place over a 24 hour period.

If you like his other books, you will like this one as well.

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Julie and Julia

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The premise of this book is interesting: a woman who is unhappy with her life decides to take on a “project” – making every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the art of French Cooking, Volume 1″ in a year.

I like that Julie Powell keeps it real, noting her failures as well as her successes. Some parts of the book were incredibly self indulgent and I had to gloss over those sections – but overall I thought it was a good read.

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The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is about a baby whose family has been murdered. He is given to the ghosts at a local graveyard to raise. Winner of the Newberry Award.

I have a hard time with Neil Gaiman books, but I loved this. Easy to read and very entertaining. A few tears at the end.

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Still Alice

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a book about early onset Alzheimer’s disease. It is really well written. I would say that this is a must read for anyone.

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