Category: Literary Escapes
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_The Great Gatsby_ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
_The Great Gatsby_ by F. Scott Fitzgerald With the movie coming out, I thought that I should actually read this often-talked about classic. While I did not actually finish it before I saw the film, I was not disappointed by any gaps between the film coverage of the story. I have not read much literature…
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_The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child_ by Nancy Newton Verrier
_The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child_ by Nancy Newton Verrier Over a year ago, I found my first foster mother in the States. In our first telephone conversation she mentioned this book to me and recommended it. When I was in Korea in 2009, someone there had also mentioned this book saying how it…
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_Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years)_ by Gregory Maguire
_Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years)_ by Gregory Maguire Okay, so everyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely HATE movie “The Wizard of Oz”. Many years ago, I did read the book and I still didn’t like it. When I was in New York, the…
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_Gone Girl_ by Gillian Flynn
_Gone Girl_ by Gillian Flynn A couple of colleagues and friends from work asked if I was interested in joining in reading this book with them since one said it was a book that you want to read with someone to be able to talk about it. Intrigued by the idea and never really having…
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_A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose_ by Eckhart Tolle
_A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose_ by Eckhart Tolle Some friends of ours had been talking about this book and how it helped them to change their perspectives on dealing with people and most especially within themselves. Apparently, Tolle is more famous for his _The Power of Now_ book, but our friends seemed…
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_The Middlesteins_ by Jami Attenberg
_The Middlesteins_ by Jami Attenberg Another novel edited by my editor friend and this one was so interesting. The Middlesteins are a family that is trying to survive despite a strong, overbearing and self-destructive central figure who has greatly affected everyone in the family in different ways. They become a typically dysfunctional middle-class Jewish American…
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_Invisible Man_ by Ralph Ellison
_Invisible Man_ by Ralph Ellison This has been on my reading list for a number of years. It is not to be confused with H.G. Well’s _The Invisible Man_, which is quite a different story. Ellison’s book deals with the African-American situation in the south and then in NYC during the ’20’s and ’30’s. It…
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_The Devil in the White City_ by Erik Larson
_The Devil in the White City_ by Erik Larson I am not sure how I came across this book, maybe from Oprah’s list or from Amazon’s recommended reads. It may have been when I was looking for non-fiction work after getting hooked on Jon Krakaeur’s books. In any case, this was a very interesting story…
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_Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?_ by Rhoda Janzen
_Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?_ by Rhoda Janzen Quite some time ago, I read Rhoda Janzen’s first book _Mennonite in a Little Black Dress_ and was quite entertained. A former colleague, college-mate and friend of mine edited these books, so I always am interested in reading her edited novels. Also, since I had…
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_Real World_ Natsuo Kirino
_Real World_ by Natsuo Kirino Last summer I was plowing through books like the world was going to end and so I put out a call on FB for some book recommendations. My high school Japanese teacher recommended _Out_ by Kirino, but as there was no Kindle version, I opted for _Real World_. As a…
