Shelfari

I just posted this on Shelfari, thought I'd share. Top 10 reads of 2008. (Forged by Fire barely missed the cut).

After lots of thought and debate, this is the list I've come up with.

1984 – George Orwell
Tess of the D'Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
When the Emperor was Divine – Julia Otsuka
Night – Eli Weisel
Blackboy – Richard Wright
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
The Book of Mormon

Reasoning: 1984 is my husbands favorite book so i finally broke down and read it. Usually we have differing taste, but this classic truly was mind boggling and wonderfully written.

Geisha and Tess were both beautifully romantic. The prose moved me. I loved the language and the metaphors. Both a must read for those who love a deep and real love story.

Water for Elephants . . . it's #1 in this race for a reason. Could not put it down.

The Emperor and Night were both books I'd read before, both about the woes of WWII. I could read them again and again. I love them. I really recommend When the Emperor Was Divine to anyone who wants to learn anything about the internment of Japanese Americans.

Students at my inner city school who NEVER read were really getting into Blackboy so I thought I'd see what the big deal was. The beginning really does pull you in. It is one of the best memoirs I've ever read, and I've read a lot of memoirs. My heart goes out to any African American of the time.

Three Cups of Tea is another memoir I would dub top five of all time. Mortenson is amazing. One man can change the world. Live your dreams.

And Life of Pi, I loved the beginning but the part on the boat just started to drag on and I lost interest. But boy am I glad I finished it. I've never encountered such a profound ending. It had me thinking for days. I mean, it was ALL I could think about.

Last but not least, The Book of Mormon. I read it every year, and it will always be on my list. It speaks comfort to my worried soul and eases the racing thoughts of my wandering mind. I love love love it.

And I ditto the big thanks to the admin of this group. It is so fun to see the compilation of our lists. I've gotten many "plan to read" ideas from this.

12 months of travel . . . 12 months to read.

It took like a full year to read through this novel but I finally finished it. I don't really remember the "Eat" part since I read it last February. But I do remember thinking, how awesome would it be to just vacation for four months in Italy, and get paid for it, just cause you are a good writer. That is the dream folks. Now, "Pray" was super annoying. I'm actually really surprised I kept reading the book. I was like, GET OVER YOURSELF! This portion of the book really made me never ever want to take up the practice of yoga or meditation. Yuck.

But then she takes us to Indonesia and I just can't put the book down. Memories of my Malaysia just come swarming back. I understand everything she is talking about. Motorcycles everywhere, with full families of 5 clinging on to each other as they swerve through the streets. There's the old Bali man who isn't sure if he's 65 or 105, cause who really knows when they were born? There's the family she wants to build a house for, so she raises the money and then the woman tries to swindle her out of more money. She struggles with the stereotypes that come with the citizens of third world countries, because she sees the beauty in each and every one of them. But the truth is, some of these traits just come from the basic need to survive in a world where your dollar can crash in minutes and corruption is the norm.

Overall, I guess I'll admit I liked the book. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. So don't go out and buy yourself a copy. But if you want to borrow mine I'll let you have it.