Reading
Nov 15, 2009
On any given day, I'll have three or four books "in progress." I guess that's to say I read a lot, and often many different things at the same time.
This morning, I finished Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, and 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, the book based upon Julie Powell's 2002-2003 blog, upon which the movie Julie and Julia was based. I haven't seen the movie, yet. While I'm not necessarily inspired to make a mess of my kitchen learning French cooking, I am fascinated at how such an insane project could help a young woman become who she is. And that holds for both these daring ladies.
I'm also working my way through Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, which is both a travelogue and the story of one man's grief. Neil Peart journals his internal pain and external wonder, making his way toward some sort of peace with an unfair universe. The writing is lyrical and often painful; I have to take it in measured doses.
When I'm cooking in my kitchen, I'm listening my way through Alexander McCall Smith's series 44 Scotland Street, the adventures and misadventures of the residents of an Edinburgh apartment building. The stories are light, delightful, and equally humorous and poignant.
Next up is Shanghai Girls, the third novel from Lisa See, which again explores the lives of Chinese women whose destinies are often predicted by the era in which they lived and the traditions of strict and foreign culture.
And after, or maybe during, Shanghai Girls, I'll be dipping into C.E. Murphy's Walking Dead, the fourth novel in her Walker Papers series. These novels, set in Seattle, detail the mysterious adventures of Joanne Walker, a modern-day shaman and police detective. I think there are ghosts and zombies in this one!
Oh and let's not forget Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham, which I am expecting any day now and will probably be writing more about as I read through.
So, I'm reading inspiring auto-biography, travelogue, literary AND science fiction, and some self-help. Goodness that's a lot of words.
