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2008 Reading

Books In Progress:

  1. Creating True Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
  2. Armageddon’s Children by Terry Brooks
  3. Teachings of the Buddha edited by Jack Kornfield
2008 Reading List:

May

  1. For A Future to be Possible by Thich Nhat Hanh–an excellent little book that lines out the precepts in a beautifully simple manner, it is staying in my purse.
  2. Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts (all hail the first fluff book of the “summer”–fun, no thinking, not great but a good guilty pleasure while waiting for The Host to come out)
  3. The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I have been waiting and waiting for this book and it did not disappoint! It was a book full of interesting messages, various viewpoints, and looks into how blindly we can see our own viewpoints as “the only way”. Yes, it stretched believability a bit in the realm of tying up loose ends, but it was still a great read and I hope she puts out another.

April

  1. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. There was much I found interesting and intriguing about this book–a good bit I didn’t agree with, but still well worth the read.
  2. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. An amazing writer, Erdrich is astounding in this book about what family means, what identity is–powerful from start to finish.

March

  1. The Surrounded by D’Arcy McNickle.
  2. Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller.
  3. Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
  4. She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo (poetry).

February

  1. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Finished 2/19ish. I had this on my iPod for my kids a long time ago and it happened that a podcast I was listening to at night was just before it–I fell asleep listening to the podcast and woke up listening to Tuck Everlasting. It intrigued me and so I started it over and enjoyed it immensely. While obviously a children’s story, I think it is a sweet fairy tale that could be enjoyed by anyone of any age. The writing is beautifully descriptive and gives a look into the importance of death.
  2. Jumper by Steven Gould. Finished 2/23. I picked this up after having watched the movie and been disappointed in it. While I enjoyed the premise and I enjoyed the specially effects–the characters felt flat (other than Griffin) and never managed to make me really care about what happened to them. The book, on the other hand, is almost completely character driven and the focus is much less about teleporting and more about emotional fall out and development. Much like I Am Legend, I found the movie version to greatly diminish the main theme of the book.
  3. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende. Finished 2/26. Review here.

January

  1. Moon Flash by Patricia McKillip. Finished 1/15. This is a beautiful book by one of my favorite authors. McKillip’s writing is so lyrical it is easy to keep coming back for more.
  2. Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint. Finished 1/21. I picked this up for two reasons, one, I will read anything that de Lint writes, and two, I was obsessed with The Borrowers or Littles when I was young. So de Lint writing ABOUT Littles is a treat. This isn’t a heavy book, certainly isn’t one of his best books, but it was a sweet read about identity and finding your own path that I would recommend or gift to kids starting into their teens. Not this copy though, it’s going on the top shelf with the rest of his books.
  3. Night by Elie Wiesel. Finished 1/24. The New York Times wrote, “A slim volume of terrifying power.” Having just finished it, I have no words so I’ll use his from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech: “As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that wee are not forgeting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.”
  4. The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch. Finished 1/29. I enjoyed reading this book and I thought the idea of mirroring a Native American’s isolation and assimilation into French society with the isolation and assimilation happening to his people (the Lakotas) in America was very well done. Unfortunately there are a lot of little flaws and inconsistencies in the book that detract from the writing, the largest of these are the writer’s very shallowly developed female characters and tendency to portray Charging Elk as the “noble savage” sometimes. When Charging Elk is at his most human, vulnerable, and flawed (like we all) are he really works incredibly well.
Past Reading:

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