Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - Dan Ariely

Fun and enlightening. Everyone should read this book.

Mogen for skrubben - Solja Krapu

En svensk bok om en lararinna pa hogstadiet som blir inlast i kopieringsskrubben en hel helg. Mycket tid att tanka... Bra. Lite redundant men anda bra. 8

Case Histories - Kate Atkinson

Mystery set in England. Usually not my type of book but for some reason I liked it. My book club didn't... I liked the setting. The story line didn't quite tie all the people together but I still liked it. The people seemed real. They were weird but real. 7

Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson

Great quiet book that takes place in Norway and a little bit in Sweden. Great prose translated from Norwegian which is obvious and awesome. 9.

The nasty bits : collected varietal cuts, usable trim, scraps, and bones - Anthony Bourdain

His usual style but choppier due to each chapter dealing with a separate trip to different countries. Nothing new really. 5

Financial peace revisited - Dave Ramsey

Great financial advice to take to heart. Some of the religious stuff is too much for me along with the wife's quotes.

In defense of food : an eater's manifesto - Michael Pollan

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Brilliant.

The Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs

Kinda trashy. Until the end. I did like the end. 5ish....

Whistling in the Dark - Lesley Kagen

I had mixed feelings while reading this book. It is supposed to evoke the feelings of a bygone fifties neighborhood but it is told through the eyes of a ten-year-old. It is the voice that gets annoying at times, I think. I can't put my finger on it. The kids are naive but at the same time not. I don't know. They are kind of likeable though and I found myself liking the book in the end. Even though the ending is hollywoodish. Sally O'Malley and her younger sister Troo are left to fend for themselves when their mom is sick during a summer when a murderer is on the lose. Sally is also trying to deal with the death a year earlier of her father. 6

By hook or by crook : a journey in search of English / David Crystal

Love books about the English language (actually languages overall). This one is ok. Learned some new things. Laughed a little. Came away with a renewed sense of the amazing intricacies of linguistics. 7

The People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

Hannah is an Australian rare-book expert and is commissioned to restore a famous centuries old Jewish book which had been lost but is found anew in Sarajevo towards the end of the Bosnian war. Hannah deals with the details of the book as well with personal demons relating to relationships with her mother and non-existent father. The historical fiction aspects and the way the story is presented to the reader is very appealing. However, some of the dialogue of the modern day people is trite. Overall, after a slow start, a great read. 8

The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian

Intriguing story with a mystery-like unfolding about a young woman, Laurel, who deals with PTSD after a brutal attack. The truth is revealed in the end which brings the story to a somewhat chaotic close because I am left not knowing quite what parts of the story had been Laurel's delusions and what had really happened, which gets a little annoying. It would be hard to tease apart without going back and going over chapters again to compare minute details, which were really clues to her insanity, to facts were disclosed at the end. I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen but I didn't feel quite satisfied when I did. Mostly well written except for some stiff and stilted dialogues. 7.

Luftslottet som sprängdes - Stieg Larsson

ooja
Swedish captivating thriller

Flickan som lekte med elden - Stieg Larsson

jajamen mycket medryckande och spannande

Män som hatar kvinnor - Stieg Larsson

ja

Between two worlds : escape from tyranny : growing up in the shadow of Saddam - Zainab Salbi and Laurie Becklund

Zainab grew up as in the shadow and force of Sadam Hussein. Her father was his private pilot and her family spent a lot of time partying (reluctantly!) in his circles. She provides an insight to Sadam Hussein as a person, a controlling scary person. Eventually, she was married off to an American stranger in order to get her out of Iraq and away from Sadam and his perpetrating son. It was a horrible marrige from which she fled and created her own life as a strong advocate for women in need. Good. It gets a little redundant to her about the extravagancies and outrageousness of Sadam and the people around him, however. But it is still good. 7

The omnivore's dilemma

great

Blue Shoe - Anne Lamott

Mattie lives in Marin!! Mattie is the main character in the book. She is a devout christian who sleeps with her ex even though he is scum and at the same time she wants to kill him. She had a jumbled upbringing and, while dealing with her mother's declining health and mental capacity, is trying to come to grips with her dead father's philandering. The story gets a little annoying at times but it all takes place in lovely Marin. I recognize all the names and places as well as plants and smells and people. I have always been a big fan of Anne Lamott, so how can I not like this one as well? 8

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

This is a fiction hostage drama in an unnamed South American country. The main characters involve a famous opera singer and a successful Japanes businessman who are held hostage after a party to honor the Japanese man's birthday. The story is interesting, the setting is interesting, and the characters are interesting but somehow it still reads a little like a romance novel. Characters spend a long time as hostages having time to develop relationships independent of the real world. In the end it is necessary to have some of them die to solve the dilemma of returning to normal life and family after such an experience. It's entertaining but not believable. 5.

Eating Heaven - Jennie Shortridge

Any book that takes place in Portland, OR, immediately moves one step up the ladder! Eleanor Samuel's life is in crisis. Her uncle--he may even be her dad we find out as family secrets unravel--is dying from cancer and she is the one taking care of him. At the same time her food article writing career is veering off along with her eating habits. Described as in her late thirties and on the heavy side, she is forced to examine her grief, her life and her relationship with food all at the same time. What's not to like? I enjoyed it. 7.

The Red Azalea - Anchee Min

Anchee Min’s story about growing up on Mao’s China is absolutely gripping. The language, her writing, is terse and unadorned and as naked and raw as the life in China she fled. Everything about her childhood is so very foreign, the food, the people, the emotions, the culture, and the brutality of oppression, which makes it so intriguing, exotic if you will. At the same time, it is not difficult to recognize the humanity in it all, the humanity that we all share despite enormous differences. Some books fade into oblivion, but this is one that never could. 9+.

Animal, vegetable, miracle - Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver and her family moved to their farm in the Appalachians and decided to spend a year only eating local fooods. A lot of it came from their own farm. Kingsolver writes well as usual and chronicles a year of their efforts be locavores. She shares beautiful stories from their gardening adventures and cooking and canning productions. The stories are intertwined with research and data about the food production industry as well as some lovely recipes. Her response to the question why Americans eat so much bad food is "alimentary alienation" derived from Marx' theories of humans' desire to control an entire process of manufacture. Brilliant. She also writes eloquently about vegetarianism having adhered to a vegetarian diet for periods herself. Sometimes she is even funny. "Strangely enough, it's the animals to which we have assigned some rights, while the saintly plants we maim and behead with moral impunity. Who thinks to beg forgiveness while mowing the lawn?" Splendid book. 9

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

This is a book I have been wanting to read for a long time. It's amazing in its detail and use of language. I was transported to dusty hot California instantly. It's a short book that could have been expanded but it's still enjoyable. Two laborers are travelling from job to job as farmhands. George, who smarter, takes care of the dim-witted Lennie. They dream of a place to call their own where they work only for themselves. Their dream is predictably crushed when Lennie gets in trouble again. In the end, George is forced to "send off" Lennie towards that dream... Sad. Good. 8.

Julie & Julia - Julie Powell

365 days. 524 recipes. 1 tiny apartment kitchen. Julie Powell has always adored Julia Child. Around the time she is about to turn 30, Julie is depressed and feels her life is going nowhere. She is a lowly liberal secretary for a government agency populated by Republicans. She decides to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking during one year while blogging about it. Her writing is hilarious. I laughed out loud several times. This is easy and fun reading and by no means any heavy duty literature. I enjoyed it for what it is. I even learned a new word, prolix. Tediously lengthy in speech and writing. Anyway, Julie cooks her way out of depression and mediocrity and into a new career as a writer. "Two years ago I was a twenty-nine-year-old secretary. Now I am a thirty-one-year-old writer. I get paid very well to sit around in my pajamas and type on my ridiculously fancy iMac, unless I'd rather take a nap. Feel free to hate me--I certainly would." A funny and easy 8.

Clara Callan - Richard B. Wright

This book won prizes in Canada and I am not sure why. This was my choice for one of my bookclubs. And I didn't even like it very much. My bookclub seemed to like it however. The premise was interesting. Two sisters from a small town in Canada part ways in 1934. One heads to New York for a career in radio and the other stays behind working as a school teacher. The book follows them over the next couple of years. It sounded interesting enough, but I didn't like how the author--a man--described Clara's feelings around sex and motherhood. Clara is the sister that stays behind. At one point she gets raped and then she fantasizes about that and goes out of her way to find the guy that did it. It is too weird. I just don't like it when men attempt to imagine what a woman might be going through. It becomes very stereotypical and contrived. The book contains a lot of references to literature, radio, and film at the time, which was interesting. 5.