Book Reviews
Book Recommendations
BLOGGER: Deborah Heiser
How often have you wished you had a good source for finding a good read?
Let’s all share our favorites! Send in your book recommendation by commenting below. I’ll add your review to the posting. In the meantime, start reading the reviews we have so far…
here we go…
__________________________________________________________________
Recommendations by Debbie Heiser
1) Just started “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett – great recommendation from Jackie and Laura! The book takes place in 1962 Mississippi – follows the lives of three women, a 22 year-old women and two maids. (read Laura’s more descriptive review below). Haven’t gotten far enough to say much, but so far it is well written and I can’t wait to read more.
2) Finished “To My Dearest Friends” by Patricia Volk. Good read about women in their 60′s – the only down side is that they spoke about being 60 as if it is old. I choose to think of 60 young, but other than that – it was a good read.
3) Finished “Sleeping Arrangements” by Laura Shaine Cunningham. It is a memoir – about a girl being raised by her uncles on the Grand Concourse after her mother dies. It is not a “downer” as my one sentence description would make one believe.
4) Started “Eclipse of the Sunnis” by Deborah Amos. This is a great book – It is well written, and it is thought provoking. About “power, exile, and upheaval in the Middle East”. Not a beach book – a book to make you think.
5) Finished “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” – thanks for the recommendation, Laura! A great read (see Laura’s review below for a description). A definite recommendation!
Happy reading everyone!!!
__________________________________________________________
A great self-help read: Recommended by Debbie Heiser
OBESE FROM THE HEART by Sara Stein, MD
As my all male family (including the bird) watched the football game I read a great book: Obese from the Heart by Sara Stein. Dr Stein writes about herself as an obese woman who has struggled with weight all her life. What struck me about this book, what makes it so different from so many other books, is that it does not apply only to obese or overweight individuals. Although I’m constantly saying I want to lose the last 5 lbs. of baby fat I gained from having my children (now 4 and 5), I’m not obese and have never been. This book resonated with me because Dr. Stein talks not as a doctor, but as a person, about so many of the issues that plague us and that can lead to obesity (among, I must say, other issues as well – such as depression and anxiety). Overwork, stress, bottling up our emotions, are things so many of us can relate to. This book doesn’t preach about eating, not eating, doing or not doing. Dr. Stein writes from her heart in a way that makes obesity understandable, personal, and completely relatable. I would heartily recommend reading this book, whether obese or not.
To find out more about how to buy the book, ebook, and kindle editions go to http://obesefromtheheart.com
__________________________________________________________
A novel recommended by Laura Nolte Cirincione:
The Help is a 2009 novel written by American author Kathryn Stockett. It is also available in audiobook.
I read The Help and it was really good. It was about Mississippi during the 1960s and the relationships between “the help” and their white employers. Enjoy!
__________________________________________________________
A novel recommended by Clive Priddle:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It’s The Tudors meets Game Change
(I’m not recommending that, using it as a referent!): C16th England, awash with political uncertainty, religious confusion, and treacherous loyalties. What could be more fun? It’s a long book, so save it for a vacation or long trip. But if you like it she’s at work on a sequel or prequel or whatever. And she’s a terrific understated but very skilled writer. Not flashy but very acute. She deserved her Booker prize…
__________________________________________________________
Novel recommendations by Vivian Weinberger:
I am currently reading a Pat Conroy book called South of Broad.
I enjoyed 2 other books by him, Beach Music and a book he wrote about teaching black children who lived on a Hilton Head type of Island in dire poverty. I may be partial because I know the area he writes about, South Carolina, and particularly in this book, Charleston.. ( I’m still short of halfway thru). Vivian
__________________________________________________________
Novel Recommendations by Dawn Eig:
I second Clive’s recommendation Debbie. I have it on my list at the moment. For something a little more light, check out The Last Samurai by Helen De Witt. Its about a single mom in England with a 6 year old child prodigy. funny, clever and interseting.
__________________________________________________________
Recommendations by Laura Traynor:
Here are a few:
Recently finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See; set in remote 19th-century China. It’s a lifelong story about two women who became laotong or “old sames” (aka BFFs) at age 7 and the rigid codes that governed their lives despite two very different paths.
Last year’s favorite was Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, which is 13 short stories, connected by, Olive and those characters she comes to know and love in a rural coastal town. Speaks to lives lived, regrets and joys along the way.
Am currently reading A Year in Provence, probably 10 years behind everyone else but it’s a lovely respite on a cold winter’s day.
Another favorite is The Working Life: the promise and betrayal of modern work by JoAnn Ciulla; speaks to the meaning and place of work in our lives and how ” pressures of our consumption-driven, global economy frequently lead to the compromise of individuals’ ‘higher’ values when making decisions affecting the overall quality of their lives.”
More to come as I think of them!
____________________________________________________________
Thomas Matlack gave a recommendation of a book he read on Twitter:
TMatlack Just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage) by Stieg Larsson and loved it. Perfect antidote to Tiger Woods.
He also has his own book which Lisa Hickey, who worked on the project describes…
The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Frontlines of Modern Manhood
How often does a book actually change you? Once, twice a year, max? Well, when it does, hold onto it tight.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I helped publish The Good Men Project. The book – and the 31 stories in it, might now be turned into a Broadway Play, a movie, a tv show, a magazine. And yes, I might profit from some of those things if they happen. Just to be clear.
But…for the record….the book changed me before any of that. It changed me when I read the half-finished manuscript in my car one rainy afternoon in Boston. It changed me because it was guys, telling stories, of defining moments in their lives. Telling those stories with truth and insight and wit. And as one of the founders of The Good Men Project, Tom Matlack, says “it’s the stuff guys don’t usually talk about.”
From the photojournalist in Iraq who helped me realize that bearing witness to atrocities of war has a grace all it’s own to the dad who watched his son succumb to a drug overdose, to the guys who talk about sex and racism and failed marriages along with beautiful, poignant, second-chance marriages, The Good Men Project opened my eyes to a world that had been around me all the time but I just never before was able to see.
__________________________________________________________
Dorothy Sander is promoting her book “Saying Goodbye to Mom – and other Reflections on LIfe after Fifty”
I recently released an eBook I believe might be of interest to your readers: Saying Goodbye to Mom – and other Reflections on Life after Fifty is a collection of my writings over a two year period of time during which I experienced a variety of mid-life transitions, from empty nest to caring for an aging parent.
My hope is that my reflections on this common experience will bring comfort and support to others as they encounter similar changes.
If you would like a free copy to review please let me know.
It is available on Lulu.com:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/saying-goodbye-to-mom/8207365
_________________________________________________________________
Comment below if you’ve read any of these books or if you have any others to add to the list!
To receive updates from ImagineAge, enter your email in the “subscribe” box on the left side of the screen. Your email will NOT be sold!
To become a Fan of ImagineAge on Facebook, click here!
To join the ImagineAge Group on Facebook, click here!
If you enjoyed this, click the button below to share it with others!
