Irene's Reading List for September

The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartwright
Devils in the Sugar Shop by Timothy Schaffert
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Irene's Reading List for August

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Irene's Reading List for April - July

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi
Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
Beneath the Metropolis, The Secret Lives of Cities by Alex Marshall
A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke

Irene's Reading List for February and March 2007

March
Hannibal Rising by thomas Harris
Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers
The Empire of the Wolves by Jean-Christophe
“Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum

February
The Lucky Ones by Rachel Cusk
Everything You Know by Zoe Heller
The Stone Council by Jean-Christophe Grange
Chinatown Beat by Henry Chang
Blood-Red Rivers by Jean-Christophe Grange

Books I read in January 2007

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Ruins by Scott Smith
In the Company of a Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

Reading list for December 2006

Snobs by Julian Fellowes
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Irene's Reading List for September

The Red Notebook by Paul Auster
The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
Istanbul, The Imperial City by John Freely
Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley
The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

I'M LAME

I haven't blogged in what seems like months - here's what's been happening:

I'm very happy to report that I finally finished reading Don Quixote about 2 weeks ago. It was L-O-N-G, and to me not all that great, to tell the truth. I'm sure it was cutting edge back in 1605 and an important step in the development of the modern novel, but it just kind of goes on and on, and there's not much of a story line carried through the whole thing, other than DQ being Craz-ee. And that whole windmill thing? Done & forgotten in the first 50 pages (of over 1000). I think it may be so well known because that's as far as a lot of people make it.

Much of Part2 (which originally came out in 1615, 10 yrs after part 1) is DQ & Sancho staying at the castle of a Duke & Duchess who play practical jokes on them for laughs, so I guess you could also say it may have important in the development of modern prank TV, like Candid Camera and Punk'd. I say read Les Miserables if you're looking for a brick-sized classic--that was great, a genuine page turner (really!).

Irene and I went to DC this past weekend to see Joe & Andrea. Had an awesome time, did a few museums, dinner with my Hoya buddies at the ginormous new downtown Clyde's and a crab feast at the Quarterdeck in Arlington with our newly relocated friends the no-longer Seattle Walshes, some boozing, a movie (Jackass #2!), saw Robbie Fulks live-- we were busy! We'll be going to Berlin, Dresden and Prague with J&A next month - can't wait for that!

to be continued tomorrow - gotta catch my bus

Irene's Reading List for August

never drank the kool-aid by Touré
The Ethical Assassin by David Liss
The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky

Irene's Reading List for July

Bait and Switch, The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich
Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley
4th of July by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Irene's Reading List for June

The Torment of Others by Val McDermid
fallen by David Maine
The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight
The Wives of Bath by Wendy Holden
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

Irene's Reading List for May

Saturday by Ian McEwan
Death of an Ordinary Man by Glen Duncan
Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked of the West by Gregory Maguire
Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Irene's Reading List for April

Superstud: How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin by Paul Feig
train by Pete Dexter
Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames

Irene's Reading List for March

1. Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After The Fall by Andrew Meier


2. The Concrete Sea by John Dalton


3. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid


4. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach


5. Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra by Jordan Fisher Smith


6. Heir to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick


7. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid