Jan. Liked! As off-center, young, and artsmart as the cover might lead you to believe. Just wish I would have read it off Salon in the original, as all the weblinks intended.

January. Meh. I really, really don't get why everyone I know that reads recommended this book. I found it dry, boring, and predictable.

Feb. Like going through Mom's old 60's and 70's cookbooks with your best friend and a half pound of hash.

Feb. A book about illness and death read to the tune of the flu. I'm not sure if the fever complimented or distracted - I'm interested in reading some of his other works, but wasn't that excited at the time about familiar woes, the slow end of life and loneliness.

March. A good book to re-center your feminine side. Chick lit, to be sure, but well written, not often annoying, and a quick, easy read.

April. How very boring of me to read back-to-back Bourdain. Decent travel and food writing that'll give me waves of deja-vu when I ever get around to watching his show.

April. I love travel writing. I love philanthropy. I know this book got 5-stars. But, about 2/3 of the way in, I felt like I gleaned everything I would from this book. What this man did was absolutely amazing, inspiring, and humbling but perhaps he could have used a better writer.

May. Needed some quick, easy reading and this fit the bill nicely. I'm not exactly a huge Brown fan, but he's the only author in the genre I've been able to stand so far.

May. It's rather abhorrent how little I know about anything that happened prior to 1985 or so. It may be a female thing, but studying battles in class never put anything into context for me. This little snippet of personal experience during WW2, and afterwards of adjusting to life in the U.S. helped give my limited understanding another, clearer, dimension. Very good on all levels.

May. Brought this one to Okuma - much better resort reading than Suite Francaise was last year. Sailing, suicide, sex, and death, with a dash of politics. A guilty pleasure, but I really can't believe all the reviews people wrote saying that they cried - it's a quick read, but a somewhat hollow one.

May. I don't think I've ever read this many books in such a short span of time. Cooper's memoir was both tragic and enlightening - someone who could have wrapped themselves in the safety of inheritance instead works through his grief and disconnection in a way that educates his audience and helps forge deeper connections with humanity.

June. There's reason people are talking about his journey to Japan to quit smoking. For one, it's absolutely hilarious, but also, as an insider-outsider here i can attest that his observations and revelations on Japanese life, culture, and scenery were dead on. The rest of the book held up as well, though it was no match for Me Talk Pretty or Dress Your Family.

June. Decent, very quick read. This little glimpse into the early punk scene in L.A. had me pining for the good ol' days random basement shows, slam dancing above the Electric Fetus, making my weekend plans by reading the flyers up downtown. Wonder if the kids still jive back home.

June. As poignant (if not more so) than the first. A painfully honest examination of parental relationships, love, and loss, riding the ridge of the larger story of surviving (and not surviving) the Holocaust.

June. I liked it, but not without reservation. Though there are several women central to the story, they never develop into something tangibly three-dimensional. Even with its frustrations, Disgrace is well-paced, beautifully written, and recommended.

June. How have I been made to read the Sun Also Rises at least two times, but never this?! What a beautiful and well-drawn story. It's not often that fiction helps remind me to delight in and honor the very basic power and pain of humanity. Plus, I'm a sucker for a good sea story.

July.

July.

July.

September.