Read 100 books in 2008

My Immortal by Erin McCarthy

Synopsis
In the late eighteenth century, plantation owner Damien du Bourg struck an unholy bargain with a fallen angel: an eternity of inspiring lust in others for the gift of immortality. But when Marley Turner stumbles upon Damien’s plantation searching for her missing sister, for the first time in two hundred years it’s Damien who can’t resist the lure of a woman. But his past sins aren’t so easily forgotten-or forgiven.

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

I found the book heartbreaking, and interesting. A little too nautical for my tastes. I prefered the parts that foucused on the people involved or touched by this tragedy. The sailing and boat info went over my head most of the time.

Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson
Synopsis
Katie Wilkinson has found the perfect man at last—but one day he disappears from her life, leaving behind only a diary for her to read.

The diary is written by a woman named Suzanne and is addressed to her new baby boy, Nicholas. In it she pours out her heart about the joy he has brought her.

I’ve read it before, Love it! One of my favorites!!

The Nakesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Synopsis

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works - and only a handful of collections - to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors the book received were the New Yorker Debut of the Year, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical praise for its grace, acuity, and compassion in detailing lives transported from India to America. In The Namesake, Lahiri enriches the themes that made her collection an international bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. Here again Lahiri displays her deft touch for the perfect detail - the fleeting moment, the turn of phrase - that opens whole worlds of emotion. The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged marriage, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along a first-generation path strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The New York Times has praised Lahiri as “a writer of uncommon elegance and poise.” The Namesake is a fine-tuned, intimate, and deeply felt novel of identity.

I enjoyed this book, and times both liking and disliking how quickly it jumped ahead. I though the first 3/4 of the book went at a good pace, but the end moved quickly. I didn’t really care for how the book ended. I thought there should have been more to it. I did find the book extremely interesting, if you like to learn about other cultures then you will probably appriciate it too.

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Synopsis

A riveting memoir of a girl’s painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family during the 1940s.

A Chinese proverb says, “Falling leaves return to their roots.” In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline’s affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Although Adeline wins prizes at school, they are not enough to compensate for what she really yearns for—the love and understanding of her family.

Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella story, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice.

I couldn't put this book down once I started. It was so heartbreaking. The fact that the author not only survives this, but the way she does it with grace and dignity is amazing.

You Can Run But You Can’t Hide by Duane “Dog” Chapman

Synopsis
“Freeze!”

Duane “Dog” Chapman entertains and inspires millions on Dog the Bounty Hunter, his #1-rated show on A&E—but there is more to his story. From troubled beginnings and tragedy to triumph and transformation, he reveals all for the first time in this no-holds-barred memoir.

Dog spent the first twenty-three years of his life on the wrong side of the law. In You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide, he offers an inside look at his days as a gang member; his dark years of addiction and abuse; and how serving eighteen months in prison for a murder he didn’t commit helped him recommit to his faith. He also shares stories of some of his most dangerous bounty hunts—including his capture of Max Factor heir and convicted rapist Andrew Luster, which made international headlines.

In You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide, Dog recounts his incredible story, chronicling his journey from his onetime criminal past to the guiding faith that has led him to become one of the most successful bounty hunters in American history. Against all odds, Dog turned his life around and went from ex-con to American icon in the process. This is his story.

“Bounty hunting isn’t your average nine-to-five job. But then, I’m not your average guy. I have had guns pointed in my face so many times I’ve lost count. I have been stabbed, beaten, scratched, beat up, and hit with every imaginable (and unimaginable) weapon of choice. I’ve been tossed through windows, pushed through walls, and shoved through doors. Does that make me a tough guy? You bet.Bounty hunting is definitely not for the faint of heart. But I don’t do it to prove I’m tougher or smarter than some other guy. I do it because I have been there. I have been the bad guy. I know firsthand how messed up the system can be. Despite it all, I still believe in truth and justice. My name is Duane Lee Chapman. My friends call me Dog, Dog the Bounty Hunter.”
—from You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide

More Reviews and Recommendations
Biography
Duane “Dog” Chapman is the most famous bounty hunter in the world and the star of A&E’s most-watched show, Dog the Bounty Hunter. He lives with his wife and children in Hawaii, where they own and operate Da Kine Bail Bonds.

Okay I started reading this almost right away! I am so glad the show is coming back on this month. This is a reals no holds barred account of Dog’s life. I love his honesty in admitting to everything, good and bad. I think it’s a disgrace how Dog and his family were arrested and treated in Mexico after capturing a known and convicted rapist on the run. It is inspiring and reassuring that there are people like Dog out there who do the right thing even at their own expense.

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Synopsis
At the age of fourteen, a young woman in 17th-century Persia believes she will be married within the year. But when her beloved father dies, collapsing in the field where he works with the other men from their village, there is no hope for a dowry. Alone and penniless, she and her grieving mother are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman has woven,meant, of course, for her married life, to pay for their journey to Isfahan. There they will work as servants for her uncle Gostaham, a rich rug designer in the court of the Shah, and be lorded over by Gostaham’s wife. Despite her lowly station, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant weaver of carpets, a rarity in a craft dominated by men. But while her artistic gift flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim. Forced into a secret marriage with a man who will never take her as his first wife, the young woman is faced with a daunting decision: forsake her own dignity, or risk everything she has in an effort to maintain it. Amirrezvani infuses her story with lush detail, brilliantly bringing to life the sights sounds and life of 17th-century Isfahan: The dazzling architecture; the exotic Persian foods; the breathtakingly beautiful rugs. A sweeping love story, a powerful coming-of-age story, and a luminous portrait of a city, this is a universal tale of one woman’s struggle to live a life of her choosing.

Gone With the Nerd by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Synopsis
Hot movie star Zoe Tarleton gets piles of money but no respect because she always plays a beautiful bombshell. When she gets the chance to play a geeky chemist working on a formula to combine weight loss, sexual potency, and anti-aging in one powerful pill, she is determined that this role will open up her career. Zoe may be too hot to understand her character, but she has a plan: her ultimate nerd lawyer Flynn Granger can teach her the ropes. Flynn agrees to help Zoe out, but he’s strictly business about it. His girlfriend is a Harvard professor and he plans to propose the next weekend. But when he sees Zoe in an outfit she considers nerdy, he realizes he’s taken on an impossible task. She’s just too cool to change. As they rehearse scenes in a secluded California cabin, they’ll have to embrace their alter egos and fight the growing attraction between them. And they’ll have to dodge an increasingly unstable stalker who wants to end their relationship…and Zoe’s life. Gone WIth the Nerd is Vicki Lewis Thompson at her fun, sexy best.

Cute quick read, I’ve read several in the nerd series, and they are always fun fluffy reads.

A New Lu by Laura Castoro

Lu Nichols is having a midlife crisis at 49 as she divorces her husband, Jacob, and faces big changes at Five-O, the magazine for the fiftysomething set where Lu works as a columnist. Lu’s new boss wants her to get a makeover and write about it in her column in the hopes of appealing to a wider readership. But Lu has more pressing problems; she has just learned that a last fling with her soon-to-be ex-husband has left her pregnant. Despite the risks involved and to the astonishment of Jacob and her two grown children, Lu decides to have the baby. She’s also surprised to find herself falling for her handsome widowed physician, William Templeton, and becoming excited about the full makeover she’s doing for Five-O. Castoro’s novel will likely expand Red Dress Ink’s audience to a slightly older set with this entertaining look at a how one woman’s life dramatically changes as she faces 50.

I find the older I get, the more I enjoy books where the lead characters are older than 25. Although I am still a long way off from 50, I enjoyed this book. It was a fun read, although I hated the phrase “sweet tum.”

Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

From Publishers Weekly
This politically correct Hollywood romance leaves no plotting stone unturned. For her discovery of an ancient human relic, glamorous UCLA anthropologist Cassie Barrett is rocketed to the prominence of a ‘90s-style Margaret Mead. As if that’s not enough, she goes to Kenya as technical consultant on a movie starring hunk-of-the-month Alex Rivers. After a whirlwind romance, Cassie becomes the new Mrs. Rivers, toast of filmdom’s beautiful people. But all is not bliss for the newlyweds: Alex’s tortured past just won’t let go, and Cassie must bear the brunt of his emotional scars. Perhaps attempting to salvage the predictable plot, Picoult administers to Cassie’s bland character a dose of adrenalin-pumping amnesia. She also throws in a dollop of Native American culture and a noble savage who skirts the periphery of Cassie’s tumultuous existence, always ready with sage advice, spiritual healing techniques and warm embraces. Some rather prettily told Indian legends are added to the mix, but the total effect is wide of the mark.

This was kind of a strange one for me. I almost couldn’t put it down, but it wasn’t completely satusfying either. It was a little different than the other Picoult books I have read, I liked that the primary setting was not New England. I do appriciate the fact that many of her books are set it New England, but this was a nice little vacation. The other differences I noticed were the lack of court room drama, which was kind of refreshing. However I did miss surprise ending which Picoult usually throws at you. Overall I did like the book, but I thought the ending was a little abrupt, I was left wanting more.