(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

Book: The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Verdict: This book was written by a Saudi woman about the lives of four upper-class Saudi women in their early 20s. I found it incredibly interesting, especially because I didn't know anything about Saudi culture before reading this book. It followed four fictional women from their time just after graduating high school until they were about 25... at which point, they basically act as if they are old spinsters who will never find love if they aren't married already. (Which, as a 29 year old, is a little depressing.)

It was a great book for our book club and raised a lot of different discussion points. I think if it had been based on another society I was more familiar with, it really wouldn't be a very interesting story... just following four, spoiled rich girls on a quest for a husband. But this book was eye-opening in that I never really thought how difficult it must be, for these women who are exposed to Cinderella-version stories of true love in Western movies, books and the internet, but are still very limited in their ability to socialize with men outside their family and have little say over the men they can marry. These women are caught between tradition and religion, and wanting to find that perfect romantic love as it exists in the movies. I was also surprised by how much young men and women stealthily interact with each other, over the internet or on cell phones, before they even meet, especially because they aren't even supposed to socialize with members of the opposite sex to whom they are not related. Seriously, these people are on the cell phones from midnight to 4AM every day!

I would recommend this book if you're interested in learning a little bit about Saudi culture. It only addresses the lives of the upper-class in a big city, so it's still a small sample of society in Saudi Arabia, but it's still a well written, interesting book.

(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

I may kick myself in a few days writing up both these books in one post, but I read them so long ago now that I don't really have too much to write about them.

Book: I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

Verdict: Eh, I didn't really enjoy this book all that much. It's described as a female David Sedaris, but I think the problem was I love David Sedaris so much and Sloane Crosley's storytelling ability doesn't even come close to his in my book. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I just didn't find it to be all that funny. It was sort of interesting to read about a woman who is almost exactly my age, going through her first job and living on her own in a city, but there wasn't anything all that special about it. I mean, I feel like I could have written it, and I certainly don't think I have anything interesting enough to say to land a book deal about my 20-something life.

Book: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

Verdict: I actually thought I'd like this book more than I did, but I found the author to be kind of annoying. It did make me want to learn more about Julia Child, though... maybe I'll pick up her biography. I don't know what it is that bothered me about Julie though... she seemed sort of whiny to me. I liked the idea of her blog/book, the idea of taking on a huge project as she did, than I did the execution. I think I might just be getting tired of the similar writing style after reading the previous book. It seems as though there is more and more of a market for 20- and 30-something women writing autobiographies and semi-autobiographies and they all blend together. Maybe it's because I've been reading blogs for so many years, but that tone just doesn't carry over well for me from the computer to the printed page. The book did lead to some interesting conversations at book club about tackling big projects and blogging, so there's that at least.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: Our book club is reading The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea for our next meeting, this Sunday. I haven't even gotten a copy of the book yet... I'll be doing some cram-reading on Saturday!

(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

I actually finished this one back on July 12 -- I know this because I read most of it on the red-eye and waiting in airports on my way back from California. My vacation was so jam-packed, I didn't have the time I thought I would to read it there.

Book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Verdict: The first 30 pages or so were a little hard for me to get through, but once I got past that I was completely drawn into this book. It's a story told by Death, about a young orphan in Nazi Germany who is taken in by an older couple in a small town. The girl finds (and steals) her first book by her brother's graveside, and the story follows her as she goes to live with a new family in a new town, is taught how to read by her foster father in the middle of the night, steals more books, and learns the real power of words.

I don't really know how to summarize this book in a way to give it justice, so you just have to take my word for it that you should just go read it. It's incredibly powerful and beautiful; devastatingly sad, yet somehow uplifting.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: Our book club just read I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, which I'll do a recap of soon. We're currently reading Julie and Julia for our meeting later this month. I also want to read another book from the list soon... I've only read 2 out of 100 so far!

(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

Book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Verdict: Amazing. Just, amazing. I got into this book on, oh, about page two. It is just so charming. The entire book is written in letters between the various characters, and it feels just like you stumbled upon your grandmother's old letters, tied up with ribbon and tucked away in a box for safekeeping. It is so different, yet so classic at the same time. It is so hard to believe that the characters in this book weren't real people.

The book takes place in England and the channel island of Guernsey just after World War II. It tells the story of the German occupation of the channel islands and what life was like during and shortly after the war for all of England. My grandmother is from England and was a child in this era, so it was really interesting to learn more about England during that time. I remember hearing that my great-grandmother used to trade clothing rations for sugar rations because she loved her sweets so much. I wonder if she has kept her letters from that time somewhere. I'd really love to read them now.

In fact, this book makes me want to start writing letters to my friends. Letter-writing really is a lost art form. At book club, we discussed how much more was conveyed in letters, how colorful and descriptive they were... now we just dash off an email with little or no thought at all. My grandmother still writes letters to so many people she's met over the years (even though she also uses email); I wish I'd kept all the ones she's sent me over the years. Maybe I'll invest in some stationery and stamps.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I'm going to mail my copy to my mom soon, who will pass it onto my grandmother when she's done.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: Our book club is going to be reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It comes highly recommended from the English-teacher husband of one of my fellow book club members. It's actually a young adult book and he was actually given the book by a student of his.

(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

Book: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

Verdict: Again, I'm way behind on updating my reading challenge... I actually finished this book back on April 19. My friends and I recently started a Sunday Brunch Book Club, where we meet once a month to discuss a book we've all read over yummy food and adult beverages. I finished the book the morning of book club.

It was an easy, quick read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected to. No one in our book club was a real fan, which is surprising because everyone outside the book club, as well as a lot of people online, all seemed to really like it. Maybe you need to read more than just the first book, but I don't really want to spend my time on that. If you can't hook me in your first book, you won't get me for the series. I was kind of hoping it would be a little more like an adult Nancy Drew book, but not so much. The mysteries weren't even interesting and were solved in about two seconds. I just really didn't get the point. Plus the writing was just... odd. Somewhat overly simplified.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: Still going off list. Next up for the book club is what I keep calling "the potato peel book." Just got the book today. Our next book club meeting is May 31... hopefully it's easy to read in small pieces, because my next few weekends are looking to be pretty busy.

(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

Book: Naked by David Sedaris

Verdict: I actually finished this book about three weeks ago, but forgot to write about it until now. I adore David Sedaris... perfect, easy, hilarious reading. I read most of this riding the bike at the gym and in an airport/on an airplane. I definitely laughed out loud a few times, which is always a little awkward in public. That's how funny this book was. This is the second (or maybe third?) book of his that I've read, and they are kind of like reading candy. I own several of his books, but I'm planning to space them out amongst more serious reading. Speaking of which...

Next up on the Reading Challenge: I think I need to go back and pick another book off the list, otherwise I'll never get through them. I now officially have read more off-list books than on-list books since this began. (And yes, that number is FIVE in 16 months. Pathetic.) I had already started reading This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but life got in the way and I put it down and haven't picked it back up in months. I think I'll start it over.

(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Verdict: Loved it, as expected. I don't want to give anything away with my opinion (even though I am probably the last person to read the book), but I only had two complaints... (1) I think it would have been more realistic if more people had died, and (2) the last chapter was unnecessary and I believe it took something away from the series because it didn't leave it up to the reader to fill in the blanks. Although, the thing I did like about the last chapter was that it gave me time to come to terms with the fact that the series was really over. I spent those last few pages with tears silently running down my cheeks. While I think it detracted from the overall book, it did give me that. But, this is a series for kids, so I can understand why more characters survived and why the final chapter was included. Still, I think it could have been that much better.

But other than those minor flaws, it was nearly impossible to put down. I was so excited to find out what was about to happen next that I would find myself speed-reading through a few pages, only to realize I needed to go back and re-read them so I wouldn't miss anything. I'm sure I did miss things anyway, but I plan to re-read the series from the beginning sometime in the future. I should probably knock a few more books off my Reading List (and my bookcase) before I re-read books I've already read, though.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: I am currently reading Naked by David Sedaris. Not on the list, but I started it while I was limited to working out on the stationary bike as an easy read.

(Recap: Back in October of last year, I proposed a Reading Challenge for myself. It's not going so well... I've only read two books off the list so far. That's pathetic. So I joined a book club to at least try to read something... )

Book: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max.

Verdict: HATE! Totally, totally hated the book. The author's stories are not only awful and disturbing, but he absolutely cannot write! I don't understand how so many people found it funny. He just seems like a total and complete asshole to me. Not to mention, once you read about three stories, you've pretty much read them all. Maybe if he was a better writer, I would have at least found them mildly entertaining or funny, but I thought his writing was atrocious. TS read a few pages and even he said they guy can't write for shit, and I have a feeling TS is in the target audience.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: I still haven't finished This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I probably will pick up something else instead and just start that one over again in a few months. Now that I'm relegated to riding the bike at the gym (stupid stress fracture), I should actually be able to get some more reading in, though. Also on the nightstand, but not the list are Naked by David Sedaris (started reading in an airport a few months ago) and the last Harry Potter book, which I plan to get to during Christmas week. The next book club book is The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, but I won't need to read that until January.

(Recap: Back in October of last year, I proposed a Reading Challenge for myself. So far I've only crossed one other book off that list. Yeah, things are going a little slow.)

Book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Verdict: Took me forever to read. I don't know what was so slow about it. I'm usually a very fast reader, so this was very frustrating. I felt like every time I picked it up, it seemed like I'd read a big chunk but it turned out to be only about 10 pages. The beginning seemed really slow to me, but the last third or so really picked up. Well, relatively speaking. I'd seen the movie, although it had been years ago and I didn't remember much about it. All in all, I'd recommend it, but be prepared for a slow read. Unless that's just me.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

So... a little over three months ago, I proposed a Reading Challenge for myself, and just yesterday I was able to cross off the first book from my list. (No, it didn't take me three months to read that book... I read it in pretty much three chunks over a span of a week and a half.)

Book: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Verdict: Quick entertaining read... and totally hysterical. I don't know if I'm supposed to find it as funny as I did, or if it's just that it is fairly easy to make me laugh, but I actually laughed aloud at some parts.

Also, people, did you know this is the first in a series of books? That is totally not fair! Now, in addition to the other 99 books in the list, I want to read the rest of this series! Plus, I got a couple of books for Christmas that I want to get to, although I'll probably take a couple of them along as beach reads.

Next up on the Reading Challenge: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

As a kid, I was a voracious reader. I wouldn't go anywhere without a book in my hand. I loved to read so much, that I wouldn't even stop reading in the car after dark... I'd just try to get glimpses of the words under the streetlamps. (Perhaps this contributed to my needing glasses at the age of 8?) We had reading contests in elementary school where you and your parents had to keep track of all the pages that you read during a certain period. I always crushed everyone else (although it was usually a class reward at the end, so I don't think my classmates minded). My teachers never questioned my parents when they wrote that I had read 50, 100 pages a night as a kid. Even at 8 or 9, I could knock out an entire Babysitters Club book in one evening.

However, once I hit high school and we had so much assigned reading, I strayed away from books. They weren't fun for me anymore. Sure, I've read a few books for pure leisure now and then since then, but the number of books I have read -- without being assigned -- since I hit my teen years is just pathetic, especially compared to how much I loved reading as a kid. Take a look at this meme I recently did... I've read only 12 of those books. TWELVE. Granted, it does seem to be sort of an odd list and I'm not really sure of it's origins, but 12? And there are definitely some on there that I should have read, but haven't.

Anyway, before this meme made its way around, I'd actually decided that I was going to create a reading challenge for myself based upon the Radcliffe Publishing Course's list of the century's (20th century, obviously) top 100 novels. If you go to that website, you'll see that there are actually two other "Top 100" lists there -- the Modern Library Board's list and the "Readers' List." Well, one look at the "Readers' List" makes me wonder who the heck actually cast the votes because four of the top ten were by Ayn Rand and three were by L. Ron Hubbard. It was not hard to decide that was NOT the list I was going to choose. However, I will admit that part of the reason I chose the Radcliffe list over the Modern Library list was because I've read more of the Radcliffe ones -- 7 or 8 compared to 14. So, it may seem like cheating to start with the list where I've already read more, but the first two books on the Radcliffe list are two of my favorite books of all time. That right there sold me. And I will be making myself re-read all the ones I've read before, even the ones I didn't really enjoy the first time.

I'm debating whether I should re-read them in order, or rather reverse order so I end with the best, or just pick up whatever looks most interesting. I think I'll try to do some combination of the two -- start with books that are generally lower on the list and work my way up, but not necessarily require myself to do them in strict order. I'll keep a link to this entry somewhere on my sidebar and I'll update as to my progress. I expect it to be quite slow... remember, I'm trying to make myself love reading again here. I don't want it to backfire if I feel like I have to read one a week or whatever. I'm thinking it'll actually take me a few years to get through this, but hopefully I will pick up speed as I go along. And anyone who is daring enough to try to do this along with me, let me know. I'd love the support. :-)