The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

This is a sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes and I loved it! I think I love this book and the first book because it is about a high school girl (yes it is a teen novel) who finds her own power and her own mind/gumption etc. I like it since it took me 'til I was 30 to do what she does in this novel. The Last Little Blue Envelope takes place 6 months after the first novel ends. And the existence of this book is in itself, a bit of a spoiler. Once again Ginny's aunt who dies of brain cancer, is directing her through Europe on an artistic scavenger hunt.  The last one proved to enrich Ginny both exponentially and financially. The book, which I am 60 % through (on my Kindle, hence the %) is funny yet emotionally satisfying.  Update: having finished the book I must add that Ginny's journey also shows her who is worth her love and regard and who is not. Ginny also gains an inkling of her own voice as an artist and grows to know herself in relation to others.

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

I am a bit more than half way through this book.  I love Jennifer Weiner's books.  This is becoming one of my favorites of her books. Four women's stories are told in alternate chapters. They are unknowingly (at this point in the novel) connected by a surrogacy baby procedure. One woman donates her eggs for money to help her father, one woman is the surrogate, one woman is the second wife of a very rich man and the 4th is the daughter of the very rich man. I love how woman's struggle transcends the possession of money or lack of money. Yet, Jennifer Weiner is writing about the class differences in our society how so very far apart we all are even within a few miles geographically, the class separations are as strong as ever.

There is scene of the surrogate, Annie, moves through her day. Without saying it, I as the reader, gets the tacit feel for her lack nor real interest in wealth. She worries about what she wears to meet with the woman whose baby she is carrying. Will she judge her Target bought purse? Will she notice her inability to dress well?

What I also love is the character of Bettina who is the rich daughter-in-law is so unimpressed with wealth, so conservative. She admits that she should have been born in the 1800's to really fit in. She only wants her family back together again, for her mother to regain her sanity and come back from New Mexico, get back with her father and push the new, gold digging wife out of the New York (luxury) apartment. Her heart break over her parent's divorce overwhelms her sense of herself.

And Jules, the egg donor, a Princeton graduate, really needs to discover AA!

I'm Over All That and Other Confessions by Shirley MacLaine

I finished reading this book from the library over the weekend, well, kind of finished it.  I read parts of this book.  When she would get into the New Age stuff I would start skimming. But I must say, she has lived such an interesting life. Her courage and determined independence is very admirable and really such a role model. I also love that she is over sex at her age and is looking for companionship.  She has had such interesting love affairs including the her long marriage. I also love that her best companion is her dog Terry (love the name).

If one is into New Age thought, Shirley is a very good resource for this information. She is very sincere and knowledgeable. My reaction is kind of interesting.  I am a bit repelled by reading and talking about it.  BUT, I have incorporated many principles that Ms. MacLaine talks about into my own belief system. I am simply not interested in studying this particular subject right now.  I believe in reincarnation but not in the same way she sees it. I do know of the power of nature, power of minerals and colors (look at my jewelry).

What to read next?

I am determined to read the books I own...books on my shelf as well as recently bought books on my Kindle.

Here's my list of books on my shelf that I want to read next:
The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon
Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
A Course in Weight Loss by Marianne Williamson

On my kindle:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch

This is what I'm reading now (I'm reading three books including an audio book).  I bought it when Roger and I were in San Francisco for my birthday.  We had just been to the deYoung to see the Picasso exhibit and we went to North Beach for a fabulous Italian lunch.  We visited City Lights Bookstore and I found this and another about the love of reading.

This book inspired this blog. I am good at book talking.  Why not start practicing my book review/talking skills with my own reading.

The author reads one book per day for a year.  I cannot come anywhere near that rate of reading. She weaves her account of the healing power of books with a memoir of growing up in an immigrant family with two sisters. Her account of the death of her sister is heartbreaking. She began her year of reading as a way of stepping back into life two years after the death of her sister. She had been running so hard from her sister's hospital room she realized that she needed to slow down and really sit in her grief to truly live. Books had been such an important connection in her family. Turning to books was a natural way for her to slow down and feel.

Personally I wonder if one book a day is really slowing down but I'll see as I continue reading the book.

Bent Road by Lori Roy

I am listening to this book on audio CD.  I do not like the audio book reader but I am pushing forward with it.  A man moves his family from Detroit in reaction to the Detroit race riots of 1960's to his hometown in the Kansas farmland. Here old secrets and new ones make him and his family confront the reality of small town living.  He had left after the unsolved murder of his sister.  His other sister has married the man most feel is responsible who is a drunk and beats his wife. 

I am not finished but will check back when I do.  I am caught by the story.  It is dark but I'm hooked.

Cleaning Nabokov's House by Leslie Daniels

Barb Barrett walked away from her marriage which was a good thing, only the way she walked away had very bad consequences. She was able to buy a home with money from her father's estate but she was left without a good paying job, without a direction and most importantly without her children. 

While cleaning her home, a house Vladimir and Vera Nabokov once lived in, Barb finds a hidden manuscript.  Could it be an unfinished book by Nabokov? In searching for the answer to this question, Barb finds a direction for her life.

Barb continues to make questionable decisions.  Find out how they turn out in this very funny, sometimes heartbreaking novel.