Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

What a totally phenomenal book. I loved this book. Salman Rushdie is an amazing artist. I said several times while I was reading this book that I felt like a tragic ending was absolutely inevitable and necessary in order for this book to be true to itself and I'm not a big fan of tragedy and yet, I couldn't put this book down. That's a powerful statement from me. I really like a book that teaches me something and gives me some insight and is empathetic and moving and descriptive and this was one of those books. I have read one other book by Salman Rushdie--The Jaguar Smile, which is a nonfiction work about Nicaragua. I read it shortly before I went to Nicaragua and really appreciated the insight that it gave me on my travels there. I knew I liked Salman Rushdie, but I didn't know how much. I decided that I wanted to read this book last year when I went to San Francisco with Brian. I was driving around one day and heard an interview with Salman Rushdie on Talk of the Nation. I can't remember the details of the interview but I knew that I wanted to read this book after that. And it took me some time to remember that at a time when I was at the bookstore and needing a new book to read. But it finally happenede. and I'm happy that he has written many other books so that I can continue to enjoy his writing.
Shalimar the Clown has inspired me to learn more about the Middle East and Afghanistan and other parts of the world that I am terribly ignorant of. It has given me a better sense of the complexity and history of current events in that part of the world. And again, it was an incredibly empathetic portrayal of characters. Rushdie tells these stories in a way that allows the reader to develop compassion for each character. I REALLY liked it.
I think it would make it on my top 10 list of all time favorites. I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of Pretend Adulthood by Laurie Notaro

This book was given to me as a Christmas gift by Melissa's sister, Sarah. It took me awhile to get to it, mostly because it found it's way to a hiding space on my bookshelf and I didn't notice it for several months. This is a memoir and it was very funny. I laughed out loud several times and felt compelled to read aloud to my partner on several occasions, something which she finds extremely annoying and something which I try really hard not to do. But I couldn't resist. And I can't resist now either. As I skimmed through the book to find a good and reasonably short passage to quote here, just to show you how funny it is, I have again laughed out loud several times. Melissa has expressed some concern . . . "Pumpkin? What's going on over there?" I never laugh when I'm reading.
At any rate, here's my reading aloud to you . . .
"I was going down big-time.
It all happened very slowly.
I felt the THUD as I hit the floor, facedown.
I felt the dust settle around me.
'Oh my God!' I heard my husband yell, standing in the bathroom not two feet away from me. 'Are you all right?'
I have told him before NOT to try and communicate with me if it appears that I am in pain, because I cannot be responsible for what flies out of my mouth. I guess he just forgot.
'JESUS, I HATE YOU YOU STUPID ASSHOLE,' is apparently what I replied.
Don't think I'm mean; he has that rule too. I learned it one day after he was lying on the couch and our special-needs dog jumped up on him and inadvertently almost popped the family jewels like they were ripe little figs.
He suddenly looked as if he had inhaled a golfball, staggered off the couch, threw a matchbook at the dog, uttered the words 'KILL THE BAD THING!' and then stumbled into the kitchen. I followed quickly behind in case I needed to get the bag of frozen peas for an ice pack, but as I turned the corner, I saw him squatting on the floor with his hands on his head, pulling out his hair. Without turning his head, he growled, 'Don't look at me! Don't look at me!' and continued to rock back and forth like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman. Sympathetically I tried to feel his agony. I guessed that it came kind of close to the time that my husband's friend was drunk at a party and decided to show us how well she Riverdanced. At the precise time that we heard her ankle crack and she crumpled into a heap, her cigarette flew from her hand and burned a big, brown hole in my brand new irregular Kate Spade purse that I got for ten dollars at a clearance center but pretended in my head that I paid full price for, making me superior and special. I'm not sure whose howls were louder, mine or the Riverdancer with the splintered bones, but I learned at that moment that agony doesn't have to be physical to rip your elitist soul right out of you body.
So I understood and just whispered, 'Peas are in the freezer under the 10 pound brisket you were going to take on that camping trip and eat off of for six days but couldn't fit into your back pack and is now costing us ten dollars a month keep frozen,' and tiptoed back in the living room to watch TV.
I am a great wife."
It's been a great Christmas present.
Many thanks Sarah!

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

I finished reading Inkheart last Saturday night. Melissa and I got home from a party around 11:30 and she stumbled into bed. I dashed into the bedroom and grabbed the book, knowing that I was going to get to finish it. This is one of those books that I eagerly devoured. One day last week when I was swamped with work, Melissa suggested that she take the book to work with her for fear that I would be tempted by it and read all day, rather than doing the work that I was drowning in. We agreed that she would hide it from me, in case I decided I had done enough work to reward myself before she got home. (I did not get enough work done to reward myself and I didn't look for it.)
It's marketed as a children's book, or maybe young adult fiction or something. I felt like it had some scary stuff in it (not Stephen King scary, but still suspenseful) and because it was set in a contemporary setting that scary stuff (even though it was fanciful) still seemed real enough to me. So I wouldn't recommend it to Olivia yet anyway.
But it's a great book about a girl and her father and some other interesting characters. It explores the line between fiction and reality much in the same way that Jasper Fforde books do. I was surprised by this because I often think that's a unique perspective. But now that I think about it, I guess Sophie's World also explores that line. And that's another one of my favorite books.
I have already recommended this to Dad because I thought he would enjoy the father/daughter connection. I really liked the book and, aside from Olivia, can't think of anyone to whom I wouldn't recommend it.

My To-Do Stack

I mentioned it in my Recommendations link to the left here (haven't made a recommendation yet? GO DO IT RIGHT NOW!), but I will mention it here as well. I am hoping that people reading this will also let me know what they have read that they liked. My faithful friend Case was the trailblazer who laid down the first recommendation and being that I just finished a book, I zipped out to the store and bought some books, one of which was recommended by her. Here are the books I purchased yesterday at the store. (By the way, Steve--I remembered that you had recommended a book to me but couldn't remember the name or the author and so didn't purchase that one. Now that it's listed here, I'll be checking it out the next time I'm at the store.) Oh and by the way--I also would love to be loaned or given books whenever the mood strikes any of you.
Back to the books I bought:
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb--Recommended by Case.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri--Found it myself, encouraged to buy it by Melissa.
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke--Recommended by Melissa, not because she's read it but because she did some research on my kind of books and found this one.
Stay tuned for reviews!

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde (2004)

I liked it. As I've said elsewhere, these books are always fun and easy to read. But they aren't mindless. This one I liked just as much as the others I have read. I am not sure how difficult it would be to pick this one up without having read the ones preceding it, though. As I'm writing this I'm thinking about how when I read a series by an author, or books featuring the same character (ala Tony Hillerman for instance), I have difficulty distinguishing one story from another. It all blends in together. And if I'm not careful, I find myself picking up books by that author and wondering if I've read them. I don't think it's that way with the Jasper Fforde books. While they build on eachother and feature the same primary character, I can distinctly remember all of them as individuals. I think that makes the series stand out. Having said that though, I can't speak to what stands out about this particular book. Any help out there?

Recommendations?

I love reading books that other people recommend to me. Please post your recommendations here along with some reason why you are recommending it. Maybe just because you loved it or because you think I would love it or something like that. Bring it on . . .