What I Read {January 2013}

Hi Friends!

Gosh! January isn't even over, and I've already read some *amazing* books!  Looking for a book suggestion?  I'd recommend any of these!

The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg.   I'm still thinking about this book's quirky, messed-up, lovable characters.  Edie Middlestein, the novel’s larger-than-life protagonist, is killing herself by overeating, and her family can’t bear to watch.  When her husband, Richard, leaves her after 30 years, Edie's kids step up and try to pick up the slack.   Each of Attenberg's characters are flawed and make bad choices, but in the end, I cared about each and every one of them.  There's a whole lot of heart in this book.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson.  Oh, Allan!  You adorable centenarian, you;  you had me a page one!  We meet Allan on his hundredth birthday, minutes before the big party at his retirement home, and just as he decides he's going to climb out the window and escape.   What follows is an amazing, Forrest Gump-like book.  Allan is a man who spent his life finding himself put into a whole bunch of amazing, almost-too-hard-to-believe situations.  The story jumps back and forth from his current (almost-too-hard-to-believe) situation to his past escapes.   The 100-Year-Old Man is a fun book.  I loved it.

Seven, Jen Hatmaker.  I read about Seven on a blog, before I even knew I was going to pick "Less" as my One Little Word for 2013. Once I picked "Less", I knew I had to read this book.   Seven follows Hatmaker's journey as she worked to remove excess from her life in seven different categories:  food, clothes, shopping, waste, media, possessions,  and stress.  Each category had its own set of rules, focused on the number 7.  Her premise was that she could do with less, way less.  Some of the months I think I could do, others, like wearing the same 7 clothing items every day for a month, seemed kind of hard.  Spoiler alert:  she succeeds in every category.  This book really made me think about my own excess. I highly recommend it.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan.  Clay Jannon, an unemployed Web designer, takes a job working the graveyard shift at a 24-hour bookstore, owned by the strange Mr. Penumbra.  It doesn't take long for Clay to discover that all is not as it seems at the bookstore.  This book is filled with lots of code-breaking, and Google geniuses, and techie-talk that went a bit over my head at times.  But in the end, this is the story of friendship, and trust, and taking risks.  It's definitely worth reading!

Enjoy!

XO,

Vicki