Point Taken

Shelfari

Hey, I just joined Shelfari ("Shelfari introduces readers to our global community of book lovers and encourages them to share their literary inclinations and passions with peers, friends, and total strangers (for now).") and if you're a bookworm like me, you should fo sho check it out AND add me as a friend.

I tend to easily forget what I want to read next, so it's a great place for me to get ideas and make lists.

Ch-ch-ch-check it ouuuut.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

A few weeks ago I read, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. It was a beautifully written and universally empathetic tale set in the deep south in the 1940's. I was shocked to learn she was only 23 years old when she wrote it. It was a solicitous summer read, and its characters will undoubtedly linger with me a long time from now.

I love not only the way she writes, but the way she observes and her social awareness. Here are some excerpts:

"My people were brought from the great plains, and the dark, green jungles. On the long chained journeys to the coast they died by the thousands. Only the strong survived. Chained in the foul ships that brought them here they died again. Only the hardy Negroes with will could live. Beaten and chained and sold on the block, the least of these strong ones perished again. And finally through the bitter years the strongest of my people are still here. Their sons and daughters, their grandsons and great grandsons."

"But say a man does know. He sees the world as it is and he looks back thousands of years to see how it all come about. He watches the slow agglutination of capital and power and he sees its pinnacle today. He sees America as a crazy house... He sees a whole damn army of unemployed and billions of dollars and thousands of miles of land wasted... He sees how when people suffer just so much they get mean and ugly and something dies in them. But the main thing he sees is that the whole system of the world is built on a lie. And although it's as plain as the shining sun—the don't-knows have lived with that lie so long they just can't see it."

Love is a Mix Tape

It's been a good long while since a book had me tearing up within the first five pages, but Love is a Mix Tape did just that- endearing itself to me almost immediately. This book came highly recommended from my dear friend, Shannon and now I will pay it forward and highly recommend it to you (whoever you are).

It's a true love story with a soundtrack (each chapter is a different mix tape) by Rob Sheffield, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be glad I posted this blog and told you to read it. I promise. Oh, and it's a very quick read.

Go! Read lots and prosper!

Freakin' Gooooood

I just started reading Freakonomics last week and it's faaaaaascniating. I'm not done yet, but as I read I keep thinking that I wish they'd keep writing this books because this approach can be applied to pretty much anything! Well, today I realized there's a Freakonomics Blog on the New York Times website. Check it out! It's good, smart stuff!

Book It

I love reading. This is not a secret. If you think it is a secret, then you are surely mistaken. Anyway, I just finished American Pastoral by Philip Roth and it was a gem. I picked it up after it was referenced in one of my favorite podcasts (PRI's To The Best of Our Knowledge). It deserved the big P. Prize for sure. I won't bore you with my detailed opinion of how relevant and smart this book is, but I will share my favorite quote from the book with you...

The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that, well, lucky you.

On to the next read....