Heaven is a Big Stack-o-Books

I've been reading the last couple of weeks. The books-for-Christmas quota was a little lower this year than usual, but the quality is up. Here's what I've finished so far:

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey. Very compelling. I've had so many friends, IRL and online, recommend this title that I bought it without even reading the back cover while I was out Christmas shopping. An impulse purchase, but not one I regret. There were parts that were very hard to read because they were very, very real... one part I just could not bear. (If you've read it, can you guess what part I couldn't take? Hint: it wasn't the part about his visit to the dentist.) Aside from that one scene, however, I found the book riveting. And I decided that while the book is not great literature, this one title alone could possibly be the most effective anti-drug message a parent could ever give her kid. (If she were of the love-hurts school of protecting her kids. Which at times I can be, I admit.)

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss. Hard to sing the praises of this book too highly. I fell through the looking glass almost immediately and found myself surprised and annoyed whenever one of my kids interrupted my reading to ask me for breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner. ("Please, mom, we're hungry!") Such is the power of some books, that you enter their world so completely that you are disoriented when jerked rudely back to your own. This was that kind of book. And the characters in it were people unlike any I personally know, which is always a pleasure to be found in good books. I grew up in the South, have always lived in the South, and all my people are of Protestant Scotch-Irish descent. The characters in this book are Polish Jews who've made their way to the Americas, North and South, and their offspring. Their voices are beautiful and pleading and so different from my own that they are fascinating.

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd. (Yes, BFF Ruthie, I finally got around to reading this. You're welcome.) This was a find from the Scholastic Book Sale - an unabridged audio CD set of the entire novel. I started off listening little bits at a time in my car. By the midpoint of the book, I had to borrow DH's fancy-schmancy earphones and listen on the DVD player late into the night. What I loved about this book was what a powerful picture of women it presented, the great gift mothers give daughters and that daughters seek out long after their mothers are gone. The narrator for the audio version had a WONDERFULLY authentic deep Southern accent, which just cannot be faked. I don't care if you are Meryl Streep or Emma Thompson, if you did not grow up in the South you should not even try to imitate a Southerner. But I digress. Yes, Ruthie, you were right - I did love this book.

The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness, Joel ben Izzy. A simple and profound true story of a professional storyteller who loses his voice and how he came to see the loss as a gift. Interspersed with the author's story are the legends and fairy tales he used to tell, woven throughout as illustrations for his own journey. This was a short but worthwhile read.

Shopgirl, Steve Martin. I loved this book the first time I read it. Not as much the second time, but I still think it's well-done. Martin surprised me as an author; the element of surprise was missing the second time, but I still found his prose lovely and his insights refreshing. I hope the movie will be as good.

Here is the list of books still stacked up in anticipation of being read:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathon Safran Foer.
Shakespeare and the Art of Language - Sister Miriam Joseph. This one looks rather dense - a thick book with small print - so it will take me a while. But it is about how the Trivium influenced Shakespeare's work. Doesn't that sound intriguing?
Henry V - Kenneth Branagh version, on videotape. Yes, I know it's not a book, but I've put it on the list because it WILL take time to watch and it IS literary. So there.

So, what about y'all? What titles did you get for Christmas? My stack is too short, and I need suggestions!

P.S. To Patty in WA: I am thinking through a response to your recent comments re: the Great BoyBob Wars. Take courage, my friend! You are fighting a good fight! (More soon.)