On My Bookshelf Now

OHH. MIIIIE. GAHHHHSSSSH. Please, please, please read The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett now! You will be richly rewarded for the effort and time spent lugging these enormous ten pound tomes through your life for about 9 days while your nose is glued to the pages. In a very, very teensy tiny nutshell The Century Trilogy follows the genealogy of families who originate in America, Russia, Germany and England throughout the 20th century. The books allow you to learn about real life history events through the lens of loving familial relationships causing the events like WWI and WWII, Nazi Germany, The Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the assassination of JFK, free love, and the Civil Rights movement to be a million times more interesting. Three generations of characters who intertwine and weave through each other's lives culminate in the last book, Edge of Eternity - I was sooo glad to commit to this trilogy - if you're looking for some hefty, but easy to follow story lines which are intriguing because they are based off real-life events, these books are for you!

This book is fucked up. There. I've said it. Serena by Ron Rash is apparently going to be a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, right there is enough reason to read this book! But I couldn't get into the book at first because Rash uses weird old-timey language which I'm sure is why it received a lot of acclaim because he's being historically accurate or some shit, but for me I was just confused. Anyway, so my book was due at the 'ol library, I returned it, and RE picked it up after several months went by! All because I really wanted to read the book before I see J-La on the big screen with Bradley Cooper -- OMG SO HAWT - RIGHT?! Serena is about a young, rich East Coast newly married couple who run a logging camp in North Carolina during the 1930's. Serena is just bat-shit crazy - that's all I'm going to say. I suggest waiting for the movie and not wasting your time on this novel. Now...when is Bradley going to ravage Jennifer?

Another historical fiction that you really, really should read! The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom is a heart-wrenching story about slavery and injustice in the South before the Civil War. A little white girl is separated from her parents while sailing from Ireland to America and sold to a slave trader who lives in Virginia. The story follows little white Lavinia growing up and working in "the kitchen house" on a plantation. Another book I couldn't quite finish before it's due date, but this book HAUNTED me, I had to check it out again and finish! And finish I did! This book left me breathless upon finishing. So stirring. So sad. A short read, but emotional and thought provoking. Great writing. Lovely, rich characters that I can still imagine in my head right now as I'm sitting here typing. Highly recommend this very well researched, beautiful book which documents a disturbing part of America's history.

The writing! The writing in All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is truly superb. Doerr's prose is what carried me through this book, not the story line... the story line didn't have enough drama/pizazz/oh no what's going to happen next for my taste. The story is about a young blind girl in Paris during the Second World War. Her father is an expert locksmith who works at the Louvre and models a true to life mini version of Paris so that his daughter can memorize where to go when walking the streets of the city, the war happens, they get separated, blah blah blah. But, really, truly Doerr has a way with words that had certain passages dancing off the page into my brain with delicious ease. His writing style is certainly unique and worth the experience into his word world. I recommend picking up this book! 

And to finish, the book that is literally unfinished on my bookshelf now, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I'm about 2 or 3 chapters in and already I forsee this book going to disturbingly uproot my old thought patterns about food in the grocery store - in a good, but uncomfortable way. A YouTube Video got me all stirred up (something about how deadly toxic McDonald's french fries are) and now I'm all over Pollan. He seems to know what the heck he's talking about! I'm a fan. I'll be reporting back after I complete this seemingly depressing manifesto on the modern day food chain. 

Tell me... What's on your bookshelf now?




**This post includes affiliate links so I can fund my DSW shoe shopping habit.