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Entertainment Blog
Most recent posting below. See other blog postings in the column to the right.
Under The Covers
If it weren’t for book groups, I would still read, but I definitely wouldn’t read as much. There’s something about that “have to” that gets me through a book that might not have been on my list, but once I start it, I’m glad I did.
I’m one of those strange people (but perhaps common in Princeton) who is involved with more than one book group. Book Group #1 is a group of old friends from both Princeton proper and Princeton University, with a few of us Southern outliers sneaking in the back door. The group includes a handful of Princeton alumni, even more Princeton natives, a few married to one or the other crowd, and one or two who can claim both provenances. We few Southern cousins – from North Carolina and Kentucky -- somehow got in under the radar. (They know we aren’t from around here, especially after we’ve had a glass or two of Chardonnay.)
Speaking of Chardonnay, that is just one key to the longevity/success of Book Club #1. Over the dozen or so years of existence of our book club we’ve survived deaths of family and friends, moves, separations, divorces, job losses and everything else save sex change (so far). And yet we read on.
Group #2 is a bibliophile’s dream – a group of men and women who have the opportunity to meet the author at every meeting. This is not a social gathering but rather a salon of sorts to hear from the horse’s mouth about what inspired the author to write in the first place, what conspired to keep him/her from getting published (the challenge in finding an agent, generally), and what he/she is working on next. This group reads novels, biographies, memoir, you name it, from award-winning novelists who happen to know the book group’s host who is also a writer. So while the selection process is not up to the group, we are never disappointed.
Group One has a different selection process. Each month we gather to read that month’s hostess (this is an all-female group) selection, which was picked out of a handful of books proposed. As I tend to favor historical fiction, classics and Southern writers, my selections have run accordingly. (One can front load preferences with a slight sales job of enthusiasm).
So to kick off this biweekly (or so) book blog, I thought I’d share s list of just some of what our group has read over the past decade-plus. Some of these books are amazing, some just fine, only a handful forgettable. Nevertheless, I think we all remember the conversation around the book and life in general, ensconced in the host home’s ambience and major themes that spurred further discussion.
So what’s not on this list that you recommend? Please share your favorite books with fellow bibliophiles!
| Cold Mountain | Fraser, Charles |
| The Woman at the Washington Zoo | Williams, Marjorie |
| Gilead | Robinson, Marilynne |
| Sloughing towards Bethlehem | Didion, Joan |
| The Return of the Native | Hardy, Thomas |
| Interpretrer of Maladies | Lahiri, Jhumpa |
| Sense and Sensibility | Austin, Jane |
| The Great Gatsby | Fitzgerald, F. Scott |
| Loving Soren | O'Neill, Caroline Coleman |
| A Fine Balance | Mistry, Rohinton |
| A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius | Eggers, Dave |
| Cranberry Queen | DeMarco, Kathleen |
| Offshore | Fitzgerald, Penelope |
| Waiting for Snow in Havana | Eire, Carlos |
| A Mind at a Time | Levine, Mel |
| Runaway | Munroe, Alice |
| Snow | Pamuk, Orhan |
| Blonde | Oates, Joyce Carol |
| A Million Little Pieces | Frey, James |
| Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood | Wells, Rebecca |
| A Widow for One Year | Irving, John |
| Nine Parts of Desire | Brooks, Geraldine |
| Stand Before Your God | Watkins, Paul |
| Half a Life | Naispaul, V.S. |
| The Piano Tuner | Mason, Daniel |
| Reading Lolita in Tehran | Nafisi, Azar |
| The Bondwoman's Narrative | Crafts, Hannah |
| Beloved | Morrison, Toni |
| The Shipping News | Proulx, E. Annie |
| Close Range | Proulx, E. Annie |
| Versailles | Davis, Kathryn |
| Sophie's World | Gaarder, Jostein |
| Empire Falls | Russo, Richard |
| All over but the Shouting | Bragg, Rick |
| Personal History | Graham, Katherine |
| What went Wrong | Lewis, Bernard |
| A Piece of my Heart | Ford, Richard |
| Year of Wonders | Brooks, Geraldine |
| Traveling Mercies | Lamont, Anne |
| Siam | Tuck, Lily |
| The Pearl of Orr's Island | Stowe, Harriet Beecher |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | Stowe, Harriet Beecher |
| Babel Tower | Byatt, A.S. |
| The Fountain Overflows | West, Rebecca |
| The Corrections | Franzen, Jonathan |
| The White Rose | Korelitz, Jean Hanff |
| The Art of Happiness | The Dali Lama |
| Washington's Crossing | Fisher, David Hackett |
| Beyond Belief | Pagels, Elaine |
| Old School | Wolff, Tobias |
| The World is Flat | Friedman, Thomas |
| Middlesex | Eugenides, Jeffrey |
| Leap of Faith | Queen Noor |
| The Hours | Cunningham, Michael |
| Mrs. Dalloway | Wolff, Virginia |
| Bridget Jones Diary | Felding, Helen |
| When we were Orphans | Ishiguro, Kazuo |
| Memoirs of a Geisha | Golden, Arthur |
| Daughter of Fortune | Allende, Isabelle |
| Seabiscuit | Hillebrand, Laura |
| The Heart of the Matter | Greene, Graham |
| The Good Life | McInerney, Jay |
| A Winter's Tale | Helprin, Mark |
| Emperor's Children | Massud, Claire |
| Growing Up Guggenheim | Lawson-Johnson, Peter |
| Imperial Reckoning | Elkins, Caroline |
| Crazy Quilt | Cynthia Yoder |
| Arthur and George | Barnes |
| War and Peace | Tolstoy |
| Gertrude and Claudius (and Hamlet) | Updike |
| Admission | Korelitz, Jean Hanff |
| A Fortunate Age | Rakoff, Joanna Smith |
| Atonement | McEwan |
| Saturday | McEwan |
| Daisy Miller and The Master | James and Toibon |
| Brothers Karamazov | Dostoevsky |
| Crime and Punishment | Dostoevsky |
| Cousin Bette | Balzac |
| Women's Sports Pages | Wood Collins, Wendell |
| The Reader | |
| The Piano Teacher | |
| Savage Beauty | |
| The Moviegoer | |
| Little Bee | |
| Other Voices, Other Rooms | |
| Breakfast at Tiffanys |
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