Bestsellers 2009

Just thought I would post a list of the Bestsellers of 2009 from my local and favorite book store, the Lake Forest Book Store.  These are not from the national list, just the local flavor.

Fiction
1. The Help         (Yep, I read it!)
by Kathryn Stockett

2. Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout

3. Sarah's Key   (Read it!)
by Tatiana DeRosnay

4. The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Society  (Read it!)
by Mary Ann Shaefer and Annie Barrows

5. The Commoner  (Yep!)
by Jonathan Burnham Schwartz

6. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
by Steig Larson

7.  City of Theives
by David Benioff

8.  Elegance Of The Hedgehogs
by Muriel Barberry

9.  Mudbound
by Hilary Jordan

10.  People Of The Book
by Geraldine Brooks

Non Fiction
1. Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell

2.  Downtown Lake Forest
by Susan Kelsey and Shirley Paddock

3.  Bear With Me
by Pat McCaskey

4.  When You Just Can't Say Goodbye, Don't
by Maria Malin

5.  Three Cups Of Tea  (Yep!)
by Greg Mortenson

6.  Superfreakonomics
by Steven Leavitt

7. My Life In France
by Julia Child

8.  Zeitoun
by Dave Eggers

9.  Infidel
by Ayann Hirsi Ali

10.  Mastering The Art Of French Cooking
by Julia Child

Pretty interesting list!

"The Queen's Fool"

Such an awesome story!  Phillipa Gregory never disappoints me!  She writes like she was there and in return I get sucked in like I am there when I read.  It's easy to loose yourself in the pages and connect with the characters.  I have to say, I did get a little irritated with Hannah, the main and title character.  Hannah is hired as Queen Mary's fool after King Edward dies.  Hannah is a young girl of 14 when the story begins.  I never really realized how chaotic England's history was, and feel like I have just touched the surface.  I am anxious to learn more.

Hannah is Jewish at a time when you could not be Jewish and live the Jewish ways.  She is  betrothed to a young Jewish man, named Daniel, who is studying to be a doctor.  She is to marry him when she turns 16 and is allowed to work at the Queen's court until then.  As her time at court continues she finds one reason or another to hold off her wedding.  Hannah is a bright and steadfast companion to the Queen who does not want to let her go, and Hannah also find herselfs intertwined in the many plots that surround the Queen and her sister Elizabeth.  Hannah finally flees England when her life it as risk for heresey to go and be with her betrothed.  Her life with Daniel ends up dysfunctional and she is once again on her own.  Hannah has the gift of "foresight" where she can see the future.  It comes at unpredictable times.  Instead of being cast as a witch, she is said to be a "holy" fool since in a vision she once saw and Angel.   She feels blessed and cursed with her sight as she knows it can be used against her at any time.

It struck me again reading this book how people didn't live very long back then. Hannah is to be married when she is 16 and the Queen is considered old at 37.  This book ended in the year 1558 and it made me recall the birth of our own country. Why it was that some English people wanted to leave England to start their own country free of being ruled by the crazy King's and Queen's and longed for a place where people could be free.  The back and forth every time a new ruler came to the throne gave everyone whiplash with different laws, different religions, and threats of being burned alive on the street corner if you said the wrong thing.  Nobody trusted anyone as no one could be trusted.  Gives me goosebumps!

My next book will be "Same Kind of Different as Me" which is my next official bookclub book for March.

"The Queen's Fool" by Phillipa Gregory

Still in my catching up mode, since we have the month off of book club, I started "The Queen's Fool" by Phillipa Gregory.  Phillipa is a well known english author who's talent is taking the history of the english royal families and writing historical fiction books that are easy to read and full of information.  I have only recently discovered my love for England's history as generally I lean towards U.S history.  I read "The Other Boleyn Girl" last year and was fascinated by it! I am anxious to read and learn more about those crazy english families!

Onto to "The Queen's Fool".  I have only just started. The type is small, and it's a long book..so needless to say, it's going to take a while!  The story is from the perspective of Hannah Green who is hired to be King Edward's fool.  As we know, Edward dies young and there is some jockeying in who will be take the throne next.  I am to the part when Princess Mary has just come out of hiding to claim the throne. 

More soon!

Almost Forgot!

PS.... So So So excited!!!  I'm going to see Jodi Picoult in March to hear her read from her yet to be released newest book.  Of course, I can not remember the title right this second
(sorry!), but it comes out March 2.  This will be my second time seeing Jodi and I am thrilled!!  The Lake Forest Book Store is bringing her in to speak as they do with many authors.  It is an amazing experience to hear the author read their own work. 

I love to go to these events put on by the Lake Forest Book Store and I go whenever I can.

Record time..Finished Dear John!

Who does't love a good Nicholas Sparks romance??  I surely can not pass one up and when I started seeing the trailers for the movie I knew this was one book that I had to read!  Not to mention that I love Amanda Seyfreid and want to look like her in my next life!

Dear John  is a contempory love story about 2 young people who meet on a pier in North Carolina.  Opposite lives brought them to where they are when they meet and they fall in love.  Fate and circumstance follow their relationship and I was so hoping they find themselves together again. 

Savannah is very sweet, trusting and a do-gooder.  The type of girl you want to be friends with, be your daughter, or your son's wife.  John is a bad boy, who is reformed by the Army and ends up to be quite the stand up gentleman.  Sometimes, I found myself urging him to speak...to react..getting annoyed by his silence.  Savannah wore her heart on her sleeve.  

If you like things that always have a happy ending, don't read this book.  But if you like romance this is right up your alley.

Not sure what I'm going to read next... suggestions?

"The Bonesetter's Daughter"

Amy Tan is such a talented writer!  This book did not disappoint, of course.  I do have to mention, though that I enjoyed the second part of this book better than the first part.  I think it has to do with the Chinese history that was part of the second half of the book.  The Bonesetter's Daughter is about a young Chinese-American woman and her mother.  They struggle through life balancing the old Chinese ways but living in America.  The Mother is not a likeable woman in the first part of the book.  She mostly nags and makes her daughter feel like she never does enough for her.  In  the second part of the book, you learn the Mother's story, her life.  It is then that you understand her.  A prominent part of the book is the mother developing Alzheimers.  The disease that steals the mind.  Ruth is protective and loving yet doesn't know much about Luling.  When Luling realized she was forgetting things she wrote her life story down so Ruth would know.  And what a life she had.  You understood immediately why she was the way she was. 

It took me a while to find some of those sentances that I love.  I was becoming discouraged, and then there it was... page 138 (I told you it took a while), "The diary would be proof of her existence, that she mattered, and more important, that someone somewhere would one day understand her, even if it wasn't in her lifetime."  Isnt that was everyone wants?  Some one to understand them? 

" Wisdom from a childs lips, simple yet true."  Don't even have to explain why I liked that one!

And my last and the most favorite of all, "A Mother is always the begining.  She is how it all begins."  I suppose I identify the most with being a mother in life.  I went from a girl to a mother inside of a year, skipping over the time where I was supposed to grow into a woman.   I'm only now figuring out the woman I want to be 16 years later and closer to 40 every second. 

PS.  Please excuse any grammatical or spelling errors..I'm tired and need to go to bed!