Denise's Book Bag: First in a Series

Because So Many of You Have Asked For It!


I have a lot of recommendable books, but I don't want to dump on them on the blog all at once. Maybe I can manage a weekly posting and link them. I know, that's demanding a lot from my blogging powers. I'm the kind of gal who hates everytime Facebook changes things because THEN I CAN'T FIND what I looking for. Same way at the grocery store.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  Mark Maddon. A wonderfully insightful little story. I won't ruin it for you by telling you anything about it.

Kite Runner By Khaled Hossenini. Pretty good but had some weak points, particularly a scene where the protagonist gets away from his enemy. The pretty good must have outweighed that stupid scene in order for the book to make my very judgemental list.

The Known World By Edward Jones. Amazing. I thought the author had done loads of historical research and based each little detail of the story on primary documents. As in saying, "You can so tell that he researched this county and has all these documents. I know because that's the kind of work I used to do. Historical research. Blah, blah, blah..."  He hadn’t. He had made up the people, the place, the documents, the statistics, then sprinkled in a tiny smidgen of real people and places. I fell for it, that’s how good he was.

Reading Lolita in Terhan by Azar Nafisi. Women are amazing. Many of us anyway. Then's there's always Phyllis Schlafly, Total Woman Marabel Morgan, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachman. They are terrifying. Here's a wonderful detail from Reading Lolita in Tehran --- women wear tight jeans and nail polish under their burqas. I'm always for female rebellion against overbearing men!

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy By Douglas Adams. Whacky but wonderful satire on life. Jody and I have loved Adams since early in our relationship. Travis loves his stories too, absoloute proof that our son is very intelligent.