Hello - 2006 !

[nikkinaz]

Here is wishing EVERYONE a happy New Year !!!

Hope that we can read some books together again this year -

Did anyone get any new books for Christmas ?

I got Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan

"Oh my. I don't think I've ever seen anything so cute in my life." Thus author Grogan's wife sealed their fate when they "just went to look" at a litter of Labrador retriever puppies and ended up picking out Marley. Maybe their first clue should have been that the breeder had discounted the price on their puppy, or when they saw his father charging out of the woods covered in mud with a crazed but joyous look in his eye. Despite these portents, Marley entered their lives, and nothing was ever the same again. Between careening through screen doors and swallowing everything that would fit in his mouth, Marley also managed to comfort these two when they miscarried their first child. Although Marley got kicked out of obedience training after he dragged the instructor across the parking lot and terrorized his pet sitter, he also landed a minor role in a straight-to-video movie. Marley, incorrigible though he was, had inserted himself into the author's life in a way no normal dog could. A warm, friendly -memoir-with-dog.

And Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld's poignant and occassionally angst-ridden debut novel Prep is the story of Lee Fiora, a South Bend, Indiana, teenager who wins a scholarship to the prestigious Ault school, an East Coast institution where "money was everywhere on campus, but it was usually invisible." As we follow Lee through boarding school, we witness firsthand the triumphs and tragedies that shape our heroine's coming-of-age. Yet while Sittenfeld may be a skilled storyteller, her real gift lies in her ability to expertly give voice to what is often described as the most alienating period in a young person's life: high school.

True to its genre, Prep is filled with boarding school stereotypes--from the alienated gay student to the picture perfect blond girl; the achingly earnest first-year English teacher and the dreamy star basketball player who never mentions the fact that he's Jewish. Lee's status as an outsider is further affirmed after her parents drive 18 hours in their beat-up Datsun to attend Parent's Weekend, where most of the kids "got trashed and ended up skinny-dipping in the indoor pool" at their parents' fancy hotel. Yet even as the weekend deteriorates into disaster and ends with a heartbreaking slap across the face, Sittenfeld never blames or excuses anyone; rather, she simply incorporates the experience into Lee's sense of self. ("How was I supposed to understand, when I applied at the age of thirteen, that you have your whole life to leave your family?")

By the time Lee graduates from Ault, some readers may tire of her constant worrying and self-doubting obsessions. However, every time we feel close to giving up on her, Sittenfeld reels us back in and makes us root for Lee. In doing so, perhaps we are rooting for every high school student who's ever wanted nothing more than to belong.

Both quite different - found them all on an American bestseller site - and wanted something different.