Ok, here's the scoop. I feel dumb lately, soooooo, I want to hold a book recommendation contest. The winner will receive a $10 donation to the charity of their choice--please make it non-political, something like Doctors Without Borders, United Way, Make a Wish Foundation, etc.

Rules: Make a recommendation, any genre (except as noted below), and explain in a good paragraph or two why I should use my brain time to read it.

IF you recommend a book such as, say, "Dude, Where's My President," you also have to recommend a book like "Treason." I will *not* read slanted material without reading the other side. And you have to have read them both as well.

If I've already read the book I will let you know.

And please please please do not recommend popular fiction (DaVinci code etc.). That is the only thing I cannot abide!

I hope to make this a monthly contest--isn't it pathetic I can only get through one book a month lately?

mother of inventors! (I'm serious.)

I'm sure I won't win, because I'm not putting a terrible lot of thought into my review, but I suggest you read Pnin by Nabokov. Why? Because it made me laugh at the same time it made me sad and, since you're pregnant and vulnerable to multiple emotions, you will undoubtedly enjoy the dynamic. Plus, you'll look more studious carrying it around than your dog-earred copy of Flowers in the Attic.

Go, reading!!

My reccomendation is one of my favorite authors. The Book is Breathing Lessons By Anne Tyler. It is fiction. Do you mean that you don't like fiction at all or just the most recent fad? I guess this book was also pretty poular because it won a Pulitzer...now I am second guessing my suggestion. Oh well, here is my reason why. It is just a darn good look at human nature. It brings out the really bad in ordinary folks, it uses real, normal, and ordinary circumstances to show how spicey life really is. Plus, the main characters (pretty much the only characters) are an elderly couple and they react to the world in such a different way than I do as a younger person. It is a bitterly sweet story and VERY well told.

If all fiction is out can I please have a second reccomendation? It would be
Requiem of Love , by Calvin Miller. It is and outstanding re-telling of the biblical story of creation. It is allegorical poetry, some of the best and most beautiful that I have ever read. It is also the most beautiful and heartwrenching love story I have read. It is very thought provoking while being excellent storytelling!

Rebecca,
Those are great suggestions! By popular fiction I mean things like John Grisham, etc. Fiction is definitely in, just not "easy reading" as I call it. Your second recomm. sounds very interesting.

I would recommend Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. It is written from a Christian point of view and deals with the issue of masculinity and God. I would recommend anyone with boys read it even though it is written to men in general. I found it very enlightening and enjoyable.

Anything by Robin McKinley.
Yes, they are mostly YA fiction...but so well written. I'll officially nominate the book Beauty as it was the first book of hers that I read. It is a retelling of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. But it is an uncommon retelling. Sure she keep many of the main details, but the story has such strong female characters...

Also, if you're not so into love-ish stories, I'd recommend The Blue Sword orThe Hero and the Crown

Finally on a different note (and yes, I'm nominating more than one book--I just can't stop myself), I recommend anything by Madeleine L'engle, but specifically A Live Coal in the Sea because it deals with family, faith, community and the effects we all have on one another. It also deals with the necessity of forgiveness--both of offering and giving--and how difficult life can be when you won't forgive.

blessings!
Jeni

Originally posted by JeniLyn


Finally on a different note (and yes, I'm nominating more than one book--I just can't stop myself),

That's ok, I plan on making this a monthly thing!!

I recommend anything by Madeleine L'engle Oh I read all of her young adult stuff when I was a kid, sounds interesting!

Robin, your book sounds compelling--def. a strong candidate!

Keep them coming people, don't be afraid!

Geronimo: His Own Story
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0452011558/qid=1074217043/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-7920964-4778513?v=glance&s=books

A great book written "In his own words" or translated into his own words. I think it is a wonderful book.

As for fiction, how about Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. Normally he is such a pig but a wonderful writer. This one is about his upbringing and it is wonderful. I would highly recommend it.

Lastly, I loved the Poisonwood Bible. It is a great novel!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/044990928X/104-4583346-3157565?v=glance

An honest, extremely well-written journal of a woman's first year with her son. A single mother who earns a living as a freelance writer, she writes bluntly of the struggles and joys of each day. Her son has colic and she nearly goes mad from sleep deprivation, but she does not lose sight of him as a blessing. There is nothing prettied up here. No "see what I can do" mother bragging. It's bare bones and it speaks to the every day heroine in any mother.

Plus it's so funny in parts it'll make you pee your pants and spit coke out your nose.

If you're already read it, it bears rereading. It is the ONLY "parenting" book my husband has ever read cover to cover (much less an entire chapter of).

If you want to read its opposite, read Ezzo, I guess ;)

By Jann Martel

This book won the Booker Prize. I've rarely been disappointed by Booker Prize winners (or shortlisted novels for that matter). I actually bought this book on the historical strength of the prize, thinking that I might not make it through (that does happen sometimes when one reads books while nursing a baby late at night). I was delighted to find that it was a book I didn't want to put down, although once or twice I did put it down because of the emotional strength of the book

It was a horribly fascinating novel, whether you take it as fantasy, hallucination, or allegory. It got me thinking both about how we survive the "unsurvivable" events in our lives, and how we make sense of remote, inaccessible past events.

Karen

Also won't win; but I think you should make yourself smarter via Pynchon. Gravity's Rainbow IS amazing. Really. And it makes you smarter in this terrific, wasted way that just does NOT apply to real life... Noone will think you're snotty; I swear!

The Red Tent

It is a wonderfully written book that follows the four wives of Joseph and his only daughter. Fictional characters but incredibly believable point of view from the biblical context. Centers a lot on the connection between women, midwifery, childbirth, the life cycle, and the reality of having close bonds with women friends. Wonderful and complelling story and hard to put down.

Love Val

Originally posted by cicerosum
Rebecca,
Those are great suggestions! By popular fiction I mean things like John Grisham, etc. Fiction is definitely in, just not "easy reading" as I call it. Your second recomm. sounds very interesting.


Well, I guess my suggestion of anything by John Grisham is out then! LOL!:p
He's the only author I read. :)

Oh no Lori!
Now I sound like some literary snob! But...I tried, I reallyreally tried to read it!! :D

I guess I should add that there will be more than one winner this month, so keep them coming. It was too hard to pick just one.

oooooooo.. I have to put one more. Magical Child by Joseph Chilton Pearce... it is an older book, but SO good.

Love Val

Sharmila's Book by Bharti Kirchner

It is the story of an Indian woman who grew up in Chicago. She decides to allow her parents to arrange a marriage for her. I guess it is a romance novel, but it is a mostly a really neat description of modern life in India.

Originally posted by norasmama
Sharmila's Book by Bharti Kirchner

It is the story of an Indian woman who grew up in Chicago. She decides to allow her parents to arrange a marriage for her. I guess it is a romance novel, but it is a mostly a really neat description of modern life in India. Oh, I read this and *loved* it! She does this fabulous job of making the reader drool everytime she describes an Indian dish. Anyway, after I finished reading it, I emailed Ms. Kirchner and used our correspondence for my Eastern Lit. class. She's a very nice person, and that is still one of my favorite modern books.

Originally posted by cicerosum
Oh, I read this and *loved* it! She does this fabulous job of making the reader drool everytime she describes an Indian dish.

Haev you ever looked at one of her cokbooks? I love Indian food, but never seem to make it very well.

No, I haven't, but I really want to! I went to Amazon a while back, and wanted to get it used but there weren't any. Maybe I should check back.

I can make some things really really well, others come out tasting nothing like any of the ingredients that I added.

There are 4 winners.

1. Geronimo, recommended by Heytoots.
This is right up my alley, I bought it as soon as she posted it. DH wants to read this too!

2. Breathing Lessons, recommended by RebeckaK.
I haven't read many stories from old people's POV, and since I'm going to be old someday, it intrigued me.

3. Life of Pi, recommended by Klg723.
I'm a sucker for anything that has to do with India.

4. Gravity's Rainbow, recommended by Commiemommie.
Well, they *did* call it America's Ulysses.

Each one of you, please PM me with the charity of your choice. I will donate $10 in your name (if possible). I prefer to do it by paypal, so if your charity has a website with a paypal link, include that in your PM as well as your email address and I will email you the receipt/transaction number.

Thanks for playing everybody! I am actually going to try and get through many of the books that I didn't select this month as well, b/c the suggestions were excellent and varied.

I haven't checked into book nook in a while. What a great contest. I'll definitely check out some of the books, seems like I never just happen across great books like these!

I'm putting in my recommendation even though this contest is over, anyway, because the donation is not important to me (though I'd choose the fistula hospital that was on Oprah the other day, did you see that? www.fistulahospital.org that is helping women in ethiopia, it was really an incredible story about how this gynocologist is really helping these women who tear their bladders in difficult unassisted stillbirths and are then shunned by their tribes, it might still be on oprah.com)...

Ok so my recommendation is Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent. It's pretty much self-explanitory by the title, the story of a midwife and her unforgettable births. A must-read for any birth junkie, homebirther type such as myself! :)