Most maddening book:<\/p>\n
“Giant”, by Edna Ferber. If you like being left hanging in suspense at the end of a book, with no idea of what could properly finish the story, then this is just the book for you. After finishing it I had to storm into the hallway and yell at my housemate who had recommended it to me. Who does that?! However, in spite of the (in my opinion) incomplete ending, the writing style is entrancing, and it’s a good look into Texan\/Mexican relations in the days of massive ranches and oil industry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Disappointing books:<\/p>\n
The books by Ruth Reichl and Ree Drummond were rather, well, meh. I had read “Garlic and Sapphires” by Reichl in 2014, and it was my favorite of the year, but the others I read this year were not quite as delightful as I hoped. As for Drummond’s book, well, you’re better off reading her blog than her book. I love her humor and her love for butter, but her love story was too full of sappy emotion for my taste.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Very much not disappointing book:<\/p>\n
“My Life and Hard Times” by James Thurber. I grew up on one of the stories from this book, “The Night the Bed Fell on Father”, and the whole book lived up to my expectations. If you need some light, quick reading, this is the book for you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Book you should absolutely read:<\/p>\n
“A Severe Mercy” by Sheldon Vanauken. Trust me on this. It’s like finding that person that makes you say, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one!” I especially like his perspective on the timelessness in Heaven. SUCH a good read!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Best Illustrated book:<\/p>\n
Probably that should go to “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick. In fact, a large portion of the story is told through the lovely pencil drawings, rather than writing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Most Poignant Book:<\/p>\n
“Counting on Grace” by Elizabeth Winthrop takes that one. It’s the story of a little girl that had to work in a cotton mill, and the awful conditions, and hopelessness are heart-wrenching. It’s an excellent read however, and well worth your time. Honorable mention goes to “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Weirdest Book:<\/p>\n
This is a tough one, since I read a couple that were pretty stretching to my little brain. “Tale of the Flying Dutchman” by Bryan Jacques is a fairy tale kind of weird, and “The Giver” by Lois Lowry just makes you think all kinds of things that had never occurred to you before. Out of the two, I’d say I liked “The Giver” better.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There were many more that I loved, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, of course, and L.M. Montgomery’s are always worth reading, and Hannah Brencher has some very worthwhile things to say, and some of the books I read to my school kids were delightful and should be read many times over. So many books, so little time! seems to remain the problem, as always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most maddening book: “Giant”, by Edna Ferber. If you like being left hanging in suspense at the end of a book, with no idea of what could properly finish the story, then this is just the book for you. After finishing it I had to storm into the hallway and yell at my housemate who had recommended it to me. Who does that?! However, in spite of the (in my opinion) incomplete ending, the writing style is entrancing, and it’s…<\/p>\n
Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8A8kG-4Y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6998,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=6998","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":0},"title":"Giveaway for Book Lovers","author":"Rachel","date":"January 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: We have winners! Congrats to Alyssa R for winning Mansfield Park, Vanya for winning Garlic and Sapphires, and Shianne Kropf for winning Canterbury Tales. The only thing more fun than finding a perfectly delicious book is forcing all your friends to read it as well. (Don't ask my friends\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3628,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=3628","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":1},"title":"Book Review: Garlic and Sapphires","author":"Rachel","date":"May 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I read this book in 2014, and loveloveloved it. I recommended it to loads of people, until finally I thought, maybe I should reread this and see if it's actually as good as I remembered before I continue spreading it. So I did. And it was. Garlic and Sapphires is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_0780.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_0780.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_0780.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_0780.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_0780.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":258,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=258","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":2},"title":"Book List 2015","author":"Rachel","date":"January 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Follow my blog with Bloglovin<\/a> \u00a0 In 2014 I purposed to read a book a week, and approximately did so, by the skin of my teeth. In 2015 I didn't set any specific goals, but largely because I read aloud so much to my school kids, \u00a0I managed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5805,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=5805","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":3},"title":"Day 2: Food Memoirs","author":"Rachel","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When we lived in Honduras, Melissa and I would spend hours perusing cookbooks and drooling over all the recipes we didn\u2019t have the ingredients to make. And with the passing of years, my cookbook addiction turned to something even more interesting, a food memoir addiction. 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