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Prologue:
I was one of those dweebs who was a library volunteer in school, re-shelving books, putting those cool plastic covers on them and suffering paper cuts from the card catalogue. I knew the Dewey Decimal System by heart. I still love the smell of a library and now as a mother of three, enjoy the relative quiet. There’s not much I enjoy more than curling up in my big tattered arm chair with a cup of coffee and the cat and being transported by a good book. The following is a list of books I have enjoyed over the years. As you can see, I really enjoy non-fiction and historical novels. I’m also a sucker for a good self-help book. Check out this list and enjoy!
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
By J.K. Rowling
ISBN: 0545010225
I have read every single word of this series aloud to my children over the years. My husband , who denies being a fan, is usually lurking about listening in while I read. If J.K. Rowling really is richer than the Queen of England, she deserves to be.
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Breaking Blue
By Tim Egan
ISBN: 1570614296
I was born and raised in Spokane, the setting for this sad story that follows a modern sheriff investigating the murder of a sheriff who used to hold his job. The kicker is that the murder happened during the Great Depression and the trail is as cold as a Spokane winter night. The raw description of my home town during the 30’s gave me a new insight into why my mother will not toss all those empty jars in her basement. It’s hard for a boomer like me to be transported back into a time when someone would murder for butter, yes, butter.
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Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in
America's War With Militant Islam
By Mark Bowden
ISBN: 0802143032
From the author of Black Hawk Down comes a riveting, you-are-there account of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979. I was a medical student then and remember the sick feeling in my gut when I heard of the failed rescue attempt and death in the desert for American servicemen. Other than that, I wasn’t paying much attention. I was too busy memorizing the twelve cranial nerves. This book is not only a great history and culture lesson, it is hard to put down.
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The Best Life Diet
By Bob Greene
ISBN: 1416540695
Oprah’s trainer does it again with excellent advice. No gimmicks. No promises. Just tough choices (Twinkies vs. an apple) and hard work (another lap around the track). There is a daily journal that goes with the book that may help you help yourself.
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Citizen Vince
By Jess Walter
ISBN: 0060989297
This is another story of the underbelly of Spokane, my hometown. This is fiction but it reads true especially when the story starts at Sam’s Pit (tattered and closed but still there) and ends at Dick’s, which remains my favorite burger dive in Spokane. Citizen Vince is great entertainment and tells you more about the government’s witness protection program than you ever wanted to know. Also, you’ll always be sure to vote after reading this book.
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bOObs - A Guide to Your Girls
By Elisabeth Squires
ISBN: 158005207
The author’s breast lift was the inspiration for this highly informative and very entertaining treatise on the most worshiped of the secondary female sex characteristics. You’ll even learn about pasties. Don’t go bra shopping without it.
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Crime and Punishment
By Fyodor Dostoyevsky
ISBN: 074348763
I know, I know, you read it in high school. Well, now that you are all grown up, read it again. What a story of murder, guilt, family pathology and what vivid descriptions of human hardship. What I didn’t remember from my forced high school reading was the beautiful redemptive ending. I bet you don’t remember that either. Read it again.
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Infidel
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
ISBN: 0743289684
She wrote this book so we can’t say “we didn’t know”. Now we know. Just read it.
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Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul
By Tony Hendra
ISBN: 0641714149
Tony Hendra played the band manager in Rob Reiner’s hilarious rockumentary, “This is Spinal
Tap” and was one of the founders of National Lampoon. Thus, I was
surprised to see him as the author of a memoir on faith. I read this book
over a wet, gloomy winter weekend and found my spirit lifted and my ribs
aching. Hendra provides an amalgam of deep thinking, debauchery and humor
and wraps it up with an ending as rich and satisfying as that piece of extra
dark chocolate.
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Anna Karenina
By Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
ISBN: 0143035002
I can’t believe I lived almost 50 years without reading this
book. This was a Christmas gift (along with a Crock Pot) from my husband.
From the first famous opening line to the fateful end, I was transported
back to feudal Russia when a caste system kept everyone (especially women)
in his or her place. The detailed descriptions of bathing one’s children,
dropping half dead but very happy from fatigue after working a long summer
day harvesting grain, and providing some comfort and dignity for an angry,
dying man play over again and again in my mind as if I had lived those
moments myself. A must read for anyone.
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The Omnivore's Dilemma
By Michael Pollan
ISBN: 1594200823
I devoured this book shortly
after it’s publication. As an admirer of his previous book, the Botany of
Desire, I knew this would good. After reading this book, you will never,
ever think of food in the same way. Pollen presents the evolution,
politics, economics and aesthetics of eating in a most informative,
entertaining and issue free manner. Read it before your next trip to the
supermarket.
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Lying Awake
By Mark Salzman
ISBN: 0375706062
Sister John of the Cross is a Carmelite nun living an anachronistic
life in a Southern California monastery. After she is diagnosed
with a serious medical, she crosses paths with Dr. Sheppard,
a Los Angeles neurosurgeon. I love this book for its spare but
luminous scenes but love it most for the wonderful, complex
and human portrayal of Dr. Sheppard.
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Complications - A Surgeon's Notes on
an Imperfect Science
By Atul Gawande
ISBN: 0312421702
This is a must, must read. Dr. Gawande, a surgical resident
in Boston, writes (in his spare time) regularly for The New
Yorker. This book is a compilation of those articles and each
presents a compelling true story involving the ill and those
of us trying to help them. The maladies presented also take
on the qualities of major characters in these tales of healing
or at least trying.
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The Cliff Walk - A job Lost and a Life
Found
By Don J. Snyder
ISBN: 0316803081
Just when you thought you had it made, your world comes crashing
down. You lose your job, your pals, your identity. What to do?
Snyder chronicles his gut-wrenching journey from college English
professor to deadbeat husband and father to journeyman carpenter.
This is a beautiful memoir about a man, who with the help of
his loving family, pulls himself off the edge of the abyss and
finds purpose, a new identity, and profound gratitude for this
journey called life. You will want to send his wife flowers
after reading this book.
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Make the Connection : Ten Steps to a
Better Body and a Better Life
By Bob Greene, Oprah Winfrey
ISBN: 0786862564
This is the single most helpful book on diet and exercise I
have ever read. Using easy to understand concepts, Bob Green
outlines 10 steps to improve your health, fitness and well-being.
Oprah provides the enthusiasm and inspiration. If you follow
the ten steps, you will change your body and your life. It’s
all about taking good care of yourself. I personally found this
book to be very useful and it helped me finally take off the
last few pounds of “baby fat” following the birth
of my twins. That was years ago, but I still turn to this book
when I start slipping. I keep it on my bedside table.
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Autobiography of a Face
By Lucy Grealy
ISBN: 0613124723
Lucy Grealy writes a wonderful coming of age story with a
twist; she suffered from a severe facial deformity from the
removal of a facial tumor at age 9. She undergoes multiple
reconstructive procedures over many years to help rebuild
her face as she struggles as an adolescent and then a young
woman to build a life for herself. I particularly enjoyed
this book as a plastic surgeon, but I think it would be interesting
and inspiring to just about anyone.
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Strong Women Stay Young
By Miriam E. Nelson, PhD
ISBN: 055338077
This is a terrific book on weight training for women. As we
approach middle age, we lose muscle mass. A regular weight-training
program can slow or even reverse that process. More muscle mass
makes for stronger and more coordinated bodies and also leads
to a higher metabolic rate making it easier to maintain a healthy
weight. Dr. Nelson outlines an easy to follow weight training
program and provides many inspirational testimonials from women
who have improved their health through weight training.
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Traveling Mercies
By Anne Lamott
ISBN: 0385496095
This coming of age book combines drug abuse, alcoholism, unplanned
pregnancy and single parenting, conversion to Christianity
and mixes all that up with the general messy process of growing
up. This book is deeply spiritual with an irreverent, laugh-out-loud
twist. Ms. Lamott also has some plum observations about mid
life including eyelid bags and cellulite. With her sense of
humor about aging, Ms. Lamott will never likely be needing
my services.
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