Monthly Archives: September 2013

New York Times Book Review (Part 1)


Last month I told my friend and neighbor Jackie that I would give her my New York Times Book Review each week. I enjoy receiving the Sunday New York Times but even recycling the paper when I’m done reading it feels like I’m a cavalier killer of trees. Sharing parts of the paper should help me feel a little better about that.

Except.

It now seems rude to tear out pages as a shortcut to add to my list of Books to Read. If I’m going to give Jackie this section, shouldn’t I leave it intact?

And this slows the entire process, resulting in today (9/8/2013) my having a stack of 6 unread New York Times Book Review sections PLUS the one that arrived on my porch this morning.

My answer? Record the books that look most interesting here. Almost every book in the New York Times Book Review sounds at least a little interesting but listing them all would be silly, so a really good book might be in there but not on this list, and that is not reflection on the book, only a reflection of my need to keep the list of Books to Read at fewer than 1,000,000. So here is an imperfect list from August 4:

From an advertisement with a headline “The Perfect modern love story. It’s that good. Read it now.” Me Before You: A Novel by Jojo Moyes. And if I end up liking that, there’s another book by the author called The Girl You Left Behind that can be added.

Memories of a Marriage by Louis Begley at least partly because of the first few words of the review “In his engrossing novel….”.

Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel by David Rakoff, not because of the review but because seeing this reminds me I wanted to add this book to the list after hearing it be discussed on television.

Joyland (Hard Case Crime) by Stephen King. I will read anything by Stephen King, or at least try to. I’d say I was his number one fan, but mostly as an in-joke (though I did write him a fan-letter once, but that’s another story).

Under the Dome: A Novel by Stephen King. I read this when it first came out, but I’ve been watching the TV series and either I don’t remember it well or they’re taking way too many liberties with the plot!

Finally, I would recommend reading the essay on the last page by Amy Wilentz, One Book Out (appearing with the subtitle: Culling overcrowded shelves is never easy). Enjoyed Ms. Wilentz’ writing style, and I recognized the difficulty in actually getting rid of a book.

One down, 6 to go.

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Filed under Books To Live Long Enough To Read, The New York Times Book Review

Book Club 9/8 Meeting Venue and Time Change

Due to the Brooklyn Block Party and scheduled activities, the time for our meeting 9/8 has been changed to 1:00. Due to our scheduled host being in the midst of major work on her house, we’ll be meeting in Kathleen’s backyard.

We’ll be discussing Wild by Cheryl Strayed. From earlier conversations, I think this might be our second meeting where everyone has read the book! Of course, some of that depends on me as I’m only at page 83 at this moment (just under 24 hours before the meeting). The way I devoured those pages tells me that it will take only the effort to make time to stop working long enough to start reading and I won’t put it down until I’m done.

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Filed under Book Club Meetings, Book Club Reading List
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