CURRENTLY READING: Dead Sexy (Tate Hallaway)
Since I started my little project reading the greatest love stories of all time (or at least trying to figure out what they are), I’m going to post up my summer reading list just in case you hockey lovers need something to do in the off-season. 
For the record, they’re not all love stories. I need to give this brain a break every once in a while.
These are ranked according to what was best (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars with 5 stars being the best reads):
1. Night Watch (Sergei Lukyanenko). [5 stars] Forget the Twilight saga. Really…FORGET IT! Throw Harry Potter in there too. As much as we love these children/teen stories, it’s about time someone came out with the right kind of mystical/vampiric/magical saga for adults. Ironically, these books have been out for a while. I literally had a hard time putting this book down. I’ve seen the movies Night Watch and Day Watch already. It’s easier to have a face to the characters and the major plot of the story already in my head. But as I read the book, I became so engrossed in the story that it literally made me think about good vs. evil and how in every good action there is an evil reaction. For every evil action there is a good reaction. It also had me thinking about curses and how a simple curse could explain so many things that go wrong in people’s lives. The point is…this saga that takes place in Russia is the adult version to Harry Potter and Twilight. It nurtures all of that childlike fantasies of magic lore, vampires, fates, fairy tales, etc. and explains them in realistic REALITY terms with a bit of fantasy fiction of its own. I’m still waiting for the third installment of the Night Watch movies, but it doesn’t look like it’s even hit production yet. Maybe if there was more interest… (just a suggestion). I think you’ll enjoy the book as much as I have. I’m hooked on it just as much as I’m hooked on the movies. It’s the same attachment I had to the Harry Potter series (if that gives you any idea how damn good these books are).
2. The Angel’s Game (Carlos Ruiz Zafon). [5 stars] I love Zafon’s works. I became a huge fan of his after reading “The Shadow of the Wind.” I loved the adventure, the history, the mystery and the story. His books always center around a book…and I love paper and books. To make a book a completely mystery that sends the readers on a mind thrilling adventure, and he has tantalized every part of my brain. In “The Angel’s Game,” Zafon takes a character from Shadow and writes his own tale. This time, that character is a writer creating masterpieces in Barcelona. He, of course, is the young boy from Shadow that showed up at the bookseller’s doorstep, completely bloodied and beaten up, holding a copy of “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens in his hands. Even his blood-stained handprint remained on the cover years later as he tried to protect the book. That book was his life as he poured his soul into future tales for readers in his own stories. Zafon never disappoints. This was my adventure book of the summer that I waited two months for. Zafon’s works are always worth the wait!
3. The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life (Suze Orman). [5 stars] I know, I know…a Suze Orman book…let alone a financial book has gotten 5 stars on my summer reading list. But there’s a reason for it. Her book came at the right moment. As I was writing in my book, I needed some words of wisdom somewhere, and my instincts had me pick this book up from off of my summer reading table. I sat down in my big reading chair and realized within the first couple of pages why I needed to read this book. It was answering some life questions I was asking myself at the exact same time. Suze is a bit of a wizard when it comes to this stuff (even though I love David Bach’s works much better). But when I needed answers, God led me to this book and I got the answers I was looking for. That’s why the book has 5 stars.
4. The Commoner (John Burnham Schwartz). [5 stars] I didn’t think I would like this book so much, but I guess there’s always the love of a commoner becoming a princess and then Empress that can get any Disney loving girl’s heart pumping. But much of this story is based on a true story and the legacy of the Empress of Japan. It’s a sad story, but it is one that brings understanding to what happened to the Crown Princesses while they were behind palace walls.
5. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez). [5 stars] There is something to be said about undying love for someone that has patience…and over half a century of it. I never could understand what was so important about this book until I saw myself in the shoes of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. In the movie, Serendipity (with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale), the main book was Love in the Time of Cholera. This movie was all about fate, but the book is all about the dramas of love (the good, the bad and the ugly of it). But as far as the movie Love in the Time of Cholera is concerned…the best line is the final line, “[I]t is life and not death that has no limits.”
6. The Septembers of Shiraz (Dalia Sofer). [5 stars] I did a blog earlier about this book. This is one of those books that really makes you think after you put it down. I really love books based on the lives of people from the Middle East, because it helps me to understand their world that is so different from the way we live in America. It’s hard to imagine continuous warfare going on in our own backyards. It’s even harder to imagine being taken to prison because you are not part of the majority. It really helps you to appreciate the freedoms we take for granted every single day. There are some people in the world that don’t have that same freedom just because they were born into a family that is different then the majority (in this case he was being persecuted for being a Jew, even though he did not practice the religion and the majority rule were Muslim).
7. Dreamers of the Day (Mary Doria Russell). [4.5 stars] This is by far an excellent historical period piece set in the 1920s of a woman who sets out to Egypt where she meets and befriends Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia during a period where they were trying to define the borders of the Middle East. The book was so well written, it makes you feel like you are actually there. Not necessarily a book I’d throw in the ‘romantic’ category, but more in the historical drama section.
8. I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti (Giulia Melucci). [4.5 stars] That bastard! That’s all I can say. Really, I was completely heartbroken for Giulia after finishing her true life story. Throughout the book, I saw a lot of myself and the struggles with finding your one true love…only to find that we’ve all loved, lost and ATE some meal to get over the heartache. I think we’ve all been there. A pint of ice cream…a slice of cake…or for me, spaghetti with meat sauce always did the trick. Maybe because I’ve sworn off eating, I’ve sworn off men as well. Even the ones that are relentless and won’t drop it (although a certain famous hockey player’s girlfriend keeps telling me to give the poor guy a chance). After reading Giulia’s plight to find love, marriage and a family…I, for once, really don’t feel alone. There are days that I swear off love. Then a couple of hours later, love is all I want in my life. You always want things you don’t have, and desire the things you really will never have. But enough about that…Giulia’s book is going up on my cookbook shelf because during her times of love and lost, she has created a masterpiece of recipes that look so simple…much simpler than Julie and Julia. Of course, Italian food is one of the easiest things in the world to make. After all, Italian food is made out of love for food. The great thing about really good food, it is the recipe for love within your own soul. It provides that calm happiness that makes you feel at home. Maybe that’s why I love cooking my own meals. It’s about the only thing I can eat these days…because the food is made with love.
9. Men May Come and Men May Go But I’ve Still Got My Little Pink Raincoat (Gigi Anders). [4.5 stars] Okay…I’ll admit…she lost me sometime between chapter one and chapter two and chapter three before I figured out what in the hell was going on. The book should have started off with a warning label that this was not in any sort of chronological order of any sort. These are just random stories in the life of Gigi Anders and her love affair with clothing [and men]. Yes, the men come bracketed. For any fashionista, this is a book of love, loss and happiness…and learning to love…eck…those feeble minded creatures we call men. Granted, I think I fell in love with her clothes and threw up at the mentions of the men in her life: drug addicts, stupid professors, men that just don’t get it…but I did fall in love with the man that made orgasmic food. Gigi…float his number my way… But in the end, I think Gigi loved her clothes and Coco before she learned to love, I mean really love. But in the end, clothes and Coco don’t love us back, but they sure make us feel great about ourselves before we learn that it’s not material things that make us love…it’s what’s on the inside. Great chick book…I plan on sharing it with all of my girlfriends. Waiting for it to come out on audio so I can give it to my girlfriends that don’t read books.
10. The Shopaholic Series (Sophie Kinsella). [4.5 stars] For every fashionista in the world…reading the Shopaholic series is a MUST! I just finished reading “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and “Shopaholic Takes Manhattan.” The rest of Kinsella’s books are on hold for me at the library. I think most of us in our 20s and 30s have been in Rebecca’s shoes. No matter how much they cost. I still have a bit of a shopaholic in me, but I also make way more money now than I ever did so I can afford the shopaholic lifestyle without the debt. I’m more the couture loving, Gap wearing fashionista that decided that some days I want to be embraced in couture for pick me ups. Other days, I just put on whatever doesn’t need to be ironed that is extremely comfortable (trust me, I show up to work most days in workout pants). But if there is anything to learn…it’s that we have to monitor our spending and not go too overboard. Our bad habits will catch up with us. But I hate debt, so if I can’t pay cash, it’s not meant to be mine. As for the books…they are fun…make you want to go shopping and then regret it later…and then remind yourself…NO, it was HER NOT ME!!! 
It’s all a reminder that anything with ‘aholic after it is usually something bad…but we can overcome.
10. Katish: Our Russian Cook (Wanda Frolov). [4 stars] This book was soo cute! I love Katish. With comical stories about Frolov’s Russian cook when she was a child, she also learned a thing or two about Russian food. It’s not as easy as the recipes from “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti” because a lot of the things that go into Katish’s recipes are not easily found these days (story takes place in the 1920s). I’m going to play with a few of the recipes. I’m sure I’ll be able to find modern day shortcuts to Russian recipes. I think I only wanted the dumpling recipe, but in the end, I will probably end up back at Uncle Vanya’s in New York City for dumplings, vodka and that heavenly cherry tea!
11. Romancing The Dead (Tate Hallaway). [4 stars] I picked up this book at noon on Saturday, was done Sunday afternoon. I never intended to read 300 pages that quickly, but damn if this book didn’t capture my attention. I will say that there are details that the editor should have picked up when they were editing the book. No trees in the backyard in this chapter, next chapter, there were trees! But despite that, this book of supernatural proportions had me hooked from the beginning. Granted, I realized during the first chapter that there were books that preceded it. I went ahead and read it regardless. I’ll wait for the other two books to come in from the library this week to catch up on what book 3 was talking about. For those wanting to read this series, “Tall, Dark and Dead” is book 1. Book 2 is Dead Sexy.
12. Julie and Julia (Julie Powell). [3.5 stars] This book is about to be released into a movie starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. All I can say is that if it weren’t for my doctor’s scale, I could honestly say I probably ate 50 pounds of butter. But luckily for me, Julie was the one who ate it and not me! Really, this book made me feel fat with my arteries clogged up with so many sticks of butter, but that’s just the feeling you get when you read about Julie finding herself through Julia Child’s cookbook.
13. The Secret of Lost Things (Sheridan Hay). [3 stars] Granted it took about 100 pages before the story really began, but it was an interesting ghost hunt into finding Herman Melville’s (author of Moby Dick) lost treasure. Of course, there was one aspect of the book I could have done without, because that scene still does not play well inside my head. Kinda creepy. I got this book in hopes that it would be similar to Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s masterpiece Shadow of the Wind. It wasn’t as good, but I did enjoy reading about those individuals who have a passion for books…and not just the stories they tell.
To be continued…
As for what’s up for this summer on the reading stand:
Beyond the Crease (Martin Brodeur)
Day Watch, Twilight Watch, Last Watch (Sergei Lukyanenko)
Anna Karenina
Lipstick Jungle
The Nanny Diaries
New Moon (and the rest of the Twilight series)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
Jane Austen (all of her books)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant (Daniel Tammet)
