I give in

Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk with the Queen of Talk by Robyn Okrant

I’ve declared—both here and in real life—my scorn for gimmick books, “stunt nonfiction,” and all things of that ilk.

But here, today, I declare that I have Changed My Mind.

I am officially a convert, and Living Oprah, along with Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, are completely to blame.

Here’s the thing: If I like the author’s voice, then reading these books feels a little bit like hearing a friend describe the self-help kick they’re on. I’m interested to hear how it’s going, and I’m thankful I don’t have to do the work of it. Plus, it can be entertaining as hell.

Since I was still wary of the stunt nonfiction before reading this book, the only thing that enticed me to pick it up was that it was available as an eBook from the library. But once I started reading, Okrant’s voice—down-to-earth and funny—drew me into the narrative and I was delighted by this book.

Okrant’s self-assigned project was to follow every bit of advice offered by Oprah for an entire year. She was going to “Live Her Best Life” and blog about it.

Yes, this was a stunt.

But I’m here to tell you: Okrant’s writing is fun to read. For example, this made me smile:

After hearing Oprah advise that people should learn how to assert themselves, Okrant writes, “I run a search on Oprah’s site: ‘Where should I assert myself?’ I get twenty pages of results in return. Holy crap, that’s a lot of asserting.” (p. 145)

(There was another great sentence that made me laugh out loud [something about trying to live your best life, even as others around you don’t seem to care about living their best lives], which I had bookmarked on my Nook, but when the book expired, so did my bookmark. [Cripe! Lesson learned.])

The other great thing about this book is that Okrant describes the way much of Oprah’s advice contradicts itself. What’s a woman to do? (We’re supposed to save our pennies, Suze Orman style, while also investing in a new wardrobe and a Kindle?)

In no way did this book make me want to “live Oprah,” but it did send me in search of Peter Walsh’s book about decluttering. And it made me realize that I really, really like this type of book when it’s done right.

Seems like everybody's talking about...

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

There’s been lots and lots of raving about this book, which made me really rather want to avoid it. (You have entered the domain of the Surly Reader. Beware.)

But once I started listening to it, I understood the reason for all the fuss—it’s one heck of a gripping storyline.

The story goes back and forth between the present—when an American-in-Paris journalist named Julia begins researching the July 1942 round-up of Jews by the French police—and the past, 1942, when a young girl named Sarah is sent to a camp along with her parents. Sarah’s little brother, however, hid in a secret cabinet in their apartment, and Sarah locked the cabinet so he would be safe from the police, thinking she would return later that evening to free him. Instead, her parents were sent to Auschwitz, and Sarah was held in a brutal camp for days before making her escape.

It turns out that Julia’s in-laws lived in the apartment previously owned by Sarah’s family, so the two storylines come together.

There’s all kinds of other drama in this book—a marriage in crisis, an unexpected pregnancy, and family secrets all over the place.

The storyline is strong; the writing is so-so. The second time I heard words along the lines of, “The only thing that mattered was…” I rolled my eyes. Really? So it’s good that the plot is able to carry the day.

The audio version (10 hours in length) is well-done; reader Polly Stone has a voice that is well-suited to the story. For me as a reader, the audiobook was a good choice.

So here’s the key (I swear: no pun intended) question posed by this book: Is it better to leave the past in the past?

All about living

How to Live, or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

After hearing Ann Kingman rave about this book on the Books on the Nightstand podcast, I was pretty darn sure I’d love it.

And, well, guys, I’m very glad I read it, but I didn’t love it the way I thought I might.

But then, that’s really not surprising. Reading about a French nobleman who lived way-back-when is really not my thing.

But—a book about how to live one’s life… that’s what I like to read.

This book was rather a mix of those elements, and the stuff I liked best was the “how to live” stuff rather than the biographical stuff about Montaigne and his literary afterlife.

Which is not to say that Montaigne ain’t likeable.

It’s delightful how contemporary he often seems. There was one point during his writing life when his friends wondered if he should reveal less about his personal life, and I thought: Dude was a blogger.

Also— He described his writing as “free and unruly,” and I’m all about the unruly.

There were other sections in the book that just left me nodding my head. For example, here’s Montaigne, followed by a perfect summary by Bakewell:

“‘I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff.’ Indeed, that is just what a common and private life is: a life of the richest stuff imaginable.” (pp. 317-318)

Yup. That’s it in a nutshell. ’Nuf said.

Ya ha ha

That's my evil chuckle up there.

And I'm evil-chuckling because I am reading enough eBooks and listening to enough audiobooks that I don't have to review them all for the eBook/audiobook challenges I'm doing this year.*

And that is good.

Because sometimes I like something just fine but there's really nothing more to say. (These are *not* the books to choose for a discussion, BTW.)

Speaking of book discussions... my book club meets this week, and we read True Grit, and I can't wait to talk about it.

That's all for now.

*or so I say now. Pride goeth before a fall, and all that. (spell-check is hating on "goeth," but I'm sticking with it anyway)

Real Short Re-Cap: Making Toast

Making Toast: A Family Story by Roger Rosenblatt

Don’t go reading this book in public. I’m serious: Don’t Do It.

That is, if you’re anything like me, meaning: you’re a weepy reader.

Rosenblatt, who is a genius of a writer, describes the first year after his adult daughter Amy’s death. And this is painful stuff. Amy, a mother of three, was 38 years old when she died from a heart condition no one knew she had.

I shied away from this book for quite a while, because I knew it would be hard. I was actually partly wrong about that; it was a beautiful thing to read, and I’m glad I did. But also, it was hard.

Rosenblatt and his wife moved in with their son-in-law and grandchildren, and they become part of the family in a whole new way. There are moments that are charming and funny and dear, and others that make you just want to curse the universe for stealing people away too soon.

Resounding positive review: I’m glad I read it.

Legend(s) of radio

Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards

What could be more perfect than veteran broadcast journalist Bob Edwards writing about the legendary Edward R. Murrow?

Yup, you’ve got it: Bob Edwards reading aloud his book about Edward R. Murrow.

For years, I drove to work each morning with the soothing voice of Bob Edwards telling me the news of the day. So to hear his voice reading this great biography… this was very good.

Edwards describes Murrow as the father of broadcast journalism; Murrow set the standard.

I went into this book knowing that Murrow had become famous as a war correspondent in London, broadcasting from amidst the Blitz. And I knew about the McCarthy encounters from the movie Good Night, and Good Luck. But that’s about all I could tell you about Murrow.

I didn’t know about his early years working in lumber camps or the fact that he lied about his age on early job applications. I didn’t know he died too young. And I didn’t know about his show See It Now, which sounds like it was amazing. (No wonder it made little money and also made the network nervous.)

In addition to Edwards’ fine narration, the thing that makes this book excellent as an audiobook is that it includes excerpts, in Murrow’s own voice, from some of his broadcasts. Murrow’s Peabody-winning report about riding along on a bombing mission over Germany is so good I can’t find the words to describe it. We hear Murrow’s broadcast, and then Edwards, in very few words, explains why it’s so powerful.

This is good stuff.

And it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t require a huge time commitment; it’s only 4 ½ hours long. Despite its brevity, this thing packs a punch.

Real Short Re-Cap: Read This Next

Read This Next: 500 of the Best Books You’ll Ever Read by Sarah Newman and Howard Mittelmark

I was just going to flip through this book, browsing for books to read for myself or to suggest for the book club. But I ended up not doing that. Instead, I read the intros to each of the chapters, and I did snorting/laughing sounds because I just couldn’t help it.

(They’re hella amusing, those authors.)

Then I browsed through the blurbs about the books and added 5 books to my Shelfari TBR list.

Then scanned a couple of the intros again and repeated the snorting/laughing thing, even though I already knew the funny parts.

Pub Challenge. I love it. I love it.

Happiness is the Pub Challenge.

And it's back again this year!

And I'm still loving on that button of theirs.

So -- I'll be reading 11 books published in 2011.

And, since the idea is to add links on the Pub Challenge site to one's reviews of those books, I'll include here only the 2011 books I actually write about.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Read a minimum of 11 books first published in 2011. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2011, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2010, and then published in the USA in 2011, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2011.

2. At least 6 titles must be fiction.

3. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

4. You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.

5. Sign up at the Pub Challenge site using Mr. Linky.

6. Have fun reading your 2011 books!

Books Read

1. The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman (fiction)

2. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond (nonfiction)

3. The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story by Robert Baer and Dayna Baer (nonfiction)

4. Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan by Del Quentin Wilbur (nonfiction)

5. The Still Point by Amy Sackville (fiction)

6. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin E. P. Seligman (nonfiction)

7. Bossypants by Tina Fey (nonfiction)

8. If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster (fiction)

9. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (nonfiction)

10. Pocket-47 by Jude Hardin (fiction)

11. Spider Web by Earlene Fowler (fiction)

12. Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson (fiction)

Support Your Local Library Challenge

I love and adore reading challenges that inspire people to read library books.

Home Girl's Book Blog is hosting the 2011 Support Your Local Library Challenge. This is good stuff.

The guidelines are:

1. The goal is to read 12, 25, 50, or 100 books from your local library. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate. Non-Bloggers: Post your list of books in the comment section of the Post Your Reviews post.

2. Any book from your local library counts.

3. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

4. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.

5. Challenge begins January 1st and continues through the end of December 2011.

I'm doing this challenge! And I'm vowing to read 100 library books this year.

Here's my definition of "library book" as I read for this challenge:

- books, audiobooks, eBooks, and eAudiobooks checked out from my library

- interlibrary loan books and audiobooks checked out from my library

This page will be my home base as I track my progress on this challenge.

Books Read

1. Just Kids by Patti Smith

2. Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro

3. Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz

4. Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards

5. The President's Lady: A Novel about Rachel and Andrew Jackson by Irving Stone

6. Dear Mrs. Kennedy: The World Shares Its Grief: Letters, November 1963 by Jay Mulvaney and Paul De Angelis

7. Bird Cloud: A Memoir by Annie Proulx

8. How to Live, or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

9. Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy

10. The Natural by Bernard Malamud

11. Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr

12. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

13. 5th Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

14. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

15. Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

16. Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books by William Kuhn

17. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

18. Though Not Dead by Dana Stabenow

19. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

20. Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

21. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels—A Love Story by Ree Drummond

22. The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir

23. The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

24. Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad

25. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein

26. Healing and the Mind by Bill Moyers (audiobook)

27. The Sun's Bride by Gillian Bradshaw

28. The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story by Robert Baer and Dayna Baer

29. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

30. Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella

31. Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan by Del Quentin Wilber

32. Goody Hall by Natalie Babbitt

33. The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things by Neil Pasricha

34. What's a Disorganized Person to Do? by Stacey Platt

35. The Still Point by Amy Sackville

36. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

37. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin E. P. Seligman

38. The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy by Liz Weston

39. Bossypants by Tina Fey

40. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

41. She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy

42. The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst

43. The Path to Power by Robert A. Caro (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)

44. The Great Circle by Peter Prince

45. If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster

46. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

47. Women of Magdalene by Rosemary Poole-Carter

48. Pocket-47 by Jude Hardin

49. Spider Web by Earlene Fowler

50. Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness by Neil Strauss

51. Life by Keith Richards

52. The Good Among the Great: 19 Traits of the Most Admirable, Creative, and Joyous People by Donald Van de Mark

53. Christy by Catherine Marshall

54. Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson

55. Red on Red by Edward Conlon

56. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

57. Vanity Fair's Presidential Profiles edited by Graydon Carter

58. Chocolate Chocolate: The True Story of Two Sisters, Tons of Treats, and the Little Shop that Could by Frances ark and Ginger

59. My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock

60. The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

61. Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller

62. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

63. Kate: The Making of a Princess by Claudia Joseph

64. Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

65. The Alienist by Caleb Carr

66. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

67. Jackdaws by Ken Follett

68. The Godfather by Mario Puzo

69. Original Sin by Beth McMullen

70. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

71. This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

72. The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream by Suze Orman

73. An Accidental Sportswriter: A Memoir by Robert Lipsyte

74. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

75. Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy

76. Corn Flakes with John Lennon by Robert Hilburn

77. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs

78. Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper by Geoffrey Gray

79. Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr

80. Last Men Out: The True Story of America’s Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

81. Pirate King by Laurie R. King

82. Rules of Civility by Amor

83. English Creek by Ivan Doig
84. Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr
85. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
86. Saratoga by David Garland
87. D.C. Noir edited by George Pelecanos
88. The President’s Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office by John Bredar
89. After This by Alice McDermott
90. Killing Floor by Lee Child
91. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
92. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
93. The Last Striptease by Michael Wiley
94. The Blood Red Indian Summer by David Handler
95. Steal the Show by Thomas Kaufman
96. Boston Noir edited by Dennis Lehane
97. Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy: Interviews with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 1964
98. Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler 
99. What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
100. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder: My Life on the Dork Side by Julie Halpern

101. Heart of a Lion by Gilbert Morris
102. A Place Called Trinity by Delia Parr
103. Laura Rider's Masterpiece by Jane Hamilton
104. V Is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
105. Blue Blood by Edward Conlon

Historical Fiction: One down...

The President’s Lady: A Novel about Rachel and Andrew Jackson by Irving Stone

Guys, I’m participating in a study of historical fiction. It just may do me in. (Why do I find historical fiction so difficult? WHY?)

Whining session now concluded…. I survived my first book of the bunch!

(image credit: Library of Congress)

I chose something by Irving Stone because he’s one of those authors I’ve always thought I should have read. And I can see why he made a name for himself. First, he chose provocative subjects.

In this instance, the marriage of Rachel and Andrew Jackson, which was a big old scandal because not only was she a divorcee in a day when divorce just did not happen, but her scoundrel of a first husband failed to complete the divorce, so she was actually married to Andrew Jackson before her first marriage officially ended. And that ain’t good.

The whole mess of it haunted them throughout their entire marriage. It would have even haunted them in the White House, except that Rachel died of a heart attack shortly after Jackson’s election to the presidency and before his inauguration.

Despite their hardships, the Jacksons seem to have had a loving marriage, and theirs is a great love story. But it kind of sucks how the story ends, you know?

Anyway, back to Irving Stone. I found the writing to be workmanlike; it got the point across, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. I think Stone’s strength instead is in the depth of his research. He includes a list of sources at the end of the book, and it’s quite a list. I trust his version of the story to be based on facts.

And really, what more can you ask?

Aberrant reading behavior alert

There's something really strange going on here, and I just want to warn you in advance.

I've begun a-reading baseball books.

And it's gone multimedia, too --

On the iPod: The Natural

On the DVD player: Inning 5 of Ken Burns' Baseball. (I damn near cried during Inning 4.)

Yes, baseball sappiness has struck.

I'll never be a baseball fan. It just ain't gonna happen.

But I'm a-reading the baseball books.