3. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Fantasy, #2)

With any large tome, I feel intimidated just looking at the book. Yet I feel inspired, as well. I have begun and failed to finish so many books over 400 pages. Yet I have succeeded with some as well--most were for college classes. I knew that with a new baby it might be difficult to sit and read a large book, but I wanted to start making some headway on my book list(s), so I got the audiobook from the library. I listened to this book for five weeks, mostly while breastfeeding my child! Letting my mind drift away to Clarke's magical England truly helped me get through the first difficult weeks of parenting (and no sleep). My husband and I joked that our daughter would start speaking with a British accent, since we listened to the book so much!
I found familiarity in this novel, although I had never read anything quite like it before. I began to think of Clarke as Charles Dickens meets Jane Austen, yet there was another element as well. I won't go so far as to say it was a Harry Potter-like essence, although Clarke does speak of magic as an everyday occurrence. It was more like historical fiction. Clarke spoke of real countries and a real war, just with magic thrown in.
Maybe I was sleep-deprived, but I started to believe her.
I loved this novel. I give it five stars (out of five). I loved the character development. I loved how she introduced the characters--leaving the reader in anticipation of Strange's arrival throughout the entire part one of the book, dragging out Norrell's introduction so that it suited his rather mundane existence. She had me believing in them, struggling with them, rooting for them.
When it ended, 700-some pages later, I was sad. I wanted more of that world. This is how I know when I have truly loved a novel!

How My Breasts Saved the World: Misadventures of a Nursing Mother (Miscellaneous, #4)

I needed this book. I was just days into being a new mom, and I had had no idea how hard it would be! I needed comfort, security, and reassurance that all of what I was going through is what other moms had struggled with in new parenthood as well.
After reading this book, I felt like the author was one of my new Mommy Friends. We related. We understood each other. In short, I read this at exactly the right time in my life, and I loved it.
The only downside is that after reading it, I wanted more books that were memoirs of new parenthood--not necessarily breastfeeding per se, but just the struggles involved with taking care of the new human being. I became obsessed with finding more of this kind of book! I even started writing one of my own... Anyway, I found some good ones--I Sleep at Red Lights (written by the DAD of a toddler and newborn triplets), and Sippy Cups are Not for Chardonnay (her chapter on being okay with switching to formula was what I needed to read at the time). Still none compared to my first Virtual Mommy Friend found in the pages of Wood Shapiro's work. I found a friend there in a time of struggle... and she was just what I needed.

The Devil in the White City (Historical, #9)

This book is a history lesson about the Chicago World's Fair, the architect behind the project, and a murderer not involved at all. It is Chicago at the turn of the (20th) century, and it is thrilling. I normally don't like nonfiction that is this seemingly bland. However, Larson made it read like a novel, and I finished this nearly 400 page tome in less than five days.

95. Notes to Myself [re-read] (Miscellaneous, #8)

This is my first re-read from the list. It was interesting reading the book again after eight years. "Notes to Myself" is a very introspective look at life, as the title suggests. I found it inspirational and calming. I think the first time I read the book I was wary of the author; perhaps I thought he was too humanistic or new-age-y. (Is that a word? It should be.) Now, however, I only find him refreshing and insightful. Many of his thoughts are things I have thought about before, or it seems, I have wanted to think them but didn't know how. Thus, Prather's work is fulfilling and thought-provoking.
It is also, in some ways, self-contradictory (as Prather himself admits). Don't analyze yourself too closely, he tells us, while analyzing himself quite closely. Yet this is the way of introspection. To think too much about our lives will cause us to live them disingenuously, yet we can't be real with ourselves without examining our motives and behaviors. Quite the predicament! Just don't dwell on it too long.
Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• "It will be interesting to see what happens" is a more realistic attitude toward future consequences than worry. Excitement, dejection, and irritation also assume a knowledge of results that I cannot possess.
• My trouble is I analyze life instead of live it.
• Now that I know I'm no wiser than anyone else, does this wisdom make me wiser?
• ...Happiness is a present attitude, not a future condition.
• When I am careful about the thoughts I brood on, because thought precedes feeling, circumstances can no longer dictate my mood.
• Maybe the fear that more was expected of me than I had to give was groundless...
• Since it will always be now, learning to respond to now is the only thing there is to learn.
• Honesty without care is conceit.
• If a man takes off his sunglasses I can hear him better.
• As I write I am in a state of learning, becoming, arriving, and not in a state of knowing and having arrived.

My So-Called Freelance Life (Miscellaneous, #7)

Author Michelle Goodman has already written a great book about getting out of the 9-to-5 cubicle office drone lifestyle (and it does not involve forming a Fight Club). Her Anti 9-to-5 Guide was an enjoyable read, but I liked her new book a lot better. Part of the reason might be that I am actually working as a freelance writer now, so more of the book is relevant for my own freelance life. She gives much valuable advice on how to get started freelancing, the importance of budgeting and getting health insurance, setting up your home (or away) office, taxes, and the like. She also does this without being boring--proving her own professionalism as a writer.
Overall, I liked this book, even though some of it doesn't apply to me. Goodman does address this issue though, stating that there are as many ways to do the freelance life as there are freelancers in the world.

90 Minutes in Heaven (Miscellaneous, #5)

I was skeptical about reading Piper's memoir of having died, gone to Heaven, and come back to life. Can this be true? How would that happen? Maybe more importantly, why?
This is actually what Piper struggles with throughout the book. Why was he killed in a tragic car accident and whisked away to Heaven only to be brought back to Earth to endure extreme physical pain and a lifelong recovery? It is something that Piper comes back to time and time again. This gave the book a very real quality and I actually started to believe it. Yep, if I had gone to Heaven and had to come back to Earth, I'd probably be a little mad too.
The story is not only convincing but captivating, making the book a quick read and an enjoyable one (even if Piper does seem to get a bit whiny at times). There were many instances in the book where the hand of God is evident in Piper's life and the lives of those around him; the impact of praying to God is also demonstrated powerfully.

Library Thing's 1010 Category Challenge

Some of you may know of the "book community" called Library Thing. Although I am already a member over at GoodReads, I decided to join Library Thing as well, so that I could participate in the Early Reviewers program. (Get free books! Review them! Very cool...) Anyway, as 2010 began, I was feeling a little sad about my 100 Books List. I hadn't made very much progress, although I had been reading since May. So my solution was to make another Books List! (It is an obsessive-compulsive thing with me, I think.) I have incorporated all the books still left on my original 100 Books, and added a few, and instilled categories. So now I'm not only reading 100 books, I am reading 10 books in each of 10 categories in the year 2010. This is, on Library Thing, known as the 1010 Category Challenge. I am definitely up for the challenge for this new year. Bring on the books...

Inspirational Nonfiction

1. God is the Gospel
2. Get Out of That Pit
3. Jesus, the One and Only
4. The Myth of a Christian Nation
5. The Four Loves
6. Love Beyond Reason
7. How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth
8. Exclusion and Embrace
9. The Love Dare
10. 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (Like Me)

Fiction Series

1. Out of the Silent Planet
2. Perelandra
3. That Hideous Strength
4. Peculiar Treasures
5. On a Whim
6. Coming Attractions
7. Last Light
8. Night Light
9. True Light
10. Dawn's Light

Fantasy (or Science Fiction)

1. American Gods
2. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
3. Mirror Mirror
4. The Sirens of Titan
5. The Witches
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. The Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
8. The Shack
9. Mountains of Spices
10. The Silver Chair

Nonfiction, mostly Memoir and Humor

1. The Know-It-All
2. A Walk in the Woods
3. Early Bird
4. It's Not News, It's Fark
5. Lucky Man
6. A Short History of Nearly Everything
7. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
8. The Perfect Thing
9. Driving Mr. Albert
10. The Fifth Book of Peace

Award Winners

1. Life of Pi (Booker Prize)
2. The Executioner's Song (Pulitzer Prize)
3. Middlesex (Pulitzer Prize)
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Pulitzer Prize)
5. The Road (Pulitzer Prize)
6. Possession (Booker Prize)
7. The Confessions of Nat Turner (Pulitzer Prize)
8. The Echo Maker (National Book Award)
9. The Stone Diaries (Pulitzer Prize)
10. March (Pulitzer Prize)

20th Century Literature

1. Something Happened
2. The Bluest Eye
3. Prodigal Summer
4. Everything's Eventual
5. The 158-Pound Marriage
6. The Adventures of Augie March
7. Sappho's Leap
8. On The Road
9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
10. The Stranger

Miscellaneous

1. The Courage to Start
2. No Need for Speed
3. Fast Food Nation
4. How My Breasts Saved the World: Misadventures of a Nursing Mother
5. 90 Minutes in Heaven
6. Stumbling on Happiness
7. My So-Called Freelance Life
8. Notes to Myself
9. The Winged Seed
10. The World As I See It

Nonfiction, mostly Essay Collections

1. Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
2. Moneyball
3. How to Win Every Argument
4. Mel Gibson's Passion and Philosophy: The Cross, the Questions, the Controversy
5. The Emotions: Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction
6. Lies My Teacher Told Me
7. Written By Herself
8. Hopes and Impediments
9. Finding Battlestar Galactica
10. Predictably Irrational

Historical

1. Gates of Fire
2. Persuasion
3. Two Rivers
4. Memoirs of a Geisha
5. The Pillars of the Earth
6. High Fidelity
7. The Joy Luck Club
8. The Poisonwood Bible
9. The Devil in the White City
10. The Book Thief

Big Classics

1. Anna Karenina
2. Atlas Shrugged
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls
4. Hinds' Feet on High Places
5. The Maltese Falcon
6. Pilgrim's Progress
7. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
8. A Christmas Carol
9. Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings
10. Night