What I'm Reading

Maybe because it's nearing winter, I've finally found time to read again. Nothing beats curling up with a good book, a cozy blanket and a mug of hot cocoa. Besides, I don't foresee much reading time after the baby arrives.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Not only is this a fun read about life with a circus in the 30s, but the black and white photos really add something to the story.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
I loved The Kite Runner, but I think this novel may be even better in the way that it illuminates the inner lives of women in Afghanistan.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
These immigrant stories are honest, refreshing and woven together beautifully.

Check out other end-of-the-year book lists: NYT's Top 10, NPR's Holiday Recommendations.

Juno Is Not a Romantic Comedy

Juno had already gotten plenty of buzz by the time I saw it in Dec. but I still enjoyed it from burger-phone start to track-star finish. Ellen Page does such a remarkable job as a smart-alecky-but-vulnerable pregnant teen and Michael Cera is downright adorable in his geeky awkwardness. It's a quirky, family tale with some real zingers a la Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine. For shiz. And it's pretty incredible that first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody was a former stripper and plucked from obscurity from her blog. (See, blogs can be handy dandy tools for writers.) Fans can download a scene from the screenplay in the side box alongside this NYT article, "Off the Stripper Poles and into the Movies." How's that for a Hollywood ending?

My friend Kate Jacobs passed through Decatur on her book tour for her super successful debut novel, The Friday Night Knitting Club." We worked together at Redbook and were part of a tight-knit (ha!) group of friends who bonded over Tuesday night drinks. She was kind enough to give me a shout-out during her talk at the library where women knitted furiously and demanded to know how she writes two books a year. The answer? With noise-canceling earphones.

The Way We Eat

I love to eat. I'm an omnivore. But lately I've been thinking about the food on our plates really comes from. Maybe it was triggered by going to Barbara Kingsolver's lecture about her year living off her Appalachian farm in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The average distance food travels to get to our plates is 1500 miles, maybe even 2000 miles by more recent calculations.

Ok, so that got me thinking about the gas guzzling caused by my appetite but truth be told, thinking about fuel is a real turnoff when I'm just plain hungry. (Maybe that's part of the problem.) But I got a real kick out of New York magazine's cover story "My Empire of Dirt" about a guy who turns his Brooklyn backyard into a farm experiment and what happens when he can't get his rabbits to multiply and his chicken eats its own eggs like a crack addict. You gotta dig it. It's a pretty hysterical article without a hint of preachy-ness.

Bookshelf, Take Two

Gulp, I have been guilty of not posting recently. Mea culpa. But I am now possessed to add more books to my shelf:

Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
Freakonomics by Steven D. Leavitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I recently read Eat Pray Love and enjoyed the journey. Wish I had thought of getting a book deal to travel to Italy, India and Indonesia. A travel trifecta!