The Associate by John Grisham (#36, Fiction)

Hello Mr. Grisham, it's been awhile since I've visited your works of fiction. I'm sorry to say that this was not your best showing.

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like his books are written with the intent to be turned into movies? I could almost see famous actors in the roles as I read. Scarlett Johannson or maybe Kate Bosworth as Dale, Shia LaBeouf as Kyle, etc etc. And the way his chapters are set up are perfectly formulated for changes of scene, and the sort of back and forth in time. It's a bit FORMULAIC shall we say.

Hindsight's a bitch, but I think this novel falls last in the line of other Grisham novels I have read. Sorry buddy, you dropped the ball here.

The Likeness by Tana French (#35, Fiction)

Another suspenseful, murder mystery by Tana French. The anger I felt at the end of In the Woods was assuaged when I found out she already had a second book out using the same characters. But, turns out Ms. French plans on taking her sweet time to unlock the mystery she never revealed in the first book -- meaning, she gives absolutely no closure to the first book! And, in essence she shuts the door to it, but I don't really believe that!

But, about The Likeness. It was good. Not the spitting image of her first book, which is always nice. It wasn't as creepy as the first book, nor did it have any "supernatural" potential to it. As you read on the back, Cassie goes undercover to pretend to be a girl who was murdered. Yes, they look alike, but there is a bit of the really factor. You really think someone, no matter how much they look like you, could step into your life and your friends and family wouldn't suspect?

Read it and find out if she succeeds....

The Woods by Harlan Coben (#21, Fiction)

I promise this is the last Harlan Coben novel. And yes I did read it back in Maine. I cannot blame it on my vacation.

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella (#20, Chick Lit)

And for the plane ride home I borrowed Remember Me? from Jess and unfortunately got so into the story that I finished it before we landed. This meant that I had to endure the worst eardrum pain upon our descent into Boston and I only had Jeff Corwin's documentary about elephants to distract me from the pain.

I do like Sophie Kinsella's chick lit contributions and might even read another one soon, but not so soon. Remember Me is about a woman who gets amnesia and wakes up in a hospital with a seemingly perfect life that when looked at more closely is not so perfect. Cliche? Absolutely. But oh so satisfying.

The Innocent by Harlan Coben (#19, Fiction)

Alright, so I became obsessed with Harlan Coben toward the end of my German adventure. You get so absorbed in the story that you can sit for five hours straight and just read and then voila! you're in Berlin already. I will have to remember Coben for future trips and beach vacations--he would make an awesome beach read for sure.

But the curse with these types of books is that you'll always love the first one you read and none of the others will ever be as good. I learned this years ago, as I read many Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High books. None are as sweet as that first one that whets the reading appetite.

Gone For Good by Harlan Coben (#18, Fiction)

Becky you would be proud! I finally gave in and let out my love for crime novels. This is my first Harlan Coben novel and it was very entertaining. I think I read it in a day. These types of books are great for day trips on the train! Other than that, there is not much to say about this book.

Jemima J by Jane Green (#17, Chick Lit)

After reading those two heavy hitting, sad books I needed something a little lighter. Well--maybe a lot lighter. Jane Green's Jemima J was just what the doctor ordered. Not only is Jessica's bookshelf stuffed with quality reads, but she also has an ample amount of chick lit to satisfy any girl power/romantic story craving.

Sarah read it first and gave it a thumbs up so I figured I probably wouldn't completely hate it. Formulaic yes, but I don't read this genre nearly enough to get sick of said novels. I enjoyed Jemima J's weight loss story. I liked her online dating and her new look and persona and couldn't wait for her to find her prince charming at the end.

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young (#16, Fiction)

The bus ride back to Germany was not spent eating special brownies smuggled in from the Green House but rather reading The Shack, that religious novel about a man who meets God in the shack where police find evidence that his daughter was brutally murdered. Not a typical book I would read, this one also came highly recommended by both Sarah and her sister. And being on vacation, I was game for anything.

I approached this one with a skeptical eye and I am still not sure what I think about some of the viewpoints expressed in it. But I was not immune to the hard hitting emotional nature of the story and found myself blubbering yet again on a bus, trying to hide the fact that I was balling from my fellow passengers. That man with the cane was surely looking at me with scorn as I sniffled through chapter after chapter.

There were some good quotes in this book but I definitely found it to be strangely simple for me. Is religion always this simple? You have these tenets of belief and you believe them and that is that. Is that faith? Believing in something you can't prove, something you can't see but something that you may be able to feel? Faith in God can give us hope, it can make us feel strong when we are going through tough times. I don't know how I would deal with the death of a daughter. The man in this story has to deal with this and he has this experience that in the end allows him to see his daughter and to know that while she died a horrific death far before her time, she was not alone and she is now happy in heaven, waiting for them to meet her in the afterlife. All the father wanted to know was that the daughter was okay. He needed closure and he found it.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay (#15, Contemporary Literature)

I'm still in Europe at this point, reading my way across Belgium and the Netherlands on our way to Amsterdam...

I started the third book, Suite Francaise but never finished it. It was a bit too dry and Sarah’s sister Jessica had far too many other more interesting, trip friendly books for me to borrow, or so I thought.

Sarah’s Key was my next pick. I read this on the bus ride to Amsterdam and cried like a baby at the end, wiping my tears on my scarf, trying not to look like a blubbering idiot on our big yellow tour bus. I should have known it was going to be a tearjerker but that didn’t stop me. Both Sarah and Jessie recommended it to me and who am I to resist the opinions of two seasoned readers?

I have read a lot of Holocaust themed novels in my time, and while some seem to blur together, Sarah's Key definitely stands out. De Rosnay bases her story on the events of the 1942 Paris roundup and deportation of thousands of Jews. 13,152 Jews were held in the Vélodrome d'Hiver for 8 days. There were no bathrooms and the only food and water they had were what the Red Cross managed to bring to them. Those that survived the inhumane conditions in the dome were sent to an internment camp in Drancy until they could be deported to Auschwitz for extermination. Sarah's Key is the fictional story of one of these Jews. It is chilling, horrifying and definitely could have happened.

Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd (#14, Historical Fiction)

Right after I finished Irving, I picked up Edward Rutherford’s Sarum, a novel I have checked out from the library at least three times over the last five years and have always failed to even crack the spine on. 1000 pages is a pretty huge time commitment and I just never had that much time on my hands to devote to a novel I was maybe only minimally interested in. (That said, Diana Gabaldon's novels are always the exception and I will pretty much always be able to dive into her 1000 page novels about Jamie and Claire, without hesitation.)

But alas, when you become a traveler, you find yourself with many free hours to kill on trains, planes and buses. Suddenly a 1000 page fictional history of Salisbury, England isn’t all that daunting anymore. And reading a history seemed quite apropos as I was flitting about Europe, visiting places similarly brimming with history. I especially enjoyed the descriptions on how the masons built the massive cathedral; we had just climbed to the top of the Cologne Cathedral a couple days before I read that passage and it gave me a better picture of just how much skill and craftsmanship went into building those structures.

Not only did I enjoy the incredibly detailed descriptions of life in England over the last 3000 years, I really became obsessed with the genealogy. It was really interesting how Rutherfurd creates two strong family lines and then passes down the family characteristics to each generation. It made me wonder about my family tree and what might have happened to my great-great-great grandparents. Who were they, what did they do and where did they live? If only we all had detailed descriptions of our family's legacy.

The Cider House Rules by John Irving (#13, Contemporary LIterature)

I know, I know--I haven’t posted a book on here in a couple months. It has been so long that I think I may have forgotten a book or two. I started a post about Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book but somehow got sidetracked and never went back to finish it. And then I traveled to Germany for a month and didn’t have solid blocks of time on the Internet to be able to post while I was over there. And then having been back stateside I have been so busy working and catching up with life that I have let my participation slide. But fear not three faithful booknymph readers…I am back! I haven’t stopped reading—I have just run out of time to post about my literary exploits.

Right before I left for Germany I made a trip to Longfellow Books, one of the coolest used bookstores in Portland, and grabbed three throwaway paperbacks to accompany me on my travels. I didn’t really give much thought to what I would want to be reading and the three novels I found were The Cider House Rules by John Irving, Sarum by Edward Rutherford and Suite Francaise by Irene (insert). Sadly I never made it through Suite Francaise but the other two I did thoroughly enjoy reading.

I have never been a fan of John Irving but when I saw The Cider House Rules on the shelf at the bookstore in a handy dandy small paperback edition, I felt compelled to pick it up and read it. And so against my previous prejudice, I gave Irving another chance—he did not disappoint. I loved this novel and spent the four-hour ride to and from Cologne buried in the world of Homer Wells. Irving is a great writer and I have no idea why I wrote him off after I read Widow For One Year back in the summer of 2004—clearly my reading tastes have changed. I will definitely be reading some of his other novels.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (#34, Fiction)

Another book club pick. As I have stated time and again, I am always a fan of historical fiction/fiction/nonfiction blend. There is nothing better than reading while also learning about someone, something, or someplace.

In Loving Frank we learn about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress Mamah Borthwork Cheney. I just finished the book last night and have yet to do my standard Internet search about the life and work of Frank, but, WOW, do I have some questions!

But, about the book. I really enjoyed the first hundred pages. The characters pulled me in, the story was intriguing, and you really feel the pain of Mamah, and the arrogance of Frank. I wavered back and forth about what I would do in their situation. Clearly, these days divorce and families being torn apart is almost typical, but at the turn of the 20th century, a woman not in love with her husband had limited options.

I think the whole philosophical discussion behind the women's movement got a bit boring for me. Mamah is on a constant journey to find justification and validation for her actions, for leaving her children. At the end she seems to have an epiphany that she doesn't have to choose, she can have love for Frank and love for her children, but it seems that during that time period women were almost forced to choose.

But, wow. THE. ENDING. Did not see that one coming.

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan (#33, Nonfiction)

Michael Pollan examines the history of and coexistence between humans and Apples, Tulips, Marijuana and Potatoes in The Botany of Desire. I will never think of Apples the same way, and may hestitate before I eat a potato from this point forward.

At times boring, and others extremely informative, and even laugh out loud, it is a book worth reading if you want to think about the place fruits, vegetables and flowers hold today. And it makes you think about how they got there, and whether they are what they are because of their own Darwinian survival of the fittest, or because humans do what they want, when they want, where they want.

Pollan doesn't just examine the biological history of these objects, he looks at them from a philosophical angle as well -- hard to imagine, right? But, I actually found myself folding down a few pages to mark various quotes and excerpts from the book. (will insert those later)

Once again I am on a health kick. Maybe even trying out being a vegetarian, not that he suggests it, but more because of the implications of living off our current food system. It is just not right that companies have patents on fruits and vegetables, that it is illegal to reuse some seeds, and coming up with a potato that generates its own internal insecticide is going too far.