First Ladies

I have always been interested in presidential and First Ladies history and trivia. I had memorized the order of the presidents when I was 11 and can still name them all in order. Therefore, I had to have this book when it came out in 1995. I don't read non fiction that often therefore this book just sat on my shelf for over 10 years before I finally got to it.

I am glad I finally read it though. I've read most of Margaret Truman's mystery novels that take place in various D.C. locations. I was very interested to read this one as she is a First Lady's daughter (Bess Truman) She has also known many of the First Ladies personally so that adds an unique aspect to the book.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought she would write about the First Ladies in order as she starts with Martha Washington and Abigail Adams but then she skips around, sometimes devoting a whole chapter to one First Lady, other times comparing several in a chapter. I learned a lot about First Ladies that I didn't know about and found it fascinating.

It was fun to read the section on Hillary Clinton, as she had been First Lady only for several years when the book was published and in light of the current political situation. Truman asked her in her interview for the book whether she had any thoughts about running for office and she said "I'm just trying to get through this experience , one day at a time."

E-mail: A Love Story

Katherine, a woman in her mid 40s, bored with her current life, joins an adult internet message board. The whole book is told through emails or board posts; I love this type of format and that's what drew me to this book. Although this book was written in 1996, it is suprisingly very current to what still happens on message boards; it doesn't seem that much has changed in that regard. I read it very quickly; really liked this book!

Only 2 books this month

I haven't had a lot of time for reading this month. We are in the process of selling our house and moving to a new house so much of my spare time has gone to cleaning. I will never get through my huge TBR pile, it feels like. I've been only adding to it from paperbackswap and frugal reader lately. I am really weird about the order of my books and I read them in the order I bought them so I am reading books now I bought in 2001 or at least put in the pile then. I will skip out of order if there is a book I really, really want to read or a book for a book group. Or when I go on vacation I usually pick randomly.

Have you read any of these books?

Have you Read Any of These Books? Found this on Wendy's blog, if you read this , you are automatically tagged

Look at the list of books below:
* Bold the ones you’ve read
* Italicize the ones you want to read
* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
* If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!
**If there are any books on this list that I didn't italicize and you think I should read, let me know in comments!

I've also, like Wendy and previous players, highlighted the books I haven't heard of. Also I'm putting the books I've read more than once in blue.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer of Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinback)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diament)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Fun! My all time favorites are on this list.

The Borrowers Afield

I started this book at mid month and didn't finish it until the last day of the month. Although, only 200 some pages, I was busy in the latter half of the month and also I don't think it kept my interest enough to want to go back to read it. It had it moments but something about The Borrowers get to me, something I can't quite put my finger on. I got bored at some parts, other parts went fast. I now have the other books of the series and will read them to see if it gets any better.

The Secret of the Underground Room

This is the first book I have read by John Bellairs, although I have several more by him in my TBR pile. This is in the Johnny Dixon series but not the first in the series. I didn't have the feeling too much like I missed something by not reading the previous books. This book was good as a stand alone although it also had a serial feel to the characters. A good ghost story.

The Key to the Indian

This is the last book, I believe, in the Indian in the Cupboard book. I love this series. Again, another book about miniature people. Omri has one last adventure with Little Foot and this time his father learns about the secret of the cupboard and comes with Omri on his adventure.

The Borrowers

I can't believe I haven't read this series before. I love books about living dolls, miniature people or anything like that. The Borrowers are small people who live in houses and "borrow" things from larger humans. I love 14 year old Arietty but got frustrated with her mother, Homily. I will read the rest of the series.