Thursday, November 29, 2007

a strange haze seems to have descended upon sevilla as of late. i don´t understand what it is, but it makes all of the lights on the streets blur. kind of like when it´s snowing lightly, except it´s still warm enough to just be in long sleeves.

also, i am a reading machine. i have read 17 books since being in spain. they are, in no particular order, as follows:
-anne of green gables, l. m. montgomery: it gets better every time i read it.
-empire falls, richard russo: eh. not as funny as they said it would be and definitely not good enough for the awards it won.
-the nanny diaries, emma mclaughlin: not my favorite, but cute nonetheless.
-angels and demons, dan brown: good action book. i would recommend it.
-deception point, dan brown: i don´t know why, but i couldn´t put it down. i would also recommend this one.
-the club dumas, arturo perez-reverte: very interesting book. i enjoyed it a lot.
-smashed, the story of a drunken girlhood, koren zailckas: a true story about a girl who drinks too much. very enlightening.
-the god of small things, arhundati roy: incredible. i loved every page. read it now.
-midnight in the garden of good and evil, john berendt: true story of a murder in the south. mostly just stories of the people he met. i enjoyed it.
-the insiders, j. minter: crappy, crappy book. don´t read it. ever.
-pretense, lori wick: everyone i´ve ever talked to about this book has told me i would love it. well, i didn´t. it was ok, but not very well written. it did make me cry, though.
-p.s. i love you, cecelia ahern: irish story about a woman who loses her husband. it could have been 200 pages shorter and still would have been fine. not my favorite. and now they´re making a movie about it with hillary swank. why?
-the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime, mark haddon: don´t let the title fool you, it´s not that good.
-driving over lemons, chris stewart: it´s about life here in adalucía, not all that exciting.
-fame, karen kingsbury: crappy christian novel. not so good.
-90 minutes in heaven, don piper: true story of a man who dies and goes to heaven for 90 minutes. very interesting for the first 3 chapters, and then it´s just about his recovery.
-tales of a drama queen, lee nichols: not very good. i laughed a few times, but is was lacking.

i am currently reading into thin air which is the true story of a mount everest climb gone bad. it´s interesting. so, as you can see, i have read some pretty crappy books here in spain, but i have a lot of down time and the library at school is just a bookshelf. my goal is to read 20. i think i will succeed.

6 comments:

mama said...

Ok Prec.
You have done more reading while in Spain than I have done in my lifetime! Well maybe not quite but close. I have read almost all of Mercer Meyers books which I highly recommend by the way.
Andy had a game tonight. Scored 8pts and had 7 rebounds. They lost but sounds like he played o.k. It was in Benton so we didn't go and it was the holiday meal at church. Wish you have been here for it. Ang. came and said she can't wait for you to get home. She is excited about meeting up with Meg in Portland next weekend. 15 Days to go and you will be home with mama!! YEAH!! Suppose to get some snow Sat. pm and ice on sun.
Well hope you have a good weekend.
Missing you and counting the days till you are back home. Mama loves

Amy Williams said...

You are nothing short of a reading machine. I'm really quite impressed.
Drew and I miss you.

jhack said...

When bets asked me what i was doing today, i didn't realize i would be reading through every single one of your blogs. yes, i am a horrible friend and have not read a one up until today. but once i started there was no stopping me. you have such a way with words! I'd tell you which were my favorite, but there are just too many and this comment is already too long - fool me again, smells of the city are just two of my favorites. love ya girl!

Unknown said...

holly crap! 20 books in one semester? Insanely sexy.

I can't wait for new year's by the way... It'll rock!

Besos, tia!

Enjoy the last days in Spain!!!!

Nicky Driscoll said...

Dang, Jo. That is a whole lot of books. I support you in your efforts to reach 20. You put me to shame. Unless Entertainment Weekly counts as a book...

I just wanted to say, that I was throroughly impressed by the piece of writing I received a few weeks ago. Sadly, some of it was lost in translation. (Due to my incompetance and Google translators crappyness) Fortunatley, your talent trancends language. Keep reading and writing! And have a great rest of the semester. WE MISS YOU JO!!!

Jason said...

Sorry you didn't dig the Haddon book. I thought it was one of the better ones I've read in the past few years.