Prisoner of Tehran - Marina Nemat

What an amazing story. She writes about her experience as a political prisoner in Iran, where she was tortured and nearly executed, and held prisoner for over 2 years. Her writing is beautiful and easy to read, and her compassion and goodness is what is truly humbling. I really recommend reading this!

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Part 2 (26/52)

14. Fall - Colin McAdam (-) a little too disturbing of subject matter for my tastes
15. Mother of the Believers - Kamran Pasha interesting account of the birth of Islam and the life of Mohammad
16. Vanishing and Other Stories - Deborah Willis (-) pretentious & cliche
17. The Disappeared - Kim Echlin ♥ gorgeous writing, period
18. Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali ♥ thought-provoking and intelligent
19. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (+) sweet, though a bit too sweet at times perhaps
20. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (-) too much melodrama
21. The Inheritance - Louisa May Alcott (-) saccharine
22. The Golden Mean - Annabel Lyon (+) well-written and a pleasure to read
23. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (+) amazing characterization and a complex plot
24. Married to a Bedouin - Marguerite van Geldermalsen ♥ a sweet and insightful love story
25. Galore - Michael Crummey (+) history & myth of a maritime community
26. Too Much Happiness: Stories - Alice Munro (abandoned) (-) found I just couldn't get into her writing, especially in a short-story format

Spoon Fed - How Eight cooks Saved My Life by Kim Severson

At close to 250 pages, this is a great read that you can do in a day. It's a memoir of a food writer who has spent time in San Francisco & New York, whose work led her to meet some heavy-hitters in the food world. While I've only ever heard of one of those names (Racheal Ray), it was pretty interesting to read some of the anecdotes and encounters that shaped her life & career. I loved her style of writing, as well, she made room to include recipes that I'll definitely be trying out.

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Part 1 (13/52)

This was a belated resolution of mine, and I like that other people have book-related resolutions for the year as well! Here's my list so far:

disliked (-), neutral/ok ( ), liked (+), loved (♥)

1. The Good Women of China - Xinran (+)
2. Dreams of Trespass - Fatima Mernissi (reread) ♥
3. Cockroach - Rawi Hage
4. A Secret Between Us - Daniel Poloquin (abandoned) (-)
5. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
6. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf - Mohja Kahf
7. The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca - Tahir Shah ♥
8. Barnacle Love - Anthony De Sa
9. Boys in the Trees: A Novel - Mary Swan (+)
10. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (+)
11. Shanghai Girls - Lisa See (+)
12. Atmospheric Disturbances - Rivka Galchen ♥
13. The Great Karoo - Fred Stenson ♥

Vanishing & Other Stories - by Deborah Willis

A rather cliche world of writers, artists, bicycles with baskets, tofu, drinking wine from mason jar glasses, professor husband sleeping with wife's artist friend, teenage girl sleeping with weatherworn cowboy, groom sleeps with bride's younger sister on wedding day, prof sleeping with her young student- the writing is good but the collection comes across as pretentious. This was nominated for a GG award???

The Great Karoo - Fred Stenson

War novels are not usually my thing. (*yawn*) I took this out from the library because it was a GG's nomination but I was ready to quit this before I even started. I finally picked it up to fill the gap after Atmospheric Disturbances, and then, surprisingly, I couldn't put it down. I can't say why exactly I loved this book, but I did. It was long, and slow, and all about war, set in South Africa during the second Boer War. But it was also a page-turner, and had a great plot, and was beautifully written and thoughtful. Definitely glad I read this one.

Atmospheric Disturbances: A Novel - Rivka Galchen

I definitely recommend this book, it was just so good! It is one of those rare books that brings such originality to the idea of what a novel should be that it made for a fresh and pleasurable read.

The middle-aged psychiatrist protagonist believes his wife has disappeared, and has been replaced by... a doppelganger. Conspiracies with dogs, doppelgangers, weather, and wacky mix of science and literature and psychology ensue, right up to this book's final confusion, I mean conclusion.

Creative, smart, funny, eccentric, complicated- sound like the perfect date? I can tell you I certainly enjoyed taking this one to bed for 3 nights in a row.

However, I'd be interested to hear what other people think of it, as a lot of reviewers on amazon really didn't like this book.