What to Read in 2010?

Are you looking forward to reading anything in particular this year? A favorite author soon to come out with something new? Or have you, like me been on the holds list for something for months already? I am looking to read something that I have been waiting for two months at least!














The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry was mentioned on the library discussion group as really wonderful on audio so I have been waiting for it in that format especially! "It's essentially a feel-good book with philosophical aspirations, a cast of charmingly eccentric characters, and a European city-break setting -- private courtyards, restaurants, mysterious strangers. There is also much broad humour and musing on the meaning of life. (...) Resistance is futile: you're probably going to end up reading it. You might as well buy it before someone recommends it for your book group. Its charm will make you say yes." - so says Ian Sansom of The Guardian want to try listening at least!
















I've also been waiting for The Madoff Chronicles, The: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth. After the news broke of Bernie Madoff's arrest on December 11, 2008, the facts were hard to grasp. Madoff claimed to have stolen fifty billion dollars; the sum seemed impossibly large. But of course it wasn't impossible. And that was only the beginning of the story. Ross chronicles the lavish lifestyle that Bernie and his high-school sweetheart, Ruth, enjoyed as the result of his ill-gotten gains and the bone-deep deceit that shocked the world with its sheer audacity. He details the layers of Madoff's scheme-from money men across the country who made millions convincing clients to entrust their wealth to Madoff, to the fabricated stock trades and false quarterly statements that fooled his victims, many of whom lost their savings, their homes, some of them even their lives, in the wake of Madoff's betrayal.

This is a true-crime drama of Shakespearean proportions, built upon the up-close investigative skills of one of our most respected journalists. The Madoff Chronicles is a vivid and chilling look behind the gilded doors of the greatest financial fraud in history.
I can't wait to read that one!











Another book that I thought looked great was Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together by Larissa Brown, Martin John Brown. The immensely popular knitalong—an organized event where people knit together for a common goal—has only grown with the explosion of the Internet. Yesterday’s wartime Red Cross sock drives have evolved into today’s meet-ups at locales as diverse as cafes, state fairs, and major league ballparks, as well as international online gatherings; in fact, at any given time tens of thousands of people worldwide are involved in knitalongs, organized around a particular yarn, a favorite social cause, an intriguing project, a special event, or myriad other themes.
Authors Larissa Brown and Martin John Brown present an inspiring look at centuries of people knitting together, and why knitters find the interaction so meaningful and worthwhile. Along the way, they offer 20 projects especially suited for different types of knitalongs. The Barn Raising Quilt and the Traveling Scarf, for instance, call on individual knitters to collaborate on a single project; while the Pinwheel Blanket and the Meathead Hat encourage a community of knitters to improvise on the same pattern to come up with a variety of results. Also included is essential information about finding, joining, and starting knitalongs.
I love it! Beaver Dam Library should have it soon!

















Another book I am waiting for, that isn't even out till later this month is The Merry Wives of Maggody, The newest in the series by Joan Hess. If you haven't read any of these, I highly recommend them as light hearted, silly fun.
Hess’s amusing 16th update on tiny Maggody, Ark., and its crazy cornpone citizens might have been more aptly titled Murder’s a Hole-in-One in Maggody. On the opening day of the first Maggody Charity Golf Tournament, poor braggart Tommy Ridner—who was so excited to win the hole-in-one prize, a $40,000 bass boat—turns up dead in the prize boat, his head bashed in by a golf club. Tommy’s murder creates a flapdoodle for Maggody’s newbie golfers, who hardly knew what a golf tee was before the big tournament. The town’s fearless (and pregnant) police chief, Arly Hanks, is confronted with more shockers after a friend of Tommy’s is also beaten to death with a golf club, and a rising LPGA star reports an assault.
Oh and by the way, this is a cosy for those of you who might wonder what genre it fits.
Well, I am off to lunch with my mother-finally got my car back from the body shop!
Brian had an accident in it just before Christmas and it is finally back and running well! Yay!
Talk to you soon,
Lynda


Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
Arnold Lobel