I have a confession to make. I love The Witches of Eastwick. The movie is a total guilty pleasure, and I’m not usually guilt-induced by my movie preferences- if I like it, that’s good enough for me- but this one’s so over the top I can’t help but feeling a little embarrassed to admit how many times I’ve watched it. The book, however, is no guilty pleasure. It varies greatly from the movie, and is a great read while also being an interesting examination of women’s power, including how they use that power against each other and allow men to subvert that power. It’s really well written, and I’ve read it a number of times- it’s one of my go to books when I want a comfort read. I wrote more about it here, if you’re interested.

So imagine my excitement yesterday when, at the bookstore with the girls, I found Widows of Eastwick on the new fiction shelf. John Updike wrote a sequel! I seriously can’t contain myself, and am trying to figure out how to have time to sequester myself somewhere to read for hours. That won’t happen, but I still can’t wait to get reading.

One of the goals on my uberlist for the year (my list of 108 things to do this year- I’ve done 47) is to give a book I hated the first time around another try. I’m not really coming up with anything, at least not anything I want to try again. Last year’s book for this same goal was Jane Eyre, and I didn’t make it through it- not that I hated it again, I just got distracted. If I don’t come up with a different option this year, I’ll be forced to resort to Great Expectations, and I REALLY don’t want to have to do that.

So, does anyone have any ideas of a book that I might have read and hated? Or started and not finished? Potentially something I would have been made to read in high school or college? Help me out here, don’t make me have to read stupid Great Expectations, please!

It’s been years, it seems, since I wrote about what I was reading. (Well, it’s been since August.) This happens because I read something amazing, and want to write a big, long, Lit class worthy post about it, and then I never get around to it and read other stuff and just get behind. So, to catch up:

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh: You know when you’re reading a book that just perfectly fits you and your mood and it’s bliss? That’s this book for me. Truly, one of the best books I’ve ever read. I was fully entranced with the life Evelyn created (we’re on a first name basis, it’s ok) and didn’t want it to end. It’s all about love, decadence, religion, struggles; simply brilliant. Brandy, if you’re reading this- you would love this book.

Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamont: This was good, not as fantastic as I wanted it to be. It’s a series of essays about all sorts of things.

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh: I need to splurge and just get all of Evelyn’s books, they’re all so lovely. This one is about a man whose wife is having an affair, it’s brutal and funny and marvelous.

Unicorns, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois: Ok, an explanation. I got this book of short stories out of my school library when I was in 4th grade and loved it. Years later, I thought back on the book, and thought, you know, I seem to remember there being things in that book that seem wildly inappropriate for a book in an elementary school library. So I searched and tracked down a copy, and wow. Short stories on unicorns by Theodore Sturgeon and a bunch of other big, adult names that I can’t remember at the moment and am too lazy to go find. Suffice it to say, I don’t know how much of the adult content I understood when I was 8, but there was quite a bit in there.

Time out for Parents by Cheri Huber: Cheri Huber is a teacher of Zen, and I adore her books. This one is (surprise!) about being present as a parent, and how to step back and not lose it.

Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi: FANTASTIC. I love these books. B wanted me to read them so I could read the last book in the series and meet a character he says I will love, and I’m looking forward to it. These are great science fiction, with wonderful characters and a really compelling world and premise.

Making a Change for Good by Cheri Huber: Another Zen book, also very good.

the mother in me, edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper: Oh my goodness, this book is wonderful. I seriously want to buy it for every woman I know for Christmas. It’s full of gorgeous, honest, raw essays and poetry about motherhood, divine nature, life, struggles- it’s beautiful.

Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price- This marked the end of my read through of all the LDS standard works. It’s the first time I’d actually read all of the D&C, and the first time I’d read the complete Pearl of Great Price. There’s tons of great doctrine in there, and great examples of hope and faith amidst huge adversity.

A Question of Death by Kerry Greenwood: This is a collection of short stories set in the world of Phryne Fisher, private detective of 1920′s Australia. Very enjoyable.

The Toddler Busy Book by Trish Kuffner: This book has 365 ideas of fun things to do with toddlers, and yes, I read them all.

Token by Alisa Kwitney and Joelle Jones: I’ve been waiting anxiously for this graphic novel to come out, mainly because I adore Joelle’s art. (And yes, we actually ARE on a first name basis. ) Jamie has been singing its praises for months and months, and it lives up to every note of that praise song. (That sentence went wrong somewhere along the way, didn’t it?) It’s the story of a young woman living in Florida in the 1980s, who loves old movies and whose best friends are her grandmother and her older neighbor. All she wants is a great romance, and she stumbles into one just as she turns 16. It’s a lovely story, reminiscent of the films Shira loves, and Joelle’s art is so vivid and so alive that when I think back on the story I remember it as though I watched a movie.

Ok, that’s it! I’ve surpassed my goal of reading 50 books this year, which is exciting. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up now. My next read is The Lost Colony by John Scalzi.

What are you reading?