The Club Dumas

Lucas Corso...Did I know love until then? This book had been in my possession for years and years. I remember that Oliver from B. Dalton loved this book and we talked about it often. So I bought it for Joe years ago. Joe didn't like it too much. So I wasn't really psyched to try it...but something made me go for it.
Saying that this book helped shape the next two years of my life is an understatement. It helped shape what I read, who I love, and what I live for-the written word.
Lucas Corso. That name! I loved him so much. He is my Harry Potter, he is my Emma. He is my Inferno and he is my Romeo. He is everything I ever wanted in a book character. Profound, clumsly. Foolishly in love. I ADORE the tiniest insignificant details in this book. In one paragraph, the phone rings while Corso is in bed. In reaching out to answer it, he drops his glasses. That moved me beyond words. The smallest thing and yet so real.
I love that Lucas went to great lengths to protect his books but smoked around them without hesistation.
I love that he couldn't sleep at night and I loved that he liked to drink a lot. He had SO many imperfections and he was so realistic. And that makes him my favourite book character ever.
So how does this book shape my life? A few of my friends read this one. Some fell for it as hard as I did, some with the romance of the book world and some with the overall charm. So we were all connected. We were the Club Dumas. Even now, we talk about it. Even now we are connected...we always will be. <3

A Dirty Job

Oh, Christoper Moore. You make me laugh. Wow, I remember reading this book at the same time as Dustin!!!!
Though this book was great and funny and charming, it wasn't as great as Lamb, because how many people out there are lucky enough to have best friends named Biff?

The Neverending Story

It was time to re-read a childhood favourite. This book will always be very dear to me. A comfort read.

A Total Waste of Make-Up

I tried to read and I tried to read and I tried to read to no avail. It took me 6 months to finally complete a book after I started BN, and this was the one. I had this book and I swore myself off of chick literature, but hey, it was about Los Angeles and oh how I missed home. Oh how I missed it so. And this book filled that void. :)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

I read 4 books in 2005 guys. 4.
This one I re-read on a trip to California. :) I read it planning on reading all the other books in the series but I never got around to them. :( I was also sad because I didn't have too many other books with me on the plane. :(
After I got back I focused on closing the store down. The clearance was starting. The final weeks were coming to and end. I didn't actually finish a book until 7 months later.
Not only was it a new job, it was also a new house, and Joe had started his new career. Everything was SO new.
I tried to read but I couldn't get into anything, at all.
Anyway, this is the last B. Dalton Post.
Oh, those days are missed. But I do have to say that from here on out, none of the books that appear on this list has been a waste of time. They're all me. 100 % me. I stopped reading recommendations. Instead, I read friends favourite books. Books that friends were passionate about. Not because I wanted to read a good book, but because I wanted to know why they were passionate about the author or book. So it made me really happy to finally read On the Road. Even though I didn't like it, I learned a lot about Natacia and it makes me happy. :) So..yeah. Welcome to B&N Folks.

The Kite Runner

Oh, Kite Runner. This book is SO incredibly written. The storytelling takes my breath away!
This was also one of the best book club meetings we ever had. I say book club but we were all so close and we all loved to read...so it was just a meeting of friends. We had the best afghanistan food and i was the only one brave enough to drink the rose water. It was delicious.
The book conversation was also incredibly interesting. Sandra and I had very strong cultures and we were raised with that culture as a back bone. And we were the only ones who agreed that the main character in this book was hard to forgive. We didn't sympathize with him. It was really interesting!
The book, though, was really hard for me to read. I mean...it was SO SO SO SAD. It was SO good but so OVERWHELMINGLY sad. I could never recommend this one off the bat because of the feelings it evokes..so powerful. If someone asks about it though, I do always say that the storytelling is brilliant.

The Reading Group

Ok, wow. This book was pretty amazing. It was a more than chick literature. It was a story about how all these woman who know each other, but just barely, form a reading group and as they discuss the books, they find out so much more about themselves and each other. I highly recommended this one to anyone I come across who dig books like this.

Every Boy's Got One

I actually really loved this book. It made me want a blackberry really bad. The idea of being able to email and chat with friends during a trip to Italy sounds pretty awesome. And I just like how a blackberry sounds. I would totally become a blackberry junkie. It would make my friends despise me.
Back to the book though, I really liked it. I was supposed to read it with Shelly because she told me about some book club she was reading it for and though she actually never got around to reading it-I LOVED IT. And I had jumped on another Meg Cabot read. :)

Wizard's First Rule

Ok ok ok ok. I really like this series. Yea, I know. I've read it 3 times. What can I say? The man has a sword of truth. I mean, if I had a sword, it would be truth.

American Girls

So, I was still at B. Dalton here...but much less reading happened in the next year. *much less*
I was a newly appointed Store Manager. I was busy busy busy busy. It would have been easier if I didn't close a store down, but closing a store was so new to me that I didn't want to screw up. It would have been a lot easier if I were a SM under normal circumstances...
As far as this book goes...It was good. Short Story books are interesting because some are REALLY good, some are crap and some are very insightful and worth the read even if the story wasn't that good. This book had a little of everything.

Briar Rose

This is one of Sherri's book. It was also her last recommendation. B. Daltons last recommendation to me. The end of an era of reading.
One of the things that make me sad at BN is that no one is PSYCHED about reading. No one talks about books anymore. At B. Dalton, thats what we based our conversations on. Books and Pop Culture. I really miss Andrews and JP's hourly long discussions on the previous nights episode of The Shield. Sometimes their conversations lasted longer than the actual show.
Or that time the power went out because someone actually electricuted themselves somewhere in the mall. We hung out in the semi darkness of the store and read from Entertainment Weekly.
Or when customers would actually come in looking for you based on last weeks book recommendation.
*sniff* I miss talking about books.

Songbird

Don't ask me what inspired me to pick this book. I used to randomly pick books off of displays.
This one was...overwhelming. Sad. Nazi's, prostitution, etc. There are some images I remember well from this book. But I wouldn't recommend it or read it again.

I Never Had it Made

*swoon* Baseball, african american history, AND 1947??????????? This book was written for me. Thanks Jackie Robinson, for thinking of me when you wrote it.
In all seriousness, this is a really great book. Did you know that Jackie Robinson played football, basketball and was on track on top of baseball. Track was his most favourite! :) He excelled at everything he did. *unlike Michael Jordan, but I still love ya!*
I LOVE JACKIE ROBINSON. I love that he wasn't graceful about his being the first black man to play in the major leagues. He was angry and you bet it pissed him off everytime someone said something negative about him or to him, but he was strong enough of person to fight it and he fought it with everything he had. He takes endurance to a whole other level. Jackie Robinson, I adore you.
And I also really love the Dodgers, Brooklyn & Los Angeles. I bleed Dodger Blue. True Brue, you know it.

Truckers

Terry Pratchett and books for kids should equal awesome right? Not so much. I was sad and dissapointed. And I dont think it was because I was on my way back to Virginia from Los Angeles.

Samurai Girl: A Book of the Sword

For months and months I looked at this series in our teen section and I was so intrigued. When I finally got around to reading this one I found that I really really really really LOVED it! I was psyched. I was all about this book. But that's when the store had dropped its Model and it was really hard to keep in the section. *sniff*

Angus, Thongs, & Full Frontal Snogging

British teen books are amazing.

A Single Shard

A Single Shard is a young readers book and I was really disapointed by it. Sure, it was good and well written. I remember that when it came out, it received a lot of press. I didn't think it was *that* good. :(

Love Is Murder

When I worked at B. Dalton, I had a massive book collection. Teen books, crap books, kid books and I couldn't bear to throw any away without reading them first. So on my 2nd trip back home to Los Angeles, I grabbed a handfulof books and read 4 books in 5 days. They were all easy thoughtless books, but a lot of them I read for work. I cannot stress enough how important it was for me to be able to know first hand what I would recommend in the kids section.
This book is a mystery though. And I liked it enough to recommend it to other people at work (Sandra and Shelly). Sandra went on to read the sequels. :)

Pontius Pilate

Ok ok ok. This book was really amazing for me. Wow. It was a biography of Mr Pilate and obviously it's not all fact. However, it did cover a lot of the times back then, down to daily routines. It was very intriguing. I was always very interested in Rome and Roman figures and this one is probably my favourite roman-esque book. Even though a lot of it of course covers the crucifixation, the book shows you what it was like for Pilate and how he basically lived his life. The decisions he may have made and the reasoning for them. A very great book...it was written really well. Plus the book cover is really fantastic. I also like the whole picture. I have always been drawn to it.

Alexander: The Child of Dreams

Yes yes, I read this one before and I loved it even more the second time. It was SO amazing. :) I wanted to kick some butt and wear armor after this book. Oh, I wanted to take 'em all down!

The Wizard of Oz

I love the Wizard of Oz so much that I read it twice. I love the Tinman especially.
<3 I really need to watch The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd. :) Fun fun fun in the sun.

To Have and To Hold

Only 18 more books to go until I started at Barnes & Noble! :)
Ok, this book here..well..it was UBER depressing. Really. And it makes me sad to even think about, so onto the next book!

Journal of the Dead

A true story.

OK, this book is WAY too interesting for me not to write about it...2 friends-David and Raffi-from Boston decide to take a road trip (inspired by Kerouac). They stop in New Mexico for a night out under the stars. They take a few beers, a water or two and start their hike into the night.
The next morning, theyre lost. No water, no beer. No food. At the end of the short trip that lasted only a few days, one of the friends is dead. Murdered.
Since they had gotten lost with no food or water, they started to panic. David can no longer so on, so he asked his friend Raffi to take his life. Raffi then killed his best friend out of an act of compassion. Or was it murder?
This book is interesting to me because they were never more than a mile or two out. Something like this could have easily been prevented, but these guys lost it so fast. And I like how pyschological this book was. It was riveting.

Prophecy of the Stones

So, as a children's dept manager, I was always looking for something really great to recommend to the youngsters. I really wanted to inspire kids to read, which is why this one stands out. This book is a really great read for girls around 13 or 14. I loved that this book was so easy to recommend.
I recently recommended it at BN. :)

Island of the Blue Dolphins

YEAR RE-READ: 2004

Yes yes. I read this one when I was really little but I didn't include it because I read it before I loved to read. Anyway, I wanted to re-read it as an adult. I love how peaceful this book is.

How Soon is Never?

This novel is all about Morrissey and The Smiths. The Smiths wrote a song called "How Soon Is Now?" It is probably they're most popular song, because it has been used in commericials, it is the Charmed Theme Song, and it was also on The Wedding Singer Soundtrack.
This book is about a man who reviews music for a living and how his life sort of went all wrong. It's also plays on the idea of what it would be like if The Smiths got back together. It was interesting only because of all the Smith and Morrissey references, otherwise it was kind of slow and depressing.

Children of the Alley

It was time to get serious and this book was intense. Very colourful and very beautiful. A culture shock of a book. It was so intricate and I was tired by the end of it. But very beautiful. I would read another one of his books.

All American Girl

Ok, this book was about art and ska and Washington D.C.. Ok sure, it was also about teenage girls and boys. I was 24 at the time. So what? I liked it, a lot.

Faking It

My second to last book recommended by Sherri. A lot of poeople I know read Jennifer Crusie and love her a lot, but I felt she was more of a romance writer than a chick lit writer. Either way, it was cute. It wasn't for me.

Borderlines

An autobiography about a girl in her early to mid-twenties and her pyscho best friend. Very Single White Female. I didn't want friends after this. Hahaa, thats ok though, because I didn't have any.

Romeo and Juliet

What better way to start 2004 that another re-reading of Romeo & Juliet? At this time I bought all the books published by Folger Library and I remember loving how all the books looked together, stacked up neatly in my arms. Mhmhm...

Oooh..I need more shark books in my life. This one was SOO SOOSOSOS good and scary. Scary because I am afraid of sharks, you see. :)

Autobiography of Santa Claus

So I read this during the holiday season of 2003 and it had a lot of potential to be great, but it wasn't. It was my last christmas book. :(

Pandora

This book was really beautiful. A Vampire in the times of Casaer Augustus then fleeing to Egypt, this book was written for me.

Count of Monte Cristo

Oh No. I left this out. This book should be before "My Last Movie Star" :( I LEFT THIS BOOK OUT. What?! I cannot find a picture of the exact copy I read and i wont just tag any picture because Ive tried to read other versions of this book and they don't live up to the one I really love.
Oh, this book. Edmond Dantes. He was such an amazing character. He was so in love and he was so innocent...and then a sudden chain of events and he finds himself a prisoner. And oh, does he become a badass in jail. Upon exiting, he finds a treasure and builds up his reputation. Not as Edmond Dantes, he is supposed to be dead. But as The Count Of Monte Cristo. And he gets revenge on all those who has ever wronged him, while still sort of being the good guy. This book is by far my favourite classic. Love it!

UPDATE: I finally found a picture of the book I have!! and here it is!

Practical Magic

You know, this book isn't horribly written-but I did not like it. :( Nope, not at all. As I get closer to the type of books I love to read, the kinds of books that didn't do it for me really dissapointed me. I started to have really high standards and I want to be moved everytime I read. Because life is short. And I don't read to escape..I read to live and I read to love. There is nothing in my life that I need to escape from, so I dont need that quick fix. But I want to read about beauty, tragic though it can sometimes be, I want to read about love and literature and books and music and egypt and dreams and..well, those are a few of my favourite things.

Life Of Pi

You know, throughout the entire time I have been posting, I have been looking forward to writing about this book the most. It has moved me in so many ways...
It's about a little indian boy named Piscine. His family owns a zoo and they must move. Piscine has grown up in the zoo, and he knows a lot about animal pyscholgy. His parents have taught him about all the dangers of zoo animals and which animals to fear and why.
As the animals get sold, the family prepares to move. They must board the same ship as a lot of the animals.
One day there is an accident and Piscine stuggles to find his family but finds a boat after a while and he starts to panic. In his panic, his rescues a bengal tiger, a zebra, an orang-utan, and a hyena. It isnt until when everything in site has been rescued that he realises how grave his situation is. He is on a boat with a 450 lb tiger, a most fearsome creature. And so this book is about their stuggle to survive together. Are they ever friends and do they ever cuddle Walt Disney style? No no no. But they rely on each other to survive and it is a great great great great book on just life in general. I really really love this book and I know 2 or 3 people who don't like it, but it is so beautifully moving to me and I love how much I took away from this book. I am getting chills just writing about this one. I love that Piscine also pratices 3 religions. (Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam)

I also love that this book is called Life of Pi, because Pi is short for Piscine.

Angels

Mhmm, this book is great because it takes place in Los Angeles. A girl from Dublin takes refuge there and its a culture shock for her and for me it was like going back home. My favourite part in this book is when someone tries to order fat free water.
You know, LA is sort of eccentric. Its true. We do have oxygen kiosks. Yes. You can pay for oxygen!
In Los Angeles, I have had a shot glass of wheat grass. It looks like this.



I am pretty sure that they have this in New York as well, but there is nothing like a fruit smoothie followed by a shot of grass with the desert sun shining down on you. The desert sun, my los angeles shining sun. A lot of people seem to forget about it being a desert. It's why i am always cold, fool.

Pleasure of My Company

Though I still really love the way Steve Martin writes, this book wasn't as good as Shopgirl. I really really really love shopgirl. Oh so much!!! I even want to buy the audio to shopgirl so I can listen to steve martin read it as I follow his words with my copy of the book. Yah, because I would do that. I am not a big fan of audio because I don't allow myself to get lost in the story if I am busy doing other things.
The Pleasure of My Company was just really really depressing. The guy character in this book was more of a wallflower than the girl in Shopgirl but she wasn't borderline creepy. This guy was..

Sloppy Firsts

This book reads like a teen book but B&N keeps it in fiction. I really liked it and I remember relating well to it, but I don't remember anything specific about it except for the fact that Krispy Kreme donuts were mentioned a whole bunch of times, and I've never had krisy kreme, so I didnt know what the big deal was. In Los Angeles, we had Wenchells. Or Winchells. I wasn't a big fan either way. And even now at Dunkin Donuts, I usually get a coffee and a muffin. No donuts for me. :)

Cloud of Sparrows

I really loved this book a lot and I seriously need to own it and re-read it. And when I re-read it, I am going to read the sequel. It takes place in Japan in 1861! There's even a little bit of romance in there. I am pretty sure its been picked up for a movie...and because its awesome.

Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes

Yeah. The Complete Stories Volume 1. It was pretty awesome. I went through a long phase of Sherlock Holmes. I shouldn't have read all of em at once though. I was sick to death by the end of it. :( And that's just WRONG! No one should be sick of Sherlock Holmes. :(

Interesting FACT: An episode of Sherlock Holmes was shot at Morrissey's house. Yay!!!

The Alchemist

Ah, yes. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. He is a beautiful writer. He has this way of being so simple and so meaningful. Its an art form. I did not take away as much from this one as I took away from a book i read later on in my life. I was bored at times, but I still appreciated its beauty.

Stardust

I was SO intrigued by this cover. And the star in this book-her name is Yvaine. So, yeah..it was pretty much awesome. The closest to being a star I'll ever get to. :)

Ciao America!

I dunno what inspired me to read this one back in the day but I did like that it takes place around these here parts. An Italian living in Virginia. That's sort of interesting. Some parts were Bill Bryson-esque but more of it was a little whine-y. He whined a lot. :( Hahaha, he probably wined a lot, too. I would. Wine is good.

Soul Music

Oh Wow. I LOVE books about music and this one rocks. And whats better yet? This one is amazingly funny. I love that the bands name is "The Band With Rocks In" because they don't know any better. Oh, music and literature and wit. What a great world you provide for me to get lost in.
This one is up there on my Favourite Books List. Yep, it sure is. Plus DEATH is in it and my oh my...I LOVE DEATH. I love how DEATH is a worrier and also a badass. I love how DEATH thinks in CAPS. Oh...it's just a great book!

PS: The title defines my life and how music affects me.

What My Mother Doesn't Know

So, this one is a teen book and I loved how honest the book title is. What My Mother Doesn't Know. And you know what? There's a lot mothers don't know. My mom doesn't know a whole lot about me and I don't think she wants to know half the stuff. I don't want to be like that when I'm a parent. I want to be supportive and I want to be trusted. I don't want to be the kind of parent who is in denial about their kids problems and just choose to be in the dark...

The Judgement

I really tried to conjure up the image of Shawn Green as the super rad lawyer in this series but it didn't work as well. :( The book was still really amazing, but it somehow lost a *little* charm. I know, it doesn't make sense. :( I must really really like Shawn Green.