Wants and Needs - Jan/Feb Bookmarks

 

Back again with a nice long list of wants and needs from the latest edition of Bookmarks magazine (and ongoing and highly appreciated Christmas gift from my parents each year).  Fate has a way of noticing which books I mark, it seems, because a number of them have thrown themselves in my path.


The first bit of excitement when I opened the pages was a feature on Haruki Murakami.  Hey what do you know!  One of my goals this year was to read his work (my first will probably be "Kafka on the Shore") so it was a treat to learn a little more about the man.


Here are a whole long list of my Needs:    

1.  A Thousand Lives:  The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jamestown - Julia Scheeres


Nothing feeds my mind more than getting an insight to why ordinary people do horrific things, which is why I so love true crime.  To that end, I also enjoy learning why ordinary people become followers of something so outlandish like a cult.  I got this book at SIBA, so it is waiting anxiously on my bookshelves to be read.

2.  Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith


I've read both of Tom Rob Smith's books in the series prior to this one.  Child 44 I loved.  The Secret Speech not so much.  I am willing to give Smith another go however, because I love the protagonist Leo Demidov, who survived Stalinist Russia and is now involved in a Cold War-era conspiracy.  I'm on hold at the library for this audio.  

3.  Believing the Lie - Elizabeth George


George has been working on this series, involving one Inspector Lynley, for ages.  In fact, this is installment number 17.  I joined the ranks about four installments ago and have loved every one of them.  I don't even really care what the topic of the book is, I just know I'll love it.  And from my lips to Penguin Audio's ears!  I received this in the mail from them just last week.  Narrated by Davina Porter! Totally made my day.

4.  Perfect - Ellen Hopkins


One of my goals for 2012 was to read more free verse novels, and this was at the top of the list.  Apparently it is a companion novel to "Impulse" which I must get my hands on as well.  The book addresses troublesome teen issues, such as drugs, ambition, eating disorders, the works.  Those who have read it love it.  The audio landed in my lap recently, loaned to me by Heather.

5.  The Affair - Lee Child


You would think by the 16th installment of the Jack Reacher series (and I have read them all), they would start to get stale.  Well, I can feel staleness in the horizon if something doesn't change, but apparently Child has dodged that bullet for the moment by taking us back through time to when Reacher was fresh out of the military and taking on his last assignment with the Pentagon.  Hmmm, insight into the elusive Reacher?  Love it.  I just wish the library would get on with it and get it on audio...




And then there are a few wants as well:

1.  The Odds - Stewart O'Nan


This past year, I read my first O'Nan called "Emily, Alone".  It was not my favorite book for lack of plot, but O'Nan does have beautiful writing and a huge fan base.  Therefore, I'll be giving him another try with this one.  In his latest, he writes about a couple on the brink of divorce that takes a second honeymoon to Niagara Falls to give it one more shot.  

2.  The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater


Young adult dystopia, love story, flesh-eating water horses.  And because Jill loved it.

3.  The Cat's Table - Michael Ondaatje


I'm strangely drawn to this one, yet know very little about it.  Ondaatje's claim to fame is winning the Booker for "The English Patient", but this novel has been universally praised for it's themes...coming-of-age, morality, physical danger.  An 11 year-old leaves Sri Lanka on a three-week trip on an ocean liner to meet his mother in England.  And as they say, it isn't about the destination, but the journey as the young man encounters all walks of life.  Hmmm...