shannan's book club

yes i am a bookworm, unapologetically so, might i add. i am proud to be a nerd and i am proud to rendevouz at b&n until they kick me out each night.

i can't explain it, but i just love books - everything about them (the way they smell, the carefully contrived cover art, the anticpation and expectation, etc.). however, i think what i love most is that feeling of getting lost in the words, that entanglement that happens when you become so engrossed in the plot that you feel like you're scout finch, josephine march, or daisy buchannan. although it takes an excellent writer to achieve this for his or her reader, when there is a true writer-reader connection, it's the best kind of magic.

whether it is just plain sad or pathetic, the way that i can always guage whether a book has truly been inspiring/memorable/impacting is that moment when i'm about 10 pages from finishing it and i feel almost heartsick. it's like i've had this beautiful, wonderful, passionate, intimiate relationship and it's all ending. this is most evident when i embark upon reading a thick book (case in point: last summer reading all 1,083 pages of lonesome dove...oh larry mcmurtry, you knew exactly what you were doing.) but i will say this, the great thing about books, as apposed to irrovecable, final breakups w/ that tragically beautiful bad boy who made you believe that you were going to be the woman who unearthed his heart of gold (definitely not speaking from experience here ;) is that the book always invites you to come back for another go-around without the sting of abandonment.

so now that everyone thinks that i will inevitably become the old public librarian w/ a million felines, i'll divulge the real reason for this post. i have started my very own book club! though i read a lot in college, there really wasn't time for pleasure reading so i have had an overwhelming stack waiting for the moment when i finally graduated. since i am taking the summer "off" for sorts, i have accounted for reading a book every single week this summer, which means that by the end of the summer, i should have read 14 books.

so far, i have read hemingway's the sun also rises, a book called stolen innocence by elissa wall which chronicles her escape from warren jeffs and the flds, and today i finished john berendt's midnight in the garden of good and evil.

i just want to take some time to rave about that book, because it's seriouly the best thing i've read in quite a long time. of course it being southern gothic and appearing on the new york times bestsellers' list for 216 weeks was great, but berendt's eccentric characters that make the city of savannah, georgia come alive are just fantastic. i cannot believe this book is based on actual events! i would kill to have the opportunity that berendt had in writing his novel. i don't want to give anything away, but this is a must-read!



*also, i was so enthralled w/ this book, that i went out and rented the 1997 flick based on the book. being produced and directed by clint eastwood, i had very high expectations and the movie was really great. fascinating really. and kevin spacey, wow! he had that deep southern accent down to a tee.

starting the shack by william young tomorrow, but i'm open for any suggestions!