Last 7 Books I've Read

I just finished a pretty good book, Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I should preface this by saying it was relatively depressing. I got the recommendation from David Sedaris when Joe and I went to see his show in Boston a couple of months ago. He warned us that the writing was melancholy, but that doesn't usually stop me. I've been known to steep in sad themes - book or movie. The writing was very good. The story didn't move along so quickly...stuff happened, but it was more of a character piece. Don't run out for it, but I would recommend it if you want to have a nice slow paced read and can handle the sadness.

I should note that I keep a journal of all the books I've ever read. A guy I used to work with at the Ann Arbor District Library, when we lived in Michigan and I was about to start Grad school, had done this for 30 years. Can you imagine logging every book you've ever read for 30 years???? I was inspired and spent weeks going through book lists, amazon, and other sources to back track and figure out what I had read. It took awhile, but I think I have a pretty good list now. I stopped from after my honeymoon (5+ years ago) until about a year ago, so at some point I'll try to fill that time period in. I'm keeping up with it again now though. When Shelagh is starting to read on her own, I'm going to get her a journal to do this in and see if she gets into it too. Rory too probably, but I can tell Shelagh is going to be a reader like me.


The last 7 books I've read include:

1. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
2. The Far Pavilions - M.M. Kaye - This was a crazy long historical fiction novel along the lines of Thornbirds (one of my faves - book and mini-series - of all time). It took me about 6 mos to finish...it's hard to get through a 1000+ page book a few pages at a time. I really enjoyed it.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling - LOVED IT! What a wonderful ending. I should note that I listened to this, and all HP's on CD in the car. The guy that narrates all the books does a fabulous job and I don't think reading this in book form would have the same affect on me.
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini - I enjoyed this one so much more than his first book, The Kite Runner. Don't get me wrong...KR was excellent...until the end. It had possibly the WORST ending of all time. It screamed "my editor needs the ending, I can whip this out in 5 pages and be done with it". It truely ruined the book for me. I don't know if I'm going to see the movie. Maybe. ATSS was wonderful beginning to end. I think the author closed things up in a much more gradual and graceful way this time.
5. The Book of Eleanor: A Novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine - Pamela Kaufman - I love historical fiction. I especially love historical fiction when it's framed around real people. This was easy to get into and similar to The Other Boleyn Girl which I've recently read as well.
6. Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis - What a life to read about. Great book. His life philosophy is a little tiresome by the end, but you have to admire the Red Hot Chili Peppers dedication to their music and each other. I loved reading about their friendship the most...definintely gave me more respect for the band.
7. The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory - Loved this book and can't wait for the movie with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen.

Feel free to add your Last 5+ list into the comments.