Sunday, May 13, 2007

Tiny Little Librarian's List

My list is pretty fluffy. I guess I'm just not that deep! But that's one of the things about me - I'm not a big fan of heavy books. I figure there's enough hard stuff in life without adding extra to it by reading about it. So if you're looking for something light, check mine out!


Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons by Lorna Landvik
I belong to a book club of great women, like the ladies in this book. And this was one of the few books that all of our members really enjoyed. Also, it's set in Minnesota, which is where my husband's from and I love visiting there every summer.


Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My childhood favourite! I really identified with Anne (and still do) - I was adopted, I had a big imagination and loved to read, and I hated my name. I even had puffed sleeves on my graduation dress (looking back, a fashion mistake but I loved it at the time). And as I read the sequels and got older, I developed a literary crush on Gilbert Blythe.


Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding
Ah, the mother of all chick lit! I love Bridget - her calorie-counting, her "v. goods" and "v. bads," her embarassing moments... Like her, I feared that I'd die alone and be eaten by an Alsatian. I'm also a huge Anglophile, so I really enjoy the Britishness of Bridge. (Again, literary crush material in Mark Darcy, who is almost as crushable as the original Pride and Prejudice Darcy.)


The Gallery of Regrettable Food by James Lileks
Hilarious!! Lileks is a (sadly former) columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and also an avid collector of old books, postcards, pamphlets, etc. Husband and I started out laughing at them on his web site (http://www.lileks.com/) and were delighted when he started turning them into books. In this one, he comments on horrifying recipes from 50's cookbooks. There's lots of gelatine, hard-boiled eggs made to look like penguins, and the choice between "cheesy meat dishes" or "meaty cheese dishes."


Lucy Crocker 2.0 by Caroline Preston
Not one of my all-time faves, a fun enough read. I chose this one because Lucy is a former children's librarian and she designs a popular video game. I love computer games (particularly the Sims and EverQuest) and I'm a children's librarian, so there you are. (I fortunately don't have all of the troubles Lucy has with her husband and kids, though.)

(For all my challenge-ish stuff, check out my new reading blog - The Tiny Little Reading Room at http://tinyreadingroom.blogspot.com/)

14 comments:

kookie said...

Holy Smokes, tinylittlelibrarian, you have some of my favorites on your list. "Regrettable Foods" is so hysterically funny, I can only look at a few pages at a time (I've read it several times over, to boot). I'm a big Lileks fan and am over at his Institute of Cheer website daily. Great choices.

Athena said...

Yay, an excuse for me to finally read Anne of Green Gables. I'm a shameful Canadian girl. Good list. Cheers.

tinylittlelibrarian said...

Kookiejar - hooray! I'm so happy to see another Lileks fan. Husband and I have literally laughed til we cry over his website.

Athena - I'm happy to be of service. And no, not shameful. There's tons of CanLit that I haven't read, either. Too many books, too little time!

Lisa said...

Hey Tiny! My husband is also from Minnesota and I also love going there every year. I've been trying to figure out a way to move there for years!!!! I'll have to catch up with this Lileks fellow. :0

See? We know more about each other already!! :)

raidergirl3 said...

Anne and Bridget? you are me and I am you. Those are two of my favorite all-time books - and Gilbert and M Darcy. cool
I will have to read another of your books

tinylittlelibrarian said...

Lisa - cool! A fellow Minnesotan-marrier! Lileks is really great, he has some neat historical Minneapolis stuff on his web site, too. And your Lying on the Couch sounds really interesting.

tinylittlelibrarian said...

raidergirl - What fun! :) Like Lisa says, we already know more about each other - v. cool. I'm glad we share 2 wonderful favourites. And I've always wondered about Cheaper by the Dozen and meant to read some Binchy, so that'll be great.

Maryanne Moll said...

Yes, Bridget Jones is one of the most hilarious characters in chick lit these days, :)

Anonymous said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Angry housewives Eating bon-bons. It's one of my comfort reads.
I am reading Anne of GG aloud to my girls right now. IT's my second read of the book (i just read them for the first time about two years ago), and we are so enjoying it!

Tiny Little Librarian said...

Maryanne - She really is - a lot of the other come-latelys are just bad imitations, I think.

Think Pink Dana - That's so nice that you're reading it to them. My parents read the first ones to me, I still fondly remember those bedtimes. And the Housewives are a hoot indeed.

Kristin said...

I'm so glad to know someone else out there had a crush on Gilbert Blythe and Mr. Darcy. I loved (actually, still do) them both...except I hated that simpering Gilbert Blythe on the PBS movies.

I've been meaning to read Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons so now I'll finally have a good excuse!

Pattie said...

AHEB is great, as is Bridget! Truly we all need "fluff" in our reading. :)

Tiny Little Librarian said...

Kristin - woo hoo, literary crushes are such fun! I don't think I recall the simpering Gilbert, which is fine by me, I wouldn't want to see a simpering one, bleagh.

Pattie - yup, sometimes you just need something fun and light.

Dewey said...

I'm going through everyone else's posts now, so I hope I don't annoy anyone with a bunch of comments.

Already read (and loved!) BJD, and picking Anne for sure.