Plique-a-jour

Resolution for this year was to read more books. I met my goal of ten already but most of them are chick lit so I don't know if they should count. I will rank them in the order of best to worst:

1) Kite Runner--(Khaled Hosseini) Powerful, intense read. So good I read it in one sitting. I started late at night and when I was done, it was bright outside. I loved Hassan. I believe that karma exists within the self but also cycles in the family. The only way we can break it is if we go out of our way to fix it. If not, things tend to perpetuate and brought over to the next generation. The meaning of brotherhood, family, friendship was all tested in this book. Not a dry eye. :')

2) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince-- (JK Rowling) Suspenseful but long. My favorite is still Goblet of Fire which is coming out soon in movie form. I didn't know that Emma Rose was Julia Robert's niece.

3) Never Let Me Go-- (Kazuo Ishiguro) A science fiction version of Ian McEwan's books. Beautiful prose. Sadness chips away at you. Throughout the book, I felt like it took something from me but I couldn't quite put a finger on what it was. Bereft.

4) Front Row: Anna Wintour: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief--
(Jerry Oppenheimer) Quite an intriguing read about the life of Anna Wintour. If you love Vogue and fashion like I do, a must read. Tip to aspiring editors: if you ever meet her, don't look her in the eye.

5) Le Divorce-- (Diane Johnson) Bonjour, mon petite chou! I heart Paris and it was nice to read about the intricacies of being an American living an expat life. An interesting plot and 3D characters. This is Johnson at her best.

6) Tales of the City/ More Tales of the City- (Armistead Maupin) A more wacked out version of "Friends." Still relatable though the setting is in San Francisco and they drink Tab and took Quaaludes back in the day but hot gay men seem to always been in style!

7) Like Water for Chocolate-- (Laura Esquivel) See below.

8) The Starter Wife-- (Gigi Levangie Grazer) Maneater was better. But she seems to know a lot about being a Hollywood wife. Could it be because she is married to megaproducer Brian Grazer?

9) Little Earthquakes-- (Jennifer Weiner) This is like Sex & the City but with babies. Makes me not want any kids.

10) Prep-- (Curtis Sittenfield) Life in boarding school for a girl who doesn't quite fit in. The moral of the story? There is no moral.

I finished Hand-Me-Down by Lee Nichols and it twas a happy read. Plique-a-jour is from the book which is a french term for a kind of enameling that produces a brilliant transculent effect like light through stained glass. Literal translation "windows of light."
Cool.

I tried to read Choke by Chuck Palahniuk but it was too messed up. He wrote Fight Club too. First rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. What's the second rule?