Salvation on the Small Screen? by Nadia Bolz-Weber

I had to buy this book after reading an excerpt from it in Geez magazine.  Yes, it’s another one of those “I picked some bizarre challenge and wrote a book about it” memoirs (and yes, it has a front cover blurb from A.J. Jacobs — does this guy spend all his time writing cover blurbs [...]

Building a Home With My Husband, by Rachel Simon

Rachel Simon scored a hit with her memoir Riding the Bus with my Sister, a story about learning to connect with her mentally disabled sister by riding city buses with her.
I guess she figures the title set a good precedent, because she’s followed it up with Building a Home with my Husband, a memoir about living [...]

Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin

For obvious reasons, I had a bit of resistance to overcome in reading this book.  When you release a book about immigrants to Brooklyn, NY, which has the name “Brooklyn” in the title, it’s not tremendous fun to find that a hugely successful and critically acclaimed Booker-nominated author has released a novel about immigrants to [...]

Mindset, by Carol Dweck

In Mindset, Carol Dweck explores two different ways people look at concepts like talent, ability and intelligence — two outlooks which, her research suggests, have a profound impact on how people learn and how they cope with setbacks.
People with what Dweck calls the “fixed mindset” believe that talent, ability and intelligence are fixed qualities which [...]

The Nanny Diaries, by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

This is a perfect example of the kind of book I wouldn’t think to pick up if it weren’t on the list for an online book club I sometimes frequent.  I knew it would be somewhat light and fluffy, but I also expected this very popular tale of a nanny in a wealthy Manhattan household [...]

The Unlikely Disciple, by Kevin Roose

Now here’s another memoir that capitalizes on a couple of trends I’ve noticed in my reading lately: the “I’ll do something odd for a year (in this case a semester) and write about it” trend, and the “friend of A.J. Jacobs whose book bears some striking similarities to his” trend.  Kevin Roose was A.J. Jacobs’ intern when he [...]

Brainiac, by Ken Jennings

After trying out for Jeopardy!, the next logical thing to do seemed to be to read Brainiac by Ken Jennings, the guy who made Jeopardy! history by winning 74 games in a row.  Brainiac is not just Ken’s memoir about his time on the classic game show, thought that story is woven in there.  It’s [...]

Songbird, by Lisa Samson

Songbird is a novel about Charmaine Hopewell, a Christian gospel singer whose ministry has arisen out of a life of hardship and disappointment.  Abandoned by her mother when she was only 11, Charmaine has met with difficulties and also with love and encouragement along her journey.  Her faith in God and her love for music [...]

Farm City, by Novella Carpenter

This was certainly different and interesting.  Farm City is Novella Carpenter’s story of her urban farm — a plot of land (not owned by her — she was basically squat-farming behind the house where she rented an apartment) in the middle of an Oakland, California slum.  In this unlikely spot, Novella not only grows vegetables [...]

The Pretend Wife, by Bridget Asher

Normally I’m not a fan of novels about infidelity, and now I’ve gone and read two in a row.  I mean, I know that marital infidelity makes a great plot and I don’t mind people writing about it, but I do have a problem with a novel that somehow manages to make me cheer for [...]