Poser: my life in twenty-three yoga poses

Interesting, but I struggled to get beyond the middle of the book when poses are repeated. I did not finish it.

p. 177: "I wanted him to desire me ardently and hopelessly. This was of course impossible. I was married, and therefore known. I wanted to be perfect and adored for it, but any fool knows that you cannot be known and perfect at the same time."

The Social Animal: the hidden sources of love, character, and achievement

This was the summer book club book choice. Folks were strongly divided over their opinions of the book and its author--they either liked it or hated it. I liked it. I think it's a nice interweaving of a lot of social theories with characters. Imagine that it's a serial published in Psychology Today, and maybe that will give you a better sense of which camp you'd fit into after reading it.

p. 208: "This yearning for harmony, or limerence, can manifest itself in small mundane ways. People experience a small spark of pleasure when they solve a crossword puzzle or when they sit down and find a perfectly set table that meets their standards of 'just so.'"

The Quiet Girl

Meh. The characters, especially the mysterious clown who can hear the individual musical tones emanating from people, are unforgettable. The action, however, much of it political and in flashbacks, is complex and hard to track throughout the chapters.

I couldn't finish it. I'd like to come back to it someday, though.

Skylight Confessions

This one has seeped into my brain like memories that aren't mine. Without a definite beginning or ending, I get a sense that I have always known pieces of this story, and I find myself pondering parts of this story without having a clear sense of where they came from--

It seems that Alice Hoffman's books do this to me. In The Ice Queen, I identified so fully with the protagonist that, occasionally on some mornings, half asleep in bed, I still find myself half dreaming that I have been hit by lightning and forever changed. It feel utterly natural in the moment, of course, although so often dreamlike morning thoughts sound like lunacy in daylight.

In this book, young Arlyn, raw from her father's death, decides that she will marry the next man who walks down the street, not simply out of necessity or loneliness, but because she declares that he "will be my one love and I will be true to him as long as he's true to me." So when Yale architecture student John Moody pulls up in his car asking for directions, her path becomes clear and her resolve unshakable.

Years later, it's clear that Arlyn and John have a terrible but complex relationship, a son named Sam with disturbing emotional issues, and a daughter named Blanca upon whose shoulders so much responsibility for family cohesiveness rests. They all live in John's family's house named the Glass Slipper, a giant architectural wonder made all of glass.

What I have told you here is merely a stepping stone for the rest of the story.

p. 30: "Watching John in the half-light of spring, with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up, Arlyn remembered how she had felt the first time she saw him, back when he was lost and she was so dead set on finding him."

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: a novel

Amazing. Best book I've read so far this year, hands down.

As soon as I brought it back, I recommended it to a patron, and bam! it's checked out. So you'll have to wait until it's checked in again for the shortlist of delicious quotes I want to share with you.