Laura's comments

Laura's comments from the The Next Best Book Club group.

Note: Laura is no longer a member of this group.

City of Masks takes place in New Orleans

The House on Tradd Street is set in Charleston and southern history plays a big part in the story

Hi Shredder - I wasn't sure what type of insight/profundity you were looking for so I went with classics that have either changed the culture or describe parts of it well (I think).

To Kill a Mockingbird
Roots
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Gone With The Wind
Catch-22

I'm sure there are lots more, but I'm limited to the ones I've read myself. :)

I'll admit to lying when someone loans (or gives) me a book that they "just loved" and I not only didn't enjoy it, but actively disliked it or wasn't able to finish it.

If it's someone close to me I'll generally tell the truth, but if it's a co-worker I don't see often or someone similar I just smile and make general remarks about what I did read.

I think people tend to be derogatory about things they secretly feel guilty for not doing themselves. If your ex-boss was truly indifferent to your wife's reading list he would have said something more general and not attacked her by describing it as "selfish". As another example, I'm not proud of it but I know that I have knee-jerk defensive reactions to people with clean houses, because I feel secretly guilty that I read instead of vacuuming.

Perhaps your ex-boss has lint-free carpeting and no dustbunnies under the bed?

9.5 total from both lists. I'm counting The Shipping News as half, even though I'm not sure I made it that far.

A Christmas Carol and Mr. Timothy

1. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
2. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
7. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
8. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
9. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
10. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
11. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
12. The Gawgon and the Boy by Lloyd Alexander
13. Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
14. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
15. A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, by Tiziano Terzani
16. Dissolution, by C.J. Sansom
17. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
18 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
19. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
20. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
21. Blindness - Jose Saramago
22. The Giver - Lois Lowry
23. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
24. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
25. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
26. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
27. Suite Francaise- Irene Nemirovski
28. The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
29. The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
30. The Things They Carried-Tim O'Brien
31. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
32. The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
33. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
34. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
35. Little Women-Louisa May Alcott
36. The Island - Victoria Hislop
37. The Crown Conspiracy - Michael J. Sullivan
38. House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
39. Time and Again - Jack Finney
40. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossieni
41. Watership Down by Richard Adams
42. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
43. Mistress of the Art of Death - Arianna Franklin
44. Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
45. Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
46. Book of Lost Things by Connolly
47. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
48. Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Carrell
49. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
50. Just One Look by Harlan Coben
51. Water For Elephants by Saru Gruen
52. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
53. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
54. Mahabharata by R. Rajagopalachari
55. Straight Man by Richard Russo
56. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
57. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
58. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
59. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean
60. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
61. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
62. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
63. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
64. Icy Sparks - Gwyn Rubio
65. The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
66. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
67. These Is My Words - Nancy Turner
68. Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier
69. What is the What - Dave Eggers
70. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
71. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
72. I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb
73. Written On The Body - Jeanette Winterson
74. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
75. Howards End - E.M. Forster
76. Endurance- Alfred Lansing
77. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
78. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
79. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
80. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
81. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
82. Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
83. The Scarlet Letter -Nathaniel Hawthorn
84. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
85. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
86. Witch Fire by James Clemens
87. The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
88. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
89. Molvania, A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry by Cilauro, Gleisner, Sitch
90. The Stand by Stephen King
91. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
92. Atonement by Ian McEwan
93. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson
94. How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne
95. Away by Amy Bloom
96. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
97. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
98. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
99. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
100. The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
101. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
102. Little, Big by John Crowley
103. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

My absolute favorite animal book is The Fur Person by May Sarton. I've lost track of how many times I've read it, but I enjoy it each time.

You guys have really added to my TBR list with your posts! As for me:

Jane Eyre
Gone With The Wind
Losing Julia - I agree with Dorie about this one - it's one of my favorite books and favorite romances
Devil's Cub - 'cause there has to be at least one book by Georgette Heyer on my list
Possession: A Romance

And from my secret stash of what I consider "pure" romance novels: Devil in Winter and Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas

I don't read as much non-fiction as I wish I did, but here are some that I've enjoyed:

Shanghai Diary A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China

Sixpence House Lost in A Town Of Books

Letters of the Century America 1900-1999

The Assassin's Cloak An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists

Waste and Want A Social History of Trash (yes, it really is a history of trash!)

Next up on my non-fiction TBR pile is Nothing to Be Frightened Of. Has anyone already read it?

I feel like mine need qualification...

First and longest lasting crush:
Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre

Characters I have crushes on because as a reader I know their thought processes, but probably wouldn't like much in a real relationship:
Sam Vimes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Joe Pitt from Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt casebooks
Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I know he isn't strictly literary, but if we're talking crushes I'll have to include him)