welcome to elaney!

As we mentioned, vintage elaney has been on the mind lately, and we’ve been thinking about some of the old segments of yester year (when readership was limited to Readers g-love, c-handler, shawtygetlow, Kenny (then called Kelly), and a VERY skeptical version if emum (not yet named).  So, Once Upon an elaney, one of the favorite reader segments was the monthly book list!

How It Worked: At the end of the month, we shared all of the books we’d read the previous month and gave a short opinion.
Why We Stopped It: The disproportionate amount of beach reads got embarrassing.
Why We’re Bringing It Back: We’ve embraced our inner love for beach trash.

So here goes!  July 2010′s Book List:

The Man of My Dreams – Curtis Sittenfield

After LOVING Prep and American Wife, we decided to read Ms. Sittenfield’s lesser hailed second novel.  While it’s clear that Sittenfield is gifted with words, the protagonist Hannah is so hard to like that it was difficult to give in to the world and relate to the characters.    The story doesn’t feel totally believable, and we were pretty ready for it to be over about 2/3 of the way through.  Verdict:  Eh…glad to’ve read it as a lover of Curtis, but not something we strongly recommend.

Hush – Kate White

Have read every one of the Kate White, Editor-n-Chief of Cosmo, murder mysteries, and like the others, this one delivers!  This is her first standalone mystery (not part of the Bailey Wiggins series), and we quickly fell in love with the new protagonist, a marketing consultant in NYC going through a messy divorce.  They are super quick reads, but White has a gift for making the high profile NYC life come alive.  Verdict:  Fun and frivolous.  Borrow, don’t buy.

Prospect Park West – Amy Sohn

Stumbled upon this one at the library, and let us tell you, it’s scandalous.  It is tantalizing, sneaky, and steamy from page 1 on, but it’s also seriously well-written.  Sort of like Candice Bushnell for Brooklyn, follows 5 women around Park Slope and explores their secrets, relationships, and “neuroses.”  The story sort of abruptly ends with no real resolution but the characters are complex and intiguing.  They’ll make a complicated woman feel simple.  Verdict:  So bad, but so good.

Past Lists:
May ’08
April ’08
March ’08
February ’08
January ’08

Since we used to do a monthly book list, the reading list is a much requested post.  The two books on our list:

The Ragamuffin Gospel:

Brennan Manning wrote The Ragamuffin Gospel “for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out,” (anyone relate) the marginalized folks to whom Jesus ministered: the children, the ill, the tax collectors, the women.  Manning understands better than most that behind our facades of order and self-assurance are inadequacies that can find healing only in Jesus. While the powerful and religious elite challenged him, Jesus embraced and healed and fed the needs of the ragamuffins. Jesus delivered love, healing, and, most of all, grace.

American Wife:

Read Curtis Sittenfield’s prep and loved it!  This one is tracks the life of bookish, naïve Alice Lindgren and the trajectory that lands her in the White House as first lady. Supposedly based on Laura Bush.

Read Same Kind of Different as Me yesterday. Have now assigned it to all the interns.  Cried so hard on the plane that nice seatmates inquiried as to emotional state.  Have to rethink the positioning of elaney now.  Read SKODASM in the meantime.

We love Hollywood and we love good causes.  When they are married together, we call it a match made in heaven. That’s why we support ET contributor Mark Steines (Reader Caca’s boss) and his new book See the Light: A Passage to Sierra Leone.  The book photo documents the journey Mark and “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Patricia Heaton took to Sierra Leone, and all proceeds go directly back to Lighthouse Medical Missions.   It’s not cheap ($64.95), but it is impactful.  Purchase the book here.

Subtitle:  “How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc.”

The theme of August seemed to be: it’s time to move forward.  Walter Henegar recommends Just Do Something, by Kevin DeYoung as a helpful guideline, and we have to say, it’s really a good read. 

The gist of it basically explores how our generation spends so long tinkering around, exploring our purposes, relying on our parents that we become timid.  We have a tendency (unlike our grandparents and parents) to be paralyzed by the 1,000,000s of options for life paths.  Do we have more options?  Sure.  Has our indecision gotten a little out of control?  Perhaps.  Just Do Something explores practical ways to move forward and encourages us to stop looking for direction from writing in the clouds. 

We’ve never been shy about our love for the good old-fashion completely silly beach read.  Chasing Harry Winston – we’re not above you.  Hollywood Girls Club – sign us up.  However, every now and then, we like to step it up to the notch between completely silly and AP Lit reading lists.  This beach trip, here’s what we have in the hopper:

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Set in Jackson, MS in 1962, aspiring writer Eugenia Sketter Phelan is home from college and putting together her first manuscript.  She writes the stories of the “help” in the wealthy homes in a scathing book that upsets the traditional Southern balance of power. 

Peachtree Road, Anne Rivers Siddons

Written in 1988, the novel is about Old Town Atlanta and is the story of “manipulative, destructive cousin Lucy Bondurant Chastain Venable” (perhaps a modern day Emma Bovary?).

(And Miranda’s Big Mistake and Shoe Addicts Anonymous ).

Full report to come.