77. Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea...

Ok, I have to start by saying this is definitely one of my favorite reads for this year! What a beautifully-written book it is...

Nineteen-year-old Nayeli has an idyllic life in her little village of Tres Camarones in Mexico - she works at a taco shop, whiles away her time with her girlfriends, and daydreams about the things 19-year-olds daydream about.

One day she realizes that there are no men left in her village, except for the old, or the really young. All the in-between-ers have left, to go up north to Los Yunaites - including her father. And when the bandidos come scoping out her little town, there are no men left to protect it.

So Nayeli does what any smart nineteen-year-old girl does. *grin* She organizes a "search party" to go up north to bring home their men. What spunk! How daring! And so starts the journey of four young people heading north, for no reason that other immigrants - legal or illegal - try to cross the border for.

Into the Beautiful North is lyrical and mesmerizing in its storytelling. From the squalid conditions in Tijuana, the criminal elements preying on the unsuspecting, the people they meet when at the bottom, the people who help them attempt the border crossing... I could not put the book down at all. One of my favorite passages has to be when Nayeli is caught by the Border Patrol, and she tells her story but they can't believe it, it's so incredible. Go read it for yourself - it's out May 19th, and you can pre-order from Amazon by clicking on the cover.

Title: Into the Beautiful North
Author: Luis Alberto Urrea
ISBN-10: 0-316-02527-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-02527-0
Paperback: 334 pages (ARC)
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, May 2009

46. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks...

People of the Book is a lovely story by Geraldine Brooks, about the journey of a rare illustrated Jewish book, the Sarajevo Haggadah. The book lays out the story from the eyes of Dr. Hanna Heath, a rare book conservator, and intersperses the history & journey of the book itself, in alternating chapters.

The characters in this story are well fleshed-out, beginning with Hanna. Her own journey includes discovering the identity of her father, and the existence of a family that she can call her own... From the slave who learned to draw by doodling under her father's desk, to the scholar's daughter who bathes her newborn nephew in a river during the Spanish Inquisition. I felt immersed in these snippets of history.

I described this book to the Mr. as something akin to The Red Violin, one of my favorite movies. The flashbacks into history, vivid descriptions of the characters' world in that time, poignant tales of sacrifice and bravery, made me read through in one sitting. The difference between People of the Book and The Red Violin, is the former's historical narrative is in reverse chronological order. And Samuel Jackson isn't in it. =)

Title: People of the Book
Author: Geraldine Brooks
ISBN-10: 0-143-11500-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-14-311500-7
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Penguin, 2008

Many thanks to Julie Harabedian for the opportunity to read this lovely book!

drey's top reads...

I thought I'd put together a list of my favorite books here - maybe an all-time list, and a best-of-2009. But that'll have to be an exercise for another day, I've got other stuff to do! =)

drey's top reads
(i.e. books I LOVE to re-read...):

Little Women ~ Louisa May Alcott
Parable of the Sower ~ Octavia Butler
Pride and Prejudice ~ Jane Austen
The Black Jewels trilogy ~ Anne Bishop
A Game of Thrones ~ George R.R. Martin

Other all-time favs (books & series):

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire series
A Thousand Splendid Suns ~ Khaled Hosseini
Charlotte's Web ~ E.B. White (the first book I bought)
The Handmaid's Tale ~ Margaret Atwood
Wuthering Heights ~ Emily Bronte
J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Book Thief ~ Markus Zusak

Plays:

everything by William Shakespeare
Pygmalion ~ George Bernard Shaw
The Night of the Iguana ~ Tennessee Williams

Favorite Authors (alphabetical order):

Ilona Andrews
(website, blog)

Kelley Armstrong
(website)

Anne Bishop
(website)

Patricia Briggs
(website)

Octavia Butler
(website)

Jacqueline Carey
(website)

Jennifer Crusie
(website, blog)

Charlaine Harris
(website)

Sophie Kinsella
(website)

George R.R. Martin
(website, -not a- blog)

C.E. Murphy
(website, blog)

Terry Pratchett
(website)

Patrick Rothfuss
(website, blog)

Sheldon Rusch
(website)

Lisa See
(website)

Carrie Vaughn
(website, blog)

Michelle Sagara West
(website, blog)