Book-a-holic

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I love books - I love making them, and I love reading them. I go through ups and downs with my reading - sometimes I hardly read at all, or just read magazines - but I've been reading a lot lately, and have been fortunate to find some really great books. Martin bought me "Annie Leibovitz: At Work" - which was fantastic. I never would have thought of buying this for myself, but I so enjoyed it. Annie talks about her life, her process as a photographer, and all the people she has met through her work. And, the book itself is beautiful - it's covered in beige linen with embossed lettering. The picture above shows the book with the dust jacket, which covers just the bottom quarter and is a landscape-type photo of Annie on set. Very cool.

A friend lent me "Water for Elephants" and I thought it was great. In some ways I can't say that I enjoyed reading this book - I don't want to say too much and spoil things in case you are going to read it - but there are episodes of cruelty to animals in this book that I found a bit difficult to read. Still, it's a very good book with an intense storyline that I found hard to put down.

Loving Frank was another recent read. It's a historical novel, based on the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, the wife of one of his clients. The book is written from Mamah's point of view, and it's about much more than her affair with the famous architect. I read it as a book about a woman trying to find her place in the world at a time when women had little independence and few rights.

And - just a follow up of the books I got for Christmas - the Sookie Stackhouse novels were really fun, and the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was as good as everyone said.