alibrarymama

Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman In which our heroine Julie, a somewhat retiring high school student, shares her passion for Jane Austen with her best friend, Ashleigh, who does not do anything by halves. She sets them off on a quest to find Mr. Darcys, beginning by crashing the ball at the local prep school. Unfortunately, they both seem to fall for the same Mr. Darcy. The ending is a bit predictable – but the way there is both sweet and very funny. Although it’s geared towards teens, adult Austen fans would probably also enjoy it.

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd Jessie Sullivan thought she was happy with her life and in love with her husband, Hugh. She also thought that she had left Egret Island, her childhood home off the coast of South Carolina. But when her mother unexpectedly chops off her finger, Jessie goes back to help. She finds herself falling in love with the island again. Most unexpectedly, she also finds herself falling in love with a Benedictine monk. Even though reading about adultery like this is terrifying for me, Kidd possesses the uncanny ability to take freakish plot elements and turn them into a beautiful and profound story.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan The dilemma is this: If you can eat anything, what should you eat? How do you pick? This is particularly relevant today, when there are more options and fewer rules (or many more systems of rules) than ever before. Journalist Pollan traces four meals (fast food, big organic, small farm, and foraged) back to their sources. What he finds is unexpected and fascinating. It’s no surprise that fast food isn’t great for people or the world, but Whole Foods organic doesn’t fare too well either. I was daunted by starting this rather thick book, but found it to be fascinating and fast to read. And it contains enough trivia to fill the needs of trivia buffs for a good long while: How many ingredients in a chicken nugget come from corn?