Many of us are starting our Holiday Book-Gifting lists! I am making my own list and adding to it daily. And, I am checking in with my Circle of Trust.

What are you reading? What books do want to give? What books would like to receive this year?

We’re creating a “CIRCLE OF TRUST HOLIDAY BOOK LIST.” Join us and add your favorites to the list…

Put book titles – with any personal notes on why you loved the book – in the Comment Section. We’ll publish the entire list and updates as a Feature you can email to family and friends; share on your Facebook page and Twitter.

And, if you have website – you can reprint it there.

Because laughter is so important to all of us here, several friends have already suggested “GROWING UP LAUGHING,” by Marlo Thomas.

Marlo’s new book is a memoir that debuted on The New York Times bestseller list this week and inspired her new website. It is a community – a place for an on-going conversation with Marlo and friends – women like you and me!

Take a look: www.marlothomas.com

APRIL AND OLIVER by Tess Callahan is on my list. The story of two people who grew up like brother and sister and what happens when they are drawn back together after a family tragedy. The writing is beautiful and insightful; the characters are complex and surprising; and the plot is not what you think.

More books from my “Circle of Trust”

From Madeline Lee…

I am notoriously bad at this, because I forget what I have recently read. However, THE COMMONER by John Burnham Schwartz – a wonderful sense of being inside Japanese society just pre-war and post-war, THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett, (not as good as it could have been, but a great look at the lives of black maids in the South, harder on the white characters), WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED by Gail Collins, (it’s my life as a girl, a woman, a feminist, a voter), and THREE CUPS OF TEA by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (such an extraordinary job of making it seem like a first-person book, though it is not, and an inspiring story (in terms of what the protagonist has done for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and a depressing one (in terms of how wrong our foreign policy in those regions obviously is.

And, how could I have forgotten? STILL ALICE by Lisa Genova, moving, deeply affecting, impossible to stop reading…

From Mary Eileen Williams…

The two books my book group is reading this summer:

A SUMMER OF HUMMINGBIRDS: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade by Christopher Benfey and AMSTERDAM by Ian McEwan.

Enjoy!

For more suggestions, see our previous list, click here

www.amazon.com

Circle of Trust Summer Favorites!

Why do we read more in the summer?

Maybe because we take long trips that are conducive to long reads. Maybe because we lie in the sun (for short stretches) and the shade for hours. One thing I know: this is the season when we recommend a wider range of books to each other and we read them with the special joy that “summer reading” adds to the prospect of settling in with a friend’s favorites.

I recently read Desert Queen by Janet Wallach. It is the story of Gertrude Bell an educated English woman, who was one of the first to strike out on her own into the mysterious Middle East. She was a contemporary of Lawrence of Arabia and was, we learn in this book, the brains behind his adventures. It is striking to see how much women’s live have changed since the 1900s and how little has changed in the Middle East.

Here are some of the books my friends are enjoying:

From Patricia Bauman…

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the best-seller that it deserves to be. Combining science, bioethics, family history, the urban African-American migration and much more, the author tells a fascinating and moving story. Her emotional relationship with Henrietta’s daughter properly pushes the boundaries of journalistic detachment and gives real life to the tale.

For history buffs, FDR and GRANT, both by Jean Edward Smith, are wonderful biographies that read like page-turners. I particularly enjoyed the book about Grant, his evolution on race and his championship of Reconstruction. Much of this was new to me.

I am also reading Kirstin Downey’s The Woman Behind the New Deal about Frances Perkins.

From Joanne Edgar…

Right now, I’m enjoying Little Bee by Chris Cleave.

From Elizabeth Ely…

I loved Little Bee. I recently read Infinities by John Banville, spectacular. Just Kids by Patti Smith about her relationship with the young Robert Mapplethorpe is thoroughly lovely. Also, re-reading lots of Henry James. I started with his short stories, then The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Europeans.

From Amy Ferris…

Free Fall by Rae Padilla Francoueur – a memoir that’s honest and raw and erotic. It’s about letting go – of shame, of the past, moving forward, finding real true deep sexy love.

Life’s that Way by Jim Beaver – a memoir about just about everything. Cowboys and Wills, A Love Story by Monica Holloway – cowboy is a girl, wills is a boy – they’re both blonds, a little boy with autism, a dog with great passion, two very best friends, gorgeous, stunningly written book. Monica Holloway blows me away. Letters to Our Daughters, Kristine Van Raden & Molly Davis – perfect. Simply, heartbreakingly perfect. For everyone and anyone. I laughed. I cried. The Other Woman, by Victoria Zackheim – a fabulous anthology all about love, sex and betrayal. Pitch perfect essays!

From Stephanie Weiss -

I loved The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. I also think Olive Kitteridge and Let the Great World Spin are two of the best books I’ve read in the past 10 years – both are short-story collections with overlapping characters and themes. Also, re-read Catcher in the Rye a few months ago, and it was so much better than I remembered!

Also on my list: Little Bee, Ann Tyler’s new book, Indignation by Phillip Roth. Was thinking of re-reading Anne of Green Gables and Huck Finn.

From Ruth A. Wooden -

I loved The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver from years ago. Also, Wolf Hall was good IF you have days to stay with it. Too many characters named Thomas and Katherine. Shriver’s A Perfectly Good Family was Hilarious. I will read her new one at the Vineyard. I am also going to try to reread The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

Visit your local book store or www.amazon.com and please add your summer favorite books below.

Like all of you, I have a circle of friends that I try to connect with on a regular basis. For me, it’s often over lunch.  I look forward to those dates with a real hunger – for the intimacy, the chance to chronicle our lives to ourselves and each other, and the sheer delight of gazing at a well-loved face.

If too much time goes by, one or the other of us sends an e-mail titled “re: lunch?” Occasionally we need to schedule an urgent date, and then any other appointments become less urgent. Usually though we catch up, we complain, we laugh – and we recommend books to each other.  It’s no surprise to me that a love of books is bringing women together in large numbers online and in real life where comfort food and wine can result in intimate revelations and real life connections to the book or topic being discussed.

Recently, more than the usual number of very enthusiastic recommendations have come my way, and I want to share them with you. I am adding some of my own discoveries; to my surprise many of them are novels. I wonder what it means to shift my reading from non-fiction to fiction in this stage of my life.

Those of you in book clubs will have your lists to share. I hope you will post them in the comment section on the site so we can be inspired by the books and the insights of your “Circle of Trust.”

BOOKS WE LOVE

From my friend Susie
Her important new book, The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist’s Struggle to Preserve the World’s Harvest, is an intimate and accessible account of a very big issue: http://thevikinginthewheatfield.com/

Summertime by J.M. Coetzee – she calls it “Wonderful. A little clever in structure…but wonderful.”
Out Stealing Horses by Per Pettersen. “I just sent this to my daughter-in-law who has just had a baby boy, as an introduction to what lies ahead.”
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty of Science by Richard Holmes. Susie gave me this one for Christmas and based on the subtitle, I can’t wait to dig in.

From my friend Maddy

Nothing Was the Same by Kay Redfield Jamison. The story of her long marriage – a love affair that encompassed shared work as well as mental illness. An excellent video: The Big Think Interview with Kay Redfield Jamison

Shakespeare’s Kitchen by Lore Segal. Eleven inter-related short stories by an author we both love.
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker. “Do you like poetry?” Maddy asked. “I used to,” I reply. “Well, in any case you will love this novel about a poet with writer’s block.” Sounds intriguing to me.

Books from Me

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson. The latest of her novel/mystery/delicious character masterpieces.
The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory by David Plouffe. I loved the camaraderie among smart and dedicated personalities who worked as a team.  As an inveterate “West Wing” watcher, I thought this was it in real life.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I am probably the last on my block to get to this prize-winning multifaceted view of one woman’s life. Let me put it this way: when I wasn’t stopping in awe of the writing, I was laughing out loud.

Books by Friends

Land the Job you Love! Ten Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50 by Mary Eileen Williams. She is a long-time career counselor and founder of the lively blog and radio show “Feisty Side of Fifty.”  This is good advice – simple, without being simplistic.

I have previously recommended Sugar Time, a novel by Jane Adams and Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from A Midlife Crisis a memoir by Amy Ferris. They are a perfect pair of books for all of us.

Amy’s book is heading for an off-Broadway production: http://marryinggeorgeclooney.com/blog/

Jane, who has a Ph.D. in psychology, has moved on to an important issue for many of us, working on college applications for our kids and looking ahead to the next stage of our lives. She has put together an online course that helps parents and teens get through “Transition Fever.” http://www.launchintocollege.com.

Add the Books You Love…