Participants in Bernardsville Public Library's 50 Book Challenge have been busy reading a wide variety of books - both new and old, fiction and nonfiction.
Certain titles keep cropping up such as Ian McEwan's Saturday, which was well received, and Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, a book of self-help principles on the nature of happiness. Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo elicited the most responses, some of them very positive, but a few quite negative. Several readers thought the level of violence was unexpected and gratuitous, but others found the character, Lisbeth Salander, so intriguing that they could overlook other failings in the book.
Audiobooks are permitted in the Challenge, too. Among these, An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon was highly recommended for both the story and the skill of the narrator, Davina Porter. Another Challenge participant loved listening to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Less well-known, interesting books read by the Challenge participants include Yiyun Li's The Vagrants about China after the Cultural Revolution and The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy by Judith Pearson. This last book was said to be a very exciting read about female heroism in the diplomatic world.
While the 50 Book Challenge for 2010 is now half over, new members are welcome to join in the reading fun. We invite book lovers to challenge themselves to their own personal reading goal. For more information, come into the library or visit our Web site to sign up.
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