Talk about a POWERFUL book!

I read Beatrice and Virgil this weekend. I didn't know very much about the book before I read it, except it's author is Yann Martel. He wrote Life of Pi also, which I found thought provoking.

There aren't too many books that bring me to tears and grip my heart. This one did.

If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so. I don't want to say much more about it until you do. It's a fast read.

Have you read Suite Francaise?

Beginning in Paris the first night of the Nazi occupation in the 1940's, the novel Suite Francaise, tells a remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control.

The locals learn to co-exist with their enemy as they enter their homes and their hearts.

The remarkable thing about this novel is the author, Irene Nemirovsky, a highly successful writer from Paris was a Jew and was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. The novel was hidden for 64 years and was published in 2007. There is an Appendix at the end with the author's notes and how she intended to end the novel.

I have nearly four hundred books that are begging me to read them in my home library. I have devised a method of choosing which one to read next by reading them alphabetically, by author. My next book will be by an author with the last name starting with an "L". I started with "A" and then went to "Z" next.

So, I'm heading upstairs to my library to choose my next book. 

See you tomorrow!

One Book I Couldn't Put Down!

Have you ever read a book that seemed to be glued to your fingers? You took it to the bathroom, stuffed it in your purse, carried it from room to room and fell asleep with it laying on your chest in bed. You haven't?

Then I bet you haven't read Life of Pi.

Click on this link to view the book on Amazon.
 http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156027321/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290442591&sr=1-1


Have you read it? What did you think? I don't want to spoil the ending if you haven't had a chance to read it, but all I can say is you need to read this book.

Let me know what you think.

Check out my new Blog!

I'm having so much fun with our Till Meat Do Us Part blog and have decided to create another blog to share my passion for reading and writing.

Reading, Writing and Ranting with Shirlee will be a place where I will share the books I'm currently reading, have read and am dying to get my hands on. I encourage you to share by commenting on my blog. On the drop down menu you can choose "anonymous" if you don't have an account with any of the servers they mention. Just put your name in the body of your comment so I know who you are.

I love it when I recommend one of my favorite books and I get a call from the person saying how much they enjoyed it too. To me, it's all about sharing. I love to read, but have given away more books than I can shake a stick at. I love to scour garage sales and find books for a dime or a quarter. It makes me think I've hit the jackpot and keeps a smile on my face for a long time.

Right now I'm busy getting my latest novel, RAIL KILLERS ready to publish. It should be ready by this time next week. I will let you all know when you can order it from your favorite bookseller. I'm also working on our cookbook TILL MEAT DO US PART, which will probably be ready in the Spring. We still have lots of recipes to test before it's ready to publish. My TRAPPINGS novel is also close to publication and should be ready in January.

I had my brother, Scott Wimer take some headshots of me for the back of RAIL KILLERS. I was tired from posing and made a face, which he quickly downloaded to facebook and shared with friends and family. Here it is:

 That wasn't quite the look I was going for. Instead, I chose a more subdued photo, as you can see on my blog.

I just created this blog a few minutes ago and will work on the format next week. I encourage you to submit comments on reading or writing. We should get into some interesting topics.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

What is your all time favorite book? You can answer anonymously if you don't have a gmail account.