Broadening My Book Horizons........

Book club attendance was disappointing last night. I was the only one that read "Wolf Hall", but everyone else had all read the "Guernsey......Literary Potato Peel". What can I say? I can never remember the full title, in the correct order of things.

Anyway, I vowed that I would not recommend a book this time, as I had with "Wolf Hall" and I kept the courage of my conviction. However, as we were talking about other books we read in June, everyone became intrigued with "The Passage." So, THEY are reading it, which surprised me no end. And, the other book recommended was one I had not heard of, but NOT my favorite author, Stephen King.

Amazon describes it as a "psychological thriller", as opposed to a "kill-someone-with-lots-of-blood" horror book, which I associate with Stephen King. Though I admit, this isn't the case with all his books. My college students in Korea LOVED the movie "Misery" when I showed it for my "Movie English" class. Not much blood to speak of, but lots of "thrillerness".


So, got the book and I'm ready for the 4th of July. :)

Korea's Fanciest Reading Room

Have been getting a lot of questions re: the books I have been reading since I arrived. You're seen the picture of the TOP bookstore owner when the newest Harry Potter arrived, so, check out the update below.

Oh, should tell you that this picture is, in my opinion, Korea's fanciest reading room. It's the First Class train car I took to Seoul on Christmas Eve. Worth EVERY penny! Quiet, cozy, sunny and heavenly.

Here's that update:

• Sand in My Bra - Funny women write from the road.
• Culture Shock -Travel and Stay Healthy from the Culture Shock series
• I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (enough said)
• Bad Lands - A Tourist on the Axis of Evil by Tony Wheeler, the guy from Lonely Planet
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (My favorite genre-Armageddon)
• Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I think half the free world has read this since Oprah told half the free world to read it. This is a great book, though. Elizabeth Gilbert wrote for GQ before leaving home to find her own way in the world.
• Multiple books by Philippa Gregory
• Multiple books about Seoul and South Korea in general
• Multiple books about teaching English as a second language
• and, have looked at multiple books about learning Korean. Will keep you posted on that task.

I could give you a list of the books I have on hand or in my brain, but I think there's a law about how much you can write in one blog in one day.

Lastly, let me give a plug to new book by Eric Weiner from NPR: The Geography of Bliss. (http://www.npr.org/) He looks at the places in the world where people reportedly are the happiest and why, as well as whether climate matters to happiness, etc. (Ask me if I'm missing Puerto Vallarta right about now.)