On the Bookshelf

Yesterday I mentioned that one of my continued goals for 2011 is to read more.  My new favorite unemployed hobby is to gather up what little money I have and go to Half Price Books ("HBP") and scour the shelves for great books I've "always been meaning to read."  Lately I've run across some recent first editions that are quickly climbing the list of my favored possessions.  In the past few months, I've found read some fabulous books that I encourage my readers to read.  They include:

Middlesex is the Pulitzer Prize winning novel I never made it around to reading until recently.  All hype about this book is deserved and maybe even falls short of how glorious and new and fascinating this story is.  If you've never read this, read it immediately. (buy here)

I hadn't read a Franzen until I picked up his 2006 memoir a few weeks ago.  With all the attention and praise surrounding 'Freedom' this past summer and 'The Corrections'/Oprah Book Club situation, I wanted to get my hands on something by this author.  I liked this memoir, but its brevity left me with wanting to read more... a Franzen novel.  Because my HPB did not have 'The Corrections' on the day I chose to visit, I picked up 'The Twenty-Seventh City,' which is Franzen's first novel.  It's currently in my "to read queue."  But, for now, read this memoir- it's like a little and delicious snack. (buy here)

While shopping at Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and various little boutiques and antique stores, I kept running across 'The Selby is in Your Place.'  Without fail, I would always pick it up, thumb through it and be wowed by the uniqueness of each person's home profiled in the book.  This is my hands-down favorite Design Book/Look Book of Other's Homes.  I'm inspired every-time I open it. (daily.)  (buy here).