Goodreads.com

I'm so excited about this new social network (http://www.goodreads.com). Pedram's friend Gentry introduced us to it last night. I spent the last hour filling up my list of books and trying to get all my friends to join. I'll still post my reviews here, but you should really check it out because of the connectivity and easy interface it offers.

Winter's Tale

by Mark Helprin

This book was an exceptionally happy surprise. I picked it up at a garage sale, along with 20 other books, for a grand total of $1. Unfortunately, most of the other books I picked up have been a bust, and therefore don't make it to the blog, but Winter's Tale blew me away.

Quite literally, it made me both laugh and cry--Pedram is my witness. I read a review that said, "It broke my heart and then quietly sewed it back together again". Precisely.

The book is a bit daunting, over 700 pages, and it's fantastical and historical, dense and lyrical. But it's worth the journey. Because it's a journey you will, like I anticipate I will be doing, take over and over again. At it's very core, this is a love story. But like the best books, it's also about the meaning of life.

I loved it. I didn't understand all of it, but I'm looking forward to the second and third time I read this and truly do.