For the Book Lover

Here's a good resource for all you book lovers out there. The next time you catch yourself thinking you're in the mood to read something, but you just don't know what, it might be a good idea to open this book and do a little perusing. The author (an award winning book reviewer for the Boston Globe, who loves, loves, loves books) has listed about 80 different moods with a sampling of books offered under each topic. She gives a brief description of the book, and any awards it may have won. Moods range from "A Good Laugh" to "A Good Cry" and many in between, including "For Romance", "For Revenge", "For Hope", "For Heartbreak", and "To Survive". There is a rating system for each book with associated icons representing the various categories. The ratings are: Literary Merit, Provocative, Influential, Inspirational, Humorous, Brainy, Easy Reading, Page Turner, Challenging, Bathroom Book, Family Friendly, Movie (Books that have been made into a movie).

For example, under the category "...to Remember Mama" she has listed one of my all time favorite books "All Over But the Shoutin' " by Rick Bragg. For literary merit she gives it two stars (out of four possible). [Here, I think I would differ with her assessment...seems to me that there is a slight bias against southern authors in a couple of her ratings, I would have been a little more generous]. And she rates it provocative, inspirational, humorous, and a relaxed easy read. Also in this category she lists "Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living" by Bailey White (another one of my favorites). Again she gives it two stars for literary merit and rates it funny, a relaxed easy read, and a bathroom book.

The fun parts of this book for me were her quirkier categories like "To Save the World", "To Defy Expectations", "To Revel in Words", or "To Suffer No Fools". And it was interesting to see how her tastes in books ran and whether it was counter to mine, as well as pick up a few good tips for books I hadn't managed to read yet and make a notation in my brain about when I might want to pick them up and read them according to the emotional state they matched. As the book jacket says, Hallie Ephron serves up a literary feast, sure to satisfy your emotional appetite.