Customer Reviews

1001 Books for Every Mood: A Bibliophile's Guide to Unwinding, Misbehaving, Forgiving, Celebrating, Commiserating

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's taken me two weeks to get through Hallie Ephron's 1001 Books for every Mood, but not because it was a bad book. Just the opposite. I wanted to carefully read each of the 1001 entries, deciding if I wanted to read the books, and marking the books I've already read. Most book nerds out there will find this book just as fascinating as I did. It's the perfect book for book club selections, personal book lists, and gifts for the readers in your life.

Ephron breaks the books into eighty chapters. She asks, "What are you in the mood for?" Are in the the mood for books for a good laugh? Do you want books to revel in art? Do you want books for thrills? For chills? For intrigue? There's something for everyone in this collection.

It didn't surprise me to discover that I had read a number of books in the chapter "To Sift through Clues," since I'm a mystery reader. And, I read fantasy, so "To Be Astonished," had a lot of check marks. "To Slide Down the Rabbit Hole" included not only Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but also The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, books about alternate realities. Each chapter included books I had read, and ones I want to read.

Ephron includes quite a nice mixture of books, fiction, nonfiction, and even titles for younger readers, all included in the same chapters. She also has a rating system that readers will appreciate. Books are rated for their literary merit, their influence, whether they are family friendly, and whether they've been made into a movie. This last rating, for movies, is a little out-dated, which is easily explained because movies have been produced since the book first went to press. Each entry also includes the awards that book won.

My only complaint is the pink print in the book. Pink print is very difficult to read, and I don't understand why publishing company's think they should use it. Other than that, this book is a perfect gift or selection for a book lover.

Yes, this is a list of 1001 books, but it's more than just a list, because there are unique descriptions of each book, and excerpts from some of them. There are also little just-for-fun book quizzes.



At the beginning of each section is a list of the icons she uses to highlight a book's notable characteristics, a system that includes Literary Merit, Provocative, Influential, Inspirational, Brainy, Easy Reading, Page Turner, Challenging (how, exactly, is that different from Brainy?), Bathroom Book, Family Friendly, and Movie (meaning, the book has been made into a movie). As I said, I don't always understand how she assigns literary merit, and it seems to have little to do with whether she thinks a book is good, since she recommends many books with only one star for literary merit rather than all five-star books. What exactly determines that David Sedaris' 'Naked' has more literary merit than Erma Bombeck? Or that "Wicked" has more literary merit than "Steal This Book" (which are both in the same category, 'To Misbehave,' by the way)?

There are several recurring features: Department of Memorable Opening Lines ("I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." - 'I Capture the Castle'); Department of Great Characters; Who played the role of ______ in the movie?; The Author Explains the Title.

While I am not sure I completely understand Ephron's method of categorizing things, nor her ways of determining literary merit, she nonetheless comes up with something in every category that sounds intriguing. Some of her categories are obvious: For A Good Laugh; For a Good Cry; For Romance. Others are less so: For a Walk on The Wild Side; For Hysterical (how is that different from a Good Laugh?); To Run Away From Home (that's a mood?) And sometimes the things she includes in a category are puzzling. The category "To Be Astounded," for example, is mostly fantasy - but Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" in the same category as the Harry Potter books? And the "Action" category includes both science fiction and Rafael Sabatini's swashbucklers.

One thing I might have done differently, had I been publishing the book, would be to break up the Index in the back into several indices - by author, by book title, by all the ones that have a "Memorable Opening Lines" excerpt. It would make it easier for people who define their moods differently from Ephron to find things.

To give you an idea of the variety here, here's some of the list of books that I scribbled down, after reading this book, for my To Be Read list, because Ephron's descriptions made them sound far more interesting than the reviews when they were written, or the requirements of school, or the fact that I'd never have heard of them otherwise:
The Physics of Christmas
Watchers by Dean Koontz
The Circular Staircase by M.R. Rinehart
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

That should give you an example of the wide range in subjects, authors, and publication dates of the books included in this list. You are bound to find several dozen things yourself.

This title will give you ideas when you are in between books, and can't find anything browsing around the aisles. It's fantastic, and the icons
help to quickly choose exactly what you're in the mood for. A great gift idea as well.

Since I am the kind of person that tends to follow what I feel, and not what I think, I loved this book! I have bought many books in the past because of what I was feeling at that moment. Relationship troubles? I wandered into self help. Feeling stuck? I made my way into the creativity section. When I came across this book, I snatched it right up!

Here is a great blend of fiction and non-fiction books, and you are led into them by a "table of moods." Do you want to "go over the edge?" How about "trip the light fantastic?" There is nothing boring like: sad, happy, or angry. If you want a "good laugh," you may read NAKED by David Sedaris. Under the blurb of what it's about, there are small icons like a fire (which means provocative) a drama mask (which means humorous) etc. Also, there are some fun additions like: "Department of great opening lines" or "Department of great characters." Sometimes, there are quizzes at the end of the section.

The only complaint that I had was that under "literary merit," the book said that it was rated on a scale of 1-4 stars. If you are writing a book about books that librarians, reviewers, and others have loved, why would some of these books only have one star? I would think that you would only include 3-4 star books.

Highly recommended!

Endlessly interesting for browsing. This was a great voluime to share with my book goroup. I appreciate the icons that let me sort by litereary merit, humorous, family friendly, provocative, challenging, etc. The "...to celebrate siblings" mood includes 14 selections, ranging from "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" to "A Thousand Acres" with a dozen varied suggestions in between.

Our book group renamed this "Our Book Group Bible." We read a mix of genres and authors. In the past, we spent a lot of time scouring book shelves, book reviews, and best-seller lists for our monthly selection. Now, the work has been done for us by a pro, and it's all at our fingertips. Selections made simple. We love it. Thank you, Ms. Ephron!

Insightful, well researched, and surprising. If you think this is just another list of books to read, you'll be pleased at the depth Ephron goes into. If, like me, you wish you kept a list of every great book you ever read, this will give you a great start.

Fresh, fun, and engaging all the way through.

Helen Gallagher, author: Release Your Writing: Book Publishing, Your Way

Anyone who has ever been part of a monthly book group knows that the overarching, never fully answered question is what to read next. Sometimes, there's an opportune newly published literary novel, but sometimes you just want to retreat to the 19th century. Ephron understands this and her nearly four hundred pages of brief but well-written annotations try to supply some answers. In fact, her selection is very broad indeed, including every sort and variety of fiction and nonfiction book from Agatha Christie, Wilkie Collins, Herman Melville, and James M. Cain to Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Jonathan Lethem, and Margaret Atwood. Not to mention Sigmund Freud, Richard Dawkins, Chuck Yeager, and The Sibley Guide to Birds. They're collected under such headings as "Grand Adventure," "Theatrics," "Hug Your Dog," "A Good Cry," "Join the Circus," and "Suffer No Fools." There are quite a few titles here I have either never read or haven't read for several decades as well as more recent Oprah-picks I hadn't gotten around to. Keep a pencil and a notepad handy.

I had checked this book out of the library many times before I finally decided to break down and buy my own copy. I am an avid reader and was surprised at how many of these books I had either not read or didn't even know about. Lots of categories to choose from and great descriptions of the books. If you're someone like me that loves to read this is a great resource. I'm "reading" my way through this book and when I can't find something new at the library I'll use this book to find something old that is new to me. Highly recommend this book.

It took me a week or so to really delve into Ephron's book list to end all book lists. She compiles a terrific selection of books from the classics like "Gulliver's Travels" to modern classics like Toni Morrison's "Beloved" to action adventures like Matthew Reilly's "Ice Station." It's a great resource for those in a book group or for bibliophiles like myself looking for a new book to read.