Christmas Reading

My Christmas Break reading list--please keep up.

1. The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III. This novel was inspired by some of the events leading up to 9/11. I am about 1/3 of the way through--pretty interesting, though a bit raunchy in a terribly sad sort of way. The background is that one of the men involved in the 9/11 attacks visited a strip club days before and spent thousands of dollars on strippers and booze, making some interesting comments (obviously). This story is told from the perspective of one of the girls, as she observes and works for this man. This is not your average action/thriller, but a deeply terrifying and tragic story. And so far, it is a page-turner.

2. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. I haven't started reading this one yet, but I am pretty fascinated by the concept. I'm not an avid reader of non-fiction text, but I've had this book for a while and just recently read the description, which reeled me in. A journalist decides to work and live on minimum wage jobs in four different regions of America. I am convinced that I need to go back to college already.