A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius  Dave Eggers
2001
Weight: 12.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV

I read this book on a cross-country road trip from Georgia to California and back when I was in high school.  I had no idea when I bought it that I would be driving down the same strips of road described in the novel at the exact moment I would be reading those parts.  It felt magical to have accidentally stumbled on such serendipity.

As for the book as a whole, I thought it was okay.  I was not blown away by it, and I never understood why it became such a sensation.  Though, I must admit, I have never been a big Eggers fan.  I don't hate him, and I have read a lot of his work searching for what other people see, but I always leave feeling neither here nor there about it. 

This book has had a rough life.  The cover is clinging on for dear life, but I think it has at least one more good read left in it.
 

The House of Spirits

The House of Spirits  by Isabel Allende
1986
Weight: 8 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's Coffee Shop in EAV

                                                           The last post of the evening!

 I loved this book when I read it.  I mean, I was really impressed.  I learned a lot.  About Chilean history, about the power of magical realism, about literature, about family relationships, about politics.  I also had trouble putting it down, even for short periods of time.  I was into every page, and I do not remember losing any momentum.  This was my introduction to the very amazing, Isabel Allende, and I highly recommend it and her other work.   What is your favorite Allende book?