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What are y'all reading?
So I'm doing the Nest Book Club board challenge of reading 25 books in 2010 (this got cut from 50/2010, but I might up that as I'm closing in on completing 25 books.)
Anyways.... I need some suggestions. I love our Book Club but we just don't meet nearly often enough to quench my book thirst. So if you have any suggestions, I will gladly take them!
Here is what I've finished in the last 2 weeks:
Eve: A Novel of the First Woman by Elissa Elliott
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (next Book Club selection, BTW)
Rashi's Daughters: Book 1 - Jocheved by Maggie Anton
I'm currently reading American Taliban by Pearl Abraham but should be done this weekend.
I also have March by Geraldine Brooks on hold at the library, but I could use more titles to add.
Re: What are y'all reading?
I just finished sTORI Telling (Tori Spelling's book)...I'm guilty- I liked it.
Our Family Blog
Oh yeah, have you read Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy?? It's a comical read about pregnancy...
I just started The Othery Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory. So far, I like it.
Similar books: the Josephine Bonaparte books (I think there are 3 in the series, I've read the first 2) by Sandra Gulland and The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner.
A few books my book club has read/is planning to read are:
Three Junes (Julia Glass)
Mapping the Edge (Sarah Dunant)
The Widow Cliquot (Tilar Mazzeo)
Crossing to Safety (Wallace Stegner)
I regularly read The Book Lady's Blog to see what she's reading, and usually end up adding her selections to my wish list!
Rarely Updated Blog
I loved the Hunger Games, but I'm putting off reading Catching Fire until closer to the Mockingjay release date. If a fantasy trilogy interests you, you might check out Shiver by Maggie Steifvater. The second book in the trilogy comes out in July.
I'm currently reading Houston, We Have a Problema by Gwendolyn Zepeda. It's okay.
I just finished reading On The Outskirts of Normal by Debra Monroe. Debra was my thesis advisor and this is her memoir. I can't even begin to do a summary justice so here's the Statesman's review. It was wonderful, and I'd say that even if I didn't know her.
Rosie And Skate by Beth Bauman was pretty good. Kinda YAish.
I've also got March sitting on the shelf. It might be my next read. I've heard it's really good.
Last night I finished The Art of Racing in the Rain. This was brought up as a book club option a few times and I'm not sure if it was ever voted to be read.
Quick read- the life of a family (w/ various stressors) told from the perspective of a very wise dog.
I admit I don't read a lot but I just finished The Heights by Peter Hedges. He also wrote What's Eating Gilbert Grape and co-wrote the screenplay for About A Boy. I thought it was good - not too heavy but relatable and a little suspenseful at the end because you come to care about the characters.
BFP 12.20.2010 :: missed m/c 1/2011 around 8 weeks
BFP @ 9dpo 5.24.2011 :: missed m/c 6/2011 around 7 weeks
positive for ANAs (1:40) with a speckled pattern
MTHFR c677t mutation (heterozygous)
*folic acid, baby asprin, Prometrium, acupuncture, Lovenox*
BFP @ 9dpo 2.1.2012 || HCG = 8 : Progesterone = 19.2
2nd HCG @ 11dpo = 40 || 3rd HCG @ 21dpo = over 5000!
Stick, little one, stick! EDD October 15, 2012
I really only read chick lit. I just finished Emily Giffin's Love the One You're With and I really liked it.
Right now I have Hope In a Jar by Beth Harbison and Babyville by Jane Green. I think I will start reading Babyville first.
I am reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins right now. It's a fun classic. A book I read last summer that I really liked was The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. It's very well written and entertaining. I also liked The Thirteenth Tale.
I love the BBC Inspector Lynley series. I definitely should read the books!
have you read anything by jen lancaster? bitter is the new black, pretty in plaid, such a pretty fat, are a few. they are autobiographies - she is hi.lar.ious. like, every paragraph makes me snicker.
I'm too lazy to link (especially on a mac) but you can easily find her stuff on amazon or even the library. she also has a blog:
jennsylvania.com - you'll at least get a sense of her twisted humor.
LOVED that book!
I'm almost done with Steig Larssen's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. It's the final book in his trilogy. These are some of the most thrilling books I've ever read. I highly recommend the series!
I also really liked the book Molokai.
I just finished reading American Wife, from the book club list. I wasn't a fan. In interviews she says its "85% made up", so it bothers me that she considers it loosely based on Laura Bush's life.
This person's opinion on Amazon is a good summary of my thoughts:
"However, knowing that it is based in part on the life of Laura Bush -- I think this really does a disservice to the book and to the woman. I don't have strong feelings about Laura Bush either way but by making this a work of fiction, you constantly find yourself wondering which parts were true and which ones were not. If everything was true, then you get a very unkind picture of the person who is Laura Bush. If much of it is untrue, then you feel sorry for Laura Bush for being "slandered" and the voyeurism into what should be very private events, feelings and thoughts for this very public person. You feel a little guilty even reading it. "
Plus I'm skeeved out that it has so many very personal sex scenes. (Think "pulsing in and out of me" about a dozen times.) That just doesn't seem right when you base your character on a real person.
Other than that, I don't recall reading anything worth recommending lately, sorry.
I finished Bitter is the New Black about a couple of months ago and ab. so. lute. ly. loved it! It's so funny and such an easy read.
I have it if anyone would like to borrow it.
I'm halfway through the first of the trilogy. . . it took awhile to get into it, but now I'm hooked (can't wait to go home and read some more tonight!!).
I've recently read The Help and Water for Elephants, I'd recommend both.
I tried to post this yesterday, but my internet connection failed just as I was posting.
I just finished the book club book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and really enjoyed it. I even laughed out loud in several parts. It was a much more intelligent read than I expected.
Before that I read Bitten, a book about a female werewolf. Compelling because it was suspenseful, but all in all the plot was a little too much like Twilight.
Before that I read Linchpin, a business book. I really liked the ideas in the book, so much so that I plan to read it again, but I didn't care very much for the writing style. It read too much like a blog and not enough like a book.
Right now I am reading Escape about a woman who fled the Fundamentalist Mormons.
And in defense of American Wife, since I nominated it for the list originally, I can see how it might be considered voyeuristic if you're thinking about Laura Bush all the time, but if you are able to focus on the character of the book outside of connecting her to Laura Bush, I think it has so much to talk about with respect to the choices we make in life and how they affect us throughout our lives and how we reflect back on them. I thought it was very introspective and would provide some interesting discussions.
I am almost finished with Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. It's the first in a trilogy.
"At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners on board, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of Canton. With a panorama of characters whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, Sea of Poppies is "a storm-tossed adventure worthy of Sir Walter Scott" (Vogue). "
I also like mixing in some of the classics as well so my next book is James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
I guess I had the same problem with this book as I did with Devil in the White City. It's not that it's a bad book, but the way it is presented and marketed didn't seem to mesh with what the story actually is. You are right that it's an interesting read with good conversation, I just couldn't get past my own self.
I can totally see that and should admit that for the first 50 pages, I didn't know it was about Laura Bush, just about a real first lady. I was having a hard time guessing who it was, so that might have made it easier for me to separate the character from the real person.