Talk Healthy

I finished up Isle of Palms. It was okay, but way too simplistic for all the heavy topics it was trying to deal wtih.

Now I'm going to start Man Walks Into a Room by Nicole Krauss.

I'm reading Isle of Palms by Dorothea Benton Frank. It's a book that my mom left here this summer, and it's okay. So far it's your typical light Southern fiction that's trying to be Pat Conroy or something and shooting pretty wide of the mark. Still, it's not bad for an easy read.

Probably the only really bad book I read this year was Dead Until Dark, the first Sookie Stackhouse book. Man, I really H-A-T-E-D that book.

Some of my favorites were:

The Help, The Hunger Games books, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Words the Dog Knows. I'm sure there were some other good ones in there, but they're escaping me at the moment.

I finally finished the Elizabeth George book. It was good, like they always are, but her writing style grated on me at some points, which I don't remember from past books.

Now I've started Alice Hoffman's Local Girls. I haven't read enough yet to get a feel for it, but I usually like her books.

I'm still working on Careless in Red, the latest (I think) Inspector Lynley mystery by Elizabeth George. It's very good, but I'm having trouble finding the time to sit and get it read!

I took a break from The River King to read The Help. I finished it last night, and man, what a horrifying, heartbreaking read. But still, excellent, excellent book.

Sílvia, I really like Sarah Waters, but I haven't read this new one. She can be a bit slow-going at times, though. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend Fingersmith by her ... man, what a good read! Me, I'm working on The River King by Alice Hoffman, which is good so far. I almost always enjoy...

I'm about halfway through Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler. It's good, like all of her books.

I just finished up Mockingjay. Wow.

I'm also still working on Anna Quindlen's Rise and Shine and am about halfway through the first Sookie Stackhouse book.

I finished up American Wife a week or so ago and really enjoyed it. Now I'm reading Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen. So far it's pretty good.

Thanks, Spudd! Forewarned is forearmed, as they say!

I recently finished Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok. It was pretty good. Now I'm reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb. I need to have both an "upstairs book" and a "downstairs book," because I never remember to take them with me from...

Oryx and Crake is on my to-read (someday) list ... is the ending horrible as in "unsatisfying" or horrible as in "heartbreaking"? You don't have to give any details, obviously, but I do like to be prepared.

Mellen, I LOVED Then We Came to the End ! Joshua Ferris is such an amazing writer ... I just finished his second book The Unnamed , and it's just as fabulous as TWCTTE. Earlier this week I read The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham. It's about a rebellious Hasidic girl growing up in NYC in the 70s. Pr...

I read and really, really enjoyed the first four in the series. I was very excited for the fifth when it came out, but I could never get into it. After giving it three or four tries, I finally gave up, and it's still sitting unread on my bookshelf.

I just started The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris (thanks for mentioning it, Blush ... I didn't know he had another one out!). I'm only a few chapters in, but I'm enjoying it a lot. I really love the way he writes.

I am reading Walk to New York, about a guy who walks from Thunder Bay, Ontario to NYC. It is pretty interesting. There are no quotes or apostrophes in this post because I am on the computer belonging to my husband, which is set to have a Swedish keyboard right now, so I have no clue how to make the...

I'm working on Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a semi-autobiographical novel by Jeanette Winterson. It's an easy read, and I'm liking it a lot.

To Kill a Mockingbird is seriously the best book I've ever read.

Right now I'm reading Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Scott. So far, so good.