It's December - what are you reading?

[Rowan]

Boy I've been slacking in the reading department lately. I have 7 more books to break last year's number. I should make it but who knows.

I'm currently reading The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner. It's pretty good. I read the new Dean Koontz, Breathless over the weekend. It was just ok. The author really loves his dog if I was his wife I think I would be jealous.

[Spudd]

I'm still making my way through "Middlemarch" slowly but surely. Man, that book is long.

I'm part-way through the final Dark Tower book but I've temporarily abandoned it in favor of "The Unlikely Disciple" which I am finding pretty entertaining and also educational.

[mellenhead]

I'm almost done with Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a little slow to start but I'm really enjoying it now.

Next I'm going to read Last Words by George Carlin - should be a quick read and tomorrow I'm picking up The White Queen by Phillippa Greggory from the library.

[Rowan]

This is pretty much November but I haven't posted in a bit so here's an update:

103. Peace Like a River – Leif Enger
Rating: 3

104. Land of the Living – Nicci French
Rating: 3

105. The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness
Rating: 3

106. Fever 1793 – Laurie Halse Anderson
Rating: 3.5

107. The Innocent – Harlan Coben
Rating: 4

108. Alone – Lisa Gardner
Rating: 3.5

109. Breathless – Dean Koontz
Rating: 2.5

110. The Perfect Husband – Lisa Gardner
Rating: 3

[Bugsy]

I'm still working on "The Diviners" by Margaret Laurence. I'm about 2/3 through it and am really liking it. She's a great author IMO.

[Rachael]

I finished "City of Embers" last night. It's a book Cary was assigned in a lit class and enjoyed. It's for kids, but it was pretty good (270 pages). I'll read the other books in the series.

Now I'm reading Kathy Griffin's memoir.

[Rowan]

111. Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
Rating: 3.5
I agree with the reviews that mention a lack of character emotion/development (which is why its not getting a 4) but I did love this book. It is the story of a missing teen girl and what happens to her family and friends afterwards. I couldn't put it down.

112. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Rating: 4
I almost didn't pick up this novel as it is written as a series of poems. I told myself to read at least 10 pages and just got sucked in. I finished the 500pp in less than an afternoon. I loved this story of a "perfect" teen gone astray.

[Spudd]

I finished "The Unlikely Disciple"... it was okay. It started off really well but then it kind of meandered around. Overall I'd say I enjoyed it.

Now I have "Enough Bull" from the library which is a non-fiction book about investing. The guy says you should avoid stocks and only invest in guaranteed things. I'm only like 5 pages in so far but I think he's a bit of a nut.

[mellenhead]

I finished up The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory. It was a good read and I love reading about that time period - fiction or not.

I have The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson, A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris and The Wild Things by Dave Eggers waiting for me at the library.

[Bugsy]

I finished "The Diviners" by Margaret Laurence yesterday. *sob* What a damn good book that was! Probably my favorite of the year and definitely my favorite of the 5 about Manawaka. I just loved it.

I just started the third Sookie book, because it was waiting for me at the library. "Club Dead," I think it's called.

[Beverly]

I'm reading Time and Again by Jack Finney. It's a time-travel novel that I first read when I was in high school, I think. This is probably the third or fourth time I'm reading it, and it's just as good (maybe even better!) than the first time.

[Blush]

I finished Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster and loved it. Now I'm reading The Promised World by Lisa Tucker. It's the story of twins, one who commits suicide by police near the beginning of the book. I believe the story will unravel why he did it and what secrets the female twin carries.

[mellenhead]

I read The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg - loved it. I checked out a few of her other books.

I also whipped thought A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris. I loved the one short story about Dracula's birthday.

Right now I'm reading Say When by Elizabeth Berg and The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson

I'm getting really annoyed that a bunch of books I have requested at the library are all arriving at the same time!! I don't know what happened, two of them the last time I looked said I was still at like number 50 and a week later I got an email they were available. I think I have 4 up there waiting now.

[Rachael]

Kathy Griffin's books was extremely addictive.

I finished "A Perfect Life" by Elizabeth Shattock last night. It was just okay. Then I started something about a quilting club that has recipes in it.

[Anna]

I have :

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisonner's Dilemma by Trenton lee Stewart (third in a series Jon and I are reading)


American By Choice by Craig Ferguson

Manic by Terry Cheney..

Haven't started any of them yet, Jon read the first one Saturday and Sunday, it is 400 pages long so it must have been really good

the Craig Fersuson book is Eric's and it was good according to him also

[Spudd]

I just finished "Enough Bull", so it's back to the Dark Tower for me.

I got 2 key learnings (this is how we talk at work, isn't it awful?) from the book:
1. don't invest in stocks for your retirement, only invest in things with guaranteed returns
2. pay off your mortgage before you start to save for retirement

I don't know if I believe in #1. Things with guaranteed returns have such low rates of return. Clearly once you actually get close to retiring you should switch everything into stuff that's guaranteed (or at least a large portion). But now while I'm young, I don't know if that's a good idea. I'm definitely going to stay in stocks until the market recovers back to where it was before the crash, if I sold now I'd just be losing money.

For #2, I do see his point (for Canadians, I have no idea if his strategy would be the same for Americans). By focusing on the mortgage while you're young, you eliminate your debt (guaranteed returns due to the interest avoidance), and your RRSP contribution room carries over from year to year so you can reap huge tax benefits by rolling your mortgage payments over into your RRSP once the mortgage is paid off. It makes sense. But, since I'm planning to go back to school, I'd rather have more cash than less debt (esp since the debt is just a mortgage, so we could always sell the house to pay it off if we needed to).

[mellenhead]

I loved Say When by Elizabeth Berg. The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson is annoying so far and I'm only on chapter 6. I may just throw in the towel. There was a reason I quit reading James Patterson books!!!

I think I'm going to start The Wild Things by Dave Eggers tonight.

[Sílvia]

I finished The Glass Castle, which was interesting but soooo depressing. Besides, some of the things are hard to believe. And I gave up on the Maeve Binchy.

Then I started the first in the Stieg Larsson's (sp?) trilogy. Hey, Beverly! I think in English it's called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. What's it called in Swedish, Beverly? In Portuguese it's Men who didn't love Women or something like that. I'm not too impressed yet. My mom LOVED his books. I'm not much of a mystery reader, but I'm tired of making bad book choices, so I thought I'd give it a try.

[Beverly]

In Swedish it's called Men Who Hate Women, so the Portuguese translation is more faithful. The English title doesn't really make much sense, but whatever .... Anyway, it's a slow-goer at the beginning, but the story does eventually pick up, I promise.

[Bugsy]

I finished "Club Dead," the third Sookie book, yesterday. Meh. I didn't really care for this one at all. Haven't started anything new yet, and I may not until after Christmas...we'll see.