February - what are you reading?

[Rowan]

I have The Neighbors are Watching next on the pile. Not sure if I'll get to it before its due back at the library.

My reading has suffered due to Netflix streaming - I'm addicted!

[mellenhead]

I finished The Weird Sisters , Rowan. I LOVED it. Loved the characters and writing. I'm sad I finished it.

Not sure what I'm going to read next. I have a bunch of stuff from the library, I need to flip through and see what I'm in the mood for.

[Rowan]

Yay! Mellen, I'm so glad it was good. Now I can harrass the library into getting it. I wish I could get put on the book picking committee there.

[mellenhead]

It's definitely a must read. I think I'm lucky that Pittsburgh (well, Allegheny County) has such an amazing library system.

I'm anxiously awaiting getting Swamplandia by Karen Russell. I keep hoping that hold will come up soon, even though it just came out.

[Spudd]

I'm still working on "The Pillars of the Earth". It's a real page-turner, I'm really enjoying it so far.

[Bugsy]

I'm reading "What to Eat: An Aisle-by Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating" by Marion Nestle. I don't remember how I stumbled across her, but she apparently writes about food politics and food-related issues. Her twitter feed is pretty cool, and this book is really interesting so far. Loving it!

And my friend Tia loaned me "Room." I think I'm going to start that this afternoon.

[Rowan]

Bugsy, I loved Room. Definitely one of my favorites from last year - hope you like it.

I finished The Neighbors are Watching and thought it was really good. Definitely a quick read as I started and finished it last night although I was up to midnight because I needed to finish it.

Not sure what's next on the pile....thankfully I have a load a books as we're pretty much iced in at this point.

[Rowan]

Room is an easy read, Blush. You'll speed through it.

[Bugsy]

Yep, "Room" was quite good. Strangely, I liked the first half of the book more than the second. Thanks for the recommendation, guys (I forget who first mentioned it, but I know it was in this forum that I heard about it).

[mellenhead]

Bugsy, the second half just seemed so realistic and depressing. That was one of those books I couldn't put down.

I read Caribou Island by David Vann. I liked it overall, and the writing was different. However, I was more interested in the story of the secondary characters than the main characters....and the author only tied up the story of the main couple. I wish the book was another few chapters.

Next up is The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow.

[Sílvia]

Ew, that is kind of gross. I read the first 3-4 pages at the store the other day, and it seems interesting enough, but they didn't have it in paperback yet.

[Bugsy]

The breastfeeding did kind of weird me out too, but then I figured that since they were just stuck in the room it seemed a little more natural. Plus, I went to high school with a girl who had a much younger brother (like he was born when we were freshman or so), and her mom breastfed that kid until he was almost five. Now THAT was weird as hell to learn about.

[mellenhead]

I finished The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow. I really enjoyed it. It was more of a mystery type book than I thought but a good story overall with great characters.

Next up is Swamplandia. I just got the notice that it's on the hold shelf so I am going over at lunch to pick it up. I have been exited about this book for months so I hope it's good.

[Beverly]

I'm still working on This Body of Death by Elizabeth George. It's good, but I'm not finding a lot of time to read right now.

I ordered Room to add to my to-read stack.

[mellenhead]

I read Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein. It pretty much railed against all the pink themed stuff out now and the whole "princess culture" little girls get sucked into. Some of it was interesting but most of it was totally over to the top, at least in my opinion.

I just started Swamplandia! which is good so far but I'm a couple chapters in.

[Spudd]

I finally finished "The Pillars of the Earth". Holy long book. It was good, though. I just felt stressed because it was a library book and there were other holds on it, so I had only 3 weeks to get through all 1000 pages.

I just returned it and picked up "This is Where We Live".

[Malanee]

I just finished Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - can't wait for the next book in the series!

Now I'm reading cutting for stone and it is wonderful.

On my list:

Burning Chrome by William Gibson
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

[Sílvia]

Ruth, I almost picked up Cutting for Stone at the store the other day. Now I'm sorry I didn't!

Spudd, holy crap, only 3 weeks to get through Pillars? It took me 3 months! Of course I had a 2-year-old and a translation job at the time which I could only do when said 2-year-old was asleep, but still!

I'm still working on World without End, the sequel to Pillars of the Earth. I almost gave it up around page 300, but now it picked up. It's almost like reading the same book, it's just way too similar to Pillars.

[mellenhead]

I finished Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. It was decent but by all the rave reviews I kept reading I expected more.

I'm about 1/4 of the way into A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and I LOVE it.

After that I have Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua at home from the library but I don't think I'm going to end up reading it. Just flipping through it the tone managed to annoy me.

[Spudd]

I finished This is Where We Live last night. It was really good, thanks to whoever it was that recommended it (Rowan, I think?).

Next in line is Unbearable Lightness, which is Portia de Rossi's autobiography and discusses her eating disorder. I think it will be interesting. Kenneth picked it up yesterday and started reading it, and he seemed really engrossed, which is saying something.