It's August - what are you reading?

[Rowan]

I'm re-reading The Beck Diet Solution which is a really good psychological program for weight loss. I've lost a good amount of weight but my brain and habits need to catch up.

[Rowan]

Blush, have you read anything else by Lionel? Couldn't believe it was a woman...Lionel is such a man's name to me.

[mellenhead]

I'm about 3/4 of the way done with Shadow of Night, (sequel to A Discovery of Witches). It's quite good. I have the same little nit with this book as the first one that some of the relationship stuff gets SO repeptitive, but other than that I am very much enjoying it. They are time traveling in this book and are in Elizabethen times. I'm actually planning on taking the train the next 2 days to give myself more reading time!

[Rowan]

Blush, I actually liked the Post Birthday World but I skipped all the snooker talk. WTF? Like I care about snooker.

[Annie]

I finished "Gone Girl". It was good. Not wonderful but okay. Sort of a fucked up book and a little too far off reality for my imagination to follow along with.

Now I'm reading "Plainsong" by Kent Haruf. Only about 1/3 of the way in but wow. Beautiful, beautiful book.

Blush, I'm also curious to hear how you like "The New Republic". I went in search of other Lionel Shriver books after I read "Kevin" but the ones at the used book store (small selection) didn't strike me as quite right at the time. The birthday one looked promising but then I decided I didn't want to read about infidelity. Eh.

[Bugsy]

Earlier this week I finished listening to "A Stolen Life" by Jaycee Dugard. It was very sad and brought tears to my eyes a few different times, but like Annie said, that woman has such an amazing spirit. I'd recommend this one.

I currently have "Bossypants" by Tina Fey to read for book club and "Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism" by Julie Guthman to read for fun. Haven't started either due to spending my evenings applying for jobs and watching what I can of the Olympics, but I'm looking forward to both. Probably will start later this week or over the weekend.

[Sílvia]

Blush, I actually liked the Post Birthday World but I skipped all the snooker talk. WTF? Like I care about snooker.

Ditto. Though it wasn't as impressive as Kevin.

I'm STILL reading The Forgotten Garden, which I started... what, 3 weeks ago? I haven't had much time/eneergy, what with the move and everything, and the book itself is slow-going. I had such high hopes for it, it seemed right up my alley, but it's kind of boring. I came very close to giving it up 2 days ago, but I kinda wanna know what happens. If the "mystery" is what I think it is, I'll be pissed, because it was obvious from the very beginning.

[Beverly]

I just read Den drunkade by Therese Bohman, and thought it was very good. It's recently been translated to English (Drowned), and I'd definitely recommend it.

Today I started Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. So far, so good.

[Rowan]

Annie, do I need to reimburse you re: Gone Girl? Sorry, I really liked it particularly the writing....

[Annie]

I did like it, just not as much as I was hoping. Maybe too much build-up? People are talking about it everywhere!

As I was reading it though, I thought it seemed like a book that would do really well as a movie also. I'd put money on it!

[mellenhead]

Finished up Shadow of Night - I loved it. Most of the book was spent in Elizabethan times and I loved all the various historical references and people that showed up in the book.

I now have to figure out what to read next. The number of books that all came in at the library over the past week or so is ridiculous:

The Next Best Thing - Jennifer Weiner
Insurgent - Veronica Roth
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Battle Royale - Takamo Koshun (I've wanted to read this due to all the Hunger Game comparisons)
Becoming Sister Wives (Trash book from the TLC series)
Dare Me - Megan Abbott
The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
Triburbia - Karl Greenfeld

[Rowan]

mellen, I just got 5 holds in today. Why does that always happen?

Of those that I've read:

The Next Best Thing - Jennifer Weiner (on my list)
Insurgent - Veronica Roth (1)
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (2)
Battle Royale - Takamo Koshun (I've wanted to read this due to all the Hunger Game comparisons)
Becoming Sister Wives (Trash book from the TLC series)
Dare Me - Megan Abbott
The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker (3)
Triburbia - Karl Greenfeld

[mellenhead]

Finished Insurgent - it was excellent. I think it just came out though so I have a long wait for the next one!

I'm about halfway through Dare Me by Megan Abbott. It's about a cheerleading squad that gets a new coach and the coach sort of crosses various lines with the girls. It's pretty gripping.

[Rowan]

mellen, would you like to go to a deserted island with me and read?

I just put Dare Me on my hold list before I saw you had it here.

Finished the 3rd Fifty Shades yesterday. Yes, I read them all but pretty disappointed that I did. I don't recommend them.

Next up is Shadow of the Night. Excited!

[Skye]

I really loved Shadow of Night too.

Over the weekend I read two YA books- Almost by Anne Eliot and The Mayfair Moon (The Darkwoods Trology #1) by J.A. Redmerski. I liked Almost quite a bit. Mayfair was a little too close to Twilight for my liking. Good story but I hate when I can see elements copied from other books.

[Spudd]

I read a bunch while we were on vacation.

Matterhorn - loved it
Divergent - loved it
A Stolen Life - interesting to hear what she went through, but I thought it was poorly written and it didn't hold my interest that well
Elegance of the Hedgehog - pretty good
Defending Jacob - very good once I got into it (the first 10% was a bit tough to get into)
Fall of Giants - just started this one, but so far so good

[mellenhead]

mellen, would you like to go to a deserted island with me and read?

I thought you would never ask!

[Annie]

Aw, you guys are cute.

Can I just say how much I'm loving "Plainsong". Wow.... It might be passing "Kevin" for the year's top book.

[Rowan]

Spudd, I really liked Defending Jacob too but...I loved the story but I thought the writing was muddy at times. Funny because when I brought it back to the library, the librarian said the same thing of having to slog through it. You did some good reading on vacation!

I'm reading Shadow of Night (30 pp in or so) but I kinda forgot the first one and am a bit lost. Should I give up and reread the first or will I get back into it? Anyone? Mellen?

[Spudd]

Yeah, I also felt the writing wasn't 100% great. But it was entertaining. The twist near the end (the 2nd major thing to happen) shocked the heck out of me. And then the final twist I also didn't see coming. So yeah, I enjoyed it.