Wow October.. what are you reading?

[Spudd]

I'm still working on the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's really good so far. I'm bringing it on vacation along with 3 library books... a book on organizing, and 2 books about bike touring (stories of bike tours people have been on, not a how-to book).

[mellenhead]

Anna, which 3?

I just finished "The Lonely Polygamist" by Brady Udall. It was so so good. I loved all the characters and the writing. I'm going to check out some of his other books.

Right now I have "Wave", "Ape House" and "Nothing Left to Burn" from the library. Not sure what I'm going to start on next.

[mellenhead]

Sorry you didn't like it Anna!

I finished "Ape House" by Sara Gruen. It was good and I enjoyed it but it isn't nearly as good as her prior book "Water for Elephants".

I'm just about done with "The Wave" by Susan Casey. It's about how our oceans are changing and freak waves / tsanumis(sp). Not my usual area of interest but it's very interesting.

I have 2 other books out from the library waiting at home but neither of them seem interesting to me right now.

[mellenhead]

I spent all of last evening reading "Room" by Emma Donoghue. It's written from the view point of 5 year old Jack who lives in "room" with Ma. The mother was abducted at 19 and Jack has never been out of the shed they are locked in. It's such a good book, I couldn't put it down.

Next up is "The Tower, the zoo and the tortoise" by Julia Stuart.

[Beverly]

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 finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and I really liked it, even though it took forever to get going and had no satisfactory conclusion. It takes a good writer to turn THAT into something good! But Ms. Waters did the job. It was fun reading all the readers' interpretations on amazon when I finished.

Now I'm reading this: http://www.bookpage.com/the-book-case/tag/maria-duenas/. I'm only on page 20 or so, but I like it so far. And if it's being compared to The Shadow of the Wind, it can't be bad!

[mellenhead]

I finished the "The Tower, the zoo and the tortoise" by Julia Stuart. It's about the Tower of London and the workers that live there, it was a good light read with lots of characters but she weaved them all together really well.

Right now I have "The Thousand" by Kevin Guilfole (sp) and I have "Freedom" by Johnathan Franzen waiting for me at the library.

[Spudd]

On vacation I read 2 books about bike touring. One was about a dad who pulled his 2 kids (7 and 5 if I remember right) from the west coast to DC on his bike. That one was pretty interesting. The other was about a guy who biked to the lowest point on 6 continents. That was pretty dull, honestly. Now I'm reading a book called "Shed" which is about purging clutter, but it's WAY more self-helpy than I was hoping for. I think I'll probably return it unfinished (to the library). It asks you to pick a theme for the part of your life that's coming up and purge your stuff according to that theme. It's just not my style.

[mellenhead]

Blush there is actually a running joke in the book about how expensive (and bad) the food is for the tourists at the Tower. I think you will really like it, it's a good book.

[Bugsy]

I'm reading "Still Alice" by Lisa Geneva. Holy sadness! It's quite good so far, but I'm only able to read a couple chapters at a time because it gets too heavy otherwise.

I had started "The World Without Us" before the wedding but just couldn't get into it.

[kayley]

spudd, I read that lowest points book when I was last in the states. It's awful! but I'll read pretty much anything about bike touring, too. have you caught up with reading the blog family on bikes? (altogether). I don't know when they'll be here, but I hope I can catch up with them!

[Spudd]

That would be cool to meet them! I don't read their blog but I see the mom posting on bike forums from time to time. Seems like a cool story. I also saw them interviewed on GMA.

I started reading a book I can't remember the title of... Odyseum or something like that.. by Dan Simmons. It's like the story of Helen of Troy, but they have futuristic technology. So far I'm sooo not into it... I feel like if I really knew the story of Helen of Troy beforehand it might be interesting to see how he's switching it around, but since I don't, I'm kinda confused and bored. But I'm only 1.5 chapters into it, so I'll give it a little more time before giving up.

[Bugsy]

Finished "Still Alice." :sob It made me cry so much! I think that's because losing my memory (or really, any mental disorder in general) is one of my biggest fears, so it was heartbreaking to read about this brilliant woman succumb to early-onset Alzheimer's at age 50. Great story, but damn did I cry.

Yesterday I started "Our Lady of the Forest" by David Guterson. I got it from my aunt. So far it seems good, but I'm only about 20-30 pages into it.

[Rachael]

Sil, I so loved "Shadow of the Wind"!

I'm reading "The Last Time I Saw You" by Elizabeth Berg.

Before that I read "The Fixer Upper" by Mary Kay Andrews. Her books are always quite entertaining.