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.

[Blush]

I'm about to start "The New Republic" by Lionel Shriver. It looks promising.

[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.

[Blush]

I read "We need to talk about Kevin" years ago and loved it. Then I tried the one with Birthday in the title and couldn't get past page 20. I'm not sure why, though perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time.

[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.

[Anna]

I'm reading Geralds Game by Stephen King, I read it a long time ago and forgot all but the basic info.

[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!