Today’s meme comes courtesy of Marginal Revolution where I discovered a post about current reading lists. Because I have actually been reading on a regular basis this summer, I have books to discuss.
1) The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, which I have mentioned before and urge you to NOT watch the film but to read instead – even if you hate Austen (though how anyone could hate Jane is beyond me).
2) The Mist by Stephen King. Short. Very Sweet. Timely, given that the Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland is about to make something like this too scarily possible.
3) Fight Club by Chuck Palanhuik. Mainly because it is MidKid’s favorite book and I wanted to know why. I think I do but I am not similarly drawn. Some of the chapters are so well written I am jealous and others scream “dissociative personality” and made me want to scream “could we get back to the story, please?” In the ’90’s the topic of disenfranchised males and consumerism robbing us of our souls might have seemed cutting edge but it hasn’t aged well and seems a bit to retro-trendy now. I haven’t read enough of Palanhuik to say, but I found Survivor to be his best. Most of the rest of his topics are just to sick for me. I don’t believe I have to be made uncomfortable by my reading material in order to achieve spiritual growth.
4) Skinny Bitch which I reviewed previously.
5) The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dave Plinky. It’s a graphic novel for the early elementary set that I first read to my nephew when he was six (he is now fourteen and a half) and got for BabyDaughter for her recent birthday because she is in love with the Captain Underpants series by the same author. Very punny, potty humor but it makes me laugh a bit too.
6) The Gruesome Guide to World Monsters as part of my research for my novella. Recalled my days as an X-Files fan as I learned about all the truly disturbing monstrosities big and small that mankind as created to, oddly, allay his fears.
So, what have you been reading? Comment or link back, please.
anniegirl1138 
Succubus Blues, by Richelle Mead. Gotta love a good demon tale.
KJ
http://interminablewriter.wordpress.com
http://nanadiaries.wordpress.com
I’m in the middle of Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island, which is a hoot. I recently finished Brian Weiss’ Many Lives, Many Masters, and Strangers in Paradise (Book 1), a graphic novel by Terry Moore that was mediocre. Next up is the Bhagavad Gita, and then Lisa Isherwood’s The Fat Jesus.
The Mist is excellent.
Late Nights on Air, by Elizabeth Hay. About half way through and it’s great.
Lately I have been reading the Inspector Shan series by Elliot Pattison. I’ve read Water Touching Stone, Bone Mountain, and Beautiful Ghosts in rapid succession. I really love the stories of Tibet. And the last one, Beautiful Ghosts, had a short vignette where Shan ends up in Seattle for a couple of days.
Right now I’m working on The Weathermakers by Tim Flannery.
Darc, thanks for the tip on the film. Best adaptation of Kind for me is It though I like Firestarter too. And you are right, it’s a novella. I really like that format myself.
Marsha, I thought the same thing about the monster book. When I used to teach mythology one of my activities was having the kids create monsters or gods/goddesses. Usually they went monster. I read Pillars too. I got frustrated with it towards the end and haven’t finished. I had issues with the direction the author took some of the characters.
Sari, once you have read Jane Austen Book Club the movie will pale. The care and feeding is Dr. Laura? I think I skimmed it. I loathe the woman as she is a hypocrite (she preaches a life she never lived herself as a younger woman) but the “tips” were things that most women discover as they live with men – although some of it was just mindless sexism. I wonder that books can be written about taking care of men as though they were little more than pets to be manipulated but a book in the same vein about women would cause an uproar.
Well, I watched the movie, The Jane Austen
Book Club, and loved it, but I’ll look for the
book. I didn’t even know there was a book
actually. As for what I’ve been reading:
1) Started The Saffron Kitchen several weeks
ago, can’t seem to go back to it.
2) The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands was
a real eye-opener for me. I highly recommend
it.
My favorite summer read has been “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. I felt like a 5th grader with the newest Harry Potter book–I couldn’t put down the 1,000 page book.
I also enjoyed “Same Kind of Different as Me” By Ron Hall and Denver Moore. This book made me think on so many levels, but mainly about what it means to truly volunteer to help others.
I read “Spies of Warsaw” by Alan Furst and really had difficulty getting through it though it had great reviews.
An unexpected favorite was a series called “The Pot Luck Club”. These were simply fun to read a real summer series.
Crazy as it sounds I looked up “The Gruesome Guide to World Monsters” Looks like a great book to share with my 6th graders–I love to introduce them to all writing genres.
I’m not surprised King’s “The Mist” has been released as a stand-alone book, I AM surprised it’s not being called a novella, which is what it was. His ending wasn’t as good as the movie’s from a horror perspective either.
If you haven’t seen the flick, it’s one of the BEST adaptations of a King story I’ve ever seen. 🙂