Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst. Much different than her previous one, The Dogs of Babel. Both are terrific reads.

If you’ve been into Chick Lit lately, you should try Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips… I just read it last week and it was a cute, fun read.

I am currently reading, “You Never Know,” by Michael Markowitz. It is Excellent and A Total Page Turner.

that’s so funny - i was going to request one of these soon! hilary, how were swapping lives and twins of tribeca? i think these might have been mentioned on here before, but i really liked the mercy of thin air and tortilla curtain. nick hornby is a fun author. i also have really liked what i’ve read so far by haruki murakami, julia alvarez, and bryce courtenay (a totally random list, i know).

On the chick lit side I just finished The Bachelorette Party by Karen McCullah Lutz and Finishing Touches by Deanna Kizis, both were good. Bachelorette Party was funny, Finishing Touches was interesting as it dealth with the death of a best friend and all the ripple effects afterwards. On the “why am I reading this in the summer” side I’m reading The Color of Wealth by Meizhu Lui which I recommend highly.

I’m reading The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, about the Chicago World’s Fair and a serial killer “who used the fair to lure his victims to their death.” It’s riveting, but also a long book, so I’ve been renewing it at the library for a while now.

Just finished:
The Secret Life of Bees

I wrote a review of it on my site
Its an amazing book

just read both of those books and loved them both.. here are two more… The Baby Trail and the Right Fit by Sinead Moriarty, they were laugh out loud funny, read them in order. Also, just read Marion Keyes latest, Anybody out There, it was great, a little different from her previous.

I finished reading girls night in and girls night out. A compilation of short stories by various female authors. I know the proceeds from the books go to some good cause…just can’t think of it right this minute…
It was an easy read and enjoyable.

I loved Devil in the White City! It was intensley detailed and creepy.

The Secret Life of Bees was touching, and a much lighter read.

Right now I’m reading Spook, by Mary Roach. It’s funny and easy to read. Stiff was good too.

i just had to add - i recently read The Woman at the Washington Zoo, by Marjorie Williams. if anyone is into politics and/or feminist writings, she writes some amazing profiles and essays on popular (and not-so-popular) political figures - there’s a great essay on the gore-clinton relationship and a few interesting pieces on the feminist reaction to the anita hill and monica lewinsky pieces. and some of her personal essays (mostly about being diagnosed with and dying from breast cancer) are amazing and often made me cry.

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien. It’s a heavy book, about Vietnam, but the writing is incredible and it is very touching.
Also - Wicked, as in the play. The book is wonderful.

also a big fan of Devil in the White City… can’t believe it hasn’t been turned into a film yet.

presently rereading american pastoral and loving it more this time around than before!

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak was originally written for older teens. However, it is being read by all ages. It is the story of a young christian girl during the pre-WWII period and during the war. The book is narrated by “death” with many flashbacks and future hints about characters’ fates. It is beautifully written by this young Australian author. Very poignant, with various stories about different people of all backgrounds and religions. A definite must-read for everyone. Don’t let the 500+ pages scare you…it is a very fast read. I recommend this book to all ages, religions, and backgrounds.

Enjoy………

HIl’s mom

I’m always reading many things & many books. I picked up ‘The Southern Highlander and his Homeland by John C. Campbell, the original copyright on it is from the Russell Sage foundation, 1921. A very instructive book, sort of a detailed anthropological survey of the land and it’s inhabitants. If you wanted to see how the 19th century ended in fits and starts in the American South this is the book for you. Lots of valuable stats too about a forgotten era. Strangely enough, I’ve never seen the book in the John C. Campbell Folk School in NC.

E. H. Gombrich’s delightful ‘A little History of The World’. Originally published in German by Sir Gombrich in 1935, and constantly updated through the years for his grandkids. A very breezy & enjoyable read, and very short at under 300 pages, going from the caves to the Atomic age. No this is not a comic book either!

‘Wedding of the Waters; The Erie Canal and the making of a great nation’, by Peter Bernstein, 2005. Another great story, and I’m always a sucker if the hero is named Clinton. Even Gov. Clinton too.

I’m also dipping into my Penguin Classics copy (abridged) of U.S. Grant’s ‘Personal Memoirs’, after enduring a silly review of even a sillier new bio of Grant in the WallStJournal. The writer made the idiotic statement that Grant left so little behind from which to judge him. Evidently the writer missed this best seller from 1885, where in more than 1000 pages Grant tells the story of his life and his campaigns to win the Civil War. Insightful, humble, detailed and fair to a fault, his character is laid out for anyone to read more than a century later on almost every page. He was a fairly miserable but well meaning President, but one of our greatest generals ever. Then there’s all the mags & perodicals I’m reading in addition to my usual news feeds on the Net.

Cheers, ‘VJ’

Recently finished My Friend Leonard by James Frey, it was entertaining, but I wouldn’t call it thought-provoking.
Next up is a whole year’s worth of books (some of which I would have never chosen on my own) because my new book club is finally launching, yay! http://passtheline.blogspot.com

Stacy: Swapping Lives was cute and totally reminded me of that show Wife Swap. I’m only two chapters into The Twins of Tribeca, but I’m enjoying it!

Has anyone read ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ by Lionel Shriver? Very very good!

I also loved The Devil in the White City - a great read.

I just finish reading My sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It was amazing. I couldn’t put it down. Now I’m reading Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. So far I’m really enjoying it.

Elise — I thought “We Need To Talk About Kevin” was fabulous too!

after my sarah vowell phase I picked up ‘the plot against america.’ however, I’m taking a slight break because all the Sept issues of the magazines are out! I have several pounds worth of reading material from vanity fair, domino and maybe a few I’m embarrassed to mention on a blog. its my favorite time of the year for magazines.

What have I been reading? Too many blogs! LOL

My older son likes to pick out books for me at the library. He thinks it’s cool to be able to read the big number on the last page. So I never know what will get pulled off the shelves. This time it was a biography of Dolley Madison. Actually, it looks interesting. Maybe I’ll have to read it.

VJ,

IIRC, Grant worked on his memoirs because he and his family needed the money pretty badly. Fortunately, he finished them before he died, so his family wasn’t bankrupted.

I recently finished reading Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Alters Everywhere (its follow-up) by Rebecca Wells. Highly recommend!

Now I’m just getting started on Zadie Smith’s White Teeth. I don’t know how popular she is in the States, but after hearing so much about her work here I finally decided to give her a go. No regrets so far. I like the way she writes - poetic prose. This is my “nightcap” book.

As “intellectual prop” in cafe’s I’m reading Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory, which I’m finding a bit heavy, but interesting (once I understand it!)

oh and I also wanted to say to Ron that i think it’s so cute that you read what your son picks!

What a great way to find more books to read. I already added several to my ‘to get’ list from everyone’s recommendations. Thanks!

I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but we recently read I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe. It’s about a naive girl from western North Carolina who gets a scholarship to a mythical elite university. The book makes satire of everyone — professors, university administrators, jocks, frat rats, sorority girls, politicians, etc. It also engages in overstereotyping on purpose (enough to make the movie “Crash” proud). Still, it was a worthwhile read.

Geez, I think ‘I am Charlotee Simmons’ si one of the worst books of the last few year. Completely so over the top as to not have much credibility at all.

And Ron, I was well aware of the circumstances behind Grant’s writing. There’s a touching last picture of him in his night clothes & cap, writing on his sleeping portch while in the last stages of his throat cancer. His son had put the family fortune at risk in a foolish business venture, and Grant had to bail him & the family out of it. But I dip into it from time to time to try and refresh my memory of the details of certain local battles. Often our papers today, when they describe the conflict (which is rarely) do often get it wrong in the details. Cheers, ‘VJ’

Google images comes up right away with these pics of a determined, and mostly bedridden Grant writing his memoirs in 1885, “Mount McGregor, June 27th, 1885″, also marked ‘Howe, NY’. By the end, he could hardly swallow or take any food. Effective cancer treatments for throat cancer were about 80 years in the future. And now you know who’s buried in the massive and quite impressive Grant’s Tomb in NY. Cheers & Good Luck, ‘VJ’

[http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=U.S.+Grant+writing+his+memoirs&spell=1]

VJ, thanks for the link to the Grant pictures.

Tom Wolfe seems to like taking liberties with exaggeration. Charlotte Simmons wasn’t as good a book as A Man in Full. I got my wife to read Charlotte Simmons, and she agreed that the stereotyping went over the top, but in a way we both see what Wolfe was trying to do.

Cheers to you, too!

Gave up on the new George Saunders story collection because it was just lousy. The God Particle was billed as the funniest book ever written on particle physics, and it may well be… but it ain’t funny, and it’s just too obtuse. Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything was also not nearly as funny as advertised, but was a very good read for (low-grade) nerds. Currently? Responding to another blog post here inspired me to re-read Catcher in the Rye again, and it’s pretty much the best book ever written.

The last three, in random order: The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain; The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox; and The Messenger by Daniel Silva.

The Nasty Bits is a collection of short stories and essays written by Tony Bourdain, the executive chef of New York’s Les Halles Brasserie. Reading “food-related” stuff isn’t my thing, but Tony Bourdain is an incredibly effective, funny writer and off-beat (he dedicated the book to Joey, Jonny & Dee-Dee), not to mention irreverent, sarcastic and everything a maverick NY chef should be. He’s even more entertaining on paper than he is on The Food Network (”A Cook’s Tour”) and Discovery (”No Reservations”). Guy is awesome.

The Maddox book is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read (it was created by the guy who created “The Best Page in the Universe,” linked on my blog); it’s an exposition into some of the funniest misogynist humor because Maddox never cracks a smile and lets you know how full of shit he knows he is.

Finally, the Silva book is another in a series of political thrillers that have cost me hours of sleep every time I start reading anywhere near 11PM. Invariably, his stuff involves Israel, the US and Middle East topics that never sounds contrived and always leaves me disappointed I’ve reached the end of another of his novels.

“Prep” by Curtis Sittenfield. Highly recommend.