I just finished “Starting Out in the Evening” by Brian Morton. I found it to be old-fashioned and charming, and I loved it. I can’t remember anything else that I’ve read — I’m either brain-dead from work, or I haven’t read anything worth mentioning. Probably both.

Thanks for this posting, Hilary!

I want to read Certain Girls, too. I was so bummed to miss Jennifer Weiner’s reading in Santa Monica the week before last!

I am reading Young Wives’ Tales, http://www.amazon.com/Young-Wives-Tales-Adventures-Partnership/dp/1580050506, which is good, but I am just about done with nonfiction and anthologies for a little while…

I recently read Nice Jewish Girls, http://www.amazon.com/Nice-Jewish-Girls-Growing-America/dp/0452273978/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210614360&sr=1-1, another anthology, but I was totally disturbed by the fact that memoir and fiction were mixed together with no acknowledgement of which was which.

Loved Certain Girls, I got the book wet with tears, it made me cry!!!

I am currently reading SEEING ME NAKED by Liza Palmer, it is right up your alley(as mom would say), about a pastry chef here in LA. I should be done by the weekend. I wish I could make a book last longer than 3 days. I have trouble putting a book down once I start. I stay up until the wee hours of the am reading until it’s done. Expensive habit.

I just read Prozac Nation (I’m late to the party, I know it came out like, 400 years ago) and LOVED it. Read it in like three days. Before that I read the Dooce book of essays on Dads - things I learned about my dad in therapy (it was kind of a let down), a dream dictionary, the Kite Runner (ok), Eat Pray Love (LOVED), and I feel like I am missing one somewhere in there. Next on my nightstand is A Million Little Pieces (yep, late again, never read it) but I have a huge stack of magazines to make my way through first. For work, of course.

I just read The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter - loved both of them!
Also read The Notebook, even though I already saw the movie. My Mom is on a Nicholas Sparks binge and she also recommended The Wedding.
Just started Love Walked In on recommendation from a friend.

I finished Certain Girls within 48 hours of buying it. But, I had a trip to Memphis and a lot of time. I love Jennifer Weiner and I can’t wait for her next book. Currently, I’m not reading anything. No time. But, I’m going to review the list so I can pick up a book for the honeymoon.

recently read ‘consider the lobster’ by david foster wallace and ‘the brief and wondrous life of oscar wao’ by junot diaz. loved the diaz book and I almost never read fiction. halfway through ‘absurdistan’ by gary shteyngart and I get what he’s trying to do but the characters leave me cold. so I might drop it and pick up ‘it must have been something I ate’ by jeffrey steingarten. I bought it when I was waiting in the ferry building and enjoyed the first chapter but was still reading ‘consider the lobster’ so it got pushed down the waitlist. time to bump it up.

I’m currently readind “Who’s Been Sleeping In Your Bed” by Brett Kahr. It’s about finding ther roots of people’s sexual fantasies.

Wow, it must’ve been a long time, because I have read a few books! Betcha didn’t know us enganyrs could do that!

Our first selection was Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream by Adam Shepard. This is a memoir of a college graduate who decides to move to a strange city and start out as a homeless person with $25 to his name. His goal is, after a year, to be able to have a job, an apartment, a car, and some savings within a year (without using his college degree).

For our fictional selection, I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (published in 1943). It’s the story of Howard Roark, the stubborn architect, and the world around him. The book is probably the most readable of Ayn Rand’s novels and has an amazing number of pop culture references. There is also a classic movie based on the novel starring Gary Cooper which features one of the longest movie monologues ever done.

The last book I read was Escape by Carolyn Jessop. She was brought up in the polygamist community in NW Arizona and, at age 18, forcibly married to a 50-year-old man (as his 4th wife). She had 8 children by the guy and managed to escape from him with all the kids in 2003. She is the first to do so and to keep custody of all the kids in the process. Given the recent raids on this cult’s ranch in Texas recently as well as the arrest and conviction of its “prophet,” it’s a pretty timely read. She knew quite a number of this cult’s leaders. It’s a pretty horrifying story of physical and emotional abuse, and scarier still by the fact that this has been going on so recently in our country.

Just finished “Roomates Wanted” by Lisa Jewell and LOVED IT. Fantastic. I also can not make a book last longer than a few days, regardless of how busy I am, so I got a library card. You can put new books on hold (I have a request for Jennifer Weiner’s new book, as well as Harlan Coben’s) and any late fees incurred are FAR LESS than the cost of a new hardback. I just checked out Sophie Kinsella’s new book, Remember Me? Oh, and I just read John Grisham’s new book, the Appeal. It started out great, with a cool premise but it contained no twists, I kept waiting for something to twist the premise but it never came, so it was just ok. I still succumb to impulse book buying at Target but with the library I am spending so much less. Jessica

Jessica- Love love love Sophie Kinsella, REMEMBE ME, I read in one day! it is kinda like the tv show SAMANTHA WHO on ABC. But a great story. she is my favorite address. I guess i should join the library, thanks for the advice.

Forgot to add that I also recently read If I get to Five by Fred Epstein. I don’t usually like nonfiction but I really liked it!

Wow I just caught up on all the previous “What Have You Read Lately?” installments! I’ve read a lot of the books already covered:
Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Eat, Pray, Love
Middlesex (also loved Midwives - same author)
The Second Assistant
Undomestic Goddess
Fear of Flying (read it in the 1970’s & it was risque’ then!)
the Undead series by Mary Janice Davidson
anything by Emily Giffin

Books you’ve mentioned that are sitting in my “to read” pile:
Water for Elephants
Love in the Time of Cholera
100 Years of Solitude
A Thousand Splendid Suns
I too read Jody Picoult and agree that her books are best not read in succession. I read The Pact and it haunted me so deeply and so long that I haven’t started My Sister’s Keeper or Nineteen Minutes (also sitting in the pile).

I couldn’t get into The Guy Not Taken either. Short stories don’t work for me. Just when I get involved and care about a character - poof - story’s over!

A recommendation: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse - loved it. If you liked The Da Vinci Code this is the same type story only with female leads. Very engaging.

[waiting for Hilary's Mom's list since we always like the same books]

Hi all, esp. Dawn

I read 2 books in the last couple of weeks that deal with knitting and 2 very wonderful stories about women and incredible female relationships. “The Friday Night Knitting Club,” by Kate Jacobs and “The Knitting Circle, ” by Ann Hood. Loved them both!!!! Any of the “Camel Club” series (3 books) by David Baldacci. The third one is called “Stone.” For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the 2nd book. FANTASTIC!! More soon…..I just needed to answer Dawn right away. ENJOY………..

Love,

mom

Thank you Hil’s Mom!!!

Keeping up with my book snobbery, I am reading “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

So far… I think I need to read more.

I’ll be a real snob and say that I read “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie in the original when it first came out. More fun.

Less fun, reading 60 resumes. Boy are we in deep trouble in this country people! ‘Nuff said.

Cheers & Good Luck! ‘VJ’

I recently read the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer and loved it. (What is it with women and vampires?) I don’t know if I can wait for the 4th and final installment, or the MOVIE, for heaven’s sake! I’ve not been reading as much as I should be, but I’ll be getting back on the horse soon, and I’ll be using some of your suggestions (especially the one about the library).