Wednesday, July 14, 2010

An Uneven Dozen

What have YOU been reading this summer? Anything to recommend?

The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen: Readable, bust a glorified romance novel, really. You know...twins, one beautiful, one the ugly duckling, etc.

In a Gilded Cage and The Last Illusion by Rhys Bowen: Two more Molly Murphy mysteries--I'm all caught up now! The former was much better than the latter. Time to give Jacqueline Winspear a try now, I think!

A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco by Suzanna Clarke: Really enjoyed this as a peek into life in Morocco. I am amazed by people who just decide to buy a house in a foreign country and can't even speak the language. Wish I were that brave! Check out the Riad Zany blog for more info, pictures, etc.

College Girl by Patricia Weitz: I could not understand the characters in this book. At. All. The kind of college girl I would have wanted to smack upside the head.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen: Something about this book was off--the pacing? I found it slow and depressing. Not that Anna Quindlen cares what I think.

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin: Eh, I wish I liked it more. Just didn't find it believable. Even the Dublin setting couldn't save it.

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner: Total beach reading. Light and fluffy, a little crazy, but kind of fun. Hardcore JW fans lamented this as one of her weaker efforts, but I thought it was okay for chick lit.

Forgotten by Mariah Stewart: I had to get away from the chick lit genre for a bit, so I grabbed this from the bookshelf. I tend to like Stewart's suspense titles, though they are categorized as romantic suspense, which always makes me a little wary at first. The romance part isn't too overdone.

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin: This book did a very good job of portraying a quite creepy relationship between Alice Liddell (Alice in Wonderland) and family friend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll).

The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle: This book really resonated with me. I lived in Santa Barbara for two years, and was always uncomfortable with the split, and yet interdependence, between the haves and have nots. I'm not expressing myself well here, sorry!

The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg: I've been skipping Berg's books lately, but I found myself with nothing to read, so I grabbed this on a whim. The book itself was a little trite, but the class reunion theme always provokes a lot of thoughts in me.

4 comments:

Vicki W said...

Never Tell Our Business to Strangers (a memoir). It was horrible. This woman's parents were scum and no amount of boring navel-gazing writing was going to make them better.

Home to Big Stone Gap - very dull.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest - #3 in the series is fabulous so far, just like the first 2 int he series!

The Legal Limit (Martin Clark) - a very good story that happens to be set near where I grew up

Executive Privilege (Phillip Margolin) Excellent.

I should probably write a book post too!

STL Mom said...

My favorite so far this summer was "Tales of Protection" by Eric Fosnes Hansen. It's about a strange old man and his granddaughter, and it's about a lighthouse keeper's daughter, and it's about an Italian noble during the Renaissance... it's kind of hard to explain. I'm not sure how or why this book works, but I loved it. It's the kind of book where you get little hints about the characters that are gradually revealed, so you want to keep reading.
The worst I've read this summer was the Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb. Her other fantasy novels were a lot of fun and interesting to read. This series just didn't appeal to me. I wish I'd given up after the first book.
Thanks for sharing your reading!

Anonymous said...

At the beginning of the summer my granddaughter gave me two books and said, "They are really good. You need to read them. They are series books. Let me know when you want another." Finally, after teaching my first camp, I read the first one and it was really good. I have read three in that series and am starting #4. I read #1 in the other series and am going to get the others too. They are really good, just like Natalie said.

Curious? The first series is about Percy Jackson, half mortal, half god (son of Neptune- but the Greek name). Totally recommend it.

The second series is called WARRIORS. The hero is a house pet kitten who runes away and joins a group of wild cats (feral, maybe) and learns to survive and maybe saves his clan.

Admittedly, they might sound like kids books- but, then I was never led to read the Narnia books by reading the dust jackets- and missed a great treat for years until I finally gave them a try and was delighted I did, as were my children, etc., who were introduced to them later.

Linda

Anonymous said...

Did you read A YEAR IN THE WORLD by Frances Mayes? She and her husband visited the Casbash, Spain, the Cotswalds, Collette's home town, Wales, The Blue Grotto, Portugal- maybe a few other places? I loved this book-I felt like I had been to some of her places ( and I had been to 1 or 2). I totally recommend this book, if you have not read this, please do.

Lindac