What We're Reading...

Liezel is reading...

The Story of a Marriage (2008), by Andrew Sean Greer (in New Fiction):
Here's the opening sentence:  "We think we know the ones we love.”  Read on!  Pearlie Cook, 1950s housewife living in the Sunset in San Francisco, has an unexpected story to tell.  By the author of Confessions of Max Tivoli.

The Book Thief (2006), by Marcus Zusak (in Young Adult):
Published in the U.K. as an adult book, and in the U.S. as Young People's.  It's poetic and lovely for many ages.  Narrated unusually by Death, this is the story of 14 year old Liesel, a German girl (and book thief) living during the War.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo came out with Bridge of Sighs last year, 2007 (in New Fiction).  Like others among his prodigious output, this is a thick book that’s great storytelling.  Russo’s again chosen a small town nobody as his protagonist, a convenience store owner.  This kind of fellow and the characters surrounding him are so vividly written as to keep you enthralled for many pages (or a rainy day, or surrounded by relatives, or a beach vacation....).    

Don't overlook the title of Shannon Hale’s Princess Academy (2005) (in Children's) because it’s not a “princess” book in the usual genre.   A Newberry Honor book, it tells the story of tiny Miri, a Mount Eskel girl whose life revolves around the linder quarry until the day the Prince’s messengers announce that the next Princess will be chosen from her village.  In beautiful prose with poetic interludes, Hale has told a wonderful story here for children ages 7-12.  You won’t predict the ending.  Look for Hale’s other books (all J or YA) Enna Burning; Goose Girl; River Secrets; and her newest, Book of a Thousand Days, based on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. 

Susan is reading...

The Wednesday Wars By Schmidt, Gary D. 2009/05 - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) 054723760X Check Our Catalog The Newbery and Printz honor-winning author of "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" delivers a wonderfully witty and compelling novel about a teenage boy's mishaps and adventures over the course of the 1967-68 school year. ...More

John is reading...

Blindness By Saramago, Jose Pontiero, Giovanni 2008/09 - Harvest Books 0156035588 Check Our Catalog Portuguese Nobel Laureate Saramago tells a fantastic tale about a city hit by an epidemic of "white blindness," in this work that is the basis for the upcoming movie with Julianne Moore. ...More

Painting with a Needle: Learning the Art of Silk Embroidery with Young Yang Chung By Chung, Young Yang Campbell, Marie 2003/07 - HNA Books 0810945703 Check Our Catalog In this gloriously illustrated book, master embroiderer Chung shows readers how to "paint with a needle"--embroidering in silk using centuries-old East Asian techniques and traditions. Chung provides detailed step-by-step instructions for 19 original projects. ...More

Diane is reading...

Morningside Heights by Cheryl Mendelson

In the first entry in a projected trilogy set in the Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights, first-novelist Mendelson homes in on a charmed and charming circle of friends with the zeal of an anthropologist. For the first time in their placid marriage, the Braithwaites are experiencing serious tension. The overambitious gentrification plans of their co-op's new board of directors and the impending birth of their fourth child have pushed the couple's precarious finances past the breaking point. Charles, an opera singer, and Anne, who has turned domesticity into a deeply creative act, must now seriously consider a dreaded move to the suburbs. In addition, they are concerned about their best friends, a brilliant but lonely scientist and an acclaimed writer still reeling from yet another disastrous relationship.

 

Damage Control by J.A. Jance

Sheriff Joanna Brady and her staff face a host of challenges while her husband, Butch, tends their infant son in bestseller Jance's solid 13th novel to feature the Cochise County, Ariz., cop (after Dead Wrong). A woman shoots a home intruder, an elderly couple drive their car off a cliff and a mysterious fire kills an older man and leaves three homeless. Were these accidents or something more sinister? When Det. Jaime Carbajal's nephew discovers a body in the desert, the investigation leads to a shady organization that operates halfway houses for troubled and disabled persons. Meanwhile, Joanna must deal with her interfering mother, who exhibits a sudden personality change, and the discovery of family secrets about her late father and late first husband. As usual, Jance beautifully evokes the desert and towns of her beloved southwest as well as the strong individuals who live there.

Wilma is reading...

Write it down, make it happen : knowing what you want-- and getting it! by Henriette Anne Klauser.

Great book based on the law of attraction theory.  Trying it out now myself. 

John is reading...

The Fourth World of the Hopis by Harold Courlander
A history of the Hopi as told through their myths and legends

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W.  Dahlquist
From Publisher’s Weekly, “. Three months after 25-year-old Celeste Temple travels from "her island" (a Bermuda-like place) plantation home to Victorian London, fiancé Roger Bascombe breaks their engagement. Driven more by curiosity than desire, she follows him from his job at the foreign ministry to Harschmort House, where, with little prodding, she quickly finds herself in silk undergarments at a ritual involving masked guests and two-way mirrors. Making her escape, Miss Temple (as she's called throughout) kills a henchman. Ceremony organizers pursue her as she pursues their secrets. Poetry-quoting assassin Cardinal Chang and diplomat Dr. Abelard Svenson come to her aid. Chang tries to save a half-Chinese prostitute; Abelard tries to save a governess named Elöise; Miss Temple discovers she is not the woman she thought she was, nor Roger the man she hoped for. Meanwhile, through science and alchemy, evildoers capture erotic memories and personal will in blue crystals.”

Barbara is reading...

The Sharing Knife Trilogy by Lois McMaster Bujold
This fantasy trilogy is set in the frontier, hundreds of years after a powerful society of sorcerers self-destructed. Our hero, one of the guardian descendants of these sorcerers, meets and falls for an unusual farmer girl. These two unlikely companions encounter adventure in keeping the populace safe from dangerous Malice creatures and trouble over their partnership from their exclusive cultural groups. The trilogy is excitingly plotted. Bujold’s lithe writing and thoughtful treatment of cooperation and consequences of actions make it well worth spending time in her created world.

The Bridei Chronicles by Juliet Marillier
Epic adventure/fantasy set in the Pictish kingdoms of ancient
Britain. Bridei has been molded from a child to be king, beset and tested mightily along the way.  Rich in Druidic lore and complicated military strategy, with some good, old fashioned (not sappy) happy endings. I was at first afraid that it would, and then pleased that it didn’t run along the gloomy lines of many of the Arthurian tales. Apparently Bridei was a historical person. Although most of the history is lost in the mists of time, Marillier endeavors to put in as much history and historical flavor as she can.

Singer of Souls; Steward of Song by Adam Stemple
Stemple’s edgy heroes and contemporary setting give a gritty feel to these two modern fantasy novels. In the first book, Douglas Stewart quits drugs and heads across the pond to Scotland where he stumbles upon a very unusual talent as he earns his living as a street musician. Turns out he can sing the essence of a person, particularly those from the fairy world. The fairy queen uses him for this talent and then finds she has driven a costly bargain.  In the second book we find out can Douglas be saved, then, from himself?

What We're Reading...

Beata is reading...

Evil Genes; Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend by Barbara Oakley
Starting with Psychology as a frame of reference, she ties together implications of neuroscience and genetics to explain similar behaviors of Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic. Along the way she weaves in some family history and related phenomenon such as the pampered life of Paris Hilton. If you have ever known someone with bad behavior you simply could not understand, this will shed some light and perhaps generate some compassion.

What We're Reading...

Wilma is reading...

In Style: Weddings by Instyle editors
Make your special day classy and perfect.

The Complete Book of Real Estate Contracts by Mark Warda
Good to know what your are signing exactly when you are purchasing real estate.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
Strange and taboo topic in a way for society so it looks like an interesting read.

What We're Reading

Barbara is reading...

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
The latest Thursday Next adventure has it all: literary silliness, time travel, trips in and out of the fictional world and an England struggling to address the stupidity surplus. Definitely start with the first book--The Eyre Affair--and embark on a fun, fantastical voyage.

Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
Four children travel on their own to the home of their Great Aunt, caring for each other and braving the kindnesses and cruelties of strangers on their way. Their trek is a journey of discovery about themselves and their families, with a weaving of folk songs and East Coast geography. Although it is shelved in the children's room, it has broad appeal. Its high reading level and fairly gentle content make it a great book for precocious readers.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Part memoir, part advice column, all blunt, funny and true--in this book King is down to earth, practical and suffers no fools. I particularly recommend the audio book. In general I believe it should be illegal for an author to read their own work for an audio book, but King is an excellent reader. Listening to the book on tape or CD is time well spent.