Books!

I've been reading a lot lately. I think it's got something to do with the "15 minutes of silent reading" time at the beginning of each of my classes. (I like to model good reading behavior so they know what it looks like, so I'm usually sitting at the front of the room with a book in my hand. Rather than puttering around at my desk.) And since I've had the time to get started on a book, I come home and would much rather be reading instead of working.

So I've gotten through a few. And now I have to talk about them.

River Secrets, by Shannon Hale

I'm a huge Shannon Hale fan. She has a way of writing stories, novels that are more folktales than books. They usually have some kind of magical element, but the characters are real and memorable enough that you close the book with a smile and satisfied sigh. And they're funny. This is the 3rd in a series of 4 (the others, I believe, are The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and a new one coming out soon...).

Hole In My Life, by Jack Gantos

This is a real-life memoir about a few years of Jack Gantos' teenage and early-20s life, when he was involved in doing drugs, selling drugs, giving up drugs, and serving prison time. But how could someone who has messed up his life so much go on to write and publish a book? He made some terrible choices, yes, but he wasn't dumb. In fact, while in prison he wasn't allowed a notebook to write in, so he used a jail-copy of "The Brothers Karamazov" and wrote in the margins and in-between the lines. His manuscript was his ticket out of there. It was a tough subject and not really the escapist reading I'm used to, but I couldn't put this down, even though I was reading it on my cruise!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

I'm sure you've heard a lot about this one, but I sure liked it. Now that I look back on it, I realize that you have to be able to appreciate Jane Austen before you can read this. It's 85% Austen and 15% zombies. So, as awesome as the zombie/ninja fighting parts are, if you're not in the patient mood required by the majority of the language, this book isn't for you. Wait for the movie. ;)

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

Wow, even thinking about this book still gives me goosebumps. I tend to read in the oddest places considering the subject matter: prison and drug dealing in the Bahamas, and post-apocolyptic, ashen-gray American wasteland on a family trip to Moab and Arches National Park. But, you know, Jack Gantos did take a boatload of drugs from Florida to the Northeast, and I connected with his sea-legs and yearning for land as I read on the cruise liner. And just as we drove through miles of southern Utah, "the man" and "the boy" in this novel traveled onward down any road they could find in search of food and safety and survival. Arches is gorgeous beyond any poetic description I could imagine; McCarthy uses the most gorgeous language to describe the least attractive world imaginable. In short, it was a beautiful book about horrible things. If you can handle that, read it!

Impossible, by Nancy Werthin

This is a YA lit novel that I would recommend to a much wider audience as well. It's a modern-day story of a girl named Lucy, a senior in high school, just turning 18...but it's based on the idea behind the Simon and Garfunkle song "Scarborough Fair." I kinda didn't want to say that because I think it gives a bit of a wrong idea... Basically, I loved the book more for the "true love of mine" aspect than the fantasy element. Their relationship was very...worthy. Not even a Mormon novel, but a great emphasis on family and commitment.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

My friend Jenny recommended this to me - actually, she loaned me her copy - which is the only reason I read it, because I certainly would not have picked it up judging by the title. What the...!? I mean, what *is* Potato Peel Pie? It's only a fringe idea, but I think they wanted to make the title memorable. Ok, it worked: I haven't forgotten. And I am so glad I read it. It's set in 1946, in a small British island in the English Channel working to heal itself from being occupied by Nazi Germany. But it's told all in letters, people writing back and forth to the main character Juliet living in London. I'm not kidding - I felt like I got to know these characters so well that in the week or so it's been since I finished the book, I've missed them! I want to know how they are now. I wish I could stop by for tea and just chat. It was lovely and poignant (nice buzzword) and darling and thoroughly enjoyable.

Now I'm reading "Bleachers" by John Grisham, and it's...fine. But mostly I'm desperately searching for my next favorite. What have you read lately? Any recommendations?

"Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card." ---Arthur