Monday, September 8, 2008

seven simple pleasures (part 2)

One of my greatest joys in life is to read. I love reading....one of my favorite t-shirts announces, "Life is short, read fast."

Unfortunately because life is so fast-paced, I often don't get to read as much as I would like. That is one plus to feeling bad constantly......I have read a lot lately. And instead of wallowing in self-pity that I'm stuck in bed a lot of the time, I want to celebrate all the wonderful books I have read recently or am anticipating to read.

Here are a few titles I've read in the past month:

The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen, The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer, A Painted House by John Grisham, and The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall. My favorite among these was The Unwanted. It was a painful memoir about an Ameri-Asian in Vietnam. I had a hard time putting it down and didn't want it to end. I also enjoyed The Russian Concubine, but it took me a few weeks to read that one. A Painted House was also a good read.......I'm not sure how I missed that Grisham book, I thought I had read them all. My neighborhood book club read The Ten-Year Nap. It is a book about 4 women who left their careers to become stay-at-home moms. I thought it was an interesting character study but the plot was lacking. It will provide for some interesting dialogue at the next book club though!

And eagerly waiting in a pile on my nightstand are the following:

Waking Brigid by Francis Clark
A Sister's Secret by Wanda E. Brunsetter
Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club by Maggie Marr
The Alexandria Link by Steve Barry
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

It is a perfect night for reading. There is a light rain outside, the kids are both snug in bed, and Matt is out late playing racquetball. I plan on putting on my jams (oh wait, that's right, they're already on....it is past six o clock) and starting one of my books.

If you have any book suggestions for me to read as I spend most of the next month and a half in my room.....please share!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your quote this week about marriage being like a bank account! So very true!

I've recently read 3 books by Jen Lancaster that had me laughing out loud: Bitter is the New Black; Bright Lights, Big Ass; Such a Pretty Fat. I just reread Like Water for Chocolate, which was just as good the second time around.

Love, Ang

RYD said...

If you're stuck at home, you need fun books as well as good literature. Here are a couple of books I found I, too, could not put down (and some of them were long!):

1. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Incredible memoir that is funny, very sad, and gripping.

2. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "When You Are Engulfed In Flames" both by David Sedaris. He is seriously one of the most hilarious writers out there.

3. "My Horizontal Life" by Chelsea Handler. Also hysterical - she is a comedian and has a talk show, but this book is so funny. Same with "Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea." I read them both very quickly.

4. Water for Elephants. A page-turner. Not great, but fun and interesting.

5. The Other Boleyn Girl. I couldn't put it down and it's over 1,000 pages!

6. Eat, Pray, Love. Loved it.

Hope that helps. If you need more, let me know!

Roxanne