What Are You Reading? - #2

I've read it. It was a while back now, but a really good book, quite a dark book, so if you don't like that sort of thing...

I have just started reading Jodi Picoult's Mercy. No one tell me what happens! *sticks fingers in ears* So far it's amazing, just like every other JP book I have read. I'm obsessed with her books. I have read My Sister's Keeper, Vanishing Acts, Perfect Match, Salem Falls, Plain Truth, The Pact (my favourite), and Picture Perfect. I thoroughly reccommend her books. The great thing about them is that whilst reading you can see why both sides of the stories. E.g. Thinking that the person is totally guilty, and should go to prison, then she switches character POVs and you think the person is innocent for whatever reason.
They don't tend to be very heavy on the forensics, but more from the lawyers perspective. So different from CSI in that way.

 

Jodi Picoult's books are great. So are Kathy Reichs...she has such strong female characters.

Currently reading Kabul Beauty School by Debbie Rodriguez. It's actually quite good! A memoir about a woman who volunteers to go to Afghanistan to help anyway she can, and ends up training the women to open their own beauty salons, which were outlawed by the Taliban. Sounds ridiculous, (and even the author admits she felt foolish entertaining the concept when there were others doing "more important work") but Afghan women are no different than women anywhere else...they crave good haircuts and manicures too!

A touching read, and lighthearted as well.

 

I have read Cross Bones. Wasn't really my thing though, I'm not really into history. Do all of her books focus on History? I'm debating whether or not to try another.

 

Of Kathey Reichs' novels I think that cross bones was the weakest one. I'd recomend you try another one of her books and start at the begining with deja dead.

 

Just finished reading 'The Tao of Pooh', am dipping into 'The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson' and started to read 'Criminal Psychology and Personality Profiling'

My favourite author is Elizabeth Gaskell, she was a contmporary of Jane Austen, but whereas Austen wrote about the upper classes, Gaskell wrote about the working classes. It helps to explain why teh Trades Union Movement gained such power here.

 

I had to read Wives and Daughters for a Victorian Literature class, and I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed it! It was an excellent look at the "middle" class of the time.

I am presently reading A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham. I watched the movie amid rumors of Colin Farrell full-frontal (did not happen) but the movie, while good and thought-provoking, left a lot of questions unanswered. I'm about halfway through and am fascinated at just how pathetic a person Jonathan is, and also just how needy Bobby is. Great book so far, I highly recommend it.

 

right now I am reading Cross Bones By Kathy Reichs. It's a little bit dull. Although it is really informative on forensic anthropology. Her books are tyhe basis for the show Bones so I thought I'd read it. It's pretty good though, has a little bit of french in it, so I'm glad I took those french classes in hih school.

 

Hope I'm not breaking any rules here (please forgive me if I am), but in response to Springmoon, I like to recommend 'North and South' and 'Mary Baton' too, both by Gaskell.
'North and South' is the only book that has made me cry when reading it, there's a passage that never fails to bring tears to my eyes. It is difficult to follow when she writes in 'Darkshire' dialect, but persevere.
'Mary Barton' is partly set in Liverpool (where I used to live) and the street names still exist, so it brings back memories.
Her heroines are very strong characters, know their own minds and not afraid to challenge what were the accepted standards of the time.

 

In English class I'm reading Of Mice and Men, right now I'm towards the end but still have 2 or so chapters left which in this bokk is 20 or so pages. I'm enjoying it however I don't see how the book can really end based on how it's going so far. The basic plot is of two guys traveling ang working in California during the thirties on farms and their dream of owning their own farm. The two men are together because Lennie is dumb but strong as an ox and will work willingly and George makes sure he stays out of trouble because of a promise he made to Lennie's aunt before she died. I don't really see how the book can end because when I'm reading the book no matter how close I am to the end it still feels like the middle of the book and there's a lot more to come. Otherwise if you like reading the classics I say go for it and give it a shot.

 

I'm just finished, for fun, 'It's Kind of a Funny Story', a young adult book, so it's really meant for older teens (though I'm sort of a younger teen :lol So it's about a 15 year old names Craig who used to be happy, but after getting into an amazing high school, the homework piled up and he got 'average' grades, stopped eating and sleeping, and fell into depression. He checked himself into a psych ward after he almost kills himself, and finds that the simple, wonderful things in life bring him back full circle, and he plans to change schools, and become an artist. It's a funny, inspiring book, and it happier than it sounds. I loved it.

 

I just finished P.J.Tracy's 'Live Bait' and now I'm reading 'Monkeewrench'. I know I should have started with Monkeewrench but I don't mind. I love the books.

 

I'm totally hooked on Jilly Cooper, by the time I get to reading a book my brain's usually fried after a day with the kids. I need something that's not too heavyweight and her books suit me just fine. At the moment I'm on Pandora..cracking read.

 

At the moment I've been re-reading Harry Potter books. I'm on The Order Of The Phoenix just now. I figured, now that the film is coming out soon and the new book is out a month after that, that I should familiarise myself with them again.

 

I'm now reading Once upon a dream by Nora Roberts. It's 3 stories about Romance, one of my favorite catagories. I have a very large collection of books by Nora, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsay, etc....