Author Topic: Re: Whatcha reading? (Read 8791 times)

MysteryRobin · « **Reply #180 on:** July 15, 2012, 06:43 PM »

Just started Jonathan Stroud's Heroes of the Valley - a viking quest sort of book, and also hilarious. Loving it so far.

christine · « **Reply #181 on:** July 15, 2012, 08:30 PM »

Just finished THE LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK - historical fiction set in Little Rock, 1958 about a shy (nearly to the point of being mute) white girl who meets a new friend at school, only to face the loss of the friendship when the girl is expelled for being African-American. It's very, very good.

Owl · « **Reply #182 on:** July 16, 2012, 11:24 AM »

Yesterday I finally read Roald Dahl's THE WITCHES. Fun!

Shannywriter · « **Reply #183 on:** July 17, 2012, 02:53 PM »

Just finished Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler (loved it) and now reading A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. Picked it up used at the little bookstore by where we are camping and the MC is 16 but I'm not sure if its YA.

jodyjl · « **Reply #184 on:** July 22, 2012, 12:17 AM »

Finished A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness yesterday. Wow. Stunning and brilliant execution of a familiar topic.

A full box of tissues is needed for this book.

Shannywriter · « **Reply #185 on:** July 22, 2012, 07:09 PM »

Now reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Shannywriter · « **Reply #186 on:** July 22, 2012, 07:13 PM »

Quote from: Shannywriter on July 17, 2012, 02:53 PM

Just finished Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler (loved it) and now reading A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. Picked it up used at the little bookstore by where we are camping and the MC is 16 but I'm not sure if its YA.

Wow, loved A Northern Light--it was a little old, 2002 I think, and I was annoyed to have to pay $6 for a used paperback (which if it didn't have drink stains and writing in it would've cost me $10) but it was worth every penny. I think it was YA--earned a Printz award? Isn't that YA only?

J.Ro · « **Reply #187 on:** July 22, 2012, 09:00 PM »

Just finished PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ by A.S. King - I loved it! I also loved DUST OF 100 DOGS, Need to get Everybody Sees the Ants now.

Tabitha · « **Reply #188 on:** July 23, 2012, 10:01 AM »

Quote from: Shannywriter on July 22, 2012, 07:09 PM

Now reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

LOVE this book. I can't wait for the next book to come out this November.

I just finished UNLEASHED by Nancy Holder and picked up DARK EDEN by Patrick Carman.

Tabitha

writermom · « **Reply #189 on:** July 23, 2012, 10:06 AM »

In the last week I've read Wonder, The One and Only Ivan and Middle School: The worst Years of My Life. I will probably read Wonder again a few more times before I have to take it back to the library.

yarnspinner · « **Reply #190 on:** July 24, 2012, 12:05 AM »

Just read Tara Altebrando's THE BEST NIGHT OF YOUR (PATHETIC) LIFE. Fast-paced and funny. Now reading an ARC of WHO I KISSED by Janet Gurtler.

tulipwars · « **Reply #191 on:** July 24, 2012, 09:30 AM »

Quote from: olmue on June 29, 2012, 10:55 PM

I just finished WITCHLANDERS, by our own Lena Coakley. So lovely! I'm glad to see that straight fantasy seems to be making somewhat of a comeback.

Meep! So glad you enjoyed it!

I'm reading the utterly enchanting Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, which got a Newbery Honor a few years back.

christine · « **Reply #192 on:** July 24, 2012, 11:18 AM »

Three cheers for HORTON'S MIRACULOUS MECHANISMS - MG story about a boy searching for the belongings of his great-uncle, a magician who mysteriously disappeared leaving behind stories of a secret warehouse filled with magician tricks.

J-Bert · « **Reply #193 on:** July 24, 2012, 02:03 PM »

I just finished 11 BIRTHDAYS by Wendy Mass (great!) and am now onto THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY.

G.R. · « **Reply #194 on:** July 24, 2012, 04:13 PM »

I just finished Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man -- excellent story collection. For all the out-there fantasy and sci-fi elements in his tales, he keeps them grounded in recognizably human emotions. Poignant (and occasionally funny) stuff.

Franzilla · « **Reply #195 on:** August 02, 2012, 03:47 PM »

Quote from: jodyjl on June 27, 2012, 03:48 PM

Just finished our own Amber Turner's SWAY...a lovely, quirky, touching middle grade novel with a very fine voice.

I highly recommend.

Congratulations, Amber, on a terrific first novel.

Just reading this now and I'm wowed. So many lines are just too wonderful. It's the kind of book I want to take notes on while I'm reading but I'm enjoying it too much to stop and put pen to paper!

JodyJS · « **Reply #196 on:** August 02, 2012, 10:23 PM »

Just finished reading POND SCUM by Alan Silberberg. Funny and fun!

Debby G · « **Reply #197 on:** August 03, 2012, 08:48 AM »

I just finished the recent bio J.D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski. I'm a huge Catcher in the Rye fan and have read two other nonfiction books on Salinger. This was by far the best. Really fascinating account of how much (a lot) his stories and novels came from his own life, the many rejections he got for his stories and books (including Catcher in the Rye), his horrifying experiences fighting in WWII (only about 20 percent of his platoon lived through the war), his relationships with his editors, Hemingway, and other publishing people, etc. Highly recommended for Salinger fans.

RuthD · « **Reply #198 on:** August 03, 2012, 10:03 AM »

Reading grownup stuff now...
1) Room for my book group (not as depressing as you might imagine)
2) Imagine by Jonah Lehrer (fake Dylan quotes, and all)

When I finish these, I get to start Lynne Jonell's latest, Emmy and the Rats in the Belfry!

Lwrites · « **Reply #199 on:** August 03, 2012, 05:27 PM »

THIS IS NOT A TEST by Courtney Summers. Amazing. It was what I'd hoped it would be, and then more.
Next up, GRAVE MERCY by Robin Lafevers.

RuthD · « **Reply #200 on:** August 03, 2012, 08:19 PM »

AnneB - I know, right? Very disappointing. Still, the information on creativity is fascinating, and as far as I know he hasn't been accused of making that up. FWIW, I'm reading a library copy.

terrylynn · « **Reply #201 on:** August 05, 2012, 02:24 PM »

Quote from: J.Ro on July 22, 2012, 09:00 PM

Just finished PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ by A.S. King - I loved it! I also loved DUST OF 100 DOGS, Need to get Everybody Sees the Ants now.

I read those in that order as well! Loved DUST!! And really enjoyed Vera Dietz. I'm still working my way to Ants. I do love her writing!

Just finished a memoir about training search and rescue dogs. Outstanding
Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson

also finished
The Assassin and the Empire, the last of the Throne of Glass novellas. Anyone else read this? Thoughts? I adored the first three. This one was ...

now started
Mirage by Kristi Cook
Endlessly by Kiersten White

G.R. · « **Reply #202 on:** August 05, 2012, 05:36 PM »

John Grisham, Calico Joe

I got this one read last week... I get the sense that Grisham was trying for something on the order of W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe -- which also drew from history to deal with baseball and a father-son relationship (Kinsella's book, the basis for the movie Field of Dreams, made reference to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, while Grisham's central premise was inspired by the pitch that killed the Cleveland Indians' Ray Chapman) -- but instead of magical realism he aims for a more hard-edged family drama. Compared with Grisham's two football-themed books, I found his first baseball story far more interesting and relatively more touching than the plodding Bleachers, if not quite as entertaining as the humorous Playing for Pizza.

christine · « **Reply #203 on:** August 06, 2012, 01:09 PM »

Just started THE SECRET TREE by Natalie Standiford. Mystery, roller derby, town legends and the changing friendship of soon-to-be-middle school girls...

JFriday · « **Reply #204 on:** August 06, 2012, 01:21 PM »

Just finished So B. It by Sarah Weeks. Before that, it was The Truth About Forever (Sarah Dessen), Igraine the Brave (Cornelia Funke), and The Ogre of Oglefort (Eva Ibbotson), which was really fun. And I re-found a book from my youth, Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle and Other Modern Verse, which I first got from Scholastic Book Club when I was younger. Nice find. I love poking around in used book stores.

elisa · « **Reply #205 on:** August 06, 2012, 11:02 PM »

I can't recommend highly enough "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller. It's an Iliad retelling that is being sold as literary fiction but it feels like YA. Told from the perspective of Patroclus, Achilles' lover, it's a riveting love story and written beautifully. . . The author has bachelor's and a master's degree in ancient Greek and Roman languages - so she knows her stuff.

Raynbow Gignilliat · « **Reply #206 on:** August 07, 2012, 06:35 AM »

I finished Daughter of Smoke and Bone a few days ago and am still thinking about it. Probably loved the setting the most.

Shannywriter · « **Reply #207 on:** August 07, 2012, 11:26 AM »

Raynbow, I just finished that book a few days ago too!

Now reading Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

olmue · « **Reply #208 on:** August 07, 2012, 11:57 AM »

I'm visiting family with an excellent library and bookstore (not to mention my librarian SIL's stack of ARCs she brought over). I've read A Long Way from Chicago (a reread, but I'd forgotten everything that happened, so it was like new again), Meet At the Ark at Eight by Ulrich Hub (ARC, funny in places, but I'm not sure I got the point), Princess Academy: Palace of Stone (ARC, Shannon Hale--awesome), Son, Lois Lowry (last of the Giver series--I wish I'd read the other three more recently, because it concludes the series, but isn't completely stand-alone), Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan, RA Spratt (funny and random; second in a series), and Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel (graphic novel that's been out a while). I'm in the middle of Sway, by our very own Amber Turner, and loving it so far. And there's still a stack! I love where I live (rural area of Idaho near Yellowstone), but we are rather thin on books out there, and I'm realizing now that I've been STARVING for books. The whole family is basically spending every moment reading. My inlaws must think we're crazy. (They like reading, too, but they usually go at it in a more relaxed sort of way, lol.)

Laura L. Sullivan · « **Reply #209 on:** August 07, 2012, 02:26 PM »

I just read CODE NAME VERITY --- wow. Now I'm reading GOOSE CHASE, an older book by Patrice Kindl (because I couldn't get my hands on Keeping the Castle) and I'm loving it. I've also started the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which I was really reluctant to try because if I liked it that would mean a, what, million-word commitment when I'm supposed to be writing. Well, I like it, so I'm stuck, darn it!

News:

Author Topic: Re: Whatcha reading? (Read 8791 times)