Thursday, July 10, 2008

List Friday: Summer Reading!



Yay! Yay! It's List Friday! My friend Loretta over at PomegranatesandPaper has resumed one of my favorite bloggerly traditions, "List Friday!" And c'mon, who doesn't love a good list?!

This week, the topic is one that is dear to my heart: "Summer Reading." (Followed closely by fall reading, spring reading, and cozy winter reading...) Summer is all about reading for me, ever since I was a child and our summer vacation was punctuated by trips to the library ever two weeks to get new stacks of books to fill our voracious little minds. Now, I'm at the library every week or two, filling my library basket with a new assortment of novels to take me away and entertain me.

I'll tell you what I've been reading (and what I'm about to read) in a second...but what are YOU reading? What's on your nightstand? What book have you read lately that you just loved? What book will be the first one in your duffel bag when you head to the beach? Give me your suggestions in the comments or use a comment to link to your blog. I'm always happy to find new suggestions for future reading....

Okay... first, what I've read lately that I've really liked:

The President's Assassin by Brian Haig (he's the son of Alexander Haig, and he writes political thrillers with a sarcastic funny hero and lots of plot twists)

Magic Time by Doug Marlette (a guy who grew up in Mississippi in the 60's goes home and the effects of the civil rights turmoil are leaking into present day, where learns things about friends and family that shock him...)

Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler (an intriguing and unusual mystery involving a writer who makes a miniature dollhouse featuring a murder scene for each mystery she writes, and her granddaughter who is sorting out which mysteries tell real family stories and which are fiction...)

Footprints in the Sand by Sarah Challis (Two cousins travel to Africa to scatter their grandmother's ashes, and don't know why she wanted them to go there...)

And here's what's ahead on the summer reading list:

Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (I LOVED LOVED LOVED her first novel, Garden Spells)

If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

Palace Council by Stephen L. Carter

The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline

I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley (just the title alone makes me want to read it)

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and other small acts of liberation by Elizabeth Berg

5 comments :

  1. Oh, Diane! My favorite thing: lists of books you've liked or plan to read!

    Just returned from our California place and visited Borders on the way out of town. Here's what I picked up, now on the To Read List:

    Divisadero, by Michael Ondaatje
    Maytrees, by Annie Dillard
    Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson
    Heat, by Bill Buford

    My MIL has just passed along The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles, by Elizabeth Stead, which she says is just wonderful.

    And I still have in my stack The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Satterfield.

    Of course, it's Winter Reading Down Under...cold, windy and good weather to snuggle up...when you're not quilting or knitting!

    As for what I've just finished:
    The Omega Scroll, by Adrian d'Hage. A fun read, but a blatant rip-off of The DaVinci Code.

    Thanks for posting your list. You are an Enabler Par Excellence!

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  2. I'm almost done with Wicked. Next is The Tattooed Map and maybe Quilty As Charged. And then there is the pile of magazines...

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  3. Diane, I just finished Between,Georgia and gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson who also has a funny blog site at http://joshilynjackson.com/mt/ and I'm going to Laguna this weekend and bringing a non-fiction Rome 1960 by David Maraness about the Olympics.

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  4. I have just received my amazon order for my coming up soon holiday but I didn't know Elizabthe Berg had a new one... haev to go and add that now!
    Pile so far:
    Baker Tower - Jennifer Haigh ( becuas eher Mrs Kimble was great)

    The Girl who stopped swimming - Joshilyn Jackson because the otehr two as mentioned above were also great but it turtm sout thsi one is also about an art quilter and in fact the art quilter on whom it was based has since made a quilt based on the novel.
    Anne Tyler - CelestialNavigation, the Clock Winder, The Tin Can Tree - because I genuinely thought I had baought all her book sin one go some yeasra go and worked my way through them. Had a lovely surprise recebtly to find I had only bought half of them and I still had some to go!

    Three cups of tea - Greg Mortenson - I was seduced by the Amazon review and
    Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali because it relates to my interest in Muslim women and she is from Holland which is wheer I paln to read it.

    I will be checking out your recoomendations now too!

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  5. I just finished Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah. It will make you wish you had a best friend relationship like Kate and Tully did. I thought of your friend Carol, and your long relationship with her when I read your Wednesday blog entry. Kate and Tully are young girls when they meet, and the book spans their life growing up. Wonderful book! The book is on Amazon for 16.29, but you can download to your Kindle for 9.99. I just recently received an Amazon Kindle, and I'm having a wonderful time shopping for new Kindle editions. Glad to see your list Diane! I'm checking them out. Happy summer reading--with just a bit of quilting thrown in!

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