[MysteryRobin Posts: 688 Status: Offline]

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

[ChristineSarmel Posts: 228 Status: Offline WWW]

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.

[Barbara Etlin Posts: 2,257 Status: Offline WWW]

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

[Shannywriter Posts: 507 Status: Offline Believe in yourself and never give up WWW]

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 Posts: 389 Status: Offline]

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 Posts: 507 Status: Offline Believe in yourself and never give up WWW]

Now reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor 

[Shannywriter Posts: 507 Status: Offline Believe in yourself and never give up WWW]

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 Posts: 239 Status: Offline People talk in my head. Sometimes I listen.]

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 Posts: 60 Status: Offline WWW]

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 Posts: 2,099 Status: Offline Wishin' and hopin']

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.

[ChristinefromCorona Posts: 806 Status: Offline]

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 Posts: 159 Status: Offline WWW]

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.

[ChristineSarmel Posts: 228 Status: Offline WWW]

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 Posts: 257 Status: Offline WWW]

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

[G.R. Posts: 633 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

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 Posts: 997 Status: Offline Gah! WWW]

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 Posts: 1,316 Status: Offline Who you gonna call? EMERGENCY KITTENS! WWW]

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

[Debby G Posts: 557 Status: Offline WWW]

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.

[Ruth Donnelly Posts: 659 Status: Offline WWW]

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 Posts: 159 Status: Offline]

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.

[Ruth Donnelly Posts: 659 Status: Offline WWW]

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 Posts: 144 Status: Offline writing outdoor adventures WWW]

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. Posts: 633 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

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.

[ChristineSarmel Posts: 228 Status: Offline WWW]

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 Posts: 580 Status: Offline]

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 Posts: 88 Status: Offline]

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 Posts: 596 Status: Offline]

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

[Shannywriter Posts: 507 Status: Offline Believe in yourself and never give up WWW]

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

Now reading Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

[olmue Posts: 3,528 Status: Offline WWW]

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 Posts: 28 Status: Offline WWW]

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!