[Betsy Posts: 2,505 Status: Offline PICKY EATERS WWW]

Thanks so much for the detailed review, hair. I appreciate it. Maybe you can report back when you've finished both.

[terrylynn Posts: 163 Status: Offline writing outdoor adventures WWW]

I haven't been here in a while! Catching up on all these great reads. My list:

The One and Only Ivan - I'm probably the last person in the world to read this (I tend to stay away from books with animals in cages. My heart can't take it) but I ADORED this book.

The Assassin's Curse - really loved this strong female character. Irreverent and funny

Pivot Point - pretty brilliant plotting! I was compelled to read it in one day. Loved it. Now I'm reading Kasie West's other book The Distance Between Us and enjoying more of the same hilarious dialogue. She has a way with spunky banter.

[Betsy Posts: 2,505 Status: Offline PICKY EATERS WWW]

Thanks for the suggestions, TL. I agree about IVAN--I loved the book.

[JonathanMaberry Posts: 49 Status: Offline Knowledge is power. Read. Become Powerful. WWW]

Picked up PERSEPOLIS. Never read it before and wow is it powerful!

[ChristineSarmel Posts: 252 Status: Offline WWW]

Spending the last days of my summer vacation reading. I'm really enjoying The Curiosity by Kiernan. It's the story of an Arctic researcher who's in charge of "reanimating" cells she finds in the ice. Then she finds a man.

It's great as a reader, but also interesting as a writer. Each chapter is in a different person's POV, including one of who refers to himself in the second person, but the story moves seamlessly from one voice to the next.

[Darlene D Posts: 27 Status: Offline]

I'm reading the Fablehaven series to my kids.  It's a "Just one more chapter!  Or a couple of pages!  Okay, one more page, please Mom!" kind of series.

[Debby G Posts: 648 Status: Offline WWW]

I LOVED Where'd You Go, Bernadette!

I'm reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, which I love. It's a story set in the weird future and involves politicians, AA members, filmmakers, and kids at a tennis academy, among other characters. It's hilarious and brilliant. But it's also really, really, really long. I started it in June and hope to finish in October.

[rab Posts: 689 Status: Offline WWW]

Betsy and Olmue---I loved both Journey to the River Sea and The Star of Kazan. Like Olmue said, pretty perfect MG books. I was sucked completely in and loved that justice was served.

I am listening to Moon Over Manifest (I know, I know, I shoulda read it long ago). Really enjoying it so far (my taste doesn't always match the Newbery Committee's).

[janellerbw Posts: 1 Status: Offline WWW]

DebbyG -- I love Infinite Jest! My husband and I have both read it, and it's a book we tend to reference now and then in our lives because it's so all-encompassing!

Currently reading Sara Zarr's THE LUCY VARIATIONS. Last adult fic I read this summer was THE MARRIAGE PLOT, which I adored.

[J-Bert Posts: 293 Status: Offline WWW]

I just finished GIRL, STOLEN by April Henry. Very well done and fast-paced YA thriller. Reminiscent of the Lois Duncan thrillers I loved as a teen. I think I may be going on an April Henry reading binge now. . .

[KatyD Posts: 904 Status: Offline www.katyduffield.com WWW]

Debbie G, I read ME BEFORE YOU on my trip. <sniff!>

I also recently finished DEFENDING JACOB. Not really my cup of tea.

Now, at long last, I'm reading THE POISONWOOD BIBLE. I'm only 100 or so pages in, but I'm really enjoying it.

[jhb Posts: 13 Status: Offline]

Rereading and re-loving Nancy Farmer’s THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION before the release of the sequel, THE LORD OF OPIUM, on September 3.

I made a must-read list from this thread the other day and went in search of a few titles. If anyone’s interested in A MONSTER CALLS, which was highly recommended by a number of people, the Kindle edition is just under $2 and a short story by the same author is free on Amazon.

[G.R. Posts: 637 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

This week, I've been reading In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson. As he tells the story of William E. Dodd, the US Ambassador to Germany from 1933-37, Larson does an excellent job of evoking what the time and place must have been like -- from the excitement and beauty to the growing uncertainty and brutality -- for outsiders such as Dodd, his wife and their two adult children (especially flirtatious daughter Martha) who literally had no idea that the Holocaust was coming.

[Betsy Posts: 2,505 Status: Offline PICKY EATERS WWW]

Olmue--thanks so much for recommending THE STAR OF KAZAN. I wasn't going to start it until I'd finished everything else, but then I read a few pages and couldn't put it down.

I thought it was really well-written and well-plotted (although I guessed, when the old lady first described the jewels, how that was going to turn out).

I had a few reservations when you said that everyone got justice in the end. And they did--but it was gentle, appropriate justice.

Thanks again.

[Monica Rondino Posts: 115 Status: Offline I love kids' books! WWW]

I begun in these days "Under Wildwood.The Wildwood Chronicles. Book 2" by Colin Meloy with the lovely illustrations by Carson Ellis. Loved the first one and hope this will be as good as the first one

[olmue Posts: 4,261 Status: Offline WWW]

I'm glad you liked it, Betsy! And I think you'd especially like Journey to the River Sea, what with your science interests. MG justice doesn't have to be over the top--but a little cosmic justice goes a long way.

[LindaJoy Posts: 426 Status: Offline Linda Joy Singleton author of SNOW DOG, SAND DOG WWW]

I just finished reading THE CUCKOO'S CALLING by J.K. Rowling and it was a great private eye mystery (adults). There is no magic in this book--except the magic of a masterful storyteller. Bravo, JK!

[olmue Posts: 4,261 Status: Offline WWW]

I just finished HEAVEN IS PAVED WITH OREOS, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock--a MG in the same world as DJ Schwenk (DJ's brother Curtis's friend Sarah is the MC.) Also Natalie Lorenzi's FLYING the DRAGON (finally!). I thought she really nailed the cultural differences and just how it feels to be uprooted and plonked in a new culture. It's not the big things, it's the small ones that unnerve and discomfort you...

Currently reading GHOSTS WHO WENT TO SCHOOL by Judith Spearing to my kids. It's a gentle, humorous, somewhat episodic MG from 1966 (thank you, Scholastic Book Clubs!) about a couple of ghosts who are brothers. It goes well with the slightly spooky 1880 house we just moved into...

And can I just say that I'm glad there are so many different books? Sometimes when you're going through something hard, you need that serious book that validates your experience, or gives you suggestions for a way out. But sometimes when you've been shouldering a lot of stress for a long time, you really do need something that is completely unserious. Unrealistic, even! That will give you a break. Which is why I picked up VOSS by David Ives to reread. Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky (Voss for short) sneaks off somewhat illegally to American from his native Slobovia along with his father and uncle and some illegal "chizz poffs" (cheese puffs). Then they run into the REAL bad guys, Mafiaeque Bilius Opchuck and his criminals, and have to outwit them. It's full of crime and satire and funny. Just what I need after a highly stressful move!

[andracill Posts: 6,694 Status: Offline Worlds within...screaming to get out! WWW]

I just finished SAPPHIRE BLUE, by Kerstin Gier.  Now I have to wait until October for the finale -- ahhhh!

[Betsy Posts: 2,505 Status: Offline PICKY EATERS WWW]

Sorry about the stress, Olmue. I know what you mean.

[Monica Rondino Posts: 115 Status: Offline I love kids' books! WWW]

Finished to read "Under Wildwood.The Wildwood Chronicles." Book 2 Liked very much even if I'll have to wait the next one to know the end And yestarday I begun "Niceville" by Carsten Stroud .Read the first pages and it sounds interesting

[RaeE Posts: 179 Status: Offline]

I'm reading THE OTHER TYPIST, and I'm not as in love with it as I thought I would be. I just finished rereading CODE NAME VERITY, though, and it might be suffering from Not-Code-Name-Verity Syndrome. Some books need a proper mourning period before jumping into anything else.

[J-Bert Posts: 293 Status: Offline WWW]

I recently finished THE WITCH'S GUIDE TO COOKING CHILDREN, a middle grade modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel. It was excellent! I think there might be a sequel which I'll have to look up. Currently reading THE CUCKOO'S CALLING by J. K. Rowling. I'm really enjoying it--this is the book I'd hoped would follow HARRY POTTER, not CASUAL VACANCY. But I wish Rowling hadn't been outed as the author. I can't help but think of her as I read, and I don't think I'd be distracted if I thought the author was Robert Galbraith. The flip side of that, of course, is that I doubt I would have picked this up so quickly if I hadn't known it was Rowling. I do wonder why she chose to use a pen name with this one rather than CASUAL VACANCY.

[writerhoo Posts: 54 Status: Offline]

Just finished The Cuckoo's Calling and I agree that knowing that it was JK Rowling was a little distracting. Wow, can she wield some, er, colorful and non-child-friendly language .

[smichel]

I recently read Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell. Great book featuring a a quirky guy and girl. I don't read a whole lot of contemporary fiction but I did enjoy this one. I also read Belle Epoque, by Elizabeth Ross, a work of historical fiction set in France during the late 1800s. Very nicely done.

[terrylynn Posts: 163 Status: Offline writing outdoor adventures WWW]

I'm reading THE OTHER TYPIST, and I'm not as in love with it as I thought I would be. I just finished rereading CODE NAME VERITY, though, and it might be suffering from Not-Code-Name-Verity Syndrome. Some books need a proper mourning period before jumping into anything else.

I felt the same way after reading that book!

[terrylynn Posts: 163 Status: Offline writing outdoor adventures WWW]

ICEFALL by Matthew Kirby - staggeringly good. Such writing! Loved every part of it. I immediately bought all of his other books.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S King - another excellent novel by this author. Love her brand of quirky.

Thanks for all the rec's everyone. Just pumped up my e-reader.

[olmue Posts: 4,261 Status: Offline WWW]

A CORNER OF WHITE, by Jaclyn Moriarty. It took a while to get into this, even though I like the premise--two teens writing notes through a crack between parallel worlds. Moriarty's writing is a bit fragmented, throwing you in and letting you make up and figure out the world as you go along. It's a bit like the card game Mao, if you've every played that. But by the end, I really liked it, and I'm bummed that I discovered it only just after its publication, because I'd love to read the next one right now!

[Monica Rondino Posts: 115 Status: Offline I love kids' books! WWW]

Finished to read "Niceville", when I begun it I thought it was a kind of horror story but then everything changed and it became a crime story.Not very happy about this but once eliminated the horror idea I found it nice.
Now I'm reading "Alterra" by Maxime Chattam,hope it will be better

[LindaB Posts: 338 Status: Offline I want to write!]

I just finished two books that are terrific for middle grade readers. Rump, by Liesl Shurtliff has a great voice. Its a fast, fun read! The second book, The Colossus Rises, is the first book in the Seven Wonders series by Peter Lerangis. It a good adventure book that both boys and girls will enjoy. I highly recommend both.