This summer I’ve been reading more than ever before. I don’t know if it’s the nice deck, the weather or that I’ve been lucky to have only read books I’ve really enjoyed.
Nineteen Minutes
by Jodi Picoult: My favorite Jodi Picoult book ever. Nineteen Minutes recounts a deadly high school shooting rampage, its causes, and its aftermath. Through flashbacks, we witness the deepening alienation of teen killer Peter Houghton, the constant bullying that drove him to do what he did and the trials of high school. This book was addictive. It was long, but worth it and made me count down the minutes until bedtime so I could read more. Jodi Picoult is so great at understanding and explaining teenage emotions and telling all sides of a story (and there is always a twist!). LOVED this book. 5 out of 5 stars.
You Know When the Men Are Gone
by Siobhan Fallon: I tried to read this book while Q was deployed, but couldn’t find myself able to deal with it emotionally. I finally got into at the beginning of summer and loved and related to it more than I thought I would and could. It’s a book of short stories based around the army base at Fort Hood, Texas where soldiers are sent to war and their families are left to cope once they leave. The stories are emotional, powerful and resonated deeply with me as I think they would with anyone, not only someone dealing with deployment. The only problem I had with the book was that it ended. 5 out of 5 stars.
The Last Time I Saw You
by Elizabeth Berg: This book skewed towards an older audience since it is based around a fortieth high school reunion. I personally loved the stories of former jocks, nerds and beauty queens and my mom who read the book also really enjoyed it also. The book made me laugh out loud hearing the characters insecurities 40 years after graduating. Although a little predictable, the book was a quick, easy and fun read. 4 out of 5 stars.
So now for the giveaway. I need your help picking out some more great summer reads for me! In return for your suggestions, I am giving away a brand new bottle of Chanel Number 5 perfume. All you need to do is leave me a comment below telling me a book you LOVE and think I should read! I’ll pick a random winner at midnight PST on Tuesday, July 24th and will ship it out to you! Thanks for the help!
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You should read “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and Other Concerns)?” by Mindy Kaling. I always love alternating between serious, heart-wrenching novels and funny, quirky satires and biography. This book made me laugh out loud and is a great, light summer read.
Amazing! Adding it to my list now!Thanks Kristin xoxo
I live in Europe and you can’t ship liquids so I am out but I wanted to share my favorite books as well:
Isabel Allende- Paula + The infinite plan
Gabriel Garcia Marques -100 years of solitude
Summer reads:
Nora Ephron – I feel bad about my neck
Sophia Kinsela – The shopoholic series
Dan Brown: all, but my favorite were: angels and demons and Deception point
Cathi Hanauer:The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage
Young Adults:
The hunger games Series
Divergent
and for you ( have not read it yet)
M.F.K. Fisher- The Art of Eating
Beth Harbison -When in Doubt, Add Butter
( sorry for the long liste, but I LOVE books. Thanks for talking about books in your blog. )
Rita recently posted..Impatient
Try any of the wonderful romantic comedies from the author Jennifer Crusie!
If you are a Judy Blume fan, “Summer Sisters” is amazing and refreshingly different from her normal style…it is an easy read. Here is a synopsis of the novel:
“Summer Sisters (ISBN 0-385-32405-7) is a 1998 novel by Judy Blume. It focuses on the life of two fictional characters, the girls Victoria Leonard (Vix) and Caitlin Somers.
Because of its heavy sexual content—including lesbianism—this Blume novel is aimed squarely at an adult audience, not her pre-teen audience for which she gained popularity.”
- Wiki
speaking of comedians- tina fey’s “bossy pants” was AMAZING. so funny. i just started “white girl problems” which is loosely based off her twitter account i think or something like that?
if you haven’t already read pioneer women’s book, i loved it.
and you should help me out, on my kindle i also have: “Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected–A Memoir,” by kelly hampton, and “beautiful people” by simon doonan both which i picked from reviews
Last summer I read “The Secret Daughter” by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. It is about a young Indian couple who have a daughter, but sons are preferred, so they give their first born up for adaption. The story follows the couple, and the daughter in the US.
I also ready “Nineteen Minutes” and as a teacher, I found it difficult at times to read, just because I kept doing the what-ifs.
Thanks for sharing your reads! I will be looking for “You Know When the Men are Gone”.
Ainsley recently posted..Ten on Tuesday…
So, a book I adore is “The Nanny Diaries” by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. I know it was made into a movie a few years back with Scarlet Johansson, but the movie doesn’t do the book justice. It is kind of a light read, but really an interesting story of how this girl from NYU becomes a nanny for this well-off family of a four-year-old boy, but gets way more involved with the husband and wife when their marriage begins to unravel – I loved it! And I also love your blog by the way!!
Books I LOVE LOVE LOVE:
Snowflower and The Secret fan by Lisa See
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
I am in a book club with some girlfriends and a few of the good books we have read include:
*Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
*Make the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
*The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
*The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
*A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan
*The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
Thanks for your suggestions – it’s my turn to pick our next book!
No one is here except all of us by Ramona ausubel
The two books I read recently and loved where, Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks and The Bungalow by Sarah Jio. You wont be disappointed!
How about Gone Girl?
Jess recently posted..Day 1.185
And I agree with the above poster Jennifer weiner’s THE NEXT BIG THING
Jess recently posted..Day 1.185
I read a book recently called An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff. It was a smaller book but it had a massive impact on me. It’s about an 11 yr old panhandler and a 40 something yr old business woman. She walks past him, he asks for money, she says no but then for some reason changes her mind, and decides to take him out to lunch at McDonalds instead, and then both of their lives change forever. It’s a really good read. What’s even better is that it’s based on a true story. I read this in two days and cried through a lot of it. Then about a month later I was watching the Rachel Ray show and she had both the little boy (now a man), and the business woman on her show and I cried again. This book touched me so much and I truly think that you will enjoy it.
P.S. Thanks for you list. Gonna add them to my ever growing list of books to read
A Walk to Remember- Nicholas Sparks
Love A Tree Grows in Brooklyn…classic.
You have to read Unbroken–it is amazing! It’s the true story of a track star who is deployed to Hawaii in WWII, and his experience there and overseas. And the guy who it is about is still alive. Just amazing.
Little Bee
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Cutting for Stone
so far this summer i’ve absolutely loved ‘maine’ by j. courtney sullivan and ‘the song remains the same’ by allison winn scotch. just finished ‘the unfinished work of elizabeth d.’ and could not put it down. now just waiting for jennifer weiner’s new one (‘the next best thing’) and emily giffin’s too (‘where we below’).
Robyn recently posted..Corn & Basil Tart
The Next Best Thing!!
Hmmm. I loe Tracie Peterson and Francine Rivers. But you should check out amazon for their free books for your kindle (or iphone app). Just click the top 100 free, and you will find tons. My aunt (Susy Flory) wrote Thunder Dog about a blind man who escaped the 72nd tower of the World Trade center with his guide dog. I read it last summer. So good!
The next best thing by Jennifer Weiner
I just bought Gone Girl and can’t wait to read it! I also love all of the Dan Brown books and really liked The Forgotten Garden which was on the NY Times Best Seller list.
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