[Mamacita]

I confess...I'm a bookaholic and so is dh. One of our local malls (the one where we walk) has a "Friends of the Public Library" bookstore. It's only open on Thursdays. You can get recent release hardcovers for $3, older hardcovers for $2 and most paperbacks are $.25. Hard to beat those prices! My TBR (To be read) books, if stacked, would be taller than my 5'-2".

I'm currently reading Sweet Poison, by David Roberts and a cute "Chick-Lit" book called Be My Baby Tonight by Kasey Michaels. Who says I can't multi-task??

Tonight I picked up an older title called "The Soul of Sex". It's non-fiction and discusses the spiritual aspects of sexuality and the bond between lovers. Since I'm a writer, I'm always looking for material to help me create characters that are 3 dimensional.

Favorite authors include Haywood Smith and Anne Perry.

Happy Reading, Chicks~~

Mamacita

[cottagebythesea]

I love to look for books at yard sales, and can usually get them for a fraction of what they'd sell for in the stores. My favorite authors are:
Luanne Rice
Barbara Delinsky
Nora Roberts
Rosamunde Pilcher
Mauve Binchy
I often read two books at a time, too. Right now I'm reading the "Key Trilogy" by NOra Roberts. There's nothing like curling up with a good read!

[kahnfv]

I am a bookaholic also. Right now I am reading bodybuilding and exercise books. I love cookbooks and have to keep telling myself "You don't need another cookbook."

Our Friends of the Public Library only has a book sale once a year, but we have a Half-Price books store in our area. When I homeschooled I could spend tons of money and time in the bookstores.

[fuzzy324]

For a while around March, I was on a kick where I had to be reading something every time I rode the exercise bike, and I read a TON in not too long a time. It started with my boss lending me Memoirs of a Geisha, and after that I was insatiable.

Moved on to:
Passing for Thin (Frances Kuffel)
The Gilded Chamber (Rebecca Kohn - racy retelling of the Queen Esther story)
The Kitchen Boy (Robert Alexander - historical fiction about the Romanovs)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
Wicked (Gregory Maguire).

I am currently plugging away at Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister also by Gregory Maguire, though, I'm not liking it as well as Wicked. I am looking forward to my yearly vacation mystery from Harlen Coben. He seems to release one every year round about time for me to go camping; this year it's called Just One Look. Tracy Chevalier is another favorite author of mine, though, her last book The Lady and the Unicorn was not one of her best IMHO.

M'kay, that's all I can think of for now. Looking forward to your recommendations ladies!

[ellis]

oooooh, I love Anne Perry, Mamacita!

I've just finished reading The Small Back Room, by Nigel Balchin.
And I'm currently reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey), How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me, by Susan Rose Blauner, and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, by whatshername...
And there are at least four more books beside my bed that I'm reading, but I'm damned if I can remember what they are right now...

I'd recommend all of them, although Ken Kesey's is not as fascinating a read as I'd hoped.

[Mamacita]

You Canadians...do you get any books by Coronet publishers up there? There's one young author that I really got into when we were in UK, but she's not published here in the states....her name is Chris Manby.

If you do have access to her books, and you'd be interested in doing a book swap, let me know!

Mamacita

[ellis]

Damn! Mamacita, I DID call you Laurie! I'm so sorry... I don't know what I was thinking!
Chris Manby... I'll take a look around and see what I can find...

[justjodi]

i have 3 going at the moment my weekend camping read is Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (almost done), for my commute to work i am currently listening to The Coffin Dancer by Jeffrey Deaver- a hit man murder mystery. i am most consumed at the moment though by Dan Brown Angels and Demons really good page turner.

if you want a light romancey summer read i suggest Summer In Tuscany by Elizabeth Adler.

[pebbles396]

I just got the new David SEdaris. His book Me Talk pretty one day, and the Christmas stories book is Fantastic!!!

I'm reading some book about Bees but I can't remember the title.

My favorite.
Wally Lamb's - the one about twin brothers, not She's come undone.
Shop Girl by Steve Martin (It's like 125 pages and very very good)

[ellis]

I love David Sedaris... he is such a hoot!

[beachgal]

What a great thread topic! Thanks, Mamacita!

I like David Sedaris as well. His Me Talk Pretty One Day is wonderful, but even better when you listen to him read his pieces live. My SIL gave us a CD copy of him reading the book aloud, some essays in live concerts, and it is fantastic!!! I recently read Naked, but it dissapointed me. It was interesting, witty, amusing, but not LOL funny like Me Talk Pretty is. I would love to read his other book, which title I am forgetting...

Pebbles, are you reading The Secret Life of Bees? I'm about to start that one, so let me know what you think if that's the one you are reading...

I actually liked The Lady and The Unicorn, Fuzzy...what about it did not impress you? I also liked Confessions..., maybe we have different tastes? I have not read Wicked, yet, though. There's another one that Maguire wrote in the same vein, I think, and that was also good.

I loved reading all your suggestions, and have logged them into my new "To Read" list...I'm having trouble keeping them all in my head and thought I would write them down.

I'm a total bookworm and devour books like crazy...so I have a huge list of favorites and ones I have enjoyed. Here are some I've recently read and some favorites:

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (awsome historical fiction about a female pope in the ninth century)

The Giver by Lois Lowry (written for young adults/children, but is so worthwhile to read as an adult. About a utopian society and what they gave up to get to that point)

any book by Sarah Waters (my favorite is Tipping the Velvet, a story about a lesbian in Victorian England...these are sexually explicit...just a caution. The writing is superb, though...she had me crying at many points, and I'm straight!)

Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer (I love all her books, but this one made me sob and sob for the amazing love the two characters had for each other. Light, but with unseen depths)

Transformation Soup: Healing for the Splendidly Imperfect by SARK (her books are MAGICAL! If you haven't read SARK, you totally should...she makes me feel so much better about who I am and gives me courage to keep going!)

All mysteries by Dorothy Cannell (she is hilarious...and happens to have a heroine who is a fat chick!)

mysteries by Edward Marston (set in Renaissance England, involving a group of "players" who put on plays at a pub in London)

mysteries by Sue Grafton (the Alphabet mysteries...great sleuth character, set in CA, very well written, funny and engaging)

Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (a comment on the book jacket called her the 'Jane Austin of our day' and he was totally right!)

the Mitford series by Jan Karon (very faith-enhancing, sweet, and funny)

If you are thinking about pregnancy, as I am, you'll find Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent fascinating.

Sir John Fielding mysteries by Bruce Alexander (mysteries set in London during the advent of the Bow Street Runners...historical detail is very interesting)

Okay, I think that's enough for now, eh?

[fuzzy324]

Hi, beachgal--

To clarify, I like Tracy Chevalier's thing with creating stories around art. Loved Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Virgin Blue. The Lady and the Unicorn, while certainly a compelling story (a good page turner), just rubbed me the wrong way. The only character I really liked in it was the blind daughter. The rest of them just seemed plain unlikeable.

I think that is my gripe with Confessions so far, too. I want to have empathy for the characters and the only one I can seem to feel for is Iris. Plus, it feels like forever until Mr. Maguire wants to get to the point. Feels like it's dragging, but I'm still trying.