Summer reading
 

I am getting ready to go relax on vacation and need some good reading material.

what's everyone reading this summer?
i just finished beach girls by luanne Rice

"The Orchid Theif" by Susan Orlean

Monkeewrench by P.J. Tracy (mystery)

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik (humor)

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

Nighttime is my Time by Mary Higgins Clark (mystery)

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (he has a new one out too I think)(love story)

Any of Jodi Picoult's books. (mystery)

What kind of books do you like?

Can't wait to see other suggestions.

I just finished Peter Mayles charming book, A Good Year . Also Ann Rivers Siddons novel Islands ..will now start The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time ..by Mark Hadden.

I really enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time...very good read.
I really enjoyed Dan Brown's books...Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.
Pope Joan is good too. I don't remember the author though. It is a novel based on a legend of a female Pope...very interesting.
What kind of books/genres do you enjoy?

Unsure of you interests but ... just finished "Fluke" by Christopher Moore.A mystery/love story, a bit of sci/fi thats absurb, funny, crazy, bizarre about whale researchers in Hawaii.This will either keep you turning pages or make you heave it into the trash.Try it.

Janet Evanovitch's 10th book is out but you have to start with #1 - adventures of a bumbling female NJ bail bondsman with two handsome men in her life and one crazy grandmother.

I loved "Curious Incident". Even more, though, I loved "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" - I read it from beginning to end during my flight from Toronto to Victoria last month. Couldn't put it down.

Also enjoyed "Curious Incident" Would highly recommend "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.

The latest by Jodi Picoult "My Sister's Keeper" is good, but I wouldn't call it a mystery.

None of those are light, fluffy beach reads.

I read mostly popular fiction "junk":
Second Rec for Dan Brown's DVC and Angels/Demons.
I'm awaiting The Narrows (M Connolly);
Therapy (J.Kellerman); The Hidden Prey (J Sanford); Reckless Abandon (J Woods); Sam's Letters... (J Patterson); Kill the Messenger (T Hoag); Skinny Dip (C Hiaasen) from MG.

Just finished True Justice and Enemy Within both by R. K. Tannenbaum.
M

Wow..talk about choices!

I have read several Ken Follet novels this year: Jack Daws, Hornet Flight and The Hammer of Eden. Also read the newest Grisham novel but the name escapes me.

As some others, I have read Dan Brown.

Death in the Grand Canyon chronicles the ways (odd and not so) that people have died there along with significant history.

The Monkeywrench gang is the story of Southwestern eco-terrorists I believe based in truth.

OK so I'm not necessarily into romance, but hey, you asked!

I also recommend Sue Graftons books, I am waiting for R for Ricochet.

( <i> I never read Science Fiction or Fantasy, but a couple of months ago, someone left a book here, called 'Eragon'. I read it while I waited to give it back. It is about young boys and their dragons and funnily, the Yankee and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The author is one of those prodigies who wrote it when he was 15 and is now working on his sequel, at 19)</i>

I love mysteries. If you are looking for something light, I recommend M. C. Beaton's series with Hamish McBeath; the Jeanne M. Dams books set in England, not the Indiana ones; Hazel Holt's Mrs. Mallory books; Margaret Maron; Elizabeth Peters; Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series; I can go on!

I also liked Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Have recently finished Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell, The Manhattan Hunt Club, and The Blue Nowhere. The last two were been very hard to put down.

I'm reading &quot;Bel Canto&quot; by Ann Patchett - VERY good read. Before that, I read &quot;Mirror Mirror&quot; by Gregory Maguire, which was OK, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of his other books.

Have ahnded around my copy of the Davinci Code. Some like it some not so much. I enjoyed it until the end which was just silly. Kinda remineded me of when I read IT and the book was great until the end and then it was so disappointing I threw it against the wall. Angels and Demons is a better choice though.

Read Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. Easy read and enjoyable.

The Devil Wears Prada was pretty good mindless reading too.

These have both been out for awhile, but I just read them and found them both to be very good:

The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Kidd Monk)
The Lovely Bones (forgot the author)

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. Yes it's a downer but it's like listening to the blues, everything looks better.

One I enjoyed that has stuck with me is &quot;Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan&quot; by Paula Marantz Cohen.

maj: A few years ago I went to a reading/signing of Lorna Landvik; she was really entertaining. (Then she totally won me over with what she wrote with her autograph in the books I bought.)

I have really enjoyed two of Jodi Picoult's (sp?) books.
Plain Truth: about an Amish family and a dead baby found in their barn
Salem Falls: about a man wrongly accused of statutory rape

I just finished reading &quot;Complications&quot; by Atul Gawande.

I also enjoyed &quot;Cobra Event&quot; by the author of the &quot;Hot Zone.&quot; Can't remember his name!

And of course, Dan Brown's books.

My recommendation is Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Not mindless summer reading - but couldn't put it down. True story about two guys who are deep divers and discover an unidentified u-boat off the East coast.

_Reading Lolita in Tehran_ and it's completely blowing me away. Put _The Human Stain_ down halfway through -- way too boring. Mr. cher_cher is reading something about the HMS Bounty. He's obsessed.

So far, I've read:

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. I tried these about four years ago and couldn't get through the first chapter of Master and Commander, but I loved the series on the second try.

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind (and the following books) by Ann Ross. I'm waiting on the newest, Miss Julia Meets Her Match, to come in at the library.

A couple of Margaret Frazer's Sister Frevisse novels.

I'm also finishing my umpteenth rereading of The Lord of the Rings.

Lee Ann

I'll have to check out some of these recommendations. I also enjoyed &quot;The Lovely Bones&quot;, &quot;Curious Incident&quot;, &quot;Atonement&quot;, &quot;Time Travelers Wife&quot;. Also got bored with &quot;Human Stain&quot; (suppose I should return it to my Sister-in-law so many months later!)

I've really enjoyed the last few books I've read--
&quot;Secret Life of Bees&quot; by Sue Monk
&quot;Reading Lolita in Tehran by by Azar Nafisi
&quot;Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do&quot; by Pearl Cleage

For summer, I also really enjoy Adrianna Trigianni and Dorothea Benton Frank - both have new books out this week.

HI Melissa,

My favorite read so far this summer was The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst (keeping the dog theme going here.) Really weird story, beautifully written. I also liked Good Grief by Lolly Winston and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (this one may not be everyone's cup of tea.) If you haven't read The Lovely Bones yet, I highly recommend it (make sure you have tissues--I cried through at least half of it.

In the mindless thriller/mystery department, I've just discovered Harlen Coben and like his style very much. And the latest by Sue Grafton (R is for Richochet) and Janet Evanovich (10 Big Ones) were both fun and perfect beach reads.

Good luck choosing!

Patti

A second for Time Traveler's Wife. I read it by the pool in 3 days last week. Just a super summer read! I'm now about 50 pages into The Dante Club...finding it tough to get into but should be good.

A found a copy of The Notebook that I had purchsaed eight years ago and re-read that, also REALLY enjoyed the movie! My middle son's nickname is now Noah by his GF! Looks just like him!

I also read The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber and recently picked up three new books, light girlie-type reads: Breakfast at Stephanie's by Sue Margolis (funny and witty author), Babyface by Fiona Gibson and Mulitple Choice by Claire Cook.

If I finish all of these in the next couple of weeks, I'll start my old-time favorite &quot;Gone With The Wind&quot; which I like to read each summer. Happy Reading! I take all of the books to our condo when I'm finished so the renters can enjoy them also.

I've got quite a library there now! Melissa, what's Beach Girls like? Scary, funny, what kind of plot, it sounds like something I would enjoy reading at the beach!! ***kim***

If you have children and a career - you would love &quot;I Don't Know How She Does It&quot; by Allison Pearson. I read it a few months back and loved it - so funny and could definately relate! I am also a big fan of the &quot;Prey&quot; books by John Sanford - his knew one is &quot;Hidden Prey.&quot;

Love all the suggestions!

For gripping crime stories with quite a bit of social analysis (and thus more depth than usual) try the works of Swedish authors Henning Mankell (Dogs of Riga, The White Lioness etc.) or Ake Edwardson. They are true page turners IMHO.

The Day the World Came to Town : 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
I put off reading this for a while, just still numb after the September 11 attacks, but this is a great summer read, finished it about a week ago -a good way to just feel good about life again!

To Elizabeth Reed

I enjoyed the Bon Bon book so much, I have now read all of Lorna Landvik's books. Are you going to tell us what she wrote in your book?

John Grisham's last book was the Last Juror--I liked it. It was more in the vein of The Painted House than a thriller type book like his others.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is an easy to read book too that is kind of different.

Definitely have to read the Curious book--hadn't heard of it.

Books I have read and liked:

&quot;Can you keep a secret&quot; Sophie Kinsella
&quot;The dirty girls social club.' Alisa-Valdes Rodriguez
&quot;Angels &amp; Demons&quot;
Liked &quot;Dogs of Babel&quot; also. Kind of bizarre, but a good read.

I have &quot;Deception Point&quot; by Dan Brown and &quot;Skinny Dip&quot; on reserve at our local library.

?Am reading Harlan Coben's latest thriller, &quot;Just One Look&quot;. Have enjoyed his other books. Also have the new Adriana Trigiai book, &quot;The Queen Of Big Time&quot;. Want to read the latest Mary Jane Clark mystery. Her books are light but enjoyable. Loved John Gilstap's last mystery, &quot;Scott Free&quot;.
Carolyn, you mentioned M. C. Beaton. Have you read her Agatha Raisen series? They are light and fun.

Been travelling, working, enjoying the family, and just plain being lazy this summer - all leading up to the excuse of not having read very much this summer.

Read all of Dan Brown's books, except one, last summer and fall. Also read &quot;Life of Pi&quot; a couple of years ago, good book.

This summer, it's John Grisham, been through three of his books already. Didn't want to touch fiction about the law because it didn't seem like a good fit, but his books are surprisingly good reads, except for the endings, which seem a bit weak.

Also read a couple of Ken Follett's books and a couple of Clive Cussler's, who is turning out to be one of my favorite leisure time writers.

Started &quot;The Rule of Four&quot; - all about a &quot;mysterious coded manuscript&quot; - seems like a takeoff on a Dan Brown theme - we'll see.

Also started &quot;The Mists of Avalon&quot;.

Also half-way through Ken Follett's &quot;Hornet's Flight&quot;.

I tend to have two or three &quot;light&quot; reading books going on at the same time - depends on which car I'm driving or which bed I'm sleeping in - lo!

Just picked up my copy of the &quot;9/11 Report&quot;, probably wouldn't read much of it this summer, unless it becomes a controversial book.

Otherwise, it's all &quot;heavy&quot; reading!

Great suggestions on this thread! Will have to pick up on some of them! :)

Someone mentioned Janet Evanovich's #10 book...I just read number 9. I had not read any of the others and found number 9 simply hysterical. In fact, my husband kept coming in the room to see what I was laughing about.

Also read &quot;Sushi for Beginners&quot; by Marian Keyes and am currently reading &quot;Trading Up&quot; by Candace Bushnell. Both have been good &quot;chick flick&quot; reads.

easy,
we started to read The Rule of Four and I had a hard time getting into it..how do you like it so far?

I also recently read Susan Isaacs Long Time No See:)

&quot;Mists of Avalon&quot;--one of my all time favorites. Bradley wrote 2 others (Lady of Avalon and the Forest House) that are prequels (I guess you would call them) to the Mists of Avalon.

If you love paris and reading about food etc Ruth Reichels, &quot;Rembrance of things Paris.&quot; Sixty years of writing from Gourmet.

I'm currently reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - very good with interesting political analogies. We're going to spend a day in Savannah early next month so I want to finish it &amp; move on to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which I've been told is a must prior to visiting Savannah!!