Fiction Review: After You

After You by Julie Buxbaum is the kind of novel you get lost in, where partway through, you feel like the characters are friends and you live as much in their fictional world as in your own real world. Of course, it probably helped that I read it during a sick week when I desperately wanted to escape my own miserable life, but I think credit belongs to Buxbaum’s writing.

Ellie Lerner rushes from her home in Boston to London when she learns that her lifelong friend, Lucy, had been brutally murdered. After the funeral, Ellie decides to stay for a while to help Lucy’s husband and 8-year old daughter Sophie. She remembers her own mother comforting her after her grandmother died by reading The Secret Garden together, so she decides to read the book with Sophie. Here, she and Sophie cuddle together on the bed to read:

I wonder now how many times Lucy sat in this exact spot, on Sophie’s bed, with the weight of Sophie’s head against her shoulder. If she, too, felt that sharing her favorite book was the purest way to express love, like telling your secrets or saying a prayer out loud.

“Hey, Soph, I bet you didn’t know that in certain cultures you aren’t supposed to put books on the floor or go near them with your feet. The idea is that they’re special, almost like magic or something.”

Sophie moves in a little closer, looks up at me, her expression impenetrable. I’ve dropped my kid tone, because I think I’ve been underselling her. I’ve noticed that she holds books with the same reverence as I do, taking a breath before she opens the cover, sitting still for a moment when she closes one. The way she gets lost in Nancy Drew, lets herself to be carried off to one girl’s adventures in Indiana, tells me she has a much richer inner life than I’ve been giving her credit for.

Sophie is devastated by her mother’s sudden death, but Ellie begins to make some progress with her, and her support is essential since Sophie’s dad seems lost in his own grief. Things aren’t always what they seem, though. As Ellie struggles with her own husband, who’s back home in Boston, she discovers secrets about her best friend Lucy that she never suspected. Ellie begins to feel that her whole life is unraveling and nothing is as simple as it seems.

This book tackles the complexities of marriage, friendship, and grief, but it is also about the healing power of books in general and a love song to The Secret Garden in particular. I came to really care about Ellie and Sophie and was rooting for both of them to work out their problems and find happiness again. It was a warm and compelling story, right to the last page, and I think I'm way overdue for a reread of The Secret Garden.

336 pages, The Dial Press

It's Monday 10/26! What Are You Reading?

(Thanks to J. Kaye's Book Blog for starting What are you reading Monday)

October 26? Huh? Where am I? After more than three weeks spent sick and lying on the couch, I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle this morning. But, I am up! It's been more than 24 hours now, so I'm hoping this trend of feeling OK continues. Just in time - my husband caught the virus our sons had last week.

Anyway, it was a good reading week:

• I finished The Circle of Gold by Guillaume Prevost, last book in the middle-grade/teen The Book of Time trilogy - very exciting conclusion!
• I started The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent, about the Salem witch trials, for one of my book groups. It is haunting, horrifying, and compelling (and based on a true story). I'm glad I wasn't around in 1692!
• I'm still listening to Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick - didn't get very far with it last week because both of my kids were home sick, too, but I have a long car ride this week, so I should finish it.

If you're interested in the kids' and teen books our family is reading, check out Great Books for Kids and Teens.

Book reviews to come this week - hurray!

What are YOU reading this week?

Quote It Saturday 10/24

Another tough week with both of my sons sick as well, but I do think I am finally, gradually gaining some energy back. I even drafted a book review yesterday, though I was too worn out to finish it and post it. I'm hoping for life to return to some degree of normalcy next week.

Thanks to That Chick That Reads for starting Quote It Saturday, one of my favorite features. Today's quotes come from Loud and Clear by Anna Quindlen, a novel about two very different sisters,one who works for a charitable organization and the other who is a very wealthy anchor on a highly rated morning show. Both quotes are about motherhood:

In the face of all this mythology [of the perfect mother] it becomes difficult to admit that occasionally you lock yourself in the bathroom just to be alone...The great motherhood friendships are the ones in which two women can admit this quietly to each other, over cups of tea at a table sticky with spilled apple juice and littered with markers without tops.

Now I know that much of parenthood is watching and waiting for the chick to fall into harm's way, watching and waiting for the cats and the cold nights. The joyous enterprise has an undercurrent of terror.
- Loud and Clear by Anna Quindlen

It's Monday 10/19! What Are You Reading?

Another Monday, and I'm still sick with a severe flare-up of my chronic illness. Over three weeks now - this is a personal record. I'm trying a program of aggressive rest this week. An oxymoron, yes, but it usually works.

So, lots and lots of reading time last week on the couch...

• Last Monday, I was trying to decide what to read next. I chose This Is Where I Leave You, a novel by Jonathan Tropper. I loved his The Book of Joe a few years ago, and I was not disappointed by his latest novel. An intricate character study of a dysfunctional family brought together by their father's funeral, it was emotional, real, and very, very funny.
• I've been listening to the teen audio book Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I'm not normally much into supernatural type stuff, but this is very good so far.
• I'm currently reading the third and final book of The Book of Time trilogy by Guillaume Prevost, The Circle of Gold. My 15-year old son and I both love this time-traveling trilogy, and the final book is so suspenseful that, despite knowing I needed extra sleep, I had trouble setting it down last night!

Check out Great Books for Kids and Teens for an update on what my sons are reading this week.

What are YOU reading?

(What are you reading Mondays is sponsored by J. Kaye's Book Blog)

Quote It Saturday 10/17

Sorry my blog has been so dull again this week. I had another long week spent trapped on the couch, too sick to write anything. Doing a little better today.

Thanks to That Chick That Reads for starting Quote It Saturday. I looked through my journal of book quotes this morning and found a couple from a favorite Elizabeth Berg novel, The Art of Mending, that I want to share, both dealing with simplifying life (something I could use more of!).

Here, the narrator, Laura, is observing the few items she has set near her bedside while staying at her parents' house:

There was a cozy completeness to this utilitarian still life. It occurred to me that one of the values of going away was that you saw that something far less complex than what you were used to would do just fine. More and more, I looked at my house, at my life, and thought, "Why do I need all this stuff?"
- The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg

And, in another passage, she stays out late on a rare night out and just goes straight to bed:

So I had not done any of my usual nightly routine and it felt wonderful. I wondered why I cluttered my life so much. I felt so free...
- The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg

This one reminds me of a favorite Baby Blues comic that my husband and I often laugh about. It shows the Mom and Dad both saying, "I think I'll go to bed now." Then, the Mom starts the dishwasher, folds the laundry, picks up toys, makes lunches for tomorrow, signs school permission slips, washes her face, brushes her teeth, etc. while the Dad goes right to bed and closes his eyes! Perfect, right?

It's Monday 10/12! What Are You Reading?

Happy Columbus Day!

I had another week of being sick most days (my chronic illness has been badly flared up lately), so lots of good reading but not much writing time again!

Last week:

• I finished After You, a novel by Julie Buxbaum. It was a well-written tale of how a woman copes with the aftermath of her best friend's murder, including taking care of her friend's daughter. I really liked this novel - review to come later this week.
• I read a wonderful middle-grade/teen mystery, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, by Susan Runholt, about two young girls who get wrapped up in the midst of an international art crime. I'll post a full review at Great Books for Kids and Teens this week.

Last week, I posted two new reviews: Travel Writing , a novel by Peter Ferry, here at Book By Book and Catching Fire, the exciting sequel to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins at Great Books for Kids and Teens (though this trilogy is a great choice for grown-ups, too!) I've also started posting a What Are You Reading Mondays update at Great Books for Kids and Teens, based on what my sons and I are reading, so check it out if you're interested in books for kids, teens, or young adults.

Now, comes my favorite part - time to choose a new book to read. I'm not sure what it will be - there are so many great books to choose from!

What are YOU reading this week?

(What Are You Reading Mondays was started by J. Kaye's Book Blog)

Quote It Saturday 10/10

Thanks to That Chick That Reads for starting Quote It Saturday. I skipped last week because I was out of town, so I've been looking forward to posting a new quote this week. I browsed through my journal of book quotes to find something good. I have quite a few quotes written down from Rachel Simon's first memoir, Riding the Bus with My Sister. You might recall that I recently reviewed Simon's latest memoir, Building a Home with My Husband, and included some quotes from that on a previous Quote It Saturday. Her books just seem to speak to me, with all sorts of inspiring tidbits that I want to remember.

Just to set the stage, Riding the Bus With My Sister is about Rachel's mentally handicapped sister, Beth, who spends her days riding city buses, and the year that Rachel spent trying to get to know her better by riding the buses with her. These are a couple of the best quotes from the bus drivers, some of whom became like mentors to Beth and sound like some of the worlds' greatest philosophers:

It might seem hard now...but you have to have bad days to know how to appreciate the good ones.
- Tim, a bus driver

When you listen to somebody's story, and you see the troubles they have, you get a better sense of why they act a certain way. It might not excuse lousy behavior, and not everyone who has a difficult life acts badly. But going deeper, and really listening to someone, can help you see that they don't mean nothing against you, they're just hurting.
- Jacob, another driver

And, finally, a quote from Rachel herself that seems to perfectly express my own relationship with my sister, too:

I love her, and at last I believe she loves me, too, but I know that in her eyes I will always be the big sister. It is both my bridge to her and the moat eternally between us.
- Rachel Simon, Riding the Bus With My Sister

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!

Fiction Review: Travel Writing

As soon as I heard about Travel Writing, a first novel by writer Peter Ferry, I was intrigued. I like any novel where the main character is a writer, and in this one, he is a travel writer, something I have dabbled in and aspire to. This unique novel combines elements of mystery and love story, with some travel essays thrown in and a thought provoking overlay on the thin line between fiction and memoir. In short, it defies easy characterization.

The narrator is Pete Ferry, a high school English teacher and part-time travel writer whose life sounds remarkably similar to the author’s bio on the back of the book (including sharing the same name), so right away you’re wondering how much of this novel is autobiographical. One night Pete witnesses a traffic accident and sees the beautiful woman driver die. He becomes obsessed with what he witnessed and whether he could have prevented it, and he begins to conduct his own investigation into the woman and the accident.

Meanwhile, he’s telling his students a story about the woman and the accident and insisting that he’s making it all up. Throughout the book, the reader is left to wonder how much of this story within a story is truth and how much is fiction. Here, Pete talks about his life as a teacher and a writer:

I would go to parties and say I was an editor, and people, especially women – and that was important to me back then – would say, “Oh, really?” and raise their eyebrows and look at me a little more carefully. I remember the first party I went to after I became a teacher, someone asked me what I did for a living, and I said, “Well, I teach high school.” He looked over my shoulder, nodded his head, said, “I went to high school,” and walked away.

Once I repeated this anecdote around a big table full of Mexican food in the garden at a place called La Choza in Chicago, and Becky Mueller, another teacher at the school, said that I was a “storyteller.” I liked that. I was looking for something to be other than “just” a teacher, and “storyteller” felt about right. I am a teacher and a storyteller in that order. I have made my living and my real contribution to my community as a teacher, and I have been very lucky to have found that calling, but all through the years I have entertained myself and occasionally other people by telling stories.

Ferry creates a wonderful sense of place throughout the novel. Pete lives in Chicago, and the novel contains so many detailed references to the restaurants, bars, parks, and other features of the city that I wished I knew Chicago better so I could fully appreciate every allusion. In addition, the main story of the novel is accented with a series of travel essays written by Pete highlighting Mexico, Thailand, and, my personal favorite, a wilderness canoe trip in Ontario. The travel essays are not separate from the main story but describe Pete’s trips during the timeframe covered in the novel.

Travel Writing is the perfect title for this novel because it takes the reader on a journey, through the mystery of the accident, through the places Pete visits, and even through Pete’s own emotional growth. It’s suspenseful and engaging; the characters feel very real. I was kept guessing right until the end about exactly what caused the accident and what Pete would do about it, and I’m still wondering exactly how much of the story was fact and how much was fiction. It’s a fascinating and enjoyable journey.

294 pages, Mariner Books

It's Tuesday - Where Are You?

Thanks to An Adventure in Reading for this fun weekly feature.

This week...

I am in the tony Notting Hill section of London with Ellie, a woman from Boston whose life-long best friend was just murdered, as she helps her friend's 8-year old daughter, Sophie, deal with her mother's death and uncovers secrets she never suspected from the woman she's known since she was four years old.
- After You by Julie Buxbaum

The novel is wonderful so far, and I'm enjoying the fictional trip to one of my favorite cities.

Where is YOUR reading taking you today?

It's Monday 10/5! What Are You Reading?

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Sorry for the lack of reviews last week, but I was very sick all week and unable to do any writing at all. I did manage to post my review of Living Dead Girl at Great Books for Kids and Teens (that one was already written). And I was thrilled and relieved to be well enough by Saturday to enjoy an overnight getaway to the beach with my husband for our 20-year anniversary.

The only good thing about being sick is plenty of time to read good books:

• I finished Travel Writing by Peter Ferry, a very unique story within a story that provides a mystery, some great travel stories, and a thought-provoking question about the difference between memoir and fiction. Review to come later this week.
• I read Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, the long-awaited sequel to The Hunger Games. It was just as compelling as the first book; my husband and I both loved it, and my son was urging me to read faster last week so he can read it! Review to come this week on Great Books for Kids and Teens.
  
• I finished the audio book The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells, even though I never wanted it to end! Review to come as soon as I get a hard copy from the library - I can't write this review without including some excerpts.
• I started After You by Julie Buxbaum, a novel about how a woman copes with the murder of her best friend. I've only read the first chapter so far, but it sounds intriguing, and I like the writing style.

So, what are YOU reading this week?

(What Are You Reading Mondays is sponsored by J. Kaye's Book Blog)

It's Tuesday - Where Are You?

Thanks to An Adventure in Reading for this fun weekly feature.

This week...

I am hanging out in Chicago with Peter Ferry, a high school English teacher and travel writer. Besides his hometown of Chicago, Peter has taken me along on his travels to Mexico, Thailand, and (my favorite) canoeing in the wilderness of Canada.

- Travel Writing by Peter Ferry

This is an odd book - a novel where the author is the main character, blurring the line between memoir and fiction - but a very interesting book. I've been to Chicago a few times, but I'm wishing I knew it better so I could fully appreciate all the references to favorite restaurants, bars, and parks. The novel's action is interspersed with the main character's travel essays, so I'm enjoying those locations as well.

Where is your reading taking YOU today?

It's Monday 9/28! What Are You Reading?

(Thanks to J.Kaye's Book Blog for starting What Are You Reading Mondays)

My kids have the day off, so I slept in a bit this morning (Happy Yom Kippur to those who celebrate it!).

Another good reading week:

• I finished The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (you can read my review at the link) - it was an entertaining and edifying book.
• I'm on the last CD of the audio book The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells. I think I may have to revise my list of Top Ten Favorite Novels (though I don't know what I'd push off the list...)
• I read a teen/YA novel, Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. It is an absolutely chilling yet compelling book about a young girl who was abducted at age 10 and has been living with her captor for the past five years. I'll post a review of this haunting book at Great Books for Kids and Teens this week.
• I started a new novel, Travel Writing, by Peter Ferry that explores the thin line between memoir and fiction. I'm enjoying it very much so far - I always like books about writing and writers.

In the books-to-movies category, my husband and I watched The Reader this weekend, and I thought it was an excellent film adaptation. I was pleased to see that the movie retained all of the complexities of the thought-provoking book.

I also posted reviews of the teen novel Bounce and a wonderful fantasy trilogy for middle-grade and teen readers, The Cronus Chronicles, this week at Great Books for Kids and Teens.

So, what are YOU reading this week?

Quote It Saturday 9/26

Thanks to That Chick That Reads for Quote It Saturday!

Today's quote comes from Rachel Simon's Building a Home with My Husband. I wrote down many quotes from this wonderful memoir. This is one of my favorites:

That was one of the most important lessons I learned in the long educational process that I've come to call my life: although other people might create havoc for me, the more I seethe toward them, the more I make myself suffer.

- Building a Home with My Husband by Rachel Simon

I try to remember this lesson myself - that anger and bitterness hurt me more than they hurt the object of my dissatisfaction.

Enjoy the weekend!

Memoir Review: The Year of Living Biblically

A.J. Jacobs’ second memoir, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, is at turns funny, inspirational, and sometimes just plain silly. As the subtitle explains, the book chronicles his efforts to live according to the Bible’s many rules, not just the Ten Commandments but all edicts in the text of the Bible. I read this book for one of my book groups.

To give you an idea of where Jacobs was starting from (and his sense of humor), he describes his own religious background as, “I am officially Jewish, but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant. “ Despite his Jewish heritage, Jacobs goes into his biblical year with a very open mind, following both the Old and New Testaments and investigating the beliefs of a wide variety of religious groups (and I do mean a wide variety).

Although Jacob’s writing is often very funny, he is also hoping to learn something from his biblical year. He’s the father of a young son, and he’s interested in exploring his own spirituality and figuring out what he should teach his son. I appreciated his honesty in sharing even his awkward moments:

So, now, I’m going to pray. Even though I’m not exactly sure how to pray. I’ve never prayed before in my life, not counting the few perfunctory uplifted gazes when my mom was sick.

For starters, what do I do with my body? The Bible describes a multitude of positions: People kneel, sit, bow their heads, lift their eyes skyward, put their heads between their knees, raise up their hands, beat their breasts. There’s no single method.

Sitting is tempting, but it seems too easy. I’m of the no-pain, no-gain mind-set. So I settle on holding my arms outstretched like a holy antenna, hoping to catch God’s signal.

At other times, his attempts to follow the Bible are just plain silly and seem senseless, set up only to go for a laugh, like when, in an attempt to follow the Bible’s command to stone adulterers, he goes to Central Park and tosses tiny pebbles at people. For some people in my book group, this artificial set-up of the book was just too contrived – he admits in the introduction that he did this year-long experiment in part so he could write a book about it – but most others were entertained and educated by his experiences.

In one of my favorite passages of the book, Jacobs tries to make sense of the varied and bizarre biblical rules he’s trying to follow:

My alter ego’s behavior points to one of the biggest mysteries of the Bible. How can these ethically advanced rules and these bizarre decrees be found in the same book? And not just the same book. Sometimes the same page. The prohibition against mixing wool and linen comes right after the command to love your neighbor. It’s not like the Bible has a section called “And Now for Some Crazy Laws.” They’re all jumbled up like a chopped salad.

Admittedly, I know very little about the Bible myself (those few Sunday school classes were a looong time ago), though I do try to be a spiritual person. I learned a lot both about the Bible and about the beliefs of various groups that he met with during his year, and I also enjoyed Jacob’s humorous writing style. You might be familiar with Jacobs from his first memoir, The Know-It-All, in which he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a year (see a pattern?). Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I’m glad I read it.

It's Tuesday - Where Are You?

I just saw this cool weekly theme at An Adventure in Reading and decided to join in the fun! The idea is to share where reading is taking you by posting the location and setting of your current book. Since I'm only on page 2 of my latest print book, I decided to go with my current audio book:

I am in Louisiana and loving it, accompanying the sweet Calla Lily Ponder who grew up in La Luna, a small rural town along the La Luna River, and is currently residing in New Orleans (which happens to be my favorite place on earth).
- The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells

Where is your reading taking you today?

It’s Monday 9/21! What Are You Reading?

Happy First Day of Fall!! It’s my favorite season, and I’m loving the cooler evenings and being able to keep the A/C off. Another good reading week…

• I finished The Immortal Fire, book three of the middle-grade trilogy The Cronus Chronicles by Anne Ursu. I loved the whole series and will post a review on Great Books for Kids and Teens this week.
• I’m now reading The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally As Possible by A.J. Jacobs for one of my book groups. I’m enjoying both its humor and spirituality, though it does occasionally veer into the realm of silliness. I’ll review it here after my book group meeting Wednesday.
• I’m still listening to the audio book The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells and still LOVING it! I can tell this is going to be one of my favorites.

I also enjoyed a trip to the bookstore last week to buy gifts for several people. I've been trying not to spend too much on books for myself (especially with an overflowing to-be-read stack!), but I couldn't resist a reduced-price copy of Olive Kitteridge for an upcoming book group for myself.

Last week, I posted reviews of The People of the Book here and of The Book of Ember series at Great Books for Kids and Teens. I also posted two Top Ten lists: Best Book Group Books and my son’s list of Best Fantasy Series.

So, what are YOU reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is sponsored by J. Kaye's Book Blog).

Quote It Saturday 9/19

This week, two separate quotes from the same book:

The secret of life, though, is to fall seven and to get up eight times.

No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a role in the history of the world. And normally, he doesn’t know it.

- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I find the first quote especially inspirational - it's a reminder that it's OK if you fail or things don't go right. It's just a part of life and you keep getting up.

Thanks to That Chick That Reads for starting Quote It Saturday! Stop by her blog to check oput her quote for this week.

Fiction Review: The People of the Book

One of the best books I’ve read all year, The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks is a fascinating historical fiction based on the true story of a unique Hebrew book that has survived centuries. The Sarajevo Haggadah, as it’s known, resurfaced in 2001 after many assumed it had been lost in the looting and shelling of the recent Bosnian war. This wasn’t the first time this book beat the odds – it also survived the burning of Jewish books by the Nazis during World War II and the Spanish Inquisition, among other violent historical events. Brooks takes the facts of the Sarajevo Haggadah – which are, in and of themselves, a fascinating story – and fills in the missing pieces with a cast of remarkable characters and a bit of imagination. The main character is Hannah Heath, an expert in conserving old books. The story opens when Hannah is asked to work on the Haggadah when it resurfaces after the war. Here, she inspects the book carefully for the first time:

"I slipped the scalpel under the thread, and the codex eased apart into its precious folios. I lifted the first one. A tiny speck of something fluttered from its binding. Carefully, with a sable brush, I moved it onto a slide and passed it under the microscope. Eureka. It was a tiny fragment of insect wing, translucent, veined. We live in a world of arthropods, and maybe the wing came from a common insect and wouldn‘t tell us anything. But maybe it was a rarity, with a limited geographic range. Or maybe it was from a species now extinct. Either would add knowledge to the history of the book. I placed it in a glassine envelope and labeled it with a note of its position."

Hannah’s work is like CSI for book lovers. While she’s painstakingly caring for the book, she’s also using clues like the insect wing to piece together parts of its history. She consults with various experts to analyze those clues; her work is fascinating. In addition, we get to know Hannah as a person – someone with mother issues and friends and a fair amount of loneliness. Interwoven with Hannah’s story in the present day are the stories of various parts of the book’s history – how those clues came to be in the Haggadah. So, throughout the book, we meet the young Jewish woman and Muslim man who saved the book from the Nazis, the Catholic priest who approved the book and saved it from the pope’s Inquisition in the 1600’s, and even the artist who created the book. It’s a unique and imaginative construct that makes a captivating real-life story even more intriguing. Brook’s writing is, as always, beautiful and moving. She makes you care about the characters and the Haggadah. I loved March, her historical novel about the father from Little Women during the Civil War, and People of the Book lived up to my high expectations. This is also a wonderful book for book clubs. In my neighborhood book group, everyone enjoyed the novel, and it inspired some wonderful discussions on a wide variety of topics. 

 

372 pages, Penguin

Penguin Audio

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order People of the Book from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

In celebration of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, here are my answers to today's meme. The idea is to be brief, so here goes:

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
Not usually, though I like to have a cup of herbal tea or decaf mint green tea.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of
writing in books horrify you?
Can't bring myself to write in non-textbooks. Post-It Page Markers do the trick!

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
Bookmark.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Both.

Hard copy or audiobooks?
Both.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you
able to put a book down at any point?
Ends of chapters...and then often onto the next chapter - so hard to put a good book down!

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
I know I should but... Again, Post-It Page Markers are awesome for this!

What are you currently reading?
The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs for a book group.

What is the last book you bought?
Trying not to spend money but succumbed today and bought Olive Kitteridge while shopping for birthday gifts.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can
you read more than one at a time?
Can only read one at a time, but often have an audio book going at the same time.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
In bed, before naptime (medically necessary) and bedtime. Also on sick days.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
Either.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
My faves: Replay by Ken Grimwood, Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
ha ha ha...that's a good one. We have books stacked all over the house, and all the bookcases are full!

Top Ten Book Group Books

TEN FOR TUESDAY

I currently belong to two book groups and used to go to two others that have now disbanded. The books on this week’s list are ones that were not only enjoyed by most, if not all, group members but that generated great discussions, too. I tried to skip over the obvious choices – everyone knows that The Kite Runner and To Kill A Mockingbird are great for book groups – to include some that you may not have read yet.

Need a good selection for your book group? Try one of these (links to reviews are provided where available):

• March by Geraldine Brooks (civil war novel about the father from Little Women)
• River of Doubt by Candice Millard (NF - Teddy Roosevelt’s journey up the Amazon)
• The Innocent Man by John Grisham (NF – man on death row is innocent)
• Infidel by Aayan Hirsi Ali (memoir by Muslim woman in Africa and Middle East)
• The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (novel about class differences in India)
• Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Glidner (hilarious memoir about growing up in the 50’s)
• Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum (novel about woman in Germany during WWII)
• The Nine by Jeffrey Toomis (NF – about Supreme Court)
• China Run by David Ball (suspenseful novel about a Chinese adoption)
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (fictionalized story of a Hebrew book that survived centuries)

So, I have another book group discussion next week and can use some more good ideas – what books do you recommend for book groups?

P.S. If you like Top Ten lists, check out my son's new list of Top Ten Fantasy Series at Great Books for Kids and Teens.