Nice and simple: tell The Books for Walls Project what you are reading --whether a newspaper, a magazine, a book-on-tape, or just a good old fashioned book.Take a moment check out all of our challenges. Bookmark it and take a challenge whenever you have an urge to find or to share a good book or story: The Books for Walls Project Complete List of Challenges.
So, What are you Reading Right Now? Tell us in the comments below:
Before I disclose a book I was not going to admit reading, I will share a book I am much more willing to share:
ReplyDeleteIn the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez Sisters, history, love, politics --lovely summer read. I picked up two Alvarez books at the Interlochen Library Book Sale --I have a feeling I will enjoy them both!
OKAY--before I go on, please, promise to be kind. I am currently skimming/reading, jeez this is hard to type (and admit):
Late, Late at Night by Rick Springfield.
Background: I grew up in the 70's and 80's and, well, I watched General Hospital (my Aunt Darlene got us hooked on it one summer, she also took us to see Flashdance and let us drink all the Pepsi we wanted). I knew every word to every Rick Springfield song. The Poet even took me to a concert at Pine Knob --he sat there next to me, reading the paper, while I tried not to swoon, clad in my pink Rick Springfield T-shirt I was a girl in love. So what was I to do when I saw the bargain bin price on his autobiography? The Dad just rolls his eyes as I read my Rick Springfield candy, late late at night ;)
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
ReplyDeleteby Jeanne Birdsall
Reading Aloud! (What FUN!)
the peculiar pumpkin thief
ReplyDeletethe return to the kingdom of fantasy
by geronimo stilton
THE secret history of Giants
Professor Ari Derk
A Midsummer Night's Dream
ReplyDeleteby William Shakespeare
i fell in love with Shakespeare "a midsummer night's dream"
when i was 5. i love it even more now and many more of
Shakespeare's plays.
one of my dreams that is coming true is being a Shakespearean
actress. if you haven't read or seen the play i highly suggest it.
I love the Rick Springfield story!! I secretly go nuts whenever I hear "Jessie's Girl". When I was a little girl, and we lived in the dusty desert town of Taft, California, we were treated to pizza, Miss PacMan & the jukebox every other Friday when my dad got paid! Needless to say, I played this song a LOT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxY7X11ExUI
ReplyDeleteOk... so I just finished reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. I have had two copies of this book for years (& years) & just hadn't gotten to it yet. I can tell you that I'm glad that I waited, b/c it is incredibly sad, but I am also grateful that I waited b/c perhaps right now, at this moment in my life, I am the most receptive to all it had to teach me (especially all the beautiful (as well as horrifically sad) details about Afghanistan). I can't wait to read Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns".
I have a short stack next to my bed & will post the remaining titles when I can get them right with author too!
Happy Reading!
Finished "Water for Elephants" just beautiful with a wonderful bit of circus history thrown in. 2/3 the way through "The Devil Wears Prada" having had similar jobs in the entertainment industry (jobs where you can't say "no" to a single request) I am having a ball identifying with the main character and the loonines she encounters. As well as how how seemingly insignificant choices we make can take us away from ourselves. Next book up - Unknown!!
ReplyDeleteHow could I forget I am also reading The Pleasures of Reading in an Ages of Distraction" by Alan Jacobs
ReplyDeleteI read this piece from NPR,/a> and ordered it right away, so far so good, lots of highlights and notes in the margins (yes, I do right in books that I plan to keep!)
A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother by Janny Scott
ReplyDeleteI'm halfway through the book and so far no one has come alive. The author is a newspaper reporter (but so was Hemingway!), which may explain the pedestrian prose and the side trips into extraneous information . The most interesting things for me are the pictures.
I'll finish the book but it's not a page-turner, and I don't anticipate knowing Stanley Ann Dunham any better than I would from reading an entry in Wikipedia. There's a lot of info on Indonesia, however, if that's your thing.
Had a Rick Springfield poster out ofnthe tv guide on my bedroom wall as a youngster. Drool worthy, no shame in discovering if he is more than a pretty package!
ReplyDeleteJust finished 'Marcelo in the real world' a YA read about a 17 year old boy with aspergers. A lovely read. But want to state just because people with aspergers see the world literally, does not mean they are pure, more just or more honest than the rest of us, like some literature likes to portray them. My nephew has aspergers and he lies to avoid trouble just like the rest of us and hates admitting he is wrong just as much too. But do read the book.
ReplyDeleteI am currently reading Bite me By Parker Blue and Catching Fire by suzanne collins
ReplyDeleteI am reading Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan. Beautifully written, startlingly raw, with an aura of magical realism.
ReplyDeleteFirst line: There is, stretching delicate as a bird's head from the thin neck of the Kra Isthmus, a land that makes up half of the country called Malaysia.
I skimmed through a list of 10 books recommended for summer reading by New York Times Op Ed writer Nicholas D. Kristof, and was reminded again that, as much as I have read ABOUT Uncle Tom's Cabin, I have never read the book. So I am currently reading Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and really enjoying the experience!
ReplyDeleteInheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History, by Thomas Norman DeWolf
ReplyDeleteJust started Moonwalking with Einstein heard about it on NPR http://www.npr.org/2011/02/23/134003962/Moonwalking-With-Einstein Finally remembered (ha ha) to get a copy. So far so good.
ReplyDeleteAll about memory and goodness knows I need all the help I can get. Recently I realized that I don't remember all the things I forget (think about it) I must forget sooooo much ;)
Happy Reading!
Homicide David Simon. From the creator of the best TV series ever, "The Wire". This book is a fascinating look at a year spent with the Baltimore homicide dept. The writing is superlative and the narrative is compelling.
ReplyDeleteWicked Bugs--not really a sequel to Wicked Plants--but a really well thought out and researched volume of critters of the six (and a few arachnid-types) to avoid. Wicked Plants is great too--reading it will definitely make your friends wonder what you're up to.
ReplyDeleteGiants in the earth for the 5th or 6th time
ReplyDeleteJust finished 'the guardian', book about a haunted house, loved it, but very boyie.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin (515 pp.!) For me it was a page turner, and among the most rewarding experiences of the summer!
ReplyDeleteToday I read a message from The Poet who had watched the Big and Little sisters in their Shakespearean performances. CONGRATULATIONS to you, ladies, on an especially wonderful summer experience. You make us all proud.
ReplyDeleteI am re-reading Lisa Grunwald's New Years Eve. I picked this used library book up when I was 22 & living in New York. I remember it being a very good book (sad but good), but the odd thing is I remember virtually nothing of reading it now. With each page turn, I do not recognize any of the Grunwald's intricate prose. The skeleton of the story is revealed in the jacket, so that part I 'knew' so I'm finding it really interesting to imagine that every last detail has been forgotten. The beauty in that thought is that there are probably a hundred books that I've read that I'd love to re-read & re-enjoy in this manner... the other side is, if forgetting & then re-reading is apart of my process, however will I ever get to reading everything on my reading list!?! Oy!
ReplyDeleteI recommend this heartwrenching/warming read to anyone who is a sister, who loves life & children & family & who might have a big, sloppy, open heart like mine. Enjoy!
So, I sort of finished the Rick Springfield book --just skimmed it, sorry Rick, but you should stick to the cruises ;) and crooning to us middle aged ladies...
ReplyDeleteStill reading Moonwalking with Einstein.
are you Ok? by Naomi Shihab Nye --you will hear more about this YA collection of shorts from me-- I am working on a post about it.
The Women's Room by Marilyn French one of our readers suggested it to me and it is a juicy summer read. (I was reading it while backstage with the Big Sister during her plays and oh, how I blushed.)
It is super hard to keep updating what we are reading and read and enjoy summer to it's fullest... we are working on it!
I'm reading two books. Started one then realized I had a library book checked out (gasp) that needed to go back.. Today actually.
ReplyDeleteThe one I'm finishing up now is Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow. Love YA paranormal books. Really a good fast pasted YA book.
The other book I will continue once I finish this one up is one I got in a GoodReads giveway. YEAH!
Hunter Untamed by Pamela Palmer. The cover is yummy. Can't wait to really get into it.
Happy reading!
This morning we began Penderwicks at Point Moutte, aloud by The Mom, Book 3 in the wonderfully fun series by Jeanne Birdsall. The Big Sister already read it earlier this summer and now both Sisters are listening to the audio version of The Penderwicks on Gardam Street Book 2 in the Series.
ReplyDeleteThe Sisters cannot get enough of The Penderwick Sisters...
Hey Mom, I'm a Rick Springfield fan (via General Hospital) as well :) I haven't read his book, but I might have to now!
ReplyDeleteI just finished THE LANTERN, by Deborah Lawrenson, a beautifully written suspense-romance-thriller, in the vein of Daphne DuMaurier's REBECCA.
I'm about to start STONE ARABIA, about which I've heard great things.
I am reading The Dressmaker of Khair Khana - women in Afghanistan who start a dressmaking business to support their families during the Taliban occupation.
ReplyDeleteI'm finishing Dead Beat by Jim Butcher and hopefully starting up Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones today! We're reading this book in my book club.
ReplyDeleteI usually read a few different books at the same time, just for the variety. Right now, I am reading...
ReplyDelete"Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin (a fantastic medieval-like fantasy)
"Anna Karenina" By Leo Tolstoy (a long read, but great in small doses)
and
"Spy Glass" by Maria V. Snyder (one of my favorite authors!)
Looking at some of the other comments, I have to note that both "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Hunger Games" series are among some of my favorites as well!
I am reading "the g free diet", "fauna" by Alysa York which I cannot reccomend highly enough, and "the 2 and 1/2 pillars of wisdom" by Alexander McCall Smith. Very clever, very funny. Also my Dad just published a book called "gold fever" and I am halfway through that. Hmm, he and I are going on a road trip tomorrow, I better finish it tonight.
ReplyDeleteWe just finished "When Your Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead, read it out loud and we are considering reading it over, right away. This is one of those books that sticks with you... and its connection to "A Wrinkle in Time" (another favorite) makes it close to perfect.
ReplyDeleteNow The Big Sis is reading "Scumble" by Ingrid Law, The Mom is reading "A Time for Angels" by Karen Hesse and "The Fountain of Age" by Betty Friedan
The Little Sister has a STACK of books and The Dad, a stack of fishing magazines!!
Happy Labor Day Weekend, for those of you in USA.
I am re-reading Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way for both inspiration and research as I intend to teach 12 courses, modeled after her recommended 12 chapters (12 steps to unveil creativity if you will...) at the wellness center that I am apart of The Center. I'm excited to be filled with her magically good juju :)
ReplyDeleteThanks to Writers Almanac click here I came across this lovely poem
ReplyDeleteThe Word
by Tony Hoagland
Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,
between "green thread"
and "broccoli," you find
that you have penciled "sunlight."
Resting on the page, the word
is beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend
and sunlight were a present
he had sent from someplace distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,
and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing
that also needs accomplishing.
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds
of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder
or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,
but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom
still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,
—to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.
I immediately ordered Sweet Ruin by the poems author Tony Hoagland and I am reading it voraciously.
WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Selznick... more coming soon, this is an amazing book!
ReplyDelete