Recent Reads

I basically have four things I can do while the baby is napping - cook, clean, surf the web, or read. When I have a really good book, cooking and cleaning slide a little ;) Here are the books that have recently caused the laundry to back up:


Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith. Philosopher Isabel Dalhousie navigates her day to day life in Scotland with charming thoughtfulness and a curious streak that often gets her into trouble.





The second in the 44 Scotland Street series, more of the musings and adventures of an odd selection of neighbors in Edinburgh. It's mostly light hearted but the stuff about Bertie, the gifted little boy with the fearsomely yuppy mother, made me cry.





The third in the 44 Scotland Street series. Focuses a little more on gentle, unassuming Matthew and Angus the portrait artist. The narcissist Bruce has moved on to London and oddly, I kind of missed him!



I read The Hunger Games and the other two books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, in a week. This series is irresistible. It reminded me of all the paranoid, cautionary fiction hoisted on us in school, but with more romance, more adventure, and more bizarre fashion. It gets progressively grimmer and grimmer but ends with a surprisingly satisfying finish. Loved it.


Currently reading The Demon King because some website said that "if you like Hunger Games you may like this". I was on the fence until I read one review in which the reader gushed that it was the best fantasy novel he'd ever read. I have since realized that this review was probably written by a very young person. I'm about half way through it and am enjoying it but probably won't continue with the series.