Recent Reads

Warning: Don't pick up the Hunger Games unless you can devote the next week to doing nothing but reading three books in a row. Just like Twilight, I couldn't put it down. The difference is that Twilight was dumb; the Hunger Games is good. If you do take the plunge into this series, I recommend that you prepare a response to the following question ahead of time:

Casual observer: "Wow, you're still reading? What is that about anyway?"

Me: "Um...well, *giggle,* it's this book for teenagers, but it's really good. Kind of weird though. Ummm.... It's basically about these kids that are forced to kill each other in this futuristic society. But not really... I mean, it's really good. *awkwardness* You'll just have to read it.

Suggested response: "Oh, it's really good! It's about a dystopian society where children are used as pawns in a game to keep the government in power. The author was inspired by Twilight and the Iraq War. Isn't that interesting? You should read it.

It really is written at an 8th grade reading level though. Which makes it awesome! That also makes it really difficult to get back to reading adult-level books. For this reason, it took me quite some time to get through Let the Great World Spin, but I'm glad I did. It is a story about New Yorkers in the 1970s--hippies, lawyers, hookers, christians, tighrope walkers, and housewives-- all mashed together, and related in ways that they don't even realize. It reminded me a lot of A Week in December, but better -- because it is about America. JK--that's not the real reason. It was just better. (like America.) Arrgh--okay, okay. Kidding! I couldn't resist.

Reading three children's books in a row made it so hard to get back to adult reading, that I ventured into the world of audiobooks. I actually think that I'll stay here for awhile. There's only so many times that you can rock out to Rihanna's "S&M" on every single radio station before you realize that you're singing along and have to turn it off immediately. So, I recently listened to Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods," and Tina Fey's "Bossypants." I highly recommend both. I also recommend both in audiobook format, as opposed to written format. Bill Bryson has an adorable british accent, and Tina Fey is just hilarious.

P.S. I stole the "dystopian" answer from an acquaintance who is clearly much smarter than me. I had to look it up on Wikipedia. Don't laugh. At least my public school taught me about Wikipedia. Oh wait...that was my overpriced private liberal arts college. :)