Books I've read lately

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher  - an enjoyable and interesting, frothy and funny memoir   Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix - (teen) - recommended to me by a 7th grader at Lunch in the Library with Ms. Lommel last week. Fantastic book! I couldn't put it down. The next day I foisted it onto another person who I know will enjoy it.   Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter (kids/teen) - also recommended at Lunch in the Library. I read enough of it to get a feel for it, but for some reason I've never been a big fan of books written from the perspective of animals (Watership Down, the Redwall series, etc) -- except maybe for Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. So I stopped reading it. But the writing was good and I could see why all the kids love it.   The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (teen) -- WOW. Amazing book, unputdownable. The first in a trilogy. Now I have to wait for the others. Meanwhile I plan to go to the library on Monday and check out the first one in Collins' series for younger kids, the Gregor series. How have I missed this author??   Black and White and Dead All Over by John Darnton -- thanks to Pat D for the recommendation. I enjoyed this interesting, well-written mystery -- and learned a lot about the newspaper publishing business along the way.

Looking for something to read?

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Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I have been meaning to read this history of Abraham Lincoln's rise to the presidency, and his presidency during the Civil War, since it came out in 2005. I finally managed to do it! It took me about 3 weeks but it was well worth it. It was a fantastic, interesting, wonderful book that made history come alive for me.

Recent books read

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Extremely interesting. This man could describe watching paint dry and I'd read him. This book talks about how we think about success, and how factors that we haven't even considered also play into whether someone will be a success or not. I couldn't put it down. Fascinating.   Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter. A very heartwarming read, and enjoyable. Warning: ending is sad.   A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and their Quest to See It All by Luke Dempsey. At the beginning of the book there was a nice balance between the author's snarkiness and his wonder at all the interesting and wonderful birds he was seeing, but after a while the snark factor took over and I decided not to finish the book.