Reading list

I'm supposed to be reading Room, by Emma Donaghue, for my bookclub next week. But the waitlist at the library is a hundred miles long, and I just can't afford to buy a new hardcover when my next paycheque is 2 and a half months away {I love summer vacation, but seriously...} For now it will have to wait. And instead I'll continue through the stack of fun, and sometimes frivolous, reads on my bedside table.  

Oh Georgia Nicholson, you crazy teenage girl, you! I read the first book in this series, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, when I was living in London one summer. I bought it at this great little bookshop in Gipsy Hill, and I can recall sitting on a bench not far from St Paul's Cathedral, eating my lunch, reading it and laughing my head off. This is the final book in the series, and while it's pretty predictable {and very silly}, there's just something about Georgia I can't help but like. I really hope she ends up with "Dave the Laugh" at the end.

Another teen novel, I just found this one at the library the other day. Yay! I love fellow British Columbian Susan Juby's books. The spring that Dylan was born, I laid in bed and read a lot while feeding him. Miss Smithers made me laugh so hard I could hardly breathe. Alan came running to see what I was shrieking about... he thought I was having some sort of mental breakdown! I can't wait to find out how Alice's senior year of high school turns out. Must get some tissues out. Don't you love a "laugh until you cry" kind of story? {aside: I met Susan Juby once and she was very cool}.

I read The Forgotten Garden this spring, and I absolutely loved it. I found it really powerful and strange and incredibly moving. I hope The House at Riverton will be the same. I was having a hard time getting into it after my surgery, but perhaps my brain was still a bit foggy? I am determined to give it another go this summer. I like an epic, sweeping story that spans the decades. I think this one will fit the bill!

Brandi was reading Enchantment this past weekend when she was staying with us, and she finished it just in time to leave it with me as she headed back out onto the road. I'm intrigued by the premise of this book: a modern day American grad student comes across a woman sleeping in the woods and awakens her with a kiss, only to be transported back in time and into a fairy tale. It sounds completely different to anything I've read lately. I'm looking forward to getting into it soon.

Among other favourite British "chick lit" authors, Alan used to buy me Isabel Wolff books for Christmas every year. They're generally quite fun and light-hearted... perfect summer reading. I found this newest Wolff book at the library the other day as I was signing the boys up for the summer reading program, and was happy to discover that I hadn't read it yet. I like the sound of this one... "Phoebe has just opened a vintage dress shop in Blackheath... But what of the past lives these clothes have lived, she often wonders? What stories would they tell if they could speak?"

My friend Charlotte gave me this one a month or so ago, but I haven't started it yet. It's a big book, and I was just too busy with year-end stuff at school to take it on. I'm ready now though. And as it turns out, it's the book that Brandi is listening to on CD as she drives across the country. She told me I'll definitely like it, as it's sort of "Twilight for grown-ups." Excellent. I do enjoy a good vampire love story!

I think this stack of novels will get me off to a good start on my summer reading list. Have you got some good books you can recommend for me to add to my pile? I'll be sitting in my adirondack chair outside my cabana soon, the hours stretched out before me... so I'll have plenty of time to devour lots of delicious words! I can't wait.