While my current employment situation seriously cuts down on my online (and blogging!) time, I am getting quite a lot of reading done. 🙂

19. Mr. Maybe
Thanks to Lady Turpentine, who offered me a bunch of suggestions when I said I was in the mood for chick lit, and to Rand, who happened to come across some books for me. This was one of them, and I read it yesterday…not quite in one sitting, but close. 😉 Jane Green does this SO well. The first couple of chapters, I was all set to not like the heroine at all. But lo…by the end of the book I was totally rooting for her. Fantastic. (And a sidenote…when I read these books, I so want to be British.)

18. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Just for kicks, I went and read some of the analysis and comments at Sparknotes. I found myself disagreeing with some of their analysis, and wonder if it’s just my prejudices…anyway…I found this an interesting and thought-provoking, but ultimately depressing read. (if you haven’t read this and think it’s a *sexy* book, think again. there is sex, yes, but it’s hardly the point.) It paints a pretty bleak picture of love and sexuality, and, well, humanity, in my opinion. I guess I’m more of an optimist. 🙂

17. Rape: A Love Story
Yep, I’ve been a busy reading girl this week. I guess this is what happens when you take away my internet access. 😉

I thought this was fantastic. Horrifying, sad, dark, emotional…and fantastic. One thing I didn’t realize when I picked it up was that it’s set in Niagara Falls. A woman is brutally gang raped and left for dead in a park. Her 12-year-old daughter was the only witness. She is able to identify the perpetrators, who are arrested and charged, but they hire a sleazy defense attorney who turns the case into the most horrible “blame the victim” scenario I’ve ever read.

It’s a short read (only 154 pages), and well worth it. And the ending is perfect.

16. The Big Over Easy
I love Jasper Fforde and the Thursday Next series. I wasn’t sure how I would like his new series-crime novels based on nursery rhyme characters. It took me a while to decide how I felt about this book. Ultimately, I enjoyed it. I liked the characters, and the story was a lot of fun. I did put my finger on what was bothering me about it, and it was summed up perfectly in this review:

Fforde parodies detective fiction and nursery rhymes in an innovative and humorous way, but the world in which the story takes place is not as well developed as that in which Thursday Next lived.

I like Thursday’s world better. But I found that, like the Nursery Crimes Division, this book grew on me. I’m curious to see where he goes next.

15. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Touching, funny, sad, and utterly compelling. It was a quick, easy read that grabs you right from the first words and doesn’t let go until the very end. I would recommend this book to anyone.

14. Life After God
Of the three Douglas Coupland works I’ve read so far, this was my least favorite…which was not to say that I disliked it, but it was, well, odd. Basically, I was unable to determine whether or not the stories were supposed to be connected, or if they were just a series of similarly-themed stories and vignettes. I also had a hard time determining who was speaking most of the time. I felt that it dealt with the same issues that Coupland deals with in Girlfriend in a Coma, only that book accomplishes it much better. But that’s just my opinion. 🙂

13. Which Lie Did I Tell?
I think William Goldman is wildly entertaining, and I really enjoyed this book…both for his “insider” stories and his insights about writing. There were a few times I questioned the reasoning of anyone who wants to be a screenwriter…good God, I don’t know if I could put up with all of that Hollywood bullshit, no matter how much they were paying me. But it sure is fun to read about someone else’s experience!

12. Invisible Monsters
Okay, so apart from Fight Club, which I saw but did not read, this is my first experience with Chuck Palahniuk. It was weird, and gruesome, and unsettling, and funny, and sad. I’m definitely interested in reading more of his stuff.

11. About a Boy
While I’d previously seen both High Fidelity and About a Boy, the only Nick Hornby I’d read up until now was How to Be Good, which I liked, but I’ve heard that it’s not his best work and was panned by a lot of critics. That said, I *loved* About a Boy. I thought the story was much better than the movie (which I did also like, by the way…). The one thought that I kept having was that Hornby must have written the character of Will specifically for Hugh Grant to play in the movie. 😉

10. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
I didn’t know Joyce Carol Oates was writing YA stuff. Loved, loved, loved this, and am quickly becoming a big Joyce Carol Oates fan. She writes with such beauty and emotional honesty.

See the rest of my 50 books list here.