Walking to work yesterday I noticed a Books and Baked Goods Sale outside my building. Books and baked goods? Yes please! And apparently I showed up to browse at exactly the right time, the end of the day, as the fundraisers wanted to push the books and announced, grab a box, fill it up, five bucks.
Awesome. At this point in the day, most of the books left were cheap paperbacks, bodice-rippers if you will. I avoid these and go for anything marked “novel” in order to fill my summer reading quota. I usually read memoirs and non-fiction, and I’ve already stacked my shelf with these, so I grabbed at some fiction.
A selection of Pierre Trudeau’s writings
The Voices of Robby Wilde, a non-fiction account of a man with schizophrenia.
Quickening, a novel set in 1985 Upstate New York (I’m excited about this one)
The Incantation of Frida K., not an actual biography of Frida Kahlo, but a treatise on memory at the end of life.
Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, a memoir about Father Joe, a mentor to the author.
The Safety of Objects, the short stories of A.M. Homes
A Week in October, a novel in the form of an autobiography concerning unfaithful marriages.
Vinegar Hill, an Oprah Book Club book (which is not why I grabbed it) which chronicles the life of a family in the Midwest.
The Long Way Home, a non-fiction work about immigrants who fought for America during World War I.
I Could Tell You Stories, a collection of writings concerning memoirs and the act of writing memoirs.
Morality for Beautiful Girls, is apparently the third book in a series, ooops, but could still be good.
A Little Trouble With the Facts, a novel about gossip in New York City in 1999, very gossip-girl-like it seems.
A biography of Rudyard Kipling, I love Kipling, so I’m excited about this one.
Kill The Dead, seems to be a supernatural series, I grabbed it because I tried to find something for The Professor, but I doubt he’ll read this.
Making Toast, a memoir published this year about a family going through grief of losing one of their own.
Sandcastles, the only one I’m skeptical about because it looks like something my mother would read on the beach. But I won’t judge it by it’s cover. Or, I’ll give it to my mother next weekend when I see her!
The Rags of Time, the last novel in a series (ooops again) about an aging novelist living in New York.
A Pilates book!
Candace Bushnell’s Trading Up. I’ve read her books before and they’re good beach books. Quick and easy.
I also picked up some German novels and poetry books because I really miss reading in German.
Has anyone read any of these? Any suggestions with where I should start?
