Monday, June 28, 2010

Ten on Tuesday: books to read this summer!

I took the "100 Book Challenge" along with my older son. Thus far I've done a poor job of planning ahead AND keeping track of what I've read thus far, but here's a quick glance at my reading pile:

1) Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. This isn't my choice, but is required summer reading for everyone who works at my school.

2) Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay. I love his books, own all of them, and cannot wait to dive into this one. It's a fantasy set in a country very like Ming China, but not quite.

3) Malcontenta by Barry Maitland. I've now read all the others in this series; this was the last one to come in via Interlibrary Loan.

4) The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. I loved, loved, loved the first book in this series (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) and can't wait to get my hands on this one. An 11-year-old girl in 1950's England, solving murders like a more cynical Harriet the Spy.

5) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I know, I know, everyone's reading this one, but the movie was so good that I have to see if the novel can compare.

6) Blackout by Connie Willis. Time travelors, comedy of manners, and London during The Blitz. The first two novels in the series were fantastic - this is the first half of a duology and apparently ends on a cliff-hanger.

7) The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. I've gotten sucked into the delights of YA fantasy this summer. This series was clearly inspired by the Harry Potter craze, but has its own merits to recommend it. A quick, light read.

8) House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. Fantastic far-future science fiction, told from the alternating points of view of a pair of lovers who are "shatterlings," or slightly altered clones of the same woman.

9) Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

10) The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker. While this is theoretically part of her long-running series about The Company, it stands on its own quite well. I adore several of the short stories that developed this world so I hope the novel will be equally compelling.

2 comments:

  1. Dropped over from Carole's - and I like you list...

    Stieg Larsson is an author I want to try...but, not on my summer list.

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  2. I'm also coming over from Carole's blog. :) How do you like Half-Broke Horses? I read The Glass Castle and have been wondering if I'd like this book, too.

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