What are you reading?

I thought I would take a break today from bombarding you with home improvement updates and talk about something different.  With all the chaos in our house right now, I could certainly use a break myself!  Thank you for all of the sweet comments about the tile - we really appreciate them!

Since it's summer, and everyone has a long list of good beach reads stacked up (whether or not you'll actually make it to the beach is beside the point), I wanted to talk about a couple of the books I've recently finished. 

Mom, I hope you didn't just fall out of your chair since I'm writing a post about reading.  Books.  I know!

I go in stages with reading.  I'll get into a book that I'm just not loving, but feel that I must finish it before I can move on.  And it can go on like this for months!  I find myself completely uninterested in reading.  And then, finally, I'll either finish that book, or just switch and decide to start something new.  Well, a couple of months ago I finally finished The Year of Pleasures. 

It was a good book, it really was...and I don't know why it took me FOREVER to read...because it's not that big.  But it just did.  Ugh, it seemed to drag...but, it was a good story!  Anyway, nevermind about that.

My blogger BFF (who doesn't actually know who I am), Jenna at Eat Live Run, does a book review every week or so.  And she did one right as I was about to be ready to start reading again.  And she's incredibly convincing!  When she says it's "the best book I've read this year" - I believe her!  (granted, I just realized it was on February 28...so only 2 months into the year...details.)  So I clicked the link right off her page and ordered Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt immediately. 

And you should too.  It was so good.  It was finally a book that wasn't just about some fancy single 30-something NYC ad exec and her amazing boyfriend, that I feel like so many chick-lit books are about.  It was a great story, and kept me interested the whole way through.  I finished this pretty quickly - and it usually takes me a while to get through even books I love. 

Then, she reviewed another one that I wanted to get.  I'm telling you - you have to be careful with her, she's a crazy reader, can finish a book in a day.  If I bought all the books she recommends, I'd have a full library.  She'd recommended one by Kristin Hannah when I was only about halfway finished with Pictures of You, so I decided to hold off...then she did another one, Firefly Lane.  And it was perfect timing.

I hear she's the next big author, so I wanted to check it out.  This is a great story about childhood friends, and I really enjoyed it.  I cried through the last 3 chapters or so, and when a book can do that you know it's good!  I'm currently listening to another one by her, Winter Garden, through Audible during my commute (when I'm not listening to the traffic report).  I'm not very far into it, but it's really good so far!

I'm now trying to decide between The Help and Water for Elephants.  I've heard great things about both, and I want to read both, just haven't started either one yet. 

Have you read any good books lately?