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summer reading list

since everyone is posting their summer reading list, i thought id post mine, as well. but its long, so beware.

the following are the ones i have read and are stacked on top of our bookshelf waiting to be sold back to the used books store in town.

• winter's tale - mark helprin
  it goes on and on and things happen but i dont know why or, fully, what. the ending makes no sense, and i was left feeling like i just experienced something big but didnt know what it was. it was probably the fantasy aspect of the book that threw me.
• haussman or the distinction - paul lafarge
  it took me a while to get into the older styled language of this book, but once i did i was completely enraptured by the characters and their greed.
• from a buick 8 - stephen king
  not his best, but a fun summer read. besides, its stephen king - what other reason to read it?
• the poisonwood bible - barbara kingsolver
  recommended by... someone... and not too shabby. the male authority figures and the super-conservative 'christian' morals were meant to be hated. and hated they were.
• how to make an american quilt - whitney otto
  loaned to me by a friend, was much better than the movie.
• beyond the bedroom wall: a family album - larry woiwode
  i didnt understand the need to follow all four generations of this family, when most of the book focused on the third generation. the author could have spent less time describing the grandfather, father, and even the son, and the story would have been better.
• i know this much is true - wally lamb
  this and the following two came from a coworker who got a ton of books from the transfer station (read: dump). twin brothers struggling with mental illness and identity. really good.
• terminal velocity - blanche mccrary boyd
  this book came without the book jacket and is nothing like the movie, in that it is about a lesbian commune in the 70s and doesnt have charlie sheen.
• the second summer of the sisterhood - ann brashares
  unsurprisingly, this is the second of a trilogy - something i didnt realize until most of the way through the book. but now that i know, it was completely obvious from the chapter one 'what happened last summer' summary. a group of teenage girls dealing with mothers, love, and death. not terrible, not great.

i still have a stack of books in my to-be-read queue. the majority of these came from the friend who got a stack of books from the transfer station, and i have no idea what they are about. considering how difficult it is for me to not finish a book i have started (no matter how emotionally damaging the book may be), they should be pretty fun.

• elixir - gary braver
• summer of storms - judith kelman
• flower net - lisa see
• blood work - michael connelly
• the playground of the gods - cathy cash-spellman
• midnight in the garden of good and evil - john berendt
• keeping faith - jodi picoult
• smilla's sense of snow - peter hoeg
• omeros - derek walcott
• a fine balance - rohinton mistry
• the house of mirth - edith wharton (a loaner from a friend)