Books and more books – Hive and Nest

The saga of my laptop is still not over. I got it back and it has decided to not boot up ever again. Even my huband/Mac wizard couldn’t get it to boot up. So back to the shop it went. The verdict is still out but the upshot is I’m still relegated to the computer in the playroom. Let me tell you, getting the kids off the computer during the summer is quite a feat.

The good news is that I have read more in the last month than I have since the internet was invented. The gigantic pile of unread books that has been languishing next to my bed forever is almost gone. There are two very promising books left, but I am saving those for our plane trip next week (Am I foolish enough to think that I might actually get to read on a plane with six children in tow? Yes. There is a fine line between foolish and optimistic.)

My favorite books of the last month (in order):

Recipe for a Perfect Marriage by Morag Prunty. It’s fiction. And WONDERFUL! I don’t generally care for fiction but I loved this. It is maybe the best book about marriage I have ever read.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’ve been avoiding this one for a while because it’s been so popular AND I thought it was a self-help book (but it’s a memoir. My favorite genre!) I figured I needed to read it before the movie comes out. I so loved this book (!!!) that I went straight to the bookstore and bought the sequel Committed (the review is further down in this post. Here’s a preview: hated it.)

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley. The guy wrote his first novel (Sweetness) at almost age 70! (Way to go!) His books are charming mysteries set in 50’s England.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani (yet another novel. Great characters and great setting.)

My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jacobs. A.J. is my very favorite humorist ever.

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. It should be titled “A Survey of the Horribleness of Western Marriage”. Ugh. The writing was dry and the subject matter was a downer.

Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Russell Rich. I really wanted to like this but it was just so all over the place. I couldn’t follow it; the chronology was too chaotic. I tossed it aside after 100 pages.

How about you? How’s your summer reading going? Anything you can recommend? Or recommend we avoid?