Recently in Recent Reads Category

My head needed a break yesterday from reading queries and partials, so after work yesterday, I sat out on our back deck and dove into Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much. I'm not sure if I've previously mentioned my addiction to TLC and HGTV, but Peter was one of the organizational gurus on TLC's Clean Sweep, and It's All Too Much is a guide to follow his steps to live clutter-free, happier lives.

Does it work? Let's just say that halfway through the book, I took a break to clean out our hall closet, packing heavy winter coats away in storage and finding boxes and bags to hold out hats, gloves, and scarves more neatly. After another chapter, I cleared off the top of our hutch, which still hosted some wedding gifts for which we hadn't yet found a permanent home. By the time I finished, late last night, I'd prepared a plan of attack to organize and de-clutter three more rooms -- my home office, our bedroom, and the master bathroom.

Highly recommend.

So I was looking at my list of Recent Reads lately, shocked and a little appalled that it's so short (though I consoled myself with the fact that it's short because I've been reading manuscripts, not books), when I remembered a title I left out! Marvel's Civil War trade paperback collection, on the ride back from the airport recently. Especially fitting considering Rexroth and I just saw Iron Man (so awesome! Go see it!) and I was pulling most of my pre-movie information about the character from this book.

So, do I have any other comic book nerds out there? Rexroth is one, so I have lots more books on my shelves to read. I'll keep you posted!

A lovely editor in the Random House group was kind enough to slide me a copy of Sophie Kinsella's latest, REMEMBER ME? This is the story of a woman who wakes up from a car accident with three years worth of amnesia, and spends the rest of the book trying to match her memories of herself and her life with the cold, uncaring, driven, glamorous person she's apparently become. I've decided I much prefer Kinsella's non-SHOPAHOLIC books, since I'm not quite as prone to spend my reading time annoyingly frustrated with the main character. This was a perfect escape between final wedding prep and my sister's marathon viewing sessions of crime dramas. As I've said before, Kinsella is one of my fave women's fiction writers, although her work is consistently on the lighter side of things. And sometimes you need that. Who else should I try next time I need a break?

I finally finished reading Brad Meltzer's The Book of Fate last night, which I think I've been working on for about a month. I usually like to tear through books, especially thrillers, but for some reason I just couldn't get excited enough about this one to let it distract me from my other reading (of submissions) or other activities. It's marketed to appeal to a Da Vinci Code audience, but is not really about the same sort of thing at all. It's a pretty straightforward Washington political thriller. Good if you like that sort of thing. Not quite was I was hoping for. For something really interesting from Meltzer, try Identity Crisis. I wasn't familiar with a lot of the characters before I read this, but I easily found myself turning pages.

Between packing, while Rexroth and I gallivanted around town on various methods of local transportation, I read Katie MacAlister's Holy Smokes, the fourth Aisling Grey, Guardian novel. These are just pure fun, laugh out loud, sexy paranormals. The cast of characters, many of whom reappear from previous books, are hilariously drawn, and the naughty bits are steamy. I have to say, my favorite recent romances have all been funny. Any other suggestions for me?

Up at the family homestead this weekend, while watching the football championship games (Go Giants!), I finished the latest Gabriel Allon thriller, The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva. Allon is an Israeli assassin and master spy, as well as a renowned art restorer. In previous books, he saved the President's life, foiled an attempt on the life of the Pope, and killed countless terrorists. In this latest go-around, Allon's attempt to warn the British about a possible attack on their soil leaves his name and picture all over the press again, and he must gather his trusted team to save the girl, and himself.

I always enjoy Silva's books, although this latest one seemed to start off rather slowly. The spycraft always feels incredibly authentic, although I must admit (and this is probably also a statement on our own world, from which Silva draws his fiction) that the last few books which find Allon pitted against Islamist jihadists have started to feel similar.

Still, I'll look forward to the next one. What are some of your favorite spy novels? And Matt Damon aside, which was better, The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, or the Doug Liman movie?

I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak, on the plane ride out to Denver. Started it waiting to board, finished in somewhere over the midwest. I loved four-fifths of it, but just didn't like the authorial insertion in the end.