<p>I recommend The Heights by Peter Hedges. He also wrote What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and An Ocean in Iowa as well as several wonderful screenplays of movies I love. (About a Boy, Dan in Real Life). His writing is funny, sweet and full of surprises. The characters are unforgettable and his books are hard to put down.</p>
<p>Just read The Gurensey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society… great quick read.</p>
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<p>I am not a big fantasy lover but got this series for my son, picked up one of the books on a whim and couldn’t put it down. It is a great story with a wonderful lead character, you can’t help but love Harry Dresden.</p>
<p>I just finished a great non-fiction work–Farm City. The author is Novella Carpenter–she’s written about her experiences as an urban farmer (including raising chickens and a pig) in Oakland, CA. She inspired to add to my humble container garden.</p>
<p>Not light but exciting/thriller…just finished reading The Last Child by John Hart.</p>
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<p>BUandBC82, that is absolutely hilarious.</p>
<p>Ok, you guys have all convinced me to start this series. DH leaves tonight to prepare our lake house for the annual July 4 bash we host every year. DD has a date, so this sounds like a perfect time to curl up with a book which might cause me to otherwise ignore my family.</p>
<p>I’ll pick up some wine, but don’t know about the candy ciggies, lol.</p>
<p>I bought Outlander last Saturday. Told myself not to start reading it, to save it for vacation…, yeah that didn’t work. Last night I decided I may as well FINISH reading it and get book 2 for vacation, so I was up rather late finishing book 1.</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings on it. I liked the beginning of the book, then about 1/3 of the way thru it felt like it turned into a Harlequin Romance. How many ways can our dashing, selfless hero save the damsel in distress? How many ways can the author reiterate the point that the man is the MAN? But then it got better again, until the last section, which I just felt was over-long and way too melodramatic. So a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of whether I really enjoyed it or was just reading to get thru it by my self-imposed deadline.</p>
<p>BUT… I was sufficiently sucked in to buy book 2 and I’m looking forward to reading it on the plane and by the pool.</p>
<p>Edit - I’m not a literary snob, I liked Twilight even though I know it’s not well-written. I thought it raised some interesting questions, such as: Is it worth giving up your humanity to gain immortality? (And why don’t <em>I</em> have a friend like Alice?) But I was embarrassed to admit to people that I had read and enjoyed it, because I’m not a cougar or a pedophile. I felt a little better yesterday when the Boston Globe listed some prominent adults around town who consider themselves Twilight fans - including a woman who is a lecturer on literature at Harvard!
<a href=“http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2010/06/29/wait_youre_a_twilight_fan/[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2010/06/29/wait_youre_a_twilight_fan/</a></p>
<p>I’ll second “Farm City”, which was LOL funny. </p>
<p>I really like the P.J. Tracy mystery novels, starting with Monkeewrench. Totally and wonderfully plot-driven.</p>
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<p>EK, you should have prefaced that with a total spoiler alert. :)</p>
<p>This is a walk down memory lane! So many books that I have enjoyed have been mentioned! If you liked Dog Gone It, then you may like The Art of Racing in the Rain, anothe book (though more heart rending) written from a dog’s perspective.</p>
<p>I’m just getting around to reading the Larrsen books. I finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and immediately started the second one. This is definitely summer-style reading for me.</p>
<p>Haven’t read thru the whole thread so please disregard if this has already been suggested… any of the books by Carl Hiaasen. They always have some sort of crime/mystery woven in but are laugh out loud funny.</p>
<p>If you have not read Ken Follets “Pillars of the Earth” and it’s sequel “World Without End”…run to the store now and buy them. They are great. Both are really long. Don’t be intimidated by the thickness of the books. You will fly through them. Can’t put them down.</p>
<p>Also, I am another reader who really enjoyed the Outlander books.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4, Enjoy your reading time!</p>
<p>Lafalum84, I felt the exact same way about the first book. I loved the story line but agree it got a little romance novelish. My husband had bought me the book and I debated about getting the next one. I gave it a chance and was not disappointed. The reason I read them twice is because there is so much information in them that I missed a lot of it rushing to see what happened. I don’t think you will be disapointed with book 2.</p>
<p>^^^ disappointed, I can’t edit on my phone.</p>
<p>EK, you should have prefaced that with a total spoiler alert</p>
<p>:o</p>
<p>Im sorry I forgot that in many of the books she isn’t even in them-
howabout that Bunter?
;)</p>
<p>Carl Hiassen is a great idea for a beach read. Skinny Dip is laugh out loud funny, and not a bad mystery either. I listened to it in the car when my oldest and I were doing the college tour. He doesn’t usually listen to my audiobooks, but it sucked him right in. Soon he was chortling along with me.</p>
<p>Got through Outlander in 2 days and really enjoyed it. For the first time, I regretted (slightly) having a book on Kindle. A few times, I wanted to go back and re-read a few passages as certain events began to make more sense in light of other incidents. It’s hard to do that on Kindle unless you have bookmarked passages. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’ve already started the second novel and so far I’m very engaged. Was tempted to read it yesterday rather than doing some essential errands, but I resisted the inclination.</p>
<p>Nrbsd4, I’m glad you’re enjoying Outlander. Did you get through the bottle of wine?</p>
<p>^^^^We actually didn’t have any wine, so I had a vodka/perrier!</p>
<p>A few times, I did regret not buying the candy ciggies, though. Ha ha.</p>
<p>Well I finished Outlander # 2 (aka Dragonfly in Amber) and liked it more than the first one. I am a voracious reader, but it took me almost the whole week on vacation to finish it - which is a good thing! I hate books that are done too fast. I’m now into book 3 (aka Voyager) and enjoying it as well.</p>
<p>^^^^Ditto.</p>
<p>SO jealous of you both, Lafalum and Nrdsb4, with all those Outlander books unread ahead of you! I’m just waiting for #8–and not too patiently.</p>