Currently Reading

The Silent Land by Graham Joyce - This would be a good pool or beach read.  It's set in the French Alps, so it may cool you down in the hot summer sun.  A couple go out for an early morning ski run and are caught in an avalanche.  They manage to survive and make it down the mountain, only to discover that the quaint ski village is empty.  There is no one around.  No one.  Slowly, they discover that there is something wrong.  I guessed the twist fairly early on, but I enjoyed the book and found the ending to be very poignant.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein - Non-fiction!  Who knew I could do it?  This book looks at how Americans raise their daughters and the huge influx of pink and Disney princesses and American Girl dolls.  How does all of that affect our female population?  This was an interesting read, but didn't seem to offer much of a solution to avoiding the constant marketing geared toward our girls.

Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins - Tom Robbins writes weird books.  I love them and they're entertaining and unique, but they are weird.  This was no exception.  Our protagonist, Switters, finds himself confined to a wheelchair after an eventful trip to the Amazon.  Or from having an inappropriate relationship with his step-sister.  Or from living in a nontraditional convent.  Does all of this sound weird enough?  It is weird and hilarious.  Read it.

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane - Despite my status as a born and bred Massachusetts girl, I somehow had never read any Dennis Lehane.  I decided to change that.  Mystic River follows three boys from their childhood friendship, forever tainted on one fateful day, through their very different paths taken in adulthood.  When a local girl goes missing all three find themselves connected again.  This is a story of a neighborhood and of family.  It's dark and tragic, while remaining eerily true to life.