Currently Reading

Now that it's fall and life is (almost) back to reality, it feels like there are so many books and so little time to get through all of them.

Any recommendations?  I'm looking for some new stuff and would love to know what you guys have gotten your hands on lately!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman - This is allegedly a kids' book, but it scared the shit out of me, so give to your children at your own peril.  Coraline wanders around her new house and the gardens pretending she is an explorer.  When she finds a door that opens onto a blank brick wall, she wonders what is on the other side.  She soon discovers just that.  The other side of the door is an alternate version of her own house, complete with an Other Mother and Other Father.  They look somewhat like her real parents, with the exception of their eyes, which are sewn-on buttons.  When Coraline returns to her real house and finds her real parents missing, she knows that she must take on the Other Mother in order to get her life back.  Gaiman really doesn't disappoint.

The Hundred Year Flood by Matthew Salesses - After his uncle kills himself on 9/11, Tee runs away to Prague.  An adopted Korean-American, he has never felt truly a part of anything and hopes that the city will welcome him with open arms.  Drunk on New Year's Eve, he meets Katka and Pavel.  Pavel is an artist who wishes to paint Tee.  As Tee becomes a part of their daily life, he begins to question his place in the world and his involvement with the couple.  While this book was well-written, it dragged for me.  Not bad, but not something I would reach for again.

Under the Dome by Stephen King - On a beautiful day, an invisible barrier drops down over the town of Chester's Mill, Maine.  No one knows where it came from, what it is made of, or how long it will stay up.  In this epic novel, King looks at the breakdown of society.  When the outside world, and its laws and niceties, is taken out of the equation, what type of person thrives?  In this case, it is the power-hungry, the greedy, and the ruthless.  Even though this book is enormous, I plowed through it and hated every time I had to put it down to go about my every day life.  A great, fun read.  Although I did wish for an epilogue...