Reading Machine

I'm trying to write at least one post a week (and yes, I'm a tad behind this week because of having a crazy week) that is not about babies or pregnancy. There is more going on in my life than that - so I'm trying to reflect that. Of course there is more going on - I work... but how exciting is talking about work?
Anyway, I noticed recently that I've read a TON (relatively speaking for me) of books since I got my Barnes & Noble nook for Christmas... so I thought I'd share with you some of those books and let you in on these little gems that help me have an hour of down-time during the work day.

Here they are in order that I've read them... and maybe at the end - I'll tell you some that are in the cue for the future.

Finished:

1)  Knit Two (Friday Night Knitting Club, No 2) - by Kate Jacobs... if you haven't read Friday Night Knitting Club, start there... these books are WONDERFUL! It's sort of like a modern version of Steel Magnolias set within New York City... and teh second one has all of the characters traveling to Italy. It's a great story about friendship and love amoungst some unlikely characters.

2)  Comfort Food - by Kate Jacobs... this is another really great book that I enjoyed reading. It's about a woman that has her own television program on a cable network similar to Food Network, and the story of her reinventing herself to stay fresh for the viewers. Of course there is a lot more to the story than that, but is is very entertaining.

3)  Something Borrowed - by Emily Giffin... I've wanted to read her books for a while now - I kept seeing them in the store with the pretty and very simply elegant covers... but never had gotten around to actually buying one. WOW, I missed out... but in the end - I got to read them one right after the other... so that's cool. This book is her first, and it's being made into a movie right now with Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin staring as the main two characters... I can't wait to see the movie. Anyway, it's a good story about best friends that are truly opposites - and how their lives get muddled into doing things that they'd never thought were possible. I highly recommend you pick up this one and read it - and I promise you'll fall in love with Emily Giffin and want to read her other books. A summary from a review by Publishers Weekly: Since elementary school, Rachel and Darcy have been best friends, with Darcy always outshining Rachel. While single Rachel is the self-confessed good girl, an attorney trapped at a suffocating New York law firm, Darcy is the complete opposite, a stereotypical outgoing publicist, planning a wedding with the handsome Dex. After Rachel's 30th birthday party, she knocks back one drink too many and winds up in bed with Dex. Instead of feeling guilty about sleeping with her best friend's fiancé, Rachel realizes that Dex is the only man she's really loved, and that she's always resented manipulative Darcy. Rachel and Dex spend a few weekends in the city together "working" while Darcy's off with friends at a Hamptons beach share, but finally Rachel realizes she'll have to give Dex an ultimatum.

4)  Something Blue - by Emily Giffin... This one follows the character Darcy from Something Borrowed through the next phase of her life. The amazing thing about this book was that in Something Borrowed, I didn't really like Darcy's character... but as this book progressed and you got to see the character on a deeper level - and ultimately her transformation into a completely different person... you fall in love with her too. A summary from a review by Publishers Weekly: Perhaps beautiful Darcy Rhone isn't really wicked, but she is one of the most shallow, materialistic, self-centered and naïve 29-year-olds around. Ostensibly a high-powered PR person in Manhattan (though she never seems to work), Darcy spends most of her time shopping, partying and getting ready for her wedding to perfect guy Dex. But an alcohol-fueled Hamptons fling with one of Dex's pals, Marcus, starts to break Darcy's perfect life down; and discovering Dex hiding in her best friend Rachel's closet really shatters it. Pregnant with Marcus's baby, Darcy decamps for London, where she crashes in high school pal Ethan's flat and annoys the heck out of him with her endless shopping and complete disregard for her impending motherhood. But after a good lecture from Ethan, whom Darcy has started to fall for a little, Darcy embarks on a self-improvement plan, thereby demonstrating she can think about someone besides herself.

5)  The 9th Judgment - by James Patterson... it's no secret that I love the Women's Murder Club series... I've done a post about the books before. I really enjoy them for the way James Patterson writes in short chapters - I love that when I want to read "just one more chapter" that only means a couple more pages! Of course 9 books into the series - I'm vested in the characters and the stories, and since I'm one of those people that can read or watch a cop related book/program/movie and never make any predictions on who did it or why... I'm the perfect reader for him. The stories are great, and I enjoy watching them unfold as I read. Am I the only one that does that? I just want to watch/read and let the author take me on the journey they want me to go on without jumping ahead to figure out "who done it"...

Taken from a review of the book: A young mother and her infant child are ruthlessly gunned down while returning to their car in the garage of a shopping mall. There are no witnesses, and Detective Lindsay Boxer is left with only one shred of evidence: a cryptic message scrawled across the windshield in bloodred lipstick. The same night, the wife of A-list actor Marcus Dowling is woken by a cat burglar who is about to steal millions of dollars' worth of precious jewels. In just seconds there is a nearly empty safe, a lifeless body, and another mystery that throws San Francisco into hysteria.
Lindsay spends every waking hour working with her partner, Rich--and her desire for him threatens to tear apart both her engagement and the Women's Murder Club. Before Lindsay and her friends can piece together either case, one of the killers forces Lindsay to put her own life on the line--but is it enough to save the city? With unparalleled danger and explosive action, The 9th Judgment is James Patterson at his compelling, unstoppable best!

6)  Baby Proof - by Emily Giffin... the author leaves the original characters of Something Borrowed and Something Blue behind in her third book (and the subsequent two since then as well) and writes about a new couple. This couple went into their relationship with the understanding that neither of them wanted children - but somewhere along the way one of them changes their mind on the subject... so this book takes you through their journey through that issue. A summary from a review by Publishers Weekly: As a successful editor at a Manhattan publishing house, Claudia Parr counts herself fortunate to meet and marry Ben, a man who claims to be a nonbreeding career-firster like she is. The couple's early married years go smoothly, but then Ben's biological clock starts to tick. A baby's a deal breaker for Claudia, so she moves out and bunks with her college roommate Jess (a 35-year-old blonde goddess stuck in a series of dead-end relationships) while the wheels of divorce crank into action. Even after the divorce is finalized and Claudia embarks on a steamy love affair with her colleague Richard, she begins to doubt her decision when she suspects Ben has found a smart, young and beautiful woman willing to bear his children.

7)  Love the One You're With - by Emily Giffin... this novel leaves the topic of babies behind and focuses on relationships. More specifically a marriage and within that marriage a spouse that has some unresolved issues concerning a former relationship. You will follow the journey as Ellen figures out if she can let go of the past, and forge ahead with a future that fulfills her. A summary from a review by Publishers Weekly: Shortly after marrying Andy, Ellen runs into Leo, her intense first love. Leo, a moody writer, has secretly preoccupied Ellen ever since he broke her heart, so after seeing him again, Ellen wonders if her perfect life is truly what she wants or simply what she was expected to want. This scenario is complicated by Ellen's past: the early death of her mother and subsequent disintegration of her family have left Ellen insecure and saddled with unresolved feelings of guilt. These feelings intensify when Andy's career takes the newlyweds from Ellen's beloved New York City to suburban Atlanta. As Ellen's feelings of inadequacy and resentment grow, her marriage begins to crumble.

Currently Reading:

1)  What to Expect When You're Expecting - well, I know what I said... that I wasn't going to talk about my pregnancy in this post... but I wouldn't be giving you a complete list of my current reading if I didn't give you this on the list too. I've been following along as my pregnancy progresses, and the book has been helpful on some topics so far...

2)  The Heart of the Matter - by Emily Giffin... I'm only a couple of chapters into this one, but I've loved her other books so much that I have no doubt of how much I'll love it when I finish it. Here is a summary taken from a review by Publishers Weekly written about the book: Nick Russo is a pediatric plastic surgeon; his wife, Tessa (sister of Dex, from Something Borrowed), is a professor turned stay-at-home mom living a cushy life in Boston. Nick is called in to care for a six-year-old burn victim, and Nick's devotion to his work is soon tangled up in his attraction to the boy's mother, Valerie, a single attorney. Narrated in turn by Tessa and Valerie, the action centers around—will they or won't they, and, if they do, will Tessa forgive him? While unclear what Nick finds so unsatisfying in his marriage, adultery is always tempting and Tessa and Valerie both have their charms.

To be Read:

1) The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship - by Andrea Israel
2) Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen - by Julie Powell
3) Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession - by Julie Powell
4) Not My Daughter - by Barbara Delinsky
5) The Surgeon - by Tess Gerritsen
6) The Apprentice - by Tess Gerritsen
7) The Sinner - by Tess Gerritsen
8) Body Double - by Tess Gerritsen
9) Vanish - by Tess Gerritsen
10) The Mephisto Club - by Tess Gerritsen
11) The Keepsake - by Tess Gerritsen
12) Ice Cold - by Tess Gerritsen

Hope that one or two of these might interest you... let me know if you choose to read any of them - I'd love to hear what you think about them too!