A Small Sacrifice, by Ellen Hart

Another Hart book. More of the same.

Hunting the Witch, by Ellen Hart

Another by Hart...fun, silly.

Wicked Games, by Ellen Hart

A fluffy detective/thriller, and a new writer for me to enjoy. Very silly books with over-the-top characters, but fun to read.

A Meeting By the River, by Christopher Isherwood

This is another of my Aunt Susan's recommendations, and it was a really interesting read. It's kind of an exercise in point-of-view. You get the story of two estranged brothers coming back together as one becomes a Hindu monk, but you get the story mostly in letters from the two to each other and others, as well as a few journal entries by the monk-to-be. It's fascinating how Isherwood establishes, and allows us to discover, the character of the two men by their different voices when they write to each other, to their mother, to their wife, to their secret lovers. Very engaging.

Enigma, by Thomas Harris

So this has been my "car book" for the last few months. It's the book I leave in my car for when I forget to bring a book, so that I always have something to read. I've read it before, a long time ago. I read it in little chunks over a long time, but it's an engaging story about WWII code-breakers at Bletchley. Just enough math to make it interesting, without making it unreadable.

My Story, by Marilyn Monroe w/Ben Hecht

Now, I'm not the kind of Marilyn Monroe fan who has MM pajamas, and a MM coffee mug, and pictures of MM on her walls, but I am kind of fascinated with her. I've read a slew of Monroe biographies and fictional accounts, and I think I have seen nearly all of her movies by now. This one has wonderful photographs in it, though the writing is not stellar. It's interesting, though, and the closest to hearing it from her, I guess. I wish she had gotten farther.

The Well-Rested Woman, by Janet Kinosian

I have a long, love-hate relationship with sleep and a vivid history of insomnia, so whenever someone writes a book about sleep, I read it. Hasn't made a whole lot of difference, but I like Kinosian's set-up. She presents a wide variety of variables, and possible fixes/treatments. I still have trouble sleeping, but this is the best book about sleeping I've read.

Charmed Circle, by Susan Ertz

This is a book recommended by my wonderful Aunt Susan. I have a list of books she recommends, and I'm working my way through them. This one was lovely, a really detailed portrait of a not entirely functional family. Ertz creates such a vivid sense of place, time, and family.

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

So, I reread this after reading Pamela Aidan's books about Mr. Darcy. Just as simple and wonderful and light as ever.

These Three Remain, by Pamela Aidan (#3 in the Mr. Darcy series)

See below.

Duty and Desire by Pamela Aidan (#2 in the Mr. Darcy series)

See below.

An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan (#1 in the Mr. Darcy series)

A wonderful idea: write the story of Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy's point of view. You get very little of him in Austen's book and Aidan does a nice job of staying true to the language, the tone, and the character of Austen's original. I don't think she needed to write three books to do it, though I'm sure it made it more lucrative for her. I found some of the passages where we were in Mr. Darcy's head pretty tedious. I'm a big fan of the show over the tell. But I really enjoyed the books, I just wish they had cut the fat out and made it just one novel.

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

So, I was on a game show! Merv Griffin's Crosswords, to be exact, and I am contractually prohibited from sharing the outcome. But I think I can admit that it was a lot of fun, and that I spent a lot of time sitting around and reading.

I read this Jane Austen on the set of the game show, and around the same time as the Mr. Darcy books and Pride and Prejudice. Very clever little book, though not as engaging as her others, to me.

No Good Deeds, by Laura Lippman

Jury duty PI thriller. A good one.

The Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Another ridiculous thriller. Passes the time.

Darkest Fear, by Harlan Coben

Jury duty thriller. Enjoyable; I like Coben's books

The Surgeon, by Tess Gerritsen

I had jury duty, so I got a bunch of fluffy paperbacks at the library, in case I needed to kill a lot of time. As it turned out, jury duty lasted about 3 hours. By the time they had the case, they realized it was going to be about 6 weeks (who can do that?) and, in a surprisingly generous way, released all potential jurors who were self-employed. No fighting necessary, and I was ready to throw down, if need be.

Anyway, The Surgeon: good, solid thriller/murder sort of thing.

The Last King Of Scotland, by Giles Foden

Great book. Not surprisingly, much better than the movie. The early changes made in the adaptation are good, and still serve the story, but the drastic changes made to the end unhinged the film a bit, and now that I've read the book, I understand why we were not as happy with the movie as we expected to be. I'm now wanting to read some more about Idi Amin and see how true this story is to real life. Very interesting.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell

Writing non-fiction, particularly science-based non-fiction, is a really impressive talent. Gladwell is one of the best. I loved The Tipping Point, and this one achieves what Gilbert was trying to do with Stumbling on Happiness, I think. He organizes ideas and stories in such a way that the connections are easily made, and I feel like I understand human nature a little better.

Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Todd Gilbert

There was so much fuss about this book, and I liked it, but it didn't read to me so much about happiness as about how we make decisions, and I liked Gladwell's Blink better. This one is an interesting collection of studies and anecdotes, but Gilbert's tone verges on smug for me.