What are you reading now?

As you know, I like to read.  As you also know, the stack below my bedside table haunts me, reminding me that I will never, ever live as long as I need to read everything I want to read.  Still I’m always adding to it.  I find myself going through seasons with my reading, though they don’t necessarily follow the calendar.  Last summer I read only US Weekly and poetry; I just could not bear to read a real book.  I’m not sure why.  I read lots of memoir and then I crave fiction.  Etc.  I’m always, always looking for recommendations from others.

My friend Kristen from Motherese yesterday asked for summer reading suggestions.  It made me think I would like to hear from you all, as well, as to what you’re reading and planning to in this season that often offers more wide open space to sink into books.  As for me, I recently read J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine, which I loved, and Annie Dillard’s Tickets For a Prayer Wheel, characteristically full of grace and thought-provoking imagery.  I am now reading Stacy Morrison’s Falling Apart in One Piece.  I’m furiously underlining and finding myself looking up from the book, gulping, relating to so much of what she writes.  Next up, in no order yet, are Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Jack Kornfield’s The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace, and Andre Agassi’s Open.  I’m also in a big Wendell Berry phase and am finding myself drawn to his poetry right now.

I’m eager to hear what you are reading, and what you plan to read this summer?

25 thoughts on “What are you reading now?”

  1. Like you I’m a voracious reader. My day isn’t completely if I don’t carve out an hour with a good book of some kind. Also like you I go through seasons of craving different kinds of books. I just finished The Help. Next up is Brené’s first book “I thought it was only me” and then, well my to read list on GoodReads has more than 100 books on it. I think maybe Amy Tan’s book on writing. It will all depend on my mood. 🙂

  2. I’m reading Tina Fey’s Bossypants and then Jennifer Egan’s book A Visit From The Goon Squad.

  3. Also loved William Kuhn’s Reading Jackie and the fiction Sister by Rosamund Lipton (it’s a mystery!)

  4. thank you for sharing your reading list, lindsey. i recently read come to the edge by christina haag (memoir) and state of wonder by ann patchett (novel).

  5. I read J. Courtney Sullivan’s book, Commencement and loved it. Didn’t know she had a second book out! I’ll have to check it out. I loved the beginning of Just Kids, but it got old after the first 100 pages. I was tired of the name dropping. Actually, in the midst of that book, when I was feeling inspired by her early days in New York, I bought Smith’s first album and realized I’m not as adventurous with my music as I used to be!

  6. My pile? Swamplandia by Karen Russell. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments by Jim Baggott. Just finished Sister by Rosamond Lupton. SO good, if you like literary mystery novels (I think that might have been my first!). xo

  7. Thanks for sharing (and asking)! I, too, shift from memoir to fiction, poetry and spirituality, with an occasional dive into something career related so I’m ready again when (if?) the time comes. Currently reading Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder and Sylvia Boorstein’s Happiness Is An Inside Job. On deck: Alice Munro’s Too Much Happiness; Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge; and, the Clarence Clemons memoir. After reading Fancy Nancy and How Things Go, I love to dive into my adult books…perhaps even more so now that I’m currently a stay at home mom.

  8. Thanks for posting this Lindsey and inviting comments. I am the slowest reader I know. Finally getting to The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, a relatively short book with a lot to ponder and put into action, and it will probably take me a couple of weeks. Next up the Way of the Happy Woman by Sara Avant Stover. Always like poetry, there is hardly a moment that goes by when I am not reminded of a poem, and thankfully many can be found online just by searching the title or a few words that come to memory. Happy summer reading and have a wonderful day!

  9. I’m in the middle of ACEDIA AND ME by Kathleen Norris. Next up: THE CHILDREN’S BOOK by A.S. Byatt (love all of her writing), and THE SOLACE OF LEAVING EARLY by Haven Kimmel. Everyone in the house is also engaged a feverish re-read of all the Harry Potter books, getting ready for the big movie premiere!

    I also have books tend I re-read every summer — most importantly THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING by T.H. White.

  10. I have a pile, too – always a large one, and always ever-growing. But most of the time I like it that way.

    I just read Poser (partly inspired by your review), The Wilder Life (a hilarious memoir about loving Laura Ingalls Wilder), and The Paris Wife (the story of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage – so gorgeous).

    Currently, I’m picking up The Reading Promise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (again!) and a few ARCs of fall books, to review. (I can’t wait to read Maine – and I love Annie Dillard, but hadn’t heard of that book of hers.)

  11. I’ve got One Hundred Years of Solitude on my nightstand and I’m also hoping to get through The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction and Arabian Nights and Days which were recommended to me by a friend.

    A personal favorite author of mine is Ben Okri whose writing is so colorful and vivid visually. I also loved Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. I try to read books set in areas of the world I’ve lived in because it’s such a great way of learning the nuances of the places I’ve been that I otherwise may never learn.

    Definitely on my to do list next year is to read all the Harry Potter books, which I’ve never had a chance to do.

  12. Great post! I am always looking for the next good book to read. I’ve been reading a ton lately while nursing my 7 month old so here goes…

    I recently read Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, which is a wonderfully simple, yet paradoxically complicated tale of old school values and conflicting cultures in a town outside of London. Also read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood by Lisa Catherine Harper, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which reads like poetry even though it’s a novel.

    On my to-read list is Midnight’s Children by Rushdie, What is the What by Dave Eggers, State of Wonder by Ann Patchet, and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

    I also just saw a rec from a friend for The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd.

    Keep the recs coming, please!

  13. Revisiting Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth. Just finished Room, breathless and weak knee-ed. I’m sure you’ve read that already, but it took me months to get to it in the pile and WOW. Couldn’t put it down. Disturbing and touching all at once. I’m in that place I get to when I just finish a book I am consumed by, it feels like I can’t find anything to read. Thus the revisit of Beard. Go to something sure.

  14. Just love that photo; to me it says: The Good Life in Summer. I just read The All of It, and found it to be a truly perfect novel. Highly recommended. And May Sarton’s Plant Dreaming Deep, which I can’t believe I never read before. Loved that too. Sven Birkhert’s The Reading Life is wonderful, I’m in the middle, then heading straight into The Art of Time in Memoir. Really, all I want to do these days is read!

  15. I’m reading Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki and I just finished A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. I read mostly non-fiction, but I love epic series like Harry Potter and Narnia. I have so so many books that I need to read. Most of them thrift store gems. My immediate need-to-read next list includes Hemmingway. I’m sort of fascinated by him.

    The phrase “so many books, so little time” rolls over and over in my head, reminding me of all the amazing things people have done with words.

  16. I love this picture of you. I am wondering what your kids are doing in that moment?

    I have always loved to read, and always have books by my bed. But the only time I read is when I get in bed before I sleep. Thats it. But I’m OK with that.

  17. Stacy Morrison’s book is wonderful – whether or not you’re going through marital troubles. It’s a great read, regardless.

    I’ve got Linda Pressman’s book nearby, and one of my favorite books of short stories – My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead – hoping to re-read a few things.

    But time time time! How to find the time?

  19. So many great suggestions in your post and from your wise commenters. Reading the comments here and on my post yesterday makes me wonder what I’m doing online when there are so many fabulous books waiting to be read. (You have to stop writing such thoughtful, evocative posts so I can stop reading blogs!) 🙂

    I’m also reading Linda Pressman’s Looking Up right now and am really enjoying her funny and bittersweet take on growing up with six sisters and two Holocaust survivor parents. Next up (I think) is Middlemarch, a classic that I’ve never read, but suspect will resonate with the emotional place I find myself in right now.

  21. I just finished The Physik of Deliverance Dane and am now moving on to One Day (want to see it before the movie comes out). I have Mr. Pettigrew’s Last Stand on tap after that. My stack, like yours, is huge!

  22. I loved reading through all the recommendations… I think I just downloaded a dozen samples to my Kindle, so I’ll work through those to find my next read.

    I often listen to audiobooks while I work in the yard, and just finished By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham and I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron… I usually relisten to at least one David Sedaris each summer too. The yard is large!

    Thanks for soliciting recommends–helps us all out!

  24. I also have recently read “Falling Apart in One Piece” it made me feel more sane about how I survived my divorce last year.

    Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane – love his books

    Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron (LOVE HER)

    I do want to read Maine too this summer!

    Happy Reading!

  25. Lindsey,

    Thanks for these great suggestions!
    I’m currently reading @whollyjeanne’s brilliant online book. She is writing it real time, and we, her readers, get to follow along as it unfolds, and even contribute in certain places. http://Www.writingcloth.com

    I’m also reading “The Power of Pull” by John Hagel…not really light summer reading, but a great book about social media and business.

    I just may pick up Falling Apart in One Piece. The title catches…

    Love,
    Julie

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