Weekend Reading

I got some reading done this weekend, yay! I spent a lot less time online than usual and had time to read. We also did a lot of little family things, which was fun. So what did I read?

Last week I read Under the Duvet by Marian Keyes. This is a little collection of essays about just about everything. Some of them are pretty light (shoes!) and some are pretty heavy (there is a really good one on being an alcoholic.) It was a really quick little book, with lots of humor. She reminds me a little of Meg Cabot, but I can't put my finger on why. A lot of the essays were previously published, mostly in 1998 or 1999, so it is a little dated. It got me geared up to start Rachel's Holiday, also by Keyes, for my TBR challenge. So far, Rachel's Holiday is very good. I will use this one for my M author. 3/5

Yesterday after sorting my books for the Themed Lists post, I moved a couple of the shorter books to the top. I figured I have to get some reading going or I'll just have more and more staring at me. I started Statements: True Tales of Life, Love, and Credit Card Bills by Amy Borkowsky during naptime and managed to read almost all of it before the Monkey woke up. The premise is great, the author uses her American Express bills to recreate her life and we get to read all about it. In practice, it's not so great. The chapters are anywhere from 2 to 6 pages long, and sometimes it's quite a stretch to make the purchase into a story. About 15 pages in (so soon!) I almost gave up, but decided that since it was so easy to read I'd keep going. About 80 pages in I wasn't any more impressed, but I'd already read nearly half so I kept going. By the end I knew I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It just wasn't interesting. I give this one a 2/5.

Today I picked up Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris. This is the fifth book in a series by a tried and true author. While I think the previous book was better, this one had some great moments. Lots of the secondary characters are fleshed out and Sookie is (of course) tested more. I'm a bit nervous about the amount of sexual tension (no actual sex, sorry) between Sookie and the various guys. Until this book I thought Harris did a great job of making me love all the potential suitors, in this one a couple of the guys dropped out for me. I LOVE Sam, and Eric. Oh, and Quinn. 4/5

Hopefully I can keep up the pace this week and finish up a few more!