Books read by college campuses this summer

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman is what Meredith College read this summer. Theme for the year: Ethical leadership

The Water Planet: A River Runs Through Us by John Graves is what Texas StateUniversity read and the theme was of course, water.

Groucher College's incoming first year and transfer students read The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. The themes were modern India and human mortality

College of the Holy Cross read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

How many books have you read this year? The survey says...

1 in 4 US adults have read no books in the last year. Read this.

Best Sellers

On the New York Times Best Sellers Fiction list this week are:

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. All of ten weeks on the List!

The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva. Just one week on the List!

The Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.

High Noon by Nora Roberts

Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke

We meet this Friday

It's the third Friday in the month. We meet at 5:15PM to dicuss The Pact.

What are you reading now? Ahora, que estan leyendo?

Don't be shy, register your comment! What are you reading now?

I finished Land of Mango Sunsets. It started off slow but it got better after a new young tenant, having a relationship with an older married man, moves in and brings a new dynamic into the household. The interaction between the leading character, Miriam, and her tenant and closest friend, Kevin, reminded me of Will with a middle aged Grace as in the TV comedy, "Will and Grace". In the prologue readers get a hint that the book is going to be about Miriam making mistakes, forgiving herself, and starting afresh.

It's a story about family dynamics: the mother-adult daughter dynamic, the mother-adult sons dynamic, the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law to be dynamic. It also deals with the abusive man-woman relationship and the middle-aged man-woman relationship.

Charlotte just finished reading The Skeleton in the Closet by M. C. Beaton and it does not feature Agatha Raisin or Hammish Macbeth. Of course, she passed the book to me. I am only on page 9 and already it is interesting. Fellworth Dolphin is a forty year old virgin and only son who gave up his youth to serve the needs of his parents. He spent his youth working as a waiter handing over his pay check to his sick father to support the family. On his death, he continued handing over his check to his elderly mother so at 40 he never had savings acount. On the death of his mother he discovers he has inherited a large sum of money from his parents. The mystery is where did the money come from, and why did the parents allow the family to live from hand to mouth when there was money in the bank?

Lottery

Read about Patricia Wood's new novel called Lottery. The novel is about a mentally challenged man who wins the lottery. This is Patricia's first book. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Hawaii and lives on a boat with her husband..

Mango Sunsets

I have put away Three Bags Full for a little while to read Land of Mango Sunsets by Dorothea Benton Frank. The cover of the book is very attractive. So far it's holding my interest. The story at this point is about a middle-aged woman facing some post-divorce problems: social misfit, ex-husband now has a trophy wife and additional children, estranged adult sons. In the mix is her mother living "green" in the Sullivans Islands, South Carolina and a new young tenant bringing excitement in the household. Her closest friends seem to be her faithful and sincere tenant Kevin and her chatty parrot Harry. I'll see how it develops.