The Sunday Salon: Finished, Unfinished, and Yet To Read

It's been a reading week with ups and downs. I've read but have yet to review two great ones—Jane Yolen's Briar Rose and Beth Gutcheon's More Than You Know— and one very forgettable one— Blue Ridge by T.R. Pearson. (I'm already forgetting what that one was about.) Stay tuned here at SmallWorld Reads for reviews of those three this week. I also did a review (or a non-review) of one I dropped: Meg Wolitzer's The Ten Year Nap. Pretty much made me want to take a ten-year nap.

Also on my blog this week I had fun with the Classics Meme and the LibraryThing's List of Top Unread Books. Over at Weekly Geeks, readers have been discussing Magazines. And I'm still hoping a few more readers will join in on my Life Books Challenge. (I probably should have offered a $500 amazon.com card to a random participant. Couldn't I just say that and then not really pick someone? Kidding!) I have nothing to offer. Even if you don't want to do the reading part of the challenge, you might consider making out the Life Books List and linking back!

I've been moving over all my book reviews from the past two years from my "home" blog to this one. I have yet to go back and change all the links, but it's a start.

Last night I started The Sky Isn't Visible from Here by Felicia C. Sullivan. This is one of those books I picked off the "new books" stacks at the library without ever reading any reviews of it. I'm only 20 pages into the book, but I'm looking forward to getting a good chunk read this evening. In many ways this memoir reminds me of the amazing The Glass Castle, although the Sullivan's childhood as described so far has a different texture than that of Jeannette Walls. I predict this is going to be a great memoir.

And as always, I have a bunch to add to my Ever-Growing TBR list. I need to stop reading all of your reviews, really. This is getting out of control. So here goes:

Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts (reviewed by Lesa's Book Critiques)
I Am Scout by Charles J. Shields (reviewed by Becky)
Perfect Example by John Porcellino (reviewed at The Hidden Side of the Leaf)
What Peace There May Be by Susanna Brarlow
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan C. Bartoletti (reviewed by Natasha at Maw Books)
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (reviewed on The BlueStocking Society)
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (reviewed by Musings)
The Girls Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson (reviewed by Clare at Blue Archipelago)
Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins (reviewed by Just a Reading Fool)
Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones (reviewed by Bookeywookey)
The following books were all mentioned or reviewed at The Magic Lasso. I am not stalking her, really, but sometimes you just hit the jackpot on someone's list!):
How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen (mentioned by The Magic Lasso)
People of the Book by G. Brooks (reviwed by The Magic Lasso)
House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (reviewed by The Magic Lasso)
Property by Valerie Martin (reviewed by The Magic Lasso)
Cellis of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan

Phew! And that's enough for today's Sunday Salon. If you'd like to participate in The Sunday Salon, you can sign up here.

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