Whatcha Reading?

I'm not really a winter time reader. I do most of my reading during the summer. While I'm hanging out with my little man outdoors - he plays and I read and keep an eye on him. Or when we're camping - I can usually work my way through a book or two. I especially love when campgrounds have a book exchange program - you are free to take a book from their collection if you leave one of yours. I always keep a few books I've read stashed in our truck in case I come across some new ones I want to take with me. :-)

So...this is where you come in. I need recommendations. What have you read recently/are you reading right now? Anything interesting and worthwhile to recommend? I enjoy chick lit (think Shopaholic Series - hysterical!), interesting biographies, a mystery or two (as long as they move along at a good pace and aren't all gory and gruesome), historical fiction (The Other Boleyn Girl...actually I've enjoyed everything by Philippa Gregory) and Christian fiction.

So far this spring I've worked my way through:

Under the Banner of Heaven (Jon Krakauer)
This is a non-fiction book that is based on a double murder committed by Mormon Fundamentalist brothers (Lafferty brothers) who believed they received revelations from God commanding them to do this. The author provides very interesting information about the isolated communities located in the western USA, Canada (Bountiful, BC) and Mexico where there are Mormon Fundamentalist communities practising polygamy, etc. There is a chapter about the abduction of 14 year old Elizabeth Smart from her bedroom one night. This is not a light read. I found I would read a few chapters and then take a break. But it captured my interest enough that I could never put it down for long before I was picking it back up again. I must say that I found some parts disturbing and skimmed past (dealing with murder details). A bit too graphic for me. It was also disturbing in the sense that some of the beliefs they have are so "out there". Bizarre. If you've at all been following the recent case of the 400 children removed from the Mormon Fundamentalist Texas Ranch, then you'll probably find this book very interesting.

A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khalid Hosseini)This is the same author who wrote "The Kite Runner". I wasn't that overly impressed with The Kite Runner. It was a bit too slow for me. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. I couldn't put it down. The story is set against a 30 year span in Afghanistan and follows 2 generations of women - their struggle to survive, raise a family and find happiness. Again, some parts of the story were disturbing to me, enough that I put the book down and had to take a break for a while. I really try not to be a sissy - but there are some things I just can't handle well. It's a sad story...but a happy story if that makes any sense.

The Diana Chronicles (Tina Brown)
I'd been on the wait list at the library for this one for a while. This book chronicles the life of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. It not only documents Diana's life - it documents her mother, grandmother, step-mother, Fergie, the Queen, Camilla.....all these women who's lives touched hers. Kind of campy but lots of interesting stuff about the Royals. A great summer read!

Ha! I did not intend for this to turn into a book report (I almost feel like I'm back in grade school again) but I could hardly list the books and then not discuss why I liked them. Incidentally...all three were very good reads and I would recommend them in a heartbeat. Especially the first two - both are eye-openers.

I have a few more books sitting here waiting for me - I'm desperately trying not to read them so I have something for our upcoming camping trip in a couple of weeks. I picked up a couple at the Thrift Store (where else?! LOL!).
*"Triple-O - the whitespot story". It's a coffee table style book that caught my interest - one of our favourite family dining spots is The Whitespot - they're spread out all over BC.
*"The Pact" - a mystery - no idea if it's good or not
*"Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible" by Liz Curtis Higgs. Picked it up quite a while ago but just haven't cracked it open yet.

I have a few books requested at the library that I'm waiting for including:
Escape (Carolyn Jessop)
Stolen Innocence (Elissa Wall)
Balancing Act (Kimberly Stuart)
Bottom Line (Kimberly Stuart)

That's it and that's all.
And this is why I need your help. What recommendations do you have for me???

Last but not least, I leave you with some pics of Max's last day of soccer today...SUPER HERO SOCCER! They were supposed to dress up as their favourite super hero. Mind you, we had no super hero costumes around here so one of his little friends brought an extra cape along for Max. I think he was batman? I think. I dunno - I'm not very good with those things.