The State of the Stacks

Who likes to know what other people are reading? I do! Here's a look at what's currently stacked next to my bed.


Here's a new situation - I am currently in the middle of 5 - that's right, FIVE - books. It's almost unheard of for me to be reading this much at once, but somehow here I am. I have one fiction, one audiobook, one nonfiction, one book of essays, and one that I'm reading on my phone. I'm not even sure how this happened exactly - I'm always reading a novel at any given time, and supplementing that with some nonfiction isn't that unusual. The book of essays kinda slipped in because I'm interested in starting to read more shorter works, especially for times when I only have 20 minutes or so and don't want to start digging in to a longer work. The audiobook is for my commute, and housework, and those moments. And then I recently discovered that I can read a book on my phone while my kids are in the room, and for some reason they don't mob me like they do when they see me with a book in my hands. And there you go - suddenly I've got 5 things going at once. We'll see how long I can keep this up.

The Dinner by Herman Koch - I've just started this one, so don't have a real feel for it yet, but the blurb says it "reveals the dark side of genteel society", so I'm expecting some surprises.

A History of God by Karen Armstrong - this is completely fascinating to me, but also quite dense, so it's a bit slow going. I love nonfiction like this, and almost always end up underlining and/or highlighting a huge portion of the book.

The Best American Essays - .....okay, my copy is upstairs, so I don't actually know which year this volume is from. But I'm about 5 essays in, and it's a great collection. I've been a bit obsessed with collecting these over the past couple of years, so I decided it's about time I actually start reading them.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, narrated by Kristine Hvam - I noticed this was by the author of the Lemony Snickett novels, but it was clearly not of the same genre, so I was interested. It's definitely YA, but so far entertaining.

Finding Colin Firth by Mia March - I was drawn to this novel because really, who DOESN'T love Colin Firth. I expected a light, breezy read, and am actually finding it to have a surprising amount of substance. This has been a delight so far.

















So there you have it - what's been keeping me busy lately. What books are in YOUR stack?