Monday, August 25, 2014

I'm back from dropping off eldest at college on the east coast, and we're at THE SOUND OF LETTING GO summer blog tour finish line! Go check out  Candace’s Book Blog for the final stop and giveaway!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Summer Reading...

I have come to believe that the phrase "lazy days of summer" is utter b-s. The last couple of months have careened by, leaving in their wake the usual quantities of dust, dirty dishes and epic laundry piles thus making August pretty much the same as February--heck, we've even had some rain.  Despite this, I have managed to sneak in some pleasure reading. No time for lengthy reviews but I'd like to give a shout-out to two titles here:

Allen Zadoff's first installment of his Unknown Assassin series does not disappoint. He has created a post-millenial teenage James Bond who weaves through issues of attraction, teen angst and lost parents as he simultaneously completes missions that would make superagents thrice his age quake in their Converse sneakers. Pick it up--you won't put it down until the last page. If you're like me, reading the paperback, you'll keep going through the teaser for Book 2 which, luckily, pubs this fall!
 You read a grown-up book? You seem surprised. After having several folks recommend this to me, I felt I had to give it a go. Set in Seattle (my current stomping grounds), this send-up of Microsoft and PacNW culture has you laughing then pausing to look ruefully in the mirror. It is scarily spot-on in so many ways I hesitate to recommend it to my book group because it might hit too close to home for some of us. That said, I enjoyed the fresh form of the novel which is largely epistolary (scathing emails, school memos, various letters). And, as a musing on the notion of human creativity as a process, a means of self-valuation, and a legacy, it is an interesting book.

Here are the last two SOUND OF LETTING GO Blog Tour stops 
and a link to the rafflecopter: