Sunday Salon

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book....

And this week is my first week participating in the Sunday Salon! Currently there are 416 book bloggers who belong to the Salon! I thought it would be fun to sit down with a cup of coffee and share what books and bookish things happened all week!

First off there was plenty of reading this week! I finished our book

club read, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. What an amazing book! Have you read it yet? First of all for anyone not familiar with the book, it is a memoir. And Jeannette Walls holds no punches. To say her life was unconventional is an understatement. She had two sisters and a brother. They lived out of the cars, in various shacks, their beds were cardboard boxes, they sometimes went days without food... their mother was a free spirit and a painter, their father a charismatic drunk. They learned how to pack up in the middle of the night and leave in a hurry... Surprisingly Jeannette, her sister Lori, and her brother Brian all grew up to be normal, healthy individuals. And she doesn't write with bitterness about her upbringing. It was like a wonderful adventure at times. And I think it hardened their resolve to live normal lives on their own. Eventually they all moved to New York. And Jeannette's parents did as well, but they chose to still live on the streets... If you get a chance to pick this book up do it!

I Also read Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti. I already wrote a

review post on this book, but thought I would mention it again as a fun quick read that won't disappoint! Also read Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandell, and loved it! I will have a full review up on Monday. It's about this girl Lilia and her life as she constantly disappears from one place to another... The writer did such a unique job of writing her story back and forth thru time without missing a beat. There was a lot of buzz on the book blogs about this one and I am glad I finally got a chance to read it! Anyone else read it? Please let me know what you thought about it! Especially the ending! It's another book you should put on your TBR list if you haven't read it already!

Now I just started reading Seduce Me by Robyn Hart. I received in the mail for a blog tour the author is going to have in mid-Aug. Robyn Hart is a historical romance writer and Seduce Me is the first in what is going to be the Legend Hunter series. The Legend Hunters are a secret group that are after treasures, antiquities, etc. The beginning of Seduce Me is kind of like an Indiana Jones film, with dark musty stone corridors and a treasure being hunted for. In this case the treasure is the legendary Pandora's box, which is found and which lands in the hands of scholarly Esme, who can't help but get herself cursed by mishandling it. (It is Pandora's Box!) She is cursed by LUST and I can't wait to see how and if she get's herself out of it! Of course there is a handsome guy who is helping Esme try to solve the problem... I'm halfway thru and it reads like an adventure story with some sparks, but it is a romance and I'm sure it's going to heat up even more as it goes along! Will let you all know about it!

Anyone with an iPhone? I downloaded the free app this week from Barnes & Noble for my iPhone. Have you heard about it? It's a cool app that allows you to photograph a book cover with your iPhone and then it will search for that book, give you reviews and find & reserve that book at any Barnes & Noble bookstore. Say, you're at a friends house and want a book she has... just by a touch of the button you photograph it, hit search on the iPhone and the book and all the info appears on your screen. What I thought was also cool ( and a little 'big brotherish') was that it asks you if you want to find the book locally and if you press yes, it will bring up on the screen all the local Barnes & Nobles near you. I know it must use the GPS to know where you are, because it doesn't ask for your location, but it still was amazing. And I'm sure there are glitches and older titles probably will not register, but interesting app....

So, that's all my reading for this week... How about you?! What have you been reading this week! Let me know what you've got a bookmark in!

Happy reading.....

Suzanne