A Few Good Books..for Me and the Kids

I'm reading a few good books at the moment.

The first is The Middle Place, by Kelly Corrigan.  It's memoir-like in style; the author flips back and forth between recounting parts of her childhood and living her current life as a newly-diagnosed victim of breast cancer.  She is candid, really funny, and it's an easy read that caught me from the first page.  I'm about half way through and, so far, would recommend it.  Reviews I've read of this book are a little mixed about the last half of it, so I'm rather curious to see whether or not I'll still be able to recommend it when I'm done.

The second is Gabor Mate's book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.  A friend loaned me this one forever ago and I'm just now finally getting around to reading it.  I'm sorry I didn't start it a long time ago because it's really wonderful...and very informative.  It, too, is a non-fiction account by the author, written about his life as a doctor in the downtown east side of Vacouver (which, if you don't know, is the renowned home of many people who are homeless, drug-addicted, and sufferers of various diseases and mental/emotional illnesses).  It is a story of addiction and the story of so many people behind the addiction.  Mate is a surprisingly wonderful writer and I was immediately drawn in to his accounts of the people he works with and the psychological aspects of addiction, etc, that he explores.  I'm almost halfway through this one as well, and highly recommend it; he is a plain-spoken, compassionate, humble writer and, so far, it's really worth the read.

Finally, I am about 90 pages into Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.  I began reading this book because my book club is reading it for Jauary; but I'm continuing it because it's really good so far...different than the usual book, somehow.  So far it's reminding me of a book I read and loved several years ago - that one was called Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon...I think that's the one I'm thinking of when I read Penumbra's.

With the kids, I'm about to start reading a few books out loud that they received for Christmas.  Matthew got The Yearling for Christmas; in addition, he and I will be reading Harper Lee's famous To Kill a Mockingbird for Matthew's January book club.  Seth received Big Red from us (one of my favourites from my childhood and right up my middle boy's alley because it's about a boy and a dog!) and The Incredible Journey from a friend.  And Lizzie opened up books 2 and 3 from the Elsewhere series on Christmas Day - one from us and one from a friend.  Doesn't that sound awesome??!!  We have a bounty of books to begin this week...just what I love!

How about you?  Are you reading any good books these days?