Rambling Notes on What I'm Reading by Lucy Burdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: Probably because I finished the draft of the short story I was working on as well as the murder mystery for the library, and because I was sick of course, I had more time to read this week. I feel so lucky (and I know you guys do too) to have talented writing friends from this blog and beyond whose books I savor. But once I’d torn through the three new ones from Jenn, Rhys and Julia, what could be next?

“I’ve got nothing to read,” I said to John. He just laughed.

Since our library book sale season is coming up, I took this as a sign to sort through my stacks to cull out ones that, to be honest, I will never read or reread, and try a few others that I’d set aside for some reason. One of those was Fly Girl by Ann Hood. She was a guest speaker for our Friends of the Key West Library series last spring, along with her husband Michael Ruhlman. They were so lovely! Fly Girl tells the story of Ann’s years training and working as a stewardess with Pan Am. It may sound like an odd topic, but it was really fascinating and she’s a wonderful writer so I highly recommend. Then I picked up The Family Chao, about a family of Chinese immigrants with three sons who have settled in a small town in Wisconsin and are running a Chinese restaurant. It was beautifully written, but I had to skim through parts of it because their lives were so grim. I’ll probably think about it for a long time. For something lighter, I moved on to Jenny Colgan’s Secret Christmas Library. It’s a perfect Christmas read, with people snowed into a castle in northern Scotland with hundreds of thousands of old books as they hunt for the one that might be worth enough to save this estate. Very much fun and on point for the season.

Next I turned to my dusty iPad to open my Kindle app because you know and I know I have hundreds of books waiting there. I’ve been wanting to read The Correspondent forever. But I was thwarted because I’d let the charge die, so I had to turn back to a paper book. I dug out Lizzie and Dante by Mary Bly. I wondered if this was one of the books that Debs recommended? I often follow her lead when it comes to women’s fiction. I’ll keep you posted on that--so far I love it. 

What are you guys reading? Anything out of your usual lane?

***By the way, SUSAN is the winner of Ellen Byron's Crescent City Christmas Chaos! Please email me at raisleib at gmail dot com and we'll arrange the drop...