Juggling Books

No, not books about juggling. I often read several books at the same time. I juggle the time I spend with each one. I usually have at least one fiction and one-non-fiction going at once; sometimes more. Sometimes a lot more.

Here’s what I’m currently reading and why:

• Clear Springs, a memoir by Bobbie Ann Mason (Random House, 1999) because I bought the book for a dollar at Goodwill, and I’d previously read her Shiloh & Other Stories and liked it. Plus, I’ve been on a memoir kick lately. In the last eight months, I’ve read Glass Castles (Jeanette Walls), Burning the Furniture (Dan Smith, Authorhouse, 2006), The Red Flannel Rag and Mom’s Family Pie (both self-published by Peggy Shifflett), The Slow Road Home (self-published by Fred First, 2006), and Tobacco Farmer’s Daughter (Linda Hamlett Childress, Authorhouse).
• Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult (Pocket books, 2001) because I loved My Sister’s Keeper. I discovered Picoult because Amy, a student at Northside High School, told me I should read her work. (Thanks, Amy!)
• Notes from a Liar and her Dog, Gennifer Choldenko (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001), because it was on the remaindered table at Books-A-Million, and I wanted to read an interesting middle-grade novel. was
  
• The Plot Thickens, by Noah Lukeman (St. Martins, 2002), because The First Five Pages was one of the best writing books I read last year.
• Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose, by Constance Hale (Random House, 2001), is one I’m re-reading because I need to. It was one of the best writing books I read last year.
  

Book I recently finished: Sharyn McCrumb’s Once Around the Track (Kensington, 2007)

That three-foot stack of books I hadn’t read last summer has now grown to over eight feet of shelf space.

And the pile of magazines I keep meaning to read? I won't even go there.