the lightning thief

One of my students recommended this book and even lent me a copy, so I felt kind of obliged to read it.  It was a quick read and I was not at all disappointed.  The story of Percy Jackson's quest to return Zeus's lightning bolt is an exciting young adult read.  The gods of Greek myths are alive and as powerful as ever in Rick Riordan's engaging adventure.  My "To Read" list is a bit long right now, so I'm not going to grab the next book in the series, but I know some day I will!

the geography of bliss

"Using the ancient philosophers and the much more recent "science of happiness" as his guide, Weiner travels the world in search of the happiest places. Many authors have attempted to describe what happiness is; fewer have shown us where it is, and what we can learn from the inhabitants of different cultures.

As Weiner makes his way from Iceland (one of the world's happiest countries) to Bhutan (where the king has made Gross National Happiness a national priority) to Moldova (not a happy place), he calls upon the collective wisdom of "the self-help industrial complex" to help him navigate the path to contentment. "

I really enjoyed this book.  Nice change of pace from 2000 pages of Stieg Larsson.  It got me thinking about what constitutes happiness and how I can declutter my life.  It made me want to do a clean sweep of each room of our house, in an effort to make it more of a home.  I laughed on many occasions as I read The Geography of Bliss.  Eric Weiner's sarcasm and wit remind me of Dave Barry, and for those of you who are Barry fans, you know this is a compliment.

stieg larsson's trilogy

I have managed to completely ignore this space for months now.  And honestly, I'm not backtracking.  Instead, here are the 2000 pages that have monopolized my attention for the last few weeks.  The Lisbeth Salander trilogy is absolutely enthralling, in spite of how twisted and disturbing parts of the books are.  Loved them.