Heather's Book Club

I read a whole lot people, so if you like the books, here are some of the more recent ones I've read that deserve more eyeballs:

We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver: Holy ballsacks, Batman. Talk about your one-two punch with these treasures. The first one will kick you in your fucking solar plexus then leave you prone on the floor crying for your best friend, as you will have learned to have ambiguous feelings about your mama. Hands down, the most disturbing book I have ever read. Don't let the slow pace fool you. Stick with it if you like books that leave you on your knees with snot running out of your nose. And scared to sleep.

The second one was the most brilliant meditation on romantic love that I've ever read. I can't even be cutesy or ironic about it, y'all, And I fucking hate when people use the words "meditation on" to describe a book or a film, but I feel they're warranted here. In short, Lionel Shriver (a chick, by the way) is my new favorite author, bar none...although I looked up her earlier work, and it seemed kind of boring, so start with these two. And again, stick with them, as neither novel really gets going until further in. If you're not at least moved, we're not friends.

For any mystery fans in the house, peep out Laura Lippman. She has a detective series, but I'm more about her stand-alone novels,
What the Dead Know, Every Secret Thing, and the one I'm currently in the middle of, To the Power of Three. They're fast moving, have believable characters you care about, and the mystery holds up.

If you're a dude who only wants to read shit that fellow dudes wrote, Stephen White also has some good thriller-ish novels that won't change your life but won't bore you either. I particularly recommend Kill Me.

Finally, there's some book with physics in the title written by a chick named Marisha Pessl (might have misspelled the first name, but I'm sure the last name is correct, so google it). Great fucking book, particulary for any A Secret History fans in the motherfucking house. Can I get a what? what? for Donna Tartt up in here? (because her Little Friend was unfairly maligned and also awesome, in my opinion). If the word "physics" threw you, be aware that it's about a quirky high school chick who's daddy's got a secret, and not about math or anything like that.

I know I said finally up there, but for people who don't like novels, there's a memoir called Candy Girl that's all about a "nice" girl's foray into the stripping/sex industry that I finished in one night. Now that should please absolutely everyone.