I got to see Christine tonight at our foreign authors book group. We had a good discussion on The Book Thief and it received pretty much a five-star review from everyone. I wrote a little bit about it here. I find it so hard to write about a book I loved. All I want to say is “read it!” Anyway, I know a lot of the book blog community has already read this book and thank you to all of you who had recommened it. It definitely lived up to my expectations.

Next month we’ll be nominating books for the 2008 reading schedule but I’m going to miss out on that as I’ll be on vacation. This is probably the first time I’ll miss in the 14 years or so that I’ve been attending the group so I’m a bit bummed about that but well, vacation is a good thing too. I’m sure the group will come up with some fantastic reads.

After September we still have some exciting books to look forward to this year, for example, in October we’ll be discussing A Fine Balance, a book which has been sitting on my shelf for way too long.

Of course I couldn’t leave the bookstore without a little something. I really was going to put back World Literature Today on the rack. I even told Christine I was going to do that but I soon found myself at the check out counter instead. Who can resist a new book and/or magazine right?

I met up with my Murder on Mondays book group today to discuss Tainted Blood (Jar City – U.S. Title). I had nominated this book so I was cringing a bit at first because everyone seemed so serious. I thought they may not ever allow me to nominate a book again. ha, ha. Good thing is that it seemed to go over pretty well with the group.

I will miss the September meeting as I’ll be on vacation but we’ve got some good stories coming up I think. In October we’ll be reading The Blue Edge of Midnight by Jonathon King followed by Murphy’s Law by Rhys Bowen. I can tell you that I’m already looking forward to the Bowen book – a historical, yay!

In other mystery news, I’ve picked up a new mystery which I’m counting towards my Summer Mystery Reading challenge. That means I’m on book five of the six. Oh wow, I may actually complete a challenge. Well I better not get too excited yet. Anyway, I got an advance copy of Slipknot by Linda Greenlaw which seems like it will be an enjoyable summer read.

Off to do some reading and relaxing. I’ve got another book group meeting on Tuesday.