2015 reading challenge: quarter two.

Camping - well, the way we do camping - is not as conducive to reading as one might think. By the time we rolled in, set up, made dinner and settled down, it was almost dark. Hiking days were usually too long and I was too tired at the end of the day.

I'm still ahead of schedule for my Goodreads 2015 reading challenge though. Here are 2Q results... A "*" means you should TOTALLY read this book.

• * Indian Killer (Sherman Alexie) - Interesting mental prep for heading across the southern US and seeing so many examples of the white man taking things that didn't belong to him. It's not my favorite of Alexie's work but it was definitely memorable (and sadly, still relevant over 15 years later).
  
  
• The Witch of Portobello (Paulo Coelho) - I loved The Alchemist so I was excited to find this at one of our farm gigs. The story is told through many voices and Coelho does a really good job pulling everything together - I just didn't really care for the main character and in the end I just wanted to finish the book.
  
  
• * Eats, Shoots & Leaves (Lynn Truss) - A fantastic, funny, easy read for this self-proclaimed grammar/editing nazi. I still don't know how to properly use a ; though.
  
  
• Australian Short Stories (Karryn Goldsworthy) - We found this in Alice Springs and schlepped it around for months; I finally got through it on the camping trip. (See? Did I use that ; right?) I enjoyed most of the stories but I definitely think spending 3 months there helped me to appreciate them.
  
  
• Rose Madder (Stephen King) - one of his best jobs at storytelling and one of his best portrayals of women, and then he had to ruin it with a goofy supernatural ending. Luckily, I found this in Kanab, UT for $0.50 so I wasn't too upset about it.
  
  

For the next ten weeks I'm back in Portland where the library rocks but the heat is baking my brain. We'll see how 3Q goes...