What to Read This Week

Here’s what I’m adding to my to-read list this week, and I think you should too.

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman: Richard and Liz are parents of the suburban variety.  Their son, Jake, receives a sexually explicit video from a girl he knows and, as we’ve found all teens are likely to do, instead of deleting it to save the girl’s privacy, forwards it to all his friends.  Schulman’s novel deals with the fall out of this split second decision to click forward instead of delete.  A timely topic and one that people should probably be a little more educated on, it seems like an interesting book and I’m curious to see how Schulman handles to the topic.
Burning Elana K. Arnold:  Ben graduates from college with a track scholarship and a bright future.  Lala tells fortunes with her gypsy family at the Burning Man festival.  Lala meets Ben, Ben meets Lala, and the “cards” tell them their future might not be what they expected.  While this doesn’t sound like the most original YA novel I’ve ever read I’ve seen it on a few “recommended” lists and thought…why not.
The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls Julie Schumacher: I first discovered this book not when I was looking for books to read, but when I was looking for graduate schools.  There was a point in time where I was thinking about moving to Minnesota, and this book is written by UM grad (and now apparently professor) so of course it was featured prominently on their MFA program’s site.  Adrienne Haus is spending her summer in a mother-daughter bookclub and self proclaimed “literary prisoner”.  Then someone ends up dead and mayhem ensues.  Not sure what to think about this one…not sure I would have picked it up on my own, but I am interested to see what kind of training I would have gotten in their program.