Partway-through reviews

I've realized that, for various reasons, I'm now reading seven books at once (plus indexing one for Happy, but that is unpleasant and doesn't count). This is pretty unusual for me, and to be frank, some of them may not ultimately be finished, so it might be an exaggeration to say I'm "reading" them. I just haven't committed to abandoning them yet.

Anyway, here are my partway-through reviews:

• Music for Torching by A.M. Homes. I'm reading A.M. Homes because yrmama told me to, and I'm reading this Homes because it's the only one our library had available. I'm on page 81, but it's a little weird for my taste. I think I would probably ultimately like it, but it's not my most pressing reading.
• The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I don't know what my problem is with this book. This is the second or third time I've tried to read it, and although I find it dreamy, I just can't get through it. The last time I remember picking this up, I was sitting on my front porch in the summer sun.
• Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. I really like Buffy and friends, and I really like Abraham Lincoln, but I still would never have picked this up except that M.H. told me I would love it. I only just like it, and since I'm listening to the audiobook, I don't get to it very often.
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Mik has to read some nonfiction for a book report this month, and this is one I picked up because I remembered really liking it and thought he might, too. He had no interest whatsoever, but I'm about three chapters in already.
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I grabbed this with Mik's book report in mind as well, but the more I browsed through it, the more I thought Dex—perhaps the most introverted person in a family of introverts—might really get something out of it. Of course that kind of recommendation has zero cachet with a 14-year-old, so the new plan is to read it and then read the best parts to him, because that's my way.
• Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. My favorite yoga instructor is always talking to me about books, and she was all excited about this one and offered to let me borrow it. On my own, I would have never made it past the sentence, "And yet, from time to time a gust of uneasiness would blow through the back rooms of my mind, as if a window had been left open there and a storm had come through and my neatly stacked pages of notes on being human had blown off the desk." Now, of course, I will have to finish it in a polite interval and get it back to her.
• Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin. This is just not as good as her The Happiness Project, but it's the kind of book I love because it gives me all sorts of ideas for working on my next New Life Plan. I'm tearing through it and have a few resolution ideas already. "Make more time to read," for example.

The eclectic reader on her photo shoot.