Sunday Salon: Fighting Temptation

I currently have four books sitting in my shopping cart over at Amazon. Don't tell my husband. It would be so easy to push that check out button. The books could be here, sitting at my desk in just a few days. This week even. Each of the books sounds too good to pass up. The reality is, I know I will not get to them right away even if I do buy them. I would log them into LibraryThing and then they would join the other TBR books waiting their turn. It's so tempting though . . .

In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church by Gina Welch ~ Books that explore religion have always intrigued me. In this book, the author, a secular Jew, goes undercover to learn about the Evangelical Church. If Rebecca's review hadn't convinced me that I must read the book, Amy's and Florinda's did. It also goes along with that themed month I've been planning for about a year now--the one that has yet to come to fruition, where I read the religious based memoirs in my TBR collection.

I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith through an Atheist's Eyes by Hemant Mehta ~ This one popped up as a book people bought who bought In the Land of Believers, and it caught my eye. The author held an auction on E-Bay, agreeing to go to the church of the highest bidder's choice. The winning bidder requested that Mehta visit a variety of different churches, and the book is a written account of the author's experiences visiting those churches. Another one of those books that would be perfect for my religious based memoir themed-month. If I ever actually get around to it.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - I had read a blogger review of this book not too long ago (I wish I could remember where) and then came across it in the most recent Bookmarks issue. Henrietta Lacks died of cancer during the early 1950's. Unknown to her or her family, doctors took a sample of her tissue for research, tissue that became the first viable cells which would go on to aid scientists and doctors in making important and life-changing medical discoveries. The book touches on the science as well as the more personal story of Henrietta and her family, then and today.

Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women Are Transforming the Middle East by Isobel Coleman ~ I came across this title quite by accident. One day last week I was reading the headlines and followed a link over to a NPR podcast featuring the author Isobel Coleman. She, along with Sakeena Yacoobi, the founder and director of the Afghan Institute for Learning, were being interviewed on Talk of the Nation. Paradise Beneath Her Feet is a book that focuses on how a few women are using Islam to change the role of women in Islamic societies, using faith to support and empower women in becoming educated and taking a more active role in improving those societies.

Now you can understand why it's so hard to resist hitting that check out button.

What books are tempting you these days? Are there any you are trying hard to resist for the time being?

As for what I am reading now, I currently am enjoying my first John Sanford crime fiction novel, Mortal Prey. I have been saying for years I wanted to read one of his books. Sometimes it takes a nudge from a friend and a book tour to do it.

The unthinkable happened one day last week. I left my book at work. I went back and forth about how to handle the situation. I have been meaning to get to Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War by Ted Morgan and considered picking that one up to start on. The size was a bit off-putting though, at least right now. I thought about my stack of magazines I'd fallen behind in reading, as well as those short story collections I want to read, in particular A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris. Finally, though, I decided to read Scalped by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra, a graphic crime fiction novel set on an Indian Reservation.

I was reading the introduction of Scalped and saw mention of another of Jason Aaron's books listed, The Other Side, set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Hmm. Wouldn't that make a good reading choice for the Vietnam War Challenge? A graphic novel would be a perfect fit in between a couple of the other rather long books I have on my stack for the challenge. I commented as much to my husband that night and then he surprised me later in the week when he pulled a copy of The Other Side out of his bag. He's so thoughtful! I look forward to reading it for the challenge.

What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?

I can hardly believe it is already May! As you can tell from this post I've got nonfiction and reading challenges on my mind. The Sookie Stackhouse Challenge will be wrapping up the end of next month and I already have my order in for the latest book in the series. I should be able to fit it in before the deadline. And while my reading choices for the Vietnam War Challenge seem to be diverging from the list of books I was considering reading for the challenge, I am still aiming to complete the challenge by the end of the year.

I hope you will join me later this week! I will be highlighting my day at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, reviewing The Killing of Mindi Quintana by Jeffrey Cohen and Beautiful Assassin by Michael C. White, and confessing my true feelings about fish.

Enjoy the week and happy reading!

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