What I'm Reading Now

I'm not sure where the last week went but I'm looking forward to the week ahead. Visiting day with our daughters is coming up quickly (on Saturday) and I have an exciting week at work to keep me busy until then. We are planning events and programs and interviewing prospective new members of our team. From the resumes alone, it is clear that there is tremendous talent out there and we are looking to nab us some of that. The bittersweet reality of it is that new opportunities have arisen because some of the beloved members of our CBC team have moved or will be moving on. It is because I've had the most amazingly talented and brilliantly charming staff that I feel good about our prospective candidates.

Similarly, it is because I've been reading such great books lately that I feel good about the future of book publishing and can't wait to see what else is out there. On the adult side, I just finished a book that I LOVED! It's called The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and though its pub date is not until September, you can and should pre-order it on the author's website by clicking here. The writing is fantastic, the descriptions are so vivid and delicious and the story is sooooooo satisfying. Here's a description from the author's site (which I've cut and paste because I have too much respect for this book and its creator to risk mangling it on my own:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

 For my middle school aged kids (and my middle-aged brother who is, was and will always be the greatest Beatles fan I've ever known), I am now reading Greg Taylor's The Girl Who Became a Beatle. It all starts with the musical protagonist's wish, "I wish I could be as famous as the Beatles". It appears not to be your average Cinderella/Fairy Godmother story. The morning after making her wish, Regina Bloomsbury awakens to find herself in the middle of her wish. Not only is she as famous as the Beatles, she has replaced them! Their songs are her songs.Hmmmmm... this could be fun!