What I'm reading lately

I have been on a tear with my reading lately. You might be thinking, "Why Amy, how on earth do you find the time with two children to raise, a huge house to clean, a husband to dote upon and a T-shirt business to run?"

Well let me tell you, outside of the children, the rest gets neglected. My in-process remodeling project means my house looks like a tornado hit it and the shirts get done when I have the time and no one is napping on my lap, requiring me to sit quietly on the couch and rendering me unable to type. But never fear -- Josh is still being doted upon. Well, by my standards; you would have to ask him his opinion. He has clean laundry every week and just got some awesome XBox games for Father's Day, but I am not sure he has seen a home-cooked meal since Bill Clinton was in the White House.

But the previously mentioned napping-on-my-lap habit, coupled with more than a few nursing sessions each day mean I can get some reading done again. I love to read. Seriously, I look forward to picking up my book each day and am one of those people who read fast and furious. When a particularly good book is finished, I am actually sad to see it come to an end.

As we're on a budget, I have been utilizing the library during the last few weeks. I hate not being able to shelve the books after I read them, but I am getting over it.

Today I just finished Augusten Burroughs' newest, "A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father." I think I need to mainline some anti-depressants after that one.

I also downed Stephanie Klein's "Moose" in record time last week after meeting her and getting a signed copy at a panel discussion two weeks ago. Great read, made me realize I have a huge responsibility to Emmie as she grows up to not let her become obsessed with weight.

The panel discussion where I met Stephanie Klein was actually my second attempt to get a signed copy of the fabulous Jen Lancaster's new book, "Such a Pretty Fat." Jen came and spoke to my book club a few years ago, and ended up becoming a part of the group for a while. I love her writing and the fact she's local makes her funny stories about the city even funnier, because I can picture everything she's talking about. This is her third novel and it debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list and has been getting mad press all over the place. Let me suggest you run, don't walk, to pick it up. Snarky, self-deprecating and sarcastic -- my favorite qualities in a writer -- she takes the cake with this highly amusing weight-loss chronicle.

In the last month I've also thrown back "Belle de Jour: Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl," "Naptime Is the New Happy Hour," "I Love You Beth Cooper" and "Certain Girls." I have "The Gravedigger's Daughter" three-quarters of the way finished and have been going back and forth with "Reading Lolita In Tehran" for the last two months. Tomorrow I will start "I Was Told There'd Be Cake," which I have heard great things about.

In addition to the ridiculous amount of time I spend reading news, celebrity gossip and blogs online, I am also contemplating re-subscribing to the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. You'd think I had a ton of free time with this list. You would be wrong. I just ignore my children and tell them Mommy is reading books without pictures right now, so they wouldn't like them.