I read a couple of books while we were in the Poconos and wasn't thrilled with either. The first was Cherry by Mary Karr, which had been recommended to me by several people. After finishing it, my main thought was that I was glad I'd only paid $1 for it. As someone who had a difficult childhood and adolescence I have little patience with autobiographical books about someone else's difficult childhood and adolescence. Said books usually involve drugs and this one is no different, and reading about someone's extreme drug experimentation usually just causes me to zone out and start skipping pages. This book was no different. Many of the amazon.com reviewers found the book funny; I do not count myself among them.

I also read a book I took along mainly as beach reading - Suzanne Enoch's London's Perfect Scoundrel. I've been hoping to find a romance writer as good as Julia Quinn or Judith McNaught, but I really believe that's an impossible quest. Enoch's book was filled with sloppy writing and unlikeable characters as well as a first chapter that plunges you into the story in a very confusing and uncomfortable place.

I cannot in good conscience recommend either of these books to anyone.

I also started Sense and Sensibility. It's my first Austen and I'm reading in preparation for reading Emma in school this semester. Her style's a little hard to get used to but I am definitely enjoying it. My main trouble with the book is that I have seen the movie far too many times to shut it out of my head and I keep hearing Emma Thompson's voice or losing my place in the story because the movie obviously cut some things out.