It's Monday? What Are You Reading/Weekend Update

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Posts This Week:

I recently watched and reviewed two terrific films, one a coming-of-age story about a 17-year-old lesbian and the other a Norwegian film about drug addiction:

• Pariah (2011) -- written and directed by Dee Rees
• Oslo, August 31 (2011) - directed by Joachim Trier & written by Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, based on the novel Le Feu Follet by Pierre Drieu La Rochell

In the movie blogosphere, I participated in the Directors' Quotes Relay Race, initiated by David at A Taste of Cinema and handed off to me by Josh at The Cinematic Spectacle.

I shared an excerpt from The Siren of Paris by David LeRoy, a historical novel about the French resistance during World War II.

I participated in Banned Book Week with a Review of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and a Gift Card Giveaway and a quote from David Cronenberg.

My review of American Psycho is also part of The Literary Others: An LGBT Reading Event hosted by Adam of Roof Beam Reader. You should definitely stop by Adam's blog and check it out.

I Also Watched:

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) which I haven't reviewed yet.

Trying to Decide What To Read Next: The top contenders from my TBR list:

Genus by Jonathan Trigell-- a dystopian novel set in a futuristic London in which to be part of mainstream society you must be "genetically improved." Written by the author of Boy A.

January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her by Michael Schofield -- (from Goodreads) At six years old, Michael Schofield's daughter, January, was diagnosed with one of the most severe cases of child-onset schizophrenia that doctors had ever seen. In January's case, she is hallucinating 95 percent of the time that she is awake. Potent psychiatric drugs that would level most adults barely faze her.

The Invisible Boy (Madeline Dare Series) by Cornelia Read -- (from Goodreads) The smart-mouthed but sensitive runaway socialite Madeline Dare is shocked when she discovers the skeleton of a brutalized three-year-old boy in her own weed-ridden family cemetery outside Manhattan. Determined to see that justice is served, she finds herself examining her own troubled personal history, and the sometimes hidden, sometimes all-too-public class and racial warfare that penetrates every level of society in the savage streets of New York City during the early 1990s.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides -- (from Goodreads) The haunting, humorous and tender story of the brief lives of the five entrancing Lisbon sisters, The Virgin Suicides, now a major film, is Jeffrey Eugenides' classic debut novel.

The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence.

Or maybe after reading American Psycho, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Boy A, and a host of murder mysteries, I need to read something a bit lighter -- y'know not relentlessly bleak and/or sick and perverted. Hmm ... I can't decide.

Any Recommendations?