This month's LitSoup question:

What are you reading right now?

I posed this question to the newsroom, and these are the responses I received:

Jean Bonchak:

Reading “Spontaneous Happiness” by Andrew Weil. What’s good about this book is that Weil is not extreme in any of his viewpoints. He balances medical, holistic and spiritual aspects for achieving happiness in what is a very common sense approach. Should we be kick-up-your-heels happy all the time? Nope. He suggests staying in touch with the center point inside each of us where a safe, knowing contentment exists. Of the many self-help books out there that can be self-serving, preachy or just “way out there,” this one hits its target well.

Nicole Franz:

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson

Jeffrey L. Frischkorn:

Been going through several of my Patrick McManus books, including “The Grasshopper Trap” and “Never Sniff A Gift Fish” while in my deer-hunting blind. McManus is the country’s most renowned outdoors humorist and many of his books are short essays taken from his days as a columnist for such well-known sportsmen’s magazines as “Field and Stream” and “Outdoor Life.” Oh, and I finished over the holidays Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol.”

Larece Galer:

Right now I’m reading "Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany" by Richard Lucas. The book caught my attention for two reasons, the first being World War II has always held a fascination for me and the second reason Mildred Gillars a.k.a. Axis Sally was raised in the Ashtabula/Conneaut area. The book traces her journey from small town Ohio to Germany and eventually back to the U.S. to face charges of treason.

Rachel Jackson:

Children of the Storm, an Amelia Peabody mystery by Elizabeth Peters
Along with – for no apparent reason other than it was on my friend’s bookshelf not being read – “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera and the current issue of Outside mag.

Janet Podolak:

I'm reading Pearl of China by Anchee Min. It’s a wonderful fictionalized account of Pearl Buck and her childhood friendship with a Chinese girl as both are growing up in China at the turn of the last century. Pearl, daughter of a Protestant missionary family, became almost more Chinese than American during her childhood and had a real empathy with Chinese peasants that later showed up in her Good Earth, a book that won both Pulitzer and Nobel prizes. I’ve been so enthralled with Min’s account that I can wait to read Hilary Spurling’s biography of Buck, “Burying the Bones” Pearl Buck in China.

Tracey Read:

“Double Dexter” by Jeff Lindsay

Cheryl Sadler:

This is a safe space and we're being honest, right? And I have courage to admit this because former N-Her Angela Gartner did so in October. I'm reading "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer because I like easily digestible fiction and I need to know what the obsession with this series is all about. So far, I can't figure it out. Books aren't very well written. Characters are lame. I'm not interested in either Edward or Jacob, and I think Bella is annoying.
I'm also reading "Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get" by Ken Doctor, which is much more intellectually stimulating. And I was partway through "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" when the ebook expired on my Nook, so I'm kind of forever on the waiting list.

Matthew Skrajner:

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN.” I haven’t been able to really sink my teeth into it yet, but I’m working my way through it. I don’t read too many books, instead just continually read things online (AKA the Twitter effect). But this one has kept me interested.
I’ve also been reading an unhealthy amount of the A.V. Club, the entertainment website run by The Onion. More than any other website I’ve come across, they give huge amounts of space to long, in-depth interviews that you just can’t find anywhere else. The recaps with each show’s creator of the most recent completed TV season’s of “Community,” “Breaking Bad,” and “Louie” have been filling a few hours of downtime the past few days.

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This post is part of a LitSoup, a monthly feature on The Book Club compiled of contributions from the newsroom. Send an e-mail or tweet with your suggestions for future LitSoup topics.

-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl