A Reporter's Life Walter Cronkite
Finished Amy Tan's Saving fish from drowning - good bedtime reading; started Carl Hiaasen's Basket Case predictably enjoyable and, to my surprise, I'm also enjoying Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind.

Message edited by its author, Nov 3, 2006, 6:38pm.

I have been so very busy lately that I've read only a few pages of the current book that I'm reading.

So, as of 0000H GMT of Nov. 4, 2006, I have completed only about 20% of the book Casino Royale by Ian Fleming.

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Re-reading Gilead for book group on Tuesday eve

Just started A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche which is a really absorbing book.

Feel free to join me in a chapter-by-chapter read-along of this book at The Reading Corner.

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2006, 9:46am.

Listening to American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Reading The Messenger by Markus Zusak, which I'm having a hard time putting down so I can get out and do what I need to do today.

I've also got my copy of Eragon sitting on the bedside table to remind me that it needs a re-read before the movie comes out.

I'm alternating between Job Hopper by Ayun Halliday and Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Choir by Sharon Kahn.

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2006, 12:28pm.

Still on Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. I'm almost done, and I feel compelled to say that "The Problem Of Susan" affected me very deeply. It worked for me on so many different levels.

I'm currently working on Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Should be done with that within the next two days or so... hopefully. :D

Finished Signor Marconi's Magic Box early in the week and returned it to the library. The info on technology & history was moderately interesting, but the parts about his personal life were not very interesting and I wonder why the author bothered to include them.

Also finished Stronger in the Broken Places by James Lee Witt, which I'd barely started a week ago. It had a very powerful effect on me--I cried a couple of times. And I kept wishing Witt had still been in charge of FEMA (and FEMA still an independent agency) when Hurricane Katrina hit last year. It wouldn't have made everything perfect, but I think it would have been a lot less bad. (I did not mark title or author for touchstones, as the title links to a different book and the author links not at all.)

A new library book: Our Underachieving Colleges by Derek Bok. Will start on that during my Monday morning commute.

Another new library book, my first LT-inspired reading: Stitch 'N Bitch, which is the most popular book with the knitters group, so I picked it up to see what the buzz is about. A book for browsing not reading.

Just this evening started Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann while in the bath- I realised recently that for some reason I enjoy books more if I start them at home rather than beginning them "cold" on the bus of a morning.

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2006, 5:39pm.

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Another new library book, my first LT-inspired reading: Stitch 'N Bitch, which is the most popular book with the knitters group.

That's a very good and quite a fun book. I used it last year to teach my best friend and daughter how to knit. It's a keeper for me. Enjoy!

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2006, 5:48pm.

In keeping with my habit of reading numerous books at once, I am currently enjoying Journey to the End of the Night, Light in August, and finishing up Winesburg, Ohio.

Wow, Ianigsy, I only read Buddenbrooks about 2 years ago and couldn't believe it'd take me so long to finally discover it, just a magnificent novel, and hope you find it the same.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas (half done)

American Gods by Neil Gaiman (4 chapters in)

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (half done)

I'm alternating between...

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

and...

A Talent For War by Jack McDevitt

Right now I am reading The Laughing Corpse by Laurell Hamilton . Its really good so far.

I LOVE Hamilton. Some people get their noses out of shape because her stories get very erotic but I love me some smut. :)

One annoyance to be warned about though is that recently her books have been almost all kinky sex and little forward plot movement. The books are still good, I just wish something more would happen.

I'm reading All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones. It's getting off to a slow start. :-( I hope it gets better.

SqueakyChu, I found the stories in the first half of All Aunt Hagar's Children to be pretty good, but somewhat obtuse, and just as you said 'a slow start'. But I'd hang with it, because the last half of it is just exceptional stuff, more than making up its 'slow' beginning, and finally proving out as one of the best collections I've read this year.

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Thanks. I'll do that. I didn't want to just put down this book by the Pulitzer prize-winning author, but the first two stories just did not grab me. I'll continue to read this book now--with your recommendation.

Just got back from a week away, and so much to read in LT groups, but I had to start here with Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie. This is absolutely the best book I've read by a new/young writer in many years. It is beautifully written and brings out so many complexities of relationships, history, class, race without "lecturing" in any way -- all in the midst of the Biafra/Nigeria war and its aftermath -- that I was truly impressed by Adichie's talents and enthusiastically recommend this book. I'm going to run out and buy her first novel as soon as I can.

Also read Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, feeling negligent that I hadn't yet read anything by him. Maybe I should have read it before Adichie's book, because although I found it clever, funny in parts and beautiful in parts, I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Just finished the first Artemis Fowl (which I found lively but unexceptional) and the warm and personable Get a Life by French graphic novelists Dupuy and Berberian. Apparently the main character from Get a Life ages quite naturally (if not completely happily) over the course of the comics, so I look forward to reading more of the series as it is translated into English.

I have also recently started David Sedaris's Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and have already laughed several times in the first three essays. It is not yet as unstintingly funny as the sublime Me Talk Pretty One Day, but it has plenty of time to get there, and I have heard that it proves to me more subtle and complex than his previously collections (some reviewers even called it Chekhovian).

I am just about to start Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage and John Twelve Hawks's The Traveler. I made an attempt at starting The time traveler's wife, but it didn't stick, so I am going to put it aside for a few days.

Just finished (as in 15 minutes ago) The End. A bit dissapointing after reading the first twelve books and hoping that everything would be laid out in the end so I wouldn't have to figure it out myself. But it was probably to be expected that Snicket (aka Handler) would leave the reader to figure it out on their own.

I'm not starting anything else, I'm going to devote more time to The Count of Monte Cristo seeing as I'm pretty determined to finish it before the year is through. And I'll be reading random books on Iran today for my Model UN paper that's due tomorrow.

On a side note, would anyone be interested in starting a group for discussing specific books? Not a book club, but somewhere to go if you've recently finished a book and want to talk about that book with others that have read it? I always want to discuss books I've finished but have difficulty finding threads where I can talk about only that book and its plot.

I don't know if I'm being clear enough, it's still early in the morning for me, but I was wondering if there was any interest, or any group I haven't found yet.

I'm interested but I'm not sure what to call it.

On a side note, would anyone be interested in starting a group for discussing specific books?

Start a new thread in the Book Talk group with the title of the book.

There is a 'Post a new topic' link on each book's 'Conversations' page that is supposed to do this but, as far as I can see, it's broken.

I'd be very interested. I just finished The Tiger Claw by Shauna Singh Baldwin and I'd be interested to hear what other people thought about it.

Yesterday I finished The Seeing Stone and am still about halfway through Eragon, which I am really enjoying.

Earlier this week I began Vimy, which is very good so far and will (I imagine) only get better as I get past the contextual bits.

I also have In cold blood borrowed from the library so I hope to get a start on that in a few days. Fingers crossed!

I'm about fifty pages into Alex Kershaw's The Longest Winter.

Today started Running With Scissors - it is completly loopy and very readable. Somehow, I am dubious of the details though. But, it's a memoir so it's bound to be colored somewhat...we all have our own perceptions of reality.

Just began The Museum at Purgatory by Nick Bantock.

Continuing to read a Tale of a Tub by Swift for my personal pleasure as I try to complete all of 1001 books you must read..., but am now also reading Nineteen Eighty-Four by Orwell for school. What do you uys think about wither of these two books.

Over this weekend have been reading Clarice Cliff a biography by Lynn Knight - the touchstone has a mind of its own I note!!!
I'm not a collector of art deco pottery but interested in the social background and the Potteries area.
About to start The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Admit I'm rather worried about its length - 700 pages!

Currently reading Sweetblood by Pete Hautman. Up next, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Just finished Children of the Day by Sandra Birdselland am debating what to start next. I broke my promise to not buy any "new" books for awhile. But this one jumped right off the shelf into my cart in the books/magazines section of the grocery superstore I go to so I had to read it. It wasn't bad - I like to read new Canadian authors as much as possible and this dealt with a very Canadian theme.
I have a pile of WWII books from the spy/war section that I bought about 6 weeks ago and have read the most interesting of the group and now am down to the ones that I have been passing over each time I go through the pile. Maybe it's time to dig into some of those. So technically - I'm between books at the moment. I'll start something tonight I'm sure. I'm also trying to formulate some resolution to finish all the unfinished books I have on my shelf. I have Anil's Ghost Drowning Ruth Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell One Hundred Years of Solitude and a couple of others that I really want to discipline myself into finishing. Maybe that will be my end of year resolution. To finish those before the new year starts.

Getting in the mood for the election by reading {America Afire}. It gives a little perspective to more recent political craziness.

Finally finished, after many distractions, The Inheritance of Loss which was very good. I was thinking I might need a literary "palate cleanser" so I've picked up an ARC of The Blood Spilt by Swedish author Asa Larsson, a mystery forthcoming here in the states in January (I often use other fiction genres as "palate cleansers" but it may just be a way of varying my steady ingestion of literary material....)

I finished Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters last night. For a first novel, it was excellent, and I can definitely trace her evolution as a writer from this to Fingersmith. I also think, however, that she was thisclose to a career in lesbian erotica. (Not that there's anything wrong with that . . . )

I started What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe (American title: The Winshaw Legacy--why would it have a different title here in the States?) today. Again, I am seeing links from this to his later works. So far, I'm hooked.

wordnerd2 (message 26)--I loved What the Body Remembers. I'll pick up Tiger Claw on my next book-shop excursion and start a thread for it when I finish. Expect it to be in about a month, if that works for you.

I was listening to an NPR show about books to read for Haloween and a critic suggested a short novel byJim Thompsoncalled The Killer Inside Me. It's about a deputy in a small town who looks to all the folk around him like a good ol guy but you see that is just a mask as he proceeds to kill one,two,three and more people.
I also picked up a new book called The Architect:Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power. It just came out a week ago and it is timely reading as we head into election week.

jgx, Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me is a heavy-duty noir classic, a creep-fest that's impossible to put down once you begin.

Finished The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - very enjoyable. Continuing The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Started The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

Ianigsy: I thought I was the only one who had trouble starting books "cold" ... it's the same for me, too ... I always like to get a little bit into a new book in a nice, relaxed setting at home ... it's harder to get "traction" when I'm starting a book at work ... and you should love Buddenbrooks ... it was one of those books I didn't think could live up to its reputation, but it did ...

and regarding Jim Thompson, he is just an incredible noir writer ... if you like The killer inside me, there's plenty more great stuff out there ... The grifters, After dark, my sweet, A hell of a woman, Pop. 1280, etc.

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2006, 8:35am.

Just started Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly. Honestly? I was certain I was reading a memoir because it is so much in the vein of and reminded me so much of Blue Blood by Edward Conlon until I had to insert my bookmark whereupon my attention lingered upon the cover and only then did I notice it was a novel. I've found it pretty addictive since the first page.

I'm also one of those people that usually has at least two books on the go. This week I've had to abandon the fantastic 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare to catch up with class reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. Luckily I'm storming through Tender.. , which I'm really enjoying and this way I also get to savour 1599 that little bit longer (it really is sublime - the book I wish I'd written!)

#43: 1599:A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare I agree was absolutely terrific.

I just re-read Tender is the Night last summer and found it even better than I'd remembered it. Just prior to re-reading it, I also read Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins, the true story of Gerald and Sara Murphy, whose lives Fitzgerald used as models for the two central characters in TitN.

I'm now reading one of my favorite books about New York City, Brendan Behan’s New York, which covers Behan's journey through the underbelly of New York City in the early 1960s. It's readably recounted in anecdotal style, and with some great sketches by Paul Hogarth that just enhance the reading experience.

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2006, 6:16pm.

I just finished up The Longest Winter and found it a little disappointing (see my review). Now, for something completely different, I'm picking up Lady Slings the Booze.

What did you think of Gilead? It was are All Iowa Reads in 2006. I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise. It does make a good discussion book.

I just finished The Memory Keepers Daughter last night. I started Keeper of the Keys by Perri O' Shaughnessy today.

I've decided to reread The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore since I found it in my basement a few days ago. It was one of my favourite books when I was in junior high, but I haven't read it in about ten years. I've got the feeling it won't be up to snuff anymore, but I thought I'd give it a go anyways. Salvatore's work really influenced me way back when.

I've also started in on Urgent 2nd Class by Nick Bantock as my non-fiction selection for the next little bit.

Started reading Eragon by ChristopherPaolini a few hours ago and I gotta say I love this novel. I have already told hubby I want the second novel Eldest for Christmas. Thats if I can hang on that long!

Finished Running with Scissors and will start Water for Elephants later today. I hope it's as good as I've heard.

I finished Neal Gaiman's American Gods a couple of days ago and I'm now working on the first book in Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series Transfer of Power. Pretty good so far!

Message edited by its author, Nov 7, 2006, 8:22am.

Just finished Stasiland by Anna Funder, stories from those who lived behind the Berlin Wall. Poignant, funny, very-well written.

Just finished Walking the Bible ... an excellent read.

Halfway through Love in the Asylum by LT Author Lisa Carey.

Next up is The Stupidest Christmas Angel.

Have just begin re-reading A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold from George R R Martin's a Song of Ice and Fire sequence.

It's definitely proving to be a positive decision - I've left it long enough since the first reading that I'm seeing a lot more detail this time around.

I just finished listening to American Gods, which prompted me to follow up with Anansi Boys. Thoroughly enjoyed both. About to re-start Prince of the Marshes, which I put down a few weeks ago in favour of something a little more, well, trashy.

Well, I'll be putting aside my current reading to run out and get the just awarded Giller prize winner. I just finished watching the award show, and the winner of the 2006 award is Bloodletting and miraculous cures by Vincent Lam a first time author who is also an ER doctor. Looks like a very good read. I make a point of always reading the Giller books because they invariably go on to win a lot of other literary awards. In fact, I'll be making sure I buy all 5 finalists and usually pick up any of the nominees that I see on the bookstore shelves. They are always a good bet because they are judged by people whose opinions I value.
(Of course Giller is a Canadian Prize so the authors are all Canadians)

I've finished the first of my "travel reads" for this week (The Man in the High Castle, Specimen Days and Siddhartha), and now I'm on to The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I read about 50 pages in the middle of the night (jet-lag gives me all kinds of odd hours in which to read!), and it was so gripping that I couldn't put it down! I hope the rest of the book goes on that way.

I've noticed a lot of people reading Neil Gaiman and he sounds interesting - which book would you all recommend I try first?

Finished Water for Elephants yesterday - yes, it was that good. I liked the characters as well as the engrossing story (although parts of it made me cringe) and the pacing. The ending was a little too twee if you know what I mean, but it was a satisfying ending. Jacob's narrative sections about his current situation were almost as scary and disturbing as his tales of the Circus. Makes me afraid to get old and have my freedom taken away bit by bit.

Now reading The Minotaur by Barbara Vine. As usual, she's dropping some amazing hints of things to come.

Am in the middle of Courts of Love by Jean Plaidy...After reading about the time of Henry the VIII, I wanted to learn more about the roots of theTudors/Plantagenets so I read Katherine...The story of Eleanor of Aquitaine seemed like the next logical step backwards. So far so good...she was a very modern woman despite living in the 1100's!

Just finished Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary ... now starting Oracle Night by Paul Auster.

Just finished The Sword of Shannara Trilogy and am debating on whether to start Running with Scissors or Wicked

Message edited by its author, Nov 8, 2006, 1:52pm.

I read mostly literary fiction, and don't usually stray too far afield, but I've spent the last 5 days completely in thrall to Tim Willocks' new historical novel The Religion, absolutely the most thrilling and exciting book I've read in a long, long time. Willocks sets his story in 1565, when the great Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent sends his entire armada to wipe out Islam's boldest foe, the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem in their stronghold on the island of Malta. It's an epic story with a host of memorable, fully-realized characters, beautifully, and almost breathlessly written, and loaded with enough action, intrigue, bloody battles, and high adventure to keep you on the edge of your seat till the very last page, a dazzling book, and recommended to the max.

Just finished Unpardonable Lies by Jaqueline Winspear - this is not Agatha Christie but the character of Masie Dobbs is well thought through and absorbing and I look forward to more of the same.

Message edited by its author, Nov 8, 2006, 4:46pm.

Just finished Chow Down, a cozy mystery by Laurien Berenson, which was light and enjoyable, and started Girl in a Box by Sujata Massey, the latest in her Rei Shimura series. I've read all of the others so far, my favorite being The Pearl Diver.

Don't want to take a hardback on my trip though, so will be reading Shogun by James Clavell and Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor for the next couple of weeks.

I'll be starting The Prestige by Christopher Priest soon, but I think I'll quickly whip through Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham et al first. It just came in for me at the library, and I'm in a graphic novel sort of a mood.

I just finished War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. I was pleasantly suprised by how good it was.

Now I'm looking at my huge to be read pile and trying to decide on a book to start.

Bookmarque--let us know how you like The Minotaur...I enjoyed it quite a bit!

As for what I'm reading: I've started The History of Love and am reading The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Adam and Eve and Pinch Me by Rendell in between and all around. lol

will do, thatbooksmell. I won't have time to get through a large chunk of it until the weekend, though. Vine / Rendell never disappoints.

BTW; Adam and Eve and Pinch Me isn't the best Rendell ever, but it is interesting to see such a deluded and neurotic person plow through life. It would be sad if it weren't so exasperating.

An oldie "Wolfshelm" by Richard Knaak

I’ve finished the first half of Alice Munro’s new collection, The View From Castle Rock, and so far it’s outstanding. The stories are based on her family history beginning with the Laidlaws in Scotland, and she’s done a superb job of mining the past to stunning effect. In the introduction, Munro states that “...some of these characters have moved so far from their beginnings that I cannot remember who they were to start.” And not surprisingly, in searching her family history, along the way Munro discovered a writer in each generation of her family.

This is a book that I don’t want to end. At least I have 150 more pages to savor.

Started and finished Dearly Devoted Dexter, which wasn't as good as the first book, and started Strange Trades, The Death and Life of Superman, A Meeting at Corvallis and Brimstone. Curse you, LibraryThing!

Started A Million Little Pieces by James Frey only 2 days ago and am already halfway through. A very intimate, moving book. Roll on 5 o'clock so I can get back to it!

I started Ill Wind by Rachel Caine last night. I really didn't like it in the first few pages, but now that I'm about 100 pages into it, it's starting to pick up.

I've started Murder Most Royal by Jean Plaidy. Quite interesting with teenage Anne Boleyn meeting Katherine Howard as a toddler.

bonzickle: Are you aware of the contoversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces? Finish reading it first. I read it before the kerfuffle.

cabegley - heres part of a review which 'explains' why What a carve up was called the Winshaw legacy in the States...

'Coe pulls out all the stops in this unusual novel, echoing the famous British film it is titled after (though naturally the novel was senselessly retitled by his mindless American publishers)'

You dont have to know the film to understand the book but you might want to check it out after you have enjoyed this great read. Once you have done that get stuck in to his later works too!

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056285/

(This film is also known wonderfully as 'No place like homicide')

Message edited by its author, Nov 10, 2006, 2:14am.

I'm currently reading Annemarie Schimmel, Sufismus (Sufism) and Monika Gronke, Geschichte Irans(History of Iran)...both part of Becks Reihe Wissen, a really smart invention: on 125 pages, German scientists give insight on their speciality subject or how you'd call it. Basic and compact info :)

Oh, and for fun I re-reading Afisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran. Did anyone start to read everything she recommends at the end of the book?

I just finished Oracle Night by Paul Auster ... great writing, but, in the end, it seemed like the book was an incomplete draft for a much larger novel ... anyway, now on to some nonfiction: Wittgenstein's Poker, seems to be a look at the conflicting worldviews of Wittgenstein and Karl Popper, with the "hook" being an investigation into an argument between the two during which Wittgenstein may have threatened Popper with a fireplace poker.

I just finished Deadly Gamble by Linda Lael Miller - the start of a new series & loved it!

Finished the Martin .. and have been distracted before beginning a feast for crows by some YA fiction my partner passed me, Keeping you a secret by Julie Anne Peters.

It's a nice little romance, well written and very familliar ... not something I'd have picked up off my own bat, but I'm very much enjoying the read.

elenasimona - I did read a couple of the titles from Reading Lolita in Tehran. Well, I started with good intentions anyway! I read Lolita and Daisy Miller, and I think one other which escapes me now.

I've been on a reading roll the past two weeks having breezed through Michael MacDonald's All Souls and Easter Rising, Alice Munro's The View From Castle Rock and today, I finished William Trevor's stunning 1983 novel, Fools of Fortune. Trevor's writing about the Anglo-Irish conflict never gets old since the stories are all so different from one another. In the hands of another writer it'd be old retreaded territory. The Trevor trademarks that appear in all his best work are once again on display - sparse and lilting prose peppered with casualty, vengeance, loss and exile. I've read about two thirds of Trevor's novels, and this is by far his best.