I've just finished Memory of Departure by Gurnah. A very good coming-of-age novel set in a squalid seaport town in East Africa. Not sure what I will pick up next.

I am still listening to The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather and absolutely loving it, as welol as reading The Sea Wolf by Jack London for the LT Ocean Adventures theme read, and loving it! Great book week for me!

I'm still reading The First Man in Rome and finding it much more enjoyable now I have some idea of the politics.......I found them very confusing and overwhelming at first. The names and the different families have also given me some problems but I'm half way through and think I'm getting there!!

I'm still reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I love this book. I've been flying through books for the last couple of weeks, sometimes reading more than one at a time. But with this one, I'm taking my time. Only a couple chapters a day, only this one book at a time, enjoying every word.

Finally finished Kristin Lavrandatter this morning, and am now reading Duma Key.

My reading has been kind of heavy the last few books I've read. Time for something on the lite side. Just started Armor by John Steakley.
Have ordered A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. and Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, they both have been on my TBR list for awhile.

This year's Nobel Prize for Literature went to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio of France. I thought it might be a good time to read The Prospector, and so it has.
I believe several of his books have been translated into English, this one by Carol Marks for David R. Godine Press.

Still reading Kristin Lavransdatter, though finally making some progress. Also reading:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Building Big by David Macaulay
The Mysterious Flame by Colin McGinn
American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis

And I've got Reading the OED, The Draining Lake, and The Gargoyle just in from the PL and ready to read. Have been looking forward to the first two especially for some time.

Message edited by its author, Oct 18, 2008, 1:38pm.

I just finished The Egyptologist - loved it; hightly recommended. Going to stay on theme with Halloween coming and all and start Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott.

#3 - I loved First Man in Rome, but it does take awhile warm up to. The book and the series is well worth it though - I finished recently the fifth book, Caesar. I hope you stick with it.

I started The Story of Edgar Sawtelle yesterday. I've been on the library waiting list for maybe 5 months, and now I only get it for two weeks. Hope it's good.

I'm on vacation this week, but I have managed to peek in to The House at Riverton a few times. So far, so good, but I'm willing to bet money on the identity of the narrator's father.

#10, dchaikin, I'll be interested in what you think of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle as there have been mixed reactions (including mine) here on LT.

I finished two books that were somewhat disappointing. I'm a big fan of Shirley Hazzard so I eagerly picked up The Ancient Shore, a collection of some of her essays about Naples, plus one by her late husband Francis Steegmuller. Alas, although it started off promisingly, with her beautiful writing, I soon realized there was a great deal of repetition from essay to essay, not a problem probably when they were originally published separately, but annoying in a collection.

I was also disappointed in Chicago by Alaa al Aswany - like avaland, I felt parts of it were very stereotyped.

#8 cornerhouse

I'm also still reading Kristin Lavransdatter--I finally finished Volume 1 and hope to finish part 1 of Volume 2 before I go to bed tonight. I have Reading the OED on my "wish list." I'd like your opinion when you read it--I'm thinking of buying it to read in my Books about Books category if I decide to do the 999 challenge next year.

I'm only reading one other book right now--Books by Larry McMurtry because I start another group read on Monday and I'm determined to finish KL before Thanksgiving--don't want to have to haul it to Chicago!

Books is rather different than I expected. It's sort of interesting but it seems to me that he is enamored with the objects--the books themselves and the information about them-- rather than in reading them. So far he hasn't done much mentioning of actual reading. But I'm not very far in, so maybe that will change.

I am still working on The Secret River - it's not grabbing me like it did for other readers. Not sure if it's me or the book.

I have just a few more pages of The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy to go. Then I will start Tis by Frank McCourt.

I enjoyed The First Man in Rome too.. I stopped halfway through the The Grass Crown I also want to read The Thorn Birds

I had to stop halfway through Wild Rose .... it's just not happening for me..I'm finding myself disliking Rose O'Neal Greenhow, the main character of this autobiography. Maybe I'll pick it up later and my mood will change, allowing me to enjoy the story of her life.

I am, however, loving The Sixteen Pleasures and will probably complete that today.

# 16 cameling

I inherited Sixteen Pleasures from my Mother-in Law. I'll have to find it put it on my TBR pile. I know nothing about it but if you like it I'm willing to try it!

Well, the unpacking from our move from San Francisco to Boonville, CA, is moving along very well. The furniture is in place, the kitchen is set up and stocked, the bedroom and both Stephanie's (my wife) office and my own are set up and running. The 2,000 LPs and 1,000 CDs are in order and on their shelves and the bookshelves are standing ready.

And now come the crux of the entire procedure: shelving and arranging the books! For one thing, after five years of living together and three years of marriage, S and I are now finally merging our book collections into one. There's been quite a bit of happy negotiation about which books go where in the house. S wants the fiction alphabetized by author so she can find something when she wants it. And I thought I was obsessive! I've always just sort of been able to remember where I've put something. Oh, well. The compromise: the hardcovers shelved together and then the paperbacks shelved together (I think hardcovers are the most appropriate look for the living room shelves; my wife loves me enough to humor me on this point). The novels alphabetized loosely. (A's together, B's together, etc., but not necessarily alphabetized within each letter.)

We just unpack one box at a time and figure out a starting place for different sorts of books as we go. I'm excited to see how it's all going to look in the end! Mythology, short stories, biographies, music, history, baseball, California, natural history, poetry, essays . . . What fun! And work!

All this to say why I'm only about 50 pages (or an eighth of the way) through Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott. I am enjoying it very much, though. Sometimes it's so much fun to just wrap yourself around some pure storytelling, complete with luxuriously acute observations about human nature. Plus, the edition I'm reading is a beautiful volume from a set of the Waverly Novels I found at a flea market (I found four volumes; I'm not sure how many there are all told, though). Beautifully bound, these books were printed in 1898. So I'm reading a 110-year-old edition of an English classic!

I finished The Sea Wolf by Jack London and throughly enjoyed it. I am about to start reading The Titian Committee by Iain Pears.

Currently reading Its All Right Now mainly on LT recommendations, and am really enjoying it.
As an ex-pat, who lived in London in the mid-sixties it rings very true in the depiction of both character and situation. I agree, it is a long read.
Finished Heretics Daughter before that, another fine read. The Salem witch trials story has been done to death, but I thought this book added something to the historical context, in that the author's ancestors were really there and lived through that incredibly barbaric and cruel period in American history.

#9 I loved The Egyptologist too. Thought it was brilliantly done. I listened to it the first time, then went out and bought the book.

Also enjoyed the entire series on Rome by McCullough, except the last, Anthony and Cleopatra, which for some reason I was unable to "get into." Maybe it was my mood at the time. I will be trying it again sometime.

#13 MusicMom41

So far so good with Reading the OED -- though I'm only about 20 pages in, so it could go anywhere. I'll keep you posted.

Early this morning I finished Testimony and today I read The Mighty Queens of Freeville. Going to start kate Atkinson's book next.

Still making my way through Anna Karenina but it's been pretty slow going lately just because of the busy life I've been leading lately. I do love it, though. Hoping to have it finished by the middle of next week, so that I can take something less... large... with me on our road trip to my in-laws.

Working my way through The Fabric of the Cosmos still. I'm making progress though.

I just finished reading Armed and Magical by Lisa Shearin. I love those books. They're so kick-ass (pardon my french) and entertaining. I completely ignored my school work and read all day. In three days I finished three books and completed nothing in school. The first two was The Night of the Soul Stealer and the second was Attack of the Fiend. Real good books all three.

I just finished The Shadow of the Wind this evening. I'm afraid that I didn't find it nearly as good as it's been made out. When the big secret was revealed, I just groaned at the use of such a hackneyed plot device. The fight at the end would have required the characters to have four or five arms.

Now I'm starting In the Woods. After that I'm going back to history books for a while.

I finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter. It was a fun, easy read. Now reading The Lace Reader.

My coffeeshop reading: I'm just about done with The Fellowship of The Ring. I'd tried to read Tolkien before, but every time I'd picked up any of his books his narrative style just didn't click with me. This time it finally clicked.

Once I'm done with Fellowship, I am returning to my Pulitzer reading. This time out, Empire Falls by Richard Russo, and I don't know what the second Pulitzer winner will be before I return to Tolkien.

On my nightstand now is The Cornelius Chronicles by Michael Moorcock. I read them 10+ years ago, but had lost / mis-placed my copies of the whole series. A friend just found a copy of the 2nd Volume, and returned my copy of the 1st Volume. Curse him -- I got sucked into them again... ;)

I'm reading Postville by Stephen G. Bloom. I'm about a third of the way through and I'm really enjoying it.

I finished A Feast For Crows. It was a bit of a disappointment, compared to the previous books, but there were enough flashes of his storytelling genius to keep you panting for more. I really missed my favorite characters, Tyrion & Jon Snow and since he decided to split this book in two, I wish he would have made this one a lot shorter. Now, the interminable wait for the 5th book in the series.
Next up: Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horvitz. I've not read this author before but this sounds very intriguing!

Reading two books for group reads, but also reading The Tiger in the Grass: Stories and other Inventions by Harriet Doerr, one of my favorite authors.

#13 MusicMom41: After dinner last night, I read the rest of Reading the OED and find it to be a wonderful little book. It'll go on my to-buy-when-found-used list without a doubt.

There's a short chapter for each letter of the alphabet, each with some introductory remarks of a more meditative sort, followed by a selection of Shea's favorite words from that letter, with his own comments. Urbanely amusing, generally speaking.

And, for a veteran dictionary reader like me, a great way to spend an evening. It's reminded me, in some small way, why I often get stuck inside the dictionary when I've come there for other reasons.

I was particularly fascinated also by his collection of dictionaries (some 1000) and by that of his friend Madeleine, an aged bookseller of dictionaries (twenty times that). Makes my collection of twenty-odd seem rather sad. At least I have access to the OED online -- though I agree with Shea that online reading isn't really reading -- through the university where I work.

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2008, 9:52am.

The Most Haunted House in England: Ten Years' Investigation of Borley Rectory ... by Harry Price

I have had this book for practically centuries.... and never picked it up to read.
Today is the day.

Started The Life and Death of Harriet Frean yesterday. I'm fascinated so far. I love how much of the book is written as stream of consciousness from Harriet's head, even as a young child. Seems true. Next on my pile is something much longer, Cecilia. Anyone read this? I might need some encouragement to get going on it.

This is going to seem like a strange book to go ga-ga over but I did so. The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table: Recipes, Portraits, and History of the World's Most Beautiful Fruit by Amy Goldman. It's a coffee table sized book with color photographs of the exteriors and interiors of all kinds of tomatoes along with their stats. The author grows about 500 varieties yearly in the Hudson Valley of New York. If I lived around there I'd become her BFF so I could get some of those gorgeous tomatoes. I love tomatoes!

My husband and I just got back from a wonderful trip through all of New England. We saw a bit of color - the best in PA as we were leaving town and then on Mt. Desert Island in ME. It also looked nice in NY from VT but diminished as we got closer to NY. We saw the Nautilus (submarine) in CT and Plymouth Plantation and the Mayflower II (at 1957 replica) in MA. In Maine we saw Joshua Chamberlain's house and statue and the Maritime Museum in Bath and saw my uncle in Brunswick while there. On Mt. Desert we walked around Bar Harbor and spent the evening with Dennis's cousin and his wife. On Friday we drove through NH and into VT where we bought some cheese at Shelburne (we've been to Burlington/Middlebury before and wanted more cheese) and had dinner with an old classmate of Dennis's and his wife. Saturday we stopped in Bennington to see a Revolutionary War monument and then on home to a ready-to-have-us-home cat.

I did manage while on the trip - at night - to read the following (all very short books):
Galaxies Like Grains of Sand
Can This Be Christmas
The Baron's Gloves
The Christmas Box
Felix and His Mayflower II Adventures, I bought a stuffed Felix as well!

And I started Of Mice and Men last night and should finish that today and I got a copy of Lion Among Men from my catsitter while I was gone.

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2008, 11:16am.

I decided to read Company of Liars and am about halfway into it. It's a medieval historical mystery with elements of magic and the macabre, set in England at a time when The Black Death was making an unwelcome visit, and is supposed to be reminiscent ofCanterbury Tales and The Decameron, though much lighter, I think. I'm enjoying it a lot.

#34....mckait.......oooooooo that sounds like a cool book! I have a friend who is a ghost hunter and she's shared some spooky stuff with me like EVP's and pics with unidentified "things" in them!!! The book sounds like perfect reading for this time of year!

#33 cornerhouse

Thanks for the "review" of Reading the OED--it's now on my wish list and a definite read for 2009. I love books like that and the OED holds a special fascination for me because I love words and dictionaries. This will be one I want to own!

I am about to finish Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley - Hawthorne which is an Edwardian mystery and this author's debut novel.
I see to be into English mysteries since I also read And to Deceive by Tasha Alexander which is a Victorian mystery and most enjoyable.
Don't just now know what my next book will be. Think I'll skip a mystery for a bit.

p.s. ....which reminds me, I have a copy of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which would also be great reading for the Halloween season. If you ever get a chance, see the movie version of this book, NOT the recent remake but the OLD 1963 version with Julie Harris as the main character. It will give you chills and the heebie jeebies!! That movie scared the daylights out of me when I was a kid and it still does everytime I see it. It may be shown soon on television since we are approaching Halloween, check your listings. But.......I did snag a copy of the book awhile back....I should dust it off and give it a read! eeeeK!!

This week I finished reading Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell which was okay and the Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield which was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!! Highly recommended!
I have 3 books waiting for me...The Thief of Always by Clive Barker, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron, and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
I also brought home The Essential Clive Barker I thought it might be nice to read something spooky for Halloween.

#38 Thanks for the good news about Company of Liars. I have it on my to read list. I think in high school or maybe it was college (so old here hard to remeber) we had to read a few of the Canterbury Tales. If I recall right, I don't think I was very enthusiastic about it.

I am reading An Irishwoman's Tale by Patti Lacy and In the Dead of Winter by Nancy Mehl. I often find my self reading two differnt genre's at the same time. I have so many books Its my only way to get through them all..lol

I finally finished The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh today. This is our next book club book, inspired by LTers. It took me awhile to get through because I've been so busy, but it was well worth it. I've only "visited" Burma through Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess by Inge Sargent-- a memoir by an Austrian woman who married a Burmese prince she met while studying in Denver, and Malaysia through The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka. Fascinating part of the world, and The Glass Palace offers a very unique look at colonialism.

Next will be The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart. I'm really looking forward to it.

#27 fredbacon

I'm impressed you even made it through the whole of The Shadow of the Wind as I didn't manage that! I keep thinking that maybe I'd better keep trying again, but I have so many other things I'd like to read, sometimes it seems pointless to try to carry on with books you aren't enjoying.

I'm still reading The First Man of Rome, its taking a while as I'm very tired this week and work is stressing me out a bit. The joys of working outside and winter coming!!

I finished Snake Agent by Liz Williams and I'm about to start The Joys of My Life by Alys Clare.

Still busy with The interpretation of murder by Jed Rubenfeld. Halfway now and hope to finish it on Tuesday. I should make time for this, so I can 'finally' take something new, and the story is interesting enough to read on, only I'm not relaxed enough.

I just finished The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss, and am now (finally) reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers. I have a long list of classics that I've never read, and am trying to get to them:)

I'm a little into a few different things at the moment; a couple pages into Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman, a couple pages into Black Cat Volume 3 and a page into By the Sword volume 2.

The one I'm pretty much concentrating on at the moment is Damned Strong Love by Lutz Van Dijk which is a translated German novel and true story of a young Polish man and a Nazi Austrian soldier who fall in love in 1939.

I started Night Chills by Dean Koontz. I'm in the mood for something suspenseful in the spirit of the Halloween season.

#12

Thanks for posting The Ancient Shore. I am a big fan of Shirley Hazzard.

Well, I just finished Of Mice and Men - ending left me hanging, but it's done.

I will now start on A Lion among Men so I can pass it on.

#27 and #47 - luna, you took the words right out of my mouth. Couldn't finish Shadow of the Wind and I doubt whether I really ever feel like going back to it. I just found it so dull and slow going - it seemed to take an eternity for anything to happen, and after reading fred's review - it almost clinches it for me, I doubt I'll return to it.

I've just started Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island Quartet by Ann Cleeves. Her second book just got some good press so I thought I'd try ithe first. It seems interesting so far.

#27, #47 and #55 - I also tried really hard to get into Shadow of the WInd but just couldn't do it. It seemed like a book I should have liked but...

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2008, 7:24pm.

Finished up The Secret River by Kate Grenville and am glad I stuck with it. A compelling read.

I will be starting Zoe Heller's new book, The Believers, this evening. I haven't read anything by her yet, so I am looking forward to reading this story. (I did see the movie "Notes on a Scandal" and loved it - maybe this will inspire me to read the book!).

I'm Reading Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card.

I read Ender's Game a few months ago and really enjoyed it so I decided to read about Bean's story, which so far has been more interesting to me than Ender's.

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2008, 7:48pm.

I finished reading Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons last evening. I was disappointed in the ending. I wanted more from this one.

I started reading The Music Teacher by Barbara Hall today. So far, this is a good one. I think I will finish it soon.

I'm reading The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I've not read Buck before. The prose is amazing, she really brings to life rural China of many, many years ago.

Im slowly reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodie Picoult. So far its my least favorite of her books. It just cant keep myself in it. Im more than halfway through it so at the rate I'm going I'll be done next weekend, haha.

60: lindsacl
If you enjoy The good Earth you may want to read the other two books in the trilogy "Sons" and "A House Divided" (toughtstones goes to wrong book))

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2008, 9:34pm.

#60 lindsacl, The Good Earth is a beautiful piece of writing. As you say, the characters are so very real and the landscape is so well written, that life in China of that era becomes real.

#62 usnmm2, I had no idea there was a trilogy. Add two to the TBR pile.

#37 koalamom sounds like you took a trip that we took this past July/August. We went through PA, NY - Adirondack mountains. Spent the night in Bulington VT where we found a great Barnes and Noble. They have a section of good used books they sell as well. Went through New Jersey and than ended up in Maine. We stayed in Boothbay Harbor - absolutely beautiful. We went to Bar Harbor a day. Would get up every morning in Boothbay and take a book down by the ocean and watch the lobster boats and read. We found a neat shop called "The Chicken Coop". It is between Boothbay and Bar Harbor. The place is huge and full of books. My son found quite a few for his collection at that shop. WE also stopped in Camden and found several neat bookshops. On our way home we went through, Rhode Island, CT, MASS, New Hampshire

Glad you had a nice trip.

cashed in a Barnes & Noble certificate; here's my new stash:

Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?: bodies, behavior, and brains by Jena Pincott

I'm single, and this one's really interesting -- it's on all the subconscious aspects of love and attraction; hormonal, genetic, behavioral, environmental. Why do hungry guys prefer heavier women? Why are there days when guys are more attracted to you? Why do you love the smell of some guys but not others? Fun!

Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind by Gary Marcus

An intriguing account of why and how our brains are so irrational -- our memories, emotions, beliefs, decisions, and so on. Between these two books I'm convinced that we're only aware of just a sliver of what's going behind the scenes of our lives

Well, I just finished Carrie and Melmoth the Wanderer, both of which I enjoyed. I'm still working on The Mysteries of Udolpho and have now started The Etched City.

i'm about halfway into The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić - it's every bit as i expected it to be. will surely go among my top reads this year...

#63: judylou
The trilogy is known collectively as the "The House of Earth". Also her novel Dragon Seed is very good also. It deal with a peasent family during the Japanese ocupation of WW2.

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2008, 6:49am.

Finished Jorge Luis Borges' A Universal History of Iniquity last night.

Recently finished The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon - a charming novel. Now almost finished Love by Toni Morrison - very good but not what you might expect, given the title.

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2008, 8:03am.

I'm in the middle of The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan -- I'm not typically much of a non-fiction reader, but I adored Marley and Me and had to give this one a shot. Plus, it was an ARC -- can't turn away a perfectly good, free book!

>9 - The Egyptologist was one of those books that when I finished it, I somehow felt smarter and just plain cooler than I had when I started. I'm glad you liked it!

I'm about halfway through The Wordy Shipmates, and enjoying it so far - I never really cared for history as a student, but somehow Sarah Vowell makes it not only palatable but actually enjoyable.

I'm still waiting for the library to get Inkdeath in audio, so I gave up and started Dreamsongs, Volume 3 by George R. R. Martin - although I only just got to the beginning of the first actual story on my walk into work this morning.

>#33 and #40, I read Reading the OED not too long ago, and loved it! Sadly, it was a library book but it's going on my Christmas list, and I'll probably buy it if I don't get it.

I'm reading Best New American Voices 2009, Final Harvest for Go Review That Book, and The Mysteries of Udolpho. I'm about 9 pages into that one, and it's really slow going. I want to read it someday, but just haven't been in the mood for it. I've also been rereading the Fruits Basket series, and have read through Vol. 10. This seems to fit my current reading mood better.

Finished up The Titian Committee by Iain Pears. So-so. May have been affected by having just finished two wonderful novels, and this just seemed too light and predictable. I am just about to start The Crow Road by Iain Banks.

Finished The Secret River by Kate Grenville - fabulous book. Now almost done with May Sarton -- As We Are Now, a very sad book about aging and warehousing our elders. Up next: The Wednesday Sisters by our very own Meg Waite Clayton.

Random musings:

Warms my heart to see all the love for The Egyptologist. It's not an easy book by any means, but it's oh so worth it...unlike anything else you're likely to read, really...

The Shadow of the Wind slow? Huh? Jeez, that book was like a rollercoaster ride compared to a lot of what gets mentioned in these threads.

George RR Martin: I bet Vegas ain't offering very good odds on him living to see the end of aSoIaF. Given the amount of projects he seems to keep his hands in, has he just lost interest?

All you fans of Then We Came to the End, listen up: Ed Park's Personal Days is more inter-office goodness. Oddly, both books came out right around the same time-ish, and both are told (mostly) in the collective 'we' voice. Weird. Park might not be quite as deep as Ferris, but he's equally amusing. So I'm still giving quite an edge to Ferris, but Park's book is very much worth checking out as well.

Also, still doing slow reads of:

Lonely Planets by David Grinspoon
Infinite Jest by DFW (in-memorium group read)

I've got three books on the go for this week.

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay which is a reread.
Résistance by Agnes Humbert. This is a personal memoir from a woman who was at the beginning on the French Resistance during WW2. She was eventually captured and sent off to Germany but survives the war.
The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac which I haven't started yet.

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2008, 12:49pm.

I'm continuing my fascination with all things Mormon with Martha Beck's Leaving the Saints. Pretty interesting so far.

I'm in the middle of a couple of Halloween reads: Dracula by Bram Stoker & The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. Having some trouble getting into both of them, actually.

#62 usnmm2, I had no idea there was a trilogy. Add two to the TBR pile. Yeah, same here ... thanks for the recommendation usnmm2. I'm really enjoying The Good Earth.

I participated in a read-a-thon this weekend and finished four books: The Faerie Door by B.E. Maxwell, Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez, Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex and Oddest of All by Bruce Coville. I've reviewed most of them both LibraryThing and my blog; a review for Oddest of All is still in the works.

I took a reading break yesterday and have now started on Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. It's early days yet, but it seems promising so far.

I'm surprised at how many people haven't liked The Shadow of the Wind. I'll just meekly say that I really loved it.

I just started No Country for Old Men.

Finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Will have to read more Huxley. Liked it better than 1984 and I'm a big George Orwell fan. But I've always thought Orwell's nonfiction was far superior to his fiction.

About 60 pages into An Albany Trio by William Kennedy. Unsure yet.

I idly picked up The Blind Assassin and read the blurbs and put it back on my shelf. Then I picked up The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.I couldn't put it down and read 108 pages, last night. What a fascinating little character Mark Haddon has created in Christopher. Will consume the rest by tomorrow.

- TT

TheTortoise

I was surprised at how much I liked The Curious Incident when I read it earlier this year. I only bought it because it was on a library sale table for a quarter and then it hung around for months before I finally picked it up. Like you, I devoured it in 2 days--working days, at that!

If you like that book you might like Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. This one is about an adult with Tourette's syndrome who works for a minor mobster--a mystery of sorts. But a cut above the usual because of the main character and learning how he thinks. I read this one a few years ago and still think about it--I will read it again sometime, it was that good. (IMHO) It also has a lot about Brooklyn in it.

Picked up The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman today and finished it. Now I will am starting The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber.

Still working on Hitler and Mars Bars by Dianne Ascroft after flying through North by Northanger by Carrie Bebris this past weekend.

>85 Thanks for the recommendation MM. I will check it out.

ETA: I have ordered it from my local library. Yay!

- TT

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2008, 4:05pm.

Have a great book GATEKEEPERS by Sheldon Robert Stone and Rudolf B. Schmerl - trying to get it into the Early Reviewers program, but told need to wait for a bit. Look forward to participating in the future.

Check out the website:
www.domarbooks-gatekeepers.com

Finished Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott. Disappointing. I have been loving historical thrillers lately but this one just missed the mark. Overwritten.

I think now I will either finish Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy with World of Wonders or Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. Can't decide.

# 77> heliophobe, I'll be interested to see what you think of The Subterraneans. Kerouac comes in for a lot of bashing these days. And while I no longer have the same reaction to On the Road that I did when I was 15, it still has sections that blow me away.

The Subterraneans to me is the one Kerouac work that, still to this day, holds together as a terrific novel from beginning to end.

jhowell, I felt the same about Ghostwalk.

This week I plan to read Onitsha and The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, When Doctors Become Patients by Robert Klitzman, and Book of My Nights: Poems by Li-Young Lee.

BTW, I loved The Shadow of the Wind.

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2008, 4:52pm.

>81 I really enjoyed Havemercy a lot! I hope you like it too.

I just finished Isdragen (The Ice Dragon) by Mikael Engström. It's about a year in the life of a young boy. His mother is dead, his father is a drunk and his older brother is having a hard enough time taking care of himself. The child care service sends Mik to his aunt, where he is happy. However, she doesn't fit the child care service peoples image of a proper family, and he is soon moved to another home. Mik starts his career of running away....and towards. I loved it.

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2008, 5:06pm.

I am reading The Eight by Katherine Neville, though reading always takes me quite some time due to working and going to school at the same time.

I'm also reading Tangerine by Edward Bloor and The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler for the North Carolina Battle of the Books -- I have to write questions for our team, which makes the reading a big tedious.

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I've just finished The Sixteen Pleasures and I loved it. I definitely had to stop and savor the writing, and this isn't a book to zip through because there's just so much substance in his writing, that I found if I didn't concentrate, I'd miss alot of important detail. But one is definitely rewarded for taking one's time with this book. I equated reading this with sipping a really great wine while sitting on a porch swing, with the scent of lavender in the crisp autumn air, and looking out to a beautiful red and gold sunset.

Hmm.. i couldn't edit my previous post, so I'll just have to continue my thoughts in this separate post.

After the richness of The Sixteen Pleasures I will need something light and fluffy so that I can continue to allow the pleasure I felt reading this book to swirl in my mind for a while.

Perhaps I'll do a read of French Milk - a six week trip Lucy Knisley took to Paris with her mother when they each faced a milestone birthday is journalized through drawings, photographs and musings of the 23 year old Lucy.

I had to lay aside It's All Right Now (for awhile) and I picked up Her Daughter's Eyes by Jessica Barksdale Inclan. I'm halfway through it already, can't put it down. Once I finish that one, I will start The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson....a scary classic perfect for Halloween time. Loved the original 60's movie, totally scary!

Have I mentioned I am reading A Lion Among Men, the third part of Gregory Maguire's Wicked series?

And I put an order in for Chocolate Frog Frame Up. My local library doesn't have it and it has to come from one of the other libraries in the county system.

Bad thing is the next in this series Chocolate Puppy Puzzle is not at any of the libraries in the system so I have to wait and see if someone gets it for me for Christmas and then if not, I'll have to buy one on my own. I hate to skip over to the next one as I might miss something in the continuing secondary plot.

* waves to porchy*

I am going to start Ghost Writer today. :)

Started On Beauty but had to abandon it. Have now started Small Favour instead but am determined to read something high(er) brow soon!!

Am about halfway through Hope Leslie, or, Early Times in the Massachusetts by Catharine Maria Sedgwick who was a popular author and contemporary of James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. It's an historical fiction set here in Massachusetts in the early colonial period when much of New England was still frontier (published in 1827). I have the distinct feeling I may have read this before. . .

>104 mrsradcliffe: I thought it was me - I abandoned On Beauty as well. Not as good as White Teeth, which I loved.

- TT

#106 The Tortoise, I had White Teeth in my TBR pile until I read On Beauty. I disliked On Beauty so much I returned White Teeth to its owner unread. Should I reconsider?

>107: AMQS, yes you should reconsider. White Teeth was a great book. I detested On Beauty too and gave up when I was not even a third through. But I had read White Teeth first, thank goodness because if I had read On Beauty first, I'm likely not to even have given White Teeth a chance.

I just finished Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. What an excellent book!
I have just started DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage.

The Governor General's Literary Awards finalist were announced today. I have blogged about it here:
http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/2008/1...

I finished Ghost Writer today.

meh.

next up? no idea.. will have to look around and see what I have.

I'm just starting Here's the Story by Maureen McCormick -- about being Marcia Brady on TV and then descending into (and recovering from) an adulthood of troubled times. I'm a year younger than Maureen and remember being gobsmacked to see Marcia carrying the same algebra book I was using in my school in Michigan. Have to admit that this is a book I might be tempted to hide in public, so I figured it would do me good to proclaim it here.

I finished The Lace Reader which was a wonderful story and decided to squeeze in a Scott Westerfeld - So Yesterday - before starting The Gargoyle

detailmuse: Maureen McCormick is going to be giving a talk at a bookstore in Phoenix on Friday. I would be tempted to go if I didn't have plans already!

#99 cameling

You have convinced me to find a place for Sixteen Pleasures in my 2009 plans--maybe sooner. I have a copy that belonged to Hubby's Mom--we found it after she died so I had no way of knowing if I would want to read it.

I will dig it out and read it --with a glass of wine!--in her memory! Thanks.

I'm reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali - it's been a slow start so far but looks promising...

# 116 elevenx

I thought Infidel was fascinating and a compelling read! I hope you like it.

#117 MusicMom41

thanks! i have a feeling it will be awesome. at the moment i'm staying at my parents' place and there's no comfortable place to read :( and it's cold!

I'm reading The Odyssey this week.

I finished Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear. I really wanted to like it more, but it just didn't do it for me, and it was long and jumbled.

I am now going to start The Women in White by Wilkie Collins for my RL mystery group.

Ficus, The Woman in White is a wonderful book! I loved every page.

I agree - woman in white is excellent and captivating.

Re: white teeth, I read it years ago before on beauty and thought it was a brilliant read - unlike on beauty!

>116-118, I also found Infidel compelling & powerful. An amazing story of overcoming adversity.

#109, torotoc, I loved Tree of Smoke too, although I fear I didn't get all of the allusions in it.

I sped through A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré. I haven't read anything by him in years, but this is up to his old standards: great plotting, pacing, characters; moral ambiguity; and insight into spying in the world gone by and today.

#12: rebeccanyc - The problem with waiting so long for a book and then having to read it as soon as it gets here is that I'm probably not going to be in the right mood for the book when I read it. Such has been the case with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. There was nothing wrong with the beginning of it, but it wasn't the right book just now and it took me a good 125 pages or so before the plot really brought me into it. This was odd for, among other reasons, I'm a dog lover and this is a great dog book. Anyway, I'm about 220 pages into it now, and at the moment I like it a lot.

Counter to most post posts above, count me as one who thought Tree of Smoke was only brilliant in parts, and enjoyed On Beauty. In Tree of Smoke, the two main characters fell flat for me. But then I found several characters brilliant, especially the priest and Jimmy. I found On Beauty entertaining.

Message edited by its author, Oct 22, 2008, 9:22am.

I'm starting The Shadow of the Wind today ... it's been on my TBR pile for far too long and I am finally getting to it. I've got to find something else for my bedtime read though .

Just finished Nineteen Minutes Jodi Picoult and gone back to So Many Ways to Begin which I abandoned for Nineteen Minutes, must stop reading random books on my break.. started Hangover Square on lunch yesterday but am determined to finish So Many Ways to Begin first.

Finished Twilight over the weekend - LOVED IT, and am now onto The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I am also reading Best Food Writing 2001 and Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith by Kathleen Norris.

>128 : grkmwk, I know a few people who didn't finish The Historian but I loved it so I hope you enjoy reading it.

Just finished The New Diary by Tristine Rainer (thank god) and starting the Myst series.

Finished Ender's Shadow and I have started reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

I am reading Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald. I am halfway into the story. It is fiction but does offer some insight into the lives of women in Iran.

Just finished The interpretation of murder which was ok.

I will go on with Saturday by Ian McEwan. Already read a chapter some weeks ago, want to finish it this weekend and finally go on with something new.

Last night I finished I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell. A quick and enjoyable read. (However, the reader must be ready for drag queens, BSDM, drug use, drunkenness, promiscuous sex with a love story thrown in.)

I'm not sure what's up for tonight. Work is hard (see "economy"), so I'll probably keep it light with Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Or I could go the other way with No Country for Old Men. Hmmmm.

ETA: Sorry about the double post.

Message edited by its author, Oct 22, 2008, 4:39pm.

#125, dchaikin, Thanks. Unlike you, I got into The Story of Edgar Sawtelle right away, and lost interest later on!

I've started Philip Roth's latest, Indignation.

Group read: Orlando by Virginia Woolf, finished chapter 1: curious, humorous, funny, and a light read so far.

Rereading Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Historien om Europa 1: 1300-1600 ('The History of Europe 1: 1300-1600') by Karsten Alnæs.

>127: jillianmarie- What did you think of Nineteen Minutes? It's in my tbr and I've heard very good things about it!

I am currently reading Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron. I am absolutely loving it.

>107 AMQS Give White Teeth the good old 50 page test. I thought this book was brilliant.

Just finished The Curious Incident. Very interesting, original and strangely enjoyable. I have just started Bring on the Girls, which had me laughing out loud over my breakfast this morning. First part of P.G.Wodehouse's Autobiographical trilogy.

- TT

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2008, 6:24am.

Interesting what you all are reading.

I recently finished American Priestess about the history behind the American Colony in Jerusalem. Some weird ideas behind that, good reading. But the last sentence is sooooo American ;)

Now I am reading Von der Angst zum Glauben (English:From Fear to Faith) and Nachtreiter. A Christian book about my personal faith and a fantasy story. Does anybody know the author Daniela Knor?? I'ver never read anything by her before.

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2008, 6:52am.

I had put into Early Reviewer for Dewey but didn't get it. I then put it on my amazon wishlist and my daughter saw it there. She'd have lots of kitties if she could, but her lease forbids them. However, I may be getting this book for either my birthday or Christmas (only a month apart) so she can read it too!!!

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2008, 1:49pm.

Just finished reading The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and am now reading World Without End by Ken Follett

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2008, 10:21am.

Cool website:

http://www.miragebookmark.ch/amazing-boo...

Will start The chocolate Frog Frame Up today.

#144 hemlokgang That site is wonderful. Thanks for posting the link.

#144 hemloklang By the way, check out the libraries and bookstores that are linked at the bottom of the site. I'm saving my money for a visit to the Lello Bookstore in Porto, Portugal.

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2008, 2:50pm.

82: I loved The Shadow of the Wind and hope you will, too.

84 & 85: I'm so glad to hear such positive things about The Curious Incident. I have it on next week's TBR for a reading challenge, and I haven't really known what to expect because reviews have been mixed.

128 & 129: I thought The Historian was wonderful, but I think you have to really appreciate the story-within-a-story format and the epistolary style.

I'm reading I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass. I'm only 65 pages in, but it seems good so far.

#148 bnbooklady The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is a very......interesting, surprising and enthralling book with an intriguing main character who does a good job of making you understand how it feels to be him. I wouldn't have said it was a 'enjoyable' or 'lighthearted' but I am glad I read it.

#138 msf59

Although you weren't asking me, I'd thought I'd say that other than My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes was my favourite Jodi Picoult. I felt that the premise is a shocking and very interesting and emotional one, and I really enjoyed it. If you have read We Need To Talk About Kevin and liked it then you'll probably like this (its lighter than that though) and if you haven't read that, and you like Nineteen Minutes, then maybe try We Need To Talk About Kevin !!!

Oh.............and I'm reading The Left Hand of Darkness

I just started reading Granta 63 Beasts and will probably move on to Thrity Umrigar's memoir First Darling of the Morning.

>139: bethielouwho, I'm glad to hear you are enjoying Dewey because I bought it and it's on my travel books pile ... I have a long trip to Asia coming up and I'm putting aside books that I will bring with me to read on the plane and at bedtime in the hotels.

I have the flu and it's been really difficult to concentrate and read anything longer than 2 lines. Maybe I should switch to comics for the time being.

#149......lunacat, thank you for the recommendation on Nineteen Minutes....I have it in my TBR pile. I loved My Sister's Keeper. I am not a "cryer", but I got really teary eyed at the end. Powerful book. I love the way Jodi P. writes.

I just finished Her Daughter's Eyes by Jessica Barksdale Inclan. It was very good. I will look for more of her books.

Just started The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, copyright 1959. I have loved watching the movie version since I was 13 years old, scary as hell! First time reading the book. So far it is exactly as the movie portrayed. It's my spooky Halloween read. :o)

Just finished up The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather, and loved it! I am about to begin listening to Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2008, 6:07pm.

Finished The Book of Spirits by James Reese and have started Adored by Tilly Bagshawe...

>143: mrstaco- What did you think of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle? Reviews on this thread have been somewhat divided. I had mixed feelings myself, it was a great half-novel!
>149: lunacat- Thanks for the comments on Jodi Picoult. I have read My Sister's Keeper and I loved it. I have also read the Tenth Circle which I also thought was pretty good. My daughter is reading Nineteen Minutes at the moment.

Reading The Thirteenth Tale at bed time. Am wondering why I left it on my TBR for so long.

#157 I did the same thing with The Thirteenth Tale. I finally pulled it from the pile after some encouragement here and finished it a week or so ago. I really loved it.

I'm about to finish Ann Cleeves' Raven Black:Shetland Island Quartet. It's a good mystery set in a locale I would never think about beyond ponies and sheep dogs. I've been drinking a lot of tea, too...holding back on the whiskey, though! :)

Promise Not to Tell because it is a quick read. I have a couple of books due in to review and they will probably be here today. I want to get them read for the weekend.

I am preparing myself for the group read of Mists coming up in November.
I want to clear the decks, so to speak, before then. I have never done a group read and I am a little anxious about it.

I finished Onitsha by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio yesterday, which was one of the better novels I've read this year. I'll submit a review of it sometime this weekend.

I started The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts by Mr Le Clézio yesterday, which is a collection of short stories about poorer residents in and around the French Riviera.

I also read The Writer as Migrant by Ha Jin, the first generation Chinese-American author who won the National Book Award for Waiting. This short book is based on the Campbell Lectures at Rice University that he gave in 2006.

I should finish "The Other" by Ryszard Kapuściński today, which is a series of essays on the Western view of The Other, those who are not American or European.

#72 fyrefly98 - I loved The Wordy Shipmates! A great read.

#81 xicanti - I read The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex and thoroughly enjoyed it. You might want to look it up.

#84 TheTortoise - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was a wonderful book. I recently read a nonfiction book by someone with Asberger's called Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet and although parts lagged a bit, I really enjoyed the parts where he discussed how he sees words and colors and how he "solves" mathematical problems.

I just finished The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte. It had some flaws but I enjoyed it.

I started The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and am stunned by the beauty of the language. It's a Pulitzer Prize Winner from 1974 and I had never heard of it until I bought it at our Friends of the Library book sale! Lucky me.

I finished Chocolate Frog Frame Up in less than 24 hours - usually do. For chocolate lovers these are great mysteries. I fear I gain weight just reading them as they describe all the chocolates that are made in the shop in the book.

I plan now to start in on Poor Richard's Almanack and The Summons. Poor Richard's is one of those books than can be read in a little or a lot. The kind that end up in the bathroom when you want to have something to amuse yourself with while doing "other things."

Hi

I did enjoy (if that's the right word?) Nineteen Minutes it's easy to read and it was hard to put down, the 'blurb' on the back cover doesn't really do it justice as it's about how everyone is affected and the build up for everyone. Would recomend it, though it's not the chirpiest read and the ending I thought was a bit of a let down but I liked it better that We Need to Talk About Kevin.

I finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy on Tuesday. I'm almost done with A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Baeh.

#161 karenmarie

I read The Killer Angels the year it came out and really loved it--it has been on list of favorites for years and next year i plan to read it again. I hope you enjoy it!

I'm taking a break from my 3 (and in 10 days it will be 4!) group reads yesterday and today. I have 2 days off because of "eye surgery"--which is somewhat uncomfortable but doesn't prevent me from reading. In fact today i can see better than i have been for over 3 years!

Yesterday i read Where's There's a Will--a Nero Wolfe.

Today I'm reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on the recommendation of several Lt members. I'm loving it and should finish it before I go to bed tonight.

Ooh.. I've got The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society in my TBR pile .. maybe I'll move it up a spine or two so I get to it soon

Oh my eyes!!!!!!

Cancel! Cancel! I am not reading Promise Not to Tell not today, not ever. Ick blech and no!

ahem

I will now find something else to read !

>154 That's my favorite Willa Cather! (although it's been so long I probably should reread them all to see if it still would rank as favorite).

#166 cameling You must read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society This is a fabulous read. I was too cheap to buy it and kept reading it when I went to B&N until I finished it. Now I want to buy it.

>161 I loved The Killer Angels--I hope you enjoy it as well.

I finished The Secret River by Kate Grenville during lunch today and am still reading Orlando with the Virginia Woolf group read.

I started This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun yesterday and look forward to resuming when I get home.

>161: karenmarie- I'm a big fan of The Killer Angels also. If you are interested, follow-up with his son Jeff's 2 Civil War novels, which are very good too. One last thing, The Killer Angels was made into an excellent film called "Gettysburg".

and one of Jeff Shaara's books was also made into a movie, but didn't rate as well

but, yes, all three were good and did a reasonable job with the history

Like many of you I loved The Killer Angels, in fact have a copy in my personal library as a keeper (which I don't do very often), but I must disagree with #171 about Gettysburg. Certainly it's worth seeing, the casting was very good, but I would never call it excellent. IMHO, it's a 3 star movie made from a 5 star book.

Message edited by its author, Oct 24, 2008, 7:23pm.

I too love (Jeff Shaara), and have read most of his books over the years.
He has now authored a new trilogy on WW11, the first of which is a must-read, The Steel Wave. The book centres on D-Day, and is a stirring portrait of both fictional and non-fictional characters leading up to the momentous event.

wow....I just got The Killer Angels in the mail and now I am really looking forward to reading it!

I'm still reading the Morland Dynasty series (and will be for some time until I run out of books or the exchange rate picks up again!). Currently on The Outcast , where something dramatic always happens when I'm about to go to bed...so I have to read another chapter.

STarted The Gargoyle today. It is looking good. Finished listening to The Lollipop Shoes which I liked a lot more than I thought I would and started listening to The Cement Garden.

Finished A Quiet Life by Beryl Bainbridge - clever, funny. Now reading Bobbin Up by Dorothy Hewett - set in Sydney in the 1950s, interesting.

>160 I've just finished The Prospector by Le Clezio and it was the best thing I've read all year. Have ordered The Mexican Dream and Wandering Star...I think he's brilliant.

Meanwhile have just begun The Sea and The Jungle by H.M.Tomlinson

I'm having trouble with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It taken the weirdest changes in story and style, and it's lost me. At the moment I feel like I'm reading about a very long very detailed and very pointless trek. I wondering if I should keep reading it.

Finished the Summons

Have picked up Joshua Chamberlain A Hero ... from my trip to Brunswick ME.

I started China Lake by Meg Gardiner on Monday last..but life intervened...i hope to pick it up again today (?) the book starts off with a Bang (not literally) and, well, seems like a keeper..has anyone else read Ms Gardiner's work? she's been published in the UK for a while and her work his just now seeing Domestic publication...Stephen King raves about here..from the wee bit i've read, the raves are not empty...

Just finished The French Lieutenant's Woman, and I'm a bit torn by my reaction to it. There were parts of the book I loved, but I was very disappointed by the ending, which I found ambiguous and a let down. But, overall I liked the book and glad I read it.

Just finished Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton.

I loved the film with Robert Donat - one of my favourite films. I could picture him as I read the book - he was a wonderful actor. The book was good, a quick read- a couple of hours, but I think the film improved on the book!

-TT

Is there a new thread for this week??

Haven't seen one and since I don't know how to do it, I can't do it!

i started a new thread..go to the group home page and scroll down..it should be there for the week of October 25.....Duh

I just this minute finished Sue Grafton's "I" is for Innocent. I couldn't put it down. An excellent series and spell-binding to the end.