I finished Ha'penny and I've started Half a Crown, both by Jo Walton.

seitherin, how much I have enjoyed this series of books! Others have said they find the historical bits rather less than convincing, but I can't say that I do. Apparently we agree on this.

Picked up The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin as a distraction.

I am reading a book set in modern day Iraq, non-fiction House to House by David Bellavia. The story of the battle for Fallujah. I am reading it for a RL book group.

I finished Charlie Huston's new novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death and enjoyed it to the max, one of the few and far-between that manages to measure up to its hype. I'd read a couple of Huston's earlier books, especially liking his vampire detective in Half the Blood of Brooklyn, but this new one outshines it in both originality and wit, though I admit I occasionally found myself cringing at Huston's uber-graphic crime scene descriptions, some of the grossest and most horrific I've ever read. All that aside, it's still a page-turner of the highest order and highly recommended to the non-squeamish.

Right now I'm a hundred pages into Judith Thurman's 1982 NBA winner Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller and find it wonderfully written and completely absorbing so far. I've read all of the great Karen Blixen's work over the years, admired it considerably, and had always meant to read Thurman's definitive account of her life, but am only now getting round to it. Worth the wait.

The Translator by Ward Just. I'm already 60 or so pages into it and I only just started it yesterday, which is a LOT faster than I've been reading lately. I'm really liking it.

I finished The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann on Thursday, got absolutely no reading done yesterday, and today have decided to take a break from my big ol' stack of ARCs to read something *I* want to read (not that the ARCs I've been reading recently haven't been good, there's just been a lot of them in a row.) I've picked up The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold - hopefully it'll be as good as the first two in the series.

I'm also still listening to Emma, although I'm only about one disc away from finishing... have had no time to listen to audiobooks recently either. Bleh.

thanks to richard, I finally got in this thread before #10 - wow - bet that won't happen again.

I finished Mounting Fears last night. Sounded a bit to close to reality for comfort.

I'll now be going on with Passing of the Armies and New Yorker Cartoon 75th where I have entered the mid-60s.

I'm also going to start The Parables of Jesus - Jesus Seminar which has actually been on my table for a couple of weeks but I got distracted with stuff from the library.

I am reading 'A Concise Guide To Eighties' Music' by Karl Vorderman. It's interesting stuff.

I'm currently reading Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang, and so far it's really good.

I'm now beginning The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George.

I finished How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein, a fascinating look at social entrepreneurs, people who are driven by ideas of how to solve societal problems, the factors that make them successful, and the spread of citizen organizations around the world.

On the fiction front, I'm almost through the fourth of five parts of 2666.

I finished After Elizabeth on Thursday. Gave Don Quixote a go yesterday, but it's a huge volume that didn't exactly play well with my knitting. I'll see if I can finally settle on another book today.

Currently reading:

Titus Andronicus by W. Shakespeare. Finished act 1. I guess it is a rather violent play (from ancient Rome).

I'm also reading a quite unknown novel - "Ny jord" - by Knut Hamsun

and (slowly) Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin. An interesting challenge.

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2009, 11:54am.

#4 LouisBranning ~ I liked the first two Huston's I read, so am very much looking forward to The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death as well as Half the Blood of Brooklyn. Glad to know it's so good.

I'm still reading Cursors' Fury ~ very slowly. Nothing wrong with the novel, but I got hung up on an audiobook rendering of The Killer Angels, which was amazing and wonderful, and then went pretty much right into the audio of Bloodline, a Repairman Jack thriller, which also sucked me right in.

Just started girl in a red river coat, a sweet little piece of fiction from the '70s about growing up in Montreal in the '30s.

Recovering from reading the fabulous Chronicler of the Winds by Henning Mankell.

I've been sick for 3 days in bed, but I've been so feverish and tired I've barely gotten to read. boo! whats the point of being sick if you don't get to read all your books?

working on People of the Book near the end! I'm excited!

I've started Twilight as it was a christmas present from my best friend and I want to see whether all the fuss is justified.

#10 ktleyed - I hope you enjoy The Autobiography of Henry VIII. That's one I want to reread.

Right now I'm shuffling Ending an Ending by Danny Birt, Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson, and Night Shift by Stephen King. I'm also listening to Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette.

I continue listening to Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling and reading The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa

Almost halfway through Rock Bottom: A Novel by Michael Shilling which I got through the ER program. It's suppose to be a "pitch-black comedy" but at the moment I am failing to see anything comedic about the characters or situations. I'm trying to save judgement until the very end, but I do hope it gets somewhat better...

I finished Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It turned out to be much better than I expected. He comes across as rather arrogant, so I wasn't very hopeful about his book. His writing was witty and ironic, but some of it was unintentional.

Now I've started Clausewitz & Contemporary War, which promises to be dull but enlightening. On War is a tough nut to crack, so I'm planing to read a couple of shorter interpretive works first before tackling it again.

>17 lunacat - It really is! I couldn't put it down, it was electric!

I'm STIIIIILLLL reading Remotely Controlled: How television is damaging our lives and what we can do about it, by Dr. Aric Sigman (for good-concentration hours), The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (for bookish moments) and Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade by Guy Browning (started when I was ill, for sleepy reading and other miscellaneous snippets of time).

ahhhh >4 LouisBranning

so you love the Isak Dinesen:The life of a Storyteller....i do not feel so "all alone"...maybe you should try Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette next??

I'm still plodding away at The Greco-Persian Wars by Peter Green, while also reading Rudyard Kipling's Collected Stories, Sylvia Townsend Warner's T. H. White: A Biography and Little Dorrit (though I can't read any more until next month since we've already read this month's four chapters).

Otherwise, my free time has been taken up with writing a "reason for study" essay and doing the administrative drudgery required for my application to library school.

I'm still reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - but still loving it! Just not had much reading time in the last week or so...

Just started and finished The Parables of Jesus Red Letter Edition. It's a short book and was interesting to see what these fellows attribute to Jesus and what they say he never said.

> 9 RedBowlingBallRuth I'm also reading Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China and am enjoying it too. I'm only about 70 pages in. Every now and then as I'm reading, I think about what my aunts, uncles and parents were doing during the same time span. It's definitely worlds apart.

I thought I'd now read my latest Early Reviewer - The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man. I'll also still be looking at the Chamberlain book and the New Yorker Cartoon book, where I am now at 1975 - only three decades to go.

I have just started The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr - my December ER book. I really like his writing style so far.

3/4 of the way through of The Secret of Lost Things Sheridan Hay.
I'm really enjoying the book. Just wondering if all bookstores have such interesting emloyees. Rosemary is a very adventerous and brave character.
If you like book on books. try it.

Fluffyblue- I envy you reading The Eyre Affair for the first time. It's one of my favorite books.
I've just started London: Tea in the City which is a pretty little book with pictures inside the tea rooms of Fortnum & Mason's, Brown's Hotel, Harrod's, etc. and descriptions of what you can expect when you go for tea there.

Kindle: Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More ("The Hollows" #5)

Dead-tree: Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte

I finished House to House by David Bellavia

I started it today, and read it in one sitting.

Just a searing and amazing book.

I saw him giving a talk about his book in a bookstore, on C-SPAN. It was back in 2007, when the book was out in HC. I was so memorized by his talk that I vowed to buy the book when it came out it paper. And I did. I didn't read it until now, because I got one of my RL book groups to read it as the January selection.

The passion and honesty of his presentation made it seem like he spoke for an hour or more on one breath. It was fast and it took you to the events he talked about, the horror of war, the men he fought with, those who lived and those who were lost. That same vitality comes across in the book. I could not put it down.

The book is a series of connected stories about their life in Iraq and the battles they get into. There are lots of descriptions of battles, and weapons. It is gory, brutal and quite frank. Not for the faint of heart or those who require sugar-coating. The major part of the book is about his unit going into Fallujah to clean out the insurgents after they killed and hung the bodies of 4 American contractors from a bridge. The rest is in my review on the book page ....

After that I need something light and fluffy, so I started Plum Lucky by Janet Evonovich.

I have been reading a few, actually. The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, and Two-Minute Mysteries
I LOVE these books and I recommened each to everyone!!!

Finished Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates this morning, and am now just beginning A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

>33 Ficus...I am breathless...and I don't like books about wartime experiences!

>34 bitten, I'd Tell You I love you, But then I'd Have to Kill You is a great title!!

>35 trinah, is this your first trip through A Confederacy of Dunces? If so, I am so envious. It was a thrill for me to read that book the first time.

On the OTHER hand, a second read of The Janissary Tree wasn't as delightful as the first one. I guess I was so enthralled by the delights of 1836 Constantinople that first time that I simply ignored the EUNUCHEUNUCHEUNUCH reminders. It got wearing this time. Fast. Still on balance a recommended read for 1) mystery fans, 2) Turkish theme hawgs (me! me!), 3) slightly creepily "off" sex mavens.

#35 and 36 - A Confederacy of Dunces is great! I read it and then listened to the audio version. The narrator was nothing short of brilliant when portraying Ignatius and Jones.

Whoa! A Confederacy of Dunces! Funniest book I ever read. On top of which, New Orleans is nailed perfectly in that book. I was living there when I read it, in fact.

I am about halfway through The Centaur by Algernon Blackwood. It's a sort of spiritual/philosophical/horror story written in 1911. I'd never heard of this book and picked it up more or less at random last month, as I'm wont to do sometimes. The author was most noted for his short story collections, which doesn't surprise me, as the book would be better with some serious editing. The thesis of the story is that the Earth is a living entity and some few, lucky souls are able to commune with that consciousness. The problem is that they risk losing their own individuality. So it's sort of an early ecological novel, I guess. The writing's a bit overwrought in a sort of "wish I could write like Joseph Conrad" way. But I'm going to finish it because it's interesting to me as a period piece and because I am interested see where Algernon takes the protagonist.

I finished John Master's The Deceivers yesterday. I enjoyed it, but found it a bit less compelling than the similarly themed Confessions of a Thug. I'm currently reading Bruno Schulz' The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass which is quite good--my only complaint being that these stories really beg for full immersion, and I'm finding it too easy to get distracted. Need some sensory deprivation reading bubble.

Message edited by its author, Jan 25, 2009, 4:37am.

#36 Richard,

I am not a big fan of military or war books either, but I try to read a few for the various wars/conflicts, to get an idea of what was going on from the people who were there, as opposed to what we get from the media. I try to read books about the people, their experience and the impact of the event locally.

I hadn't picked a book for Iraq yet when I saw the presentation for House to House, and after the presentation I had to read it.

About A confederacy of Dunces, sorry couldn't disagree more. It was one of the most vile books I have ever read. I didn't find it funny, it was more like making fun of a poor, mentally defective, emotionally challenged person who lacks resources, education, or guidance. Reminded me of a schoolyard bully type of experience. I had to read it for one of my book groups. It was not well received by others in the group either.

I guess how one reads A Confederacy of Dunces depends on how you feel the author is presenting the characters. I saw it as compassionate and therefore the humor and fun were fabulous. It was also so very very New Orleans. I can see, however, if it felt like the author was not compassionate, it would loose its joy.

I finally finished The Coffee Trader this morning, a book I really didn't enjoy but felt compelled to finish having purchased the book. I just couldn't connect to any of the characters. I disliked them all. In the end, I got to the end by rewarding myself with one dark chocolate M&M for every two pages read.

#41, The author killed himself. I don't think its a case of sympathy, as it is too close to the bone.

#35 - How did you like Black Water? It is on my TBR shelf now.

I am just starting Bleak House. So, I won't have much to contribute to the thread as far as new reads go for a long, long time.

#2 - richardderus: I find the historical bits of Walton's Smal Change trilogy all too convincing. It's always been easier to be a sheep especially when one is taught to (~not~) think like one.

Yesterday I started Midnight's Daughter by Karen Chance and the manga A Wise Man Sleeps by Mick Takeuchi.

Finished Good People, a thriller by Marcus Sakey, and loved it. It was excellent. He's one of my new favorite authors now. I can't wait for his next book.

Started a goofy, chicklit, fluffy book last night....Good In Bed by Jennifer Weiner. I feel like I could use a laugh or two.

Just finished Eclipse and now starting Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, which several of my friends have recommended to me and keep asking me if I've read. Since I'll be seeing one of them at the end of Feb., I figured I'd better get it read.

I have about 80 pages to go in Kafka on the Shore. I can't wait to see how it ends!

#48 jhedlund, I'm not sure Snow Flower deserves all the superlatives it received, but I did enjoy it.

I finally finished Mayflower last night, and was much more emotionally affected than I expected to be. I decided to read something lighter next, and picked up Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen at the library. It seems like it will fit the bill.

#49, PbP, Isn't that a wonderful novel?

A friend of mine really, really wants me to read Dracula, so I am going to give it a try. I think he is crazy for wanting me to read it, but maybe I will actually like it after all...

>52 aktakukac (awesome name btw) Let us know how you get on! I got about half way through it and gave up (very unusual for me), but I've not written it off - I'd like to try it again. You know what it's like sometimes when you start something a bit heavier and then drift off because it just Wasn't the Right Time...

Just finished The Time Traveler's Wife which I loved. Not for everyone though, because a friend of mine who has similar tastes (usually) didn't like it and told me not to read it.

I'm starting Obama: From Promise to Power; I wanted to read a biography of Obama before reading his autobiographies/memoirs.

>42 sana, goodness me! Rewarding yourself with chocolate for finishing pages! A book that needs bribery to finish is a book I put down and/or throw away.

>43 Ficus, I can understand how the book would come across that way, though my experience was opposite to yours.

>45 seitherin, that was my take on all three books. I know others in the SF Group Reads forum found the book badly out of synch and some even found the prose tedious but I wasn't of those opinions at all. I have stopped arguing with the folks there because, frankly, I have better ways to spend my LT time.

Just started on the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, and am looking forward to learning a little more about American dramas.

I must admit I don't know much about American dramas so far, alas, so this will become a new experience to me. Interesting.

Finished another decade of New Yorker cartoons - 2 to go.

Just finishing The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian, a brilliant book — apocalyptic, moody, despairing and joyous, a long read to burrow in and enjoy.

To be followed by Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. I don't usually pick up books that receive such widespread early good notice — I'm skeptical of marketing machinations — but this one does look good.

I havent' read a review of Lark and Termite, and didn't know there was much hype surrounding it, (other than what I've read here) but it's a helluva novel, and set a high standard for the rest of my fiction reading this year.

I have finished Zugzwang which I thought was a good mystery/ political suspense/ historical novel, even without an understanding of the strategies of chess.

I am already deeply engrossed in Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth by Edeet Ravel and I am only 24 pages.

First, I recently finished Disgrace by Coetzee. Won the Booker. He won the Nobel. It was good, to be sure, but the middle-aged professor preying on a student plot is tired BEYOND tired. The rest of the novel is MUCH more unique. Coetzee's writing style is very lean, which I can certainly appreciate, but I tend to prefer more meat on my bones.

Next was an oddly compelling yet ultimately miserable slog through Focault's Pendulum by Eco. You know, maybe it was reading this in the wake of Rushdie's brilliant, brilliant The Moor's Last Sigh, but I couldn't help but think that if you were at a party, Rushdie and Eco would be the smartest guys in the room, but you'd only want to have a conversation with one of them, and it ain't Eco. You know, there's being esoteric and there's being a pain in the ass, and Eco is just a pain in the ass. Tell the goddamn story, already.

Finally, I just finished The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. I love Cornwell, and this book had Danes, Saxons, blood/guts, spit, and all other manner of bodily fluids being traded and more often spilled, so what's not to like? Seriously, Cornwell is scarily prolific AND he manages to maintain a very high level of quality in all he does.

Whew.

abealy, you're making me want to re-read The Children's Hospital, and I couldn't agree more with your comments.

Sean, it was Kakutani who reviewed Lark & Termite first about 4 weeks ago and raved on it, as has nearly every other major reviewing publication in the country, plus it was the cover review this weekend in the WaPo Book World. After my initial reaction to it, I went back last week and read a most of it again, truly a marvelous book, though probably not one for every reader, as you must be a bit patient as Phillips sets all the story's elements in place, but once that's done, the payoff is simply magical. Really glad you liked it as much as I did.

Message edited by its author, Jan 25, 2009, 8:06pm.

Just finished Little Alters Everywhere and loved it!!! Immediately picked up The Memory of Water and haven't gotten struck by the "can't put it down bug" yet.

It sounds like I might have to get past my mild aversion to the title and give Lark and Termite a shot.

Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of A Tragic Honesty, a biography of Richard Yates. Yates comes across as a fascinatingly tragic character; his career verged from toiling obscurity to mild fame and included stints as a speechwriter for Robert Kennedy and writing screenplays in Hollywood. Yates's work is highly autobiographical, and his biographer, Blake Bailey reverts to his fiction time and again to explain certain periods of his life. I'm only about 200 pages in so far and I'm not sure how I feel about this technique.

I've only read the superb Revolutionary Road and have been parceling out some of the stories, but the numerous excerpts of Yates's writing make me want to read through all of his fiction.

I love the variety of interests listed here. I'm reading Burn Out by Marcia Muller. I haven't read a good mystery in awhile, so looking forward to it.

Finished The Coffee Trader a few days ago and posted my review somewhere here on LT...a possibly wonderful book that bogged down in the middle..had to force myself to finish it.

put the dreadedHopscotch in the Quiet Room, and have somehow lost the key...so started The French Lieutenant's Woman this morning..and it is corking right along...
;-p

Louis, I thought the language of Lark and Termite gorgeous and the narrative structure absolutely flawless. Lark was a novel that for me, personally, met all my standards for great fiction. It was one of those rare books that come along from time to time that even though it left me with a feeling of sadness, resonated with me well after I was finished with it. It's a book I'm sure I'll revisit again.

36. Yes, it's my first time reading A Confederacy of Dunces and I'm certainly enjoying it so far.

I just started reading Scoop by Evelyn Waugh this morning and am enjoying it so far.

About halfway throught Great Expectations and hoping I have time to finish it, even though tomorrow is the beginning of spring semester.

#17 lunacat: I decided to read Twilight to see what all the hype was about, too. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like Twilight, but I really got into the story and read it quickly, although I did feel a bit like a teenager again. It seemed like perfect reading for a long weekend.

Next up is Beloved by Toni Morrison for a RL book club.

I've started Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin and would recommend it to all pet owners and animal lovers. The book I was planning on starting this week may have to wait. My library holds got away from me and I have The Secret River, Good People and Never Tell a Lie waiting for pickup.

Still reading The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig and enjoying it.

I finished Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich
One of the Stephanie Plum Between-the Numbers books. Its St. Patrick's day and Grandma has run off to Atlantic City with Mob money. Diesel pops up chasing a guy, Snuggy, who thinks he is a leprechaun, and is the one who originally stole the money. Snuggy is trying to get an ex-racehorse named Doug a leg operation. They end up with Doug the horse and an RV, you do the math.

I haven't laughed out loud while reading in a while. In fact I am having a hard time staying in my chair just thinking about it.

I am now reading a non-fiction called The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr. It is an inside look at the global perfume industry. The author follows the development of 2 perfumes to tell the story, one in NYC and one in France.
I got it through ER. So far so good.

Just started Goodnight Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson. I normally love her work and can become engrossed within the first few pages but this one is proving to be a bit of a slog. Maybe it'll improve :)

Message edited by its author, Jan 26, 2009, 5:28am.

Ears, by Lehel Vandor - was good continuation after The Whisperers by Orlando Figes

Message edited by its author, Jan 26, 2009, 5:31am.

I finished The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso Yáñez last night. Next up: Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima and Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami for the January Reading Globally theme read (Japan).

I set aside Midnight's Daughter temporarily and started Wuthering Heights which I have been putting off for months since having it assigned to me on the Go Review That Book! group. It is much more engaging than I expected but those people are MESSED UP! I'm about halfway through having stayed up a little on the late side because it was so interesting.

I am reading The Art of Keeping Secrets. I should finish it today.

I am currently reading:

Heart Shaped Box - Hoping to finish it up this week.
Anna Karenina - Slowly working my way through this mammoth.
The Great Hunt - Audiobook.

#56, kjellika, A Raisin in the Sun is a classic - a great place to start.

#69, digitalmaven, I remember laughing out loud when I read Scoop many years ago, and I even sometimes have heard myself saying "up to a point" to someone! I'll have to reread it.

Finished and was really taken with Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. A lyrical look at the life of a smart street kid.

I began The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry last night, and I'm finding myself thinking about the characters here at work which is a good sign.

richarderus - I put one of the novels the translator of The Elegance of the Hedgehog wrote onto my wishlist. I would never have thought to look for her as an author if it hadn't been for you. Thanks a million! And thanks for the review as well. For me the novel really resonated by providing great insight into the shame, stereotyping, guilt and general awkwardness that occurs when people of different socioeconomic classes interact. I also liked that there was a young woman and a middle-aged woman neither of whom were sexualized or cutified. Still, I agree with some of the points you made particularly when it comes to the revelation about Renee's past.

Reading The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, and hoping to finish it soon. The Thursday Next series is a hoot.

Also working on Krakatoa and 68 Knots. The first is an interesting mix of history and science related to the former island of Krakatoa, destroyed by a volcano in 1883. It's rather different from the other books I've read by Simon Winchester, both of which were related to the Oxford English Dictionary. 68 Knots is a teen novel that came out in 2007. I have the Advanced Reading Copy, and I'm not sure if it's substantially different from the finished one but it strikes me as needing a bit more...polish, I guess is the word. I'm right at page 50 and will decide soon whether or not to finish it.

Finished Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man and all I can say is "eh". I don't think I would have gotten this if I hadn't gotten it through Early Reviewers.

I am joining a "Cabin Fever" club at my library which, I think, will require reading books from the library, so I will be bringing something home today. I think it will be A Good Yarn.

Still working at Passing of the Armies and have only two more decades in the New Yorker cartoon book.

>82 nancy, I hope you end up enjoying Alison Anderson's work, and you're quite welcome for the heads-up. It was a very interesting book, Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Two very busy days, made a little time to read The Wedding, all touchstones are wrong, by Elizabeth A. Rees. It's a YA novel based on the famous Jan van Eyck painting "The Arnolfini Wedding." Watson-Guptill, primarily an information publisher, did a series called "Encounters With Art" in which YA writers are asked to imagine stories based on or featuring famous works of art that are intended to illuminate (pun optional) the nature of painting and sculpture as storytelling media. Since humans are storytelling apes, this idea interested me.

Ms. Rees tells the story of young Giovanna, the bride in the painting, as she comes of age and discovers love and duty in her very different world. She falls in love with an unsuitable young man, a la Romeo and Juliet, during her first-ever night out as her father's arm ornament at a Burgundian court shindig in her new home of Bruges (recently arrived from Paris after her mother's death). While there, she also meets Jan van Eyck who asks for permission to paint her portrait. Her trip to van Eyck's studio is made still more exciting than it would be anyway by the...gasp!...appearance of the unsuitable love object!

Hijinks ensue. She marries dutifully, but wisely, knowing as she now does about the heart wanting what it wants, or else it doesn't care. The marriage lasts for forty years. Love? NEVER lasts forty anythings longer than maybe days.

Is this a book of brilliant writing? No indeed. Is it an entertaining book? Yes indeed. I like the idea of the series very much, and I liked the way Ms. Rees imagined the world of Bruges in the 15th century, and the way she wove fact and fancy together was deft and engaging. I recommend it withtout making a fuss about it.

First off, I have to reiterate what I have previously acknowledged, that this is the greatest place for (a) meeting interesting readers and (b) reading reviews that either make you want to rush out and get the book, or else read an interesting discourse on why or why not a particular book fails to garner much support.
Over the past year I have had so much pleasurable reading from the many recommendations on this site, and at the other end of the scale, I have sometimes agreed, sometimes disagreed with comments or reviews put up on this thread.
And thenI will always be grateful to the unparallelled Richard, who can bring a smile or a frown with just a few words, love ya guy!
Which brings me, by the scenic route, to why I'm here today.
I think it essential that you know that I am fast approaching my sixty-ninth year, and I really cannot think of a time when I have devoted so much of my leisure time to reading, and as an ex-newspaperman and, at one point, even a book reviewer, it amazes me that I have suddenly realised that if I want to read all those classics I neglected in my younger days, and keep up with what's 'popular' right now, I better get on with it!
Again, bearing in mind that I am your typical cranky old male, I just finished reading Lets Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I am stunned. What an amazing book, it truly cut to the heart, and it will take a while for me to forget it or the impact it had on me. Boy, to all those parents who have teenagers growing up at home, what an eye opener. I have an 18-year-old, who, God bless, is a great kid, but the novel sure has you thinking 'there, but for the grace of God....
You know it wasn't that long ago that I would disdain women writers- wait a sec, I don't feel that way anymore - so I probably missed so much 'good stuff' in my misguided ignorance, mind you in my younger days, books were written with a hammer and rocks!
But I'm eternally happy that those days are over and, along with Wally Lamb and Dennis Lehane,as examples of my reading choices, I can appreciate the value of every author's work, and in most instances, come away satisfied that he/she was granted their gift just to satisfy all those cranky old readers who, like myself, received a visit this Christmas past from a lady in a shroud who was only too happy to show me the error of my past ways, and for me to promise that I will be a good critic from now on.
Now, where did I put that turkey...

Finished Flight by Sherman Alexie yesterday evening---I enjoyed it quite a lot because in it's best moments it reminded me so much of the potential for greatness in Alexie's talent which he has shown at times in the past. After that I began Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco. So far I love it! It's atmospherically setting up and telling Glassco's Paris beautifully. It's another one of those lovely tomes in the New York Review Books Classics series which on a whole as a series I hold in high regard, am greatly entertained by, and generally revere. : )

morfam, I couldn't agree more w/ your statements about LT and of course richard! A day without Library Thing is like a day without sunshine!!

I also really liked Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco. If you are looking for more memoirs of Paris, try to find That summer in Paris by Canadian novelist Morley Callaghan. Callaghan knew Hemingway and Glassco. In fact, he writes of his boxing match with Hemingway-Callaghan knocked Hemingway out!

In the middle of:
Temple of the Golden Pavillion by Yukio Mishima
A Feast For Crows by George RR Martin

Next up comes:
Bad Habits by Cristy Road

> 89

Thanks for the heads-up re That Summer in Paris by Morley Callaghan torontoc. Upon further investigation of it at Aamzon in order to add to my "To Get" list I see that a very recent edition of it is part of a larger series called the "Exile Classics Series" which I had never run across before and that whole smorgasborg has now dangerously picqued my buying interest. So yeah. . .again, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my wallet for essentially being at best an enabler and at the worst a pusher! :-)

Oops- another series to look at! Thanks!
I just finished The Outlander by Gil Adamson. What an excellent adventure story! I am now starting Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith by Gina B. Nahai.

Hey morfam, why not go all the way with Lionel Shriver: please check out her 2007 novel The Post-Birthday World, probably as good a book as you'll run across this year; it'll make you feel at least 68 all over again. Good luck from a doddering 63-year-old Lionel Shriver fan!!

>Louis & Sean- All this incredible talk about Lark and Termite! I have to get off my duff and pick this book up!
>Morfam- Excellent observations on LT and reading in general! You have a lot of book reading years left, at least 30, so get on with it! One question: Who's Richard??.......... just kidding :)
I need to bump up my copy of Let's Talk About Kevin, in my tbr pile, this book is getting some serious buzz!

#92 Gil Adamson's The Outlander was one of the best books I read last year.

I just put holds on Lark and Termite and The Outlander at the library. I've decided to try to keep a more balanced life and spend less time working (10+hours a day), and more time reading and drinking wine. My idea of a balanced life!

I am reading The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco. I read The Name of the Rose last year and I loved it. I really enjoy Eco's style of writing.

Morfam- Raising my 15 year old grandson Lets Talk About Kevin, sounds like a book for me. He is a good kid and a good student. It sounds like it is a book to make a parent/grandparent appreciate their children/grandchildren. Yes LT is a great thing!

Finished A Stranger in the Land of Egypt, an Early Reviewer book that just didn't work for me.

Now I'm reading The Omnivores Dilemma, which, if nothing else, is wonderful nonfiction writing. I'm also beginnig to picture myself as walking industrial corn.

Cindy, not to beat around the bush, but Lets Talk About Kevin is in no way a child-rearing book, if I gave that impression.
It is an extremely depressing and torturous book that deals with a Columbine-like shooting by a crazed teenager. (Perhaps you are already aware of this). The thing is, while reading it, and even afterwards, you cannot take anything for granted, and maybe after the last page you will never look at your son, grandson, whomever, in the same way.
I'm not inferring for one moment that my kid is likely to go out and shoot up his school, it is just that Shriver is such a perceptive writer that there were many occasions when I had to pause and reflect that, hey my kid can sometimes be surly and obnoxious, like Kevin. But, upon reflection, I realised that every teenager I have ever known acts that way some days.
The circumstances that the novel's mom and dad characters find themselves caught up in will scare the heck out of you, even though, perhaps, your reaction might have been very different from the book family. It's a bittersweet tale that had me laughing in spots and crying, and angry at other places within the story. The words were literally jumping off the page for me, so descriptive were the
events, truly beautiful, yet at the same time disturbing, that I found myself having to put down the book and pause and think.
All I know is that, of the many thousands of book that I have read, lo these many years, this one really got to me. And I know of LTers felt the same way, but no one will ever say don't read it. I think it must be read and I am extremely surprised that it took other LTers to bring this author to my attention. I wonder how many other readers are missing out on her fine works.
I will definitely be reading more of Shriver.

Sorry all, I just trealised that I have been calling Shriver's book by the wrong title! It's We Need To Talk About Kevin.
No wonder I couldn't make the title turn blue. That's computer jargon for 'forgive me, I know nothing about computers, and my kid is out just now'.

Oh, where, oh, where did my Remington typewriter go? Those were the days, my friends.

I'm currently into The Bar Stories: A Novel After All by Nisa Donnelly for my bedtime reading.

I'm halfway through a biography of Georgiana Cavendish (née Spencer) written by Amanda Foreman. The actual title is Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. What a woman. I've been so wrapped up in her life I'm always surprised when I close the book, go back to real life and type on the computer. Somehow I feel anachronical. I'm sure this'll pass, though.

>100 morfam, thanks for the insight on the Shriver book. Have you read Project X by Jim Shepard? An amazing novel with a similar theme.

Having just read a disappointing Counterpoint: A Murder in Massachusetts Bay by Margaret Press and an interesting look into the mind of a stroke victim in The Cigar Roller by Pablo Medina, I've decided to re-read Suite Francaise and enjoying every minute of this human study. I love how she introduces and exposes to us a little at a time, the complexities that make up the human spirit and the base instincts that guide each person (both positive and negative) when they are in fearful flight.

This seems a richer read the second time around, somehow.

I hope to finish The coffee trader in the next coming days. Thereafter I would like to finish The final solution. No idea what will be my next read yet, as so many books are waiting to be read...

Gee, morfam and momom, thanks *blush* for the props. As for YOU msf, well...least said, soonest mended I suppose. But examine your car carefully for a few months. ;-P

Remington typewriter? Manual? Eyes and sprockets that held the ribbon too loosely and were a BUGGER to thread the %(*!*%) thing through? I like my laptop sooooooooooo much better, and with a son-in-law who's a geek, I have a built-in tech support department.

Lark and Termite. Got it. Wishlisting now.

Just finished The Bestiary by Nicholas Christopher. Scarcely the first my-father-abandoned-me book I've read, and not even the first the-world-is-weirder-than-you-think book I've read...this year!

Please go buy this book.

Christopher, who is a poet, delivers emotional highs and lows in this tale of a young man's arid emotional life springing to full speed when he organizes his existence around seeking the Caravan Bestiary, the missing text that will complete God's original bestiary, the one that includes manticores and dragons and gryphons and phoenixes.

I'll write a real review, but for now...I urge you to go forth and spend the $14 or so the paper edition costs, do your bit to save the economy, and get to read a wonderful line like: “In a world of infinite metamorphoses — only a fraction of which we’re privy to, who can cleanly separate the fantastical from the commonplace? Who would want to?”

Weell, after deciding that Don Quixote was too big to play nice with my knitting, yesterday I went and read a tiny volume: The Lion in Winter, from which came the Hepburn movie. And I started a medium-sized book, Salem Witch Judge, this morning.

>104 Sibylle.Night - hope you like Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, it's on my TBR pile too - I really should have read it already, particularly since we live about ten minutes from Chatsworth House! Hopefully I'll read it and then watch the movie as well, since it's all local history. My sis gave up on it because of all the names - she couldn't keep track - but having tried Dr Zhivago, how bad can it be?!

morfam, you pinpointed one of the things I love most about LT: it really stretches you to go places in your reading that you've never been before. I've read so many (amazing) books over the past year that I'm sure I would never have picked up had it not been for the discussions here on LT. Not to mention the comfort of finding a whole haven of fellow obsessive book lovers!

I'm still reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which is the kind of book that reaffirms all that I love about reading. I can be transported to a time and place I knew nothing about and feel like I am there. And believe me when I tell you, the scenes describing the foot binding process make you want to cry out in pain/disbelief. Back to Richard's comment: the world is indeed weirder than you think!

Message edited by its author, Jan 27, 2009, 12:46pm.

I am about to start listening to A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger, and I continue reading The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa. I just finished listening to Captains Courageous, a wonderful coming of age adventure by Rudyard Kipling.

morfam and jhedlund - I agree with both of you - my list of books I now want to read is swelling practically out of control thanks to LibraryThing and everyone who's seeking out the good stuff and sharing their findings with the rest. It's a fantastic community to be a part of (*wipes away a silent tear as she gets all overwhelmed in the beauty of the moment*)...

Message edited by its author, Jan 27, 2009, 12:58pm.

#110
I've read 300 out of the 400 pages and it's been a delight so far. It's so very interesting, there's not one dull moment and I've learnt a great deal. I don't think there are too many names, it's very well explained and you learn to spot the main figures in her life pretty quickly. I think it's a very easy read.

I started Enigma Variations over the weekend

This afternoon I started National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, M. Glenn Taylor's The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart. I was pretty much sucked in until other duties called, but it's a very compelling narrative so far.

I finished Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass which was just marvelous. Yesterday, I started Del amor y otros demonios, which is pretty intriguing, though I don't find myself as instantly hooked as I did with One Hundred Years of Solitude or Cronica de una muerte anunciada. I'm continuing my Thuggee reading with Children of Kali, which is a re-read. It's turned out to be more engrossing than I remembered. Right now, the narrator is trying to get into contact with a local smuggler/rebel and keeps running into people that could be out of some Conrad novel.

Message edited by its author, Jan 27, 2009, 2:34pm.

>111 jhedlund, oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

That was a wail of empathetic agony. That description made me put the book down. I have foot troubles in RL so it was just too much for me. Now I learn from your comment that there are MORE scenes of this hideous crime! I fear Lisa's book has simply hit the nevermore pile.

Once upon a time, when I was a member of the American Museum of Natural History and lived in Manhattan, I went to one of their periodic documentary festivals. It had in it a doc about female circumcision as practiced in Somalia. They showed the operation.

I fainted.

What human males cause to be done to females, with their not-always-coerced connivance, repulses and shocks me. I simply can't read things like that, or watch them, without empathetically comprehending the agony, and I can't deal. Just cannot deal.

I'm halfway through Geraldine Brooks's March and I'm enjoying it immensely -- no wonder it won the Pulitzer! Brooks and Jhumpa Lahiri remind me of one another in that they both have such an all-encompassing, completely original attention to detail that sweeps you up and drops you in the middle of different places, times and scenarios -- and you're not the same after you close their books! Brooks is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved Year of Wonders and I'm tackling People Of the Book in a bit!

Finished Jane Eyre this a.m. and have started The Good House by Tananarive Due , the 1st book in my horror category in the 999 challenge...

I'm still reading The History of the Siege of Lisbon. It's really good, but really dense. Since Saramago requires my full attention and concentration, for those sleepy/braindead times I'm reading Sense and Sensibility. Again. Pretty soon I'll be able to recite it.

I am reading (and probably will be reading for quite awhile) Team of Rivals. It's a fatter book than I usually read!

Message edited by its author, Jan 27, 2009, 3:51pm.

Richard - yes, it is truly unbelievable the amount of misery that has been heaped on women over the millennia. Whatever you do, DON'T look up footbinding on wikipedia and see the pictures of what women's feet actually look like after the process is completed. I'm sorry that I will now never be able to remove those images from the record books of my memory.

I can't even talk about female circumcision, much less watch a video of one. I would have fainted, gotten sick or both!

>Richard- The Bestiary sounds very compelling. I've never heard of this author. Have you read anything else by him? Thanks for the heads-up! ( Am I back in your good graces?)
> 119: writemeg- March was also my first by Brooks and it also catapulted her to the higher reaches of my favorite author list. Yes, right there with Lahiri!
I have her other 2 books waiting patiently in the wings.

Yeah! I finished The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker and for now it will continue to live on my coffee table like it was meant to be there. It must weigh 10 pounds and is 3 inches thick or better! It was neat, though.

I am also almost down with Passing of the Armies, the war is over and the soldiers are back in Washington and Lincoln is dead but there is still 60 pages left to go.

I am also reading A Good Yarn. I had read the first and third installment (both Friends' sales purchases), so I figured I'd better read the second one as well and this'll go toward book one of three for the Cabin Fever club thing the library system is sponsoring; maybe I'll win a prize!

After this I hope to read something Steinbeckish.

I am reading Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah

If you like Jodi Picoult. I think you might like Kristin Hannah. Hannah is a bit more romance oriented and not the twists in some of Picoult's books.

My at home book: Moby Dick. Too nice an edition to take out of the house. Love it. Don't care when I finish.

My ride the bus to work book: Anne of Green Gables. It's the hundredth anniversary. I gave my mother an Everyman's Library edition for Christmas. I got a paperback copy for myself so we can chat about it. She loves it and I can see why. Sitting down on the bus with it is the best part of every morning.

I finished The Translator by Ward Just, which was very good.

I'll start Locked Doors by Blake Crouch tomorrow.

Lamplight--books and wine --couldn't ask for a better combo! Well maybe add some chocolate. To me that is heaven.

>122: ShannonMDE, I have Team of Rivals on my pile at home, so I'll be very keen to hear how you're making out with this book.

Shannon and cameling, I am also about to start Team of Rivals. Like you said Shannon, I will also be reading it for a while. wow it's big!

I finished Half a Crown and started Tooth and Claw, both by Jo Walton. I was disappointed with the "happily ever after" ending that Half a Crown gave the Small Change trilogy.

>124 msf, mmrrmmff. Maybe.
Veronica is the only other Nicholas Christopher I've read and I didn't like it nearly so well as The Bestiary. I will now try another of his books just to see what's what. Thinking about A Trip to the Stars, though I am "warned" (that is to say, the reviews praise this quality) the book is more a straight-ahead fantastical work. Fantasy generally irks me, elves and magical swords and crud like that. I can't imagine that N.C. would commit literatureicide that way.

>125 k-mom, what about The Winter of Our Discontent? It's actual Steinbeck! And my RL book circle chose it...I have delved without committing, but am enjoying the few pages I've read. I can HEARTILY recommend The Short Reign of Pippin IV if you're more political-fable-y just now.

>130 yoo hoo cameling! How's things with you?

>132 seitherin, I have given up on endings. They just uniformly stink. The Half-a-Crown ending wasn't my favorite, but I didn't go off the series...hope you won't in the end either.

I read Team of Rivals about a year ago and found it fascinating. Not only is all the political intrigue presented but each of the people are brought to life so that you feel that you know them, not just politically but personally as well. Many of them, Lincoln particularly, are admirable while some are less so.

I've got Team of Rivals on my list as well, especially after seeing an interview of Doris Kearns Goodwin on PBS - it really does sound fascinating!

thanks, Richard, I'll look into that. My son gave me a volume of Steinbeck with four of his novels contained in it. I think I'll go with that for now, but I really like Steinbeck so I am sure your suggested title will get read at some point. In fact, I'll add it to my TBR thread now.

We are having another cold and snowy with wind a blowin' day here in NEPA. Think I'll stay in and read - I have that 50 Challenge to finish so I can hit the 100 in February.

I just finished The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread which was absolutely amazing. Don Robertson wrote two other novels featuring this same character which I will definitely be adding to my list. I started Cain's Version by Frank Durham last night which, so far, hasn't really grabbed me. I am hoping that it get's better though.

I'm still reading Nixonland. It's amazing how far we've come from the sixties in healing the fractures in our national fabric. Rick Perlstein is a good historian and this book never fails to interest, but it is dense and taking me a while to read (so many books, so little time). Recently finished Colette's My Mother's House and Sido and was going to read A Mercy by Morrison, but two upcoming bookclub readings came into play, Life of Pi and Snowflower and the Secret Fan. So I am "booked" as club date musicians used to say.

As I scrolled down this good list, I found myself writing down well received books, a smorgasbord of reading. Hat's off to #86 Morfam and I second his paeon of praise for LT.

Finished Passing of the Armies and will now finish A Good Yarn before reading something from the 4 book John Steinbeck volume. I thin the first is Moon is Down so maybe I'll just start at the beginning or maybe I'll read East of Eden first?

Whichever will be the first book in my 100 challenge - fitting, I think.

I am currently working through selections from some of my "between books." These include

* the introduction to Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

* the story "Semper Fidelis" by Amy Bloom from the collection Prize Stories 1994: the O. Henry Awards

* the story "My Own People" from the collection Hungry Hearts by Anzia Yezierska

Message edited by its author, Jan 28, 2009, 3:24pm.

Finished The Eight and started a reread of Persuasion. Also reading The Third Girl and House of Abraham.

I finished A Good Yarn and also my second 50 Challenge, so now I can get into the 100 Challenge. It took me seven months to complete two 50's so will I have the 100 done by the end of August? Time will tell!

I finished The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold, which was very good, and have started my ER book, Elisha's Bones by Dan Hoesel.

Finished A Mercy by Toni Morrison and am now reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and War and Peace.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman was excellent from beginning to end. The duchess had a very inspiring life and the biography itself was very easy to follow.
I am now starting La Prisonnière by Marcel Proust, the fifth book in A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. It's good that I still have some unread Proust (two more after this one), can't imagine how I will feel when I won't, I'm used to him now :(

my brain is on vacation so im light readin Kissing Kate

I'm finding Beloved a bit hard to get into. One paragraph is lovely & really grabs me, then the next is confusing or frustrating.

I have also started Micronations which is, only a few pages in, absolutely hilarious.

I've just finished Up A Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog. I loved it! Its hero (?) is a dog, a heel, a jackass, a lying, cheating, two-timing fink, but I love him all the same. Black and hilarious, it features (amongst others) Death (capital D) and a talking goldfish. Whatever P. Robert Smith is on, I want some please.

Message edited by its author, Jan 29, 2009, 3:13am.

Gonna start The Moon is Down today. It's short but it's Steinbeck!

I finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid last night and have moved on to Facing the Lion by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton.

I finished Shipwrecked! Deadly Adventures and Disasters at Sea by Evan L. Balkan. It was fascinating to read of survivors who spent months or even years living on desert or ice-covered islands. One small group of Russian men in the late 1700's spent 6 years stranded in the snow above the Arctic Circle after their ship floated away.
I've started on my ER book, The Perfect Scent and I'm enjoying it.
Touchstone for Shipwrecked not working.

Message edited by its author, Jan 29, 2009, 12:48pm.

I finished Good In Bed last night and surprisingly, it turned out to be a good read, for chick lit. It read quickly and got better the further I got into it. Sometimes "light and easy" is a good thing.

Now on to something a bit "meatier". I chose The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan for my next book.

I'm through Part One of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and just started The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.

>153: Loved The Book Thief...hope you are enjoying it. I just finished The Faith Club and plan to get going on 2666 by Roberto Bolano which I got for Christmas. It's a chunkster!

--->154 Donna

2666 is on my TBR list for my 999 Challenge this year.

Finished Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell - conveniently timed to coincide with another New England snow & ice storm.

Started Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics by Rebecca Solnit which includes a number of essays about the Southwestern U.S. environment - conveniently timed to the forecast of tomorrow's heat wave (32 degrees!).

I'm going to finally finish Stanislavksi's My Life In Art, because my friend just now returned it to me, and I'm on my way to the library to check out his An Actor Prepares.

Happy Thursday!

#153 - I'm sure The Book Thief will be in the top of my list for 2009. I hope you like it!

I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which was epic, fascinating, and made me very glad I didn't live in rural China at the turn of the century. It was a fast read because I could hardly put it down once I started it. Now I'm going to start Breaking Dawn so I can find out how the Twilight series ends once and for all before I come across any spoilers.

Finished The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Loved it!

Just about to start Dining on Stones by Iain Sinclair.

>153: chrine- I'm also looking forward to reading The Book Thief. It seems to be very well-loved here on LT. I loved The Crossing. Are you reading the trilogy in order?
Donna- I have a brand new copy of 2666 in my tbr. It's size is a bit daunting. Let me know what you think, so I can figure out when to tackle it!
I just finished The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. It may have been a long wait but worth every bleedin' second. Excellent read! This guy's incredible. I'll try to post a review soon.
Starting Forty Words For Sorrow by Giles Blunt. Another book, highly praised right here!

Finished the wonderful and very Irish The Secret Scripture and began Out by Natsuo Kirino. So far it is keeping my attention.

I finished Hana's Suitcase

its a REALLY good book about a little girl in the Holocost and tells her story!

its a true story.

ITS A REALLY GOOD BOOK!

In the past two days I read the first two novels by Haruki Murakami, Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, and the novella Bonsai by the Chilean author Alejandro Zambra, which is on the shortlist for the Best Translated Book of 2008. I just started reading Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño, which is also on that shortlist.

I finished and posted a review of The Bestiary by Nicholas Christopher. I hope at least a few of y'all will go find this gorgeous book.

I'm worried about Ficus, fredbacon and cameling. I haven't seen them lately and I only hope they have a) power and b) Internet, since they live in Darkest New England....

i am reading new moon of twilight

Oh, you guys who haven't read The Book Thief yet - what a treat you have waiting!! One of my all time favorites - I hope you all enjoy it!

I have about 100 pages to go in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Beautifully written, but terribly sad, maybe too much so. I'm also getting ready to finish up Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin. It's a good counterbalance to Edgar.

I also finished The Graveyard Book a few days ago. I think it's well deserving of the Newbery.

Wow - I've been reading a lot lately!

--->158 jhedlund

And I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan about two years ago and enjoyed the experience very well.

--->159 Fluffyblue

The rest of the Thursday Next books are even better. Hoping to peak your interest. Love everything I've read by Jasper Fforde.

--->160 msf59

I am reading The Border Trilogy in order. I just finished All the Pretty Horses over a week ago. I enjoyed the writing very much but didn't warm up to the story until the last half of the book. The Crossing has my interest more in the beginning. A few of us in the SIGR book club are reading several of Cormac McCarthy's books on the side, an author read per se.

Been reading When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris. Funny, strange, and very screwed up. Perfect bed-time reading, except it's hard to get to sleep because there's always another funny, strange, screwed up story over the next page.

I'm reading A History of the World in 101/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes after it was reccomended to me by a customer ( I work in a library) :)

Currently reading Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. It's my second go at reading it, and I'm looooooving it.

Finished up The Memory of Water last night. I found it really slow to start, but around pg 60 it started picking up and I didn't want to put it down. Started Something Good afterward. I'm still trying to figure out if I'll like this one.

. . . still reading Bleak House - but enjoying it.

I finished my first 100 book - The Moon Is Down, thought Steinbeck would be a great place to start.

I now have one of the latest Star Wars books. I'd give the title but the book is downstairs and I don't feel like running down to get it. I'll name it when I enter it into my library.

I just finished Moonlight on The Avenue of Faith by Gina B. Nahai and The Cobra's Heart by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Kapuscinski is one of my favourite travel writers. This slim volume is part of a series called Great Journeys from Penguin Books This book is a good introduction for readers who are going to explore African literature.

Three different critical theory books and a packet of Yiddish literature.

And when I can't stomach the thought of reading for classes anymore, I'm reading The Bridges of Madison County just for something completely different.

I've just finished La Prisonnière by Proust. It was divine as usual. Proust is truly a comfort read for me (don't laugh, to each his own) so I'm always depressed to finish a book by him.
I'm going to start The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins which got raving reviews.

I'm (re)reading The Wild Duck (in Norwegian: 'Villanden). I've read 6 plays so far this year, and will try to read at least 50. A challenge, but very interesting.
"The Wild Duck" is one of my all time favorites.

Last night I started Kaltenborn Edits the War News by H. V. Kaltenborn. Kaltenborn (http://www.otr.com/kaltenborn.shtml) was one of the America's most known and respected radio correspondents in the 30s and 40s. After America entered WWII, one of the movie newsreel companies began a series of features wherein Americans would be encouraged to send in their questions about the war. Kaltenborn would select a few representative questions and answer them on the newsreels, which would then, of course, be shown in movie houses before feature films.

This book is a compilation of some of those questions, with Kaltenborn's answers. What most fascinating about the book is that it was published in 1942. We have a tendency now to look back on the events of the war as if they were written in stone, but looking at the questions people had in 1942, and Kaltenborn's answers, show us how uncertain everything was and how many of decisions made by the Allies were far from inevitable.

Many of the questions concern things like the timing of the opening of a second front in Europe, which Kaltenborn believed would happen much sooner than it did. Kaltenborn also gives assurances that Russia will soon begin helping in the war against Japan, at least to the extent of allowing American bombers access to airfields on Soviet soil, a development which never occurred and which might have really changed the war in the Pacific.

Those misconceptions aside, Kaltenborn here provides a great amount of fascinating insight about what was going on in 1942 and what Americans' concerns and questions were about those events.

Two quick notes about the book itself: I appear to be the only LTer with this book catelogues and the book is signed by the author!

Hallelujah, I've finally finished Remotely Controlled! Hopefully the other two in my currently-reading pile will follow by the end of the weekend, the rest of my TBR pile is singing out to me so beautifully at the moment...

# 152 porchsitter55, I agree with your comment about light and easy books -- sometimes they're just what you need. I just finished Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, which I enjoyed. It was definitely light, and I was ready for something lighter after my last read.

The Book Thief was one of my favorite reads of 2008. I hope everyone reading it or planning to enjoys it as much as I did.

I'm a couple pages into Finder by Emma Bull. The cover was facinating and I had to take it out from the library.

I think I just said I would try Anna Karenina on another thread. Maybe I should look into that. At least I can move the book from my library shelves to my TBR/Classics shelf.

Recovering from Cormac Mcarthy's The Road with the help of The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God by Etgar Keret. Short, sharp, wonderfully odd little stories about nothing and everything. Just the thing for post post-apocalypse.

Richard knows Bestiary!

Your hearty recommendation of this book had me looking it up on my library site. It certainly is not the kind of novel I would normally read, sounds quite fantastical and is maybe beyond my ken, but I intend to give a try.

I would like to read your review, where should I go - boy, I walked into that one - to find it?

Am recommending Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog by P. Robert Smith to everyone I know (except my mother - too rude), but not sure if it's actually out yet. Mine is a proof copy. Anyway I love it. Is there a time limit how long you have to wait before rereading something?

Okay everyone...I can't sleep and the usual cure of reading a bad romance isn't working. So I set up this week's reading thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/56454

Finished Street of Shadows, the Star Wars novel I didn't have the title for in an earlier post.

Have chosen Risk by Dick Francis to read next.

Am planning to pick up a couple of books that will fulfill my "Cabin Fever club" requirements at the library and will also add to categories here.