March has commenced and time for a new thread!

I have started the month off with Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott,which is proving to be a relaxing, enjoyable read, at least so far.

I am still reading Lark Rise to Candleford - charming book.

About 1/3 of way through Under the Net by Iris Murdoch and enjoying this reread very much. This was her first published novel.

I just started Behold, Here's Poison, one of Georgette Heyer's mysteries.
So far, it is enjoyable.

I'm reading Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

The stack before me includes: The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam and Jellicoe Road by Melina Marcheta.

I'm trying to decide which to start with.

I am about to start Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman for my 999 Challenge Crime Category. I haven't read any of her work before.

I am reading pagan stone by Nora Roberts - it is the 3rd in a trilogy

Just finished One True Theory of Love by Laura Fitzgerald - excellent stuff! She's in the Author Talk program this month as well.

I really want to read The Shuttle by Francis Hodgson Burnett next, but it's a lovely Persephone and I have a heavy cold...

LyzzyBee.....achooooo! Do read The Shuttle! You will love it!

Not by a woman but about a woman, I'm reading the new biography of Flannery O'Connor (Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor) by Brad Gooch and am finding her story compelling. I remember being haunted by her stories when I first read them in college, and so far her life has been nothing that I thought it would be.

Just finished The Shuttle and enjoyed it (carefully!)

Not sure what comes next, I'm labouring through a Caro Fraser (Immoral somethings) but not hugely enjoying it...

I am reading The Book of Salt by Monique Truong, which I find interesting and well written. The narrator is the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

I subscribed to DailyLit this week, and got them to send me The Yellow Wallpaper which I've been meaning to read for ages, and I got it read last night. A great read, marred (enlivened?) somewhat by the cat head-butting my leg towards the end. I haven't jumped so high (or squealed so loudly) for some time.

I've taken up Kalpa Imperial by Argentine author Angelica Gorodischer.

I've just started and am enjoying Maru by Bessie Head.

I ended up discarding Ghostwalk when I reached the halfway mark. I just lost interest in the story and couldn't motivate myself to finish it.

I am now reading and enjoying Blindspot by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore.

I've heard a lot about Blindspot here, and most people who've read the book seem to enjoy it. I was turned off by the rather negative review in PW, but maybe I'll have to give the book a try.

#17 SaraHope - I am currently only 42 pages in and given the fact that it is a 490 page book, I am confident in saying that book has a great start, but I will need to judge the staying power as I progress. It is, without a doubt a period piece (set in 1764 Boston). The premise of a Scottish face painter fleeing creditors back in Britain for a new life in America and a formerly prominent lady of Boston in disguise and becomes his apprentice does set the tone for numerous options/ possibilities as to where the story can progress from there, so I can say I am intrigued.

I just started The Road Home by Rose Tremain. Like "Restoration," it's about someone who has to begin a new life after losing everything. The characters are very compelling and I'm enjoying it so far.

I am greatly enjoying myself with Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner, a delightful and hilarious memory of times long gone.

>20: Paola, that looks good! She was in one of my favorite movies with Ray Milland, The Uninvited; Skinner was amazingly creepy in it and unforgettable.

#21> Celia, I was laughing out loud just last night, while I was reading it. If you find a copy (which should not be difficult) get it, it is well worth the price. Plus, the drawings are a delight!

I've started the wonderful Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower.

Just finished My Next Bride by Kay Boyle. My favorite description:
"It was certain that she did not believe yet in the cold or the poverty or the dark. She was fresh from somewhere else and she did not know yet how it would be...It was a voice speaking out of a bodily, a national ease that had never been betrayed. It had purity, and it had an edge of insolence, almost."

I read Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs. Love the book. Love Ariel Levy.

Please everyone check it out. :)

#23 Rebecca, I have that one too and it's tagged "soon"... mind you so are 96 others ;)

No girlybooks here at the moment. Time to find another one.

I'm totally captivated by Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi.

>27 I was too! And based on a true story!

I've just started Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and so far it is wonderfully intriguing in its description of the rigidly proscribed lives of women of the 19th century in southern Hunan Province. They are so clever at transcending what might be considered their stultifying lives. I will be reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals later this month (and probably well into the spring since it's a BIG book!)

So tempting to start on Snow flower and the Secret Fan but at the moment I've just finished a short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and I'm now reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Both are on DailyLit.com and are from the 1001 list.

#30 Snow Flower will wait for you KimB, but I'd be interested in your read of The Awakening.

Started this morning on The Lambing Flat by Nerida Newton, an Australian author. This is her first book, and got a bit of praise, she's written one more since then. The first chapter was about a young married couple heading into the bush to work on someone's property in the middle of nowhere in the 19th century, I thought "yeah, yeah, I think I may have read this before"; the second chapter was set on a boat sailing from China full of men bound for the goldfields of Australia (well, I assume Australia, I doubt she's splitting her story between Australia and California, say), and that made me sit up and take more notice.

Ahah, a bit of research shows me that Lambing Flat had a goldrush of its own. I didn't recognise the name from high school history (a long time ago now!).

#32 Wookie, that sounds interesting - I'll keep my eyes out for it.

I've just started Property by Valerie Martin. I've read lots on here about it (i think it was on Laura's thread in Club Read...) and it's already making me uncomfortable, but I'm enjoying it too.

>33: Yes, that was me ... it was my 75 Book thread, not my Club Read thread. And you know, the more we talk about that book, I think maybe I liked it more than I thought I did. Enjoy.

An Interrupted Life by Etty Hillesum.

I found this book containing the diary and letters of a young Jewish woman in Holland during the holocaust very moving, especially her letters to her friends.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
After hearing comments about this book, I had to try it. I'm now on Chapt. 3 & it's getting harder & harder to put it down.

I'm reading After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farell. It's wonderful so far.

>16 & 17. I started off enjoying Blindspot but ended up disliking it by the time I was 2/3 through. Those great characters and the fascinating story fall by the wayside when the authors get caught up in way too many sexual episodes. More than I wanted to know--and kind of creepy when you know that the co-authors wrote the novel by emailing back and forth. I don't mind sex scenes if they are an integral part of the story (I'm one who liked On Chesil Beach), but it was excessive and obviously meant to titillate in this case.

Recently finished A Lacquer Lady by F. Tennyson Jesse -- some mixed feelings about the book. See review: http://www.librarything.com/profile_revi... .

I've been dipping in and out of Elizabeth Bishop's Exchanging Hats -- a collection of her paintings which I find thoroughly delightfully and curiously revealing of her character.

I just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and I really enjoyed it. What a life she had, but I didn't feel like it was a sad story because it seemed that she happy even under the situations that they were in.

>39: I didn't even know Elizabeth Bishop was a painter as well--that looks like a great book!

I'm currently reading a great memoir called Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen who came as a baby with her family to the US from Saigon in 1975 and landed in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She bases most of her anecdotes around the foods (including candy and junk food) that are fascinating to her and compares them with the meals her Vietnamese grandmother makes. This is a very funny and compelling memoir of growing up in the 80s in a completely different culture.

I'm reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. I'm enjoying it, but..... somehow the person who proposed it to the book club isn't going to be there and I'm elected to lead the discussion. If anyone has anything they think would help me out, I'd appreciate hearing it! (I have a small background in old books, but none whatsoever in Judaism).

Re: People of the Book Could you ask if any work of art is worth a human life? And if the answer is yes, then, which ones? Where does one draw the line? Then there's the intrinsic and historical value versus the monetary value. And the version of the question my kids liked to taunt me with - if you could just save one of us, which one? And the question that would draw a laugh in my little town, is there anything here you'd risk your life to save?

I'm still in Paris with Aimee Leduc in Cara Black's Murder in the Latin Quarter. But it's reached the point that all the Aimee books are beginning to sound a lot alike. Too bad. Cause I love Paris and Aimee's such a great dresser!

Oh, I remember 'The Uninvited.' Sweeping music, Ray Milland at his most handsome, cliffs, ghosts - it had it all. All that in black and white.

Very interesting ideas, skankycat! Thank you!

I'm reading an Early Reviewer book, Baby Jesus Pawn Shop by Lucia Orth -- set in the Philllipines during the waning days of the Marcos regime.

Message edited by its author, Mar 14, 2009, 11:13pm.

I've just started According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge, about Samuel Johnson and (I'm guessing because she has yet to make an entrance) Queeney.

Just finished A House IN The Country (a Persephone) and in the middle of From Churchill to Eden, which is a wonderful memoir by Anthony Eden's widow.

Knocked over in a day yesterday a rather silly and charming regency romance, called The Butler Did It by Kasey Michaels. It was on the free books shelves at the cafe I frequent, and I picked it up over brunch yesterday for a lark, and hardly put it down all day.

Back to the tension of The Lambing Flat today...

I've just started on Antonia White's Frost in May and I'm going to order the other books in the quartet.

I also discovered that White was a highly respected Colette translator, and I've just ordered her translation of the four Claudine novels. I simultaneously found on eBay a nicely priced hardcover Gallimard edition of vol 1 of Colette's Oeuvres, so when I'm done Frost in May I plan to start on Claudine a l'ecole in Gallimard and use White's translation as a crib.

I've just started Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata and am absolutely loving the introductory pages.

Just finished Baby Jesus Pawn Shop by Lucia Orth, a wonderful new book set in the Philippines during the Marcos regime. I'm going to start Mothers and Shadows by Marta Traba.

I just finished The Lambing Flat by Nerida Newton, and I thought it was an excellent read. It's got depressing stuff in it (death and grief and massacres), but any overwhelming sense of sadness was dissipated by a rather lovely love story in the middle of all the doom'n'gloom. Still, there were moments when I had to pretend I just had a speck of dust in my eye while reading it on the bus.

Will start up A Child's Book of True Crime by Chloe Hooper on the bus home tonight. Another Australian author! My three-and-a-half-and-a-bit daughter (aka Miss Boo) picked this one up for me at the library. She usually goes for the hot pink covers (and I'm forever putting Barbara Cartland books back on the shelves), but I remember reading the reviews for this (can't remember if they were positive or negative, which is a bit of a memory lapse!) and the title has always intrigued me.

>53: A Child's Book of True Crime looks really good, and I think it's hilarious that your daughter picked it for you. Too cute!

I just finished Rebecca Dean's Palace Circle. It was not a pleasant experience. : (

And I'm about to try Catherine Delors Mistress of the Revolution.

What do I do when the Touchstone title is wrong? This is an ARC.

Message edited by its author, Mar 17, 2009, 8:46pm.

#55 - If the first touchstone is incorrect, you can you can click on (others) at the right after the author's name and find, hopefully, your correct touchstone for Rebecca Dean's Palace Circle.

After reading a couple of male-authored works, I'm now reading The Ventriloquist's Tale, by Pauline Melville. This was recommended to me by englishrose60, to support my "Reading Globally" journey. Melville is from Guyana, a country I haven't "visited" yet.

I am reading The Girls by Lori Lansens which was an Orange Prize contender. It is the story of two women who are conjoined twins. I really enjoyed the first few chapters. I'm now reading the girls' birth story, and having a glimmer of dread that the book might get folksy.

I'm finishing up a short fiction collection, I'd Like by Greek author Amanda Michaelopoulou. The translation is very smooth, imo. A nice collection of connected pieces, but connected through a repetition of phrases or sentences, sometimes characters. It's a terrific collection is you like work that is doing something clever.

>58 I read The Girls by Lori Lansens, I really enjoyed it very much. I felt like sometimes that you forget that they are conjoined twins when you are reading. Hopfuly you will enjoy it also.

I just finished the beautiful, sad, and wonderful After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell. Highly recommended.

Finished I know why the caged bird sings a very good autobiography. Now reading It's raining in Mango, beautifully written but chops and changes and leaves out bits of the characters lives that I wanted to know about.

Finished Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo. I was charmed by this book. The way in which people from another culture see us I found very interesting and enlightening. Good storyline too.

My next read will be What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin.

#63 Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers - what a fascinating title! I ran over to Amazon and read the great reviews and ordered a copy. Thanks.

Finished reading A Child's Book of True Crime and can't say it was a complete success. I didn't like the main character (she's having an affair with the father of one of her students, and she keeps on going all infantile and coquettish with him and it didn't make her at all appealing to me), I found the descriptions of true crimes ick (I don't read true crime as a genre for a reason: I find it hideous and depressing what people do to each other in real life; crime novels are much more fun because the perp gets caught and is usually far more interesting than real life crims), and the interludes which were written as a child's book (with Kitty Koala and Terence Tiger, etc) didn't always hit the mark for me.

But, I did keep on turning the pages to see where it was all going to go, and I liked the parallels between the story and the "true crime" story in the book, and I enjoyed watching Kate get caught up in it all and spiral into disaster. (I did mention I didn't like her much, didn't I?)

It was a good idea, but just didn't quite work for me.

Will be taking a break from girly books this weekend, and getting stuck (back) into Anna Karenina, which I'm reading as a personal challenge - I gave myself three months to finish it off, and I'll only make it now if I really put my nose to the grindstone! Er, page. It would have been easier if I hadn't spent the first two weeks of my three months just trying to find my copy, I think.

Skankycat I hope you enjoy Guo's book as much as I did.

We're leaving for Los Angeles in the morning and I'm taking three books along - Marrying Mozart, The Drowning Tree, and The Glassblower of Murano.

I should finish Mistress of the Revolution tonight unless I can talk my husband into the new Clive Owen/Julia Roberts film.

Have a good weekend - Diana

About to start West Block, which is a local book about a government department in the 1970s. West Block was one of the earliest government buildings in Canberra. My mum used to work there back in the days when there was things like typing pools when I was a kid. The author apparently worked in what was then the newly created Office of Women's Affairs. I think the building is now used to store archives. From a quick look, I think it is well written but I'm interested to see how it stacks up with what i already know.

I'm starting People of the Book ; just finished The Thirteenth Tale which I enjoyed = not a lot of substance but a good read. I'm reading books by women all month in honor of women's history month (actually most books I read are by women). Isn't it nice that they give us a whole month?

I've just read the first four chapters of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. So far I am really enjoying it.

I recently finished The Road Home as part of the challenge to read Orange Prize nominees/winners. I loved it.

And I am now reading In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld. Very enjoyable so far, reminds me in some ways of the works of Barbara Kingsolver, my favorite author.

Message edited by its author, Mar 21, 2009, 2:04pm.

I just finished The Sinkings which told two stories. That of a released convict in the 1800's and Willa Samson of the present. The stories connected through Willa's intersex child, and Little Jock, who lived as a man, but was intersexed as well. I really liked it. I'm now listening to People of the Book (seems like there are a few reading it at the moment) and enjoying it so far.

englishrose, What the Body Remembers is slowly making its way to the top of my tbr tower. I'll look forward to seeing what you thought of it.

I WAS reading People of the Book until I got to a place where there were about 60 pages missing!!! I am not happy about it. There was a section of duplicate pages and then it skipped to 60 pages ahead. arrrrrghhhh! Must find another copy tomorrow!

Meantime, I've picked up O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. I haven't read her for years!

judylou, I have read a few chapters of What the Body Remembers and enjoying it so far. Taking this one slowly as there are many Indian words used which I have to try to make sense of, but these do not prevent an understanding of what is happening. Will post my thoughts when I have read the rest of it.

I'm reading Cinnamon City: Falling for the Magical City of Marrakech by Miranda Innes.

I have just finished The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde, it was a ok, quick read. I picked it up at Chapters on the discount table.

I'm reading Edith Wharton's Roman Fever and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction. The first two stories were delightful -- satire & social commentary that soundly strikes its target.

I'm finally reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society -- it's so good!

>78 that is on my tbr list, let us know what you thought about it:)

#77 Laura, I bought that at a church fair last weekend for $2 so it's good to hear you're enjoying it.

Hah - I just read The World of Modelling by Lucie Clayton - very unreconstructed views of women from 1968!!

No one has it to link to and my copy is a BookCrossing one and will be travelling onwards now!

Am a little more than half way through Night Train to Lisbon by Emily Grayson and am finding it just so so. But I wanted a little light reading to go along with "Anna" and that's exactly what I got. Hopefully the next one is better.

I need some real comfy pleasure reading for the next two weeks, so I picked up a mystery by Swedish author Asa Larsson, The Black Path. It's the third in the series. She seems to have an above average focus on women in her novels, and she seems to also include a lot of animals - domestic or wild - without overdoing it. She shows how her characters relate to their pets. I think it's an interesting way to show something about a character especially in a crime novel (this is not a cozy by any means!).

I just started Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice--I'm not very far in, but am enjoying it so far.

#83> I'm on the comfy read too, and picked up at the bookshop yesterday His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. It's the Napoleonic wars, with dragons. I've never read Hornblower, but it's reading a bit like how I feel that should read. Manly men in tight pants, and dragons. I'm in some sort of girly heaven. ;)

And unlike Pern novels, women are allowed to ride dragons. Minor characters so far, but I'm sure they'll come to the fore at some stage.

I am about to start Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris. I haven't had the pleasure of reading Harris' works before now (too many books, not enough time...) but I am a big fan of British murder mysteries so I am pretty sure I will be captivated, brutal slaughter and all!

Still listening to People of the Book and now reading The Stone Diaries as well.

I just finished Cosima by Grazia Deledda (Nobel Prize winner for 1926). I adored it. A lovely and charming Italian novel! I have added two more of her novels to my Kindle.

I finished O Pioneers!, which was wonderful; then got myself another copy of People of the Book, this one having all the pages in it! I am almost done with it. Then I will return to one I barely started last night, The Help, which has gotten rave reviews. It's an ARC from the publisher.

Finished The Awakening on dailylit.com. I'm a bit luke warm about it, didnt much like the main character, just seemed a bit shallow to me. Could have had something to do with the format and maybe the novels style is a bit too dated for me.
On the other hand, West Block is something I've enjoyed. It is marketed as a novel but really to me it seems like 5 short stories. It is not all about Canberra either. Included is Uranium trade discussions in Brussels and the fall of Saigon. Just onto the last chapter/short story now.

Just starting Good to a Fault by Marina Endcott.

Now reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

Off and on, two or three stories at a time, Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories (Norton Critical Edition).

Finished The Glassblower of Murano and have moved on to The Drowning Tree.

ahhh, two good ones in a row.

#88> urania, I am glad you like Grazia Deledda.
I am in need of very light stuff, and so I am reading my third Georgette Heyer's mystery in a month: Why Shoot a Butler?. So far it is ok, but not as good as the second one I read, The Unfinished Clue.

I have almost finished Music of Falling Waterby Julia Oliver. A new author for me and the truth be told I chose the book for it's beautiful title. So I was expecting to be disappointed in this read but I have found it quite intriguing. It is about four sisters "raised" in a fairly poor family. They actually rather raised themselves and were different as night and day. The book takes place over about a forty year or so period of time and there are a great deal of secrets kept between the parents, between the children and parents, between particular children and a particular parent and between particular children. After the deaths of the parents the secrets slowly begin to emerge much to the chagrin of some of the family members.
I think it is a good book. Not brilliant, but good and some days that is good enough for me.

I have three books by women authors sitting close by for reading in the very near future: The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty;Writers Dreaming by Naomi Epel; and Writing Personal Essays by Sheila Bender. Then I have a feminist theory book titled Feminism, Utopia, and Narrative to look at; The Family Markowitz for light reading; and Alias Grace to read after having read what I deemed Margaret Atwoods best since The Handmaid's TaleThe Blind Assassin.

Message edited by its author, Mar 27, 2009, 8:18pm.

I'm 3/4 of the way done with my ARC, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It's a wonderful book -- takes place in 1962-63 Jackson Mississippi and tells the stories of a couple of black housekeepers, with the backdrop of the civil rights movement and extreme unrest of that city.

I'm reading a Virago Modern Classic, The Brontes went to Woolworths. Quite unusual but a fun read.

I've abandoned According to Queeney (it's not bad but I'm not in the right mood for it), have just finished Helene Hanff's Duchess of Bloomsbury St and 84 Charing Cross Road, and am 60 pages into Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I may yet give up on it but will give it a few more chapters...

I'm over halfway through Vida by Marge Piercy about a social activist whose been on the run from the FBI since the early seventies. It follows her life underground and flashes back to her experiences of radical activism in the 60s. I'm not sure if I'm enjoying this, although I am interested to follow the story. I find Vida quite difficult as a character. She works within a mixed-gender activist group and I'm surprised by some of her attitudes towards women's issues that I would have expected someone like her to be crusading about. For example, she mocks a women-only group because all they do is sit around talking about rape. She thinks they should arm themselves. The in-fighting and power issues within her activist group are also depressing but inevitable. As a child of the 80s, I have no idea about how realistic this depiction is. But it has made me think about how I feel about armed struggles and what would push me to be a radical.

I am still reading and enjoying Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson. About to start Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie.

I'm reading my Early Review book, All Other Nights by Dara Horn.

I finished the marvelous The Help (no t/s; link in #98 above) this morning and have just begun Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

I finished C.S. Harris' murder mystery Where Serpents Sleep this morning, which I thoroughly enjoyed! Next up is The Miss Hereford Stories by Gail Anderson-Dargatz.

100 - interested to see that about J & J - I read it through bookcrossing and was really ambivalent about it! http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6877...

Hmmm -

#100, 106 -- I didn't care for Julie and Julia myself--I found the author's voice and personality to be loud and irritating.

>100/106/109 - I also didn't care for Julie and Julia, but then I read it in the hospital after shoulder surgery and the author's whininess didn't seem so funny. Either that or I was so hopped up on painkillers that I wouldn't have liked any book I read, who knows?

I'm currently reading Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World by Amy Seidl. This is a March Early Reviewer book, and while quite well-written, is not really suiting my current mood. Because it's the weekend, I'm looking for something far more escapist and decidedly not about something as depressing as global warming. So today I'll be starting Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin - a murder mystery set in 12th century England. I can go back to Early Spring during the work week.

I just started Iris Johansen's 'Deadlock' for the Amazon Vine program - it's so-so so far.

The new Ariana Franklin is sitting on my table waiting and I'd much rather be reading that.

#111 Talbin - I saw Mistress of the Art of Death yesterday in the bookstore. I would really like to find out what you think of the book.

I have just started The World Before Her by Deborah Weisgall. The book takes place in Venice, Italy and flips between two periods in time: 1880 and the honeymoon of Marian Evans who writes under the pen name George Eliot, and 1980 and the tenth wedding anniversary of Caroline Spingold, a sculptor. I am still in the first chapter acquainting myself with Marion and her new husband John Cross and finding the book enjoyable.

#113 lkernagh - The World Before Her sounds really intriguing! I think I'm going to add that to my wish list. I'd love to hear what you think of it when you've finished.

#100/106/109/11- - I kept going and it did get a bit better. I'll put some more comments on my 75bc thread when I get a chance. Talbin - her whininess was painful enough without having just had shoulder surgery! Her anti-Republican comments were really, really irritating because they just weren't funny, no matter what your political views. And you'd think she might do her dishes a bit more often. But I liked the New York bits, because I had been to some of the same shops and could relate to the transport dramas.

#111 and 112 talbin and skankycat, I'd never heard of Ariana Franklin till your posts but have added MoTaoD to my list.

Cushla, talbin and skankycat, I read Mistress of the Art of Death quite a while ago, prompted by a friend who, literally, 'pushed' it on me, and I must say that I enjoyed it.
I especially liked the idea of this woman physician at a time when something like that was short of heresy.
I have not read the following one but, if ever I find an inexpensive used copy, I shall get it.
Let me know what you think of it once you have read it.

#101 -- charbutton -- as a child of the 60s, I vaguely remember reading Vida, probably in the 70s -- I thought it was rather extreme then, but the idea of sexual radicals arming themselves, at least theoretically, was not overly extreme -- this was the era of Stonewall ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_r... ) . And then there was Monique Wittig 's Les Guerilleres. It's important to remember that homosexual acts were still illegal (at least technically in England and in some of the states in the US) until the 60s.

Message edited by its author, Mar 29, 2009, 9:12pm.

I picked up yesterday (and almost finished, it's a pretty easy read) Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? by Allyson Beatrice, a look into fandom by a somewhat obsessed fangirl. Being a somewhat obsessed fangirl at times myself, it's rather good, with minor quibbles that I haven't quite managed to properly articulate to myself yet. (Possibly sheer jealousy that she managed to meet Joss Whedon et al.)

Hoping to start The Golden Notebook on the way home tonight, but have sick children at home, so Best Plans Of Mice And Mums etc.

re: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin - I started and finished this one today. I haven't written my review yet (probably tomorrow), but I really quite enjoyed it. It's not perfect but very good - it keeps the reader interested and moves forward at a good clip. If you enjoy mysteries, and especially historical mysteries, this is a must-read.

>119: I hope you try the second book in the series, The Serpent's Tale. The murder isn't as disturbing (to me at least) as the ones in the first book, and it's got a lot of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The third book, Grave Goods, just came out and I have a request in for it at the library, so I'm looking forward to reading it. It's nice that she's been putting out one a year as I like the consistency, and so far they've been very good.

Talbin, I'm also dipping into Early Spring. I like the idea of this book, but I'm finding some glaring errors and awkward writing (and it isn't an ARC) which is putting me off it a bit. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but there's much more science-ese than I expected so far from the description.

My main read is Purple Hibiscus; I haven't made much progress on it since yesterday.

101,charbutton, #117, janeajones, I too read Vida in the 70s along with a lot of other Marge Piercy. I agree with janeajones that this book was rather extreme -- Piercy can get a little polemic at times. My favorite of hers, which came out in the 80s, was Gone to Soldiers and the first of her books that I read, which got me interested in her in the first place, was Small Changes. I never could get into her science fiction work, and probably haven't read anything by her in 20 years, but thinking about her works brings back a phase in my life!

117 & 122 - thanks for your comments. I've finished it now and did enjoy it more in the end.

I happily finished Johansen's 'Deadlock' and moved on to Grave Goods. And I'm having a much better time. (Though I admit, I did find time to sneak in a little Clive Owen last night. Now that Paul Newman's gone, are Owen's the reigning blue eyes?)

If you haven't read Franklin, do yourself a favor and start with the first one - the characters actually evolve and grow and their relationships change.

And if you like Franklin, keep in mind that she's Diana Norman and has later historical fiction under that name.

>121 teelgee - Yes, I agree with you on Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World (I wish the touchstone worked). I'm not sure about the errors - what did you see? - but I've already started writing my review in my head about Seidl's writing. I think the "gold standard" for the type of books that combines science with stories about the author's personal life has become The Omnivore's Dilemma, and so far Early Spring doesn't come close. I'm only a few chapters in, but one thing I've noticed is that "Her Children" from the title certainly don't figure into the story - so right now to me it feels like they added that to the title to sell books to a certain customer segment.

>120 celiafrances - Oh, don't worry, The Serpent's Tale is definitely on my wishlist!

Generally: I think next up - along with Early Spring - will be Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. I've loved Waters so far and have heard good things about this one, too.

Message edited by its author, Mar 30, 2009, 9:57am.

Reading Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. Am enjoying it so far.

I am about halfway through Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie and I am really enjoying it so far.

Oh, I LOVE Jane Gardam and loved The Queen of the Tambourine! I might have written about it -- if not here, then on my blog. Read it first -- it's gripping. She's such a fine writer. I'm going to read Jellicoe Road, too, as soon as it comes in.

I should have posted that last message (#128) froom my personal account, janehyde, not my school!

#122 Rebeccanyc--

I can recommend Marge Piercy's book Woman on the Edge of Time as a good read in the sci-fi genre.

Just in time for the end of March! :)

I'm starting The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya, post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction. I'm also reading Delphine by Madame de Stäel, but since I'm reading it in French and it's 670 pages, I'll probably be able to mention this one next month as well.

130, srubinstein, Alas, I read it and didn't like it -- one of the reasons I said I didn't like Piercy's sci-fi works. But, then, I'm not a big sci-fi fan in general.

Still in need of 'light' reading, I just started Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken and, so far, I have found it quite enjoyable.

#114 SaraHope - I have finished The World before Her and while I found the story and the descriptive beauty of Venice enjoyable, it was not what I was expecting. The book presents Venice as merely a backdrop for the main story which focuses on the unlikely, or more accurately incompatible couples in two centuries and how they address the martial dilemmas they face. Weisgall creates a scene that welcomes the reader so overall it is a good book.

Continuing my jaunt through novels written to capture famous female authors, I am going to give The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James a go.

I'm halfway through People of the Book and enjoying it.

Finished Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie. Anglophiles and anglophobes abound in this witty novel about Americans visiting the UK. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very amusing bunch of characters. A Pulitzer Prizewinner.

Yay! My school reading is done, and so I get to read any book I want. I'm starting with Helen Humphreys' The Frozen Thames. "In its long history, the river Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river . . . " and it starts with Matilda under siege by her cousin Stephen. Short, illustrated . . . I think this is going to be a good, quick read.

Good morning all.
Last night I began An Absolute Scandal by Penny Vincenzi. She came recommended by a friend. I am only on page 89 and so far so good. Given the economic climate here in the U.S. at the moment I find the timing of this novel---well, novel. It was copyrighted in 2007 in the U.K. and the storyline is about the "fall" of Lloyd's and it's effect on about 6 familys (unrelated). Looks to be interesting thus far.

I just finished reading Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott. I enjopyed this book very much, it was a touching and the characters were the same way.

Turned out An Absolute Scandal by Penny Vincenzi sucked and that's pretty much all I have to say about that. Bad choice. I do make them sometimes.

I am just finishing Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons and I don't want it to end. It is such a good book but then all of hers are.
I also just read The Breakdown Lane by Jacquelyn Mithcard who wrote The Deep End of the Ocean. It was also good. These women almost always write about the south or the east coastal villages which fascinate me as I am from the Pacific N.W.
Both were good reads and I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys women's fiction.

I'm starting Jung Chang's Wild Swans and for my next non-fiction reads, I've chosen Between Women by Luise Eichenbaum and Susie Orbach who also wrote Fat is a Feminist Issue and Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a BIG book about Abraham Lincoln. So glad to see women historians selling books!

Finished Maeve Binchy's Whitethorn Woods. Trying to get over some kind of virus & needed a comfort read. But this is not Maeve at her best the characters are wooden & the plot thin. But I kept on to the end. Her earlier books are so much better.

I am a fan of Maeve Binchy. I find her books ideal when I need something light and comforting. I haven't read Whitethorn Woods but have it on my tbr pile.

I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog last night and it was so, so wonderful! I gave it 5 stars (rare for me). Very, very moving.

Message edited by its author, Apr 17, 2009, 7:36am.