Okay, it's time for a new thread.

I've found books by Ann Martin, specifically The Doll People and The Meanest Doll in the World, and have found them completely enthrawling. I've ordered Runaway Dolls and can't wait for it to arrive.
Each of these books are great for boys and girls with high action, suspense, and some great social skills weaved into the story. Illustrations by Brian Selznick are superb.
You will not be just happy reading these, you will want to own them!

Half way through Resistance by Owen Sheers which isn't really grabbing me but I've read this far, and dipping into Festival on the River about the development of Southbank, London I spend enough time drinking there thought I should find out more. Got three shelves worth of tbr books waiting at home.

Working my way through the Rogue Trooper graphic novel collections. It's all black and white print at the mo, but still the best and most visceral anti-war series ever written.

Almost done with Death Star - it's the other side of Star Wars: A New Hope. I am also halfway through a book of poetry Coalseam - poems about the area in which I live. And I am nearing the end of Biblical Literacy and I hope I can finish these before I decide to tackle another book!

I'm still reading Dragonfly in Amber, but that could be because I decided I just had to start reading The Clothes on their Backs by Linda Grant, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago, The Collected Stories of Noel Coward, The Warden by Anthony Trollope, and The Last Week by Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg as well.

I have the attention span of a three-year-old lately.

I'm near the end of August Heat by Andrea Camilleri and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, with Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz and Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach on tap. A good mixed bag.

Starting two new books yesterday/today: A Lion Among Men (audio) and The Last Dickens and am working to finish up Real Food for Mother and Baby today so I can put up a review next week.

I finished The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason
It was good. A collection of short stories purporting to be part of Homer's Odyssey from a lost book. The stories sometimes expanded on those in the Odyssey and sometimes were completely different. Most were very short, and almost all had a twist or a zinger at the end. The writing was good.

I am now reading Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous. It is set in modern day Rome, and has a group of multi-cultural residents of an apartment building talking about the murder of a tenant in their building.

There are 11 chapters and each is by a different person. Rather than just focus on the victim and the incident, they talk about their life, experiences and outlook of being a foreigner in Rome. So far it is very interesting.

I finished Beverly Gage's The Day Wall Street Exploded (this always shows up in Touchstones, but never provides a link), which details the political background and the official investigation of the September 16, 1920 terrorist bombing of Wall Street by political anarchists. Structurally, the book has an inherent problem in that the perpetrators were never identified and apprehended. As a result, there can be no satisfying conclusion to the story.

Ms. Gage has done an admirable job in combing through the official (heavily redacted) case files to build a clear picture of the investigation. However what she found was a tale of hubris, incompetence, and political paranoia. The book serves as a cautionary tale of what happens when government officials react in an irrational manner to an irrational act of terror. The result is blinkered thinking which interferes with logical thought processes and leads to the unwarranted persecution of innocent people.

Each investigator (the explosion occurred at the end of the Wilson administration and the investigation stretched into Harding's) develops his own pet theory of the incident and subsequently twists and distorts the facts to fit that theory. A young J. Edgar Hoover lurks throughout hovering in the wings like some sinister Iago.

A good book despite some weaknesses.

I've now turned my attention to The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze.

I just finished Losing Battles by Eudora Welty. I thought I had read ALL of her work, but missed this one. This book is SO GOOD, I have to rank it one of my lifetime favorites. It is very funny with family and place emphasis. Eudora`s insight into people from the South is wonderful.

I finished Summer of the Big Bachi and have begun reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. It is a rainy, blustery day in the Big Bend area of Florida, so it is a perfect day to curl up with a book.

I would like to read ALL day.

Womansheart aka Ruth in Tallahassee

I finished reading Letter from Point Clear by Dennis McFarland for the book discussion at my local library this coming week. Can't say I enjoyed it as it's not what I would choose to read otherwise. Now I am reading Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent which I much prefer.

Still reading The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer.

I'm about halfway through Eclipse. I go back and forth between Team Jacob and Team Edward.

I'm on chapter four of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe. It has taken that long just to introduce Connie Goodwin and bring Deliverance into the story. It is about the Salem witch trials and connects the present with the past. It is an ARC but you can get more details by going to physickbook.com. If you do that, you are going to want the book...(just a warning).

I'm reading Krakatoa and FDR's Folly and added in First Among Sequels for something a bit lighter.

I'm just finishing up with The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a remarkable new book about the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, telling the story of some of the Black housekeepers. Excellent. And when I finish that in 1/2 hour, I'm not sure what I'll grab off the shelf! I have many choices.

I've started The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, one of my favorite writers. I can't believe I've waited so long to read this one. And I've had the John Garfield/Lana Turner movie on my tivo for months but haven't watched it because I wanted to read the book first.

I'm about 1/4 of the way into Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder ... enjoying it very much ...

Just finished The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York by Matthew Goodman (doesn't look like the touchstone is going to work on the title) Very entertaining book about the beginnings of the newspaper industry with a little Poe and Barnum thrown in for good measure.

Just starting The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente is a wonderful book; I'm about two-thirds of the way through, and I don't want it to end. I've only read The Grass-Cutting Sword by the same author, which means I have lots of good reading ahead of me, thank goodness.

My husband is reading Dog On It by Spencer Quinn out loud to me, mostly while driving to and from Mendocino from the Bay Area this past week. Great fun for that kind of reading. The book is narrated by a dog, and I must say that the author seems to have the dog mind down pat, at least insofar as I imagine a dog thinks. A lot of fun.

I finished Case Histories which was a decent mystery. Now on to something more complex which seemingly will take me forever to read -- The Quincunx - but I am enjoying it so far.

I think I'm going to crack open Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

That or The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.

Either way, it will be a colorful read, along the blue/red spectrum!

Just finished The Butcher of Smithfield by Susanna Gregory an intriguing mystery set in London in 1663. Almost finished with The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss A brutal portrayal of the early settlers right after the Revolution with an enthralling look at capitalism and greed. Especially poignant with the economic situation of today.

I've had a bout of stomach flu since Wednesday, which had rendered me unable to read (without getting sicker) most of the week, so I'm still reading Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. I picked it back up today, but am struggling a bit with the task, health-wise. I'm not quite halfway through the book yet, but it also seems to drag and drag and d r a g on. After Eragon and Eldest being so action-packed and fascinating, this book seems to be Paolini's big "look at me!" book. I am rather disappointed by it.

also slowly nursing: Custard and Company, From the Corner of His Eye, How to Be a Villian by Neil Zawacki, and I grabbed on of my ARC-alanche on decks Something Wickedly Wierd: The Icy Hand, with which I'm not incredibly impressed, either.

bah.... not my reading week, evidently.

just finished Death Star and now I know what went on on the Death Star just before Luke Skywalker blew it up - neat!

Still reading Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, Olivia Judson's fact-filled, advice-column style Q&A about animal reproduction ... which is pairing nicely with an arc of Bernd Heinrich's Summer World, a more observational, wonder-filled exploration of how plants and animals spend their spring and summer.

And I stumbled onto David Cristofano's debut, The Girl She Used to Be, a very fun, roller-coaster read about a young woman in the federal witness protection program -- and math! -- the chapter headings are math equations, the simplest being chapter 5, titled "3x = 15".

Still reading The UnCommon Reader by Alan Bennett. It's very humourous, but then I've always liked Alan Bennett and his books/plays.

just finished Coalseam, too - two books in an hour, that's finished, not started, though I did just start Coalseam yesterday

I finished Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris and recommend it to anyone that enjoys British murder mysteries set in the 1800s. Next up is The Miss Hereford Stories by Gail Kathryn Anderson-Dargatz.

Just finished The Recovery of Ecstasy:Notebooks from Siberia by Dr. Sandy Krolick. Stimulating read of self reflection that looks at the question, "What is the meaning of life?" Awesome!

I'm reading The Barfighter by Ivan G. Goldman and Sag Harbor:A Novel by Colson Whitehead

Message edited by its author, Mar 28, 2009, 7:16pm.

I'm still reading Outlander by Gil Adamson. It's very good; I'm slow because I read in snatched minutes. I'm also reading Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. In my TBR pile is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Two of the three are library books, and one is overdue already. Sigh. And I just finished March Break a week ago, where (in theory) I was supposed to have a lot of time to read.

Still enjoying The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles. Would like to start a Civil War book.Will probably be The March by E.L. Doctorow.

This week i'm working on Paul Revere's Ride. The first few chapters are good.

Still reading The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, but I'm taking a bit of a break from it to read Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty. I want to finish it and Fourth Comings before the final novel in the series, Perfect Fifths, comes out in April.

Message edited by its author, Mar 28, 2009, 8:25pm.

Oh jhowell ~ Please drop a note when you finish to let us know how you liked Quincunx ... it's supposed to be brilliant and engaging. I finally found it at a used book sale, so it's on the TBR pile (maybe for my Europe trip - I'll need something long for the flight).

Like I needed more books, but went into Border's bearing my 40% off coupon and the cover/story grabbed me, so I'm 105 pages in to Callisto by Torsten Krol ... a very bizarre, at turns hilarious story of a kid on his way to enlist for the Iraq war, his car breaks down in the middle of Calliso County, Kansas and it basically goes into Pulp Fiction land after that. I cannot put it down, weird, trippy, dark, but surely entertaining.

Lamplight

I really enjoyed Outlander, hope you did, too.

I found it read like something that John Ford would have liked to have turned into a movie. The author's descriptive passages of scenery and conditions during harsh winters were exceptional.

My only criticism was of a personal nature, there were moments in the book when I expected CLint Eastwood to come on the scene singing to the trees!

But overall, I would recommend the book...

#37 - I will! good so far - but veery long and Dickensian. sucks you right in though.

Finishing Henry James' "Portrait of A Lady"...three more sessions of the discussion class remaining.

I'll also be reading the short story "Roman Fever" by Edith Warton for the final session of the Short Fiction discussion class.

Also reading the section on Beethoven in "A Guide to Orchestral Music" by Ethan Mordden for Music Appreciation class.

>15 PaperbackPirate - I found that my Edward fantasy melted towards a Team Jacob one during Eclipse too...

I'm reading Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman, simply because it's the library book I've had longest. After that I might actually read one of my own new books! I'd have read more tonight but I sat with my family to watch 'The Duchess' on DVD, then I got caught up in 'A Beautiful Mind' which never fails to have me in floods of tears... now it's 2.25am so we'll see how long I can read before I drop off!

Message edited by its author, Mar 28, 2009, 9:26pm.

I finished Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous.

It was interesting, funny and sad. Ten residents of an apartment building are telling their version of the truth surrounding the murder of one of the residents, and responding to the police who have indicated that the person most loved in the building is the killer. The last chapter is the police officer, who explains why they have selected the person as the suspect: he is missing, he was seen arguing with the victim (though everyone hated him), and he is an immigrant.

What runs through the book is that each person has their own view of events, people and the world, and it often has nothing to do with reality. Only one of the residents is a Roman the rest are immigrants, including two who are from other regions of Italy, but not Roman. They all think evil of the other immigrants and foreigners or Italians in general. They all have prejudice, and also suffer it. Though they all live together they find things to fight about.

I am now reading Firmin by Sam Savage about a literary rat.

I loved Firmin! It took a while to get used to the style and odd viewpoint but I was completely hooked by the end, it's a unique story!

I think I'm going to start Love in the Time of Cholera. I think. I've picked it off the shelf. I've put it in my travel bag. Now I just have to start it. I don't know. Things may change.

#43

I am enjoying it so far Ellie.

Finishing the Famous Five book and started with Nothing to lose by Lee Child.

#14 - jbleil - What are you thinking of The Ten-Year Nap? The premise seems interesting to me but it has gotten some negative reviews on LT.

It will be a slow reading week, but I hope to finish two novels: A Strange and Sublime Address, the first novel written by Amit Chaudhuri, and either Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War by Assia Djebar or Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie.

I'm about halfway through Isaac's Torah by Angel Wagenstein. It's awesome!

I read it in 1992 but just started re-reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett for my May bookclub meeting. It's a very long book.

I tried to read Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik but the first 10 pages were such a turnoff that even though it's for April's bookclub meeeting I'll just go for the food and wine and let people talk about it around me. Blech.

>Lamplight- Also loved The Outlander. She has a great sense of time & place. I feel she's an author to keep a close eye on.
I finished The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein. It's a strong memoir, in a similar style and subject matter as Angela's Ashes.
I'm starting Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. I know this book is a big LT favorite and based on the 1st few pages, it's going to be a winner.

Infinite Jest, finally. About a third of the way through. A friend and I are having a race to see who can finish it first which of course is really juvenile... but I'm winning so far. : ) What doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger, right? It's as difficult as people say it is but I can't put it down. Though it's serious weight has caused it to slip from my just-fallen-asleep hands a few times... and fall with a thud next to my bed... which wakes me up with a start every time.

#47: JolieLouise

The Ten-Year Nap: I'm about a third of the way through it and I was just thinking last night that I might be enjoying it more if I were still the mother of young children and ambivalent about working outside the home. The other thing that gives me pause: the author goes back and forth between the POV of Amy Lamb in New York in what I assume is present day, her mother in Montreal in 1972, and now the mother of someone her friend is having an affair with who lives in London and is working for Margaret Thatcher when she is Prime Minister. Huh?

I'll persist a little longer and let the list know if I finish or quit, and why.

--> 49

My husband recently also read Isaac's Torah recently, but it took him some time to complete because he kept stopping to tell me the jokes from within the book while he was reading it. :)

I've heard good things about author Abraham Verghese so I picked up two copies (I didn't know I had the first copy of this book) of The Tennis Partner which I started last night. I think I'll like this book.

I was a bit confused by who the characters were in the beginning of the book, but I think I've already cleared that up. I *hate* not being able to identify each character in a book. If there are too many, or if their names are too similar, I find that jotting down the names and identities on a notecard helps. I guess that's why I don't like mysteries. :)

Message edited by its author, Mar 30, 2009, 9:12am.

Just finished The Messenger by Lois Lowry and Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress by Shelly Mazzanoble. Now reading The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante.

I am listening to Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell and reading Netochka Nezvanova by Fyodor Dostoevsky for an LT Group Read.

I recently finished Mosquito by Roma Tearne. I rarely plug books in this thread, but this one is worthy of it: A Sri Lankan author returns to his homeland after his wife dies. He meets a young girl who is a gifted painter and slowly falls in love. However, they both become victims in the civil war and are torn apart. This was a love story, but also much more - it was a book about love, loss, memory, friendship, art and the horrors of war. A great first novel that I highly recommended.

I started my ER book, Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World, by Amy Seidl, but I think I'll put it aside today for something more escapist - Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin, a murder mystery set in 12th century England.

Started The Seven Sins of Memory by Daniel L. Schacter last night and am finding it surprisingly accessible and extremely interesting, especially now that I'm getting on in age and forgetting things more often. I was disappointed to learn that science doesn't seem to be likely to come up with a "magic bullet" to help with memory, and that for absent-mindedness, the only thing to do is use Post-Its (or other memory cues). I've been avoiding doing that, maybe because I don't want to admit that my memory is not as sharp as it used to be, but I guess I better invest in some pretty Sticky Notes to use around the house. You know, to remind myself to "unplug iron," "pay credit card bill," "feed fish before leaving for work," "put wash in dryer," and the like.

*slouches off to search for eyeglasses that were just here a minute ago!*

Karenmarie -- I read Pillars of the Earth a long time ago and absolutely love it. I always make fun of how slow I am at reading, but, as I recall, I devoured that book in about two days.

As for the accolades about The Outlander, I agree -- it would make excellent movie material. The writing is very vivid. I'm still not finished it, but -- after going to the school today to plan for the week -- I plan to sit down for a 'finish to the end' read. My family knows not to bug me when I'm in that mood. (But will the dog know????)

storeellr

Read your interesting post and immediately reserved the book at my local library, before I forgot later.

We old 'pillars of the earth' must stick together as we move hesitatingly into our later years. I am especially dimwitted when it comes to remembering names, which can lead to the occasional embarrassing situation.

Isn't it amazing that we can remember what happened many years ago, so much so that we can bore our friends and family to death (yikes, that word!), but we cannot even remember what we did ten minutes ago?

They say memory is the second thing to go as we age - if I remember the first, I'll let you know -drumroll, please....

I'm still reading Rhett Butler's People and am hoping to finish it tonight.

>61 morfam: booohissssssbooooooooooooo
Punishment undeserved!

I'm finally finishing Nixonland an eyeopener and a door stopper by Rick Perlstein. I'm also finishing up Dirty Little Angels by Christopher Tusa and I'm selectively reading chapters from The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty. This will keep me until April when I must read The White Tiger for a book discussion.

>64 The Midnight Disease has been on my lists for years..i used to write..now i only have time for LT/Shelfari notes

...hmmm The Pillars of the Earth has been on so many lists (forget Oprah!) that i may have to get it for my new baby Kindle (her name is Jude, too)

>63 what's your beef with morfam???...and..Richard...Richard...who is Richard???

;-p/.-D
J

I'm also going to throw in some kind words for The Outlander which was discussed earlier in the thread. It was one of my favorite books for 2008 and I try to recommend it any chance I can.

This week I've started The Help by Kathryn Stockett and also Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith. I'm surprised to find that I like this McCall Smith series - it's light and funny and I enjoy the location (Edinburgh). I've never read anything by him before. (Touchstones not happy today.)

Message edited by its author, Mar 29, 2009, 4:27pm.

I've started a spiritual journey with What the Bleep do we know?!. It's funny and full of information.

Richard

If I want abuse I have an 18-year-old at home, who is only too willing to oblige.

Oh, so innocent me, I come to this thread hoping that pearls of wisdom will be doled out to us deserving literati and bibliophiles, so that, for at least another day or two, the shortness of time will be made longer immersed in a good book. (how about them oxymorons?).

Currently, my interest has been grabbed by James Fleming's White Blood, a simply gorgeous read about Russia during the first world war, and a myriad cast of characters who I defy you not to fall for at first read. It's a comfort book of sorts for me, after the horrors of TheKindly Ones by Littell, which still remains the best novel I have read in a long while

I'm now starting The Eight, by Katherine Neville I'm interested to see how I like it, I've heard such mixed things about it.

I finished The Secret of Lost Things today. I'm reading Lord of Light for a book club but struggling with it a bit, so will keep something else going alongside it. I'll probably go fo Cold Comfort Farm.

Just finished The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett and tonight will start The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger which I am looking forward to immensely as I've heard such good things about it...

After finishing two books yesterday and near completion on my third book - Biblical Literacy, I picked Schild's Ladder from my pile to read. I've had this book since 2001, so I guess it's about time to read the thing.

Michaela - Message me how it goes, I've not read it yet but my sister recommended it (or did she just give it me because she didn't want it...?? Who knows)!

Message edited by its author, Mar 29, 2009, 6:50pm.

It took me forever (I started a new job and was distracted) but I finished America's Child: A Woman's Journey through the Radical Sixties by Susan Sherman. And in spite of March Madness (go Huskies!), I also started The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike.

> 73 Ellie

Will do!

#62 Tell me what you think of Rhett Butlers People, my husband bought me that book but I haven't read it yet.

Just finished reading The Day of the Storm by Rosamund Pilcher, fun, easy read. A lady I worked with just mentioned this author to me and this is the second book of hers I enjoyed. The books have been out for quite a few years.

>65 Jude, that ghastly joke-like excrescence in the last line of message 61 didn't make you groan, and writhe? A tolerant woman, you.

>68 morfam, that's an 18yr old's job, as I recall from being and having one.

Finished up Secresy, or, The Ruin on the Rock by Eliza Fenwick late tonight. Eh, it was a little dry for my tastes. . .or maybe at least my tastes this weekend. I admit though, I *may* not have been the best or most focused reader I could've been what with so much March Madness "Sweet Sixteen" action and LT Local-ing the whole weekend. Can't say I would give the book another (fairer?) shot anytime soon but I would try Eliza Fenwick again.

Must be off to bed but I did manage to start The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno a very short while ago. Look forward to picking up where I left off during the morning subway commute.

I'm still reading Absolute Friends by John Le Carré, I was hoping to finish it last week but didn't make as much progress as I hoped.

I've lined up Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks as my next book (my book group is reading it in April and I've already got it out from library).

#12 womansheart - I love the image you've conjured up of being curled up with a book on a windy and rainy day...

I'm reading Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust by Lyn Smith. Really interesting accessible history. Not pleasant though. Is teaching me a lot I didn't know as it starts in 1933 and doesn't just focus on the concentration camps.

Message edited by its author, Mar 30, 2009, 4:34am.

Still reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. I just started reading it on the 28th of March, but had our local book club meeting yesterday, therefore, did not get in much page-time.

Our club had read and discussed Crow Lake by Mary Lawson. Consensus was favorable but there were complaints about the recurring use by the author of more drama/bad experiences to come in the next "chapter". We all agreed that the characters were compelling and that the locale (northern Ontario, CA) played a role in it's own right in the telling of the story. Four stars - ****.

Womansheart aka Ruth in Tallahassee

Finished, finally, Biblical Literacy. I have decided not to do multiple books again until after I finish Schild's Ladder, which should be soon as well. The only problem with reading several books is that at some point you feel as if you'll never get any of them read!. I do like to have a fiction and a non-fiction going at the same time - a non-fiction with sections so I have a "natural" place to put the book down.

I just finished Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin, which was quite good. As I continue reading my Early Reviewer book, Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World, I think I'll also start a novel, Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. I'm looking forward to the Waters - her writing is amazing.

#76: investory: Rhett Butler's People can't hold a candle to Gone with the Wind, but it's still well worth a read if you're a GWTW lover, in my opinion. It doesn't have that magic spark that GWTW have, but I did find it very interesting seeing things from Rhett's perspective.

So, I finished Rhett Butler's People last night, and am now reading Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Steward.

Message edited by its author, Mar 30, 2009, 12:47pm.

I am just about to start The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. I have heard some very positive comments about this one so I am looking forward to the read.

I so wanted to like "Full Meridian of Glory" and I just didn't. What a good idea, and such a shame it's not well-realized. Damn and blast. I now need to review it. I really don't like giving bad reviews, preferring to stay silent if something isn't good, unless my cage is rattled...but this is an ER book, so not an option.

*heavy sigh*

Don't be too upset. Think of this as an opportunity to help the author get on track. Write what you think would improve the book. A "bad" review is not necesarily a bad thing. If it's something that you just didn't like personally, perhaps it would appeal to others. That's the beauty of many people reading and reviewing the same book.

Message edited by its author, Mar 30, 2009, 1:37pm.

I started Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs during lunch today.

>87 points well taken, SqueakyChu. I shall up my socks pull and soldier on to immortality.

Or something like that, I think I need an allergy pill...

Reading and loving Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis, and I just picked up Brothers by Yu Hua which I had on hold at the library. Also, still on my Charles Bukowski jag...

#85 DeltaQueen - I just finished it - I think you'll enjoy it and find yourself gripped. I thought it was an excellent thriller

I continue with Netochka Nezvanova and I am about to start listening to The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield.

Finnished French Lieutenants Woman by John Fowles what a good book. Decided to do a light mystery The Cherry Blossom Corpse Robert Barnard.

I finished Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg. I found it a bizarre little book, interesting at times, confusing others, and plodding others. It views a religious zealot who believes himself guaranteed a place in heaven by predestination as he is encouraged by another (the devil?, his own psychotic mind?) to rid the earth of sinners starting with his immediate family. As he carries out the deed, his life deteriorates until he finally commits suicide. Interestingly the story is told from three different viewpoints, an observer, the sinner himself, and the editor some 100 years later. It was written in 1825 so it takes a while to get comfortable with the language and the Scottish brogue of the common folk is a challenge.

Last night I finished Eclipse and today I started Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World by Amy Seidl which is my Early Reviewers book!

Message edited by its author, Mar 30, 2009, 9:53pm.

Last night I finished David Sedaris's When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I laughed so loud in bed that the neighbors probably heard me...it was that funny.

I just received my ER book today, The Stettheimer Dollhouse in the mail this afternoon, and I just couldn't keep my hands, eyes and even NOSE out of it :-D . I've already read it, and mine is the first review ;-)

I'm reading Until We Meet Again for my bookclub that meets next Monday night.

Message edited by its author, Mar 30, 2009, 11:34pm.

I finished The World Before Her and well it was a good book, it was not what I was expecting. Next is The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen.

I just finished Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. Whew! What a life!

I felt like something a bit different yesterday, so I started Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Yep, it's different!

Reading Light Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay. So far so wonderful.

I finished The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katharine Mansfield and found them thoroughly enjoyable. I am about to start listening to Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne and continue reading Netochka Nezvanova.

I've reviewed my ER copy of Full Meridian of Glory by Paul Murdin in my "75 Books Challenge" thread. It's in message 218 for anyone interested.

The short version is: not recommended for non-science junkies. And how deeply disappointing that is to say, since the story here is one that has the potential to be a gripping page-turner.

I'm currently reading Last Light by Terri Blackstock. The plot of the book is quite interesting where all electronical devices no longer work, there's no running water, no cars, no light. Basically people have been thrown back into the dark ages without a clue on what to do. So far, it's good but I swear I want to take a few of the characters out of the novel and shake them for being so stupid.

Also reading The Virgin Queen's Daughter, a novel set in the Elizabethen period, as the title suggests. It's written well and one can tell that Chase has done her homework but for some reason I'm having trouble getting into it.

Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is this week's read.

I finished The Icy Hand by Chris Mould (review In the Shadow of Mt. TBR). It was okay, but I'll probably forget all of it within the next couple months. If I didn't do a review, I might never even remember reading it.

Just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was as good as advertised, August Heat by Andrea Camilleri, another funny but poignant Inspector Montalbano mystery, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, a fun old-timey Cinderella story.

Now I'm in Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz, a humorous private eye mystery, Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach, a YA title, and Emma Volume 4 by Kaoru Mori, part of an engaging upstairs/downstairs graphic novel series set in Victorian England.

#54 Squeak - I just finished My Own Country and as a result have put The Tennis Partner in my cart at bookcloseouts.com. In the meantime, I have Cutting for Stone waiting for me to get to it. Seems like Abraham Verghese is going to be the author of which I've read the most in 2009.

Cutting for Stone is absolutely wonderful, one of the best I've read this year.

Last night I finished Desert Queen by Janet Wallach having already read Gertrude Bell by Georgina Howell. Still enthralled by the story I moved on to Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell.

I like Russell, but I had read the criticism of this book attentively. Reading it after reading about Gertrude Bell, I take it almost as a roman a clef; I don't know that it would be meaningful to me otherwise.

Robert

I have started reading The Best Day The worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon by Donald Hall. I have been wanting to read this for a long time. For some reason I really enjoy reading about the lives of poets. I'll read this book along with my books of poetry by both Jane Kenyon and Donald Hall and I'll get an early start to my celebration of National Poetry Month.
(Usually I celebrate by telling my mother that she has to buy me a book of poetry. She'll laugh and begin celebrating by reaching into her wallet and getting me the money :P - I think it's a great way to celebrate!)

#91 - jbeast - I am about 100 pages into The Girl With The Dragon Tattooand you are right - it has totally grabbed me. I can't wait to find out how all of this is going to fit together! Very good book.

Just finished The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks.
Started Blaze by Richard Bachman aka S.King.
I have had this book on my shelf for months and decided to revisit the twisted mind of King. Iam enjoying it so far.

The Island of The Day Before is still in sight..
>77 Richard...i have no problem with memory loss..as long as it's someone else's memory....

Continuing to read The Time Traveler's Wife (which I am really enjoying Ellie!) and listening to Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. I've also started reading The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield today.

Finished Travelling with Djinns by Jamal Mahjoub.

Now I'm reading When You Come Home* by Nora Eisenberg, an Early reviewer novel on Gulf War Syndrome. So far it's meh.

*no touchstone, link is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/7823722...

Almost finished with Schild's Ladder and have decided to read The Secret Garden - can't believe I had never read this before and I borrowed it from my daughter's bedroom. I will also read, at the same time, I am sure, Bayonet! Forward, another of Chamberlain's book s about Gettysburg,

Squeaky, you will LOVE Isaac's Torah. The jokes, the humor, folktales, woven throughout- wonderful. As far as Verghese, have you read Cutting for Stone? I'm hoping to someday get to his nonfiction- Cutting was magnificent!

I just finished A Strange and Sublime Address, the first novel by Amit Chaudhuri. Next up: Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie.

--> 119

No, I haven't read the other two books by Verghese yet, but both are on my wishlist.

I'm also listening to an audio version of Elinor Lipman's My Latest Grievance. The sharp banter of the daughter in this book reminds me of the protagonist in Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics. I'm keeping my ears tuned so that I don't miss too much! :)

Message edited by its author, Mar 31, 2009, 10:09pm.

I'm really getting nowhere fast with Brisingr... I keep reaching for other books instead of finishing it. I'm almost 2/3 the way through it, but it just drags on and on and on... and with 750 pages to get through, I feel like I'm not getting anywhere with regards to my goal of 75 books this year.

Reaching around the book doesn't speed that up, either, but I grabbed Night of the Crash-Test Dummies off Mt. TBR shelf 2 today and read it in almost a single setting (review here). I enjoyed it, though :-) It's a Far Side comics collection, and I love The Far Side ;-)

Have been reading and not posting.

I finished Firmin the story of a literary rat in 1960s Boston. It was short, and a quick read. I didn't have trouble getting into it, in fact I enjoyed it, except for the end. It was a let down, a fizzle. There was no point. It was 'life sucks and then you die '. OK.

I get the rat as metaphor for a life of quiet desperation, but I need more.

Then I read an incredible book. non-fiction My Lobotomy by Howard Dully. It is a memoir/autobiography. I saw it on LT and it looked interesting, and it was. I read it in one sitting.

Howard was given a lobotomy in 1960, at the age of 12 at the urging of his stepmother who couldn't deal with him. She shopped around until she found a doctor who had a solution for her (she wanted him committed, but others said there was nothing wrong with the child). The doctor was a pioneer in lobotomies in the US. Howard's dad was not really interested in him (his mother was dead). The story tells of Howard's experiences, and how he eventually was able to put his life back together. Just an amazing book.

Now I am reading The Art Thief by Noah Charney.
I had such hopes. Not sure if I will finish it. The writing is horrendous. He uses way too many adjectives together, and the characters are not like real people. The writing is very florid (male version of bodice-ripper type language use), and its like every character is on an important blind date, trying to be larger than life, and holding their tummies in, and not being real.

The author is more interested in showing off, and being cool and trying to be erudite than in telling a story. Of course he fails horribly. Not sure if he is some relative and thats why the book was published, or they hate him so much they wanted him to fall flat on his face. He really could have used an editor.

He also has info dumps about art and a profile on who the likely thief would be. I however, love that, but others who don't like meaty fact in their fiction, might be bored.

I'm currently reading The Favoured Child by Philippa Gregory. It was quite slow to start off with but the story is picking up pace now. I don't think I'll be reading another Gregory novel but it is a pleasant enough read.

Forgot to say I started The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (2nd James). I finished Reaper Man by Pratchett earlier this week, it was beautiful and hilarious.

Still reading Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust.

Very disturbing, I have to keep reading passages over and over to check it really says what I think it says.

Finished Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher and about to start Dust by Elizabeth Bear.

I'm about to start Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. Absolutely loved Spares and 90 percent of One of Us was amazing (ending was a bit over the top...) so my hopes are high.

Still trudging through Brisingr, however, I accidentally finished up Custard and Company last night (my review is In the Shadow of Mt. TBR). I rather enjoyed Mr. Nash's wordplay and droll humor. My favorite poems were "The Boy who Laughed at Santa Claus" and "The Adventures of Isabel," as well as the Custard poems.

I started Saga of the Volsungs last night- it's a short book so I should be able to finish it this week and then go to the next one on Mt. TBR

>122 and 129 thekoolaidmom, I felt like that during a good portion of Brisingr and thought it was waaaaaay under-edited. Not sure if I'll bother with Book #4 unless it's quite a bit shorter.

I finished First Among Sequels and have started Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear. I'm only about 10 pages into it, but so far so good.

I'm finally finished with Sunne in Splendour and am currently faintly unsatisfied with The Thorne Maze...

To whomever asked me about The Ten-Year Nap, I'm finally seeing the method to the author's madness, 262 pages into it. It's almost a series of short stories or vignettes about women who are friends who all made the decision to stay home with their children and are about ten years into that life. However, that is really not the most impactful thing about each of the women. There is something of interest about each of them, and the stories are interspersed with very short chapters about someone, usually the mother, and how she influenced the life of her daughter, and in one case, her son. It's getting really interesting now, but lunchtime is over!

Finished Beyond the Deepwoods, and will start Cold Mountain later today.

I finished Netochka Nezvanova and will be starting an Early Reviewer selection, Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John. I continue listening to Around the World in Eighty Days.

Current reading:
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Very good. I can't believe that it took me this long to get to it.

Next up:
I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.

Message edited by its author, Apr 1, 2009, 7:37pm.

#123 FicusFan - I did read The Art Thief by Noah Charney, I agree with you, it took me a while to get through the book. It didn't flow smoothly and jumped around with technical statements for a novel type of book.

#137 I am at chapter 9 and the writing and characters are a bit better, so I will stick it out (for now). I like all the technical stuff, so that maybe why I am willing to keep on. I do have to finish soon though, because I have an ER book to read before I start my book club books for April.

Just finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Now I'm listening to The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker and trying to finish reading Lethal Legacy by Linda Farstein. Not my usual cup of tea but I'm giving her a try.

Seitherin - How was Wishful Drinking?

FicusFan - Man, you have got SOME reading speed!

Jbleil - That was me asking you about The Ten Year Nap. Thank you for the update. I'm glad to hear it's picking up but sad that your lunch break ended. :)

I'm on The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

I'm starting the Diary of Anne Frank. My mother and I are reading it as part of our two person book club.

Jodi Picoult- My sisters keeper.
This book is very different, anyone that has read it can tell you. The titles of the chapters are the person talking in that chapter. It has been a while since I have sat down and read a whole book in a day, and it has been a loong time since I have been in school. so I have had to clean the cobwebs out "if you know what I mean" after I got to the second chapter it all made sense. Jodi is a brilliant writer.
Thanks...Joycedlee

About to start Revolutionary Road - have been looking forward to this one for a while.

Last night I began The Complete Stories of TRUMAN CAPOTE. It is a book of short stories and I am only on the 3rd one but I am enjoying them thus far. I found it quite interesting that in the introduction of my copy he and Ernest Hemingway are named as the only two writers of "distinguished fiction" to come out of the twentieth century as American household names. Capote apparently led a harrowing private life. This is the first time I have read him, but now I want to go to the library and check out The Grass Harp, Other Voices, Other Rooms, In Cold Blood, and of course Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I am currently reading The Book Thief recommended by folks on this site. It took about 25 pages for me to understand the flow of the book - Love it! Everyone that has posted reviews mention the need for tissues for the ending. Will give an update when I am finished.

I finished Schild's Ladder. The ending left me hanging and reading was a bit slow. It was OK, but I've read better.

Now onto The Secret Garden and Bayonet! Forward! and maybe one other if I can find it in the library.

I finished Paul Revere's Ride last night. It's a good read. A quick one too (under a week, compared to two months for my previous book).

I had a hard time picking my next book, but eventually settled on Charity Canon Willard's Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works.

I finished Mountains Beyond Mountains and it was excellent. Hard to find a follow up to that!

Anyway, I'm travelling to Paris next month, so heading into Francophile land. I am starting Into a Paris Quartier by Diane Johnson, which is a little book of observations re: the St. Germaine des Pres section of Paris (where we hope to spend a bit of time). People really do not rate this highly, but I'm interested in the history of the area, more than anything, which is supposed to be good.

Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco

Finished The Ten-Year Nap and starting Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

The Ten-Year Nap ended up being pretty good. It tracks four women friends in present-day New York City who have stayed at home with children for various reasons. Their stories are all different and interesting, separately told and resolved. The author uses a device of inserting short chapters that are flashbacks, about three of which, in my opinion, should have been omitted as having nothing whatsoever to do with the story or characters. The story is a little slow to build and a little slow to end, but having said all of that, a pretty good three-star read.

Right now i am reading the Uglies series part 2 called Pretties. I have probley a hundred pages left.

It is a very slow moveing book, but, i am geting trought it allright.

#140, JolieLouise - Wishful Drinking was rambly and free form and chatty. It's appears to be based on a one-woman stage show Fisher did. It was quite light reading for a memoir.

I've started The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett for bookclub's May meeting (it's a loooong book!).

But, I've also started Those Who Hunt the Night byBarbara Hambly for something to actually finish in a reasonable time.

Vampires and cathedrals.

Message edited by its author, Apr 2, 2009, 12:41pm.

Exictedly, wonderfully, happily DONE with Brisingr... finally (review In the Shadow of Mt. TBR). I was started to feel like I'd never finish! It was an okay book.

Next up, The Lace Reader. I had wanted that when it was an ER book, but never got it. I finally bought it from Waldenbooks in January. I can't wait to jump in :-D

I finished the superb The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I am starting April Lady by Georgette Heyer, very light and frothy. Along with that I am also starting A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini with high expections after loving The Kite Runner.

Message edited by its author, Apr 2, 2009, 2:03pm.

OH!!! DeltaQueen50, I'm jealous of you... I'd love to be able to read A Thousand Splendid Suns again for the first time! It was every bit as good as The Kite Runner, and I think maybe even better ;-) Enjoy... but keep the Kleenex handy.

Thanks Koolaidmom, I will.

#155 & 156 - I just ordered A Thousand Splendid Suns using bonus points from QPB, and am looking forward to it.

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

I just finished The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane last night and it was great. Now I'm continuing to work through the audio of A Lion Among Men and just started Charles and Emma at lunch.

Just finished Skylight Confessions - which is now my second favourite magical Alice Hoffman, after the beautiful The Ice Queen - and moved onto another library books, Passing for Normal by Amy Wilensky. It's the autobiography of a girl growing up with Tourettes and OCD. I have so many of my own books to read, but somehow I feel a duty to read some of the library ones first!

I'm reading in or from a couple of books (Myths and Gods of India and How to Read the Bible), but I don't seem to be reading a book. It is too early for Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I guess I will just keep my eyes open today to see what I have around.

Robert

Well, I went to the library and found the books I was looking for. I had tried a couple of nights ago and couldn't find it. It was in another section - for newish books. I got it home around 11:30 and just now (7:10), it is finished. Oh, the book is Twenty Wishes and the thing I "hate" about Debbie Macomber's books is that once I open them I hate close them until I have finished them. This one was no different. I did,however, stop for dinner.

I will now get back to the books mentioned in my post 146 above. I also received March Early Reviewer book today (the publisher is about 10 miles from my house) called Larry's Kidney. That's at the bottom of the pile. This is why I can't get through what's currently on my bookshelves!

I finished The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen and found it to be a comfortable, inviting trip back to my younger carefree days of reading Jane Austen while curled up in a hammock......

Next is Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, a book I picked up after seeing it on LT (I think it was in one of the previous ER giveaways) that caught my eye.

I read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery on vacation. I really enjoyed it, though sometimes I found myself skimming when the philosophy got to be too much. I laughed out loud a lot, and cried at the end. All in all I thought it was a great read. I meant to start The Known World by Edward P. Jones, which is our next RL book club read, but picked up Naked by David Sedaris instead. I had packed that for my husband, but he was working, not reading. Not sure that was the best choice for the metro, the train, the plane... I got a lot of stares as I was laughing helplessly.

I'm reading Poor things - A. Gray and I like it very much up to now.

I agree AMQS, what a range that book had! I thought some of the philopsophy was tedious too, especially since at the time they are spouting so much of it, I did not yet know or care for the narrarators. That changes drastically in the second half ... it's a very unique one.

I just finished Into a Paris Quartier by Diane Johnson which I actually found quite interesting and enjoyable. It'll certainly help my exploration of the St. Germain Des Pres area next month.

I'm continuing on in Francophile-land and started A Town Like Paris by Bryce Corbett about a Londoner's move to Paris for a job and his love affair with the city. It's supposed to be funny and light ... so looking forward to that.

I received, unpacked, cataloged, and finished First You Fall by Scott Sherman. Flawed, a first novel for sure, but very funny in many places, poignant in others, and a worthwhile read. Gay rent-boy sleuth has never resolved his feelings for closet-case first love; they meet again when rent-boy's good friend allegedly commits suicide, and first love is one of the cops investigating; hijinks ensue.

For a book featuring a rent-boy, there is surprisingly little...ummm, well, a fast consultation shows NONE...no graphic sex in the book. The author talks about sex a lot, but that's sorta what you expect in a book with this main character. That SHOULD win over a mainstream audience. There was only marginally less sex in the Brandstetter mysteries by Joseph Hansen, and they were hugely popular.

The mystery aspects of the book weren't its strongest selling points. I was sure I knew who the murderer was, and I was right; I had the murderer's motive all wrong, though, and that made a nice surprise. The satisfying resolution to the red herrings strongly appealed to my orderly side. The romantic complications were believable, and while I have never been a rent-boy (never pretty enough), I have been down the road that Kevin, our main character, traveled, though without the happy ending. Life so needs a better script, don't y'all agree?

Recommended for mystery fans, straight or gay, who like to root for the underdog to win; also tto fans of the reluctant sleuth genre. The truly homophobic should not even try this book. The mildly, "ewww ick" homophobic might see something worthwhile here.

Got back two days ago from a terrific 5-day road trip to the astonishingly beautiful Trinity Alps region of Northern California. We stayed in a small town called Weaverville with some interesting logging/gold rush history and a nice, dark dive bar that my wife and I both enjoyed. Also got some good reading time in, which allowed me to finish The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Hollinghurst writes beautifully and perceptively, and the story/protagonist really allows a heterosexual reader (at least this one) to get an insight into what it is like to be gay in a straight society, especially, perhaps, during the 80s, when the book takes place, a time when the idea of being unashamedly "out" was still a fairly new idea that the straight world was still getting used to. So many little assumptions, so many off-hand comments, often made innocently but still serving to remind the gay person in the room that he/she is still considered an "other." The book begins as a tour de force, and then settles down for many, many pages to add on small observations amid seemingly minor and repetitive story points, until finally adding up to a very powerful ending. The problems with the book, for me, were that that middle portion really did begin to get repetitive, despite the beautiful writing. I thought the point had been made and then continued to be made again and again until I was ready for the story to resume already. It is all made good at the end, but still, there was a period of reading when I felt restless. The other problem, for me, is that the book takes place mainly among the English upper class. I kind of feel like the foibles of the rich, as humorously as they're examined here, are sort of easy pickings. At any rate, I have less interest in the troubles of the rich than I have in the experiences of the regular walking around folk, as it were. Those are personal sticking points only, however. This is a book to be highly--very highly--recommended.

After some time grazing among my "between books," I am going to read Strat-O-Matic Fanatics: the Unlikely Story of a Game that Became an American Passion, a book about the history of Strat-O-Matic Baseball, a great baseball box game I played as a kid and still play with great enjoyment to this day.

I finished Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent yesterday morning and am now reading Tamarind Woman by Anita Rau Badami.

>169: What do you think of Tamarind Woman so far? I have it on my TBR list and was curious if I should move it up.

I just started The Taking by Dean Koontz and Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602.

>168 rocketjk

I too really loved The Line of Beauty although, I do remember that I put it down for a long time and had to start it again, but I'm so glad I did! It was a fantastic piece of writing and deserved to win the Booker. I am determined to read some more Hollinghurst - The Swimming Pool Library for one.

I started All Other Nights and Doghead the other day. Good stuff!

I finished, very reluctantly, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. I selected this book based on high praise here on LT and it may have surpassed my lofty expectations. Someone here, I'm sorry I forgot who, read this in one sitting and then started it over again. Wow, that's impressive! Me, I would rather savor it for at least a few days but I can understand the love. An awesome novel!
I started an ER called American Rust by Philipp Meyer. The 1st 60 pages have been very promising, nice detail!

Almost done with The Secret Garden. How did I ever miss these books when I was a kid. My mom was an avid reader; we were always at the library. I am glad my kids got them on their own and that I have no found them.

--> 174

I missed The Secret Garden as a kid, too. Fortunately, I had the great pleasure of reading it chapter by chapter to my kids (when they were young) at night as a bedtime book. I took the time then to read some great classics such as The Yearling (my favorite), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, and others that I'd never read before. I'm sure my kids enjoyed hearing those books as much as I enjoyed reading them.

#174 koalamom, #175 SqueakyChu, all of those books you mentioned are books I've been eyeing as read-alouds for my kids (ages 7 and 10). Do you think they'd be ready for those?

Finished La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes by Gaetan Soucy and onto something completely different... Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

#170 snat: I'm not that far into Tamarind Woman to have much of an opinion yet other than to say I am enjoying the book. I spent time in India some years ago so the book brings back memories and feels like an old friend.

--> 176

I think the best way to evaluate those books is to read the first chapter of those you want to try aloud to your kids. Let them decide if the story interests them or not. If not, move on to another book.

The way I chose books was to look at the titles and say to myself, "I've always heard of this book. I wonder if I'd like it." Most of the time, I did.

Just as a caution, the end to The Yearling is so sad that I started to cry as I read it. If you choose that book, you'll have to pre-read it to see if you think it's okay, at least for your younger child.

By the way, my favorite book that I *heard* as a kid was Charlotte's Web, read chapter by chapter to me and my classmates in our third-grade class by a teacher whose name and appearance I cannot recall. I still remember the book, though, and have also read it to my kids when they were young.

There's a funny story about my daughter, now 22 years old. I could never read chapter books to her as I did to her older brothers. The reason? After lights out, she'd take a flashlight and finish reading each book herself. Her favorites were The Little Prince and Winnie the Pooh both of which she still keeps in her personal collection. The guys used to beg for more, but I'd say, "Oh, no. Only one chapter a night", and they would let it go at that.

The 4 April thread is now open and awaiting your visit.

>178 Thanks--I look forward to your comments about the book! It's great when books can reconnect us to a particular time and place. Alas, I've never been to India *sigh*, but I do enjoy Indian literature.

I agree, 179 - we read to our kids every night - they got to choose the book - we read two - one for each - somehow we missed The Secret Garden, which I have now finished, but my daughter had a copy anyway, so I guess she found it on her own - I am glad for that

and even if they don't care for a book at first, it doesn't really matter - it's the reading to them and the time you spend doing it that's important

>176 AMQS The Secret Garden would definitely be fine for 7-10 year olds - I read it myself when I was six or so. Likewise A Little Princess - both these books remain favourites of mine now!

That's true, koalamom and SqueakyChu. I read aloud to my daughters as often as I can. Charlotte's Web was an early favorite -- we're probably due for a re-read as it's been awhile. Once or twice we've started something and then set it aside to try again when they're older -- Rabbit Hill comes to mind. We started that a couple of years ago, but the first chapter didn't hold their interest. We tried it again this fall, and it became an all-time favorite. Sometimes we can all be overcome with emotion -- there was a chapter in Rabbit Hill where we all cried, and another that had the girls literally leaping out of their seats and cheering. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was another book that brought us all to tears.

Thanks for your input and advice!

#183 elliepotten, thank you! We own them both. I remember reading them, but it's been a very long time!

I'm thoroughly engrossed in Geoff Wyss' book Tiny Clubs and it has thrown my very obsessive reading plan off kilter. It's very good!

184> I loved all those books.

kara, nice to see those wonderful old children's books are still beloved!

Yes, No one ever talks about them anymore.

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2009, 1:09am.

Hi guys. I'm new in this club. I just been joining the groups that I seem to like. Spanish, German, French and English groups (yeah I'm a language freakazoid). At the moment, I'm reading the Alexander the Great series. Good book but the whole book is quite longish.