What Women's Books Are You Reading - May 2009 ?

This month I'm reading Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella . Then I'll be trying to read more of Mists Of Avalon

I tried to read but couldn't make it through my Early Reader book, Teri Coyne's The Last Bridge. Oh well, all books aren't for all readers.

And I just finished Elizabeth Stout's Olive Kitteridge. In a lifetime of reading I doubt that I've ever read a finer book.

Yesterday I began Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - totally captivating! I'm loving the characters and all of the scenery so far.

Today I started Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott. I am 60 pages in so far and really enjoying it. This is the first book I have read by Endicott... I will now be on the look out for her other works!

I am reading East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood, the typical Victorian novel.

I am finishing up Property by Valerie Martin for the slavery theme at Reading Globally for April.

#2 skankycat--Elizabeth Stout just won the Pulitzer for Olive Kitteridge. I'm going to take you up on your remarkable recommendation!

Currently reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin and Gilead: A novel by Marilynne Robinson for a book club discussion.

Just finished reading The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney. Also reading The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. About to start The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve. These are all from my 999 Challenge.

Still reading Atwood's The Year of the Flood. I'm determined to find time to finish today because I know this is why my dreams have been weird... :-)

I'm about two-thirds through The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M. Mayo, an LT Early Reviewer, and am slowly wending my way through Brazil with The Diary of Helena Morley translated by Elizabeth Bishop.

I gave my husband a copy of Donna Leon's newest Brunetti mystery, About Face, for his birthday on Saturday, so now that he's finished, I'm reading it. I figure it's like that box of Godiva that he gives me on Valentines and we share.

After a run of five male-authored books, I'm once again starting a book written by a woman: Clara by Janice Galloway, an historical fiction about Clara Schumann (the wife of Robert Schumann).

I'm reading The Forgotten Garden which is quite good in a Rosamund Pilcherish way although I've spotted a few inaccuracies, which is a little annoying. I'm trying to read the Mitford Sisters' letters but have a big Early Reviewers history book I should be reading first...

#11 - "I figure it's like that box of Godiva that he gives me on Valentines and we share."

LOL.

I'll be starting the newest Sarah Waters book tonight after I go hear her read at Powell's and get a signed copy!!! The Little Stranger. wooooo hooooo!

I'm amending my message #15 above; since I'll be traveling to the east coast by air this week, I don't think I will pack a 500+ page hardcover. So I'll be starting The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich today. One of my favorite authors!

Terri, is that the one about ghosts? Methinks I will have to try to get a copy myself!
:-))

The Sarah Waters book is, yes. And a departure for her, writing about a male main character, apparently no lesbian erotica in this one. (darn). ;o)

*chuckle*

The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve. I very much enjoyed the story about the 19th century Norwegians living isolated and lonely lives. The desolate imagery of the islands was very good. Like some others who have read this I found it harder to relate to the modern day people on the boat. Apart from that I enjoyed this novel.

I am also reading The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings which is very good so far, once I got used to the language.

About to start The Little Friend by Donna Tartt.

As well as East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood, which I am enjoying in spite of the obvious cliches, I just started A very Great Profession by Nicola Beauman. Not much into it, but I find it captivating.

>20 englishrose -- I find that in a lot of historical novels that switch back and forth, present to past. Sometimes I'd like to scream, just stay in the past! It's much more interesting! I felt a similar reaction to The Weight of Water. I did like that story a lot.

16> I love Louise Erdrich, and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse may be my favorite of all her books -- anxious to hear what you think about it.

I don't know what I'll read next, but it will definitely be written by a woman! In fact, the next bunch of books I'll read will all be from women writers. I've just read nine books in a row written by men, and while I enjoyed most of them, it's time for a change of gender!

>24: egads, 9 in a row. I don't think I could do that.
Having just come off a male-authored book, I'm now reading The Garden Party and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction by Katherine Mansfield, for the monthly author read group. Just read the introduction over lunch and am intrigued by this woman!

Since I was in Venice with Donna Leon's latest Brunetti, I decided to move on to Florence with Jeanne Kalogridis' I, Mona Lisa. It's not a painting that I'm particularly fond of, but having just read Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa it seemed doubly fitting.

Now a trip to Italy would really fit in just fine. But instead we're headed out to Seattle on Saturday for a long anniversary weekend.

btw, I really didn't care for the Scotti on the art theft; it seemed to be stretching out a few facts to book length; a more concise article would have been more effective but, of course, less profitable.

I'm reading about Renaissance art too, for me it's Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex. And I am going to Italy this summer, which is why I'm reading this now. :-) I also have a week in Seattle booked for August. Hmmm, do I detect a trend?

Anyway, I'm also rereading See Jane Win: the Rimm Report on How 1,000 Girls Became Successful Women, which I read about ten years ago.

I finished Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott in a quick two day read. I really enjoyed how Endicott brought the characters and the story to life for me. What a pleasure to read!

I have now slide back into mystery/suspense genre with Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell, which I am enjoying when I manage to find time to read. That should change come the weekend.

#27 Nickelini, your adventures sound much more interesting than mine. Where are you going in Italy?

#28 Ikernagh, I enjoyed the Carrell book too. Have fun.

I'm packing today - Stephanie Cowell's Marrying Mozart and Ann Patchett's The Magician's Assistant. If they don't live up to expectations, they don't get to make the trip home. And I have heard about one or two fine bookstores in Seattle. I never read women's magazines, but I always treat myself to 'O' when I fly....a little mindless consumerism in the skies, and it beats the in-flight magazine.

#29 Nickelini, your adventures sound much more interesting than mine. Where are you going in Italy?

We're flying in and out of Rome, and visiting my husband's family in Lucca (it's kinda between Pisa and Florence). We plan to travel around a bit--my daughters want to see the Alps, so we might head up that way.

I'm reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Although this book is written by a woman, I marvel at the contemplative male voice she has created. Sort of like Flaubert's wonderful voicing of Madame Bovary. I find myself thinking "now how do they do that?"

It's not *quite* written by a woman, but I'm about half way through Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, in which Seth Graham-Smith has taken the original book (words and all), and added zombies.

The bits written by Austen remain the best, and it's rather amusing the reworking of the plot to fit in the undead, but I wouldn't recommend it to any pure Austen fan, it's mostly just a curiosity. (I am enjoying it, but if you're a Jane Austen purist, avoid like the (undead) plague.)

I finished Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell which was a good, if slightly predictable suspense.

Currently I am reading Still Alice by Lisa Genova. It is written from the POV of a 50 year old Harvard professor Alice Howland, who is diagnosed with having early-onset Alzheimer. Each chapter in the book represents a month in Alice's life as the disease progresses. This is a definite page turner for me.

Started Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris last night - she's one of my favorite authors and I love how she can just take me away to France and make me dream of french food!

I'm reading The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel

Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay just arrived, and I need to read it for book club by next Tuesday.

Today I finished The Garden Party and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction by Katherine Mansfield. Next up: Maya Angelou's A Letter to my Daughter.

Had a sick day yesterday, so finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, started and finished Agatha Christie's The Sittaford Mystery and today am planning on starting George Eliot's Silas Marner.

In addition to the other books I'm reading, I'm also enjoying The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. Non-fiction, but definitely all about women, and rather un-put-downable.

I'm reading Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor which is a lovely story about the beauty of numbers . . .

I'm savoring House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk -- it's really lovely -- low key and beautifully observant.

#40 avaland - The Housekeeper and the Professor is near the top of TBR pile. I would love to know what you think of it.

Right now I have taken a quick detour into non-female writing after really enjoying Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott, had a fun suspense romp in a race to find the manuscript provided by Jennifer Lee Carrell with Interred With Their Bones and having quickly devoured Still Alice by Lisa Genova... I couldn't put Genova's book down until I finished it! It was that good!

I've never read Jane Austen and tend to think it wouldn't be quite my "thing" but I do {heart} zombies, so I've had my eye on the Austen+Zombie book for awhile. Actually I'd love to see lots more Western classics spiced up with the inclusion of zombies (or pirates, or ninjas, depending). :D

I've just started Oranges in the Sun: Short Stories from the Arabian Gulf, which includes a lot of women authors as well as stories about women.

Finished The Housekeeper and the Professor which is a lovely, lovey book about family, living in the present and the beauty & solace of numbers. Just lovely.

Reading My Heart Is A Large Kingdom: Selected Letters of Margaret Fuller edited by Robert N. Husspeth.

Visited the Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle and bought Anne Raver's Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures. It's a book of essays on gardening and love and death, and the rhythms of nature. Now I'm home to weed my own borders, placate our cats, snuggle with the Aussie Terrier and see what Ms Raver has to say.

I'm reading Up the Junction by Nell Dunn, about 3 young women in Battersea in the 1960s. (It's a Virago Modern Classic.) It's funny but sad, with several unwanted pregnancies and little to look forward to past the next trip to the pub.

47 that's a favourite of mine, there was an update to it a little while back, My Silver Shoes I think

Have started A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert.

Just started Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan and am finishing up The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey.

Just finished House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk -- it's gorgeous. . Reading it was like sipping brandy -- heady, dreamy, and deserving of slow savoring.

I am starting The Spare Room by Helen Garner tonight. After that I plan on picking up The Housekeeper and the Professor, which has been moved to the top of my TBR pile, thanks to avaland's post above (at #44)!

Finished The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh. Enjoyed this muder mystery apart from the graphic details of homosexual sex which I could have done without.

Finished In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden.

Just started The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.

I'm reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I think I'll make it through this time - my third attempt to read this book. I'm hooked into it now.

I bought the new Sarah Waters book today - The Little Stranger - so that's next up. Can't wait!

After reading at least 4 books in a row by males (can't remember past that at the moment) I am more than halfway through Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen and adoring it.

Am currently reading Tomaree by Debbie Robson - it's an interesting romance set in Newcastle (the one just north of Sydney in Australia, not the one in the UK or in Wyoming :) during WW2. Lots of fascinating historical detail, a good story and great characters.

I just finished reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and could not bear to put it down, it was so moving, but I've started reading Jung Chang's Wild Swans and next comes Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen for a book club discussion.

#57 - I loved that book ! I'm planning on getting her second book , The Sugar Queen too !

Started rereading The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood last night for the Atwoodians group read!

#57 & 60 - I adored both Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen. Sarah Addison Allen writes such warm, inviting books!

I finished The Housekeeper and the Professor. What a great book, so touching. I then picked up Life is Short but Wide by J. California Cooper. Cooper's book is a gem of a story that spans four generations of a family in Wideland, Oklahoma. My first Cooper and I will be reading more from her.

I am now diving into a new favorite mystery author for me, Ariana Franklin. I loved Mistress of the Art of Death and I am now reading her second book in the series, The Serpent's Tale. Her third book in the series Grave Goods is also available. I do love it when I discover an author after they already have a few books published in the series, it lets me dive into all the books without having to wait impatiently for the next one to publish. I was rather late in coming to the Outlander series (didn't start them until 2008) so I enjoyed five happy months reading all 7 books in that series as well as the three Lord John books.

62> I recently finished Serpent's Tale and just put Grave Goods on a wish list. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the series, though the Mistress of the Art of Death was definitely scarier.

Just got Penelope, The Story of a the Half-Scalped Woman by Penelope Scambley-Schott in the mail -- think I'll delve into this next.

Fault Lines by Nancy Huston. Liked the way the story was told over the four generations of children, although I had to remember sometimes that it was a child speaking, not an adult. Before reading this book I did not know that this had happened to children and to the horrifying extent that it did.

I am reading Figures in Silk. It is excellent. I might have to go out and buy her first book after I am done with this one. I love finding present-day writers who are good.

AquariusNat and Ikernagh,
I loved both of her books. Nat - I think I liked her second book even a bit more than Garden Spells. I didn't want either book to end.
I waited for Sugar Queen to come out in paperback and then didn't like the cover art on the paperback edition so I ordered the hardcover.
I have just started reading The Position by Meg Wolitzer.
I thought I was going to read something by Alice Hoffman after Garden Spells in order to get that Sarah Addison Allen "feel" again but I ended up choosing The Position instead.
(Touchstones don't seem to want to load)

I've just started F. Tennyson Jesse's The Lacquer Lady, which is promising even though I'm only about 20 pages along.

I just finished When I Forgot, the first novel by Elina Hirvonen of Finland, which I recommend. According to the author profile, she is also editor-in-chief of a Finnish feminist magazine, a tv host and producer, a documentary film-maker, and currently in Zambia training Zambians in filmmaking. And she's the same age as my youngest child. Makes me wonder what I've been doing with my life.

Started A. S. Byatt's latest - The Children's Book and have fallen under her spell, once again.

bleu - is this book available in the US yet?

#70 teelgee, on amazon.com it looks like the hardcover is scheduled to come out Oct 6 this year.

Thanks Sara!

I'm getting close to the end of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Not sure what I'll open next, but I'm feeling like another Orange prize book!

I've just begun Murasaki by Liza Dalby, a fictionalized biography of the author of The Tale of Genji.

After a stressful week, we've declared a low key holiday weekend, so I've retreated to medieval romances by Patricia Ryan. She also writes genre mysteries as P.B. Ryan. Right now I'm wallowing in Silken Threads and enjoying every minute.

teelgee, please share your thoughts on The Little Stranger! The entire Virago world (and beyond) has anticipated this novel for some time!

Sara's right - The Children's Book won't be published here until October which was simply too far away for me! I ordered it from Book Depository which has free shipping worldwide. It's in hardcover, and was one of those books I had to have NOW!!

Cariola did not really like The Little Stranger, so I am really interested to hear your opinion, teelgee.

OK! here's my review.

Sarah Waters is one of those authors that I havent read from as yet.
Looks like it would be better to start with one of her others like Tipping the Velvet,Fingersmith or another then Little Stranger. Do you think?
I've promised myself one of her works this year.

Fingersmith is my favorite of hers. They're all good though. Yes, I'd say start with another.

KimB, my first Sarah Waters was The Night Watch, and then I went on to Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith. I thought The Night Watch was very good, but really loved the other two.

I am looking forward to The Little Stranger!

Just started The Blind Assassin--I'm not very far in so I'm still trying to figure things out, but I hope I'll like it.

Sara, The Blind Assassin is fabulous. One of my favorites.

I'm still dipping into Delicate Edible Birds and New Zealand Stories; and last night started Three Junes. And the beat goes on.....

Started Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins last night. I'm enjoying it very much so far.

The Gathering by Anne Enright. The prose is stunning. One member of an Irish family muses on her family history when one of her numerous siblings dies. "The seeds of my brother's death were sown many years ago. The person who planted them is long dead -- at least that's what I think. So if I want to tell Liam's story, then I have to start long before he was born." And so it goes.

Just started Saratoga Trunk by Edna Ferber. Loving it so far.

Just read In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming. The main character is an ex-military helicopter pilot turned Episcopal priest, a strong woman in many ways. Her best friend is the married chief of police of a small town. The story shows two highly moral yet human characters struggling to fight injustice and deal with their mutual attraction.

I've been reading Longitude by Dava Sobel . She has done a wonderful job of telling John Harrison's (invented the chronometer) story .

Finished The Lacquer Lady, and am now about 30 pages into Sorry, which I'm already enjoying a great deal.

I finished Three Junes yesterday; am now reading At Risk by Patricia Cornwell for my F to F book group. It's not a book I would choose for myself and it's a genre I dislike; and I'm really trying to read it with an open mind!

#88> I really enjoyed Sorry as well!

Still going (slowly) on Silas Marner. Took a little while to get into, after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies I think I kept on expecting zombies to pop up and bad puns. :) But enjoying it now.

And last night I also picked up Rebecca which I haven't read since it was assigned reading at high school. Great stuff.

I think I'll give Rebecca another read sometime this year -- I think it was high school for me too. I remember loving it.

The Cornwell book is going blessedly fast, it is not enjoyable, so I'll be glad when I can cross it off the list!

I haven't read Rebecca yet but really should. I found a copy at a used bookshop several months back and snapped it up vowing to read it right away. Why haven't I done so? * scratches head *

I finished the mystery The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin last week. I enjoyed the second book as much as her first one, Mistress of the Art of Death. I am already looking forward to reading her third book in the series, Grave Goods.

In the meantime I plan on reading a few new authors for me that should carry me into June: is/was by Jenny Sampirisi, Oonagh by Mary Tilberg and Reading by Lightning by Joan Thomas

- touchstone not working for some of these books -

I finished The Position by Meg Wolitzer and really enjoyed it. I like books that take you so deeply into the psyche of others. More than "action" in a novel, I like to know how people "feel" and how they respond to what is happening.

I just started A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne. This won the Orange prize in 1999. I am suddenly obsessed with finding and reading books that either won the Orange prize or were nominated. I loved Bel Canto by Ann Patchett which won in (oops, I don't know the year) and We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver which won in 2005. The one I'm reading now - it hasn't really grabbed me yet. I think that it will. I'm only on page 30. I know some of the things that are going to happen and think that it will be interesting. Has anyone else read this book? What did you think of it? What are your favorite Orange prize-winning or nominated books?

JolieLouise -- Some of us do a specific Orange Prize read in the months of January and July, mstreme usually facilitates it. I'll post info here (or someone will) when it gets closer to July. We each choose one, two, three or more Orange Prize winners and nominees to read those months. Some of us devote the whole month to the Orange !

Some of my favorites: The Road Home, Half of a Yellow Sun, Bel Canto, The Secret River, Small Island, The Lizard Cage (new writer award) -- and those are just the winners! I've rarely rated any Orange Prize book below 4 stars. Such good quality writing. Glad you're discovering and enjoying!

>94 Your amongst friends in this group! There are one or two threads on The Orange Prize. The most recent is about the 2009 Prize.

My favourite so far of the winners is Half of a Yellow Sun. From the winners the only other ones I've read from cover to cover are The Road Home and Fugitive Pieces. Not a dud amongst these three. I tried to read The Idea of Perfection but I think the timing was just wrong for me, I know many people love this book.

I'm due for a light read so on to a little known novel called The Women in Black by Madeleine St.John, an Australian author, who's contemporaries were people such as Clive James, Bruce Beresford and (I think) Germaine Greer.
Bruce Beresford is directing a film on the book next year.

KimB, I read a review of The Women in Black, and it did sound fabulous. I must track down a copy!

I found a second hand copy of Cold Comfort Farm last night, and although I'm already reading two other books, I couldn't help but pick it up and start reading it this morning... (My excuse: I've been looking seriously for a copy for about a year! When it finally turned up, I wasn't about to just leave it on Mt TBR!)

Hi Teelgee and KimB.
I think I can make myself read some Orange books in July! Cool! I look forward to reading the comments in July. I've heard a lot about Half of a Yellow Sun, lately, and think that I'm going to have to check it out. Right now, though, I'm going to check out the books that you both mentioned as your favorites.

>JolieLouise: I LOVED Half of a Yellow Sun - it's definitely my favorite read of the year, so far.

Last night I started The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates - My first Oates!

I finished is/was by Jenny Sampirisi yesterday afternoon. It was an okay book, although not what I was expecting after reading the back cover synopsis.

Last night I started Oonagh by Mary Tilberg and I have to say that I am LOVING this book, having devoured the first seven chapters last night and looking forward to an afternoon of reading today. It is set in the 1830's and tells the tale of Oonagh, an eighteen-year old girl who emigrates from poverty stricken Ireland to Upper Canada with her sister's family and where she starts a relationship with the town barber, a runaway slave from the Southern US.

I have just started The Inn at Lake Devine. It is my first Elinor Lipman and I'm looking forward to it. I've have heard good things about her novels.

I finished The Blind Assassin, which was great. It reminded me a bit of two books that both came after (so rather those two books reminded me of this one)--The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell and The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. Obviously different books in many respects, but they all explore the lives of women in the 1920s-1940s, with somewhat gothic overtones about marriages of practicality and babies that are somehow lost, stolen, or sent away. All three feature sisters, the older being more practical and able, the younger being flighty, reckless, and misunderstood.

Not sure the comparison is apt or useful, but I just definitely had those other two books in my mind as I was reading this one. Of the three, though, The Blind Assassin is my favorite--I particularly loved the science fiction bits. It makes me eager to read The Handmaid's Tale.

SaraHope -- I think I read Esme Lennox right after The Blind Assassin. They fit together quite well!

#101 Sydamy - hope your enjoy Lipman; I do. She's so good at catching what makes real people tick.

I had to break down and buy the hardcover of Carol Goodman's The Sonnet Lover. I've read all the others and just couldn't put this one off any longer.

#102 SaraHope, I loved The Blind Assassin too but haven't read the other two. Onto the pile they go!

I'm reading Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie and enjoying it. I mooched it because I'd seen it mentioned on here, but now I can't remember where. Someone else mentioned in a review that the cover's like a Mills & Boon one and it put me off the book for a few weeks.

Come on over to the June thread !