There's one more day left of
Banned Books Week. It's not too late to read something subversive, like
To Kill a Mockingbird or
And Tango Makes Three or The Great Gatsby. Seriously?
Author birthdays this week include:
Oct 3:
Sir Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke (1554; d.1628)
Mikhail Lermontov (1814; d.1841)
Henri Alain-Fournier (1886; d.1914)
Thomas Wolfe (1900; d.1938)
James Herriot (1916; d.1995)
Gore Vidal (1925)
Oct 4:
Damon Runyon (1884; d.1946);
Jackie Collins (1941)
Anne Rice (1941)
Rudy Henry Wiebe (1934)
Edward Stratemeyer (1862 - 1930)
Oct 5:
Clive Barker (1952)
Peter Ackroyd (1949)
Louise Fitzhugh (1928-1974)
Jonathan Edwards (1703; d.1758)
Denis Diderot (1713; d.1784)
John Addington Symonds (1840)
Frederic Morton, aka Fritz Mandelbaum (1924)
Vaclav Havel (1936)
Oct 6:
Caroline Gordon (1895; d.1981)
Thor Heyerdahl (1914; d.2002)
Oct 7:
James Whitcomb Riley (1849; d.1916)
Leroi Jones aka Amiri Baraka (1934)
Thomas M. Keneally (1935)
Diane Ackerman (1948)
Sherman Alexie (1966)
Helen MacInnes (1907-1985)
Oct 8:
John Hay (1838; d.1905)
John Cowper Powys (1872; d.1963)
Frank Herbert (1920; d. 1986)
Faith Ringgold (1930)
R.L. Stine (1943)
Yulian Semyonov (1931-1993)
Oct 9:
Jill Ker Conway (1934)
Ivo Andre (1892 - 1975)
John Lennon (1940 – 1980)
Tawfiq el-Hakim (1898-1987)
Trivia question of the week: Which of these authors was born with water in the brain (hydrocephalus) and against all odds, survived without mental retardation?
Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 12:34am.
I just started
The Shining by
Stephen King earlier today. So far it is interesting. I think it will be a fast read since I have seen the movie.
I just finished
The Awakening and I think I have time for one more off the Banned Book List so I grabbed
The Catcher in the Rye. I can't believe that I have still not read this one. Oh well, by tomorrow night I won't be able to say that.
Happy reading everyone,
belva
P.S. The answer to the trivia question of the week is Sherman Alexie. I only know that because he is from my neck of the woods.
Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 12:04am.
I'm almost done reading
Rebel Yell by
Alice Randall. I'm not sure what I'll choose after I'm done - probably something light.
Well done, belva! Sherman Alexie it is.
I'm still reading
Telex from Cuba and I'm not thrilled with it but need to finish it for my book group.
Finishing up
The Last Templar, which has had its moments, though the last stretch has been a little dull. Have about 100 pages left of
Foucault's Pendulum, which I've been enjoying.
Next, I'll be reading
Mr. X.
Reading
13 things that don't make sense. It is a nice read, but for now it is still all physics, and while it is explained well, it doesn't make for a light read...
Finished reading
Shimmering Images this past week which I found useful. So many writing guides are primarily cheerleading. This has that but also some helpful strategies and ideas. Now I'm well into
The Help and am absolutely loving it.
Argh tis my birthday week now! i'm but a few days away from being the grand old age of 19!
Still reading
The Picture of Dorian Gray and really enjoying it although last night when i read a bit I may have been too inebriated and tired to fully understand what i was reading ;) so if i look again later and go "what? have i read this far?" it won't be too surprising. Cripes i think i've turned into such a boozy suzy since i started uni tis terrible!
#11 - LadyViolet, you've just started uni AND it's your birthday week, you can be as boozy-suzyish as you like! As long as you enjoy
The Picture of Dorian Gray, because it's possibly my favourite book ever...
For my part I am finally sinking into
Like Water for Chocolate, post-Rupert Everett disappointment and mid-DVD box set binge. So far so delicious!
Oh at least i have a reasonable excuse to get sloshed several nights this week ;)
I am enjoying it quite a lot and i'm pleasantly surprised about that because i worried that it'd all go over my head or something and i'd be sat wondering what the hell it was all about.
I thought
The Picture of Dorian Gray absolutely TROUNCED the plays - even
The Importance of Being Earnest, which is just brilliant. I think
The Picture of Dorian Gray was the first Penguin Popular Classic I picked out for myself at a bookshop, on holiday, many years ago, and I must have read it three or four times since then and enjoyed it more each time. It's just not difficult to read and understand like some classics, as you say LadyViolet!
Just started
Pride and Prejudice for the first time (unbelievably!) and, since I know the story so well from film and TV adaptations, I'm making it my shop read. For home I'm about to start
Uncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert by Stanley Weintraub. I'm looking forward to learning more about Queen Victoria's other half as he was obviously very influential in her life but is someone I know very little about.
I'll be finishing up
Saffron Dreams by
Shaila Abdullah today. It is fiction about a Pakistani woman whose husband worked in a restaurant in the WTC and was killed on 9/11, a very interesting book. When I finish that I think I will grab
Undercover by
Beth Kephart. Right now, though, I'm going to go start Never Let Me Go by
Kazuo Ishiguro. I downloaded the audio from the library and I'm going to go listen while I clean for as long as the baby stays asleep.
I was at Border's yesterday. The new Star Trek was out and I got it for my son (and me, too, actually). While I was there I purchased a copy of
The Thirteenth Tale. There was talk here of a book discussion with this as the book for November. As I had wanted to read this anyway and will I thought I'd get it and be ready if that group gets going.
I am also almost finished with
March by Brooks. I add the author's name so you know which March I am reading - Doctorow's comes up in the touchstones, but I have already read that one.
I just finished
An Echo in the Bone I loved it, but am torn about all the cliffhangers and loose ends - how can I bear to wait another 4 (?) years until the next book to come out?
Also reading The Children's Book. Just started it, though.
Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 11:18am.
Reading twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I've had the series for awhile but never picked it up.
19: koalamom
Actually the group read will be on
People of the Book there is already a thread on the 50 book challenge.
Thirteenth Tale is one of my favorite books of all time I think you'll like it. But please (to all) join us on November 1st on the group read!
I am nearly finishing "Acts of God" by Erich Segal, and I dare say this is a fascinating book. I never knew that both cotholicism and judaísm were so similar varying mainly in the rituals, ma ny of whom were introduced by man, not God.
António M. Graca - V N de Gaia - Portugal.
I'm still working my way through
Wicked. Not quite half way through so far.
I stayed up late last night finishing
South Of Broad, which I had mixed feelings about. Pat Conroy got carried away with this one, but...still...he
is Pat Conroy. I think I'll decompress with Barbara Pym's
Excellent Women over the week end.
Still working on
Don Quixote I am loving the story but cannot read it for any length of time (whatever gave me the idea that it would be good to read a copy published at least 80 years ago with tiny typeface and thin pages that can only be read comfortably in natural light just as the days get shorter!)
I have just finished
Tides of War - I probably would have done better with a straight history rather than this bit of historical fiction.
But now I am reading
Wilderness Tips - short stories by Margaret Atwood. They give a lovely feel of time and place, one of my favourite authors. I also have 2 library books to read China Mieville's
Un Lun Dun for my first experience with this author and (to satisfy the completist in me)
Under A Velvet Cloak by Piers Anthony.
Finished
People of the Book, and had a light read with
Royal Flush. Just got
The Magicians: A Novel from the library, and working on
Library: An Illustrated History for fun. Plus the requisite Austen, still plodding through
Emma, sad to say, but I may have to buckle down and get through it. It is getting a little ridiculous.
I enjoyed
People of the Book, and am looking forward to the upcoming discussion. I also want to read her other books, now. Particularly
March, as I am a fan of
Little Women.
I am getting the feeling a re-read of
Gone With the Wind may be in order soon. I used to read it every time I moved, but since buying my house I haven't read it in 11 years.
Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 2:56pm.
rockinrhombus -
Gone With the Wind is one of my favorites! I would like to reread it again some day too.
I'm about half way through
Fahrenheit 451. Why ban a book if you can just burn it? ;-)
Well I really gotten into manga books..... so far this month I've read:
Boys Over Flowers Volume 18
Boys Over Flowers Volume 17
Boys Over Flowers Volume 21
Boys Over Flowers Volume 22
Boys Over Flowers Volume 23
Boys Over Flowers Volume 24
Boys Over Flowers Volume 25
Boys Over Flowers Volume 27
Boys Over Flowers Volume 30
Boys Over Flowers Volume 36
Boys Over Flowers Volume 6
AND:
S.A.S.S. The Sound of MunichMessage edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 3:41pm.
I finished
March by Geraldine Brooks and will not have to deal with this touchstone again!
I liked it. I liked the idea of seeing what Mr. March's life was like when we had learned so much about the females in
Little Women and the others of the series by Louisa May Alcott.
29 libraryrobin, just a reminder,
Independent People is the best novel.
Robert
Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 4:20pm.
I will be finishing up
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by
David Sedaris which I have really enjoyed. A book of short essays that reflect on love, death, and random life events that seem to only happen to Sedaris. Very funny as well as thought-provoking.
I've also started
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown which I should finish quickly. I have Gone with the Wind sitting on my bookshelf and have yet to read it...but from what I've seen in previous posts it looks like that might be my next book.
>42 Mr. Durick
Wow that is quite an endorsement. I don't even have a come back. I tried to think if I had a title to dispute your statement with, and realized that I don't. My best novels have changed over the years. I am looking forward to this read.
Robin
I finished
East Fortune by James Runcie today.... a really good story to sink in a chair and pass the day reading.
Next up is Automatic World by
Struan Sinclair - touchstone for the title not working.
I've got to get started on
Deadly Charm by Claudia Mair Burney, an ARC book after dinner tonight
Just started
Joy School by Elizabeth Berg last night. It's a light, fast read. I'm halfway through it already.
21: ktleyed - I just finished
An Echo in the Bone too and was so sad when I finished it.. another wait for the next one! I was rather optimistically hoping it would take 2 years for the next to be released. I read on her website that as well as another Lord John book (I haven't read any of them) being released in March 2010 she is also going to write a book about Jamie's parents and how they met! I think it will be great because in the Outlander books it was mentioned that they eloped and it was quite a scandal.
As well as
an Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon - historical fiction
I read
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - YA novel
and
Hitler's Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. - YA non-fiction
I highly recommend them all!
At the moment I am reading
Paper Towns by John Green (YA novel)... and toying with the idea of re-reading the Outlander series...
Finished
The Picture of Dorian Gray just a few minutes ago and what a wonderful book! Such lovely prose and fascinating story made me very glad i read it- it'll be one I read again in the future for sure.
Not sure what i'll read next as i've got a variety of books waiting on my shelf so it'll depend what mood hits me later.
I have been reading
Penmarric this week, and hope to finish it today or tomorrow. This was a book I picked up at the local library, from a pile of books they were going to throw away. I knew nothing about it and had no expectations, but was pleasantly surprised, because it is actually really good.
I just finished
The Disappeared by
Kim Echlin. The story about love and politics in Cambodia is told in a very poetic manner. I liked it very much and hope that the book makes the Giller Prize shortlist.
I've read
The Cement garden by Ian McEwan this weekend. I now just started with
The tourist by Olen Steinhauer. I guess that will be a kind of standard thriller. Good for a lazy start of the holiday and hopefully I will be totally relaxed when flying to Jordan coming Wednesday!
After plodding through more than half of
The Widows of Eastwick for an RL book club, I've dropped it due to my apparently rather low freak-out factor. I just do not like the characters, especially nasty Jane with her ss-sibilants, and the allusions to the three witches' witchy activities thirty years earlier as detailed in
The Witches of Eastwick which I confess I never read. Updike's powers of description are awesome--too awesome for my tastes in this particular book, contributing to my aforementioned freak-out factor. I was just avoiding reading it and I'm glad to see the last of it. I will be interested to see what my fellow club members will have to say.
I've moved on to
The Girl Who Played with Fire. I loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so I'm hopeful about shaking off the witches/widows quickly.
>57 hemlokgang
I have a corgi too!!! His name is Tucker
Robin
Finally finished
Cold Tea on a Hot Day by
Curtiss Ann Matlock. This was the first book that I've read written by Matlock. I was really excited about it because I had heard so many things about this series. However, I was really disappointed in the book. I felt like 3/4 of it was just fluff and that nothing really started happening until the last 50 pages. The characters story is continued in the next book, but I'm just not sure if I want to trudge through it.
I've also read
The Killing Floor and
Die Trying by
Lee Child as ebooks and absolutely loved them. These are the first books by Child that I've ever read.
Started
A New Attitude by
Charlotte Hughes last night and am liking it so far.
Try (Cashelmara) by the same author.
I just started reading catcher in the rye by JD Salinger which was highly recommended to me...definately unputdownable
Just started
Evening News by Marly Swick last night. I've never read anything by this author so I'm going in blind.....it's starting out okay. The synopsis of the book sounds good. Keeping fingers crossed for another really good read! I've had 5 super good ones in a row now.
Finally finished up my weekend homework, so I'm still working on
Her Fearful Symmetry. Liking it so far. I've got
Salem's Lot on deck, which is probably the only Stephen King novel that somehow slipped by me so far, so very excited about that! I'm having oral surgery this week, which only someone like me would actually be excited about - it means I'll have time off work, the hubs is taking care of the kids, and I can hole up in bed and read!!
I finished
Fahrenheit 451 this morning. I can see why it's a classic. I loved the interview with Ray Bradbury at the end. Then I read the October chapter of
A Sand County Almanac, and now I've started
The Hound of the Baskervilles. In the Ray Bradbury interview he said he based his hound on the hound of the Baskervilles hound. Coincindentally I was going to read that next anyway, so I found that pretty amusing.
Message edited by its author, Oct 5, 2009, 3:00am.
>71 Don't you love those synchronicities??
I'm so ready to be done with
Telex from Cuba. Only ~40 pages to go. Not thrilled with it - interested to see what my book group thought.
Life and Fate will be delayed a couple days while I dive into
Love and Summer, William Trevor's newest and a Booker
shortlist longlist. Just came in to the library.
Message edited by its author, Oct 5, 2009, 11:14am.
Still wading through The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. It's not that it's long (though it is), I love long books; it's just that it is so relentlessly miserable, that I find I'm having to split it into sections and follow each one with a 'lighter' read. The one I should finish today is, coincidentally, another Holocaust book,
Once by Morris Gleitzman. At a mere 150 pages, this little gem is affecting me far more deeply than the 900+ pages of The Kindly Ones. I've ordered the sequel
Then and am on tenterhooks for the final book in the trilogy (Now - no touchstones) to hit the shelves. Sometimes, less is more.
# 63 I ordered
Cashelmara a couple of days ago, and am looking forward to start reading it.
Finished
Star Wars Omen - one more book in that trilogy to go, but I have decided to read another book that has been on my shelf for almost a year -
Arctic Drift. It's bigger but as easy a read.
Omen is your typical middle book of a trilogy - bringing up a lot more questions and answering none, waiting for the last book - which I do have already.
Last night I finished the lovely
Undercover by the oh-so-talented
Beth Kephart. I'm really liking her right now. I'm started
Haunting Bombay by
Shilpa Agarwal and so far it is quite interesting, although I've seen a few people say that it didn't quite do it for them when all was said and done.
Last night I started
The Ballad of West Tenth Street by Marjorie Kernan. A previously LT reviewer complained of the bad dialogue in the book. It is a bit mannered, in a first novel sort of way. But overall I'm enjoying the book, 55 pages or so in.
I started Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan and Stories by TC Boyle
Finished
Everyone's Guide to Atoms, Einstein, and the Universe by Robert L. Piccioni. For the cosmically curious. Actually, this is an especially nice book for someone who wants a basic layman's understanding of Quantum Mechanics, the theory of General Relativity, and how the universe began. (Also, here's a really cool, but unrelated youtube on Hubble's Ultra-Deep Field images:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7en... )
Next up is probably
Home by Marilynne Robinson, which I have from the library.
Now just started on
The Lovely Bones, a book I've heard very mixed reports about, so it's time to make up my own mind.
bell7: what did you think so far of Made in America? I've read Bryson's Down Under and A Walk in the Woods and loved them both!
I also just finished When You Are Engulfed In Flames and would hope that it is as equally funny if not more so with Sedaris reading his essays aloud. Let me know what you think! I haven't read anything else by him but look forward to another one of his books.
Currently reading
The Princess Bride and loving it although where i'm at now in the story is not so wonderful as it's making me sad and i bloody hope its just Goldman being daft again or i will not be a happy camper
I'm enjoying
A suitable boy, which I started last week.
If I tire from it, I might try to finish part one of
Don Quijote, but so far, it does not look like I will.
Just finished
The Help which I very much enjoyed. A very good book.
I just began F. Scott Fitzgerald's Collection of Short Stories, enjoying his scintillating descriptions so far. "Diamond as big as the Ritz" was mighty incredible and amusing.
I wasn't so sure about Conroy's "South of Broad". The first chapter on Charleston was magical. Then, the story line just went. I was surprised by his characters, the events, and the final event was just....I don't know....not expected, unbelievablely...I don't want to ruin for others who might be reading this latest Conroy book.
>94: I share your pain, cindilu. I felt almost sucker-punched by that lamentable twist at the end when I finished
South of Broad last week.
Thanks for not spoiling.............I'll be starting
South of Broad very soon.
I finished Chandra Prasad's
On Borrowed Wings last night.
I enjoyed it -- yes, it's predictable (at times), and maybe things work out a little too neatly in the end, but the author surprised me, too, and I was impressed with many things about this book -- the sense of history, her depiction of the struggle of women for equal opportunity, and the creation of the main character, Adele, whom I came to care about and root for. I look forward to reading more of Prasad's books.
Now I'm reading
The Constant Gardener by John le Carre.
Message edited by its author, Oct 6, 2009, 6:08am.
F. Scott Fitzgerald - now there's an author I should look into again - away from the high school English teachers and their question sheets!
Reding The Spare Room by Helen Garner
I finished
The Virginian last night. That prototype western was published a hundred years ago so I have been wanting to read it for some time and tried to convince my book discussion group to read it with me, but that didn't fly. So I read it without group support. I found it to be hyperbolic, overly romantic, and just plain long winded but for the time in which it was written it was probably an outstanding piece of literature. Like many classics it turned out that what I thought the story was, it wasn't that way at all. I will start reading
People of the Book for the LT group read today.
Message edited by its author, Oct 6, 2009, 9:48am.
#97 mollygrace
Sometimes books are predictable and it ruins the experience, but sometimes being predictable isn't a problem for me and I enjoy the book anyway. For instance,
Thirteenth Tale - I had that ending figured out but reading the book was such an intense experience that I loved it anyway. On-the-other-hand, some books that get predictable just bore me to death. I don't know if the difference is the result of the mood I am in or of the writing. If the writing is good then the predictable plot lines don't bother me so much.
I’m reading A Hundred and One Days by Asne Seierstad set in Baghdad and it cover few weeks before the second Gulf War , the war and a few days after it. I have also read her others book "The Angel of Gronzy:Orpgans of a Forgotten War" "With Their Back to the World:Portraits from Serbia" and "
The Bookseller of Kabul" and I like her attitude as journalist. She doesn’t take side but just tries to present only the facts, and there is very little politics in his books, but a lot of everyday life of ordinary people
Message edited by its author, Oct 6, 2009, 10:52am.
I'm about to start
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I have been wanting to read it for a long time because the summary sounded so interesting, glad I'm finally getting around to it!
>104 bell7 - I agree about Sedaris, listening to him read his books is far better for me than reading them.
#75-divinenanny,
I heard that
Peter Brown is Dan's father.
#102 benitastmad
I think my enjoyment of Prasad's book was a combination of things. For one, I needed a good story. I'd read several books that were not so predictable, more complex, layered -- I think I was looking for something that was more straightforward, something told well with characters I could care about, something that didn't need so much analysis. Also, I enjoyed running into a heroine of mine -- Amelia Earhart. I think the author did her proud.
I enjoyed
The Thirteenth Tale, too, by the way.
I finished
Particle or Wave? by Charis Anastopoulus last night, just in time to turn out the light so I didn't start anything new.
It may be that a lucid description of quantum theory to a layman can only be approximated. I thought, though, that I came away from reading the book better informed about some aspects of reality than I was when I started the book. The author does raise the question about whether science deals with reality. He is good about historical context and about what is merely accepted and what has clear evidentiary support. He addresses the question in the title, but he doesn't answer it. Oh well.
I hope to return to
Home tonight so that I can finish it and get on to
Life and Fate, but time will tell. There's a lot of non-fiction in the stacks too.
Robert
I am more than halfway through with Her Fearful Symmetry by
Audrey Niffenegger. It is interesting and good writing. Definitely makes me want to continue reading & see what happens but different than Time Traveler's Wife.
I got
Wings of the Dove out of the library today. I've never read any Henry James and thought it was time to try. I must say the preface, which is all that I've read so far, was a bit scary suggesting it'll take a great deal of concentration to follow each sentence to its end. Don't know if I can finish it in 14 days, but here's to trying.
#117 'Good' doesn't cover it. It's a fantastic book and if you love it about one tenth as much as I do you won't have wasted your time.
Started reading Dan Brown's
The Lost Symbol. I think it is great so far, but I have always wanted to learn more about the Masons as my father and BIL are both Masons.
Just this minute finished In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard. I'm reading my way through his list as I love the way he takes historical incidents and weaves his stories around them. This is an earlier one that has very complex plot - just about suspended disbelief to the end... It took a while to get into but a real page turner after about a third way through.
I am reading
The Cruelest Month by
Louise Penny. This is #3 in the Three Pines series which I'm finding literate, witty and wise. They are a combination of high-end cozy and procedural. I highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys mysteries.
#121 Hmm. I'm intrigued! Tell me, nancyewhite, do these books have any romance in them? Because I don't like romance in my mystery.
I just bought
Brutal Telling with one of those coupons from Barnes & Noble. I feel like I have fallen off the wagon, but the book flap blurb looked so interesting. I said that I have got to stop spending so much of my disposable income on books, so have cut way back on my trips to B&N. However, I saw this book right by the door and just happened :-) to have my coupon in my purse, so ....
I have never read any of
Louise Penny. Are these books any good?
Finished in 24h the always funny and medicinal Elizabeth Peters, Amelia Peabody series:
The Hippopotamus Pool. Feeling refreshed I jumped on
The Girl Who Played with Fire its great so far. But I think Lisbeth changed a lot (or had a lobotomy) its bugging me a bit, lets see how it goes.
Arctic Drift just left my table as read. Fast read and typical Dirk Pitt and I enjoyed it.
I am partly into
Star Trek Log One - an oldie, I am sure. Not as good as the other series but readable anyway.
I also plan on reading after that
Emily of New Moon. I need to get the book back in my daughter's room before she comes home for Christmas - oh, who am I kidding, I'll have the thing read before Halloween (maybe even Columbus Day)!
#121: No romance thus far. The main character is happily married and his wife makes an occasional appearance, but it is not particularly romantic.
#123: I have
The Brutal Telling on the shelf, but I'm determined to read this series in order. I think they are good as do many other folks on LT where I discovered them in the first place. I hope you enjoy them too.
Last night the choice was
Home or an unspecified non-fiction. I finished the Scientific American at hand and read a third of the New York Review of Books at hand.
Samuel Johnson has got some more attention. Here is
that article.
Robert
Message edited by its author, Oct 7, 2009, 8:20pm.
#121, 122, 123, 129 -
Louise Penny mysteries are great. No big romance, just a cop (with a good marriage) doing his job. They stories build as we get to know the inspector and the residents of Three Pines so I do suggest you read them in order.
A lot of character development and a wonderful place. If it weren't so cold, I'd love to live in Three Pines.
I started
Zulu Hart by Saul David yesterday. It reminds me a bit of Wilbur Smith , lots of manly men, very good and very bad women, heroic action adventure - in other words a good escape novel.
I'm now beginning
Wolf Hall coincidentally on the day it won the Booker Prize!
For all who are reading the
Louise Penny mysteries. I also enjoy all of the residents who live in Three Pines. I am still waiting for my ER book The Brutal Killing.
I've just finished
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and I'm pretty sure that I read it years ago. I'd love to read another Pym. Any suggestions?
AnneH, all my friends who love Pym would say any and all of them.
131: Mr.Durick - Ha! I'm kind of doing the same thing. I have
Home waiting, but I just don't seem to want fiction right now. Seven of my last eight books have been non-fiction-ish, and the other was a poetry journal (not actually a book). So, I looked at
Home, and then picked up
Stonehenge by Rosemary Hill instead.
I really enjoyed People of the Book. It is an amazing story.
I finished
Automatic World by Struan Sinclair tonight.... He packs a lot of descriptive story telling along multiple themes which I don't think I fully appreciated the first time through... I faced too many interruptions in my reading. Something to re-read when I can give the novel my full , uninterrupted attention.
Next up is
The King's Rifle by Biyi Bandele.
My commute/home reading is
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson with an interruption by
Palimpsest by Cat Valente as it's a library book.
My at work reading is Plato's
Republic which is both creepy as all hell but an interesting read.
#121, 122, 123, 129 and 132 - Thought I'd jump on the Louise Penny bandwagon. I enjoy the people of Twin Pines and Inspector Gamache and his crew even more than the mysteries themselves (not that they aren't good mysteries). I've just started
The Cruelest Month. They could be read out of order, but I wouldn't recommend it as the characters and situations continuously develop. They are alot of fun!
#143... oooh, at work reading... I wish I could have a book for that! All I can get away with is finishing a chapter while waiting for my computer to boot up and my e-mail to load....
# 129, 132, 136, 144 Thank you all for giving info on the
Louise Penny mysteries. I appreciate it a lot!
Finished
Pride and Prejudice and loved it. Ridiculously, I kept getting excited waiting for the 'good' bits even though I know the story off by heart and was almost prompting the characters with their next line! How sad!
Not sure quite what to go with next for my 'easy' read. Might be
The World According to Mimi Smartypants or
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. Hmmm...
Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 9:10am.
I am currently reading
The Poisonwood Bible for my RL book club. I should finish it by the end of the weekend I hope. After that, I have the next installment of the Echo Falls mystery series by
Peter Abrahams to read so we can return it to the library.
>147 goosegirl, I'd recommend
84, Charing Cross Road over any- and everything on the shelves. It's too good a read to let it wait!
#150 And I'll second that!
>137: I am almost finished with the excellent
Excellent Women. I will also be on the lookout for other books by Pym. I had
Last Night in Twisted River, my ER by John Irving waiting for me when I got back into town last night. Can't wait to get started on it.
You got Twisted River as an ER? Sooooo jealous! Especially as I'm going to have to wait for the paperback edition of that one!
I’m doing a reread of Peter Matthiessen’s 2008 National Book Award winning 900-page tome,
Shadow Country, a distillation of the Watson trilogy. It really is a masterpiece, and I can’t help but think Matthiessen was paying homage to Faulkner and his character, Thomas Stupen from
Absalom, Absalom! The similarities in theme are endless, and there’s a definite kinship between Watson and Stupen. One tried to ruthlessly build his empire in the Everglades, the other tried to wrest a mansion out of the muddy Mississippi wilderness.
I'm about 3/4 through
The Magicians by Lev Grossman and also just finished
Altared, an essay collection on weddings.
I'm bracing myself for all the tomatoes that will be coming at me, but I finished
Olive Kitteridge last night and didn't love it. I liked it a lot, but given all the praise it's gotten on LT (not to mention the Pulitzer), it seems like a sacrilege that it won't make my "best of" books for this year.
Here is my review. In addition to the comments in the review, I'll add that I'm not a big fan of short stories in general, and the book seemed more like a set of related short stories than a "novel" in short stories. Ah well, different strokes.
I just started
Jane Eyre, which I have not read before and which has grabbed me right from the get-go. Perfect reading for a dreary, cold day.
I finished
The Rise of Western Christendom today. Not exactly popular science, but a very good study about Christendom in Europe and the near East. Very interesting and a great read.
I just started
Nineteen Eighty-Four by
George Orwell, which I haven't read before. All because of my resolution to read more classics and 1001 books...
Finishing up
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. Next after that will be
Catch-22. Like to read that by the end of October, but we'll see how it goes.
This message has been deleted by its author.
To the Pym Next Reads Searchers:
Jane and Prudence.
#150-richardderus,
Someone just gave me a copy of
Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks the son of the owner of the bookstore @
84, Charing Cross Road. Silk and Cyanide is a true, if embelished account, of Marks' exploits as a British codemaker during WWII. He breaks one of his first codes in his father's bookstore.
#160-divinenanny,
I'm a big
George Orwell fan, and
1984 is a classic, but not his best work. For that a reader should turn to his nonfiction.
Homage to Catalonia or
The Road to Wigan Pier or
Down and Out in London and Paris or the essays or....
Despite, or because, only Orwell's fiction is studied in school.
Animal Farm and
1984 are short which, I think is more often an important fact besides merit to teaching gives his fiction a veneer of classic it might not have. Homage was rated by the Modern Library as one of the best books, in English, of the 20th century.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a better novel about the future than Orwell's riff on Stalinism in 1984 which I think he also "adapted'' into English from the French novel
We.
Message edited by its author, Oct 8, 2009, 2:48pm.
# 155 Ooh, I don't know! I hope I'm not spoiling anything for you (if you are reading it for the first time). At the risk of sounding like a total dumbo I'd have to say I couldn't make head or tail of
Turn of the Screw.
I read it some six years ago.
Turn of the Screw and
The Aspern Papers came in one book. I read the first story and half of the second one and I had to give up. Then I encountered
What Maisie Knew at a library sale. They were getting rid of really old or damaged books and they were going real cheap. I, of course, ended up buying most of it. I thought I would give Henry James another try. So, I bought
What Maisie Knew. And I couldn't make it past the first 100 pages. I, who have read books over a 1000 pages long (
The Pillars of the Earth, anyone?), was defeated by Henry James. Since then I've sworn off of them. No, not library book sales, of books by Henry James.
Little prince is a great book to read and also the devil wears prada but the movie did not follow the ending of the book
paper writing>165 Yes, he's a bit verbose, but I'm not lost yet. Give me time though....
#164 Thank you for the tips. I have read
Brave New World (and really must reread) for a class on Utopias a long time ago, and I liked reading it. A large part of the reason for me of reading
1984 is not only because it is a must read, but more that everyone is always quoting it left and right, I want to know where the quotes come from.
For that same reason I would also like to read
Nobody's Boy by
Hector Mallot one day, simply because in Holland the expression is used "I feel so Remi" to describe feeling alone...
Finished
The Amber Room by
Steve Berry, yesterday. I have always liked amber jewelery so this title really interested me. Since the book was based on a true amber room. Though the story was fiction.A really good thriller.
Half-way through
William James The Varieties of Religious Experience. Verrry interesting. (said with Arte Johnson German-like accent). Not to bore anyone, but the other morning, in the second hour of another of my frequent 3:00 a.m. risings, I decided to meditate. I suddenly saw more clearly than ever that "I" was a "self" or entity that was totally separate from the world outside. I wonder if all the content about spiritual events in James' book nudged me to that vision. I love reading.
I feel so, I don't know, shallow?? I just finished a rather light book called
Star Trek Log One, a collection of three short stories that were supposedly run on the series, or one of the Original Series. One was done on the Saturday morning cartoon series as I recognized it right away.
Next up is
Emily of New Moon.
Rereading
Jingo by Terry Pratchett. Probably should start on the mountainous stack of unfinished library books next. #165, don't give up on Henry James. I hated
The Turn of the Screw, but
Portrait of a Lady's really good.
> 172 -- koalamom, I can tell from your diction and from your choice of blogs that you are not shallow in the least. :) (I know you don't really think that)
##165 and 173-- I read The Ambassadors a few months ago. It did not live up to its billing, but I think the fault was in me. Too many great reviews by people whose opinions I respect. I'm going to try it again in the next few months.
I finished
Dracula and loved it, then read the short story
The Monkey's Paw which I hadn't read since I was 8 or 9 years old. Back then I thought it was about as scary as it gets but now I see that it's a good sinister page-turner.
I'm working on finishing
The House of the Seven Gables.
#147-- hello, richardderus.
Tale of Genji is inching towards the top . . . Mann The Magic Mountain smiles at me from the bookshelf as I review the possibilities. I will read it again some day. I feel guilty about Mill's Autobiograpy, which I didn't finish 25 years ago, but which I know I will return to . . . anyone else read it?
I read
Lords of the Horizon many years ago and didn't realize when I purchased
The Janissary Tree that the author of both books was one and the same.
Lords of the Horizon is a non-fiction history book and the other is a mystery. I can't believe that a bona fide PhD. would write a mystery novel! But then who would have thought that a practicing lawyer would write romance novels that are a rollicking good read.
Secret of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig.
Guess I will have to pull
Janissary Tree out of my TBR pile and start on that. But then, god forbid, I find out that Goodwin has now written two other novels in that series. I just need to quit my job and spend my days reading. There are just too many good books out there that I will never get read. And that folks, was a cry of despair.
I forgot to thank all of you for the endorsements of the
Louise Penny books. I'll have to go to the library and get the first one as I don't have it. I just purchased
the brutal telling because it attracted me, tempted me, and then caught me, from that table right inside the door of the Barnes & Noble. Dang and Drat! I didn't need one more book and now I certainly don't need to add two more to my TBR pile.
Last night I finished
The Little Stranger on Audible download. A well-written, suspenseful and gripping book. I found the ending rather unsatisfying though, no doubt because I'd seen it coming for many chapters. Still, a good read.
Now listening to
They Came to Baghdad, also on Audible download. It's all right.
Almost finished with
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on audiocassette. I'll probably finish it tonight and move on to
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
My talking browser isn't working, and I'm finding using a conventional browser with Window-eyes extremely frustrating.
I finished
The Likeness and glad to report that
Tana French has delivered another gem. Anyone here, has not read her, do it now! I'm also nearly finished with The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House and that too has been excellent!
> jhedlund- Here's a fat ripe tomato for you! At least these don't hurt or make a mess!
Olive is vying for best book of the year, IMHO!
>benitastrnad- I feel your pain, with my own howl of despair. At least we are not alone!
dchaikin, among others, last night as the church book group was trying to pick a December book, Mary mentioned
Home. Molly has read it all the way through and lacked enthusiasm. I've read enough of it to have a feel for it and haven't picked it up since I read that first bit a couple of weeks ago now. So, the discussion turned to
The Book Thief and
The Zookeeper's Wife. As a group we didn't know a whole lot about either (there was one witness for each), but Carolyn had her I-phone and could look on line. We settled on
The Zookeeper's Wife. (There was one other man there besides me.)
I got home and went to bed. I finished the
New York Review of Books that I had started the night before, reached for
Home and ended up doing forty pages or so of
The House of Rothschild. I like
The House of Rothschild; I will go on reading it; I feel so guilty.
Robert
Read the first 100 pages of
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. It seems good but my mental biorhythm's must be on a triple low just cann't wrap my mind around it at this time. Will pick it up again in a few months.
Am about 50% done with
His Majesty's Ship by Alaric Bond Fairly good so far. He has a little different take on a well worn age of sail genre.
Hmm, just finished listening to
Casino Royale on audiotape (great narration by Simon Vance, btw). I can't say I was really crazy about Bond, but it was fun to get inside his head, albeit, I didn't really like what I found!
#183 - I've had that experience with Eco before. I got through the intro of
The Name of the Rose once, realized I was not going to make it through the book, and came back to it months later.
Finally finished
The Day the Falls Stood Still which seemed to take me forever to finish. I enjoyed it, but just had so much else on my plate. I did write a short review, if anyone is interested.
Now on to
Emma which I am really excited about. I've read only
Pride and Prejudice so I hope to get more into Austen's work.
Mr.Durick - That doesn't actually change my expectations of
Home — still, I'm looking forward to it once I get myself in the right mindset.
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#164 smiley,
Coincidentally, I'm reading Helene Hanff's
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street which is about her trip to London when
84, Charing Cross Road was published there in the early 70s. She has just heard from Leo Marks, the son of the owner of the bookshop. Codemaker adds an interesting angle.
Since it's October, I've decided to read mostly horror this month. I just finished
Mr. X, which was okay. Not bad, but it's not my favorite type of horror tale. (I've heard it described as the mainstream or conventional type of horror, though I generally think of it as middlebrow.) Too many passages with not much happening, watching flat characters have mildly interesting conversations.
Next, I'm starting
A Lower Deep.
#150 and #151 - Started
Mimi Smartypants before I read your recommendations but put it down after following the Pearl Rule - it wasn't doing anything for me except making me wish I hadn't started it.
Moved quickly over to
84, Charing Cross Road and what a difference! 50 pages in and I'm already wishing that it was a thicker book so that I could savour the pleasure of reading it for longer. Thanks!
Hanff's
Underfoot in Show Business is also a very fun read. It's set before the other two, when she and the actress best friend whose name I'm forgetting first move to Manhattan and start their respective careers.
#194 & #195 - Thanks! Titles noted - I'll watch out for them in the hope that they turn up in our second-hand bookshop.
jburg - no I don't. It was more the book I had just finished and everyone else was reading something "more substantial". We all need a light book once in a while.
i am currently reading "the city of bones" and it is amazing...:)
I'm breaking from review and library books to grab one off of my own shelves
The Ghost Brigades by
John Scalzi. I'm actually doing that more right now, because of the Clear Off Your Shelves challenge a friend of mine is hosting. 30% of everything I read this month and next is supposed to come from my shelves.
Reading Balthasar’s Odyssey (can'tunderstand why here touchstone doesn't work, in other threads works, anyway) by Amin Maalaouf a Lebanese author, who writes also essaies and he’s also known as a historical scholar
The stories pivot on Balthasar who is a bookseller whose kins were Genoese; the year is 1665 and a lot of people fear the new year 1666, the year of the beast. Balthasar to regain a book he has sold, embarks on am long journey, that take him two nephew and a woman (the widow), from Lebanon through Constantinople, Portugal, London ending in Genoa . The story is told by Balthasar , who keeps a dairy. Not a page-turner, I’am at page 120 out 390 and I’m finding quite enjoyable
grelobe
Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 11:35am.
#173 But it wasn't just
The Turn of the Screw. It was
What Maisie Knew that really turned me in to a
Henry James "avoider" (if that is a word!). If I don't like an author after reading three stories (well, it's really one story, half of a story and quarter of a story) by him, I think it is safe to say I don't like that particular author.
# 186 I've read all of her novels and I think you'll enjoy all of them like I did. My favorite still remains
Pride and Prejudice, with
Persuasion and
Northanger Abbey coming in the second and third place respectively.
Update from message 59:
Just finished
Ghoul by
Brian KeeneJust started "Every Move You Make" by
M William PhelpsMessage edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 1:28pm.
208
ashley21, are you getting ready to go into your garden and plant animal-shaped shrubs? If so, I have a suggestion. Do it at 2:17 pm on the Third Wednesday of February of next year.
If you can't tell, I definitely think The Shining was one of King's better books.
re:209 ThrillerFan:
That's definitely funny. I somewhat disagree though. It was so hard for me to get into at first, but by the time I got to Part 5 it wasn't as bad. That last part was really good. The ending was great. I scare easily though and I don't plan on going near any animal-shaped shrubs anytime soon.
re:210 ashley21:
I looked at your library. I see you have a number of King's books. I mostly read Thriller, Horror, Political Intrigue, or True Crime. If you are into horror, just a few suggestions for you. Below are all authors that I've read, which books I've read thus far, and a little description of each author for you to determine whether they are worth trying:
Bentley Little - Read all books that are still in print published 2004 or earlier - His books tend to be similar to King's in that they take very weird twists. Just be careful as a couple of his books (The Town, The Return) have a plot that is just outright "flat". Best books by him: "Death Instinct", "The Ignored", "The Store", "The Association".
Brian Keene - Post-Apocolyptic horror - Read "The Rising", "City of the Dead" (these 2 should be read back-to-back), "Terminal", "Conqueror Worms", and "Ghoul". "Terminal" and "Ghoul" are the best 2 amongst those.
John Saul - Neurological Horror - Most of them involving a child's dark side - I've read his first 5 thus far (up though "When the Wind Blows"). Of those 5,
Cry for the Strangers and
Comes the Blind Fury are the best 2.
Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 4:01pm.
re:211 ThrillerFan:
Thanks for the recommendations! I've heard of John Saul and I'll probably check out Little and Keene next time I go to my library. They all three sound like good writers. Horror isn't my favorite genre, but I do enjoy it. I plan on reading something by John Saul soon. I just checked out a couple of his books on amazon.com and
Suffer the Children and
Comes the Blind Fury look really good. Thanks again!
Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 4:11pm.
As for Henry James, he's not easy. I'm reading
Wings of the Dove now. I almost gave up in the preface. Now I'm well into the book and alternate between wanting to throw it aside and being mesmerized. And then there are the positively stunning lines here and there.
I'm reading
The Wednesday Sisters, which I'm enjoying, mostly for all the writing process stuff. It keeps making me itch to get up and write.
Library Friends' book sale tomorrow - who knows what I'll come home with!
#216: msf59 ~ Yes, short answer, I enjoyed both in far different ways, but 9 Dragons is top-shelf Harry Bosch while The Shack isn't as well written. Here's the link to a slightly longer review of 9 Dragons:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/53172#.... The following review on that thread is about The Shack.
After completing
Joker One by Donovan Campbell, I need something light but entertaining, so I'm picking
Six Geese ASlaying by Donna Andrews. I miss the antics of Meg Langslow and her wacky family.
I've just started
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling.
I've really been enjoying books on consumerism. And I usually get them from the library, to keep things from getting too meta.
I'm a huge
Michael Connelly fan, and will be anxiously looking forward to reading
9 Dragons. Will probably wait til it comes out in paperback, though. I have more than enough books here waiting to be read.
#221 God, I envy you! That book is so great! If you love it you might also try Cleave's earlier work,
Incendiary. They are two of the best books I've read all year.
224, AKFishergal, I can't help but wonder, is that flight a non-stop?
Robert
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