Group Reading Log: December 2009

Just thought I'd get this months thread going.

I'm still reading Passing a bookring and The House of the Spirits, on the 1001 list.

I'm almost finished Elizabeth and Her German Garden and am finding it quite charming. I should have finished it ages ago, but reading time has been scarce this week!

Then back to Wolf Hall (a bookring!). Sofa book remains the completely pretentious London Orbital - a 1001 book, and a bookring to boot.

Two bookrings. I may fall over from shock.

I am reading The Fashion in Shrouds by Marjorie Allingham. I read it ages ago, bought a replacement copy and, for some reason filed it in a bookshelf and forgot about it. I have forgotten whodunnit but it is the book in which Albert Campion gets engaged to Amanda Fitton.

I have just finished Water like a Stone by Deborah Crombie which was a Mystery set at Christmas. Was very good too. Now I am reading Going Home by Harriet Evans which is Chick Lit set at Christmas and also Holiday in Death by JD Robb which is a futuristic mystery set at - you guessed it - Christmas!!! LOL

I have one more Christmas themed book to read All I want for Christmas is a vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks and then I have finished my Christmas reading orgy :)

>4*snort* LOL!!!

Well the hottest November on record couldn't thaw my "bah humbug" attitude this year but I think your post just did sally!

What a hoot! All I want for Christmas is a vampire! Now I know what to put on my Christmas reading list :-)

The only Xmas-themed book I own is Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. Love that title, but I am yet to read it. Maybe this year!

(Okay, and I've also got a nice edition of The Night before Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, as they are essential Xmas Eve reading to small people who still believe in Santa.)

Managed to get Mr Bear interested in Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl last night. It's a nice short one, so we should be finished before the movie comes out over the summer holidays. :)

Only two more weeks of school! I can't believe how fast it all flies. (And Miss Boo only wants to read books about ponies when she learns to read at Kindi next year, she declared last night. Not pirates. Better dust off Black Beauty and put Treasure Island under Mr Bear's nose...)

I'll confess to being an absolute Grinch when it comes to Christmas books. I don't think I've even read A Christmas Carol. If I were psychoanalysing myself I might say it's due to years of childhood trauma, where a perfunctory "Happy Birthday" was appended to my Christmas cards as an afterthought (my birthday being six days before Christmas... these things matter when you're a child!).

Anyway, I digress.

Just finished The Princess Bride and... is it wrong to love a book because of the movie? ~ Because the bits that weren't in the movie, ie. Goldman's interjections on behalf of the "real" author, Morgernstern, weren't all that interesting. In fact, I wanted to throw a large rock at him, a la Fezzik, and be done with it.

Now moving on to The Nun, a 1001 book and ring. Don't I feel virtuous ;)

My reaction to the book of The Princess Bride is exactly the same as yours, Miss-Owl.
Because I m in escapist mood, I'm reading a Picoult (totally formulaic) Handle With Care. I'm totally engrossed, but I fear that it's rubbish.
I've just finished The White Queen and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man which I studied at some point, but I still feel virtuous, as it's a 1001 book. (In one of its incarnations)

I am reading NO Xmas books! I expect we'll read The Night Before Christmas on Xmas Eve as it's a family tradition, but that's it!

Miss-Owl: one of my best mates at Uni had his birthday *on* Xmas Day. He was a total Xmas Grinch too. My niece has her birthday on January 4th, and I'm always careful to get her a separate present - for a while there, my parents (her grandparents) were celebrating her birthday in July, because it just seemed so unfair to only have a couple of weeks between Xmas and her birthday! (I don't remember my parents being so indulgent with me...)

Mr Bear just made me read the graphic novelisation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to him. Frankly, it made the movie look good. But he's only seven, he's still got to learn the hard way about what makes a story good.

ETA: I did enjoy reading out Irina Spalko's dialogue (the bad Russian in IJ&TKOTCS, played by Our Cate Blanchett) with the thickest Moose Und Squirrel accent I could manage. That was fun!

My Bday is Christmas day but I'm a late bloomer, I've only become a Grinch in recent years ;o

I always thought it was harder for those either side of the day.
I also, had indulgent parents and grandparents who also gave me a gift on my brothers bday in July because he got a gift on mine!
For some reason he grew up saying he thought he was adopted, not sure why, something about disowning the rest of us.

My reading has almost come to a halt. Passing is only a small book and I'm only getting a page read here and there.

my reading has slowed to a crawl over the past few months :( I'm still going on Stephen King's Under The Dome (and loving it when I actually get to sit down with it)

I usually try to read at least one Christmas-themed book each December and I have Short Trips: Christmas Around The World sitting atop my TBRs but I think I'm going to have to skip it this year - I have Random Magic, a LT 'early readers' book to read, and also Bowie to read and send out as a not-a-bookring sometime before Christmas, and that might be all I can handle.

Finally finished Passing. Now onto another small one that might take a while Silas Marner my first George Eliot, I hope to build up to reading Middlemarch one day.

>6 You will LOVE The Stupidest Angel

I have just finished Going Home by Harriet Evans - very average. Now I am reading Holiday in Death by JD Robb - a murder mystery set in the future at Christmas. This will be followed by All I want for Christmas is a Vampire and then that will be it for Christmas themed reading - will have to start collecting for next year :)

Just a little off topic, but still very much book related - is anyone else here interested in joining the 2010 Southern Cross Book Exchange over at BookObsessed. Come in all lurkers . . .

Vegan Medusa has posted a brief explanation and a sign up call here: http://bookobsessed.com/topic/6597392/1/#new

It's a great way to receive a whole stack of wish list books when it is your turn. :D

>14 I'm tempted, but I'm trying not to commit myself to anything for next year. hopefully I'll stay strong until its been filled.

#14> I did that last year, and it was fun, but was yet another source of "must read that NOW" stress so I could write a review before sending on the book, so I gave it up. (And then promptly joined a whole bunch of reading groups here. *slaps forehead* But at least there's no real "running late" concept here, you just read the books if/when you can.)

Still reading The Forgotten Garden. The Women's Weekly sticker on the cover ("Great Read!") isn't quite correct. It's an interesting story, that's not quite sure what it wants to be, and has a cast of thousands and bounces all over the place time-wise, and tends to bludgeon you over the head with everything. (Honestly, they could have kept some mystery over why Rose's mother was such a cow. But no, the very next page, a heavy handed explanation.)

I'm curious about where the story is going, and I'm enjoying the fairy tales within it (and some of the characters are good fun), but it's also tempting to just get someone to fill me in on the plot so I can stop reading it and return to Wolf Hall.

>14 I'm tempted too, but I've got my hands full here. :-)

Finished Restless for the book group. An interesting book, being a very different type of espionage story. Next up is a bookring, Quicksand and Passing, both by Nella Larsen. Passing is the one KimB just finished, and it is combined in this edition with Quicksand. They are both on the 1001 list.

I've finished Handle With Care and once again I wanted to slap the author for such a poor ending. She obviously has rotten advice from her editor. I've also read The Slap this week, which I found moderately engrossing. I'm now reading The Little Stranger which is beautifully written, but I'm getting impatient with the build up, and I want something to happen, which I'm sure it will.

*18 Loved Passing but the edition I read had an intro which was as long as the book. Luckily I read the intro afterwards, as although it was interesting, it had a massive spoiler in it.

>20 - thanks for the tip about the spoiler, livrecache. This edition also has an introduction, so I'll leave reading it until after I've read the two novels just in case it's the same one.

I know I should NOT be picking up a new book, but I was too tired to go and get something I'd already started last night, so I'm now (also!) a couple of chapters into The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks. It's rather fun - I picked it up at the library last weekend after it was one of the "best books of 2009" in the SMH. Young adult, and a nice antidote to the whole vampire romance genre. These are not sexy young things (one was bitten when she was in her 80s), and it's tough making a living when you feel ill all the time and can't go out during the day.

Of course, our main character has more spunk in her little finger than the rest of them put together, so it's not going to be all doom'n'gloom.

Wookie, The Reformed Vampire Support Group looks like it could be a good read. Fantastic Mr Fox is a great story. My kids really enjoyed it.

I've finished reading Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer. Being a fan of the TV series, I approached this book with great enthusiasm. I'm sorry to say I was sorely disappointed. The concept behind the story is interesting - particularly with regard to the contentious topic of the Hadron Collider. Unfortunately, the author failed to live up to the promise. The writing style was dull, the characters flat, and, frankly, I thought twenty one years was too great a jump. I much prefer the six months presented in the television series.

I'm afraid this is one of those rare occasions when I prefer the drama of the TV series over the written word.

I am still reading Black Juice by Margo Lanagan and I have also picked up Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer.

I've heard great things about Black Juice, fairy-whispers. How are you finding it?

I've just finished The Nun by Denis Diderot. What it with me and depressing books at the moment? It's a great portrait of the vulnerability of women in the C18th, as well as a sad indictment of the perversions of religion and the universality of man's inhumanity to man, but, um, kind of depressing at the same time! Still, that's another 1001 book ticked off, and it was actually an Enlightenment novel I could more than tolerate, which is saying something.

Next up: The Moonstone... really hope to fulfil my SIY challenge this quarter!

Edited to fix typo: what a pedant!

Actually Miss-Owl, I have just finished reading Black Juice, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is the first I've heard of Margo Lanagan, but I feel it won't be the last. Black Juice is a collection of short stories of the superb quality I have come to expect from the genre's Australian authors. I fully enjoyed every single one of the stories included in this book.

* Singing My Sister Down- This is a very sad story about an unusual tribal punishment, and my favourite story in this collection.
* My Lord's Man - A story about love, acceptance and misjudgement.
* Red Nose Day - An interesting twist on the typical clown story.
* Sweet Pippit - A beautiful story about elephants and their love for their handler. This is my second favourite story in this collection.
* House of the Many - A story about the fading of our childhood impressions.
* Wooden Bride - An interesting story about living up to our word.
* Earthly Uses - A twist on the concept of angels.
* Perpetual Light - Set in a future world where the air is unbreathable.
* Yowlinin - Monsters and outcasts of society meet.
* Rite of Spring - Singing in the season.
* The Point of Roses - This is my pick for third place in this collection. A boy with great powers influences others.

Margo's stories are magnificent, engrossing and above all, thought-provoking. My top three stories in this collection are Singing My Sister Down, Sweet Pippit and The Point Of Roses. All three of these stories are worthy of your attention.

I'm now reading Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester.

>23 sorry to hear you didn't like Flashforward. I read the book before I'd heard about the series (which I still haven't seen) and I liked it a lot, at least up 'til the 2001-esque ending. I also enjoyed Rollback by the same author, but if you didn't like one you probably won't like the other.

still reading Under The Dome here, when I get a chance to that is..

I rather liked what I saw of Flashforward, but from what I've heard of the book, they did tighten it up for TV so I doubt I'll go and find the book. (I stopped watching the TV show because I have no faith in the stations to continue showing shows I like at regular times. I've been burnt by "Heroes" bouncing all over the schedule; and by the unending twists of "Lost" which really peeved me. I'm sticking with ABC and SBS for the time being, and my DVDs of Buffy/Battlestar Galactica for when I need a genre fix.)

Finished The Forgotten Garden. Meh. Read like a lowbrow Possession, too many characters, too much jumping about in time. It wasn't a bad idea, and some of the characters were good, but the "twists" were bleedingly obvious (so I wanted to shake some sense into the main modern-day heroine who couldn't see what was right in front of her), and it was really rather all over the shop.

But I have heard good things about her first book (The Shifting Fog) so I haven't given up on the author entirely. I'll just put this one down as a "difficult" second novel.

Still enjoying The Reformed Vampire Support Group, but am slightly wary of recommending it just yet. The same author also wrote Evil Genius which was a great idea, started well, but failed in its execution rather dramatically. (But she wrote a sequel to that one, which just goes to show what I know.)

And back to Wolf Hall properly now...

I'm finding it really difficult to get into Quicksand right now - I think mostly due to the very convoluted sentence structures - and have been sidetracked by Tigger on the Couch, the full title being 'Tigger on the Couch: The Neuroses, Psychoses, Maladies and Disorders of Our Favourite Children's Characters'. Great premise, although I fear it is heading to be more about the psychological disorders and less about the characters and the books. Still, it's easy to read and fun, even if a bit dry.

#25 I really appreciated Black Juice too.

Reading my last Christmas themed book for 2009 All I want for Christmas is a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks - I love it :)

It's vampire season! (Christmas season! Vampire season!) I just finished The Reformed Vampire Support Group and did enjoy it. It's not brilliant - I think it was a great idea, but then she actually had to hang some plot on it - but it is perfectly fine. Great idea, decent cast of characters, good page-turning action, nicely resolved ending. It just lacked some sort of oomph somewhere.

I then picked up Things We Didn't See Coming and turns out it's short stories. (I didn't see that one coming, fnar fnar.) Short stories isn't really my medium of choice (although a good short story is a wonderful thing, I'm mostly thinking "it's over? already?"), but I read the first one and I rather liked it. It won The Age Book of the Year this year, which is why it jumped out at me at the library the other week. But I can't see myself raving at the end.

crimson-tide, message 28: "I'm finding it really difficult to get into Quicksand right now"
>>> I think most people find it really difficult to get *out* of quicksand!!

Sorry, that was terrible - it's only because I've finished reading The Princess Bride quite recently and it had a great "Snow Sand" scene in it.

Reading The Moonstone at night and At the Mountains of Madness during the day. Really enjoying the first, although I want to whack the endearing narrator over the head with a rolled up newspaper at times; and really not enjoying the second, although it will get me another 1001 book checked off the list. Has anyone read any H. P. Lovecraft? Ideas, thoughts?

#31 Interesting, wookiebender. I read Things We Didn't See Coming as a sort of discontinuous narrative. The protagonists changed, but I understood it as being part of a process of global disintegration. (So what's new?) But I wasn't greatly thrilled by it, I must admit, so my interpretation is probably wonky.

Miss-Owl, I have At The Mountains of Madness on Mt TBR. I have many friends who adore Lovecraft and all that sort of horror. I'm not convinced by his genius, but I'm not really a horror buff at all. He was highly influential in horror however, so it'll be interesting to see where it all started.

livrecache, I've only read the first two stories in Things We Didn't See Coming, and I'm sure there's a sort of linking theme or incidents or world changes - "global disintegration" does rather sum it up well. Rather bleak dystopias, but they're not hard reads, and I am curious about The Age Book of the Year award.

I have just finished my last Christmas read for the year All I want for Christmas is a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks - a lovely paranormal romance. I have the next one in the 'Love at Stake' series on my TBR pile

Next up is Murder with Puffins by Donna Andrews - a cosy mystery - Christmas is not the time (for me anyway) to read a deep and meaningful story.

I've really lost interest for the moment in The House of the Spirits and Silas Marner, so I decided to pick up the most enormous book on the pile, The Northern clemency just to see what it was like. Read the first 100 pages with ease. Finding it very enjoyable. It was short-listed for the Booker and I can see why. Its a pretty ordinary plot but written very well. The story is told over a number of years, so there might even be a Christmas in there somewhere ;-)

I just read Breakfast at Tiffany's, for no good reason except that we've got the DVD, and it was there and it was short. I've not yet watched it, but my daughter tells me it's a whole lot better than the book. It was well written but I don't think it's stood the test of time. There are two other stories in the book but I doubt that I'll bother. I will watch the movie though.

#35> Sally906, I was a bit disappointed in Murder with Puffins. Just not as good a book as Murder with Peacocks. Apparently it does all bounce back though - another example of the difficult second novel. Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos is the third? fourth? and apparently best. (But I must admit, We'll Always Have Parrots is the title that most consistently cracks me up.) So what I'm saying is, give the rest of the series a chance if you don't like that one. :)

#37> livrecache, I am a fan of Truman Capote - I do like his writing. But I do like the movie adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's better than the book, it somehow captured (or even made) the zeitgeist for its times, and has *the* iconic performance from Audrey Hepburn. Apart from "Roman Holiday". And "Sabrina". (Er.) It's not perfect, but it's immensely charming. My sister & I used to go every year to Moonlight Cinema, just for that movie (until we had kids and that put the kibosh on that family tradition).

I finally finished Under The Dome. It took an age and was excellent, one of my Top Five Stephen King books for sure.

next up: Bowie

I am yet to read anything by Stephen King. I believe The Shining is a "1001" book, so that's probably the first I'll tackle. :)

I finished Things We Didn't See Coming, and, yes, livrecache, I get the whole disconnected narrative now. In the first couple of stories I didn't realise it was the same person, although it was obviously the same world. That meant that I got the commitment to a larger story that I like about novels (and don't get with short stories), but it still had the pithy story telling about each incident that I do like with short stories.

But it was all a bit bleak, really. Went to the movies last night with friends, and we were discussing doomsday fiction - The Road, World War Z, and this - and none of them make me very happy. Although I would recommend World War Z because the good bits are good, and it does end mostly positive, and there are some funny bits in it. But the others just make me depressed.

I did try to start The Elegance of the Hedgehog but couldn't quite get my brain around it. So I picked up The Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd - a 1001 book. I'm halfway through already, so I must be enjoying it. :)

Oh, the movie we saw - "Avatar" in 3D. A note for those of you who get motion sickness (like me): the camera does not fracking stop fracking moving fracking once. (FRACK!) I had nearly three hours of nausea. I ended up taking off the 3D glasses (and my own prescription glasses) and watched it all fuzzy. Didn't particularly help, but it wasn't like I had to watch to know where the plot was going. So I napped, between the action scenes. The bits I saw were perfectly fun, but I'm taking myself to see "Broken Embraces" (the new Pedro Almodovar) as compensation tonight. (And if there's one single shaky camera shot, I may have a total tanty.)

I am finished reading Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer. This is the culmination to the Twilight Saga and it is, by far, the best of the four books. We finally see some long-anticipated events as well as some highly unexpected developments. I just love who Jacob finally imprints on! In addition, Meyer's experience is evident. There is a marked contrast between the first and last books. Breaking Dawn is better written and the characters filled out far more than they were in Twilight. I was very sad to reach the end of this book.

I am now reading Too Safe for Their Own Good by Michael Ungar and World Changing: A User's Guide for the 21st Century edited by Alex Steffen. I'm also still reading Krakatoa by Simon Winchester.

I finished reading The Lambs of London and thoroughly enjoyed the fictionalised tale of Charles and Mary Lamb, best known for their Tales From Shakespeare. I spent quite a bit of time on Wikipedia this morning, sorting out what was true and what was made up by Peter Ackroyd. A very good "1001" read.

And Pedro Almodovar knows how to hold a camera *still*. Not a fantastic movie, but very good - more plot than Avatar, for one. ;) Lots of stories within stories, which is just my cup of tea.

Now to buckle on down with Wolf Hall and finish it!

wookiebender >>> so jealous! We got Avatar 3-D in Chiang Mai, but not the new Almodovar. We did have a recent European film festival, which was quite exciting - but it showed films released in 2007, which I'd already seen in Sydney!

Back to books: a holiday down south has done wonders for my reading tally. If anyone's looking for a family-friendly place in Thailand, may I recommend Koh Lanta :)

Polished off The Moonstone (pun not intended) - a mystery that is no longer, I think, solvable by its readers because of a few anachronistic ludicrosities; Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (another singularly depressing book, to which I'd like to add I understood the motivations of none of the characters, making me feel thoroughly stupid); The White Tiger, a very easy read, but also thoroughly thought provoking - some of its cultural resonances ring true in Thailand too - and started, but was not able to finish, The Line of Beauty.

wookiebender, I always remember Charles Lamb from studying Coleridge for my HSC - "gentle hearted Charles!" - Did his sister Mary really murder their mother?

Must go and attack more of the secondhand shelves around... although this island is a bit too popular with the Scandinavians, as far as reading is concerned!

>43: Miss-Owl, I also found Disgrace incredibly depressing. I had a really negative response to that book for reasons that I now cannot fully remember . . . but not related to being depressing in itself. So much so that it's put me off reading any others of his. I need to try again sometime though I think.

>32: Yep, you are quite right. *lol* I'm still wallowing in the Quicksand and having great difficulty extricating myself. Nearly there, but by gosh it's been a struggle!! Over 10 days I've been fighting with this (short) book. Should have turfed it and got my teeth into something else more enjoyable. I know I've had lots of other things to do, but there are loads of books on my shelf that I would have devoured despite that. How stupid am I? . . . no, don't answer that! ;-)

I have Disgrace on Mt TBR, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to it. People who like it really like it, but I've also heard so many "depressing" comments that I think it may not be for me.

Some great reading there, Miss-Owl, but I'm sorry you didn't finish The Line of Beauty, I gobbled that one up. But I did live through the 80s, so it was all terribly familiar to me. :)

And, YES, Mary did go mad and kill her mother! I assumed that bit was made up, but Wikipedia assures me it wasn't. The basic Lamb plot was true, but there was another character - William Ireland, also worth a Google/Wikipedia - the details of his story were changed for dramatic reasons. Like, he never actually met the Lambs, but in the book their friendship is quite important.

I wish it wasn't a library book, I want to share it with more people - Mum, for one. It was just one of those great readable books of literature.

Still going on Wolf Hall, but may finish it today. Also may not, as tonight will be spent wrapping presents and drinking champagne. If I'm not online again today, all the best to everyone! Merry Christmas!

Yes, Merry Christmas one and all :-)

Have finished Wolf Hall! An excellent read, but very dense. I found you needed full immersion to really get the most out of it (ie, I should have stopped being distracted by other - shorter! - books).

Now reading The Broken Shore by Peter Temple. Very hard-boiled feel to it, but an Australian country setting. I'm liking it so far!

Just finished The Northern Clemency. I think of this as contemporary fiction because of how well I remember the 70s, 80s and 90s! But if I keep basing my definition of Contemporary Fiction on that it may get hard to justify the definition as I get older!
Much is talked about the effect of the Thatcher years in Sheffield, there is even a migration to Sydney by one of the characters and I found the city well described and easy to see from a new comers eyes.
There are a few disturbing moments in the novel, but it was a really comfortable read. It is a huge book at 738 pages but easily knocked off 100 pages in a night.
I'm now back to reading 1001 books, I'm going to try The Swarm next. It's described as an "ecological thriller" it was originally published in German in 2004.
Spent a couple of years on the best seller list in Germany apparently. I've heard that it has been well researched?!

I'm re-reading The Lovely Bones (sorry, crimson-tide, but my memory is terrible, and a film of the book tends to erase the book for me). I saw the film on Boxing Day, and LOVED it. I thought Peter Jackson did a wonderful job, I loved the soundtrack by Brian Eno. I had wondered how the book could be made into a film, and it's been done. It deviates from the book, but it had to.

Also, sorry, but I watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' yesterday, which I loved. It was VERY Hollywood and of its time, but Audrey Hepburn made it worthwhile. However, the novella is so much stronger. (I read that recently this month, which is why I feel this is relevant.)

> #49: livrecache, why are you saying sorry?

# 49 Because I had the impression that you found it somewhat strange that I needed to re-read books :)

>52: Ahh . . . I maybe gave the wrong impression there? ;)

Not strange at all - lots of peeps do it, just not I (?me ?I). Not very often anyway. I'm going to have enough trouble getting through all the books already sitting on my TBR shelf in my lifetime, let alone all the goodies which will be added in coming years. *lol*

But for someone who has the inclination and the time, and is a quick reader, go for it! :)

I'm tempted to re-read The Lovely Bones too, because I saw the trailer, and had NO recollection of what they were showing. (It looked lovely too. I'm rather tempted by the movie.)

And while we're discussing movies, I do recommend "Bright Star" by Jane Campion, about John Keats and his muse, the unfortunately named (and probably misspelt by me) Fanny Brawne. I thought it was marvellous stuff, just a wonderful story very well told. (And no explosions or swooping cameras.) My first exposure to Keats after studying his poems for the HSC, 20+ years ago. :)

And I got distracted by the very silly Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos by Donna Andrews - the third Meg Langslow mystery. Good silly fun, perfect reading for the silly season. :)

Unfortunately I haven't read much lately. :( I did eventually pull myself out of the Quicksand but needed a break before tackling the second story, Passing.

I then read Cindy-Ella, or I Gotta Shoe which was a fun retelling of the Cinderella story based in 'the deep south'. Now I'm part way into Bonk: The Curious Coupling Of Sex and Science and enjoying it.

I think I need some of that good, distracting silliness, wookiebender.

I'm plodding through The memory of Running by Ron McLarty. Is a group read and for that reason I am perservering - but is not lighting any fires for me.

That's what I felt about it, too, Sally. The Memory of Running didn't pass the 50 page test or whatever arbitrary number I'm using now.

I'm really enjoying The Swarm I really haven't read anything of this genre this year and it is fun ;-)

Just saw the movie Avatar and I was very impressed! My expectations were fairly low so perhaps that has something to do with it, but it reminds me of when I saw the first Star Wars and how ground breaking those effects were. The 3D is the clearest I've ever seen, enjoyed the story line and the creation of an animated world.
I get around in a wheelchair and I thought the disabled slant was handled well enough. Some of those ramps would not meet the gradient requirement tho' ;-)
I was thinking it was a kids movie but hubby and I went with 2 other couples. We discussed it over a Thai meal after the movie and we all agreed it was very good.