What You're Reading the Week of 7 Oct 2006

Knots R D Laing Finished Weight of Numbers by Simon Ings, an OK read - kept me turning the pages but I was left a bit lost at the end; followed that with DC Confidential by Christopher Meyer, which left the fictional Ing cold, nothing beats a real world political thriller. Actually it wasn't very thrilling but a completely gripping tale of US-UK diplomacy in the run up to the Iraq war.

I've been on another big '17th century' kick lately, so i'm finally catching up with God's Secretaries: the making of the King James Bible, which came out a couple of years ago.

The Wisdom of W E B Du Bois - will post a review in due course.

Finished Our Man in Havana - what a terrific little farce and have just begun The Thirteenth Tale. I have high hopes for it and hope to find the time over the weekend to settle in and get through a large chunk of it.

Just finished The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. As a child of the 70's and 80's I just couldn't relate to the book at all. Also just finished The Bright Forever. Liked that one.

Just started Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.

Did the dialect interefere with your reading and/or enjoying the story? What did you think of it?

Just started Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War by Nicholas Lemann. Also dipping into Rereadings, edited by one of my all-time-favorites (and the author of the wonderful Ex Libris), Anne Fadiman.

FINALLY finished listening to Angela's Ashes. Started Coraline by Neil Gaiman yesterday and will almost certainly finish that this afternoon; on deck is Count Karlstein by Philip Pullman.

For book reading, I'm about thirty pages into Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, but it hasn't really drawn me in yet, and I doubt I'm going to have much time this weekend to sit and read anyways.

I liked Trainspotting. The dialect was a problem at first, and then I got used to it. I wish I'd thought to flip to the back, though--there's a glossary (or at least there was in my copy), but I didn't find it until I was almost done with the book!

Re Trainspotting, there's no glossary in my book. :-( If things get rough, I'll look for an on-line glossary, I think.

Glad to hear you liked it. I hate to have to *work* my way through a book, but once I get into this story, I have a feeling I'll like it as well.

I'm a fast typist, SqueakyChu--I'll email it to you.

Thanks for the idea! I found a perfect online glossary. That sure will help.

We cross-posted. I already found and printed out an on-line lossary.

Thanks for the offer, though. You're very kind!

Aftr all these years of reading have only just thought about trying the short stories of Alice Munro. Got two of the collections today, Hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage and The love of a good woman and am looking forward to trying this prize-winning author.

My favorite Alice Munro (that I have read so far) was Open Secrets. I have yet to read Runaway, but it is on my shelf and I am really looking forward to it.

I started Dark Celebration by Christine Feehan last night. I'm liking it so far.

Having finished Wolf Who Rules (see my review), it's back to the real world with The Soviet-Afghan War.

Just finished:
* Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (audiobook)
* All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

Now reading:
* Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (audiobook)
* American Prometheus by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin

Currently just past halfway through Prismatic by Edwina Grey. Three timelines, disease that makes you crazy violent. Australian setting and feel.

The beginning and set-up were excellent, but the pace has died off a bit. I think it's going to come in strong at the end though, so looking forward to finishing it off this evening.

I'm reading K is for killer by Sue Grafton. I've been trying to read the alphabet books in order but couldn't help but start this one. What a great opening paragraph!

I'm close to finishing Back When We Were Grownups, which I'm enjoying quite a bit. I expect to be done with it in the next couple days, and am debating what to start next. I feel a nonfiction mood coming on, so I might start My Life in France, or possibly Mountains Beyond Mountains.

I have created a stack of "read this next" books to shame myself into not getting any more for a while ...(but the public library book sale is Friday, oh drat.)

I've started {{Marion Neslte}}'s {What to Eat}, and have {Omnivore's Dilemma}by {Michael Pollan}} waiting in the wings - both are about food, my favorite thing.

In addition, a fascinating book called {Meeting Faith} by {{Faith Adiele}}. It's about an American/Nigerian woman's experience as a black Budnhist nun in Thailand.

Currently halfway through P.G. Wodehouse's The Code of the Woosters, while dipping into The Oxford Book of Science-Fiction Short Stories on Sunday afternoons.

markon, if you like reading about food, try Heat by Bill Buford. I read it this summer because it was recommended by a friend and I was craving light reading -- didn't expect to like it, but it's so well written I found I couldn't put it down.

I have now finished Book of Illusions (which I highly recommend for anyone interested in film, involved in academia, or just in search of a surprisingly gripping read), as well as Mairelon the Magician (which didn't particularly impress me) and Aesop's Fables (which was a more mammoth undertaking than I had anticipated).

I am buried under a mountain of work reading at the moment, but have also just started Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin. It first came to my notice because it was adapted as a play in London to great success (in a production I unfortunately never saw). Has anyone read the book or seen the play? What did you think? I am only a few chapters in, but it seems quite harrowing so far.

I also have my eye on starting The Time Traveler's Wife and (still) On Beauty.

I finished A Troubadour's Testament and thoroughly enjoyed it. A short, interesting read for anyone who's recently lost a love.

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month (open to folks worldwide, in every language: http://www.nanowrimo.org/) so I expect pleasure reading to grind slowly to a halt as I plan that book and prep for the sprint (1667 words a day for 30 days, while working, training people, etc etc).

Anyone else participating in the event?

Currently I'm working my way through the Star Trek New Frontier Series. I plan to start Gods Above today. I've read it before and enjoyed it. Peter David was perhaps slowing down a little by the time he got this far into the series; the plot twists are not quite as surprising as early the series, but it's still a fun book. If you like quirky Star Trek, this is a very funny series, actually it's more like a serial; you really have to start with the first book.

Also, I'm working on the audiobook version of Agatha Christie's Black Coffee. My version has one lady reading all the parts. She has a good speaking voice, but does a poor job of Poirot's Belgian accent. I much prefer David Suchet's Poirot in audiobooks as well as on the television.

Brewergirl, I wanted to ask your opinion of Dickens on audiobook. My favourite reader is Anton Lesser; he did a wonderful job of Little Dorrit, David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby. Also fun are BBC radio's full cast recordings. What I dislike are the abridged versions of these long novels. Dickens' writing is so good, it spoils it to have the stories chopped up and shortened.

Nice to meet a fellow fan. Cheers.

I just finished reading Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs in one sitting. I am looking forward to the movie and wanted to read the book before I saw it. It was a quick and fun read but it left me full of sadness and amazement about how a young boy with parents still alive could be neglected so immensely and left so vulnerable to abuse. Yes, Burroughs can find the humor in some instances, but the underlying reality is very cruel and tragic. I really do not know what to think about this book I guess.

Just Finished

The Dean's List by {{Jon Hassler}}
When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff

Just Started
The Boomer by Harry Bedwell
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Minnesota Rag by Fred Friendly

200 pages into the 1500 page unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo by my all time favorite, Alexandre Dumas

Meanwhile I'm lightly reading The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno, who has impressed me with his ability to completely switch voices in his novels. The voice that tells Hairstyles of the Damned which was only so-so, is completely different from that which tells The Boy Detective Fails.

Halfway through 'In The Miso Soup' by Ryu Murakami, who takes us through an American tourist's psychotic mind using Japan's sex industry as a backdrop for the story. Great read so far.

I am reading Middlemore by Judith Lennox and thoroughly enjoying it. This author never fails to delight me with her simple English.

I just finished No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Thoroughly depressing and unpleasant. Not bad, mind you, but I feel like I need a shower.

The Count of Monte Cristo--one of my favorites! Enjoy.

I listened to Great Expectations about a year ago, read by Frederick Davidson. I wasn't terribly fond of his young Pip voice; other than that it was very good. I'll check out Anton Lesser.

I'll be starting A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon tonight.

Recently finished:

Velocity by Dean Koontz
The Night Crew by John Sandford

Currently reading:

A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan
Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons

Currently readingThe Kite Runner, I must say I am enjoying it very much. I hope the ending is good, kind of sad up to now.

FinishedVelocity byDean Koontz. I really enjoyed it.
Would recommend it .

I just discovered LibraryThing - what a fantastic site! This is my first post.

I just finished Leaving the Saints, which I thought was interesting and well-written, but not quite as gripping as the similiarly-themed Under the Banner of Heaven. I just started The Pythons, which so far is fantastic.

yhalos:

My book club picked The Kite Runner unanimously for our November book. Having read it last summer, I think it's incredible how the author can create such an intense character, who you find yourself hating and rooting for all at once.

I'm reading The Poe Shadow by. It is taking forever to get through for some reason, but I love it. The characters are all interesting and likeable, and that's what keeps me going.

I'm reading John Stossel's new book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, which is quite entertaining.

On deck is Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which I'd like to read before I see the musical later this month. I tried to read it a couple of years ago, but only got halfway through it.

Finished Conqueror's Moon by Julian Maywhich was interesting but not quite me then onto Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer and Six for the Toff

Now onto Haunted

Finished Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, moving on to Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. I'm excited... Chabon is one of my recent favorites.

Am still rreading the Du Bois quotes book (see above), but also Service with a smile by P G Wodehouse

Over the weekend I read Regeneration by Pat Barker. Interesting, and disturbing in quite a few places, but it somehow didn't draw me in emotionally as I might have expected. Maybe because I didn't really find myself warming to any of the characters.

I've now started Robert Service's biography of Stalin.

I finished: 1) Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee - very good but left a lot of questions spinning about in my head 2) Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland (nominated for the Booker Prize. Unfortunately I've gone off child narrators so didn't really enjoy it.
Reading now: The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin . If I don't enjoy it the publishers will give my money back!

Had a good weekend for reading. Finished Witch Child by Celia Rees and Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials by Marc Aronson, with varying degrees of satisfaction (see reviews).

Now reading Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas, or L'homme à L'envers to give it the original French title.

Seems promising so far: a Canadian documentary maker is working with the rangers in a mountain wildlife park making a film about the wolves in the park. Soon, local people are reporting finding mutilated sheep, and the rangers begin to suspect that a larger wolf is to blame.

I'm reading Before the Mortgage, which is just okay so far. After that, I'll either read Positively 4th Street or The Areas of My Expertise, depending on my mood.

Oocels ... re Dickens on audiobook ... Great Expectations was the first one I've listened to, read by Frank Muller. Oliver Twist is read by Flo Gibson. Both are unabridged. Flo Gibson is good, but Frank Muller was outstanding. (George Guidall, though, is my favorite audiobook reader of all time.) I've never heard Anton Lesser, so I'll have to give him try.

I like hearing Dickens read because I think the humor comes across well if the reader is good. I started listening to Great Expectations when I downloaded it for my niece who had to read it for school. It reminded me how much I enjoy Dickens!

A good reading week, I’ve finished The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind, and the first volume of Anthony Trollope’s Barchester books, The Warden. Two very different books, and I enjoyed both, but without finding them exceptional.

The Pigeon revolves around a man living a perfectly regulated life, which is suddenly turned upside down, by the appearance of a pigeon on the landing outside his apartment. It certainly has psychological undertones, but it’s a fine story too, and I can certainly relate to the horror of fissures in my nicely ordered routines. Apparently Perfume is his more famous novel, but I’ve not come across this.

I’ve a love of long series of books, so the Barchester novels have been on my list for a while. The Warden was all I that expected, a very gentle read about politics in C19 church life. A man trying to do practical good running an almshouse and being harassed by reformist do good’ers who think they know what is best for the residents. The power of a popular press, controlled by hidden benefactors, and linking personal turmoils with public affairs. As everyone says, as relevant now as ever.

nb fantastically incorrect Touchtone link to The Pigeon

I'm reading Time Out of Joint by Phillip K Dick. Just starting, but so far so good.

I'm nearing the end of a re-read of Dracula: it's so much more bizarre than I remember. I've been dipping in and out of Great Expectations and Brighton Rock to use for comprehension examples with children.

I've got two Camus to re-read in front of me but have to be honest and admit to wallowing in my re-re-re-reading of The Cold Six Thousand. I spent an hour in a local bookshop, couldn't get enthusiastic about anything and left empty-handed: I must be coming down with some sort of 'flu or something...

Just finished reading Back when we were grownups by Anne Tyler. Love the opening line "One upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person."
Now reading A Sunday at the pool in Kigali, by Gil Courtemanche. I've already read it en francais, am looking forward to the translation.
Yes, Hera, I know something is wrong with me if I leave a bookstore empty-handed. Hope you feel better.

I'm re-reading Harry Potter and am now on The Chamber of Secrets, also reading Armadale for my book club. It's great, lots of Victorian gothic mystery, secrets etc. I'm also listening to The Prestige, the previews for the movie look good and I've wanted to "read" the book first, the narrator is pretty good and the story is intriguing. I just finished listening to The Time Traveler's Wife and I find it's staying with me, such an excellent story, funny, sad, compelling, I highly recommend it. The Audible version is excellent with a man and woman narrating it in character.

katylit
I also listened to the unabridged audio of The Time Traveler's Wife and it is in my top ten book list. I laughed and cried....maybe it has stayed with me because I lost my first husband at age 25 and I just wish he could pop in to see his two sons now ages 23 and 18. It has made me think...what if...

I've just started Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Last Temptation by Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli.

I think that I found trainspotting a little difficult at first, but as you get into it becomes more familiar, and that made it start to get easier for me to read, fabulous book though, went to see the play recently too, which was much more like the book than the film, Irvine Welsh is one pretty cool man.

Things Fall Apart is a great story, let me know what you think of the end!

hera #50:I spent an hour in a local bookshop, couldn't get enthusiastic about anything and left empty-handed: I must be coming down with some sort of 'flu or something...

You poor thing! Recover quickly and return to the shop, eager fire of acquisition in your eyes....

--> 55

I did get into Trainspotting, Spangleypants. It didn't take me too long. I'm finding it a fascinating and fun read. The chapters really get into the hearts and souls of the characters.

As a matter of fact, I like it so much that I bought another book by Irvine Welsh, Marabou Stork Nightmares, yesterday!

Gave up on The Poe Shadow for now and started Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik.

Finishing up the forthcoming Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. Have very much enjoyed it, though maybe a bit long. Apparently a YA crossover... a la Lewis Carroll, Mervyn Peake....one has to appreciate Mieville's imagination!

I finished up Jose Saramago's Blindness and then read through the anonymous diary, A Woman in Berlin. The diary brought home the point that Saramago's fiction is rooted in nonfiction of the 20th century. Time for some lighter reading...

I am reading the ground beneath her feet by Salman Rushdie - long book but a good book

Finished Haunted and also the murder on yarmouth sands and now onto Acorna's Search

I've been reading like crazy lately. I just finished Pink Think and Freakonomics, and now I'm onto Mélusine by Sarah Monette and Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher. (One at work and one at home)

I am reading The Innocent by Posie Graeme-Evans. This novel has really caught my imagination and it looks quite historically accurate. The story is quite a simple one but a lovely one. Will post more when have finished it.

--> Message 58: SqueakyChu

You'll really enjoy Irvine Welsh, Marabou Stork Nightmares.

I read that shortly after trainspotting and was not disappointed, although it is brutal.

Having finished The Soviet-Afghan War (see my review) the next book up is Warren Tute's The Deadly Stroke.

..> Message 66

Thanks, Melmoth! I always appreciate hearing that one of my TBR picks is a good one!

I just finished Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother. I liked it, but didn't have the strong reaction to it that The Curious Incident gave me. The ending, in particular, was a bit too neat for me. I'll be starting Pat Barker's Another World now.

I finished listening to Jonathan Coe's The Closed Circle last night. I'm glad I didn't read it--it wasn't nearly as strong as The Rotters Club, and some plotlines just trailed off into nothingness. I started listening to The Moonstone today, and while it's taking me a little while to settle into the style, I think I'll be happy with the long haul.

I've just started World of Pies by Karen Stolz. About 3 chapters in and it's great so far.

I'm also on the first few chapters of Spindle's End by Robin McKinley.

I just finished To Trust a Stranger by Karen Robards. This is the third book of hers that I've read, and I really enjoyed it. Not deep or intellectual by any means, but engaging nonetheless.

Matilda By Roald Dahl ^_^

lisa211: I love Matilda and the film version was very good as well. My favourite Roald Dahl is George's Marvellous Medicine.

Finished The Thirteenth Tale - wow, what a terrifically woven story. Good suspense, interesting characters & locales & a nice "twist" at the end. Some questions still remain, however, I find that a mark of a most satisfying read.

Have begun The Mephisto Club which is my first Gerritsen. So far the prose is unremarkable, but clean and the characters are drawn to elicit specific emotional responses (she created a great foe for our protagonist). She totally sucked me in and I hope it's a fun time.

I've just started Library: An Unquiet History as my commute reading and I think that I'm also going to pick up and start reading the copy of the Elizabeth Edwards book, Saving Graces that I got from a friend.

I'm reading Haunted by Tamara Thorne, got an obsession for ghosty books at the moe :-))

I got bored with The Plague by Camus, and started something a little lighter - Iron Sunrise, Charles Stross

Having zipped through The Deadly Stroke I'm now going to try "Driving with the Devil" by Neil Thompson.

firefly7522:

Spindle's End is awesome. It's by far McKinley's best in my opion. I've always felt that Sunshine is Robin McKinley's only other book that comes close.

Spangleypants, I found Things Fall Apart very interesting. It was definitely a different sort of story than a European/North American novel, and it's given me a lot to think about.

Now I'm just beginning Paint It Black by Janet Fitch.

Finished the kiddielit (Count Karlstein by Philip Pullman); diving into one of the many many classics that I've never read: Wuthering Heights.

Finished Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara earlier this week. Yesterday evening done with Hardboiled / Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto.

Currently reading Jennifer Government by Max Barry, and tomorrow will move on to The Wish List by Eoin Colfer

#22

Hi, Markon ~ If you're into reading about food, have you read anything by Calvin Trillin? His book Alice, Let's Eat, a kind of a journal about his quest for the best places to eat in America, is wicked funny and one of my all-time favorites. It's old (from the late 70s, I think), but you can probably find it at the library.

Finished Sky Knife by Marella Sands last night. It was really good but different ~ a murder mystery set in Tikal during the height of the Mayan empire, with a whole lot of magic and sorcery included. Very strange.

I don't know what to read next. I got Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere from the library today but forgot it at the office, so I'll have to find something else to read at bedtime. Maybe Emperor at the Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden or a light mystery like Murder at the Monk's Table by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie (sorry, no Touchstones for that one). Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Dang, no Touchstones at all. OK, let's see if they "take" this time.

Have just started Margaret Atwood's Blind Assassin. What are your opinions of this book?

finished acorna's search which was a bit ho-hum, then getting even which wasn't the worst I've read and currently Roman Blood which is proving gripping.

I'm currently reading Ubik by Philip K. Dick (my first PKD book). It's good so far.

Up next is Here Is Where We Meet by John Berger, The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier, and How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman.

I welcome any thoughts on the above.

Currently, I am re-reading Kingsolver's "Animal Dreams" - This will be the third time - why so many times? It is the first novel I teach in my Intro to Fiction course. Students in my fiction classes enjoy her work and respond with solid essays and good discussions. On my own, I just started "The Shipping News" - I am only 25 pages in, so I can't say too much yet.

Hazelk, I loved The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It's the book that got me started reading Atwood again, after reading some of her earlier work in the 70s. Recently read her latest, Moral Disorder, a collection of stories.

rebeccanyc: thanks for the comment. It's my first Atwood and over 500 pages long so you've encouraged me.

Spangleypants: totally agree about Things Fall Apart - a great novel. You certainly enter a different world when reading it. Makes a change from metropolitan angst stuff certainly.

I highly recommend the Time Traveler's Wife. I lent it to a friend, who then lent it to a friend, and I have yet to see it again. I wish I had it back to reread.

I too was shaken by Running with Scissors. I am curious to see how they deal with the sexual abuse in the movie. I have yet to see any reference to it in the previews.

Finished Under Orders, Dick Francis's latest Sid Halley adventure. Enjoyed it, as you do, but just one too many stupid oversights on Sid's part, I thought. Still, fine entertainment.

Now am well into The Moviegoer, my first Walker Percy, and it's as brilliant as I had been led to expect. I will definitely be reading more (as in ALL) of his work.
Finally, I am beginning The Gangs of New York as part of my ongoing study of history as it applies to my family's past. (My great-uncle Leroy was a NYC patrolman from 1884 to 1904, and it intrigues me to know what that relatively short portion of his life must have been like. He lived a full four score years.)

HazelK,

I also LOVED Blind Assassin and it is one of my favorite Atwooods. It takes a lot of talent and skill to be able to pull off what she did in that book - a story within a story within a story, if I recollect correctly. Ah, I would love to read that book again (if there just weren't so many in the unread pile...).

I also would highly recommend the Time Traveler's Wife on audio. It was very well done. Those of you who like that, would also like The History of Love on audio. The three readers do a spectacular job with an incredible story. It's one of the very few audiobooks I have kept.

I just started the Booker winner The Inheritance of Loss (reading, not listening). So far, it's excellent.

I finished Another World by Pat Barker today--it was wrenching. I recommend it--one I'll be thinking about for a long time.

I'm going to start Leviathan by Paul Auster this evening, for my book club. (Ack, I hate that term--what do other people use? I said book group before, but that didn't go over well.)

The Blind Assassin was a great read. I hope you enjoy it!

I'm still reading Neil Thompson's history of the early days of NASCAR but I did knock off Steve Coate's Helicopters of the Third Reich this evening, seeing as it's mostly a collection of pictures and personal accounts that scans rather quickly, even though it's way too unwieldy to lug around!

I just finished State of Denial) by Bob Woodward. I started The Brothers Karamazov last week, but I postponed reading it while I finished State of Denial, now that I am done, it is back to Russian Lit! I might be able to read three pages before I fall asleep tonight.

l am still reading The Eight by Katherine Neville.

This isn't because it takes so long to read. But rather that I, unfortunately, find it difficult to find time to read.

Thoroughly enjoying the book though...

Thanks to those above who've recommended other Atwood novels. Have made a list. Oh, those lists we all have that never get any shorter!

avaland, I read The Inheritance of Loss several months ago and also really enjoyed the beginning of the book -- in particular the sections about the character who lives in New York (not because they were better, but because I appreciated this perspective on the city). I don't want to give anything away, but I will be interested to find out what you think once you finish it.

I've had the week off from work, so have devoted it to pottering about, reading (including finishing off half-read books), and visiting bookshops. Bliss! I've finished off Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer, The Outsider by Camus, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (finally!), A Passion for Books (got to love those books about books), Mr Thundermug by Cornelius Medvei, and Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. I'm now into The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (more books about books!), and for on-the-move reading, 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie.

Considering I was officially laid-off from one of the bookstores, which just filed for bankruptcy, it seems now that I can devote more time to books I have yet to finished. And so here's the current reading list:

Jamaica Kincaid: "Talk Stories"
Franz Kafka: "The Metamorphsis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories"
Rachel Sherman: "The First Hurt: Stories"
Adam Sexton: "Master Class in Fiction Writing: Techniques from Austen,
Hemingway, and Other Greats."
Francine Prose: "Reading Like A Writer"

So far I am the quasi how-to books seem to peak my reading interest; as for the others, eh? By the way, maybe it's just in New York, but what's the hubbub over Marisha Pessel's debut novel? Has anyone read it?

seemingmeaning, sorry to hear about you being laid off. Am I right in guessing it was one of my favorite stores, Coliseum? I will really miss it.

In any case, a lot of people here really liked Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics -- I found it clever, entertaining in spots, but overall disappointing as a story. On the other hand, I also thought I should read it all over again once I finished it so I could get a better grasp of what Pessl was doing.

Will let you know, rebeccanyc, about the Desai. As I have been reading, it has reminded me a little of Harbor by Lorraine Adams and Brick Lane by Monica Ali...although the style and storytelling is very different.

Roman Blood was a great read, I'd recommend it, I followed it with Accidental Goddess which wasn't bad at all, light but fun and Ironwood Tree, next up is probably Love at Arms

Just bought The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 13) by Lemony Snicket. You know that'll be finished by Monday. Anyone else buy?

There's now a thread open for What You're Reading the Week of 14 Oct 2006 

please let me know how you all like it...i am an Auster fan, have Leviathan on the shelf not yet read.

still reading Philip Roth American Pastoral and am enjoying it ...I think Roth is fantastic.

berthirsch, I am a huge Philip Roth fan, and American Pastoral is my absolute favorite. An amazing book.

-->55 adeckett:

Finished Trainspotting tonight and liked it very much despite its often gross contents. I did use an online glossary until I got used to the vocabulary, and then it was smooth sailing through to the end of the book!