What Are You Reading the Week of April 2, 2011?

I've finished and reviewed Open City: A Novel by Teju Cole in my thread...post #235.

Quite a pleasure to read!

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Outlander which I'm still enjoying very much.

If we have time to try to drive over and see what's left I think I may also begin reading Building the Pauson House: The Letters of Frank Lloyd Wright and Rose Pauson by Allan Wright Green today. It's my Early Reviewer which probably explains the touchstone situation.

Finished the yummy Marcia Muller Coming Back - (incorrect touchstone) another great Sharon McCone - haven't read one I didn't like.

Yesterday read The Missionary Position by Christoper Hitchens, a very interesting read. Review here:
http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=mkboylan - a very fast read.

Yesterday started The border Lords by another of my favorite authors, T. Jefferson Parker. (another bad touchstone).

Then on to ER's or my member giveaway.

I finished The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia last night. Another good Steampunk read, this time with the main protagonist as an intelligent automaton. I am now reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and trying to figure out why it took a theme read over in the Reading Through Time group to get me to pick this one up off my bookshelves and start reading it.

PaperbackPirate - I really enjoyed Building the Pauson House! Sad that it - the house that is - burned down only one year after it was built. I would be curious to learn if any of the stone foundation can still be seen after all of these years. It is a bit too far of a road trip for me to go and investigate for myself ;-)

Nonfiction: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne, a comprehensive and award winning history of the Algerian War for Independence.

Fiction: The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed, a new novel about the effects of the Kashmiri conflict on the members of a village on the border of the Line of Control between India and Pakistan.

Poetry (for National Poetry Month in the US): White Egrets by Nobel Prize laureate Derek Walcott, which won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry last year, and celebrates the life and language of the West Indies.

I'm in the middle of The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder, and Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.

I hope to finish at least 2 of them this week. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is becoming a chore to finish. I hope to start the ER book Wayward Son by Tom Pollack and Dreadnought by Cherie Priest soon.

Still working my way through Hoot. Just haven't had the reading time I would like to have.

I'm still reading Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Naploli.

I'm enjoying it so far, but the theme...a middle-aged or so career woman journeys to an exotic locale to find herself spiritually. (Think Eat, Pray, Love), is becoming a little over-done, IMO. It seems to have become an entire sub-genre. I do really like what I'm learning about Bhutan, though.

(touchstones not working, darn it!

I am reading The Linen Queen: A Novel by Patricia Falvey. It just keeps getting better and better.

I am really having trouble with bracketts. It doesn't work on my title or author. Any help would be apprecaited.

@10 Couldn't agree more with your comments about Eat, Pray, Love and such similar books ... like pop culture for the middle aged, which is becoming very tiresome in my opinion.

Started Out of Africa yesterday. Beautifully written.

cathy.crane11: Is this the correct touchstone for your book The Linen Queen? You are right, it is a finicky one and the only way I could get it to post was to force the touchstone by adding the work number of the book in front of the title.

If that is not the right book.... sorry!

I have fewer than 100 pages to go in Jane Eyre, and I'm really glad I decided to reread it. I remember pretty much nothing of what I read in high school, and the story is compelling even if not quite believable.

Robert

I finished and reviewed the 2008 Giller Prize winner Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden. Beautifully written.

Now I'm reading the quirky Orange Prize nominee Swamplandia by Karen Russell.

That is the correct book. Thank you. I will try again the next time I post a new book.

Cathy

I always planned to read The Grapes of Wrath and had never got around to it, but I finally started it yesterday.

Finished a quick read The Castaways a graphic novel about riding the rails, tramps and segregation during the depression.

Alas, Iudita, The Grapes of Wrath seems to be one of those hate it or love it books. I loved it, hope you do too.

I'm still listening to Special Topics in Calamity Physics but will be done this week. I'm sure I would have liked it much better if I didn't have to listen to the snarky way people sound. I'm still reading and loving Women on the Edge of Time and today will start Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers by John Elder Robison for a readathon that's starting in about half an hour here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/113260

I am reading Mr. Clarinet by Nick Stone. It is excellent. Very well written. I have been reading Outlander but I needed to take a break. I have mixed feelings about Outlander. I enjoy it at times but sometimes it drags. This may be because I have read it over a period of months. I can't stick with it for a long time. I don't know why. It is great escape reading lusty and all.

I love Jane Erye I read it when I was sixteen and still have the images in my head!

Finished my Early Review book, Red Heat: Conspiracy Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean by Alex Von Tunzelmann. I highly recommend it but it's a disturbing read.

Earlier today I finished Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. So much for fluff, now it's on to The Barbary Plague .

Started Amsterdam this afternoon.

Reading Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog and listening to Bill Bryson's At Home.

I'm reading The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. It is an amazing first novel- I look forward to more from this talented newcomer.

I'll be reading two this week, The Gargoyle Prophecies and A Pale View of Hills.

Slipping into Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Wonderful — should have read it years ago.

The Queen is Dead by Jane Dentinger and Miss Seeton undercover. Neither were particularly good mysteries. May go on to Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Reading and sooo enjoying A Woman's Judgement by Fanny Frewen.

Still read Flowers for Algernon, I find it so sad...

#18/20 Iudita - I hope you have good weather where you are - Steinbeck really has to be read with the sun on your face. I'm definitely in the 'love it' camp on Grapes and envy you your first reading!

I finished The House of Special Purpose last night and loved it. A story of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution so I think we all know how it ends but the fact that there are no real surprises doesn't stop it being a lovely book. I now have to start Specimens of Bushman Folklore for study purposes and am interspersing the stories with The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy which looks light and fun and the 'very English' antidote to lots of 'very African' stories.

Booksloth- "Steinbeck really has to be read with the sun on your face". Very well said! I just can't imagine anyone hating Grapes. It's my favorite book of all time.

I am reading Hester by Paula Reed.

#15 Glad you're enjoying JANE EYRE, Mr. D. I found Bronte's style to be truly disarming and her feminist heroine refreshing for the time

A bit over half way on Wildlife by Richard Ford and it is okay, converation and thoughts are a bit ... stilted/unreal (?) ... but I like the locale/time and it's tiny, so I'll finish it up.

Okay, now I'm thinking Grapes of Wrath next. Believe it or not, I have not read it!

> 29, Abealy: You may not have loved Mrs. Dalloway so much if you'd read it years ago. I've found that, for me at least, it takes a certain amount of maturity, literary and otherwise, to appreciate Woolf's work. I read Mrs. Dalloway years ago, and disliked it, and most of her other fiction. Now, I love her work, and bought another copy of Mrs. Dalloway so I can read it again and appreciate it!

If you haven't yet read To the Lighthouse, I highly recommend it!

Thoroughly enjoying Nobody's Home, a collection of essays by the ever-wandering Dubravka Ugresic. Just starting to listen to World Without End.

Steinbeck fans:

I strongly urge you to read the less well known, but exemplary In Dubious Battle. Its my favorite Steinbeck to date, above EAst of Eden or Grapes of Wrath. It was also my mothers favorite.

PokPok

I just finished The Tiger's Wife which was my early reviewer. Pretty good, but I can't say that I loved it. A bit too all over the place for my liking. But agree with others this young author is GOOD.

Now I am reading my first book on my new Kindle. Can't believe I have crossed over to the dark side - but I've got to say, it really does feel like reading an actual book. I forget that I am holding an electronic device. I started with something out of my usual that I thought I may not even like and may not care to have and hold, The Game of Thrones. I never read fantasy (except The Lord of the Rings) But I kind of like it - reminds me of The War of the Roses historical fiction except for the occasional mention of dragons, etc.

I agree with others The Grapes of Wrath is a great book. Definitely read it, #37. I liked it much better than East of Eden.

I just finished the excellent Still Life with June by Darren Greer. I had never heard of this book and plucked it more at less at random from the shelves of our wonderful Boonville bookstore, Laughing Dog Books. (No, that's not my store, which is not in Boonville but nearby Ukiah.)

I will be reviewing the book within a day or so and of course updating my 50-Book Challenge thread as well. Stay tuned!

I'm sure what's up next. I'll be spending time with my "between books" for a while.

OK, my review is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/106335&newpost=1#lastmsg

I just finished Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure for the Missouri Readers group read - it's really fun and a quick read. I'm also reading The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, which took me awhile to get into but now I love it. And since it is about 1000 pages long, I'll be reading it for a long time. I don't really know much about the time period, so I don't know how close to accurate it is, but already I like Penman's work much better than Philippa Gregory's.

Nearly finished the first volume of In search of lost time.
Finished this morning The Flanders Panel now moving onto something a little deeper.
Is The Visual World a Grand Illusion it is a Science book that explores the nature of consciousness, philosophy and perceptual psychology.

Listening to BBC Audiobook Brideshead Revisited. This edition is read, or rather performed by Jeremy Irons. Wow : ).

I am reading yet another of Fanny Frewen's books A Woman's Judgement, it follow on from Sunlight On The Garden I just love her books. I have ordered Swimming in Circles online.

Took a bit of a turn and borrowed Independent People from the library and can tell, I'm going to love it. I keep hearing it on many people's "best ever" novel list and I'm a huge fan of the unearthing of lost treasures in literature! I haven't read much on Iceland and this family saga is right up my alley! On deck is Grapes of Wrath as I checked that out as well.

Yesterday I finished Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand. I've posted a review. To sumarize: BLECH!

I was intending on taking the day off from reading today and heading to the library sometime in the next couple days, but I got antsy and had to read something, so I dug out the box of books from childhood and picked out an old favorite. Terror on Troll Mountain. There's a review posted. I was glad I dug that old box out! I've even saved back a few other books as well in case I get the urge to read one of them sometime in the future. :)

This week I am finishing up Champagne & Polar Bears by Marie Tieche and am going to read more into House Thinking: A Room by Room look at how we live.

Finished Hoot earlier today. Going to the libs tomorrow to pick up H.M.S. Surprise and I've put The Imperfectionists on hold.

39>bookwoman, I think you are probably right about the maturity although I think it's probable that I just missed her...I've always loved Joyce, Henry Green, William Gaddis and other "stream of consciousness" writers and she seems such a natural fit now.

Will certainly go on To the Lighthouse...

@13 Out of Africa is a goodie. Read it during a summer in high school on my front lawn :-)

@49 I recently received Independent People, it's been on the TBR list for six, seven years? Maybe more?

Going to start Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas later tonight. Have also been reading The Varieties of Religious Experience, which is a true classic, though the language takes some unraveling. Wish I read it in college.

I am reading The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin and also have started The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.

>49 CarolynSchroeder:, 54 I loved Independent People. Enjoy!

I'll probably finish Pride and Prejudice tonight. Love it. Next up will probably be Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler for an assignment. We finished reading Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea aloud last week, and started Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie.

Abandoned Garry Wills' Explaining America about page 45. Very learned, but also obscure, To my mind Wills has written something for the specialist, not the general reader. He also seems to sneer a little. While attempting to read what became increasingly "I don't care", I wondered how many angels the Scholastics decided could sit on the head of a pin. I was also reminded of Yeats' poem "The Scholars". The writers of the Federalist were men of action working @ a breakneck pace of three papers a week and now being picked over by academics @ their leisure. There needs to be on going analysis of the Federalist, but it should be meaningful.

Started The Citizen's Constitution by Seth Lipsky instead.

Finished and loved Flowers for Algernon. On my way home I will start The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Finally finished Middlemarch :D
Before I started it, I feared it was going to be one long torture but it turned out all right in the end. The first 100-120 pages were difficult for me. The language is quite hard for someone who doesn't have English as native tongue and I still had to figure out how all the characters related to each other.

But when I somewhat figured out most of the characters relationship to one another it became very enjoyable. I was very impressed that a woman was able to write a novel of such epic proportions in an age where women weren't supposed to have an opinion about science or religion, which is represented throughout the whole book. I especially liked the very last paragraph;

"Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

That really gave me goosebumps because it made me aware of so many unknown people who must have done good deeds which were so small that they never got a lot of attention but have had a great impact on the lives of other people and that maybe hundreds of those people have never gotten the attention and thanks they deserved...

(I'll write the rest of my review in my topic of university readings so feel free to visit it at this link: http://www.librarything.com/topic/109794)

On another topic, great to read so many views on Steinbeck...since I've read Of Mice and Men a few weeks ago for school (I was very impressed) I'd like to read more of Steinbeck. On my TBR pile are also The Grapes of Wrath and last time when I visited the library I've read the back of East of Eden and it also made me eager to read so I hope I'll come to that soon.

For this week I'll start Beloved by Toni Morrison. Never heard of it before but I'm very eager to read it because the summary of the story really looks like something I'm bound to like :)

Tank Girl Armadillo was violent, profane, ridiculous, funny, and not for most. Probably not for many.

Now I've started Already Dead by Charlie Huston, the first in a series that a lot of LTers have liked, and Matched, a YA dystopian novel.

I am still working on The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer. This book started out slow but it is picking up. I read the first of his first series - police/detective novels set in Eastern Europe - when they first came out. They were good but I think this book is better. It is nice to see an author grow - and have the courage to leave some characters behind and create others. I'm totally in agreement with some of my fellow LT'rs from last week who wondered about the continuing life of some characters whose authors just refuse to let them end.

I am also still listening to Given Day by Denis Lehane. I am liking this story and am learning some things about the history of Boston I didn't know. This is historical fiction and since it is my first Denis Lehane book I am not sure if it is typical or not, but it is certainly worth reading. Or in this case listening to.

Joe- I expect a full report on Already Dead. You know Huston is my guy and this one really put him on the map for me! Gritty, brutal and stunning!

Benita- I'm glad you are enjoying The Given Day. I hope to get to this one in the next couple of months, if not earlier, I've had my copy for well over a year.

Reading Blindness by Jose Saranmgo, The Lost: Stargate Atlantis Legacy Series Book 2 by Jo Gramam and will be starting Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen.

Enjoy Blindness, but it's a very bleak book, so picked Northanger Abbey as a light pick me up.

Finished The Border Lords by T. Jefferson Parker last night. I see it received very mixed reviews. I enjoyed it - yes maybe the "clues" came way t0o early and were way too obvious. I just like being there in the SoCal desert with Charlie Hood for awhile.

Started The Hidden Life of Deer by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas last night. I like her writing style - her way of making solid info very accessible and readable, some would surely say non-scientific observation, but I'm not so sure it isn't better - interesting and very pleasant reading about her observations of the deer near her home. Had to start that hard cover tho I wanted to start my members' giveaway, but it is on my PC which isn't so easy to read in bed!

So - this morning started my members' giveaway on my PC - Look for Our Mother and Our Father by Anonymous. Initially turned off by some of the Creator talk, but stayed with it and am enjoying it - nice way of making seemingly complex issues easy to see. So I'll stick with it.

I'm currently reading Galore by Michael Crummey and Mothers & Daughters by Rae Meadows and listening to The Tudor Secret by C.W. Gortner. All quite enjoyable so far!

I'm re-reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. (Touchstone problem?)

Was going through my books to load them up to here and came across the Matrix Warrior which I started to read and could not put down am now half way through it. The guy seems to be a very competent philosopher who is critiquing the first matrix film, and ask what if its true and we are in a simulation. Well a very profound idea begins to germinate in one's mind it means we are all immortal for a start. Indeed a number of writers and scientists and philosophers have already pegged their hats onto the simulation theme. Anyway here is the link to the book which you can read here:

http://www.cosmic-people.com/english/svetelna_knihovna/htm/en/en_kniha_matrix_wa...

#33 Booksloth - I read The Affair of the Bloodstained Tea cosy years ago and loved it. It was passed around all the reading members of my family. Hope you like it too. We discovered the other books in the series last year. I haven't read them yet. Need to re-find and re-read the bloodstained tea cosy.

This month I'm reading Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte and After Dark by Haruki Murakami. Also still reading Crimes Against Humanity by Geoffrey Robertson.

I finished David Grossman's To the End of the Land, which I found powerful, very touching. My problem with it was its length -- a prejudice of mine, I suppose, more than a criticism of the book. I think the length was probably justified, and I wouldn't have missed the way the meandering storytelling (which is reflected in the meandering journey the two main characters are on) reveals the layers of history and emotion that are at the heart of this story about family and friendship, life and loss.

Now I'm reading Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife.

I finished Just Kids yesterday. I adored it, but I'm biased toward the writer and the subject matter. Still, it won a National Book Award so give it a try.

In honor of the beginning of baseball season, I'm in the middle of We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson. I heard the author/artist interviewed on NPR so when this YA book was laying on the shelf at the Borders sale, I felt like it was worth a look. It is more than worth a look, it is absolutely phenomenal. I highly recommend it not just to baseball fans, but to anyone interested in American history. The art is gorgeous and the story interesting. This one is a book to spend time with.

The first twenty-five pages or so of The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which I am reading as a follow on to Jane Eyre, are not especially promising, but the book is so short I can't imagine not finishing it. Furthermore the book comes with such high recommendation that it may well turn out to be memorable.

Robert

Robert, I just saw Jane Eyre and again vowed I'd read The Wide Sargasso Sea. I've tried both to read it and watch the movie twice and never succeeded. Maybe one day. The movie Jane Eyre is so visually appealing. One finally gets the idea of how dark those old great houses could be when lit only by candles or natural light, and Jane is perfectly plain looking. A great choice of actress. The movie really makes points of the book easier to understand. Surprisingly there were gasps in the audience at some points. I guess not everyone there had read the book.

>61 benitastrnad: Benita, The Given Day is a very good story of baseball, police unions, commie hunts and Boston, but is not at all typical of Lehane.

I've just finished Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers by John Elder Robison and the advice presented is both practical and easily understood. I'd recommend it for any teenager with or loved one of a person with asperger's.

Now I start on Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I'm probably the only mother in the US who hasn't read it. I'm going to have to check out We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, it looks good.

Finished the autobiographical Head Over Heels in the Dales by Gervase Phinn. Not as good as I thought it would be. A so-so reading experience.

My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/71092465

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

Joyce, thank you for your comments on the movie. I hope to get to it tomorrow.

Robert

Just got Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, in the interoffice mail. It is being loaned to me by the same friend who loaned me The Hunger Games that I read Satruday, and loved.

#68 QuestingA - I just finished The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy and it was delightful. I hadn't heard of the author before but I bought the Omnibus that also contains The Case of the Mutilated Mink and The Case of the Thirty-Nine cufflinks and I'm lookng forward to both of them. Just trying to decide what to take to bed with me now. I should be going for an 'off the shelf' read next but I think I fancy a really nasty murder: I could go out and commit one but I suspect I may take the safer route of finding a suitable book.

I fancy a really nasty murder: I could go out and commit one but I suspect I may take the safer route of finding a suitable book.

Isn't that why mystery writers are so often the suspect in mysteries? Some people might so fancy a good murder that they're tempted beyond resistance to commit one?

Finished since Saturday morning:

Christopher Fowler, The Water Room Quirky mystery set in Camden Town, north London, #2 in series

Louisa Young, My Dear I Wanted To Tell You historical novel set in WW1, to review for Amazon Vine - recommended

K M Peyton, Flambards - reread of old favourite, historical novel for kids, set just before WW1 (first published 1967), interestingly mine is a Puffin and has a lot of illustrations, but content is much more YA than children's - Christina is sent to live with her hunting obsessed uncle and his two sons - lots of horses, flying machines, a bit of violence...

Now reading

Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye
A company takes on a researcher to come up with ideas on how to motivate their workforce, but he seems to have his own agenda.

Eliza Graham, Playing with the Moon
A present day and a historical story

Lauren Liebenberg, The West Rand Jive Cats Boxing Club
A coming of age boxing story set in South Africa in the 1950s - to review for the Bookbag

Leila Aboulela, Lyrics Alley
Novel set in 1950s Sudan, Orange Prize longlist

Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
1920s Paris novel about Ernest Hemingway's first wife - to review for Amazon Vine

Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

Nadine Gordimer, Telling Tales
collected non fiction from 1950-2008 - a Twitter win from the publisher and I plan to write a review of it but it will take me a while to read as it's over 700 pages - very interesting as the early pieces are written in the 1950s - obviously South Africa was already quite racist but the government was just bringing in the notorious apartheid legislation to further enshrine this in law.

I have started and have been captured by The Girl at The Lion d'Or by Sebastian Faulks, this novel and the romance to come has been compared to Anna Karenina and Colett's Cher and Lea. I have not read either, however I have heard lots of praise of both.

#77 I'm doing my best not to take it that far. Have settled instead for The Stranger Beside Me though I'm not sure it'll get finished. I seem to have hit that age where true crime books are just too stomach-churning for me. Still, I've always felt I should read this one so at least now I'll be able to say I tried.

Reading The House of Mirth. What a delight.

Picked up High fidelity by Nick hornby after reading and loving about a boy and slam. I'm about half way through reading it and not as impressed as I was with his other reads :-(

Have been running through mysteries. Latest was The Pyx, a late 50's mystery set in Montreal. It has religious overtones and is kind of creepy.

Darn, looks like I made a mistake in my previous post :D

After a closer investigation of my diary it turned out I've written some things down incorrectly. I don't have to start Beloved yet...first up is The Satanic Verses by Rushdie for my Postmodernism class and A Hazard of New Fortunes by Wiliam Dean Howells for Realism...but with the easter break almost upon me maybe I'd better make sure I finish Hard Times by Dickens first. I already had to finish this a few weeks ago but almost all my time went to Middlemarch then :D

I'm still slowly working my way through The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. It totally could have been 200+ pages less and not have lost a thing to the plot. Also reading The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and about to start an ER book - Wayward Son.

Still reading The Land of the Painted Caves. This book has been slow going for me.. I am not sure if my taste in literature has changed, but this one has not grabbed me like books previous in the series.

As someone listed already here, I am also listening to Bill Bryson's At Home. It's pretty good and I think I like this audio book better than actually reading it. There is so much history and information that it seems like small chunks during my short commute to work is better than reading larger chunks "at home."

I am also almost done with Forever by Pete Hamill. It's really good and I highly recommend it.

Note: Neither touchstones are linked to the correct book. I just don't have time to fix them.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. The touchstone isn't working for this one either.

I finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics and would caution anyone who wants to try it not to listen to the audiobook version. The style in severe academic dialect with every thought and sentence footnoted is annoying enough, but to hear these things said in a haughty manner is almost enough to make one stop reading, which would be a pity because the story is excellent. I liked the ending also. It will be interesting to see if Marisha Pessl is able to write another wonderful story but next time with a different style.
I also finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I have to say, Fudge is quite the precocious 2-3 year old with vocabulary far beyond that of my children at the same age. Now I continue on with the wonderful Woman on the Edge of Time and will start Born on a Blue Day.

#55, delta Queen. I have rarely heard anyone else mention Edmund Crispin before. I haven't yet read that particular one, but I enjoy Crispin, and have read about half his work. It gave me a smile to see you mention him.

#89 Lamplight

I loved People of the Book, it's my favorite Geraldine Brooks novel!!!

Currently reading Plague by Edward Marriott. I wasn't really liking it at first and was considering putting it down...but I'm started to get more interested after about 50 pages. :)

Last summer, my wife and I drove to Markleeville, the county seat of beautiful Alpine County, CA, for a week of R&R. While visiting the local history museum, I bought The Hanging of Lucky Bill about a notorious local incident that took place in 1858. I've finally started reading it. Looks very interesting, in fact.

#89 Citizenjoyce: Your caution on Special Topics in Calamity Physics is noted. What do you (or anyone else) think about reading it on a Kindle? I understand there are also illustrations. I don't want to take the enjoyment out by "flipping" electronically back and forth looking for footnotes and squinting to see badly reproduced drawings. I had it lined up for my next book, but might wait a bit until I get the opinion of others.

Enjoying The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. I have found it a great romance and historical piece. I never saw the mini-series, but the book in places reminds me of a James Michener work on Australia. I'm enjoying McCullough's writing style.

I also have Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War by Dennis Pope going. A great realistic presentation of the facts.

>94 jbleil: The footnotes are included in her speaking, she footnotes herself so you don't need to flip around looking for them (or even more desirably after a while, you can't avoid them.) I can't speak to the pictures, since I foolishly listened to it I didn't see them.

#90 - PokPok - This is my first Edmund Crispin, and I wasn't sure how to take him or his amateur detective, Gervase Fen at first. I finally decided I rather like the whole concept and Fen, well he is witty, brilliant and terriblily rude! I will definitely be reading more of him in the future.

#18 The only book I read the whole way through (of the required) books in HS. I loved it and hope you enjoy it. Someday I'll read it agian :)

I finished and really liked The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and will start a Dutch book, Het A.P. Beerta-Instituut on my way home this evening.

Just started reading Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. This book and The lost symbol are the only books of Brown's that I have left to read

Finsihed Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli. I enjoyed it, especially learning about Bhutan, but I found it a bit uneven.

Now I'm on to Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. I know Hardy is generally depressing to read, but I love Hardy's writing, and his compassion for women. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, since most of Hardy's heroines, if not all, suffer horrible fates, but I feel he treated them the way he did in his novels to bring to light the brutal conditions and oppressive fates suffered by many women of that time, in the hopes of improvinng their circumstances in real life.

(Ack! I edited to fix a very minor problem I noticed and now the touchstones aren't working! Grrrrr!!)

Bookwoman, I agree wholeheartedly about Thomas Hardy.

I am about to begin listening to Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson and continue reading Nobody's Home.

#97/Delta Queen

His most famous is The Moving Toyshop. It's a rollicking good time! I believe he only wrote 9 or so books, and if memory serves, which it may not, Crispin was an Oxford professor.

I also remember having a hard time when I first read him but I did end up enjoying it thoroughly.

I've got his Holy Disorders coming, which will be the first of his I've read.

I probably should at some point start an "almost missed my train stop" list of books. Already Dead is one of them - I managed to get my head out of the story and leap out onto the platform as the doors were closing. Noir vampire detective sounds like an unpromising genre, particularly with all the quickie vampire mashups going on, but Charlie Huston pulls it off. Sharp dialogue, Chandleresque characters, a coherent underworld in NYC. Tip of the hat to Mark for this one.

Next up is The Killing of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen, another Mark-recommended author.

Yah, Joe! Had me worried there for a minute or 2. The next 2 Pitt books are equally as good. You should also love the Bruen. Two of my favorite crime writers. Cool!

I've finished and reviewed "Don't Look Back" (bloody touchstone for the right book won't load) by Karin Fossum, in my thread...post #52.

Finished William Martin's City of Dreams, a DaVinci Code-like thriller with fascinating stories about the history of New York City. The theme is money, beginning with Alexander Hamilton's founding of American banking system. The modern bits were a bit silly (maniacs running about Manhattan streets trying to wipe out the uber cool protagonists who make dumb decisions) but the historical narratives were gripping and kept me turning the pages.

>102 bookwoman247: Bookwoman, when you finish reading, you have to see "Jude" with Kate Winslet, not a feel good movie, but very powerful.

I'm listening to Diana Wynne Jones's Enchanted Glass, and it is indeed enchanting. She will be missed.

I'm about knee-deep in The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I've also started Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and I am still working my way through At Home by Bill Bryson. I'm thoroughly enjoying the Bryson book but just like to read a page or two at a time - I can imagine it does make a good audio book.

>109 Citizenjoyce: Thanks for the tip, Citizenjoyce! I didn't even know there was a movie!

>109 Citizenjoyce: Thanks for the tip, Citizenjoyce! I didn't even know there was a movie!

A double "you're welcome" to you. If you stay up late watching movies on TV, you're bound to come across a few gems.

Here's the trailer for the movie, you probably shouldn't watch it until you're no longer concerned with spoilers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSXRECXrV4Q&NR=1

#105 - Joe, now that's a book recommendation, if it's good enough to make you miss your stop if must be good! I just checked and I have Already Dead on my kindle - now just have to find time to fit it in.

I have moved on to Black Swan Green by David Mitchell which I am really enjoying. I have also started Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, a non-fiction read which, at times, makes me cringe.

DeltaQueen--

Ive not read Jacobs, but I have read Frederick Douglass, which the name of the book escapes me. The famous runaway slave who became literate and was friends with many powerful people of the time. I also agree that at times, it made me cringe.

As we have some similar taste, I'm going to add you to "interesting libraries", if I may. :)

I'd read enough about the treatment of slaves that the first part of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl didn't bother me, but the last part where we see the implications of the Fugiive Slave Act really brought me up short. This is my history as a citizen of the US. Amazing and saddening.

I've been having a hard time finding something to get into (just in a weird mood, I guess, need something at least a "bit" life affirming or uplifting), so starting West of Here by Jonathan Evison and so far, I am liking it!

> 114 You're right, Judy. I've had that happen before (almost missing my train stop), and I love that kind of page-turner. I'm going to add a tag for this.

I read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl at my daughter's recommendation, and it's a remarkable book. It's an important one to read, I think, cringe-inducing and saddening as it may be at times.

The Killing of the Tinkers was another potent Jack Taylor story. A former cop ("Guard") in Galway, he knows how to use his contacts and track down the bad guys. He manages to get himself out of the gutter often enough to do some good and make people want to help him, but his demons are difficult to shake. Dark humor, witty dialogue, and you can't help pulling for Jack.

Time for something lighter and upbeat after a noir week so far: The Girl Who Chased the Moon, by Sarah Addison Allen. She's fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

Kirsty, how's PILLARS OF THE EARTH? My sister hated it, my cousin loved it, and my mother liked it. Now they want me to try it. I don't know. It's pretty long if I'm going to dislike it.

elkiedee:

How in the world can you read so many books at once? Impossible! Heck, I can't read two at once!

I finished and reviewed Kings of the Earth. Find it: Here Short version: Very good. FYI- This author will be attending the BOTNS Retreat this weekend. Next up, is Faithful Place, the 3rd book by Tana French. I loved the 1st two.

Joe- I'm so glad you enjoyed The Killing of the Tinkers. He's such a good writer. The next couple books are just as good.

I'm reading Live Wire by Harlan Coben. It's another in Coben's Myron Bolitar series and is pretty good. It introduces Myron's newphew, Micky, who's going to be the subject of Coben's new Young Adult series.

Hey Joe, next time you're in the market for something grim, gloomy, and important to read, try Man is Wolf to Man. My daughter SHOVED it at me, demanding that I start reading it there and then. I was, shall we say, surprised...but in the end, I felt so very glad I'd read it. I think I might just be strange.

Thanks, Richard. I know for sure I'm strange (!), so that's probably a good one for me. I've actually never heard of it before. I'm going to let Sarah Allen's book lighten things up for a bit, but at some point I'll be ready again for grim and gloomy and important.

I'm squarely in the middle of Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert at the moment, and just started The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor in audio.

I finished and reviewed Karen Russell's rollicking tale Swamplandia. What a ride!

Now I'm reading In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming.

I finished Born on a Blue Day and have such respect for Daniel Tammet's ability to ratchet up his courage and try all the new experiences and traveling he has. It gives me new hope for those with autism. Now, lucky, lucky me I start on Fingersmith.

#127 Oooh, lucky, lucky you indeed! Such a great book.

I'm just getting started on Brighton Rock. Graham Greene is such a 'love or hate' author to me and, unfortunately it's mostly hate, though I will forgive the author of The End of the Affair pretty much anything. I so want to enjoy this one.

I was awed by Brighton Rock which is not to say I liked it all the time. I thought it was a remarkable book.

Started Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen today which was quite a runner here in Germany last year and before. But it appears to be realy good. I am around 100 pages into, and it has just 255 pages. so it is fast going :)

still going on with Lord of the Rings, Finished The Fellowship and started The Two Towers yesterday.

#128 and #129 - Brighton Rock must have something to say because my mother, many years ago, wrote her Master's dissertation on that book.

I have started The Perennial Philosophy, a book I read happily a few decades ago. The first chapter was slow going so something else might intrude.

Robert

Just finished The Hunt for Red October by ;;Tom Clancy. Hated it.

Enjoying When We Were Orphans and will start Swamplandia.

I've been on and off on LT for the last few years, but I'm finishing up my senior year of college, so I figure I might as well jump back in. :)

Just finished Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, which was absolutely brilliant. The characters were endearing, the story was impeccable, and it was beautifully written.

Right now, I'm rereading In the Woods by Tana French, who writes fantastic crime thrillers, and I'm reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers for my class on contemporary memoir. I'm not wild about AHWOSG - it's too ironic and self-aware for my tastes, and besides - I just finished reading The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch, which was heartbreakingly beautiful.

lets see i love reading i have like more than a million books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the fam and I are going away this weekend and I hope to (finally) start both H.M.S. Surprise for the group read and The Imperfectionists for my book club. We'll see how successful I am.

The new thread is here,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/113851