**What are you reading now?-- May

I'm not doing so good on my responsibilities with this thread, it being May 4...and I just realized I hadn't started it.....

Anyway, for me
- about half way through The Lacuna, which is flawed but pleasantly readable.
- A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea by Joel Achenbach...which I'm not enjoying so far
- The "20th Anniversary Issue" of The Cape Rock poetry review...this is from 1984. It's a selection of their best over those first 20 years and the poetry is spectacular.
- First Peoples in a New World by David J. Meltzer - an archeological summary of the populating of North America. Just sampling, I'm curious and it's interesting so far.

As a side note, I finished Florida in Poetry which I've been reading almost everyday since late January and have become very attached to. I miss reading it.

I don't know where I left of in the last thread so I'll just recap what i've got going currently:

Almost done with Stiff by Mary Roach - a funny but informative look at what happens to the body after death.

Half way through Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman - a book on books/reading books, have seen a lot of references to it by multiple people here and so far hasn't disappointed.

Still just getting started with The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing edited by Richard Dawkins - the essays are really excellent but dense and requires a bit of research on my part to fully grasp some of the concepts discussed by the various authors. Not a bad thing in my estimation.

I finally finished Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, which was excellent, but which took me quite a while to finish -- in part, I think, because like the Apollo program itself, I didn't want it to be over. I've now started The Ask by Sam Lipsyte, but 30 pages in I really can't decide whether I like his writing style or not. I think the satire might be kind of hit-and-miss for me, but we'll see how it goes.

>2 stretch:: Excellent choices, Stretch! Stiff is one of the most memorable books I've read in recent years, I think, and I enjoyed Ex Libris a lot, too.

Still trying to get though David Copperfield....

I have nearly finished Roberto Bolano's 2666, which hasn't for me quite lived up to the hype.

I'm also reading poems chiefly from manuscript by John Clare and Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje.

I have got to read Bleed for me by Michael Robotham for my book club soon

I have finished and enjoyed Madame Bovary. It was the subject of heated discussion at my book group on Tuesday night - everyone (pretty much) liked the book, but opinions differed sharply as to the title character: shallow and vain, or victim of the limitations and expectations placed on women in that society?

The split was (unusually for our group) fairly much along gender lines: 2 of the 3 men were strongly critical of her, while all 3 women in the group were sympathetic. I was mostly, but not entirely, sympathetic.

Our next book is Room With A View by E. M. Forster - I suspect this won't provoke quite the same level of debate.

I'm currently about 3/4 of the way through "Island" by NZ writer Penelope Todd. I wasn't sure I'd like this novel, although I know and like Penelope, but in fact I'm enjoying it a lot. At this point in the novel, I am distinctly nervous about how it will end.

Got a few things going:
The Deep Blue Good by which I first read back in the 70s & 80s when I lived in Florida and consumed this series. It's not quite as terrific as I thought then, but it's still an enjoyable read.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. Very well-written and moving.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky which I've just started. So far, so good.

I have a sick feline at home, so I expect to be around the house a lot this weekend. Hope to make some progress on my TBR list!

I've finished three books so far this month:

The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed: A newly published novel (UK only) about the people of a village in early 21st century Kashmir near the Line of Control that is caught between the conflict between India and Pakistan, which was very good.

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna: The best novel I've read this year, which is set in Freetown, Sierra Leone before, during and after that country's civil war.

The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec: A short, absurd and humorous work about an employee in a large corporation who seeks a meager raise from his boss.

I'm currently reading Amigoland by the Chicano author Oscar Casares for Cinco de Mayo, and The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach.

I just finished and reviewed the remarkable and difficult to understand Life and a Half/La vie et demie, a "fable" about a murderous African dictatorship.

Have now finished and commented on Stiff, which I loved and Ex Libris, good but not great.

Now reading 'a social history' of the theory of decent with modification (also know as evolution) by Stephen Jay Gould Ever Since Darwin and Jingo by Terry Pratchett just to mix things up.

>8 kidzdoc: The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise sounds experimental and fun.

I just started Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts, about the 1933 US ambassador to Germany noticing Hitler's growing menace.

I just took a little detour for a quick re-read of On Black Sisters' Street by Chika Unigwe, for a Belletrista review. It's about four African prostitutes working in the red-light district in Antwerp, Belgium, and it's much, much better than it sounds.

The detour was from Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman, a memoir about a childhood in Poland interrupted by emigration to Canada, and the writer's struggles to come to terms with living life in a different language.

I've also just started Primera Memoria by Ana Maria Matute, to celebrate Matute's being awarded Spain's Premio Cervantes last month - widely seen as the greatest honour in Spanish-language literature (previous winners include Carpentier, Vargas Llosa, Borges, Onetti, Fuentes, etc etc). She's only the third woman to win it since it was set up in 1976. (Just did a quick search to see how the title was translated into English and am shocked to see how little of her work appears to have been translated - I hope someone's going to correct me...)

I read Lost in Translation years ago and really loved it. On Black Sisters' Street sounds fascinating.

I finished The Ask, which did not impress me, and quickly made my way through Dan Wells' I Don't Want to Kill You, the third book in his series about a sociopathic teenager attempting to be a good guy instead of a killer. (Or maybe attempting to be a killer good guy.) And I've now started Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, a fantasy novel set in an alternate version of early America. I've loved some of Card's stuff and hated others, but I'm pleased to report that so far this one is excellent.

I finished and reviewed Patti Smith's amazing memoir, Just Kids, and have moved on to two classics: Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park. I've never read either, though I've started both several times. Hopefully I make it through this time!

I'm reading Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik, about an American family's experiences with French culture and Blood Men, which I picked up because it is set in Christchurch and is written by a Kiwi, which is not something found everyday in South Carolina.

Finished The Lacuna. I was surprised to find that although it's the 24th book I have read this year, it's only the third novel.

Now, I just started Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen.

Finished reading Le village aux huit tombes by Seishi Yokomizo, the famed creator of the character Detective Kindaichi. I'll post more thoughts when I'm not typing on an iPod.

What a wonderful assortment of books we're reading!

#17 -- I'll be interested to hear what you think of Shadow Country. I read it a while ago and what sticks with me is the mood and the rendering of Florida in those early years (I grew up there in the 60s & 70s). He does some mighty evil characters.

I'm reading How to Read Novels Like a Professor - so far, it's kind of fun. Also digging into The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel by, well, Amy Hempel.

Perusing my shelf for what's next (and sometimes that gets determined by books I've put on hold at the library coming available).

#19 - My own southern Florida childhood that led me to S. FL history and then here to Shadow Country. (I grew up in 1970's and 1980's, mostly in Hollywood).

I'm stuck with the National Green Building Standard as my current reading for work. Bleh.

While in Japan I also read Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama. Thoughts can be found on my Club Read thread.

I've just finished Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik and am beginning Swamplandia! by Karen Russell.

I've been getting a satisfying amount of reading done lately! Currently I'm on My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales.

I finished The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa and Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott yesterday. Today I'm reading The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan by Yasmin Khan, and Americus, Book I by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

I am reading The Discovery of France by Graham Robb.

I'll be interested to see what you think of that, baswood - it's tentatively on my wishlist, based on excellent reviews but measured off against the question of how interested I really am in the subject...

Can anyone help me. I need to know how you get the book or Arthur names in Blue. Thank you for your help in advanced.

Ladydebbie, those blue titles and authors are called, on LibraryThing, touchstones. I explained how to initiate them in this message. I believe it is still reliable, but touchstones are getting more and more cranky as the reworking of Talk progresses.

Robert

Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb is a very odd novel. The principal character seems to have little idea about Japanese cultural norms (especially as manifested in the corporate workplace) even though she spent her early childhood years in the country and speaks the language well. I haven't finished this 'humorous' and 'satirical' novel yet and am at present reading the author's rather awkwardly interposed rant about the cultural constraints imposed on the women of Japan. (Humour and satire seem to have been set firmly aside for the present.)

This quick-read has me wondering how a similar look at, say, Belgian or French culture by a Japanese author would be received in those countries.

baswood/wandering_star - I have a review of The Discovery of France

baswood/wandering_star - I have a review of The Discovery of France here. I found it tough to read - it wanders, it's not really linear in way I could identify, and it expects a somewhat intimate knowledge of French geography by the reader, since the locations mentioned aren't on any maps in the book...but, if you get past that, there is some fascinating info, especially on linguistics and the Pays.

Dan, I read your review of The Discovery of France and you are absolutely right. Its not an introduction, it's a tough read and you need to have a basic knowledge of France or a good map sitting beside the book which you can refer to.

Having said all of that I am finding it fascinating. I live in France and so have a basic knowledge of its Geography and what Robb is trying to do is get into the psyche of the French people and in this Robb is quite brilliant. Paris is not France - hell! its almost a separate country and from the anecdotes and vignettes that Robb provides I can see why the local people around me (rural South West France) act and behave the way they do. I am enthralled.

I've just finished and reviewed the fascinating and thought-provoking The Eichmann Trial by Deborah Lipstadt, in which she revisits the famous trial from the perspective of 50 years, and also A Drop of the Hard Stuff, the latest of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, set early in Scudder's career as he is struggling to complete his first year of sobriety while making a new life as a private investigator.

32/33, thanks, very useful. I think I will read it if a copy falls into my hands, but not seek it out!

And now I've just read and reviewed The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak, a beautifully written and moving coming of age/war story that I have mixed feelings about.

And now, I now just read and reviewed Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette, a noir-ish satire about a female professional killer.

I'm currently reading The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta for the upcoming Belletrista issue. It's been an interesting read so far comparing the different tribes of Nigeria, and reflecting on the roles of women in Nigerian culture as a wife, mother, and daughter. Also raises interesting points on modern society versus the traditions of the local tribe. Good so far but definitely not a quick read as I don't want to miss out on any cultural detail as that's the most intriguing part.

Having finished Cars at the End of an Era, I'm now reading E.M. Forster's A Room With A View, for my book group, and enjoying it - although it sometimes feels more like a playscript than a novel. Up ahead lie a couple of books by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, which I will use to advance a mighty, yet-to-be-constructed essay about her work that I will be writing for Belletrista.

Next in the nonfiction pile lies Mediated by Thomas de Zengotita; and I haven't been reading much poetry lately, but I am looking forward to Kingdom Animalia: The Escapades Of Linnaeus, the first solo collection by the estimable Janis Freegard.

I just read and reviewed Faith, the latest novel by Jennifer Haigh; although I'm a fan of Haigh, and did enjoy reading this book, some parts of it didn't quite work for me.

I finally finished, and reviewed, the compelling and horrifying Gulag by Anne Applebaum, and I also read and reviewed the dark satire The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer, newly re-released by NYRB.

Finished The Joys of Motherhood, by Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta, today as a means to round out my May. Not the most cheerful of books but it's certainly an informative read.

Finally reading The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. It's been eyeing me awhile...

I'm ending the month with Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, which is excellent so far.

I've been reading Gravitational Manipulation of Domed Craft: UFO Propulsion Dynamics, for which, under the new regime, the touchstone does not work. It is so stupid I may give up on it. I hope that I don't have to abandon pseudo-science altogether.

Robert

Where's Dan? it's nearly the first of June - well here in Europe anyway.

I'm struggling to finish Funeral for a Dog by Thomas Pletzinger.

I've just started Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh, still a bit confused if this is the first book in a series or prequel or just background filler for the universe her other books are set in, but I'm not having any issues with the plot.

It's June! Come on over!