**What Are You Reading Now? -- April 2012

What your reading, what have reviewed, etc, in April?

Starting two days early because I might not be on LT over the weekend. (I try to stay off the computer on Saturday and April 1 is my birthday)

Despite the early start, my April plans are already set:

- Numbers (from the Bible, through Robert Alter's translation) and other related bits
- Mythologies by Roland Barthes - unless I give up
- The Tree of Man by Patrick White
- This Close to Earth by Enid Shomer

And, if I get through all that

- The Love Story of Paul Collins by Donigan Merritt - a new book just released by a favorite "under-appreciated" author

Just in case someone feels like reading some short fiction, we are trying to revive the Short Stories group (yep, there is one) and everyone is welcome in the April Challenge there: http://www.librarything.com/topic/135063

Dan,

If you are not around again before Sunday: Happy birthday :)

No plans for April - every time I make a plan, I break it... :)

Happy birthday, Dan.

As the month starts I will probably still be reading One Book, The Whole Universe and almost certainly still be reading A History of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia: Volume 1.

Robert

Happy Birthday!

I am re-reading The Book Thief right now. After years of asking my retired high-school English teacher aunt if she had read it, I decided to send it to her for her birthday - which was yesterday- now I know she has no excuse! She promised me she would read it this week & we could discuss it next week.

And, then, if I work up the courage I would like to tackle The Master and Margarita .... but am afraid to because I know next to nothing about Russian history. (I should fix that.)

I'm reading Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Woman's Prison by Piper Kerman. It's a fairly good memoir. I like the fact that the author doesn't sensationalize her prison experience or try to get the reader to feel sorry for her. She just tells us what it was like. Next up is The Grievers by Marc Schuster, an ER book from the March batch. Since they sent it to me so quickly, I figure the least I can do is get to it quickly. Plus, it's short, so it should be a fast read.

Starting A Visit from the Goon Squad by jennifer Egan. This was a Pulitzer prize winner and features in quite a few of the member's libraries and so I am expecting great things.

I'm reading Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff and going to start The Virgin in the Garden which will be my first book by A.S. Byatt.

I finished Little Misunderstandings of No Importance, a collection of short stories by Antonio Tabucchi, and I'll now resume reading Gillespie and I by Jane Harris.

I did not finish the Quarter 1 reading for the Monthly Author's Group, so will continue reading Barnaby Rudge. I read 3 books by Steinbeck for the March group read: The acts of King Arthur and his noble knights, The wayward bus & The Winter of Our Discontent. The Monthly Author Group reads C.S. Lewis in April; yesterday, I finished reading Spirits in bondage. A cycle of lyrics and I am well into The Allegory of Love, following in Barry's footsteps now seems natural (I saw Barry did a great review on The Allegory of Love last year.)

I was able to catch up with the 75-Group's Steinbeckathon, and finished reading The Winter of Our Discontent on the last day of the month. The scheduled reading for April is The Moon is Down, and I may either go back to Cannery Row or make an early start in The Grapes of Wrath which is scheduled for May.

The Virago Modern Classics Group has a Muriel Spark Reading Week (23-29 April) for which I will read The Driver's Seat. That group is also doing a year long Elizabeth Taylor Centenary. Elizabeth Taylor is a new author for me, and I bought Angel, which I may want to read this month; the group has scheduled it for July, but I know I won't have much time that month.

Other reading goes on without much forethought, books I have already dipped into are Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow and Festland (in German) by the Swiss author Markus Werner.

After finishing Ali Smith's brilliant and challenging There but for the, I decided I needed something lighter, so I started Still Life by Louise Penny.

#8, 9 I loved both A Visit from the Goon Squad and Cleopatra: A Life -- hope you do too.

I'm reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I don't love it, but I also don't hate it.

As usually, I tried to stay away from online on the 1st of April so a lot of reading :)

Theodore Boone: The Abduction was as good as the first one. If someone expects the usual courtroom drama, they won't get it. But for what the series is, the book is good.

And finished Deadfall Hotel plus the two short stories included in the book -- that's how horror is supposed to read like.

Reading A Free Man of Color at the moment (and liking it) and 1494:How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half which so far does not offer anything new but at least is researched properly.

I've just started Lord of the Flies, which I've somehow managed to live this long without reading. Not sure what I'm going to want to follow that up with.

Finished and reviewed the brilliant but claustrophobic and for me unpleasant Japanese classic, The Woman in the Dunes.

I've finished Hikaru Okuizumi's The Stones Cry Out and hope to review it soon.

I have started The Paston Letters the world's classics edition edited by Norman Davis. These are one of the earliest collections of family letters dating from the 15th century.

I am also reading Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature by John Addington Symonds.

Last night I finished Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman, and I'm now reading Matched by Ally Condie. This is a sort of dystopian YA novel, and I'm a little surprised by how much I'm enjoying it.

I've just started World War Z - enjoying it so far but there are some sloppy errors... for example, a 'llama' is NOT a Tibetan priest...

Finished 3 short books (one of them pretend to be a novel officially but it is more a novella than anything else)

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine which might have a lyrical name but is as much horror and surreal as they come. And pretty good.

The Ghostwriter by Zoran Zivkovic (the novel) - which was just what I needed - an author that had lost his muse end up with a very weird morning. Oh, there is a cat as well.

"Mare Ultima" by Alex Irvine which is fantasy, pretty brutal in places -- the life and travels of a man that goes from revenge to something like fulfillment... Some authors could have written a trilogy out of this thing; Irvine managed it on 72 pages :)

Not entirely sure what I will finish next - on the road next week so we will see.

>21 AnnieMod: I followed Alex Irvine early in his career but have lost track of him, so good to hear he's still writing and it's still good.

I have finished Icefields, so I've returned to Now That You're Back by A. L. Kennedy, but have also pulled some Adrienne Rich off the shelf. Trying to catch up on reviews.

I finished the disappointing On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony. Hopefully, my foray into books on the anthropomorphical representation of Death will throw up less of these kinds of books. On that note, I am about to start A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. My expectations aren't that high.

>23 dmsteyn:: I haven't read that particular series, but my opinion of Piers Anthony is not very high. Christopher Moore is better, although I don't know that A Dirty Job is among his best. I'd recommend those of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels that focus on Death, starting with Mort, if you haven't read those yet.

As for me, I've now started 100 Fiendish Little Frightmares, a collection of very short (mostly five- or six-page) horror stories, and am dipping in and out of I Love It When You Talk Retro, a look at English sayings and phrases that started life as pop cultural, historical, or current events references and have now lost (or started losing) their context. So far, they both seem decent.

Was going to read just one story from Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth but I can't stop!

>25 detailmuse: - A great short story collection! Her first collection, Interpreter of Maladies, is excellent as well.

>26 Cait86: I'm excited that she has another book coming out (possibly next year) but it's a novel, which I haven't liked as well as her stories.

Have just finished The Night Circus which I enjoyed very much and have just started Jon Ronson The Psychopath Test which I am enjoying already and only on chapter 2!

Am reading Whiteseed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke as well as finish up The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Whiteseed, mediocre, so far. Age of Innocence--like a Jane Austen only set in America. Will finish both of these books in the next 1-2 days. Also reviewed The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Also reading the book of I Corinthians for the month of April.

I'm finishing up Titus Alone, the third book in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. I've been on this road since January and while the journey has been amazing, I'm looking forward to finishing it. I'm also reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, which is a casual series of chapters about being an easy-going liberal and a Christian. Interesting, but surprisingly insubstantial. I'm wondering how they managed to make a movie out of this. Oh, and I'm also reading The Discovery of France by Graham Robb, which is an education -- a geographical history of France that does its best to ignore Paris.

I spent most of last night with Quicken and TurboTax. When I went to bed The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré leapt into my hands. Three chapters into it I was very glad to be there.

Robert

I am dipping into too many books.

I am plugging away with Europe Central (not much time to read it this past week, reading Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia on the subway, and am about to dip into some Sherlock Holmes for some relaxation.

Reading Ingmar Bergman's The Magic Lantern: An autobiography, excellent, making sense to me of how he came to have those interests he had in films, so far anyway.

Nearly finished with The Book Thief. After that I'll probably start Don Quixote De Le Mancha which I've wanted to read for a while & The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith which should prove to be a fun read. I usually don't read two books at once but Don Quixote is a bit lengthy & The Forgotten Affairs of Youth is a "hot off the presses" book at my library - which means I can't renew it. The Don Quixote book from the library is a gorgeous book; I"m almost afraid to touch it!

I've just started Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone. Sagan was something of a childhood hero of mine, geeky kid that I was, and may be single-handedly responsible for my studying astrophysics in college, even if I didn't exactly go on to practice it, and is thus responsible, for good or ill, for me ending up where I am today. Reading a little about his life seems in order.

Next up when I finish that, I think, will be The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which is the last of the books I got through SantaThing last Christmas. This being April already, I figured it was high time I finished those.

I'm reading The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq, the winner of the 2010 Prix Goncourt. Once I finish I'll start reading books from this year's Orange Prize shortlist, starting with State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

#36

Ha! I credit Sagan for a career in science too! Or is it "blame"... :)

>38 LolaWalser:: That man has a lot to answer for. :)

I got a few pages into the first essay in The Oxford Handbook of Causation (on the Greek take on causation) and set it aside. I picked up Smiley's People and read almost half of it.

Robert

Have started One Day the Ice Will Reveal Its Dead by Claire Dudman, another icy tale.

What a great title!

I am almost finished Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov- fascinating reading!

Just finished The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards which I enjoyed.

>41 avaland:, 42 yes, isn't it? It was recommended to me some years ago by the writer Jeff VanderMeer—both he and his wife raved about it.

I have finished A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore which, although not brilliant, was at least interesting, readable, and funny. Perhaps bragan was right that it isn't among Moore's best, but at least I'm willing to try more books by him.

Going to start on Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg next.

I'm trying to get caught up on my short story reading, and I'm also in the middle of The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan, which is positively wonderful!

I think that I am reading The Origins of the Slavic Nations by Serhii Plokhy, but if I cannot get a handle on his mode of explication I will give up.

Robert

For what it's worth, I read Plokhy's Yalta: The Price of Peace and found it both readable and thought-provoking.

I am starting The Tree of Man by Patrick White - great first page.

Just finished Badenheim 1939 by Aharon Appelfeld. Recommending it highly.

I'm reading Gillespie and I by Jane Harris, which is superb so far.

I'm reading Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith, an ER book. Also reading Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I can tell I'm going to enjoy both.

I just finished and reviewed the fascinating Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia by Thant Myint-U, an insightful tour of the frontier regions bordering Burma in both countries and the development that is coming.

I have just started Stalin The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore. The book is very good and quite a contrast to the last book I read-Kolyma Tales

Having just finished The Discovery of France by Graham Robb, I'm beginning The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

I am currently reading Mission to Kabul by Harriet Ronken Lynton. Ronken Lynton is an American author who lived in India for many years. Her fiction is based on true events, which she discovered in archives.

Mission to Kabul gives a very authentic picture of life under British rule in India, and the corruption of colonial rule from the point of view of an Indian, who gets caught up in its machinations. As the main character is Muslim, the novel gives us a glimpse of the culture and life-style, typical of Muslims in 19th Century India.

All sorts of things at once - I love reading like this! I'm reading one story a day from a collection of Inspector Montalbano mysteries by Andrea Camilleri, Gli arancini di Montalbano (that's my reading for the train to work). My bedtime reading is Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez. Then there's Clara Sanchez's Ultimas noticias del paraiso, upstairs but not bedtime. Downstairs there's Rebecca Tyrrel's collected columns from the Guardian, Days Like These: Scenes from an Ordinary life, a re-read based in the living room. And then avaland just sent me Drowned by Swedish author Therese Bohman, for review in Belletrista, so I started that as well (it's been all over the house because it's a very light read). I may even finish some of these one day.

I just finished and reviewed the poetic Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil, a portrait of the opium culture in 1970s Bombay and much more.

I have finished Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg, which I enjoyed a lot. It wasn't perfect, but excellent for a debut novel.

Now I am going to focus on finishing reading Goethe!

Last night I finished The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller's brilliant retelling of The Iliad through the eyes of Patroclus. It has been shortlisted for this year's Orange Prize, and I suspect that it will appear on several other literary award lists later this year. The night before I read Gillespie and I by Jane Harris, another novel selected for the Orange Prize longlist, which was a historical novel cum murder mystery set in Victorian Glasgow, as told by a highly unreliable narrator in the form of a "set the record straight" memoir. It was even better than The Song of Achilles, although it wasn't selected for the Orange Prize shortlist, and it's my favorite novel of the year so far.

Still reading Numbers, but have dropped anything else remotely difficult.

Finished (but not reviewed):
- Imperfect : An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott with Tim Brown - an Early Reviewer baseball autobiography.
- This Close to Earth, a poetry collection by Enid Shomer, which was not enough. I hope to look up more sometime.

Other than Numbers I've been reading:
- Cobb : A Biography by Al Stump - more baseball.

>58 rachbxl: I'm glad someone else has "upstairs" and "downstairs" books and that it's not just me!

Finished Kobo Abe's The Face of Another a few days ago and have just posted my review of it on my thread. Great book. I'm gotten a little tired of reading in English though so I'm going in the other direction with Dumas' La Reine Margot. Plus I love reading Dumas when the weather gets all sunny and nice.

On the verge of the emergence of Russia from the realm of Muscovy, I have to set aside The Origins of the Slavic Nations temporarily to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog for discussion on Wednesday in the church book group. The first forty plus pages are not bad, but I am not engaged by them either.

Robert

Just finished The Siege, Helen Dunmore's book about the siege of Leningrad, and have started on Italo Calvino's The Baron in the Trees. Also reading The Making of Modern Britain - Lloyd George has lost the leadership of the coalition government because of blatant corruption, and Stanley Baldwin is PM.

I have picked up War and Peace again after starting it last summer but not finishing it. I have an ER book coming, so I may put it on hold again when that comes.

I'm rereading parts of Goethe's Faust in the original German. Yes, bragging, bragging, I know, but I studied German at school for 5 years, so it's about time that came in handy.

I have also started two shelf-breakers: Why the West Rules-For Now by Ian Morris, and Imajica by Clive Barker.

Just began one off my TBR pile yesterday, And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by Steve Oney. It takes place in Atlanta in 1913. Leo Frank is the accountant/manager of a pencil company. He is also Jewish. True story....however, it's 763 pages long and in great detail. It must get better if I'm going to finish it. I'm about 70 pages in and compelled to skip to last 100 pages or so! I plan to also finish up The Age of Innocence today!

I picked up The Testament of Jessie Lamb this morning, and read it in one sitting. It was obviously readable, but I was not impressed by the writing style, and could not sympathize with Jessie.

I'm moving on to The Night Circus. I resisted buying it for a long time, but every time I went into a bookstore to browse, it seemed like someone recommended it to me. I figured after the fifth or sixth time that happened, I should give it a try!

I have finished Hit Lit but I'm not sure what I'm reading now, as I seem to have a lot of distractions lately. I'm pretty sure I'll return to the Claire Dudman novel. As for commenting on the books I've read, I am once again behind, behind, behind.

>71 avaland: Hit Lit sounds very interesting. Gotta love that title too!

I am waiting for the May thread

>72 avidmom: It analyzes 12 American mega-bestsellers and finds 10 common traits. I think his thesis holds up generally, but some of the specific attempts to fit some of these traits to some of the books seem a bit of a stretch. The book is the result of many years discussing this in his popular fiction classes. I'll get to writing about it at some point, I have a lot of distractions these days...

I've jumped into The Elegance of the Hedgehog pool, the water's lukewarm and kind of still. But halfway through, I'm getting more interested vs less.

New thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/136477