Group Reading Log: June 2012

I've just started Grapes of Wrath. Busy life right now, I may be some time reading this...

It's been ages. I hope all is well, everyone. It is pouring outside at the moment. I have just finished The Memory of Love and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was chosen for Bookclub and we had a very good discussion last night. Have you finished it, Wookie?

I am now reading The Toaster Project .... my daughter's book .... which I thought I'd check out. :)

I finished Storm Front a while back, the first of the Harry Dresden series. Found it a bit like a cross between Philip Marlowe and Kinsey Millhone, with magic.

Now on to Bittersweet by Nevada Barr, a standalone novel (not one with Anna Pigeon).

I've started (again) on If on a Winter's Night a Traveler as I've just read a really interesting analysis of it in working on my current project. I did start it with a book club some years ago, but I didn't have the mindset for it then. I'm finding it fascinating now.

> 4: Very strange book, that one!

Sorry, off with the coding fairies a lot lately. Work's phenomenally busy at the moment. Which is good, but I'm missing my goofing off time! :)

Carole, I put The Memory of Love to one side, I wasn't paying it enough attention. Poor old book, it deserved a better reader than me! Have also put to one side Grapes of Wrath so I could quickly finish Song of Achilles which is due back at the library this weekend. Song of Achilles is proving to be a gripping read. Depending on how much I end up sobbing at the end (I think I might blubber a tad) I may return to Grapes of Wrath or move onto something fluffier for relief.

crimson-tide, I hope that's praise for Harry Dresden, I enjoy that series! (I'm quite behind at the moment though, sigh.)

livrecache, I'm glad you're liking If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, it was a fascinating book. Strange, but fascinating. :)

>6 wookiebender:: Yes, I did enjoy my time with Harry. Good light relief. I'm not rushing straight off to the second in the series, but I shall get there in time.

The Song of Achilles is one of the few books I actually went out and bought, after reading and hearing so many terrific reviews. And then it went and won the Orange Prize. :-) I must get to it very soon...

Finished The Song of Achilles, and, yes crimson-tide, you must read it soon. I thought it was excellent. (And Don read it first, and liked it too, although he reckoned it was a "slow burn", in that there was too much set up before the final chapters. I reckon he thinks anything that happens before the actual Trojan War doesn't count as plot. I beg to differ. :)

I will be returning to Grapes of Wrath rsn, but since I'm home this morning (Mr Bear is off school today), I thought I'd pick up my A4 draft copy of the second "Sea Kings" book by Andrew McGahan (yay for having friends who work in publishing!). You may remember that last month I read and enjoyed the first, The Coming of the Whirlpool very much, after a few initial worries. This one is called Voyage of the Unquiet Ice.

And Mr Bear and I have one more chapter left of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. He's really enjoying it, I'm peeved with it, but it's been fun introducing him to the Greek pantheon of Gods (always a favourite bunch of mine; as Don says, it's like "Days of our Lives", but with Gods), and also fascinating running into the same characters as I was reading The Song of Achilles. :)

Finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I doubt it'll ever be a favourite of mine, but Mr Bear had a great time and it was fun introducing him to the Greek gods.

We've since picked up The Hobbit (thanks to an unhealthy Lego obsession, and Lego are putting out all sorts of Lord of the Rings related Lego for the upcoming Hobbit movie). One chapter in, I'm not sure if it'll hold his attention for long, but I'm enjoying revisiting it.

It's pouring outside .... pouring ..... :) My fingers are ccccold ..... :) I enjoyed The Toaster Project - a quick read and an unusual book. I also finished The Invisible Man which I had been listening to while driving. Fascinating story .... but I had no sympathy for that Invisible man .... I am now reading The Man who Disappeared, which has potential to be a page-turner for me, but I haven't got enough time to lock myself away and read it in peace, but I am enjoying it.

It is great to see what everyone is reading at the moment. I am curious about The Song of Achilles too ...... (#7) .... and will be looking forward to updates.

Carole, which Invisible Man did you read? The H.G. Wells, or the Ralph Ellison? I think I have both somewhere to read! (My bad.)

Nevada Barr's Bittersweet is a lovely, lovely novel. Her first, and it's a real standout as a debut effort.

Apparently researched from many sources, including women's diaries from the American West of the time, it tells the story of Imogene and Sarah, two women who forge a life together in nineteenth century Nevada. Tender, yet powerful, authentic, and well written. I loved it.

wookie and pinkozcat, I seem to remember you talking about Georgette Heyer not that long ago. I've been given six of hers (murder mysteries, not the Regency romances) by a friend - all very old books that are most likely destined for the op shop, but thought I'd read one of them first.

I'd value everyone's opinion as to which of the six is the best, as I'll probably only get to read one. Actually, I guess the first question should be whether it's worth reading any of them?

They are:
Envious Casca
Death in the Stocks
A Blunt Instrument
Detection Unlimited
Duplicate Death
Behold Here's Poison

The titles all sound very A.C.ish don't they? lol
Thanks

#13 >Oh! How exciting! Looking forward to hearing about how this goes, crimson-tide.

#11> Wookie, I read the HG Wells version of The Invisable Man I've just finished reading The Man Who Disappeared, which was very good. Our son, (aged 13) who never notices anything, asked me yesterday about my obsession with disappearing men. I wondered what he was talking about and then he explained about the titles of the books, and how they appeared to be connected!! lol

I have just started reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

# 13 c-t I was going to say, don't bother until I re-read what you'd said and that these are NOT the Regency romances. Not that I read more than a couple of those, and maybe she's lifted her game.

# 11 The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison was one of the books I studied when I was doing English Lit. at university. Loved it.

Oh dear, recommendations for both Invisible Men! How will I choose? :)

Loved Voyage of the Unquiet Ice, looking forward to reading the final copy, as the one I read was a draft.

Still going with Grapes of Wrath, which is excellent. Interleaving the depressing aspect of it (so many parallels to current events; the more things change, the more the stay the same) with Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, which I haven't read for years. Loving it.

No opinion on the Heyers, sorry, I've only read her regency romances.

Oh well, thanks anyway. If no-one's read any of them I probably won't bother. Too many other books waiting...

I've been having an Anne Tyler binge: Ladder of Years, Breathing Lessons – well, two's a binge isn't it, when it's one after another. It's kind of like Carole888 reading books with seemingly the same themes. Actually, these do have the same themes – women whose families no longer seem to need them. I thought that was enough of that, and now am having another binge of really escapist pulp fiction. I've discovered a new (to me) crime writer Peter James, a British author I read Dead Like Me followed by Dead Tomorrow. Not great, but what I want to read at the moment. I then read another book of his Perfect People which is more in the speculative fiction genre. The basic premise was interesting, but it wasn't well constructed, and it was totally implausible. However, I was attracted by the concept of 'designer babies' and the consequences of eugenics. But it's not a book I would recommend, as he doesn't do the them justice.

PS: I saw The Song of Achilles in the library yesterday, but couldn't recall whether that was the right title. I'll go in and grab it now.

And I totally enjoyed If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, despite, or maybe because, it was so weird. It did make me think, which most of the books I've read in the past month haven't

I've just finished Life As We Knew It. It was an easy and enjoyable read, with the author doing a very convincing job of being inside a 16 year old's head. The premise was good, and once you accept the original event all else was more or less believable. The slow ride downhill made for good character development. I thought there were a couple of places where a 'message' was rather too obvious, but overall a great ya novel; well constructed, reasonably well written and a believable cast.

Next I'm on to some non-fiction, either Half the Sky or Changing Lives.

I think I'll get hold of that, crimson-tide. I just looked up Life as We Knew It online, as I was thinking that it was a book I had already read, but I remembered the author as being Meg Someone. It does sound interesting, and I'm just getting back into YA. Now it's bugging me that I can't recall what I was confusing it with.
Oh, it was How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. That one was a bit of a disappointment.

Oh dear, it's well into July now! Time to start the new thread....

ETA: Here it is: http://www.librarything.com/topic/139313