What Are You Reading the Week of 17 November 2012?

The 17th: Christopher Paolini

Shelby Foote

Raymond F. Jones

The 18th: Alan Dean Foster

Margaret Atwood

Michael Swanwick

The 19th: Sharon Olds

Allen Tate

Mikhail Lomonosov

The 20th: Don DeLillo

Nadine Gordimer

Molly Gloss

The 21st: Beryl Bainbridge

Lisa Goldstein

Selma Lagerlöf

The 22nd: Marjane Satrapi

Valerie Wilson Wesley

Elizabeth George Speare

The 23rd: Ismael Beah

Robert Barnard

Steven Brust

I've read and reviewed Nick Hornby's More Baths, Less Talking over in my thread...post #262.

Amazingly, he's made me willing to read a bio of DICKENS.

I'm finishing up Plain City by Virginia Hamilton. Then who knows what I'll be reading next.

Not quite halfway through The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, a steampunk mystery starring Sir Richard Burton and Algernon Swinburne, really quite bizarre. Also still listening to The Red Queen in the car and reading Flora Segunda on Kindle on my commute.

Thanks for the thread, as always, Richard. I'm loving every moment of The Snow Child, my only regret being that perhaps I should have waited until there's snow on the ground here to read it (then again, I could wait years for that, so maybe not).

Thank you for the shiny new thread, Richard!

I'm reading Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman. It's a fascinating look at their lives, at where their trajectories crossed, and at history. I'm finding it quite readable; even more so than Gandhi's autobiography.

I Am The Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism by Charles Kesler. An intellectual history of liberalism, going back to Hegel, and Obama's place in it.

Just finished up J.C. Masterman's account of The Double-Cross System in WW2, and later today I'll get back into The Spies of Warsaw, by Alan Furst.

Just beginning the second in the Dr. Siri oevre, Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill.

Today I'm starting A German Requiem, the third in the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr.

After finishing Johnny Tremain I have decided to read Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith.

I am just loving The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, I will be sad when it ends. I think that mollygrace may have mentioned this novel, if so thank you molly!!

In the background my husband is listening to The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, I just loved the reading of this and I am enjoying the snippets that I am catching from the audio.

Corgiiman, I hope you like the McCall Smith. I read the first one in that series and decided I didn't like the heroine much, but maybe I quit on it too soon. I've got about 10 books running and I either am not particularly interested in them or it's a book that requires more thought than I have time to give it right now.

This past week I finished Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. Today I started and finished The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie. This week I hope to finally read Hideous Kinky and Running in the Family (a book bullet from Nick Hornby btw Richard) or I might just download and read the next Miss Marple mystery...

#14, kiwiflowa, The moving finger is one of my favorite Miss Marple. I haven't re-read it in years--perhaps I should.

>14 kiwiflowa: Heh. Could be so many from that rotten man's book, couldn't it?

I'm currently reading The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradely

#15 Beth I really enjoyed it and will probably be one of my favorites too. Miss Marple only had a very small part in this one but the characters and mystery were really well thought out. I'm reading these in order and I was quite surprised at first that the books each had a new protagonist, sometimes a new setting, yet sometimes secondary characters would appear again. The only commonality is Miss Marple. I really like it. It means the books can be read as a stand alone or over a long period of time as it's not necessary to remember stuff.

Reading now:
Paper: just starting Pomegranate Soup
Audio: a little more than 2/3 through Team of Rivals. I was planning to finish it before seeing Lincoln but couldn't wait. What a politician! I don't see how Lincoln was so able to concentrate on goals and not let personal antagonisms get in his way.
Nook: still listening to Lillian's Story: One Woman's Journey through the 20th Century and have to say I don't recommend trying to read it on the ARC machine at the gym because it's way too hard to breathe while reading about the lives of English people during WWII. Fortunately the war is over, Lillian is moving up in class and life is much more enjoyable.

I finished Plain City - A very odd YA/MG book. Quiet but on an extremely difficult subject matter. To tell you the subject matter would be to give you a huge spoiler. I'll be starting The Heart is a Lonely Hunter soon.

Still reading A fire upon the deep

I absolutely loved The Snow Child - what an enchanting book! Now I'm reading The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey.

Finished Barbara Hambly's The Walls of Air and started The Armies of Daylight. Still reading Tolkien's The Silmarillion and The Hobbit.

Have read about half of my ER book Love Saves the Day. However I took a one day hiatus to read a new arrival, Sky Rocket: the Story of a Little Bay Horse. I plan on finishing up that ER book this week.

And then I'll tackle Mt. TBR again...

Fuzzi: I recently started Love Saves the Day too. Only about 50 pages in. I don't often read multiple books simultaneously, so am going to finish The Midwife by Jennifer Worth (which is very good) before resuming Love Saves the Day.

I had to wave the flag of surrender and Pearl Rule the heck out of A Place Beyond Courage. Too bad, it's a great idea for an historical novel, an interesting time in history, and a really interesting character. See what sank the ship of my interest in my thread...post #36.

@framboise, I am finding that Love Saves the Day is getting better as I read...not that I didn't enjoy the first 50 pages...see what I'm sayen? ;)

I just finished Where'd You Go, Bernadette? last night. It was smart and funny and I loved all the characters. Not sure what's up next.

Still enjoying Call the Midwife on audio but left it in my car which is spending the weekend at the dealer... :(

On a happy note, I put up my review of the entertaining, light-hearted educational book Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works in my thread...post #272.

Just finished Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks. It was not as good as his other books The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat or Musicophilia:Tales of Music and the Brain.

I have just started The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by James Wight.

Oh, wow, @ellenflorman, I'd not heard of that Herriot book before. I'll have to see if our library has it.

I'm still plugging away at Team of Rivals but I have to say it's been a real slog and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe because I'm not really learning anything new about Lincoln and the Civil War? I refuse to give up since I am on page 535/754. I've got too much invested!

Will try to read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

31 fuzzi

It is a biography of Herriot by his son James Wight.

The Pope's Jews by Gordon Thomas

Also, The Chronicles of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes Companion to the series' upcoming 3rd season.

I'm reading and enjoying May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes. I have no idea where we're going (and I'm not quite halfway through) but it's quite a ride.

>35 princessgarnet: Oooh, The Pope's Jews sounds interesting! For some reason the first touchstone that comes up leads to a book called "The Popes Against the Jews"?! Got this one to link right, though. (Road to Valour touched on the same theme: that the Church was afraid speaking out overtly would compromise what they were doing covertly. Highly recommended.)

Speaking of WWII, and FionaWH's post last week: the book about the making of Schindler's List sounds good. And the movie was EXCELLENT. But long: bring two boxes of tissues.

And I've gotten my 'ooo, shiny!' groove back for new books, perhaps partly because Mr. Churchill's Secretary got dumped off Mt. TBR so quickly. Check out my review to see why.

#17 I have the Mists of Avalon. Read it years ago and mostly really enjoyed it, but it changed my concept of Merlin. Won't add a spoiler here, will wait and see what you think :o)

#19 I loved Pomegranate Soup

#25 Have Call the Midwife on my wish list - enjoyed the TV series

#37 I watched Sophie's Choice and vowed never again, but will make an exception for Schindler's List. I am 3/4 through Searching for Schindler and it's more the author's memiors now, his research is complete and he has written the book, just waiting on making the movie, not sure how much detail we will get of that but there are some excellent photos - both from the film set and from the war.

>30 ellenflorman: ellenflorman

I guess I'll hold off getting Hallucinations until I can borrow it from the library. Oliver Sacks is one of my favourite authors, but when I read The Mind's Eye, I kept wondering if his best writing days were over. I hope not, but the new book doesn't sound very promising.

I've posted my review of Curse of the Pogo Stick, the fifth Dr. Siri mystery set in 1970s Laos, in my thread...post #45.

I do understand that if you're going to read 'old' books you're going to have to put up with out-dated views on race etc and normally that doesn't bother me but I got to the point in The Man in the Queue where I just couldn't take another mention of the suspect as 'the Dago' and abandoned it.

I may not have made the obvious choice by going from that to Armadale but I do love Wilkie Collins.

(In fact, I've just mentally quizzed myself as to why I can ignore it in WC but not in that particular Tey book and I think it's because the racism in Collins's books is (nearly) always the product of a particular character's mind, whereas Tey was making me, as the reader, call her man 'the Dago' every time she did so.)

#32
I agree with you about Team of Rivals. I am just on chapter 9. I had a whole day on Sunday to devote to this book, and I only managed to read about 20 pages. The writing isn't bad, but it just doesn't click with me. I will finish the book, but I am having trouble seeing just what it is that most everybody is liking about it so much.

(34) @ellenflorman, I see! And our library DOES have a copy.

Guess where I'm headed after work....? ;)

I'm reading Peggy Noonan's "John Paul the Great". I love the way Ms Noonan writes! I was "into" this book as soon as I opened the pages. Ms. Noonan writes of some little known facts on the Pope.

# 44 I have ever only read one of Joanna Trollope's books; Friday Nights, which I notice didn't get great reviews in LB.
Yep pretty much brain candy, okay for a break from heavier reads.

It's interesting following these threads - being in New Zealand it seems we follow Europe and Britain more than the States when it comes to books and authors as so many of the books you all mention I have never heard of, when I look them up they are often by American authors. I will have to expand my list even further!! There just aren't enough hours in the day!!

I had to abandon Pomegranate Soup before I even started it because the poltergeists seem to have absconded with it. Instead I've begun We Band of Angels about nurses imprisoned by the Japanese in the Philippines in WWII.

FionaWh: Yes, I recently watched the BBC/PBS series Call the Midwife too and went to get the book. I hadn't heard of her before.

You will have to share with us some of your fave books that might not be so well known here (in the States)!

I finished reading Sliver on Saturday. It was a much better book than a movie - as is usually the case. :) I had started to read Blood Red Roses but just couldn't get into it for some reason. So that book has been put aside and I'm starting to read Emma Hamilton which is very interesting.

Finished the marvelous Gabriel's Gift, and will begin reading The Crystal Frontier by Carlos Fuentes.

framboise: Looking back through my lists there are a few books by American authors I have read lately : Run by Ann Patchett, Caribou Island by David Vann oops sorry he was born in Alaska, and Nothing to Envy: Life & Death in North Korea by Barbara Demick.
I just couldn't put Nothing to Envy down, we all vaguely know, or imagine what life must be like in North Korea but this was just such an eye-opener.
I will certainly post reviews as I go :o)

Back from the Galapagos! Had an amazing time. Words cannot describe. On the plane rides and such read: 1) Doc by Mary Doria Russell (loved it); The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby on recommendation of some new Ecuadorian friends (loved it); and The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Baily (loved it). So wow, that was a really amazing stretch.

I am about to start ER book Butch Cassidy Beyond Grave by W.C. Jameson.

>52 CarolynSchroeder: Welcome back! I'm so jealous I could spit! Happy for your three good reads, of course.

*happy waves*

>52 CarolynSchroeder: Wow, the Galapagos is a major item on my bucket list. I am also jealous (but am trying not to spit. Kindly disregard the drool running down my chin).

Currently having some fun with Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. After that, I'll probably move onto Justin Cronin's The Passage, though the complete set of Game of Thrones have been staring at me resentfully all summer.

I can't seem to stop reading Agatha Christie mysteries. I have now read A Murder is Announced, They Do It With Mirrors, and am on to A Pocket Full of Rye.

>55 kiwiflowa:: Coincidentally, I'm planning to watch the recent TV adaptation of A Pocket Full of Rye this evening! I borrowed Series 4 of Agatha Christie's Marple from the library.

On the reading front, I am all too quickly reaching the conclusion of Bryant and May off the Rails, by Christopher Fowler.

I'm going to set aside The Heart is a Lonely Hunter for now. I like it, and it seems the perfect book for a group read. Any takers? But my ER book came in, and Gone Girl just showed up with my name on it at the library. The ER book is The Miniature Wife and other stories. For some reason, the auto-touchstone for this is Geoffrey Chaucer. So does that mean I'm reading a classic from beyond the grave?

#55 kiwiflowa I couldn't get enough of Agatha Christie when I was a teenager, but haven't read any for years (and I mean years), but I did get Agatha Christie at Home by Hilary Macaskill from the library recently. She enjoyed buying and selling property so had many homes over the years - it's probably more a "coffee table" book but some beautiful photos of her homes and the surrounding English countryside, plus a real insight into the lady herself.

I have just finished Searching for Schindler, it did lose me a bit but eventually moved back to some of the making of the movie near the end. Glad I read it though, before I read the actual book and watch the movie.

Starting The Man from Bejing by Henning Mankell tonight.

I'm reading THE LITIGATORS by John Grisham.

Just finished THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

Yes, I'm a Mystery and Crime junkie. But I do read non-crime Fiction too.

Just finished Cloud Atlas - this book was not at all what I expected. Struggled with in in parts. On to The Birth House, I have heard wonderful things about this book and as my grandparents came from Nova Scotia I am drawn to reading books taking place there! :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone! =:)

Having a lie-down after pie making and before stuffing creation. Reading The Stockholm Octavo and absolutely wishing all these tacky people would cancel for tomorrow so I could devour it uninterrupted!

#61
I just added Stockholm Octavo to my wishlist. I will be waiting to see what you have to say about it.

#60: I attempted The Birth House recently because I had read and loved The Virgin Cure by the same author but just could not get into it. Hope you have a better time with it.

Now, now Richard, you know all those lovely friends and family members aren't tacky - and think of your waistline if you had to eat all those pies yourself. Tomorrow will pass, and we can all get back to reading.

I just finished the enormous and worthwhile Team of Rivals and will start In Dubious Battle in the car on the way to dinner tomorrow. Now I'm off to chopping and dicing and slicing and saucing.

Just started Dawn, my first Octavia Butler and the first in the Lilith's Brood trilogy, and am so far enjoying it a lot.

Just read James Herriot's Cat Stories, an impulse borrow from the library.

I need more humor in my life so I've happily settled in with Stuart McLean's Home From the Vinyl Cafe. The first story is Dave Cooks the Turkey and even though it's a Christmas turkey, it totally fits for this week in the US. More whiskey, Dave?

I have added We Band of Angels and Lillian's Story to my long list; both sound good.

I've made the stuffing. I've prepped the brussels sprouts with apples. I've got the noxious bird-meat brining in my own souped-up whiskey brine mixture. Yam nastiness baking now. Must roast the sprouts, some white potatoes with garlic, oil and rosemary, and birdie. Sweet potato pie, pecan pie, southern mincemeat pie, and apple pie all done. Life is good, but my knees and feet are killin' me! Happy holiday for you and all those you love.

I have just started The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfron so far it seems to be promising.

None of those heavy eaters bring anything? You are too good to them.

>68 FionaWh: Fiona, they both are excellent. Lillian is a lighter read, but I think says a lot about British history. Lillian goes from being a totally a-political 12 year old servant girl to being a very old woman in different economic conditions and with a family full of very political people. And We Band of Angels, just wow.

Welcome back CarolynSchroeder! Sounds like an amazing journey.

I'm still enjoying The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf. Hopefully I will finish it this long weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(69)richard, I'm the only one in my family who will eat mincemeat pie, so I don't make it often...

...where are you? I'll be by for a slice later on...

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!! Enjoy your day!

To all who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving! And to everyone, thank you ~ I am so grateful for you and for being able to be a part of this delightful LT family.

*RD, save me a slice of the mince pie too!

The Thanksgiving menu sounds yum! and you guys do this all again at Christmas? I like the sound of all the pies, we do small Christmas mince pies in New Zealand. The hardest thing about Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is deciding whether to do the "traditional" Christmas dinner or BBQ and salads (it's often a combination of both). Pavlova, fruit salad, trifle and Christmas pudding and custard or brandy sauce are a must in most homes.
My favourite is a BBQ brunch with a choice of cereals, fruit, yoghurt, hash browns, breakfast sausages, eggs, bacon, pancakes, bananas, maple syrup etc etc. and then watch the little ones play and hopefully someone else will do the dishes.

Mmm, all the menus sound so good. I will be eating in about an hour. On my menu: turkey legs, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, bourbon salmon, sweet potato casserole, lasagna, pumpkin pie and pecan pie bars. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Fionawh: What is pavlova? I would love to experience the holidays in NZ.

I have begun Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper. Told partly from the point of view of a cat. How could anyone not love that?!

Framboise: At the risk of this turning into a recipe thread, Pavlova is like a large meringue - the perfect pavlova is crispy on the outside and lovely soft meringue on the inside. There is a bit of a knack to getting it right, (room temp eggs, your oven etc) but it doesn't matter if it doesn't look perfect as you cover the top with whipped cream and fresh fruit, usually strawberries or kiwifruit (chinese goosberries). Chocolate chips are nice on top too! Google the images - yum!

There is a bit of a dispute over whether it was first made in NZ or Australia - but it was definitely NZ! Supposedly when the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova visited here in the 1920's.

Only a couple of chapters in to The Man from Bejing, pretty gory start, 19 elderly murdered in a remote village in Sweden.

I finished May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes. I almost gave up on it a couple of times, but I'm glad I stayed with it. It's a hard book to walk away from since it's not divided into chapters so there never seems to be a good jumping-off place, but perhaps it's precisely that structure that made it real to me, made it more like real life. This is another one I'll be thinking about for a long time.

I plan to read three books over the next few days - they're all "little books" (my favorite kind), but from what I've read about them I have a feeling their physical size is the only thing about them that is small.

There are 380+ total pages for the three books - about 100 pages less than in all of May We Be Forgiven:

E. B. White's Here in New York
Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds
Colm Toibin's The Testament of Mary

As for Thanksgiving . . . my grandmother always made many pies -- pecan, pumpkin, cherry, mincemeat, as well as my father's favorite, rhubarb. My personal holiday favorite was her potato cake, a chocolate spice cake with plenty of chopped pecans from the trees in her yard. Its name came from one ingredient mixed into the batter - a cup of warm mashed potatoes.

I've been so busy celebrating with family, starting with a veggie soup cook off last night, I've not had time to read since Tuesday...but I wouldn't have it any other way!! Happy Thanksgiving to all, regardless of whether you're celebrating officially or not.

And when I have time later this weekend, I'll be happy to return to The Elegance of the Hedgehog. :)

Finished Room at the Top, which I fairly romped through. As good as I remember it.

Finished The White Mountains by John Christopher, the read-aloud book with my wife, and I look forward to the rest of the series.

I daresay I'll finish The Long Song before the reading group gets together next Wednesday, though The Long Haul seems nearer the mark. The book (in my view) isn't a patch on Small Island.

Still reading, and enjoying Never Had It So Good by Dominic Sandbrook.

I added How to ditch your fairy in audio to the books I'm reading this week. Good humor so far, but I could use a parking fairy myself.

This was a lovely dinner, but it was very small this year, only a few people. Christmas, on the other hand, is when we push the boat out and have a mass of folks. The hurricane crimped things a lot...expenses included repairing the elderly wall oven...so I'm looking forward to a blow-out next month.

I love cooking for an appreciative audience!

#81-I loved Elegance of the Hedgehoh- hope you like it!!

I just got back from Thanksgiving dinner with my friends in Connecticut-traditional stuff and really really good
Sunday I'll be going back and this time we will b going to the book barn in Niantic- we already have our bags ready for this adventure!

#77 @FionaWh - Just for you and everyone else who enjoys a Southern Hemisphere Xmas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q

Late last night I finished E. B. White's elegant love song to Manhattan, Here in New York. It's almost as old as I am and so much of what he knew of his subject is gone now, but the essential things survive. One more thing to be thankful for at the end of the day.

#86 Booksloth ; ha funny. thanks for that :o) :o)

That reminds me to dig out all my Christmas CDs (and drive everyone crazy) when I put the decorations up next weekend, as soon as we hit December!! Yay.
I am a bit of a Christmas nut, and love all that stuff. I will of course be visiting the library to bring home some of the lovely books showing other peoples homes at Christmas, always keen for more ideas, plus a few recipe books.

Hello everyone! I hope that everyone who was able to celebrate enjoyed their Thanksgiving, I know that we did! :) Mareena and I had smoked ham instead of turkey - which was a really delicious, if somewhat non traditional meal for us. I also finished reading Emma Hamilton late last night! I had not known all that much about Lady Emma Hamilton's life until I read this book, although I did know that she had been Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson's mistress.

I thought that although she had a relatively exciting life, towards the end of Lady Emma's life I felt incredibly sorry for her. I started reading The Secret Hour which is the third of Luanne Rice's books that I've ever read.

I just finished Devil in the Dark by Evelyn Rogers. I'm still working on A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton. Also, The Sandlewood Princess by Loretta Chase

My Brit husband's speciality is the pavlova and it always wows guests. A few years ago we spent Christmas in NZ where my daughter was living. Imagine our surprise and delight when we went grocery shopping and the shelves were loaded with pre-made pavlova shells! Heaven!

#91 Yep :o) always a last minute lifesaver if there is a disaster in the kitchen!

I'm on an Elfquest binge, of sorts. This week I've read The Searcher and the Sword, Elfquest: Wolfrider (volume 2) and now have picked up Elfquest: Wolfrider Vol. 1.

mmm Pavlova it's not christmas without pavlova. It uses egg whites which is perfect as the yolks can then be used to make custard - a win/win. Boxing Day breakfast must be left over pavlova and yoghurt and/or trifle - heaven!

I finished and REVIEWED Doris Kearnes Goodwin's behemoth Team Of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I was not as fond of it as many other readers.

I found the perfect palate cleanser in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock. Delightful, so far.

>95 brenzi: Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is truly lovely. You just reminded me that I need to read it again. Thanks!

Thank you for the warm welcome back, drool and all! :)

I am taking a break from the treatise-like ER book Butch Cassidy Beyond the Grave and picked up The Housekeeper and the Professor, which is just wonderful and makes me smile.

New to the group. About 1/3 of the way through Back to Blood. Still haven't made up my mind whether I like it or not.

I'm just finishing up Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim. I've got Cronin's The Passage and Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven on my night stand. Any recommendations which I should pick up next?

Pick upUnder Heaven. Do not hesitate. It will transport you to Tang Dynasty China in a heartbeat. That book was one of my best-of-the-year in 2011. Don't let the size bother you. It will read fast. I don't think it is fantasy. This one is a historical fiction at its best.

I have Sandman Slim on my shelves to read. seems like there are a few LT'ers reading this, or one of the series, lately. I keep seeing the titles on various lists.

# 98 missheather3 welcome to the group and happy reading!

>100 benitastrnad: Thanks, Benitastrnad. I'll do that. Plus, I met Guy Gavriel Kay at the World Fantasy Conference and got to hear him read from his next (unpublished) novel. He was lovely.

Sandman Slim is fun. I have a soft spot for snarky and/or over-the-top horror, and it definitely fits the snarky bill, and it's a fun read. Patrick Rothfuss was talking about it at the con - he was right to recommend it.

#103> My wife is reading Sandman Slim now and very much enjoying it.

Finished The Underground Church last night and it was absolutely excellent: I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some religion or philosophy. (I'm actually reconsidering Christianity.)

Have started reading another non-fiction: Killing Monsters about why kids need make-believe violence. Expected something dry and treatise-like, but it's really quite engaging. Still reading Ella Minnow Pea, though somehow it isn't grabbing me. tkgough & benita: thanks for mentioning Under Heaven, looks interesting!

#104> Rocketjk, is she planning to keep going in the series?

#106> I'm not sure. She's enjoying the first book and she has a friend who's going through them, so my guess is that she'll read at least one or two more, but probably not all in a row.

#107> Well, it's going to be a while before I get to the next one (my current TBR pile is too big to ignore). Keep me posted?

Read a bit further into Ella Minnow Pea and have definitely fallen in - thanks to all the LTers who recommended it!