What Are You Reading the Week of 8 December 2012?

The 8th: John Banville

John Morressy

Jane Ireland

The 9th: Joanna Trollope

Ashleigh Brilliant

Larry Sanderson

The 10th: Cornelia Funke

Mary Norton

Janny Wurts

The 11th: Thomas McGuane

Naguib Mahfouz

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The 12th: Patrick O'Brian

Gustave Flaubert

Hiromi Goto

The 13th: Ross MacDonald

Heinrich Heine

R.A. MacAvoy

The 14th: Amy Hempel

Shirley Jackson

Sarah Zettel

You're right, Richard--there are some interesting birthdays here. Finished The Captive mind, which was a very interesting treatise on Communism written in the 50's, notable for the fact that it dealt almost not at all with the West and Western attitudes. Am going to try to get back into Parade's end

Whenever I hear the news about Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi I can't help but think the singer Morrissey, now you've given me another one to distract myself with.
On audio I'm about 1/2 way through American Gods and liking it very much so you can imagine how happy I was today (I know, a year late) to hear about the planned HBO miniseries. The interview with Neil Gaiman says the first season will be the whole book, then it'll go wherever from there:
http://hbowatch.com/category/american-gods/
I'm also listening to, and liking less The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection.
On Nook I'm only a little over 1/8th through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and, now that I have the rhythm of the footnotes down, also liking it very much. I only look at the footnotes at the end of the chapter, otherwise trying to do the ARC machine whilst flipping back and forth was too distracting.
On paper I've just started A Discovery of Witches and I think I will like it except for the old chestnut about the woman who has a tremendous power but casts it aside in order to appear normal. Why, oh why, oh why would anyone do such a thing?

I am halfway through with Old Filth which was very fast-going in the beginning and then slowed down quite a bit. I am hoping that it's just me and the fact that I am a bit under the weather. Should be done with it soon.

I'm continuing with The Color of Magic and wondering why I didn't try Terry Pratchett sooner...

I finished Kind of Cruel and thank god it's over! I think I've earned The Haunting of Charles Dickens if it's anywhere near as good as Steinbeck's Ghost was.

Finished Cold Days by Jim Butcher. Still slogging my way through The Hobbit.

Thanks, as always, for starting us off! I always enjoy how the birthday celebrants are such an eclectic bunch! You usually manage to find something for everyone!

I'm finishing up A Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith. It's an action-filled adventure story set in 19-Century Africa. I've never read Wilbur Smith before, but I'll probably read more of his work, since I'm a sucker for a good adventure story.

Print:
The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Ebook:
The Tiger by John Valliant

Audiobook:
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

I am about two-thirds of the way through Roberto Bolaño’s extraordinary 2666, which I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks now. So far, the book is disturbing, harrowing, thought-provoking and altogether remarkable. Bolaño was an amazing writer and a consummate story-teller.

Just finished Oscar and Lucinda. Will try and finish Gone Girl this weekend but I honestly don't know if I want to.

Thanks for setting this up, Richard. Days of Blood and Starlight was a good follow-up to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, although it felt a bit bloated. Just started Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday.

>11 libraryrobin: In my experience, libraryrobin, if you get to the ending, you will be INFURIATED since you're already not eager to finish.

# 4..framboise..Old Filth I just loved, I hope that you are able to hang in with it, and then follow up with The Man In The Wooden Hat it is a companion novel, Jane Gardam has followed up with a new novel, now making it a trilogy, it is Last Friends and will not be released until May 1913, this I shall be looking out for.

I'm now starting The Cat Who Came for Christmas by Cleveland Amory. I always read at least one seasonally-themed book this time of year, and I'm a cat lover, so this should fun!

Don't worry, though. I'm no crazy cat-lady. I am owned by just one cat. Her majesty would never accept another queen in the house, lol!

I just wrote a five-star review. Of a YA novel. A fantasy, no less.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making...my thread, post #217.

I'm about halfway through The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. It's a book about books so what's not to love?

#8
If you like Wilbur Smith you will like reading Bartle Bull. He has a trilogy set in Africa and one set during the Russian Revolution.

#14: hazeljune: Thanks, just looked those up on Amazon & they sound really interesting. I had never heard of Jane Gardam until recently. I should be finishing Old Filth in a couple of days. My next read is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

Oh, Richard ~ Wasn't that book wonderful! I'm listening to the next in the series now: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, and it bids fair to being as delightful as the first.

Tonight I finished and reviewed the lovely short story collection Natasha by David Bezmozgis. The review is on the book's work page and on my 50-Book Challenge thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/130053

I've now started Degree of Guilt, the second of Richard North Patterson's Christopher Paget series.

>20 Storeetllr: I think I'll space them out. Don't want to crowd the five-star pen!

(15) @bookwoman247, I just found a copy of that book and have it on my short TBR pile. :)

Just a few chapters into Borrowed Time by CJ Lyons, a crime thriller, and want to get back to it asap, but this was Christmas Tree Trimming Day, so everything else stopped. Hope to start on some of Charles Dickens' Christmas stories next week.

I've posted my review of the harrowing, atmospheric, and very exciting Devil's Peak, a thriller set in South Africa, in my thread...post #284.

>23 fuzzi: Fuzzi: I bet you'll love it! It's poignant and hilarious in turns. If you are owned by a cat, there will also be many, many moments you'll recognize. Enjoy!

@bookwoman247, thanks! I enjoy James Herriot's works, and figured this was similar in nature.

I'm still reading and loving After Dark by Haruki Murakami.

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. A short, devastating novel. I read it twice in two days -- I often think when I finish a book that I ought to reread it right away, but I almost never do. This time I did, and saw many aspects of it open out for me in doing so.

I have Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in my sights for quite a while. Need to move that one up. Thanks Richard, for the return favor. Thanks to your endorsement I now have another book to read. Or maybe two.

>30 benitastrnad: *purrs with satisfaction*

I'm currently reading The First Confessor by Terry Goodkind. It's the end of the semester--papers have been graded, grades posted--so it's time to load up on mysteries and fantasies.

I'm now just starting Green Hills of Africa, the first book I've read by Ernest Hemingway.

It's going well, so far, but I've barely started it.

Finished Just Kids by Patti Smith. Started When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger.

33 bookwoman247

Since you just read a book by Ernest Hemingway you may be interested in this story I heard on NPR today about his cats:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/12/10/166892705/the-feds-can-tell-ernes...

I wrapped up two books about books this weekend: Read This!: Handpicked Favorites from America's Indie Bookstores and the poignant and lovely The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.

Next up is my first ever fantasy novel: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay; really stepping out of my comfort zone for this one.

I haven't read Tigana but I have read several other books by Kay, and if you like historical fiction I think you will like his books. They are not heavy on the fantasy; if you're worried about spells, dragons and elves, you won't find much of that here :-)

Reviewed My Name Is Legion by Robert Zelazny at long last. An okay read for me. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/130815#3733599

Egads, Mount TBR just shot up about three feet this week! Some really great stuff you beautiful people are sharing!

I have two stories left in A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies and wow, this one was really special. I am savoring the last two stories and will put up a review after that. What a wonderful jump-start to spark my interest and desire for the Short Story Challenge 2013 that many of us are participating in. If any of you would like my copy (I rarely keep books anymore, I believe they spread joy if shared), drop me a note and I will send it along. It does have some annoying highlights on the first story (I got the book from a used book sale), but since I got it for a 1.00 at my local library sale, I cannot truly complain.

Stayed up much too late last night to finish Gone Girl. After being completely captivated by the book most of the way through, the last 30 pages or so just...fizzled...for me. I did NOT like the ending, although as I've mulled it over this morning, I'm coming around to see that it was perhaps a fitting ending to the tale. But it wasn't what I wanted. Nevertheless, the writing and storytelling were brilliant, and overall I enjoyed its dark, twisted-fun nature.

I have a couple of books that have been languishing half-way finished for months now, so I'm going to try and wrap up Academically Adrift and The Warmth of Other Suns. Both are interesting, just hard to read in long sittings.

I finished Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved -- I had absolutely no idea about the book when I started and it took me awhile to stop anticipating where we were going and simply allow the author to tell her story. I enjoyed this book - I came to care about the main characters so deeply. This story of the relationship between two couples (and their families) over a period of twenty years is rich and layered. It made me think somewhat of Stegner's Crossing to Safety. Very different books, but again that sense of a shared history, of shared lives - of old friendships, intimacies, jealousies, annoyances, loves, tragedies, victories, dreams.

Next up: The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

#36
I agree that if you like historical fiction you will like Kay's work. I read Under Heaven last year and loved it. When I finished I wondered why it was classed as fantasy. It has so little of it. But as a work of historical fiction it was fantastic. There were only a few places in which I thought it might be fantasy, but in the context of the book they could have also been mystic or religious in nature as well. I really like his work and will read more of it.

I read a review by Nancy Pearl this last weekend and was intrigued by a book titled Among Others. Low and behold, my library had it, so I checked it out and started it last night. It is really good. Can't wait to get back to it. But first I MUST continue to plod my way through Team of Rivals. I honestly don't know why that book is so popular. It is so boring.

>42 benitastrnad: Benitastrnad: I'm not into fantasy or sci-fi, but I loved Among Others! I think because I could just relate to it as an avid reader.

I am really enjoying The Fairies' Midwife by Lawrie Ryan.

I've given up on Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway. I ran across thd "N" word, and stopped cold. I'm usually fairly tolerant with that kind of attitude from authors of the past. You have to account for the times they lived in. However, I'm not into hunting anyway, and I figured that by the mid to late 1930's people should have been more enlightened. I'm not sure why I was reading a book about a 1930's safari. since I don't like hunting. What was I thinking?? Lol!

So now I'm on to A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry the second in the The William Monk Mysteries: The First Three Novels omnibus.

I started the map of true places by brunonia Barry. My reading mojo is in a definite tailspin as I was robbed at the library on Friday of some irreplaceable pieces of jewelry so I'm trying to get the mojo back but it's hard

Thanks for all the encouragement Fantasy fans. About a hundred pages into Tigana and I'm loving it. Apparently I'm a fantasy fan too:)

I've started The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. And I downloaded Neverwhere on the kindle. Just a chapter or so into each. I've always been a one-at-a-time book person but ever since I got my kindle recently, I've been greedy and downloading new stuff as soon as I finish one.

#48 I'm like that too framboise - I have over100 books on my kindle mos of them from he free book sites

Just finished listening to the very nice Natural Woman: A Memoir by Carole King. Will be starting to listen to The Last Kind Words by Tom Piccirilli.

>46 cdyankeefan: cdyankeefan So sorry to hear of your loss. We know people steal, it's just such an insult, especially when we think we're in a safe place.
And speaking of the things we know happen but still can't believe they do, I've just finished Down the Rabbit Hole. Wow. There's no way I could believe the author was a 7 year old boy, but it says so much about morality and says it so well. What a book! Now back to A Discovery of Witches. It's too bad the lengths of the books couldn't have been reversed. I'm spending lots of time on a book that really doesn't deserve it.
Having finished The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, (which was far better than The Charming Quirks of Others), I've started listening to Interview With the Vampire whilst doing my Christmas baking - the sacred Chex mix and popcorn balls.

#51-thank you citizenjoyce. I appreciate it. What hurts the most is I can't replace. My parents wedding rings. I struggled with Discovery of Witches and now I'm struggling with Shadow of Night the second volume of the trilogy

Wow, that's a lot of ebooks! Did you read them all or are they now your electronic tbr pile?

So sorry about what happened to you. That's awful. Hope you weren't hurt.

CitizenJoyce ~ I just read Down The Rabbit Hole too and I agree, packed a whallop. That book has seriously inflicted my mind on very strange and unwanted ocassions especially re: the pygmy hippos. Despite that, I was pretty wowed by it and if I read one more from www.andotherstories.org that is that good, I'm going to treat myself to a subscription. I so, so, so support what they are doing 'cross the pond with that publishing company.

I am so sorry cdyankeefan - I had my purse stolen after about three seconds in NYC when I was there for undergrad. It was an absolutely horrible feeling. I lost all my money, credit cards, the works. I learned fast. But it sure does stink. It's funny, that mindset has carried over all these years. I tend to carry a few dollars (for the used book shelves) and my library card when I go to the library. I just know how distracted I get, so don't want the vigilance of worrying about my purse/belongings. Your mojo will come back! Give it time and maybe pick something smaller and great to get you over that hump.

mollygrace - Glad to hear you liked What I Loved. I want to read that soon. The reviews are all over the place. I gather it's a love it/hate it thing with those characters.

#53 thank you framboise- I haven't read the all yet and I'm not even sure how many books a kindle can hold so there's another TBR pile. I wasn't hurt -I'm just very upset as this has just been a really crappy year for me

#54 thank you Carolyn-these were my parents wedding rings which I can't replace and a locket with my late husbands hair which I also can't replace. Hats the part that really really hurts

(((((((Cd)))))))

cdyankeefan, I am so sorry that this happened to you.. its such a violation and I hope bad kharma comes around to bite that thief in the butt. Don't lose hope... maybe the items can be recovered.

Wow, that's a lot of ebooks! Did you read them all or are they now your electronic tbr pile?

So sorry about what happened to you. That's awful. Hope you weren't hurt.

Citizenjoyce - I knew nothing about What I Loved when I began - it took me awhile to quit anticipating and let the author tell me the story, but once I settled into it I found I liked it. The world of New York City artists/intellectuals is far from my own little corner of the planet, but it's something that's always fascinated me, so maybe that helped. The core friendship between the two men at the heart of the story was important to me, too. That was a kind of touchstone or anchor when the book wandered off the course I kept trying to set for it. (Darn that author, doing her own thing instead of listening to me.} Also, some of the minor characters were especially unforgettable -- I'll never forget Dan and Lazlo.

You should give it a try -- be patient with it and don't let anyone tell you too much about it. There were several plot developments that truly surprised me and I was glad I didn't know about them ahead of time. (I never read book jackets ahead of time -- they always tell me too much.)

36, 47 ~ Oh, brenzi! Tigana! One of my all-time favorites, and if you like it I think you'll also like The Lions of al-Rassan, though it's less fantasy than alternate history.

cd ~ So sorry to hear about your loss. Losing heirlooms like that, irreplaceable, is just the worst! Try not to be bitter, and remember that it is true, Karma is real, and she can be one mean b*tch!

#56 How vile that someone should steal these things that are so precious to you. I hope you made a report to the police because these things do still turn up sometimes. Meantime, take some comfort in knowing that your parents and your late husband would only care that you are safe; their love doesn't disappear when the jewellery goes.

I finished The Haunting of Charles Dickens yesterday. Buzbee's two 'famous-author-based' books (this one and Steinbeck's Ghost are such a delight and I know I shall return to both over the years. After that, I just had to return to some 'real' Dickens and, as it's nearly Xmas, what could be better than The Old Curiosity Shop? My only problem with many of the classics, especially Dickens, is that the print is frequently so tiny I find it quite a struggle to read these days. Every now and then, to take a break from the eye-strain, I read a story from Stella Gibbons's Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm. And last weekend, while in the bookshop, I found a super (cheap!) omnibus edition of all the Jane Austen novels in readable print and am now able to pass on to friends all my slightly tattered individual copies. I still yearn to find some larger (though not technically 'large-print') editions of Dickens too - it would be terrible to know that as age advances and the glaucoma and general short-sightedness gradually take over, I was going to have to give up some of these wonderful books. I wish I enjoyed audio!

I finished A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies and put up a review. I am now embarking on What I Loved.

#57,58, 62 and 63-thank you all for you kindness -I appreciate them more than I can say. I did file a police report and the detective told me that they do recover stolen property in many cases. It not only hurts that my jewelry is gone but I don't feel safe at the library anymore and that's really sad

Well, I finished reading Echoes last night. It was definitely an enjoyable book - a comfortable old friend that I enjoy revisiting from time to time. I have to say that I was about a third the way through the book when Julian's House showed up in the mail. I was absolutely dying to start reading it, as I had enjoyed My Soul to Keep so much by the same author. But I persevered with reading Echoes and was able to start Julian's House last night! :)

Finished Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday, which was a charmer (my review's on the book page), and have started an ER copy of Gun Machine by Warren Ellis, which is a fast page-turner so far.

Just finished the marvelous Women of Algiers in Their Apartment by Assia Djebar. Link to my review:

http://my2012readingjournal.blogspot.com/2012/12/women-of-algiers-in-their-apart...

Next up is my final read by Shusaku Endo, The Final Martyrs, as part of the year long LT Group Read of his works. It has been a pleasure so far and anticipate more of the same in this short story collection.

Reading and very much enjoying Doc, by Mary Doria Russell.

I loved Doc!!! Then my Dad read it and he loved it too. I still think that one has some of the wittiest, funniest dialog I have read all year, maybe in a few years.

69 and 70 I also loved Doc and I obtained it on audio for my husband, he loved it and I loved it again, read by Mark Bramhall , a superb reader.

Another novel set in the old West that I loved is Zeke and Ned by Larry McMurtry, I have it on Audio for my husband, we are listening to it at the moment, another wonderful reader Vincent Marzallo I know I am enjoying it more than when I first read it.

>69 rabbitprincess:, 70, 71 Mary Doria Russell is working on a sequel to Doc called A Cure for Anger that follows Doc and the Earp brothers to Tombstone and the gunfight at the OK Corral. I loved Doc too.

>72 brenzi:: Very good to know! I'll be looking forward to it.

I loved Doc too and am really excited to know there's a sequel coming out (soon, I hope). Mary Doria Russell is such a good writer!

Reading my ER collection of short stories Errantry by Elizabeth Hand. I'm enjoying it so far - descriptively dense, atmospheric with a touch of the fantastic.

cammy, check out the short stories thread......

http://www.librarything.com/topic/145363

I've written my 210th review of the year, of the Botswana-set gritty thriller A Carrion Death, in my thread...post #295.

@76 Ooooo!!! I didn't know about that group. I read a lot of short story collections, so count me in!

Oh good! I will count you in.

I've finally started Under the Dome. So far so good! It would be a quick read if I could actually carry it around with me. My hardcover is pretty unruly and none of my libraries has an ecopy.

So I'm also reading Hercule Poirot's Christmas on my nook.

I've finished American Gods which had an interesting interview with the author following. I'm looking forward to the miniseries. Next up is my firt Jim Butcher - Storm Front.

Yeahhhh!!!! CammyKitty is in! The group looks like great fun.

Okay ladies, What I Loved is a tad slow to start and I'm left with that ringing feeling of "people do not talk like this" (even the NYC, upscale artsy set, which I have been around a lot) ... but I'm going to give it some more time! I love novels, painting and drama, so I hope it gets more interesting soon!

Change of plans. Apparently the poltergeists took Storm Front so instead I'm beginning my first foray into the Vorkosigan Saga with The Warrior's Apprentice. I'm loving it.

@82 It sure does! & I'm glad to get such a warm welcome. I'll be interested to see what you think about What I Loved. The reviews look like you're in for something, but I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad something.

@83 I'll be interested in seeing what you think of Vorkosigan - I've got one on my shelves but realize I've been avoiding it. I know so many people who worship Lois McMaster Bujold but I have another friend who says it's thinly disguised regency romance and not that good of a one at that. ??? I suppose I should pick up the book I have and make up my own mind.

Ugh, dumped What I Loved @ p. 83. Being an artist (especially in the 80s - @ Pratt - about where this book pretends to target), I just could NOT go any further. I did not like any of the characters (kind summation), the dialog and thoughts were some of the most unbelievable, contrived nonsense I have read. I actually started to laugh and since that could not have been the intended reaction, I decided it was time to stop. Life is too precious to spend any more with these icky people. I think too, she just REALLY could not pull off writing from a man's perspective. I was hyper conscious that she was a female and nothing the men said or did seemed real. At least from men I have known. Maybe her husband (writer, Paul Auster), is different. I dunno. Maybe after the beautiful, real and human stories of A Few Notes on Tropical Butterflies, it was a lot to ask of What I Loved ... to follow that up. Her people seem like cardboard in comparison. I won't put up a review because since I only read 83 pages, I don't think I'm capable to do so.

But my Sister has this great determination on whether to continue a book. She said, "If I look for every reason not to pick it back up and sort of dread going back to it, it's finished." I was at that point, after a cleaned the litter box (which was clean from the daily morning cleaning) and then considered mopping the kitchen floor (again) ...

On to An Absorbing Errand (no touchstone) by Janna Malamud Smith, which is a NF book about creativity. I need some grounding about art, ha. But seriously, it was recommended highly to me by two authors.

Just started Who I Am an autobiography by Pete Townsend

Just started The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn. I love it so far. :)

Carolyn, when I Pearl Rule a book as you did with What I Loved, but feel as furious and cheated as you did, I think it's a kindness to warn others off with a review. I state clearly that I gave up on page blah and usually, unless it's just too painful, quote the last passage that snapped my readerly patience.

Especially when every other review is a glowing encomium, I appreciate these warning-cum-analyses.

FWIW.

@84 -- I think there are definite elements of regency romance, yes (though only really in the first two books; the rest are more Age of Sail-in-space in my mind), but the Vorkosigan books are really great! Wonderful characters and world-building, and I can never put them down. I only finally got around to reading them in September, and I read the first six books and novellas in a week. Now I'm about to start Memory, which is the 15th in the series. I definitely recommend them!

Before I start Memory, though, I've picked A Tale of Two Cities back up again, which got put aside in the chaos of moving and starting a new job and obsessively reading Bujold. I'm also about halfway through Spook by Mary Roach. I'm enjoying it a bit less than Stiff, probably because my investment in the afterlife is nil while my interest in the body after death and all the research that can be done on it is high, but it's engaging and accessible, as all Roach's work is.

I am really enjoying Among Others. I don't remember hearing much about this book when it came out, but it is quite good. Much better than the overrated Team of Rivals. I will finish it, but just slogging through it just hoping that it will eventually end. Which of course I know it will. And I know how it will end.

Ouch! "the over-rated Team of Rivals". Oh my. But I'm glad you're enjoying Among Others.

Just goes to show that not every book is for everybody.

Yes, it's just hard with the ones you love. :-)

@85 Carolyn, congrats! Sometimes it's hard to put down a book. After all, our teachers never let us quit books we hated. When you prefer to clean out the litter box than read, it is time! And I agree with Richard if you read 1/3rd of the book. 83 pages is usually a significant portion of a book, and your "last straw point" is probably pretty telling. If you're review is specific enough it will warn those of us off who would've responded to the same issues, but will give enough information so people who might still enjoy the book would still pick it up. Just from what I saw already on the book page, I know that book is not for me. My father was an artist and writers who write about writers just because they don't know what other people do has always been a pet peeve of mine. Someone writing about artists and not doing it well would've sent the book into the don't-read pile faster than 83 pages.

@89 Tafadhali - thanks for your comments. I'll let the book keep it's place on Mount TBR. "Elements of Regency Romance" isn't a kiss of death if everything is well done and there's enough in the series to keep it interesting. Bujold is a local writer for me, so I really should give her a try just so I know what she's all about and who is around here.

@94 cammykitty -- And you could always just skip the first two books, about the romance between Miles Vorkosigan's parents, if you're not into that sort of thing -- everything makes sense if you start at The Warrior's Apprentice, the first Miles-centric book.

I also dumped a book this week after only a few chapters: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I just could not get into it. I also felt nothing was going to happen for the rest of the book. I am now almost halfway through The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I saw lots of movie posters for it in London when I was visiting a few months ago, but almost none here in NY. Great book so far.

>95 Tafadhali: I guess I started in the right place with The Warrior's Apprentice then, and I'm loving it but I can't help but think of Peter Dinklage when I read Miles. I know Dinklage is only 4'5" and Miles is 5', but they have so much in common, at least as Dinklage plays Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. There is so much romance in A Discovery of Witches that it puts me off the whole book. I really don't like romance stories, usually there's the petulant woman (the strongest witch in the world in this case, who doesn't use her witchcraft) who after stomping her foot and pouting gives up her authority to the very handsome, competent, controlling man - bingo. If I weren't reading it for book club I'd be on to something else. I get none of that nonsense in The Warrior's Apprentice.

I loved The Perks of Being A Wallflower! Read it years ago and it stuck with me for a very long time.

Okay, I will put up a review of What I Loved with my Bail Out Disclaimer. I had once been set on fire for doing that at A (Bridge of Sighs @ p. 150), but I think I am over the PTSD of that, ha. I took down the review the people got so angry and personal! Just did not need that in my life. I stick by the fact that that really was a bomb by an otherwise great novelist!

I am now reading The Best American Short Stories 2007 and I got sucked right in. Loving them so far, although this collection was not received all that well. Highly recommend the intro by Stephen King, his insights on the short story.

@97 -- I think Bujold does a pretty good job of working around those tropes; I'm not a big fan of the dynamic you describe either, but I liked Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia's relationship.

And, I don't care if he is shorter than Miles! I love Peter Dinklage and would watch him in that role so hard.

I have just started Poirot's Christmas an iBook