What Are You Reading the Week of 30 November 2013?

Jacques Martin Barzun (30 November 1907 – 25 October 2012) was a French-born American historian of ideas and culture. He wrote on a range of topics as broad as baseball and classical music, but is perhaps best known as a philosopher of education.

Barzun's Teacher in America (1945) was an important influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United States. He published over 40 books, won the American Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was knighted into the French Legion of Honor. His New York Times best-selling magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, was published in 2000, when he was 93 years of age.

Barzun was born in Créteil, France to Henri-Martin and Anna-Rose Barzun. He spent his childhood in Paris and Grenoble. His father was a member of the Abbaye de Créteil group of artists and writers and also worked in the French Ministry of Labor. His parents' Paris home was frequented by many "modernist" artists of belle epoque France, such as poet Guillaume Apollinaire, Cubist painters Albert Gleizes and Marcel Duchamp, composer Edgard Varèse, and writers Richard Aldington and Stefan Zweig. While on a diplomatic mission to the United States during the First World War, Barzun's father so liked what he saw that he decided that his son should have an American university education. Thus, Barzun was sent to the United States at age 12, first to attend a preparatory school, then Columbia University, where he obtained a broad liberal education.

As an undergraduate at Columbia College, Barzun was drama critic for the Columbia Daily Spectator, a prize-winning president of the Philolexian Society, the Columbia literary and debate club, and valedictorian of the class of 1927. He obtained his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1932 and taught history there from 1928 to 1955, becoming the Seth Low Professor of History and a founder of the discipline of cultural history. For years, he and literary critic Lionel Trilling ran Columbia's famous Great Books course. He was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1954. From 1955 to 1968, he served as Dean of the Graduate School, Dean of Faculties, and Provost, while also being an Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge. From 1968 until his 1975 retirement, he was University Professor at Columbia. From 1951 to 1963, Barzun was one of the managing editors of The Readers' Subscription Book Club, and its successor the Mid-Century Book Society, (the other managing editors being W. H. Auden and Lionel Trilling), and afterwards was Literary Adviser to Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975 to 1993.

In 1936, Barzun married Mariana Lowell, a violinist from a prominent Boston family. They had three children: James, Roger, and Isabel. Mariana died in 1979. In 1980, Barzun married Marguerite Lee Davenport. From 1996 the Barzuns lived in her hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His granddaughter Lucy Barzun Donnelly was a producer of the award-winning HBO film Grey Gardens. His grandson, Matthew Barzun, is a businessman who served from 2009-2011 as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, and in 2013 was appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom. On May 14, 2012 Jacques Barzun attended a symphony performance in his honor at which works by his favorite composer, Hector Berlioz, were performed. He attended in a wheelchair and delivered a brief address to the crowd.

Barzun died peacefully at his home in San Antonio, Texas, aged 104. The New York Times, which compared him with such scholars Sidney Hook, Daniel Bell, and Lionel Trilling, called him a "distinguished historian, essayist, cultural gadfly and educator who helped establish the modern discipline of cultural history". Naming Edward Gibbon, Jacob Burckhardt and Thomas Babington Macaulay as his intellectual ancestors, and calling him "one of the West's most eminent historians of culture" and "a champion of the liberal arts tradition in higher education," who "deplored what he called the 'gangrene of specialism'", The Telegraph remarked, "The sheer scope of his knowledge was extraordinary. Barzun’s eye roamed over the full spectrum of Western music, art, literature and philosophy." Essayist Joseph Epstein, remembering him in the Wall Street Journal as a "flawless and magisterial" writer who tackled "Darwin, Marx, Wagner, Berlioz, William James, French verse, English prose composition, university teaching, detective fiction, and the state of intellectual life", described Barzun as a tall, handsome man with an understated elegance, thoroughly Americanized, but retaining an air of old-world culture, cosmopolitan in way rare for intellectuals.

Bibliography
1927 Samplings and Chronicles: Being the Continuation of the Philolexian Society History, with Literary Selections From 1912 to 1927 (editor). Philolexian Society.
1932 The French Race: Theories of Its Origins and Their Social and Political Implications. P.S. King & Son.
1937 Race: a Study in Modern Superstition (Revised, 1965 Race: A Study in Superstition). Methuen & Co. Ltd.
1939 Of Human Freedom. Revised edition, Greenwood Press. Reprint: 1977.
1941 Darwin, Marx, Wagner: Critique of a Heritage. Reprint: Barzun Press, 2007.
1943 Romanticism and the Modern Ego. Little, Brown and Company, 1943.
1945 Teacher in America. Reprint: Liberty Fund, 1981.
1950 Berlioz and the Romantic Century, Little, Brown and Company/An Atlantic Monthly Press Book, 1950 {2 vols.}.
1951 Pleasures of Music: a Reader's Choice of Great Writing About Music and Musicians From Cellini to Bernard Shaw. The Viking Press.
1954 God's Country and Mine: A Declaration of Love, Spiced with a Few Harsh Words. Reprint: Greenwood Press, 1973.
1956 Music in American Life. Indiana University Press.
1956 The Energies of Art: Studies of Authors, Classic and Modern. Greenwood Press.
1959 The House of Intellect. Reprint Harper Perennial, 2002.
1960 Lincoln the Literary Genius (first published in The Saturday Evening Post, 14 February 1959)
1961 The Delights of Detection. Criterion Books.
1961 Classic, Romantic, and Modern. Reprint: University Of Chicago Press, 1975.
1964 Science: The Glorious Entertainment. HarperCollins.
1967 What Man Has Built (introductory booklet to the Great Ages of Man book series). Time Inc.
1968 The American University: How It Runs, Where It Is Going. Reprint: University Of Chicago Press, 1993.
1969 Berlioz and the Romantic Century (3d ed.) Reprint: Barzun Press.
1971 On Writing, Editing, and Publishing. University of Chicago Press.
1971 A Catalogue of Crime: Being a Reader's Guide to the Literature of Mystery, Detection, and Related Genres (with Wendell Hertig Taylor). Revised edition, Harper & Row, 1989.
1974 Clio and the Doctors. Reprint: University Of Chicago Press, 1993.
1974 The Use and Abuse of Art (A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts) . Princeton University Press.
1975 Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers. 4th ed, Harper Perennial, 2001.
1976 The Bibliophile of the Future: His Complaints about the Twentieth Century (Maury A. Bromsen lecture in humanistic bibliography). Boston Public Library.
1980 Three Talks at Northern Kentucky University. Northern Kentucky University, Dept. of Literature and Language.
1982 Lincoln's Philosophic Vision. Artichokes Creative Studios.
1982 Critical Questions: On Music and Letters, Culture and Biography, 1940–1980 (edited by Bea Friedland). University Of Chicago Press.
1982 Berlioz and His Century: An Introduction to the Age of Romanticism (Abridgment of Berlioz and the Romantic Century). University Of Chicago Press.
1983 A Stroll with William James. Reprint: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
1986 A Word or Two Before You Go: Brief Essays on Language. Wesleyan University.
1989 The Culture We Deserve: A Critique of Disenlightenment. Wesleyan University. ISBN 0-8195-6237-8.
1991 An Essay on French Verse: For Readers of English Poetry. New Directions Publishing. ISBN 0-8112-1158-4.
1991 Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning. University Of Chicago Press.
2000 From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present. HarperCollins.
2001 Sidelights on Opera at Glimmerglass. Glimmerglass Opera.
2002 A Jacques Barzun Reader. HarperCollins.
2002 What is a School? and Trim the College! (What is a School? An Institution in Limbo, Trim the College! A Utopia). Hudson Institute.
2003 The Modern Researcher (6th ed.) (with Henry F. Graff). Wadsworth Publishing.
2004 Four More Sidelights on Opera at Glimmerglass: 2001–2004. Glimmerglass Opera.

Thanks, richard. Interesting author you've highlighted. :)

Still dealing with Room.

>2 fuzzi: I aspire to be Jacques Barzun in a future incarnation. What an amazing thinker, so wide ranging and so far ahead of his academic times.

>3 rocketjk: One can but admire your pluck.

#4> Or be dismayed by my self-abusive stubbornness. I'm in admiration of the writing but not enjoying the experience. Still, I'm determined to finish (I'm only about a third of the way through), and I hardly know why. Just for the closure, I guess.

>5 rocketjk: If I'm honest, that's what I was really thinking. It's the holiday season, so I'm trying to be kinder.

It's not easy!

Another interesting bio-thanks :)

I'm trying to finish up The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Now, I want to go find something by Barzun to read! I'm currently reading Iwein by Hartmann von Aue (again). It's been a while since I posted on here. I couldn't get through Tintenblut by Cornelia Funke. Every time she switched from one character's dilemmas to that of another I found it tedious rather than tantalizing. Maybe I should have tried skipping chapters so I could read how one narrative situation resolved before going on to another. It put me out of the reading mood.

Another great start to the week, Richard. Thank you!

I havdn't been able to settle on a bok for days and days, but I think I'm settling on Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana by Isadora Tattlin.

Finished Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. Interesting and well written urban fantasy about computers, jinn, and political unrest.

Started Tilt-a-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein.

Started reading The Book Thief, which I am enjoying, a few days ago. It is moving along quickly when I get a chance to sit down and read.

I'm reading 2 children's books this week. The first is The 13 Clocks which is so clever and creative. And the 2nd is Wonder which I will start in a day or so. I am also finishing up A House in the Sky.

I finished and REVIEWED E. F. Benson's delightful Lucia in London. I am really enjoying this series.

Now I'm reading my ER book The Ariadne Objective: The Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis by Wes Davis which is quite good.

Happy birthday to Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, and L. M. Montgomery. Finished Welcome to the World, Baby Girl this morning on a re-read. I'd forgotten most of the plot, but not the warmth and fun. Still reading The Man Who Loved China (fascinating) and Lost Girls, an Unsolved American Mystery (sad, but draws me in).

I finished listening to The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis. This is a treat! The reader - Bahni Turpin - is excellent and adds to, rather than detracts from the novel. The author, as always has produced an extraordinary work. I don't think I have ever read one of his books that was a disappointment. In one book he manages to deal with some deep subjects in a way that teaches without preaching and entertains without being trite or heavy-handed. That is an accomplishment.

Curtis has already won the Newbery medal for Bud Not Buddy and this one was an honor book so I don't think I can give it more accolades than that. I hope that school teachers everywhere will flock to this book as it teaches about so many things in American history in one book.

From a winner I went to one that I think I will ditch if it doesn't pick up. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch. This was long-listed for the Booker Prize a couple of years ago and I have been trying to read these titles but so far this is a disappointment. I feel like somebody else on this list - I am staying with this one out of shear stubburness and wishing that I would just stop. This is also a recorded book. I am on the third disc and if it doesn't pick up soon I will find another to listen to.

Finished but didn't very much enjoy Cathleen Schine's Fin and Lady which was a shame since I liked her The Three Weissmanns of Westport. I just couldn't bring myself to care about either of the main characters, which is a problem.

Just finished The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak -- a Great Read! loved it! I was so into reading and watching documentaries and movies on the Holocaust in past few years including, the children who were surviors whether from the camps or those who were sent away during the war to live with families in England, The Netherlands and the US; its amazing that I never read or watched anything regading the german children who were in the midst of the war. It was a heartwrenching story that I best describe as a love story (not in the romantic sense). I wonder if the characters in the book are based on the authors grandparents? He mentions that the story is taken from his grandparents memory of living in Germany during the war (immigrating to Syndney Australia). Anyway... I finished that last weekend and then picked up one from our treasure chest of oldies from my husband's grandmother--- The Velvet Bubble by Alice Winter --- that was sorta creepy, about a Teenager with a very unnatural obsession with her father.... (written by a school teacher in 1965). I zipped thru that pretty quickly and finished it up in a couple days... right now I moved on to a light romantic read... I know, I know... what??? but needed a light read after the heavy topic of war -then weird teenager father obsession--needed something that would lighten the mood so I am almost finished The Mulberry Tree by Jude Deveraux... actually I am enjoying it, my 1st with this author.. next I am planning on pulling another oldie from my husband's grandmother's treasure chest of goodies that have been collecting dust for way too long..

#17.. I agree The Book Thief was a very special read, I have also just read another of Marcus Zusak's novels Fighting Ruben Wolfe it was again very special, oh what a talented young writer.

I'm still savoring my reread of Plainsong by Kent Haruf.

I gave up on listening to Jamrach's Menagerie. It was just plain boring. I don't know how this book got listed for the Booker Prize. Part of the problem might have been the narrator. He was so lazy sounding that it was hard to get a sense of the characters and compared to the last reader of a recorded book he was bad. Of course Bahni Turpin reading The Mighty Miss Malone would be a hard act to follow, but this guy was not good. I have also come to the conclusion that reading about poor Victorian waifs is just not my thing. And that includes David Copperfield and any of the other famous characters created by Chuckles the Dick. I forced myself to finish Jane Eyre but that was the end. I am not going to waste my time or money on them.

But I do want to read Crimson Petal and the White. Or at least give it a try.

Having read The Book Thief several months ago, I saw the movie last night and thought it was very nicely done. It stayed pretty true to the book.

----TooBusyReading---- You are the 1st person that I heard that saw the movie The Book Thief ! I am looking forward to seeing it -- glad to hear that it stayed true to the book. Did you ever read Sarah's Key ? I just was given the book from a cousin, its been passed around and when I started it, I realized that I saw the movie on Net Flix not that long ago and I stopped reading it and set it aside. The movie was really very good - and for some odd reason... I hate to read a book after I saw the movie but when I love the book, can't wait for a movie release... if that makes any sense... I am waiting for The Book Thief to come to Net Flix!

>22 booklovers2:
Booklovers2, I know Sarah's Key has been popular, but I haven't read it yet or seen the movie - will have to give them a try. I also don't like to see the movie before I read the book. I like imagining the characters in my mind before the movie interprets them for me. Sometimes the movies work for me, sometimes they don't.

#22 I am exactly like you with my book reading and movies, a great movie version from a very special was book The Reader by Bernard Schlink. I am not sure re The Book Thief movie, I cannot see it capturing all from the wonderful novel. Another special book that I loved was The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas very moving, and I decided not to see the movie.

>24 hazeljune:
I wondered how Death would be handled in the movie, and I like the way it was done, even though he did not have as much presence or personality as he did in the book.

I'd heard negative things about the book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but I did see the movie and thought it very moving.

I gave in and read a Scandicrime novel, My First Murder (The Maria Kallio Series) since all the cool kids are doing it. I've reviewed it at my blog and gave it 3 stars after a lot of head-scratching.

I gaveMy First Murder a 2 and said."I found this far too long. Too much unnecessary chatter that didn't add anything meaningful to the story."
I generally enjoy Scandinavian mystery novels. But, not this one.

>27 Rayaowen: I'm not at all sure I'll read another one.

FWIW - I did not read the book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but saw the movie at a very small art house theatre in Chicago. It was sold-out and I found it one of the most intensely moving films I have seen. The audience was silent as we all walked out. I cannot compare it to the book, but the film was excellent.

So apparently someone got all charitable and sweet-natured, and didn't leave me a name to say a proper thank you:

Renewable: The World Changing Power of Alternative Energy

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

Capturing the Light: The Birth of Photography, A True Story of Genius and Rivalry

No Swappee/Secret Santa listed...so whoever you are, come and get your delighted, excited smoochings!

Reader discomfort may well have be the objective of Anouar Benmalek in his book Abduction, but the experience of reading the book was distinctly unpleasant. Suspense, Insights into human nature under duress, and the impact of violence were not enough to make the unrelenting horror presented tolerable. (the link goes to the wrong book and the right one is not on the list of others. I can only find the right link through the Author)

OK. I finished Room. I have to thank those here who encouraged me to keep going with it. All in all it was well worth reading, although a very rough go (in the same vein as snash's comments about Abduction just above) throughout the first half.

Tonight, I'll be starting The Man with the Getaway Face, the second in Richard Stark's (Donald Westlake) "Hunter" series.

#25
Boy In the Stripped Pajamas was indeed controversial. In fact it was so controversial that leading children's literature authorities and librarians advised that it not be used in schools. Put simply it is so full of historical inaccuracies that it gives the wrong impressions. I have trouble reading anything about the Holocaust so I did not read it or The Book Thief and don't intend to do so in the future.

#31
It is nice to know that I am not the only person who dislikes this kind of book. I will not read another Jo Nesbo book because for me he stepped over a line that I can tolerate in The Snowman. I won't stop others from reading books by him, but I won't be drinking that Kool-aide.

Played hooky this afternoon and instead of doing housework I finished Her fearful symmetry. It didn't have the same wow-factor for me as The time traveller's wife, but I did enjoy it. It was highly original and the characters were well-drawn and different. Better than average.

Has everyone been to the December Early Readers batch? I found so many I would like to have that I asked for them all, and whichever one I get is fine by me! Books on Vatican shenanigans and Cuban murders, books on James of Scotland's nasty witch-hunting side, the latest Sharon Kay Penman story of the Plantagenets...a microhistory of Eastern Airlines...*whee*

Oh, yes. It's a good one! The new Flavia de Luce is coming out in January and is available! *Squee*!

I've been on a mysteries binge, and currently am reading The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon.

My latest is Bad Blood by Lorna Sage, it is the Winner of The Whitebread Prize For Biography. So far it is quite darkish, with fascinating grandparents!!

In anticipation of the new season I started While We Were Watching Downton Abbey by Wendy Wax and Imus in the Norning Mike and the Mad Dog and Doris from Rego Park-a history of WFAN Radio Almost finished with The Shining y Stephen King and will start the sequel Doctor Sleep within a day or two

In case you've never read it, there's a Kindle deal on Pilgrim at Tinker Creek today...$1.99! It's a wonderful read. Annie Dillard's memoir of a year in Virginia's outback, learning about nature's rhythms and spiritual growth, without going all preacholeum or being a pit-sniffing solipsist.

I'm in the middle of The Cuckoo's Calling. Not bad. Strike reminds me of Banville's Quirke.

>41 Jim53:: I liked The Cuckoo's Calling, too. I thought Strike was an interesting character, so maybe I should try Banville.

>40 richardderus: Thanks for letting us know about Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. It has been several years since I read that, but I loved it.

I'm still listening to The Cuckoo's Calling, and enjoying it too. Last night I finished my LT ER win, Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum, and thought it wonderful. Not everyone is as enamored as I, but it really left a good impression on me.

Picked up Cloud Atlas last night. Not entirely sure what it's exactly about, only know I've had it on my must-read list for a long while and we have the movie waiting, so I decided it was about high time to pick it up.

Also for my book review I've started The seat of the soul by Gary Zukav, which looks promising. I'm glad to notice about 1,300 people have it in their library here on LT, that's not bad at all for this type of book.

Just finished Plainsong - by Kent Haruf- Loved it! Now on to the new arrival Dangerous Women - it is odd but there seem to be ink blotches on quite a few of the pages. I wonder if this is the case with all of the books or just a few. Strange.

Finished Tilt-a-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein. Started on Dangerous Women edited by Gardner Duzois and George R.R. Martin. I'm reading the ebook version so I hope there aren't any ink blotches. ;D

That sure is an interesting December ER batch! And thanks for the e-book head's up. Some of those deals last for a very short time.

I am reading Double Negative by South African writer Ivan Vladislavic and enjoying it. He's a very good writer - just ... easy, soothing, something, not sure the proper word. I just love what they are doing over there at www.andotherstories.org (despite the fact that they botched my membership and send my stuff to UK address, not US address and it took me a year to figure out - hey, where are my books, they were very kind about the whole deal).

I read The Christmas Tree today by Julie Salamon. It was a quick, relaxing read for a day off.

Hello

New to this group. I'm currently reading Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. I really didn't know what to expect at all before I checked it out from the library. I've read two of his other books and this one is quite good.

I think I'll follow it up with a couple of the graphic novels I've got out from the library as a change of pace.

Welcome to the group, SuziQOregon! Graphic novels have a lot of fanciers around these parts. Hope your reads are all good!

#49
Even if they aren't good reads - tell us about 'em.

I finished The Circle last Sunday. I think the book is good. Not great, but good. Clearly his aim is to make a point and he does so. For some it might be too heavy handed, but it was his goal to raise consciousnesses - and he does. I also thought he brings up lots of good questions about the direction society is headed in the not-to-distant-future.

I then started reading a memoir In the Sanctuary of Outcasts about the last leper colony in the U. S. It is proving to be a fast read. Then it will be on to the December group read of Un Lun Dun and Lionheart. I heard that Sharon Kay Penman has a new book out in the Plantagenet series. Can't wait to see what it is.

I finished and REVIEWED Wes Davis' new book, The Ariadne Objective: The Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis.

Now I'm reading the last volume in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, Hearing Secret Harmonies. I have been reading this series all year and will really miss it come January.

Queen Anne by Anne Somerset
New biography about the last Stuart Queen of England. She was the daughter of James II and succeeded her brother-in-law William of Orange to be Queen of England. (Her sister Mary had predeceased him)

I'm just starting On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee because I enjoyed his book The Surrendered so much.

I'm a sucker for end-of-year book lists and NPR has a particularly good one. A click on each book cover brings you to a short review:

http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2013/#/_

>56 NarratorLady: That *is* a good list, Anne, thanks!

WOW #56, agreed, fantabulous list! Thank you for sharing!

That NPR list list some great books on it. Thanks for posting. I've read several of them, and of those I've read, some were my favorites for the year. But now there are too many I haven't read but want to.

My very favorite John Irving book, The Cider House Rules, is a $1.99 Kindle Daily Deal today. So very worth the tiny cost.

I loved that book, but it's my second favorite John Irving book. My favorite is A Prayer for Owen Meany, even though it has been years since I read it.

Thanks for letting us know about the sale.

Finished the light and entertaining Her Royal Spyness. I am about to start Waging Heavy Peace.

One hour later: nope. Neil Young's aimless rambling style just does not work for me!

Think I will try Tinkers by Paul Harding.

I really enjoyed Her Royal Spyness when I read it last year. I'm considering audio for the next in the series. I've heard good things about the audio editions.

I quickly finished up The Man with the Getaway Face, the second entry in the Parker series by John Stark (a.k.a. Donald Westlake). If you like your anti-heroes mostly devoid of conscience, this noir series, written in the early 60s, is for you. Fast and fun.

I've now started The Tenor Saxophonist's Story by Czech writer Josef Skvorecky. I'm a big fan of Czech literature in general (what I've read of it, which isn't nearly enough), and loved Skvorecky's novella, The Bass Saxophone, when I read it in grad school. This book was a Hanukkah present from my darling wife.

Working through The Cuckoo's Calling, which I'm finding a bit disappointing (maybe it'll pick up) and also reading A Spell for Chameleon because we just suffered a loss in the family and I needed something easy and fun.

Finished the terrifying The Shining. I will bever trust topiaries again! My next auto audiobook will be The Cuckoo's Calling.

I know, they never look innocent and cute again. You couldn't get me into a play tunnel ever again either!

Just received Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich from the library yesterday. I'm hoping to start it today.

I've just started Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester. I'm not even 20 pages in yet, but if this small bit is any indication, I'm really going to enjoy it. Right now the focus is on the spice trade of the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries. I love this kind of stuff.

Finished Skeletons at the Feast last night. Tough to read but very good.

Next up for me is a few graphic novels. I started Fables Vol. 8: Wolves by Bill Willingham . Fables is such a fun series and The Hubster is reading it along with me while I have them out from the library.

Australia, New Zealand, Asia: New thread is up!

Midway through The Book Thief. Also started The Cat Who Came Back For Christmas, which I predict will be a quick and fun read.

First of all, to Vonini at #34 - I totally agree with you regarding Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. I read this back in May of 2012, and while I did really enjoy reading this book - it didn't necessarily reach out and grab my attention.

And now, here I am checking in with my reading list for this week. :) Starting on Friday, November 29th, I picked up and started Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel by Joe Hill - which I finished reading on Sunday, December 1st! :) What a debut - I liked it a lot.

Anyway, on Monday, December 2nd, I started reading So Happy Together by Maryann McFadden. This was just the type of book that I enjoy reading - in my opinion, the story and plot was very believable. I finished reading this book on Wednesday, December 4th! :)

Now I can't decide between reading either Dracula in Love by Karen Essex, or Deadly Grace by Taylor Smith.