*** What Are You Reading? (step two)

Carrying over!

I started on Ustinov's Monsieur René last night. No ideas what it was about, but it seems to be shaping up quite interestingly.

I'm just starting Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep. The audiobook reader is great except when reading quotes where he puts on ridiculous voices for some reason and truly appalling attempts at English accents.

Hah! I am listening to Bleak House and the accents (and different personalities) are brought out very well, but I can totally see how it would jar if the reader was not as good at accents as they thought they were!

It's very different with fiction. With non-fiction it's generally so unimportant where the person speaking is from when it's just a quote from a book or article (and sometimes I think he's just going by which university they work at, which doesn't mean they're even from that country). Plus they tell you where the person is from two seconds before the quote starts anyway.

This guy isn't even up to Dick van Dyke level (though he does seem to think all people in England are vaguely cockney). I think I'm actually going to have to stop listening to it. It's really so bad that I can't concentrate on the words.

>4 mabith:, Accents in non-fiction really bug me too. It's so unnecessary and often just comes off really poorly or racist.

In other news, I am continuing with the audiobook of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (which incidentally is also guilty of using accents to a ridiculous extent), despite my numerous issues with it (detailed on my personal thread). I wanted to read My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting into it right now, so I think I'll put it on hold. Also making good progress on one of the two collections of Joyce Carol Oates short stories that I've got in process, Faithless.

Player Piano is temporary on ice (not in the mood for it so no point struggling through it now) and I am moving to Marston's The Trip to Jerusalem - I think I started that one at some point a few years ago and then misplaced it - at least I do not remember finishing it.

I am reading Birdsong as part of the WWI theme this year. I am also reading a YA fantasy-type book called The Pentrals. This is not a genre I typically read, but it was written by a young woman who went to the same high school as me and was in the same grade as my younger sister. Happy to report that it's very good so far!

Funny, I was just thinking about accents whilst listening to Americanah. The Nigerian narrator does all sorts of accents, quite well so far - but I was wondering whether it's strictly necessary...

8 - When it's done well, it's great, especially if there's any dialect written. If the reader knows those accents and switches well then I think it adds a lot to a book and better takes you into that country or region or life. The audio of Small Island is absolutely amazing, and it took me a while to be sure it really was only one reader. Non-fiction is just a different matter though.

I was reading Heir to the Glimmering World when something happened (the heroine had secreted $500 in her dresser. I expected that it would turn up missing and that I would not like that. It turned up missing, and I did not like it) in it that I didn't like. So I set it aside to read Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann. It has surprisingly, since I didn't much like The Magic Mountain, held my attention, but it has been very slow going. I have sometimes not been able to go more than a ten page chapter at a single reading, not because of tedium but by reason of having as much as I can at a time, and, so, I have not always been able to pick it up of an evening when it came time to read. Meanwhile on the first Wednesday of February I have to be ready to discuss Heir to the Glimmering World at my book group.

Robert

Reading The Age of Innocence. I read and loved House of Mirth previously and someone's comments on Wharton recently in CR made me remember that I wanted to get back to her. I've had a combined tension headache/migraine for three days and I just want to read something nice.

Just Starting The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

I've just finished an ER book, Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance by Julia Angwin, which was pretty good, but also pretty depressing. I've now started Conqueror's Pride by Timothy Zahn, one of a zillion SF novels I've had sitting on the TBR Pile forever.

Recently finished Enon by Paul Harding (a 5-star read for me, heart-wrenchingly beautiful) and also finished Helen Dunmore's recent novel The Lie (4 stars perhaps, enjoyable). Now reading Carthage by JCO, and Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin (downstairs, upstairs books). Too busy to write about the first two now, but perhaps after the house is actually on the market....

Reading The Early Life and Times of Max Hanold by Howard Leff for my synagogue's book club. The author is a member of the synagogue.

I'm reading July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin, which is interesting in theory, but dry in actuality. I've also started In the Forest by Edna O'Brien.

I finished up Puckoon and Charlotte's Web yesterday, and now I'm just starting The History of Money by Jack Weatherford. I've really enjoyed everything I've read by him so far.

Finally finished Thinking Fast and Slow after almost a year. So much to think about with this book.

Back to Africa with Leila Aboulela's Lyrics Alley, and still listening to Americanah.

I have started Parineeta by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay; it was published in 1914.

Flipping audio books. Finished Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild by Lee Sandlin, narrated by Jeff McCarthy - which I didn't really like. Started Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss, narrated by Scott Brick. I'm so thoroughly fascinated by the opening that I've gotten myself sick...or maybe that's just a coincidence...but it's a well-done and disturbing prologue.

I've started on Waugh's Decline and Fall this evening.

Read 84, Charing Cross Road last night. As someone said before me - go and read it - it is short and it is worth reading for anyone with even passing interest in books :) Review in my thread and in the work as always.

After reading Love Is the Cure, which was a bit heavy (and a few other sad RL events over the last two weeks); I thought I'd lighten up a bit with The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon.

Last night I finished a delightful travel memoir, Wanderlust, by Elisabeth Eaves.

>21 dchaikin:, Dan, I hope you like Salt, Sugar, Fat. I found it both fascinating and disturbing. I found myself enthralled with the scientists' stories at the same time I was disgusted with how they were manipulating "food" to be addictive.

I just finished my audiobook, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and am wrestling with how to review it, given that I found it fascinating and infuriating. Also finished Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence - oddly I also loved and hated that book. I've got so many books piled up and waiting for me at the library, I don't know what I'm going to read next. Ah, woe is me!

#26 Kris - yes, (insanely) fascinating and disturbing so far. I wasn't aware that food companies create unhealthy food addictions in a way that parallels cigarette products...and if they don't do this, they start dramatically loosing market share. I'm not surprised that once you take out the sugar, salt and fat, the isn't anything left in these foods.

Finished another Japanese crime fiction novel by Seicho Matsumoto, Le vase de sable (English title: Inspector Imanishi Investigates).

I'm on holiday and reading both Justine ou les malheurs de la vertu and 14-18, retrouver la guerre is a bit too depressing, so I also started The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (French title L'analphabète qui savait compter). Very enjoyable so far, and funny which is a welcome reprieve.

Just finished One Night in Winter and, after much dithering, have gone light and fun with the next (for me) in the Thursday Next series, One of Our Thursdays is Missing. Especially on the heels of a few Russian books, there's a really funny scene with characters from Crime and Punishment.

>29 FlorenceArt: - Thanks for the tip about The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (original Swedish title more like the French, Analfabeten som kunde räkna). I'm always looking for good Swedish to read.

I'm still making my way through the interviews in Black Women Writers At Work and about to start The Ante Room by Kate O'Brien. I have a work trip coming up this week with two 6-hour train journeys and 3 hotel nights by myself - lots and lots of reading (and knitting) time!

Deleted. Weird - this was a response to a totally different thread but it ended up here!

I've finished Birdsong and am reading The Greenlanders and Oranges are Not the Only Fruit currently.

Looking for something lighter, so I picked up Jacqueline Winspear's first Maisie Dobbs mystery. Enjoying it so far.

A house guest interrupted my listening to The History of Money, but I'm about halfway through it. I also started Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz.

Finishing up July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin and will be reading something light afterwards. Probably The Cuckoo's Calling by JK Rowling Robert Galbraith. Or something by PD Wodehouse.

I have started An Easy Burden by Andrew Young. It's a bit of a tome, so I think it's gonna take a while!

Traveling this week - so all paper books are home and I am reading only on the kindle. Halfway through Saints of the Shadow Bible - 19th Inspector Rebus & 4th Malcolm Fox novel. So far as good as expected and unlike the previous one, Fox is recognizable as his own self from the start of his series.

I am reading some stuff by Sir Thomas More

I've recently finished The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, which I think was flawed, but worth a read. I'm now reading Insane City by the always funny Dave Barry.

I finished The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton and am now reading Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury by Alison Light.

Currently in the middle of Sirens of Titan and being rather amused.

I've posted reviews of the two books I read while I was away: New Grub Street by George Gissing and Tent of Miracles by Jorge Amado. Now . . . I'm going to try to catch up with all of your threads!

I'm dipping into Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists 4 while I decide what novel to read after Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela. I've resumed listening to the wonderful but not always easy-to-follow Bleak House, but have resolved to follow Margaret's lead and get hold of a paper copy as well. I'm also listening to Mapp and Lucia, for light relief.

Finishing In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, starting The Curse Of The Pogo Stick. Enjoying both.

I just got Five Days at Memorial as an audiobook from the library. Am excited to start it and to join the conversation here.

I am reading Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus

I have finished Mrs. Woolf and the Servants and am about to start The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling.

Started on Jane Eyre last night, so far so good.

I've started The Rise of Rome by Anthony Everitt, and will finish The Rescuers today.

I was over-the-top excited when I found out that the first Rescuers cartoon was based on a book (though it seems to be based on the second book in the series, rather than the first where they're rescuing a Norwegian poet). Had to give my father many harsh words for not mentioning the books when I was a kid (this is what I guilt my parents over - the books they didn't introduce me to in childhood).

Finished reading both Reporting Vietnam and Geological Controversies, revied the former still have to get to the latter at some point.

Now I'm down to just three books at the moment. Yay!

Just started The Hunger Games... I just wanted to find out about the hype...

I was reading other things but then my copy of Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight arrived today.

Right onto the wishlist even though I'm not that big a fan of Batman.

Robert

Done with One of our Thursdays is Missing from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. After a bit of vacillating, I've decided on Jeffrey Eugenides's The Marriage Plot.

Having finished The Cuckoo's Calling, I'm dividing my time between Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Bloodlands has been giving me really unpleasant dreams, so I'm torn between slowing down so there's less of it or speeding up to finish it. I'm thinking I need to be taking notes.

I've just finished another Zola, and one in which he is at the top of his game: The Beast Within, a tale of murder, sexual obsession, and railroads, among other topics.

Finished Death Comes to Pemberly and starting Slammerkin by Emma Donaghue and continuing on with The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley

The Greenlanders was one of my highlights of last year; I hope you like (love) it as much as I did. Mixed feelings about Slammerkin.

I've just finished The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek, yet another piece of non-fiction I have complicated mixed feelings about. Next up is Herman Koch's The Dinner, which I am looking forward to.

I finished Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. Wells. It was quite good. I am back to Miss Buncle Married by D. E. Stevenson, and Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin.

I am starting First Lensman by E E Doc Smith

>56 RidgewayGirl: It seems I am inadvertently following you around, Kay. I finished The Cuckoo's Calling over the weekend and am now reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, in advance of a RL book group meeting next Tuesday.

I'm halfway through An Unfinished Business (US title The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal.

Just starting The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and 1941: The Year That Keeps Returning by Slavko Goldstein.

I've also got How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, which the library ordered for me before I saw some reviews that made me think I didn't want to read it. It's short though.

Unfortunately, despite having 2 extra hours in the airport I wasn't able to read during that time due to how loud the LAX airport is. However, on the plane I finished reading Takeshi Kaiko's Into a Black Sun.

Reading the letters of Penelope Fitzgerald, So I Have Thought Of You. Also a book of poetry, The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie. And for something completely different, my audiobook listening is an apocalyptic detective novel, The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters.

The Miracle Man by James Skivington, won it on librarything as a giveaway. Really enjoying it (for our UK readers it's sort of a cross between father ted and Last of the Summer Wine).

@ljbwell I am behind on the Thursday Next series but hoping to get caught up this year.

I am reading Dearie by Bob Spitz, a great biography of Julia Child. The book has the same kind of positive, slightly out of control energy of the woman.

#58 starting Slammerkin by Emma Donaghue

I started that on the first of the year but had to put it aside when reading obligations showed up. I will pick it up again after I finish my book club read Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. Also browsing my way through Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman. In audio book I'm listening to Pope Joan which is okay, but not something I'd spend time reading in book form.

I'm reading a short story collection by Jean Rhys, Sleep It Off, Lady. She's one of my favourite authors and three stories in she hasn't let me down.

Finished Jane yesterday, started on The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window this afternoon.

I have about a hundred pages to go in Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell. I have another book by him which I will probably read to give him a second chance and because it is easy, but I'm not very impressed by his writing. I wonder a little bit why, this being the first Kurt Wallander mystery, the series got repeat readers enough to provoke a series.

Robert

>72 .Monkey.: Ooh .... The Big Sleep. I really liked that one. Haven't read the others.

>69 witchyrichy: - In many ways it's a goofy series, but filled with enough literary and book-related riffs and references, as well as genuine laugh out loud moments, to keep me coming back.

Plugging along at The Greenlanders which is fascinating but dense and bleak, so I added Around the World in 80 Days to lighten things up a bit.

Still skipping my way through Philip Pullman's Brothers Grimm, and well into Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan, which so far I'm enjoying (despite all the negative reviews here at LT)

Finished Saints of the Shadow Bible while flying around in Friday and then started and finished Thankless in Death -- #I_do_not_know_which in its series - over the weekend (and during my Sunday flights). Reviews and thoughts some time later.

Started Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - which is going slowly but so far seems ok. Probably will finish it by the time I get home in Friday night...

>74 by @avidmom, I've only seen the movie (the Bogart one, and I can't imagine the other version being any good after that, Bogart was perfect!!), but they did a fabulous job with it and following the book, too bad Hollywood isn't like the old days anymore! I'm almost done with Big Sleep, curious to see what the others will bring, I love Marlowe!

Today I had four hours of free time while substitute teaching so I got to read 200 pages of my book which allowed me to finish the fantastic, Ayako Miura's Lady Gracia: A Samurai Wife's Love, Strife and Faith. Hope to review this soon on my thread.

I finished Faceless Killers and was unhappy with it. It was easy, though, so I picked up The Man Who Smiled and read about half of it. The first was translated into British English; the second into American English. The second sounds a lot less like a lot of science fiction narratives and captures what's happening without uncomfortable explanations.

Robert

I am finishing The Civil War: The Second Year Told By Those Who Lived It and just started Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914.

I've gone on to Linda Grant's Still Here, and The China Factory, a collection of short stories by Irish writer Mary Costello. Oh, and I'm still listening to Bleak House, of course...

I finished the charming Miss Buncle Married. Next up The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith / J.K. Rowling and Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin.

We've had crazy snow here (for us anyway) So I've almost finished Orfeo by Richard Powers. Looking to start S. next.

Still on my Balzac kick. I am currently reading Modeste Mignon.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides is done and moved on to Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov.

Still reading, but almost finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I also picked up a ticket for her book signing in March today and the clerk was excited when I told him the book was, so far, excellent. It isn't out yet in German.

Finished all 3 Chandlers, now reading Peter Pan & Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

I am reading The Titan by Theodore Dreiser, another book published in 1914.

So, I've just recently finished Lexicon by Max Barry, which was a lot of fun, Outlaw Tales of New Mexico by Barbara Marriott, which was of interest to me mainly just for local history reasons, and Locke & Key Volume 6: Alpha & Omega, the final installment of the fantastic Locke & Key graphic novel series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.

And now I'm reading The Secret Country by Pamela Dean, and having trouble deciding whether I like it or not.

I read a chapter of The Patron Saint of Liars last night on my Nook and will finish it for discussion in our book group at church on March 5. I also read a chunk of the paperback version of American Transcendentalism paying attention to most of the details only as they give shape to the whole idea; I may be less of a transcendentalist than I assume.

Robert

I have now finished No Country For Old Men, and am now in a post-military coup Israel - on The Road to Ein Harod.

Feeling a little burnt out, so I'm re-reading The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout in between bouts with 1941: The Year That Keeps Returning.

I've just finished CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I'm continuing on with Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder.

After finishing The Hunger Games I'm now going for another 1,001 book, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Haven't checked in to this thread for awhile. I'm reading Restoration and Richard III with two of my classes, listening to The Snow Child on audio, just finished To Marry an English Lord (not recommended; there are much better books on the subject out there), and am still picking away at The Size of the World.

I'm not normally one to read multiple books at once, but I decided that I was in the mood for it. I am currently reading...

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (LT group read)
Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling (to my six year old at bed time)
Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity by Edward Slingerland (Early Review)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

I am reading The Cuckoo's Calling, and hope to make a dent in it during jury duty today. I finished listening to The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith on my way to Massachusetts this weekend. On my way home yesterday, I started Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre. It is narrated by the wonderful John Lee, and I am enjoying it so far.

Colleen, I loved Agent Zigzag -- and it was Chris who got me to read it!

I have Carthage on hold, have started The Elephant Keeper's Children, but have also started Burn. the 3rd book in Julianna Baggott's post-apocalyptic trilogy. It's hard not to be distracted by the latter as it's action-packed... (though three books of being in teenagers' heads will be enough for a while).

I've finished La Cote 400 (The Library of Unrequited Love). After a bit of a false start with En storm kom från paradiset, I've turned my attention to what I've wanted to read all along, but was trying to save: Gillespie and I. So far, am loving it.

I'll come back to Anyuru's book, but I just wasn't up for the intensity of a book about Idi Amin's Uganda.

102> I loved Gillespie and I, which I reviewed for Belletrista.

Just starting Sisters, Secrets and Sacrifice, about Eileen and Jacqueline Nearne (sisters who both served with the SOE during WWII and engaged in undercover work in France). I've read little bits about them online and was completely in awe.

I've just finished and reviewed The Human Comedy: Selected Stories by Balzac -- mostly compelling and occasionally creepy.

I just finished The Cuckoo's Calling, and will start Five Days at Memorial.

I finished The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head: A Psychiatrist's Stories of His Most Bizarre Cases by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan. Which I had some issues with. I'm now 110 pages into Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. Which I think maybe is suffering a bit from being over-hyped to me. It's very nicely written, but so far it's just not really gripping me. Hopefully it's just a little slow to start.

I am starting Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison who was born in 1914 and so is a literary centennial. The book is an acknowledged modern classic and I am expecting great things. Everybody but me has probably read it years ago.

108 -
I definitely have read it years ago as you say -- which made me laugh -- and it's a good one. I think you'll enjoy it.

I read it many years ago too (as a teenager, in fact), but it might be worth a reread.

>108 baswood:: I read Invisible Man some time ago and I liked it a lot. Enjoy!

>108 baswood: You're not alone, that's one of the big classics that never found its way on to my shelf, either. I've been meaning to read it for a number of years but just haven't. I'm hopeful about utilizing the library for it this year sometime! :)

I just started reading Married Love, a collection of short stories by Tessa Hadley.

I'm finishing off The New Woman's Hour Book of Short Stories, which includes some great stories by the likes of Atwood, Munro, Fay Weldon, Penelope Lively...

I have finished and reviewed The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and am now following the CR herd into Five Days at Memorial.

I'm suffering with too many choices on my TBR pile. I am continuing with the audiobook of Five Days at Memorial, trying to get into Burial Rites, a historical novel about the last woman executed in Iceland, and really needing to start my pile from the library, which includes Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times. However, I also really need to watch the American House of Cards. I hear season 2 is vicious!

116> I started the audiobook of Five Days at Memorial this afternoon, but I'm finding the reader quite tedious; she sounds bored with what she's reading.

'House of Cards' is terrific! I have two episodes to go in Season 2.

After some time with Billy Beane and the Oakland A's in Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, I thought I'd drop in on the New York Yankees under the tenure of George M. Steinbreener in Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball by Bill Madden. Six chapters in and loving it!

A surprisingly gripping 1898 story of life on a whaling ship, The Cruise of the Cachalot: round the world after sperm whales, by Frank T Bullen.

I just finished Chinua Achebe's wonderful and classic African Trilogy.

Just starting 800 Years of Women's Letters and Forgotten Voices of the Somme.

Recently finished Wild Harbour which I recommend for anyone looking for a good story set in the wilds of Scotland. Now I'm starting The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden and it's off to a great start.

Last night I finished Five Days At Memorial, so now for something less depressing, a murder mystery - Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin.

Tooth and nail is an old Rebus novel I think. happy reading.

Barry, it is indeed. :) I am working my way through them slowly. This one is #3. And, I got the next three for Christmas, so will probably read them at some point this year.

Currently reading "The Moses Virus" which I won from LT and also reading "Raising Chaos" part two of the Earthbound Angels series by Elizabeth Corrigan. Both are great!

I finished Fifty Dead Men Walking last night, still working on South Africa: The First Man, The Last Nation, and planning to start IBM and the Holocaust a little later tonight.

Reading Job, Stories from the Country of Lost Borders by Mary Hunter Austin, and Just Write: Here's How by Walter Dean Myers

Listening to Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink, but it's taking some time...

128> Dan, I started the audiobook but found the reader just awful--she sounds so bored with it all that I couldn't stick with it. I think I will be switching to a Kindle version.

Sorry to hear that, a little funny though. I actually don't mind her. She might read a bit slow. ?

I finished reading Five Days at Memorial and am now on Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.

I'm nearly finished with No Name in the Street, a collection of essays by James Baldwin.

I am starting To Kill A Mockingbird and I am intrigued to compare it to Invisible Man. Both books are about Americas race relations and both authors only published one novel and that novel won prizes. Ellison was male and black while Harper lee is white and female. Ellison's novel dates from 1952 while Lee's was published in 1960.

I'm reading A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto.

I finished Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin, and have just started The Rising Tide by M.J. Farrell (Molly Keane)

After hitting and missing with several audiobooks, I've finally settled on a good one: Old Filth by Jane Gardam.

I'm reading a bunch of shortish stuff lately. I finished Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings, which was surprisingly good, and Daniel Pinkwater's The Afterlife Diet which was... interesting. I'm now reading First Men to the Moon by Wernher von Braun, which was written in 1958 and imagines (with varying degrees of success) what the first moon landing might be like.

Thumbed up your Ken Jennings review. Sounds like a fun book--I`ll keep an eye out for it.

>138 Nickelini:: Thanks! It really is a fun one.

I'm reading The Real Charlotte, a rather obscure Irish novel written in 1894 by a writing team of cousins Edith Somerville and Violet Martin. I'm enjoying it.

Also just starting Juliet Barker's biography of The Brontes.

Yesterday I started People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks for my RL book club. (It's maybe not a good sign when 30 pages in I'm trying to figure out why the characters aren't working for me.) And this morning I started The Paris Review, 207 from last winter. (When I bought it on Jan 4, it was the most recent issue my Barnes & Noble carried.)

I started Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan a few days ago. Hate. It. I'm slogging through it because it's like a train wreck I can't stop watching.

I've just finished an utterly delightful book, The Queen's Necklace by Antal Szerb that is about the necklace and so much more.

>141 dchaikin: - I'll be curious to see where you wind up on People of the Book.

I have started The Casual vacancy by J K Rowling. It is another book club read - oh hum.

Oh dear I seem to be enjoying it.

well I|was enjoying it, rapidly going downhill

I finished Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which was light, and am now reading the much heavier The Bridge on the Drina.

Having finished the excellent A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto, I have started Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and The Passage by Justin Cronin.

Finished an interesting and moving graphic novel, The Underwater Welder, and started Last Train From Liguria which is more interesting than its cover makes it look!

After finishing The Real Charlotte, I'm starting Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and working my way through the very detailed The Brontës by Juliet Barker.

I've just finished a short and fun novel by Jorge Amado, Home Is the Sailor, which I've had on my TBR for probably 25 years.

Just starting A Wrinkle in Time for the first time! Well, I picked it up when I was eight or so, but was just too young to enjoy reading it on my own, so I put it down. When we have time travel I'll have a revised list of chapter books for my parents to read to me.

I finished Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by the ever-wonderful P. G. Wodehouse a few days ago, and am now reading Walking the Amazon by Ed Stafford. Who did, in fact, walk the entire length of the Amazon. Because it was there, I guess.

Finished Wide Sargasso Sea and have now started on IBM and the Holocaust.

In audiobook I recently started Fingersmith, which is my first Sarah Waters book, and so far I'm enjoying it very, very much. The reader is great.

I have started two books today
Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne
We jevgeni Zamjatin

Started the audiobook of Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures today. Also about 60% of the way through Joyce Carol Oates' Zombie, which I believe was inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer. It is really not my cup of tea, but I'll finish it tonight probably.

Just started Bark, Lorrie Moore's latest story collection.

Just finished reading The Death of Woman Wang by Jonathan D. Spence which I enjoyed.

I finished and commented on Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre which was wonderful, and The Rising Tide by M. J. Farrell. Next up One of Ours by Willa Cather.

I hadn't read any nonfiction yet this year, so last night I picked up the book on the top of my non-fiction pile, which happens to be Lone Survivors: How We Came to be the Only Humans on Earth.

>160 Nickelini: It would be interesting to pair that up with something that conjectures about the possible future divergence of species in the human line.

Robert

I wanted something easily digested before I dove into some pre civil war American history, so I am almost through Drop Dead Healthy. A.J. Jacobs, who has also read the Encyclopedia Britannica all the way through and lived the laws of the Bible (but maybe just the Pentateuch; I don't remember) for a year, decided to try out all the things that are thought to make us healthy nowadays. He makes some mistakes of fact, but with all of the facts he presents those mistakes are excusable. This is light and fun and somewhat informative.

Robert

I've now become someone who always has three books on the go (regular audiobook, kitchen/cleaning/bath-time audiobook, and a print book).

So, in that order, I've just started The Martian by Andy Weir, Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives: A World Without World War I.

It would be interesting to pair that up with something that conjectures about the possible future divergence of species in the human line.

That does sound interesting, do you have a suggestion? I've never thought of such a thing.

A few days ago, I finished Landscapes of Fear by Yi-Fu Tuan, a fascinating and remarkable look at human fear across cultures and across time, and I've finally posted my review.

Finished Dostoevsky's The Idiot today. I'm still meh about the Russians.

>164 Nickelini: I saw a credible article once upon a time, probably in the past few years, that reported an academic expectation that the privileged and the unprivileged would diverge into two species, worker people and ruling people. As I remember it was a serious suggestion but not a certain one. I don't even know how to search for such a thing.

Robert

I don't even know how to search for such a thing..

Nor do I! :-)

Sounds a little like Margaret Atwood's Maddam Trilogy.

I finished the very enlightening and unforgettable An Easy Burden by Andrew Young this morning. After my brain recovers, I think I'll go back to Batman and Psychology.

I'm reading Great House by Nicole Krauss, which is for my book group. We're meeting to discuss it on Tuesday and I'm about 2/3 through it. I'm on the fence about it at this stage - there's some very fine writing in the book, but it's a sectional narrative, and I've found some sections far more involving than others. One to reserve judgement on until I've finished it.

I finished Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues and am now reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken, since I somehow missed reading it as a kid.

I read and reviewed the delightful The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb.

>166 lilisin:, lilisin, I never could get into Dostoyevsky but I love a lot of other Russian writers.

>170 timjones:, I loved Great House, and >171 bragan:, I loved The Wolves of Willoughby Chase which I did read as a kid.

>172 rebeccanyc: I feel like I really should have read Willoughby Chase as a kid. It wasn't bad, but I think I would have enjoyed it more back then.

Completed Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball by Bill Madden. Fantastic read!

While pondering my next read, someone suggested Norwegian by Night by début novelist Derek Miller. Sounded intriguing - great reviews, won awards - so started reading. Now, while fiction is not my thing, I do occasionally enjoy a good mystery/thriller, but after 7 chapters am debating whether to continue. Unrealistic dialogue... dull... one Amazon reviewer described it as "Philosophy, religion and the Jewish diaspora thinly veiled as a thriller" and I think that really sums it up quite well.

In time for this summer's football World Cup I've finished and reviewed Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life by Alex Bellos, which was very informative and enjoyable.

Have just started Street People by Helga Dudman - a book looking at the life stories behind those many diverse individuals for whom so many streets and squares in Israeli cities are named after.

ETA whom not who!

I'm in the middle of Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I'm finding it quite hard going. Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom isn't one of the nicest people to spend time with.

Still reading Tristram Shandy which is hard going, because my mind keeps wandering even further away than Stern's writing. Is it all a Dick joke I am wondering.

Re my last post (#174), I did give up on Norwegian by Night, and am having a far more enjoyable time with The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan and Their Brothers by John C. Waugh.

I finished People of the Book, which was really flawed, but readable. I have started reading The Book of Psalms, well I'm still reading introductory stuff. And I'm reading a juvenile book my daughter liked, Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, which has been quite good.

On audio, I finished Salt Sugar Fat yesterday and I'm sure what is next. I download two books, Incognito by David Eagleman & The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey.

Gave up on L'analphabète qui savait compter (The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden) and Justine ou les malheurs de la vertu. Now reading Job in Robert Alter's translation in The Wisdom Books and L'Empire du moindre mal (The Empire of Lesser Evil).

Flo - I'm starting a Job thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/171374

>179 dchaikin: I found Incognito: Secret Lives of the Brain quite good. If you've read a few other books on that subject there are repeats, but it covers an area of criminal justice that isn't touched in the others, which was fascinating. It might be my favorite of the rash of pop-science brain books.

I finished and reviewed Helen Oyeyemi's new novel, Boy, Snow Bird, which explores ideas of identity and interweaves "reality" and fairy tale -- it didn't quite work for me.

>182 mabith: - thanks! Good to know. I started The Wave this morning and the first 30 minutes were really good. So, I plan to stick with it. But Incognito will be next.

>181 dchaikin: Cool! I starred it and will read your comments tonight.

I've finished The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) by Chris Hardwick, which mostly just confirmed for me that I don't like self-help books, no matter how nerdy they are. I'm now reading The Spellmans Strike Again, book 4 in Lisa Lutz's fun, fluffy Spellmans series. Next up should be my latest ER book, Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives! by Richard Ned Lebow.

Finished two books this afternoon, so now working on IBM and the Holocaust (and being horribly appalled) and also just starting Deep Simplicity.

>175 Polaris-:, what a cool idea for a book. I might have to look for that.

Reading Joyce Carol Oates' gothic family saga Bellefleur, which so far is feeling more like a book of interconnected short stories than a single novel, but I'm enjoying it's weirdness.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. And it's just as good as everybody here says.

I'm reading Gillespie & I, which I was pretty sure I'd like, having enjoyed Jane Harris's previous novel, The Observations. It is turning out to be the kind of book that is impossible to put down.

Not sure what I'm reading. Books I picked up yesterday and read 20 pages or so of include: Reading the Lines: A Fresh Look at the Hebrew Bible by Pamela Tamarkin Reis, Vivid and Continuous: Essays and Exercises for Writing Fiction by John McNally, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg and The Vision of Tragedy by Richard B. Sewall. I had to return the McNally to the library, so I can only read from three of those, max, today...

Also still reading the Book of Psalms and The Paris Review 207 and listening to The Wave, which is too focused on extreme surfing and too neglectful of the science of waves.

I'm reading Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman and The Brontes by Juliet Barker.

Over the past few days I finished several books, and have just found time to review them: Dragnet Nation by Julia Angwin, The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka, and Tattoo by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán.

>190 RidgewayGirl: Oh, I LOVED Gillespie and I! I was able to read and review an ARC for Belletrista. Not only is it hard to put down, but as soon as you finish, you'll want to read it again to look for what you missed.

I've been listening to The Spinning Heart--an Irish read for St. Patrick's Day week. I like it, but it's sure a downer.

Recently finished Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times, which was great. Still reading Joyce Carol Oates' Bellefleur and listening to the audiobook of Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, which is probably going to end up being one of my favorite books of the year. Have just started Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!: A World without World War I, which I received through ER.

I started The Martian by Andy Weir last night. I forced myself to put the book down after reading the first chapter. On the way to work (yay, vanpool), I started again. I'm already loving this book.

>196 lesmel: I have heard so many good things about The Martian. Somebody came up to me at work the other day and gave me a random, unsolicited recommendation for it, even!

Oh, and speaking of Mars, I just finished Red Planet Blues by Robert J. Sawyer, a fun SF/detective novel. I'm now reading my new latest ER book, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park by Lee H. Whittlesey, which is turning out to be surprisingly compelling.

>196 lesmel: I found The Martian absolutely wonderful!

I've just finished and was surprised by En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove) by Fredrik Backman. I've started Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky, but have also been lent Juli Zeh's Corpus Delicti. Given how I feel about holding on to someone else's books, I may have to put Metro 2033 on hold.

>190 RidgewayGirl:, 194 - recently finished Gillespie & I also and loved it.

>189 rachbxl: - glad you like Jansson's The Summer Book. It is such a gem.

I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird yesterday and started The Shining. I have already seen the movie version of The Shining and I guess I'm going to like the book as well.

Three on the go again. The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio by Lloyd Alexander, Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, and The Battle of Blair Mountain by Robert Shogan.

>201 OscarWilde87: I read the book and watched the movie last year. The book, IMO, is creepier.

I finished The Warden by Anthony Trollope, and have decided to start The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally. I think it will be a good one for my flight home tomorrow.

>203 avidmom:: Sounds promising!

>204 NanaCC:, Colleen, I've got The Daughters of Mars on my Kindle. I can't wait to hear your thoughts!