What Ae You Reading the Week of 29 March 2014?

Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-born Irish writer, best known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. Early in McCaffrey's 46-year career as a writer, she became the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction and the first to win a Nebula Award. Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.

In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006.

She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second of three children of Anne Dorothy (née McElroy) and Col. George Herbert McCaffrey. She had two brothers: Hugh ("Mac", died 1988) and Kevin Richard McCaffrey ("Kevie"). Her father had Irish and English ancestry, and her mother was of Irish descent. She attended Stuart Hall (a girls' boarding school in Staunton, Virginia), and graduated from Montclair High School in New Jersey. In 1947 she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College with a degree in Slavonic languages and Literature.

In 1950 she married Horace Wright Johnson (died 2009), who shared her interests in music, opera and ballet. They had three children: Alec Anthony, born 1952; Todd, born 1956 and Georgeanne ("Gigi", Georgeanne Kennedy), born 1959.

Except for a short time in Düsseldorf, the family lived for most of a decade in Wilmington, Delaware. They moved to Sea Cliff, Long Island in 1965, and McCaffrey became a full-time writer.

McCaffrey served a term as secretary-treasurer of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1968 to 1970. In addition to handcrafting the Nebula Award trophies, her responsibilities included production of two monthly newsletters and their distribution by mail to the membership.

McCaffrey emigrated to Ireland with her two younger children in 1970, weeks after filing for divorce. Ireland had recently exempted resident artists from income taxes, an opportunity that fellow science-fiction author Harry Harrison had promptly taken and helped to promote. McCaffrey's mother soon joined the family in Dublin. The following spring, McCaffrey was guest of honor at her first British science-fiction convention (Eastercon 22, 1971). There she met British reproductive biologist Jack Cohen, who would be a consultant on the science of Pern.

Some time after their move to Long Island, Todd McCaffrey recalls, his mother asked him what he thought of dragons. She was brainstorming about their "bad press all these years." The result was a "technologically regressed survival planet" whose people were united against a threat from space (in contrast to an America divided by the Vietnam War). "The dragons became the biologically renewable air force, and their riders 'the few' who, like the RAF pilots in World War Two, fought against incredible odds day in, day out—and won."

The first Pern story, "Weyr Search," was published in 1967 by John W. Campbell in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It won the 1968 Hugo Award for best novella, voted by participants in the annual World Science Fiction Convention. The second Pern story, "Dragonrider," won the 1969 Nebula Award for best novella, voted annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Thus she was the first woman to win a Hugo for fiction and the first to win a Nebula.

"Weyr Search" covers the recruitment of a young woman, Lessa, to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, thus becoming a dragonrider and the leader of a Weyr community. "Dragonrider" explores the growth of the queen dragon Ramoth, and the training of Lessa and Ramoth. Editor Campbell requested "to see dragons fighting thread (the menace from space)," and also suggested time travel; McCaffrey incorporated both suggestions. The third story, "Crack Dust, Black Dust", was not separately published, but the first Pern novel (Dragonflight, published by Ballantine Books in 1968) was a fix-up of all three.

If John Campbell was midwife to Dragonflight (with its major components published as award-winning novellas), agent Virginia Kidd and editor Betty Ballantine provided advice and assistance for its sequel Dragonquest. Both Ballantine and fellow writer Andre Norton made suggestions for the mutant white dragon.

Readers waited a long time for the completion of the original trilogy. Progress was not made until 1974–1975, when the New England Science Fiction Association invited McCaffrey to its annual convention (Boskone) as guest of honor (which included publication of a novella for sale on-site). She wrote "A Time When," which would become the first part of The White Dragon.

The White Dragon was released with new editions of the first two Pern books, with cover art illustrated by Michael Whelan. It was the first science-fiction book by a woman on the New York Times best-seller list, and the cover painting is still in print from Whelan. The artists share credit for their career breakthroughs.

McCaffrey died at age 85 on 21 November 2011 at her home in Ireland, following a stroke.

McCaffrey's bibliography is daunting to transfer here, so here's a link to the Wikipedia entry. Yowza.

Nice choice, Richard, and lovely picture. Many wonderful writers simply aren't at all decorative. I read her early books when they were still new and loved them, although I did think the series ran thin later on.

I'm about halfway through The Goldfinch and marveling at how many pages it takes for even small things to happen. It's due back at the library on Tuesday, and I don't think I'll be allowed to renew it because there's a waiting list. I wonder how many of the 116 or so who were ahead of me managed to finish it.

I am reading The Shadow Queen and listening to The Orphan Master's Son.

Classic Diners of Massachusetts by Larry Cultrera
Local history book on diners throughout the Commonwealth.

Up next: the 1st installment in the Falling Kingdoms trilogy by Morgan Rhodes
Teen read

2 Meredy, I had similar feelings about The Goldfinch -- I kept wanting to tell the author she didn't need to tell me about absolutely every thought, impulse, dream, step, and sensation that boy had. I wanted to say: Let ME do some of the work here. You should trust your readers to fill in the spaces -- we have imaginations, too. This should be a partnership, not a spoon-feeding.

Anyway, good luck with it. I decided it was worth it in the end, but there were times when I wanted to toss it.

>5 mollygrace: I may have a dilemma to face, come Tuesday: purchase a copy of a book I've already read half of, or go back to the end of the waiting list and wait several months to finish it, or give it up. Thanks for confirming my sense that this is a case (all too common, I find lately) of overdoing the "show, don't tell" rule that every writing workshop and how-to manual wants to teach. You don't have to show everything, dammit.

>3 Iudita: I found The Orphan Master's Son both fascinating and disturbing. It was one of several books I read and films I saw around the same time about North Korea, all of which in one way or another painted the same picture and raised the same questions about survival in a society suffocated by fear and propaganda. Each one left me feeling shaken and thinking, "This is an extremely scary adversary that we can't afford to underestimate."

#6 - Meredy - I agree completely about the situation in North Korea. I read the non-fiction book called Nothing to Envy last year and it was a real eye opener. Makes a person so grateful to be born in a free country. Re: The Goldfinch...there is no doubt that this book is a feat to get through but I have to say in the end I was glad I read it and rated it well. There is some sense of accomplishment at the end but you do have to push through at parts. Not a book I would easily recommend to many people though.

>7 Iudita: That was one of the others that I read too. And yes.

Both Nook and Kindle have the Drangonriders trilogy for $1.99. I was obsessed with it when I first read it many years ago, so I had to pick up the deal.
>2 Meredy: loved The Goldfinch. I know it's long, but it's so full of twists and turns and psychological profiles, I've recommended it over and over. Yes, the length is daunting, but well worth it, in my opinion. In fact l liked it so much, I'm now reading her earlier book on Nook, The Secret History, which many people like even more. Also good, also showing the dangers of picking the wrong friends, but not as absorbing in my opinion, probably because I don't care about any of the people.
I'm listening to an audiobook of The Secret Lives of Codebreakers which is very good but read by a man who appears to think he's teaching a lesson to middle schoolers. The story is good, but the narrator is kind of annoying me.
Also listening to an audiobook of The Invention of Wings which is very good. Poor Sarah is just kind of pulled in every direction at once, and just when you thought you knew all the torments of slavery, Sue Monk Kidd trots out some new ones. I'm really liking the way she shows religion being used to justify the "peculiar institution". Well done.
On Kindle I'm still slowly working my way through Sense and Sensibility and wishing I'd never met any of these people.
At this moment, I'm not reading anything on paper, but that may change tomorrow.

I am reading an ARC of A Triple Knot by Emma Campion, who is my friend (so to be candid re: disclosure), but I still think it is way awesome, so far! I'm about half-way in. It is a story about Joan of Kent and much ado about the court of Edward II/III. Sometimes one just needs her fill of high-quality romance, intrigue, royal drama, knights, knaves and damsels in distress ... but real!

I am really intrigued by The Goldfinch and when the large-print edition becomes available at the library, I will check it out. When I am in the mood, I love a good literary investment. I don't know, but you folks who liked it (just based on what you have said) ... have any of you read Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman? It remains one of my all-time favorite kind of psychological dramas, with some really great insight into how humans work (or don't, ha). But it too is an investment. But one I loved.

Thank you, Richard, for a great trip down memory land, and a colorful start ot the week!. I remember reading and enjoying some of the Pern books. McCaffrey was quite prolific, actually with more Pern books later on, and other series and single novels as well. She and her sons really built quite a dragon empire.

Right now I'm re-reading an old favorite; A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes, which is also a great, old movie starring Anthony Quinn.

Thanks, Richard. Reading The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen by Lindsay Ashford. A good book to wile away the hours. And, Paris 1919, Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret Macmillan, a reminder of how the world got into such a mess!

Still working on The Golem and the Jinni and Sword-Bound and The eye of the Leopard.

McCaffrey's magic continues, oh good!

I saw Kindle bargains on The Nazi Officer's Wife ($1.99) and the complete novels of George Eliot (99¢) today. I've wanted to read the Beer book because it's such an amazing survival story...and Eliot all in one place? Yes please.

Now there's an author I've read a bundle of books by (although none recently). I have located a few so far this year to try reading them again.

I'm making my way through Insurgent by Veronica Roth and will probably move straight on from that to Allegiant. Thud is still my 'handbag' book for going everywhere with me in the hope of having time to read. In audio, I'm listening to Daniel O'Malley's The Rook and am enjoying that one so much more than the one I tried before it. I'm just over halfway through it and already have the next one lined up.

I slipped up today in my attempts to not add to Mount TBR... I happened to trip up and fall inside the doorway of one of the charity shops... or got lost looking for the supermarket.... something like that... The result was .... huge!

I'm reading The Granta Book of the African Short Story by Helon Habila for the Reading Globally group on here. I'm really enjoying the stories. Some of them are difficult to read for the disturbing truth the stories are built on.

>15 Peace2: ...and?? Where's the list? You canNOT tease us like that! It is mandatory to reveal binge books!

I finished Spycatcher by Matthew Dunn, the first of a series featuring British superspy Will Cochrane. The beginning was enjoyable but I thought the second half became somewhat repetitive. So I'd say OK but not great. I'll probably read a few more of the series just to see if it gets better.

I've started an intriguing book called The Great Debate Between Robert Young Hayne of South Carolina and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts as edited by Lindsay Swift. The debate in question took place in the U.S. Senate in 1830. The issue was a proposed bill that would investigate the possibility of suspending the sale of public lands in the Western territories. The western states saw this as an attempt by the northern states to keep the new territories under-populated and the southern states saw it as, by extension an attack on the power of the slave states. So the debate in question featured many of the issues that eventually brought about the American Civil War. Swift, in this slim volume, presents a quick synopsis of the situation, short biographies of both Hayne and Webster, and then the text of the two major speeches involved, one by each Senator, slightly edited for the printed page.

I've just gotten to the beginning of Hayne's speech.

>17 richardderus: I posted the list ... the long long list in the Books Brought Home in March/April thread just here http://www.librarything.com/topic/170989#4619718

#19 Peace2
That's so funny, I lugged an insane amount of books home today too and I also picked up Wild Swans!
Then again, with the amount I picked up, chances were good that there would be at least one double ^_^

>20 Vonini: I've heard it's a good one to read so I'm quite looking forward to having the time - although I have a feeling a tackle some of the quicker reads first (just in the hope of actually being able to create some space - not only are the shelves all full but so the boxes are overflowing!)

#21 Peace2
Sounds so familiar...! :-O

>21 Peace2: I checked the list out...those John Christopher books are precious memories to me! What a great and lucky shopping day.

Richard, just to let you know, for some reason I am finding this thread difficult to access. The link you provided in the March 22 thread doesn't work. Seithrein provided a working link, but though I've starred this thread, it isn't showing up as one of my starred threads, and if you go to groups and look for this thread, it isn't there either. I don't think it was you, though. There's just something weird going on.

Your thread may be a bit difficult to access, but it's well worth a little exra effort!

I'm now on to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

I'm only about 25 pages in. So far, so good. Happily, I have not seen the movie which might distort my judgement and skew my expectations.

I will say, at least so far, he has an interesting, unusual way with words. I also like the adventure and the history of Chatham Island and the Moriori. I know this is just a small part of the book, though.

I've been picking up and putting down a bunch of different books lately. I guess it didn't help that I was home sick for a few days this week and didn't have energy to read. I am now well into The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.

>24 bookwoman247: framboise: I'm glad you've got your reading mojo back, and that your'e feeling better! Losing one's reading mojo is the worst part of not feeling well!

Oh! Another weird thing! My own screenname showed up, and I never typed it! It is not showing up in the edit feature, either, or I'd delete it. This thread has serious gremlins!

Still struggling through Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria. It is a good book, but lots of foreign names and the detailed relationships can be tedious at times.

>24 bookwoman247: That is SO weird. I've tried all of the above, and they work fine for me! ?????

#26 bookwoman, thanks, I agree.

Gremlins, Richard. Gremlins. LOL! It's odd, though, especially that this thread isn't showing up for me in the "What Are You Reading Now" group thread for me. Well, I do have an old dinosaur computer.

Just finished Northanger Abbey and I have to say: I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not as subtle as some of her later works, it's still great fun! I think that only leaves Mansfield Park for me to conclude all the works of Ms. Austen. What a shame she wasn't more prolific.

Omigosh this is an excellent deal for anyone who hasn't tried any of her work yet. William Morrow posted this on Facebook earlier today:

Today only, download five Agatha Christie mysteries for just $1.99 each at Amazon's Kindle store! This one-day deal includes the e-book editions of 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON, THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY, DEATH ON THE NILE, CARDS ON THE TABLE, and THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT. Two Miss Marples, two Poirots, and a stand-alone!

Finished Sword-Bound by Jennifer Roberson and started Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman.

#33
I loved all of the books I have read by jennifer Roberson but the Tiger and Del books are especially good.

I am reading Wild Swans. I decided that I would devote time this year to reading biographies and this one is part of the group read biography list. It is good, but I am finding its style to be somewhat dated and the attitudes expressed in the book to be the same. I was really surprised to see that it was published in 1991 because it appears so often on reading lists. But I am finding it engaging so will carry on with it.

#34 benitastrnad: I've been a fan of Jennifer's for years. The only books of hers that I'm not particularly fond of are her historicals. I'm not sure if I actually didn't like the two I tried to read or if I just wasn't in the mood to read the kind of books they were. I've been accused of being a moody reader.

>9 Citizenjoyce: Thanks for the encouragement. Actually I'm not at all daunted by the length, or I wouldn't have tackled it. I love long novels. The issue for me is proportion: is the number of words appropriate to the content? There's no value in going on just for the sake of going on--or because it's too much work to cut it.

I've read 800-page novels that were over too soon and 8000-word stories that went yawningly on too long. In fact, I've read four-page stories that rambled and wasted words.

As an editor I find nothing harder than cutting; and yet I think I could have taken fifty to a hundred pages out of The Goldfinch without loss to the story, the texture, or the themes.

I'm closing in on 600 now and hoping to finish it before it's due.

I zipped through the month's magazines last week (I count them altogether as one book), and I'll finish My Family and Other Animals today or tomorrow. Next up is The Speed of Dark, picked up at the library a few weeks ago on the basis of a WAYR thread topper, renewed once, and due on Thursday. I think I can do it. But spring is _so close_ here, I've had trouble sitting still and reading.

A few chapters left of the enjoyable, quick-read The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. Will try to finish tonight.

I finished and REVIEWED Anthony Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset.

Not sure what I'll read next.

Last night, I finished "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" which I think is one of the best books I've ever read. I can't wait to get the sequel and a movie deal is in the works. I always like to read the book first.

Now this morning I have started "On Agate Hill." I enjoy Southern writers and have read several previous books by Lee Smith so I am looking forward to this ARC.

still reading Black Horizon by James Grippando

I finished Mennonites Don't Dance by Canadian author, Darcie Friesen Hossack.
It is a collection of short stories focusing on the struggles of family and the conflict between the Mennonite farm life and city life. Many are harrowing in their bleakness, their firm no-nonsense approach to life, and the scars left.

#40 nmaners - So nice to hear the great feedback on The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. I also loved it. It was a beautiful story and I thought the writing was also very good.

I am working my way through Best American Short Stories 2012 with the guest editor being Tom Perrotta. I am almost finished reading the title story from George Saunder'sTen of Decmberfor the second time. I had to read it twice because the first time the story made absolutely no sense to me. I still don't know what the significance of the title is. Saunders is a good writer (I'm not sure I would classify him as being great as so many others have already)and the story is pretty good although not my favourite in the bunch. Since this collection organizes the stories by the author's last name, I am somewhat close to the end, but there seems to be a lot of writers with W for the start of their last name so there
is still a ways to go.

I was really looking forward to my next pick-up from the library but now four have all come in a the same time and since I won't be able to renew any of them because they are all new and hot titles, I'm going to have to rush through all of them to get them read in time.

Finished it: The Goldfinch. Whew and wow.

So many interesting thoughts re. The Goldfinch. It's on my list but I have a few others to get to for review purposes before I read something that's not part of another commitment.

I'm almost getting to the end of a review copy of Thunderstruck & Other Stories by Elizabeth McCracken. It's a lovely collection. But, very sad. I'll be looking for something more cheerful after this one.

And, there are a few other ongoing books that I return to from time to time but nothing is making me rush through the pages to the end right now. Which is not entirely a bad thing, given time constraints.

I recently read Richard Russo's Empire Falls with my book club, which I thoroughly enjoyed. One of the other members suggested a nice follow-up would be The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry, so that's what I'm reading now.

>39 brenzi: And a wonderful, appreciative, and thoughtful review it was.

>44 alans: I'd pretty much disagree about Saunders. I didn't review his collection, and I won't, because I'd give it 1/2* for being pretentious, portentous, and pompous. Every time I express that level of dislike for a book, I hear about it for *months*. Not up for that.

>45 Meredy: Heh!

#43. I heard the author speak a few weeks ago. He is as entertaining in person as in his writing. If you get an opportunity, go hear him.

Listening to Tom Jones at home and Instruments of Darkness in the car, and reading Maidenhair.

#47> I really enjoyed The Last Picture Show. In fact, the whole Thalia, Texas, series, of which Picture Show is the first of five, is very, very good. For me, though, the exception was Texasville, which was hard for me to read because it was filled with bickering between a husband and wife. All in all, though, the whole set is very much worth reading.

>45 Meredy: Yes indeedy.
I don't know if Tartt was going for whew and wow in The Secret History, but from me it invoked more "Oh, hmmm." If she was trying to perfect her formula in The Goldfinch, I'd say she succeeded.

Today's book-crack is aimed at mystery addicts: Louise Penny's Still Life, first in her Three Pines-set series featuring Inspector Gamache is only $2.99 for US Kindle users.

I'm deeply addicted to this series. This first book isn't anywhere near as polished or well-made as the later entries in the series are, but that's to be expected, isn't it? And it's not bad at all, just not as smooth as later ones.

>51 rocketjk:: Thanks for the insight on McMurtry's "Thalia" series. I knew that Texasville followed The Last Picture Show, but I didn't know the sequence of books went past that. It looks like my TBR pile just got bigger!

>52 Citizenjoyce:, >45 Meredy: etc.

I adored The Goldfinch. I'll be getting flashes of it, the characters and the stories for quite a while. I did have moments of thinking it was wordy or long, but in the end I feel like all of it added up to something gorgeous and emotionally resonant.

I am reading Broken Harbor by Tana French. I'm enjoying this one as I have each in the series. She can write. The characters spring to life as does Dublin. I also like her exploration of class. The mystery is good but secondary for me although I think it is entirely possible to read it as a straight mystery and enjoy it as well.

>56 nancyewhite: I liked its predecessors very much, but Broken Harbor turned me off Tana French pretty badly by the time it was done. I'd like to know what you think when you're finished.

>56 nancyewhite:: Broken Harbor ended up being one of my favorites in the series! I love all of them, but there was something so spectacularly creepy and bleak about that one in particular.

<53 Richard : Just ordered Still Life. But when am I going to have time to read it, says I.

>59 Travis1259: *mmwwaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa*

Reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson... an inbetweener book while I wait for a few to arrive in the mail..

I want to live in Three Pines, Richard......eat at the biatro, and meet Gamache! I have a Three Pines mug....there is a website......yes, I too am an addict. I wholeheartedly agree that Penny's writing has just gotten better and better!

>62 hemlokgang: Quite a lot better from book to book, and she's got some nerve for risking our darling characters, doesn't she!

Gabri! Soupe a l'oignon, s'il-vous plait!

My latest starter is A Clear Conscience by Frances Fyfield it has me hooked!!

Okay, now I feel compelled, utterly, to read The Goldfinch after I finish A Triple Knot (which is awesome - almost near the end of poor Joan of Kent's triage of royal angst! It has been great fun!)

I am a submission fool ... wish me luck. Word is for every story or poem accepted, 100-some are rejected. So I need to get on it. Life is short. I am 46, not getting any younger and I henceforth believe that great things will come, and the world is blooming with possibility!

I literally held my breath at several moments in the last couple of installments.....

>65 CarolynSchroeder: An excellent attitude to have no matter one's calendar age. Brava!

>66 hemlokgang: I was physically winded, like I'd been punched, by the ending of How The Light Gets In.

The Night Circus, one of my very very few six-stars-out-of-five reviews, is $4.99 on Kindle.

Slow, deep, unsettling, and illuminative.

I finished Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood and am not sure what to think about it. Guess I may have to ponder for a day or two. My first reaction was - "Thank God it is not another dystopian novel." Her dystopian's get so preachy. Other than that I will have to think about it.

I started Bel Canto for my real life book discussion group. This is one that I have wanted to read for so long that the book as started to turn orange. Now with the extra push from fellow readers I have 40 pages read.

I am also slowly working my way through Wild Swans and am finding this one to be slightly dated. Plus, the over-the-top praise of her grandmother is a little over-the-top for me. But other than that it is providing insights about daily life in China in the 1920's and 30's. Glad I wasn't a woman living there at that time. It is clear that women got no respect.

#68
I agree with you about Night Circus at that price it is a wonderful bargain. This is a good book to read and enjoy.

I loved The Night Circus that was a definite keeper!

I've just finished Insurgent by Veronica Roth and am down to the last disc of The Rook. Embarking on Across the Nightingale Floor next as it's been 'next in line' for a while and keeps being bumped down by whatever else comes along, so seeing as I do actually want to read it and it's on my list of books for this year, I'm tackling it next, with Labyrinth as my next audio. I'm thinking of giving up on The Mammoth Book of Steampunk - I can't decide whether it's the short story format that I'm just not in the right mood for, or the style of book. This was my first knowing foray into Steampunk after a couple of friends spent most of last year enthusing about it and it's not that I don't like it, more that as I finish one story I'm not invested in continuing to the next, because it's a completely new author/characters/setting.

What should I go for after the current reads though I wonder - the current temptations are Allegiant to finish off the Divergent trilogy, putting a concerted effort into Thud! which has been my handbag book for most of the year now and I do actually like but it just never gets the real priority put into it because I tote it everywhere with me and never get the chance to read it! Other possibilities are The Book of a Thousand Days, The Heritage of Hastur or do I make a start on The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins which someone has just loaned me? Any thoughts or advice?

>65 CarolynSchroeder: Good luck. You inspire us all with your continued writing and submitting.
>71 Peace2: You can live a long and happy life without reading Allegiant. What a disappointment that I can only blame on her evangelical fervor.

I'm listening to A Wizard of Earthsea which I would like except that it's read by Harlan Ellison. I think I've liked his written work in the past (though I can't remember what) but then he must have gone on to attend the George C. Scott school of melodrama. Ach, I can hardly force myself back into his voice.
Also reading (on paper) Wicked for my RL book club and loving it as much as I did the first time.
Oh, and reading The Secret Lives of Codebreakers has lead me to watching on Netflix a British crime series The Bletchley Circle about 4 women who had worked at BP then after the war when they were sent from their stressful yet exciting lives to do whatever they could find come together to use their reasoning skills to catch, at least in this first series, a serial killer. Not my style at all, but the Bletchley angle has me hooked.

The Night Circus was a definite nonfavorite with me. It made my "clunkers of 2013" list.

Loved Night Circus. Just finished The Mysterious Death of Jane Austen by Linday Ashford. This novels reflects Austen's style better than most attempts. Starting The Nomination by William Tapply who went to the same high school I attended.

>74 Travis1259: Woa, your touchstone leads to Cancer Ward by Alexander Solschenizyn which was a very good book, but I don't remember Jane Austen's being there. I think you mean this one: The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen, which looks pretty good.

ETA, I just looked Lindsay Ashford up on Wikepedia and see that she is a crime writer who wrote Frozen (too many touchstones to find the right one). That seemed quite a stretch for her until I realized it's not the fairy princess movie. I've ordered her Jane Austen book from the library.

Night Circus was fantastic. I think I have it already as an eBook but that's definitely one I'd like to reread.

I'm currently reading my first Agatha Christie mystery, Murder at the Vicarage. I need to have it read by tomorrow, which probably won't happen, but I'll try to finish it by the end of this week. And after reading several "lighter" reads, including Dying for Chocolate and Aunt Dimity's Death, I need to jump into something dark and disturbing. I'm not used to this fluffy fictional fare.

So many kindred spirits here! I have read Nothing to Envy and The Orphan Master's son recently and am haunted by the situation in North Korea. Just went to a presentation by a group called Liberty In North Korea - has anyone here heard of it?

Also recently finished The Goldfinch and have encountered so many strong yay and nay opinions on it from others. I really enjoyed it but think partly so because the NYC neighborhoods are familiar to me and that cheered me in the same way as reading Rules of Civility did. I do think the Las Vegas sojourn in The Goldfinch could have been pared down.

And, I am currently listening to The Night Circus on Audible. Very different experience from reading, as I'm sure you all know. Enjoying it, but again, I think some editing would not have hurt the story.

I just finished Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which was excellent, and am currently reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for a book club.

Nice to meet all you fellow readers here on this thread.

#72
Loved the Betchley Circle series almost as much as Call the Midwife. Both are great productions. I do plan on reading the book about Betchley Park someday, but right now am working on other things.

#68 Richardderus - Loved your description of Night Circus. "Slow, deep, unsettling, and illuminative" It's perfect. What a great book.

#62hemlokgang - Had to laugh at your post. Everyone who reads an Inspector Gamache book wants to live inThree Pines. I hear that from people over and over again at the library I work at.

>77 AmourFou: Welcome AmourFou, and many happy books to come.

>79 Iudita: It still has the power to unsettle me, Iudita, and I still don't want to write a proper, analytical review of The Night Circus because reading it was so...well...yeah, you know.

2nd time trying to read Tom Jones and once again was incredibly bored. The writing isn't good enough to sustain a slow moving plot.

Next up for listening to at home..... Black Cross by Greg Iles

I'm reading Elly Griffiths' The Outcast Dead and listening to Jane Austin's Lady Susan.

Welcome AmourFou!!

I finished The Wizard of Earthsea, thank the great Whatever, and am happily moving on the The Orphan Master's Son. Well, right from the first I realize it's not really a happy move, but a much more engrossing one. So, if you get sick, they send you to the infirmary where various people sit around smoking, and if you're not better the next day they drain 4 units of blood from you. Our Dear Leader is such a creative fellow.

Welcome AmourFou!!! This is a great thread, always, and while we tend to agree on lot, when we don't, it is just as much fun to find out why. This remains the only pocket of the internet that is consistently kind, diverse, fun and well, I learn a heckofa lot! Enjoy!

Okay, it seemed sorta good deal-ish (7.99) so I downloaded to Kindle The Goldfinch. I have a Paris trip coming up (yahoo!) May 5, so having a nice, long one ready to go might suit just perfectly. I finished A Triple Knot and I have to say, my dear friend nailed it. Really enjoyed my journey back in time to the scheming royals, pestilence and festering wounds, physical and otherwise.

Now catching up on a few short stories (one = www.one-story.com's new offering "Owl" by Emilyl Reukovich, VERY good so far), then will meander through the library stacks, Mount TBR and choose a nice, juicy novel to sink into again.

>57 Meredy: and >58 coloradogirl14: I loved Broken Harbor and gave it 4 stars. I liked Faithful Place, which I gave 5 stars, better. I reallllly like the way that she incorporates questions and observations about class into her books so I enjoyed the background of the recession and reduncancy combined with the working class background of the rookie detective.

I loved the way she wrote Mick, but I'm almost always empathetic toward well-written utterly human flawed characters. He is an arrogant and controlling ass sometimes, but he is doing his best with a shit deal in both his background and current life. Finally, I'm moved by believable portraits of people who are longing for connection. French includes a lot of that. Mick longs for a partner with whom he can bond and, heartbreakingly hopes he has finally found that in Richie. He longs for his ex-wife. Conor and Fiona long for the old days where their circle of friends were intimately connected and happy. The victims are isolated, abandoned and alone as their lives are impacted by the recession. Unmoored and disconnected, their lives spin out of their control.

So, yeah, Broken Harbor worked for me.

I found The Night Circus a confoundingly mixed bag. The Circus itself is an inspired and extraordinary creation. With its layers and layers of magic, beauty and meaning, it is so tangibly depicted that long after reading the book I sometimes fantasize about visiting it and other times try to imagine what I might build there given the ability. However, I found the characters meh. I never really engaged with or cared about any of them. Unlike the Circus which springs from the page and into my soul, they were flat and boring and never came to life for me at all.

>88 nancyewhite: I agree that the more engaging part of the novel was the setting, and the hauntingly "off" universe its existence implied. The characters were, I suppose, more the inevitable ones that must be there to make the story move in that gloriously multidimensional world. I was not particularly fascinated by them, but not bored either.

I thought those here might understand this battle cry.

Thank you so much for the welcomes @richard, @pirate and @carolyn (don't know how to hyperlink). I've been noodling around this site for a year now and it's so nice to finally connect with other readers.

Welcome AmourFou! I agree w/ all above..this thread is awesome. So many great book lovers!

I started reading a collection of short stories by Chejov, so far I don't get what all the fuss is about. Then again, I'm not really familiar with Russian history so it very well might just be me.

To balance out the serious, I'm also reading some serious fluff: Glitz by Louise Bagshawe. It's about four rich cousins who are threatened to be cut off from their trust fund by their uncle who is planning to marry an extremely young girl. Chick-lit to the max, lovely and relaxing.

I started The Goldfinch and am, so far, loving it. But I'm an artist (with gobs of art history credits for my BFA) and so just find the painting talk awesome!

@nancyewhite I think you nailed what doesn't quite sit right for me with The Night Circus. The magic and the circus acts and the clothes and the food are so lovingly and carefully described, but somehow the characters seem a bit one-dimensional. Maybe the author is trying to convey the way in which they are to some degree being "managed" and are not autonomous, because I do feel like Bailey's character is a bit better drawn (I still have three hours to go in listening to the book so I don't know what happens next) while the "players" seem just a bit flat and it's hard for me to care about them as I would like to.

>88 nancyewhite:, >96 AmourFou: This is exactly what's wrong with the book. The concept is lovely. That's what makes it such a letdown: it isn't well realized. The characters are flat and uninteresting, and the writing itself needs a vigorous edit, at the very least. (My further comments are in my review.)

Imaginative quality is not what's lacking here. But both style and substance are in short supply. It's the ones that promise the most that are then the most disappointing when they fail to deliver.

I'm tempted to say that it's like a graphic novel without illustrations, but that might be unfair to graphic novels. Instead maybe I ought to say that it's like a delicious dream that loses everything in the telling--everything but the dreamy sense that it's a dream. You can't recreate it for someone else.

Recreating the dream is the artist's gift, and not every dreamer has it.

Hello everyone - playing catch-up once again for this past week's books! :)

Starting on Wednesday afternoon, March 26th, I began reading Ashenden: A Novel by Elizabeth Wilhide. Wow, what a book - I loved it! :) I finished this book on Saturday, March 29th! :)

I immediately picked up The Tin Can Tree by Anne Tyler on Saturday evening, March 29th - and finished it on Tuesday, April 1st! :) Another really good book. :)

I picked up Katie: The Real Story by Edward Klein on Tuesday afternoon, April 1st. This was a intriguing biography of Katie Couric. As I was reading that particular book, I received an influx of 20 books - some of which were from publishers who wanted me to review certain books. (many were recently published by companies I had worked with in the past.)

Anyway, 13 of the twenty books were from one children's author - Carole P. Roman - and actually, it's not as overwhelming as it appears. :) lol! 12 books were from two separate series, and one was a stand-alone book that teaches children about yoga. All in all, reading these books took me about half an hour, and so, I spent Wednesday, April 2nd, reading all of Carole P. Roman's books. They were all very engaging and fun. :)