What Are You Reading the Week of 17 May 2014?

There wasn't a new topic so I took the liberty of starting it. I hope no one minds.

I just finished Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh for my yoga teaching studies. It was wonderful.

Now about 50 pages into the beautiful novel All The Light We Cannot See by one of my favorite short story writers, Anthony Doerr.

Thanks seitherin!

I'm actually working on a starter post for today, at Richard's request. I'm partway through the bio.

More yay!

Finished a library copy of Signed Sealed Delivered by Nina Sankovitch
A non-fiction book about letter writing through time.

I finished reading The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen, a beautiful, mysterious story that I'm sure I'll be thinking about for a long time.
Now I'm reading This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman.

Richard, I hope you're getting better little by little.
>4 Meredy: Thanks for the bio to come, you did a great job last month.
I just finished an audio of Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman iwho I think is Tony Hillerman's daughter. She did a great job following in her father's foot steps. Of course I like it even more because there's a female police officer main character.
Now, because of LT mention, I've started Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century by Michael Hiltzik, looks like it's going to be a good one. Some of the reviews decry the author's leftist leanings, so I'm sure that will make me like the book even more.
My in car audio is Traveling With Pomegranates by mother daughter authors Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor . Kidd had just come of a 7 years course of Jungian analysis so the book is all about symbolism, milestones and the essential feminine as exemplified by various black madonnas. The only trouble is that in the audiobook I hear the descriptions of the artwork but can't see it, so I've had to order the print book from the library. How I hope the artwork will be there.
On paper I'm just about to start Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Oh, and I just finished an audio of His Majesty's Dragon and liked it so much I ordered the first 3 books for my grandson. I'm sure he would like them if he would only read.

Sigrid Undset (20 May 1882 – 10 June 1949)



Norwegian author Sigrid Undset is best known for her novels set in medieval Scandinavia. Her massive trilogy, Kristin Lavransdatter, gained her international fame and, together with the four-volume The Master of Hestviken, won her the Nobel Prize in literature in 1928. They are deeply rooted in the Nordic culture; yet, like all great literature, they reach far beyond those dimensions in their intellect, heart, and humanity.

Born in her mother's home town in Denmark, Sigrid moved with her family to Norway when she was two years old. Her father was a renowned archeologist, and his deep historical knowledge was a strong influence on young Sigrid. She steeped herself also in the mythology, folktales, and folk songs of her Norse heritage.

When she was only eleven, her father died at the age of forty after a long illness, leaving her mother to manage on meager means while raising Sigrid and her two younger sisters. The idea of a university education was impossible. Sigrid left school at sixteen and went to work as a secretary to help support her family. Although she hated the work, she remained there for ten years, and the organizational skills she learned in an office environment were valuable to her later on, including as head of the Literary Council of the Norwegian Authors' Union and eventually its chairman.

Sigrid Undset began to devote her evening hours to study and writing. By the age of 22 she had written her first novel, a tentative experiment in placing a fictional tale in a medieval setting. It was rejected by the publisher. Nevertheless she immersed herself in the lore and literature of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, and she kept on writing. Her first three published novels were realistic depictions of life in contemporary Oslo. They sold well enough to enable her to leave her job and live on her income as a writer.

The drama of Undset's personal life escalated after she was awarded a literary scholarship and began to travel. She visited Denmark and Germany and later came to Rome, where she found friends in a community of Scandinavian artists and writers. There she met a Norwegian painter named Anders Castus Svarstad, a married man with three children. Three years later, following his divorce, she married him, and they moved to London, and then back to Rome, where she gave birth to their first child. Her second was mentally handicapped. During that time the couple took in her husband's three children from his first marriage, one of whom was also mentally handicapped. In her perpetually busy household, she kept late hours and continued her writing.

World War I and the subsequent societal changes spurred her writing on social and political subjects, including ethical and moral issues surrounding the emancipation of women. She had also published a number of realistic novels and short stories by then and was well known in Norway.

In 1919, pregnant with her third child, she took her two other children and moved to the small town of Lillehammer in Norway, intending to stay and rest while her husband prepared a house for them in Oslo. However, the marriage broke down and she decided to remain in Lillehammer, where, over the next two years, she had a house built. There, during the years 1920-1922, she completed Kristin Lavransdatter. By then she not only had achieved mastery of her historical material but had lived and seen enough to possess the experience and insight that give her great novels such life, as well as such a current of mystery perceived through art.

During the same period, she apparently also underwent a spiritual crisis that led her from the free-thinking agnosticism of her family of origin to a conversion to Roman Catholicism, a remarkable leap in the Lutheran Norway of her time.

Her outspoken opposition to Hitler and Nazism forced her to flee when Germany invaded Norway in 1940. She spent five years in New York, working tirelessly to publicize the plight of her country under occupation and plead for the cause of European Jews. Exhausted, she returned home after liberation in 1945, but never wrote again. She died in Lillehammer in 1949 at the age of 67.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset
http://www.mnc.net/norway/SigUnd.htm

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I'd like to thank @richardderus for asking me to fill in for him while hand and shoulder pain are keeping him from his customary activity. I consider it a privilege to step in temporarily, and after putting three or four hours into the task, I can truly appreciate how much value his weekly efforts contribute to this community. Your kind compliments are really a tribute to the group's interest in this continuing series. I sincerely and hopefully wish him a speedy recovery.

Meredy

>9 Meredy: Another great bio. I read Kristin Lavransdatter a long time ago and was just thinking of it the other day in regards to women keeping their own names after marriage since their maiden names are just their father's names. Instead of Sue Monk Kidd's daughter becoming Ann Kidd Taylor, I think she would have been happier being Ann Suesdaughter. I think Joyce Helensdaughter would suit me fine.

>10 Citizenjoyce: Thank you. I read both Kristin Lavransdatter and The Master of Hestviken many years ago and found them both absorbing and powerful. As I was scanning long lists of notable births for this week's dates, I nearly stopped at several names, but knew I had the right one when I came to Sigrid Undset. Of course, I haven't gone back to see who have been Richard's picks over time, so I hope this isn't a duplication.

HI! I finished Third Girl by Agatha Christie, which I can't recommend, and started on Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Hey, 2001! What do you know! LibraryThing insists I'm going to hate it, but I'm trying it out anyway.

The bios are such a wonderful way to learn of 'new' authors (as in new to me). It never ceases to me how many more people there are out there who I've not come across before. I need to make a note of Sigrid Undset because your bio makes me want to add her to the TBR pile (actually to the Currently Reading pile - but I need to get a little further down the TBR pile before I buy anything *sit on hands and hides purse*).

Thank you to Meredy for a new great bio and to richardderus for all the work that goes into doing so many of these. Speaking personally, it's greatly appreciated. Also here's hoping health matters improve for you soon. (Can anyone help me with what the HTML is for linking a user name? I tried the pointy brackets with user name= but that didn't seem to work.)

As for my reading this week, I'm just listening to the last few minutes of Stephen Fry's narration of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling, I've got a few more pages of Anthem by Ayn Rand to read - maybe an hour tops? I've got Orlando by Virginia Woolf on audio in the car and am just over half way through that and the tree book It Happened One Summer by Polly Williams.

Next on the list, in audio is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood based on a number of book bullets that I failed to dodge from various LT threads. Paperbacks on the 'read next' pile include Need by Carrie Jones, Grass for his Pillow by Lian Hearn and I still need to finish Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World. I've thrown Divine by Mistake down to the bottom of one of the TBR piles to give it a try at finishing later, but right now I'm looking for reads that I enjoy or feel positively challenged by and that wasn't currently doing it. (I'd probably do the same with the Merlin title but I'm into the last third of the book and it's on this year's pile)

Finished Ann Leary's The Good House and while the book held my attention and she certainly wrote well about the constant bargaining that closet alcoholics make with themselves, I felt the book suffered from too much of this theme. I thought the rest of the plot and everyone but the main character had fizzled out by the end. Still, she's a good writer and I'll probably read more from her.

Finished up Double Dexter and started Destination Truth

Thank you to all the work that both Richard and Meredy put into maintaining these threads and the wonderful bios. I'm sure there are many more people who appreciate them than there are posters here. Lots of us like to lurk.

This morning I finished the short and brutal The Backwash of War. Quite a powerful little book. This morning I started The Last Pirate: A Father, His Son, and the Golden Age of Marijuana, and so far, so good. I'm still listening to Greg Iles's Natchez Burning, and probably will be for some time - a long book on audio, and I don't spend as much time listening as I do reading.

A couple of days ago, I finished Flight Behavior, and haven't quite decided what I think of it. If it had been written by someone whose work I admired less, I probably would have been more impressed, but because it was written by Barbara Kingsolver, I feel vaguely disappointed.

>9 Meredy: Great bio--thanks! I'm sure that it was a daunting task filling in for the fantastic job that Richard does each week.

I've just started The Other Language, a new collection of short fiction by Francesca Marciano. My judgment after the first two stories I've read: Wow!

I have started reading The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading which I am finding so interesting. This is a great book for bibliophiles. I will also start the audio of This Dark Road to Mercy

I just finished To Sir With Love and just started Being Emily.

Thank you Meredy! And Richard feel better soon! I finished the Headmasters Wife and very much enjoyed it.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

Thanks for the bio of Sigrid Undset. In my other life (before children), I worked in a garden center and we sold tulip bulbs every fall. One of the varieties was called Sigrid Undset and I never knew who she was. Good to know now.

I am reading In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. We just finished a cruise through the Panama Canal and met many Aussies which has inspired me to read a little bit about Australia. Always been a fan of Bryson's.

I just started reading Three Junes for my real life book discussion group and so far am not that impressed with it. I will take it with me when I go on my vacation this next week and hope it provides me with some entertainment. I am still reading in fits and starts on Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China for the biography group reads here on LT and have found the level of detail about the early years of the Communist Revolution informative. I am about to finish listening to Shutter Island in my car and think I will do something completely different for my next audio - just not sure what at this point.

I want to add my thanks to both of the contributors to the author series at the top of each week. I enjoy reading them.

I have had Sigrid Undset's books Kristin Lavransdatter on my TBR wish list for a long time. Thank for the additional information on her. She lived a fascinating life.

>9 Meredy: wonderful bio, meredy! thanks again for making the place that much more interesting.

>10 Citizenjoyce: in the days before massive computing power made trackung people a doddle, family surnames made sense from a recordkeeping perspective. now, what's the point? why not name yourself as often as you like? society will get there, i feel sure.

right hand still out of order and hoping for improvement soon. ow

been on a poirot-tv binge. the shows are excellent and suchet embodies poirot exactly.

I read a rather unusual book this week, the recently published From the Fires of Stalingrad by Ljubov Sladkova-Avetisian. It's the memoir of a Russian woman who, at the age of 14, lived through the battle of Stalingrad. The memoir is only about 160 pages long, but the full text is included in English, Russian and French so that the book is closer to 500 pages.

Born in 1928, the author grew up in a house near Mamayev Kurgan, a mound that dominates the city and was the site of fierce fighting during the Battle of Stalingrad. Now in her eighties, the author's memoir is short, affecting, but confused. The timeline of events in Stalingrad are jumbled up and tied in knots. It's probably impossible to disentangle them after all these years, but it's almost beside the point. Despite the clumsy translation, the terror of a young girl trapped in the middle of the battle is palpable. In fact, the fractured narrative and awkward writing seem to magnify the horror and make the experience more "real" than if the writing were more accomplished.

After the battle, Ljubov leaves Stalingrad to join her young aunt in the Soviet Army to work in a communications unit. She spends the rest of the war near the front carrying messages and growing up within a close knit group of young women.

I can't say that it was a good book, but will say that it was memorable.

>26 fredbacon: Wow, sounds memorable.
>25 richardderus: Left handed typing - Being unidextrous is not so much fun, eh. Hoping your right comes into play soon.

Finished Destination Truth About to start Death at the Door by Carolyn Hart

Solomonss Song by Bryce Courtenay- the final book in his historical fiction set in Australia. I really enjoyed the whole set. This last one had horrific descriptions of WW I trench warfare and a vivid description of the battle of Gallopoli. I was disgusted with the waste of human life but really felt moved by the author's descriptions.
Next on my list is the Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kid-- so far- so good.

In the middle of Joseph Conrad's Mirror of the Sea enjoying it - feel like Conrad is in a chair across from me. He waxes rhapsodic from time to time, but worthwhile hearing him out for the anecdotes from his sailing years.

Enjoyed the bio very much. What an admirable woman.

Just finished The storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Really love letter to books and to readers.

About to finish The Abyssinian by Jean-Christophe Rufin. 17th C adventure based on a small historical fact that Louis XIV dispatched a diplomatic mission to the negus of Abyssinia in hopes of bringing this mysterious country into its religious and political orbit. Diverting escapist fiction with enough historical detail and exotic locales to keep me enthralled.

Third of the way through Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. Not quite sure if it's a novel or a video RPG, but it's rather facile when it comes to solving complex problems that arise. You really have to suspend your disbelief when the hero, through his gf, harnesses the parallel computing power at Google, where she works to sweep away a highly difficult problem. Fun read, in spite of my quibbles with the book-- techies and IT types will love it. Puts me in mind of Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, which remains, to my mind, a much better novel. Also, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe, which is far more avant garde and has more substance for our consideration regarding the mixed blessings of technology in the Information Age.

Starting Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler, a memoir. Looks promising.

I have unofficially quit The Goldfinch, but it's still on my kindle. Guess my tastes don't agree with the masses.

#16..TooBusyReading..My thoughts are the same as yours regarding Flight Behavoir I am very fond of Kingsolver's novels, her best I have found was Prodigal Summer, the setting is much the same but a much better read.

>29 HelenGress: I've recently acquired Solomon's Song for the TBR pile (and with another family member's reading in mind) but hadn't at the time realized it was part of a trilogy - do we need to have read the first two for this one to make sense? Or is this sufficiently standalone to be read alone? (I so wish publishers would make it clear on the covers when books were part of series! I get caught out so often by buying 'part' of a series but not having the beginning!)

I really liked Flight Behavior the writing is beautiful. But I loved Prodigal Summer my favorite Kingsolver book! I may have to reread that one.

I started You are Not Special, and it was not at all what I expected. Definitely more of a parenting book than I originally thought. I may not make it past the first chapter.

I'm also reading The Stonecutter.

Finished the John Rain thriller Graveyard of Memories, and started my second Walt Longmire mystery, Death Without Company. I'm also reading an ER novel, The Boy in His Winter, which has Huck Finn and Jim time-traveling.

After finishing my latest comfortable Cadfael, I've begun Tim Powers' Dinner at Deviant's Palace. A tenth of the way in, I'm wondering if the flavors might prove too strong for my present sensitive palate.

Isn't there such a thing as warm fiction (outside of cozy mysteries) that isn't a romance? Do we have to have a murder as the price of something that feels good without being sappy?

>38 Meredy: How about domestic fiction? I tend to call my preferred reading gentle - hence the user name. My favorite gentle reads are usually by authors who actually LIKE people and present their characters in a kindly light, even when a character's behavior is not itself kind.

I finished Helen Schulman's This Beautiful Life and now I'm reading The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz.

In the middle of 'The Night Circus' by Erin Morgenstern.

>39 MDGentleReader: I can't think of anything offhand that I'd place in that category. Do you have something to suggest? Your lists of posted reviews and recommendations are very short. I'm willing to go for a complete change of pace, although I do know there are some genres that will never work for me.

I finished listening to Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and have started listening to the YA Dystopian novel Graceling by Kristin Cashore. This is the first in a trilogy so I guess I will end up putting another two books on my TBR pile. Sigh.

I am still working on reading Three Junes and Empire of the Summer Moon as well. Lots of reading to take with me on my week off that is coming up.

I am part way in and loving another by Frances Fyfield Without Consent, it is especially interesting as it picks up not only on the normal pair (my favorites) Helen and Geoffrey but characters from the previous book, Shadow Play very interesting!!

>42 Meredy: Sometimes domestic fiction is listed as a subject in the LT listing of a book. One of my very favorite authors is D E Stevenson, a few of hers have been reprinted lately. Jan Karon's early books are filled with warmth and humor. The main character is a minister, though, so religion does come into play. There is also a romance, but there is so much more. I am incredibly tired and weeks into a reading slump, so recommendations are not coming quickly to mind. Early on I did try to add tags like gentle read and gentle romance to my LT entries, but I have many more books in my collection that I could tag that way.

Hmmm. A series of books I enjoyed recently was Elfrida Vipont's Haverard family.

Miss Read for small English village life.

As far as I can tell a "gentle" book is far more likely to be published if it is a cozy mystery or a romance. Personally, I am fine with a well told story about folks who, for the most part, I wouldn't mind hanging out with and who behave somewhat like the folks in my life. No extreme cruelty or selfishness or drama thank you. Preferably written by someone who knows people and is inclined to like them.

The Tattered But Still Lovely group often talks about this kind of read. The books we read are not all tattered (we read eBooks, too), but the purpose of the group is to talk about the gentler books of days gone by. The arbitrary cutoff is books published in the 1950s and before. Forgive me if you already participate, I did see that you are not a member. We also talk sometimes talk about more recently published books that feel the same to us.

I have tagged my books published in the 1950s and before with TBSL, so have other members of the group.

>38 Meredy: Not quite sure of what you're looking for, but I always think of Tony Earley's Jim the Boy as being a very warm and engaging story.

Gentle fiction also gets my vote. Love small towns with slightly quirky characters. Jim the Boy, Plainsong, Gilead are all favorites of mine. And my all time favorite The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's not the only type of fiction that I read, but it helps to round out some of my reading.

Books by Anne Tyler would fit my idea of gentle fiction with her quirky but likable characters. On a completely different note, I just finished Senselessness which spirals into the madness of the mind, but is it madness when the world's just as mad. The book deals with the genocide of indigenous persons in El Salvadore with enough black humor and distance to make it possible to read while still being very affecting.

>38 Meredy: Meredy - This might not meet all of your requirements but have you read Family Roundabout by Richmal Crompton? There is a bit of romance, and it isn't all "warm", but it leaves you that way at the end, perhaps in a way you hadn't expected. Have you read Walking Across Egypt or almost any other book by Clyde Edgerton? Authors I keep thinking of are: Ivan Doig, Elizabeth Berg, Mary Lawson, Stewart O'Nan (Last Night at the Lobster is a special favorite of mine), Silas House, Kent Haruf, Alice McDermott, Anne Tyler, Alice Munro?

Olive Kitteridge might not call to mind the word "warm", but its overall effect might just be "warm" in the best sense of the word. In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason is another favorite. Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor might be what you're looking for. Miriam Toews' The Flying Troutmans? I keep thinking of A. Manette Ansay's Midnight Champagne which is about the people attending a wedding, so there is romance, but there is such a strong sense of family and what that means -- the "big picture" of that book might be exactly what you're looking for. Have you read Harriet Doerr's Stones for Ibarra and Consider This, Senora?

These suggestions might not be quite what you want -- I'm a bit allergic to too much warmth; I need a certain edginess to the books I really like, but I have a feeling you like that, too? For instance, I keep wanting to mention A. M. Homes' May We Be Forgiven but I can already hear all the protests over that one -- it may be too strange (and a bit contrived) to fit your needs, but I like families that are not necessarily what you expect, that don't always work out the way you expect them to, that sometimes fall right off that edge I'm so fond of. Saying that reminds me of Paul Horgan's beautiful Whitewater. Stephanie Kallos' Broken for You? Pamela Carter Joern's The Floor of the Sky?

I thank you for asking the question, Meredy. I've had fun going through my list of books, trying to find a book for you. I'm not sure anything I've written here will help, but I've enjoyed thinking about my books in the light of your request.

I finished reading The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz. This is a wonderful book -- beautifully written. The brief chapters read like finely polished short stories. The author is a psychanalyst and much of the book is based on his work with patients over a quarter century. His book is wise and healing and to use a word much in discussion lately, warm (but with a bit of an edge).

Next up: Howard Norman's Next Life Might Be Kinder

>38 Meredy: I don't think anyone has mentioned James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, etc., but maybe you've already read this series. James Alfred Wight (aka James Herriot) started writing about his life as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales in the 30's and 40's after he turned sixty-something when his wife told him that sixty-year old vets just don't start writing books. Alf was a city boy who grew up in Glascow, but he had a dog, and out of that experience he decided he might like to become a veterinarian. He had never seen the Yorkshire Dales before he went there in the hopes of being hired as an assistant to a man already in practice. Alf Wight is an example of a man who truly loved the life he had chosen, and it shows in his books, which are full of vitality and hilarity.

Surprisingly, I managed to read 2 books while I was on vacation last week - Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight (a reread for me) and the fantastic new YA novel, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, which I blasted through in about 24 hours.

Currently reading Snowman by Jo Nesbo (excellent so far), Fiddlers by Ed McBain, and rereading Jurassic Park for the umpteenth time.

>51 Coffeehag: I often recommend the Irish Country Doctor series for those who enjoyed All Creatures Great and Small. A few decades later, in Ireland, not Yorkshire, and people doctors, not vets. But, the same small town feel with animals and people lovingly described. And a person who has found his life's work.

>38 Meredy: miss buncle's book!

also, almost everything by elizabeth goudge, but a city of bells especially.

the lumby lines

>54 richardderus: Oooh, good ones. Why, Richard, I had no idea that we shared those reads in common. Glad to see you getting around just a little bit. Hugs.

I am absolutely loving all the suggestions for "gentle fiction" ... I know what is meant. So far, despite being a novel based in WWII Europe, so is this novel All the Light We Cannot See, but I am early on, so I don't know completely yet. But just the relationship between the girl and her father is incredibly beautiful and sweet; and the male character and his sister is too. It reads like a fable really.

>55 MDGentleReader: my mother was a huge consumer of midcentury domestic fiction, so i got a taste for it reading her books.

also margery sharp and angela thirkell!

Thanks so much to everyone who's offered me suggestions. I'll look into them with pleasure.

To be clear, the reason I asked is that I never read things in this category and don't know any. Things with an edge, definitely. For instance, I recently read Gone Girl and Sharp Objects (and May We Be Forgiven) and gave them high marks.

What I'd like for a change is fiction that doesn't involve destruction (especially savage destruction) of self or other, but still isn't mushy, sappy, fluffy, or sentimental--and isn't written for kids. It's because I loathe those qualities that I read so much in the darker genres. It must still be possible to plot a novel that has drama without entailing disaster and violent death or the threat of it. I was happy with The Golem and the Jinni, but it wasn't light.

But I didn't intend my question to run away with this thread. My apologies if it has.

Today I finished up The Losers Book 1 and It Happened One Summer, got through another disc of Oryx and Crake and one of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Now concentrating on finishing Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World and Thud! which have both been 'current reads' for too long now. Hope to finish them both this week and hopefully finish or almost finish O and C or HP (don't mind which so long as I make good enough progress to return one or both to the library early next week)

#58
I would like to suggest South Riding and Shipping News in this category. I also think that the Call the Midwife trilogy by Jennifer Worth would fit the bill. In my opinion Plainsong is a definite in this category and I would like to include Richard Russo's Empire Falls. It is a little edgy but not anywhere near Gone Girl levels. I also think that the book about the retired British colonel and his neighbor that was popular a couple of years ago would be a good book for this category. I just can't recall it's title at the moment.

I've decided to start with two of the titles that Richard suggested in #54. I have this thread starred, though, and will keep coming back for more. Again, many thanks.

I had a great time with Miss Buncle's books.

>60 benitastrnad: I believe Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is the title that you are thinking of.

>62 jnwelch: Me, too. I also enjoy Mrs. Tim, particularly Mrs. Tim Carries On.

I finished and REVIEWED Josephine Tey's brilliant mystery The Franchise Affair.

Now I'm reading my new ER book The Rise and Fall of Great Powers.

>63 MDGentleReader: I read the first Mrs. Tim, but not that one yet, MDG. You've inspired me to track it down. I did enjoy the first one.

Finished The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey and started Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling.

>65 jnwelch: It's about carrying on during WWII. The remarkable thing is that it is basically straight from her diaries. I do hope they reprint it soon. I don't think that Mrs. TIm is nearly as popular as Miss Buncle. It is true that Miss Buncle is much more original.

In honor of Triple Crown season I'm reading Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life by Michael Korda. It's pretty entertaining.

Just thought I'd mention that Amazon uk are doing a whole bunch of kindle books - murder mystery/crime types books on offer today for 99p. Not sure why they sent me an email about it as I don't have a kindle, but I thought I'd pass the info on in case it was of use to someone else! Hopefully the link will head to the right page! Amazon Kindle Offers for today

Still enjoying All The Light We Cannot See and also popped in the non-fiction Caffeine Blues, which is awesome and incredibly enlightening and informative. So alas, on day three of caffeine/withdrawal and it's going surprisingly great!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is exactly the title I was trying to suggest.

I am happily ensconced in my car listening to the full cast recording of the YA fantasy Graceling while making the drive back to Kansas. So far in the three hours I have been on the road I have listened to three CD's. There has been few murders but lots of mayhem in this one.

Just back from deployment with the American Red Cross. Actually two back to back deployments, the Arkansas tornadoes and the 9/11 Museum Opening. I don't read much while deployed, but definitely do during the travel to and from.

Finished Dust......very disappointing!
Finished Ruby.......lovely!
Finished Black Cross......excellent!
Finished My Own Miraculous....very good, sweet!

Next up I am reading another Early Reviewer selection, The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland, and I will be listening to The Testing of Luther Albright by Mackenzie Bezos in the car, and listening to The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd at home.

This morning I finished Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson's Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil, and for a complete change of pace, I'm starting Stephen King's Joyland.

>72 hemlokgang: Kudos!

Am halfway through the enjoyable, funny and easy to read memoir Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler, his tale of growing up in an ultra-conservative Christian family and eventually living his own life regardless. The things his parents make him feel guilty about (e.g., buying a cd) and the ways in which they punish him are infuriating and make my blood boil. I am nearing the point in the book in which he discloses his homosexuality to them. I wonder if they've gotten over it by now.

Started and finished the debut novel and Early Reviewer selection,The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland. I could not put it down. Dark, witty, existential. Excellent!

Next up is a book of poetry..... Elsewhere edited by Eliot Weinberger.

I finished Howard Norman's Next Life Might Be Kinder -- lovely to be back in Norman territory (Nova Scotia, birds, old hotels).
Now I'm reading Cyril Hare's Death is No Sportsman.

Great poetry collection...Elsewhere edited by Eliot Weinberger published by Open Letter. Poets from around the world write about being "elsewhere". The biographical notes alone are worth reading. Wonderful!

Next up to read is Navidad & Matanza by Chilean author, Carlos Labbe. On a roll......great reading!

Hey, everyone. I've been away from these threads for a while, but not for lack of interest. Richard, hope the hand and shoulder start feeling better, soon. As to that one-hand typing thing, I always crack myself up with this joke: "I'd give my left arm to be ambidextrous." You're welcome.

I finally finished Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century by Michael A. Hiltzik. It is excellent, but long, and my reading time was very much squeezed over the past few weeks. My review is on the book's workpage and can also be found on my own 50-Book Challenge thread.

I have now started--and am flying through--Julian Barnes' modern classic, Flaubert's Parrot.

i made a new thread, with grateful thanks to seitherin and meredy for subbing during the worst of this miserable passage.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/174624

>67 MDGentleReader: Wow, MDG, Mrs. Tim Carries On costs a fortune right now! I have a feeling they will reprint it, as Miss Buncle and others by D.E. Stevenson seem to be doing well. Love the new covers they've come up with, too.

Hey! I love to re-read my favourites so I'm going through Harry Potter again. I'm halfway through The Goblet of Fire....I still love it just as much as the first time around!

Hello again, everyone! ;) Well, I started reading Circle of Three: A Novel by Patricia Gaffney on Friday, May 16th! This was actually a reread from a decade ago, and while this was a story that was familiar to me in parts, I enjoyed reading the book again and reacquainting myself with these characters. I finished reading this book on Tuesday, May 20th! :)

On Wednesday, May 21st, I started reading Spirit Lost: A Ghost Novel by Nancy Thayer. At 199 pages, this was a short book that only took me a day to read. The plot of this book was entirely different from Nancy Thayer's later work. The story was perhaps not as scary as I was expecting, but was certainly eerie enough to still be enjoyable. I finished this book on Thursday, May 22nd! :)

I'm currently reading The Merry-Hearted Boys: Liam Clancy, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem by Ronald L. Leonard - which I started reading on Thursday, May 22nd! So far, it's pretty good, although I'm still getting into it. :)

>81 jnwelch: I am sad for you that Mrs. Tim Carries On is so expensive, but I do hope it leads to a reprint - soon. It deserves to be read by more folks. It has some similarities to Mrs. Miniver, but I like Mrs. Tim better than Mrs. Miniver.

If you lived closer to me, I would happily loan it to you - but I'm be afraid to entrust it to the mail. My copy is a hardback with a rather fragile dust jacket.

>84 MDGentleReader: Thanks for the friendly thought, MDG. I'm optimistic that they'll reprint Mrs. Tim Carries On, given the apparent success of the other reprints. These D.E. Stevenson books are such an enjoyable read, the odds seem good that the success will continue and they'll get to this one.