What You're Reading the Week of 4 August 2007

Dennis Lehane Mystic River Finished both the delightful Promise Me by Harlan Coben and A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon; I enjoyed the Coben much more than the Haddon which was just good enough to keep reading but three months in the life of a typical(?) Peterborough family isn't that interesting even with the blood and gore thrown in. Now I've started Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Fury which is much more to my taste.

Three cheers - perfect touchtones first time around!

Still working on There Are Jews in My House by Lara Vapnyar.

I finished Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively and fell in instant love with this book. I wanted to quote every line from that book. It was breathtaking writing and subject matter. Plus, my grandfather was stationed in Cairo during WW II and this gave some insight into how his life was during the war.

I will now read Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

I did finish March by Geraldine Brooks last week and then read The Curious incident of the dog in night-time by Mark Haddon.

March was weird; I really liked the book so it was a quick read but at the end of it realized that I really hated the main character, March himself.

This week I will be reading The winter rose : a novel by Jennifer Donnelly. Mainly because a friend at work lent it to me and I feel like I should read it as soon as possible so I can give it back to her. As it is such a large book I will also be reading The Kite Runner because I can slip it easily into my purse or bag and not get a dead arm from the weight of it!

I finished Storm Front by Jim Butcher a little earlier today, and I think I'll dive into The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud next.

I am reading The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi.

I finished JESUS LAND today.... then started NEFERTITI for the weekend... might pick up THE KITE RUNNER, since I'm expecting A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS to arrive from Zooba sometime next week.

I finished The Quiet American which was very interesting.

I'll probably start a Cormac Mccarthy book next, either The Road or All the Pretty Horses

#4 kiwiflowa - I have March on my TBR pile. Your comment piqued my interest!

This week, I am reading Tipperary by Frank Delaney, and I really need to start and finish Blindness by Jose Saramago as it's due back to the library next weekend!

I am reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - started it last night - couldn't put it down - it's great.
And finishing up Tales from Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry - very good also.

I've just finished reading Howards End which totally enthralled me, and have now started on Cloudstreet by Tim Winton.

I'm part-way through The name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and next up will be Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

#6 I'll be interested to hear what you think of the ending of The Mango Season.

While away for a few days, I read The Straight and Narrow Path by Honor Tracy, one of the funniest books ever written, which I reread every few years.

about 1/3 of the way through Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father. hoping to finish it this weekend, interspersed with all the work i have to do...

I've decided to abandon all pretense of "one book at a time" and follow my moods where they lead. As a result, I'm currently working on The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint (my first by him), The Defining Moment by Jonathan Alter (about FDR's Hundred Days) and The Smartest Guys in the Room (about the Enron debacle). I'm also rereading Stephen King's Danse Macabre and hungrily eying Scott Westerfeld's The Last Days, which I picked up yesterday.

Started What is the What by Dave Eggers this morning

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani...really liked Caspian Rain and The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns so thought I would give this one a try.

I'm reading Devil's Due by Rachel Caine. I finished up reading Sleeping With The Fishes (touchstone not working) by Mary Janice Davidson in one day.

Just finished The Strength of the Sun by Catherine Chidgey. She is a writer from New Zealand. Beautifully written and although there is some hope at the finish, I ended up feeling pretty awful. Just started The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham. Can't put it down. Anybody seen the new movie? Then it will be The Bookman's Promise by John Dunning and Black Orchids by Rex Stout. Can't go wrong there.

Finished Pride & prejudice for the 2nd. time. The 1st time i read it I was Jr. Hi age, & didn't care for it -- not sure if I even finished it, tho I knew the ending. Now, 50 some years later, I was able to appreciate it & look forward to reading the rest of Austen 's novels that I haven't read. In the meantime, I started Home before dark Susan Cheever's tender biography of her father the writer John cheever. I have read all his books, short story collections & journals. Also most of Susan Cheever's stuff & Ben Cheever's novel The Plagiarist which is really funny & not at all like his father's works.

I'm reading Big Mind Big Heart by Dennis Genpo Merzel. It includes a CD.

Finished Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw. Starting the massive Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens tonight.

After three intense weeks of a writer's institute, I finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I'll probably get back to Middlesex this week.

Reading The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime byJasper Fforde and Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose which is just beautiful.

Finished HP7. Then I read A Natural State: Essays on Texas by Stephen Harrigan. I also read the Early Reviewers sampler (Not that you asked) by Steve Amond, which is great. Next up will be Gifted by Nakita Lalwani (I couldn't find the correct touchstone).

I just finished Shantytown Kid by Azouz Begag, a quick read set in the 1960s about Algerian immigrants in France. I'm now reading Stealing Lincoln's Body by Thomas Craughwell. With any luck my Early Review copy of The Guardians will be in my hands Monday. (touchstone inaccurate)

I just finished The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan. It was an uplifting book.

I am starting Triangle by David von Drehle.

I just finished Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. OK, ladies. Forget about Morelli and Ranger. Shane is the hottest hunk out there.

Stalled on Yiddish Policeman's Union, and just started The Last Novel.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss is back at the top of my reading list again, after a few weeks of avoiding it. I am in the middle of The World According to Garp by John Irving, and am really enjoying it!

For non-fiction, I'm also reading Underground by Haruki Murakami, Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s by Marijane Meaker and The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittenden. Wow, five books at the same time?! That's way too many!! :)

I'm half way through Middlesex and have The Road waiting patiently. After that I'll hopefully start Pretties and Uglies. I think that'll do me for the week!

just finished forests of the heart, it'd been on my "to buy" forever and i eventually got it. Now I am planning to reread river boy and then I'll probably take a thriller or two for the commutes next week. I have along came a spider and the sands of sakkara, about time I read them.

So nothing new

Last night I started reading Watching the English, a non-fiction "pop anthropology" kinda thing. Interesting so far though.

I finished my early reviewers book Gifted. (It wasn't too bad #26 dchaikin -- worth reading although a bit uneven)

I have just started Jude the Obscure; my first Thomas Hardy.

I just started reading the graphic novel Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi. I've enjoyed the other two Satrapi graphic novels previously. I'm sure I'll like this one as well.

If anyone has not yet read Persepolis 2 and would like to, I'm sharing my book as a BookCrossing bookray. To get on the participant list, simply send me a private message through BookCrossing.

I've spent the last week on a Scott Westerfeld binge. Finished off the first two in the Midnighters trilogy (The Secret Hour and Touching Darkness) and finally got Specials from the library but only for a couple of weeks so I started that yesterday. The premises (sp?) for both trilogies really grabbed me and I found the stories themselves are pageturners and easy to read, almost fluffy.

I have the 3rd Midnighters from the library but I may have to take a break and read something completely different after Specials. I think either Girl with a Pearl Earring or Bloodletting and other Miraculous Cures.

In the last week or so I've finished up Soviet Operational and Tactical Combat in Manchuria, The Wizard Hunters, and The Demon and the City.

I have posted my review on the somewhat disappointing Early Reviewers book Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited and am now reading We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver, an LT-inspired read.

Just finished The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice this morning. I'm now starting The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri while I wait for my Early Reviewers book to show up.

Didn't finish this one. Review at http://360.yahoo.com/woodbear97

New read Skyward by Mary Alice Monroe

Just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - I laughed myself off my Lazy-Boy with this one.

And I'm still working on Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I still feel like I'm waiting for Godot with this book though.

Oh to read to read to read every day!

#35 Jude the Obscure is my favorite Hardy novel--even though it may also be the most depressing.

Second favorite (and more uplifting in the end): Far from the Madding Crowd.

#35 jhowell: Sounds like gifted isn't quite as a good as I hoped. All the ratings so far are pretty mild. (I'll avoid the reviews until I'm done).

I'm currently reading Something Rotten, by Jasper Fforde.

Just about to start Noah's Ark by Barbara Trapido. Finished Black Swan Green by David Mitchell earlier today - a great read.

I'm starting Mao II by Don DeLillo. This is the first book I've read by him.

Kiwi--The character of March was based on Louisa May Alcott's father. He was a strange guy. You should read her story about the commune they lived on.

jhowell--Hardy is challenging but well worth it. I read Jude the Obscure recently and really got involved with all the characters.

Finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Ruby (Dakotah Treasures #1) by Lauraine Snelling last week.
This week I'm reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Just started on reading The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark and then will try to get started reading Tipperary by Frank Delaney.

Wow! I haven't posted here for a long time. It's fun to see what everyone is reading. Life has been busy---sometimes too busy for much reading. Sad!

I finished Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen last week at the cabin. I absolutely loved that book. It was hard to put down; then I found it hard to pick up another book. I started and stalled on two or three. I've finally settled into Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antonionette by Sena Jeter Naslund (sorry---touchstones not loading). I'm really enjoying it.

I finished Survivor and really enjoyed it. I am now going to read What I loved.

Touchstones not working well

Just started Fool Moon, Book 2 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

The Lovely Bones I was under the impression that this book was going to be AMAZING. It entertains me but its not something I'd read again

#53-meanviv:

I too was so disappointed in The Lovely Bones. The ending just ruined the whole thing for me.

I'm currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I'm finding it very slow-moving. I can only hope it gets better.

After that, I'm moving on to Catch-22 and Running With Scissors.

#42,47 -- I am enjoying Jude the Obscure -- I am on a 19th century English lit. binge and I am just loving everything I've been reading.

#43 - I hate to say this but I am getting the impression from these early reviewer books (at least the ones I've received) that they are rather subpar 'book club' picks that Random House is trying to create alot of buzz around that the caliber of the novel really wouldn't generate on its own. Maybe get a shot at being an 'Oprah' pick.

I don't know. Maybe this is what happens to you when you start reading primarily classics. I fear I am becoming a book snob. I did however love The Deathly Hallows so maybe I am still OK ;)

I have finished A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers and have started The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Moshin Hamid.

finished harry potter and the order of the phoenix and started harry potter and the half blood prince over the weekend

Finished recently:
1. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - a lovely fairy-tale like story.
2. Old Filth by Jane Gardam - moving and amusing account of a man looking back on his life.
3. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell - Esme has been in an asylum for sixty-one years. Why? And what did her sister take that was hers? If you liked The Thirteenth Tale you will like this.

Just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and have started Dara Horn's The World to Come
Touchstones are all wrong this morning!

# 54 I agree entirely with The Lovely Bones.

Catch-22 and Running With Scissors are both fantastic; if you Running With Scissors, I highly suggest Dry which is, in my opinion, the best thing he's ever done.

I'm reading:
I Like You: Hospitality Under The Influence by my bestest imaginary friend Amy Sedaris, and
Oracle Night by Paul Auster.

(Deleted the above post because it was a duplicate.)

Just finished Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore. Really enjoyed this light, chick lit book. I needed an easy read. Now its on to my Early Reviewer book, Tipperary by Frank Delaney. So far, so good. Will be interested to see what other LT Early Reviewers think of it.

Working on Identical Strangers for my Early Reviewers review, then I'll likely return to Everything is Miscellaneous, which I cast aside for Harry Potter a couple weeks ago. Also *slowly* working through Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators: Creative Strategies and Practical Solutions by Kenneth D. Crews during slow periods at work.

I haven't had a lot of time for reading lately, but I am certainly enjoying "Zarafa" by Michael Allin and "Size 14 Is Not Fat Either" by Meg Cabot.

I finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which I'm trying to make my mind up about: I found it compelling to read but also quite frustrating, maybe because it's really quite a good portrait of a *young* man. And some of the Catholicish stuff made my head hurt. I also polished off Wyrd Sisters, and am now about to start Dracula, I think.

Finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday. Sheesh, that took way too long - my husband and I were reading it aloud to each other, but a week-long conference for him and a stint in the hospital for me meant we had to keep postponing it. I have to admit that I underestimated Rowling - I really thought she would blow it, but I'm happily surprised at how things ended up.

About half way through Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley. The story is excellent, made me realize the etent of sacrifice young soldiers make.

Just finished Stardust by Neil Gaiman yesterday and started Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper. So far a little disappointed in Over Sea, Under Stone. I picked up the entire The Dark is Rising Sequence, both because of the new film and on the recommendation of a friend. Both my roomie and I are reading these at the same time, and he was a little disappointed in the beginning, but it is growing on him, and told me to keep reading as it does get better. Here's hoping!

>58 amandameale: So, Amanda, it's not a big stretch to go from the insane asylum to Set This House in Order then, is it? Btw, I noticed in the bookstore today that Matt Ruff has a new novel out called Bad Monkeys. I was curious as he is a clever writer but didn't want to buy it on a whim without checking out reviews (I found the Christopher Moore blurb on it a complete turn-off though). Maybe I'll wait for the paperback.

I finished The Grapes of Wrath and started The Lizard Cage. However, my early review book Tipperary arrived; I'm torn between digging into that or sticking with the Lizard Cage; the latter is for a book club, so both of them are - sort of - must-reads. And both are fairly substantial.

Ah well, vacation is coming up soon. I'll have lots of reading time.

I finished Temping Fate by Esther Friesner and I've started Summer Knight by Jim Butcher.

My ongoing project is David Levering Lewis`s book on W E B Du Bois, but at present I have only limited leisure time and i`m usually only half-awake when I do (my friends say they don`t notice any difference !).

To get my `reading quota` in, I`ve dabbled with a few other things - I have the beginnings of a collection of Detective Weekly mags from the 1930s, with stories by Leslie Charteris and a number of Sexton Blake stories - I`ve been reading some of them and thoroughly enjoying them. The other night I also read some of Personal identity by C H Rolph, a personal favourite and a wonderful book.

65> As good as Dracula is as a Vampire story, it's a rather racist depiction of the living dead. But then again, H.P. Lovecraft wrote horror stories that some consider racist too, so post-modernism makes nobody a winner in this boat.

Mrstreme,

Just finished Blindness, my introduction to Saramago which I read out of a sense of obligation as he's a Laureate. I found it a hard slog; a long, depressing story which does not yield much in the way of new insights. Translation may not help it...

If you believe one book is read at the expense of another, I wouldn't risk paying a library fine to finish Blindness. There may be better Saramago's to read but he's dropped a few pegs on my TBR list. Enjoy !!
mullaghman

mullaghman: just have to provide some counterpoint here ... Blindness was my first book by Jose Saramago, too, and it's definitely my favorite, although I've only read two others ... he does have a "voice" that is obviously non-American, but it struck me more as a stylistic thing that I was able to adapt to.

I'm currently reading White Jacket by Herman Melville, as well as Against the American grain by Dwight Macdonald ... the former is very good, the latter is interesting, but somewhat marred by the author's incredible elitism.

I'm with #75 KromesTomes: I thought Blindness was a lovely book, on the whole, although it took me awhile after finishing it to fully process it, I suppose. It's certainly not the happiest read, but still, I think, a wonderful one.

#55 - Just a note to contradict what I said in post #43 - Gifted has made the Man Booker Prize long list (released today)

The Book of Negroes by the Canadian author, Lawrence Hill.

I just received my early reviewer copy of Tipperary by Frank Delaney today, so am setting aside Over Sea, Under Stone for the time being.

A few of you have commented that you received Tipperary. I'll be curious to know how "it goes" for you. I have been sitting on page 126 for three days now....

I just received The Guardians by Ana Castillo. Its an ARC so I plan on setting aside The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman until I finish it.

>68 tapestry100:: tapestry100
I'd like to hear what you think of Stardust when you finish it. I just read it.
I also finished The Stone Diaries which was interesting. I don't think I've read another book that profiles a single person's life from start to finish in that way. The chapters are each a stage in life, birth, marriage, death, etc.
I finished The Devil in the Whtie City which was really good. I never knew what a huge effect the Chicago World's Fair had on our society. So many things were introduced there!
I'm now reading Watership Down and just got my Tipperary book, like many of you, so I hope to start that soon.

#72, nickhoonaloon, I thought the David Levering Lewis biography of DuBois was fascinating, but the two parts certainly took a while to get through. Well worth it, though.

Must Love Dragons by Stephanie Rowe. I finished Sleeping with the Fishes by Mary Janice Davidson and Rachel Caine's Devil's Due over the weekend.

82: bookworm12
Do you think you would recommend The Stone Diaries to friends? I'm one of the few that don't like it. I read it many years ago and found it very frustrating not knowing what the main character was thinking at all through the whole book. It was like I was trying to get to know someone and couldn't get her into focus.

I quit dithering per my message #70 and dove into The Lizard Cage. It is so beautifully written, I'm really loving it.

#s 82 & 85 - I felt the same way as sandragon re: The Stone Diaries. I found it pretty distanced; I never really felt like I got involved with what was happening to the main character.

I had sort of an interesting experience with the book, though. I live in Winnipeg, Carol Shields's home town. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was house-hunting, and I went along to a couple of places. One of the homeowners had tons of old family photos nicely framed and hung along their stairwell. One of the children in the pictures looked SO familiar, but I couldn't think of where I'd seen her before. A few days later, I remembered: it had been one of the little girls featured in those photographs in the centre of The Stone Diaries! It's been so many years now that I can't remember their names, but I want to say it was Judith; it was the little blonde girl who had her chin resting on her fist, at any rate. I thought that was kind of neat. I wondered how the owners were connected to Shields.

I finished Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde, a very fun book, and am now reading Sabriel by Garth Nix.

> 82: bookworm12

You know, I really enjoyed Stardust. It was simply told, not a lot of fluff. I don't like books where the author weighs you down with overly-descriptive elements. Gaiman simply tells a story and you accept the happenings and going-ons in Faerie as if they were the most normal thing in the world. What did you think?

Just finished My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult....one of the most moving, gripping, heart-wrenching books I've ever read. Couldn't put it down. Just outstanding.

Yesterday, I began Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben. Already a third of the way in....pretty good so far.

Also, I just downloaded the audio version of Middlesex. It's been recommended to me by a close friend, along with many others on this site, so I'll be looking forward to beginning it tomorrow.

I'm in the half through Naked Lunch by W. S. Burroughs. It's crazy. :-)

>90 porchsitter55: the audio of Middlesex is indeed fabulous!

I've finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist which I found a thoughtful, very good read - but I wasn't wowed by it. I have started Mister Pip last night .

Just finished a reread of Water for Elephants for an upcoming book group disscussion. What a great story! I have just finished 4 mass trade paperbacks in the gardening mystery genre for the "gardening bloggers book club" (see the gardening group on LT for more) and I will not bother you all with anything more of a critique than to say they fit the lightest of light beach reading. I also just read An Abundance of Katherines - a YA book that stretches the limits of the catagory. LT YA librarians, help me here to understand the agegroup audience for this book! On an aside, I really liked it. Next up is Carson McCullers The Heart is a lonely Hunter and Cod by Mark Kurlansky

#89

You're totally right - whenever I'm reading a Gaiman book, I just somehow accept everything he says at face value. "Of COURSE your father can be an old trickster god. That's just plain common sense."

Still working through 'Guardians'.

August 8

SATURN ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGY Saturn's First Eleven Years: April 1957 through April 1968

I have just started to read Susan Hill's Mrs De Winter seems good so far have got hooked after reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman they are all great reads .

Also reading Washington's War by Micharl Rose which is comparing America's war of independance and the modern war in Iraq today is fasinating reading and very insightful but scarey with the comparisons of both wars so far apart

I'm currently reading 1066: The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry by Andrew Bridgeford, Sebastian by Anne Bishop, and Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. I'm struggling a lot with Titus; it's very thickly written, with every word being important, and nothing much is going on so it's becoming a bit of a chore to read. The atmosphere is good, but it's just a lot of set-up. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with it, much less read the entire trilogy. May put it to the side if it doesn't get more interesting in ~50 pages.

Finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. So disappointing.

Two books that I had on hold at the library came in, so I'm going with those now.

Koko by Peter Straub and We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (A LT suggestion).

#98 Did you read Anansi Boys?

Halfway through Miss New York Has Everything (not as funny as I'd hoped, but the second half looks to be better) and recently started The Stations of Solitude (more philosophical than its predecessor memoir "An Unknown Woman").

Last night I started Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter. I'm about halfway through. I've not read any of Welty's work before; this book won the Pulitzer and I can see why. I really feel like I'm there in person.

#97: littlebookworm:

I just recently finished Sebastian, and I loved it.

Right now, I'm reading Blood Pact by Tanya Huff. Next up, Violin by Anne Rice.

I'm currently reading The Plot Against America by Philip Roth, which is really interesting. I didn't think I'd like the subject matter, so I'm surprised.

I've been in a bit of a non-fiction binge lately. Must be the effect of being newly self-employed! Consequently, I've been reading lots of books with dry titles like Macromedia Dreamweaver 8: Visual Quickstart Guide

Currently reading, Scotland's Sporting Curiosities, Italian cookbooks, Carthage and (Kidnapped) by Robert Louis Stevenson

I finished the romance novel I was reading last night and read a bit more of Fang and Fur Blood and Bone. I also started re-reading Her Majesty's Dog Volume 3 and plan to start the Dairy Queen sequel, The Off Season by Catherine Murdock during lunch today.

However, if Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer shows up in the mail this afternoon I might have to drop everything else to read it :-)

I'm currently reading The Blue Bedpread by Raj Kamal Jha. I'm confused by the characters but hope my confusion clears up soon.

I'm reading White Noise by Don DeLillo. I find I enjoy the read late at night as opposed to early in the morning (when I'm not as sharp). Am also reading Teacher Man by Frank McCourt - as I am a teacher also, of sometimes disgruntled urban youth, I can identify.

Still working through The Guardians. I'm enjoying it, but between trying to find a new job/apartment, and being sick and passing out so early, it's slow going. Luckily, my job ends today! So I'll be unemployed! And have free time to read! Yay?

(touchstone still hates early readers)

Believe it or not, I'm just now reading the HP books and will be starting Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight. I'm also reading View from Castle Rock from Alice Munro and Paper or Plastic a depressing book about environmental degradation.

Finished Skyward by Mary Alice Monroe and started The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult. Both are book club selections.

I was on vacation the last couple days, so I was able to read four books:

Modern Baptists, by James Wilcox
The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow
A Death in the Family, by James Agee
Advance and Retreat, by Harry Turtledove

#111: I'd love to know what you thought of A Death in the Family - I read it a couple of years ago and had mixed feelings. I think it's a very beautiful book in many ways, but really troubling too...

I'm about a hundred pages into The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. I was torn as to whether I wanted to read this or Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud first, but I'm glad I went with this one. Thus far, it's excellent.

>85 sandragon: sandragon
You know, I really wouldn't recommend The Stone Diaries because although I did find it interesting and I don't regret reading it, I didn't actually like it. I agree that I never felt like I knew the main character.
There are so many parts that say what other people think she might be thinking, but it never really lets the reader into her actual thoughts.
Also it skims over so much of her life and you have to guess what happened during those years. I wasn't a huge fan, but I can appreciate what the author was trying to do with the life segment chapters.

> 89 tapestry100
I really liked Stardust too! It was so simple it was almost a child's fairy tale, but then there are some parts that are definitely not for children. It was wonderfully free of the grandeur so many authors get caught up in. They feel they have to complicate things so much to tell their story or it won't be interesting.
Sometimes less really is more.

#99 ellevee

Not yet! It's on my TBR pile!

#115
I liked it - fun, clever, nothing too intense. I haven't read American Gods yet, so I'll be curious to hear them compared - it may determine whether or not I read it.

Finished HP7 and went back to War Trash, which I had started before Master Potter arrived in the post.

I just started Minaret by Leila Aboulela.

porchsitter55...I am with ya on My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult...gripping is a good word.

#87:

That's pretty neat xicanti. I always wonder about the people in the photos in fiction novels. Especially old photos. They have a history completely different from the book. They don't exist just for the story. What would they think if they knew they were in a book as someone else?

#109, mcna217, The View from Castle Rock: Stories by Alice Munro was one of my favorite books of the year. Hope you enjoy it too.

Finished Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein today and started A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine aka Ruth Rendell. It's from the mid-80s and excellently crafted so far. Hardly surprising.

Listening to The Cleaner by Brett Battles and also The Sociopath Next Door by Dr. Martha Stout.

HP - Deathly Hallows and Half-blood prince both.

Finished The Guardians, which was a total disappointment, and am now reading Oracle Night, which is really good.

# 121 Rebecca
If you haven't read it yet I would recommend Runaway also by Munro. Additionally, her short stories sometimes appear in the New Yorker.

Reading Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, a tough nut to crack.

I'm currently reading Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham.

112: I found it to be a well-writen book with characters I felt could have been real people. One of the things that sticks with me is the time and place, which are quite different tha what I normally encounter reading.

Just started The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon on recommendation from a fellow LTer.