What Are You Reading the Week of May 9, 2015?

No time for bio...sorry...

Currently Reading The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg and listening to The Devil's Punchbowl by Greg Iles.

I had been reading The Trouble with Physics: the Rise of String Theory, the Fall of Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin, but on the advice of LT member Limelite, I set it aside for the time being in favor of Beyond Einstein: the Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe by Michio Kaku. The latter gives a relatively straightforward foundation for the issues and theories discussed in the former. I'm about halfway through Kaku's book now. There is some very clunky writing in it (for one thing, Kaku's co-writer, Jennifer Trainer Thompson, suffers from adverb-itis of the sort normally reserved for bad spy novels), but overall it does, indeed, present the "basic" concepts of quantum physics and relativity well enough for me to almost feel like I'm within spitting distance of understanding them.

Price of Blood by Patricia Bracewell
#2 in her "Emma of Normandy" trilogy

>2 rocketjk: Good for you. Challenging stuff. Wish someone would write a non-clunky one on these topics.

Still reading A Cruel Wind by Glen Cook and Disturbed Earth by E. E. Richardson.

I'm still reading The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. I'll definitely be reading more of Erdrich in the future.

I'm listening to the audio of Canada by Richard Ford. Any of you doing the AAC can laugh now at how far behind I am :-)

Last I'm muddling through the group read of the very short and rather humorous Castle Rackrent.

I'm still reading The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy and I love it. Each time I pick it up I get lost in the story.

I'm about two thirds of the way through The Judgement of Paris, about the Paris art scene of the 1860's. It's such a relaxing change of pace from my recent reading.

Last weekend, I decided to thin out my library a little. I donated a box full of books to a local convenience store that runs a take-one-leave-one book swap. Having made a little room, I then went out and purchased three new books this week. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, Goebbels by Peter Longerich and a computer book for work (Network Security with OpenSSL). It seems that I never learn.

I finished reading The Coast of Good Intentions: Stories by Michael Byers. I enjoyed each story and have marked several for rereading at a later time. I look forward to more books from this author.

I am still reading the first Poldark book Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall and like the hero of the story am appalled at the working and living conditions of the common people. I am beginning to suspect that the reason all the books about Medieval Europe are about the upper classes is because we modern readers simply couldn't put up with the injustice of the living conditions or the injustice. the Britain of 1770's is a far cry from the more egalitarian society of today. I am glad that i decided to read this, but am now daunted because there are many more books in this series that will add considerably to my TBR list.

Finished Disturbed Earth by E. E. Richardson and started Getting Warmer by Alan Carter.

I finished and reviewed ER book Grain of Truth, now reading a wheat-filled fiction selection in Baking Cakes in Kigali.

Just finished the lovely Euphoria by Lily King whom I had never read before. Now off I go to google Margaret Mead and the love triangle that inspired this book.

I finished the LTER Love and Fury: A Memoir, an honest and insightful memoir focusing on an effort to understand the narrator's father, a lower middle class working man. The complexity and ambiguity of a person and familial ties are revealed without trying to tie things up into a neat little package.

I am reading Battlestar Galactica (edition 1978) by Glen A. Larson

#16
I remember that series. I was in college and every Sunday night a group of us girls would gather around the communal TV and watch the show that starred Loren Green and Dirk Benedict. (I think those were the stars but it was a long time ago.)

Just finished The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. Now focussing on The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Dracula. I need to finish Dracula fairly urgently as I'm on my last renew of it from the library - if I don't make it through this week, it's going to end up going back unfinished.

Finished A Cruel Wind by Glen Cook and started Everything Burns by Vincent Zandri.

I'm reading too many books again. I'm always reading too many books.

I'm listening to Ancillary Sword (Leckie). The main book I'm reading is Kushiel's Dart (Carey), but I'm picking my way slowly through Brothers of Earth (Cherryh), Red Moon and Black Mountain (Chant), The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (North), and Witch World (Norton).

Also slowly reading Water Margin, A Tale of Genji, and King John.

I may or may not be reading The Drowning Girl (Kiernan), The Bell (Murdoch), The Left Hand of Darkness (Le Guin), Jingo (Pratchett), The Back Room (Gaite), and The Mirror Empire (Hurley).

Also reading Secret Weavers: Stories of the Fantastic by Women Writers of Argentina and Chile.

I finished Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread this morning, and was vaguely disappointed by it. It just didn't draw me in like I hoped it would.

Halfway through the thirteenth Pendergast, White Fire, which, like a room at the Holiday Inn, is delivering exactly what I expected of it.

Also in progress: Stephen King's Revival in weekly read-aloud installments; several lengthy, slow-moving works, including Middlemarch; and a few other things. I have Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania in the queue for the fast track.

Finished The Light Between Oceans Friday, didn't read anything on Saturday, am now reading The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen.

Am having a slow start to the much recommended Invention of Wings which I should like but am having trouble engaging with.

I have started The Bees and listening to The Girl With All the Gifts

Bangkok Rules was good escapist reading, and now I've started The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Also reading Babbitt for the American Author Challenge.

I finished Ross Poldark by Winston Graham while I whiled away yesterday afternoon at the swimming pool. It was so good that today I placed an Inter-Library Loan request for the second book in the series. Demelza should be arriving in a few days. In the meantime, I am reading Red Queen by Margaret Drabble for the British Author Challenge. It promises to be good, but I will have to set it aside when I get Demelza as ILL's have a limited check out length.

I finished the absolutely wonderful The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth which detailed the decline of Austria-Hungary in the years leading up to WWI through the story of three generations of the Trotta family. I chose to read it because i previously read The Hare with Amber Eyes, a non-fiction account of much the same time period so they meshed well. I highly recommend them both. Roth is an under-appreciated author who wrote in the 30s.

Now, for a complete change of pace, I'm reading Ann Patchett's This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.

I just read, "What Does Super Jonny Do When Mom Gets Sick?". It's a story that supports a child with a sick relative. Teaches them WHO the people working in the hospital are AND how a child can help. There's a page for teachers to use in the classroom too. www.sickmom.org

>28 brenzi: I hope you like This is the Story of a Happy Marriage as much as I did!

I'm finally reading Helen Humphreys' The Lost Garden.

Just finished and enjoyed Re Jane: A Novel by Patricia Park. It's her first novel but certainly won't be her last. An interesting mash up of Korean-American culture and Jane Eyre.

The Castle by Kafka

I have just started to read Gallipoli Memories by Compton McKenzie. A map of the coast of Turkey was provided, and it suddenly occurred to me that Gallipoli wasn't where I had always thought it was. I don't know why, but I had always assumed it was on the southern coast, rather than the Dardanelles.

Finished Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. A member of our reading group thinks that this is the best book she has ever read, and she's read a few. I wouldn't say that - not by a long chalk - but it was certainly worth reading, particularly for the flashbacks.

I am reading Euphoria by Lily King and enjoying it early on.

I just finished and really enjoyed Baking Cakes in Kigali.

I just finished The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen. I am a big fan of Mr. Adler-Olsen's Carl Morck mystery novels, set in Denmark, but this stand-alone book failed to impress me. It had some great ideas, but overall failed to impress me.

Next up is something else Scandinavian - I have two unread Icelandic mysteries and two unread Swedish mysteries from which to choose.

I finished The Family Fang and jam on the vine yesterday and started The Thoughts and Happenimgs of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals last night

Read Babbit this as part of the ACC challenge. Reading The Shape of Water, the first Camilleri book with Inspector Montalban; The first chapter took a little work but since then I have been sailing through.

I just read the very short book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington/Nugi Garimara. It is the true story of three very young girls (8, 11, and 14), who escaped from a residential school in Western Australia, and walked the 1,600 km. (1,000 miles) home through the Australian outback. It's quite a story, and it's remarkable that the girls survived, given the harsh conditions of the terrain they crossed. However, it was a dry read, compounded by less-than-ideal grammar, and a large sprinkling of Aboriginal terms that had me constantly flipping to the glossary. The story has been made into a film which I would very much like to see.

I've been trying to continue with Eva Peron by Alicia Dujovne Oritz, and since someone else on here read The Motorcycle Diaries, I figured I'd read that, too, and I'm halfway thru Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein. School is wrapping up for the semester so I'll have more free-time!

#38 ahef1963: The movie is good and heartbreaking, but now I'm nervous about reading the book after seeing your descriptions! ;) I've been wanting to read it for awhile!

Thank you, @hemlockgang, for starting this thread!

Are there folks able to step up for the next 3 weeks? I won't be near a computer for any of the next 3 Saturdays. I did a little research on authors if someone is interested, or we can do without the bio. Was supposed to ask this question weeks ago. May is just... insane for me.

I can start the thread, but no bio promises.

#38
The movie was really good. I would encourage you to watch it now that you have read the book. I didn't read the book, and probably won't, but can say that the movie was worth the time and effort it took to go see it. It was part of an Art House Theater series in my small town and so there was one evening it was shown. It was a case of , be there or you won't see it. I was there, and it was worth it.

I finished The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes} by Alain-Fournier. I enjoyed the story -- a romantic adventure, a bit of fantasy, a story of longing -- and especially appreciated the Penguin edition introduction by Adam Gopnik, which I read after finishing the book.

#38 - I recall the movie being very good too. It has been a while since I saw it though.

I finished the excellent Euphoria by Lily King and am now about to begin the novel (January, ha ER book which I just got today) The Marauders by Tom Cooper; and a NF deal I downloaded on Kindle today Happy is the New Healthy by Dave Romanelli.

>42 hemlokgang: - thanks!

This week I finished reading Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion by Jon Katz and The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest by David Quammen,
and listening to Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies by Ginger Strand, Grayson by Lynne Cox, God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette and The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice by Zak Ebrahim.

Reading Leaf Storm and Other Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Purely Positive Training: Companion to Competition by Sheila Booth, Stomping Grounds: A Pilgrim's Progress Through Eight American Subcultures by W. Hampton Sides, and 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shahib Nye.

New Thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/191140