What are you reading the Week of September 26, 2015?

Ann Patchett (born December 2, 1963) is an American author. She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include Run, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, State of Wonder, and The Magician's Assistant, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and received the Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award in 1994.

Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother is the novelist Jeanne Ray. Her father, Frank Patchett, who died in 2012 and had been long divorced from her mother, served as a Los Angeles police officer for 33 years, and had participated in the arrests of both Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan.

She moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was six, where she continues to live. Patchett said she loves her home in Nashville with her doctor husband and dog. If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. "Home is ...the stable window that opens out into the imagination.:

Patchett attended high school at St. Bernard Academy, a private Catholic school for girls run by the Sisters of Mercy. Following graduation, she attended Sarah Lawrence College and took fiction writing classes with Allan Gurganus, Russell Banks, and Grace Paley. She later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she met longtime friend Elizabeth McCracken. It was also there that she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars.

In 2010, when she found that her hometown of Nashville no longer had a good book store, she co-founded Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes; the store opened in November 2011. In 2012, Patchett was on the Time 100 list of most influential people in the world by TIME magazine. She is a vegan for "both moral and health reasons."

Patchett's first published work was in The Paris Review, where she published a story before she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.

For nine years, Patchett worked at Seventeen magazine, where she wrote primarily non-fiction and the magazine published one of every five articles she wrote. She said that the magazine was cruel and eventually she stopped taking criticism personally. She ended her relationship with the magazine after getting into a dispute with an editor and exclaiming, "I'll never darken your door again!"

Patchett has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, ELLE, GQ, Gourmet, and Vogue.

In 1992, Patchett published The Patron Saint of Liars. The novel was made into a movie of the same title in 1998. Her second novel Taft won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in fiction in 1994. Her third novel, The Magician's Assistant, was released in 1997. In 2001, her fourth novel Bel Canto was her breakthrough, becoming a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and winning the PEN/Faulkner Award.

A friend of writer Lucy Grealy, Patchett has written a memoir about their relationship, Truth and Beauty: A Friendship. Patchett's novel, Run, was released in October 2007. What now?, published in April 2008, is an essay based on a commencement speech she delivered at her alma mater in 2006.

Patchett is the editor of the 2006 volume of the anthology series The Best American Short Stories. In 2011 she published State of Wonder, a novel set in the Amazon jungle.

The Patron Saint of Liars
Taft
The Magician's Assistant
Bel Canto
Run
State of Wonder
Truth and beauty : a friendship
What now?
The Getaway Car : A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage

I'm away from home visiting my brother's and my battery is dying. Have a good week.

>1 fredbacon: Thanks for the bio of Ann Patchett. She is one of my favourite novelists, and Bel Canto and State of Wonder are among my favourite books.

Just picked up Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, and at two chapters in am definitely enjoying it.

Haven't read a full book in over a month since going on vacation in August. Before that, I was halfway into The Bees , which is very good, but I just can't get into now. The other day, I started The Nightingale and it is interesting so far. It might be the one to get me my reading mojo back. Got over 1,000 5-star ratings on Amazon. That's pretty unusual.

Still reading The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett and Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers.

framboise, I gave The Nightingale 5 stars. It's very readable. I also enjoyed. I thought I'd had my fill of WWII stories, but after finishing Nightingale, I read and really enjoyed The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure. Gave that one 5 stars as well.

I'm very much enjoying A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle.

I just finished listening to The Giver which was very good. I am now half way through reading Undermajordomo Minor which I am also really enjoying. Then I think I will start Every Man Dies Alone which has been on my TBR for over a year.

Thanks for the start and bio, Fred. I have to admit I've never read Bel Canto, although I certainly should have by now. I enjoyed The Patron Saint of Liars but disliked State of Wonder.

I'm finally listening to Go Set a Watchman. I'm reading Thirteen Ways of Looking by Collum McCann, and a republished old British mystery, Trouble on the Thames by Victor Bridges.

8/Irudita - I really enjoyed Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada (touchstones are a little screwy and I don't have the energy to navigate that at the moment!)

I am reading Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln and it is wonderful.

I know Ann Patchett is adored by many and I always get flack for saying this, but I think she is REALLY over-rated and to me, is in the same category as Jodi Picoult and the "ripped from headlines" type authors. I read Bel Canto (which i thought was okay at first then ridiculous at the middle and end), State of Wonder (terrible) and Magician's Assistant) (the best of the fiction bunch I have read of hers, but still just tepid on it) and Truth and Beauty: A Friendship (okay over all - but kind of strangely self-absorbed). So I just decided it is okay that I don't care for her and let others enjoy her work.

Finished The Wee Free Men which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. Started A Hat Full of Sky.

>10 CarolynSchroeder: You won't get any flak from me, on either Patchett or Picoult.

Just finished read-aloud with DH of Still Life with Murder by P.B. Ryan' a historical mystery which we enjoyed right up the last 20%. It was on it's way to 4.5-5 Stars until then. Rated it at 4 Stars since we felt it was well written, evocative of the era (post Civil War Boston) and with compelling characters.

Next up is Divergent for a change of pace.

It's absolutely fine not to love an author. I'm crazy about Anne Tyler and my best friend can't stand her. The other day she mentioned perhaps she should try her again - since I like her so much. But really, why bother? So many books, so many tastes, who knows why we like what we like?

I wouldn't put Ann Patchett and Jodi Picoult in the same category but different strokes....

Finished Strong Poison. Liked it much better than Murder Must Advertise.

Now reading Pawing Through the Past by Rita Mae Brown.

I had started Bel Canto before the Biography's posting, an eerie coincidence. Anyway, I quite enjoyed it. One can argue as to how accurate the portrayal is but I found it believable. It was an interesting and well written portrayal of human nature under trying and unnatural conditions.

I just started The Language of Flowers - Highly recommended - I am a short way in but intrigued so far. :)

I've started Neurotribes, and it's very good so far.

#18> I bought that book and I'm looking forward to reading it soon. The author is a friend of mine from my San Francisco days and quite a brilliant guy.

>19 rocketjk: He shows that brilliance early on in the book, explaining some difficult physics concepts. Engaging writing style, too. Good guy to have as a friend - you're lucky.

I've made it to the 1/3 mark in REAMDE. I wasn't sure this one was going to catch hold of me just now, maybe demanding more concentration than I could muster, but it has. I'm not into video gaming, not in the least, although I mostly get the concepts (from early computerized RPGs I did play maybe 30 years ago, and from roughly 20 years working in high-tech). So far the plot is entertainingly unpredictable, and there are several appealing characters. The style is much more accessible than that of, say, Snow Crash. I think I'm going to make it through all 1044 pages.

#20> Yes, he used to write for Wired Magazine, back when Wired was actually a real source of information. He is great at explaining tricky scientific concepts in an engaging and accessible manner.

I just finished reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, and can say that it was excellent.

Things are stressful for me right now, so I've decided to re-read The Wee Free Men, hoping that it will cheer me. It made me laugh aloud the first time I read it.

I'm also slowly reading the Easy Spanish Reader by William Tardy, as my grasp of Latin American Spanish is growing by leaps and bounds in happy anticipation of the vacation we are taking in January.

I've read The Language of Flowers twice and absolutely love it-zone of my favorite books of all time

>17 sebago: >24 cdyankeefan: I'm a The Language of Flowers fan, too - it's a beautiful novel. I liked Vanessa Diffenbaugh's newer book, We Never Asked for Wings, but not as much as The Language of Flowers.

ahef ~ Let us know what you think of The Wee Free Men for the purposes of cheer. I am also going through one of the most difficult journeys of my life (Mom diagnosed with multiple myeloma and metastic secondary cancer to the bones - treatment has just begun) and I am often camped at the hospital. Anything kind of fun and different would be super, super welcome.

To the converse of that, however, I am still reading the wonderful, but sad, Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln by Janis Cooke Newman. Egads, I am relieved not to have been a woman, who was in any way different, back then. When I think there has been little progress, I think, okay, well, at least I CAN be myself and not be chucked into an asylum.

Narrator Lady/Meredy ~ So true. I think it is "okay" not to like an author's works. I think I'm just learning to kinda not make a stink of it when people love them!! lol.

Half a War by Joe Abercrombie
Final novel in the "Shattered Sea" trilogy

>26 CarolynSchroeder:
>23 ahef1963: I just finished The Wee Free Men and enjoyed it so much I'm now reading the second Tiffany Aching book, A Hat Full of Sky.

And speaking of enjoying things, I just got the new Jim Butcher book, The Aeronaut's Windlass. I will start it as soon as I log off the computer for the day.

I've also finished Pawing Through the Past which was an easy read.

Black River- S.M. Hulse

>18 jnwelch:, >19 rocketjk:, >20 jnwelch:, >22 rocketjk: Picking up the conversation (while nursing bullet hole), I just placed Neurotribes on hold at my library.

#25 I felt the same way-I liked wings just not as much as flowers

I'm reading The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee, 2nd in The Agency series.
Set in Victorian London with young orphan Mary Quinn, girl detective.

Finished listening to The Girl in the Spider's Web. I was disappointed.

Next up to listen to is Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde for a neighborhood read.

The Secret History of Fantasy-Peter S. Beagle ed.

Reading Wars of the Roses, Margaret of Anjou by Conn Igguiden. So far so good. Next, The Genome a science fiction novel by Sergi Lukyanenko.

oooo an new one by Vanessa Diffenbaugh? Thank you "TooBusyReading"!! off to check it out. Enabling... it is what we are all about here, right? :)

Wench: A Novel Dolen Perkins-Valdez

I'm reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to discuss with a friend and The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett to break it up with something lighter.

I finished poet Stuart Kestenbaum's Prayers & Run-on Sentences this week, and this afternoon I finished Penelope Fitzgerald's Innocence -- such a delightful book.

Now I'm reading The Rest of Life - three novellas by Mary Gordon.

An interview with Colm Toibin:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/books/review/colm-toibin-by-the-book.html?_r=1

>36 sebago: Absolutely! If it were not for all the enablers here, I would have a good deal more free time. That is not a complaint, just a fact of life.

>26 CarolynSchroeder: The Wee Free Men is a fine book for cheering oneself up. It's delightful. I'm really sorry to hear about your mother. The other book that really brightened me up earlier this year was High Fidelity - the main character is so quirky, and if you haven't already read it, I do recommend.

>28 seitherin: I did the same thing last year - read one Tiffany Aching novel after another. I love the wee free men. I want to BE one.

At the moment i'm reading The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood. It's not bad, and when I'm reading it, I can admire the creepiness and general atmosphere that Ms. Marwood creates, but it's not a "can't put it down" sort of book.

I just finished reading the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

>26 CarolynSchroeder: I remember being in a situation like yours and needing a book to lift my spirits. My most recent chuckle was Dear Committee Members and I've recommended it a lot. Another good one is Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home which is a quirky memoir that delighted me.

This week's thread is up over here.

>41 ahef1963: I just discover the wee free men when Amazon had a deal on the first book. I can't believe I've missed out on them this long.

Someone on one of the threads mentioned Leon Uris, whose books were so popular a few decades past. His books are mostly historical fiction, but so well researched that the reader is absorbing history even while enjoying the story. I've started with Armageddon the post WWII story of the fight between Democracy and Communism in Berlin as the Russians begin their land-grab through much of Eastern Europe. Like all good historical novels, the tory moves because we care about the characters who populate them.

I expect to be absorbed in Uris's worlds for some time to come.