What You're Reading the Week of 16 Sep 2006

Travelling this week so actually got some reading done: Thomas Voccola's excellent The Accidental CEO - a leader's journey from Ego to Purpose brings together some ideas from NLP, the E-Myth, Landmark Education and doubtless more in a very telling little story. The book also happens to be the first self-published one from lulu.com that I've read. Also a quick dash through Seth Godin's book on Squidoo Everyone's an Expert, and a more leisurely read of Before and After Graphics for Business by John McWade, his Before and After articles are some of the clearest and best writing on business graphics, typography & layout that I've seen. And to finish off I read Lifeguard by James Patterson - just the thing for a long ferry trip and I completed both Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky - just good enough for me to keep reading - and Jared Diamond's Collapse - an excellent book in every way though harder going than Guns, Germs and Steel.
Vision : The Life and Music of Hildegard Von Bingen Hildegard of Bingen

Today I started On Agate Hill by Lee Smith...I heard her speak last week in Orlando at the SIBA Conference..she gave a great talk so her book went to the top of my stack. I have not read her other books. Has anyone out there enjoyed some of her titles.

I've been reading Sixpence House by Paul Collins for the last couple days - it's a lovely little memoir about the author's move to Hay-on-Wye, a little English village known for its many antiquarian bookstores. It's quite fun.

I'm reading Brave New World for my reading group, taking a break from How to Read Literature Like a Professor. With my kids, listening to Dancing Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, and by myself still listening to The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde.

I am reading The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe. It seems I have developed an addiction to Irish writers. ;) I am also trying to finish Teresa Hubel's Whose India? The Independence Struggle in British and Indian Fiction and History.

Still reading Macchiavelli and have begun to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré. I always enjoy his books.

I just picked up A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. Ever since reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time I have been anxiously waiting his next book.

Finished Brave New World this morning and started For the Love of a Good Woman. I don't generally read short stories (I prefer to get lost in a long book), but I make an exception for the wonderful Alice Munro.

The Butcher Boy is quite creepy and good, loloma. What other Irish writers have you been reading?

Had a bad cold last week, so I had a good excuse for reading instead of working. After finishing Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, as previously reported, I finished Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose and read The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswani (or Ala Aswani as the touchstones like) -- all excellent books.

Now I'm reading Howards End, by E. M. Forster, which somehow I never read before, and still trying to get through The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr for my current events reading.

Currently about 1/3 of the way through Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, although I hope to improve on that substantially by this afternoon.

I'm listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - it was really interesting and engrossing until yesterday, when it just started dragging and I got really impatient with it... I'm nearing the end, though, so I'll tough it out and hopefully it'll pick up again. I also started listening to Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, for when The Historian got too creepy to listen to at night and I needed something a bit fluffy.

I've been on holiday for the last week (riding the Lake District - just wonderful) so for once actually had some time to read! I managed:

Wicked by Gregory Maguire
So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde
The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
The V&A Needlepoint Collection by Karen Elder (which sadly I have to pass on, as it's a bookcrossing book - such lovely illustrations that I'm sad to see it go)
Teashop Walks in the Lake District by Ron Freethy
Sizergh Castle

and I'm about half way through Bastard Prince: Henry VIII's Lost Son by Beverley Murphy, which is surprising engrossing if a little assumptive in its interpretation of some of the facts.

I'm still muddling through Prospect Street by Emilie Richards. It's a good read, just kind of slow. I do care about the characters enough to keep going, so that is saying something.

Going to finish up The Blue Noon by Robert Ryan (lightweight reading0 and try to go back to The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes The trouble I am having with the Hughes book is trying to visualize the geography of the area that the various tribes roamed. He has maps in the beginning of the book, but they don't show a lot of the landmarks and geographical features that he references during the first section of the book. I have this "need" always to visualize where the author is talking about because my geography is so weak that I need to follow on a map. I am so geographically challenged, that even though I had a good friend in Tasmania for years, I didn't realize that Tazmania was closer to Australia than New Zealand was. I've been following along with some maps on the net but there isn't one that shows all the features I want so I'm paging back and forth between several with my book in one hand and the mouse in the other. Once this first chapter is done, and I have the basic framework down pat, I'll be OK. I should never have dropped Geograpy and History so early in my academic career (LOL 10th grade) because even though I found it boring and useless then, it's where my reading always takes me now and always proves to be a frustrating roadblock. I see some History and Geography University courses in my future. I have such a hunger for it now that it means something to me. And being "retired" on disability means I have the time to do it now. In another 5 years, I get my tuition at a really discounted rate, so I will be taking advantage of that when the time comes. Maybe even earn another degree in time.

I'm still plugging away at The Great Nation by Colin Jones.

I just started to read The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Finished The Devil in the White City this morning. wonderful book..the juxtaposition of the story lines seems so impropable, but it really works!

I too thought The Devil in the White City was very good, though I thought the ending was more of a whimper than a bang. Not the writer's fault as real life didn't recognize the serial killer as such. But there was so much going on, and so much information about the past, the world's fair and life at that time. I read it for a RL book group.

I just finished The Tender Bar a memoir for the same RL book group. It was well written and funny, but it just didn't quite do it for me. A story of a young man with no father whose quest for one takes him to a local bar. Even as youngster he is involved with the men there, as he searches for the perfect male role model.

Lots of people don't have fathers, and lack a home life, and even those who do have to find a way to fit into life on their own. So the story and POV are really more of an 'everyman' tries to find himself. The writer (now in his 30s I guess) and the bar have no real prominence, so I was never sure why the book was written.

Of course it brings in 9/11 at the end, and perhaps that is the claim to fame for the book, but I felt manipulated. The first 400 pages were a set up so the next 15 make the events more personal. Still not bad, just not my cup of tea.

Now starting Titan by John Varley for a RL SF book group. Its recently back in print and the trilogy is supposed to be a classic.

I have been caught up in the gothic this week with the following collections of short stories:

-- The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
-- Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
-- The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton

tygerlilli,
I LOVED Devil in the White City. And the story of the Ferris Wheel was a total surprise to me so that was even more fun. I know the storyline is very black, but the peripheral stories were fascinating. I'd forgotten that I had read that book and now have to go and add it to my library. But where it is a the moment I do not know. I need to keep track of who I lend my books to, will be using tags for this from now on.

Connie

Ficusfan,
What is an RL book group? Some of the acronym's I see I guess at, but that one escapes me.
Connie

I recently finished Deep South by Nevada Barr and Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.

I started reading Final Victim by Stephen J. Cannell and Darkness on the Edge of Town by J. Carson Black. I'm still reading Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson.

I finished Marley and Me by John Grogan---cute and light. And I was surprised to find myself crying at the end, even though the end was no surprise at all--and I'm not a dog owner.

Now I'm starting The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I'm only a couple chapters into it, but I'm hooked already. The "feel" is warm and wonderful.

I too liked Devil in the White City and like you, warbrideslass, I loved the story of the Ferris Wheel!

At the moment I'm finishing up Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey.

Next I'm going to start The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes.

Have just started Helen of Troy by Margaret George. This in addition to my commuting paperback (Private Demon), my audiobook (rereading Crocodile on the Sandbank, and various textbooks.

Home read is still Under the Color of Law by Michael McGarrity. I think I'm about a third of the way in.

My work and travel read has changed. Finished Apocalypse Troll by David Weber on Friday and am going for a change of pace there by starting to read The Color of Her Panties by Piers Anthony. (No, this is a Xanth novel, not an adult novel.)

I am currently re-reading Jane Austen's works, since Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites of all time. I also just started In the Shadow of Tlaloc: Life In A Mexican Village and am about halfway through Coming To Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

I have a huge pile of books by my bed, so I feel like I have to be reading quite a lot to keep up with my spending habits!

fiendish: I just read Pride and Prejudice for the first time ever! Loved it which was totally unexpected. I have a few other books I need to finish first, but then I'll move on to Persuasion.
Right now I'm finishing High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver and for very light reading Do Penguins Have Knees? by David Feldman. So it shouldn't be too long before I get back to Jane Austen.

Im moving on to Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler...though im yet to finish 3 other books :D Taking me sometime to finish American Gods of Neil Gaiman, When I Get to Five by Epstein, and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I just finished two books: Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen which was one of the best books I have read this year (and I have read over 170!) and Admit To Murder by Margaret Yorke which I would normally have loved, but I think I read it to close to Water For Elephants. I have now picked up Blood Eagle by Craig Russell which I had started some time ago, but I'm having a hard time sticking to that one :(

I finished Anthony Powell: A Life, which led me to What's Become of Waring I read A Dance to the Music of Time last year and loved it, but now I'm a bit Powelled out. Then it was onto Brave New World for my reading group, and once that was out of the way, One Sunday Morning - more of a novella almost. I'm about to start on Prince of the Marshes unless an impending bookshop trip gets in the way.

Managed to get through around 350 pages of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. It's split into three books, finished the first one and now into the second. Its interesting but a bit long winded so far. I think there's a great four or five hundred page novel in its 900 pages.

Also started Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers for a reading group.

I’ve just finished So many Ways to Begin by Jon McGregor. It was nice read, but a little insubstantial compared to If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. The idea of relating each chapter to an object was a little forced. I also thought the chapters themselves disjointed, which disturbed the flow of the book for me. I had assumed all the way through, that I knew what the ending was (and that it was all a little obvious, and long winded). However, when the ending was not as I had expected, I was left disappointed – how capricious us readers are!

Had a bad weekend, so am now re-reading The Secret Pilgrim by John Le Carre, as a comforting light read. My next new book is the latest Richard Ford which has just been published in England. I’ve heard one quite bad review, but Frank Boscombe is one of my heroes, a man trying to be good, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the new book. I wrote down a quote from The Sportswriter in my journal, which seems to sum up Frank “…hopeful of nothing more than a good dream”

I’ll be interested to hear what Princemuchao thought of A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon, I haven’t purchased it yet, but did like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, not quite as much as everyone else though.

I’ve also read loloma’s The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe, and thought it was gratuitously ugly at times, but it still managed to retain a certain charm. An unusual book.

Tygerlilli keep going with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, I was nearly put of by a low start, and only continued because of the brilliance of the far different Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and of course Wonder Boys. It’s well worth persevering.

I just finished The Ballad of the Whisky Robber...loved it. Took me awhile because I only read it between classes at school. I was surprised that it kept my interest, but it did. It made me laugh and I could read it in short spurts. I love reading about real people who are crazy. Now I'm just starting Rhadopis of Nubia by Mahfouz.

Halfway through the audiobook of Catch-22; bought the paperback today so I could finish it quicker. Also dipping in and out of Galeano's excellent Walking Words and getting to know Webern's Das Augenlicht.

Took a break from The Love of a Good Woman yesterday to read Silk by Alessandro Baricco. What a great little book! I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

Have just begun Murder on the Orient Express.

Have no audiobook going at the moment having just wrapped up Folly by Laurie R. King (damn touchstones screwed up again).

Am still muddling through The Magus, but I think I'm going to leave it unfinished as it has completely lost my interest. I'm very disappointed because at first I really, really liked this book and wanted it to continue as strongly as it began, but alas it has sunk to complete unbelievability and preposterousness. Bah.

Last week somebody mentioned two Swedish detective fiction writers Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo and while trying to remeber their names, lo and behold a Sunday paper was reviewing (very favourably) a paperback of their Roseanna originally published in 1968. I know this is slightly off topic but wanted to say how a thread on a board like this can open one up to books that normally would have passed one by.
Anyway, reading this week The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. Haven't read historical fiction for years but I'm impressed by the author's immaculate research into the life and times of Alexander the Great.

Oooh, The Persian Boy is a great novel. I haven't read it in ages, but remember loving it when I did.

Still reading The Master by Colm Toibin. Not exciting, but well-written and interesting - it's about the American author Henry James. Started The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham (Australian) - a young woman has returned to her home town where she makes a huge impact as a dressmaker (of course). We know that there is something very dark in her past, but what is it? Nice and easy.

I also started Spot of Bother because I loved Mark Haddon's earlier book Curious Incident of the Dog at Nighttime...so far I am loving it as well.

I've been reading Molly Ivins's book Bushwhacked on the bus to work...it makes me too angry for it to work as a home read. I'd just explode. She's a mistress as making one laugh as she outrages one's sensibilities with her research.

I picked up and devoured The Preservationist by David Maine this past Saturday. I loved the story...Noah's Ark-building adventure told from multiple first-person POVs. Hard for me to believe it's a first novel. It's certainly not the first one he's written, even if it's the first one he's published.

I'm coming to the end of The Mists of Avalon, it's been strangely hard going considering it's about King Arthur, one of my favourite subjects. Have just begun Myths and Legends of the Celts by James MacKillop.

I am presently reading "The Sparrow"
by Mary Doria Russell. I am loving this book and I am trying not to race through it because I don't want it to end.

richardderus, I agree with you that David Maine's The Preservationist is just an exceptional book, but his followup Fallen is even better: the story of Cain/Abel and Adam/Eve, but its telling unfolds in reverse order, beginning with the aftermath of Abel's murder and progressing back to Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden. And there's 40 chapters in the book, beginning with 40 and ending with chapter 1, and it's a mind-blower of a little book.

Webster, I loved The Sparrow as well, but its sequel Children of God isn't nearly as good a book.

i loved Kavalier and Clay!

I'm reading another book by Donna Leon, Doctored Evidence, as well as Jeanette Winterson's The Passion.

I've just finished Effie in Venice and The Aspern Papers.

(If you think you see a theme here, you're absolutely correct!)

I started Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life today. So far it's good.

Just started The unusual life of Tristan Smith by Peter Carey ... I'm only about 35 pages into it, but so far it's certainly living up to its title!

Also, following up on hazelk's comment about how this thread can turn one on to different books, last week I went on and re-tried The white lioness by Henning Mankell, a book I couldn't get any traction on the first time I opened it ... based on someone's comment here, I took another shot and really found it quite compelling this time around.

Let's see: I finished off Therapy by Jonathan Kellerman, then had to tackle a book a colleague asked me to read. Since I've had him read several books, it was only fair, hence I spent a couple of days reading White Oleander.

Right now I am squeezing in Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto - a group read for the Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction group - before tackling Two Lives (well, mainly the first novella, Reading Turgenev) by William Trevor and The Egyptian Book of the Dead, both for online reading groups.

I have a very busy work schedule this week (even more so than usual) so I doubt I would get anything read past these ones - and the last two would likely be carried over to next week.

Att:amandameale: Agree The Master is not exciting but agree it's compelling in its own quiet way. Beautifully written.

the complete collection of the chronicles of narnia by c.s. lewis

magus..I know what you mean about having to stick with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay to begin with and I think I've gotten to the part where I just don't want to stop reading!

Yes! Very much enjoyed Lee Smith's Oral History. Story of three generations, told to a reporter in an 'oral history style/tradition.' The first story is a haunting witch tale.

Fair and Tender Ladies is another excellent one, told through the medium of letters to friends.

Black Mountain Breakdown I didn't enjoy as much. It's one of her very early books, and the writing style was still a bit jerky. The story line wasn't one I particularly enjoyed, either.

The Christmas Letters tells the story of a family's life just as the title indicates - in the mother's yearly Christmas Letters to her extended family. Nice reading at any time, not just at Christmas.

She has many more books, but these are the ones I'm familiar with.

Reading A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. Superb Science Fiction detailing the conflicts of civilizations with faster than light space travel and other significant advances when they join forces with a moderately advanced civilization and prepare to take over a just developing civilization. Vinge creates the most interesting alien peoples I have read about.

Also re-reading Replay by Ken Grimwood for a discussion group next Tuesday.

And reading In the Presence of the Enemy by Elizabeth George, one of my favorite mystery authors.

I am reading Romanitas, an alternative world novel by a new author, Sophia McDougall. The premise, that the Roman Empire never collapsed but still exists today, is intriguing, though the writing of the novel is only average and in places a little odd and I am feeling a touch bogged down, just over half way through. Will persevere, though.

Anyone else read this?

John

Having finished up "The Great Nation" by Colin Jones (see my review) it's on to another socio-economic tome; Richard Franklin Bensel's "The Political Economy of American Industrialization." There's a couple of novels I might prefer to be reading but I have Bensel's book out on interlibrary loan and I only have it for a short time with no renewals; sigh.

Since a couple people asked, I liked Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother quite a bit - not quite as good as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, but worth a read. I wrote a full review that can be found on the Book Info page.

hi RhiGirl! i have a copy of Sixpence House and sampled a few pages. it does look fun to read. i'm reading now The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman. this woman CAN write! the novel's about a lightning-strike victim who meets a man of a similar fate. so far, it's exciting.

I've just started a book by Hanne-Vibeke Holst: Die Kronprinzessin (Kronprinsesse/Crown Princess). It's about a young danish environmental activist who suddenly gets the offer to become Minister of Environment, when her predecessor gets sick. I'm just into her first week in the job, learning the ropes and getting to know the people that are important (others than one would think).

Just finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova yesterday... Overall, I enjoyed it, although it was reeeaaallly dragging about 2/3 of the way through - which also happened to be the point at which my iPod crapped out on me. Moving on to Ella Enchanted for a light kiddielit break before tackling Angela's Ashes.

I wish I had more time to read my non-audiobook, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, because I'm really enjoying it, but it's been a crazy week at work, so I'll have to content myself with enjoying it in the 20 minute chunks before I go to bed.

Recently finished Freakonomics and now reading Cottonwood by Scott Phillips. Not far into it yet, but Cottonwood seems like quite a change from what I've been reading recently. It's set in a small Kansas town in the 19th century and is about how the community deals with the building of a new railroad in their area. It's coarse and graphic though, and I'm hoping I'll enjoy it.

I just started Bookmark Now, edited by Kevin Smokler. Hopefully soon, I'll get off this reading-about-books kick and start reading all the history books I've bought recently.

I just finished Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs -- a book group pick, but I wasn't crazy about it. I just started to re-read All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren and also have The Great Bridge by David McCullough ready to go. I'm listening to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens during my commute.

I'm reading a library copy of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat for my library management class.

I just finished Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson. It's a non-fiction adventure story along the lines of Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm with a bit of World War II history thrown in. It's about diving, which I have no inclination to do, but I loved Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder, so I was pretty sure I'd love this one too, and so I did. I couldn't put it down.

Next up: My Sister's Keeper by Jody Picoult. It's about a family that conceives a child in the hopes of creating a bone marrow match for an older daughter, and it's told from the perspective of the younger child. Should be interesting. It also looks like a quick read.

I made a stab at reading the The Political Economy of American Industrialization but decided that I just wasn't in the mood to assimilate another socio-economic tome in the limited time I have the book. Then I was going to read Transformation Under Fire in eBook form, but rapidly came to the conclusion that the imminent train wreck in Iraq had already rendered the work dated. Now I'm going to pick up what I really wanted to read in the first place, the second of Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" novels.

katharinem, I really enjoyed Shadow Divers and Ship of Gold.. too and have recommended them many times, great stuff.

Right now I'm nearly finished with Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, and though I'm not really an aficionado of science or horror fiction, this has been just a terrific book and highly recommended. Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft (whom he especially favors in his pictures), and World War Z is dynamite.

I am reading The Human Story. So far so good. I really like this authors way of telling things. And he even admits the books weakness which to me makes him all the more enduring.

I'm currently reading The Clocks by Agatha Christie, Final Victim by Stephen J. Cannell and Doomsman by Harlan Ellison and Lin Carter

I recently finished:

Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson
Darkness on the Edge of Town by J. Carson Black

It is great to see that so many people are reading some of my favorite authors (Alice Munro, Angela Carter, Elizabeth Peters, Jeanette Winterson, Elizabeth George...)!

At the moment I am deep into Laura Gibbs's marvellous edition of Aesop's Fables, which is the first book in 1001 Books you Must Read before you Die. I am also midway through another spectacular book from much later in that list, Paul Auster's Book of Illusions. I can't recommend it enough, especially (but not exclusively) for any academics out there.

I have just this very moment started Jessica Abel's graphic novel La Perdida, having just finished Whiteout by Greg Rucka and several of Bill Willingham's Fables comics.

I expect to dive in soon to two quite quick (I hope) reads: Philip Gourevitch's A Cold Case (I was profoundly moved and upset by We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families, so I am intrigued to read more of his work) and Patricia C. Wrede's Mairelon the Magician (the first of Wrede's I will have read).

I have just rearranged my bookshelves by separating out all the unread books, so I am feeling the weight of future reading particularly keenly!

LouisBranning, thanks for the heads-up re: Fallen by David Maine...it's winging its way to me even as we speak. Should we bless or curse Amazon.com...? The biblioholic's crack peddlers, they are. I picked up The Preservationist in spite of my deep dislike of The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and subsequent suspicion of Biblically-derived modern fiction. I was so thrilled that I have retracted my perimeter fences a few hundred yards regarding the Biblically themed stuff...provisionally.

I noticed your enthusiasm for another favorite books of mine...Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. A wonderful, exciting read! Only one person to whom I recommended the book ended up without enthusiasm for it and she's a serious claustrophobe...all the action under the sea, and the account of the wreck, was simply too much fo her tender sensibilities.

fyrefly98, I read The Historian with great pleasure until I reached the ending. I wonder, am I too critical, or is there a trend in modern writing for endings not to "match" the books they allegedly complete?

Am presently rereading Editor to Author: The Letters of Maxwell Perkins for the pleasure of reacquainting myself with Perkins's methods of guiding authors. Amazingly helpful editor, and a model I strive to emulate.

This week, Im reading 1984 by Orwell. I see its in the top ranking of the books on LibraryThing, so I really must read it.
Im new to the site this week. :) Happy to be a part of the community.

I just got done re-reading The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth a couple days ago.

Now I'm reading the sequel, The Merchants' War, and The Relativity of Wrong, an essay collection by Isaac Asimov.

This week I've finished Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. Last week someone asked me to report back on how I got on, so briefly... I did enjoy the book, but can't say I loved it. The plot moved along with good pace, and was interesting enough (boy meets girl, girl meets girl, girl goes missing). Unfortunately I couldn't get up much empathy for the characters - I recognised them, but my empathy was limited. Could it be his "spare" writing style? Quite possibly, though in saying that, it's so different from what I normally read that I did enjoy the change. I will try more Murakami, probably A Wild Sheep Chase next, as I think it is more characteristic of his style (and might galvanise me one way or the other!).

Anyway, have also finished The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, and have started Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes. I've had to put down The Naked Lunch for a bit. It's just too much to read on its own...

Since June, I'm working through my unread books in 'LibraryThing order' -- starting with the 'most widely held' and working my way down. Lacking a liberal arts education, I figure this will get me a little caught up with the rest of the class.

So I've read Wicked, Slaughterhouse-Five, Cryptonomicon, Anna Karenina, and Catch-22, interleaved with lighter reading of course.

Currently well into Ender's Game. On deck: Huckleberry Finn.

I'm currently reading Shadows by F.M. McPherson which is a YA werewolf novel. I like it so far.

Last night I read the second story of Dark Dreamers which I really loved. The first story in that book is also very, very good but I had read it already in another anthology.

I see Seth Godin on the touchstone list. Right now I'm reading his Small is the New Big. I don't have any real reason to read books on marketing, but I picked it up at random from the new books shelf at the library, and I'm really enjoying it.

I'm now reading Dress your family in corduroy and denim by David Sedaris. It's collection of short stories from his life - little windows here and there. Some stuff is really funny, some just interesting, and some disturbing. Last week I wrapped up his other book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, which was also a very good read.

Ficusfan,
What is an RL book group? Some of the acronym's I see I guess at, but that one escapes me.
Connie

Sorry. It means Real Life (as opposed to an on-line group).

I finished Titan by John Varley. Not good. It was written in the 70s, went out of print, and has just recently been republished. Very dated, also rather boring. Like a poor man's Ringworld. Lots of SF name dropping, and oddly kidnapping one of Dune's worms. But the worst was the odd thread about sex, and nudity running through the book (lesbians, incest, rape). Poor characters, boring setting for 2/3 of the book, and a tiresome plot.

I am now picking Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh back up.

Having a problem with getting through novels at the moment so am back with non-fiction, The Classical world: An Epic History of Greece and Rome by Robin Lane Fox. Very readable without being patronisingly 'easy'. Back to one or two novels hopefully in the near future.

Finally getting 'round to Beloved by Toni Morrison.. Definitely starting well..
I was reminded of one of the most startling things I've ever seen - the beautiful, regal Ms Morrison being interviewed by an Australian 'journalist' who asked her when she was going to 'start writing about white people' - and was completely serious! The look on Toni Morrison's face was priceless!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, M. Chabon. What fun!

Just finished On Beauty by Zadie Smith -- I enjoyed parts of it but, despite all the hype, for me there was just too much going on and it didn't all hang together; a lot of it seemed to be there just because the author was having fun with it, not because it fit. It was fun to see what she related to Howards End but in some ways the homage seemed a little forced.

There's now a thread open for What You're Reading the Week of 23 Sep 2006 

This week's Reads:

Crystal and Steel; Shrouded; Assassin's Quest; Wolf Moon; Demon Lover; Quantum Rose; Nefertiti; The Field Guide; Hallowed Hunt; Morrigan's Cross; Eden's Shadow; Pillars of the Earth; Double-cross and the Crystals of Mida

Wow. I couldn't disagree more about Titan. Yes, it's dated and obviously "of it's time". But the characters are vivid and spot-on, the setting unique and dramatic. Yes, it reminds us of Ringworld, but then is so unlike Ringworld that we forgive the similarities.
The sex is what it is. It rings true with the characters.
I read this book in my late teens (thank you, SF book club) and devoured the rest of the trilogy (Wizard, Demon) as they came out. I purchased the lot again on re-release and was just as enamoured with them, if not more so.

I`m reading The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell. Very entertaining account of a young man`s life from early adolescence to early adulthood, as revealed in his lengthy letters to his idol, Morrissey.

Might be a bit too `English` , indeed possibly incomprehensible, to American readers, though I`d give it a try anyway if I was you.

Funnily enough, I own a book written by Morrisey, when he was plain old Steven Morrissey, The New York Dolls, published by Babylon Books of Manchester. I`m told it`s worth a bit now (though the only person I know of who tried to sell their copy found no takers), but I wouldn`t part with it anyway.

Anyway, back to Willy Russell`s book - Eurydice, if she reads this, will be happy to know the underlying sentence structure is excellent, though the style of writing is colloquial English.