What You're Reading the Week of 30 Sep 2006

In Cold Blood Truman Capote Moved on to Weight of Numbers by Simon Ings, I wasn't too sure at the beginning but getting in tune with his style I'm starting to enjoy a good novel, not quite a saga but tracing a group of people and their seemingly serendipitious interactions from the war to the present day. Haven't got to the main weight of numbers yet though.

Such good books!

I'm deep in the middle of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami as well as The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh. I also started Palm-of-the Hand-Stories by Yasunari Kawabata that a fellow BookCrosser sent to me today.

Such wonderful reading!

Perhaps some SPOILERS ahead...be careful:

In Kafka on the Shore, I really like the surreal quality of the parallel stories, though I'm not crazy about the relationship between Kafka and Ms. Saeki. It's too weird. I love the characters of Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker. Their entry into this story reminds me of the way in which Steve Pastis (the comic artist of "Pearls Before Swine") often incorporates characters from other comic strips into his own.

In The Hungry Tide, I really, really like the characters...especially Piya, Kanai, and Hashima. Piya is such an intelligent young traveller. I can really identify with her as she tries to navigate the world of her chosen work and deal with the people around her. Kanai is so funny to me as he has his eye on Piya, but she keeps him in his place. Hashima is so dear. I had an aunt that was just as dear to me. I love reading about how Hashima always sought to have Kanai return to the Sundarbans. It makes me sad that families are not always in close proximity.

I just started Kawabata's book and love his beautiful prose. This book of numerous very short stories will indeed be a treat to read.

Picked up Special Topics in Calamity Physics from the library - can't wait to get it started this weekend. I'm listening to The Zahir by Paulo Coelho and Before Midnight by Rex Stout. I'll have to come back to One Thousand White Women.

Just finishing The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and I think I'm going to read Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl next.

As I've said several times (I think), I'm a big fan of Special Topics in Calamity Physics and have recommended it to nearly everyone.

A few days ago I was nearly halfway through Edward P. Jones' new book of stories All Aunt Hagar's Children when Michael Cox'sThe Meaning of Night came in the mail, so today I just finished TMoN and have gone back and picked up where I left off in Jones's book. The Meaning of Night was pretty good I guess, though not nearly as good as I thought it might be. I found the whole middle section of the book pretty much a slog, and as I had correctly guessed the story's denouement from about the midway point, there wasn't very much suspense about the book's last half either. Even with all that though, it was still reasonably entertaining and I was never tempted to bail on it at any point.

Finished One Eye Closed which was a fun read, ah werewolf romances and the The Lies that Bind, now onto Destiny's Road

started Before I Go by Riley Weston this morning..she is coming to Monroe, LA for a booksigning and a mother/daugher bookclub and luncheon...wanted to know what it was about.

Still slowly listening to Angela's Ashes - I'm enjoying it more now that I'm further into it, although I doubt it's destined to become a favorite or anything.

Currently reading Neverwhere, which I'm really enjoying. I had felt like I was kind of late to the Neil Gaiman party... he's the most popular author on here that I'd never read (except for Good Omens), and now that I'm almost through Neverwhere, I don't know why no one ever sat me down and said "read this" before. I was planning on listening to Coraline last night on a long drive I had to do, but I decided that large amounts of Diet Coke and some off-key singing were a better idea. I'll get to it soon, though.

Tried to start Our Man in Havana, but was too sleepy and so will begin over again today. I usually enjoy Greene's work, so I look forward to this little "entertainment".

I listened to Coraline a few years ago...great audio book.

I'm poised to begin Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts. I loved Where the Heart Is, so I have high hopes for this one.

I just started A Thread of Grace, for the book club I have just joined. It's a slow start for me, but the pace is picking up. The story appears to concern the plight of Jews fleeing war-torn Europe seeking refuge among friendly Italian villagers.

I finished The Johnstown Flood this morning. I found it fascinating. McCullough's description of the water breaking through the dam and rushing down the mountain, sweeping through the towns in its path, was particularly gripping. Now I'm reading John Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. (Still listening to The Closed Circle and Dancing Shoes.)

I decided to put off reading Ann Quin's Tripticks a day or two so that I might jump right into my new copy of Helmut Krausser's wonderfully weird short novel The Great Bagarozy. It's compulsively readable; Krausser's narrative skill is formidable: he moves the story along at an almost breathless pace and yet never seems to leave out anything essential, creating remarkably vivid and rounded characters with a minimal amount of descriptive fuss. Wryly humorous (featuring as it does one of the strangest incarnations of the Devil in all of Western literature) and strangely compelling, this is a book I can hardly wait to get back to!

I have put aside Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. Even though I'd read around 700 pages, the way it is written was really grating on me, especially the use of modern language by the characters. I'll probably finish it at some point in the future. For an authentic look into the past I started and finished The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian, the sixth book in the Aubrey/Maturin series. I'm now reading Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers which is excellent so far.

This week I've started Persuasion and The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Figure it would be a nice change of pace from repentant skinheads (A Changed Man) and con-men Norse deities (American Gods).

Fyrefly I was also late to the Gaiman party, with American Gods being the first of his books I've read. Not sure which one to tackle next though.

I've not read The Johnstown Flood but another good book on the subject (though fictional) is In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden by Kathleen Cambor.

Currently reading:

Deathstalker by Simon R. Green (still!)
The Third Twin by Ken Follett

Recently finished:

Constantine by John Shirley

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Gardenias For Breakfast by Robin Jones Gunn

Hi! I'm new to LibraryThing! I'm reading The Secret Life of Bees. And last week I finished The Mermaid Chair after seeing the movie on Lifetime. I usually stick to Victorian novels, but I'm trying to give some modern writers a chance! I'd be interested in what others think of Sue Monk Kidd's work. And I'd like some recommendations. I've recently read Memoirs of a Geisha and enjoyed that, too. I'm not into mysteries or crime novels. Thanks for any help my fellow ''LibraryThingers" can give!

krin5292--In Sunlight, In a Beautiful Garden is why I bought The Johnstown Flood in the first place. This was several years ago, and I remember liking the novel and wanting to learn more about the flood. Unfortunately, the novel didn't stick with me very well--I have some hazy memories, but that's about it.

Last week I said I had started The constant Gardener by John Le Carre but I ended up putting it down after a few pages (nothing to do with the book by the way) and picking up another book (can't remember what??) and finishing that within a couple of days. Now I've started Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy which is slow going because it starts off with different unrelated stories that alternate and you begin to notice peripheral characters that appear in two or more. So I ended up going back and reskimming certain chapters for detail that I'd missed. I was shopping on Thursday and a copy of A Woman in Berlin literally jumped into my cart (however else could it have gotten there since my to be read list is so long I don't need to buy more books). I can't wait to finish Gone to Soldiers to start in on this one.

I've finished Making War Forging Revolution (see my review) and I'm now going to to hit Zakour & Ganem's The Doomsday Brunette.

CoriMarsh - I have no basis for comparison for the rest of Gaiman's work, of course, but I finished Neverwhere and really liked it.

library_gal - A few thoughts/recommendations based on your likes: Actually, all of the books recommended under "people who own this book also own..." on the page for The Secret Life of Bees seem like good choices. I particularly liked The Red Tent, The Time-Traveler's Wife, and anything by Barbara Kingsolver (my favorite!). On the less well-known front, A Cure for Death by Lightning seems like it might be up your alley as well.

loved Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts...enjoy.

Thank you, fyrefly! I work in the local library in my area and I'm pretty sure we have most if not all of the books you mentioned. Also, I like your username! My daughter loves firefly's and sometimes uses "firefly" as part of her user name.

Just finished Pride and Prejudice on audio ~ it was wonderful, and now plan to read it in book form; picked up When We Were Orphans and Anansi Boys on audio and am trying to decide which to start next. In paper book form, just finished SPQR X: A Point of Law and am in the middle of Germanicus. Also in the middle of Helen of Troy but taking a bit of a break from it.

I read 10 books in Sept, another stellar reading month, and here's what the list looked like at the end:

Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler is the first of Fowler's celebrated Bryant & May series, which turned out to be wonderfully atmospheric and quite entertaining as well, if really never close to being believeable.

James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips was just an astounding biography of Alice Sheldon who wrote very esteemed science fiction during the 1960s, while masquerading for nearly a decade as the fictional James Tiptree, Jr., and this is truly a jaw-dropping piece of work that I must heartily recommend to everyone, an amazing story.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold just didn't work for me on any level, didn't like it, and really couldn't believe I actually finished it. Next.

After The Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away by Joyce Carol Oates is another Oates' YA novel that was just as charming as it was hard-core, a terrific little book.

Ask the Dust by John Fante just blew me away. This was Charles Bukowski's favorite novel, for which he even wrote the Introduction, great pre-beat stuff.

(Contd.)

Brief Encounters with Che Guevara by Ben Fountain was probably my favorite story collection I've read this year, each one better than the one before, every one of them fascinating.

Memorial by Bruce Wagner is merely another masterpiece from the King of Hollywood Nasty and one of the 2 or 3 best novels I've read this year.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks was enthralling from Page 1 and I could hardly put it down, a highly recommended zombie-fest, even if you don't like zombies.

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox was definitely a page-turner, but unfortunately I figured it all out about halfway through, and as a result the last half was sort of a slog. It's too long by at least a third too, but very well written, if a bit predictably plotted.

All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones is the Pulitzer-winner's new collection, and I've gotta admit that the first couple of stories pretty much left me cold, but something happened after that point, every story clicked, and I just hated when I turned the last page of this absolutely wonderful book. I think I love Ed Jones.

Destiny's Road finished, now onto stormy weather which I'm finding and bit meh. If it doesn't improve I'm not going onto Lucky You which is bound with it. Ah well, I got it via Bookcrossing and I'm sure it will find someone happier with it than me, eventually.

Not liking Stormy Weather? I thought it was hilarious. Skink is one of the most unique characters ever created and I love him. Eventually, Hiassen does tie up all the storylines, you just have to stick with it and kind of go with the flow - his style is not the easiest since it's kind of like he has Tourettes. Lucky You is a bit more straight forward and pokes fun at a lot of things that people got upset about because they are sacred cows. If you're a Warren Zevon fan, you'll have fun panning for little referential tidbits.

warbrideslass, I loved Gone to Soldiers although it's probably close to 20 years since I read it. I was a big Marge Piercy fan then and read almost everything she wrote, and this was one of my favorites. I always found her work uneven, with some books great and some just so-so. Her books are on one of my top shelves and I haven't entered them into LT yet, but maybe I'll have to go back and reread some.

Finished The March by Doctorow, and loved it.

Started Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, which a friend had recommended and given to me, but couldn't get past the first 25 pages; it just seemed too preachy and didactic. Now, I loved The Poisonwood Bible, which certainly also was preachy and didactic, but the characters and plot were so compelling I didn't really mind.

So now I'm looking through my many unread books and trying to decide which suits my mood. Maybe I'll go back to nonfiction for a while.

This is my first post on LibraryThing. Just have to say how much I like the look and feel of the site.

I am currently midway through rereading Things Can Only Get Better by John O'Farrell. His anecdotes from the campaign trail are all the more funny for being accurate. I am no longer a member of the British Labour Party (New Labour as they call it) but still goout canvassing at local election time.

Once I have finished TCOGB I plan to start on Madness, A Brief History by Roy Porter.

After that, who knows?

Halfway through Mark Radcliffe's Northern Sky. I've enjoyed his radio shows since he was on BBC Radio 1 at night, he's now on BBC Radio 2 at 10.30 Mon-Thurs.
The book's ok though, it's a bit wierd reading a book by someone you kind-of know as I think that's getting in the way of the story.

Read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield last night (in one sitting) ... I thought it quite worth the fuss.

Bookmarque, I think it's possibly because it's a very american novel and being Irish some of the references are just hard work to link into the story for me. I haven't read or know anything about Warren Zevon so I don't think I'll get the references.

It's wierd, some of the references I get because I watch too much US TV but other things are just noise.

Skink is hilarious, and I did finish the book over the last while, I did like the outcome, but I'm not sure that the book is really my kind of book. Ah well, each to his own.

Finished Neverwhere yesterday, started The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier last night and finished it this morning. It was compelling enough that I didn't want to stop reading, but at the same time, I was unimpressed. Some books stick with me for a long time after I read them; this one feels like it's going to fall out of my head in a day or two.

Going to pick up Prince of Dreams by Nancy McKenzie next. It's a telling of Tristan & Essylte, set as a sequel to her other Arthurian novels. Her first two novels were not even particularly good, and I know that it's trashy historical-fiction-pseudo-romance-novel escapism, and yet I can't help myself. :)

I picked up Rara Avis by Jacqueline Bograd Weld recently...got the book a long while back, and never got around to reading it. I'ts a wonderful, magical-realistic story of one day in the life of a useless aristocratic family. It's set in Venezuela, and the author's history of living in Venezuela shows in her evocations of heat, dust, food smells, as part of the POV character's child-senses going through the process of matruring.

I'm halfway through, and I'm bidding fair to finish later today.

I finished The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells. It was a solid novel, well written, a bit slow by modern standards. For those put off by them, I will warn there were one or two racist comments made by characters in the novel. I read this mainly because Howels was one of Mark Twain's best friends. Wanted to see how Twain's friend thought and wrote.

memories of my melancholy whores by gabriel garcia marquez

A Passion For Books, a book that will be on my all-time favourites list.

edit: sorry, but for some reason I can't get the touchstone to link to the correct book, it stays on Loading.... when clicking "others".

Am I the only person alive who really hated The Memory Keeper's Daughter? I almost bought the book at Borders and then decided to save $ and pick it up at the library instead. I am so glad I did! I ended up not even finishing it.

I just finished On Beauty and really enjoyed it. I am a Zadie Smith fan. I also just finished Looking for Alaska, which is a YA novel that I loved. Haven't picked up my next read yet, but I'm sure it will be Tender Bar, which I just picked up from the library.

Argh! 350 pages in to The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, and I come to a note from the editor, which says, in part, "John did not finish King Arthur . . ." No indication on the cover, or anywhere until you get there. And the book goes on for another 100 pages (letters from Steinbeck to his agent and his editor about writing the book), so it's not like I had a clue that it was going to end. No Holy Grail, no Mordred, no betrayal by Lancelot and Guinevere . . . I'm going to drown my sorrows and then move on to Terms of Endearment.

tunarubber #45: No, you are NOT the only one alive and sentient who didn't fall for The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

cablegley #46: I feel your pain. Makes one want to go to the publisher's home, bang on the door, and demand satisfaction in the best eighteenth-century fashion, don't it?

I finished Rara Avis by Jacqueline Weld. Much pleasure to be had. In the end, though, I wasn't as thrilled as I was at the beginning. It's disturbing to me how often I find the ending of a book not up to the standards set by the beginning.

I am sounding retreat and picking up Nothing But Wodehouse for a while.

Am reading Tim Winton's Dirt Music (unfortunately the touchstone keeps bringing up something completely different!!!!).
I asked an Oz member of the board to recommend an Oz novelist other than Peter Carey and Patrick White. Well, he was spot on with this author/book. Spare and beautifully written but not overwritten like some well-regarded novelists. Thanks bibliobillabong!!

Yesterday I finally finished Madame Bovary and went straight into something lighter with The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.

Now I'm 70 pages into The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde and I'm having a hard time putting it down...

Well, I surprised myself and have finished both works already, so I am moving onto Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

I have the recent film on DVD - which I believe tells the tale of the writing of this book - but haven't watched it yet: I prefer to read in advance the book from which the film is derived, so that it better informs the experience of watching.

Nos. 8 & 16, Fyrefly & CoriMarsh, talk about late to the party...i've never read even one Gaiman book; i guess i need to pick up that invitation and join the party. Not right now, though, too much else: Yesterday we celebrated my b'day, PLUS there's a sale at the Church book shop, so there are plenty of new books in this house to read. Among them, cracked open and well off, Simon Winchester's Outposts, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, "The Cross of Jesus" (sorry, it doesn't touchstone properly), The Nation's Favourite Comic Poems, and The Bible with Pleasure. Along with the others already delved into, i'll be busy for a little while. Maybe i can find and squeeze in a little Gaiman ~ recommendations to start?

Cheers,
L

I just started reading Gaiman too... just read Coraline last weekend, and I really liked it (though it's a bit ridiculous that it claims to be the most frightening book ever). I'll probably read another of his books sometime, but it's not a top priority.

About 100 pages into The tunnel by William H. Gass ... if you have the patience for the "meta-fiction" experience, there's some very good writing in this ... and another thumbs up for John Fante!

Recently finished Sunshine by Robin McKinley.

Now reading Witch child by Celia Rees, a book for young adults set at the time of the Salem Witch Trials.

I finished the much-maligned On Beauty and found it very enjoyable. I liked Smith's use of language and her observations of the minutiae of life and human nature. The plot had two questions: Would Howard and his wife stay together? and Who would win out of Howard and Kipps? Both questions were answered to my satisfaction. I also found the characters and situations credible.
Now started Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee, one of my favourite writers. The narration is by an older man who has just had his leg amputated after an accident.

I am reading A Life, The Biography of Mark Twain by Ron Powers and The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman by JP Donleavy. A Life is a fantastic read, although quite wordy and lengthy. Darcy Dancer is classic Donleavy and also a wonderful read.

Kafka on the Shore is the book I was reading when my Mother unexpectedly died. I continued reading it on the flight between Seattle and London and finished it just before her Funeral. My experience of that book is woven in with my emotional memories. The nature of souls, spirit, life, and the body became vibrantly meaningful. The writing of Haruki Murakami lifted off of the page and into my mind and heart. This is one book that will never leave me.

Slight confusion there. The book I am reading now is Robert Fitzgeralds Translation of the Aeneid by Virgil. Book II is dynamite, the furor of the surprise attack onTroy and the absolute guile of the Greeks kept me enthralled throughout my commute. (Bus #194). I picked up a copy of Great Books by David Denby at the Seattle Public Library Sale in September and the authors enthusiasm on his return to Columbia Universities Freshman Literature curse is catching; Hence The Aeneid.

I gave up on The Zahir. A bunch of ridiculous people posturing about restoring the power of the energy of love to the world - apparently through epileptic seizures, extramarital affairs and interpretive dance. Bah.

Nemesis by Agatha Christie.

And, since he was mentioned above, horray for Robert Fitzgerald! His translation of The Odyssey is my favourite.

I have read all three books that you mentioned.
You might try Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts, Entering Normal by Anne Leclaire or Plainsong by Kent Haruf.
Some of the Oprah books that I thought were good are Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, Cane River by Lalita Tademy , and Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende.

One of my favorite books this year was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

Happy reading!

I am reading Beach Road by James Patterson. I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nightime. I really liked it.

Last week I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which was an excellent read and I recommend it to anyone. Last night I started one that I've wanted to read for some time but have been putting off: East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It's one that is long but, after just 20 pages, you are hooked and just know it's going to be good

Also read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time a few weeks ago. Excellent!

I just started Aztec Thought and Culture after having finished In The Shadow of Tlaloc which is about modern day life in rural Mexico. (Or at least what it was like in 1978)

I loved, loved, loved East of Eden. Enjoy!

I too thought The Curious Incident of the Dog in the the Nighttime was wonderful for greater reasons than the plot and characters, albeit excellent character development.

Just started On Beauty by Zadie Smith. So far I'm not at all impressed, but it's early days... For some reason I always feel compelled to read a book right to the last page, even if I hate it. So I'm really hoping this one grows on me!

Forgot to mention last week that I read the new collection by Margaret Atwood, Moral Disorder, a linked series of "semi-autobiographical" stories. I found some more compelling than others, but the best are certainly up to her usual high standard.

Have just finished Eyeless Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley, certainly an intellectual tour de force, but found myself skipping those bits, and hurrying on to the follow the story. He’s very good on relationships, especially men’s view of them. At times though, it seemed he was showing off a little, but perhaps I’m being disingenuous. There were pages and pages on esoteric philosophical principles, with Latin and French quotes in abundance, which I skipped, but would have probably read in a philosophy book. When reading a novel, I suppose I want to be relaxed, not educated. On a more functional note, the movement of chapters backwards and forwards in time, confused me, and didn’t seem to serve any purpose. I did finish it though, and am glad that I did, there are some very moving passages.

I’ve now just started The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind, and am hoping to dip into Herodotus every now and then too. I’ve heard so many quotes, and reports from The Histories, but have always had problems with the classics in the past

At the moment I'm reading "Spiggot's Quest" by Garry Kilworth. Its a light-hearted tale about a mortal named jack who finds himself in one of the many worlds of faerie.

So far I've enjoyed it.

Papskier: East of Eden is my all-time favorite book and I've read it many times. I hope you enjoy it!

Having finished The Doomsday Brunette (see my review), it's time for some crunchy military history in the form of Tanks on the Beaches. I have to admit that the title now sounds like a sequel to Snakes on a Plane.

I have Just Fineshed A Book "Marlfox" By "Brian Jauques" It is really Interesting This Author is so intense with his books that when somthing sad happins it almost makes you want to weep with his details!

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Tunarubber -- too bad you didn't finish A Memory Keeper's Daughter -- it had a beautiful ending. I loved the book in a very emotional way. I thought the juxtaposition of memories and photographs was particularly intriguing and the expose of the dangers and the long-term ramifications of secrets. But to each his/her own.

Fairly new to LibraryThing and I'm being reminded of so many books I want to get to from this list...don't know how on earth I'll choose the next one. I just finished Tracks by Louise Erdrich which wasn't really my thing... certainly well written but just not my cup of tea. I'm enjoying Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood a great deal more, and my husband and I are reading The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton together - great book, witty and multi-layered.

Finished Lucky You, actually enjoyed it more than Stormy Weather; not an author I'd hunt out but not someone I'd reject either.

since then have read CSI killing game; Sweet Fortune; Lucinda's Secret(this series continues to be quite engaging); Silent Stones; Hush Money (which I really enjoyed!); Charmed and Spellbound

Currently reading Substitute Sister

I really should update more often...

I'm poised to begin Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman.

I finally finished Deathstalker by Simon R. Green and The Third Twin by Ken Follett.

My current reads are:

The Night Crew by John Sandford
Velocity by Dean Koontz

I finished Prince of Dreams yesterday... less angsty wailing about honor and betrayal than I was expecting, which was nice. Good, enjoyable, trashy historical fiction.

I hope to pick up To Say Nothing of the Dog tonight, but I might not have time, in which case... tomorrow!

Just finished Hadji Murad (actually Hadji Murat in my edition/translation, but this is the title the LT work page has) by Tolstoy -- published after his death and before he completed editing it according to the introduction. Not up to his masterpieces, but interesting historically in that it shows the Chechens and the Russians were fighting back in the 1840s (and probably earlier). Plus ça change . . .

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie.

I read about two-thirds of The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer, and I'm sad to say I had to put it down. From what I had read about the story I thought it sounded great, but it really dragged and just wasn't very interesting. And then I read the reviews...

Now I have just picked up The Eyre Affair. I know I might be all alone, but I've never read these books. I've had all of them on my shelf for quite a while. I started The Eyre Affair about a year ago and just couldn't get into it. But this time I'm enjoying it more and am anxious to "join the fan club"!

I'd never read Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, and started it today. Am halfway through. His poetry is not as awful as portrayed by those reacting against Victorian sentiment. His technical skill was quite strong.

Longfellow researched native american myth, using Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's book "Algic Researches" as a key resource. Schoolcraft lived for a number of years among the Algonquin, learning their legends and customs. Schoolcraft was also married to a woman of Chippewa descent. Knowing there is some basis in fact to the legends recounted makes it seem a bit more substantive a read.

Will finish Hiawatha tomorrow and have another "classic" off my "to-do" list.

Well. I read to the end of the Song of Hiawatha. Longfellow ends with the arrival of europeans who inform the native americans that Jews are the accursed of God. Hiawatha departs, informing his people before he goes not to harm these white people because they bring truth with them. Hiawatha sees his people will greatly decrease in number, but doesn't seem too concerned. Longfellow seems to attribute native american people's destruction more to infighting than to the fact that whites lied to them repeatedly and would not even tolerate tribes which embraced their culture. I am nauseated.

Just getting to the end of the wrong boy by willy russell. So far it`s ben laugh-out-loud funny but also poignant. i sense a change of mood in the offing though.

I`m reluctant to praise anything by a man who has written musicals, but i could forgive him much on the grounds of this book.

My bus reading right now is American Gods which I'm finally getting around to reading. It's early on still but I'm enjoying it so far.

The other thing I'm reading is Girl Sleuth about the women who wrote/edited/published the Nancy Drew books. It's fascinating to see their stories and how the Nancy books evolved with their lives. I highly recommend it to anyone who loved Nancy Drew.

Also waiting in the wings is the new Margaret Atwood that I'm looking forward to reading.

I am currently reading In America by Susan Sontag but not really enjoying it.

Seeing as I took off today sick I easily finished up Tanks on the Beaches (see my review), and will now probably move to Wolf Who Rules.

Myths of the Norsemen by Roger Lancelyn Green

I finished Terms of Endearment yesterday morning, which was very good, especially the characterizations. I looked up my McMurtry books on LT and was surprised to see how few copies were owned by others, so I just wanted to say I highly recommend getting to know him if you don't already!

I wanted something quick for the train yesterday, so I read Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception. It wasn't quite up to the previous books in the series.

I'll be starting Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men today.

I finally finished Many Skies, a non-fiction work about the alternate configurations of our own solar system. It's fascinating, but it's taken almost a month to read because it's densely packed with astronomical information. I'm not an astronomer, nor an astronomer wanna-be, but I was impelled to finish this one up.

Nothing But Wodehouse provided light moments and laughs, as Plum was so apt to do in his books.

I picked up Luther Blisset's novel Q, which doesn't touchstone...for good reason, IMHO...and slogged through 60pp before sighing, closing the book, and dropping it into the "book sale donations here" box at my library. A bestseller across Europe? How bored are these Europeans, anyway? I've tried three times to find something to catch me in the story of the Reformation told from varying POVs. I don't know how they did it, but the collective authors of this book made the Reformation boring!

OK I finished Margaret Atwood's Bodily Harm, and have started (finally) Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - one of those books that I feel like everyone read and loved but I never got around to it - so far I'm really enjoying it, it reminds me of Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

finished substitute sister a bit ho-hum but not the worse I've read.

finished spellkey and now onto conqueror's moon which isn't bad but isn't impressing me all that much so far.

I grabbed A Troubadour's Testament for my bus read today. It's a novel, and I wasn't convinced it wasn't a roman a clef for the first 50pp. The fact that I'm 100pp into it and I grabbed it as a bus read this morning should tell y'all how much fun this read is.

Don't know how it ends. I'm holding back from finishing it because the Gubernatorial debates here in Texas are coming on, and I feel obliged to look at them.

I'm about halfway through Memory Keeper's Daughter and while I like the idea and the basic plot of the story, the actual writing style is clumsy to the point of distraction. Pretty phrases that mean nothing, overuse of adjectives (especially the words "pale" and "soft") and passages that spoon feed the metaphors and symbols as if Edwards didn't trust the readers to get them on their own.

And to those who are discovering Jasper Fforde this week, welcome. :) I myself have to thank Nancy Pearl for finding Fforde: she wrote a small blurb about Thursday in one of her Book Lust books and it was enough to get me hooked.

There's now a thread open for What You're Reading the Week of 7 Oct 2006

Just finished Willy Russell - The wrong Boy. By the last few pages i was fighting to keep my eyes open (no reflection on the author, just a busy and tiring week). Forced myself to finish the thing, which probably wasn`t the best way to appreciate it. A good book though, I rate it highly.

Have started a selected writings - The Wisdom of W E B Du Bois , edited by Aberjhani. I`m not 100% sure the editor was the man for the job, but the actual quotes, when chosen well, are actually quite uplifting - a rare thing in these troubled times !

Oh, yes, Sunshine! I picked this up by chance in a used book store. Robin McKinley is one of my favourite authors; the kind you by on sight. I was expecting Sunshine to be another young adult fairy tale; very surprised to find vampires instead! But a wonderful, terrific book; combines humour, horror, and baking, of all things. I can't wait for a sequel.