What You're Reading the Week of 26 January 2008

Philip José Farmer The Fabulous Riverboat I finished off Made to Stick then dipped into Sex, Leadership and Rock'n'Roll by Peter Cook but it was too bitty for late night reading so I moved on to Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, the second of the Bush at War trilogy but I've read them out of order. Excellent writing makes the topic fascinating.

Finished The Joy of Keeping Score today and am almost done with Playing for Keeps. I haven't a clue what to start next but it will most certainly be nonfiction. I can't seem to stay away from it for any length of time

Just joined LT, and this group. Looking forward greatly to both. I am almost halfway through The Birth of the United States by Jim Bishop. It's a pretty fast read that goes over some ground I'm pretty familiar with (I've been reading a lot about the American Revolution lately), but overall I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Cheers all!

I am new to LT also............a bit obsessed with entering my past reads.........I am currently reading Suite Francaise................so far it is seems well written and engaging........

Wow, a twofer -- welcome to you both, rocketjk and hemlokgang! Obsessed? Oh no one else here is obsessed. heh heh heh. Enjoy!!!

I'm midway through Helen Dewitt's wildly original The Last Samurai, and if you weren't aware, it has nothing to do with the awful Tom Cruise movie of the same name, but it's probably too smart for it's own good, loving it anyway, and it's reminding me of Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations too.

I'm still only about halfway through Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair.

I'm on Chapter 10 of The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry. Hope to be finished by this weekend.

>3 rocketjk: >4 hemlokgang: welcome! I hope you will enjoy LT as much as I have.

I'm still reading My Place by Sally Morgan (the upstairs book), but I've just started an arc of Margot Livesey's forthcoming novel The House on Fortune Street (the downstairs book). I've enjoyed Ms. Livesey's other novels and always look forward to a new one!

Still reading Anna Karenina. I'm making progress! and should get some good reading time in this weekend.

Also reading Storycatcher by Christina Baldwin. Brilliant. How important our stories are!

Just finished both The Perks of Being A Wallflower and Thirteen Reasons Why earlier this week. Would recommend both of them! Not sure what is up next. I need to finish Quarantine, our latest book club pick, but halfway in and I don't really have a deep desire to finish. Next month's book club pick is Julie and Julia which I've already read twice and really enjoy!

I'm just about ready to start The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan. I really enjoyed the first volume in this series, so I'm looking forward to this one.

I'm reading The Leopard and listening to Astrid and Veronika. I may finish the former this weekend, but the latter is likely to last me to mid-week because I'm only listening on my commute (TGIF!)

I'm enjoying both books though!

Hey teelgee,
It's your Cedar-Pal g. Getting to know this thing...

Finished The Birth of Venus today (not perfect but pretty good) and started The Looking Glass Wars (so far good but hasn't really grabbed me yet). I'm a little worried... I expected The Birth of Venus to take me a little longer, so now I'm on a trip with no back-up book to read once I get through The Looking Glass Wars. I'll definitely have to pick something up at the airport before my flight out. Hooray! An excuse to buy a new book!

I'm also still plodding through listening to The Last Town on Earth. It's dancing right on the edge of not being bad enough to quit, but not being good enough to make me excited about listening.

>14 greenchair: greenchair -- how'dja know it was me? Let me know if you need help driving. ;o)

Still reading Augustus by Anthony Everitt and still enjoying it, though I have to say it hasn't provided much new insight into Octavian/Augustus yet. I've still got hopes for the second half of the book.

I am currently reading The Color Purple it is a bit confusing but really good

I'm still reading Icefields by Thomas Wharton, but I did take a short break to read through Knit Socks Whatever the Yarn! by Edie Eckman.

Reading The Crying of Lot 49. Even though it is called his most accessible book, I still find it requires a bit of a diffrent approach. Intriguing though

Asterix and Cleopatra by René Goscinny – still plugging away on the Turkish translation. There's great satisfaction in laughing out loud at something in Turkish, although I admit the pictures help.

Lazarillo De Tormes – made it past the 25-page introduction, and am now all ready to start on the actual book.

Contact by Carl Sagan – reading it for the Happy Heathens group. Just started it.

Moby Dick – ETC (Estimated Time of Completion) has been moved up to mid-February. Under a hundred pages to go!

Further scintillating details can be found on my profile.

Finished The Liberator by Rob Lacey which I loved. Discovered LT by chance in November and being hooked ever since - addictive or what! Added Longitude as approaching the end and now really enjoying that. Even understandable for someone who has no interest in science!

It's been a while since I've posted. Since the start of the new year I've read The Killing of Worlds (ok space opera, though I had to skim a little over the technical physics details), The Book of Lost Things (again, just ok, although I know many people on LT like it) and The Story of Forgetting, an Early Reviewer book that I liked quite a bit.

I'm now reading Beauty by Sheri S Tepper which has a bit of fantasy, a bit of SF, and can be quite dark and bleak. So far I'm really enjoying it.

I am still reading Have You Found Her which I am really enjoying. It is taking me a bit of time to read but not because of anything to do with the book - just life in general. I hope to finish it this weekend and then read a book on my 888 Challenge list but I am not sure what yet. Perhaps a classic or a non-fiction selection or even an Agatha Christie. So many choices! I guess it will depend on my mood when I finish this one.

I'm still working on The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. This week work is really getting in the way of reading time. I'm enjoying the book, though. Weisman covers a lot of ground (figuratively and literally) in a very readable fashion.

I just started The Constant Princess and up next is Pride and Prejudice, can't wait!

A couple of days ago I started 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List by Patricia Schultz. Boy, there sure are a lot of places to see in England before I die!

Rarcar1, I just finished Pride and Prejudice and will be interested to find out what you think of it. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of my favorites.

I'm reading King's 'Salem's Lot. It's been on my shelf for about a year now, a Christmas gift. After reading all of the Dark Tower series, then Insomnia, then The Stand, I couldn't bring myself to jump into another Stephen King book. I'm ready for another one now.

#28 system13: Oooh, 'Salem's Lot is one of my favorite Stephen King books - I'd love to know what you think when you're finished.

I finished up Cross Creek by Marjorie Rawlings on Friday, and today I am starting a new book called Two Brothers - One North One South by David H. Jones - a Civil War book "narrated" by Walt Whitman.

I decided to postpone Middlesex (just wasn't in the mood right now) and just finished a light mindless read, Charming the Highlander and am now starting The Mauritius Command. Ah, so nice to read another Aubrey/Maturin tale!

Just finished Song of Susannah by Stephen King and 3 PARA by Patrick Bishop . Starting on Monday, I'm heading for Outside the Wire and the final Dark Tower book.

Listening to an audio book of Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne and reading 500 Ways to Change The World by the Global Ideas bank and also Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth.

Just finished Hotel World by Ali Smith and the audiobook of The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan. I'm ready for something different but am not yet sure what I will choose.

I'm closing in on the end of The Secret River by Kate Grenville -- it has been knocking around on my TBR pile for far too long - A great read!

#29 scaifea: I'll let you know what I think of 'Salem's Lot. I'm only about 70 pages into it so far, but what I've seen, I've liked.

#32 DeusEx0352: What did you think of Song of Susannah? I loved most of the Dark Tower series, but absolutely loathed Song of Susannah; I trudged through it only because it was the stepping stone to the final book.

The whole ordeal with Mia and her "chap" was just awful (I thought).

#23 sandragon: Beauty was my first Tepper novel, and I thought it so brilliant that I've read almost every other Tepper novel I could get my hands on. You're quite right about its being dark and bleak, but it has stayed with me for over 20 years! Have you read Gate to Women's Country or Grass, two other favorite Teppers?

ETA:

P.S. I wasn't knocked out by Book of Lost Things either.

>35 jhowell:: jhowell, great to hear about Secret River, it's next up on my TBR!

mrstreme, I have a signed 1st edition of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Cross Creek, a book I loved from the first page.

One of the main story lines in Zachary Lazar's Sway concerns Kenneth Anger, an underground filmmaker who persuades Mick Jagger to appear in one of his movies. All the action in the novel ends in 1969, but later, in the real-life of 1975, Kenneth Anger published Hollywood Babylon, a luridly enthralling look at the scandal and debauchery of old Hollywood, and which I owned for many years, but later lost. Nevertheless, I'd been raving to my wife about Sway, and Ken Anger's book in particular, and so she surprised me last night with a stunning 1st edition of Hollywood Babylon in pristine condition, and I'm just thrilled to have it again, am reading it now, along with Helen DeWitt's marvelous The Last Samurai.

Just started reading The Ruins by Scott Smith.

#39, LouisBranning - how lucky for you to have a signed edition! It was a beautifully written book. I live about two hours south of her homestead, and I plan on visiting it before summertime.

About 70 pages into Ivan Doig's latest one, The Whistling Season and finding it true to life with a chuckle on nearly every page.

Oh wow, Smiley, I read Doig's The Whistling Season last year and loved it, and have read a couple of his things since then, all exceptional. And I really liked The Ruins too.

Finished The little sister last night (I am really enjoying Raymond Chandler, who is relatively new to me) and today I started (drum roll) War and peace. I got the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation for Christmas, and since a group read is getting started I figured this would be a good time to dive into it.

And after LouisBranning's raves last week (two weeks ago?), Sway should be arriving in a couple days from Amazon. I'm looking forward to that one.

#38 - finished The Secret River; I bet you'll really like it lindsacl; there is nothing not to like, although it is harrowing and sad in parts.

I just now started Wings of a the Dove by Henry James. My, my -- I think I am going to be reading this one for a looong time. If I can hack it . . .

Reading Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith and listening to When We Were Orphans (unabridged) by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Just finished In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami, and I was quite disappointed. I don't know what I expected, but what I got was an unbelievable and inhuman villain and a plot with many threads that came from and ended up nowhere. Murakami practically batters readers with foreboding the second the villain appears, shattering any potential for suspense. I'm unsure if the translation from the original Japanese had anything to do with the book's many problems.

So, I'm shaking that off and heading in a totally different direction. I'm starting The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs tonight.

I finished Doris Lessing's "The Summer before the dark". I was inspired to read a book by Ms. Lessing since she received the Nobel Prize in Literature. I wasn't that impressed by this book, I hope her other books are much better.
I am currently reading "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien.

I finished Middlesex and slowly found myself getting sucked into this book. I really enjoyed this story and loved the way it was written.

I am now half way though The pursuit of happyness and am enjoying it much more than I thought I would.

#37 - Storeetllr: I was only introduced to Tepper last year and so far have only read The Visitor and The Companions. Each one has been very different, though she definitely has something to say in each about environmental and social issues. I've heard good things about The Gate to Women's Country and Grass. Actually I'm pretty excited to find out about a new author I'm enjoying this much, I've got lots to look forward to! (Hmm, about 30 more books according to Wikipedia :o))

Oooh, sandragon, you are in for a treat! I wish I were new to Tepper so I could read them for the first time all over again! :) I do find her writing a bit uneven sometimes, but overall I enjoy all of her novels and love some of them (esp. Beauty, Grass, and Gate to Women's Country). I envy you (in a good way) the joy of finding a new good author. Enjoy!

This week I'm reading Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde and listening to Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler.

#35, 48, johowell, and #38, lindsacl, The Secret River was one of my favorite books of 2007.

I finished The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan, a hard-to-put-down book, very compelling, that in the end isn't completely satisfying, but that I would still recommend.

And I also read Our American King by David Lozell Martin, thanks to recommendations here -- a satirical look at the US after "the calamity," with humor, some grimness, and some good jabs at popular culture and human nature.

#40 Oklahomabooklady! Where have you been? Or have I not been paying attention?

I'm also reading The Wings of the Dove, and being stubborn is a good thing when it comes to this book, as it's all that's keeping me from giving up. I'm not saying that it's not a good book, maybe it's great and I still don't know it (I've only made it past the preface and I'm at the beginning of the first chapter), but having to spend at least an hour on less than ten pages is certainly frustrating. How is it working for you?

#55 what a coincidence re Wings of the Dove -- someone to share my potential pain with over the next several weeks! I will say that I basically could not read the preface -- the sentences were so convoulted and vague, they basically were nonsensical to me --- so skipped that and then got thru the first and second book last night. I am thinking that I will get used to the writing style -- but constant vigilance is required. ;)

You're doing quite well, then. What you said about the preface is true, it's quite annoying, but I found a couple of things that are worth the pain and trouble... if you want to we could talk about it, just leave a comment or something, in the meantime I'll try to read some more. Good luck!

I am really enjoying Night and the City by Gerald Kersh - the seedy, sinister side of Soho in the 1930s.

Just finished an arc of Augusten Burrough's A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father. I recommend that those who have read his previous work pick up this new book when it is out on April 29 - to see yet another part of his life. I still need to read Dry and Running with Scissors, but want to let this one linger for a while. (I have read his essays).

This book is different from what I have read from him before - not so funny, but very poignant.

So now I head downstairs to figure out what to read next. Might need to wait a few hours begin something else.

I'll dabble in The Book of Virtues and dive into Flashman and the Angel of the Lord...

I finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas which was brilliant and haunting. Here is my review!

Now I am reading Memoirs of a Geisha. I'm on chapter two and enjoying it so far...

Just finished The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde this weekend. It seems he was really popular reading two weeks ago (judging by last week's posts). I enjoyed the first book in his Nursery Crimes series. I loved seeing familiar characters show up in new and unexpected places, like Mary Mary, Jack Spratt and the Gingerbread man and in this novel the deceased Humperdink Jehoshaphat Aloysius Stuyvesant van Dumpty (AKA Humpty Dumpty)

#60 The Flashman and the Angel of the Lord series looks really good! Oboy, a new series to get into! (Like I need more books on my TBR list ~ lol!) Have you read any of the earlier Flashman novels?

#42 and #42, glad to hear you like Ivan Doig because I picked up The Whistling Season on sale last week. New author to me.

I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love and A Pound of Paper currently. Will need to pick up a new "carry" book Monday for the train.

I am a Flashman virgin, introduced through LT, of course... I'll let you know how our relationship progresses...

Ok, look around my downstairs shelves - I have decided to start Old School since I am a big fan of the academic novel. Read the first page and I am hooked.

It was either this or a David Lodge novel. Have yet to read him too.

By the way, when I was trying to make my decision, my daughter, who is 6, picked Girls in Trucks since it had pretty girl on the cover, not a bunch of boys.

Maybe I read that one next...

Just finished The Pearl. Sad.

Started and read the introduction and the first 3 chapters of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for my book club.

I think I'll start Persuasion as well. I need something where good people end up happy and in love.

Today I read ANGEL by Colleen McCullogh.

A co-worker offered to me to read, and so I took it. I was trying to be nice, but a glance at the cover suggested that I would not like it. Well, its true what they say..I adored this book. Filled with quirky characters, love stories, magic and more.
I devoured every word, every page and fell madly in love with each and every character.

Looking for it on Amazon, I found used copies in the UK. on Barnes and Noble.. the author and title are given a totally off kilter Christmas book description that baffles me, as my co-worker bought it from a B&N bargain table.

In any case, I will find a copy of my own, because I want to read it again. and again. and again.. and.......

damn

My "u" sticks

ANGEL by Colleen McCullough

Why are the brackets not working and why is it linking to the wrong book? Have I stumped LT?

http://www.librarything.com/work/1119288

is the book

mckait, Touchstones have a mind of their own. Good workaround!

Just starting Stone Cold by David Baldacci. Finished Mew is for Murder by Clea Simon

There are some books that don't age well. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of those for me. It didn't hold my interest as well as it did when I was a child. My review for it would be, "Eh."

Little Women; however, is amazingly different. It is not only as good, it is even better many decades after I first read it. I am *so* enjoying it. I love the lyrical tone and the richness of all the little stories.

I just finished The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty (which I started in November) and A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin.

Up next:

The Pulitzer Diaries by John Hohenberg (no copies on LT)
A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

#68 mckait - your reaction to Angel sounds just like my reaction to The Thorn Birds!

I'm about halfway through The Icebound Land by John Flanagan. I wish these books had been around when I was younger; I'd have absolutely loved them then! I'm still getting a huge kick out of them now. It's always nice to find really good children's lit.

I stayed up half the night reading Water for Elephants and am planning to start Wonderful Tonight on my lunch break tomorrow.

#74, Shortride, The Golden Apples is one of my all time favorite collections. It almost reads like a novel.

Last year I picked up a copy of Tennessee Williams' Collected Stories. With the exception of "Twenty-seven Wagons Full of Cotton," reading the stories in the first part of the book from his apprenticeship period were exhausting as they were wanting for one reason or another, and eventually I placed it aside. Yesterday for no reason I picked it up again and started reading stories that were written in the 40s and 50s, such stories as "The Field of Blue Children," "Three Players of a Summer Game," "Portrait of a Girl in Glass," and "The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin." I don't know if it was the mood I was in but some of these stories just floored me. If the rest of these stories hold up, and I have no doubt that they will, this collection will be deserving of a place on my shelves right next to O'Connor and Welty's Collected Stories.

Still slogging through Spot of Bother, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds, and Being Logical. I ought to just finish them, but I get easily distracted. I read Writing with Intent in one sitting, though (go figured).

#64:

I have read a number of Doig books. While I can't wholeheartedly reccomend them all, I think Dancing at the Rascal Fair is his best novel. It is the first in an arc of novels that includes English Creek. The nonfiction House of Sky is wonderfully evocative of a way of life that I grew up with that is now passing, not all to be mourned. I think The Whistling Season, so far, is his best novel since Rascal Fair. Hope you enjoy them he is a find.

Finished Amber Spyglass and then started Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann - it's on on Gauss and Alexander von Humbolt. No citations, no sources, it's just their story written down and I guess we just take Kehlmann as his word. It's kind of mindless to read, pleasantly so.

Currently reading The Short Forever by Stuart Woods

I just finished Jane Yolen's White Jenna last night.

Currently at page 105 in Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis. Such a fun book to read!

I finished Icefields by Thomas Wharton and I've started Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton. Really enjoyed the former but not terribly impressed by the latter.

I finished The Looking Glass Wars last night; today I plan to start The Sweet Far Thing, the third of the Great and Terrible Beauty series by Libba Bray. Need to get through that one as soon as possible so I can get it back to the library for the ten bazillion other people that have holds on it.

Currently reading City of Saints and Madmen, Viriconium and Vellum.

Still reading The british abroad: the grand tour in the 18th century and started Artemis Fowl: the eternity code for a bit of fun. I'm always surprised by how clever and slick childrens fiction is.

Re-reading for the third time Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry just found out what horcruxes are); reading Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Eighty years and more. Reminiscences 1815-1897; just finished Katarina Mazetti Der Kerl vom Land and Mikael Niemi: Populärmusik aus Vittula

Yesterday I finished The Leopard and had time to read about the first chapter or so of The Secret River before bedtime ... looking forward to more this evening.

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting on here. I just finished reading the Anne Bishops Daughter of the Blood the first book in the Black Jewels Trilogy and I really enjoyed it.

I started Dorothy Dunnetts A Game of Kings yesterday and I'm on page 75. So far it's just so so for me but I'm told if I hang in about 100 pages I'll be hooked so thats what I'm doing. Thank goodness I had the foresight to pick up the The Dorothy Dunnet Companion when I spotted it at a used bookstore or I'd probably be struggling with the book alot more.

Danielle

Sorry about the touchstones they don't seem to want to work today :(

Still reading The History of God (non-fiction always takes me a little longer) but also enjoying Patrick Hamilton's Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky. For some reason I thought this might be hard going but I'm completely caught up in it and it's racing along.

My Favorite Horror Story and A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen

I've been on an Scheherazade kick--I read Arabian Nights (rather offensive in parts, but good to read the stories that have become such building blocks), followed by Naguib Mahfouz's Arabian Nights and Days, and am now reading The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor by John Barth.

Started Out of Time which is the second book of Caroline B. Cooney's teen time traveling romance series. I also have Wolf's Rain Volume 2 manga with me to start at some point today.

Hey Danielle #90 -- welcome to the group! No need to apologize about the touchstones not working, we're all used to it! Have fun here!

I'm about a hundred pages into Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith. It's very enjoyable, but I think I got more out of the first one. The shiny newness has kind of worn off now, I guess.

I am now reading White teeth and am enjoying it so far.

Just started Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke the other night. I'm about 5 chapters into it and it's pretty good so far. The one thing I like is the print is a bit smaller, so when I'm tired it's harder to read. LOL

I'm about halfway through 'Salem's Lot now, and am really enjoying it. It doesn't seem to be deviating much from your standard vampire book, but it's fun nonetheless. After I'm done with 'Salem's Lot, I'm starting Reaper Man, which should be at the library by then.

I started reading Shoemaker and the tea party today, for a class I'm in (it's on, imagine this, the American Revolution :). Interesting so far, but I've only read about 15 pages so far, so my judgment is tenuous at best right now.

#96, I read that book over Christmas and really enjoyed. It is a quick, easy read. It is the first book I have read of his.

I just finished reading playing for pizza by John Grisham it is a fast easy read as well. I have just started Three Cups of Tea

this week I started "Noticias del Imperio" (News from the empire) by Fernando del Paso, a mexican author. It's quite large so I think it's gonna take me some time because, also, the way it's written makes it hard to follow, but I've heard it's a great book

>99 briefmissives: I read Salem's Lot years ago when I was working in an old three story house converted into a business. It was winter, so it got dark quite early and I was often there by myself at the end of the day. I had to go in the basement and the upstairs before closing up each night. That book scared the bejeezus out of me!!!!

I just finished The Mauritius Command and am now about to begin Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter.

I just finished The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears, and Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. I have just started The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

#99/102 Ah, Salem's Lot! I still envy anyone I hear of who is reading the early Stephen King books for the first time. When you say (system13) that it doesn't deviate a lot from the standard vampire book, there's a reason for that, as SL was King's homage to Bram Stoker's Dracula. The beauty of SL, for anyone who has slogged through all the boring bits in Dracula, is that King does it so much better!

I finished Have You Found Her last night - I loved it and highly recommend it. I am currently reading two books at once (not something I usually do but one is fiction and one non-fiction so no possibility of confusing the two in my feeble little mind). I am reading Foxfire 2 and The Invisible Man. The Invisible Man is for my 888 Challenge. My book also includes The Island of Dr. Moreau which I will read as well.

Finished Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill. Initially I was put off by the scope of the novel, but not for long. I thought it was very well-written and I enjoyed it very much.

> #104

torontoc:

What did you think of Interpreter of Maladies? I loved it when it read it upon publication. Watch for her new book of short stories Unaccustomed Earth - don't know about publication in Canada, but in the US it is coming out this spring. I loved it.

You are now reading one of my other favorites in the last few years, The History of Love. Please let us know what you think of that too.

Reading for this week includes: Cultural Amnesia (which is taking me forever to get through, but is really excellent), Heart Like Water, and The Founders of the Western World. For fiction reading this week, I am reading Critical Space, Open Season, Literary Murder, Saturday, and The Master. I rotate my reading schedule depending on what is due at the library when, so I often come back to books every couple of weeks (the library does expect me to bring them back sometime and I currently have out 70!)

Finished off Suite Francaise and started Black & White by Dani Shapiro

Three fantastic books, torontoc!

Several years late, as usual, I've just started Middlesex.

I started a new audiobook for my commute, Michael Wood's The Story of India (definitely the wrong touchstone showing). In print, I started The Lifted Veil by George Eliot and North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

I'm just finishing off The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould. I've been reading it on the side for a couple of weeks now, so I decided to hunker down and just finish it off.

Just finished David Baldacci's newest thriller Stone Cold. I'll be starting Gardens of Water by Alan Drew for Early Reviewers later today.

Finished Duma Key in a couple of days. ABSOLUTELY GREAT.
Will start The French Lieutenant's Woman today at lunch which is imminent. Am still working through The Diamond Age as an audio book as well.

Cariola (#113)--I read North and South last year (after letting it languish unread on my shelf for over 20 years) and loved it! I hope you enjoy it as well.

Just started Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano and am loving it so far.

I finished On Chesil Beach today and thought it was fantastic. I'm also hoping to finish Foreigner and Kim this week - I seem to keep starting books and I'm actually enjoying all of them, just easily distracted it would seem!

It's about time to hold an intervention on myself.(I have to every few months because I juggle so much.) Particular attention to this week: Ada, or Ardor by Nabokov and Living History by Hillary Clinton. Against my better judgment I started She by H. Rider Haggard, an old adventure story.

trinah, how do like Glamorama? I personally think it's underrated.

I went into work today (I am a marketing director for a group of independent bookshops in Milwaukee) and on my desk were a bunch of new books / arcs.

So now I really don't know what to read this week.

I am thinking of starting, for fun, with Elizabeth Berg's The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted. She is a good friend of ours and I think these stories might warm me up on a cold Wisconsin night. (By the way it was 47 this morning, but wind chill is supposed to reach -35 tonight.

Other books in my pile: Memory by Philippe Grimbert which was unexpected.

Laughing without an Accent, which I also did not realize was being published. Can't wait to tell my sister! We both loved Firoozeh Dumas's Funny in Farsi.

And then finally, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, subtitled: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China.

Too many treasures!

>120 citygirl: Weird coincidences day. I'm also (still) reading Ada, am a little past halfway. Started it right at the new year.

I'm really having a hard time getting much fiction read since the first of the year, because I've been spending pretty much all day, except for the hour int he morning three times a week when I teach, reading for my comps. By the time I'm allowed to "quit" for the day, my eyes & brain have had too much for me to voluntarily pick up my fiction. As a result, I'm only really making progress on weekends. *sigh* I can't wait to get this cursed exam out of the way!!

edited because I know the touchstone is working, but for some reason isn't showing up once I submit...

I read Ada this past summer and loved it. Nabokov's writing is so seductive. I sort of float away on it then suddenly focus on the topic and feel a bit shaken. He is phenomenal!

I sort of float away on it then suddenly focus on the topic and feel a bit shaken.

I know what you mean there. My entire collection of Nabokov was received from a faculty member in my department. I keep talking to him about the books once I've read them - first Invitation to a Beheading, then Laughter in the Dark. But every time I imagine talking to him about Ada, I feel like it would be uncomfortable, and possibly inappropriate :-\

Fortunately for me, I have a friend, also a member of my book club, with whom I create a summer reading list and during our various travels we correspond about the books. I was able to talk to my heart's delight with her about the book. Why must Nabokov choose such subject matter.............?

Alright you two - I just added Ada to my wishlist. Now I must go leave this thread to read one of my 400+ unread books in my library before I go adding any more...

#126 - alphaorder - can I have your job?! =)

I know what you guys mean. Ada makes me a little bit squirmy and I'm not even discussing it with anyone. But not always squirmy, because, as mentioned, you'll be reading along, thinking, "You know, this seems perfectly normal." Then, "What am I thinking?" Interesting writer.

I'm waiting for a couple of books to arrive from Amazon. In the interim, I'm reading William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom!. I think this is about the third or fourth read of this masterpiece since college, and I am getting so much more out of it now. Just an amazing, brilliant piece of literature.

#129 SeanLong: I guess Absalom! Absalom! is one of those books you have to read a few times to really appreciate. I read it for a college class a semester or two ago, and I'll honestly admit, I just didn't see the appeal. I really disliked the narration style, and found that, at least for me during that first read, all it did was confuse me. Maybe I'll give it another go in a year or two - but not yet. :)

I finished 'Salem's Lot today. To all those who wanted to know what I thought of it: I loved it. It ended up being one of those books that I didn't put down much unless I absolutely had to, like during class. (I suppose I could have kept reading then, but the professors probably would not have taken it very well.)

The vampires were spooky, and Barlow *really* gave me the creeps. I also loved the ending; burn 'em out like rats. :)

I'm now left wondering what to start reading in the fiction department. I expected Reaper Man to have arrived at the library by the time I finished 'Salem's Lot, but it hasn't, so I'm debating on whether I want to wait until it arrives, or grab another unread fiction from my shelf.

I'm reading Virgins of Venice, about convents in Venice in the 16th-17th centuries, and Word Freak. Both are good so far.

Finished The Historian and am now reading The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie - i kind of like to mix it up!!!

Have just finished Something Rotten and have now started Man Walks into a Room by Nicole Krauss. Its looking good!

133> What did you think of The Historian? Keep looking at that at Barnes and Noble and haven't decided if I would like it.

Reading Three Cups of Tea right now.

#123 + 124: For you Nabakov fans, you might check out the essay "Collecting Nature" in At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman. Sheds a whole new light on the man, although the essay is not entirely about him.

#120 Oh, citygirl ~ Haggard's She is wonderful! It's one of the earliest fantasies I ever read (besides fairy tales for children) and still one of my favorites. There's one bit in there that has haunted me for decades ~ not in a bad way, but the image filled me with wonder (I couldn't have been older than 12 when I read it the first time). Actually, the entire story has stayed with me all these years!

I hope you enjoy it too.

Re-reading Mind Set! by John Naisbitt. A good set of pointers on how to spot trends.

Hey Investory, (#135) I did enjoy The Historian. Of course, I have a thing for traveling...and vampires...and history...

Anything that can artfully combine the three is just as well, in my book. (Pun intended.)

I decided to go wtih Memory by Philippe Grimbert.

I've finished Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton. Very amateurish. Now I'm reading Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs.

123, 124, etc. This week's Newsweek's featured author was Ha Jin. He listed Ada as the book he should have read but hadn't. I found it interesting that the 10 books he listed as having most influenced him were by Nabakov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. He said that Anna Karenina influenced the structure of Waiting.

Still slogging away at Wings of a Dove. I am actually used to Henry James dense writing style now -- but it is not a book you can just pick up and read a few pages here and there. You need hours of quiet contemplative time for a good effort.

#116 Bookmarque - I loved The French Lieutenant's Woman -- one of my all time favorites.

#131 system13 - loved Salem's Lot -- the most chilling King ever written, IMO.

>135 investory: If you see The Historian on sale (I've seen the hardcover at Borders for $4.99), then I would go for it. As many reviewers note, it can be a somewhat slow read, but if you like history, vampires and a focus on books to help solve a mystery, then you'll probably like it.

i just finished color purple and and am beggening on where the heart is ,i am loving it

Finished both Out of Time and Wolf's Rain Volume 2 last night. Started on the third book of the Caroline B. Cooney series, Prisoner of Time.

I'm about a third of the way through Valiant by Holly Black. I can't decide whether I like it or not. I enjoyed Tithe, but I find that this one kind of reads like Francesca Lia Block with all the horror and very little of the charm. Maybe it'll get better, though.

I'm also reading Sense and Sensibility as my e-book. As is usually the case with Jane Austen, I get so wrapped up in the beautiful writing that I sometimes completely miss what's happening! Several times, I've had to go back and reread something I just covered.

I am taking intermittent breaks from War and peace with Fore! The best of Wodehouse on golf, which is hysterical (of course) but too much of a draw away from W&P.

Just read the library of Babel and was deeply impressed by Borges but not sure I could read all the short stories...got a bit confused with the rest of them in Labyrinths

About to start travels through france and italy

A People's History Of The United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn

The author states "I wanted, in writing this book, to awaken a greater consciousness of class conflict, racial injustice, sexual inequality, and national arrogance".

He certainly turns traditional textbook history on its head. And as for "national arrogance", we've obviously been learning some bitter lessons in that regard.

>150 tropics:: tropics, that book has come highly recommended to me by another LT member but I haven't gotten to it yet. It does sound quite interesting and I like the idea of "turning traditional textbook history on its head."

>150 tropics:, 151: tropics and lindsad, I think the amazing thing about People's History is that, in addition to Zinn's moving perspective, he's also a very good writer. I had him as a professor for American History 101 at Boston University back in 1973. Even though by then he was already quite famous, he took this freshman history course, taught in a huge lecture hall, quite seriously, and was a very kind and accessible man.

Uh, GreyHead...

I just took a look at the image from the first post at full size (the "picture" part is interesting).

Thing is, there seems to be a timing issue: This is a January thread, but the graphic says "December".

I'm sure it was unintentional, but it gets a little confusing for overly intelligent bookreaders like me.

I've just finished Margot Livesey's forthcoming novel The House on Fortune Street and enjoyed it very much. She is a real artist in creating believable characters which draw one in (yes, I think it is her characters rather than the narrative which draws one in). I'm am still reading Delirium by Laura Restrepo and have started a reread of Cranford.

edited to correct spelling...

Self-help and trash romance, waaahooo, go me.

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

and

Seduction by Amanda Quick

Finally started Burning Bright by Tracey Chevalier and am enjoying it very much so far. After this I'm tempted to read Iain Pears's art history mysteries again. Love those!

#139 & #144 thanks for your input, now I am interested in reading The Historian.

I'm working on The Chess Machine by Robert Lohr, which, when I found out is historically based and features Marie Antoinette's mother as one of the characters, magically became MUCH more interesting.

> 150/151/152: I've just started A People's History of the United States. I've decided to tackle it chapter by chapter in between my regular reading. If the first chapter is any indication of what is to come, I will be in turns infuriated and educated by Zinn's book.

rocketjk: I envy you. Taking a class with a good professor is one of life's little pleasures!

#135

Well, it REALLY wasn't what i was expecting - there's more "history" than blood and it could easily have been about 200 pages shorter... I bought it because i had seen it described as "Dracula meets the Da Vinci Code" and since i've always been into vampires and enjoyed the other i figured, hey! count me in! but i have to say i was really disappointed.

Don't let this influence you though... especially since a lot of other readers on LT liked it... I guess it's just that i had such high hopes for it and it didn't do it for me...

Have started Twentieth Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. Finished 3 of the stories. Pretty good so far. Better than I expected, in fact. Looking forward to reading more tonight.

Oh how I'd love to have had Howard Zinn as a history prof! Lucky you. Yes, People's History is infuriating - and a VERY important book. I'm encouraged that some high schools and colleges are using it as history texts. Everyone in the U.S. should read this book. (People in other countries probably know a lot of the info in Zinn's book - our history books have traditionally been whitewashed.)

#160 You weren't the only one, kmbooklover - I was bored rigid by it!

#158 - I really liked The Chess Machine. Most of what you read isn't factual, but it is very entertaining and interesting.

Matthew Reilly's "Scarecrow"
An Advanced Level Chemistry Book
A Biology book
and
the translation of Danny the Champion of the world

Went to work yesterday and found a lovely little book on my desk Happy Family by Wendy Lee. Started it as soon as I got home. I am about 1/3 of they way and will probably finish it tonight.

Teelgee, Omphaloskepsis, Rocketjk, Lindsad - regarding Howard Zinn's A People's History Of The United States, I'm taking voluminous notes and have skipped ahead temporarily to read the chapter on The Clinton Presidency.

I thought The Historian
was vastly over rated as a novel. The fiction is the weakest part of The Historian, but I did think Kostova did well in the descriptive passages of the book about real things she had actually seen and experienced. I wouldn't reccomend the novel to anyone. Kostova should try some nonfiction.

Just started Pavane by Keith Roberts, interspersed with Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding. I know I've previously read the latter, albeit 30 years or so ago, but I'm getting flashbacks on the former as well; if I did read it, that must have been nearer 40 years ago, when I was a scifi nut.

I'm just not getting into The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, so I think I'm going to put it aside and start my January Early Reviewers book, Black Ships by Jo Graham. From reading the thread on the Early Reviewers group, it looks like people are enjoying it.

Once that's finished, it's time for War and Peace! If there's anyone interested in reading along with a group, go visit Group Reads - Literature.

Racing like mad to finish Heat and Dust. If I can get to the end before midnight then I can add it to my list of 'books read in January'. I wonder if I'm getting a bit carried away with these lists. Off to check the LT groups for 12 step programmes.

>171 Booksloth: Booksloth - I know what you mean. I'm really struggling about giving up on The Word Without Us (message #170) since I only have about 1/4 of the book left. However, it's just not grabbing me, and I'd like to finish my January ER book before I start War and Peace.

I tell you, these artificial deadlines are killers!

Edited because touchstones seemed to suddenly stop working.

Having finished Birth of the United States, I'm going through some of my "Between Books" now. "Between Books" are books (usually anthologies of some sort) I read, a chapter or a story at a time between the books I read cover to cover. I have two stacks of Between Books, each usually with about 7 books in it, and I alternate between the two. Currently, these stacks include:

Group 1
Visions of Jazz
Bill James Baseball Abstract
Walking Tractor
Racing in the Street
Top of the Heap
Voices of the Valley, Volume III (An Oral History of Anderson Valley, California)
Our Fair City

Group 2
Poems that Touch the Heart
Voices of Liberty
Tales of the Dervishes
Turning the Tide of War 50 Battles That Changed the Course of Modern History
Prize Stories - O.Henry Awards 1987
Great Modern Reading W. Somerset Maugham's Introduction to Modern English and American Literature
The Fables of La Fontaine
An Inn Near Kyoto : Writing by American Women Abroad
Thirty Stories By Kay Boyle

Right now I am enjoying reading a chapter/story/poem each in Group 2.

I'm very slowly making my way through One Hundred Years of Solitude, but I just started a new job and find myself falling asleep when I sit down to read it.

I finished Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and have started on Jemima J by Jane Green. I felt like something light.

#164: Believe me, I'm taking The Chess Machine with a largish grain of salt. A week or so ago, I just happened to read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick which features an automaton in the first section of the book. I had not even been aware of automatons up until then, not to mention their place in history, so its kind of weird that two of the books I read this a month both feature them.

You ever notice how a totally unrelated sequence of books read within a short time-span can have eerily similar conceptual threads? And sometimes even "speak" directly into a life-situation, giving insight to particular issues? Maybe its just me....

To all who have been discussing The Historian: I agree it wasn't quite what I hoped, but it made me much, much more interested in the history of that region of the world, in particular the confluence of cultures and faiths in and around Constantinople/Istanbul. That peaked interest has inspired me to read more about the region; I even went out and bought a coffee table book of Hagia Sofia.

#176 Speaking of 'the confluence of cultures and faiths in and around Constantinople/Istanbul', have you tried Louis de Bernieres' Birds Without Wings? Set at the time of the population exchange between Turkey and Greece. I love his books anyway but I do think this is a particularly interesting point in European history.

#177 Is de Bernieres' the guy who wrote Captain Corelli's Mandolin (which I have, but haven't read)? I'll check it out! Thanks!

Three Cups of Tea bought tonight at Barnes & Noble, The Appeal by John Grisham and Taming Rafe by Susan May Warren.

Three Cups of Tea bought tonight at Barnes & Noble, The Appeal by John Grisham and Taming Rafe by Susan May Warren.

Finished What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman and have started Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson.

Read Flying Out of Brooklyn on a flight to the East Coast. Read I Am Legend on the way home.

--> 181

I *just* finished Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast, and I thought it was great! I loved the insights and the humor of that book. My copy of that book is now circulating among colleagues at my work.

Some great quotes from that book:

"It is harder for me now than it once was, given that a certain fossilizing seems to be taking place in my brain.” (Virgil)

“Mother always said that my lust for salvaging odds and sods everyone else had given up on meant I was destined for a career either as an antique dealer or a social worker.” (Hector)

“Still, it throws you for a loop, losing your last parent. Even if you’re sixty-something, it makes you an orphan. You’re a bit more alone in the world.” (Carl)

“The world seems so much more full of availabilities when we are in our thirties.” (Virgil)

“We have noted that a passion for books and a fondness for cats are very often points of intersection on the ven diagram of personality.” (Hector)

I was less than impressed with What the Dead Know which I also recently read. It made me not want to read any more Laura Lipmann books, although I admit that detective mysteries are not my "thing".

#178 Yes, he is. Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex touches on the same period as well, before moving to the US.

Finished Cursor's Fury last night and have begun to read Candide by Voltaire

Just finished an ARC of "Things I Want My Daughters to Know" by Elizabeth Noble - due out April 2008.

A book for every mother, daughter & sister to read. A multi-faceted love story: parent-child, siblings, husband-wife, step-relations, new relationships, old relationships, self-love.

Noble has written a heartwarming tale with a variety of characters that allows every reader to identify with someone. It brought back numerous memories and reminded me to be certain to create many more memories with my mom while I still have the opportunity.
Like most British authors, I was thrown by some of the British terminology; “I’m made up for you”?? , “Nappies” (diapers), but it didn’t completely distract me from the novel.

#177 & #178, I loved Birds Without Wings. Even a little long, it was a great read. I still have Captain Corelli's Mandolin in my TBR pile axiously awaiting to be read.

#188 Well, if you loved BWW, you will adore Captain Corelli - one of my joint 'favourite books in the history of the civilised world'! Everybody seems to agree that it can be a bit hard going at the beginning (though you can really skip the Mussolini stuff the first time you read it) but you will be doing yourself a terrible disservice if you let that put you off. One of those books that makes life worthwhile!

188 & 189 - Corelli's Mandolin is my TBR pile anxiously awaiting being read too...I think that after reading what Booksloth wrote that it might get bumped a little higher in the queue

#190 Go on, bump it right to the top. You'll be doing yourself a favour.

I loved Corelli's Mandolin but the last quarter of the book seemed hurried and not nearly as engaging as the rest.

Hello Everyone. I'm new here. I'm enjoying it very much thus far. I'm currently reading "The Rape of Innocence: Taking Captivity Captive" by Lacresha Hayes. I am also re-reading "Silas Marner" with my son. He has to read it for school. I picked it up and couldn't put it back down. LOL! It made me feel old though. I still can't remember how it ends. I guess I'll know soon.

@193 booksrme2 - welcome!

Beware though...this site is very addicting and will do horrible things for your TBR pile! *lol*

@193 booksrme2 ~ Welcome! It's a great deal of fun here at LibraryThing. You should try using the "Touchstone" to link to your books and their authors. Instructions are located to the right of the area where you post messages. Like this: Silas Marner by George Eliot. Don't despair, though, the Touchstones don't always work. For example, this one worked for the book title, but not the author. Enjoy! :-)

#188 momom248 & #189 booksloth: I went right out an ordered a copy of Birds without Wings per your recommendations. When I'll get a chance to read it, I don't know!

Just finished Gardens of Water by Alan Drew for Early Reviewers here at LT. I very much enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who likes reading about cultures different from their own and the struggules those individuals face in their everyday life.

I'll be starting later today Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. Another Early Reviewers book that a fellow LTer sent to me.

#27 I have actually switched books from Pride and Prejudice to Mary: Mrs. Todd Lincoln which I am enjoying very much. I will let you know about Pride and Prejudice once I finish it.

#196 Hope you enjoy it! Please don't send me the bill if you don't.

@198 Rarcar1 ~ Hey! When you get back to Pride and Prejudice let me know what you think of it. I ready it in January and still need to write my review on it.