What You're Reading the Week of 9 February 2008

Iain Banks The Wasp Factory Still reading Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar: The Life of a Colossus, and enjoying it, though the names and places are starting to blur. I'm going to take time out though for The Ghost by Robert Harris which comes highly recommended from my wife.

I see that the touchstones are completely screwed this week - all but Caesar at the moment. The Ghost is here .

And apologies for getting the name of the thread wrong once more - mea culpa.

I'm half way through Marked by P.C. Cast. I think that I might read Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr next. I seem to be moving into a YA Fantasy kick since reading Journal of the Curious Letters.

Oops! 9 February was last week! ;)

#1 GreyHead: As a classicist, I can assure you that it's not at all surprising that Caesar's touchtone is working when all the others aren't - *nobody* messes with Caesar! (Except, of course, Brutus and Cassius...)

I've been reading Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins, and I just started You Suck by Christopher Moore. Itreally isn't as funny as everyone says

I am hoping this is the Feb 16 thread =)

I am going to start Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo tonight. It's a little chunkster. I hope it's a good story because I usually lose interest after 400 pages....

I just started Girls of Riyadh for hardback, and The House of Spirits for my paperback. I'm only a dozen pages into House of Spirits, but I'm already getting the feeling that I'll need to jot down some sort of family tree to keep everyone straight!

I'm going to guess this is the 16th thread, or at least hope so.

I am reading Perfume by Patrick Suskind a very good book so far.

I am hoping this is the Feb 16 thread =) (#6)

Me too. I saw the subject line and thought "wait, didn't we do this already?"

I just started reading Daoud Hari's The Translator for the Early Reviewers program. If it weren't for that yarn crawl tomorrow, I'd say I would be likely to finish it over the long weekend.

I'm reading Tibet, Tibet, The Nature of the Judicial Process (neither as good as I had hoped), and Gaudy Night.

>2 Irisheyz77:: I got Wicked Lovely not too long ago but haven't read it yet--hope it's good!

This week's four:

The Eskimo Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins: I've passed the halfway point (the point of no return) on the Turkish translation! Does anybody else out there love the Twins books? I read them as a child, borrowing them from the school library, and then when I discovered Ebay, I happily collected just about all of them. In the original English, I mean.

Poesía completa – i.e. complete poetry – of Jorge Manrique, who lived in the 15th century. I've made it past the introduction and have read the first poem, a dialogue between the poet and the God of Love. I keep being surprised at how incomprehensible antique Spanish can be. I'm thinking about ordering A Brief History of the Spanish Language to see if I can get a better handle on old Spanish before I tackle Cervantes's Novelas Ejemplares.

I'm still working on the mistitled The Atlas of Medieval Man by Colin Platt. The information in there is interesting. It's fun to see what was going on everywhere in a given century; at the end each century's section there are maps and charts showing developments in history, art, technology, and so on all over the world. But Platt's sentence structure is of the sort that occasionally requires a sentence to be read a second or even a third time.

I'm still reading Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead. It doesn't work as well for a breaktime book as Moby Dick did, because at the end of break, I want to continue reading instead of going back to work. I wonder if there's a market out there for a line of Boring Books. It could be a second career for me!

Further nifty details can be found on my profile.

Looks as though we've got both mrsradcliffe and carlym reading Gaudy Night.

(edited for spelling)

Reading a bunch for school:

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Easily one of my favorite books. I am re-reading this for the 5th or 6th time.
Existentialism: Basic Writings by Charles Guignon.
Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. I don't get it. At all.
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. Love Wharton.

For Pleasure:

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.
Islam by Karen Armstrong.

It doesn't really matter to me whether its the week of the 9th or the 16th - I'm still reading The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope.

I started The Sea, the Sea just the other day. My pace has slowed a bit in February due to "real life" events. But this book is nearly 500 pages so it would keep me busy for a while under any circumstances.

I finished Lauren Groff's The Monsters of Templeton the other day and was fairly disappointed with it. I thought the shifts in time were awkward and confusing, and part of her original premise for the story's conflict, I thought was totally bogus from the beginning. Not a bad book really, just not a very good one either.

I'm 150 pages into Charles Bock's Beautiful Children and am really enjoying it so far.

I finished The Golden Compass -- pretty good, but not epic; it's no Lord of the Rings. And I did think Pullman had much to say about the compatability of religion and science -- I didn't find it offensive, nor think it advocated "killing God" -- but I can see why it ruffled feathers; just as The Chronicles of Narnia may make some agnostics bristle.

I am going to start The Name of the Rose today -- one last Italy themed novel before my trip.

I just finished All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot and King Dork by Frank Portman. Both were wonderful (in completely different ways of course!)

Not sure what to read next, I have a large stack of library books. It'll probably be either Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford or Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon.

I'm reading Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I'm liking despite its somewhat depressing nature. I knew it would be depressing, so maybe that makes a difference. I also started Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud last night because it came in the mail and I have no willpower when it comes to books!

Sound and the Fury by Faulkner for school (good, but slow going!); The Reluctant Tuscan by Phil Doran for fun. Very little time to read, so I'm guessing there'll be nothing new for next week!

Kind of a busy week, so it's been a slow week for finishing books. Only one: The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. It was kind of obviously Kay's first book, not nearly as polished as his later stuff, but still pretty good (full review here). Good enough, at any rate, that I'm currently reading the sequel, The Wandering Fire.

Still listening to Inkspell, which is good so far - Brendan Fraser does the narration, and I never would have guessed, but he's got an incredible talent for voices.

Like digifish, one week is just like another while I'm reading War and Peace, which is slow going but speeding up a bit, now I'm really getting into it.

Though I am supplementing a bit; almost done with Amish Grace and will zip through In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and possibly The Translator by Daoud Hari this weekend. And I will pick out a commuting novel next week, don't know what yet. Something simple with not too many characters!

I guess I'm having trouble focusing on one book at the moment. I've started:

The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz

Plus for teaching I am reading:

A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Second Shepherds' Play
Everyman

And I SHOULD be reading:

The Translator
War and Peace

I'm 60 pages from finishing A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Yay!! It's taking perseverance … maybe I should have followed the author’s advice to skip vast sections. :) There are just enough delights along the way to keep me in.

Then I’ll read the flash-fiction collection, One Minute Stories by Istvan Orkeny. I noticed it on eairo’s 888 Challenge -- his comments (including “hilarious, witty, ironic, sarcastic and short … touching, thought provoking, and in some cases even mind blowing”) made it irresistible. It took my library 3 weeks to locate an English translation.

#16 ~ Buono viaggio, jhowell! Have a wonderful time in Italia. What city(ies) are you visiting? Be sure to take a lot of pics ~ it's an amazing place!

Still reading Out by Natsuo Kirino which, though good, is difficult for me in that every one of the characters is unlikeable in one way or another, and even the mileu ~ modern-day Tokyo ~ is depressingly, unrelentingly squalid. Like I said, it's good ~ well-written with well-drawn characters and amazing descriptions, but I've found I have to put it down every so often and pick up something else that's lighter.

I think I'll be reading Back to the Stone Age by Edgar Rice Burroughs next. It was chosen for me over in the Go Review That Book! group, but I'm not entirely sure that I feel like an adventure at the earth's core right now. I might decide to read something else before I reread this one.

Well, well, well...I'm ALMOST finished with The Beauty in the Lilies by John Updike (touchstones don't work for this author). I am so enjoying this book. It only has four chapters in the entire thing and I can promise you that I hated the first chapter thinking, "I hope the whole book isn't like this!" Now that I'm nearing the end, I don't want it to be over! Silly, I know, but I really am starting to feel like I know these characters. I mean, they can't just up and abandon me!!!

In between chapters of the above-mentioned, I'm still reading 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (and touchstones don't work for her, either). It's very interesting, but I have no intention of spending $700 a night to stay in some drafty room in a castle in whatever European country I'm currently reading about! ;-)

I am still reading Dissolution by C.J. Sanson. The story is interesting but dragging on and on. I hope to finish it today.

I just started Where the Heart Leads by Stephanie Laurens. I have read and enjoyed all of her other books.

I started Kushiel's Dart last night. I finally decided I couldn't wait any longer! I'm only maybe 75 pages in, but it's pretty decent so far.

Finished Dreams From My Father last night and began Their Eyes Are Watching God this morning. It's very good so far, and reminds me a lot of some Ernest Gaines short stories I've read.

I am currently reading Lolita. It is my first selection of the year from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I don't plan to read the entire list, but it is helping me plow through my TBR pile. Have a great weekend!

Listening to: The Adventures of Augie March, The Third Policeman, and War and Peace

Reading: The Confessions of Young Törless, The Warden, and Within a Budding Grove

War and Peace, In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck, Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington, and Troubles by J.G. Farrell.

I just finished White Night by Jim Butcher and I'm about to start The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

Finished The Travel Writer last night, found it a bit ordinary, but enjoyed the setting of Melaka in Malaysia. I have spent quite a bit of time there so recognised a lot of the cultural references. I am now about 100 pages into The Raw Shark Texts but am not sure yet what it is all about! And still listening to Theft and almost finished listening to Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

#12 ejd0626: Oh, I'm right there with you on the whole Gertrude Stein business. I don't get what's so great about her either. However, I might be persuaded to try her partner's brownies... ;)

I'm about to start When Christ and His Saints Slept, by one of my favorite authors Sharon Kay Penman.

This morning I finished In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike. Next up will be Welcome to Heavenly Heights by Risa Miller.

Currently reading Chasing the Dead by Joe Schreiber. Creepy, nerve racking book.

Finished Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy by Robert W. McChesney yesterday evening and started Living My Life: Volume One by Emma Goldman.

#38 Penman is one of my favorite authors too, ktleyed, and When Christ and His Saints Slept is one of her historicals I haven't read yet. I read mixed reviews when it first came out. Let me know what you think when you've finished?

I switched to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Sixteenth Annual Collection, ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. My last read was a very disappointing short story collection, and I felt like I needed some proof that there are indeed authors out there who can work well within the medium.

Just finished Etgar Keret's The Nimrod Flipout and started the Giller prize winner Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay.
what is with the touchstones- all the authors that I have listed today are red and not highlighted.

Finished Hollywood Kids by Jackie Collins and have started The Tenant by Roland Topor which I'm really enjoying...

Just finished The Art Thief by Noah Charney........pretty mediocre in my opinion. Overly complex plot was predictable and boring.

Cariola, do you ever swap books, as with BookMooch? I am really wanting to read The Brontes Went to Woolworths. Let me know how you like it.

I just finished The Birth of Venus and have started on Incantation, a YA book my mother gave me.

I just started Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge, which I've been waiting for ever since I heard it was being published in English, because I'm a big fan of his The Case of Comrade Tulayev. Also reading The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon. Both pretty grim.

#47 I do swap books on Paperback Swap. But I am a collector of Virago Modern Classics, so that one won't be going up for trade. I had an extra copy that I sold on eBay last week. You might want to keep track of the Virago MOdern Classics thread. We let one another know when we find a book someone is looking for, and some members have offered duplicate copies.

I've just been sort of blown away by the ending of Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud. Great trilogy, I recommend it highly.

Now, continuing on with Mary Barton, probably The Secret History of the Pink Carnation next, because it's been lying around so long.

#50- Pink Carnation is a good book. I enjoyed it immensely.

Battle Royale and It's Kind of a Funny Story

#42 Storeetllr - yes, I'll let you know what I think. I'm even more eager to read the sequel to this one, since it's about Eleanor of Aquitaine (who I will forever imagine as Katherine Hepburn in the Lion in Winter!)

Oh, wasn't that a wonderful film! Thanks, kt!

Reading Three Cups of Tea and really enjoying it. Just finished The Truth Seeker and Danger in the Shadows both by Dee Henderson. Enjoyed both books.

Still reading Peter Ackroyd's The Life of Thomas More and enjoying it. Next up will be The Fratricides by Nikos Kazantzakis and The Promise of Light by Paul Watkins.

I just finished Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and now I have to stop myself from reading New Moon so I can finally finish East of Eden!

I am still reading The Translator which I'm enjoying...just a little depressing of course because of the content. What a beautiful writer though. I have about 80 pages left. I think next I'll move on to The Book Thief.

Like teelgee I'm still reading War and Peace as well. I've come to a bit of a standstill, so I think it's time to take myself out for a coffee and get back into it!

sferrando - I feel just the same way about 1000 Places to See Before You Die - we're planning a trip around Europe, and thought we'd refer to the book to make sure we weren't missing anything we really wanted to see. Instead we ended up thumbing through it going "Another hotel, nup another hotel..."

I finished The Locus Awards : Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy last week and it was very good!

Still reading Jane Eyre which might take me some weeks to finish as it is really slow reading for me, but which I am enjoying immensely.

For faster reading and to make some good progress in my "50 book challenge" I'm also reading Shadow war by Deborah Chester. It's a bit disappointing so far, I thought Reign of shadows was better, but still it's an okay read.

#58 - bunagsbooks - What a treat you are in for with The Book Thief! Enjoy!

I'm right in the middle of one of William Faulkner's more spiritual books, Go Down Moses, with the help of a McCaslin Family Genealogy chart that I had to download from a Faulkner website in order to get a clear picture of who all the players were.

I am currently reading London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd. SeanLong, you're going to inspire me to drag out some Faulkner soon with all this reading you're doing!

I don't know how long it will last, cabegley, before he wears me down, but I'm enjoying WF at the moment and forging ahead. I'll see where it goes and how far!

I finished harper's quine and am now reading gaudy night interspersed with nicholas feast

All good detective fun!

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks for my f2f BC.

>66 woodbear: f2f BC = face to face bootie call?

I'm reading A Walk in the Woods and The Plot Against America. Since my last post (work has been crazy) I've also read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which I liked more than I thought I would. Also I am the messenger, by the author of The Book Thief, which I loved. I've been looking forward to this one since I read The Book Thief and it was different, not quite as good, but I still really liked it.
I'm also about to start Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

#67 Morphidae - is that opposed to a virtual bootie call? LOL.

With the long weekend, I finished Florida Roadkill and Bearwalker from Joseph Brushac- one of my favorite authors. Next on the stack is Monty Python and Philosophy and Life With and Idiot. Too many reruns on TV- no matter what they're telling me about a Writer's strike.

Finished The Tenant by Roland Topor... loved it!!!!

Since I won't have much time in the next 3 weeks or so to read as much as I'd like, will be sticking to fast, easy and/or short reads; so have started Toxic Bachelors by Danielle Steel...

Reading Split by Suzanne Finnamore and started George's Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking...reading it aloud to my son.

#51 - I actually read it in a day and liked it quite a lot. Light, fun, perfect for cheering me up. I'm glad I also have The Masque of the Black Tulip so I can start it right now. Yay bargain books!

Still Out, but also started The Journal of Dora Damage which is a novel by Belinda Starling set in London in 1860 about women's rights and the hidden depravity of Victorian England. A woman on the brink of financial ruin pulls herself and her family out of the jaws of debtors prison/the workhouse and becomes a lady bookbinder of mostly pornography. Really quite good. Makes me want to learn more about the art of book binding. (Obviously, I already know about the other. lolol)

Touchstone not working; here's the link to the novel (I hope): http://www.librarything.com/work/3999174

>68 bookworm12: I read the plot against america some time ago. I found it a bit disappointing, but that was mainly because it was a different story than I had expected it to be. I would have liked a stronger emphasis on the alternate history angle. How are you finding it so far?

I finally finished The Invisible Man and have now started The Island of Dr. Moreau which I am enjoying as well.

#75 Vonini: I thought The Plot Against America was an excellent novel. I had no preconceptions.

#75 Vonini and #77 Amanda. I was completely absorbed in The Plot Against America, but was dissappointed with the ending and thought it was flat.

I was disappointed in Plot Against America as well, mainly because I felt that there were too many dry facts at the expense of emotional impact. I felt like I was reading an alternative history book rather than a story, and felt myself struggling to get through it. But I'll concede that there are differences of opinion about this book.

#75, Vonini, #77 amandameale, #78 SeanLong I was disappointed with The Plot against America too (and I'm a big Philip Roth fan), but not for the reason Vonini was. I felt Roth allowed his eagerness to make his political points to get in the way of character and story, and that it was too preachy and didactic.

Just started The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. So far it's entertaining, just like his last book The Know-it-all: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World.

On the agenda for this week: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, Red Azalea by Anchee Min, The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek, The Last Six Million Seconds by John Burdett, Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope and The Causes of War by Geoffrey Blainey. I am dipping into a couple of others as well.

Finished The Remains of the Day. Loved it (the end made me cry even though, having seen the movie, I knew what I was in for).

Not sure what to start tonight. Last night, I toyed with Alan Jacobs' The Narnian, but found I really don't care that much about C.S. Lewis's personal life. I cracked Robert L. Stevenson's An Inland Voyage, which looks pretty great, but I'm on a fiction kick. Debating whether or not to tackle Never Let Me Go or Revolutionary Road next.

# 80: rebeccanyc, I agree with your assessment of The Plot Against America. I, too, am a huge Roth fan. I thought the book started out well and as always from Roth, there are some moments of exquisite writing. The phone conversation between protagonist's mother and the neighbor boy (I'm blanking on names right now) where she tries to calm him down despite his fears is vivid and heartbreaking in the best tradition of Roth: the power of the small moment. But the ending falls extremely flat, and, as you've said, he moves too far away from characters for too long at a time.

I just finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne today at lunchtime. Great book. If anybody wants to read it, just make sure you get the Miller and Walter's 1993 Translation published by The Naval Institute Press.

I'm going to start The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. Touchstones don't seem to be working.

I'm in the 888 Challenge, and after the weightiness of 20,000 Leagues, I thought something YA and light might be a good idea.

I finally finished Jane Eyre which I immensely enjoyed. I also finished The heart of redness which was an interesting read. Its set in my country of origin, South Africa, and this made me enjoy it. However, the writing was only soso and the plot was ok - not gripping.

I am now finally going to finish Love in the time of cholera which I started in December. I also plan to read The picture of Dorian Gray.

As for Plot against America, I enjoyed some parts of the book and I enjoyed the conspiracy plot. But, I also found a lot of the writing boring.

This weekend I read two graphic novels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 1: The Long Way Home, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Vol. 1. (no touchstone so these are links) I've never read graphic novels really before, but I'm a fan of the show and have been re-watching it, and was intrigued by the Season 8 comics, since they are officially sanctioned by Joss Whedon as a continuation of the series, unlike most other tv-show/movie related books. The other one is a collection of the comics from when the show was still on the air. I like the season 8 ones as you can tell that Joss has a hand in them. You can definitely tell that the older comics weren't really as closely related with the people who made the show. These were both from the library.

I also picked up The Secret History of the Pink Carnation this weekend on a whim. I'd never heard of it before, but it was on sale and sounded like a fun read. I started it last night, and like it so far. We'll see how it goes.

>87 AntiLeah:, I'm not a huge reader of graphic novels either (well, at least not the American kind), but I was a big fan of Buffy in its day. I recently read The Long Way Home and the next batch of the season 8 comics (I think they're called No Future For You), and am really enjoying them. I haven't read the earlier comics - the main reason that I picked up the season 8 ones was that I really wanted to know what happened next! Of course, now I want to go and buy each new issue as they come out, which is made complicated by the lack of nearby comic book stores.

I also really love the the Pink Carnation books. As long as you don't take them too seriously, I think that they are really enjoyable, and rather witty too.

@88, Yes, now that I've read The Long Way Home, I want to just go buy all the new issues instead of waiting for the next paperback anthology to come out (June, I think?) but I have never even been in a comic book store. I suppose I could buy them online. From the reviews I've read, and my reading of the first omnibus, the earlier comics aren't as good and aren't "official canon" anyway. My library doesn't have the rest of the Omnibuses (I was going to use "Omnibi" but Oxford says that is a joke word and not proper latin. Good thing I checked or boy would my face be red!) so I don't think I'll read the other old ones.

I like fluffy non-serious stuff, so I don't think I'll have a problem with the Pink Carnation books. Not that I don't like serious stuff, but I like to mix it up!

@89 wikkywikky - i have a subscription to the BTVS season 8 series through www.tfaw.com when a new one becomes available to me then mail it out and I don't have to go into a comic store....not that its a bad place to go, but I've never been in one so would probably be all lost and ackward in them. Plus its nice to get them delivered....about once a month or so I have a pretty package and a new adventure waiting for me. Its also nice not to have to remember when the next issue is released.

I finished Wicked Lovely today and have begun Vale of Tears by Paulette Poujol Oriol

I finished The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter, one of my favorite authors. Now I am almost finished with Hero, a young adult novel about a gay superhero. Really liking it!

I started The Book Thief last night after reading some of the reviews on LT I thought I'd give it a try.

I finished Being Dead this weekend and started Notes from a small island by Bill Bryson in preparation for a trip to the U.K. I haven't laughed that hard while reading a book in a long time. I love Bryson's humor!

Right now I'm reading The Pillars of the Earth because everyone at work is reading it. I hate to be left out! I hope to get to the Symposium in The Collected Works of Plato this weekend. We'll see.

@90, ooh, Irish, I never knew that you could do that. I may have to since I have a really addictive personality when it comes to things in series (especially when they are good.)

Just finished up Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone and probably going to read somthing by Jim Thompson next.

also reading a story a day from Rashomon and other stories by Akutagawa

@tatleriv

Oooooh, go for Never let me go!! I loved it! It was the first book by Ishiguro that I read and it definitely made me want to read more of his work!

I'm right in the middle of Faulkner's Go Down Moses, and it's unfortunate that the best known part of the book is "The Bear," because there are some other beautiful stories, like "The Fire and the Hearth." That has to be one of Faulkner's more spiritual stories, and has some wonderful humor and beautiful prose, particularly the flashback that begins with a young Lucas being sent to get a doctor for Roth's mother who is having a difficult childbirth. It's just such a fantastic story, one that I don't remember being as impressed by the last time I read it.

I finished Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. What a treasure! If you haven't read it - do.

> RcCarol: I'm a big fan of the Symposium. I'm curious to know which take on love is your favorite.

Finished Chess Story by Stefan Zweig last evening and today I decided to go on a brief visuals jag so I'm gonna knock out R. Crumb's Kafka by Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz as well as How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion and How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas, and Zombies both by Daniel H. Wilson this evening.

@96 Wikky - I didn't know about it either until a friend mentioned it too me. She's also the one who told me that BTVS was moving to graphic form. Its been a great service. I splurge on the extra 25 cents for the board/plastic sleeve packaging and haven't had any troubles. =)

There is also a continuation of the Angel series that started up recently. Those have been good too...but I love what Whedon and the rest have been doing with Buffy. I hated when that show went off the air and so was glad to hear about the comics.

#101, amandameale, I read Cold Comfort Farm for the first time last year and I couldn't believe I had waited so long to read it. I totally adored it and am so glad you did too.

@102 omphaloskepsis - I'll let you know. I've really enjoyed the other dialogues I've read.

I am now listening to Ray Bradbury's Farewell Summer and have started The Rape of Sita by Lindsey Collen.

I finished Double Abduction by Chris Beakey. I also finished Good Morning Miss Dove by Frances Gray Patton. I saw the movie when I was a child.
I am now reading Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

Over the weekend I finished Amish Grace and In Defense of Food and The Translator : a tribesman's memoir of Darfur. So, needing something light to balance out War and Peace, which I'm just 120 pages into, I started Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor.

ETA: Touchstones are oh so wonky.

I finished The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay (has severe case of middle-of-a-trilogy-itis, but still pretty good), and after a diversion to read The Book of Flying for Go Review That Book! (very beautifully written, but I wasn't in the mood for it AT ALL), I'll be starting The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay tomorrow to close out the series.

The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll

Over halfway in War and Peace now - woo hoo! My portable read (sticking to the Russians) is We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

I just started Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys by Will Self.

Way to go, Killeymoon!

dara85, I loved Good morning, Miss Dove when I was a child. On my bookshelf is the very copy that I read at my great-aunt's house - I just checked it, and sure enough, my great-aunt's name is written in it.

@Killeymoon

Oh, I loved We. But then again, I'll go for almost any dystopia ^^ How are you enjoying it so far (or at all, you'll probably be through it in no time!)

Vonini, I'm only about 20 pages in (though I'm going to take myself off for a coffee in a bit and read some more), and it's taken me a while to get used to the tone in We (so different from W&P) but it's getting more interesting all the time.

I'm about fifty pages into The Leopard by Tomasi di Lampedusa. The prose is very good and I'm enjoying the story so far.

I finished Vale of Tears by Paulette Poujol Oriol and have begun The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

I'm also indulging in something Italian, Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.

I'm also continuing with The Elephant Vanishes and Screen Burn and will probably finish my audiobook ofThe Road on my way home from the office this evening.

I am new to the site, but I think I have found my favorite website in the entire world! LOL I love it! And, it is a great companion for my New Years resolution for 2008. While I have always loved to read, I have not always been as studious about it as I should. Being a father on nine children, with five still in the home, its not always easy to find a quiet time to read. However, I have decided that I would do my best to read more this year than I watch TV.

In this endeavor, I am trying to balance my reading between fiction and non-fiction. I have always been a fan of non-fiction books, but I also love classic fiction. Anyways, I am currently reading The Soul's Code by James Hillman. It is proving to be a very interesting and informative read.

Welcome reddragon

You have 9 kids? god bless ya....I get tired enough with just a one two-year old niece!

Please also head over to the thread in this group titled - how did you choose your LT name when you have a spare moment =)

Welcome to LT, reddragon! Honestly, I don't know how you'd find time to pee, let alone read, with 9 kiddos. This is a great and fun place to hang out and you will find all sorts of good books to read!

Currently in the middle of Kafka on the Shore and loving it.

Finished Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and then saw the author at a reading (along with Dave Eggers). Powerful book, even for the clueless like me who had never heard of Biafra before.

Reading Foreigner by C. J. Cherry, finally.

reddragon3668 - NINE! Oh my, I'm overwhelmed with two children.

Thanks Irisheyz77 and Teelgee for the welcome. Yes, having five kids still in the home can keep you busy! I love my kids, though, and wouldn't have it any other way. One good thing, Tellgz, when you have multiple kids, they learn to entertain themselves. So, its not as bad as you might think. ;)

Irisheyz77, if you get the chance and can find it, could you post a link to the "how did you choose your LT name" thread? I looked and even searched and couldn't find it. If you don't have the time or can't find it (like me), then don't worry about it. Thanks!

@elvisettey (#123) -
Have you read Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle? That's one of my favorite reading experiences of all time.

@Vonini (#99) -
The library's all checked-out of Never Let Me Go, so I'm moving forward on Revolutionary Road. Next week, perhaps!

I LOVE Murakami! Just about anything by him is a winner, in my book.

I finished Love in the Time of cholera and found it a sad book - so much time was wasted for this couple.

I am now going to start The corrections and finish The pciture of Dorian Gray.

I just finished From a Hard Rock to a Gem by Pamela M. Johnson. After spending some time with my "between books" (anthologies, mostly, that I'm reading one story/chapter/essay/poem at a time between each full-length book I tackle), I'll be starting on The Omnivore's Dilemma, off the top of my "short list."

Finished The True Meaning of Smekday and will start The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Also time out for a trashy romance by Lori Foster.

@keren7 #129

The Corrections is a great read, particularly the first 2/3rds or so. I was obsessed with it about this time last year. My wife (who recommended it) became jealous of all the time I was spending with it!

Looking forward to reading The Eye of Jade this weekend. Have 3 other books on tap as well!

About seventy pages left before I finish Spud, and I can't wait! I am really not liking the book much. After that I'll pick up a borrowed copy of Uglies.

I have The Corrections and am interested in it, but haven't made the jump yet. It's a big mama jamma!

I just started reading Neverwhere, after finishing High Fidelity.

#132 Thanks for the encouragement.

I am about ten pages in and already adoring the writing.

@ keren7 (#136)
Yeah, I remember being wowed (and moved) by the passages attempting to recreate the father's dementia. Very stunning. It's also darkly hilarious throughout, particularly the sections with Chip. Now I'm wanting to go back and reread...

@ blissfulwitch (#134)
It's big, but the prose sings. I think I finished it within two weeks -- and that's with a full-time job and a toddler (and some productive insomnia).

Okay, enough preaching the Gospel of Jonathan Franzen... and back to surreptitiously reading Revolutionary Road at work.

Just finished Shadow War by Deborah Chester, which wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Particularly the male protagonist's character wasn't very believable imo. I did like the female protagonist.

Next up is Jack of Shadows, which should be a quick read (got a lovely train ride ahead of me tomorrow). Anyone read this one?

I recently finished Madame Bovary. I am really glad that I read it, but what a thoroughly unlikeable woman!

I am currently reading Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman, which is set in a time period I normally avoid, but I have to say that I absolutely love this book!!! I will be reading the rest of the series ASAP! On the lighter side, I am also reading The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Stewart.

I am reading Jordan Sonnenblick's Zen and the Art of Faking It. San Lee is the new kid in town and when his class studies world religions he realizes that they covered this material already in his previous school. San, in order to create a name for himself, is passing himself off as a Zen master as a way to impress a girl in his class.
So far this book is okay, not nearly as good as Sonnenblick's other titles, Notes from the Midnight Driver or Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie. But all three titles probably have great YA boy appeal.

This week I did:
Fantasy : the very best of 2005 - short stories, some good, some not so good;
Love : undercover - light contemp. romance, fun;
Weeping on Wednesday, Theft on Thursday, and Fear on Friday - nice mystery series, picking up the 6th in the series at the library tomorrow;
The outback stars - not bad but I prefer Eliz. Moon for this genre;
The funny thing is... (audio) - light, not bad, would prefer to see her live;
Pushing up daisies : a dirty business mystery - good mystery, hope the author makes this a series or does more of this type.

#139 sorsopkel - I'm currently reading another of Penman's books, When Christ and His Saints Slept by Penman and I really like it a lot too! She's one of my favorite authors and I loved Here Be Dragons as well. I loved the story of Llewelyn and Joanna.

#142 ktleyed - Thanks for the recommendation! I will have to add When Christ and His Saints Slept to my TBR mountain! I can tell she will be one of those authors where I will have to run out and get everything she has written!

I just started Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat.

#135 - RedBowlingBallRuth
Two of my favorites! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. If you haven't read American Gods (also by Neil Gaiman) I reccommend that one as well.

^I'm nearly done with Neverwhere now, I'm really enjoying it! I do own American Gods, but I haven't gotten around to reading just yet, but I will soon! High Fidelity was great, it made me laugh on several occations!

I just finished Intrusions by Ursula Hegi and started Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami. It is the pick for "If all of Rochester (New York, that is) read........"

Finished Body of Lies by Iris Johansen and have started Dermaphoria by Craig Clevenger...