What You're Reading the Week of 31 May 2008

I made it this week, and just 12 minutes to go until midnight. My reading has been unexciting - still in volume 3 of Trudi Canavan's Age of the Five trilogy Voice of the Gods. I'm enjoying it but not as much as the first trilogy. I've also been dipping into Nassim Nicholas Taleb's first book Fooled by Randomness and am looking forward to getting a good run at that next week.

I just started Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski today. I've read a lot of his poetry and short stories but never any of his novels yet. I really enjoy his writing style, it's brash and obnoxious while also being oddly shy.

I'm on the lookout for something else to read this week, but I don't know what it is yet. I think I'll know it when I see it.

I finished "Have I Got a Guy for You" this afternoon. It was fun, if you like Sex and the City and that sort of thing.
I decided to go ahead and start The Leper Compound by Paula Nangle by keep Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst company. Both are first novels, I believe.

Chapter 11 of Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon.

I've started On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon by Kaye Gibbons.

I've started two books this week. The Battle of the River Plate; The Hunt for the Graf Spee by Dudley Pope and Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce

Just started Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts.

I've started Roma by Steven Saylor today, which so far is pretty good - it's in the vein of Edward Rutherford, following one family throughout Rome's history, although it doesn't extend to the present day, just through ancient Rome.

I finished Pictures of Hollis Woods earlier this afternoon and am now working on A Country Year a memoir written by a woman who lives in a cabin in the Ozarks. Very descriptive and well written descriptions of nature, various creatures she encounters on her beekeeping farm and her thoughts and feelings on her life after her 30 year marriage falls apart.

I am still working on White Noise because I keep leaving it at school. Curses! Meanwhile I have started Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I love Murakami, but I didn't know there would be math. I am enjoying it even so.

I'm reading Anthropology of turquoise by Ellen Meloy. I'm mixed so far. It's making me reflective, but I'm not sure I'm the mood for it in quite the way she presents it.

I'm getting into Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay, and unsurprisingly am really enjoying it, even though I haven't been able to put aside much time for reading.

I finally found a functioning pair of headphones, so I decided to restart listening to The Yiddish Policeman's Union yesterday; I figured hearing the words might be important to understanding the story. :)

James Collins' wonderful novel Beginner's Greek is a story about love at first sight, but instead of being either cloyingly sappy or mawkish, Collins strikes just the right comic tone, making it all deliciously insightful, and as grandly entertaining as anything I've read this year. One review of it said, "They don't write books like this anymore", and sadly that's true; thankfully, James Collins still does, and the compulsively readable Beginner's Greek is truly a book you can fall in love with.

I tried to read Tom Rob Smith's Child 44, but didn't have any luck. I found it depressingly grim and uninteresting, the writing dull and clumsily by-the-numbers, and after a hundred pages or so, I had to toss it.

Right now I'm having a much better time of it with Elizabeth Strout's new book Olive Kitteridge, a set of interlocking short stories that really reads more like a novel, and I'm fairly enthralled so far, don't like to put it down either, just super stuff.

#13 LouisBranning - after you finish Olive Kitteridge you might be interested in this discussion from the Early Reviewers: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=27427

>12 fyrefly98: I heard a Fresh Air interview with Michael Chabon yesterday talking about that book, it might help you to hear that, with a little background. It's on podcast and it's dated 5/23. Or you can go here to their website and listen to it online.

Louis (#13), I picked up the ARC of Beginner's Greek at BookExpo last year, and haven't read it yet. You've inspired me to get to it soon!

fyrefly98 (#12)--I loved The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and would interested to hear how it is as an audio.

I finished Music and Silence by Rose Tremain, and I highly recommend it. Tremain writes beautifully, and the story never goes predictably.

I'm now reading Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road and am thus far enraptured.

Still working on The 19th Wife, because I got distracted by Waiting For Godot. But I am focused now, and plan on finishing it this weekend.

I'm still slumping through B&N's First Look Club Stewart O'Nan's Songs for the Missing.

I'm halfway through If On A Winter's Night a Traveler. Sometimes, I read a book and it is so good that when I finish it I turn right back to the first page and read it through again, immediately. This book, I've been going back and re-reading each chapter as I finish because I love them so much. So it's taking me awhile. Joycepa - in the thread from the week of the 24th you asked me what I thought of the book - I absolutely love it. True, some stories are less interesting than others, but for me, even the less-interesting ones are still interesting. Now I want to go get more Italo Calvino.

After I finally put that book down, I have In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan that I'll need to read because the library won't renew it. Last but not least, I picked up a copy of Three Plays: Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, Private Lives by Noel Coward at the bookstore yesterday, so of course I had to sit down and read Private Lives right away. So funny.

#19 jfetting: I have to admit, it wasn't one of my favorite Calvino books. Still, I'm glad I read it--I thought that, as an experimental book, it was a tour de force.

Yep, Noel Coward is great!

I'm still reading Other Lives The Story of Reincarnation. I'm hoping to have that done this weekend.

I'm also starting Scream for Me by Karen Rose and Death Note Volume 3.

But first I have to go clean my bathroom.

#13 - I loved Olive Kitteridge too. Strout is a master character sketch artist. It is the only early reviewer book I have gotten that has been any good.

I am slogging through The Brothers Karamazov ~ pg 250. I swear I won't give up this time, but unfortunately thus far, I am finding much of it painful.

Thanks for all the comments and recs on the terrific Olive Kitteridge, and did someone mention Noel Coward?? I'm compelled to recommend The Letters of Noel Coward, edited by his erstwhile biographer Barry Day, and certainly one of the funniest, and most amazing things I read last year, a complete lark.

#23: I remember your wonderfully enthusiastic comments on The Letters of Noel Coward, Louis. I often think you're just as much fun to read as the books themselves!

Ah, I remember well the many hours I spent slogging through The Brothers Karamazov! I only finished it because I was reading it for a class and then I donated the book to the library. However, if you haven't already read David James Duncan's book The Brothers K, you might enjoy it more. It treats many of the same themes as the classic with more contemporary tones and with, in my opinion at least, a much more readable style. My apologies to the diehard fans of the great Russian master!

Finished Pretty Birds last night. Excellent. Today I'll begin The Grapes of Wrath, a re-read for me, for book club.

I started Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children last night. Not too far in yet (and it's a long book, 550 pages), but I'm intrigued so far.

ooops! I posted in last weeks so I will post again here... I read The Holistic Health Guide: Natural Care for the Whole Dog , this morning and Now I am on to Aaron's Crossing ( bad touchstone) by Linda Alice Dewey

>25 YeOldeBookLady: Duncan's Brothers K is one of my all-time most favorite books.

I'm taking a break from genocide in Nigeria/Biafra to read The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett today. I need something gentle.

Read in the last few days: Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (my 2nd, and I'll be devouring her entire catalog in short order, I imagine), Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey (surprisingly funny in some places), and Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child.

I read the first two books of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, and while I thought they were pretty good, I'm not finding myself compelled to read the third yet. I started Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett this morning, but it's not really doing much for me yet. We'll see.

Having finished Voyager by Diana Gabaldon today, I'm going to be moving on to the next book in the series, Drums of Autumn. I'm also reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth at the rate of one story per day, so I should be finishing it on Monday. I haven't decided whether I'm going to immediately start on Interpreter of Maladies immediately after that, or if I'm going to give some of Ian McEwan's short stories a try.

>18 thekoolaidmom: I'm still slumping through B&N's First Look Club Stewart O'Nan's Songs for the Missing
Me too; can't seem to get interested in any of the characters, which really surprises me because I loved Manny in Last Night at the Lobster.

On the nonfiction side, I'm finally reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and it's excellent!

I started The 19th Wife last night. So far I'm enjoying it.

I should finish Herodotus this week (I probably said that last week). I finished listening to Bless Me, Ultima, which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. My new book to listen to is The Wonder Spot, by Melissa Bank. I've never heard of the book. So far it is okay. She is reading it herself.

#23 LouisBranning - I've never read The Letters of Noel Coward in it's entirety but I have read snippets. I have, however, read the Guardian's The Digested Read version of Noel Coward's letters, and it is hilarious.

digested read

I suppose now I'll be adding the Letters to my TBR.

#12 fyrefly98 I loved listening to The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I can't imagine anybody else reading it except Peter Reichert (I think that's his name - Borrowed from the library so don't have it here). It took a chapter or two to get used to his voice and accent.

Still slogging through Shades of Glory, my April ER book. Sigh.

For fun and total fluff, I just finished the newest Sookie Stackhouse From Dead to Worse and will wallow around in (dare I admit it?) Blood Noir, Laurell K. Hamilton's 16th Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Novel in which Anita does NOT hunt vampires anymore, unfortunately. I keep saying I'm not going to read any more of her books, but keep hoping that she returns to the way she wrote the first 5 or 6 or so. Futile, perhaps, but one can try.

I finished A Country Year this afternoon and have just started The Sociopath Next Door. I enjoyed A Country Year - it wasn't very exciting but I enjoyed her descriptions of her beekeeping, her dogs, the area she lives in and the people as well. Very good writing.

Am now reading The Battle of the River Plate : The Hunt for the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee by Dudley Pope .

recieved from Amazon and Ebay:
"She" by H. Rider Haggard
Israel Potter by Herman Melville
The Book of Common Dread/a Novel of the Infernal and The Jekyl Island Club by Brent Monahan

#30 I'm starting Good Omens this week too ! We can compare notes in next week's thread . LOL !

#32 I have that too... didn't like it ...

It did not draw me in.... the characters seems shallow.. or hollow or?

Still on volume one of Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative. I swear if money didn't buy books, beer and movies I'd quit work.

Does anyone out there have an opinion on the works of Hannah Arendt that they would care to share?

I never finished Life of Pi, I shouldn't be surprised. I never liked the ship wreck theme which is why I resisted reading such a renowned book for so long (as well as Robinson Crusoe for that matter) but I really enjoyed the first thrird of the book when he was growing up in India in a zoo and exploring religion. Then the ship wreck happened and I hated it!

I've been reading the Sara Donati Wilderness Series recently (to fill the Diana Gabaldon void until the next book is released) I'm up to the third one Lake in the Clouds. I might take a break after this one and read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen next because it's been lent to me by a friend and I don't want to hang on to it too long.

OMG be still my heart - all but one of the touchstones worked!!

I am struggling with America, America by Ethan Canin, an ER book. I've read about 125 pages and it's just not doing anything for me. The plot moves really slowly and I just don't feel invested in the characters.

Not sure I will be able to finish this one . . with so many books on my TBR shelves calling my name.

#41 Smiley: Really is a downer, isn't it, that work/money/book connection? :-)

kiwi, I have never been able to pick up The Life of Pi. It is like it jumps away from me.. lol

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver for an online book club.Also can't get past the last section of Eat, Pray, Love even though it's been pretty enjoyable, just not exactly my thing, I guess. I swear I'll finish it; it's only been a month.

After all the raves of LTers, I started Lush Life by Richard Price last night. Not sure what I think of it yet.

Made some progress this past week on The Life of Thomas More, but I still have a ways to go.

>46 alleycat570: alleycat--I just stayed up late finishing Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin. Have you read that one? It's by far the most haunting book I have read this year. I'll be interested in hearing what you say about The PostBirthday World since I'm wondering if I want to read more of her fiction.

I'm currently reading two for B & N bookgroups. I thought I'd try a literature group besides the First Look book discussion. I'm anxious for the discussions on both of these to start this week.
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
Persuasion by Jane Austen

And also I'm reading A Woman Doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' Diary. This one is not as interesting as I'd hoped. The title is very misleading. Yes, she was a woman doctor, but she did not practice medicine during the American Civil War; instead she helped set up schools for black soldiers and newly freed slaves. And while she was doing this during the Civil War time period, she mentions the war hardly at all. What she did is interesting--just not the topics the title promised. (Don't judge a book by it's title?)

On this day I've been reading from Geza Vermes work The Resurrection: History and Myth. Highly recommended to anyone interested in serious New Testament scholarship of today.

I just finished The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. It was very good, quite moving, and also thought provoking. The choppy structure made this one fall just short of great in my eyes.

I just started Shame by Salman Rushdie.

I've just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and started The Wives of Bath by Wendy Holden.

I can certainly see why everyone I know who has read the Rothfuss book likes it so much. The writing and storytelling is significantly better than a lot of the stuff that's come out in the last few years. I've gotten a good sense of the time and place of the story, as well as a good idea of the type of person each of the introduced characters is. And there wasn't a puerile need to sprinkle the "f" word into every other bit of dialog - for which I never thought I'd be so profoundly grateful (and this coming from the woman who can loose a stream of invectives, when pushed far enough into anger, that would make a sailor blush.)

Everyone I know who has read the book thinks it is "bloody excellent." This made me very nervous. Everyone I know who read WoT also thought it was excellent and I found it to be an egregious waste of wood pulp. Everyone I know who has read the Scott Lynch books think they are excellent as well but I am quite ambivalent about them. They are well written, but I don't like the story, the characters, or the voice the story is written in.

I really hope the quality of writing and storytelling in The Name of the Wind holds up for the rest of the story. I'm actually looking forward to the second book.

I finished up Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher and The Crimson Portrait this weekend. Both books, while very different, earned four-star ratings from me. Good reads.

Next up is my ER copy of America America by Ethan Canin, but Cariola's comment above has me concerned!

#53 Most of the reviewers have loved it so far, so maybe it's just me. It's well written but slow as molasses.

Finished (The Book of Air and Shadows) by Michael Gruber.
Reading (My Dearest Friend) Letters of Abigail and John Adams. It is fun to read. The letters are the original and somtimes are hard to decipher the colloquialisms. The had such a great relationship.

Today I started Under the Skin by Michel Faber, picked up after seeing it mentioned on a few threads lately. (And in conjunction with Never Let Me Go, no less--now that's convincing. :) It's creepy and enigmatic, and the pieces are starting to fall into place--loving it!

Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I know it's been made into a movie, but I wanted to read the book first. It's by the same man who co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett, which my friends are bothering me to read. Great so far.

I finished Slaughterhouse-five, and I'm still not quite sure what I think of it. I expected a book that made me think, but it was kind of hard to read all through, I kept trying to figure out what was going on and never felt like I had a handle on the story (I suppose that was part of the point, but I kind of found it frustrating).

Also, continuing with the Tsubasa series, I've read through volume 8 now and am impatiently waiting a trip to the library this week to get more.

Because Tsubasa is always referring back to earlier series, I also read Cardcaptor Sakura, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

I reread Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones today, and have started Castle in the Air. I read both books about a year ago and wanted to remind myself of the story before the next book in the series comes out on June 10th.

I'm still reading Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. I've also started The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones and I'm listening to The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. That last is also a reread, as I won't have time to read the entire series before I get The Battle of the Labyrinth from the library (I'm in line).

I just finished Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I learned a lot about Abraham Lincoln and the members of his cabinet and just how shrewd a politician Lincoln actually was -- and how great a man. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

I just started reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Enjoying the author's style.

#58 bell7 I had to run over and add Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air to my BookMooch wishlist. I already have Word Freak on it.

The wishlist that grows with Miraclegro!

Just started A Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs and am enjoying it. I also have Joann Sfar's latest graphic novel The Rabbi's Cat 2 which for some reason doesn't come in the touchstones-even with the dreaded red letters

I just finished The Wishing Year by Noelle Oxenhandler, which was an early reviewer book. I liked it a lot but didn't fall in love with it. I posted my review if anyone's interested.

Tonight, I will crack open The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Everything I've heard about it has been good, so we'll see...

Regarding the other posts on Life of Pi, I just gave my copy away last week. I'd held onto for so long thinking I SHOULD read it. But I can't stand the solitary shipwreck/animals being eaten theme either. I absolutely hated the movie Castaway, so I thought, "Why do I think I would like this book? Life is too short! (and the tbr list is already too long)!!

I just finished Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons which I devoured. Not as heartwrenching as The Bronze Horseman, but a good read. I am now starting The Secret by Julie Garwood.

This weekend, I started Michael Romkey's I, Vampire for my takeout reading. It's one of my books that I bought over ten years ago but haven't gotten around to reading yet... so far it's okay. =)

I've just started the merchant's mark as I'm in love with the Gil cunningham series. Still ploughing through the victorians for my non-fiction.
I also got the book of lost things and a murder mystery set in ancient Egypt from the library at the weekend so I might dip into these at some point.

Yesterday I started an ARC, Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek. It is a first novel by a woman who has written a book of poetry and articles for literary journals..
It will be a quick read, and so far is quite good!

>58 bell7: I started reading Cardcaptor Sakura after starting the Tsubasa series for the same reason. Good thing is they're both wonderful manga series! I've also read Tokyo Babylon and a bit of RG Veda because they are also tie ins you come across in the series.

This weekend I gave up on Scream for Me by Karen Rose and the Death Note series because they were both too disturbing for me. Yes, I am a whimp. I dug Holy Smokes by Katie MacAlister out of my tbr pile to read instead because I felt I needed something lighter.

I'm reading The Book on the Bookshelf by Petroski for my Dewey Decimal Challenge.

It was definitely written by an engineer. He takes an entire chapter to describe what a bookshelf is. Uh huh.

I didn't know if I could finish it after that slow start, but once he started on the history of the book, it got much better.

In the middle of Gob's Grief by Chris Adrian, a masterful first novel (how could it not be, with Walt Whitman as a main character!)

I've also just begun Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris, a sendup of modern cubical life in an advertising agency that a friend has just passed on to me.

My past few books have been less than satisfying so I'm trying Atonement by Ian McEwan. Let's hope that works!

I finished Songs for the Missing last night. It was, erm.. good, I guess. Sad, definately sad. I can tell I read too much King and Coben, because I kept waiting for the Dad to have done it, or her ghost to tell them where to find her.

Starting Lisey's Story next. Other than it's written by Stephen King, I know nothing about the book.

#71 - nancyewhite: I think I've praised Atonement in at least three different threads on here! I found it to be a beautifully written and emotionally powerful novel - let me know what you think after you finish reading it!

#72 - thekoolaidmom: Let me know how you like Lisey's Story. I'm sure I'll end up reading it eventually, simply because I never turn down anything by Stephen King, but I'd love to get someone else's opinion.

#71: I seccond what coloradogirl14 said! In just finished this book today and loved it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Started reading The World According to Garp by John Irving, I have barely cracked it open, but so far it seems like a good read.

Finished my ARC The 19th Wife, which I quite enjoyed, and am now reading Mort which I love. Pratchett can do no wrong. But I'm still sad about my books being so far away - it's screwing up my reading schedule!

It's Alan Furst time! I'm getting ready to crack open The Spies of Warsaw which is his tenth and latest novel, I think. He writes historical espionage, usually WWII related. His writing style is spare and clipped but I've always enjoyed his books.

I'm also reading Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser which won the Pulitzer in 1997.

I'm about halfway through Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce. It's all right so far, but it isn't exactly blowing me out of the water. I'm finding it hard not to compare it to Mercedes Lackey, who I think does a better job the whole "scared, unwanted child who finds friends" plot. Still, it's entertaining enough.

I just finished listening to Survival of the Fittest by Jonathan Kellerman and have started listening to Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.

#76- Alan Furst has a new book out? I'll have to find it! I love his work.

#76, VisibleGhost: Martin Dressler is an exceptional novel, more than deserving of its Pulitzer, and hope you find it as wonderful as I did.

I'm half-way through Oakley Hall's Warlock (New York Review Books Classics), and I'm so taken with it so far that I've been toting the book with me everywhere so I can read at any spare moment that presents itself during the day, even, though irresponsible as it might be, during red lights on my commute home in the late afternoon. Vivid characters, descriptions, you name it, it's all here. And I'm getting the feeling that something really bad is going to happen by the time this thing ends.

I finished Guy Gavriel Kay's Lord of Emperors tonight. Next up should be Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, since it needs to get back to the library, but I just read a pop-sci science of sex book, plus my ARC of J. Scott Savage's Farworld: Water Keep just came in the mail today, and it's calling my name pretty loudly.

I am just leaving the book convention. I picked up lots of books. I think I will start either Dear American Airlines or The Story of a Marriage by the pool in sunny LA. Head back to Milwaukee tomorrow.

Is there anyone else on this thread who was at Book Expo? Maybe I should start another one for us to list our favorite finds from the floor.

Finished The Risk Pool by Richard Russo this afternoon. Just started In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. For short stories, I'm on Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Stories are sharp and tight.

#81: Sean, you already know how much I admire Oakley Hall's Warlock, and am always envious of anyone reading it the first time. If you weren't aware, Oakley Hall just passed away on May 12 at age 87, and his former student Michael Chabon wrote what I thought was a very insightful appreciation of his work, particularly praising the legendary Warlock. But of all the things ever written about it, I think it was probably Thomas Pynchon's original rave review of it that really brought it to the literary world's attention, Pynchon calling it "an agonized epic", and "one of our best American novels", high praise indeed and I couldn't have said it better.

I finished Elizabeth Strout's marvelous book Olive Kitteridge and loved it right down to the end, and will be recommending this one for a long time. Right now I'm 50-plus pages into Andre Dubus's The Garden of Last Days and have been knocked speechless so far, wow.

#7 thekeepa, I adore Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts, an amazing book which is probably due for a reread. (Also its sequel, Between the Woods and the Water, and we Fermor fans are still hoping he will write the final volume which will take him all the way to Constantinople.) Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

While I was away, I finished Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. Despite the great praise it has received (and its huge sales in China), I was disappointed. On one level, it paints a vivid picture of an exotic, vanished world, and includes some dramatic scenes; on the other hand, it often reads more like a textbook than a novel: it is very didactic, the characters have no depth, and after a while it becomes very predictable, if not repetitive. I pretty much skimmed the last 200 pages just to find out what happened.

I finished both The Leper Compound and Alive in Necropolis yesterday, I've got reviews waiting in the wings.
Last night I started Songs for the Missing for the B&N First Look book club and Springtime on Mars because I'm a stop on Susan Woodring's blog tour on June 9th.

#85: Louis, the thing that strikes me about Hall’s writing as I’m reading is this consistent, grand combination of deep, but swift moving prose. Page after page cuts a trail that keeps me reading longer than I should since I impatiently want to see where it finally ends up. For instance, I stayed up way too late last night reading, promising myself I would quit after one section, and then moving on to the next. And you know, I'm getting the feeling that the good guys may not be so good and the bad guys not so bad. I'll find out soon enough since I'm blazing through page after page.

I polished off The Wives of Bath by Wendy Holden yesterday and I'm about to start The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie.

I'm about halfway through Something Wicked This Way Comes, and I cannot describe how much I'm in love with it! It's absolutely beautiful. I was thinking of rereading either Meg or The Loch by Steve Alten, but I might have to reread Fahrenheit 451 instead! (I read F451 for one of my high school English classes, and I don't think I was really able to appreciate it.)

Something Wicked This Way Comes... I love that story as well.. have you read Dandelion Wine?

>61 thekoolaidmom:, thekoolaidmom - I'd love to know what you think of Howl's Moving Castle and The Castle in the Air when you're finished. I've enjoyed almost every novel I've read by Diana Wynne Jones, and I can't wait 'til my hold on House of Many Ways comes in (yes, I'm that cheap - most of the books I read are from the library).

>68 Jenson_AKA_DL:, Jenson_AKA_DL - Do you have any recommendations of what to read when I've finished Tsubasa? I haven't read much manga besides this and the Fruits Basket series, so I'm kind of stumped where to go next. I'm thinking of trying xxxholic because it crosses over with the Tsubasa series as well.

An update on my current reading -- finished Castle in the Air and read The Opera House Murders today. I probably won't continue that series because I don't tend to pick up mysteries. I mainly read it to get a sense of the variety of genres in manga. Still reading Word Freak and The Homeward Bounders, which will probably keep my going 'til the end of the week.

bell-I'd definitely recommend reading xxxholic. I'm reading them at the same time and there is a lot of crossover with the stories. It becomes more important the further you go in the series because events in both are happening simultaneously. Plus, you get to see a totally different side of the dimensional witch :-) She's quite the character.

As for other series outside of the Clamp universe my personal favorites are Her Majesty's Dog, which is an urban fantasy, and Ouran High School Host Club, which is a contemporary, silly, romantic sort of a series.

Thanks to a post claimary made elsewhere.. I pulled The Pillars of the Earth from my TBR pile and began it today. It already feels like a comfy old sweatshirt of a read ( that is a good thing) .. and I don't remember ever reading any of
Ken Follett before..

I am rereading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, which I adore.

>94 mckait:, mckait, what a great description for Pillars of the Earth! I think you'll find it comfier as you read it!

I myself have finally gotten the guts to pick up another weighty novel, The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George. Despite having to awkwardly stuff it in my gym bag and the fact that it wakes me up when it falls off my bed in the middle of the night, it is moving along very quickly. Henry VIII is really an amazing character, to the point that it would be unbelievable if it weren't true!

I just started Pillars of the Earth as well, although as an audiobook. So far, so good.

I'm still working on The Shadow Of The Wind which I'm really enjoying, it's just taking me longer than I thought it would to finish it.

I also just finished The Mother Tongue, English And How It Got That Way and I also started How To Make An American Quilt, my first Go Review That Book! read.

I just finished the sociopath next door and am moving on to The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl which is a collection of short stories. I found this book in the adult short story section but it appears that it may be suitable for either YA as well or even younger. I am interested to find out.

Finally finished The Quincunx by Charles Palliser - yay me!!! I know a lot of people really love this book - I didn't actually HATE it, just thought it could have been wrapped-up sooner...

Finished The Arcanum by Thomas Wheeler yesterday: cool premise - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, Harry Houdini and voodoo priestess Marie Laveau are part of a secret society known as the Arcanum - they assemble mythological objects (or at least objects believed lost for centuries) and pool their knowledge in order to solve a rash of murders in NYC in 1919... Ended up a bit far-fetched but kept my interest throughout...

Now onto some way lighter reading: Chances by Jackie Collins ... :)

#99 Hi bookaholicgirl. I read the Sociopath next door and found it very interesting.

Just started Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.

I'm halfway through Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing and it is an amazingly transformative novel. Hard to believe it was her first novel and that it was written in the 50's. I'm loving it.

Finally finished Legends! I enjoyed all stories, but there's just one I would follow up on by reading the series and that was Ann McCaffrey's Runners of Pern.

Now on with Lady Chatterley's Lover and Player Piano, both of which I enjoy and want to finish before I leave for vacation next week. (I picked out 8 books to take with me on a 15 day vacation...am I out of control?)

>99 bookaholicgirl: bookaholicgirl - I'm surprised The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar was listed as adults... I first read it when I was about 10 or so. Not that it wouldn't be enjoyable for adults, but it's definitely typically listed as young adult. I typically re-read about half of the stories in there, and skip the other half - I'd be interested to hear what you think.

#91 - mckait: I haven't actually read Dandelion Wine, but a couple of years ago, I attended a Ray Bradbury storytelling festival, and one of the storytellers retold an excerpt from Dandelion Wine, which was amazing! That storytelling festival was actually why I started reading Something Wicked This Way Comes - one of the storytellers re-enacted an excerpt from the book, and I fell in love with it.

I am still reading the double by jose saramgo and the story has finally picked up - 200 pages in.

Still busy with Dune from F. Herbert, not really making progress because I've had so much other things to do. Still lingering around the 160eth page somewhere. Also I've started reading The book of five rings by Miyamoto Mushashi who was a samurai warrior around 1640 A.D. if I remember correctly. Very interresting book.

Finished Mort last night, which I loved as much as I expected, and am now reading A Short History Of Nearly Everything, and feel like I'm getting very smart.

Dude, seriously, the universe is HUGE.

I started Saving the World: A Guide to Heroes yesterday. I've found some of the essays really good, but I think the authors haven't quite gone deep enough in others.

Have finished Socialism is Great! which was Great! and have started The Birth House by Ami MacKay. It joins several other books I have in progress including: Leaving Yuba City and The Anatomy Theater (both poetry), Love of Fat Men (short stories, the book kept in the car for emergencies), and The Cricket Beneath the Waterfall (also short stories).

I just read Kushiel's Mercy in less than one day and really, really loved it. Great wrap-up to the Kushiel's Legacy series. Up next is probably Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks and John Adams by David McCullough.

Like a few others here, I'm reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. So far it's an enjoyable and quick read (even if it's over 900 pages), but I'm finding it's not living up to the high expectations I had from reading reviews about the book. The story is interesting, the plot well thought out and the characters fairly compelling, but the writing is a bit workmanlike. It's a good summer read, though.

In the last couple of days, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood and The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson. I was a bit disappointed with both, actually.

Still working on Good Omens, bit by bit. I have to be in the mood for it to enjoy the spirit of it.

I'm in a Diana Wynne Jones shtick this week, reading Charmed Life, Howl's Moving Castle, and as I'm almost finished with Howl, Castle in the Air.
Also Beauty: a retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley...though technically, I finished that last night.
And I'm still rereading Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, that's one of the books I leave in the car to read when I'm not driving or get held up, etc. I'll prolly be reading it all summer.
And that's it

I was sitting in the waiting room at the car dealership while they managed to do $700 worth of car repairs............laughing out loud over Shame by Salman Rushdie. He is such a fabulous writer, able to interject such wit while dealing with powerful themes. Wow!

I just finished The Secret by Julie Garwood, I love her Scottish medievals, and now I'm about to begin Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon.

#115 reliquinshedworm - glad to hear Daughter of the Forest is such a favorite, it's been on my TBR list for a long time and I'm finally going to be reading it soon.

I finished The Sittaford Mystery last night and I started The Secret of Chimneys this morning. Both books are by Agatha Christie.

Yeah, exactly what #113 said...

I started Through A Brazen Mirror by Delia Sherman this morning. I'm not far enough in to say for sure, but it seems good so far.

Finished Bonk last night, and really enjoyed it (review here). I understand better now why I didn't get it as an ER book - at the time I was kind of surprised, because I've got a ton of pop-sci books about sex in my library, but all of them are books about animal sex, not people sex.

I tried to start J. Scott Savage's Farworld: Water Keep last night, but got through about three sentences before I was interrupted by visitors, so I'll be re-starting it tonight.

I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (I have no idea why I haven't read this before) and really like it.

Now I have moved on to Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever by Joel Derfner. I must admit that I bought it mostly because of the title. I has turned out to be a pretty fun memoir. I'll probably finish it tonight.

Next up: Maybe American Gods. It has been recommended multiple times.

I've started The Enchanted April, which has been in my TBR pile for a long time, thanks to a lot of LT encouragement. After a lot of long, heavy books, it's time for something lighter.

#105 - I am not sure why it was there either. They don't have a very big section dedicated to just YA titles so they may have put it in the short story section for space reasons. The dedication reads "This book is dedicated with affection and sympathy to all young people (including my own son and three daughters) who are going through that long and difficult metamorphosis when they are no longer children and have not yet become adults." So definitely intended to be YA.

So far I have read the first three stories and am currently working on The Swan. I liked the first one, loved the second one, wasn't crazy about the third one. So far, I find The Swan disturbing and really hate the two boys in it and am interested to find out the ending. I think I should finish the book tomorrow or Saturday at the latest.

Which ones were your favorites?

I only just finished Andre Dubus's The Garden of Last Days and can't recommend it enough. And yes, there'll be those who call it manipulative, or maybe just too down-and-dirty for their personal taste, but I don't think any reader who's hungry for a great story will be able to put this powerhouse of a novel down until the last page, and it's another addition to my Favorite books of the year list, a killer of a novel.

One of the books I'm currently reading is The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco. I'm about 90 pages into it, and find it superb. It's about a 60 year old man who awakes from an unspecified accident to discover that he can remember every line of every book he has ever read--but has no idea what his name is, what his past is, doesn't recognize his wife or daughters. He also doesn't understand emotions except what he's read of them, sensations except descriptions. In other words, he's lost his personal self.

I'm sure it's not the first time this subject has been treated, but Eco makes it so utterly personal, really exploring what it means to someone who past is gone. It's also really funny--some of the exchanges between Eco and his wife are hysterical.

The book is labeled as "an illustrated novel", and so it is, but I don't think one would call it a "graphic novel". There are illustrations but they're not comic book style.

This is a real tour de force so far.

I finished Something Wicked This Way Comes this afternoon, and I thought it was brilliant! I also checked out a few more books from the library today, but right now, I'm rereading Congo by Michael Crichton - one of my favorites! After Congo, I plan on reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, and The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton.

#124 My bet is you're going to cry about the book

RcCarol, congrats on Herodotus. I started The Histories years ago and really have to get back into it.

Right now I'm reading Dead Souls by Gogol. I'm also listening to The Bible in the car.

I finished reading The Life of Thomas More this afternoon. Now I'm getting started reading Twelfth Night.

#126 > I thought the book was marvelous!

>124 bookaholicgirl: bookaholicgirl

I love "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" and "The Hitch-hiker", I like "The Boy Who Talked to Animals" and "The Mildenhall Treasure", and the other three I didn't really care for and rarely re-read.

I'm trying to work my way little by little through the too huge stack of old magazines sitting in my office closet. Right now I'm reading through the New Yorker fiction issue from December 1999/January 2000. It has stories by Robert Stone, Alice Munro, Victor Erofeyev, Donald Antrim and Zadie Smith, among a few others.

I just finished Three Plays: Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, and Private Lives by Noel Coward. Currently I'm about halfway through Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm, the illustrated version with the author's own sketches. Also, The Inimitable Jeeves was so funny that I am also halfway through Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves. Poor Beerbohm. My opinion of his book is suffering, I think, by the comparison to Coward and Wodehouse. Not fair to anyone, really.

edited to correct my poor grammar and spelling

#127 coloradogirl14
I loved Congo...that was a really good book...Red Dragon is good and scary too!!

I'm reading Debs at War by Anne de Courcy. It's very engaging and gives a lot of good cultural-history type details about the lives of upper-class girls in World War II and the way they absolutely flung themselves into voluntary services and other kinds of work.

I finished Songs for the Missing but am still working on Springtime on Mars and started Sandra Clayton's Dolphins Under My Bed which is very well-written so far.

#135 - Allie64

I'm really looking forward to starting Red Dragon. I've already read Silence of the Lambs, so I decided I should probably read the rest of the series, preferably in order. Although I've heard that Hannibal Rising really stinks. Has anyone here read it?

I'm halfway through Sarah Waters' Fingersmith, and the good things I've heard about it are all true.

I started Regeneration by Pat Barker, and despite only having read about 20 pages, the characters have already wormed their ways into my head and I'm really looking forward to reading some more of it over the weekend!

I just finished Twelfth Night, and at speed (just over a day). The next book I actually read will go on tomorrow's list. But in the meantime, I've been knitting from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.

I'm almost finished with Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. I'd read a couple of her books previous to this and hadn't been too impressed, but I'm getting a kick out of this one. I'll certainly be reading the next volume in the series, at the very least.

#136 coloradogirl14....
I did read Hannibal Rising too...I didn't like it as much...I am a BIG fan of Silence of he Lambs...and Red Dragon is just as good! Have fun reading!

93: Jenson_AKA_DL -- Thanks, I'll make sure to check those out too. I've enjoyed most of the manga I've read so far, but the sheer number of series is pretty overwhelming, I hardly know where to start.