What You're Reading the Week of 5 July 2008

I finished George Pelecanos's Drama City , I shall be looking for more; unlike my next read which was Michael Connelly's Crime Beat a truly unsatisfying agglomeration of his newspaper articles from the 1980s, repetitive, and boring. The first book that I have abandoned this year.

A switch to Peter Robinson's Friend of the Devil restored my faith in crime writers though; delightful. And I've just started Wilbur Smith's The Quest, except it's so long since I read the previous books in the series that I'm struggling with the story line.

I'm about 100 pages from the end of Nam Le's The Boat. It's amazingly written, and most of the stories are vignettes. Each story is written with a different voice. He's an awesome writer, and I look forward to reading more from him!

After that, I've got to read some of my review books. I've been lazy about them. Dough by Mort Zachter is from HarperCollins First look, so I want to hurry up and get it done.

I finished Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley and I've started Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs.

I'm reading A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller. I was really looking forward to reading it, it comes highly recommended here on LT, but I can't seem to get a grip on it.

About half way through The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. It's complicated but very well written.

Still reading David Copperfield
and
Three chapters of To kill a Mockingbird (in Norwegian: Drep ikke en sangfugl)

I recently returned from vacation; I didn't have tons of time to read, but I did enjoy An Equal Music and start Possession. I'm more than halfway through it and it's quite enjoyable.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Persuasion and hope to start Wuthering Heights in the next couple of days.

I also found a copy of The Night Life of the Gods that looks hilarious, so I'll probably start that soon, too.

In the spirit of the holiday I actually started reading Beaches last night.

Up next will probably be I Was Told There'd Be Cake or Chasing Harry Winston.

I have started a personal challenge to read books that have won or were nominated for The Orange Prize this month (what I affectionately call my Orange July). I just finished Half of a Yellow Sun - a fantastic book - and will start The Gathering by Anne Enright later today.

starting on Something Borrowed tonight - a sequel to Never The Bride which I loved when I read it last year.

I finished My Stroke of Insight last night and now need to return to all my started up books. I will probably finish Merle's Door today and try to finish Invader this week end.

I just finished Change of Heart, the new Jodi Picoult, last night. While I did enjoy it, I can't say that it really held any surprises either in the ending nor in the basic plot. Still, it was enjoyable. I have just started When We Were Orphans and am only one chapter into it but am enjoying it so far. I think I read The Remains of the Day but I can't quite remember if I actually did or am thinking of the movie.

*waves at mrstreme and maggie*

I'm reading Infected by Scott Sigler, Lucifer Jones by Mike Resnick, and Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stores by Agatha Christie.

Infected is interesting and a quick read. The jury is still out on Lucifer Jones, but it's quite funny in places. And, of course, Miss Marple is always a fun to read. It's been several weeks since I had three books going at one time.

Dragonfly in Amber is sitting on the top of my TBR pile. I really want to read it so I can get on with the series, but I'm struggling with it. I put it aside to finish the others. I'll get back to it soon.

The Changer of Days by Alma Alexander

*waves back at GeorgiaDawn*

=)

#13 - bookaholicgirl - I felt the same way about Change of Heart - a good book but predictable.

I finished Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs and I'm about to start the Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson.

I'm just about to start the Golden Compass.

I'm reading Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell, but I might have to take a break from it and read something more "fun" for a while today.

Today I'll be reading "The History of Krakatuk" by Ernst T. W. Hoffman from the Modern Library volume Great German Short Novels and Stories (ML 108).

I have several books in progress but I have been most enamored of Kelroy by Rebecca Rush. Published in 1812 and set in Philadelphia, the story is one of love, money, marriage and high society. The prose is a bit pretentious and, of course, lacks the wit of Austen but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

Yesterday I started "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" which is quite interesting so far. Gotta love pre-DNA detectives!

I just finished By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, which was excellent. I had started Amsterdam by Ian McEwan earlier in the week, so I'll finish it today. I'll probably start Netherland by Joseph O'Neill after that.

Finished Pyramids, and two more of The Boys comic series, and am currently enjoying Fragrant Harbor.

This week just hasn't been long enough around my house....too many books to read and not enough time to read them. My trip to the library landed me with most of the Covington series by Joan Medlicott. I'm about half way through the first book and am really enjoying it. I still pass by Dragonfly in Amber (only partially read) in my TBR pile and really wish that I could get into...I will try again soon I suppose

Finished Saints at the River by Ron Rash last night. Excellent book. Leaves you with a lot to think about.

Today, I started Two Harbors by Kate Benson. The author jumps around a lot in the beginning, but I'm still hanging in there because the plot sounds very interesting.

Finished A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park and Mainspring by Jay Lake. Just in time, too, since I got taken on a spree to get four MORE books!

A Princess of Roumania I feel the need to review in some depth, but later for that. The quick-n-dirty is that the man is a talented writer, the idea is a solid and well-crafted one, and if I had not been gifted with this book and its sequel The Tourmaline I doubt I would have bought the first one or even finished it had I been tempted into buying it somehow. This is NOT A BAD BOOK! It's very good! It's just, for some reason, not my cuppa.

Mainspring is a completely different kettle of steampunk'd fish. Writing excellent, plot delightful, lack of surprises absent...all my pet peeves absent. Again, later for the longer review. If you have never read any alternate history, and you are a reader who likes adventure stories, coming-of-age tales about boys, and characters whose emotional lives are shown and not told, run out and buy this book.

Seriously. Go now. Scoot!

Currently reading: Chosen Soldier by Dick Couch; Epic by John Eldredge, and The Great Trek by Zane Grey.

Just finished reading two novels by David Morrell (great writer, try him): Creepers and Scavenger. Also read a novel by Robert Parker, Appaloosa. One heavier book was A Third Testament by Malcolm Muggeridge.

Finn by Jon Clinch, which is the story of Huck Finn's father, and The Magus by John Fowles. Actually, I'll probably read In The Country of Brooklyn before The Magus because I need to review it if I ever want to get another ER book.

I'm starting on my Go Review That Book! selection which is the Robin McKinley Collection consisting of three separate books. My first of the set will be The Blue Sword. I plan on breaking these up with other books between the three.

I'm enjoying Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.

I'm at the beginning of King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild.

I finished House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones and have also continued the xxxholic series through volume 11.

Still reading A Champion's Mind, and I'm going to go now to read Her Majesty's Dog Vol. 7. The jury's still out on what I will pick up next (because I can never read one book at a time, of course), but it will most likely be the Go Review That Book! selection The Solitary Envoy or Gideon the Cutpurse.

I just finished reading In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway and started Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

Today I finished Interpreter of Maladies which is very good and Brave New World. I think I will start on The Lovely Bones tonight.

Chapter 12 of The Fallen Angels & Chapter 6 of Believe by Victoria Alexander.

Just about to start reading Black Ships by Jo Graham.

Reading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel. Brilliant.

Still working on The First Elizabeth.

bell7: How was House of Many Ways? I have been debating buying that book, since I like Diana Wynne Jones, but I want it to be absolutely fantastic (like Howl's Moving Castle) for me to run out and get it right away.

Right now I'm almost done with Jane Eyre. I don't want it to end! I've also got The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, God's Demon, and Neverwhere on the side.

Just finished It's Our Ship: The No-Nonsense Guide to Leadership by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. Leadership and management are hot topics, with everyone taking their own unique angle to say the same thing. This is a good one. Now moving on to The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Trying to hold off before reading Lean Mean Thirteen.

I'm halfway into Darconville's Cat by Alexander Theroux. What a work of smart. It's as though Ezra Pound fell in love with Daisy Mae Duke and wrote letters about the whole sad affair to Djuna Barnes who then used the material for a novel to be called, of course, Dogwood! I find it fun to read long passages aloud - usually the chapters concerning faculty meetings, proms, and other group scenes. And it doesn't seem to disturb my wife's sleep, and even helps with her apnea.

I've finished The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson and I'm starting The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler next.

Breach of Faith by Joe Horne
This is probably the best book I've read thus far on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans.

I finally finished Oscar and Lucinda and am thoroughly enjoying Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

29: jfetting Finn showed up at my door a few weeks back and I have no idea . I had not mooched it. I had not purchased it, and it was not sent by a marketer or publisher for me to review.

I assumed that since it was there , I should read it, but I just couldn't get into it and mooched it away.

I am reading The Safety of Secrets by DeLaune Michel. Oddly, this is a book that I have no idea why it was sent me, HC sent me a reminder to review it. I replied, telling them I was never sent the book, and in a few days it showed up.

hmm

Its chic lit, but entertaining enough. Haven't read much. Still struggling to get rid of the dregs of migraine.

Late night getting everything done yesterday, so by the time I was ready to sit and read, I only had time for 3 chapters of Persuasion. It killed me, however, because I'm just getting to where things are coming together, but I was nodding over it and thought it better to put it up.

I just got a copy of Spindle's End by Robin McKinley that I may read along with Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh after I finish the Austen. Just to break things up before diving back into the classics. I'll see how I feel once I finish Persuasion.

I've started The Power Makers by Maury Klein. It's quite interesting so far. I think I'm going to also pick up some light fiction to counterbalance the detailed and serious nature of it. I just love picking the next book!

Orientalism by Edward Said.

Currently reading My Sister My Love by Joyce Carol Oates. She takes the Jon Benet murder case of a few years back, fictionalizes it, satirizes it, runs with it. Not that you want to satirize something so awful as the murder of a beautiful child, but here Oates strips away the glossy surfaces of the dysfunctional family that surrounds the child, told through the voice of the child's older brother.

I had started this one, but it got put aside during my recent move and it has just been unearthed so I'm starting again on The Village of Bom Jesus by Lloyd E. Hill.

>40 SpiraledStar: SpiraledStar, I enjoyed House of Many Ways. It was humorous and a quick read, but for some reason I just didn't like it quite as much as Howl's Moving Castle. Maybe it's just because it's impossible for a sequel to live up to the original, or maybe I rushed through the end too fast. I'm not really sure why I reacted exactly the way I did. Definitely worth reading, though.

I chose Gideon the Cutpurse for my next read after I finished Her Majesty's Dog Vol. 7 last night. For some reason, I also didn't like that volume quite as well as the others in the series so far.

Maybe I'm just in a bad book mood? (OT: Does anybody else ever go through a spurt of just not being quite satisfied with the books you read? Is it me, or is it the books? Sometimes I feel like I'm not being just to good books by not liking them as much as I should...)

Just started David Sedaris' When you are Engulfed in Flames. What a great weekend read.

Over the weekend I've been reading Tim Robinson's 2006 Irish Non Fiction Book of the Year, Connemara Listening to the Wind. IMOHO Robinson is Ireland's greatest living non fiction writer, and just like his other books, Connemara is rich, rich in language, rich in material and rich in the ability to convey a sense of the wonder of a place. One of those rare books whereby you savor every sentence.

Finished Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais on Friday; about halfway through Jhegaala by Steven Brust.

#50, rubberstamper: I finished JCO's My Sister, My Love the other day and was completely enthralled all the way, undoubtedly one of her best novels, and why hasn't this brilliant woman gotten the Nobel Prize yet?

Still reading Harry Potter, but I also got this book from my friend for my birthday called The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins. It looks to be a great book from the reviews, but I was just wondering if any of you had read this book and what you thought of it.

>42 Ganeshaka: Ganeshaka, what a bunch of quotable quotes! "Work of smart" I have now appropriated for later use, and I predict it will become common currency. The image of Darconville's Cat being used as an apnea cure...priceless. And your description has caused me to go to amazon.com and put this book on my next delivery, to the annoyed disgust of my living-quarters-sharer.

>46 mckait: mckait, sounds like the Universe and Harper Collins are in cahoots with this one...and feel better from the migraine already. Makes me want to ship you some Imitrex.

>51 varielle: varielle, have lots of fun reading The Village of Bom Jesus and please let us all know how it went!

>52 bell7: bell7, it's not just you and it's not the books (necessarily). It's just a bad book mood. I've found that, when it's happened to me, it's a sign that the perfectly pleasant, ordinary books I'm reading need to be nightstanded and I go looking for something someone told me was extraordinarily wonderful. If it IS, I win! If it ISN'T then I have a lightning rod for my book-based ill humor. Either way, the mood is broken.

I don't tend to keep or catalog books I just did not like, and seldom want to bring them up, but if you'd like something to snort derisively at, something to make you want to write a letter of protest to the publisher for killing those trees to manufacture, something that will cause you to seek ways to attach the writer's bank account to recover some of the advnace to cover your nausea medicine prescription, might I suggest Special Topics in Calamity Physics? Unparalleled in sheer awfulness.

I just finished The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Some interesting parts but not my favourite book. I have started Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski and am really enjoying it. I am also starting The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly.

I finished Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann and enjoyed it. The sheep POV was very well done - not cutesy at all.

I am debating whether to start The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox, an almost 700 page whopper for a local book group due in 11 days or try to sneak in a book of my own:

Lean Mean 13 by Janet Evanovich, Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear, Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon, or Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett

Normally, with over 11 days I would read both mine and the book group one. But the book group one is set in the Victorian period, and if its written in an old fashioned manner it will take me forever.

Anyone have any info on The Meaning of Night? Is it well written, or a slog ? Does it try to be 'Victorian' or is it modern ?

I'm reading The Princes of Ireland, a longish one that is holding my interest so far. I'm waiting for my wife to finish I Shall Not Want, the most recent Clare Fergusson mystery, and will probably jump to that as soon as she's done.

I just finished reading The Boat by Nam Le. He is an exceptional writer; his stories have a reality to them as if you were watching them via spycam. My review is In the Shadow of Mt. TBR.

Now I'm starting Dough by Mort Zachter. It's interesting so far; I'm about 3 chapters in. I love the Jewish writer's voice. It's been a while since I've read any.

>60 FicusFan: FicusFan, The Meaning of Night is Victorian in style (expect discursive asides, recursive allusions, and all the rest) but I for one found it enthralling. It even caught and held the interest of my dirt-bike-ridin' S.O. who scorns things he calls "eggheaded." FWIW, it was more than an 11-day read for me, but I am a schizobibliomaniac/polybibliovore/book slut.

edited/typo

#60 - Personal opinion- The Meaning of Night is not quite a complete Victorian reproduction like The Quincunx is. If you have an interest in antiquarian books the Cox book has that element for appeal. The writing style didn't seem difficult. I liked Meaning but Quincunx drove me kinda nuts. I lost track, but the protagonist in Q came within thirty seconds of losing his life about 167 times.

I just finished reading The Children of Gebelaawi by Nahguib Mahfouz and now I'm on to an old copy of Winnie-The-Pooh I picked up in a church basement sale. I wish I had read it when I was a boy.

Thanks for input everyone.

No I hate reproduction/actual period books or those written like it.

Not my choice obviously.

I'm close to finishing Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. My review is here: http://readerville.wordpress.com

Next up: An ARC of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Meaning of Night was pretty good overall, and though I thought it sagged a bit in the middle section, it was reasonably entertaining, but not anything I'd rush to recommend to anyone.

Yesterday I finished Sarah's Key by Tatiana do Rosnay (an Early Reviewer book, my first through Library Thing!) and started rereading Jane Austen: A Life, by Carol Shields.

Addendum: Finished Jane Austen: A Life on July 8 and am now reading Kindergarten, by Peter Rushforth . . . about 1/2 way through and already contemplating what to read next . . .

2nd Addemdum:
As of July 10, I'm reading People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.

>23 kidzdoc: I loved By the Sea; it was one of my top books for last year. I read his Desertion more recently which is not as good.

Finished Kelroy. Rush is no Jane Austen but I found her story of the beautiful conniving and somewhat heartless widow determined to marry off her daughters to wealthy men as her idea of a retirement plan, compelling (it has a few all-too-convenient plot contrivances but that happens a lot in 19th century lit). High society in Philadelphia in the early 19th century is no less ruthless than anywhere else:-)

I have finished In Search of Fatima by Ghada Karmi. Its her personal memoir covering dispossession and problem with identity. Being a personal memoir, it can't be as dramatic as a work of fiction, but moves like a breeze like hardly any other book.

Might look for Tale of two cities for the weekend. Ages since I read it and was reminded of it when someone mentioned the opening note.

I am slowly working my way through Coleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. In the middle of the fourth book Caesar's Women.

I finished up The Omnivore's Dilemma which I loved much more than I expected to. Michael Pollan is funny and fresh rather than pendantic or political.

Now I am both enjoying and struggling with The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. I've already set it aside once when it first came out and can't quite figure out why it is hard to pick back up every time I set it down. Chabon is one of my favorites generally. I hope to finish it up sometime this week. When I do, I'm probably going to read Take This Bread by Sara Miles.

Still reading A briefer History of Time. Have given up on all the rest.

I just realized how very big of a nerd I have become. I got 3 science books out of the library in the middle of summer to bring to the beach with me next week. Not school or work related, I just thought they might be 'fun' to read. What is wrong with me?

>75 sanja: sanja, I just thought they might be 'fun' to read. What is wrong with me?
Not one single thing. But yes, you are a nerd. Revel in it! The rest of us are, too, in our various ways. Which is why we're all here on LibraryThing on a beautiful (where I am) summer Sunday.

74: nancyewhite -- agree about The Omnivore's Dilemma, loved it. But now I'm listening to the audiobook of Pollan's follow-up, In Defense of Food ... and he (or else the audio reader) seems very cranky :(

Just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (charming epistolary historical novel) and am rotating among Bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe (if Pollan didn't turn me off land-based food, now I'm learning the bad news about seafood!), A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, The White Mary by Kira Salak, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.

edited for touchstones

#74 > Nancy, I'll be starting The Yiddish Policeman's Union today sometime. My wife has already read it and heartily enjoyed it. She and I both have a little Yiddish in our backgrounds (she more than I), and she's said it might be a little hard to fully appreciate without some of that vocabulary. Do you think that might be part of the trouble you're having?

At any rate, I look forward to comparing notes when we've both finished the book.

I just started an ARC of The Heretic's Daughter that is pretty good so far. I didn't realize when I requested it that the author is a descendant of the people she is writing about, so that just adds to the interest.

I just started Sea Born Women by BL Mountford. I just began, but it is looking good.

(no touchstones)

#73 - jhowell - Keep at it, actually, Caesar's Women was my favorite one in the whole series - I especially love Caesar's mother, Aurelia.

Finished People of the Book last night, which was quite good. It appears to be one of those books I like the more I think about it. Started Voyage of the Beagle for book club and so far it's considerably more readable and interesting than I feared it might be. My 'travel' book is Small Island which I'm enjoying, but because I only read it on the train is taking me a long time to finish.

I finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield last night an am now reading No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. I loved The Thirteenth Tale and am enjoying No Time for Goodbye.

Reading The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon, a short novel about 1950's West Indian immigrant experience in London.

Also finishing another short novel (more an entertainment really) called Mr. Thundermug by Cornelius Medvei.

That should take me into midweek and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. A fun week!

>76 richardderus: Thanks. That makes me feel better. :)

Just read a review in PW about The Heretic's Daughter...let us know what you think about it.

Taking richardderus' advice (see #58 above), I decided not to continue in the books I wasn't entirely thrilled with but thought I should enjoy and started a new book altogether. My choice was Ex Libris, a book that has been on my TBR pile for awhile but was bumped up recently after so many positive remarks here on LT. I absolutely loved the first essay "Marrying Libraries" about how she and her husband decided to combine libraries and the resulting tussle about how and where the books should go (and whose duplicate copy must go). I can't exactly relate, but I can imagine it happening sometime down the road. I'm about half way through now, and I've already told my mother I'm giving it to her to read when I'm done so I don't keep interrupting her by reading passages that I want to share. That way when she's done, we can just talk about the whole book.

>58 richardderus: richardderus, thanks for the tip! I'll have to keep it in mind the next time I hit a slump.

Just finished "No Country for Old Men." It's much richer and more nuanced than the movie. I'm going to read McCarthy's "The Road" as soon as I finish the novella "The Immortal Bartfuss." After that, I'm going to read something historical or cheerful.

from the library "Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones

#88 chc - I just finished The Road and found it very interesting.

I just finished Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult and bought Salem Falls. I am hooked on her books after reading The Tenth Circle. I saw a preview for the Lifetime movie for The Tenth Circle it looked good so I read the book (the movie was bad by the way).

Gave up on Two Harbors by Kate Benson. Too much jumping around -- it's today, now it's 8 years ago, now it's yesterday, now it's last week. You get the idea. It was giving me a headache. And the plot advancement was too slow to make it all worthwhile.

Now I am reading What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn for the Orange July Challenge on another LT thread. Enjoying this book very much so far.

I'm hoping to finish The Monk and Cannibal Eliot and the Lost Histories of San Francisco in the next couple of days. Then I'm going to start Ring and Gravity's Rainbow (or maybe Making Globalization Work).

I'd never read anything by Ethan Canin, but I'm nearly 200-pages into his new novel America America and enjoying it quite a bit.

Still reading the end of mr y which is getting really good now.

1/2 way through Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan, and getting ready to start Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. I seem to be on a cyberpunk kick at present.

Not The End of The World by Kate Atkinson..I thought I'd give another of her books a try. I did not care for At the Museum but because so many LT members liked the book, I gave it a try. Sorry to say the book I'm reading now is that all that great either.

I know I'm in the minority re. liking her books.

#83.
Hi. The Thirteenth Tale is on my to be read pile. Thanks for the comments re. this book. I'll move it up a notch and read it in the next few weeks.

#10. Hi. What is the "Orange Prize?" Thanks for letting me know.

#23 kidzdoc, Netherland is one of my favorite books of the year, so far. Hope you enjoy it.

I'm reading Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen, which is quite strange, but interesting in a way, and also Making Mountains: New York City and the Catskills by David Stradling and Names on the Land by George R. Stewart.

#99

According to Wikipedia, "The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, awarded annually for the best original full-length novel by a female author of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK in the preceding year."

Here is the website for the prize itself.

Some folks are reading books from the long and shortlists during July. I think there is a thread about it in the Girlybooks group.

edited for grammar...

#96 - Nothing like the 1700's to scratch that cyberpunk itch... :)

#78 Rocket - Some of it is the Yiddish, some of it is that I wasn't giving it the attention that it deserved. I was trying to read it in short little gulps. Once I sat with it for a longer stretch, I found myself absorbed. That man can really write.

#103 nancyewhite - I listened to The Yiddish Policemen's Union and I really enjoyed it. The reader's Yiddish accent was tough to get used to for just a short bit - about a chapter - then I really loved it. I would like to see some of the words spelled because I'm a visual person; for example, he pronounces Meyer Landsman's name as Lonsman.

I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and loved it too. He is a superb writer. I enjoy his books either by reading or listening.

No reading for me yesterday. After work, I ended up going to a friend's for a good-bye party.

I'll get back into the groove tonight and try to finish up Persuasion tonight or tomorrow. I'll tackle the others another night and maybe try to get my "currently reading" list down to a managable size.

*goes back to read that last sentence and drops onto the floor, laughing hysterically*

I'm almost done listening to The Good Earth. Right now I want to smack the husband.

Also reading Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and just started Half of a Yellow Sun.

Pemberley Remembered by Mary L. Simonsen - great mix of historical fiction and of course Pride & Prejudice.

My review:
http://skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com/2008/07/pemberley-remembered-mary-lydon.html

I just finished The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva - a good spy novel and perfect beach reading for the holiday weekend. IMHO, Silva is one of the best "bestselling" mystery authors out there. Tonight I'll be starting The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan for the Girlybooks Orange July group read.

#101
Many thanks..yet one more interesting resource I discovered via Library Thing!
Much appreciated!
Linda

105, Now that's silly talk and we will have no more of it!

Blew through Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill. Wholly depressing. I'd say we've sold this country (U.S.) to the highest bidder, but there's very little bidding going on these days, and the relationship between these companies and the federal government is DISGUSTINGLY incestuous. Absolutely sickening. Not to mention, in Blackwater's case, the not-even-thinly-disguised 'Christian' crusading mentaltiy behind everything they do.

Interesting sidenote: one of the four mercenaries killed during the famous Falluja ambush was an ex-Navy SEAL who, it turns out, made workout videos a few years ago, three of which I own. Had no idea.

Just started The Knight by Gene Wolfe. My first Wolfe, and it's about time, given the enormous amount of praise they guy gets from folks both inside and outside the fantasy and sci-fi genre - no small feat, that. Interesting so far. Surreal, yet very tightly written.

>111 mikeepatrick: mikeepatrick, you chose an excellent first Wolfe! His writing is a treat I save up for times when I am in what bell7 identified this weekend as a "bad book mood" because he can always jolt me out of it. Hope you enjoy!

I finished My Fair Captain by J.L. Langley and sent her a combination fan/birthday greeting email. The idea of the book, science fiction-meets-Regency romance-in the gay bar, was hilarious. I think the book itself was a fun read. It's not perfect, and I sure as heck wouldn't recommend it to any straight men, but it was amusing and entertaining.

Well, I finished Jane Eyre last night. I thought I'd start in on one of my in-progress books, but I found another library book buried under some papers, so The Code of the Woosters it is!

I'll finish The Boat by Nam Le this afternoon. These are the best short stories I've read in some time! This past weekend I read By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah and Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, which were both excellent. I also started Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior... by Julie Salamon. I'll receive a signed copy of The Enchantress of Florence this evening, as Salman Rushdie will be giving a lecture at the Carter Presidential Library this evening, so I'll probably start that next.

Reading The White Mary by Kira Salak at the moment. Its not grabbing me nearly as much as I had hoped it would.

Finished Dark Visions (very good short story horror, with a fantastic werewolf story by George Martin at the end), and I'll be starting Stardust later today.

#88 I read No Country for Old Men a couple of months ago and loved it. I just saw the movie this past weekend, and while it is never as good as the book, I thought the Coen brothers did a great job bringing it to the screen. I decided to read The Road afterward too, I liked it also, but liked No Country better. I have got All the Pretty Horses waiting in the wings.

I finished Ben Okri's fabulous The Famished Road a little while back. Today I'm back from vacation and currently reading I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.

I wonder if it is "bad book mood" that is my problem lately. I have been dissatisfied with every book I have read lately. I have tried different types of books..but nuthin.

The Doomsday Book was good, but failed to WOW me. The ARCs were readable. no wow.The Safety of Secrets was pretty good. I am looking for a WOW.
Maybe I am currently unwowable?

...will ponder

#104 >

"I would like to see some of the words spelled because I'm a visual person; for example, he pronounces Meyer Landsman's name as Lonsman."

Karenmarie, It's not only the pronunciation of Yiddish that adds an additional flavor, but some of the "inside" meanings. I don't know very much Yiddish--my grandparents spoke it but my parents only a little--but for example I do know that "landsman" is, as I understand it through the usage I've heard over the years, essentially a word for group member or family member. So when a Yiddish speaker wants to say that somebody is Jewish, he or she might very well say, "He's a landsman." I have have no idea, obviously, whether Chabon meant it this way, but his giving the book's main character that name resonates with me as symbolically calling him "Everyman". My knowledge of Yiddish is extremely sketchy, but "landsman" is a word I've heard used pretty often. However, there are probably others here who can correct and/or add to my interpretation.

#120 rocketjk: Thanks for contribution! I love languages and love to see words used in this way.

>119 mckait: mckait, bet it's just a question of fit...you need something that fits your current readerly aether.

Idea: something very different from the norm for you. Well, not completely. It's The Bookman's Wake a mystery by John Dunning. I found it a wonderful read. Even if you hate it, it might snap you out of the bad book mood!

FWIW, reading mikeepatrick's current read The Knight by Gene Wolfe might do the same trick. Or another standby go-to mood-changer for me is Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory.

OKay, I feel llike I'm getting too controlling here, so I'll stop.

fit eh? hopefully my readerly aether is not as difficult to fit as my "womanly" hips...

Being possessed of readerly hips myownself, I relate all too well. >sigh

I'm reading Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen. I'm living vicariously through this book since I don't have horses anymore.

mckait:
If you're looking for WOW, you need to read The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. See my review here: http://readerville.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/book-review-the-gargoyle-by-andrew-d...

Just finished Eclipse. That review is also posted. I'm about 80 pages into The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and it's quite lovely so far.

#120, rocketj. "landsman" is essentially "homeboy" in Yiddish, referring more to the "old country" than to the here and now.

Finished Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge and am currently reading Friday by Robert A. Heinlein...

#124 mckait, #52 bell7 etc - Sympathies with your "bad book moods". I get that too, and it's so frustrating. Sometimes it is the books. But sometimes for no apparent reason I just can't lose myself in a book. It's like I've lost my reading zen. I have no clue what sets it off, or what makes it go away again. Good luck!

I just finished Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. What a well written and engaging book. The characters are memorable, the historical aspect was fascinating, and it really opened my mind further on the issue of racism.

I am just about to start The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie.

#74, nancyewhite - I just finished Sara Miles's Take This Bread last week, and I highly recommend it! Hope you enjoy!

After finishing Take This Bread, I started Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. This was a gift from my MiL, and although I passed it over at the bookstore multiple times because it never caught my interest, I've been enjoying it more than I assumed. It will likely take me quite a while to finish though, as I leave later this week for an 18 day trip with limited pack space and it is not traveling with me.

booklady, that does look good... but since it is not out until august 5, I doubt it will help my current mood. Nice review though! I put it on my wish list.

I am currently reading Not In Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic Is Transforming America by Christine Wicker, and it's pretty good. I liked her Lily Dale.

I am thinking that I might be in need of a dose of non-fiction, but was not in the mood for anything heavy. This might do it.

> 110 cal8769, I don't know what came over me; it must have been a temporary lapse into sanity.

Finished Persuasion last night. I doubt it will supplant Pride and Prejudice as my favorite, but it is a close second.

Since I finished that up early and wasn't quite ready to turn in, I grabbed Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh. It looks like my beloved Chief-Inspector Alleyn won't be showing up until later in the book, but his wife Troy figures prominently. It looks to be a pretty good, quick read.

>130 dchaikin: dchaikin -- Thanks! I hope so too. :-)

>124 mckait: mckait "fit eh? hopefully my readerly aether is not as difficult to fit as my "womanly" hips..."

If either is like mine, than your "readerly aether" won't be (anyways, I hope it won't be long for you. Long stretches of dissatisfied reading are not fun).

So...I finished Ex Libris (so good!), gave up on Gideon the Cutpurse (I just didn't care after 50 pages, so I gave it a rest), and reread Fruits Basket Volume 15 through Vol. 20. Hopefully that should jolt me into a better mood for satisfied reading. Oh, and I also read Naruto Volume 2 today.

I am still reading A Champion's Mind, and will decide by the end of the week whether to finish it or return it to the library unfinished.

I haven't yet chosen a new book to start, but I will probably go with The Solitary Envoy or Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. Or both.

I finished my Harper Collins First Look book last night. Dough: A Memoir by Mort Zachter is an interesting, fun, and fast read. My review is In the Shadow of Mt. TBR if you care to read it.

Next on the ARC stack is The White Mary by Kira Salak. Touchstones have never caught up with this one, evidently.

#133 mckait

I liked Lily Dale too. I think Not in Kansas Anymore may move up the TBR pile for my second book in the Girlybook's July Theme Read.

Just finished A Page out of Life by Kathleen Reid - great book! Makes me want to read her first!

http://skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com/2008/07/page-out-of-life-kathleen-reid.html

I stayed up late last night to finish The Time Traveler's Wife. I was so afraid to read it for fear that it wouldn't live up to all the hype (and I have it in hardcover no less!). Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. Absolutely an amazing and original book. I loved it! Unfortunately it's the kind of book that leaves you emotionally spent and stays with you, making it difficult to pick up the next book. BUT - I will persevere. Next up is Weaving a Way Home by Leslie Van Gelder, which is my March ER book that just arrived last week.

I've got three books going on right now: rereading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and reading Insomnia and The Shadow Catcher. Insomnia so far is interesting, although I'm still not sure where the story is going, and The Shadow Catcher is BEAUTIFULLY written!

I'm in book-jumping mode, having already temporarily abandoned Fragrant Harbor and Sandman: A Game Of You, both books I was enjoying.

I just finished The Year Of Magical Thinking (literally three minutes ago), and now I'm going to hunt for the next one.

I've just finished Seamus Heaney's Beowulf translation (brilliant brilliant brilliant) and have started Wuthering Heights for Go Review that Book! I've also been hitting the Wainwrights, especially A pictorial guide to the lakeland fells: the Northern Fells, cos we're off there in just over a week. Woo! :-D

The Time Traveler's Wife is an amazing book! I finished it a few months ago and couldn't put it down.

May I suggest Atonement, Half of a Yellow Sun and The Kite Runner - some of my all-time favourites.

Being but a young schoolgirl, I have also read My Sister's Keeper, a heartbreaking novel that could bring anyone to tears.

Last week I finished Gone with the Wind unsatisfied. Such a bulky, descriptive novel deserves more than such a dry ending, in my opinion.

Will people stop misusing the word awesome!
No writer is awesome, not even Shakespeare; no software is awesome, no sporting event, no human prowess in any field of endeavour whatsoever can be called awesome. If you mean genius then say so.
If you are awed by such mundanity then you should get out more, and much more.

Awesome means the subject fills you with awe - like a super nova, a volcano, a tsunami, the universe.

You are supposed to be interested in books, and books are full of words. How can words maintain their integrity when they are so belittled, cheapened, turned into meaningless hyperbole by people who should know better?
The word “awe” is not another passing subjective, like “good” or “excellent”, but should be uttered with hushed breath, whispered to a trusted friend when shearing in an event of truly magnificent wonderment, not tossed into any random sentence to provide cheap novelty (the novelty itself having worn off years ago)!
Use words properly or they all will be reduced to an alphabet soup of mediocrity and the truly wonderful, the truly awesome will have no words to describe it.

#144: Wow, that was an awesome post. Some top-notch pedantry there. I especially like how you're telling me what I am and am not allowed to find truly "awesome."

Awesome telling them, awesome blindJack! And may I awesomely tell you how awesome I find your awesome post! It's an awesomely rare awesome treat to find such an awesome person with such an awesome grasp of the awesome English word "awesome". An awesome few awesome people can awesomely say they are as awesome as that!



edited for an awesome oops on the pic! AWESOME!

>144 blindJack:: Hey, blindJack! What’s your position on imbedded capitals?

BTW, in your review of Benedictine Life you note that it is “privetly printed.” Bit of a hedged opinion, wot?

Currently I am rereading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Everything I'm reading is awesome, so I have no business talking about it here.

You know what's awesome? Until that post, the word awesome was only used once in this whole thread, by the 2nd poster (according to ctrl+F).

Books are actually quite awesome to me. Every time I open a new book, I am struck dumb and fall to my knees and cry because words cannot express my amazement at having witnessed such a cosmic miracle.

By the way, words cannot maintain their integrity when they are misspelled...I don't know about you, but I don't "shear" an event with anyone. Share, maybe, but not shear.

Perhaps there were sheep involved.

They must have been some seriously awesome sheep to be involved in such an awesome recollection...

LOL Bell... I was trying to be nice to me.. I am a trifle on the roundish side, especially in the hip area..

As for the reading aether, I think Not in Kansas Anymore had done the trick. I am liking it a lot~!

I just finished When We Were Orphans which I really enjoyed. I am now reading Farewell My Subaru a non-fiction work. I am not that far into it so I don't really have an opinion on it yet.

message #150 DevourerOfBooks wrote:

You know what's awesome? Until that post, the word awesome was only used once in this whole thread, by the 2nd poster (according to ctrl+F).

looking back, the awesome #2 poster was me. And as an awesome writer myself, I was awe-inspired by the awesome writing of Nam Le.

Not so much with Mort Zachter, and not even with Kira Salak. They wrote what they knew. Nam Le's awesome ability to get into the head of a character totally different from him impresses me.

And I'm awfully sure there aren't any awesome sheep involved in Nam's awesome writing. :-D

145-153 are all awesome. Especially the pun in 147.

I know we shouldn't humor the troll, so probably this is not the best time to mention that language is not static and, in fact, evolves?

And you know what else is awesome? The fact that mysterious beings drop unrequested books off at mckait's house! (ref #46) That never happens to me. I'm so jealous.

I find myself awestruck by LT and the venue it provides in which we can debate the usage of a word..........

That was pretty awesome.

Now now now. Must each of us pile on poor ol' blindJack? Everyone gets to be cranky once in a while.

That's the awesome thing about LT!

And Larxol, you are now my new best friend for the well-aimed and -executed pun. Awesome job!

Just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society this afternoon. It was marvelous! My review is up here: http://readerville.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/book-review-the-guernsey-literary-an...

I've been on a Balkan lit kick for a while and am winding up The Bridge on the Drina. Novel, chronicle, call it what you will, it's great stuff.

I'm going to soon finish Uglies which I'm loving and then it's on to one of my other library books - either The Garden Of Last Days, A Thousand Splendid Suns or The Time Traveler's Wife. I just hope I can keep renewing these until I finish them, and that no one has a hold on any of them!

142--I'm guessing you meant Heaney's Beolwulf?

Back to contributing productively to the thread. :) Today I've started Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto (captivating so far) and A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World (thank you to the Japan Foundation for putting out a translation). The latter has an essay by one of my other favorite novelists, Richard Powers, bearing the fabulous title "The Global Distributed Self-Mirroring Subterranean Neurological Soul-Sharing Picture Show."

I finished Something Borrowed this morning, now starting The Man Who Ate the 747

Hey, blindJack,

May I suggest that you share your concerns with some like-minded folk at the link below in "I Survived the Great Vowel Shift" group. This jabbering is just aweful, uh, I mean awful.

http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=23830

I finished The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler and I've started Small Favor by Jim Butcher.

Such fun bandying words about! Just finished the Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst. My friends had recommended this author, new to me. Now on to the Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria. (Using my new Kindle!!0

I think perhaps we may all have different levels of awe. Yeh, that's it. What is awesome to one may only be a mere sniff (of approval) to another. And yet. . .it all might depend on the dictionary one uses. . .

I finally finished Sunrise on the Mediterranean by Suzanne Frank - it took me forever - not nearly as good as the first two books in this series. Now I'm eager to read something light and frothy!

I just finished The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam. It wasn't awesome, but it was good. I'm about to start The Dream Life of Sukhanov. I hope it's awesome, but if not, then at least fabulous, or possibly even magnificent.

Thank you, judylou! The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam sounds like an awesome book... I ran over an put it on my BM wishlist.

I've just started Sepulchre by Kate Mosse. Not exactly literary, but I bought it to get me through a flight last night, and it did the job. I'm also reading The Google Story - fantastic!

Hey guys, long time no post! (Did anyone miss me?)

I've been on an extended holiday (with no LT time), but here's what I've been reading:

The Carpenter's Pencil by Manuel Rivas
The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower
The Lonely Hearts Club by Raul Nunez
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Candide by Voltaire
The Misanthrope by Moliere
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Yay, I finished!!)
Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago
Fluke by Christopher Moore
Vertigo by W. G. Sebald
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Changing Places by David Lodge
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Airman by Eoin Colfer
The Paper House by Carlos Maria Dominguez
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut
Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin

(If anyone wants to know what any of these were like, post to my profile because I have such a backlog of LT to read I'll probably never get back here!)

Yesterday, I finished Arend (Flemish literature).
Today I will continue reading in Orientalism by Edward Said and start in Ines, vrouw van mijn hart by Isabel Allende.

Just finished and reviewed Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer. Also am doing a book giveaway on my blog of A Page Out of Life by Kathleen Reid!

http://skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com

#166 - I'd look up info on 'The Man Who Ate the 747', but I suspect it's not REALLY about a man eating a 747, and that's more disappointment than I'm in the mood for at the moment. :)

>169 kerrlm: kerrlm, don't you love the Kindle? I find it to be a most aweso... convenient way to keep those books I like to read often, as well as searching out older titles that are hard to find in paper form. :)

I'm about half-way through Final Curtain right now and am a bit sad to see that Alleyn and Troy aren't sharing the stage all that much, but I'll get over it. At least dear Foxkin is on hand, and I have a murder victim, as well as a house full of disgrundled heirs for suspects. All in all, a good time to be had. :D

>154 mckait:: mckait, it occurs to me that what I said earlier might be taken the wrong way...I meant that more about myself, that's it's easier to find a book I like than pants that fit, but I don't think it came out right. :-) Sorry

I've decided to stop reading A Champion's Mind, a decision prompted more by its due date back at the library than any read dissatisfaction. Maybe I'll go back to it at some later date, but I'm not really attached either.

I started reading The Solitary Envoy for Go Review That Book and Kitchen Confidential for "librarian research." I'm rather glad to have been "warned" about the narrative tone, otherwise I think I would have been even more put off by its tone and sort of shock value of some of the things he says. I'll wait 'til I'm a little further along before I decide whether or not to put it aside.

Other books read and finished today and yesterday -- Naruto Vol. 3, Her Majesty's Dog, Vol. 8, and Her Majesty's Dog, Vol. 9. Naruto is my guilty pleasure reading this summer, I think. It's impossible for me to entirely explain why I like this series, but it's laugh-out-loud funny in a silly sort of way, a story line I can just pick up whenever and not worry about remembering every detail.

Just started The Glass Castle last night and haven't been able to put it down. I was appalled by the things she had to go through in just the first 50 pages...it's unbelievably horrifying, and I'm looking forward to getting further and finding out how she moves beyond such a traumatic childhood.

>178 mikeepatrick: I've read about a third of the book and so far it is 8)

#179 Demiguise! I knew your suggestion had to be Ngaio Marsh. All her books are terrific and awe....Have any of you LTers read John Dunning mysteries?? He is a bookseller author. In the the Book Woman`s Last Fling, he differentiates between a bibliophile and a bibliomaniac. We are probably bibliophobes. I made that up. Ha!

I am reading all of my summer reading books for school which is about 20 books!!! but right now i am reading...
-The Host
-The Great and Terrible Beauty
-My Thirteenth Winter
-Chinese Cinderella
-The Book Thief
-Inkheart
-The City of Ember
-Everlost
they are all really doog books so i really suggest reading them!

I just recently finished reading "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd, and now I am starting to read "Tell No One' by Harlen Coben.

I was very pleased with The Secret Life of Bees. Earlier this summer, I finally read "Wicked, the life and times of the wicked witch of the west", it was a good read.

I finished reading Carolly Erickson's The First Elizabeth last night. I'll start Richard Brookhiser's Alexander Hamilton, American today at lunch.

I just finished The Body Artist and have started on The Corrections

I'm looking forward to this book. I love the disfunctional mid-west family epic, and it has been compared to Middlesex which is another favorite.

I'm still reading The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

My Webster's New World Dictionary of the English Language says that awe is "a mixed feeling of reverence, fear and wonder."

So, while my reaction to this book is somewhat light on the "fear" factor, I'm going to go out on a limb anyway and say that this book is awesome.

#181 bnbooklady - I thought The Glass Castle was amazing!

#176 How do u find Orientalism? I have yet to return to my copy which has been unopened for months now...

Just started the encyclopedic Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West. Guess it will take me the rest of the year to finish this but i'm not worried -- just want to get as much out of it as i can.

Started my vacation on Saturday, 7/5. So far, have finished The Yellow Wallpaper (excellent short story), Daughter of Fortune (another wonderful Allende novel), and Guilty Pleasures, an Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel (my very first Anita Blake ~ in fact, my very first Laurell K. Hamilton ~ but not my last). Am now reading a cozy Southern mystery called Death on the Family Tree.

I'm about to read Mysteries. Knut Hamsun is awesome, irksome, winsome, hey -win some, lose some - in sum, i always seem to see some summer in his wintery ways (strange to say).

LOL, Ganeshaka!

189--I'm really enjoying it so far. It reminds me a lot of Angela's Ashes. Quite astonishing.

>183 kerrlm: kerrlm, Isn't Ngaio Marsh wonderful? I discovered her in high school and I think I am just a little bit in love with Roderick Alleyn. *grins*

I haven't read the John Dunning mysteries, but I will go take a peek at them. Thanks for the recommendation!

My DH and I have been rereading Marsh books from years ago and find them just as good as we expected even though we obviously had forgotten the plots. Ha! DH has been chuckling from some unexpected humor.

I'm been reading The Mysteries of Udolpho for quite some time and now it's starting to get a little more interesting. Hopefully I will come to understand the meaning behind the title.

Also, The Jane Austen Book Club which is quite similar to the film and very good and interesting.

I'm reading a biography, Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of her Age. I didn't know much about her, and it's an easy-to-read and fascinating story.

180: bell

Whatever.. it came out fine.... LOL

Angela's Ashes... I fall into a deep depression at the mre mention of that book...

I just started Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil last night. I'm only 60 pages in, but so far so good. I had wanted to read this one for a while, and when I found a copy at a library book sale I figured it was time.

You will really enjoy this book! This is based on a true story and certainly describes the city of Savannah. The movie is good, too. Lots of Johnny Mercer music. It will make you want to go to that beautiful city.

melly

just joined LT and my first dumb question is: whats an ARC?
just finished Garden of Last Days - loved it and paln to start Picoult's 19 minutes. cheers all

No dumb questions except those unasked, morfam. "ARC" is an "Advance Reader's Copy" or a galley, you'll see it called; something publishers send out to readers whomo they want to review or blurb or both the book in question. It's usually an unedited galley, though sometimes a final-print-run book when being sent to reviewers. (Rare, in my experience.)

Welcome! Join right in! Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III? Touchstoning a book or an author helps us biblioholics find a fast way to a title we're looking to assess for possible reading. It's done by putting one bracket around a title, and two brackets around an author: "bracketGarden of Last Daysclosebracket" for example.

Just finished A briefer history of time. I feel very smart right now, but I'm sure it will fade. :)

I'm leaving for a week long beach vacation and taking with me:
The Elegant Universe
The Fabric of the Cosmos
Gentlemen of the Road
and a Bon Appetit magazine.

I loved The Elegant Universe. It did not leave me feeling smart, however. Are you bringing the issue of Bon Appetit with the chocolate dipped cherry ice cream cone on the cover? I'm reading that right now, too! Mmmm...

#88 & #117''

First I saw the movie No Country for Old Men. When it ended it seems to have stoped 3/4 ths of the way thru.

I watch it again, and the second time it made more since, and i watched all the extras.

But I seemed to me that something was missing. So I read the book. The book filled in the missing pieces. However it was still to DARK for me. The title comes from the William Butler Yeats poem Sailing to Byzantium which has been described as a metaphorical journey of a man pursuing his own vision of eternal life.

While the poem held out hope, the book to me seemed to give up hope.

I am still not sure what to do with the statement in the book
that goes something like -- How does a person go about deciding to how to abandon ones life.

David

#185
I recently saw the play Wicked on Broadway in New York City. It was based on the book and it was incredible. While I liked the book, I found that parts of it really drug on and on and on. Still, it was certainly worth the read and I admire the creativity of the idea of taking an old tale and spinning a new twist to it.

#184
Hi
I note The Book Thief on your list. This is a book that is mentioned often on Library Thing. A co-worker read this as well and highly recommended it to me.
Did you like the book?

I'm almost through Mary Roach's Stiff. Laugh out loud funny, but also respectful as she discusses the use of human cadavers for medical and other research.

Besides The White Mary, which is really good, and Why You Shouldn't Eat Your Boogers, which was lovely reading outloud to my 9-year-old as we sat in the restaurant waiting for our food, I also started reading Palahniuk's Rant today. The best word to describe it is weird. I don't understand the daylighter and nightlighter thing nor the partycrasher. And *gag* the whole "sex storm" is beyond too much!

#210 - I read Rant last summer and I was thoroughly grossed out in several places. At least I thought so, until I picked up Snuff just recently. I should have known - the premise of the book is that a porn star is doing a stunt in which she does 600 guys. Palahniuk describes the bathroom used by these 600 guys. That's when I quit. I really liked Fight Club, the book and the movie. I saw potential for weird psychological explorations in a weird modern world. Apparently he has just decided to see how far he can take the grossout before people stop reading his books. I won't try any more of his books until he changes drastically.

I am enjoying The Savage Detectives. I am feeling very ethnocentric, though, as I don't know any of the writers mentioned in the book. Well, except Neruda and Paz, of course. It makes me wonder if they are real poets, or just made up names. Hmm. Up next, will be Mudbound. I cheated and read the first chapter or two. Looks pretty good so far.

I finished Not The End of the World by Kate Atkinson. At first I had reservations, but as I progresed, I began to find some of the tales quite creative and interesting. I liked the book better as I read more of the pages.

#211
Hi Esaestra. I read Mudbound a few weeks ago and while it was a dark story, I would recommend it.

SUTREE , Cormac McCarthy

#197 the mysteries of Udolpho is such a great book - stick with it! She can be hard going at times, and I have to say I skip a lot of her faux idyllic pastoral songs/poems, but she must have influenced me as I wrote my dissertation about this novel and even named my LT name after her!
If can get hold of it, the Italian is even scarier with more twists and the Spanish Inquisition thrown in!

I'm still reading The Blue Sword and due to a bout of work induced insomnia about 2:30 a.m. I picked Wicked Gentlemen out of my tbr pile to give it a go. It is much different than I expected, less sordid and more like a Harry Dresden/mystery novel. But, it was interesting and relaxed me enough so that I was able to get back to bed at about 5:00 a.m. **yawn**

Enchantress of Florence is beautiful. I'm only two chapters in, but the language is phenomenal. Each of the two chapters reads like a short story unto themselves. I had to pause after each chapter just to savor them fully.

I so want to read Enchantress of Florence!

I just posted a review of A Hollywood Ending by Robyn Sisman on my blog:
http://skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com/2008/07/hollywood-ending-robyn-sisman.html

>200 Whicker: Whicker, I read that book quite a while ago, but I remember that I loved it. Hope you enjoy the rest of your read.

I finished Final Curtain last night. Right up until the end, I was unable to figure out who the murderer was. My only "complaint" about this book would have been to bring Alleyn into it a bit sooner (so I could have indulged my crush) and to have more scenes between Alleyn and Troy (because they are just adorable). Other than that, it was simply wonderful.

I have Spindle's End by Robin McKinley on the coffee table, but I can't quite seem to get into it at the moment. Guess it's time to pull Marius (my Kindle) back out and start on Wuthering Heights. :)

#206 dperrings: I felt the same way about the book, and now I don't want to see the movie.

I just finished The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, a dark but fun read. The audio book in my car ended today too, The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. It was also good. I sometimes got the characters mixed up though. They all had three names and they were referred to by each different part of their name - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendall Holmes, James Russell Lowell . Sometimes he was James, sometimes he was Lowell, then Wendy, then Holmes. It just made me have to say the full name in my head to kept them straight. It distracted me but didn't distract from the story about a killer who was killing exactly as Dante had descibed.

I have have up next my first 'Orange July' book The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. And my new audio book is Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. I've never read him before (or listened) so we'll see, this narrator might drive me crazy, very deadpan reading so far.

i just finished the thirteenth tale and loved it. i started a thousand splendid suns yesterday and can't put it down! i am also reading the portable dorothy parker here and there and enjoying it as well! it has been a long time since i read three books in a row that i really loved. i will also be reading the septembers of shiraz soon, recommended on bookclubgirl.com, which is a fabulous little website. i really need to read the book thief soon as well since i have had it so long!!!

209--I loved Stiff also. It was so interesting and unlike anything else I'd read before, and you have to appreciate anything so chock full of random facts you'll be able to repeat for the amusement of friends & family for at least the next couple weeks. I also read Spook, her follow-up about science and the afterlife, and I didn't find it nearly as engaging or funny. Her newest, Bonk, is on my TBR, and I can't wait.

**hmm, touchstones don't seem to be working right now**

#223
Hi amanaceerch
Dorothy Parker is one of my all-time favorite poets.

Now that I am middle aged, I often think of her poem
Indian Summer

In youth, it was a way I had
To do my best to please
And change, with every passing lad,
To suit with his theories.

But now I know the things I know,
And do the things I do;
And, if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you!

I'm working on finishing Can't Wait to Get To Heaven by Fannie Flagg. I simply adore her humor!

#143 - ellysium; I finished Gone With the Wind just last night, and I hope you loved as much as I did! I wasn't exactly thrilled about the ending, but that's problably just because it didn't end as I wanted it to. =) It made me cry, though, quite a bit. I wouldn't call it dry, myself, but sad.

Started reading The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier this morning, and it looks like it's going to be a pretty fast read. So far it's OK, nothing great.

>225 Whisper1: How true, how true. You make me want to get out my Portable Dorothy Parker.

Hi!

This is my first post in librarything.com, so I'd like to say hello to everybody and thanks to brig up this kind of community, especially now, when tv and internet is trying to kill books!

So, right now, I'm reading "The Winter's King", of B.Cornwell. It's a book about King Arthur, and I find it quite interesting!

Nothing more, enjoy yourselves!

whisper1: i bookmarkedthe page with that poem on it. i wish i had the book in front of me so i could share some more of my other favorites. her poems are so true to the life of a woman!

varielle: it will be worth the purchase if you do go out and get your own copy! ;) her short stories are delightful as well.

Well im am recently reading Dreams from My Father by Barak Obama. Some people are saying that the book is very racist but you have to make opinions coming from his point of view and how it was with him growing up in the world being African and White American.
Other than that i really enjoyed it and i think others will too. Its not just this boring book about his life but it also gives hints about life. Its a powerful novel and it shows that he is interested in his search for the truths about his family and race.
I recommend this book its really great!!!

I just finished Farewell, My Subaru which was short but fun. I am currently reading In Defense of Food which, so far, seems to be quite in sync with my current mode of thinking. I have heard some say that they thought the author seemed a bit "cranky" in this book as opposed to The Omnivore's Dilemma (which I haven't read yet) but I haven't encountered that yet. Of course, when it comes to the subject of the junk that is available in the supermarkets, etc. today, I get pretty cranky myself so perhaps I may just not notice it.

Just a note that I started a new topic for any and all who wish to discuss The Enchantress of Florence.....I am bursting to discuss it!

As I move into the autumn of my life I find myself reading more and more, almost devouring the many geat books that have become a feast for my eyes.
I harken back to younger days when the dreaded bottle still allowed me to read, but not to remember the next morning what it was I was reading.
However, I am now making up for lost time and find that my taste is as varied and adventurous and eclectic, which has allowed me to dabble in just about any genre.
I have just finished a sprawling western saga, (Sun Going Down) by Jack Todd, which I enjoyed very much and have now started (Nineteen Minutes) by Jodi Picoult. Good read so far.
Recently I read (Counselor) by Ted Sorensen, a memoir of his years serving the late John F Kennedy. Probably, because of my antiquity, I find any books on JFK interesting, and have read most of the major ones. As a Canadian, perhaps my perspective is a little different from many Americans. Might make a good topic for discussion, do we both reach the same varied conclusions about the books we read?
I really enjoy historic fiction, and would hightly recommend (Luncheon of the Boating Party) by Susan Vreeland and (Loving Frank) by Nancy Horan. I'll read crime novels, war books, both fact and fiction. I'm a sports nut, so that subject is on my list, and contemporary fiction is perhaps what I enjoy the most.
FYI, I am a 68 year-old cranky male from western Canada, retired from the newspaper business, and happily drifting off into the sunset surrounded by my books...

I hope you drift on soft breezes, morfam. I like the question about possible differences and/or similarities in perspectives which are culturally based. Maybe we should pick a book to discuss and see where that goes.

Okay, what did I do wrong.?
I bracketed the titles of the books I am reading, or have read, yet, for want of a better expression, the titles did not turn blue, allowing them to be accessed. Twit that I am, I am obviously doing something wrong.
Help, please

Did you use square brackets?

and if so, sometimes the darn things are just contrary.

#238 LAWriter is back again, spamming. He spammed across threads some months ago and is now back again.

If you check out his profile you'll see that his page has been removed.

I had computer problems for awhile today that kept me from being able to get online. I used this down time as an excuse to finish The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I loved. Inventive and absorbing, and extremely good at capturing the nuance of Jewish/Yiddish culture and thought. Really, books like this are the bottom line reason that I read.

I had an interesting impression while I was reading this book. During a relatively non-vital scene in which three characters were having a conversation, I got the feeling that I was really in the room with this people and had the odd thought, "It's too bad that the other people who read this book won't get to experience this little chat." I knew instantly that that was illogical, of course, but the point is that I felt that I was having such a personal experience with the book and with the characters that it struck me just for an instant as impossible that other readers would also be reading this scene, that it wasn't being played out somehow just for me.

Maybe I've been reading too many Thursday Next novels, but it occurred to me that it is a mark of excellent writing when you get the feeling that a scene or conversation had to have been written just for you and only for you to experience.

For the next few days I'll be spending some time with my "between books" (anthologies and the like that I'm reading a chapter or story at a time), beginning with the chapter on Cecil Taylor in Gary Giddens' excellent Visions of Jazz: the First Century.

>240 rocketjk: rocketjk, well say hallelujah brethren and sistern, I have a witness to my experience of The Yiddish Policeman's Union! It felt like Chabon was writing just for me, for my unique eyes, and was bringing these hurt, hurting, and hurtable men and women into my living room for me to know.

Loved the book. Glad you did too.

>236 morfam: morfam, as mentioned the brackets are the square ones "" not the usual ones.

>232 bookaholicgirl: bookaholicgirl
I've decided it's the audio reader (Scott Brick) who's cranky in In Defense of Food. I generally don't do well with audiobooks, much prefer to read, but I so enjoyed Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma that I wanted to quickly fit in his follow-up.

But Brick sounds pedantic and snarly, definitely a contrast to Pollan's gentle and curious narrative in Omnivore. It distracted me from most of the first section, I will have to re-read/re-listen. Now I'm ignoring him and am appreciating Pollan's content. But I'll avoid future audiobooks by Brick.

wonky touchstones!

#234
Hi. Please tell me more aboutLuncheon on a boating party by Vreeland. Thanks!

Ah, #243, I take great delight in describing the wonderful Luncheon of the Boating Party, by Susan Vreeland.
The book centres around Auguste Renoir's famous painting, La Maison Fournaire, a famous restaurant on the river Seine, where in 1880, a group of his friends and aquaintances would meet periodically for lunch. It was in this setting that Renoir was able to create this beautiful painting.
The party consisted of 14 people from various backgrounds, although all of them were able to appreciate the finery and bonhomie of the day. Renoir, at age 39, was at that particular stage in his life where he was able to recognise the finer things that were available, including his models, of which there were a couple at the table, and the wonderful conversation and topics, that were discussed at these affairs.
Ms Vreeland writes so gorgeously of the event, her descriptions of the people and the surrounding scenery, the river itself , the myriad of boating activities that would take place. Her words, for me, were like the food on the table, to be tasted and consumed at leisure, leaving one with fond memories that will remain long after the final burp..
The book is simply a pleasure to read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Finally, I finished A Canticle for Leibowitz. It definitely had its moments, but overall it just wasn't my book. Way too much religion and Latin, both of which I'm not into.

And now I get to pick a new book from mount TBR. I love this part! What to choose, what to choose... ^^

Half way through Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.

I've been reading quite heavy books for a while now, so this morning started dead sexy which is so far funny and light fluff, just what I need!

Driving Sideways by Jess Riley. I have to say, I absolutely adored this book! I thought it was funny and quirky, yet dramatic enough to give the book some weight. Plus I learned a lot about kidney disease that I never knew - it's always nice to learn something where you least expect it!

Here's my review: http://skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com/2008/07/driving-sideways-jess-riley.html

#234, 244 morfam: You don't sound too cranky too me. Sounds like you're happily cruising on a sea of books.

May we all drift lazily down the reading river.....sea.....lake.....pond....:)

I've been off from work all week, so I've been able to make a dent in my TBR pile. I finished The Boat by Nam Le, Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips, and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, which were all excellent. I started reading Born Yesterday: The News as Novel by Gordon Burn, but put it down after 75 pages. I'm currently reading The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie and Death at Intervals by Jose Saramago.

I finally finished The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

Oh my goodness! That was a very long 45 hour audiobook. It lasted through a long drive from New York to Michigan, a quiet vacation at the cottage, and lots of cross stitching. I have to say that "The Pillars of the Earth" was worth it.

It is an epic saga set in 12th century England encompassing architecture, religion, wars, raids, love, loss......all kinds of good stuff. The characters were engaging. I came to feel quite invested in the individual sagas in addition to the bigger story. All of the themes are deftly interwoven, with a touch of sex and of violence, just to warn the wary.

It was interesting to hear the cathedral referred to as the "twin towers", particularly because the author was inspired to complete this novel by the impact of 9/11 in his life, and his desire to be daring and shift genres. Kudos to him!

The reason this fell short of 5 stars, in my opinion, is that the last quarter dragged a bit. That may be an outcome of the lenght of the book, but I also found myself knowing basically how things would end, yet the author spent the equivalent of about 200 pages wrapping up the plot. Not necessary.

I will shortly start listening to The Chopin Manuscript: A Serial Thriller which has 15 well-known authors. Should prove interesting....and significantly less weighty than The Pillars of the Earth.

>244 morfam: morfam, I agree with amandameale in post 249: when does the cranky show up? You've been perfectly lovely to everyone here...or is it simply that were all polybibliovores, and therefore exempt from the crankier side of the Canadian West?

polybibliovores? In terms of the scoring system my daughter's boyfriend and I have for word usage, on a scale of 1-10, that is definitely an 11!

I've begun Wuthering Heights. It seems to be a bit slow in starting, but I am hopeful that it will pick up soon; I am only three chapters in.

I also began The Princess of Cleves last night, which appears to be a sweet, fluffy sort of story. At least, that's the way it appears from the opening parts of it. I'll have to see how it holds up as I get further in.

Read Pillars of the Earth some time ago and rank it among the best of the best.Now into the Post-American World and the Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie for fun. ( freebie on the Kindle).

Finished Take This Bread which was spiritual nourishment and am on to Case Histories by Kate Atkinson for the Orange July.

Finished Friday by Robert A. Heinlein and am halfway through A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray...

>254 hemlokgang: hemlokgang, glad you like it! Over in the "Literary ADD" thread in this group, the current odds-on favorite based on usage is "schizobibliomane" though I favor the "-vore" ending as being less...accusatory, somehow. A friend of mine in Florida came up with this sesquipedalian neologism. I'm puttin' it out there, hoping to see the little butterfly take wing and fly free.

>255 Demiguise: Demiguise, just you wait...Mme de la Fayette hasn't finished with you....

>259 richardderus: richardderus, oh, great! And here I thought it would be a nice contrast to Wuthering Heights! :) Well, maybe that will keep me from abandoning poor Topper in all this.

Thanks for the warning. ;)

#244. I will read this book. I try to visit the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York, NY as often as I can. I appreciate Renoir's work. The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has a wonderful museum filled with Renoir's paintings.

I finished Book 2 of Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy -- Diggers -- the other day, and started the third book, Wings. My current takeout reading is Clan Novel: Ravnos by Kathleen Ryan.

I finished Not In Kansas Anymore by Christine Wicker. I should write a review on that. It was quite good.

I am so excited to be ready to pick up The Lace Reader today. Very exciting as all of my chores are done except laundry. So I basically have a day free and clear to read if nothing comes up.

Just started The Kite Runner this morning. I know I'm late to the party on this one, but better late than never, I suppose.