What are you reading the week of October 11?

There's no thread yet for this week, so I started one.

I am (still) working on The Fabric of the Cosmos, though I might see if I can rustle up some fluff to read as well.

Half way through The Earthsea Trilogy at the moment, have finished the first book and am now onto The Tombs of Atuan... its all as one boko though so I'll go through the whole 3!

So far so good, didn't enjoy A Wizard of Earthsea as much as I thought I was going to when I started it. Guess we'll see how I feel when I get to the end of them!

It's been a while since I read A Wizard of Earthsea, but I liked The Tombs of Atuan a bit better than my recollection of the former.

I'm still reading A Woman in Charge by Carl Bernstein. He makes me wary of a renewed "vast right-wing conspiracy" with an Obama presidency.

I finished Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Like his Wizard of the Crow, which I loved, this interweaves the stories of a variety of characters and takes a while to get into. Where Wizard of the Crow was satirical, the earlier Petals of Blood is much more overtly political (and in fact landed the author in jail).

I'm reading The Last Lecture for my book club that meets in a couple of weeks.

I'm reading The Yearling ... about 2/3 of the way through. This is one I'm surprised I didn't read when I was younger.

I'm still reading The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville and The Second World War by John Keegan. Both are excellent.

I have After Life , which is a good saturday read.

>8 cushlareads: cmt, I just finished The Idea of Perfection last week. I gave it 5 stars ... one of my favorites of the year.

I just getting into The Whiskey Rebels and love it already. Must get it read and reviewed as my September book The Retreat by David Bergen just came in the mail. I guess that will be up next.

I.m reading The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Right now I'm doing a ton of school reading, but will be reading Hitler and Mars Bars by Dianne Ascroft when I get a break.

I'm midway through Made in America by Bill Bryson, which thus far is interesting, although it's less linguistic history and more actual history than I was expecting.

I'm also listening to the third Sally Lockheart book, The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman, which hooked me in in the first twenty minutes - hopefully the rest of it lives up to the promise of its premise.

Midway through Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields and still listening to To Kill A Mockingbird, as read by Sissy Spacek, in the car on trips with my daughter.

Halfway through Half a crown which is superb as the others in the series have been, and really REALLY curious as to who the "LT Admirer" who sent it to me is....

I'm going to start re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the Southern Lit Book Club pretty soon, but I need something completely emotionless for a few days first. Where are all the fluff books when you need them? If anyone has any suggestions please take a look at the books tagged 'tbr' in my library. Thanks. :)

>6 mcelhra:: mcelhra, how are you enjoying The Last Lecture? Did you watch his interview on Oprah? I was really inspired by his life practices after his diagnosis. I kept hoping that he might beat the cancer by some miracle.

Am still reading Wild Rose, and starting to really enjoy it. I wonder why she's not more well known ... she's such an interesting woman.

Will also start The Sixteen Pleasures for my bedtime reading tonight.

>18 cameling:: I really like it so far, his attitude is amazing. I'm kind of coming late to the Last Lecture party, I didn't know about it until after he died. I haven't seen any interviews with him or the actual lecture itself. I plan to watch it after I finish the book.

>17 sanja: sanja, for a fluffy la-dee-dah I'm reading but I'm coasting kinds book off your TBR tag: Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie. You can't go wrong reading Mme Christie for fun.

Side note: I see you have Sons and Lovers in the TBR pile. Do you not like reading much that you'd consider reading such a horrible piece of "work" and turn yourself off forever?

I have finished reading Stealing Athena, Janeology and Valfierno. Thoroughly enjoyed the books. Tonight, I plan to curl up with Falling out of Fashion.

#17 sanja

The only thing you have marked tbr in your library that I would consider fluff is that sequel to Gone with the Wind--I think it's by Ripley. I haven't read it but I'm pretty sure it would qualify as fluff.

Two of your tbr books that wouldn't be fluff but that are fairly quick reads because they are short (I have read both of these and recommend them) are Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. These aren't exactly "emotionless, however!

You also have The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde--you don't have it marked tbr but it would be my choice from your library for a bit of light reading. It is really a funny play and a fairly quick read. I've read it many times and always find it delightful.

Hope that helps.

ETA Of course, richard is right--Agatha Christie is probably exactly what you are looking for! I missed that one.

I'm still reading The Theory of the Leisure Class, but, in defiance to the dry tone of economics, I am also picking up The Blessing by Nancy Mitford. Who knows? Perhaps Mitford novels make good companion reading with Thorstein Veblen's?

I'm still reading Kristin Lavransdatter, but I'm hoping to finish up by the end of tomorrow.

I finished After Life and found it to be a really good read. Naomi is a complex and disturbing character. I liked it. I am not sure what I will pick up next. I am in the mood for a good spooky tale, and will have to have a look at my library to see what I have.

Ahab's Wife is sitting here looking pretty good though

I just finished listening to The Seasons of Beento Blackbird by Akosua Busia which is a lovely book! I am about to start listening to The Whole Truth by David Baldacci. I am continuing to read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

Two stories into 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. Very good so far. I'm going to try to read spooky kinds of things for the rest of October.

C'mon Touchstones - you can't find Joe Hill? He's an LT author for heaven's sake.

I"ve started To Siberia, the newly released in the US but earlier novel by Per Pettersen, the author of Out Stealing Horses.

I believe I have settled on House as a read to begin today. I will read that or maybe Grange House. Whichever I read next the other will follow right after, I think. 'tis the season~

Perfect! I am in the mood for an Agatha Christie book.

>20 richardderus:, is the book that awful? I only picked it up because I though the title was interesting. I doubt I'll give up reading ever. Might switch languages again, but not give up completely.

I finished Pale as the Dead by Fiona Mountain- interesting mystery story incorporating information about the Pre-Raphaelite artists and Lizzie Siddal. I have just started Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. Thank you to LT readers on this thread who have recommended this book!

I've got two LT group readings going: one is Carrie and the other is The Mysteries of Udolpho. Since it's October, I'm also concentrating on spooky stuff, so I'm reading Melmoth the Wanderer along with the two above.

I'm finishing up The Weather Makers on audiobook, after which I'll start For Whome the Bell Tolls.

I'm reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman and about to start listening to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Perfectly spook for the time of year!

I've started A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. And for fair balance, rereading John Muir's A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf.

>30 sanja: sanja, Sons and Lovers is a mawkishly sentimental droningly dull blah blah blah kind of a book.

It's craptastic.

It's one of the very, very few books that I won't even donate or give away, preferring to throw it in the garbage so as to prevent the damn thing from polluting another person's eyeballs.

Other than that, I guess it's okay.

>bart154ce..what a great pairing..two of my favorite Creepy/Children books...power to you :-)

I'm reading the newest addition to the Georgia Nicolson series, Stop In The Name of Pants by Louise Rennison. It is perhaps a bit raunchier than the past books but it still makes me laugh.

#35.........but Richard, how do you really feel about Sons and Lovers???

I'm sorry, love.....just giving you a hard time. I do love you, you know. :o)

I like that word "craptastic". I'm going to use that word sometime today....

I am reading Stephen king's the stand, so far I love it.

Finished The Kiss by Danielle Steel - I know but I had the wrong book of a series with me at the time and didn't want to read out of sequence... and that was all I had to hand at work under my desk...

Have started The Book of Spirits by James Reese...

I've just started Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson. I'm also reading Morning Star by Nick Bantock; that one will not take long to finish. :)

Reading an arc of Addition.

Working my way through Anna Karenina right now.

I actually liked Sons and Lovers well enough... although it made me feel very uncomfortable the entire time. Not something I would read again, that's for sure.

I am still reading The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa. It is good but slow going.

Since I'm half way through Descartes' Bones and still cannot get into it, I'm taking a break to read The Fire by Katherine Neville while I decide whether or not to abandon Descartes.

200 ish pages in and House would be abandoned if it were not a lazy sunday. I will finish it off today and pass it on to BIL, who might like it better~

Anticipating a good read and getting "meh" is irksome.

>46 mckait: Anticipating a good read and getting "meh" is irksome.. That's how I felt about The Yearling, which I finished last night. Oh well. Now on to Last Orders, by Graham Swift, which won the Booker a few years back. Good so far.

Halfway through Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber. Interesting novel about exiled Iraquis living in the United States and also Americans of Iraqui descent who were born and raised in the United States. Good book.

I am still reading The God of Small Things which I started last week. I'm on a bit of a study break which has resulted in less reading not more as I get out of the house to do stuff (who would have known huh?).

I just finished Bel Canto, which took longer than I thought due to a busy work schedule. Sigh. Never enough time to read.

In a way, I loved the book but I only gave it 3.5 stars. The writing alone was beautiful enough to make you weep, but somehow the story never rose to the level of the writing. Don't get me wrong: it was suspenseful and the characters were interesting. There were just some things that bugged me because I found them to be too far-fetched. I think she would have been better off focusing on fewer of the characters and developing them more.

Of course, my reading was no doubt influenced greatly by the fact that I knew the ending in advance (due to tragic mother-in-law spoiler, mentioned here in an earlier thread). Oh how I hate, hate, hate spoilers!!!

I think I'm going to pick up David Sedaris' Naked next.

I am reading Quality of Care by Elizabeth Letts. I have only read the first chapter but I think this is a book I will enjoy.
I finished Bride Island last evening.

Finished The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen last night. Despite criticism I've heard that this second novel isn't as strong as her debut, I actually enjoyed it more. While the storyline of her first, Garden Spells, was a bit more engaging, I had an easier time connecting with the characters, envisioning their lives, their community, which all in all, made The Sugar Queen the better book, in my opinion.

I should finish Ann Patchett's Run later this evening, then it's on to something seasonally appropriate (well, in my mind, at least): Twilight or The Historian or the collected works of Poe or LOTR...too many good ones from which to choose!

I finished House. ( meh )

I have to find something for tomorrow, and the next couple of days.

Finnished Loving Frank Nancy Horan this afternnon. It was an ok read.
Glad I checked it out from the library instead of buying it. It is not a reread.

Just started my first Kate Grenville book - The Secret River. Looking forward to it!

Still reading The Gravedigger's Daughter - great so far.
Still listening to The Lollipop Shoes - enjoying it; and The Shifting Fog - dull as . . .

I just finished (Comfort Food) and (The Kite Runner). I'm reading (Skeletons at the Feast), (Luncheon of the Boating Party) and (Freddy and Fredericka). I'm constantly working on at least 3 at once. Books are my drug.

>57 jennybek:
I think you meant those to be touchstones -- use square brackets, not parentheses, and they'll (mostly) work.

I finished Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov last Thursday. I can’t fathom how Nabokov could write so beautifully in English when it wasn’t his first language. There’s no chance I’ll ever even come close to speaking or writing so well in English and it’s my first language! The story itself was also far more interesting than I expected, and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. It’s a testament to Nabokov’s skill as a writer that he could write such a disturbing story, yet also make it so engaging. I think this line from Lolita may now be my favourite line from a book – “Look at this tangle of thorns”. I read that on the first page and went “Oohhhh…this is going to be good.”.

I’m now reading The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. A hundred or so pages in and enjoying it very much.

After more than a week of trying, I finally gave up on 351 Books of Irma Arcuri. I was expecting a mystery and it was mostly sex. And he kept describing how he looked from the window. What's that about?

Instead, I picked up Alfred and Emily and finished it in a day. This was my first Doris Lessing book and I definitely will be reading more. (Perhaps the two I already own, eh?) Up next are Finding Nouf and My Name is Will, both due back at the library in a few days.

Finished Falling out of Fashion last night. It was a fun light romp through corporate backstabbing in the magazine publishing industry. Today I am fighting a sore throat (Uugh!) so I am taking it easy and reading When we were Romans. I am 80 pages in and enjoying the view of Rome, Roman history and people observations through the eyes of a 9 year old.

Just grabbed a copy of Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization by Derrick Jensen. So far (less than 100 pages in though) it's been much better than I expected it to be.

I'm also going to start Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen sometime tonight or tomorrow.

I finished The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa. I liked it, and found it very good at looking at the various corrosive aspects of a dictatorship on the country, the people, their lives, families, and souls. The subject matter was sad, heavy and dark, but very well done and very believable.

The reading was not as good. It was very dense and had lots of noise (stuff that didn't have any meaning for me, at one point there is a 1/4 page of Spanish names listed of officers at a meeting, they aren't even characters in the book, and they are listed by their full names), and although the story was broken into 3 threads, there was a lot of jumping around within the threads that wasn't set up properly. There were flashbacks and memories in the middle of live action with no warning.

Then although the threads were defined as to whose story it was, towards the end the author would keep writing in one thread, even when the content belonged in another thread. I am not sure how much was due to the author and how much was the translator. Some of it could even be the way books from Latin America are written, don't know.

I am now reading In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, another book about the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

I am reading Hardball for Women and Swann's Way. I'm not sure I could choose two more different books! The Proust is the relaxing read (yes, really...) and the other is to psyche me up for interviews this week. It seems to be working!

I am reading Falling Man by Don DeLillo

trinah

I would be interested in your thoughts about that one. I have looked at it a time or two....

I finished I Wish I Had A Red Dress and I am about 90 pages into The Thirteenth Tale.

I'm reading Kristin Lavransdatter, volume III: 'The Cross'. I'll finish it this month.

And:
In Search of Lost Time, volume II (out of seven)

And:
A Norwegian biography about Virginia Woolf.

And:
The complete works of Plato. Volume I out of nine.

>38 porchsitter55: porchy, I thought Sons and Lovers was a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, of course. (Another immensely overrated book, that one.)

"Craptastic" is a word invented by Mr. Booklady, though it's been a while since we've seen Booklady 'round these parts as a regular. I'm thinking it's getting into her busy season what with all the events she's got to put together for the run-up to Christmas. *waves at booklady just in case*

>43 jfslone: jfslone, uncomfortable? Why? Was the subject matter uncomfortable in some way or did Mrs. Morel just get up your nose?

>50 jhedlund: jhedlund, The writing alone was beautiful enough to make you weep, but somehow the story never rose to the level of the writing There, in a nutshell, is my problem with every Ann Patchett book I've ever tried to read. And the Big Ending was, for me, the only obvious way to end the story and so it wasn't in danger of being spoiled. Though I think your MiL should be pegged to an anthill and smeared with honey anyway. That's just wrong to do that to someone.

>53 mckait: mckait, whad'ja pick?

>59 Elee: Elee, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO two great books in one post! Enjoy The Lace Reader though I am sure it's a very different kind of a read from Lolita. Reading them back-to-back would be dizzy-making!

>63 FicusFan: Ficus, well there goes The Feast of the Goat off the wish list! Thank you, kind Ficus, and keep up the trend of knocking them OFF instead of making them sound so tempting!

"Craptastic" wasn't really invented by Mr. Booklady, just introduced to LT via the Bookladys. It's relatively common in our age bracket.

#50jhedlund: I loved Bel Canto - a four-star book IMO.

Finished Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh which was thoroughly enjoyable. Then I read Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara - sex, violence, body piercings and tattoos. I've now moved on to The Final Solution by Michael Chabon and I'm already in love with his writing style.

amanda - I read The Final Solution a couple of weeks ago and would be interested to know your opinion of the book when you have finished it.

>richard- Definitely Mrs. Morel. To the point where I had to put the book down several times just to get away from her.

>70 DevourerOfBooks: Devourer, ooooooh. My daughter, 27, got a huge chuckle out of it too, so I assumed it was an original. It's perfect!

>73 jfslone:, she was my worst nightmare of a mother: domineering, controlling, demanding, and stupid. Yick.

Why that dratted story is a "classic" befuddles me.

Finished Blindness by Jose Saramago. I'm not sorry I read it but found it rough going. If the notion that truly great books are the ones you have to put down (rather than the ones that compel you to read non-stop), then this is a great book. It will keep me thinking.

I jumped into Rubyfruit Jungle and finished it up quickly. I enjoyed this lesbian coming-of-age story and will read more of Rita Mae Brown's work. Suggestions?

On deck is The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh for the October "ocean" theme read. And, it's been on my shelf a while!

I am reading The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong, very good book. I would amost say better than the Women of the Otherworld Series.

'Kay ever'body, I put up the main thread and the section threads for our group read of The Mists of Avalon here in the "What Are You Reading Now?" forum. It seemed easiest since we are all members of this forum already.

Cheers!

I'm personally more of a fan of "craptacular."

>78 fyrefly98:, really, I'm a fan of just about anything-tastic or -tacular. For awhile in college I put those endings on EVERYTHING.

I am still reading Belong to Me and have also begun Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie.

This week...on vacation, so lots of reading possible:

Kristin Lavransdatter, for the groupread.
Mosque, Mill, Underground, and The Way We Work by David Macaulay
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
Mysterious Flame by Colin McGinn
The Farewell Party by Milan Kundera

And I'm sure a couple more that haven't occurred to me yet. It's vacation, after all, and there's a library book sale that starts in a couple of days.

#63, FicusFan, If you want to continue the Trujillo theme, you might like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. The writing is staggering, blunt, and ...........staggering!

>75 CEP:: CEP, for some reason, a lot of Rita Mae Brown's other work seems to be mysteries solved by dogs and cats. I love both dogs and cats (all discussion of this should be confined to the Gathering Place thread!), but I read two of her mysteries and couldn't take the cuteness anymore. Hard to believe it's the same author; perhaps someone can enlighten us on how this came to pass.

I'm very close to finishing The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only problem is that it is the "Great Illustrated Classics" edition (I swiped it from my son's stack of books he was getting rid of) and I think I've missed an awful lot of what the story must actually have been like.

> 85 Jenson AKA DL - The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my all time favorite classics, along with The Count of Monte Cristo and basically everything written by Alexandre Dumas. I hope you enjoy it!

I have finished When we were Romans and felt a real connection with the characters. I am in the mood for something different and will now pick up Figures in Silk from my TBR pile.

I finished Chicago by Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany last night. I'm sure it's going to stay with me for a while.The characters and individual stories are compelling (once one can keep straight who is who). While primarily about Egypt, America is the backdrop and the author has interesting things to say about it. I will be interested in discussing it with others.

I finished The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks and really liked it. Will read the next one.

Now, I'm on to a book that I picked up in passing at the library called A Guide to the Birds of East Africa: A Novel by Nicholas Drayson. It looks interesting and quaint in a good way. :o)

#82 - But the Pulitzer? Really?

I finished The Cove by Catherine Coulter on Sunday - blech. Apologies to any Coulter fans out there, but this was the first book I've ever read by her, and is most definitely my last. I only read the whole thing because my mom lent it to me and I felt like I should give it every benefit of the doubt.

My problem is I can't decide what to start next! I'm leaving on a 4 day business trip tomorrow so I need multiple books, but I'm also going to try to get everything into a carry-on, so I can't have too many. I need something long and meaty, I think, with one or two others for back-up. I think it's between Lonesome Dove or The Sunne in Splendor - the two longest books on my TBR pile.

Finished up The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which I thought was amazing in terms of historical interest, plot, and writing style! I am about to start reading Sea Wolf by Jack London for an LT Group Theme read about ocean adventures. I continue listening to David Baldacci's The Whole Truth which is one of the best suspense novels I've read in a long time.

I started reading Suspense and Sensibility by Carrie Bebris at the barnies ... and somehow it followed me home. Must have snuck in my bag when I wasn't looking. Well, since it made such an effort, I feel I should get to know it better, and will settle down with a warm mug of tea, a throw across my lap and Ms Bebris second book in the series of Jane Austen's Elizabeth & Fitzgerald Darcy turning sleuths, this evening.

Wild Rose and her spying days will just have to rest a little while until I finish this delightful little paperback.

Am enjoying The Sixteen Pleasures as my bedtime reading material. I do like it when the writing is so good it builds a technicolor cinema for me in my head.

#90 Talbin - both of your choices are favorite books of mine - I envy you reading them for the first time! But, if I had to choose again, I'd go with Lonesome Dove, so well done and engrossing, it's hard to put down and the character of Gus is just unforgettable - enjoy it!

>90 Talbin:: Talbin- I'm not familiar with the other book but you have to select Lonesome Dove, easily one of the best books I've ever read and as an added bonus it was a terrific mini-series!
I'm still making my way through A Feast For Crows. It's not as solid as the earlier books. Some of the chapters are a bit of a slog and the eyes start to glaze somewhat. Also, some of my favorite characters are missing in action. Is this a cruel joke?

Lindsacl - Thanks for the heads-up on Rita Mae Brown's dog and cat mysteries, I'll pass.

#90 - What #s 93 and 94 said!

Thanks, everyone - this is what LT is for - suggesting the book I should bring on my business trip! :-) Another reason Lonesome Dove is a good choice is that it's physically smaller than The Sunne in Splendor.

>94 msf59: msf59 A Feast for Crows is definitely much slower than the first three books in the series. I sort of readjusted my thinking on that one - I thought of it as a journey novel - the characters are moving from one psychological place to another. That said, though, it's not as good as the others, unfortunately. (Cersei gets especially tiresome.) As for the missing characters, supposedly Martin had an entire book written (although I doubt it) with all the characters, but decided it was too long and split it up. The next book, Dances with Dragons, will have the others in it.

I finished The Namesake yesterday and am about to start Luncheon Of The Boating Party. I'd also like to start Carrie by Stephen King soon, it's for a group read.

I finished Caesar by Coleen McCullough this weekend and have just started The Egyptologist - I think I am going to like it, so far.

#97 - Talbin - I loved both Lonesome Dove and Sunne in Splendor. Both excellent, engrossing travel reads. You can't go wrong!

I have just finished reading the novel Towelhead by Alicia Erian.

.

I just finished White Horses by Alice Hoffman and I just started The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Just finished An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England and am now off to find another book on my shelves to start.

Just finished Queste and currently reading In an Antique Land and The Darkest Road.

#90 Both Lonesome Dove and The Sunne in Splendor are amazing, but in different ways. Lonesome Dove has more humor than The Sunne in Splendor but is almost as rich in emotion and drama. Both are histories of different eras and places, with wonderfully developed unforgettable characters and well-plotted stories and absolutely excellent writing.

Oboy, I'm in trouble. Now I am going to have to reread both of them. *throws up hands*

ETA that these are the only two books I have ever read where I stopped a few pages from the end (just for a day, but still) because I DIDN'T WANT THEM TO END!

I would like to recommend Chief Crazy Horse (Famous Lives Series) by Larry McMurtrie. I recently picked it up at my local library and was held from the first page. It is only a thin book but McMurtrie's writing about indigenous history is excellent.

Picked up The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield from my shelves (where it has been lying in wait for a while) after reading someones comment about it.... I am quite pleased with my pick so far and wondering if/when I will go to bed tonight, or if I will just read.

I finished In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Very personal and wrenching story of the Mirabal sisters. Incredibly well written and just riveting. Though again about a dark, heavy and sad subject, the death of 3 of the 4 during the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic in 1961.

The author says she made them up, in terms of their personal life, and tried to be true to the people they were, not the legends they became. I think she succeeded in presenting them as very human, and real.

The main difference between this book and the previous one also about the Trujillo regime The Feast of the Goat (besides the writing skill), is that Goat is more wide ranging in trying to give a larger picture of the regime and its impact on the lives of more people than one family (Mirabals), as in the Butterflies book.

Goat is a novel, but it seems more like the author is trying to also present a history (as told by the characters), than just a story. The 3 threads are that of a victim who survived and from present day, she tells her story talking about before her event and her naive innocence, and the aftermath when she saw the truth under the public deceptions. The other thread is of Trujillo himself and what motivated him, and how he thought and operated. The last thread is the most confused. It starts with the 4 men who assassinate him, and then becomes the voices of others who are against the regime and those who are trying to hold things together after the death.

So Richard, while Goat is a tough read (which may be due to translation), I am not sorry I read it, and would encourage you to try it out before discarding it, if the subject matter is of interest to you. Maybe a library read rather than a purchase.

Message 82: hemlokgang
#63, FicusFan, If you want to continue the Trujillo theme, you might like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. The writing is staggering, blunt, and ...........staggering!

Yes, Hemlock, I have the book (which I just got recently and mentioned in the new book thread - because I seem to keep stumbling over these books about the DR/Trujillo regime all of a sudden) and that is my next read.

Talbin - I would go with Sunne in Splendour, its great.

msf59 - A Feast of Crows is supposed to be half of a whole and Dances With Dragons is supposed to be the other half. Many people have commented that the characters that made it into Feast are the least popular. I am not sure the book was ever officially done, just that the part that was completed was too large to have more added to it. So they published what was completed and moved everything else into the next book. The pub date of Dragons, I think has been delayed, so its probably not done.

GRRM is so harsh with his characters, that I think the more he writes, and the more real they become the harder it is for him to continue, and do more horrible things to them. I know many people are upset at the delays, and wonder if he will ever finish.

I started Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book last night. Yipeeeeeeeee!!!

Also resumed 50 Horror Stories edited by Al Sarrantonio and Martin H. Greenberg for my lunch-break reading.

thiovi -- The Graveyard Book looks good - I haven't been that interested in Gaiman until I saw that one awhile back. It appears that the illustrator is different between the US and UK versions though - I was struck by some illustrations I saw online for the UK edition and was disappointed in the US ones.

I finished The 19th Wife tonight and started on The Secret River by Kate Grenville. Beautiful writing!

Teelgee: I had the pleasure of listening to Neil Gaiman himself read the first chapter of the book when he was in the country last year. I've been looking forward to reading the rest of the book since then. It looks very very promising so far... but then I'm a huge fan of Gaiman, so I'm biased. Hehe.

teelgee, you are another one who incites me to buy. Your books so often looks good to me! ( adding The Secret River to Amazon wish list)

I am beginning Grange House. I opened it last night, but didn't do any reading to speak of. More just getting the feel of it.

I finished listening to The Whole Truth by David Baldacci, which was one of the best suspense novels I've read in a while. Fast paced and thought provoking. I am starting to listen to The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. I continue reading The Sea Wolf by Jack London.

You guys are great. I just wanted to let you know that I'm bringing Lonesome Dove. The deciding factor was that my edition is the small paperback size, which will be just a bit easier to haul around with my computer. And of course, I couldn't bring just one book, so No Country for Old Men and An Artist of the Floating World are in my carry-on as backup. I highly doubt I'll be able to read them - it's a busy conference - but I always feel better knowing I have another book or two, "just in case."

I finished The Professor and the Madman yesterday. It was a very good read, but I would have liked it better if I hadn't read it so close on the heels of The Meaning of Everything. I also finished Airframe this morning, a typical Crichton and a fast read.

I'm off to go start The Dragon Heir now, solely based on the fact that it's due back at the library first.

>111 mckait: mckait - so glad I can contribute to your addiction enjoyment!

Willa Cather, such an under appreciated author. She can make the reader appreciate the subtle and magnificent beauty of the Great Plains better than just about any author I've read. We lived in Iowa for 5 years, and while most people key into the boredom of cornfield after cornfield, I always loved the subtle changes which occurred throughout the seasons. Thank goodness for Cather!

Finished Sourcery, a wizzardy discworld novel where the plot is really just a background for everything else that is going on. It was nice to spend some time with the Luggage and the Librarian.

At the moment I'm reading a Montessori manual Montessori Insights for Parents of Young Children by Aline D. Wolf

> #90 I can heartily recommend The Sunne in Splendor it was my first book by Sharon Penman and led me to read all the other books she's written. Sunne has remained my favourite of hers.

Although after all the recommendations for Lonesome Dove I will be looking out for that one tonight at the bookshop!

Tonight I will start Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott. Every once in a while I like to tuck into a classic I've never read. That's a long list. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this one!

#111 mckait

"opened it last night, but didn't do any reading to speak of. More just getting the feel of it."

I thought I was the only person who did that! Nice to know it's not "strange behavior." I think of it as a "preview" so I'm really excited to get started the next day. If I start a new book too late in the evening I'll have trouble putting it down to go to sleep.

#111 and #120

"opened it last night, but didn't do any reading to speak of. More just getting the feel of it."

Oh my gosh, I do that, too!

I'm reading The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte and am really enjoying it. It's not 888 and it's not one of the two ARCs that are haunting me, but it's fun.

I'm getting ideas from this thread for a new category for 999... Curiosity Killed the Cat - books that have LT opinions that get my attention and make me want to read the book.

I'm in the middle of Apart From The Crowd by Anna McPartlin, and I'm pretty into it so far! It's a classic example of competent writing meets a really interesting plot, inevitably producing a good story overall. As an editor, though, finding errors in a text is incredibly distracting for me! Ah, but that's my own problem. :)

I brought home an ARC of The Longest Trip Home last night, and I'll probably bump it up to get started tomorrow.

#122- I always get to know a book a little......that is the part I truly miss when listening to an audiobook.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Just finished The Given Day and think it is the best read of the year for me.
Can Dennis Lehane ever write anything bad? Like Mystic River I see Given Day as a movie somewhere down the line.

>126 morfam:: morfam- You are the first one to mention The Given Day on this thread and I am very encouraged by your high praise. Mystic River is one of my favorite books and I was looking forward to the new one. He always seems to be challenging himself, a trait I admire!

Getting to know a book, getting the feel of it..

Glad to know I am not alone in this behavior .. lol

How about, I left for work half an hour early, took coffee... and read in the car until I had to go in. I was able to listen to Catie Curtis, relax, drink coffee and then just waltz into the building.. in time for work.

Finished Suspense and Sensibility last night .. it was a fun read and I didn't want to put it down, so I just zipped through the whole thing and finished it up at about 1am. It looks to me like Carrie Bebris has a little theme going on with her Darcy sleuths ... and it involves the supernatural.

In the first book that I read, Pride and Prescience I didn't think much of it, but now having finished this one, and bumping up against 'magic' again, I'm beginning to think that this is the deviation that Ms Bebris has brought to her books to make them her own, and bring a different side to Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.

In this second book, there is a little bit of Dorian Gray and Narcissus in it, that kept my interest throughout the book.

I think I'd like to find the others in this series now ... ok, so I'm hooked!

I can now resume The Sixteen Pleasures tonight

The Queen's Devotion by Jean Plaidy

I am supposed to be reading Birds Without Wings for my church book group. A month or so ago I read the first chapter, found it tedious, and set it aside. A week or so ago I reread the first chapter and on to about 25 pages; I lacked enthusiasm. Usually, once I open a novel, I'm good for a couple of hundred pages.

Has anybody here found anything felicitous about this novel?

Robert

I'm reading Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics.

This freakin' book is terrible.

Yeah, that's by Seyla Benhabib.

rdurick.........I just like the word "felicitous".

>132 bigal123:: bigal123, stop reading it at once! There are too many books out there to waste time reading terrible books.

#131> My wife read Birds without Wings last year and found it entirely engrossing. To each his/her own, I guess, but she sure did like it.

I finished 102 Minutes: The untold Story of the fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer.

I started Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

# 131 - Robert, I am a big fan of De Bernieres, but when I read this book. I found it way too long and fairly dull. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Finished What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. Thin and spare. Haven't read any of his novels but now I'm interested. I can't run anymore, chronic shin splints, but I yearn to be back on the road. I know how he feels and what he experiences.

Started Two in the Far North by Margaret E. Murie. Just a little way in, but it's beautiful. A memoir originally published in 1962 of the author and her husbands travels in Alaska.

Also started All Mortal Flesh: A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery by Julia Spencer-Fleming.

>119 rocketjk: rocketjk- I devoured several of Scott's novels a few years ago including The Tale of Old Mortality, The Antiquary and The Pirate and had a great time...all that was missing was a drafty room on the moor and a cuppa grog.

I just finished The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory which I really enjoyed. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did, and I put off reading it for a long time. I'm glad I finally read it. Not as good - or as bad - as some of her other books, this was somewhere in the middle, but as usual I loved feeling like I was experiencing life at court firsthand, albeit the historical innacuracies - it was still a good story and satisfying ending.

136> rocketjk, thank you. Did she say anything about why she liked it?

138> judylou, I am forever hopeful, but I may end up quoting your lack of recommendation.

Robert

Sadly, I'm still mostly reading books for school as I have been since the beginning of September -- I've only finished one non-class-related book in that time. I finished Julius Caesar about an hour ago and am astounded that in ten years of reading Shakespeare I'd never gotten around to it in the past -- it shot to near the top of my list quickly. Now it's back to Hamlet, for Friday. I also finished The History Boys for another course yesterday.

For fun, I'm reading John Adams by David McCullough. I have a massive intellectual crush on that man. (Adams, not McCullough.) I'm casually reading Fadeout, a mystery from the '70s, too.

#142> She found the history and the insights into the time and place to be fascinating. She also liked a lot of the characterizations and the fictionalization about how all the different groups interacted with each other.

>126 morfam:, 127 I mentioned The Given Day back in May when I read it (pre-publication); not that anyone would remember that far back:-) It was a great read. I'm not sure Babe Ruth added much to the story though, although the scene at the beginning was very compelling and could have led to another book entirely.

I've finished The Day the Leader was Killed by Naguib Mahfouz which I enjoyed. It's shows the effects of economic policies on just one middle class family. I also finished my reread of Good Wives by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Now I'm choosing what books to take on my trip to Missouri tomorrow.

I finished To Siberia by Per Pettersen. It drew me in right away with the same spare beautiful writing and sense of place of Out Stealing Horses but it didn't hold my interest all the way through and there were several aspects of it that annoyed me. I'll be interested in what others think.

Now I've started Chicago, the new novel by Alaa al Aswany.

This week I've got two books going:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life and The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School.

Fabled Fourth Graders is very clever. It tells some of the famous tales of Aesop using students at Aesop Elementary School. For example the tale of the mouse helping the lion becomes a 4th grader helping the 5th grade bully who's jacket got stuck on a locker and he couldn't get out. The next day the bully helps defend the 4th grader on the playground when he is getting picked on. MORAL: One good turn deserves another.

I finished The Tiger in Well by Philip Pullman yesterday, and it was fantastic - I'm glad I was persuaded to de-give-up on the Sally Lockhart series!

I'm existing in a state of audiobook limbo at the moment - I'm waiting for my library to get the audiobook of Inkdeath, which was released yesterday, into circulation - I'm first on the holds list. However, I think it's going to be one of those things that it's going to take forever, but as soon as I start another book it'll come in. Maybe I'll start the third volume of Dreamsongs, so that I can just stop in between stories.

I'm at the beginning of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (about four chapters in) and I'm also re-reading one of my favourite Agatha Christie books, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?.

I'm having a terrible time trying to get back to Descartes' Bones! I just cannot go back to it. It isn't terrible, but when the full first half didn't interest me, even The Book Lady's recommendation doesn't make me want to go to the supposedly much better second half.

In the meantime, I'm reading The Year of Living Biblically, as it was lent to me by a houseguest this weekend.

I'm reading Oscar's Books by Thomas Wright, a fascinating reconstruction of the library of Oscar Wilde and how its contents influenced his life, thought and work.

I'm reading "In The Woods", a detective novel set in Ireland that has received excellent reviews and won a first novel award.

I finished 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill on the trolley this morning and am anxious to start We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson on the way home from work this afternoon. I am trying to read spooky, scary, or downright disturbing books for October, and this one comes highly recommended around these parts .

I also like to get acquainted with a book and raise my enthusiasm level before beginning. I thought I was weird. Glad to see I'm not alone even if I am :-)

#152 -- I loved In the Woods! My favorite mystery that I have read in a long time. I have the sequel on my shelf waiting. Hope you are enjoying it!

Really enjoying The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips.

>154 jhowell: - I thought The Egyptologist was great, and very different from anything I'd ever read. Good to hear that it's going well for you!

Strill woroking on World Without End by Ken Follett and The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

Just picked up The Stuff of Thought last night, in the middle of A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, and am probably going to start either The Farthest Shore or Haunted at some point soon.

#145
I agree that the 'Babes' connection to the story almost didn't fit, but I think that Lehane was attempting to convey a better feel for the time and place within the story.
Lehane loves Boston, obviously, most of his books are centred there, and he also loves baseball. It did not detract from the novel, just added to it, perhaps unnecessarily, perhaps not.
However, that said, one cannot come away from reading this book without mixedfeelings. What a time it must have been for the Irish immigrants during the lean years of the 20's and 30's, coming to America to find a new life and facing hardship and racial problems.
Lehane beautifully creates the start of the labor union movement and the unbelievable problems it had in establishing itself and isn't it ironic that the Boston Policemens' union was one of the first to create, not law and order, but violence and discontent for the citizens of that city.
One can see where baseball might have been a necessary outlet for the times and The Babe their hero.

144> rocketjk, thanks. I'll give it at least one more chance, but I seem to have been diverted into One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich for a couple of days.

Robert

Busy with The interpretation of murder by Jed Rubenfeld. Like the story, only don't have time to read. After finishing it I will go on with Saturday by Ian McEwan of which I only read the first chapter and then put it away. Need relaxter times for that one, which will start on Sunday.

I'm still reading and really enjoying The Whiskey Rebels, but will have to put it down while I quickly read next months book club choice, The Glass Castle.

>152 kathydianeleveille:: kathydianeleveille- I'm also a big fan of In the Woods by Tana French. She's a terrific new author and I'm looking forward to reading her latest, The Likeness.

>148 fyrefly98:: fyrefly98, do let us know what you think of Inkdeath when you finally get to listen to it or read it. I loved the first one, but I was so disappointed by her second that I'm leery of reading this third in her series.

>163 cameling: - will do, but I don't know how much use my opinion's going to be to you, since I thought Inkheart was just okay, but that Inkspell was miles and miles better. :)

Someone is reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. #140 Just call me Helen. I loved it.

I just finished The Magician by Michael Scott, book two of the series The Sectrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flemmel. Read The Alchamist about two weeks ago, and now have to wait until next May for book three. Sigh....the things we do for a good book. ;)

This week's reading:
Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces, Robert Clark. About the 1966 flood in Florence, Italy. His Mr. White's Confession was a recent ER book.

The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It, Robert Zimmerman.

Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin.

The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster.

And since The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga just won the Booker I picked up a copy.

I won't finish all of them this week but I'm working on them at a decent pace.

Finished The Gravedigger's Daughter. It was a loooooong book, but worth every word. Now starting Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

I just finished The Thirteenth Tale and really enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'm not sure why I thought I wouldn't like it as I loved both Jane Eyre and Rebecca. Many thanks to the LTers who encouraged me to drag it out from the bottom of the pile!

I just read and LOVED The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan. My review is up at The Book Lady's Blog if you're interested.

Now, I'm on to The Best Place to Be for a blog tour with Lesley Dormen.

I just started Off Season Anne Rivers Siddons.

#170-I will check out your review.

Starting Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I really liked People of the book. I'm hoping I enjoy this one as much.

167 VisibleGhost - Winter's Tale is one of my favorite novels. I've read it twice now, and it seems to get better with each read. The prose is absolutely incandescent. You feel like you're reading the novel next to a roaring fire on a long winter's night.

Currently I'm reading The First Man in Rome. I'm only a short way in so I'm witholding judgement for now!

Well, the Blue Screen of Death has eaten my only computer, and now I am at the liberry using their computer to post a rave review of Before I Lose My Style by Mike Kaspar. I got it from the Early Reviewers program the very day I needed it most, the day of Blue Death, and read it in one sitting. Now I am not like mckait, I don't sit down at 2pm with a 400-page tome and have it read and digested and understood and parsed by 4:15pm. This book, however, I did just that with (changing the times, since I wasn't through until 11pm), stopping for dinner and the debates. (McCain looked dimwitted to me.)

Really, truly, warts and all, I encourage y'all to look at this book as a must-buy. The protagonist, Damon, is a scientist whose life is not under any sort of control, though he's sure he needs to get it there; he just doesn't have a sense of where 'control' is on his moral compass. He's journeying far out of his narrow band of life-events to get something, he doesn't know what; he's only sure that he can't find it where he has been to date.

Mr. Kaspar's writing is quite good, a bit formal, and that's a good choice for this character's voice; he has a wonderful ear for telling metaphors and a glad hand with an observation: "Despite the drop cloths and nails that litter the floor, the band saw standing off to the side, the turpentine fumes, the sanders and drills plugged into every electrical outlet, the loft is a gallery for us tonight...Travis's sculptures explore the concept and meaning of home...pieces invite you to walk either inside or under them, only to force you to question whether they are sheltering you or entrapping you." (p181) The narrator speaks to us in his precise, exacting voice, and I know I can see and smell this room, even feel this scientist's aesthetic pleasure in the subtleties he's so clear-sightedly explaining to his readers. In the end, Damon's journey ends where astute readers knew it would from the first; but so what? A trip to a favorite haunt is no less pleasurable for all that we know where it will end up, is it?

Please consider a $16 investment in the future of good writing...buy this book.

What a day for literature! I wept at the sweetest love/death scene I've read in a long time in The Song of the Lark, and was blown away by Jack London and his character, Wolf Larsen, in The Sea Wolf. God, I love to read! And it is great to have a place to shout that from the proverbial rooftops and know that someone will hear/read it.

>164 fyrefly98:: fyrefly98, that's interesting. You don't happen to live in Bedford, MA do you? I've love to have a coffee with you and discuss this. It's so opposite to what I took away from reading Inkheart and Inkspell. I'm still interested in what you have to say after you read Inkdeath. :-)

I picked up The Secret Papers of Madame Olivetti by Annie Vanderbilt about a woman who goes to their family holiday home in Southern France after her husband's death to write her memoirs and then sort of finds herself again.

Still reading The Sixteen Pleasures at bedtime

Aaaaannndddddd….I now have Winter’s Tale, The Song of the Lark, and The Sea Wolf, added to my TBR list. Dear me! Pretty much I will have to live for 1000 years to even make a dent in the list, but I’ll give it a red hot go anyway and read as much as I can :-)

I finished The Lace Reader yesterday afternoon – fantastic with a capital F! Loved it. Interesting story, interesting setting (I want to go see Salem now!), interesting characters, and well written.

>172 KathiJ:, KathiJ – I read Year of Wonders last year and liked it a lot. I plan to read People of the Book next year for my 999 challenge (one of my categories is going to be Australian authors). I’m glad that you liked it - I'll put it at the top of the list for that category.

Arrrrgh...startedThe Curse of the Blue Tattoo this morning...what a joyful hoot in the face of ...well..all things not-so-joyful...Politricks, especially

Duly noted, Richard...duly noted..someone else actually told me about BEFORE I LOSE MY STYLE...that's two recommendations....enough for me

Winter's Tale is the sublimest read i know....

;-)

I'm now beginning The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles.

I've just started Orlando for the Virginia Woolf group read and am casually wading through v.I one of Kristin...well, that Norwegian thing. Obviously, I'm too late for the group read, but I will keep at it for my own edification.

#181: theaelizabet: Worry not about Kristin Lavransdatter...I'm scarcely ahead of you and still at least pretending to myself that I'm part of the groupread.

#182 Cornerhouse, thanks. That really does make me feel better.

I have just finished reading the novel Appaloosa by Robert Parker.

.

181 and 182: I don't feel so bad. I am also casuallly wading through vol. 1

I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It had some funny moments, but mostly its something I feel the need to scrape off my shoe. It is written in what could kindly be called dialect, but is really part of the 'ignorance is cool oeuvre'. Definitely not in the same league as In the Time of the Butterflies or The Feast of the Goat, both of which the snide, cool-obsessed narrator slags in the footnotes.

I am now reading Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear

#181, #182 and #185... add me to your club! It's beside the bed, but other books keep leaping into my hands.

>181 theaelizabet:, 182, 185, 187 Don't feel bad! We don't even start discussing what the next book will be until the beginning of next month. So, I would say that you are right on target.

I have not read a thing for days. Never started Grange House . Its not a funk, I am just so tired. The students have been off the wall all week. The days have seemed so long, I get home and check in here.... and ? The pain in my shoulder has made them seem longer, I think. I plan to do my cleaning tonight after work, and have the whole weekend. Fingers crossed.

Making my way through The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber, and loving it. This is a very enjoyable read.

#180 - One of my favorite books of all time, The French Lieutenant's Woman - I hope you enjoy it!

I am finally reading Duma Key by Stephen King. For whatever reason, maybe because I've been reading him for so long, King's stuff is like the literary version of comfort food to me. I know that I can settle in because the story will hold me until the very end and I'll have those moments where I think, "Ahhh, there you go again, Stephen..." in an odd, familiar way. hehe! It also helps that he's become a much better storyteller over the past decade and a half or so. LOL

Just finished (Welcome to the World Baby Girl) ((Fannie Flagg)) and started (So Many Ways to Begin) ((John Macgregor)) which I've tried before but couldn't get into to after loving (If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things) , but really into it after persevering with

#191 jhowell - good to know it's one of your favorites, I like it so far, but I'm still very much in the beginning. It's been so long since I saw the movie, I really don't remember a thing about it, so it's as if it's all new to me.

Finished We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and LOVED it! Probably the best gothic I've ever read.

Started Blaze by Richard Bachman on the trolley. I'm liking it thus far.

theaelizabet, cornerhouse, cindysprocket & cmt--

It looks like there is still quite an active group still reading "That Norwegian Thing"--I just started Volume 2 last night. I do plan to finish it before the end of the year! Actually I'd like to finish it before the end of the month--but I, too, am doing the Orlando read and also a group read at our local library of Three Cups of Tea which we are reading in three sections--can't read ahead because then I may accidentally start discussing a "spoiler!"

Are any of you posting to the threads? I did a little posting on Volume 1 but there didn't seem to be much current activity.

Okay, maybe I had a *little* too much to drink last night, but still...

The first 20 pages of Why We Hate Us seemed kind of messy. Then again, I'm not sure you can really make a truely coherent argument when taking on our entire culture, so maybe I need to give it the benefit of the doubt and just go with it...

Anyone else? I know quite a few folks around here have already read this...

Reading vol. III of Kristin Lavransdatter (group read)
+
'Redaktør Lynge' (1893) by Knut Hamsun (One of his less known novels, even in Norway)
and soon
Orlando by Virginia Woolf (group read from October 20).

I assume 'Orlando' is a rather curious "biographical novel", and am really looking forward getting to know what it's all about. I hope to finish 'KL' next week. Then I plan to re-read some novels, short stories, plays and poems by Knut Hamsun, because next year (August 4th 2009) it's 150 years since he was born. On that date a new Hamsun Center is opened at Hamarøy, Northern Norway. A new edition of his complete works is published now, and I've purchased the first nine (out of 27) ones.

>197 mikeepatrick: mike, please try just going with it for the next 40pp or so. It should cohere by then. I was very favorably impressed by the book. I hope you'll end up that way too.

mckait...what's this?? Unwell? Not good and not fun! I know you're really not feeling "the thing" (I never understood this locution of my mother's at all) if you can't find something to read that will make you feel better. Wellness whammy on its way.

I picked up and polished off Stain of the Berry last night. It is such a pleasure to delve into Anthony Bidulka's stories. I like the parts in Saskatoon; I like the travel bits; I like Russell Quant and keep rooting for him to find Mr. Right instead of Mr. Right Now.

No spoilers. But for mystery fans, this series is worth your time and effort and spending. Characters with real flaws and lives you can truly follow with interest, and no messy icky guts and grimness, and for the hetero-squeamish, no excursions into Where No Man Has Gone Before. Kinda cozy.

Good heavens. I'm not sure I'm helping. Better skulk off into a corner now.

I started today The name of the rose by Umberto Eco.

Reading Kristin Lavransdatter made me want to read more historical fiction ;-)

>86 lkernagh: I wasn't too impressed with the The Picture of Dorian Gray re-written edition. I'm sure the original must be much better and do plan to check it out in the future.

I've started Steve and Me by Terry Irwin which I think I'll like. Steve Irwin always amused me.

Also started the manga Princess Princess Volume 2 tonight as well.

>192 thatbooksmell:: thatbooksmell- I also loved Duma Key. Terrific stuff and I agree with you, he has become a better writer. I also loved Lisey's Story, as well. He's back on a nice little roll, even though Cell was just ok!

I'm eager to start reading The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright which I've earmarked for this weekend.

Am reading Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon and enjoying this delightful Venetian police commissioner fight police bureaucracy and catch bad guys

#203

The Wednesday Letters sounds great. Let us know how you like it. I could use a good love story.

Ok. I'll post my thoughts here after i finish the book. I've heard good things about it, so I'm looking forward to reading it

I've been slogging through It's All Right Now for a couple weeks....it's a long book and he sort of goes off on tangents from time to time....and my brain is frazzeled from being crazy busy lately, thus, not much time to sit and read. I am bound and determined to get through it, though, basically because it actually is fairly good and I want to learn to like British authors. LOL

I just downloaded Michael Connelly's latest, The Brass Verdict from our e-library....so far it's outstanding! I love the way Connelly writes! And since I am doing the audio version, it sooo helps that the narrator is excellent. This one appears to be a winner from the get-go!

I am right in the middle of my seasonal Halloween reading. I just finished Evil: A Primer by William Hart and now starting Stephen King's Rose Madder.