What Are You Reading the Week of 8 November 2008?

I just finished listening to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and am listening to The Bostonians by Henry James. I continue reading The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe.

I am enjoying The Complete Novels of Dashiell Hammett that I have had from the library for a while now.

I just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which was wonderful - I loved the flashbacks to his mom's life, and Diaz's writing. He uses a lot of slang, and Spanish, and this makes the narrator's voice so much more compelling. Also, I can now curse in Spanish. So it was an educational experience.

This week the list includes The Secret Scripture and The Mists of Avalon.

I'm still reading A Pirate of Exquisite Mind and now I've started The Golden Compass. Both are for book groups.

I'm currently reading House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.

I've finished The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and am now reading Dragonflight

Chocolate Puppy Puzzle is first to be read, then I'll finish up on Name of the Rose. The chocolate one is a library book. And I'll also get back to The First Jesuits. The puppy one also doesn't require too much thinking other than trying to figure out "who done it" and since my husband and I drove to Coxsackie NY and back in twenty four hours where we visited several people we hadn't seen it years, I don't need a "thinking" book right now.

This week, I am just finishing up Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, who lightens up my life by his mere existence. I'm seeing him in New York tomorrow! So excited. After that, I'm probably going to read either American Gods or Smoke and Mirrors.

I am reading Not One Drop and I swear it is one of the absolute best books I have ever read. Seriously. It is about the horrific oil spill from the Exxon Valdez.
It is also about the local people, and the fight of the fishermen for their rights and the fight to protect the environment.

Spectacular descriptions and it honestly has pulled me in and brought the event right back to my consciousness. I hope to finish it this evening..

I'm reading Bitter is the New Black and listening to When You are Engulfed in Flames. I was listening to it while driving yesterday and laughing so hard the other drivers probably thought I was nuts. I love David Sedaris

I finished Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher last night, and am moving on to Testimony by Anita Shreve.

Last week I finished The Titian Committee, The Glass Castle and the Idea of Perfection - a great week! This week I'm reading Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. It won the Orange Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1997 and I can see why - beautiful writing and hard to put down.

For non-fiction I'm still going on the Edwardians. It's a good read, just not as good as the others.

For a change of pace I read dictation: a Quartet, life on the refrigerator door and the house of paper by Carlos Maria Dominguez (touchstone not working).

All three were excellent: dictation has me on the hunt for more by Cynthia Ozick; I was crying at the end of ...refrigerator door and ...paper was an enthralling quick read (all 103 pages) with my Saturday morning coffee.

Next up, The Montefeltro Conspiracy.

I finally finished Kristin Lavransdatter, so it's on to other things:

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Boswell's London Journal by James Boswell
The Renaissance by Paul Johnson
American Creation by Joseph J. Ellis
On the Shortness of Life by Seneca

I've also been re-reading some of Lincoln's speeches (since they form the background for those of our new President-Elect), as well as bits and pieces of Dante, Shakespeare, and Chaucer -- but that's pretty much just random sampling.

And I'll probably start one or the other of the groupreads -- Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man or The Trial.

I'm currently reading Skipping Christmas, The Fifth Child and The Other Boleyn Girl.

I also have lots to read on deck: The Lace Reader, 44 Scotland Street, I Capture The Castle, The Haunting Of Hill House and 'Salem's Lot.

So many books, so little time!

I liked Skipping Christmas. I thin it was my first John Grisham book. I got hooked after that.

I finished Chocolate Puppy Puzzle and can now send it back to western PA. It's the beginning of my 2nd 50.

Just finished listening to The Bostonians by Henry James. Excellent! I am about to start listening to Dangerous Liasons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

I finished The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton this morning and started A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

The Book Nudgers group convinced me to read The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville. I started it today. I think I'll really like it.

After that, it's probably Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner which will be the first due back at the library.

#13 cmt I'm glad you liked The Glass Castle! I got it because I heard so much about it on LT and I thought it was a fantastic story. Then both my sisters and my Mum read it and loved it too :).

#5 RedBowlingBallRuth I hope you like The House of The Spirits. I read it last year and it was my first South American Author/literature. I found the first chapter hard to get into but after that I became enthralled. I have since read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but I thought it was ok but Allende was better!

This week I'm off the rails reading wise.

I started The Satanic Verses by Rushdie and while I can read it well enough and keep with the story it's not engaging my interest.

I'm being lured away by some books my friends have lent me. One is River God by Wilbur Smith which is historical fiction set in Ancient Egypt and is highly recommended the other is the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Yes a friend of mine has lent me the whole series! I'm lucky :)

I'm about 100 pages from the end of Sacred Hunger and it's really, really good...

I'm currently reading Sanctuary by William Faulkner and rereading Salem's Lot by Stephen King. I have The Heretic's Daughter next on my list.

Finished reading The Watchers Out of Time by August Derleth. It was a last minute purchase for Halloween. It was a difficult read because Derleth is a pale imitation of H. P. Lovecraft. Read individually, over a long period of time, the stories wouldn't be too bad. However, reading them one after another is a grueling experience. They're pretty much all the same.

I've just started reading, The Sword, which is the first book in the "Sons of Destiny" series by Jean Johnson.

I am reading Guide to Fiction Writing by Phyllis A. Whitney. I am also reading Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacyby Elizabeth R. Varon

Storywebber (Betty)

I finally finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski I thought it was pretty good, the first part was the best, and as so many have said before me, it gradually went down hill as it progressed. I was so disappointed with the ending - Hamlet or no). Following along with sweet and wonderful Edgar, who is the same age as my own son, I was so into it and the dogs (my golden stayed by me all the time I was reading it) but that horrible ending ruined it.

I finally finished Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myles. An historical mystery set in Venice in the 1730s, with a castrato as the main character.

I really wanted to like it, but it reminded me of a badly done YA book. The writing was OK, but the story wasn't very interesting until the end, and the characters were poorly done. The good characters were too good, the rest were wildly emotional or bland. Even the baddies were bland. They were uninteresting, cliched and lacking depth or shades of grey or motivation. Everything was pretty much stock for historical fiction set in Venice, nothing new or interesting, not the castrato, his family life, or the behind the scenes at the opera. The setting meant lots of canals and gondoliers, and I suppose the irrational emotions (Italians), but thats about it for 'Venice'.

It wasn't actually terrible, it just didn't engage me and was a disappointment. It was her first book, so I may try the second one, just not for a while.

I am now starting non-fiction Truman Capote a biography by George Plimpton

ABout to start Kate Grenville's Bearded Ladies and still listening to Linda Olsson's Let me sing you gentle songs which appears to also be called Astrid and Veronika - a gorgeous book!

Just finished reading Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton and also reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I also finished Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier.

U2fan, I thought The Red Tent was a fascinating story.

At long last, I just finished Forty Words for Sorrow. It was good. A bit graphic and parts were sort of intense, but a very well written "crime thriller" type book. I like the author's style.

Just picked up The Box Children by Sharon Wyse for a quickie read. It only has 186 pages.

I'm still working on the audio version of The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly. I definitely prefer actually reading a book the old fashioned way, by holding it in my hands and turning the pages. Audio is good, though, for when my eyes are bothering me (I have vitreous detachment so my vision is blurry alot of the time). It's easy to get distracted or even fall asleep while listening to an audio book.

I am reading 'The end of Alice' by A.M. Homes and 'Gomorra' by Roberto Saviano at this moment.

I finished Charlotte's Web, it was sweet, charming & funny. I also read The Street Lawyer last week. It was OK, but not as good as some of John Grisham's others. It lacked the "page turner" appeal that other books have had.

I started Veronika decides to die this afternoon. It seems quite funny, although I was put off by Paulo Coelho talking about himself in the first page. Veronika is reading an article written by him in a magazine.

I've also finished Part I of A Pirate of Exquisite Mind for the group read.

I am reading The Audacity of Hope by Barrack Obama, and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, and Investing 101 by Kathy Kristof

I'm currently reading The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu, The Company by K.J. Parker and The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.

I read a bit more of Fire by Sebastian Junger last night and have also started Click which is a YA story written by 10 different authors.

Finished Drop Shot by Harlan Coben. It's the 2nd in the Myron Bolitar series and it's both tough and funny.
I'm starting Half the Blood of Brooklyn by Charlie Huston. It's the 3rd entry in his excellent vampire/private eye series.
I'm also reading A Pirate of Exquisite Mind for the group read. It's such a terrific book, I wish I didn't have to read it so slowly!

Just finished Bougainville by F. Springer. I'm about to start with London fields by Martin Amis and I want to read some chapters in Eats, shoots and leaves by Lynne Truss.
Furthermore I'm reading A pirate of exquisite mind for the group read. About to start the second part of the book maybe this evening, otherwise tomorrow.

I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society yesterday. I'd heard so many good things about it from LT, that I was a just a tad nervous that it wouldn't live up to the hype. But it was a great read, a fabulous book, and now I have to go out and buy it (I haven't returned it to the library yet because I'm making my mother read it first. With any luck it will be on my shelves before I have to return it!)

So, I haven't actually started anything new yet (I don't want my next read ruined because I so enjoyed the last...), but have continued on in Final Harvest: Poems, and am not quite half way through.

I finished Embers by Sandor Marai. I enjoyed it. Now I'm reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok and The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner.

I have nearly finished All Quiet on the Western Front, an incredibly moving story. Tomorrow I am going to make a start on What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn.

I finished listening to Dangerous Liaisons and will be starting Little Herr Friedemann by Thomas Mann.

I finished listening to Dangerous Liaisons and will be starting Little Herr Friedemann by Thomas Mann.

#40 - Ditto what you said about Guernsey. It often made me laugh out loud and kept me turning pages until it was done. It's not often a book keeps me up until it's finished.

I started The Things They Carried for book club. A re-read for me, and one I'm happy to be re-reading because it was so good the first time.

I'm almost halfway into Last Among Sequels. I'm certainly enjoying it, although not quite as much as the earlier Thursday Next books. I hope Fforde moves on to new things with his subsequent books.

I'm reading The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder and it's good but not stunning. Next is Independent People by Halldor Laxness for my December bookclub meeting.

Got within 75 pages of finishing William Kennedy's An Albany Trio and just couldn't stand it any longer. Beautiful writing and maybe an interesting main character, but plot, situation and action I didn't care about. Another point, the use of descriptive sex to reveal character and propel the plot forward is boring and just plain lazy to my mind.

Now reading The Immortal Game by David Shenk and enjoying it.

I am still reading Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. I liked it quite a bit at first, it has gotten a bit sloggy as of late.

I was sent An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor to review...

I am enjoying it. It is light reading, obviously and laugh out loud funny is places. I like it.

The touchstone is very wonky. It takes you to the correct book, listing the correct author, but when the touchstone comes up it says Alice Taylor.

I just finished A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire and now I need to get off the computer and go figure out what I want to read next!

I just finished The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith and I'm about to start Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell.

We all read such a wide variety of books... lol
The Sunday Philosophy Club and Faceless Killers in the same week.
Seriously.

Its good that we all have each other and "get" it.

I just love the Thing

mckait - I requstd An Irish Country Christmas from ShelfAwareness, but I guess I won't be getting a copy. Let me know how you like it!

About a third of the way through The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins - great stuff!

I couldn't do anything this morning until I finished Sacred Hunger. Wow, that was a great book. Now I'm reading Smilla's Sense of Snow, which I've heard a lot of great things about on LT. About 50 pages in and it's shaping up to be a really good read, too.

"Reilly's Luck" by Louis L'Amour

>52 seitherin:: seitherin- I read Faceless Killers recently and enjoyed it very much. I'm looking forward to checking out the other books in that series.
>57 Beukeboom:: Beukeboom- I devoured Louis L 'Amour westerns as a kid. I haven't read many of his in the past 20-30 years but I remembered Reilly's Luck as one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Recently finished "A Wold at the Table." The reviews I'd read were correct -- not a good effort by Augusten Burroughs.

#15 cornerhouse - how did you find Kristin Lavransdatter?

Just started The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk. Also Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum.

Georgia, I made some headway into the book last night, and I am really enjoying it so far. I realized that I have the previous book in the series as well, but haven't read it. I will as soon as I finish this one.

#60 elevenx: I must confess, Kristin Lavransdatter became something of a slog about halfway through. I guess I'm glad that I read it, but would have preferred that it was a shorter, less sprawling novel.

Finished up Little Herr Friedemann by Thomas Mann and am beginning Konigsfeste by Johann Peter Hebel. Working my way through a collection of German short stories.

I finished Brandon Sanderson's The Hero of Ages over the weekend, so it's back to A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon, which I'd put down to read the Mistborn book.

I'm also about halfway through listening to Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke, which thus far is pretty fantastic.

Just started The Secret History by Donna Tartt this morning. Interesting so far, although a lot longer and more intellectual than anything I've read recently so trying not to be daunted by it.

I'm getting ready to start The King's Daughter: A Novel of the First Tudor Queen by Sandra Worth today at lunch. I'm quite excited, I don't think I've ever seen historical fiction written primarily about Elizabeth of York, or even Henry VII. It is always Henry VIII, Anne, Elizabeth, Mary, Henry's other wives.

I'm still working on The Great Transformation, about 3/4 of the way through.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley which I thought I had read before but none of it is familiar!

I started Jane Eyre over the weekend and I'm really enjoying it. I can't believe I waited so long to read it. I'm also reading Love, Stargirl for something lighter.

I finished Bitter is the New Black and started Loose Girl. I'm also trying to finish Skystone. I've been reading it slowly the past few weeks, I just can't get in to it.

I've finished Six Moon Dance by Sheri S Tepper which was good but for the first time I noticed Tepper's tendency to 'beat you over the head' with her thoughts that others had commented on before. It hadn't bothered me before but I noticed it with this book and it made the book drag a bit in places.

Now on to People of the Book which grabbed me from page one. I've heard some negative and ambivalent comments about this book on LT but I've still got high hopes for it.

Well, I had a beautiful Sunday night last night with nothing to do but read, and I blasted my way through the second half First Among Sequels. I did enjoy it, although, as I said above, not as much as the earlier Thursday Next books. From the ending of this one, clearly there's at least one more coming. I hope it's a little better.

I'm going to spend some time with my "between books," and then I'm going to read The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough. I found this one in a used book store in San Francisco shortly before my move from SF to Boonville. It looks like fun. It's a fictionalized telling of the life story of "the greatest female tiger trainer in history." Has anyone else read this book?

I'm flying through a small book called The Box Children by Sharon Wyse. Under 200 pages, this heartwrenching "diary" of a young girl tells about her life on a farm and her abusive mother. A riveting account of this child's difficult life, it's impossible to put down. Could easily be read in one sitting.

I finished Illness as Metaphor (the 1978 edition) and moved on to something lighter - When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum. It seems she's aiming more for a psychological thriller in this one, rather than a police procedural (I prefer the latter), but we'll see how it goes.

By day, I'm reading Loom and Spindle, Just a Housewife, The Golden Threads, and The Early New England Cotton Manufacture (sorry, I didn't type in all the subtitles). Suffice it to say, that I'm now back to the early 19th century.

61> deebee1, I finished The Gulag Archipelago last night and wondered whether Applebaum's book would fill in some gaps in a readable way; can you comment now or later?

Robert

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov because it's high time I read it!

#77 - I was kinda thinking the same thing. How I can claim to love literature and ignore Nobakov until now...

Exactly. Now that I've started reading it, I feel even more ashamed. Where have I been all this book's life???

This week, I'm in the middle (nearer the beginning than the end) of two books.
Direct Action: memoirs of an urban guerilla by Ann Hansen
I capture the castle by Dodie Smith

Also just read a couple of graphic novels:
Eternals by Neil Gaiman
Kill your boyfriend by Grant Morrison

I just finished Truman Capote by George Plimpton. It was an oral biography, and quite interesting. I wanted to read it, so that I could then read the new book Capote in Kansas by Kim Powers. I will let the Plimpton book settle a bit, and then start the Powers book.

Not sure what to read next.

Finished Name of the Rose, am glad. I found it tedious in places.

Will now saunter through The First Jesuits and pick up Twice Shy. I find some non-fiction better if it is read in increments.

> 76 robert, i haven't read The Gulag Archipelago so i wouldn't be able to compare. but if u tell me a bit more about the gaps u mention, maybe i can offer some comments later. (i find Applebaum's writing, though, somewhat wooden.)

Just started reading The Trial for 'Group reads - literature'. I read it some years ago, but I think this is one of the great novels WORTH rereading.

Now and then I read Historien om Europa, vol. 1 ('The History of Europe') by Karsten Alnæs (Norwegian author) to learn more about this continent, The Middle Ages and the Black Death (cf. Kristin Lavransdatter)

And after a break I'll continue reading How Fiction Works by James Wood. Approx. 80 pages to go.

I'm reading The Kite Runner and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Diverse and very interesting books, both of them.

Currently half way through The Doomsday Book which I am utterly enjoying. The mix of future and past is very enjoyable, as are the characters and the situations they find themselves in.

Taking another break from the Pirate Book..to read Spook Country by William Gibson...he is the favorite writer of my Cyber-geek-Wannabe heart...

;-p

I just finished an ARC of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and am psyched to begin Wally Lamb's new book The Hour I First Believed, which was released today, this evening.

84> deebee1, you've answered one of my questions. She wrote the introduction repeated in each of the volumes of The Gulag Archipelago and sounded authoritative, but the writing wasn't sustained so I didn't get a real feel for it.

I can't list specific gaps, but I can mention kinds of gaps. For example, Solzhenitsyn was in mid level camps it seems; does Applebaum cover the gamut, for example the Moscow area camps and Kolyma? Does she talk about the point of view of the warders or of the street criminals? Is she comprehensive?

Thank you,

Robert

I just started reading A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell. I found a copy in a used book store and was immediately sucked in by the opening sentence:

"Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.''

I just finished reading Blooming by Susan Allen Toth which brought back wonderful memories of my own mid-western childhood.

I'm now beginning The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennet which I heard about here on LT.

>91 nzurisana: nzurisana

concerning the RUTH RENDELL..you are in for a very interesting ride..she has been a favorite author of mine for years...and A Judgement in Stone is so appropriate for Library Thing, no?

#92 Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Now reading (again) The Riders by Tim Winton.

#89 bnbooklady --I just picked up my copy of The Hour I First Believed. Wally is reading and signing his books at a Borders in Farmington, CT this week. I am planning on attending. Can't wait to start in on the book.

I had a chance to read a big chunk of The Mysteries of Udolpho today and am now totally entranced with the melodrama of it. It is the most poetic, romantic era piece I have ever read. It is full of classic descriptions of dancing peasants who seem not to have a care in the world, of mysterious chateaux, shady characters, and of course, the naive, trusting, loving young couple whose love is repeatedly, cruelly thwarted. And that is just the first third of the book. 400+ pages to go.......Ahh, the passion of it all!

I just finished The Fabric of the Cosmos this evening, which I've been working on since, like, forever. (Really. I started it in late August. That's a long time, even by my standards, for something not read for a class.)

I bought The Whiskey Rebels when I was in Austin, 20% off at the book festival. Started reading it over the weekend, after I retrieved my intelligence from that nasty head cold I got. It's a hardcover (read: big and heavy), so that will likely remain my at-home reading since I finished Free-Range Knitter last week. Not sure what book I'll take to work tomorrow.

Finished Dreams of my Father by Barack Obama this weekend, reading Our World by Molly Cook and Mary Oliver, and about to start an artist of the floating world by Kazuo Ishiguro.

>45 whymaggiemay: whymaggiemay, thre were quite a few laugh-out-loud parts for me, too. I loved the characters and really didn't want to leave them all behind.

Because yesterday was a holiday I had time for extra reading -- so I read The Shape of Mercy and Fruits Basket Volume 21 (twice). This 4-month wait for the next one is going to kill me...

Next book up will most likely be Graceling.

#93 jdthloue

Ruth Rendell is also one of my favorite writers. I just finished A Judgment in Stone and am trying to decide what to read next. I agree, this book is so appropriate for LT.

Reading Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: the Left Bank World of Shakespeare and Co which is just making me want to run away from Paris, think I'll have to reread 84 Charing Cross Road again any other bookshop set books out there?

Finished Why We Hate Us by Dick Meyer. It was interesting, if for no other reason than I agreed with everything Meyer said and STILL didn't really care for the book. At first, I thought it was sort of intellectually lazy, but ultimately came to the conclusion that it was just horribly arranged; it often felt like a rant by someone with the world's worst case of ADD. Anyway, there's good stuff to be had here, it's just a tedious experience.

Finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Interesting, quick, and well-written. Not hard to see that all the stink over Scalzi is all about, plus he looks to be fairly prolific thus far.

Started Lolita. Not very far yet. We'll see.

Almost done with Ira Flatow's 'Present at the Future'. I enjoy Flatow's Science Friday show on NPR, but this book just doesn't cut it. It's an attempt to briefly touch on the cutting edge in a variety of sciences, but it suffers from what so much of 'science for the layman' suffers from: by not being specific enough, it raises more questions than it answers. In some ways, I think that scientists/reporters writing for scientists have it easier than when they try to write for a general audience; it's far easier to be detailed and specific then it is to be concise AND clear. Flatow tries to keep things a little too pithy, making the book easy on the eyes, but hard on the brain.

Hi, I'm new :)

Just finished Artist's Dream, and am currently working on Robert Greene works (the seduction, the war one, power) - he is my new favorite author. I like to read several books together.

#101 jillianmarie:

How about Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop, both by Christopher Morley?

Or, for non-fiction: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Louis Buzbee.

Just finished Bonk

Welcome, moodyluna!

When I got home today I discovered that my Early Reviewer books had arrived. Hadn't paid attention to the fact that it is a HarperCollins book. I used to work for them and I also belong to their "FirstLook" program and on occasion I have reviewed books from them as well. I had asked for the opportunity to review one in October that they never acknowledged one way or the other, so I thought it was that, but it was The Archangel Project from LT, which is nice too.

I also got a call from the library telling me they had a book for me that had been on hold - The Lace Reader, which I started after I got it home.

These go in the pile with The First Jesuits that I am halfway done with - I am reading a chapter a day, and Twice Shy that I had planned to read but will put off until I finish {The Lace Reader as it is a library book and I have a time limit on it (Yes, I know I can renew).

Problem is I have too many TV shows that I watch from 10-11 and in the summer that's prime reading time! I just have too much to do - and I'm retired!

I just read The Lightning Thief.

I just finished reading Being with Dying by Joan Halifax. Because of the subject matter, I let it hang around my "review" pile for some time. I shouldn't have waited. It was a wonderful book. Basically geared toward the training of caregivers for hospice patients, it turned out to be much more than that...much like a blueprint for living the rest of your life. Loved it.

I just finished The Uncommon Reader which I enjoyed very much. Great little book and so a propos for fellow bibliophiles!

I just stopped at the library and picked up Nelson DeMille's The Gate House. He's so fun to read.

I'm kind of in the doldrums right now when it comes to reading. I've started about five books in the past week, and I can't seem to get interested in any of them. The only one which seems to be somewhat holding my interest at the moment is The Decameron. It's filled with a lot of really short stories, so I don't have to maintain a lmuch interest for very long.

#112....fred.....I am in a book funk too. I started Panic by Jeff Abbott a couple days ago and I'm in about 90+ pages....yechhhh! I don't know if it's the book or just me. I'm totally bored with it already. I don't even know for sure what I want.... I may give it a little while longer, but life is too short to read something that isn't appealing. I can always come back to it later, I guess.

This always seems to happen after I've read a really good book. The next one in line is usually a let-down. I just finished The Box Children and it was excellent.

I'm reading Crazy '08 by Cait Murphy for a LibraryThing book group here in Seattle. Even though the group met last night, I still plan to finish the book.

I'm also re-reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde for one of my book groups. We read Jane Eyre last month, and decided to follow-up with this one. It's just as good the second time.

For a philosophy class I'm taking, I'm reading Plato's Symposium. The translation I have by Robin Waterfield is great.

Finally, I'm re-reading The Mists of Avalon for another LibraryThing book group. I first read it over twenty years ago, and so far am having trouble getting back into it. I'll concentrate on it more once I get through with Crazy '08 and The Eyre Affair.

I finished Behind the Scenes at the Museum yesterday - a wonderful Kate Atkinson book. Now reading Mosquito by Roma Tearne. Lovely writing, set in Sri Lanka about which I know next to nothing!

I'm really enjoying The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp at the moment.

Thanks for the welcome #106 hemlokgang :)

#91 nzurisana and #93 jdthloue - Ruth Rendell is one of my favorite authors and A Judgement in Stone is my favorite book by her.

I'm currently about 100 pages into Independent People by Halldor Laxness. It's beautifully written.

I started reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies yesterday afternoon. What a wonderful writer. I am pairing it with Marrying Anita by Anita Jain a book I purchased some months ago after hearing the author intervieded on NPR. I put this book aside after a few chapters, annoyed with the author's lifestyle, but I'm determined to finish it now if for no other reason than to get a feel for how much India has changed since I lived ther for a time in 1971.

#118 - karenmarie, Independent People is not only one of my all time favorites, but also one of the most memorable reads and conversations in my book club who are currently in their 16th year of monthly conviviality, intellectual stimulation, and yummy desserts!

#120 hemlokgang - ah, something to look forward to! It's our bookclub's December book. Our bookclub is in its 11th year. We, too, have conviviality, intellectual stimulation, and yummy desserts (after finger food or a sit down meal!). I was home yesterday after some oral surgery (boo, flunk) and after the first hour or so was really able to focus on the book and start appreciating its rhythms and the story.

I started My Just Desire at lunch yesterday. My copy is, technically, a hardcover -- which is the reason I gave in #97 for not bringing The Whiskey Rebels as lunch reading. But My Just Desire is shorter, and therefore lighter (and not to mention secondhand).

Finally finished Daniel Deronda. Not as good as Middlemarch, but still a worthy read.

Going for something light now with Songs for the Missing -- so far is seeming to be a bit too Lifetime movie of the weekish for my taste.

Currently reading Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

I've just finished Penguin Lost by Andrei Kurkov, the follow up to Death and the Penguin. They are great books, blackly humourous, sometimes serious, sometimes absurd. The unexpected happens constantly, but with little reaction that anything is out of the ordinary.

Not sure what is up next, though it could be Jane Eyre, for a complete change of pace.

Finished listening to Classic German Short Stories, and they were fabulous and varied. I had never heard of von Hofmannsthal, but he fit right in with the other well-known authors. I am about to start listening to Infected by Scott Sigler, as well as continuing my read of The Mysteries of Udolpho which is long but worth it.

I finished Doomsday Book and am now embarking on Maia and hoping I don't need the 50 page rule, cos if I do I won't even be able to say I'd read about an eighth of the book!!! 1129 pages here I come.

I just finished The Thirteenth Tale which I absolutely fell in love with. I love the feeling of being absolutely worn out when you finish a book.

Not sure what I'm going to start on next...

127 - hemlokgang, I'd love to hear what you think of Infected. I saw it at the bookstore and thought about getting it.

I tried hard, but just could not get absorbed by the suspense novel, Panic by Jeff Abbott. Almost got to the halfway point, then just closed the book and said No More. The story just seemed flat to me, but it might be that I am moving away from that sort of book.

I think what I need is something a bit more substantial. I perused my shelves and picked out Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory. Not exactly a cheerful choice, but it sounded interesting so, here goes....

I fiinished two short novels over the past two days, Camera by Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Children of Heroes by Lyonel Trouillot, both of which were very good. Today I'll start Carpentaria by Alexis Wright for the Reading Globally November Theme Read (Australian Literature) and Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine by Jonathan Imber.

#131 - I read Sickened several years ago, as I have seen a handful of cases of MSBP and was interested in the subject. This book was written when we didn't know much about MSBP, but it is a compelling and fascinating story, especially coming from a victim of this disorder.

#130 - sandragon..........So far, about halfway through it, I have mixed feelings about it. I would have to say that there is almost no character development, but the scientific stuff is interesting. It is gory too. I do want to find out how it all turns out, so I am definitely engaged.

I finished A Breath of Snow and Ashes last night - took a long time, but was ultimately worth it, and I was impressed with how many ongoing storylines got wrapped up.

At the moment, I'm being horribly indecisive about what from my current on-deck pile I'm in the mood for next...

I finished Loose Girl last night and today I'm going to start Bleeding Kansas. It's my book club's December book.

I just finished The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer. I am currently reading The Audacity of Hope by President Elect Barack Obama.

I just received The Closers by Michael Connelly, The Zero Game by Brad Meltzer, and Valhalla by Tom Holt on Bookmooch.

Because of recommendations from LTers, I started reading Arthur Phillips' Prague. I'm about halfway through and loving it. The writing is exquisite, and his descriptions of Budapest so very realistic.
I also plan to follow it with Egyptologist.
I recently finished Christopher Plummer's memoirs, In Spite Of Myself, which was a charming read and definitely a must read for those with a taste for the cinema or stage.

Finished Half the Blood of Brooklyn by Charlie Huston. Another twisted, blood-thirsty gem by one of the best genre-writers working today!
I'm starting March by Geraldine Brooks. It's a Pulitzer winning novel set in the Civil War. I'm also sailing through A Pirate of Exquisite Mind ,for the group read, it's terrific stuff!

I have three on the table:
Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics by Senator Joseph Biden,
So far an excellent memoir (and I've read a few of late)

American Rifle: A Biography
An early review I received, enjoying this one too, lots of history surrounding this weapon.

The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship...

A friend loaned me this one and I've just started, but it seems to have a couple of things I'm crazy about: music and Philadelphia.

Happy reading

#138 Hi msf59 - You'll enjoy March. I loved the concept of Mr March's backstory!

I haven't been around here for a while, but it is certainly enjoyable to catch up and "open in a new tab" all of the books that pique my interest! I love feeding my bookmooch wishlist. 8-)

I just finished Skull Session by Daniel Hecht. I enjoyed learning about Tourette's Syndrome and other neurological disorders, was happy to have mis-guessed "whodunnit," - but I thought the first half moved too slowly. I really enjoyed his Cree Black books and thought this one had a lot of potential, but it just didn't grab me like I'd hoped it would.

Slogging slowly through American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I feel like I could drop it and restart on any page and not miss anything.

Loving Going to Extremes by Joe McGinniss.

I have to read Shelter Me to review....

I just finished The Lace Reader and started Twice Shy which takes me back to old computer stuff of the 1980s - it's fun and funny to read about "the latest technology" that is now so "dinosaurish".

I'm also still getting through The First Jesuits and plan to start my Early Reviewer novel, The Archangel Project after I finish the Dick Francis.

And then maybe I can get back to the books that have been hanging around for a time and keep getting pushed back because of ones I have to read now - like library ones and those to review.

I also want to get to The Sharing Knife Horizon so I can give it to my supplier to read at Thanksgiving but he may just have to wait until Christmas - then he'll have something to read here for that holiday - and beyond!!!

I'm now reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

So koalamom... did you love Lace Reader?

133 - Thanks, hemlokgang. Sounds like a Michael Crichton (who I'm sad to say I've just heard has passed away), which I used to quite enjoy. But I think I'll get it from the library to try out instead of buying it.

The new weekly thread is here. Come on over!

I'm Reading The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

145 - I liked it - and look forward to the sequel.

This week:

Finishing The Subterraneans (which I had to take a break from since I left the bag it was in at a friend's place.
Finishing I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
Starting Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital.

Oops, meant to post that in this week's thread.