What You're Reading the Week of 8/5/06

Still reading Autumn Quail, but wanted to start the new thread.

Babbit, Sinclair Lewis

Midway through Book 4 (of 7) of Anna Karenina. For a break, read Mike Carey's All His Engines yesterday, which I'd recommended to anyone with the least interest in the Hellblazer series.

Trying to decide between Fortysomething by Nigel Williams (which I saw on TV a while back so could probably romp through), and The Unfolding Of Language by Guy Deutscher. I've been reading a lot of non-fiction lately but if I zoom through Fortysomething I'll just have to make the same choice again in a couple of hours... (oh, it's a hard life, isn't it?)

Right now I'm halfway through Belle de Jour: Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl and I'm sort of reading Getting Over Jack Wagner by Elise Juska. The latter is part of a book project for my site.

I'm actively working on 2 books--trying to finish A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines and The Call of the Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft.
Both of these books are BookCrossing bookrays to be shared and mailed to other people when I'm done.

A Lesson Before Dying is slow reading for me. Very sad and kind of hard to read in the psychological sense.

The Call of the Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories seems to me a kind of dense book with many stories and is written in a more archaic language. It's taking me a while to move through the book. I like some of the stories; others not so much. I hope to finish it before sending it on.

Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos. An amazing view of America/NYC in the early 20th Century, and the style is something we don't see enough of. I wonder if Kerouac was influenced by him. I read some brief bio on him and he is an interesting character. Harvard who drove an ambulance in the war. Somebody who put his life where his mouth is -- another thing we don't see enough of...

Mary, Mary by James Patterson.
It´s the last one in the Alex Cross series. I hope to be done by tomorrow :)

After the two I pondered about up-thread, I actually started Teacher On The Run instead, which is very interesting and quite funny. It's a sequel to Francis Gilbert's I'm A Teacher, Get Me Out Of Here, about his training and early teaching career in inner-city London.

Finished Mo Hayder's Pig Island, a bloody but well twisted story and Barry Schwartz's the paradox of choice -- still excellent and goes on the 'read-again' list (but that never happens), and started Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - a slow start but beginning to get a grip on me a few chapters in.

Bob

I am reading The Photograph by Penelope Lively. So far so good. I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I am. I just finished a book titled Girls by Frederick Busch which was a really good mystery. I thought it would be a tough act to follow but The Photograph is hanging in there :>)

I'm in the middle of The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam which I'm very much enjoying. Briefly, it's the story of a woman dealing with middle age and divorce told through a series of letters she writes to a former neighbor who abandoned her family and moved to Asia.

I'm reading The Egyptologist right now. It is also told in a series of letters (and journal entries) which is a literary convention that I think is very neat. It allows us the guilty "pleasure" of voyeurism. I'm thinking of a couple of other books written this way - the Griffin and Sabine series, as well as the adorable Ella Minnow Pea. Others people could recommend?

Just finished Michel Houellebecq's "Les particules élémentaires", AKA "Atomized" or The elementary particles. Boring contemporary French literature (BCFL?). And started Publishing for profit, by Thomas Woll. Not for everyone, and sometimes a bit shallow, but the good stuff looks pretty great for wannabe publishers like myself.

Currently I'm reading Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore and Light on Snow by Anita Shreve. I recently finished New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith and The Book of Flying by Keith Miller.

I am reading Ann Rice Tales of a Body Thief.

Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed (if all goes well, I'll be observing Venice myself in February), Ursula K. LeGuin's The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, and S is for Silence, Sue Grafton's latest Kinsey Millhone mystery.

I'm reading She's Come Undone for the first time and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for the second time.

I'm really enjoying Undone. I didn't think I would.

Just finished priestess of the white which wasn't bad but I'm not sure I really want to hunt down the rest of the series (if I find them I might buy them but I'm not putting them on a wishlist) and still trying to get through gossamyr which sounded like my kind of mileage but is turning out to be underwhelming.

I'm reading Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin after finally canceling a half-read Mountain of Black Glass. Although I like almost all of Williams' other works this one is just too lengthy. :(

I'm reading The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. It's a little slow, but interesting so far. I've only got 500 pages to go.

Have finished both Wuthering Heights and The Courts of Love.
Now I'm reading a library copy of The Constant Princess.

Jonesy, some great epistolary novels are Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Choderlos de Laclos; Possession, by A.S. Byatt; Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley; and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker.

I've never read Evelina, by Fanny Burney, or Buffalo Girls, by Larry McMurtry, but I believe they're both epistolary, as well.

I'm reading Colleen McCullough's Caesar. I'm about half way through and finding it rather heavier going than the others in the series.

Another epistolary novel is Jane Austen's Lady Susan. The ultimate epistolary novel is Samuel Richardson'sClarissa. I must admit, though, that I didn't get very far with it when I tried it.

I am reading a gally copy of Brothers by Da Chen...coming out in September. I love his writing and this is a great one so far.

I'm reading Village School by Miss Read, it's my first by this author and up until now it's good.

I've started yesterday with Love Rules by Freya North. A bit of light read, 'cause I'm planning on reading Middlesex afterwards... :)

The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat.

What makes this book so
special is that, not only is it labeled as "The Greatest Persian Novel of 20th Century" (sic), but the copy I'm reading was originally mailed out on a BookCrossing bookray from Tehran. This copy (complete with all of its misspellings) was printed by Caravan Book Publishing House in Tehran.

The author was a contemporary of Franz Kafka whose works I'll now need to seek out.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2475951/J_3746369

Correction to previous post (since I can't edit it now):

The bookray originated in Germany, but the copy of the book I'm reading originated in Iran.

I finished Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. I'm still working on The Namesake, Lady Anne's Dangerous Man, and The Assassin.

I also started Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase and Valley of Secrets by Charmian Hussey.

I made a special trip yesterday to pick up my special order copy of The Fourth Bear, the latest in the Nursery Crimes series by Jasper Fforde and so far it's as wonderful as the rest of his books.

I particularly like the running joke about the underground market for illicit porridge and honey among the bears in the town.

O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King

Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters

Carrying around in my bag and trying to avoid reading: GRE and GMAT Exams Math Workbook

Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (and Bait & Switch) should be required reading by everyone in the American working class.

I have just started Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks---so far it is very interesting and beautifully written.

year of wonders is one of my most favorite historic fiction works..i would like to read more about the plague if you have any more suggestions.

Just finished Not Buying It, My Year Without Shopping and now I'm starting Everything You Need by A.L. Kennedy.

I'm almost done with Webmage by Kelly McCullough. It's pretty good for being the start of a new series. I'm thinking that if you like Kim Harrison you'll like Webmage. After I finish that I'll get back to Vellum by Hal Duncan.

I'm reading "50 Great Short Stories" edited by Milton Crane. Great reading. :)

Wow I am just now discovering the threads. How long have these been around? It doesn't matter. Thought that the What are you reading now would be a good place to start. I'm reading Orientalism by Edward W Said. Just started Titus Andronicus too: "Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge." Ah, indeed.

I am currently reading Chiefs by Stuart Woods for my face to face book group. I am also listening to Blessings by Anna Quindlen.

I am new to Library Thing and learning my way around. This is my first group post and I look forward to both reading and writing messages.

can some one help me with how to get access to THE FAN CLUB by IRVING WALLACE for online reading ???

very sorry NancyK, my mouse clicked on the flag abuse thingy by accident and now I can't get rid of it. Will point out to Tim.

I finished Autumn Quail last night--it was good but not great, and definitely suffered for me by being the third book in a row by Mahfouz.

I then started Little Women, which is comfort reading for me. My 10-year-old has been trying to read it, and I decided to read it along with her.

Year of Wonders was very good. Have you tried Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, bettyjo? It's a very different take on the plague (time travel back to the plague), but worth reading.

*deleted the last message becauase I wanted to add touchstones*

Currently reading Soul Kitchen by Poppy Z. Brite, The Madness of Nero by Tacitus and A Detective's Analysis of Harry Potter and the Mysteries Within by Mary C. Baumann.

I love Soul Kitchen - I dropped all my other reading when this arrived and I was no dissapointed. I started it yesterday and should be finished tomorrow. I'm a big PZB fan.

Only just started Nero. It's one of the nice new Penguin Epics. Very cool covers.

Just dipping into the Harry Potter analysis book. So far I'm underwhelmed. Nothing new, cool or plausible as yet.

After several days of sluggish reading, I abandoned Bill Bryson's Notes From a Small Island; it just didn't grab me like his others have. Shame.

As I'm off for some vacation relaxation, I am taking The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, and a couple of Donna Leon's Venetian mysteries. Hopefully that'll be enough!

I am working on Don Quixote right now. Bit long but I have a decent translation so you don't have any of the funny mistakes that can happen with bad translations of non- english writers. arelenriel

Reading Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
Listening Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Looking forward to Specials by Scott Westerfeld

Reading (finally) A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes and Independent People by Halldor Laxness.

Currently reading:

Mob Magic edited by Brian Thomsen
Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis

Just finished:

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore

Currently Reading:
Angels by Billy Graham
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Jericho Sanction by Oliver North

Listening To:
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

I have no idea why I've got so many different ones going right now. I am usually a one-book-at-a-time person, but not lately!

Read today: Wife in the fast lane, which was predictable but quite fun, and The lore of averages which is a book of trivia and very easy to romp through. Now starting A Pony And His Partner which is a 1950s pony book... shouldn't take long.

just finished winter moon and started into starship troopers. I know people have said that it's great (including my husband) but I'm finding it a bit of a trudge.

Just started a book called Misfortune by Wesley Stace. At first, I erroneously thought that it was going to be a Middlesex rip-off. Pleasantly surprised thus far. The author does have an annoying tendency to write whole phrases in latin (which I cannot understand). Other than that, looks to be like a good, light read.

kperfetto, I really liked Belle de Jour. I had a friend pick up a copy for me in London, because the American editors made some really ridiculous changes in language. Besides, the British slang is a lot of fun.

I returned Basket Case, since it was already overdue and I wouldn't have time to finish it right away. I'm currently listening to The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman for a book club and I am enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.

Wesley Stace's Misfortune was one of my favorite books last year, sarathena1.

safran foer's everything is illuminated and berry's standing by words

Just finished Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor this morning. Going to go pick up A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin from the library tomorrow.

Also listening to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

I liked Misfortune, but thought the end was rushed. Have you read Middlesex, sarathena1 and LouisBranning? I'd be interested to hear how you thought it compared.

Look--you can edit your posts! Is that a new thing, or am I behind the times?

So glad we can edit post - now I can put in the forgotten touchstones.
Currently reading Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver which is rich, earthy, sensual - I'm loving it so far (my library book)

I'm reading The Best of Saki at the moment. Such terribly elegant, archly catty writing. It makes me want to go and play croquet, sip gin and tonics and eat cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

Oh yes, and I read The Last Hero by the marvellous Terry Pratchett last night. I'm keeping it strictly lightweight this week- too much depressing stuff on the news for me to want any sturm und drang in my reading material.

Just finished reading Helen of Troy. As usual, Margaret George was outstanding. Very lush story, vivid text - an all around great read.

Just finished Starship Troopers and found it a bit meh, but maybe it's just not my kind of book. Now for a complete change with Local Hero by Nora Roberts bound with dual image as Truly Madly Manhattan, it's been fun so far.

Having given up on Independent People (just didn't catch my interest, so I'll save it for another day), I picked up Lemprière's Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk this morning.

I just started Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I wasn't crazy about The Virgin Suicides, but this one was recommended to me by a friend. I like it so far, though I've only read a couple of chapters.

overthemoon - Prodigal Summer is one of my favorite books ever. I've found that people either really love it (for the reasons you mention, among others), or think it's trashy and not-that-good (I've heard it referred to as "Barbara Kingsolver's sex book".

Have you read any of her other books? I'm curious how you think they compare.

Bettyjo (message 36), I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but Connie Willis's The Doomsday Book takes a time-traveller from the future back to Oxford during the plague years. I couldn't put it down.

I borrowed this from fetchbook.info : "This extraordinarily powerful and poignant time-travel novel won both the 1992 Nebula and the 1993 Hugo Awards. Academic politics, the Christmas holidays, and a devastating flu epidemic conspire to trap Kivrin, a mid-21st-century undergraduate Oxford historian, in 14th-century England during the outbreak of the bubonic plague."

overthemoon and fyrefly98, the New York Times Writers on Writing Archive (all of which is available free of charge at: http://www.nytimes.com/books/specials/writers.html ) contains an interesting essay, 'A Forbidden Territory Familiar to All', by Kingsolver addressing writing this book and what a novel experience writing about sex was for her: http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/032700kingsolver-writing.html
Well worth reading if you liked the book.

Arelenriel, what translation are you reading? I got bogged down with the Smollett translation and would love to find a better one! I've heard good things about Edith Grossman's.

all finished the two nora roberts books and now into a is for alibi

I've finished Miss Wonderful. Besides the others I'm reading (Lady Anne's Dangerous Man, The Assassin, The Valley of Secrets and The Namesake), I've also started The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick and Insatiable: Tales of Delicious Excess by Gael Greene.

I have this tendency to read too many books at a time...

I'm currently reading (and working through) What the Heck Am I Going to Do With My Life? by Margaret Feinberg. May still not know what to do when I'm done, but very helpful introspection.

Also reading Massada by Gloria D. Miklovitz as one of those books you read when you're waiting in line etc.

I'm 2/3 or so the way through Murakami's short sotries, After the Quake. Not as good as The Elephant Vanishes.

I've just finished up Bloodfeud (see my review) and I'm starting "Dissonance" by David Detzer.

I'm reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a great account of the difficulties of cross-cultural medical care.

Sonja, bessoniza, son by Inna Bulgakova

Just read the first chapter of Snow by Orhan Pamuk. The atmosphere has dragged me in already but in my copy I have already found editing errors such as doubled words.

Post back when you've finished A Memory Keeper's Daughter. I was so struck by that book, I didn't want it to end and babbled all over amazon.com about what it meant to me. I hope I'm not certifiable . . . .

I had a bit of a reading binge over the last few days and I got through a is for alibi, dragons of darkness, a wrinkle in time, checkmate and a.k.a. Goddess all of which were pretty quick reads

Fun stuff

Oh yeah and I'm now reading ice crown

I'm starting The Last Witchfinder and whilst i am really wanting to read this (when i read the synopsis it hooked me straight away) the way in which it is written annoys me slightly, i wish it would have said in the synopsis that it was all fashioned English.

I'll keep going but if i find that i just can't grasp the ideas, i may have to put it down... which, in my entire life there has only been a book that hasdone that to me The Virgin Blue, what adissapointment!! I only read about 6 pages and i just couldn't bring myself to carry on.

Just finished The Devil's Feather which was quite unpleasant in parts (as most Minette Walters books are) but extremely readable (ditto). Not sure what I want to start next.

Currently reading Helen of Troy and am enjoying it very much. Glad to see that sagespot read and enjoyed it considering we share a lot of the same books!!

Ice Crown finished and now onto Compass Rose which is proving quite entertaining, I think I may have to look for more by Gail Dayton

Just finished Frederick Brown's Flaubert which I thought to be marvelously written as Brown can turn a phrase. Good stuff on French politics/society 1848-1871 as well.

Finishing Brown, I am going to revist William Carter's Proust and try to finish it this time.

Are literary bio's a manifestation of avoidance / escape from the reading the work? Anyone else suffer from this complaint ?

I've started reading The Ice House by Minette Walters.

Having some trouble, though, as the plot is rather slow and tedious. Can't get much of a handle on the characters. either.

Hopefully, it will improve.

Just started Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells, along with If You Want To Write by Brenda Ueland.

I've just started Void moon by Michael Connelly, and am part way through The book on the bookshelf by Henry Petroski.

A Father's Story by Lionel Dahmer

I just finished Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks---loved it. And now I'm starting If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino---I'm intrigued and think it might be one of the most unique books I've ever read.

I just finished Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky, a fun, quick read. I hadn't read any VI Warshawski mysteries in a while.
Now I think I'm going to start Kicked, Bitten and Scratched by Amy Sutherland, although I also am about halfway through Ordinary Love by Jane Smiley

BTW, I also loved Prodigal Summer, but my favorite Barbara Kingsolver book of all time is Poisonwood Bible. Have you read it?

Started a new weeks's thread at "What You're Reading the Week of 12 Aug 2006" -- actually the title is a little longer but it creates an unwanted Touchstone . . .

Why start a new thread? I've already got 7 "What Are You Reading Now? subtopics showing up in my groups, and if a new subtopic is started each week, then very soon the list will be overrun with What Are You Reading and it'll be just a bigger mess than it is now.

Because if we keep appending to this thread at this rate it's going to be absolutely huge and take forever to load, as Tim's not interested in nesting comments at all.

Click 'ignore' on the old threads and they'll drop to the bottom of your list and eventually off the bottom (it's limited to 100 threads I believe).

fyrefly98 (message 70)
I finished Prodigal Summer yesterday and absolutely loved everything about it, and the last chapter was perfect! Better than The Poisonwood Bible, which was enjoyable but I wanted to hear the husband's viewpoint, too.

Taking my time working through Proust, so I am also reading shorter novels at the same time. Just finished The Sea byJohn Banvilleand it left me with a strong feeling of disquiet about the protagonist. As a result I am not sure whether to read another Booker book The Accidental or a re-read of something by Updike or Huxley.

Oooh, I loved Middlesex. It's tied with Tender is the Night as my favorite book of all time. I think that it hands down beats Misfortune.