What You Are Reading the Week of 7 March 2009

Still working my way through the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks. I've finished the second book (Shadow's Edge) and just barely started the third (Beyond the Shadows). Still not impressed with the writing style and there are parts that are even more juvenile than in the first book.

I finished The Praise Singer by Mary Renault. It was fun to go back to ancient Greece again with such a good tour guide. I feel sure this was a re-read, but I had only flashes of familiarity with it. I guess that, since it was published in 1978, I read it in an altered state and was not processing details; there weren't a lot of them in this novel, I must say, but what ones there were was cherce, to misquote Spencer Tracy on La Hepburn.

On the train back from NYC I read The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which I wasn't at all impressed by. I was pretty sure I wouldn't be, but had to have a Wizarding World fix. Sometimes nothing will do but to pretend one isn't a Muggle.

*sigh* I miss Harry, and Hermione, and Ron. And Hagrid! My hero!

I started Facundo, the biography of a 19th Century Argentine general/caudillo yesterday. The writing style has the verbosity you'd expect for the era, but it's interesting and provides a window into the early history of Argentina. Going along with that, I'll probably be starting La Guerra Gaucha today; it's a series of short stories related to the role of gauchos in the War of Latin Maerican Independence.

I started listening to Suite Francaise this morning. As with some other works of hers, there's an interesting portrayal of an upper class family, but not much has happened yet.

Found a copy of The Handmaid's Tale on the book swap shelf at work so I'm going to read that. Also see a copy of 44 Scotland Street back there that I might nab before it disappears.

I'm reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Interesting so far.
and
The Forsyte Saga (vol. 1 of 3) by John Galsworthy. Group read. Haven't read much of it yet. I like the characters (remembering many of them from the series (BBC?) on Norwegian television in the 1970's), but I'm not so sure if I like the "Galsworthyan" style.

I'm making good progress through Northern Clemency which I'm enjoying. I'm also reading a book of poems by Sharon Olds, Wellspring

Going through Summer Knight by Jim Butcher. daym.. it's getting better each book!

>5 kjellika: I really liked The Forsyte Saga - I was surprised how quickly I sank into it and felt a bit bereft when it was all over... I watched the more recent two series (with Damian Lewis and Rupert Graves) which might have helped.

Still reading Charlie Chaplin's My Autobiography which is interesting and beautifully written but not the lightest of reads (I'm sure I'll settle into it once I'm a bit further through), so I'm supplementing it with Juliana Foster's 'Moan about Men' in tired moments. It's a little humour book, quite amusing so far and just right for times when I want to read but can't concentrate too well!

I read Beedle a few days ago, and felt the same. Unimpressed but better than nothing. And there was commentary by Albus Dumbledore, which was pleasant.

I am now reading Paths of Glory, and will finish it today, to move on to another book that needs reviewed before going to something else.

I have to spend some time outdoors today though... it would be a sin not to.
70F doesn't come along very often in early March in these parts...

I actually finished Anna Karenina on Wednesday before we left for a couple of days in Gettysburg. I am glad I read it; I am glad I finished it - and you can take that any way you'd like. I thought it was OK - in parts. There were parts I struggled through - or just scanned when I got too bogged down.

Last night, I started Murder Walks the Plank and although I did mange to get over 50 pages in, I actually put it down in the middle of a chapter. This is not something I usually do. I guess two days of constant walking or driving will take a toll on one. (It's a three hour drive to Gettysburg from where I live and we drove through the entire battlefield - when we weren't walking - and it's a big field/park.)

Oh, and to my TBR list will go At Gettysburg or What a Girl Saw, Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg, The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top and Bayonet, Forward.

#10 - All my Civil War lit reading as of late is making me also want to go to Gettysburg. Worth the trip?

I finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. For all my whining about it, I actually have come away with a positive impression. But definately THE WEIRDEST book I've ever read.

Just started the LT insprired and oft praised The Shadow of the Wind

I just started Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day last night. It's a bit different than I was expecting, not a good or bad thing, just different. I'm only a chapter or two in, but I like Miss Pettigrew. For some reason, I have no idea why, she reminds me of Amelia Bedilia... weird, eh?

After Miss Pettigrew I plan to read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (somehow I've managed to go through life without ever having read this!), The Appeal by John Grisham, and Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. I'll read Derailed by James Siegel after that if I have time left in the week, otherwise it'll be on next week's post :-)

I'm still slowly reading From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz. It's my "appointments and other waiting times" book.

I have about 60 pages left to go in Inside Hitler's High Command, so I should finish that up today. After that, I'm going for a quick change of pace. So many people here have been discussing The Coffee Trader that I've decided to give that a go. If that doesn't work out for me, my backup plan is The Day Wall Street Exploded.

I finished my first Kindle book The Woods by Harlan Coben which flew by. I thought it was a tight thriller.

I started Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz last night. So far, it is fantastic.

I just finished part one of Room with a View. I just love it when the movie is true to the book. I saw it on PBS' Masterpiece series. And now that I've tried reading the book, I'm going to have to read more E. M. Forster.

After finishing Anna Karenina last week, also on Wednesday (hi koalamom - nice reading with you!), I read Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas. Nice fast chick lit. Today I'm starting A Prayer for Owen Meany, one of my all-time favorite books. It's been about 15 years since I last read it, so I'm excited.

I'm down to the last few pages of The Third Policeman. It is clever and surreal. Very strange characters people this book.
I've just started Entre Nous and I'll be starting Black Coffee at work today.

Richard, its in the high 50s here, no real heat. Its still got an edge with a chill.

In fact, I will have to leave soon for my weekly pilgrimage to the dump with my trash. My giant blue plastic bin is still frozen solid to the ground so I can't put out my trash on trash day. I get to save it up and then drive it around.

I finished sTori Telling by Tori Spelling. I enjoyed it. It was interesting and heartwarming, when not sad. I can identify with her mother problem (though not with the same type of money of course).

Not sure what I will read next. I have 3 books due the week of the 16th, so I probably should start on them.

11 - The trip to Gettysburg was fantastic. The new visitors' center is phenomenal, the refurbhished cyclorama is awesome. Yes, go if you get the chance. We actually toured the entire battlefield - all three days. This is something we had not done before (preteens do not like to look at fields of grass - they have their own priorities, which we did indulge then). We walked a lot and did a bit of driving around - it was great.

This week I'm reading Drood - I'm about 2/5 of the way through and I think that so far it's a really fun read. Since Drood is about 4 inches thick, my go-to-work book is Excellent Women. My vocabulary does not contain enough superlatives to describe Excellent Women. I was going to put a passage from it in the "Share a line or passage" thread but I realized that I wanted to put in all of chapters 1, 2, and 3. I cannot believe it took me this long to read Barbara Pym. To anyone else who has somehow missed out on Pym, I strongly encourage you to get your hands on a copy immediately.

Still reading Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama and listening to King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard.

I'm reading Conjugal Rites by Paul Magrs (that touchstone is wrong), which is excellent, The Naked Jape and The Historian (still).

This week I will be mostly reading library books, because I have loads out and I need to start getting through them!

Just popping in to add this thread to my posts. I am 42 pages into Blindspot and so far really enjoying it!

Still working on French by Heart by Rebecca S. Ramsey. It's okay though I think a more appropriate title would be "Adventures Dealing with my Crazy Neighbor in France."

CarlosMcRey - I hope you enjoy Suite Francaise! It took me a few tries to get into it, but then it became fantastic.

I took my exam this morning, and I am free to read again! Back to Angle of Repose, which I am loving. I am about 2/3 of the way through. Next up will be Twilight because my turn came up at the library. Stay tuned to find out if, indeed, it is the best, most incredible, totally awesomest book ever, as my 14-year old sources say it is.

I am reading my first book due for a RL book group, The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt. It is SF about ancient alien artifacts and archeology. Book 1 in the Engines of God or Priscilla Hutchins series.

His books in this series always sound so good, but they are usually disappointing. This isn't the first of them we have read.

The problem is the book is supposed to be about some alien mystery or artifact and he spends 4/5ths of the book in backstory, character building, and journey and then tries to cram the actual subject into the last 1/5 of the book and often fails to even come face to face with it. I hope this one bucks the trend.

Just finished They Shoot Horses, Don't They and now I'm about half done with Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

I finished Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox late last night. Now I've started Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and am still reading Krakatoa (I'm only reading it slowly because I own it, not because it's bad).

Edited to fix touchstone. :-)

Finished Good Behavior by Donald E. Westlake. Dortmunder wins! I need say no more for those in the know.

Started Roy Blount, Jr.'s Robert E. Lee from the Penguin Lives series of short biographies. Interesting reading so far and keeping with the early Civil War theme in the thread.

I'm finally reading Ian McEwan's Atonement and on the side marvell at Ali Smith's The Whole Story and other stories.

Last week I finished The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb and also started and finished The March by E.L. Doctorow and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.

This weekend I am indulging in a re-read of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer then this week I will read Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon.

I am still reading Water for Elephants. It's definitely living up to the hype!

I'm a big fan of Mister Pip, hope you like it.

LOVED The Shadow of the Wind - an amazing novel that manages to be bookish, charming, thrilling, romantic, terrifying, all at the same time...

I'm finding How to Read the Bible by James Kugel to be a little light weight, so I think I'll take on something with a little more heft at the same time -- what it is may be decided tonight.

Robert

koalamom; we did the battlefield tour a few years ago. We bought a CD that narrated different scenes. It had cannon fire and battle cries, explained about the different battle sites. My grandson was in the 5th grade at the time so that helped to make it more interesting for him.

I just finished Hammer of the Gods tonight and I am starting The Adventure of English.

I'm yawning through Star Quest by Robert E Mills. Part 1 of a 3 volume Star Wars knock-off. Starting and stopping, it's been three days to get to page 28...I'm thinking I won't be finishing it.

I'm reading Fine Just the Way It Is by E. Annie Prouix and 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. I've never read any of McCall Smith's books but this one's kind of light and fun so far.

I'm reading a book I won from the Member Giveaways, Who Really Goes to Hell - The Gospel You've Never Heard.

I'm not sure if I figured out how to post a message right, sorry if I didn't and messed it up. This weekend I read the entirety of The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series and haven't decided what I want to read next, I think I want reread all the of Anita Black Series next week.

Right now, The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled By: Vincent Bzdek

Really liking it so far~

cindy - that's a good way to do it with kids - doing the entire battlefield takes a lot more time and they lose it before then - better to start with little increments - then you get them entranced and you can go back and they'll drive you crazy wanting to see it all - bet he'd love the new museum

I finished Murder Walks the Plank and have four books piled on the side table next to the recliner I frequent. Two are shot Civil War books that I bought in Gettysburg and the others are Greater than the Sum, which I have had out to read for a week now and Salmon of Doubt, which my son gave me for Christmas (it was on my wish list) and to whom I lent it because he was running out of books at the house. Then my husband read it and he must have liked it because he claims he isn't reading as much these days. So I guess I'll read it now instead of putting it back on the shelf!

I finished The Inner Circle by T.C. Boyle. It's a terrific novel about the infamous sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Highly recommended ,but prudes beware!
I started Skellig by David Almond. It's a YA novel that one or both of my kids read in school and comes highly regarded.

Finished Room with a View late last night. I sort of started The Hunchback of Notre Dame right afterwards. Don't know if I'll continue with it though. I'm in some sort of reading funk and don't know what I want.

I just finished reading Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland and the The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. I can't give enough praise to Kathleen Kent and her most wonderful book. A real page turner.
I just started reading Who Switched Off My Brain by Dr Caroline Leaf. So far I am memorized and know I will have to read this book at least twice to retain and implement all the juicy facts.

Last night I finished The Tea Rose and really liked it. Historical fiction set in late Victorian London and New York. The author did a great job, I'm thrilled there's a sequel and another on the way as well!

#47- I've added that to my TBR list. Thanks for the suggestion!

Finished Persuasion. I think I would have read it all night if I could have done last night.

Just started Trust Me I'm a Junior Doctor by Max Pemberton which I am enjoying immensely too.

I just finished The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (charming) and Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson (a quick read and a good introduction to the poet and his times, but a I thought it could have had a bit more "meat"). Next up is The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.

Well, not to sound like a broken record or anything (hopefully most of you still remember and can relate to that cliche), I am still reading A Confederacy of Dunces. I have made some progress though and should be finished in a day or so. I know, I know - I have said that before but I really mean it this time. I only have about 100 pages to go or so. I am also reading Home Schooling, a short story collection, at the same time in the hopes that I will get them both finished soon since I have to start returning books to the library soon.

We live a few hours from Gettysburg. We really should take a drive there someday. Does it cost anything to go there? If so, is it expensive? There are 6 of us and sometimes going places becomes cost prohibitive.

I had the same sentiment about Anna Karenina - glad I read it, glad it was over.

I finished Water for Elephants this morning and loved it, and now I'm onto Drink, Play, F@#k by Andrew Gottlieb which was suggested by a friend.

51>
I'm also a few hours from Gettysburg. Other than gas, the cost depends mainly on how long you want to stay. It's a small town so don't expect a large choice in motels, (I've only gone on day trips tho) and you have a choice of everything to eat from burgers to nice restaurants. You can tour the battlefields for free if you want, although they also offer tours and self-tour cds.

I'm still working on Team of Rivals, which is a huge book and therefore taking a really long time to get through.

AnnaClaire ~ But it's really worth the time & effort! It may be my favorite book from 2007, and I'm pretty sure it's the first time a non-fiction ever made it to number one in a given year.

Edited to make more sense.

I finished Phytosphere which turned out to be a pretty cool book. Now about to start The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith, one of my favorite authors, hoping it's not as juvenile as I think it might be.

Anna, I agree with Storeetllr

It is well worth the time, you won't regret it.

>55 Storeetllr:, 57
It's certainly good so far.

After 50 pages, I've decided to set The Coffee Trader aside for now. I've switched to The Day Wall Street Exploded, and I'm much happier with it. I guess that I'm just not in the mood for fiction right now.

I started a couple different books today, Line of Sight by Rachel Caine and a Wicked History mini biography of Mary Tudor which was written by a local librarian, Jane Buchanan.

Finished Anne of Green Gables a few days ago and finished The Book Thief today.

Still reading Winter's Light: Reflections of a Yankee Queer by John Preston. Picked up a battered copy of Call of the Wild to start on the bus in the morning.

Forgive me if I have chosen the wrong thread for this topic, I'm not sure how to start a new one, and I usually end up sending several pages of writing into techo space, or wherever.

I look at my current reading list on my local library site and I suddenly notice that the list is starting to resemble a Michelin Travel Guide, rather than book titles I am waiting for.

I say to myself, self, what happened the Grishams and Koonz's and Kings and Meyers? Why am I no longer picking off the top ten best sellers, as I used to do, so I could go to a soiree and show how very sophisticated I was in having read just everything, darling...

I now have authors' names on my list like Jungerson and Bolano and Arnuldar and Morozzi and Fischer, and not so long ago, I would have uttered a resounding 'duh' had these names come to my attention.

Blame it on the LibraryThing 'what are you reading now' thingee, I can almost come to the conclusion that, either other readers god dumb, or I got some smarts at long last. I got myself a little educating, and it feels good.

Once again, dear LTers, you have opened doors for me, and I enter a world of color and imagination, that until recently, I knew little of. Just think of all the fun reads I plan to have with them foreign writing folk, never knew they could write so well until you guys came along.

My book shop hunting is no longer limited by by numbers 1 through 20, the whole exciting book store is open for me to explore and rediscover the Classics and books about travel and romance and about famous people, and sports and religion (whoa there).

I owe it all to you guys...

And that, Sir Morfam, is exactly why this forum and its multiple threads are so wonderful to me too.

What he said. Only double.

Just started Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Of Love and Other Demons for my takeout reading.

I've just begun My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle by Marcel Pagnol. It looks to be the perfect "end of winter, welcome spring" read.

>62 morfam:/3 - Nicely put. Not only can we argue over books and wax lyrical to a world of bibliophiles, but we can also expand our own horizons thanks to everyone else's wide-reaching reading tastes...

I know MY wish list has swelled enormously since I started using the forums, and how many times have I been in a bookshop and thought 'hmmm, I saw that on LibraryThing the other day...'?

I recently finished Brad Gooch’s biography of Flannery O’Connor, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor. She did not lead a life of excitement, adventure or full-blooded romance, leaving Gooch with little more to work with than the uninteresting details of comings and goings, meals, daily attendance at Mass and medical reports, but he did an excellent job with what he was left to work with. I think my expectations for this were a little too high though. Flannery O'Connor will always remain an enigma, and maybe that's the way it should be.

I stared The Oldest Orphan by the Guinean novelist Tierno Monenembo last night, a short novel narrated by a young boy caught up in the Rwandan massacre of 1994, which I should finish today. After that I'll probably start The Winners by Julio Cortázar for the March Reading Globally theme read (Argentina), and The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevskii.

To all those above me here - me, too! I have come to discover a lot of books and authors that I didn't know. I've always kind of stuck to my "comfort zone" whatever that is and get worried when that gets to thin - that won't happen now!

This book is very entertaining. Note that the man pictured on the cover is the re-enactor who 'bloats'.

Currently reading Meesterstukken Van Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn by G. Kielder, will finish it sometime today. :) Thought I'd try something different for once and read about art, but this one is realy hard to get through.
Also started in Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane by William Peter Blatty. A book from 1966. Seems to be a really strange one.

Was reading Dear Cain, but since my mom started reading it before me, I decided that I'd better read something else first until she's finished the book.

I just finished ("A Thread of Grace") by ((Mary Doria Russell)) and absolutely loved it. It was historical fiction at its best as she told the story of how Catholics in Italy during WWII helped to save the lives of thousands of Jews. (A real page turner. Now I'm reading "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout about a totally annoying woman that reminds me of someone I know.

I'm reading The Mark of the Lion by Suzanne Arruda, featuring a great character, Jade del Cameron, and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, a YA fantasy, at the recommendation of my daughter.

I finished The Lizard Cage about a political prisoner in long term solitary confinement in modern Burma/Myanmar. I found it elegantly constructed, enjoyable, but also somewhat flawed - perhaps skewed by the message it's trying to make.

Now I'm reading Possessed by Shadows by Donigan Merritt a novel about a woman diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given about year to live. She plans to spend that year with her husband mountaineering in Czechoslovakia - the climbing being a metaphor of sorts.

I discovered Merritt through the LT Early Reviewer program. For reasons that still aren't clear to me, his book The Common Bond stuck with me. I think there was some underlying complexity that I haven't quite grasped consciously.

Possessed by Shadows is so far a very thoughtful story...and, what do you know, I have the only copy on LT.

I am reading Tweak by Nic Sheff.

Our public library is doing a reading program on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer so I joined it. I thought it would force me to read a classic. It surely did. I read that book in no time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I laughed my head off! What a sense of humor Mark Twain had!

Now I'm reading It by Stephen King. I really enjoyed the movie and always wanted to read the novel. I had a hard time finding it and borrowed a copy from my daughter-in-law. A difficult book to read in bed because it's so big and heavy, but I'm enjoying it.

I finished Abraham Verghese's epic novel Cutting for Stone and couldn't have loved it more. It's a generous and soul-stirring story of twin brothers whose mother, a beautiful Indian nun, dies in childbirth and their English surgeon-father flees, leaving them to be raised by the staff of a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. It is completely enthralling from the first paragraph and will immediately find a home on my Favorites list for 2009, not to be missed.

#53 - We would probably only do a day trip. Staying in hotels is very expensive with 6 of us because it is usually impossible to only get one room. Many hotels have a 5 person limit in a room and a two bedroom suite is usually very expensive. It is good to know that you can tour the battlefields for free. Sounds like something we may try to do this spring or summer. Thanks for the info.

#78 You're welcome. You'll love it. I've been many times over the years.

brenzi use the square brackets around your book titles and it will highlight them i.e. XYZ Book. I heard Olive Kitteredge was wonderful can't wait to read it. Well the touchstones didn'twork w/ that book. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

I am still reading St. Ronan's Well by Sir Walter Scott and going rather slowly. Only 170 pages into a 420 page book after 2 1/2 weeks. I just haven't had the reading time I usually do, for a few different reasons, all of them, however, representing good stuff.

As I mentioned this week, the novel is much more a comedy than the adventure stories of the other Scott novels. At first I was a bit put off by that, but now I'm enjoying the book and appreciating Scott's comic turn of phrase and characterization. Sort of Sir Walter Scott meets Jane Austen in a small border town in Scotland. This is made a little more interesting to me by the fact that an online search for information about Scott and this book turned up the information that the rise of Austen's popularity in Britain coincided with, and may even have hastened, the diminishing of Scott's, and what was ironic about that is that Scott was one of the first major public figures to extol Austen's praises. And how is that for a long looping sentence?

>75 MsGemini:: MsGemini- You'll have to let me know what you think of Tweak. I read his father's book, Beautiful Boy, last summer and it was excellent.
I finished Skellig by David Almond. If you are looking for something light, yet entrancing, this is the ticket. I just cracked open Just After Sunset by Stephen King. The master has been on a roll!

I finished the wonderful Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy and the disturbing Book 11, Novel 18 by Dag Solstad and am now reading The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World before the War: 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman and am about to start The Emperor's Tomb by Joseph Roth.

Reading two thigns right now.
Rowboat in a Hurricane by Julie Angus and The Ethical Slut
This is a departure from my usual heavy-on-the-fiction reading style. I'm enjoying both immensly though.

Just finished Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama and I am about to begine reading Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. I continue listening to King Solomon's Mines.

Broke open the cover of Team of Rivals by Doris Goodwin yesterday and I think this book is going to take me quite a while to get through it. So as a break from it, I'm also reading Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner

#23 lkernagh - I finished Blindspot last week and absolutely adored it. It was a good, interesting, fast read.

#46 redswirl3 - I read The Heretic's Daughter last year and loved it too. It's not a time period I usually like, but I found the language lyrical and the story riveting.

I'm reading In the Woods by Tana French. It's very well written and had me hooked from the first page.

I'll be starting Rapture Ready by Daniel Radosh tonight I think.It's nonfiction, about Christian pop culture (music, theme parks,etc.). I've also been reading Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick, which contains "The Minority Report" on which the movie was based, and "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", on which the movie "Total Recall" was based. His stories will make you paranoid and suspicious, if you weren't that way to begin with.

I just picked up Cutting for Stone from the library and am ready to dig in after many false starts over the last few days.

I just started Man in the Dark by Paul Auster, so far it's very enjoyable. I'm still reading stories randomly out of The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel; I am completely in awe of her. For my non-fiction read I also started The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel, I LOVE books about books.

#87 karenmarie - I finished Blindspot this evening and I agree with your assessment, I found the book to be an enjoyable, fun read!

Next up is The Only Son by Stephane Audeguy, continuing my current trend for historical fictions.

Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Started it last year, got bogged down, moved to other things, now I'm back and flying along. Dickens always works that way for me, starts slow and difficult to get into, then part-way through, I'm hooked.

I'm about halfway through Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I'm enjoying it very much... it is a dark novel, and I'm hooked.

I finished The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt. I enjoyed it, It was much better than I feared. He actually dealt with the subject of the book.

I am now reading Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagen. My second read for a RL book group this month.

>93 porchsitter55: porchsitter - I just read that in December, in one sitting. I got hooked, too, and I don't even like mysteries all that much!

I finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and am now more than half way through Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde.

The A.B.C. Murders, because it's cold and wet and awful out, and I am sick, and these situations call for either Agatha Christie or Stephen King. It's a law, I believe.

The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage by Daniel Mark Epstein. So far so good. My husband and I are late comers to a Civil War kick, having recently read Confederates in the Attic and The Killer Angels.

Right now I'm working on The Book Thief, Winter's Tale, and Jesus For President.

98: jbleil,

You might want to give Shelby Foote's three volume The Civil War: A Narrative a peek.

I know it will look like a lot but the reading just sings and before you know it the war is over.

100: Smiley,

Thanks for the recommendation. Standing, mouths agape, in front of the Civil War books at Borders isn't working well for us.

I'm halfway through Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. Hope to finish it this week, but then I should be a little bit more a disciplined in reading...

I'm reading Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. I picked it because of the recommendations on LT. It's good, but I'm not reading it very quickly. Maybe tonight, I'll get into it a little more (only on page 50 something).

I'm on to the last 200 pages of A Suitable Boy, so hope to finish it soon. I'm mostly enjoying it, it's just very long (just over 1300 pages in the hard cover edition I'm reading).

Finishing Lisa Kleypas's It Happened One Autumn -- I love this series! Then it's on to Laurie Halse Anderson's Twisted.

Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is one of my all-time favorites.

Hey Guys!! I am glad to here u r all reading good books! I just finished a book called up the chimney and down and other stories!! It is SO good!!

Finnished Lark & Termite Jayne Anne Phillips. Really enjoyed the book. Started The Art of Mending
Elizabeth Berg.

Finished Greater Than the Sum and will now read At Gettysburg or What the Girl Saw, which i purchased last week at Gettysburg.

I should finish Good Omens tonight and then make headway in How to Read the Bible.

Robert

Just finished French by Heart for my book club meeting on Thursday. I wrote a review, but in summary would only really recommend it as a light beach read if that.

Now starting a reread of A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I read the novel as a high school senior and really enjoyed it then. Something tells me I would love it even more now, so I've been meaning to reread it for a while.

I finished The Shadow of the Wind - did indeed enjoy it as most of you on LT said. Everybody needs a little modern gothic saga every now and then.

Now I've started my Feb. Early Reviewer book The Night Battles; jury is still out so far. Still haven't received my January ER book.

After finishing Greater Than the Sum, I started and finished At Gettysburg or What a Girl Saw. It is a short book told by a woman who witnessed the battle there. He account is said to pretty accurate, except for one part but that is explained as a memory error as she reported went over to the site a couple of days later. Since the book was written many years later, it is thought she just got her facts mixed up. It is a wonderful first-hand account.

Now I will read Salmon of Doubt, which is on top of my pile right now, then a Steinbeck, Cannery Row is next in the volume I have.

#111 - A Prayer for Owen Meany is also one of my favorites, and I had commenced my own re-read of it this week, but decided to put it down temporarily to join the LT group read of The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I wanted to read that book this year anyway, and the opportunity to share the experience trumped a re-read - even one as delicious as Meany. I'll get back to it next week. Meanwhile, I started The Blind Assassin last night, and already I'm completely hooked!

I'm also reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz aloud to my daughter. I figure it's about time. I've seen the movie countless times, read Wicked twice, read Son of a Witch and have A Lion Among Men on my reading list for later in the year. It's been a delight to discover characters that are in the original Baum book that never made it into the movie, but did find their way into the Wicked series. Dare I say I might have to read Wicked yet again after this??

#114 jhedlund - Can you post a link to the thread for the the group read?

>102 boekenwijs:: boekenwijs- A friend handed me a copy of Labyrinth recently. Let me know your feelings, so I can judge tbr-placement.
Cutting For Stone is getting great buzz here. Good grief, another one to track down. Do we ever "really" make a dent! It doesn't look that way!

msf59, you'll be glad you tracked Cutting for Stone down, easily one of the best of the year.

I'm about to start The Terror by Dan Simmons. I havn't read anything this lengthy in awhile.

#s 54 & 55 AnnaClaire and Storeetllr: I'm planning to start Team of Rivals soon and I'm glad to hear that it's a worthwhile read. I've been looking forward to it. I've seen Doris Kearns Goodwin interviewed and she strikes me as infinitely equal to the task.

I've finished Wuthering Heights (review here) and The Appeal (review here) so far this week, and am now caught up to where I need to be to finish 75 books by December 31st.

I'm getting ready to start Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, but LOST is on tonight, so I probably won't get much of the book done until tomorrow :-)

I finished King Solomon's Mines today, having really enjoyed it! I just started listening to The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, and I must say that although I am barely into it I am already laughing out loud. I am really glad it is an audiobook, because the narrator is wonderful. I continue reading Pale Fire.

I raced through Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn and found it to be quite a creepy, dark tale......LOVED IT!! Even had a little surprise twist at the end, and although I sort of expected it, it still made the book fun....in a creepy, dark sort of way. :o)

It was a book that I was able to concentrate on during this hellaciously horrible cold that I am enduring. Since the cold shows no signs of letting up, I'll need something else that is "gripping" enough to sink into this congested head of mine and make some sense!

Off I go to the cupboards in search of something great!

I'm puppy-training so I have less time to read than usual. I started a MMMAAAMMMoth tome called Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, which I think proves that I am in a delusional state; how was I planning to focus on this immense behemoth, one wonders?

And, as someone on this forum said to me when I cataloged the thing, it needs editing. And boy howdy, in 32pp, I can see four pages entire I would have cut because, no matter when they build up to usefulness in the plot, they do NOT work where they are.

So it goes aside for a time when Stella, the aforementioned puppy, is trained. Back to Azar Nafisi's good-not-great Reading Lolita in Tehran, a re-read for my RL book circle.

I finished reading Go With Me by Castle Freeman, Jr. It was unique and sparse. What I really enjoyed was at the end - the author recommended 10 books. I think all authors should do that at the end of their books - recommend 10 books they loved, or 10 books that inspired their story, or "10 books you will love if you loved this one" . . . . .
Not that I need recommendations - but I love them.
I've been sick for about a week - but went to the doctor yesterday, got the antibiotic, and am on the mend.
And now I *am* reading Haunted Ground by Erin Hart. I've decided to go ahead and have a St. Patrick's Day read. I usually have a Halloween read. I'm really enjoying it so far.

#123 richardderus - A puppy named Stella.... that is sooooo sweet! Good luck with the puppy-training! As you may have guessed, my mind is focusing on things other than books right now, although I must admit you did catch my eye with the Sacred Games book.......

I finished Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks. I really liked the concept of the entire Night Angel story. I just found the execution lacking.

Next up is Kennedy's Brain by Henning Mankell.

#115 - I'll try to see if this works: This is the link to the Blind Assassin group read.

I tested it, and it works. Yay!

I am in the middle of The Singing by Alison Croggan. I received it as a early reviewers book in February but decided to read the first three books in the series. They were very much worth it and I am a bit sad to see the series end.

I FINALLY finished A Confederacy of Dunces - YEAH, ME!!! I did enjoy it although I don't think it will be one of my favorites. Definitely glad that I read it though and thanks again to all those here who recommended it. I am most likely going to finish Home Schooling today and start on The Blind Assassin for the group read here on LT. I have another collection of short stories that I have to read because it is due at the library soon so I will be reading that in between sections of The Blind Assassin (or as my 8 year old read the title The Blind A**-A**-In).

Hey everyone! I'm currently reading The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry and so far I could not put it down easily. The story and the arguments are pretty good and there's some action there as well which is great. Hopefully I'll finish it by this weekend.

127: jhedlund - wonderful, thanks!

I finished In The Company Of Secrets by Judith Miller. Today will be Tuck Everlasting, which is strangely appropriate if anyone followed my post titled almost too blue to read. I feel part of the circle of life when I read the posts regarding Richardderus.

I'm starting The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman which is our postal book club book this month. It reached me this morning and I've been jumping up and down ever since. I'm so excited I might just finish it by the end of the day.

>125 lkernagh: lkernagh...yeah, Stella is a great name, isn't it? She's a rescue dog, and came with that name, but we liked it so didn't try to change it. The Divine Miss, my co-puppy-parent, was looking on the shelter's web site and said that if we fell in love with one of their dogs which exactly fit our criteria, were changing its name..."Stinky."

Fortunately, Stinky was already adopted when we got there, so the issue never arose.

Reading Lolita in Tehran has not held up well under a re-read. I am less impressed than I once was...something just isn't working right for me this time around, and I am really re-reading mostly to figure out just what.

A Certain Person on this forum sent me a thoughtful gift of Nicholas Christopher's novel A Trip to the Stars, which in 37pp so far read is marvelous! I raved over his novel The Bestiary before, and I stand by that; this book, so far, is very very good, though not quite as marvelous as The Bestiary. Further reports as events warrant.

#104, bookgirl271 I can only echo what LouisBranning said in #106, A Suitable Boy one of my all-time favorites too. When I got near the end, I started reading more slowly because I didn't want to leave the characters!

I'm still making my way through The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. It started out quite slowly and I found it hard to get into Roth's prose style, but it's definitely picked up steam.

I read the first twenty chapters of Palace of Illusions by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni because I had neglected to take my Bible and How to Read the Bible upstairs and was unwilling to go back down for them. I was very sleepy but kept on going until it was just too late, but my appreciation of the novel stems from my interest in the Mahabharata on which it was based. Otherwise it seems very light weight and might be a mystery to someone who doesn't know about the Mahabharata.

The woman who told me about it does not know about the Mahabharata except that I am reading it. She said of it that it is "Indian mind candy." She has read at least one other book by Divakaruni which she said was much better.

Robert

Bother, the touchstones! http://www.librarything.com/work/3720169/book/42539626

I love the 8-year-old title for "The Blind A**a**in"! It reminds me of when my kids were little and thought words like "shut up" were swear words, and wouldn't ever use them! My oldest, when he was really little, made up his own curse words: he felt the need, but didn't have a ready list to choose from. I think that's all changed now....

Finnished the The Art of Mending Elizabeth Berg was a quick read and enjoyed it. Now reading Confederates in the Attic Tony Horwitz really liking this book.

Daisy Chain by Mary E. DeMuth. it's great!

Starting Sway tonight; looking forward to reading about the wild 60s, when I was young and intent on sowing my wild oats and, thus, am unable to recall much about that era. :) Also listening to Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley, whose Easy Rawlins mysteries have been a favorite series of mine. I've heard that the Fearless Jones series is even better!

#133: Sibylle.Night

Enjoy!! I really loved The Graveyard Book, had a lot of fun reading it. Now one of my favorite Gaiman books!

Looking around for fluff I picked up Then She Found Me.
Fluff it is. It is a mildly entertaining read. On to? Later today...

Storeetllr, I read Sway last year and really liked it. I've had Ken Anger's deliciously trashy Hollywood Babylon for years, and knew he had to be a complete nutcase, but I really enjoyed the sections on the Stones the best.

I started The Duchess by Amanda Foreman. I thought it was historical fiction, didn't realize it was a biography. My poor brain doesn't always do well with non-fiction, but I'll try. I heard the movie was good.

The catcher in the rye by J. D. Salinger and The slippery slope by Lemony Snicket. I have an exam coming in July so I can't spend much time reading now and that's why I've been reading The slippery slope for about 3 months.

Laurie Halse Anderson's Twisted is done -- loved it so much that I finished it in one night! Stayed up super late to get done and now I'm paying for it at work, but it was worth it! Now it's on to Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed, a book my friends have all seemed to love. Sometimes that means I, too, will adore it... and other times, that means I'll be rolling my eyes furiously. We'll see! :)

I'm well past halfway in the first English edition of Hans Falada's 1947 novel Every Man Dies Alone and it's been pure dynamite so far. Falada's grimly realistic book, written in only 24 days, is a fictionalized account of a true story: Otto and Elise Hampel, a middle-aged couple, began leaving handwritten anti-Nazi missives in buildings around Berlin after Elise's brother was killed during the invasion of France. They were arrested in Oct. 1942, tried in Jan. 1943, and executed 11 weeks later. Falada's taken these facts and fashioned as riveting a piece of fiction as I've read lately, one I'm finding nearly impossible to put down.
(Falada had written several international bestsellers, a couple were even made into films, but he chose to remain in Berlin for the duration of the war. Unfortunately he was an alcoholic, a drug addict, and quite disturbed, spending years in German asylums, and died of a morphine overdose just one month before his masterpiece Every Man Dies Alone was published.)

Had to give up on The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage about 70 pages in. Way too dense for me at the moment, so it's back to the Borders Civil War section for me. I'll look at Shelby Foote for sure. In the meantime, I picked up People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. A nice change for now.

I'm more than halfway through Entre Nous and I've started The Blind Assassin for the LT read.

I just finished Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (review here) and was scared stuffless 8-O . It was a fantastically terrifying book and will make a great movie *lol*

I'll start Derailed later, but I doubt I'll finish it before the next week's "what are you reading" post.

I am absolutely, positively loving The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

msf59-Tweak was very good. Intense and difficult to read at times, but good. I read Beautiful Boy last year and thought it was very good as well.

I am reading Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Started Already Dead by Charlie Huston...on loan from a fellow LTer.all i can say is "why has it taken so long to read Huston's work?" i get no answer...smack myself upside the head.....Mike Hammer as Vampire, anyone??? yum yum

;-p

I started The Senator's Wife and found it boring, so put it down and picked up The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. For some reason I'm into memoirs right now. I'm sick as a dog with this bug that's been going around, so I need something that doesn't require much effort.....my brain feels like sludge. ugg.

jdthloue, Huston's something else, and don't miss Half the Blood of Brooklyn either.

Just finished with Freud's "Introduction To Psychoanalysis". After that (as a matter of fact in few minutes :))) I move on to Jeffrey Deaver's Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936 and then to Freud's autobiography.

Ahhhhhhh, thank you Louis..i am definitely "in my element" with Huston..thanks much for Your recommend....
;-p JAL

#148, LouisBranning, Thanks for the review of Every Man Dies Alone -- I've been eying it in the bookstore, but it seems so grim I haven't bought it yet, but now . . .

Louis....I immediately added Every Man Dies Alone to my BookMooch Wishlist! Thanks for the recc!

I just finished Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. What a masterful use of language! I continue listening to The White Tiger with complete horror and glee, and I am about to start reading Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Should be a pleasant evening!

Part way through Salmon of Doubt. Would be reading faster but too many other things have complicated my life, but I am enjoying it though.

Jude- Glad you are enjoying Already Dead! It's a white-knuckle ride! Huston rules!

#144 Louis ~ I finished the first Stones chapter and was just blown away. What a different take on the boys! Very surreal, yet I could see it happening that way back then. The Manson chapter was just creeeepy. Now I'm at the start of the first Anger chapter. Can't wait to dive back into it tonight.

Edited to make a little more sense.

>155 porchsitter55: - porchsitter - Hope you feel better soon! I've not been properly ill this week but I've not been 100%, very sleepy and headachy for some reason, so I sympathise. Charlie Chaplin's autobiography has been pushed onto the back burner a bit in favour of total mind-numbing fluff, or failing even that, DVDs and hours of telly. Bad form, I know, but hey...

>164 elliepotten: ELEANOR!! Telly?! *shudders of revulsion* That evil thing! Desist immediately! (psst...has "Torchwood" come back on there yet?! I'm going WILD without my Ianto fix!)

Oh dear, I must have been very bad to warrant the full name! Sadly Torchwood's glorious camp has not returned to our screens yet. Maybe they're trying to replace everyone they killed off? Or find someone else gorgeous for Captain Jack to chase after?

richardear, must you shout? Poor ellie.

I'm reading Olive Kitteredge and am almost through. It is very good. It is a typical Pullitzer book with lots of "real life" and melancholy. One thing for those about to read it. Wikipedia has a great "cast of characters" if you get lost in all the various people introduced to you.

Hi, Bobalie,

There's a new thread every Saturday for the books we are reading. This link is to this week's thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/69652

Meanwhile, thank you for the reminder to check Wikipedia. I am going to reread Olive Kitteridge for my church's book discussion group, and I am going to use that Wikipedia page stretched out in Word to take notes my second time through.

Robert