What are you reading the week of 2 May. 2009

Good new week of reading/living to everyone. If this is a duplicate new beginning post for the week, someone please direct all of us to the "official" What are you reading ... topic group.

And here's what I'm reading. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Just getting a good start on it.

I'm also reading Last House by M.F. K. Fisher which I find very interesting as I love her writing and the time period she writes about is 1943 to 1991. My feet have been on this earth through that entire period of time as I identify with some of her reminiscences.

WH

I am reading The skull Mantra by Elliot Pattison but I am finding it hard going. It is confusing.

I am reading The Cutting Season by Arthur Rosenfeld.

#2, Sorry you are having trouble with The Skull Mantra. It is my idea of a perfect book, though it is dense. It has a lot of info about Tibet worked in, great characters, a lot of reflection, and an interesting story. I just loved it.

I am just getting into The Physick book of Deliverance Dane. Reading has been slow going for me this last week or two.. distractions abound! This is a good read. I will finish it today and then?

Still reading Color: A Natural History of the Palette which is actually quite interesting, more history and interesting tales than science but that's fine with me. Didn't have enough time to read last week so slow going.

Still reading Waterland by Swift: I like it so far. And I'm still reading World without end.

Though I'd check for this tread before I announced finishing another book, so I don't have to do it twice!

I finished two books last night - one is mentioned on the other thread. The second one is All the Women of the Bible, a book originally written in 1955, so the slant on things was different from thinking, by some, today. I did find it interesting that the author found so many women in the book. The Bible to my thinking is definitely slanted toward the male of the species, so the number of women actually there, though many are mentioned in few words and some not even by name, was surprising.

This is definitely a book to be read in sections or spurts, but I was glad I had finally gotten to it.

I've just started The Mighty Angel by Jerzy Pilch for the May Reading Globally Theme Read (Poland). I'll also start The Fat Man and Infinity: And Other Writings by the Portuguese writer Antonio Lobo Antunes. I didn't realize that he wanted to become a writer as a child, but his father "forced" him to go to medical school, where he became a psychiatrist before turning back to writing.

I'm reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for a blog tour. My stop date is May 11th and I'm on page 29... no pressure, right? It's a nice book so far.

I'm also reading Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, one of my favorite authors. This book has been on my tbr pile since before Mt. TBR existed, and before I joined LT. I am, of course, enjoying it. It has a great and memorable first line, "It was a pleasure to burn."

I also really liked The Skull Mantra, and have enjoyed the subsequent Inspector Shan Tibetan mysteries. Currently I'm reading The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny, and Inspector Gamache mystery set near Quebec, and Agatha Christie's Mystery of the Blue Train featuring Hercule Poirot.

I am still reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I am finding it slow going because of all the notes in the back about certain quotes. I hope to finish it today or this weekend.

The Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski. It's wonderful so far, not at all what I expected.

The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Actually I started Good in bed yesterday but found it quite dull. I want something easy to read because I'm studying for exams at the moment, and I thought of chick lit or such but couldn't get into any of them. Any recommendation?

I started my first reading of David Copperfield yesterday (and despite the day job I got through about 150 pages of it before I went to sleep).

I'm still reading The Pluto Files. It's taking me a while. I'm going to blame the outage and getting called into work at 2 am for not getting any reading done the last few weeks.

Finished Flipping Out last night ~ my first Lomax & Biggs mystery. It went pretty fast and was enjoyable. Now back to The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire.

I'm reading more books than normal. I'm still working on my ER book First Meals & More Your Questions Answered. I'm also reading another book on feeding called Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense. In addtion still working on Sense and Senbility and also reading Strange Tales from Ohio for something a little lighter. Hopefully I finish at least one of these this week.

--> 13

Not chick lit, but intelligent, fun reading. Try something by Elinor Lipman. I'm listening to My Latest Grievance which is very entertaining. This is the first book of hers I've read, but other LTers seem to like her writing a lot as well.

P.S. I did not care for The Secret Life of Bees. I listened to it a while back on audio, and it kept putting me to sleep. Not good, as I was driving to work and back! :)

We've been working all day every day at the moment - on the shop 5 or 6 days a week, with a break for volunteering and food shopping on Wednesdays - but I'm trying to fit some reading in around it. I'm still reading Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey - The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World by Holley Bishop, which is deliciously lyrical as well as absolutely fascinating. Plus The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole on the side for when I'm exhausted after a day's DIY!

I have an absolute mountain to read though - library books, books I've 'borrowed' from our stock boxes, plus loads of newbies - so I might have to hit the coffee after a day working on the shop so I can pay more attention of an evening!

I finished A Night to Remember by Walter Lord last night. It's got to be the best book about the Titanic. How incredible to interview that many actual survivors.
I'm a few pages from the end of both The Maltese Falcon and Master and Commander.

I just finished Till We Have Faces, and since I've read (and own) so much of C.S. Lewis' books, I'm surprised I haven't read this one before. I really enjoyed it! Now what to read next...

Probably The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

I zipped through Nobody Move by Denis Johnson, very different from his Tree of Smoke, which was one of my favorite books of last year, but with the same excellent writing and sense of humanity in even the most unappealing characters.

I'm started Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz for the Reading Globally Poland theme read, and am also reading The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross and Animal Spirits:How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Schiller

There is a supernatural conspiracy against my reading Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I finally got up steam and was making headway, having been diverted by two novels, and the power went out just after midnight when I was within about five paragraphs of the end of a chapter. First duty today is to finish that chapter, but I don't think I'll finish the book before our bookgroup's discussion of Gertrude Bell on Wednesday.

Robert

I am reading Still Life by Louise Penny, the first Inspector Gamache book, and also, the Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff. Both books are excellent.

Bell 7, I read The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. I loved it and I believe there are a few more books to go along with it. Keep me posted.

I am about to start Fugitive Blue by Claire Thomas which was long listed for the Miles Franklin Award 2009 in Australia, having finished Dewey: The Small Town Cat Who Touched the World last night. Had a good cry on finishing Dewey.

Oh, no! I have Dewey. I wasn't sure whether I would ever read it. I refused to read The Life of Pi until I was assured that the tiger did not suffer any injury. Should I just give Dewey away?

Robert

I'm reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog and absolutely loving it. Every sentence is is a lyrical work of art.

I finished Memory by Philippe Grimbert this morning. For such a small novella, it has a lot of substance packed into it. I have now started Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott. I am 60 pages in so far and really enjoying it. This is the first book I have read by Endicott... I will now be on the look out for her other works!

Just finished Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower - a really fantastic new short story collection. Young guy with a pretty impressive range; can't wait to see what he does next.

No ideas what's next. My TBR pile is not a pile at all but rather scattered throughout the house. As is usually the case, whatever room I'm in when I get the itch to read contains the book I end up reading...

55.The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

56. Mercury in Retrograde by Paula Froelich

for today.

I posted my thoughts in my 75 challenge thread.

My challenge thread #2

Beware of #56

#30 I recently read Everything Ravaged and agree, it was fantastic. Tower does dialogue very, very well.

I am just finishing up Pale Fire by Nabokov and it's been a fun ride. The novel begins with a 999 line poem by a recently deceased poet, and his friend "interprets" the poem through his edited commentary. I'm sure I've missed half of the allusions, but I've still found it very funny and wickedly well-written.

Also just started Blake Bailey's new biography of Cheever, along with some of his stories. I thoroughly enjoyed Bailey's biography of Richard Yates, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

#27 rdurick I haven't read Dewey, but I saw the author speak today. She is a really good speaker and made me want to read the book.

I am reading Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult and Phony: How I Faked My Way Through Life by Andrea Stanfield.

Garry Wills' book on Macbeth, Witches and Jesuits. Interesting so far, but more detail of the same.

I'm hopping on a plane tomorrow, and I think I'll be taking The Big Over Easy and Far From the Madding Crowd with me. I still haven't finished Barchester Towers, but that is a lovely Folio Society book that isn't getting on a plane.

#27. Read Dewey, don't give it away. It is a loveable book, and if you love cats, you will want to hug the little darling. After living 18 years (or whatever, mine lived 18 years), what do you expect? It is a great read.

#27 I agree with OldDan.

I finished The Cutting Season by Arthur Rosenfeld. After a shaky start it was very good.

I am now starting Chanur's Legacy by C.J. Cherryh, the 5th book in the Chanur Saga . I didn't even know it existed until I checked the series page.

Still working on Tom Jones and The Forsyte Saga. I did fit in a quick read of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Hello folks, new member here -- only been a part of LT a week and already having a ball.

I've just put down The White Earth by Australian author Andrew McGahan and will be reading my son's Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett until my order for We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch comes in some time this week.

Robert

I am so with you... I didn't buy Dewey... I did buy Wesley The Owl , somehow hoping for the best... and of course, as in all of these books...
fingers crossed for you , whatever you decide!

I'm reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. It's a fantasy that's pretty well conceived. Sanderson is a good writer-- dialog believable, world-building well executed.

Bit long for my tastes, but I know some fantasy people love to wallow in their 'worlds'.

I asked for Dewey for my birthday and my catloving daughter got it for me. Ironically she hasn't read it yet.

I am in the middle of an ER Wife of the Gods and I am finding it to be quite good and the setting in Africa is so refreshing.

I finished Wally Lamb's way-too-long but oh-so-good The Hour I First Believed and am beginning A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh.

I just started Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills. Seems like a strange concept (A manufactured "virus" of some sort that is targetting oil?) We'll see how it pans out.

Robert, I didn't mean to spoil the plot of Dewey for you. Dewey was an amazing cat and though I felt the book started off slowly and could have been written better Dewey sucked me in. It's a read in a day book so give it a go whilst hugging your own cat/dog in the sad bits.

#30 mikepatrick, #32 angstrat: Wells Tower's Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned easily made my 'Favorites of the Year' list, and I remain a huge Pale Fire fan too, have read it several times and always find something new to laugh about, still have a 1st US edition of it too. The Blake Bailey bio of John Cheever made my 'Favorites' list as well, completely unputdownable.

After going all year without abandoning a single book, I dumped 2 in April: Philipp Meyer's American Rust just bored the hell out of me, and Christian Moerk's Darling Jim was such a load of contrived silliness that I couldn't take any of it seriously.

Right now I'm almost a hundred pages into Arthur Phillips' The Song is You and like it quite a bit, but if you're not a music person, so much of this will just fly right by the average reader. The associative things Arthur's doing in this novel are really quite amazing, but it's easy to imagine many readers just not getting it at all.

I just finished Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark about a middle-aged German who leaves his wife for a much younger woman with which he is infatuated. It was pretty good, not mind-blowing, but gives me motivation to seek out more Nabokov.

Last night, I started W.H. Sleeman's Ramaseeana which is one of the older books about Thuggee. It's an on-line book, so I'll probably be reading it in spurts. I've also started The Keep by Jennifer Egan, which is pretty interesting so far.

Like # 47 LouisBranning, I'm about 100 pages into The Song is You by Arthur Phillips. I really like it a lot, but reading #47's post, I'm concerned that I don't understand the music references -- the book's quite enjoyable anyway.

Also almost finished with Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Great book, highly recommended.

I'm not sure why this happened: but yesterday, I posted a response to #13 re: how much I loved The Secret Life of Bees, and it disappeared. (not the book, but my response). Wonder why....Anyway, I'm still reading The Gargoyle and thoroughly loving it. It's not a book I might have chosen without the praise dolloped out by some on this site. So...Thanks!

Haven't had nearly enough alone time, but I managed to start Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto by Anneli Rufus.

I'm still stuck in my crime/mystery/suspense phase, so I'm going to read Bangkok 8 by John Burdett later this evening. I hope it's as good as his other books.

I finished Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee earlier. Now I am reading Gray Apocalypse by James Murdoch

#16 Storeetllr > I have Flipping Out on my TBR pile and I just bought his first book The Rabbit Factory. I have read a little of each and they both look very entertaining.

I am listening to The Thirteenth Tale, trying to finish A Hope in the Unseen and looking forward to starting Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned soon.

Well, I just finished Dark of the Moon by Janice Daughraty and ultimately it was a seriously disturbing view of some extremely poor white Southern folks. Some of the images burned on my brain are not good. Will try to shake it. It ended weird (and hard to believe), but I will say the writing put me there ... she's a very unique, Southern writer.

Next on to The Secret Magdelene for my European plane trip ... and I'll have to bring a second book for the flight back, figure I'll finish it on the way and in rare times of relaxation.

This week I'll be feeding my Georgette Heyer bug I caught last week. Since mysteries are usually the genre of my choice I will be reading her mysteries first and then I'll move on to her historical romance. If you've never read her, start with Behold, Here's Poison, very funny, very clever and especially for fans of Agatha Christie

Finished The Little Book and absolutely loved it. Then for a complete change of pace, read Sparks Fly Upward by Stewart Granger, a movie star I always enjoyed. Not as readable but interesting if you like the actor. And I WILL get to Elegance of the Hedgehog soon, or else.

Just finished Long Days Journey Into Night. Starting The Prisoner of Zenda tomorrow.

Finished Chanur's Legacy by C.J. Cherryh. It was wonderful to be back with the Chanur, and dealing with all those strange aliens. This book was very heavy on the Stsho - very funny. Sad to be done, would like more.

I am starting Geisha of Gion by Mineko Iwasaki (also known as Geisha: a Life). It is a memoir by the woman who was the source for the book Memoirs of a Geisha. She felt that book didn't tell her story properly, so she wrote her own.

I just finished I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming, a great Sunday read! I gave up on The Skull Mantra, something I rarely do. I found it dense, confusing and not enjoyable. I am not sure what's next perhaps some literary travel.

Soldiering on through David Copperfield, I, Claudius and just now flipping through The Truth About the Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Enchanted Castle, and A Study in Scarlet. OH. And How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom, which is turning out to be rather good, if not a bit overpowering.

My husband, Mike, and I just switched books. He kept laughing at his and telling me why (since I asked) and I kept discussing mine with him.
So, now he's reading Blood of Innocents by Guy Reel and I'm reading Fluke: Or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore.
This is my first Christopher Moore (Mike's 3rd) and I'm loving it!

For some reason the touchstone for Fluke isn't working.

#44 A Handful of Dust is excellent.

#50 I finished The Gargoyle a couple of days ago and loved it too. And like you it's not a book I would necessarily have chosen if not for LT. I hope you enjoy it to the end.

I'm reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. Also due to rave reviews on LT (though lots of people have also disliked it). I'm finding it a bit challenging but also excellent and fascinating.

Just started reading Afraid by Jack Kilborn. I was really wanting this one on the ER but since I didn't get I went and bought me a copy. Very, very creepy and I am only 30 pages into the book.

While working my way through Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which is a nice book, a little slow so far, but nice, I've picked up Haunted by Chuck Pahlaniuk, which is anything BUT nice. Gross, wicked, obsessed with masturbation, maybe... but definitely NOT nice.

What can I say, I like to balance out my reading. ;-)

I'm a little past halfway in As A Palm Tree In The Desert : Part One by Zvi Ankori - an autobiography of sorts describing the author's worlds in Polish Galicia and in Israel between the World Wars - and, by extension of his mothers life, Jewish life in the Ukraine. It's an autobiography that so far doesn't really talk about the author. It's slow to read, but quite interesting on many levels.

I have started The Secret Magdalene by Ki Longfellow ... since there are so many people that adore this book ... I started it and it's for a plane ride to Paris. It sure starts a little dry and confusing (all the sects, etc.), please tell me it gets more engaging? Every two seconds I'm like, who is this, how do they connect, etc.? I don't mind a bit of work in a book as long as it develops and is ultimately engrossing.

Just kind of wondering (enough that I have a back up novel!).

Interspersed between reading Cheever’s short stories, I’ve read Richard Henry Dana’s To Cuba and Back, an extremely compelling narrative of his travels to Havana and the interior in 1859, Tim Gautreaux’s The Missing, which although I thought was slightly flawed and not as good as The Clearing, it’s nonetheless a novel I thoroughly enjoyed, and Joe Queenan’s excellent account of growing up in lower and working class Philadelphia during the 1950s and 60s, Closing Time: A Memoir.

And since it’s due to arrive today, I plan on starting Colm Toibin’s latest, Brooklyn: A Novel

Finnished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo this morning. I was sad that it ended. Now I don't have any idea what to pick from my tbr. :o(

#67. Carolyn, stick with it. I refer to The Secret Magdalene. It's a brilliant book, although I admit not a fast beach read. But then, most of our best books, the ones that last are definitely not fast reads. I got a trifle confused about the complexity of world in the book at first, but then, if you look at the world we live in now, especially the Middle East, it's very messy, overlapping, and confused. That's one of the reasons I loved this book. In the end, I saw the times and events clearly, and knew that nothing has changed.

I'm reading Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult.

Have finished The Year of the Flood, Atwood's forthcoming novel and am returning to Leaving Tangier by Tahar Ben Jelloun.

I started reading Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan, I'm a sucker for fantasy but sometimes I get it terribly wrong. Anyone?

Just finished Black Seconds by Karin Fossum in audio. Started Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen, also in audio. Reading Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on my breaks at work, which is an intriguing fantasy that seems to mix Indian myth with modern elements of fantasy. I'm still working on Out by Natsuo Kirino, which is really good but pretty noir in mood so can only read so much at one time. So I'm switching off with Unspoken by Mari Jungstedt. Those should keep me busy for awhile.

I finished The Whisperers by Orlando Figes and Property by Valerie Martin, and took a short detour with the delightful The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby before starting Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov.

I've finished the two books I started this weekend, The Mighty Angel by Jerzy Pilch, which was very good, and The Fat Man and Infinity by Antonio Lobo Antunes, a collection of his crónicas (opinion pieces in Portuguese magazines and newspapers), which may be the best book I've read this year.

I bought a copy of Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín yesterday, which I'm eager to get into. However, I think I'll read a short novel today, probably The King's Rifle by Biyi Bandele or W, or The Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec first, and then read Brooklyn on the plane tomorrow.

I've just started Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska.

Reading The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper. Excellent.

Finished East of Eden which was a bit of disappointment for me. Still good, though, just not fantastic as I expected.

I am now reading The Book Thief which is OK. I was expecting to be blown away based on all the LT feedback. I am thinking that I am just not all that enamored of YA lit.

#79 I'm totally with you on The Book Thief - just average. A bit juvenile and predictable and over-sentimental.

Currently reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. This has been a challenging yet enjoyable read thus far. I am having a hard time with the dialect and often need to read the words "out loud in my head" with a Scottish accent to improve comprehension. I hope to finish this week.

Just finished reading Shatter by Michael Robotham. It's an English thriller and exceptionally good. Published in 2008.

Although the plot is familiar, a clinical psychologist versus a deranged serial killer, this book fairly sizzles with suspense right up until the very last page. (And they're my cliches, not the publishers). The novel opens with the psychologist, who is developing Parkinson's Disease, attempting to talk a naked woman down from a suspension bridge, alas she jumps and is drowned. I mention Parkinson's because it does come into play often during the book.

Soon after, the psychologist is visited by the dead woman's daughter who convinces him to look further into her mother's reasons for jumping, and we are off and running for over 450 pages. I don't normally stay up til' 4 in the a.m. but this one had me hearing the early birds two nights in a row.

Believable characters fill this novel, and side plots only serve to enhance the storyline. Although somewhat gross at times, the pyschopath's methods of torture and killing causing one to blink and look away on occasions, I've read worse.

Just an extremely satisfying read, with a solid ending, something I'm finding a little rare these days.

Now, for something different, I'm reading yet another Chaplin biography, Chaplin A Life by Stephen Weissman M.D. Don't let the M.D. fool you, this is a clinical observation of Charlie Chaplin's life, and I'm finding it a little too technical for my liking, almost as if the writer were publishing a paper on the comedic actor for a thesis.

As a long admirer of Chaplin, I grew up in the same part of London, England as did he, and was eager to reconnect with times and places of long ago. Hasn't happened yet, but I remain hopeful...

Right now I'm about halfway through Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett. I generally stay away from short story collections (they take me ages to read), but I picked this one up because David Sedaris wrote the foreword and sold me on it. I'm glad I trusted his judgment. Willett's use of language is extraordinary. The plots of her stories are simple and bleak. Her humor is caustic.

I'm hoping to finish it tonight.

Finished my ER book Wife of the Gods and I did enjoy it.

I'm taking a break from The Sunne in Splendour to read Cranford. It's pleasant so far, and much shorter than most Victorian novels.

> 40, sremmah

I really liked We wish to inform you. It's really sad and educational at the same time.

Today is a great day even though my husband has a URI. I received from Hyperion Books Perfection which is a Voice book and ARC. From Bookins I received Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. From Wal-Mart I bought Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balough completing my series and Highland Scandal by Julia London.

I am also on page 300 of This Present Darkness so these books come just in time.

>73 VivianeoftheLake: Vivianeofthelake I started reading Priestess of the white the other day and i'm perhaps half-way through now. At first the way the POV characters kept changing threw me but now i'm getting quite into it and enjoying it but i normally read fantasy anyway so i don't know what your opinion of it would be. This book is quite different to Trudi's other trilogy but i really like her Magician's Guild books so i'm hoping that i will still like this trilogy when i get to the end of it.

Finished Kitchen Confidential this weekend as well as Nice to Come Home to. Am still working my way through Atlas Shrugged will probably be at that for a while!

Still reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Also started in Graven In De Nijldelta by Willem van Haarlem, plan on finishing it sometime this week.

Enough of you urged me to do it, so I read the first 200 pages of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World last night. You also made me wary of the last hundred or so pages which I should get to tonight. I told my cat this morning that he had neglected me to the extent that I had to read about feline affection rather than experience it.

Poor T.E. Lawrence. He has written an interesting story told well, yet I am putting him off with these diversions. I read most of an article on Arts and Letters Daily today about kids' basketball that took a lesson from The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (a part I had just read). Even touchstones ignore his work.

Robert

Just finished the first true crime I've read in several years, A Rose for her Grave by Ann Rule. I'll look for her again when I need a fix.

Also finished Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk. I hope there is another like this in the works. I like his essays and short pieces better than his two fiction titles I've read (Fight Club and Choke).

Started Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Haven't read it
before.

Also starting The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat. She was on my list at the start of the year.

Decided to read a book about books,Sixpence House by Paul Collins. Will it make me want to buy more books ? Well, the library book sale is this week end,so probably :o)

Just finished Emily Listfield's Best Intentions last night, and already about 100 pages into Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts! I've been hearing about it for years and finally bought it. Since we share the same first name, too, I feel like I owe her some attention! :)

Thanks Artful, I will stick with The Secret Magdalene! I actually started it over (I was only a dozen pages in) and concentrated a bit more and now I think I'm good to go. You are right, anything I would be in my "great" or "best" pile, well, they are anything but fluff, and usually are kind of heady. I think I'm just getting use to the pulse of her writing too ~ it's sort of time-based I think and once I get the rhythym, I'll be fine. I love being really lost in a book (time/place, etc.) and this one certainly has that potential. I'll review it in a couple weeks, once I get back from my trip!

I finished Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott on Sunday.... what a great book! I tried to get into Once Upon a Time in England by Helen Walsh but 38 pages in I abandoned it as not my type of book. I am now happily enjoying Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell.

I am half way through Henning Mankells' s The Fifth Woman. His spare and descriptive style always delivers. I have no idea what is going on this far in and that is fun. Two grotesque murders and a policeman thinking he needs a career change.

I'm reading Love, Suburban Style by Wendy Markham which was left half way in the last week. Finished up with PS, I Love You and loved it! I think it's one of the awesomest books ever written!!

#18: Thanks so much. I'll go find them as soon as possible. And about The secret life of bees, I thought it was a children's book, I mean a book with not too much serious stuff, but it turned out to be about racism and such. Anyway thanks a lot again.

Just started Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Good so far!

#9
to thekoolaidmom :

Fahrenheit 451 has been on my list for at least that long too. One of the titles I listed in January to FINALLY read. Brought it home last week. Hope to start it next week.

Reading To Let (The Forsyte Saga) by John Galsworthy for 'Group Reads - Literature'.
Interesting. Exciting characters.

Started Patterns of Force, a Star Wars novel.

I'm reading The Final Detail by Harlan Coben because I need something light.

I'm also reading The Tory Widow by Christine Blevins my March ER book but can't seem to get into it yet... it might be timing because we had a big family party this weekend at our house for 80 people and it's been stressful for a while. I hope that when I feel calmer the book will be more interesting.

And still reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which is absolutely wonderful.

Recently finished The Fat Man and Infinity and other writings by Antonio Lobo Antunes and inhaled Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton. I've begun The Painter of Signs by R.K.Narayan.

Abandoned Witches and Jesuits by Garry Wills. Learned, only 149 pages, but dull, dull and dull.

Started H. Rider Haggard's She. Does anyone know if the author's name has any connection to the character in the Potter books?

You mean Hagrid?

I'm working on Jingo by Terry Pratchett, which is actually quite hefty for a Discworld book! And Anna Karenina, but that'll probably take me a year to finish because I tend to read only a chapter a week (I get too distracted by other, shinier books!)

#101 boulder_a_t: It is definitely worth the wait :-) Fahrenheit 451 is one of the few books that will go on my permanent keeps shelf to be re-read.

Right now I'm working through both The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (still) and The Brightest Moon of the Century.

Currently reading Dr. Thorne by Anthony Trollope and Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward. I should have both read this week.

107: varielle,

Yes. I understand the difference in spelling but I was wondering if Rowling made any connection between the author of She and her character because, to me @ least, the two authors share some affinities for fantastic plot and arcane knowledge.

#111 - I have Doctor Thorne toward-ish the top of my TBR pile. Good? Not sure whether to press on with Barsetshire or start in on Pallisers. I guess I'm a lucky reader to be faced with such a decision, right? :)

I just want to thank LT once again from the bottom of my heart for turning me on to Trollope. Sniff! :)

After years of procrastinating, I have started Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I'm about 80 pages in and it's slow going. Some parts are really interesting & others I find my mind wandering.

>104 karenmarie:: karenmarie- This was the first Harlan Coben book that I had read and I loved it. I subsequently went back and read the first 2 in the series. Good stuff!

#115--Stick with Corelli, bookgirl. It's a good book. I liked it better on a second reading.

I just started Maps of Time by David Christian. Heavy duty but very interesting.

I want to join mikepatrick in thanking LT for turning me on to Trollope. I'm reading Barchester Towers this week!

I finished Dewey last night. It was pleasant enough, and furthered the case that there are no just-a-cats. It soft pedalled the threats of bureaucracy. The author wanted a witness not only for the cat but for herself; fortunately she was not obtrusive seeking that. I hope she makes a good lot of money from the book to supplement her civil service pension.

I turned back to Seven Pillars of Wisdom and made good headway, but I will almost certainly not finish the last two or three hundred pages by tomorrow night when we discuss Gertrude Bell. I think I should recommend this book to people; it is deeply germane to today's events even if the United States is not involved. It is also exceptionally well-written; we would not expect a career military officer today to write so competently.

Robert

#18
I read the Secret life of Bees after seeing the movie with my mother. I found it to be a very good book. I loved it.
This week i am reading The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. I read the first book a while back when the movie came out, though i did not see the movie and loved it. I started on the second but could not get into. Now i am trying again and this time i am enjoying it more.
I am also re-reading New Moon by Stephenie Meyer and i've just started Tricksters Choice by Tamora Pierce although i'm not sure I'll keep going with that.

Geisha:a Life, was a great book. I read it several years after I read Memoirs of a Geisha and I could see the difference. Although truth be told they were both worth the read. I hope you enjoy!

I read Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris today. One of my guilty pleasure authors, it was fun to read but makes me sad that I have to wait for another one. As always I wish that authors could churn out books as fast as I read them!

Well, just finished The Keep, which was pretty enjoyable, but not as good as I was hoping. Felt like there were a lot of elements brought into play and then sort of abandoned, and the final act didn't add all that much.

Last night, I started Nine Lords of the Night, a Members Giveaway mystery centering around archaeolgy. Starts pretty strong.

Still listening to Duma Key on audiobook, and while it has gotten better, it's still sort of slow. There's a sudden development which is handled IMHO a little clumsily, in a way reminiscent of King's early work. (Or does he always handle his plot developments in less-than-elegant manner?)

Thought I'd pitch in and say what I'm reading too.

I'm just starting Better by Atul Gawande at the insistence of my mother before she lets it circulate among her co-workers at the hospital. It's interesting and provides great little anecdotes for being "better" in your life and workplace. I recently read a section on how doctors react to "intimate" exams (where the patient is in some form of undress) and whether or not chaperones should be present, especially when the doctor is male and a patient is female. This was immensely interesting and, although my opinions haven't changed on the subject, I certainly will look at the whole exam in a much different light.

I'm also listening to Orlando on audiobook. Even though I'm half-way through and find it interesting, sometimes I just wish Woolf would stop for a minute and breathe.

I'm about halfway through Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I've been enjoying it so much that I decided to give away my copy on my blog In the Shadow of Mt. TBR. I've really been quite pleasantly surprised by it :-)

I'm about 40 or so pages into Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, and the "Foot Job" thing was really weird. NOT as bad as why Saint Gut-free is Gut-Free... which is just a revolting tale. *shudders at the memory* If I ate chitlins, I wouldn't now.

#106 ~ No idea if the name Haggard has any connection to Hagrid. I just wanted to say that I love She and wish I could find my very old copy that I got from my grandmother's library so I could read it again whenever I feel like it. It made such an impression on me the first time I read it as a young teen, and it was just as good on reread a decade or two later. I think I need to read it again. Maybe I'll just have to break down and buy a copy.

#119 Robert ~ You've convinced me to put Seven Pillars of Wisdom on my TBR list for this year.

Coincidentally, I just watched (again) the film Lawrence of Arabia, which, though obviously shortened and glamorized in the "finest" Hollywood tradition, still is a pretty fascinating story. Guess I'll have to read the book of the same name now, too.

@119 TE Lawrence was not a career military officer, rdurick. He was a Oxford scholar, which meant in those days that he studied the classics and had to write an essay every week for his tutors, meaning he learnt above all to write good English. He worked as an archaeologist in the Middle East before 1914, wrote an excellent book called Crusader Castles, and when the war started was on Hittite digs. His military service as an officer was strictly wartime only and temporary, and he never 'fitted in' with the officer caste. Later he became a regular soldier in the air force, but as a ranker under a different name (T E Shaw). He wrote an excellent book about service life as a simple airman under that name. The book is called The Mint, and (used to be) available in Penguin. Sorry mo touchstones.

I just started Ask the Dust - John Fante.

125 - Oddly, Guts didn't affect me that way. Maybe it's just because it would take more than a short story to make me pass up a yummy bowl of menudo. (Hmmm, menudo.) And what kind of person has calimari-flavored intestines. Is he part fish?

#130 CarlosMcRey: ewWwWww... Menudo. I can't get passed the smell. Of menudo or chitlins, for that matter. I never liked calmari/squid/octopus anyway, so that didn't bother me. I can't stand the texture of squid... too chewy. My ex is Vietnamese, and he loves squid and makes it all the time. Our daughter will eat pretty much any of it... including pig uteri.

Not if I was starving, thank you.

Miranda_Paige The Secret Life of Bees is a favorite of mine~ I haven't seen the movie yet...

Carlos.. The Keep is a book that I have picked up a hundred times and put back. What do you think... should I take it off my lengthy list or not?

I am still reading This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV and
A Short History of Women.. or more accurately not reading. I haven't read for two days.. busy. Tonight....

eta t-stone fix

#116 msf59 - I've got 3 pages to go on The Final Detail. There was absolutely no time for a measly three pages. I read about 30 before my daughter got up, but as soon as she came downstairs I had to put the book down and get ready for work and to take her to school by 7 a.m. for Jazz Band practice.

I did get lucky though - I knew I needed a new book, ran into the Sunroom and glanced at one of the paperback shelves and grabbed One False Move, which is the book BEFORE The Final Detail. Nothing like getting things out of order.

Can't wait until lunch today so I can finish one and start another.

>114 mikeepatrick:, 118 About 15 years ago now I started the long journey through the marvelous world of Barsetshire and Anthony Trollope. I think I must have read 20 novels that first year and have read just about everything since.
I envy you your first dipping into that wonderful world.

Found a very short book called Nachtwerk (or Office Hours in English) by David Baldacci last week, going to read it today. :)

I finished The Book Thief - I definately didn't like it as much as others. It felt contrived to me and the writing was clunky and self-conscious (IMHO).

Started The Girl with The Dragon Tatoo for my mystery fix.

#132 - I thought The Keep was a disappointment. It starts with potential but fizzles. I could have definately lived without reading it - just OK.

>113 Smiley: I bet H. Rider Haggard inspired a lot of writers who would never admit it.

I just finished The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark and started The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

#136, jhowell, double ditto on The Book Thief, read a hundred pages, couldn't finish it.

I read a good portion of Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn last night, and it’s a very beautiful, subtle book so far, much like The Heather Blazing. He doesn’t fully describe his characters, but gives you enough of a solid template so that you can fill in the rest with your imagination. I love that. The book is very Irish and old fashioned, and nothing like the posh characters he wrote about in The Master.

#140: I finished Brooklyn last night, and completely agree with you. The writing is gorgeous, and I was completely captivated by the story.

I finished Brooklyn last night (#141)

Ohboy. That can't be good. ;)
</local humor>

Current reads:

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - been at this off and on since the beginning of February, it's back on at the moment.
A Long Way Down - on audiobook. The novel has 4 narrators, but they only employed two to do the audiobook, one for the male characters and one female. Each is good at one of their voices and not the other. As a book, if I followed the tabulating principles of Rob in High Fidelity, this would be upper mid table.
Lost Tribes of Pop - haven't discovered which one I'm a member of yet.
Pandora's Star - space opera brain candy.

Reading Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʾo, which I'm enjoying so far.

I've finished the Pluto book. I have no idea what to read next. Maybe Dostoevsky?

I forgot to add that I will start Gimpel the Fool: And Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer for the Reading Globally monthly theme read, and C.L.R. James: Cricket's Philosopher King by Dave Renton.

I finished Master and Commander last night and I'm still reading Desperate Passage and The Trials of Rumpole.

I started Wicked Lovely this morning. I SWEAR that when I'm finished I'm not starting anything else until I finish Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, I just want to be able to return Wicked Lovely when I go to the library tomorrow.

I'm reading Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. I've been looking forward to it for a while.

#149 brenzi

I think that you are in for a treat with your reading of Out Stealing Horses.

Per Petterson succeeds in creating a true sense of both time and place in the protagonist's life as a young man and as an older man living alone.

Enjoy.

WH

Hi everyone...I posted a review of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire over in my 75-Books Challenge thread in post #87, for all interested parties.

And congratulations, womansheart, on that hot review!!

I finished off Brethren: Raised by Wolves and started a totally different City of Glass by Cassandra Clare last night.

Joker One by Donovan Campbell. He writes well and gives us insight into the mind of someone in combat. A princeton grad who becomes a platoon sargeant in Iraq by choice. Good stuff. Good for teenage boys and adults.

128> Cedric, you're right; in writing too fast I misspoke myself. I should have said something like "ranking;" he was not long a captain as I recall. That difference between Lawrence and the other officers is often upfront; on the other hand he walked into headquarters and talked with the generals.

So the US Navy had Armisted Maupin, but he did not rise very far. Grant had Twain's help. The incongruity of the warrior and the writer, Caesar's early example notwithstanding, still strikes me.

Robert

All these bad "vibes" on The Book Thief. I'm glad they are coming after I read it! I don't know guys, I loved the book. Maybe the "jubilant masses" aren't so massive after all.
Also a big fan of Out Stealing Horses. Excellent book! Which, I cannot use to describe Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. It's a tepid historical thriller, over-stuffed and under-developed. All I could think about was my next book, especially as I stumbled through the last 100 pages and so far my daydreaming has paid off because Storm Front by Jim Butcher is a lot of fun. It's the 1st in a series, about a wizard P.I. from Chi-town!

I'm reading The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes. I'm at page 60 and wondering if I'll be able to finish it and also thanking the book gods that I paid way under retail for it! I'm also reading Twilight (don't ask!, lol). And finally, I'm reading The Red Badge of Courage (I always try to be in the process of reading at least one "classic.") I also bought some new books this week. I'm so excited about them, but I'm really wondering when I'll get around to them: Fledgling by Octavia Butler, Blown Away by G.M. Ford, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. I'm definitely doing too much.

>122 dancingstarfish: Is the Dead and Gone that you are reffering to about when the moon comes too close to the earth? I read this Dead and Gone and was so depressed by it that i had to stop reading.
>132 mckait: You should. It was great. almost as good as the first. They did a good job with it.
>148 DevourerOfBooks: Did you like Wicked Lovely? I absolutely love that book.
>156 petersonvl: What do you think of Twilight so far?

Finished The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne my March early reviewer book.

Started Looking After Pigeon by Maud Carol Markson my April early reviewer book.

I zipped through The Uncommon Reader and The Polysyllabic Spree, and I am almost finished with Pnin. I started The Chameleon's Shadow, a mystery by Minette Walters I picked up at the library yesterday. I am also reading a few stories a day by Katherine Mansfield for the monthly author read.

#132, mckait, I have to agree with jhowell. It was kind of disappointing. Not bad, but it seemed to bring up a lot of interesting premises that didn't go anywhere. I felt as if the book split the difference between being quirky and postmodern and being lean and character-drive, without doing either really quite as well as it could have.

Thanks Carlos.. it is officially of my buy someday list :)
( whew)

A teenager insisted that I read it b/c as she said, it's soooooooo good! I can see how teenagers would like the Twilight series. So far, it touches on high school crushes, teenage angst; universal teen issues. And then the vampire twist adds a layer of interest. As an adult, I'm not really into it, but I'm so glad to see YAs excited about reading stuff other than smut and glamour magazines. So, I'm indulging this young lady so that I too can experience the "greatness" of Twilight. I want to encourage her to be a life long reader, so I shall do as I'm told! Now I'm at approximately page 100, and it's getting better. I doubt if I'll read the balance of the series, but if and when I can by them on sale, I'll purchase the series to add to my (YA) library.

>162 petersonvl: Well I'm glad you decided to read it. For me I like it mostly for the characters. I will read certain chapters again and again because I like to be with the characters. That is mostly why I read the series.

Well, someone plopped Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry on my reading plate. I must try to forget that I have Iain Pears and Stone's Fall waiting impatiently.

Just finished Blood Orange Brewing by Laura Childs, which was a light but enjoyable read and have now picked up Life's a Beach by Claire Cook plus need to finish Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson for book club. Then there's the ever present Atlas Shrugged.....will I ever finish?

Right now, I’m reading by themes because that seems both nerd-like and Spartan. My current theme is folly. I just finished Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay and am currently reading A Treasury of Deception by Michael Farquhar to blow out the cobwebs- it’s mind candy. Then I’m on the The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman. If I can find it at the local lie-berry, I want to top it off if Banvard’s Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn’t Change the World by Peter Collins. Then it’s a couple of chillers by Thomas Disch. Ooooh yeah.

126: Storeetllr,137: varielle,147: mstrust

I'm finding She quite readable and quick for something published just before 1900. I can understand the appeal to readers and writers both. If they admit it or not.

I sure the She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed lines in Rumpole come from She.

127: Storeetllr,

Couldn't make it through Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Haven't tried it again, but found T.E. Lawrence's Revolt in the Desert more to my liking.

154> Yes they made him a colonel fairly quickly, but I suspect for political reasons, to give him some status among the Arab princes. And he certainly had fairly easy access to Allenby, but that probably came again from the political nature of his mission. Also he was only one among a number of British officers / agents assigned to the Arab revolt, and not the most senior. But he had a knack for self promotion, aided of course by the American journalist - Lowell I think it was, who invented the Lawrence of Arabia tag. But you are certianly right about the incongruity of warrior and writer.

Cedric

I've been struggling a bit with Middlemarch - I think I'm just not in the mood for correctly phrased Victorian writing - though I haven't given up on it.

I've supplemented it by starting Fractured by Karin Slaughter, a thriller which has the faster pace I'm looking for. It's good.

I just finished The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie, a good Hercule Poirot (is there anything she's written that isn't?). I'm in the middle of Dracula by Bram Stoker and Thirteenth Night by Alan Gordon, a mystery based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. (Coincidentally, we just saw Twelfth Night performed at Chicago Shakespeare Theater - spectacular!)

msf59, I'm also a big fan of The Book Thief, and am intrigued by those that don't like it or have trouble reading it. Hard to figure. Glad you're enjoying the first Harry Dresden book; it's a fun series.

Well, I dropped 44 Scotland Street as I wasn't really in the mood for that newspaper serial type of writing, although I'm sure I'll go back to it. Then I picked up Firefly Lane because I thought it would be light enough to bridge the gap untl my Amazon order came and I wouldn't mind dropping it for Alias Grace or November 22, 1966, but guess what? It is a little fluffy, but it has taken hold and now I have to see how it ends, so I'm still on Firefly Lane, to be followed by Alias Grace in a day or two.

I finished reading David Copperfield last night. Today I'll be starting My Wars are Laid Away in Books.

Finished The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, starting The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.

Have started reading Home by Marilynne Robinson. I'm loving it.

Finished and reviewed Last House by M. F. K. Fisher.

Finished Robinson Jeffers Selected Poems.

WH

>157 Miranda_Paige:,
I finished it last night, I think it was good. In terms of the recent YA I've read, not as great as the Uglies trilogy, but far better than Wake. It definitely kept me reading, I'll have to check out Ink Exchange soon.

>174 womansheart:. I loved Home: A Novel. Did you read Gilead first? I loved the characters and was totally drawn into the family dynamic (who can't relate). I found the spirituality especially fascinating.

I'm finishing The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tonight. Lately I'm very into books that have different chapters or parts from the point-of-view of the various characters. I love the people's quirkiness, and I love the conversational way it is written.

I bought The Plague of Doves, but I can't seem to get into it, so I'm going to read Brooklyn next on everyone's reviews above.

>176 Bridget770:. Yes, Bridget770.

I surely did read Gilead. I'm looking forward to some leisurely reading time later today in Home. I hope these touchstones work ... sometimes I think they are a little "touchy." They are showing up correctly as I write this, but, I never know what may happen when I click on submit. I'll just be "audacious" and HOPE that they work this time.

Also, I want to mention to you and other readers who may be interested, there may be a discussion group forming in the not too distant future for Brooklyn. I'm not sure how the word on the details will get around LT, but we don't ever seem to be at a loss to discover new people and books do we? A new discussion group should be pretty easy to find when it is ready to get up and running in a few weeks.

Please see message #186 at http://www.librarything.com/topic/60252 (kidzdoc - 75/2009 Book Challenge) for more info ... and get in on the planning of the discussion group if you like. kidzdoc is the one reeling some of us in like trout from a Montana stream.

womansheart

This is the week of many books.. Currently reading Eclipse because I read the other two. The Last Olympian.. the last book in the Percy Jackson series, but Percy will be making appearances in other related series.
And still Team of Rivals.

I went to a book signing / release party for The Last Olympian. There was a climbing wall, "Meet the Oracle", camp games like tug of war, and all these little kids running around in shirts that said "Demigod in Training",
"Hunters of Artemis", and "Camp Half-Blood". Even with all the excitement of the games and food and release party, there were kids scattered about READING!! Very cute and very exciting for a wannabe children's librarian.

#155 msf59 - I love the Dresden Files books too - I devoured the first 4 then decided to take a break.

I've started One False Move, about 130 pages in and really enjoying it.

I'm still officially reading The Tory Widow, my March ER book and Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Finished Sixpence House by Paul Collins this morning. I thought I would have liked to have gone to Hay-on Wye and visit all the book stores. Now it sounds like a very sad place.

I've started Hijo de hombre (Son of Man--the touchstone is simpler with the Spanish title) which takes place in a town in Paraguay. Roa Bastos works in Guarani words and terminology (mostly translated thankfully). Quite good so far.

I finished Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult and Phony: How I Faked My Way Through Life byAndrea Stanfield.

I am now reading The Lieutenant's Lady by Bess Streeter Aldrich.

I read Lantern in Her Hand as a young girl and loved it. This is based on an actually diary of a woman who went to break an engagement of a cousin and ended up marrying the army officer in the 1860's.

What is Firefly Lane about? I believe i've looked at the book and thought about getting it before.

#178 What a fun idea for a party. If there was one in my area I'd definitely attend. I'm picking my reserved copy up this evening. Can't wait to find out how the series ends. I've thought the Percy Jackson series is a great way to teach kids about mythology.

Got another ER book today - Assegai. It's now on the bottom of another pile of books from my personal shelves.

>185 koalamom:
ER? What does that stand for?

#186: ER=LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Okay.

I finished Geisha of Gion (Geisha: A Life) by Minkeo Iwasaki

Interesting in more ways than the author intended. Pathology on a plate. I don't know if she is the world's worst liar, or she really believed what she wrote and didn't spot herself saying the exact opposite a few pages later. The whole book was like that. Her family and personal stories didn't ring true, and some of her Geisha lore contradicts other sources. Still it was a strangely compelling read, despite the above problems and her self-absorption.

I am now starting a book for my RL SF group The Clone Republic by Steven L. Kent

Just finished Witch of Cologne this morning. A colleague at work saw me reading it and asked about it, so gave it to her this morning. I thought it was going to be a high class romance novel but it turned out alright.

I started reading Trinity by Leon Uris this week and pulled Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee out of the TBR pile. This one is an upcoming selection for my book discussion group.

I know I said I wasn't going to start anything else until I finished The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, but I lied. For one thing, I finished my current audio book and started When You Are Engulfed in Flames on audio. I really prefer listening to David Sedaris. However, I also started Every Last Cuckoo and am going to have it alternate chapters with The Last Prince.

I have a copy of The Physik Book of Deliverance Dane close at hand and have to admit that I moved it up on my TBR pile due to the high praise from people in this group.

I heard Colm Toiban speaking about Brooklyn on NPR and think this one will have to have a place in my growing TBR pile. It sounds good enough to make me think about buying a copy! Don't I wish! The day I stop buying books is a cold day in hell.

I was pleased to see a colleague at work reading a book I gave her a few weeks ago. Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry just released in February. If you like mysteries try this one. It is sort of a cross between Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and a noir detective story. Lots of atmosphere and just enough strangeness to be really interesting.

I loved this book. Had it as an ARC from the publisher. It was one that I couldn't put down. Because it was so good I loaned it out. Which is actually a lie. I have so many books at home that I can't keep them after I read them. So I have a rule - once read - then out to some other loving hands. (unless it is really really good. Then I keep it.) I could sell these books but tend to just pass them around. Funny how eventually they don't make it back to me and that's OK. I hope somebody else enjoys them. Even the ones I didn't particularly like.

Manual of Detection is on my short list, so thanks for sharing. Am really enjoying Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting by Michael Perry and think it will be heartily recommended to others.

Has anyone read The School of Essential Ingredients?

I finished Gray Apocalypse by James Murdoch; which was a great read. Will post my review when I have more time. I am now reading Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo.

>191 DevourerOfBooks: I agree completely, reading anything by Sedaris is great, but listening to him read his own work is even richer.

Today I finished Gimpel the Fool: and Other Stories, a collection of short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Flowers of a Moment, a collection of brief zen poems by the Korean poet Ko Un. Next up: W, or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec, and C.L.R. James: Cricket's Philosopher King by Dave Renton.

>196 SomeGuyInVirginia:,
I actually don't like how David Sedaris translates to the written page, but I knew I loved him whenever he's on This American Life, so I decided to try listening to him read his stories, but it works MUCH better for me.

190: benitastrnad,

If you liked Trinity, I think some of the best fiction about Ireland was written by the late Thomas Flanagan. Year of the French, The Tenants of Time and End of the Hunt.

I am reading City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin. I read her two medieval titles about the Doctor of Death and enjoyed them. This takes place in Berlin in the early 1920's and is about the survival of children of Nicholas and Alexandria of Russia. So far it is good.

I just finished The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I'm happy to say I figured out who took the knight before it was revealed in the book. Enjoyed the book immensely especially all the chess bits.

Next up is Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley.

I was reading Priestess of the White and loving it, but all of a sudden there's almost 100 pages missing!! My book has a printing error... I emailed the publisher but so far nothing! What can I do? Any suggestions?

Meanwhile I started reading Pillars of the World by Anne Bishop its nice(not going to make the obvious comparisons with The Black Jewels Novels...) it has that darkness and rawness that we love in Ms Bishop's work.

>202 VivianeoftheLake: Crikey thats a shame about the Priestess of the White. I finished it the other day and really enjoyed it once i got my head round the multiple POV's. Apart from finding another copy of the book i'm not sure what else you do can do sorry :( i hope you get to read that missing section soon.

#184.. Rick Riordan is from Texas so he was in town doing a signing while all the games and such was going around. I had a chance to meet the Oracle, but instead of getting my prophecy or finding out which cabin I would be in, I asked for a picture instead.

#202 If you bought it new or second-hand through any reputable store you should be able to return it to your bookseller for an exchange. It would be a toughie indeed who claimed that a book which had half its pages missing was 'fit for the purpose for which it was sold'.

>183 Miranda_Paige:: Miranda_Paige--You asked about Firefly Lane. It's about two girls who become best friends in junior high. One of them, Tully, grows up abandoned by her mother, raised by her grandmother, and eventually lives with the other girl's family. They become inseparable and, driven by Tully's dream of becoming a nationally known news anchor, attend college together and begin careers in the news business. Kate is conflicted about her career while Tully has enormous ambition. Naturally, life and loves intervene and complicate things.

I'm at page 186 of 479 pages and it sure seems to me that something extremely exciting had better happen soon. But it's a pretty nice, light read that suits my mood and sparse reading time at the moment.

I just finished Bonfire of the Vanities and have just started The Associate. Gotta love Grisham!

This week I'm reading Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling which is Book 13 for me since I'm partaking in the 50 Book Challenge. Looking forward to finishing it soon and moving on to Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Book 14.

I am reading a book called Heartsinger which started out REALLY good but as it goes it's getting worse and worse. There are too many characters and the veiw point switches around a lot.

Thank you #204 and #206 for caring and for your suggestions :)

Smiley, (#199)

I read the Flanagan books many years ago and Tenants of Time is one of my all time favorites. I am reading Trinity because a cousin of mine told me that it and Freedom by William Safire were some of the best books she had every read. She died in 1993 and I have had those two books on my TBR pile for at least twenty years. I decided it was time to read them. I admit that I can't help thinking of my cousin every time I see that distinctive orange, white, and green cover on Trinity. That cover has to be one of the best designed covers ever. Which makes me wonder how much do we judge a book by its cover?

Finished "The Thirty-Nine Steps" by John Buchan and started "Daisy Miller", a novella by Henry James, both short reads, a respite after completing "Portrait of a Lady" and "Anna Karenina''.

I just finished The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters and have begun The Revolutions: A Novel by Hari Kunzru.

Finished Patterns of Force just now and will pick up The Testament next (at least I think that's the John Grisham that's on my table to be read next!).

Reading Sweetness at the Bottom of the pie by Alan Bradley.

Just started Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, and loving it.

Reading in Anna Karenina again, still loving it. Only have about 200 pages left, so I'm hoping to finish it soon. :) Also read a bit in Graven In De Nijldelta, but I'm putting that on hold next week, have some other books that I need to read.

Just finished my ER copy of Afraid by Jack Kilborn - Whoa - that was some book! Decided to re read -The Name of the Rose By Umberto Eco. Read it years ago and loved it.

>198 DevourerOfBooks:,

That's interesting. What don't you like about how it translates to the printed page? You're right, listening to him is, for me, much richer and more immediate. Let me know if it's not a bother.

I'm reading The Woman in White right now, I'm hoping to finish it soon. I like it but it's not as great as I was made to believe :(

I was planning on reading Women in White next. What do you think? May be I'll push it back to next month.

I preferred The Moonstone over Woman in White. Can't recall now exactly why, except it seems The Moonstone wasn't quite as melodramatic, which isn't saying much.

Any Wilkie Collins means you're in for a great read. I think The Moonstone is a bit simpler to follow but they're both great.

The Woman In White is still a book worth reading but I have had so many expectations about it that I am now a little disappointed. It's good but it's not awesome.
Hopefully The Moonstone will be better as I've read it is.

The Religion of Technology. Filling the gaps with Detective Stories from the Strand.