What You're Reading the Week of 20 January 2007

Living Free Joy Adamson Sorry, I'm off on the road in a few minutes so this is another time-warped week. I've been reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke and struggling a bit with it. Partly because it's heavy (literally) and partly because after reading about a third I have no sense of where it's headed if anywhere. And it's a long time since I found a modern book that chuses (sic) to indulge itself in five-page footnotes. Still we'll carry on - though I'm not going to use my precious baggage allowance on it so it'll have to wait until I'm back next week.

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I really enjoyed Clarke's book, but I really like novels set in fantasy and the Victorian era so it was right up my street.
I'm currently reading Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White which is absolutely fantastic. Dubbed as Victorian sensation fiction, it brings the unease of the gothic down to the level of Victorian parlour rooms and is a page turning mystery novel. I can't put it down (well, except when annoying life stuff gets in the way!)

This past week I finished Half-Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer, which got better as I got further into it; Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay, which was a nice introduction to the subject for someone who knows next-to-nothing about art or art history; and Ninth Key by Meg Cabot, which was not as good as the first book in the Mediator series, but was still a good fluffy read during the commercials and overlong acceptance speeches of the Golden Globes.

I'm currently listening to The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, and just started reading Specials by Scott Westerfeld.

I'm reading Lanark by Alasdair Gray. It is brilliant. I haven't been so engaged in a novel for ages: i.e. I'm having to really think as I read and I can't anticipate where the story's going. Fabulous.

Also reading Ajax in the Loeb version and have noticed my (very very basic) Greek is getting better. This translation is much better than Loeb's Medea, which I'm also slogging through.

I just finished Helen of Troy by Margaret George last night. It's a fantastic book and was worth staying up late to finish it. I just started When Madeline was Young by Jane Hamilton this morning; I'm only a few pages into it but it looks like a great book.

I enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in the end, but it did take forever to really get going. It took me about two weeks to get through, and books never take me that long.

I'm a little ways into The Sandman Papers, ed. by Joe Sanders for my non-fiction selection, and I'm about to start The Stud by Jackie Collins for fiction. I figured it was time for something quick, fun and trashy.

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult. I'm enjoying it but I'm finding it slow going as I can't seem to read it for more than an hour at a time (and I'm sure the new World of WarCraft Expansion is only partly to blame...)

Wishing Season by Esther Friesner. reading this aloud to my family - fun light-hearted kids' fantasy which I would never have heard of without LT :)

I am still reading I am Charlotte Simmons -- it's hilarious! I am really liking it.

I liked Jonathan Strange . . but I did not like the footnotes -- to me it was distracting and detracted from the flow of the novel. I typically love long books, but I actually think this book could have used some editing -- if only to let the really great parts shine through more.

I have The woman in White and Helen of Troy on my TBR list.

#8 that is my favorite Picoult book. I have since grown weary of her rather contrived novels.

Recently finished:
Mildred Pierce
The Little Locksmith

Now reading:
The Great Bridge
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (audiobook)
Small Gods

In the last 24 hours, I read the 3rd and 4th book in the Dead Witch series by Kim Harrison, The Good, the Bad and the Undead and A Fistful of Charms. Yummy and fun.

Up next is The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes to hopefully get my writing going and Under Sea, Over Stone plus The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper for LT's Green Dragon group. I actually started Under Sea, Over Stone a couple days ago but couldn't get in the grove. Hopefully after zipping through a couple of entertainment novels, I can get back into them.

After those I'll probably tackle Flowers for Algernon or The Hours by Michael Cunningham. I also have The Druids by Stuart Piggott and By the Shores of Silver Lake waiting for me at the library.

#s 1, 7, & 9 ~ I really enjoyed Jonathan Strange, even including the footnotes, which I found fun and not at all distracting. In fact, I thought they made the book read much more like a "true" history of magic than it would have without. Her writing style also appealed to me, but I do admit that it took me awhile to get into it ~ maybe 1/4 of the way through it. After that I was hooked, and read it obsessively from then on, and didn't want it to end. Having said all that, I also have to admit that I listened to it on audiobook, though I intend to read it in book form sometime in 2007 ~ I liked it that much!

I've finished reading the book Charlotte's Web by E. B. White on January 14, 2007. Now I'm reading a new one.

As of 0000H GMT of January 20, 2007 , I have so far completed 32% of the book Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham . It's currently a movie that I expect to get an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay this January 23 .

.

Was diverted this week into reading The silver donkey by Sonya Hartnett, a truly charming book in every way. Delicious hardback format, beautiful paper, quirky illustrations. All of which make for a small, tactile book begging to be read. The story is comparatively short and focuses on a blind soldier on the run, who is befriended by two little French girls. They provide him with food and clothing and in return he tells them stories. This book has the potential to become a children's classic but I do hope children come to it willingly and are not forced to read it by pushy adults. For me, this proves again Sonya Hartnett is a gifted writer.

Am now reading a book that was sitting in the car and which I grabbed in a hurry as I ran for the train. The world according to Garp by John Irving was not on my immediate reading agenda but due to an immensely long journey brought about by the bad weather, I found myself galloping through the first 200 pages or so and therefore, somewhat surprisingly, suppose I must be enjoying it. Might as well carry on with it....

In between times, am browsing and basking in David Hockney Portraits. Quite simply, an absorbing, fascinating and beautiful book which will be moved around the house to look at as and when.

Finished The Echo Maker by Richard Powers - a good read, well-paced. Now reading Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth Inness-Brown - a lovely tale about a boy and his guardian.

I finished The master of Petersburg by J.M. Coetzee and found the book very well written. Coetzee writes so well, yet it took me almost two weeks to finish this book. An interesting story describing an interesting time. I could literally only read about 20 pages at a time.

I am now reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh and am finding the writing a little disconcerting - the way the words are written as Scottish lexicon - but I am already used to it - I work in a methadone clinic as a drug counselor so I am looking forward to reading this book :)

-->16 keren7:

I am now reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh and am finding the writing a little disconcerting -

Don't despair!

Use this glossary which Chuck Palahniuk has on his web site. Just print it out as a reference.

I did just that and found that, after a few chapters, the vocabulary was more of an asset than a hindrance in enjoying this book. It's a very gross book, but I must say I'll be looking forward to reading more books by this author.

--> 4

I'm currently listening to The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides,


Me, too!

As a matter of fact, the book started out so good on audio, I just ran inside and kept reading the hard copy. This book is fun and a breeze to read. Aren't you just entranced by all the quirky characters?

I forgive Eugenides for his long, drawn-out Middlesex with the fun and breeziness of The Virgin Suicides.

Well, back to my book...

#16 - I read Trainspotting a few years ago as part of a book club, and most of the participants got too bogged down by the dialect. I thought it was interesting, but it did make for slower going at first. Once I got into it, though, I found myself thinking in Scottish. It was much easier after that; almost like hearing someone read it to me.

I finished The Stud last night; I normally like Jackie Collins, (who I'd classify as fun rather than good), but that was utter garbage. Now I've just started Road of the Patriarch by R.A. Salvatore.

I finished The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 this morning. There were some excellent pieces in here, particularly articles about New Orleans, a jihadist, and Dubai, and a short story by Haruki Murakami, and some I just found odd. I surprised myself by actually reading the Iraqi Constitution (I thought I was going to skip it over, but skimmed the beginning and got absorbed). For me, the most surprising find was a piece by Kurt Vonnegut--an essay/speech on writing fiction that I'd heard him make while I was in college, at least 20 years ago! One quibble I have with this book--there is no introduction to any of the pieces, and since it is a mix of fiction and non-, it was sometimes hard to know at the beginning what I was reading.

I am now starting The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai.

Just started reading Isle of Dogs by Patricia Cornwell.

I just finished The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erikson which was pretty good.
Now reading Turning Angel by Greg Iles and listening to The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates and started the short stories in I feel bad about my neck by Nora Ephron

I've finished Atwood's Moral Disorder and have started The Pesthouse by Jim Crace, another post-apocalyptic story after the United States has been devastated by something...or somethings...

I finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man a couple of days ago. The first part just breezed by with his descriptions of boarding school and family political arguments, but I got a bit bogged down after that. Not the sort of book you can pick up for 5 minutes before bed, but I'd like to give it another go when I have longer to devote to it.

I'm now reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (touchstone not loading) by Italo Calvino, which is completely fascinating. 10 first chapters of novels, interlinked by a story of two readers trying to find the rest of a book they started reading at the beginning of the novel, and found had been misprinted. The trouble is that with each new "first chapter" that you read, you want that story to continue on!

I finished The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. As I mentioned in last week's thread when I started it, I was skeptical because I'd been disappoint in Messud's earlier The Last Life and because I'm leery of 9/11 novels. Someone asked me to report back when I finished, so here goes.

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT

As others have said, the book starts slowly, but I found it quick reading as I went along and was eager to find out what happened. Messud develops an intricate plot well. But her characters left me cold: despite the fact that they spend inordinate amounts of time revealing their thoughts, I didn't get a good sense of who each of them is, or why they do a lot of the things they do and thus I didn't end up caring much about any of them. Many of them seem like symbols rather than individuals.

In fact, I grew tired of their endless musings about their lives, and very little was surprising or unexpected. Of course an affair with your best friend's father is going to end badly. Of course a live-in relationship with a guy who's controlling and possessive is going to end badly. If part of Messud's point was that they were all pretty self-absorbed, it comes through loud and clear. The only somewhat interesting, though definitely creepy, character is the weird cousin from upstate NY.

As for 9/11, it comes very close to the end, and seems like a plot device to bring the book to its conclusion. Since I live in NYC, I may react differently from people who weren't here for 9/11.

I'm currently reading 'Darwinian Fairytales' and 'The Last Three Minutes' by Paul Davies.

I'm rereading Sunshine by Robin McKinley and reading Earth by David Brin

Just finshed The Moons of Mirrodin by Will McDermott and will be starting the next book in that trilogy The Darksteel Eye by Jess Lebow. Don't know if I will finish it this week, due to illness, which took a lot of my time from reading last week. But hey things change.

I am finishing up Inkspell and then I will be moving on to Paint Your Dragon.

Reading this week includes: Don Quixote by Cervantes, Moby Dick by Melville, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin, Lost Horizon by James Hilton, Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning, Purity in Death by J.D. Robb, and The Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford.

Recently completed Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life by Steve Leveen, An Open Book by Michael Dirda, A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler, and Reunion in Death by J.D. Robb.

Just started The Glass Castle yesterday

#31 gypsiewriter
I'll be interested to know what you make oThe Glass Castle as I ended up reading this recently, thinking one of my reading groups were imminently about to 'do' this book.
Then I was informed they had changed their mind...

Am finding Middlesex very slow going so have started Promise Me the latest Myron Bolitar novel to relieve the boredom.

Reading non-fiction at present - The Tribes of Britain by David Miles.

Presently reading "An Innocent Man", John Grisham's newest book.

I'm currently reading It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, and am greatly enjoying it. I find it interesting that, since it was written seventy years ago, the author does things which were perfectly acceptable at the time but which are now regarded as beginners' mistakes in writing. He starts the book long before the main action starts, and often takes a break from the story to go into long monologues about the characters' family histories. It makes me wonder - what do writers do in modern times that, in seventy years, will be thought of as beginners' mistakes?

I'm also reading Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships by Temple Grandin and Sean Barron, but that's slower going, since I can't generally read large chunks of nonfiction at once.

Killeymoon, Calvino's if on a winter's night a traveler is one of my favorite books, even have a 1981 US 1st ed. of it that's a highly prized item.

I just ran through Robert Graves' WWI memoir Goodbye To All That and really couldn't believe how good it was. And even though this edition was the one Graves had extensively edited and polished to within an inch of its life over the 30 years after its initial publication in 1929, there was still such an immediacy to it all that I found quite surprising and extremely gripping all the way through. Graves published well over 100 books in his lifetime, but only this one memoir at the age of 31, the success of which allowed him to leave England (goodbye to all that, indeed), and move permanently to Majorca where he lived and wrote for many years.

I sort of liked The Dead Fish Museum, the highly praised Charles D'Ambrosio story collection, but was mildly disappointed with it in the end. Sometimes stories just 'work' for you, and sometimes they don't, and though I passably enjoyed them on the whole, I was never overly impressed with any single one of them, and a bit of a let-down really.

Right now I'm a hundred pages into Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel The Painted Veil and really enjoying it so far.

About 100 pages into A Walk In the Woods by Bill Bryson. Pretty amusing so far.

Have added another warmly recommended title to the list for this and the next few weeks.

Am currently eating Leith's Vegetarian Bible - and very tasty it is too.

alcottacre - what did you think of The Little Guide to your Well-Read Life? I've come perilously close to buying this before.

LouisBranning - if on a winter's night a traveler is turning out to be a real highlight of my recent reading. Do you have any recommendations for other Calvino novels to read?

I'm not alcottacre; however, I really enjoyed The Little Guide to your Well-Read Life. I can see how some people might call some of it common sense and if you are one that like to keep your books pristine, you may not care for it. But I got a lot out of it.

I'm reading She's No Faerie Princess by Christine Warren.

About half way through The terror by Dan Simmons ... still pretty good, but a couple of glaring spots where an editor could have come in handy.

Finished Promise Me and started Mr. White's Confession which is a re-read for me, but one I love. Great characters from the ambiguous Mr. White to the thoroughly revolting Welshinger.

I finished It Can't Happen Here, which I liked, and am now reading Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. It's moving very slowly so far; I'm hoping the pace is going to pick up a bit.

I finished I am Charlotte Simmons -- I loved it! Such a spot on depiction of the debauchery and humiliation that goes along with "trying to belong" at an elitist university. And I think if you peel away all the foul language and sex -- he actually has some interesting ideas. I need to give Bonfire of the Vanities a try - because I really admired his writing.

Anyway, staying with a collegiate setting I think I will begin Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Having started classes again I'm now in the middle of Red, White, and Black by Gary Nash and Changes in the Land by William Cronon. Also reading Thinking with Objects: The Transformation of Mechanics in the Seventeenth Century by Domenico Bertoloni Meli, Islands by Dan Sleigh (before bed) and Giotto's Hand by Iain Pears (on the T).

Some of those touchstones appear to be twitchy, so my apologies for that.

Slowly trudging away with Raymond Carver's short story collection Where I'm Calling from: Selected Stories. I finished reading the story "Fever" and almost shed tears. What a heartbreaking story!

I'm almost done reading "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai. It's good - very happy and very sad all at the same time. There are some passages that just make me glad to be alive and able to enjoy the beauty that is here, especially because I don't always see it!

I’ve been reading William Trevor The Collected Stories, a 1,261 page behemoth. The danger in reading Trevor’s works in a successive manner like this is that it can be overwhelming at times given his preoccupation with failure and his ability to peel layer by layer, the unhappiness of his character’s lives. Sometimes I just want to yell STOP! And the two stories I recently finished, Miss Smith and The Hotel of the Idle Moon, are two of the most disturbing stories I’ve ever read. But the precision with which Trevor writes keeps me moving from story to story. It’s like eating jelly beans, I know I should stop, but they’re oh so good.

#31 gypsiewriter
I also just started The Glass Castle Saturday. It got my attention quickly even though I wasn't in a reading mood when I picked it up (middle of the night, not-quite-sleeping baby on my lap, what else could I do)

I finished Mort this past week. I'm little confused by my reaction because I love Terry Pratchett and this book had wonderful characters, lots of good lines, and lot of charm and humor... but it was somehow unsatisfying. Maybe it was my mood.

Then I read Your Two-Year-Old, a Gesell Institute parenting book.

I finished Inheritance of Loss tonight. It was beautifully written. The countryside was as much a character as the people. It also had a much broader scope than I expected.

Now I'm going to start An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, another LT-inspired read.

I've just started The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I finished Rincewind the Wizzard and am starting Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home by Harry Kemelman, Slavic Traditions the Story of Great Music, Fox Trot: the Works and am still reading a biography of Harriet Shaw Weaver.

Just started In the Shadow of the Ark by Anne Provoost.

Message 34: Hazelk ~ The Tribes of Britain sounds really interesting, but I see it has mixed reviews on both LT and amazon.com. When you finish it, I'd love to know what you thought of it.

#45 Zcannon ~ I really enjoyed Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, but I've seen a lot of posts to the effect that it's boring and/or too slow. I'm not sure if it made a difference, but I actually listened to it on audio.

#53 Xicanti ~ I really enjoyed Remains of the Day. I think I said this somewhere on LT before, but while I was reading it I wasn't quite sure if I liked it; it was only after I finished that I realized how wonderful in an understated way it was. I read it early last year and am still thinking about it.

As for me, today for the commute I started reading It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas, one of the "Wallflower" romances, and tonight my bedtime reading will be The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman.

I finished Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, and now am continuing onto 'Tis and enjoying it very much.

I just finished When Madeline was Young by Jane Hamilton and started In Cold Blood by Truman Capote last night.

I finished Before Women had Wings and last night I started Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey. I decided a non-fiction read was long overdue!

In this book, the author uses the diaries of women from the mid-1800s to determine whether their experience making the overland journey, and their perspective, differed from that of their male companions. Interesting so far ...

I am reaching the end of The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb, the second book of the liveship traders trilogy. I've not read this one in some years - the last time being a Library Book that I've not had access to, and I had forgotten quite how delightful it is.

The entire cast seem to have grown during the course of this book, adapted to circumstances and developed in the most wonderful ways .. I'm still finding myself most drawn to Amber and Kennet, but even Malta is something more than she was. I only hope the third book continues this well!

Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil is one of the greatest books I've read in a while and I was repeatedly amazed that a novel from 1925 could carry such a contemporary jolt and feel so timely, touching on a number of issues that are perhaps even more relevant today than they were back then. It's the story of the beautiful and amoral Kitty Fane, whose husband learns of an adulterous affair she's had, and then forces her to accompany him right into the heart of a raging cholera epidemic. What becomes of Kitty and her husband, particularly the emotional and spiritual metamorphosis that she goes through as a result, is the crux of this singularly engrossing and unforgettable book. I'm almost ashamed to admit that it's been nearly 30 years since I've read anything by Maughan, but I think The Painted Veil manages to make up for a lot of that lost time, and it's highly recommended to all.

I've finished The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. It is a very good story set in a future, devastated America but somehow I was just the tiniest bit disappointed in it. This was an ARC with a letter from the publisher calling it dystopian and mentioning The Handmaid's Tale, all in one breath. So, I expected it to be dystopian in a way that would comment on today, you know? It doesn't. There is no agenda. Still, his story is very good and his setting vivid.

I've now taken up Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster.

Started Robert Stone's Prime Green and am trying to decide what else to start.

#56storeetllr:- won't forget to report back on The Tribes of Britain. Only up to the chapter on the Vikings so far. I like the archaeological slant on the subject. (P.S. I think one or two reviewers of the book on the amazon site have a certain axe to grind re immigration!).

Hmm, I'm going to check out the reviews on amazon.com to see what you mean.

It does sound really interesting ~ I think I'll see if I can borrow The Tribes of Britain from the library. Thanks for the input, and I look forward to hearing more when you've finished it.

I just found How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa. It was lost in the jungle of my living room. I started reading it with my son last year...anyway, I'm going to try to finish it, or at least get to the part where he does find Livingstone. Even making allowances for the times, culture and attitudes that it was written in, I find it very offensive. It does give one an idea of the difficulties involved in finding Livingstone, and the differences in the two men is something to think about, having read some of Livingstone and his contemporaries works. Worlds apart were Stanley and Livingstone, not just a continent.

I'm basically done with The German Giants and The Bloody Crucible of Courage. Now I'm working on "Hell in Hurtgen Forest" by Robert S. Rush.

#66 MrsLee
I don't know the book you are refering to but I recently re-read Margaret Forster's, Good Wives? Mary, Fanny, Jennie and me which contains four short biographies. The first one relates to Mary Livingstone and provides a different slant on David.
I warmly recommend this book to you. Margaret Forster is an excellent writer and wish I could put it in to your hands right now.

I am listening to Jane Eyre while in the car, and reading The Only Girl In The Car while at home. Enjoying both!

Haruki Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is to hand where ever I go right now and I'm loving it. I bought "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" second hand for $1 before Christmas and picked up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles with a gift cert. for Barnes and Noble. I'm also reading Thomas Pynchon's new book "Against the Day" which I leave at home not wanting to wear the Wheelbarrow out.

#68 Thanks lizzier, I'll keep a weather eye out for it. Mr. Stanley is pretty good at describing the land, animals and sicknesses, but I can't take his view on the people. Colonialism at its worst. Not even a hint of trying to find anything good or interesting in the cultures there, not even admitting there are cultures there. That and toilet paper make me glad I was born when I was and not before.

killeymoon - someone quite similar to Calvino is Andrew Crumey - music, in a foreign language and mobius dick are really intelligent and entertaining novels

Just finished The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, which was set in WWII-era Lagos and was unrelentingly grim about marriage and motherhood, as well as The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (only slightly less dismal on those topics).

Now I am just beginning two lavishly well-received books: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

#56, Storeetllr - I really enjoyed it too. It worked on a few different levels, but I particularly liked what it said about memory.

Now I've started Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I read it a couple of times when I was in junior high, more than ten years ago, and thought I'd reread it now. I'm still not sure whether or not I'm enjoying it.

I'm reading Dust to Dust by Tami Hoag and am getting close to finishing it.

Just minutes ago finished Unless by Carol Shields which was OK. Plodding at times while you think through her imagery or look up some obscure word or phrase that she uses. I'll need to read it a second time without all the distracting influences. I'm sure itll make better 'sense' to me then. I just feel I missed a lot of subtle parts of the book because I was trying to get to the end of it. As I'm sure almost every LT'er does, I have a large to-be-read pile, but I also have a stack of to-be-read-again's that is getting pretty big. Sometimes I can't stop and think about what the book is saying or evaluate what I'm reading and I just splash my way through like a horse fording a deep river, frantically splashing and frothing in the current, hoping I get to the other side. Sometimes I miss a lot of important content or subtle detail that is critical to the story. Those books deserve and in my head demand to be read again later, hopefully before my first reading has left my head entirely. Unless is on my to be read again pile.
Now I think I must go back and dig into all those old wwII novels that I've been meaning to get back to. I got distracted by some Christmas gift books bloodletting and miraculous cures and The Memory Keepers Daughter and a Timothy Findley novel called Spadework I also read somewhere in that group Diane Setterfield's Thirteenth Tale which didn't move me as it did other LT'ers. It was my first totally LT purchased book, in that I bought it only because people on this list recommended it. And I struck out and didn't feel it lived up to the hype. Live and learn. I still keep notes when a book is highly recommended by several people in each of the groups I belong to. Usually, you would expect it to be a good one. I know when I see others raving about something I have read and loved I think "good, now I can rely on the judgement of the list because they love the same kinds of books that I love. Sometimes that just doesn't work.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan was the National Book Award Non-Fiction winner in the fall. I picked it up on Monday and finished it this evening. It describes the ravages of the American dust bowl, approximately 1930-1938. Reading it has increased my understanding of a time that family lived through.

--> 18

I forgive Eugenides for his long, drawn-out Middlesex with the fun and breeziness of The Virgin Suicides.

I read both and preferred Middlesex, which I found entrancing. I got to the end of The Virgin Suicides and still couldn't figure out the point of the girls' suicide.

I'm reading The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis and am eager to finish it as I'm finding the story boring and unbelievable. I have The Borgia Bride in my TBR pile and only wish it is much better! :-s

>78 Virgulina: I got to the end of The Virgin Suicides and still couldn't figure out the point of the girls' suicide.

I guess I took that to be Eugenides's point: that suicide is ultimately a selfish act that no one on the outside can ever really understand.

Just started Down by the river by Monte Schulz ...

Recently finished:

Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Currently reading:

By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz
Tinker by Wen Spencer

I finished Rob Sheffield's Love is a Mix Tape: Love and Loss, One Song at a Time the other day and absolutely loved it. Rob's a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and has been an esteemed rock/pop culture critic for the last 15 years. His book tells how he grew to become an extreme 80s and 90s rock music geek, and how this obsession finally led him to meet his wife Renee, "a hell-raising Appalachian punk rock girl, who was way too cool for him, but fell in love with him anyway". With their mix tapes flowing and the music a constant barometer in their lives, Rob and Renee are married happily for 5 years, but Renee dies suddenly of a pulmonary embolism, and Rob then struggles to cope as he's thrust into an ugly, unwanted widowhood. And yes, it's a bit of a sad story, though never a maudlin one, and it's often very funny too, but in the end it becomes oddly but very engagingly uplifting in several rather unexpected ways, making Love is a Mix Tape a sure-fire winner.

Just finished:
The Taking by Dean Koontz (gave it a 7 out of 10)

Just started:
The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg

Listening to:
The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer

I am now reading The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot and enjoying it ever so much more than I enjoyed Silas Marner. This may be because I was 14 when I read the latter, but still, definitely positive!

Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories by Algernon Blackwood. It was a Christmas present from my wife. So far I'm really enjoying it - "The Willows" was very nice.

Finished:
Turning Angel by Greg Iles
I feel bad about my neck by Nora Ephron
The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook
and listened to:
The falls by Joyce carol Oates

working on:
Shadow man by Cody McFadon
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
and listening to:
A breath of snow and ashes by Diana Gabaldon in the car and
Jane Eyre by Bronte while working out!

I finished Trainspotting - very good book and after the first few pages it was an easy read - very sad at times

I am now reading The shipping news and so far I am enjoying it.

Began listening to 1776 in the car today ... and reading Water for Elephants while hoping it doesn't snow too much tonight ...

Just finished The Birth of Venus; they say it's a mystery, but I'd classify it as a historical since the murders are simply vague events in the background.

Currently reading A season for the dead which I'm lukewarm about.

ditto for The Emperor's Children...I thought the characters whined quite a bit and the 911 part at the end really didn't add to the book.

I just bought The Worst Hard Time..hope start it this weekend. I have got to finish Broken by William Cope Moyers first...and am liking his story very much. Not the humor of Dry but has a place for those who are battling the effects of addiction. The disease crosses all lines.

bettyjo, I personally know of 5 people who've read The Emperor's Children and not a one of them liked it, or would recommend it to anyone else, so I'm pleased to have avoided it so far.

Louis...I just thought that i was not literary enough...ha..BJ

I just finished Prime Green by Robert Stone, which I enjoyed, both for its picture of the 60s and for its insights into the writer and his fiction.

Back to The Emperor's Children, I'm glad to know that others agree with me; I was a little concerned that my starting prejudices colored my reading. (I read it because a friend lent it to me.) On the other hand, a friend was just telling me a story about someone who's about to turn 30 and is obsessing about not knowing what she's doing with her life/not being married, so maybe Messud did capture something about 30-something life in NYC today . . . even so, she certainly overdid it.

#90. I don't know why anyone would call The Birth of Venus a mystery; I have never seen it promoted that way. I hope they (whoever they are) did not set up expectations so that you did not enjoy the book. I very much enjoyed both Birth and her newer one (has Courtesan in the title...), I read it on the way to Venice!

I'm reading Claire Tomalin's new biography of Thomas Hardy.

And there's a great article called God's Undertaker: How Thomas Hardy Became Everyone's Favorite Misanthrope written by Adam Kirsch in the 2007-01-15 edition of The New Yorker.

LouisBranning, what odd timing. I'd just noticed Love Is a Mix Tape in my Amazon recommendations and added it to my wish list, then popped on to LT and read your post about it. If I ever finish JR by William Gaddis, I'll have to try that one.

Hey Sean, I got the Hardy biography from Amazon yesterday and can't wait to get to it.

Editrixie, I thought Love is a Mix Tape was terrific and have been recommending it to everyone, and good luck with JR too.

Louis, I'm about forty pages into Hardy's biography and enjoying it immensely so far.

Sean & Louis, I, too, have the Hardy bio...it's in the pile; I'll look forward to hearing what you have to say about it.

I"m reading the Virgin Suicides, too. I just loved Middlesex so when I found out Mr. Eugenides had written another one, I grabbed it! I saw the movie, but books are almost always better.

Funny, I enjoyed Silas Marner much more. I too read it when I was 14, but re-read it when I was 30. I did absolutely love the dialogue in Mill on the Floss but the Silas Marner story was much more intriguing.

#103. I'm listening to Middlesex on audio at the moment, and very much enjoying it. I had always intended to read the novel but as I was working in the bookstore at the time, new books were always coming in to push the "older" books back in the pile.

I finished The Virgin Suicides last night. I thoroughly enjoyed that book and was impressed with how skillfullly Eugenides crafted his sentences to tell the story of the five sisters. I'm glad I decided to give another try to this author. The last line was so touching that I had to write it down.

Today I began Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. I'm not sure if I'll finish listening to it or not. It's a CD I Borrowed from the library. I need to get a little more into it to decide. Any thoughts on this book?

I've been reading Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds, the fourth novel set in his "Revelation Space" universe. All of the books so far are very imaginative and original, and I would highly recommend them for any sci-fi reader who hasn't discovered them yet.

squeakychu: I liked The Virgin Suicides very much and was pleased that the ending left questions unanswered. I blamed the parents.

I must be the only person who didn't like The Virgin Suicides. I read it because it was highly recommended, but I found that the way it was written was just too distancing. I just didn't care that much about any of the characters.

--> 109

That's okay, _Zoe_, because I think I'm the only one who didn't like Middlesex. It took that book took way to long to reach the story of its main character. By the time I got to Cal's story, I was worn out!

but I found that the way it (The Virgin Suicides) was written was just too distancing.

I thought that the distancing was effective for that particular story. It didn't give too many clues as to what really happened which was important as we were experiencing this story through the eyes (and hearts) of neighborhood boys. Those boys were just as astounded as we readers by what they saw happening. Often, those who are left behind in suicides really don't know exactly what inner turmoil of individual victims drove them over the edge.

By the way, I have a copy of both The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex traveling the world on a bookray. If anyone else is interested in reading either of them, joining this bookray, and then posting your opinion of them, please send me a PM (private message) through Bookcrossing.

--> That's okay, _Zoe_, because I think I'm the only one who didn't like Middlesex.

Nope, you aren't the only one. I didn't dislike it, though, so much as I was disappointed by it. I thought he gave short shrift to what was supposedly his protagonist, and I was sorry to see that he didn't touch on the hermaphroditism much. Plus, the stuff about his grandparents just creeped me out. I loved The Virgin Suicides, though, and I'm always impressed when an author pulls off a complicated point of view, like the collective narrator in this book, and the second person in Bright Lights, Big City.

--> 110

I understand why it was written in that way and I can see that the distancing should have been effective, but it just didn't work for me. Maybe I'll try it again eventually and see if I like it more.

How funny - I've recently read both TVS & Middlesex and found them to be frustrating and disappointing respectively. TVS was frustrating because I didn't believe the narrators would be that romantic about a bunch of strange girls at that age and there was no explanation of the suicides. Middlesex was disappointing because it took forever to get to Cal's story and what came before was not relevant in its entirety. We didn't need to know every last painful detail of her family's history. Bah. I felt like I was sold one novel and received another.

But both were well written and I felt the characters were unique and somewhat believable and so not a waste of time and I'm not sad that I read them.

Well, I'm only on the 2nd CD of 14 of Middlesex, but I'll let you know.

Am I the only one who found Cal's grandparents fascinating? Smyrna was the most striking part of Middlesex for me. (I loved the rest of the book too.)

I found Middlesex disappointing.

>115 dchaikin:

I liked the family history part of the story just fine, although I went into it expecting the book to focus entirely on Cal, so to find out that it was only 1/3 about Cal was disappointing.

Had I gone in with no (or different) expectations, my perceptions of the various parts would probably have been a lot different.

Wondered what you thought of the Provoost book? (andy info helpful, I just purchase it and trying to decide where to palce it on my TBR list...
in reference to this post

sagespot
Just started In the Shadow of the Ark by Anne Provoost.