November 2009 Reads

I tried to find a thread covering this topic but couldn't find one...

In November I've read a lot of Czerneda, most recently the last part of her Stratification trilogy; Rift in the Sky, which left me unimpressed.

Now I'm reading Red Mars, which promises a total change of tone.

I was looking for this thread yesterday Busifer, I'm glad you started one.

I just finished The Birth House which was wonderful and am now enjoying Michael O'Halloran, which is all that MerryMary said it is, Victorian, sentimental and kind of endearing in a nostalgic sweet way.

Apparently we've not been reading much in November?

I know I haven't. I've only finished only a few books this month.
The Complete Maus and The Kelpie's Pearls are the two I finished most recently, but I haven't read many more than that. Three more at the most, I think.

well, I'm re-reading Game of Thrones - slowly. Because of NaNoWriMo. Reading should pick up now that I've hit 50K and can relax a bit.

So far this month I've read So Yesterday, Ichabod Hart and the Lighthouse Mystery, Hidden Warrior and Grandville. At the moment, I'm reading Oracle's Queen and Boneshaker.

I just finished altered carbon & started The Lord-Protector's Daughter. I'm going to re-read Changeling, too.

My touchstones aren't working. "Altered Carbon" worked & so did the LP's daughter, until I changed the "Changeling" to the Zelazny book. Then the LP's daughter quit, now Altered Carbon has quit. What's up with that? It just says loading & has for 5 minutes.

trading in danger shows up, though.

Oh! Oh! Oh! What did you think of Grandville, Will? (And what are you thinking of Boneshaker? I've read the former already, but the latter I'm still undecided about.)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Is it better in Swedish? 'Cause I'm not impressed with the style. It's about Gresham level, but slower paced. Perhaps it's the translation. I'm hoping the mystery pans out.

It also doesn't seem to touchstone for some reason.

#8 - Haven't read any of his books, the hype have been monumental and I tend to stay away from hype. I'm not much for mysteries/crime novels either, so... But people I know say it's a page-turner, so perhaps it's the translation.

I've read Traitor's knot which was the first book in the series that didn't quite work for me, and the continutation stormed fortress which was amazing.

Not quite sure what to read next. I think I need a change of genre. Maybe even some non-fiction.

So far I've only finished After the Ice: A Global Human History by Steven Mithen,
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston and The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy.

The month so far:

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Mainspring by Jay Lake
The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark
The Score by Richard Stark
City of Theives by David Benioff
How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It by John Wesley Rawles
Haiku by Andrew Vachss
Rumble Tumble by Joe R. Lansdale
Ariel by Steven R. Boyett

7 - I thought Grandville was great! It's a great bit of alternative history. I'm enjoying Boneshaker a lot, but that may or may not be because I'm still on a steampunk binge, and it's just what the doc ordered for that.

I'm finishing up Rising Tide by John Barry, just started Stardust by Neil Gaiman, still working on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (lapsed Halloween read), and have two anthologies I'm working on - The Norton Book of Science Fiction and Selected Writings of Ruben Dario.

#14 - I listened to Sleepy Hollow on my iPod a week or so ago. Forgot just how much I loved Irving's humor. :o) Stardust is wonderful. Hey, is that the same John Barry who wrote The Great Influenza?

Edited to add: Yup! It is.

Nice little story over at tor.com by Harry Turtledove. Baseball and Aliens!

So how did everyone like Boneshaker? I read the first chapter and it didn't really grab me so I set it aside.

Boneshaker grabbed me. It's my bus book, and I find myself considering going a couple of stops further.

I really enjoyed Boneshaker. Steampunk with zombies, how can I resist?

OK, so I've decided to start Wolf Hall for my (first) vacation read. I'll be AFK for a few days, so stay cool, all.

's Good to hear people think Boneshaker is a good read. Still undecided, but we'll see how things go. ^-^

I finished rereading Twilight of Avalon today, so now I'm all set to start reading Dark Moon of Avalon (and take notes, if I don't rush through it and forget to pay attention to where notes should go). ^-^

Yesterday saw me rereading The Seven Stars of Matariki with one of my students. They've all been busy with tests this week, so apart from going over the grammar they remembered getting wrong they didn't have anything new (and are afraid to get ahead of the rest of the class, for all I think it might do them some good). So we did reading comprehension. ^-^

I finished (finally!) The Divine Comedy. Inferno was the best part. :)

ETA: I just finished James and the Giant Peach too, which is headed for Charlie's bookshelves. What a wonderful little book!

I've finished Michael O'Halloran which was very enjoyable. I felt like I had a wonderful visit with my grandmother. But now I need something not quite so sweet, and since the movie is coming out soon, I'm going to start The Road tonight. What a shift, saccharine Victorian melodrama to postapocalyptic darkness. I do love reading.

I'm glad you liked Michael O'Halloran. I couldn't take a steady diet, but I do have warm memories of this one, and I was afraid no one nowadays would see it the way I do. I should have known you would see it with your heart.

I love stories like that too MerryMary, as you say, not as a steady diet, but every once in awhile for "auld lang syne". It reminded me very much of An Old Fashioned Girl, (always one of my favourite Alcott books) it carried a similar message didn't it?

You would think a hospital waiting room would be a great place to get a lot of reading done, but not when you are waiting in suspense of life/death or whole mind and body vs. not. Other stories have no importance then and your mind can't give the effort it takes to get into them, also, you only want to be where your loved one is, not somewhere else. At least, that's how I was affected. Anyway, after we had some of those answers, and it was just a matter of my son recovering, I was able to read Neverwhere and several mystery books by Margaret Frazer. Now that I'm home, I'm finding myself able to read a bit more, but still impatient with it. I'm trying to finish an ER book called Ostrich Feathers by Miriam Romm, which is about her search for the father she lost during the Holocaust. Part of my impatience is her style, which annoys me, but I feel an obligation to finish the book and review it, so best get it done now. After that I'm going to hop into Equal Rites and clear the brain a bit.

21 - I *love* that one! I think it's my favorite Dahl, and that's saying something!

8 - I thought Girl With Dragon Tattoo picked up later, so it may be worth giving it a little more time. I wound up really enjoying it, although it's very different from my regular read.

I am listening to 1066: Year of the Conquest, which I just realized I had marked for the 10-10-10 challenge, but I'm glad I didn't wait. I'm learning all kinds of stuff about pre-Norman England. Also reading Three Men in a Boat. Lots of fun.

Just finished Peter Pan, which will now find it's home on Charlie's bookshelf. Can't believe I'd never read this one before. Wonderfully written, of course.

I am stalled in the middle of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo also; put it down to read current book group read which is Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. I really like his descriptions of the 1950s era of small towns. I also have The Hunger Games waiting for me to return to it. And I picked up Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-sided which I am looking forward to reading.

I'm reading Equal Rites, and loving it, and the book I'm taking to work on the off chance I have time to read there is On My Own at 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie, by Sarah Louise Delany with the help of Amy Hill Hearth.

Just finished my re-read of Game of Thrones and am going to try to read The Anubis Gates next, if I can behave myself and not dive right in to re-reading Clash of Kings.

I feel like I haven't properly picked up a book for ages. However making myself pick something up so just started The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

Haven't stopped buying books though:)

Haven't stopped buying books though:)

Ah, the curse-blessing of any avid reader...

I've finished my reread of The Good Soldier today and a few days back I finished The Complete Fairytales by Charles Perrault (probably goes to the wrong book, but close enough).

Now I'm free to read what I want again! (Within reason. I could do with a reread of some of my coursebooks.)

Finished The London Eye Mystery and now reading The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard

Finished Thanksgiving by LT author Glenn Alan Cheney on the big day in between cooking and started Beloved by Toni Morrison.

I just finished The Road last night, stayed up 'til past midnight to finish it. Wow. What a story! What writing! That is one amazingly great book. I loved it.

I don't think I can start anything today, I just have to let that one sort of rest with me. I'll start something tomorrow.

Wow.

caves and cave life which was interesting if fairly tightly focused.

I'm still not sure what to read next ....

I thought I should get a lot of reading done while home recovering from surgery but it's amazing what pain can do to discourage reading :( What I did was find out I had to chose a reread, and then only read a short piece a time. Sigh. Not unsurprisingly I ended up rereading Lions of Al-Rassan, because despite being rather sad it makes me feel good. I also reread Regeneration, despite it only being some weeks since I first read it.
All the while I put in snippets of Red Mars, when my brain felt up to it. It's a 'heavy' book, for sure; demands a lot of thinking and the text never really captures me beyond 'this is interesting'.

Busifer: I sympathize with you - while pregnant, I suffered from constant nausea, and everything I read during that time I now have terrible memories of (whoa, bad grammar!). Even though I know in my brain that Neverwhere was a great book, I can't think of it without feeling ill...

Just finished A Game of Thrones. Great book! Although I want to jump into A Clash of Kings, but Under the Dome has been waiting patiently in the corner.

Busifer - I hope you're feeling better soon! I had the same idea when I was recovering from appendicitis a couple of years ago. All I wanted to do was sleep! Reading was too tiring - too many pages to turn!

I just started reading the graphic novel of Coraline. I *love* it! Really creepy!

Looks like November was a slowish reading month for me. I finished The Compass Rose by Le Guin, Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Capote. All short books. And I read through the Beatrix Potter set of books with my youngest.

Listened to Careless in Red by Elizabeth George and Anansi Boys. That last is much better than American Gods; had me jiggling with laughter. I was listening in bed, trying to hold my laughter in so's not to wake hubby up but I was shaking so hard quietly laughing I woke him up anyway. The idea was for me to be read to sleep but I ended up listening for several hours.

Now I'm reading Dragonhaven by McKinley and listening to Neverwhere.

#38/40 - Thanks, I'm feeling better already - back to work today!

I liked Coraline, but Anansi Boys was one of the select few works of fiction I just had to quit. It felt so unimaginative, I think I said *duh* to myself two times a page. I think I just have to face that I don't like Gaiman's writing.

Glad to hear you're feeling better, Busifer. Also glad to hear I'm not alone in not liking Gaiman's writing. I think I've only managed to meet people who love him or have never heard of him so far. That or it's not come up in conversation with them. ^-~

My final book act of November was to get started in Dark Moon of Avalon, but I'm still not 100 pages into it, so a December read it'll end up being.

... And I just realised I forgot to ask mum for her library card again. Oops.

Re Gaiman: I only like his books if I listen to him read them. His voice is amazingly expressive, well, at least orally. I don't think I've ever finished one of his books I tried to read.

I've gotten a little tired of the Tudors, 80% in, and last night I read the first few pages of Chronic City. I'll eventually finish Wolf Hall, but I think I need something more contemporary right now.

I didn't think I was a Gaiman fan either. The first couple of books left me feeling meh. But I just realized that the list of his books I enjoyed is mounting up: Stardust, The Graveyard Book and Anansi Boys. And come to think of it, of the ones I like, Stardust is the only one I didn't listen to. I tried reading Neverwhere last year and put it down after a couple of pages, but I'm quite enjoying it being read to me.

And Lenny Henry reading Anansi Boys was great.

This just counts as I started it yesterday - Forerunner's Foray by Andre Norton.

I decided I wanted to read about someplace warm 'cause reading The Road left me always feeling cold. Do other people find that? When you're reading about about characters suffering deprivation you start feeling hungry, or cold, or when they're having a wonderful meal you start craving what they're eating too? Anyways I was always cold while I was reading The Road, so now I'm reading about India in Letters from India by Lady Wilson. I'm sure that will leave me feeling toasty warm.

>44 littlegeek: I'm listening to The Graveyard Book now and he certainly is an amazing reader.

I finished On my Own at 107 and completely enjoyed it, which sounds funny, considering it is a book about a woman dealing with her grief after loosing her life long partnership with her sister.