What You're Reading the Week of 17 Feb 2007

The Babes in the Wood Ruth RendellBarbara Vine I finished Chart Throb, Ben Elton's latest, this is the American Idol story told with full British cynicism; there's something about Elton's style that I'm not quite easy with (maybe just jealousy) but still a good page turner. Then Carl Hiaasen's Native Tongue, great humorous writing, not his best but enjoyable enough. Now I'm more than halfway through Brokeback Mountain, though still two more Wyoming stories to go before I get to that one. Annie Proulx writes about a very gritty west, no heros here, not yet at least.

I'm just about to start Scattered Suns by Kevin Anderson

Last week I read Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak (light and not his best but gorgeous writing), The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket (I wish I had the patience to go back through the rest of the books looking for clues), The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (thought this was great - it's rare that books make me teary), and finished a very slow re-read of The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan. I also listened to The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (passable and entertaining enough, but not fantastic).

Currently, I'm reading The Mislaid Magician by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, and listening to Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. Oh, and started a slow re-read of The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan.

I finished two books this week: A Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve and Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Both are good but sad tales. I have four books waiting for me at the library that I'll be picking up tomorrow:

Nicholas Sparks - The Rescue and At First Sight
Peter Quinn - Banished Children of Eve
Martin Davies - The Conjurer's Bird

I'll probaby read the Quinn or Davies book first - it'll either be a coin flip or a book cover that makes up my mind!

(Sorry, the touchstones are not cooperating tonight!).

Have a great week!

I finished Troubles by J.G. Farrell, which was well written, funny and sad. I thought the metaphoric use of the hotel setting was particularly well done. I have always found the time and place fascinating--my grandmother started life as a gun runner in the Irish War of Independence (her mother hid them under her in her baby carriage).

I was going to start The Siege of Krishnapur, also by Farrell, tonight, but got absorbed in reading threads on librarything instead. Oh, well--there's always tomorrow.

I'll finish Hominids by Robert Jordan tomorrow and begin the second book in the trilogy, Humans. I have also started Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

#5 cabegley- It's easy to lost in LT threads.

I'm just a little ways into Beloved by Toni Morrison for fiction, with Pulp Art by Robert Lesser for nonfiction.

Little Children by Tom Perrotta. Great story so far.

In an act of defiance towards my financial advisors, I went for a three for two in Waterstone's. Just finished What was she thinking: Notes on a scandal by Zoe Heller in the early watches of this morning and am now looking forward to moving on to The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.
The Zoe Heller was ok but I'm still on a mental high from Cloud Atlas last weekend, which has carried me through a difficult week and pushed other books into the 'also ran' class.
Also zapping through Night Rise by Anthony Horowitz in proof copy, for work purposes.

After finishing Anne Holt's Das achte Gebot last night (which was one of the most depressing books I've read in a while) I started reading Das letzte Mahl this morning. I really love her style of writing, and although her books are rather dark, they seem to fit my current mood.
I'm also halfway through Sharon Bowers' Lucifer Rising which is a good and involving lesbian romance/mystery.

As I work in a primary school and it was the mid term holiday, I have spent a lot of time reading this week. I read The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil by Christopher Brookmyre, enjoyed them all, all very different. Have a few lined up, I am half way through On Beauty byZadie Smith, I stopped reading that to read the others. Also just started The Two of Us by Sheila Hancock and bought The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak but my daughter grabbed that first. Roll on Easter!

I just finished Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, the sequel to Darkly Dreaming Dexter. It was good, not as chilling as the first, but still as morbid.

Right now I'm reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, which is really good. It's witty and although some parts are sad, it's not depressing. Best of all, it makes me want to travel and do the same things she did.

I'm reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I'm about 50 pages from the end now and am surprised that it's not as good as I had hoped. I normally really enjoy books about India, and Indian authors. I don't have a lot of background on the political situation that drives the plot, and am only just now beginning to identify with or care about the characters.

This book took a long time to get to the top of my TBR pile and I was looking forward to it. Seems to have mixed reviews from LTers as well.

I have finished reading Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson last Feb.11 , 2007.

I'm not reading anything right now because I am still waiting for the arrival of Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden which I ordered from Amazon. The movie version is going to be shown here on Feb. 21 and I have to read it quick .

I'm in the middle of Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson, but I've put that aside for a while. Right now I'm rereading Spindle's End by Robin McKinley. I picked it up because I couldn't decide what I wanted to read, and it was unsatisfying at first (because I didn't really feel like reading it, not because it is an unsatisfying book) but I've gotten into it again and am enjoying it as always.

It's been a bad couple of weeks for reading, but I've been making progress over the past day or two on Madison Smart Bell's biography of Toussaint Louverture and have been dipping into an anthology entitled Literature from the 'Axis of Evil' edited by the Words without Borders folks. Hope to get more back in the swing of things this week.

None of my touchstones are loading.

I'm adoring March by Geraldine Brooks. The writing is beautiful and this is the first time I've really done much underlining in a fiction book.

"The clouds tonight embossed the sky. A dipping sun gilded and brazed each raveling edge as if the firmament were threaded through with precious filaments."

Unlike The Hours which has far too many metaphors and similes for me, Brooks uses them sparingly and with great effect.

I've barely started The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, but I've been distracted. I was poking through a travel book on Miami and found myself fascinated by the history section... yes, the history in a travel book. I took this as a sign, it's time for me to actually read a bit about South Florida, where I grew up. A quick poke at library led me to bring these home; not sure what I will read.

The swamp : the Everglades, Florida, and the politics of paradise by Michael Grunwald (2006)
Liquid Land : A Journey Through the Florida Everglades by Ted Levin (2003)
Florida : A Short History by Michael Gannon (2003)
The Wild Heard of Florida edited by Jeff Ripple and Susan Cerulean (1999)
Indians of Central and South Florida, 1513-1763 by John H. Hann (2003)

touchstones... are you there? Still loading three... Ok, I can wait about another 2 minutes...arghhh...

I've just started to re-read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Picked it up after finishing Atomised by Michel Houellebecq. I read it the first time when I was about 16 and can't remember the details, but as it turns out, it follows perfectly where Atomised left off. It's all very bleak, though. And too prophetic.

I am more than halfway through A Long Way Down} by Nick Hornby. I've read all his others. This one is kind of uneventful so far.

I am reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant -- it is getting better as I go along; but on the whole, I am underwhelmed.

Having difficulty concentrating so I'm dividing my time between The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra and The Bullet Trick by Louise Welsh (much easier).

(Touchstones not loading.)

I was savoring Lay of the Land by Richard Ford, but I had to return it to the library before finishing. Will return to it next week. It's something of a travelogue through life, time and New Jersey. I am continuing the U.S. travel theme with Bill Bryson's Lost Continent.

I am about 150 pages away from finishing The Emancipator's Wife by Barbara Hambly. It's a great historical fiction book and thinks it interresting to find out more about the woman behind Lincoln.

Last week I read The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory and yesterday I started I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

finished the Red Tent -- found it vaguely annoying. Just started Madame Bovary -- strangely enough the introduction in the Penguin classic paperback is a scathing critique of Flaubert and his protagonists.

I'm still putzing around with Revelation Space.

I just finished The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs last night. It was light and enjoyable. I have started The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. I have only read the first chapter, but I can tell that I am going to love it. It is about a librarian that moves to Ireland to take a new job and finds that the library has closed. I think it will be really funny.

How To Read and Why by Harold Bloom. In his discussion of the short story I am then led to Chekov's the lady with the dog- a really wonderful story of the magnetic pull an illicit affair has on its participants.

Right now I'm reading a book about Ted Williams by Leigh Montville. I find it very interesting.

Three books:

Faith and Politics by John Danforth.

Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman.

The Other Nile: Journeys in Egypt, The Sudan and Ethiopia by Charlie Pye-Smith.

Just read two excellent novels. Palahniuk's "Invisible Monsters" which is really cutting edge and maybe a bit too quirky for some, and Jackson McCrae's "Katzenjammer" which is an inside look at how corrupt the publishing industry is. Also mixes New York themes of survival with wit and humour. Loved both. Easy and quick reads, though both are "literary" in their own way. Palahniuk and MCcrae have a lot in common--more like Sedaris is he wrote a full-fledged novel.

I've got less than 200 pages to go in Kurt Andersen's splendid new book Heyday:A Novel, and though I liked and enjoyed the first 200 pages of it well enough, somewhere around that point it sort of took-off, and this breathless pace hasn't let up a bit since, just a grandly entertaining piece of work so far.

(And as a sidebar, the new Vanity Fair came yesterday, and V.F. doesn't do book reviews at all, but they inserted a fairly lengthy rave review of Andersen's book, and I really couldn't have agreed with them more.)

I'm still reading Half of a Yellow Sun; I'm about halfway through and taking my time. Echoing rebeccanyc, who touted this book weeks maybe months ago, everyone who enjoys excellent literary fiction should read this book. All is revealed through the experiences of her characters, who are so well-drawn that the reader just melts into them. If it's in your pile, move it up; read it before it starts collecting awards:-)

Recently finished:

* The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
* Hunger: An Unnatural History by Sharman Apt Russell

Now reading:

* Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry
* The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back by Andrew Sullivan

Finished Dear Miss Weaver Harriet Shaw Weaver 1876-1961. Whew. Began The Crater.

brewergirl, you've really got a winner there in John M. Barry's Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, one of the most purely entertaining and enlightening narrative histories I've ever read.

I'm reading non-fiction at the moment: London in the nineteenth century by Jerry White. I'm only on chapter three but it's really holding my attention. The research is thorough but the author manages to give us the fruits of it in an unacademic way which engages you.

I am reading a book called A Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes It is a Australian fiction/Fantasy adult fairytale about spells, modern day family of witches, and magic. It looks promising and I hope that it turns out be good.

This weekend I finished Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs and just loved it. There is an understandable debate on whether or not this autobiography is true or maybe exaggerated. I'm curious to see how this plays out. Yesterday I also read an article in Vanity Fair about the family and their lawsuit against Burroughs. Regardless, I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down.

Unfortunately I have to put a halt on all reading until Friday. I have a presentation that I must work on. Am already going through withdraw.

>12 Mrsd22:, Mrsd22
I finally gave up on On Beauty, after managing approx. 70 pages in a month-or-more.
I have gladly swapped it for Murder in Clichy, an Aimee Leduc Investigation, by Cara Black. Not read anything by her before ~ this is the 5th in the series. I'm hoping it will help to get me "in the mood" for my first visit to Paris in April :)

I started Brighton Rock by Graham Greene a few days ago, and I'm loving it. The undercurrent is just so menacing, and I have no idea where it is all going!

#34, Louis, Heyday: A Novel looks right up my alley. I have March 6th marked on my calendar (release date).

#43, Killeymoon, I absolutely loved Brighton Rock.

I’ve been very quirky with my reading lately, and yesterday for no apparent reason I randomly picked off my shelves a book I brought back from Ireland last year, Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s Dhá Scéal – Two Stories, consisting of Ciumhais an Chriathraigh (The Edge of the Bog) and An Strainséara (The Stranger) from his collection, Cois Caoláire. Despite his unquestioned status as the outstanding writer of prose fiction in modern Irish, to date, Ó Cadhain’s work has suffered from a certain inaccessibility to English speaking readers. For years I’ve been searching for an English translation of his Cré na Cille (The Clay Graveyard), a ruthless social analysis of rural community ill-feeling revealed by the conversations and monologues of the corpses in the local graveyard, and considered to be the greatest novel published in Irish in the 20th century.

Dhá Scéal contains a powerful sense of empathy with female characters in extreme circumstances, albeit displayed in a certain awkwardness of style very much like Gorky’s, who Ó Cadhain’ acknowledged as an influence and is a feature of his early work. Both stories reminded me of some of Liam O’Flaherty’s work - very Nationalist but somewhat richer. Not surprising considering Ó Cadhain’s involvement in the IRA and being interned in the Curragh military prison during the Second World War.

A nice break and change of pace, but now I'm back to Turgunev's Sketeches from a Hunter's Album.

Sorry, touchstones aren't working for O Cadhain.

Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I had started it once before and dropped it. I've started over and have enjoyed it so far. I liked Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamozov also.

Something more than halfway through Lies & ugliness by Brian Hodge ... not bad.

am about to start the book of joe by jonathan tropper and plan to start the ha ha by dave king after that. in between i am also working on all of us: the collected poems by raymond carver (which i am loving!!)

#18 I loved March by Geraldine Brooks. If you have time do some research on Louisa May Alcott's father. He is the model for Mr. March in the book. When you see the historical research she did for that character it makes you love the book even more.

I'm reading Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger. I like it more than Catcher in the Rye. This weekend I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I hated it. Completly disappointed because The Remains of Day was excellent.

Have to echo LouisBranning -- Rising Tide was illuminating and really well written. Couldn't get into John M. Barry's later work, The Great Influenza, though.

Avaland, delighted you're enjoying Half of a Yellow Sun.

LouisBranning (#38) & rebeccanyc (#49) .... Thanks for the comments on Rising Tide. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

I just finished Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, which I found disappointing. I'll probably resume The World is Flat next.

I haven't been reading much the past couple of weeks, but I'm currently reading and really enjoying Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach. It is not only an educational read, but a highly entertaining one as well.

Am really struggling with finding time to read lately due to a surplus of essays and presentations due. It's driving me insane. The only thing I'm reading this week will be Far from the Madding Crowd by Hardy, an interesting coincidence considering last week's discussion about Jude the Obscure - it's for my literature class. Looking forward to reading more in 3 weeks' time during spring break.

I am reading Survivor by J.F. Gonzalez.

Began The Last Continent this morning. Loving it.

I'm in between library requests this week so I picked up Two for the Dough, the second in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I do not read many mysteries but find this series so fun to read!

I'm now first in the library queue for Suite Francaise so am hoping to perfectly time finishing my current book when the next is ready for me!

Currently reading As I lay dying by William Faulkner.

Haven't posted in a while

I finished Midnight's children and I can say that for the first time in my life I was really really jealous of an author writing - the prose - the imagery- the story - it was jsut wonderful and I sped throught it - regretfully finishing the last page. It was much better than The ground beneath her feet which I was looking forward to reading, but found boring and the writing was a labout - curious that the same author could cause that reaction

I also finished The myth of you & me by Leah Stewart= a little slow at first but I ended up feeling just touched by the ending - a good solid read about friendship and love and regret and moving forward

I'm either going to read Queen of Fashion or The Sister Knot, but that'll only take me a few days, so after that, I think I might read Namath.

I just started Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day", in some ways against my better judgement since I had such a hard time getting through his "Mason & Dixon". But for some reason I was drawn to this new one after reading the reviews. We'll see how it goes.

Finished Clouds of Witness tonight.

#57 That's a great and disturbing story.

I haven't been able to concentrate at all in the past two weeks, despite a wonderful TBR pile in plain sight. I bought a job-lot of six Loeb Greek titles at the weekend and am so excited I'm unable to get far into any of them. Harumph.

I stayed up last night to finish Brighton Rock. Will definitely be seeking out other Graham Greene novels. Next up is Not Buying It by Judith Levine (somewhat ironic given my book-buying habit - maybe this will break it?).

Actually based on Killeymoon bringing up Graham Greene, I'm reading The Quiet American ...

Finished The Tenth Justice which was OK, but tried just a bit too hard, and have begun The Empty Chair which is a Lincoln Rhyme novel I somehow missed. So far it is entertaining me during my enforced confinement (separated shoulder).

#63, Killeymoon, my favorite Graham Greene, and one of my "desert island" books is
The Power and the Glory.

I finished The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell this morning and will start The Singapore Grip this afternoon to round out this Empire trilogy. The first two novels have been brilliant. In Krishnapur, the gradual disintegration of beliefs and ideals as they failed to hold up in the face of reality was particularly compelling.

I also have to take a moment to rave about the imprint--NYRB (New York Review Books). The paper they use is so rich and smooth! I find myself stroking the pages as I read. They have a great list of books that have been out of print for some time.

Cabegley,
I'm a big, big fan of Farrell's trilogy and those NYRB reissues. I have all of the J.F. Powers, L.P. Hartley and Mavis Gallant reissues along with John Edward Williams criminally neglected Stoner.

I've just started Mary Pickford: America's Sweetheart by Scott Eyman for my nonfiction read. I love Mary Pickford dearly, so I'm always happy to approach new biographies on her.

Am nearing the 1/2 way point of Green Darkness by Anya Seton. The beginning was a bit slow and confusing, but the plot has stabilized and is interesting...not quite as great as Katherine, but I'm still enjoying it. Next up is The Secret History.

cabegley, reading Farrell's Empire trilogy will make you a fan of his in a hurry, and even if you read them out of order like I did, Farrell's sequencing never influences the appreciation of these 3 terrific novels. And I thought The Singapore Grip was every bit as thrilling as The Siege of Krishnapur, which even sports a holdover character from Troubles too.

Trying to find the time to finish reading The Mistress of the Empire by Raymond Fiest

#67 and 68, I just discovered the NYRB books last spring and have become a big fan. Through them, I've discovered (so far) Mavis Gallant, Patrick Leigh Fermor. Vasily Grossman, and problably others I'm not thinking of at the moment. The J.G. Farrell books sound great too -- thanks for the suggestion -- which is the first book in the trilogy?

im reading ~twilight~ by stephanie Meyer.....:)

rebecca, Troubles (1970) is first, then the Booker-winner The Siege of Krishnapur, ending with The Singapore Grip.

#63 #64 Grahame Greene
Just wanted to share a thought re Graham Green. A couple of years ago I read The Comedians by followed almost immediately by The feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa. It was an unplanned and unexpected reading rollercoaster as I didn't realise they are both set on the island of Hispaniola, one in Haiti, the other in the Dominican Republic. The two books made interesting companions and had plenty of insight into the nature and effect of dictatorship.

I wouldn't say it was a felicitous few days but it was immensely thought provoking. I had to read the last few pages of Feast of the Goat through half closed eyes.

LouisBranning (#71), you're right--I am rapidly becoming a fan. I've been totally engrossed for the past several days in the first two books, and am really looking forward to the third.

rebeccanyc (#73), I picked up Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate in an NYRB edition yesterday, on a mention from you on the Reading Globally - Fiction thread.

I just finished the The Emancipator's Wife by Barbara Hambly and plan on starting Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen later today.

Just finished Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin. Recommend it to anyone who loves Russian literature. Reading The Stories of Mary Gordon and The Periodic Table by Primo Levi.

Just starting my first library book in many a moon: Shinto by C. Scott Littleton. Research for a sci-fi book I plan to write this year.

The TBR pile is shrinking, thanks to an edict from my living-quarters sharer. Nothing new can enter the house until there are fewer than a dozen books on the pile. The loophole: Library books don't count. Silly lad. He should know by know the biblioholic will find a way....

I'm in the middle of 'The Great Outsiders: Northcliffe, Rothermere and the Daily Mail'.
Fascinating. I hadn't realised just how much Northcliffe had shaped modern journalism.

I am now reading Elizabeth Costello by J.M Coetzee - so far it is very interesting

#56 - I love the Stephanie Plum series. I have all eleven (not the 12th book since it's not out in paperback yet I think). Stephanie is a riot, and I love her crazy gun-toting grandma.lol. There were many moments where I'd burst out laughing because it's so funny.

Anyways, I am currently reading two books.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Georgia Dawn....let me know how you liked Water for Elephants.....

I just finished it and thought it was great

Just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke Wonderful page turner with Austin language and imagery, historical events "explained" via magic, and an unfolding story of what is magic and the relationship to the fairy-folk. Plus lots of side swipes at empty book thinking etc.

My only concern is that whilst I could hold the male characters as individuals in my head the upper class women all tended to sound and act the same and be foils or plot drivers rather then rich characters.

Not not sure what to read now as only 309 books on the TBR pile! It was enjoyable to read a 1000 page book although it took 5-6 days so this may be a factor. From experience, I need to read something different or I end up reading nothing but that genre for 3-4 books before getting totally sick and not being able to touch that type of book for a year or so.

My choice for this week is Collapse by Jared Diamond. This explores and seeks why some society's have failed and others have succeeded. It will be interesting to see if it differs from his ideas and themes set out in Guns, Germs and Steel which demolishes notions of western and white superiority. Essentially we had the luck to turn left rather then right out of Africa and so into a landscape and ecology that gave and maintained a head start.

#85 - dmtt1212 - I'm reading Water for Elephants along with a couple of others. I'll get back with you when I finish.

Over the weekend I finished Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn (very good) and My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding edited by P.N. Elrod (actually not too bad - I do like short stories when time is tight).

Have started Terrier by Tamora Pierce and it is pretty good so far.

Listening to Definitely Dead in the car - I need a road trip so I can listen in more than 15-20 minute increments!

In my research, I have come upon a wonderful history of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman, so I am now reading that (it's a library book) in addition to my loads of research and Far from the Madding Crowd. Probably the only book out of the research I will read the whole of, which is why I'm including it here!

I've added Kurt Andersen's terrific new book Heyday: A Novel to my 'Favorite Books of 2007' list, because the last 450 pages of it were as much pure fun as I've had reading anything this year, just an exceptional novel by any standard, and highly recommended.

Right now I'm about a hundred pages into Patrick McCabe's Irish creep-fest Winterwood and find myself almost holding my breath on every page.

Louis,

Based on your recommendation and the subject matter of the novel, I've pre-ordered Heyday: A Novel. And I haveWinterwood near the top of the TBR pile. Glad to hear of the praise, so far. The only Patrick McCabe I've read is The Emerald Germs of Ireland, which was splendid

Patrick McCabe-wise, I can vouch for The butcher boy as another winner ...

Last night I finished Madison Smart Bell's biography of Toussaint Louverture -- a little tough going at times because of the plethora of names and towns, but very interesting, even though I would say it leaves a lot of questions unanswered (probably because of lack of information).

Then I started, despite Louis Branning's warning here, Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. So far it's interesting, but I'll let everyone know what I think when I finish it (a long time from now, probably, given its length).

I liked a lot about Sacred Games and certain parts of it were extremely entertaining as well, but Chandra asks his reader to make a huge 'leap of faith' early in the book, and unless you're willing to make that step with him (which I found difficult to do), then you'll likely be disappointed later on.

Finished The Empty Chair which was a decent Lincoln Rhyme outing, although I felt that it got twisty at the end just for the sake of being twisty. Overall though, it was good with lots of forensic detail and puzzling. Interesting to see Rhyme and Sachs at odds with each other, too.

Now am onto Murder in the Museum by Simon Brett - I haven't read enough of him and was in the mood for a more old-fashioned, British whodunit.

Just finished Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara and A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. Currently reading Fury by Salman Rushdie. Next up is probably Hey Rube by Hunter S. Thompson.

I'm about fifty pages into Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I felt like I needed something quick, fun, and fairly mindless after finishing Beloved by Toni Morrison earlier this morning.

I am reading the new biography of Jane Goodall by Dale Peterson because as a kid I was completely in love with her and the chimps. It's exhaustingly detailed but well-written so far.

I just finished Leviathan by Paul Auster which I liked but not as much as I liked Brooklyn Follies!

I finished a re-read of The Giver a couple of days ago and started Gathering Blue, also by Lois Lowry. I loved The Giver, but I'm finding that for some reason Gathering Blue isn't quite holding my attention.

I've started The Silent Gondoliers, by William Goldman, as told by S. Morgenstern. That's right - the real author of The Princess Bride wrote another book using the fictional author of The Princess Bride. And I highly recommend it!!

Our Game - John le Carre

I'm doing a quick and fun read this week: Shoes to Die For by Laura Levine, which is a cozy mystery about a struggling writer living with her cat in "the slums of Beverly Hills." (I think Levine wrote that somewhere.)

Also, I decided to re-read the first 6 Harry Potter books in anticipation of the 7th book's release in July. Almost done with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which is funnier than I remember from the first time around.

Still working on The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.

I finished The Water Dancers by Terry Gamble, a beautiful first novel. Her writing and sensibilities remind me of Barbara Kingsolver. Currently reading Compulsion by Keith Ablow. He is a forensic psychiatrist whose main character is - guess what? - a forensic psychiatrist. I love the psychological insights and think he will be on my "read everything he wrote" list.

I put down Gathering Blue for a while this afternoon/evening and read American Born Chinese instead. It's the first graphic novel I've read, and I enjoyed it. It was humorous, a bit thought-provoking, and aesthetically pleasing.

A Vote for Murder by David Wishart ~ a murder mystery set in the Roman countryside during the reign of Tiberius.

And Be a Villain to read with some friends.

I disliked Patrick McCabe's Winterwood rather intensely once I'd finished it, realizing finally that it was nothing more than a sloppily-conceived load of gothic claptrap masquerading as an Irish horror novel, one that never worked for me on any level. I found it not only pretentiously boring throughout, but numbingly tedious to read, none of it particularly well written either, but even for all that, it was McCabe's incoherent story-telling that truly reeked here, making Winterwood just another stinker to avoid, a 5-star disappointment.

I just finished Rabbit, Run, John Updike, didn't like it. Somehow the dark story and characters and the heavy-handed poetic attempt at writing didn't gel for me.

Starting The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk.

I've just picked up Evolution's Captain by Peter Nichols to finish it up on my bus rides.

Something about this tale makes me jittery...the captain of the Beagle kills himself because the Theory of Evolution goes against his religious convictions, and he feels guilty for having helped bring it into the world...and the unease keeps me from getting into the world of the book.

Jim Harrison's been one of my favorite writers for sometime now, and I'm just past halfway in his new novel Returning To Earth and liking it quite a bit so far. I'd been planning on re-reading a couple of Jim's books later this year, so last week I ordered a copy of Dalva, my personal favorite of his and a book I remember loving almost from page one, and am really looking forward to revisiting it now.

I'm reading Clouds by Aristophanes. Very sarcastic and funny.

Just started Baudolino by Umberto Eco.

I have just finished reading The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis which gives an overview of the key events and personalities over the 40's to 80's. Gripping and lucid rather then dreary and opaque. I usually try to switch between non-fiction and fiction but managed to get the latest Karen Armstrong book yesterday, The Great Transformation when in London. She writes lot books on religious history and practice from a radical Christia "sea of faith" perspective. I tend to be a fan of this perspective as a Quaker. This one explores the period of the great transformation 800-300 BC when most of the key religious and humanitarian ideas developed. Not as obscure as it sounds because these ideas were a reaction against the loss of faith and meaning as society underwent a range of fundamental changes. So understanding then helps understanding now

The 18 books read since the 1st January 2007

99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style by Matt Madden
A Month in the Country by J.L.Carr
A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright
A Walk In The Woods: Rediscovering America On The Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly
Dance dance dance by Haruki Murakami
Desperately Seeking Paradise by Ziauddin Sardar
Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen
Gladys reunited:a personal American journey by Sandi Toksvig
Guns, germs and steel by Jared Diamond
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Mr Starlight by Laurie Graham
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis
The god of small things by Arundhati Roy
The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester
What If? America by Robert Cowley

Thanks to recommendations in this thread, I started J. G. Farrell's Troubles last night and could barely put it down. A good contrast to Sacred Games, which I'm also enjoying so far.

I’m now reading Flannery O'Connor's The Complete Stories.

When I was required to read her short stories in college, and once attempting Everything That Rises Must Converge at the request of a great-uncle, a Franciscan who extolled O’Connor’s work, nothing worked for me. The South she wrote about seemed exaggerated and beyond belief, and I never read her work again while living in Pennsylvania. But then something happened, an epiphany of sorts. I moved to Florida and in the first few years here I lived in some of those little towns that were similar to the people and setting for her stories, and once attended a service at a backwoods church outside Ocala consisting of a black and white congregation with a girl I was dating, and saw people speak in tongues for the very first time. A surreal experience if there ever was one. Ever since then, nothing I’ve read by O’Connor seems exaggerated at all. It’s very believable and very real.

I have just finshed Never Admit to Beige by Jonathan Drapes and loved it. Very funny, great pace and a nice escape from reality.
I am halfway through Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier and am enjoying it so far. I am finding the multiple first person way of writing quite interesting.

I'm on to The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge, at long last. I've had it for ages, and it's supposedly been next on my TBR list for a few months now.

(The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain). It is fairly good and very funny.

Read Triptych by Karin Slaughter on Saturday and The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor on Friday. Am currently reading Chloë by Freya North for something lighter.

I enjoyed Triptych - it was my first book from Karin Slaughter, and I was disturbing, as expected. The Story of Lucy Gault was disappointing - dull. I had heard so many good things about it, and the premise of the story was interesting, but the main characters and what they said were not believable.

Finished The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett. Loved it. I laughed more in it than any other of his that I've read.

#63 and #66...my favorite Graham Greene is Travels with my Aunt...so funny.

I'm currently reading The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden after seeing the movie. It's a pretty good book, although I find myself half way through it, enjoying it very much but feel that nothing much has really happened, it kind plods steadily along... which I like in a way.