What are you reading the week of December 26, 2009?

How many books were added to your TBR pile this holiday week?

I finished Mennonite in a Little Black Dress tonight - meh. My review is here.

Now starting A Room with a View for the Monthly Author Reads group.

No new books (yet) but I just started Living Dead in Dallas

Finished Gum -Dipped (Ohio History and Culture) by Joyce Dyer...on Thursday...will have a review up...as soon as..

Touchstones don't work for this title!!!

Just got a whole pile of books for Christmas...
Started reading The Shining City by Kate Forsyth, next would be The Van Alen Legacy, Tempted, The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage (German editions both but touchstones won't recognize the German titles), Für immer Untot, Das Siegel der Finsternis or Die Assassine, not sure which one I'll read first.

as stated on the "old" thread - I'm still reading The Never ending Sacrifice but I got several new ones form Christmas that I shall start in the new year.

I got The Heritage of Trees by Fred Hageneder and The Snow Tourist by Charlie English for Christmas - but I'm planning on doing a completely frivolous but UTTERLY delicious mega book shop for new year before I go back to work!

I haven't had chance for much reading on Christmas Day - I finished the last of the Tales of Beedle the Bard in the morning and read a little bit of The Uncommon Reader before bed last night. We're having Boxing Day at my dad's today and I'm absolutely shattered for some reason, but I might try and get close to finishing my book when we get home tonight. After that, I'm getting stuck into all my most exciting books before I have to go back to work on 4th Jan!

I'm very much enjoying Crossing to Safety. Don't think I can make my 999 challenge but 70 books is two or three times as many books as I've ever read in a year thanks to LT and retirement. Will start Mrs Dalloway later today.

I finished The Winter Thief by Jenny White. It is historical fiction set in 1888 Turkey (Istanbul and remote villages) in the dying Ottoman Empire. It is book 3 in the Kamil Pasha series. I got it through LT Early Reviewers program.

It was fabulous. I loved it. Very exciting and interesting. Good writing, characters and setting. Will definitely keep reading the series.

I am now starting The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato. It is another historical fiction set in renaissance Florence and is about the Botticelli painting Primavera. It will be published in April. The publisher sent it to me to review,

About halfway through A Countess Below Stairs which is very good. :)

Still reading Les Miserables and beginning The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds.

Although I don't think it really counts as a proper novel I have read The Road goes ever on and on which is a lovely little book about Tolkien's map of Middle Earth with a massive colour map tucked in a pocket at the back. It's got 50 or so pages listing important places on the map and giving a little insight into Tolkien's invention of the maps for his stories.
I plan on finishing My Sister's Keeper tonight which I am liking so far.

Still reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I'm enjoying it, and taking my time.

I received The Hunger Games for Christmas and I can't say enough what a good book it is. I am already on page 170 and love it, love it, love it. Go read this book because it is compelling and will have you wanting to know what happens to Katniss who is the heroine, and what a neat name Katniss is!

I just finished the remarkable Everything Flows by Vassily Grossman -- chilling, compelling, thought-provoking.

scarpettajunkie - Y'know, I really needed someone to tell me what to read next because my 'possible Christmas reading' pile is a little larger than I had anticipated... and since Hunger Games is on it, Hunger Games it is!

I'm very sure you will not be sorry. True I'm not finished with the book but 170 pages in after only two days should state something. To me it is a surprising find because I was not truly believing the hype. The cool thing is that even without the dust jacket the book is cool looking, because I peeked. I like to see where some of the money goes.

>15 elliepotten: Ellie I agree with Scarpetta READ The Hunger Games!!!! It is brilliant!! Then of course you'll *have* to read Catching Fire which is equally as wonderful ;)

Catching Fire is another Christmas present. I'm glad to hear it is up to the measure.

I'm about mid way through The Battle for Spain. It's a tough read, since I'm coming too it with little or no background knowledge of the Spanish Civil War. The alphabet soup of political organizations on the republican side is a little bewildering. There is too much going on to really fit comfortably into a single volume history.

A couple of new books have hit my TBR pile this week :-)

Getting caught up on my postings, I have finished The Intelligencer - found the modern thriller angle to be rather predictable and the historical chapters fascinating.

I finished Beat by Amy Boaz. The reviews are rather mixed on this book but I found the story to be well written. The focus is on Frances, a woman who after having an affair with a poet during what she perceives to be a downturn in her own marriage, flees to Pairs with her young daughter Cathy. While in Paris, Frances examines her past in a series of memory flashbacks that leads her to critically assess her virtues and the qualities of her lover. Oh, and before I forget, there is a mystery angle to the story - the poet's previous long-term lover, a fellow poet, is missing and the police are investigating. In all, quite a good story. This is the second noel by Amy Boaz so I am now curious to track down a copy of her debut novel.

Right now I am reading In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw, which has me in its grips. I will probably be finished it later today.

I feel like I should take some time to get back into Guns, Germs and Steel but in the meantime I read A Christmas Carol and have started one from my Secret Santa - C. J. Cherryh's The Paladin.

I'm still reading La Puta de Babilonia, which is much better than I expected. Also started the Collected Short Stories of Roberto Arlt.

Got distracted from The Lacuna by Hunger Games and am now hooked. Sorry Kingsolver! I swear I will be back when I'm done.

I am finishing The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran. I am starting the follow up to Hunger Games, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I am also working on Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.

I'm reading Who Ate Up All the Shinga?, an "autobiographical novel" by the Korean writer Park Wan-Suh, which is an '"account of her experiences growing up during the Japanese occupation of Korea and the Korean War".

I'm working on Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb. So far, so good. I hope it doesn't bog down in the middle like the last one did.

I'm still working on Gate at the Stairs which I'm enjoying and hopefully will have more time for now that Christmas is wrapping up.

Christmas gifts in the form of books:

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann and The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville one of my favorite authors :)

Finished The Never-Ending Sacrifice and am leaning to read The Cradle Will Fall.

For Christmas I got The First Christmas Borg and The First Paul Borg - also The entire Snopes Trilogy by Faulkner (I've read The Hamlet Faulkner), The Winter of Our Discontent Steinbeck and March Brooks, which I have read but forgot to remove from my Amazon wishlist. These I will get to in my 101 challenge starting next weekend - where I will get back to some serious reading.

Reading Firewall by Henning Mankell. Are any of his books bad ? I don't think so.

#6 ellipotten, I read The Uncommon Reader last week and loved it!

#29 Cindysprocket, I have quite a few of Mankell's books lined up to read, including Firewall. Loved Dogs of Riga.

I'm well into A History of Modern Britain by Anderw Marr, and really enjoying it.

I finished Glenn Beck's An Inconvenient Book today, which put me at my goal of 75 books this year. I've got a couple of started-but-not-finished books I think I'll try to complete (Of Bees and Mist, Gaiman's Preludes and Nocturnes, and Fruits Basket volume 5), plus a book from the library (Magic for Beginners) that was recommended for me by one of the librarians.

Still reading Dear American Airlines. For such a short book, I'm finding it oddly interminable. I'll finish it tonight and then move on to The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a Christmas gift.

I've just started reading my Early Reviewer's book, The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers. It's quite good so far. I received If God is Good by Randy Alcorn for Christmas and can't wait to dive into it.

I started The Lost Symbol today. Pretty much the same plot structure as the other two I've read The Davinci Code and Angels and Demons. I'm finding it a bit boring.. I'm up to the bit where he (prof Langdon) gets on the wrong side of 'the man of Authority in charge of the whole shebang' except this time it's a woman. I'm hanging on until the bit when he'll start running around against the clock figuring out hidden symbols.

I am once again really getting into a Lee Child book....this time it's Echo Burning.....it hooked me by page 7, and I am about 1/4 of the way through. I read Killing Floor a few weeks ago and it also grabbed me right away and kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through. I need 4 more to complete my collection of his 13 Jack Reacher series. I've only read the two so far, but am convinced that they will not disappoint....this guy really knows how to write! Lovin' it!

I've been sick the last few days, so I'm doing some comfort reading and re-reading The Three Musketeers. It's one of my favorites.

#32 jhedlund OOH what fun. I loved The Help, think you will too

Finished The Sandman, volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes. It was my first time reading a graphic novel, unless you count Robot Dreams or manga. I liked most of it, but thought the chapter "24 Hours" was a bit gross.

I'm still into The Canterbury Tales and Soll und Haben And try to finish one of them until the end of the year *laughing*... or at least until 4th january when classes go on...

I'm about halfway through Bluebeard. Can't wait to find out what's in the potato barn!

I'm still reading Plague by Wendy Orent, and will probably still be reading it into next week.

While I spend most of my time reading, my 2nd love is video games, and because I get as many books as I want for free from the library, people have a tendancy to buy me video games as christmas and birthday gifts. So, if this were a "what are you playing right now" my list would looke more like...

PlayStation 3: Resistance: Fall of Man, Bioshock, The Darkness, Resident Evil 5, Madden NFL 10

Nintendo DS: Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Nintendo Wii: Wii Sport's Resort

(I bought Resistance, Bioshock, and The Darkness for myself, used on Amazon for about $10 each)

And playing all these new games always get's me excited about playing old games too, so I'm playing NFL Street 2, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Hunter the Reckoning: Wayward on the PS2 and Final Fantasy IX on the PS1.

It's the one time of year where I'll put the books down for a little while and enjoy some mindless video games for a little while. :)

Finally finished Pride and Prejudice. I know, I know, I know, Jane Austin is read and reread by millions of people. For myself, I'm happy to put her back on the shelf. It's been there since my partner read it in college twenty years. I decided it was time to pull it down. Besides, I'd started the Zombie version without having read the original. So, now I can pick the zombies up again and cross fingers that Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins get their faces eaten off.

Finishing Cricket on the Hearth today and then putting Christmas behind me. In the same volume as A Christmas Carol, but we bought it just for the Cricket. Not as popular, but I highly recommend it.

And... not sure why, but just started Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag.

I received 7 books during this week - 3 were SantaThing presents and 1 was from another LT friend. The others I bought myself while shopping for others :-)

Yesterday I finished Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner which did the trick as a light Christmas read that I could dip in and out of and began The Spiritual Tourist by Mick Brown which is fascinating so far.

I finished The Uncommon Reader this morning and found that I liked it even more this time than I did when I first got it - Christmas two years ago, I think.

I'm delaying starting The Hunger Games BRIEFLY to read Robin McKinley's Sunshine first, which is also on my festive reading list but has the added advantage of fitting my ABC Challenge... I tells ya, even with prioritising this is just no good - if we could just extend the Christmas/New Year hols until, say, mid-February, I might just stand a chance of fitting in all the books I wanted to!

>Ellie I hope you enjoy reading Sunshine -I read it back in October I think (also for my ABC challenge) and I really liked it and at some point I want to get my own copy. I also totally agree on needing more holiday time to get all my reading done :P I may have to resort to not sleeping to get through everything.
In other news I'm over half-way through My Sister's Keeper after having a little detour yesterday when I read Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan boys for a bit a light-hearted girly fluff and also re-read Sloppy Firsts. Once I've got my ABC challenge done i can crack on with my Off the Shelves challenge.

I read American Salvage, a collection of short stories by Bonnie Jo Campbell that was enthusiastically recommend here on LT by avaland, in almost one sitting -- memorable portraits of working class men and women in rural Michigan.

>29 cindysprocket: cindysprocket I also just finished Firewall. This was the first Henning Mankell book I've read, but I've seen most of the Swedish tv series and some of the English ones.

Now I'm picking what to take on holiday. I've got a 7 hour bus ride tomorrow and am saving The Historian for that. I tried reading this once before but realised it needed a chunk of time to get in to. The bus should be perfect.

I'm so happy to be reading A Pigeon and a Boy by one of my favorite Israeli authors, Meir Shalev.

I finished The shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins. I am listening to Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear and reading Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.

#42 boulder_a_t - now I can pick the zombies up again and cross fingers that Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins get their faces eaten off.

LOL!!!!!! OMG yes! Especially toady Mr. Collins!

I'm currently reading Carol Sklenicka's biography on Raymond Carver, Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life. So far, I like the way Sklenicka presents Carver - prose that is spare, but mostly effective. And I like how she explains the links between Carver's life and work, which makes me want to reread Carver, looking for more clues.

This week I'm reading The Quest of the Holy Grail. It's short, but I have back-to-back four-day weekends mean I won't finish it until early in the new year.

I am currently reading SHE CAME IN DRAG by MARY WINGS. A fun book for a hectic time. I just started this book and usually don't read mysteries but thought I would give this one a read. Just finished THE ABYSMAL BRUTE by JACK LONDON. I liked this book and had never heard of it until a month or so ago. Not many other library readers have read this book of London's. It is a interesting read of romance, honest or dishonest, and the old idea of women giving up their carees and dreams for the man and love. That part was difficult to read but typical macho view of the times and writer.

I'm now beginning The Lost Symbol on audiobook.

Read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire yesterday, and I am quite impatient for the 3rd to come out in august! Today I read Beautiful Creatures which wasn't as good, but still entertaining. I am now off to start The Book of Unholy Mischief

Just starting The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins after finishing Ficciones by Borges. So happy to be reading plot again!

Karen

Have two books in the fire. The Devil Himself by Dudley Pope and Germinal by Emile Zola.

Today I finished Malone Dies. Partly because of the holidays and partly because of the nature of the writing this little item took me over 10 days to finish. I am now reading A Bend in the River.

Stared Nothing Right recently.

Finished A Countess Below Stairs, makes me hanker for Louisa May Alcott or Jane Austen. The writing style seems similar to me, not sure why.

Returning to Little Women, I am determined to finish this book, plus it seems perfect for this time of year!

I just finished The Cleanup which I loved and started The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys.

In the background, I'm still reading The Tenderness of Wolves

Last night, just 'cuz, I read in The Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. There is a reason to read such stuff beyond that I don't quite entirely disbelieve in magic, and that is that I'm curious why I should travel the right hand path and be wary of the left hand path despite its potential for profit. I don't suppose that makes any sense.

This afternoon I returned to The People's History of the Supreme Court and will likely pick it up again tonight.

Robert

I finished Bluebeard this morning. I am definitely interested in reading more by Vonnegut!
Now I'm reading Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes. It's my early reviewer.

When I was younger I used to end the year with a jigsaw puzzle -- I liked them difficult, intricate, and beautiful. I haven't kept up that tradition -- but reading Margaret Drabble's The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws earlier this year made me look at my year's reading in a different light. There seems to be a theme here:

Reading the first novella in William Trevor's Two Lives -- the one entitled "Reading Turgenev", I decided I needed to read the three books the lovers were reading -- Fathers and Sons, First Love, and On the Eve, Filling in those missing pieces made Trevor's work all the more meaningful.

And then I set about filling in some of the pieces in my woefully neglected William Trevor jigsaw -- finally getting around to his collected stories, and, later in the year, the beautiful Love and Summer.

The Summer of Hummingbirds by Christopher Benfey helped me see the connections in several overlapping puzzles -- those of Dickinson, Stowe, Twain, and American history itself.

It was a year of learning more about authors I've come to admire, by reading their work (Erdrich, Trevor, Allende, and poet Deborah Digges, whom we lost this year) and by reading profiles of them in Jane Acocella's Twenty-eight Artists and Two Saints or Claudia Roth Pierpont's Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World or in the criticism of Daniel Mendelsohn: How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken.

And of course there was Drabble's amazing book, which came along just when I needed it.

Now, at the end of the year, after reading Jayne Anne Phillips' amazing Lark and Termite -- piecing together the fragments of the lives of her characters -- stories overlapping and echoing each other -- I turn to my TBR stack, and there is Sybille Bedford's Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education. Just reading her introduction tells me I'm in the right place. And Bedford's always good for a chuckle, which, frankly, I could use just now, humor being an essential piece of all the best puzzles.

Bill Bryson's 'Made in America'. Henning Mankell (Swedish) 'Den urolige mannen' Do not know English title, translated it is 'The restless man'. Another book from HM's hands about crime investigator Kurt Wallander.

I am reading the new Barbara Kingsolver novel The Lacuna and Im loving it! Im also reading Wind in the Willows which is so sweet.

I've just started The Adoration of Jenna Fox because today is going to be slooooooow at work. I'm getting close to the end of The Little Stranger on audio as well.

I have been enjoying the post holiday wind down and have spent the past two days curled up reading. I finished In This Way I was Saved - a gripping psychological thriller told from a unique point of view that caught my eye;

For my ABC challenge I have finished reading:
The Xibalba Murders - a quick archeological murder mystery;
Captain Alatriste - a fun sword play romp through 17th century Spain (I will read more of the series!)
I am now about to start The Rose Variations.

Unfortunately, it is back to work tomorrow so the reading will slow down once again - so sad!

I finished A Room with a View, which I really enjoyed. I'm now reading One and the Same by Abigail Pogrebin and rereading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

#30 and #47. Really enjoyed Firewall. I have also seen a couple of the TV movies. Firewall being one of them. I enjoyed the movies. The books were better, just because they are able to go into more detail.

>64 mollygrace: mollygrace -- what a beautiful way to recap your reading year. Your writing is always so lovely. I love the connections you've made, and I'm impressed you read the three Turgenev's - I'm not patient enough to do something like that, but I know I'd get more out of the books I read if I followed up on the allusions and references. Well done!

I am currently still reading A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens and most likely will not finish this before the end of the week. I am taking the time during this week to go through all of the accumulated newspapers and magazines and finally get rid of them. I received 9 books for Christmas and I also have a pile of books on the piano which I would like to read in the upcoming month(s). Of course, this pile is just a small percentage of the TBRs in the house but at least it is a start.

I've just started reading The Salt Smugglers by Gerard de Nerval

teelgee - I also received and read Mennonite in a Little Black Dress and had the same reaction to it you did. I was very disappointed because I thought the concept held such promise but the author just didn't follow through enough for me.

I'm still reading Artemis Fowl as it was put on hold for several days while I caroused in Vegas with the family. After that, I start Man of Two Tribes and What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens Knew for my 1010 Challenge.

I finished reading My sister's Keeper last night and today I started my new purchase A Bend in the Road by the ever-wonderful Nicholas Sparks which I may finish tomorrow as I'm really liking it so far

LadyViolet~ A Bend in the Road is so good! I read it a few years ago, but I do remember liking it.

I finished Mistress in the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin on audio CD during my driving this Christmas. It was good, but it could have done without the love story stuck in. I picked up The Serpent's Tale today, the next installment of Adelia.

I found The Stress of her Regard and it is interesting so far. It makes me love my English degree because right now the main character is walking around with John Keats and discussing their strange 'followers.'

There's a documentary about Louisa May Alcott on PBS tonight. It got a good review in the L.A. Times. Her parents were part of the Transendentalist movement and they knew some of America's most interesting writers and thinkers. If you ever get to Concord, Massachusetts, you can visit her house. It's a pretty great town to see anyway, and it's close to Walden Pond.

I'm nearly done with Let the Great World Spin and it's been excellent. I also started The White Rhino Hotel and it's been terrific! It's historical fiction, East Africa in the early 1900s. I've been listening to You Suck, my 1st Christopher Moore and it's been fun. Unfortunately, I'm reading this comical vampire tale, out of order, duh!

#78 : Thanks for the heads up on the Alcott documentary. I was going out, so I recorded it so that I can watch it tomorrow.

I found a stash of ...... old Archie comic books. What a thrill .... I used to read these and I just HAD to go through them again to regain a moment of my teenage carefree days.

#78: Thanks, I've just set the recorder for tonight's Alcott program. I live ten minutes from the Alcott home and it's worth a visit for anyone visiting the area. Wouldn't suggest right now...it's sleeting!

Have just picked up The Purple Shamrock by Joseph Dinneen.

I finished -- and enjoyed -- Boom!: Voices of the Sixties by Tom Brokaw. Next up: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

Yesterday I started Mecklenburgs Volkssagen which contains legends and myths from Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania, Germany.

finished The Cradle Will Fall and picked out Tough Cookie to read next - will get more serious next month (next year, next week, this weekend - whatever)

and will also try and read before the end of the year - Star Trek Log Seven - I want to get to 160!

#72 I have A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories too but I can't seem to get into the Chimes. I don't know if it is me not concentrating but I am lost on this one. I did enjoy A Christmas Carol.

Just about done with King's Dragon, a Christmas present from my sister, and starting The Last Day by James Landis, about an Iraqi war veteran spending a day with Jesus (good review in Publishers Weekly). Also enjoying the Scott Pilgrim graphic series about the silly life and romances of an appealing slacker.

Finished The Paladin by C. J. Cherryh; fitted in a read of Feline Friends yesterday (photos and short quotations about cats) - short and sweet - and have now started The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood.

Finished The Hunger Games absolutely terrific! Was a wonderful Christmas present. Still working on Under The Dome. I'm in the 300's..also a Christmas present.

Scarpetta, go buy Catching Fire, it won't let you down!

I started an ARC that came in yesterday's mail - One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Bivakaruni. Trying to squeeze in a couple more reads before I tackle The Bone People for my F to F group that meets next week.

I've finished and reviewed two excellent books this week, Who Ate Up All the Shinga? by Park Wan-Suh, an "autobiographical novel" about the author's childhood in Korea during the Japanese occupation, World War II and the Korean War, and A Good Fall: Stories by Ha Jin, a collection of short stories about Chinese immigrants to the United States.

My final book of 2009 will probably be The Drift Latitudes by the Sudanese/British writer Jamal Mahjoub.

Finished Star Trek Log Seven and will read Tough Cookie now to complete 2009 - that and a couple more "Pearls Before Swine" before they go back to Georgia on Sunday.

Two more days of 2009 - where did the time go?

Reading Skim by Mariko Tamaki, which is an interesting, YA graphic novel that's mature.

On deck: The Best American Comics 2009 and Asterios Polyp.

Welcoming in the new year with graphic novels!

I finished up The Lost Symbol last night. It was quite tedious. I don't think I'll be bothered reading any more.

I've started reading They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy. A novelette I'm only a few pages in but I love it already!

Just started The Big Sleep, and I can already tell it's going to be one of my favorites.

I just started reading "Push" and "the Voyage Out" by Virginia Woolf. I am going to see how hard it is to read two books at once.

#85 - I haven't finished A Christmas Carol yet as I seem to be getting one illness after another. It started with just a bit of a cold on Christmas but has progressed to a nasty sore throat and headache and now I think I may possibly be coming down with a stomach bug that has been making the rounds hereabout. Hopefully, I will get some real reading in soon - right now, all I can handle is back issues of newspapers and magazines.

Just finished A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore and now I'm on to my last book of 2009, Stitches by David Small.

brenzi - I thought Stitches was amazing. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I finished Mister Pip, a wonderful novel! I also finished Birds of a Feather, excellent! So I am going to listen to Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, and being a Chabon fan, I am looking forward to this quite a bit. I am going to start reading The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll.

Just getting started on Secret of the Sands. Looks like a winner!

Still reading The Salt Smugglers by Gerard de Nerval but I've also started Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin. I'm also probably going to finish up The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tonight, which was my Sherlock Holmes fix last night after watching the movie.

Started Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott yesterday..it's received mixed reviews but, so far, i find it compelling in a claustrophobic kind of way

>mollygrace....now i have to find The Pattern in the Carpet...i love Margaret Drabble's work anyway but this one sounds great!

;-}

I closed out the year reading what is probably the most emotionally draining and best non-fiction book I've read this year, David Finkel's The Good Soldiers. Let me be direct, this is the most honest, most painful, and most brilliantly rendered account of modern war I've ever read. In 2007, Finkel, a Washington Post reporter, embedded himself with the Second Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the Fourth Infantry Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division -colloquially, the 2-16. Its 800 men and women were among the troops who were meant to stabilize Iraq.

Finkel billeted with the 2-16 for eight months during its deployment and visited some of the troops on several occasions after their return to the U.S. (too often in military hospitals). His closeness to the officers and enlisted personnel is evident in the book's intimacy with the terror and death that haunt their lives and with the bravery and brotherhood that exalt them.

And thankfully it is not a political book. There isn't a polemical sentence in it. If Finkel's prose gets a little theatrical at times, it's only because the events he describes span a dramatic spectrum, lurching from the grimly comic to the inexpressibly tragic.

Highly recommended.

#104: That's good enough for me; I'm adding The Good Soldiers to my wish list.

Thanks Sean! The Good Soldiers sounds excellent! I will keep an eye out for it!

Darryl and Mark, judging from your reading tastes, both of you will love this book. It is one of those "hard to put down" reads, and you'll finish it quickly. And, the images of many of those young men who lost their lives and ended up horribly injured will stay with you for a long time.

I'm reading The Guinea Pig Diaries. It's a light read and unlike his previous two books The Year of Living Biblically and The Know-It-All it describes nine different 'experiments'. His usual humour and the integration of the subject with the day to day activities of his family make for a fun and undemanding book. Sometimes we just need to park our brain and laugh!

SeanLong : Thanks for the recommendation and the review. I've got to add it onto my wish list.

I'm halfway through Gone for Good by Mark Childress, an amusing story about a music star stranded on a hidden island with many celebrities who wanted to escape from their lives; Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Hoffa, D.B. Cooper and others. It's turning out to be an enjoyable way to finish out the year.
Happy New Year everyone!

Still working on Les Mis for a group read and also reading The Quickening Maze.

#104 I've had that on my wishlist for awhile. Good to know that you liked it.

Finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle last night, so will start Someone Knows My Name (a/k/a The Book of Negros) today

really a Hero

#113 - I absolutley loved Kingsolver's Animal, Vegtable Miracle.

Half way through Archie Brown's The Rise and Fall of Communism. Interesting, comprehensive, well written, and long.

Tough Cookie is done.

Will start East of Eden and Star Trek Foster - at least they will get to my table - should be an interesting combination to start the year.

Because a few of you have mentioned Hunger Games I decided to have a read. I am struggling to put it down - it's a fantastic book!

ATTENTION: ALL WHO BUY Under The Dome. My copy is missing pages 563-594!!!! Please check your copies to make sure pages aren't missing. I'm very bummed. I wish someone could sum up what happens in those 30 odd pages.

#119 that happened to me on my (1st) copy of Priestess of the White. At the time I sent an email to the publisher who said that I could either return it to the bookstore (even without receipt) or sent it back to them and they would give me an extra book for my mailing expenses.
I went to Fnac and after alot of "maybe I should get the complaits book", and alot of BS from the smart ass at the counter I got a refund.

Can you return the book to the store or to the publisher and get a complete copy?

well the publisher assured me that it would be so. At the time fnac didn´t have one (its an import) so I managed a refund.

Finished Echo Burning tonight and it was great! Loved it. This Jack Reacher character is my new hero.....an ex army cop-turned-drifter, who doesn't take crap from anyone!! And he fights for truth, justice and the American way!! LOL Seriously, I'm loving this series by Lee Child.

Getting ready to start The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle. It looks good, keeping my fingers crossed!

I finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman tonight. I loved it -- what a wonderful way to end a terrific reading year.

I read all of Sea Glass last night which was really good and now I'm just a little peeved that I might have to wait until september 2010 for the third book cos i really am quite impatient.

I finished The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, an excellent read! Boll has a way of succinctly illuminating the issues at hand, in this case, honor, humility, and the power of some people over others. I am starting The Woodlanders by Thomas hardy for an LT Group Read.

Best wishes to all my fellow LTers for 2010! Peace, good health, and whatever measure of happiness we can manage!

I finished Lost in Translation by Edward Willett. It is a light space opera type of book about humans and winged aliens in conflict and using a guild of empaths to work for peace. It was interesting if a bit predictable.

I am now starting Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich.

>123 porchsitter55: Porchsitter55 So glad you're enjoying the Jack Reacher series! Great description of it. I look forward to each new one that comes out.

I read two stories from my collection of Charles Dickens Christmas stories and have decided to bag the rest for this year. I am just not feeling them and find that I am forcing myself to read them. I did enjoy A Christmas Carol but had mixed feelings on The Chimes, most of those feelings being of the "What the heck is this anyway?" variety.

I have decided to read Saving CeeCee Honeycutt which is my ER book. It looks like this will be a book that I really enjoy and I am looking forward to starting it.

I know to the most of you this will be a bit early but around here it's already 8 p.m and people are firing their fireworks since it's dark, that means since 4 o´clock... So I'm already in the right mood to wish you all a Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR Tallulah Rose!!

Well I just finish a book that took me almost the whole month to read, and it isn't a thick book either. I finished Highland Hearts by Virginia Brown. I am planning to try and get one more book in before the new year and that is going to be Charlotte's Web by E.B.White

Happy New Year!!

Finished and loved Stitches by David Small and now I'm reading my first book for 2010 Let the Great World Spin. Happy New Year everyone.

I finished The People's History of the Supreme Court last night. Certain presumptions about how the court should have decided notwithstanding it was an informative and readable book.

After only a couple of minutes of puzzlement I found The Case for God by Karen Armstrong and read the introduction. If she keeps her promise, this book will be very helpful for me.

Tallulah, the fireworks have been going off here for a couple of weeks now. They are big enough that it is not likely they are legal. Usually they stop not long after midnight. They are an irritant.

Happy new year,

Robert

I finished Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich. It was a lite, fun romp with Stephanie and Diesel. It is a Between the Numbers book so it has a fantasy element.

I am now reading the non-fiction Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller. It is about African travels with an African soldier. A white Rhodesian who fought on the wrong side, and has demons to confront.

Happy New Year everyone! It's actually still 2009 here in the United States, but we'll join the rest of you guys in 2010 sooner or later...

Although it is already 2010 here (almost 3 hours of it actually) I need to post the last book I read in 2009 which was Rogue by Rachel Vincent and rather nicely my 160th book since I started recording my reading in March. Happy New Year to you all :)

Officially 2010 now in the US ... East Coast anyway. Happy New Year, everyone! Here's to a year of peace, happiness, good health, and lots of good reading. :-)

I finished The Year of the Flood at 11.59pm yesterday so started the New Year with the first book for my 1010 Category challenge Blood Music by Greg Bear and I will be starting to read Herodotus's Histories today.

Happy New Year - let's crack some books!

The second to last day of 2009, I read a book I was looking for a long time. It's called When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs. It's a graphic novel, it came out in the eighties, and the made into a movie. It took me about 30 or 40 minutes to finish it, and wasn't quite what I excepted. I still liked it and gave 4/5 here on libray thing. At the moment, I am looking for a new book to read.

My first book of 2010 was actually started on the last day of 2009, but it is The Dolphin People by Torsten Kroll. Sort of bizarre, but I'm really enjoying it.

Not a thing for the first time in a year!~!

>138 calm: Clm, I read Blood Music years ago and remember it as an all time favorite. It's on my 1010 as a classic sf to re-read. Please let me know what you think.

I've got to start Anna Karenina for my group read today and I'm reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford at the same time.

Happy New Year!
I finished my first 2010 book this morning, Man of Two Tribes by Arthur Upfield. I'm looking for more Upfield's now as this one was so well done. I'm also reading What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew and I'll be starting The Sound of Munich today or tomorrow. As I was forced to drink a whole bottle of champagne myself last night (oh, how did that happen?) it depends on how many naps I take today.

My first read of 2010 is City of Thieves by David Benioff. It's hard to put down!

I decided to have my first read of 2010 be a book I've never read by my favorite author, so I am reading At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie.

Happy New Year!
I finished my last book for 2009 - The Rose Variations - and have to admit I didn't find it all that great of a story so I ended my 2009 reading on a 'blah' note. I will be starting my 2010 reading with Moonlight in Odessa.

I can't believe I finished 81 books in 2009! I didn't expect half as much (literally, I only finished 41 books in 2008.)

It looks like my first book in 2010 will be Plague by Wendy Orent. Technically I started it on Dec. 22, but with the holidays and everything (video games) I'm only about halfway through it. My official first book started for 2010 will be The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'll probably get to starting it sometime over the weekend.

Anne- Great choice for your 1st book! I read City of Thieves last summer! It was excellent! Enjoy!
I'm continuing to read The White Rhino Hotel and it's been very entertaining and I just started listening to All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg and based on the 1st hour, this is going to be a great book!

I just finished reading Marcia Muller, Burn Out so am noting it as my first read of 2010, though actually I read most of it in 2009. I also finished reading Laura Lippman, By a Spider's Thread this week.

I am also reading a non fiction book - Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey - this is about a women's correspondence club who circulated a magazine between them in which they wrote about their lives from the 1930s to the 1980s, I think.

My next novel is going to be Chris Killen's The Bird Room - I was sent a free copy through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's scheme.

I just posted my first review of the New Year, in post #57 on my 75-Books Challenge thread. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is the lucky first up!

>#150, Mark, if you like All Over But the Shoutin' you need to read the other two books in Bragg's memoir trilogy, Ava's Man and The Prince of Frogtown.

>#152, Richard, great review, and I'm so thrilled you like Wells Tower's book. Such polished writing, is it not? Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned made my "best of" for 2009.

>153 SeanLong: Thanks, Sean! I really enjoyed Tower's book. It's rare to enjoy stories that much, at least for me. I prefer novels. It deserves a place on your, and most anyone's, Top 10 of 2009.

Finished Mrs Dalloway today. It was stunning. There's no plot and it's not easy but what a brilliant capturing of the all of the contradictions of life and death. I'm almost done with Crossing to Safety which I'm very much enjoying. The next book I've chosen is something completely different. It's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

I am reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde for a group read in the 1010 challenge.

I am reading Open by Andre Agassi, a gift from my tennis coach daughter. It's great so far. He really draws the reader into his tormented world as a young tennis prodigy.

I finished and reviewed Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and recommend this book.

I'm now on The Palace Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Love Begins in Winter by Simon van Booy.

My first book of 2010 is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. My book club will be discussing this book at the end of the month. I've read the reviews on LT and am looking forward to it.

A belated Happy New Year to everyone!