What Are You Reading the Week of January 30, 2010?

This week, among author birthdays is Irish novelist, poet, and stream-of-consciousness pioneer James Joyce (1882; d.1941), author of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1914), Ulysses (1922) -- which was banned in the U.S until a court decision in its favour in 1933 - and Finnegan's Wake (1939).

Wow, I'm one of the early posts this week!

I finished Shades of Grey this morning, which was really enjoyable and very different from Thursday Next (though still with the great sense of humor).

Now back to my regularly scheduled reading with Crime and Punishment.

I will be reading Revelation by Sansom this weekend.

Hoping to finish They Came Like Swallows before going out tonight. Let's Go Play at the Adams's arrived today after the (un?)recommendation of another LT-er and it certainly looks pretty sick; whether I will move onto that next is going to depend on how strong my stomach feels.

Still slogging slowly through The Book of Fathers and dreaming about being done with it. Last night I started The Queen's Dollmaker which I had high hopes for, but I think it is just going to be okay, not really good. The best historical fiction has a real sense of period. I can't point to anything in particular, but this just seems too modern to be late-18th century France, especially compared to Remarkable Creatures, which I just finished which is set about 20 years later in England. Tracy Chevalier did a great job with the period feel of that book.

So my reading is sort of 'eh' right now, but my listening is fantastic. I've got an audio of Henry Dolan's Bad Things Happen and both the story and the narrator are terrific.

I get the feeling The Book of Fathers might be on Mount TBR for a very long time. Chuck it out Devourer - life's too short!

I started The Voyage of the Narwhal yesterday - very enjoyable so far!

Just to repeat from the last thread:
Read Along for the Ride last night and loved it like I do for most Dessen books :)
I need to get the next part of World Without End read for the group read. Maybe tonight

>6 Booksloth:, Booksloth, I know, I know, but I have it for review and it isn't bad or even intrinsically boring, there's just nothing in it that interests me.

I missed reading this thread so much last week. When I got home from my travels, there were over 150 posts. No can do on a tired brain and body.

I am going to finish The Girls today for Orange January. A very compelling read -- both sad and funny. I have to get going on The Moonflower Vine for the Missouri Readers group, and will continue with World Without End for a 75-Book Challenge group read.

Why on earth did I just reserve seven books at the library? Thank goodness most of them have other holds. I hate it when all my books come in at the same time.

#3 DivineNanny ~ How are you enjoying Revelation? I stayed up way past my bedtime last night to read more of it and am finding it wonderfully riveting, but I still think that the third in the series Sovereign is the best of them all. We'll see if my opinion remains the same after I've finished, which I hope to do tonight. Then I have no idea what to read next, because I think I'll be spoiled for anything except another masterpiece after the third and fourth Sansom novels read back-to-back.

The Art of Racing in the Rain on audio is fantastic! This week's commute will be very pleasant listening to this marvelous book.

Donna, our library has a "freeze" option - if I have a book reserved and know I'm not going to be ready to read it when it's ready for me, I can freeze my hold - and keep my place in line. Then when I'm ready, I just unfreeze. It's a nice feature! And as far as I know, I can keep a book on ice indefinitely.

What I like most about my libraries is that even when I owe money they still let me check out books. I always return books late (sorry if you are waiting for one that is currently stacked in my car or on my desk) and they still let me check out more as long as I eventually pay my fees and always return the books. I appreciate that!

Today I downloaded The Lies of Locke Lamora and Magic Bites because I felt like a light-and-enjoyable-books-with-coffee-day is needed when its 5 degrees outside.

I reserved Shades of Grey at the library in an attempt not to pay for the hardback, and hopefully my patience will prevail and I'll wait for it rather than buying it later when I become impatient to read it.

On an Iceland jag. Going there for vacation in a few weeks. Wanted to read some of it's current literature.

Finished Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason. Gritty crime police procedural in Reykjavík. I'll get another.

Reading Stone Tree by Gyrðir Elíasson. Short, short stories... more like disconcerting sense impressions. First two or three were quite chilling with what seems like no payoff or resolution. Then I started to understand what they are about. Longerst on so far is about four pages, so I'll read a couple at a time and then put t aside. Very short book and putting off finishing it.

Picked up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies again. Now I'm in the mood to finish it. Lots of fun. Right now I'm jumping around between several books. Zombies is perfect for my current reading style. Can easily pick it up and put it down.

Really enjoying Best American Mystery Stories - 2009. Reading two or three a week. I don't usually read mystery short stories, so these a great eye-opener. Compelling and varied genre. Being introduced to lots of authors I can seek out.

And as usual, still riding along with Don Quixote. May finish by the end of the winter. Enjoying right now. Was also nice to read them along with Jar City and compare to Icelandic/Scandinavian crime fiction.

In no great hurry to finish anything right now. This reading style suiting me well right now.

I'm in the middle of Summertime: Fiction by J. M. Coetzee and I'm really enjoying it so far. The man can write!

Find-it-later post.

I finished Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman, by Jim Bernheimer. Saw it on LT. It is dark fantasy/urban fantasy.

Set in the modern day, a poor schmuck who is in the army in Iraq, gets wounded. His wound boots him out of the military, and when it heals allows him to see ghosts. He helps people with ghost problems, and ghosts with people problems. I enjoyed it.

Not sure what I will start next.

Still reading Pecan Orchard from last week. I am enjoying it although I do sometimes have a problem with the sentence structure and other editing issues. This is a non-fiction account of the author's childhood and family history as sharecroppers. I think the editing could have been a little bit better.

I'm still reading The Incredible Mets by sportswriter Maury Allen. This book was published the month after the Mets won the World Series in 1969. I thought the book would be entirely about the '69 season, but the first half of it was instead a history of the Mets franchise, showing the tortured route they took from being the joke of the league to the toast of the country. Then the second half is a look at the '69 season. I was seven when the Mets came into being in 1962, so while I have some memories of the team's first few years, I enjoyed the refresher.

Finished reading and just published my review for my ER book, Citizens of London by Lynne Olson. A very good book about the Anglo-American alliance in World War II. It's more of an anecdotal, human interest style book than a thorough history of the alliance, but you get a feel for what it must have been like to live and work in London during the war. Three thumbs up! Oh, wait, that's not a thumb. Never mind.

I'm planing to take another crack at Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood this week. I admire her writing, but her outlook is a bit too bleak for me. Everything seems comically exaggerated, which I don't believe is her purpose.

>13 teelgee:: I can also freeze books on hold; in fact, The Children's Book has been frozen for two months now. I may have to buy it due to its length, but will read part of it first to see if it lives up to its hype. My other six books are of more manageable length -- and one hasn't yet been released.

#11, I am loving Revelation, intrigued by the story (Shardlake just got "employed" by Cranmer). I have no idea which one I will like best, also because I read the first two so many years ago...

I'm still reading The Betrayal of the Blood Lily and The Three Musketeers. Somehow, being home more hasn't led to more reading, it's led to more time spent with my niece (a good thing) and sister-in-law (not so good).

I have decided to read The Cave Man by Xiaoda Xiao
A novel based on a true life event of the author being arrested and thrown into a prison camp in communist China. He also endures 9 months of solitary and then tries to reintegrate with humanity.

I'm just finishing up The Inheritance of Rome (Chris Wickham), with about fifty pages to go, and a couple days ago I finished a re-read of my namesake's Villette, so I think now I'm either going to do a re-read of Shirley or else read Rebecca Fraser's Charlotte Bronte biography (touchstone not working).

This morning I started The Snow Lion's Turquoise Mane by Surya Das. It's one of those books I picked up when the title/cover caught my eye. It's certainly intriguing so far.

At the moment I am reading An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon for my "at home" book - large hardback!

My going out book is Spindle's End by Robin McKinley. I picked it up yesterday after I finished The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J K Rowling.

My nonfiction read is The Dawn of Civilisation : Prehistory to 900BC an overview of early civilisations around the world.

When I've finished the Diana Gabaldon I will be returning to the group read of World Without End. Also, at some point this week I will be reading Book 2 of Herodotus's Histories for that group read!

I started Doomsday Book by Connie Willis this morning and am enjoying it tremendously. I have a feeling I'll be done with it before the weekend is out.

I finished A Good Fall in the wee hours of the morning, and was terribly moved by it. At one point I was sobbing (too much info on rest homes, and it made me think of my parents, need I say more?).

Today I am starting Bloodroot by Amy Greene as well as a continuous read of After the Fire, a Small Still Voice by Evie Wyld. Both look good.

I read Doomsday Book last year. It's a good book, a few minor problems in the middle annoyed me personally, but most people seem to really like it.

#20: I have to get The Incredible Mets! I was 8 years old during the unbelievable 1969 season, and went to a couple of Mets games with my church youth group that year (we lived in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, so it was an easy trip to Shea Stadium by public transit). Tom Seaver...Ron Swoboda...Tommie Agee...Gary Gentry...Koosman...a young Nolan Ryan...Don Clendenon...games on WOR TV with Kiner's Korner at the end of the broadcast, Lindsey Nelson and Ralph Kiner doing the play by play (or was that a bit later, in the early 70s?)...huge upset of the mighty Baltimore Orioles, who were supposed to steamroll the Miracle Mets. I'd love to see some of the TV coverage from that year, as well. Ah, memories...

Right. Back to books...I finished Beneath the Lion's Gaze, a debut novel by the Ethiopian writer Maaza Mengiste published earlier this month, which is about a father who is a renowned physician in Addis Ababa and his two adult sons, who experience loss and hardship during the last days of Emperor Haile Selassie's reign and the beginning of the military junta that followed. I couldn't put it down until I finished it at 4 am today, it was that good.

I'm currently reading Moving Parts, a short novel by Magdalena Tulli, and The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care by John Dittmer.

I have several books on the go, and finished several of them in the last couple of days.

My main book is now Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden - a woman who writes plays is looking back on her younger days and her friendship with Molly Fox, an actress. It's quite slow, reflective writing but I like it so far.

I've also started The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken, as part of my series reread. This was written years after The Cuckoo Tree but fits in before it in story sequence, as does Limbo Lodge.

I'm still reading The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole and a fascinating history of childcare manuals Dream Babies.

#32> kidzdoc, it's a fun book. You will enjoy it. btw, I grew up in Newark and Maplewood, but my mother is from Bayonne, right next to Jersey City, as you know. As for TV coverage, the MLB channel sometimes shows the original broadcasts of games from the 1969 Series when they run their classic games features.

Terri- I jumped on the computer early this morning, before work, (like I usually do) and the new weekly thread wasn't up! Tsk, tsk!
BTW, I loved The Voyage of the Narwhal and I hope you do too!

I'm reading my Early Review book Goosetown. At first it felt really disconnected and not very engaging. By half way through, I felt some connection and interest in the characters so getting better. Also reading Overflowing Brain which is okay but I'm a quarter of the way in and don't feel like I've learned anything I didn't already know yet. It seems he's still setting the stage.

>29 Talbin:: Talbin, Connie Willis is wonderful, and she is coming out with another book connected with Doomsday Book this year. If you need a little bit of a break after the rather serious DB, or something to get you to the new one, I heartily recommend To Say Nothing of the Dog, which operates in the same "world", but is completely hilarious.

I finished A Girl Named Zippy, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and am currently reading a quick kids book, The Library Card.

I finished Carnival by Elizabeth Bear today. Overall a good book. Science fiction / dystopia is not one of my usual genre's of choice but the characters were well developed and I was intrigued with the whole diplomatic/political theme. Next up is The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini.

I'm reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and really loving it. This is my second Murakami book and if it goes as well as the last I'll have to add him to my list of favorite authors.

I finished an ER book by Amy Bloom (one of my favorite authors) called Where the God of love Hangs Out. Review.

I will start on The Liar's Club by Mary Karr as part of Squeakychu's TIOLI challenge, Read a Book With a Red Spine.

Finished Star Trek Log Eight. Why did the captain, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy always go on those off the ship trips?

I should have On Many a Bloody Field done by tomorrow at the latest.

I finished Wings of Wrath earlier this week. Quite enjoyed it. It was a great follow up to the first book.

Now I've gone back to Wyrd Sisters.

I finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seems from what I've read that it is not universally liked, but it spoke to me. Not that I know anything about dog breeding or mutism, or that I understand Claude's motivation (I think he is just an evil being), but Edgar and his dogs enthralled me. ***SPOILER ALERT*** Seriously sad ending. I'm still thinking about it and will be for a few days.

Now, while I am still waiting for my Amazon order with The Help for my book club, I started Murder with Puffins as an antidote to Edgar's story.

>35 msf59: Mark, it was a test. Wanted to see if anyone noticed! ;o)

>32 kidzdoc: kidzdoc and >34rocketjk - My husband is also a Mets fan from way back. I'll have to find that for him. BTW, I'm from Rutherford. My dad was from Hoboken.

>43 jbleil: jbleil - I just finished Murder with Puffins and it's the perfect book to offset Edgar!

I just started Sarah Waters' Fingersmith and so far so very good.

>45 Copperskye:, I think you'll really like Fingersmith. Enjoy!

I'm not able to spend much time reading what I want to read (*pout*) so I am still reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott in little snatches. Our current read aloud is The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson, which we are loving so far. Ibbotson paints such a vivid and lovely picture of 1908 Vienna that it's a pleasure just to savor the setting.

I'm reading The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers. After I finish those, I think I'll start Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor.

Oh, great books! Fingersmith, Forever Amber, Wind-up Bird Chronicle - some people have some great reads going on!

I've now just started Let's Go Play at the Adams's. I do love 'disturbing' books and this one was mentioned elsewhere by several people as the most disturbing book they could think of. Unfortunately, I tend to forget that I had a better stomach for these things when I was much younger so I now have a habit of starting them and then weaseling out. I suspect that may happen with this one eventually but I'm doing all right so far. But then, nothing much has happened so far. If it lives up to the hype I may have to start another thread for 'How far did you get with this book before you had to give up?' We'll see.

I'm still reading North and South and enjoying every minute. Hopefully I'll have finished it by the end of Wednesday at the latest (we're off Tuesday and Wednesday). That means I've pushed The Snow Tourist onto the back burner a little - but it's waiting for me to float back into post-Gaskell.

Next up it's Miss Garnet's Angel and Eat, Pray, Love. They've been on my shelves for ages and I've had customers asking for them at the shop, so rather than ordering them in with all the postage costs etc., I said I'd read them next and give each woman a call when I was done!

I've started the most recent book from my Archipelago subscription: Georg Letham, Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss.

I am still reading The Daughter of Time by Josepine Tey and The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. They are both slow going this time. Not sure if it is because I am not in the mood for them or if I just haven't had the time to concentrate on reading them like I did the first few weeks of January.

#49 Miss Garnet's Angel is a beautiful book - I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Finished reading Atlantis Poems by Mark Doty. It's a collections of poems using luminous descriptions of the physical world, both natural and manmade, to illuminate the longings of life -- a life attempting to come to terms with death. Haunting and inspiring.

I gave up - temporarily, at least - on Let's Go Play at the Adams's - not because anything particularly horrible has happened so far but because it wasn't really calling to me. I do plan to read it some time but the one that is calling somewhat louder right now is Drood so anything else will have to wait for a while.

Wow, I go to sleep for the night, and wake up to being number 54 on here! LOL...

I started reading The Fellowship of the Rings last night. I had picked it up and started it before, and yet it was all foreign to me. Weird how that can happen, huh? Also, at some point in time since I last flipped through my copy, it seems to have been used as a mini-raft for fairies, or something because it's got mildew and water damage now. How the heck did THAT happen sitting on my book shelf?

Also reading Graceling and really in love with it, James and the Giant Peach, ditto on the book love, and Dead Until Dark... well, couldn't bat 1000, could I. Not really digging Sookie, or Bill, or Jason... or the book in general. I've went past page 25 and finished the first chapter, can I abandon it yet? Please tell me it's just a slow starter, otherwise I'll never make it.

I just finished A Year on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball and am picking up a ER book I need to review - The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. I loved Ladybug Farm and want to pick up the sequel as soon as possible. So far The Postmistress is good, just a little disjointed.

I've just started reading Beautiful Creatures which i'm really looking forward to since I've heard really great reviews of it.

I finished book nine for the year, The House On Tradd Street which was just fabulous. It is a mystery but did not feel like one. It is a romance but it did not feel like that either. And it is of course, a ghost story but did not always feel like that either. It felt real enough that it almost seems impossible to peg it for genre. It is a definite must read. I am going to share it with my mom. Now starting on Haunting Beauty. I did not get very far yesterday and I had all day to read. I think I am just having trouble falling into the story. It is an ARC so hopefully my reading pace picks up!

Finished Goosetown this morning. I found it a good book in the end, difficult to get into and not great but good.

#56 I am really looking forward to reading The Postmistress. Will look for your review.

I loved Fingersmith, in fact I've found myself a big Sarah Waters fan, Affinity was great and my favorite is The Night Watch. Her books always have little twists and turns and great character development. The BBC priductions of both Fingersmith and Affinity differ from the books but are still a treat. How surprised I was to find her latest, The Little Stranger to be such a disappointment - all development, no resolution.

This week I'm still reading Little Dorrit- it is 836 pages after all, and finding it more enjoyable with every page. I'm also listening to The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamont. I love both feminist and historical fiction, throw in dogs and you've got me for sure. It's a hard life for people, and dogs, in dogtown, some really wonderful, and really nasty characters show up. It's not at all like The Red Tent, but, after the first overwhelming chapter, draws me right in.

I finished The Cave Man by Xiaoda Xiao, about surviving solitary and a prison camp in communist China. It was interesting and good, though the ending seemed just tacked on. As though he didn't know how to end it. Sad too.

I am now reading The Rage of Achilles by Terence Hawkins, historical fiction about Achilles and the Trojan war.

I finished Sleep While I Sing this morning. Fun little mystery, doesn't take too long. I need to finish Galileo's Daughter this week but I'm really not loving it. Every time I pick it up I feel as though a bait and switch has been pulled on me. I also need to finish Flaubert's Parrot which I have thoroughly enjoyed so far.

Citizenjoyce -- if you use the square brackets rather than the parentheses, your touchstones will work. Well, they''ll work some of the time!

I'm about halfway through Krakatoa, which I've had on my shelf for a while but only got to now because it plugs one more gap in my LC challenge list. Despite how long it took me to get to it, it's really pretty good.

I finished On Many a Bloody Field - a Civil War book, obviously. I just picked up The Waterworks and have a book about St Paul and one on Ben Franklin on the table. The latter two will complete my one in ten categories for the 101 challenge. I also should be getting Kisser Woods soon from the library. I'll probably hear about that tomorrow afternoon after I have already been at the library in the morning for a completely different reason!

Thanks. I'm obviously new to this touchstone thing.

I started Ladysmith by Giles Foden yesterday. It's about the seige of Ladysmith during the Boer War. I also plan on starting A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie this week.

Just finished re-reading Far from the Madding Crowd. My review here,

http://www.librarything.com/work/14414/reviews/50320231

Now back to The Mousetrap and Selected Plays by Agatha Christie.

The Angel Maker by Stefan Brijs

Little, Big by John Crowley

Finished "The Book Thief" (we'll be discussing it during the final 3 sessions of "Holocaust Literature" class).
Currently reading the third book (The Ill-Made Knight) in "The Once and Future King".

About 160 pages of The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson left.

#45-I loved Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet-I got to read The Night Watch in college for a class and loved it as well. I actually really liked The Little Stranger.

I'm reading Shiver-its really good so far, and a quick read. I just started it yesterday, and am already almost done.

Went to the bookstore today just to get out of the cold and ended up purchasing Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, At Large and At Small and Rereadings. I knew I wanted to buy Ex Libris as I had read that recently at the Library and loved it, but was suckered into buying the other two because I loved the first one so much, and they were all right there arranged together. So susceptible to suggestive book placements!

I finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger on the flight home from vacation. I liked it more than I expected perhaps because I never read The Time Traveller's Wife so I wasn't invested in it living up to something I loved.

I've begun Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby and like it so far. I'm a fan of Hornby's particular tone.

I finished Mistaken Identity. Great Book. I just started Power To The People By Laura Ingraham.

Finished Child 44. Was a good but intense book. Now need something that sooths the mind and heart.

#55 koolaidmom:

Know what you mean about the Sookie Stackhouse books... I know a lot of people love them but to me they're just Harlequin romances with vampires and werewolves (let the booing and hissing begin...) Because I watched True Blood before picking up the books I just find the books so flat - the only redeeming factor in the books is Eric because Bill is pretty wimpy for a vamp...

Just saying...
:)

Just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows.

Will be starting Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.

I enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse series, better than the TV show actually. Are they just Harlequin romances with supernatural creatures, alas, probably. I wouldn't be caught dead reading Harlequins, yet I had no trouble reading and passing on the Sookie Stackhouses, I guess because Sookie is such a kick ass in control kind of gal with lots of surprises in store in every book. The opposite is true in the Twilight series, that main character, Bela, is vomit inducingly self hating. Would never recomend the books to anyone. This is the same reason I didn't like The Art of Racing in the Rain, the dog hates being a dog. If you hate being who you are and think nothing good will come to you until you're someone else, I think you're missing the whole point of life.
Charlaine Harris's best is the Lily Bard series about a woman who was horribly sexually abused and worked through the trauma by cleaning homes for people then becoming a private detective. Strong women characters make for a good novel, in my opinion.

Just finished A Dry White Season by Andre Brink, and gave it 5 stars.

Now I've switched to The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill. It's set in Laos in the 1970s, and it's reminding me of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective series, which I've never really got into. If it doesn't get better soon it might languish in a pile...

I finished the wonderful Family Roundabout by Richmal Crompton. I'm going to miss the Fowlers and the Willoughbys -- I heartily recommend you visit their little corner of England in the years between the two great wars
-- hurry, or you'll be late for tea . . .

Next up: The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

#81, Citizenjoyce - I agree! I've never picked up a romance novel in my life but I really enjoyed the sookie series. When the show started I thought the show was trying a little too hard with the embellishments and the plot jumping. I think it would have been a fun series if they had just done things the way they did in the books, but I guess it wasn't exciting enough for TV.

I just finished Shannon Hale's Austenland yesterday morning -- a light read for fans of our beloved Jane Austen, though I can see the validity behind criticism that the novel "cheapened" what we love best about classic books like Pride & Prejudice by pointing out all sorts of dark matters happening in the background of books. Still, I definitely enjoyed it!

I'm now in the middle of When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge -- already a compelling novel. Can't wait to get back to it on my lunch break!

I am starting Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I have heard so many good reviews.

Last night I began The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor. It's 479 pages. I'm going to be at this one for a while. The Spanish Civil War has long been an interest of mine, one that was rekindled when my wife and I traveled in Andalusia this past December. I actually found this book in the English language section of the Munich Airport bookstore on the way home from Spain.

Finished Lest Darkness Fall and I'll start The Arctic Incident, the second of the Artemis Fowl series, today.

I finished Moscardino, a novella by Enrico Pea early Sunday morning, which was mediocre, and this morning I read Wondrak and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig, which was pretty good. Today I'll start Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss, which is Archipelago Books' first offering for 2010.

This week I'm starting The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth as my fiction read. My current nonfiction book is The End of Overeating by David Kessler. The first part wasn't that interesting - lots about how the pleasure centers of rat brains light up when given delicious fat and sugar and salt. The middle parts are way more interesting, since they describe how the food industry manipulates the brain's response to food.

I also finished one of my "morning books" -- I'd been reading an essay per day from Agnes Jekyll's Kitchen Essays. My friends have laughed at me -- I'm not terribly domestic-minded, so they think it's strange I've been reading a book with the word "kitchen" in the title. And it's true, I'll never try any of the recipes, but I enjoyed reading them and I especially enjoyed Jekyll's writing and her wit -- also the chance to visit 1922 England. I thought of my grandmother many times -- how she, too, made the distinction (when measuring ingredients) between teaspoonful and dessertspoonful or teacupful and breakfastcupful.

This is not my typical read lol.. but I just started I Am Ozzy. Ozzy was interviewed on one of the morning news shows and I think the book will be a hoot.

#87-rocketjk,

Just checking in about the Spanish Civil War. I assume you've read George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia?

I'm still working on The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote. I am nothing if not determined.

Finished Lightning Thief and started Sea of Monsters for my at work book. I really got into World Without End this weekend for the group read. I don't know why I like this one and Pillars of the Earth neither are the best written books, but something about them draws the reader in. I do find the length of the book intimidating but guess I can handle that. I really enjoying the audio version of Forgotten Garden. I am almost done with it, and find myself skipping NPR news on the radio just to get in extra minutes with Eliza and Rose and their story.

I enjoyed The Forgotten Garden; the plot gets a bit complicated and I wonder whether the audio version makes that harder or easier to follow.

I finished Outlander and enjoyed it. As jennieg said, it's a time travel bodice ripper. I'm used to reading about time travel, but this is my first bodice ripper. Luckily, there was so much else going on that I didn't mind that. The details of life in 18th century Scotland, and a main character's use of current medical knowledge, as best she could, in that time period, stood out in particular.

I just started The Knife of Never Letting Go, also recommended here on LT.

I'm about to start The raw shark texts by Steven Hall. Very curious after this one. Furthermore I'm reading Madama Bovary, which I begin to like more and more.

Still reading Gone With the Wind, with just over 400 pages to go. Would love to finish it this week, although I'd only have until Friday to do so as weekends tend to have no reading time available.

Still have 196 pages to go in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - very enjoyable but LONG!!! Didn't help that I can't read more than 30 pages at a time these days - concentration's just not there...

Still reading Convoy by Dudley Pope and Germinal by Emile Zola. Been busy and not reading as much. But that will change soon.

I finished reading The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery and reviewed it here

I'm still reading Anna Karenina for the group read, and have also started The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones

I just put up a review! First one in AGES! It's of Dangerously Funny, which book is aimed at them as remembers the Smothers Brothers, of which I am one. It's in my 75-Books Challenge thread...#173.

>100 usnmm2: Mike, are you liking Germinal? I'm a Zola fan, so always looking for converts.

>101 cameling: Caro, I cooked the good, good pig last night and we finished him up tonight. He was nummy!

!03 Richarderus

Last year I tried to upgrade my reading. I was getting a little tired of the standard Sci fi and action novels I had been reading. A friend metioned Germinal to me. To make a long story longer I couldn't find it last year but came across his his Le Curee and enjoyed it. On doing a little surfing on the good ol' net I found out it was one of his books from his 20 novel "Rougon-Macquart" series. So I plan on tring to read what I can find.
Anyway I'm enjoying it so far.

"... from the dark, silent village to the puffing steam of Le Voreux, a long line of shadows moved slowly forward in the gusting wind, the miners on their way to work, shoulders hunched and superfluous arms folded across their chests. ...
Shivering with cold in their thin clothes they made no effort to hurry but quietly tramped along, strung out like a straggling herd of animals"

What's not to like with writing like that. It makes me wish I had payed more attention to my French teachers in school, so I could read it in French.

What's not to like with writing like that. That is the God's honest truth.
It makes me wish I had payed more attention to my French teachers in school, so I could read it in French. Germinal is an ideal novel to read in French because it's so clearly written. Get a Larousse and give it a go...slowly, and after finishing the translation, but it's a worthwhile attempt!

I finished Revelation and have started Tarzan of the Apes this morning

I spent the evening on the couch, nursing a cold and reading Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time -- her Inspector Alan Grant was bedridden, too, yet managing to investigate a 15th Century mystery.

Now I'm into Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

I read Molly Fox's Birthday very quickly and started reading a series mystery, The Coldest Blood by Jim Kelly yesterday. Then a review copy of a book about working class women in Wales between the wars arrived yesterday, Struggle or Starve edited by Sian Rhiannon Williams and Carol (?) so I've started reading that too. I'm now in the middle of too many books, really. I think I'll have to put Jim Kelly and Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked lower on the current reading pile and come back to them when I've read Struggle or Starve.

I finished The Rage of Achilles by Terence Hawkins, a crude, at times cartoonish excerpt of The Iliad. Not bad, but reading the F word 4-5 times a page got tiring.

I am now reading my first RL book group read for the month The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres. It is set in a made up Latin American country and quite sly and absurd so far.

#90 jfetting, The Radetzky March is a fantastic book and was one of my favorites the year I read it.

#107 mollygrace: I am currently reading Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time I hope to finish it tonight. It does get interesting at times.

I'm reading Bohjalian's new Secrets of Eden -- which includes the closest reference to LibraryThing I've seen yet in literature:

"...she had already marked A Sacred While as "to read" on all her online book forums..."

I started reading The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest last night and while I am enjoying it , it hasn't gripped my attention quite as quickly as the first two books did. I'm finding the lengthy chapters on Swedish governments in the 70's and 80's a tad off on a tangent and slightly tedious but when things get back around to Lisbeth it picks up again. I'm hoping I'll get really into it soon enough.

#7 teelgee...I loved Voyage of the Narwhal! It was one of those books I just couldn't get out of my head when I was finished. A great winter read--if you live somewhere cold--to appreciate your nice warm house.

I'm reading A German Requiem by Philip Kerr and listening to Weekends at Bellevue by Julie Holland. She's a psychiatrist who spent nine years working in the psych ER on weekend nights at Bellevue Hospital. I think most people would shudder at the idea, but it was her dream job. Very interesting and compelling book so far.

Now that I finished the half of my exams, I'll have a bit more time for reading.
I brought home Devil Bones from the library yesterday, but can't decide if I will start this now or first finish the ones that I've started some weeks before.
so, there are Soll und Haben waiting to be finished (the half to go) and Gaining Ground, my re-read for my term paper and A History of the English Language for my next exam. I think I'll try to finish Gaining Ground today, and then concentrate on the others and start Devil Bones. Let's see if it works.

I am stalled.....not much reading time........still reading The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris and listening to The Pickwick Papers.

#93> Smiley,

No, believe it or not, I've never read the Orwell memoir, although it's on my shelf awaiting my attention. The Spanish Civil War memoirs/novels I've read so far are

Behind the Spanish Barricades by John Langdon-Davies: Langdon-Davis was a British journalist who traveled around Spain on his motorcycle during the war. As he was known by the Loyalists to be trying to drum up British support for their cause, he was welcomed by them. This book is his published report, and came out while the war was still going on. Quite fascinating stuff.

Another Hill by Milton Wolff: Wolff was the last commander of the Lincoln Brigade, composed of American volunteers fighting for the Loyalists. This book is a novelized account of his experiences. Both fascinating and a very good read.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee: As a young man, Lee left his native England to spend a year hiking around Spain. That time period happened to be the year leading up to the outbreak of the war. Although this memoir only deals with the very beginning of hostilities, Lee's descriptions of the poverty in the countryside and small towns gives valuable insight into one of the important root causes of the conflict.

I've just started Joanne Harris's Coastliners.

Also on the currently reading pile are Book 2 of Herodotus's Histories (group read); World Without End (group read); The Dawn of Civilisation : Prehistory to 900 BC and the Augustus section of Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars.

Finished The Waterworks and I am halfway through The First Paul Borg and will also now read The Clone Wars - just for fun.

Finished Tempest Rising and think I'm going to start on Trial of Flowers. Both authors are new to me.

#117-rocketjk,

The flip side: The only thing I've read that is exclusively about the Spanish Civil War is Orwell's memior. I would encourage you to give it a look. I still remember the first time I read the passage where he describes being shot in the throat. Over the years I've read it 3 or 4 times. I keep going back to Orwell's nonfiction.

I finished The Queen's Dollmaker (it was just okay) last night, and started Dream House this morning. Now I'm wondering what is with all the books I've read lately that are set in Ann Arbor: Dream House, Bad Things Happen, and The Weight of Heaven (part of it, at least).

Currently immersed in Chuck Klosterman's newish book Eating the Dinosaur. So far I have no idea what it's about, but that's ok, because I love Chuck.

#116 Hi, Hemlok ~ How goes The Picwick Papers on audio?

You should read the alex rider series...it's packed with action. I'm on Scorpia right now.

Finished Tarzan of the Apes and need some non-fiction, so I will start on I wish I'd been there this morning...

I'm also reading Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. I'm not very far into it but I am really enjoying it.

I've also begun No Graves as Yet by Anne Perry. I just can't get enough of books written about WWI lately.

I'm also beginning The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.

I finished a good solid crime thriller called Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter. It is the first book in the series. I will continue in the crime vein and switch to Scandinavia for The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell. I really enjoyed his first book. And of course, I'm still reading World Without End for the acclaimed Group Read!

After the Quake was my introduction to Murakami and I found the stories haunting. The magical realism read like a cross between parable and modern stories of the ordinary person. I can't say I immediately understood them all but I can't stop thinking of them. I'm still reading The Overflowing Brain but am now on the prowl for what's next.

Tomorrow I plan to start The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. I've never read a non-fiction of this size (700+ pages) so I kept putting off starting it, but I think it's about time I finally settle down and give it a shot.

I am reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I am also trying to read The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir.

#121> "I keep going back to Orwell's nonfiction.

I am looking forward to reading Homage to Catalonia. You know . . . one of these days! I also have a collection of Orwell's essays waiting for me. The one I know well, and have used in an ESL class I was teaching, is "Shooting an Elephant," which is terrific. I also read parts of Down and Out in Paris and London in a Freshman year literature class back in 1973.

I started Devil Bones today. It isn't catching my attention so much as did the prequels, I miss Ryan, but hey, let's see how she carries on.

I started The Elusive Bride as an antidote for Haunting Beauty which is good but reads ever so slowly, as I want to make heads or tails out of what is going on in her out of body experiences.

Finished Gone With the Wind! Now onto One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

I finished Crime and Punishment! I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it, I found it very compelling and not nearly as dense as The Brothers Karamazov.

Now I'm reading Hunt for the Eye of Ogin for Early Reviewers.

I have just started The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa.

#131 madphill That's ambitious to read both Wolf Hall and The Lady in the Tower in one fell swoop! I read Wolf Hall last month and now am very Anne-Boleyn-ed out! Enjoyed Wolf Hall immensely, though (my review http://www.lyza.com/2010/01/14/book-review-wolf-hall-by-hilary-mantel/ )

#135 trinah One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is great (and considered required reading here in Kesey's home state of Oregon). For a real interesting challenge you might consider reading his Sometimes a Great Notion -- I'd go out on a limb and claim it's actually a better book than Cuckoo's Nest!

I myself am just starting int Let the Great World Spin (reading both for pleasure and for a book club). I usually find that the winners of the National Book Award don't float my boat (I have strong opinions about book lists), but so far, so good!

#132-rocketjk,

Somewhere in Down and Out Orwell gives some great advice like "always pay your rent so you'll have a dry place to starve to death. The Road to Wigan Pier is one of my favorites.

I'm reading Shutter Island for the third time in preparation for going to see the movie as soon as it comes out. It's one of my favorite books of all-time, and one that manages, even with knowing the ending, to still have something new to offer every time I read it. I'm catching things now I didn't before, even reading it for the third time. It's one of those books I absolutely cannot recommend enough.

I'm reading Evelio Rosero's Los ejercitos (The Armies, but the touchstone doesn't work under that name) about violence in contemporary Colombia. Today I started M.R. James' Ghost Stories of an Antiquary on audiobook (thank you, librivox!)

I finished I wish I'd been there and on my way home I will start The Great Mortality by John Kelly

Nice to see the talk about Orwell. I reread Down and Out in Paris and London a couple of years ago and meant to follow up by reading more of his nonfiction. Thanks for the reminder, Smiley and rocketjk.

I just finished Jean Rhys's haunting Wide Sargasso Sea -- I
appreciated Francis Wyndham's introduction to the book which made me want to read those earlier Rhys novels.

Next up: The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon, one of the books in her Brunetti series.

>140 seasonsoflove:: I recently listened to Shutter Island. I was entirely surprised (and somewhat deflated) by the ending, but thought that I should actually read the book to be fair. I tend to miss some detail with audiobooks and driving. I'd like to hear what you think of the movie as I'm tempted to go see it.

I finished The Arctic Incident last night and started A Swell Looking Babe.
#140 seasonoflove- I'm also waiting with anticipation for the movie. The book was great and the movie looks plenty creepy.

#138> For what it's worth, I, too, enjoyed Sometimes a Great Notion more than I did Cuckoo's Nest, although I enjoyed the latter immensely, as well.

Just finished Making Rounds With Oscar, about the cat that made headlines a couple years ago with his seeming ability to predict the deaths of nursing-home residents. I see it's headed for the Feb10 ER list, so a caveat: it's less about the cat and more about aging, dementia, and caregiving. A good book but not the one I expected from the title.

#138/146 Dammit - another one for the wishlist. I love Cuckoo's Nest too.

I finally finished my re-read of Gaining Ground today. I did not enjoy it as much as the first time, because I had to concentrate on certain aspects and pick them out, but it was still an incredible book which I can just recommend.
Also got halfway through Devil Bones. It isn't that gripping like some of the other ones, but still good. It's enjoyable and light.

#140: seasonsoflove:

I've added Shutter Island to my list and have requested it from my local library. I pay attention when someone says "one of my favorite books." Thanks for the recommendation.

Karen O.

#138 & 146:

I was born and still live in the Northwest. When I become friends with a reader that has moved here I give them two books: The Good Rain by Timothy Egan and Sometimes A Great Notion. As an aside, I grew up in the Great Notion part, and dryer parts but now live with the Good Rain. Stegner's The Big Rock Candy Mountain also rings true.

#151 See, to some of us here the North West means The Road to Wigan Pier more than Great Notion

I just finished listening to Forgotten Garden and loved it. This one is going on my favorites of 2010. The reader is outstanding and the multiple timelines add to the book. Did anybody else notice the literary references? The appearance of Francis Hodgson Burnett was subtle but effective. Now I will have to read The Secret Garden because I am ashamed to write it, but I have never read the complete book. I have listened to an abridged version and saw the BBC production but have never read it. I splurged on Forgotten Garden and gave this one 4 1/2 stars!

This morning I watched DW TV (the German language TV network we get here in the U.S.) and they had a short news article about a Swedish actress - Noomi Rapace. I was astonished to learn that her latest part was that of Lisbeth Salander in the movie version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Does anybody know the story here? Is this a movie that is going to be released in the U.S.?

I am reading Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede - it's a fun fantasy read and also The White Raven by Robert Low, it's the third book in a series about Vikings. Both my brother and my sister are waiting for me to pass this one along.

>153 benitastrnad:: I read and loved Forgotten Garden last year and I would imagine that it could only be enhanced by a good reader. I also read The House at Riverton by the same author. It was pretty good too, but I think I liked Garden more.

I've just reviewed a truly marvelous book, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, vol. 1: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson in my Homeless Reviews thread... post #51...and I can't urge you enough to get and read it if you haven't already.

LTer mikeepatrick becomes the god of my heathen idolatry for raving about this book so hard that I was compelled to read it. It's a four-and-a-half star read, and deserves its awards! (National Book Award, Printz Award)

edited/pernickety touchstone

#152-Booksloth (great name),

We must have stolen the Northwest name from you guys then and the rest was probably just my blind, boorish Americanism. However, I may have redeemed myself a bit if you'll take a look @ the last sentence in #139.

This week finds me halfway through two books:

Vietnam: The Australian War by Paul Ham
- a must read for anyone interested in the Vietnam War

The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki
- a must read for anyone interested in how the American political, economic, and military systems have come to undermine the carefully crafted structure of the founders vision of the republic, and upset the balance of power.

I'm reading a galley of Annie Lamott's new book IMPERFECT BIRDS, which is so wonderful I've been doing nothing else but reading.

Finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, and am now reading Junky by William S. Burroughs

I'm still reading Fingersmith but got sidetracked with the totally sweet Thereby Hangs the Tail, the second book in the Chet and Bernie mystery series. It's irresistible!

>160 CarolineLeavitt: I'm so glad to hear that Imperfect Birds is a winner!

#158 You don't need redeeming, Smiley - just a matter of geography:)

#154, I know the movies for Stieg Larsson's books have been very popular here in The Netherlands (I think 1 & 2 are out now, with 3 soon to follow). Wikipedia says that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be released in the US in March, but it might be a small release...

I've finished Struggle or Starve, which has some sad stories but also some very positive and lovely ones, yesterday. Now concentrating on Juliet, Naked and liking it so far - I've bought hsi others but haven't read anything else by Nick Hornby since High Fidelity.

I just finished The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa and have three books up next. Two are enormous texts that I am reading slowly over a number of months
A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes and
The Landmark Herodotus edited by Robert B. Strassler.
I have just started a new novel,The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj.

I started Critters of Mossy Creek, a September Early Reviewer book I just received

I started Critters of Mossy Creek, a September Early Reviewer book I just received

Just finished The Knife of Never Letting Go, which has an interesting premise and is a real page-turner. I'll need to track down the sequel.

Started When the Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie.

I finished reading Krakatoa last night on the subway home from work, and through an unexpectedly well-timed library hold, I picked up Cranford on the way home from the subway. (I'm now about 50 pages in.)

#11- I just finished Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and I hope you like it as much as I did

I'm still reading Juliet, Naked, but I left my Kindle at work and then called off sick. So I began City of Glass yesterday. I'm not usually one for multiple books but these seem different enough that I can give it a go...

So excited ~ just started How Rome Fell by Adrian Goldsworthy, a nonfiction history of what may have caused the fall of the Roman Empire. I read his biography on Caesar a year or so ago and found it brilliantly done. While it read more like a novel than a nonfiction bio, it was well-researched and -documented.

Also reading Organizing Your Day by Sandra Felton (which I desperately need) and Shakespeare's London on 5 Groats a Day by Richard Tames (for light relief).

#174 Well, it certainly sounds like light relief - I read it as Shakespeare's London on 5 Goats a Day, which it might be worth someone writing.

LOL That's some title, Booksloth!

This week, and probably next week as well, I'm reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Absorbing and needing concentration. It's my second of his- (Cryptonomicon) was the first- and I am wowed by this author.

I've started The Perfect Heresy, about the medieval Cathars, and so far am ecstatically slurping it up in great gulps.

#178> Hey Richard, a few years back my wife and I traveled a bit in southern France and went to the ruins of several Cathar castles. The history is quite fascinating, but I've never read a full-length book on the subject. I'll be looking forward to your report on this book. (I have this one, which we bought during our trip and is more of a travel guidebook than a serious history: Discovering the Cathars.)

The Clone Wars is done.

I also visited some of the Cathar castles when I was in the southwest of France in 1990 and enjoyed reading Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (correct book but wrong title in touchstone) by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. While there, I bought Massacre at Monsegur: A History of the Albignenisan Crusade by Zoe Oldenbourg in French, and later bought it in English, but haven't read it in either. Hard to believe that trip was nearly 20 years ago!

#178 richardderus

I knew about the Cathars from a Medieval history class in college, but hadn't really thought about them in years until I picked up Kate Mosse Labyrinth. I buzzed through that book in one weekend and got really interested in the story of the Albigensian Crusade. Then a friend of mine e-mailed from a town in southern France where she was vacationing for two weeks. It was one of the towns in the book! That got me interested in Oc as a language and as a region. I was happy to learn that there has been a revival of Oc in both written and spoken form. How exciting.

I wish you happy reading.

#181> Monsegur is one of the castles my wife and I visited.

Although supposedly the original Cathar castle there was totally obliterated and what you visit now are actually the ruins of a castle built a century or so later on the same spot. From wikipedia:

"The present fortress ruin at Montségur is not from the Cathar era. The original Cathar fortress of Montségur was entirely pulled down by the victorious royal forces after its capture in 1244. It was gradually rebuilt and upgraded over the next three centuries by royal forces. The current ruin so dramatically occupying the site, and featured in illustrations, is referred to by French archeologists as "Montsegur III" and is typical of post-medieval royal French defensive architecture of the 1600s. It is not "Montsegur II," the structure in which the Cathars lived and were besieged and of which no trace remains today.

Not that anybody asked me.

#182> "That got me interested in Oc as a language and as a region. I was happy to learn that there has been a revival of Oc in both written and spoken form. How exciting."

Seriously, that's really interesting. Because my wife and I were there and have great memories of the place, we always look for wines from Pays D'Oc. There are a lot of them and can often be found at very reasonable prices.

I will have to look up what castles I visited. I bought the Massacre at Montsegur book in Carcassone, which is where I rented the car for the trip.

Still on Anna Karenina for the group read and I've also started George Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss which I hope to finish today.

Occitan culture in general was suppressed by the victorious Franks after the cataclysm of 1244. Between naps and fever-breaks today, I've been absorbing and enjoying The Perfect Heresy and daydreaming a better, Cathar world (though I sure as the dickens ain't interested in no consolamentum, thanks! I'll take metempsychosis, at least a few more times).

Imagine...a dominant religion of tolerance and acceptance! How would that work?

Finished three books in two days..yipes....Still Life by Louise Penny; Grace After Midnight: a Memoir by Felicia "Snoop" Pearson; and Oom by D J Webber....Reviews for the first two can be found by clicking on the title(s)

Started Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers.....my LT Member Giveaway book...translated by Joe Bandel (this in PDF form, downloaded to my KINDLE)....i need a physical book as well.....have to scope out The shelves............~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:

;-}

Jude- You are smokin'!!!! Keep it up!!

Currently reading Voyage au Bout de la Nuit by Céline.
Where Keynes Went Wrong is in the waiting line.

Voyage au Bout de la Nuit: great book, I think (having read it twice), and no doubt even better if one can read it in French. Just started Bric-a-Brac Man by Russell Greenan, a woefully underapprecaited writer.