What are you reading the week of February 6, 2010?

Alice Walker turns 66 this week. She has written at length on issues of race and gender, and is most famous for the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was born and raised in Georgia (US).

Other author birthdays this week: Charles Dickens, Boris Pasternak, Berthold Brecht and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I'm reading Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. I was skeptical for the first chapter but am loving it now that I'm into it a little further.

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............~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:

;-}

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby - it's featured on the TV Bookclub tomorrow

The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken - reread of a children's book from a favourite series (now known as the Wolves of Willoughby Chase Chronicles), though I think I only read this once before as I don't remember anything about it from previous reading.

True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole by Sue Townsend - also a reread - I plan to reread/read the whole series

Dream Babies by Christina Hardyment - a history and analysis of childcare manuals. The crueller advice makes me want to cuddle my 1 year old more.

The Coldest Blood by Jim Kelly - series mystery

San Francisco Noir edited by Peter Maravelis - anthology of short stories - I'm planning to try and read one of these noir anthologies each month

Lots of books coming up, out of the library etc that I need to read soon too.

I should finish The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care by John Dittmer this weekend, which I'm reading for Black History Month and for the Medicine category of my 1010 challenge (recommended by alcottacre and LisaCurcio).

Later today I'll start Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss, the first book published this year by Archipelago Books, which rebeccanyc finished a day or two ago.

I'm reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest and The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin for LT Early Reviewers.

Happy Birthday, Alice Walker! My reading life would have been so much poorer without this amazing woman!

And happy birthday, too, to Charles Dickens - for similar reasons - and particularly appropriate for me right now as I'm still in the middle of loving every word of Drood.

almost done with The First Paul Borg and have started God in Ruins

I'm continuing with The Coming Plague and highly enjoying it so far. Very fascinating read. I was worried about it's size - it's pretty big for a nonfiction, but I think by the end of it I'll be wishing there was more, if the first couple hundred pages are any indication. :)

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

I finished The Overflowing Brain last evening. It was good but not fascinating. It focused on working memory, what it is, its limits, and how to improve it. I'm about half way through Sula, my first Toni Morrison, and am impressed. Started Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World which promises to be very interesting.

I will finish The Great Mortality today or tomorrow. Next week I am planning a major book buying (and business) trip to London, so my weekly reads will be whatever I find there.... :D

Having finished the wonderful North and South last week, I'm now back to The Snow Tourist by Charlie English. I was surprised to see how few copies there are here on LT - it's a fascinating book covering everything from avalanches to the history of skiing, with evocative travel writing and a touch of autobiography woven in there too. Definitely one to snuggle up with in a warm place with a hot drink though, it makes me feel chilly just reading it!

I'm in the middle of Tana French's In the Woods and thoroughly enjoying it.

As kidzdoc says above, I just finished Georg Letham, Physician and Murderer, a remarkable book that is both compelling and horrifying and have started The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa, a short (for him, anyway) novel that I'm reading for the Reading Globally jungle/rainforest theme read. Since I have a cold, and can therefore rationalize not doing any chores or errands, I may well finish it today if I'm not reduced to watching Law and Order reruns on TV.

This is my finishing up week...I am half-way through I Am The Messenger, over 3/4 through World Without End...and just really getting into Light In August. I am enjoying each of these books in very different ways.

I finished Donna Leon's The Girl of his Dreams and now I'm reading Andre Aciman's memoir, Out of Egypt.

happy birthday, too, to Charles Dickens
On which day did that hideous mischance occur? I need to know when to hang the black crepe.

>2 teelgee:, teelgee, I read Lark and Termite last year, and like you, wasn't sure about it until I had spent some time with it. Great read.

I finished Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, and I'm not sure what to read next. I'm thinking of starting The Lightning Thief, (the first book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series), or re-reading the wonderful The Book Thief for my RL book club. Apparently I have thieving on my mind.

My reading has descended into chaos. I'm trying to finish Flaubert's Parrot which I am so enjoying and then in last week's thread I see that Jasper Fforde has a new book out ...so I put myself on the list thinking it would be weeks before I got my chance and of course lo and behold look what arrives in the courier box. Well I won't get renew privileges on that so Shades of Gray has now drifted up to the top. And I can't resist the 3rd mystery in the series by L.R. Wright so that's getting attention too. What a pleasant mess to be in.

I finished A Swell-Looking Babe, a '50's pulp crime take on the Oedipus Complex. I'll be starting the non-fiction Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle now. Good, good, good.

#22 I'd go further - good, good, good, good!

I'm about a quarter of the way into Antony Beevor's The Battle for Spain: the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. It's very depressing. Lots of anger of entrenched, diametrically opposed positions, fueled by centuries of class animosities, led to ferocious, horrific killing sprees in city after city and town after town. Beevor outlines them one after another in order to illustrate the scale and pervasiveness of the explosion of fear and violence. But the book is very well written and I am learning a lot about a subject I've always found fascinating more or less from a distance.

I finished Devil Bones today. It was good and enjoyable, but not as much attention drawing as some of her other books had been. It was agood distraction, now I can g back to studying a bit refreshed.
That makes still A History of the English Language, which is pretty good for a linguistic history giving just an overview.
I will not count the other books sitting on my shelves half-read, because I think I will not get around to read them this week.

I've read three-fifths of Cranford. What I'll read next will depend on how long it remains "IN TRANSIT."

I have been in a reading funk for the last couple of days, picking up and discarding books. I have now settled on There a Petal Silently Falls, a collection of three short stories by Ch'oe Yun.

For those of you following the Occitan discussion from last week - I understand that Oc is also a written language and that some schools in the region are teaching it. They are using the curriculum for reintroducing Irish Gaelic into the schools as a model since that country has been so successful in returning Irish Gaelic from the dead. It also seems to me that there is some Occitan poet who rose to prominence in the last thirty years and is a moving force in the resurrection of the language. Maybe somebody here knows who he is?

Finished reading The Mousetrap and Selected Plays by Agatha Christie. Enjoyed it immensely! The link to my review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/55793100

Now I’m going ot tackle David Copperfield for my Monthly Author Reads group.

Reading "Candle In The Wind", the 4th and last book in "The Once and Future King".
Starting "Travels with Charlie...in Search of America" by John Steinbeck (delightful so far) and "Tess of the D'Ubervilles" by Thomas Hardy. All for book discussion classes.

You would think that with all the snow we have I would be curled up with a good book. I am currently reading The Zookeeper's Wife. I am not getting into this book and I don't know why. I won't quit it because it is for my library book club and I want to try getting through it. I am off to try and read some of my book. Happy Reading All!!

Artic Drift by Clive Cussler - not loving it but want to finish it out of loyalty to how much I've enjoyed many of his other Dirk Pitt books also rereading The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner a book I've loved since science fiction class in University. And finally, picking my way through blink by Malcolm Gladwell - cool book.

28> Small point of information: I agree with you that the Irish have done a very good job of re-introducing the Irish language to their population, but I wouldn't quite say the language was "returned from the dead," as there are somewhere between 40 and 80 thousand native Irish speakers in the west of Ireland even today.* When I was in County Kerry in the mid-90s, I met a young woman who told me that the first time she heard English spoken was when she went to grammar school.

I certainly agree with your overall point, and even 80K is a small minority of the overall population of Ireland, but "returned from the dead" I think is not quite right. But I think it's fair to say the Irish saved their native language from what would surely have been its eventual death.

Sorry to be a nitpicker. And I think it's really cool that Occitan is being brought back. When my wife and I were in Brittany a few years back, we learned that there's a similar, if perhaps not as strenuous, movement to bring back the Breton language.

* According to this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language

I finished The Greatest Knight on audio by Elizabeth Chadwick and am now beginning (on audio) The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde.

I just finished reading Homeland by Barbara Hambly. I loved the book and now want to find some non-fiction to read written about the Civil War period but from a woman's point of view. I will have to do some looking at the local library. I also have started Alice I Have Been. Not sure what else I'm going to start at this point.

Although it's nearly 2am I may just settle down in bed with World Without End and try and polish off Part VI before I go comatose

I'm now reading The Islands, Universe, Home by Gretel Ehrlich. She is one of my favorite authors; this is one of her older books that I finally ordered. Her writing is mesmerizing.

She's got a new book - In The Empire of Ice: Encounters in a Changing Landscape - being released in April that explores the ecology and culture of the Arctic Circle (her prior books about the cold climate zones include The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold and This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland).

I should probably mention that I traveled to the Arctic Circle for my last two vacations.

I had to make a bit of a road trip today, so I started listening to the audio of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. I heard him on the Bill Moyer's program, a couple weeks ago, promoting his latest book and he sounded like an interesting man. He is quite the humanitarian and the book has been very good so far.
Also well into The Dogs of Riga. Mankell scores again!

Starting the Penguin Classics editon of Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron soon. And a mighty thick one it is.

I am about 1/3 through Going Bovine by Libba Bray. I bought it last weekend after I heard her speak at a conference and fell madly in love with her sense of humor. It is very strange, but immensely enjoyable.

I just started reading The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy today. I had started the novel about ten years ago, but work obligations forced me to put it down before I finished it. That always bothered me and this time I'm determined to finish what seems to be a beautifully written book!

I'm still reading The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill - it got bumped for Excellent Women, but it's improving fast so I should finish it soon. And I've just started Timothy Garton Ash's Facts are Subversive , a collection of his writing on Europe from 2000-2009. I've really enjoyed 2 of his other books.

I'm finishing Bloodroot by Amy Greene, and after the spell runs out I'm starting Evie Wyld's After the Fire, a Small Still Voice. Hopefully my Archipelago order will arrive by then and I can start Georg Letham Physician and Murderer.

Books are intoxicating.

>43 BlackSheepDances:
What is Archipelago? I've seen it mentioned before.

> 24 Several years ago I read The Spanish Civil War, and old but serviceable account by Hugh Thomas of a conflict that I knew very little about. It is indeed a depressing story, and I was surprised by the ferocity shown on both sides.

At the moment, I'm 1040 pages into The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L Shirer. Fascinating and horrible.

cmt- Glad you are starting to enjoy The Coroner's Lunch. I really enjoyed the book, finding it fresh and interesting. I need to track down the next in the series!

I'm reading Serena by Ron Rash. His books always take me away to another time and place.

#44, Archipelago is a not-for-profit publisher of translated literature that offers subscriptions as well as the ability to buy individual books.

what is it about series novels - like the Dirk Pitt series (#32) - at first you can't wait for more and hope the author never stops - but then after a while you wish he/she would? though there may be a couple that do still work after the 20th or so book

#43 I have a copy of Bloodroot. Did you like it? I am looking forward to reading it.

Finished The Great Mortality this morning and will search for new books starting tomorrow :)

Is starting to like Shades of Grey now that I have the time to sit down and devote to it!

Last book I read was Radium Halos about the Radium Dial Painters. It's a quick read and kind of interesting because the novel is based on facts. I never heard about the Radium Dial Girls (innocently ingested radium while painting clock and watch dials) before. Shocking stuff. I'm reading The Murderer's Daughters now.

I read About Alice by Calvin Trillin this morning, and I am about to start Peter Lovesey's Skeleton Hill. I'm not sure what I'll read after that one.

Need something light after All Souls: A Family Story from Southie and the excellent The Art of Racing in the Rain so I'm going for Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I didn't enjoy the movie but since the book is so often better......I'll give it a try.

This is my first post, after joining LT last month. I'm reading Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, the first of the Kurt Wallender mysteries. I enjoy reading a series from the beginning. After I finish, I hope to begin reading the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace. It's been waiting to be read for a long time.

#56 Well, hi, CareyJo and welcome! By now you're probably wondering how come the book titles in everyone else's posts are in blue and yours aren't. If you put square brackets around a book title it should create a link to the details of that book. The full instructions on how to do that appear to the right of the box you type your message in.

Anyway, hope you have a lot of fun here. See you around.

The First Paul Borg is read. Gave me a new feeling for the saint.

>56 CareyJo:: Welcome aboard, CareyJo (although after reading your profile page, maybe that's not the best way to welcome you!) Looking forward to hearing about what you read and enjoy here at LT.

#54 booklady2031 ~ Oh, I've loved everything I've read written by Calvin Trillin. Haven't read About Alice yet, though I've meant to ~ better add it to my getting-out-of-control TBR list before I forget again. Also love Lovesey's mysteries, though again haven't read Skeleton Hill.

I'm experiencing another one of those ADHD multiple-book reading moments: Still fascinated by Goldsworthy's How Rome Fell (my bedtime book), but also reading The Haunted Bookshop (in the living room), Ten Discoveries that Rewrote History (bathroom), The New Messies Manual (for which I am also taking notes), and Organizing Your Day (at the office). I wish I could just settle down with one or two and finish them before skittering off to another.

I finally finished The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Berniers. I enjoyed it, and it had quite sly humor, but it jumped around and often read like an encyclopedia (lots of telling).

I am now reading The Sky People by S.M. Stirling, it too is for a RL book group.

I loved Coroner's Lunch and the sequels.

Ape, I also found The Coming Plague incredibly interesting and informative. Its amazing how much has been learned fighting AIDS, which is one of the subjects. I thought it flew by for such a large book.

Richard, I also agree that Charles Dickens requires mourning.

Finished Sula today, my first Toni Morrison. I loved the writing, the scenes drawn and the characters. I feel like I missed at least half of the meaning of the book but am intrigued enough to want to read another.

>59 teelgee: Thanks, teelgee! I just read your profile and feel that we've read many of the same books and have ideas in common. I'll watch for your posts.

Started reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I was somewhat intrigued to read it after Robert Downey Jnr's interesting portrayal of the character, and am now immensely enjoying the book itself, even more so than the film.

61: I read The Sky People last year and really enjoyed it. If you like it, In the Courts of the Crimson King is worth reading as well for the unique contrast between the two worlds.

>56 CareyJo: - Welcome CareyJo! Growing up, I spent most of the month of August close to where you live now on LBI.

I'm still reading Fingersmith but may start another light mystery on the side, probably Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos.

I recently finished Thereby Hangs a Tail, the second Chet and Bernie mystery and highly recommend it, especially for dog lovers.

Thanks Ape. I Actually got that book first I think. I then got the Sky People when I realized it was a series.

I only have to read this one for the book group. The second will have to wait for another day. Stirling is OK, but he tends to devolve into endless battles. I hope that isn't the case with the first book in the series.

Took the plunge and started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson...this afternoon...this ARC has been around seems like forever..i just never picked it up...now, if the weather holds off from doing any serious Nastiness...i might make some headway...

#31 crazy4reading keep reading The zookeepers wife, it took me awhile to get into it but I was glad I read it. I met the author at the National Book Festival in DC and that is when I purchased the book.

Anyone read The man who loved books too much - wow what a great book. Book lovers do crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzy things.

I am now reading Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Village I started reading these out of order and need to read this and than jump to his new one Irish Country Girl.

>62 snash:: I frequently feel that I have missed much of the meaning after reading Ms. Morrison's books, yet I still keep reading them in hopes that understanding will ultimately set in.

I am still dragging my way through I Am The Messenger. This is definitely a blind date that isn't working out!

Yesterday I picked up Soll und Haben again. I read it halway through in December, but then put it aside. I think nor it's time to finish it. I'm again drawn into it.

I finished Andre Aciman's memoir Out of Egypt, the story of his large Jewish family's years in Alexandria. Such a rich and delightful book . . . Aciman's lovely prose, so delicate and precise . . . I laughed to the point of tears at the antics of his grandmothers and his aunts and then found myself sobbing as he told of the death of a beloved teacher -- who introduced him to Dante and Homer -- or when he, a young teenager -- on their last night in Alexandria (the family was being expelled) -- sits looking out at the Mediterranean and knows finally what the city means to him, understands what he is losing. So many lovely scenes -- the entire family gathered in the grandmother's apartment during air raids, listening to an aunt play Schubert on the piano. A wise and tender book.

Next: Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin

Something light for bedtime Ya-Ya's in Bloom, something for the bus journeys to uni Cold Fire and something to really get my teeth into on my days off The Dante Club.

I finished reading Juliet, Naked on Saturday night and then finished a crime novel, The Coldest Blood by Jim Kelly, late last night.

I'm now reading The Favorites by Mary Yukari Waters, about a Japanese-American teenager who has returned to Japan for a visit with her mother.

#72, mollygrace, I loved both Out of Egypt and Let the Great World Spin.

Over the weekend, I finished both The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa and The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson. I have started Gregorius by Bengt Ohlsson, which tells the Doctor Glas story from the point of view of Gregorius, and Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor by Paul Farmer; both of these were recommended here on LT.

Just started The Off-Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, the sequel to Dairy Queen, and so far it's another charmer. Still working on When the Game Was Ours.

I'm now in the home stretch of The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote. I think when I'm done with this I'll take a little fiction break.

Finally finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Very funny. So glad I took time in December to read the real one. Made this one so much better. And ******spoiler?***** in a previous post I made a heartfelt wish that Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins get their tasty brains sucked out. Sadly, Mrs Bennet annoys to the end. Mr Collins doesn't make it, but his brain remains intact.

Reading more of The Best American Mystery Stories - 2009.

Picked up New Moon last night. My niece lent it to me. Will be calling soon to chat with her. I gave her the fourth one for Christmas even though my brother had decided she was too young, that it was "age inappropriate", whatever that means. We'll have a good old time as long as she doesn't spoil anything for me.

And, yes, Don Quixote is by the bedside begging to be picked up again. He was my winter goal, but other things keep nudging him aside.

Just Finished The Little Known an Early Reviewer novel by Janice Daugharty. Will be posting review this week. Also finished A Separate Country by Robert Hicks, a book I found somewhat disappointing and will also be reviewing. In the middle of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and loving it. Reading the e-book Pirates Latitude by Michael Crichton when I am away from work or home. And, I admit I find it most amusing.

#78 boulder
My sister just called to say she had finished the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies that I loaned her last week.

***SPOILER***
She expressed such delight that Mr. Collins kills himself. I guess she really disliked him.

Over the weekend I finished The Radetzky March, which is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. Now I'm reading The Cost of Living, a collection of short stories by Mavis Gallant and 2666 by Roberto Bolano, both of which I've been looking forward to for awhile.

I made absolutely no progress on Forever Amber last week, so I'll still be reading that for a while.

#81, jfetting, I too loved The Radetzky March and I'm a big Mavis Gallant fan. If you like The Cost of Living, try the collection Varieties of Exile, which I think contains some of her best stories.

I'm still reading Anathem which is great, and have West With The Night calling to me. I put WWTW aside to read Anathem when it came from BM.

How do some of you read more than one book at a time? Even the thought of trying makes me feel somehow anxious.

Last night I started reading Dear John as I want to see the film soon and my sister also wants to borrow it so I thought I'd get it out of the way.

finished God in Ruins - have a Ben Franklin bio and a Marquez novel on my table right now

Decided to start Billiards at Half-past Nine by Heinrich Boll today.

I started and finished No Country for Old Men yesterday. I am now reading Sarah's Key which looks like it is going to be a tearjerker.

67: I usually get annoyed by lengthy battle scenes as well (I loved Tolkien but the battles can get a bit tidious for me at times) and I didn't have a problem with The Sky People. There was 1 lenghty chapter in the middle involving a balloon-craft thingy, but other than that it's a good book.

I've just started The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I'm also reading book 2 of Herodotus's Histories.

I finished and reviewed The Snow Tourist, so now I'm tentatively burrowing into Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I had a customer asking for a copy so I thought instead of ordering it and having to charge postage etc. it would give me a good push to finally read it, so I promised her mine. I've heard such conflicting things about this book - that she's a self-obsessed cow trampling cultures left and right, vs. that it's a life-affirming and amusing read filled with humour and enlightenment - that I wasn't sure whether I'd want to throw it at a wall after ten pages. Well, so far she's a bit mopey but otherwise it's pretty good!

I am in the middle of The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj. A young teenage boy is sent to live in Toronto with his father. The main character's observations about new immigrants, culture and beginning in a new country very different from his own, make this book a pleasure to read.

I've just reviewed Diana Gabaldon's Lord John and the Hand of Devils, a collection of mystery novellas.

I liked 'em. Read all about it in post #59.

I zoomed through a Barbara Pym book this weekend - Crampton Hodnet, just delightful. Now beginning the formidable Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt

I'm reading Term Limits by Vince Flynn. Never read one of his before and am enjoying it. The book is ten years old but the plot sounds like it could fit today's world.

I'm reading The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum. This is my first book by this author and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.
I'm also reading No Graves As Yet by Anne Perry which is also very good.

I'm reading the Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan
And then I'm going to finish Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy. Just need to read Assassin's Quest and then I can go out and buy Fool's Errand...right?
Eh...I'll figure it out...maybe.

I still need to finish the Avalon Series...I went and bought the 4 books she wrote but haven't really read them.
Still a penny plus tax is a DEAL.
And I jumped on it. Let me tell you.

I had a whole long message written out, but LT ate it. Basically, today I finished The Book of Unholy Mischief and The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England. Tomorrow I will start The Canterbury Tales by The Wives of Henry Oades.

DevourerOfBooks - I hate it when LT eats my posts too!

richardderus - I have to admit I prefer the Lord John series by Diana Gabaldon.

On the reading front, I finished There a Petal Silently Falls, a compilation of three previously published short stories by Ch'oe Yun which I found to be strong, insightful and thought-provoking, in a good way. Review posted on the book page http://www.librarything.com/work/book/56280082

I quickly finished Purity of Blood, book two in the Captain Alatriste series - a good swashbuckling historical escapism piece.

Continuing my historical fiction jaunt, next up is The Kitchen Boy, a novel about the last Tsar of Russia.

I am currently in the third book of the Wraeththu series by Storm Constantine (The Fulfilments of Fate and Desire), which I'm thoroughly lost in. Just a few pages left!

Also, I'm reading Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland during any quiet breaks I can get from work.

I bought Neverwhere yesterday to immediately start reading it. I love it!

#98, Enjoy The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England, I really liked it, such a new approach to a history book.

#84, I loved Anathem book, despite its size I want to read it again and again...

I made a start on Brazzaville Beach yesterday and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Re: A Separate Country the book really did not click for me. I found it meh and thought it could have been much better if some of its length had been culled. I also had a hard time keeping relationships straight. In the end I decided everybody was connected in a circular fashion and left it at that.

I'm currently reading "Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer
I haven't exactly started reading it yet, but I definitely plan on doind so later on today.

During a lengthy power outage, I finished Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby and A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny. I enjoyed both of them very much. You have to like Hornby's particular style and voice to enjoy this work, but I'm onboard with both so I liked it. Penny's Three Pines series is fantastic and I highly recommend it for mystery lovers of all stripes.

I began Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder and, frankly, it is sooooo good. I want to try to sneak to read it at work, and I can't stop talking about Dr. Farmer to my poor partner who now knows more about Dr. Farmer's childhood, education and first days in Haiti than she might care to.

Have just finished Pariah by Dave Zeltserman- I was incredibly turned off by this book, the main character is such total scum that it just wasn't enjoyable to read about him. Apparently on a murderer streak, am now reading The Monster of Florence, which I so far am enjoying very much.

I finished How To Cure A Hangover last night. Written by a doctor who studies alcohol so very informative, even though I've had maybe two hangovers my whole life. Still reading Patience and Fortitude a few pages at a time and I'm about halfway through Homer and Langley.

#103 scarpettajunkie

I tried to read A Widow of the South a couple of years ago and found that book simply intolerable. I simply couldn't understand what was motivating the characters and so found them just plain weird. When this book was released it was easy to ignore it. I think that Hicks wants to be a dark and depressing creator of dark and depressed individuals and that is exactly what he does. Unfortunately, that also makes his characters unsympathetic and unlikeable.

>40 jhedlund: Have you seen the video of Libba Bray giving an interview about Going Bovine while wearing a cow suit? It's pretty great, and does set the stage for the type of humor needed to appreciate the book.

I read through Serenity, Vol 2: Better Days in about half an hour last night, and tonight I think I'm going to pick up The Mathematics of Love, by Emma Darwin.

Added The Murderer's Daughters to my TBR pile.

I'm about halfway through Dust and Shadow-picked it because I am both a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, and a true crime buff particularly interested in Jack the Ripper. So far it is really good-I especially love how the author stays really faithful to the voices of the characters.

#98 Oooh, DevourerOfBooks, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer sounds scrumptious (yes, I love medieval history)! I've got Shakespeare's London on 5 Groats a Day, which is basically the same thing for a slightly later period. Going straight onto my TBR list.

>111 Storeetllr: Storeetllr, It really was quite good, even got me pumped up to listen to The Canterbury Tales, since Geoffrey Chaucer was mentioned so frequently.

I'm reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Dew Breaker for school
I'm also reading The Green Lake is Awake by Joseph Ceravolo (poetry) as well as The Other Boleyn Girl outside of school.
Snow day tomorrow so hopefully I'll get a lot of reading done!

Somewhere along the way I lost this thread for a couple weeks I think. All of a sudden I thought, hey what happened to What are you reading the week of--? Oh well, 114 posts later.... I finished Mary Karr's first memoir The Liars' Club which was laugh out loud funny when I wasn't horrified by the poor parenting. Now I'm reading the new William Boyd novel Ordinary Thunderstorms.

I am just about to start Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay and The Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher, I've been looking forward to both of these books for some time.

Just finished Secrets of Eden, my first by Chris Bohjalian -- I enjoyed how he unravels a crime and am glad he has a good backlist to explore.

I started reading The Great Influenza last night.

I finished Boneshaker and I'm now reading Blackout by Connie Willis. With the snow today, I'm hoping to finish it (or at least make really good progress).

All of you guys with the snow days make me a little jealous. Not only are you doing your civic duty by staying indoors and off of the streets you get to READ! I can see you now with a blanket, a cup of something hot within reach, and that wonderful book! I'm still working on World Without End for the group read, and Collapse by Jared Diamond for myself. Please enjoy all that reading time.

#120 I know what you mean. We got our rush hours messed up, but not enough snow to stop us in our tracks. I'm so jealous!

Funny you should say that benitastrnad, as here in Horseheads we have a snow day and my husband took the car so I am housebound. He is mad that the car was on E but what can I say except sorry? Anyhow, I am reading The Lost City Of Z. Is it just my imagination or didn't I hear a lot of buzz about this book a while back? Someone let me know if this book has been mentioned, please. I don't want to be the only one reading it. I am 40 pages in and it is good so far.

#122 scarpettajunkie

There was lots of buzz on LT about this book last fall. Lost City of Z There is also lots of buzz about this book in the media. Supposedly the reason why Brad Pitt has that scraggly ugly beard thing going on is because he is going to play the lead role in the movie version of the book. Apparently there is already a movie adaptation of the book. If Brad Pitt is already growing a beard to play the lead then the movie must be pretty far along in planning and about ready for production.

I am still reading The Historian with Shades of Grey waiting in the wings and Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin purchased just yesterday. I haven't been able to make time to just sit and read recently. I think I'll start the Jane Austen anyway

I've been reading The Witching Hour, Peter the Great, the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and The Bonesetter's Daughter. Need to charge up my Sony Reader again soon.

I just finished Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay which I absolutely loved!! I am about to begin Halloween Party by Agatha Christie.

Kisser Woods is done - and as usual in less than twenty-four hours - love Stuart Woods' stuff.

This was from the library and I also borrowed Dare to Die and then put the brand new one (due in April) of this series on hold. Hate it when I finally catch up in a series because now I'll have to wait a year for the next one!

I am also reading The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin and have Love in the Time of Cholera on the table too. But the library books come first.

I finally finished The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville and have moved on to Tenant for Death.

>122 scarpettajunkie:: scarpettajunkie- I read The Lost City Of Z last May and loved it. I think for the next few months after, there was a nice whirlwind of positive buzz! Hope they don't screw up the film version!

I, too, read The Lost City of Z, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not much of a movie fan (nor a Brad Pitt fan), but Pitt definitely isn't my idea of who should play Fawcett. Alan Rickman (sans greasy hair from Harry Potter) would be my suggestion.

I'm now beginning Green Darkness by Anya Seton.

I've reviewed The Cruelest Month, a very aptly titled entry in the Gamache/Three Pines mystery series, in my Books off the Shelf thread...#89.

#109 - I have not seen that Libba Bray interview but you can bet I'm going to look it up. Going Bovine has equal amounts humor and poignancy. It's very trippy but strangely addictive. I want to keep reading it, but for several reasons (which I will keep to myself for fear of spoilers), I don't want it to end either.

P.S. I did a little write-up of Bray's talk here if you're interested. It will give you another glimpse of her humor and style. Anyone who can reference "unicorn erotica" in a talk about writing will certainly grab your attention!

I finished [The Girl With No Shadow], and I am just about to begin the selection for my RL Book Club this month, [Run] by [[Ann Patchett]]. I continue listening to [The Pickwick Papers].

I'm getting into North and South at the moment so Dear John has been put to one side for the time being although I may take both with me to Oxford this weekend as they'll make good train reading.

Edited to correct confusing word

Finished The Off Season, a good sequel (go D.J.!), and started Tomorrow When the War Began.

ETA missing word.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. It dragged a bit for a while, but has really picked up again.

After that, I'm going to read The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies for my RL bookclub.

I started The Likeness by Tana French last night. It begins at a nice, brisk clip.

Just started The Tenderness of Wolves. Finished I Am Ozzy over the weekend! Loved it. Not a fan of Black Sabbath but loved this book.

I just picked up Shutter Island that I thought I might pair up with The Lost City of Z which I am about 80 pages into and liking but have the feeling I am not going to remember very many of the details. That would make this book a keeper because I'd want to reference it to refresh my memory. I can't get the idea of screaming pack mules falling off their paths to their deaths out of my head! I also heard a lot of buzz about Shutter Island so I had to see what it was all about.

I'm finally wrapping up some books! I finished World Without End for the very well-run Group Read and have to admit it was a good, entertaining story. I also completed The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell. This is another top-notch Scandinavian crime thriller, the 2nd in a series and I listened to Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It's an amazing, uplifting true story of an American nurse/mountaineer, who ends up building schools in Pakistan.
I finally started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and I will begin to listen to The Audacity To Win by David Plouffe. Both look very promising!

#131 ktlelyed

I read Green Darkness years ago and loved it. It is one of the few books I have kept on my shelves after reading it. I still think about it when I see it on the shelves. Anya Seton has another good one in Katherine. They recently reissued Katherine. Probably because there was a biography of Katherine Swinford that was published that was moderately successful as well.

benitastrnad - thanks for the input, I'm glad to hear it's good! I have Katherine lined up as well!

I just finished Boneshaker. How did you like it?

Finished Dare to Die and am now having to read the books in the series as they come in - and am on hold for the one coming in April.

Now back to The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin and Love in the Time of Cholera as well.

>145 jlparent: jlparent, I enjoyed it pretty well, though some revelations weren't exactly unexpected. But it was a fun premise.

I finished Blackout and am making my way through The Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and Antarctic edited by Elizabeth Kolbert. Still working (ever-so-slowly) on The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin but it's kind of a slog because the writing is really annoying me.

Here in Alabama we have a snow day at the university! Yeah! I will head for the local Barnes & Noble for coffee and sit there and finish World Without End - which as some members of LT say is really a book without end. But I am close. Only about 200 pages to go. From there I intend to go home and bake some Valentine's cookies for Monday at work.

I finished Sense and Sensibility and I have just started the Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld.

I just finished Buddha of Suburbia, Inamorata, and Thief of Time. Next up, The Yellow Lighted Bookshop and something else I can't recall (I put it on hold a week ago at work, lol).

I just finished An Irish Country Doctor and now reading An Irish Country Girl this is the fourths book in his series. Quite an Irish read.

>142 msf59: msf59. I'm anxious to hear your thoughts about Never Let Me Go.

I started The Thirteenth Tale yesterday and wanted to read all night. Could hardly bear to put it down. Going to finish it now.

I finished The Help on Thursday and gobbled up 84, Charing Cross Road yesterday. I've been too busy today to decide what's up next.

>152 KAzevedo:: The Thirteenth Tale Yes! I missed a lot of sleep because of that book. I've read it twice and probably will again.

> KAzevedo- I'm just about a 100 pages into Never Let Me Go and so far so good! It has a nice creepy style to it and he unravels things very slowly. I noticed that a couple other LTer's are also currently reading it. I thought I was the only one who hadn't!
I also have The Thirteenth Tale waiting patiently in a stack!

> 69 Ape, I am stalled in Sky People. It is all a set up for the big thing - which is vicious Neanderthals running around with AK47s. I just can't bring myself to care. Not sure if I will finish it or not.

156: Ah, too bad. Well, as I mentioned in post 89, it slowed down a bit for me too about midway through, I enjoyed it after I got passed the middle though.

If it's any encouragement, The Coming Plague began to bog down a bit for me about 300 pages in. But now (500 pages in) I addicted to it again. *shrug*

Ape, I am no where near mid-way, maybe page 51 ? Its not that its bad, I just don't care.