What are you reading the week of July 03, 2010?

Franz Kafka, (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) is one of the most influential fiction writers of the early 20th century; a novelist and writer of short stories whose works, only after his death, came to be regarded as one of the major achievements of 20th century literature. He was born to middle class German-speaking Jewish parents in Prague, Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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Louise Erdrich, of German and Native American ancestry, writes novels, poetry, and children's books. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance. In April 2009, her novel The Plague of Doves was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. She is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Other author birthdays this week: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, M.F.K Fisher, Elizabeth Taylor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mao Tun aka Shen Yan-bing, Shen Dehong, Lionel Trilling, Neil Simon, Jean Cocteau, Naomi Long Madgett aka Naomi Cornelia Long and Naomi Long Witherspoon, Verner von Heidenstam, Jan Neruda, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Miroslav Krleza, Robert Heinlein, Jean Kerr, Jean de La Fontaine, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Shirley Ann Grau, Anna Quindlen, Ann Radcliffe, Barbara Cartland, Oliver Sacks, June Jordan.

I'm still reading the novella "Luxurious Hearses" from Uwem Akpan's excellent collection, Say You're One of Them.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Good Omens for the Green Dragon group read, and I started listening to The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson. It's interesting so far, about a teen age girl who awakens from a year long coma with no memory of her previous life. Two good reads, I'm happy. The only problem is that in preparation for Good Omens I watched the 2006 version of The Omen which was OK, but when I tried to watch the original version tonight, which looked much creepier, the disc was so bad I had to stop. Boo, hoo.

I'm reading a novel of Zimbabwe, The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini, the 2010 Orange Prize winner for New Writers.

I almost downloaded that on my Nook today, teelgee. Let us know what you think.

It's taking me a little while to get into it, probably because I've lived and breathed Lonesome Dove for a week and it's a major shift!

It's hard to leave one of those well created lives. I just got a cheapo copy of Lonesome Dove at the 2nd hand store. Now I have to find time to read it.

I couldn't bear to read a mass market edition of such a tome, so I held out till I found a good trade paper copy. HB would be too big and heavy! I hope you find time soon; if not, it's worth the wait!

I finished reading The Murderess, a novella by Alexandros Papadiamantis, which I read for this month's Reading Globally monthly theme read (Greece). I've reviewed it here.

I should finish Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor today, and I'll then start Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos, a contemporary Greek author.

#159 from last week's thread: I will be joining the group read a little late, once I return home and get my mail. I ordered it late from Amazon and it was due to arrive after we left on our vacation. Look for me to catch up mid-week or so.

My current reads:

All the Pretty Horses
1001 Arabian Nights
Rousseau's Confessions
I Promessi Sposi
Le Morte d'Arthur
D'Aulaire's Greek Myths
Thomas Jefferson

I'm reading Night Train to Lisbon and Celtic Saints Passionate Wanderers.

Also on the currently reading pile but slightly neglected are
Herodotus' Histories
Twelve Caesars
The Mabinogion
and The Count of Monte Cristo

I'm also thinking of joining the Green Dragon Group read of Good Omens for a bit of light relief;)

I'm reading The Last Chronicle of Barset, which is excellent so far despite having Lily Dale in it. At some point this weekend, I'll start The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin, although all these people talking about The Once and Future King lately have me wanting to re-read it.

I eventually decided to read Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell, but I'm not very far into it yet. Celebrated Indepence Day a couple days earlier and didn't get much reading time in.

About halfway through the pulp classic The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. I think I'll be able to finish it by tomorrow.

I had expected to have finished the very enjoyable Off Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore by Ken McAlpine but life got in the way so I still have about 100 pages to go. After that, I'll start The Whistling Season, my first Ivan Doig and my vacation book for this year, so I have high hopes for it!

I am about half way through The Secrets of a Fire King, a collection of short stories by Kim Edwards, author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I am enjoying the short stories - they are so diverse! - but I came home with The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag and promptly put the short stories aside so I could visit Bishop Lacey and precocious Flavia once more! So far, book two in the series is just as good as the first one.

In the wings patiently waiting is my next book, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky a Bellwether Prize winner by Heidi Durrow.

I have read Lonesome Dove at least twice. The characters seem like people you know. The movie is awesome as well. Cowboy fiction is not usually my genre. Enjoy!

I just finished Move Under Ground yesterday, so for the moment I'm down to two books: Adán Buenosayres and the audiobook for The Scarlet Letter.

>18 appleroad: appleroad, they do seem like people I know! I think that's why it's hard to get into another book. Where's Gus? Where's Call? What's happening to Lorena?? I love that in a book.

I've begun the journey to Camelot with the group readers of The Once and Future King. I'm close to the finish on my first Ivan Doig book, Dancing at the Rascal Fair.

In honor of one of my favorite author's birthdays this week, I think I'll finally pick up the YA book, The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. I've been looking for an excuse to read it.

I'm less than 100 pages away from finishing The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard. Still not really sure if I like it.

Just started Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

Mostly, I was driven to move this to the top of my "To-read" list because the movie's going to come out later this year. And, I'd rather read the book before the movie, potentially, ruins it for me.

So far, I'm liking how it takes me right into the world of a circus in the 30s. The visual descriptions aren't too onerous or too flowery. And, they do keep the story moving right along, rather than becoming the long pauses that some literary writers tend towards (nothing wrong with them - just that they suit certain stories and styles better than others).

I am reading the final pages of Shirley and then will pick up Madame Bovary again.

I've finished and reviewed the amusing, refreshingly entertaining The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. It's a fun summer book.

Am totally immersed in Pied Piper by Nevil Shute, written in 1942. I'm on page 20 and can't wait for the story to unfold. What a fabulous writer!

I've started my journey with Saramago's elephant, reading De tocht van de olifant (The Elephant’s Journey). I like it very much so far: weird & funny... very Saramago.

I'm currently reading The Scarlet Contessa by Jeanne Kalogridis and really enjoying it. On the audio front, I'm about to start listening to The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee.

Inundated by relatives so little time for reading, but have read a little bit of the already grim Wolf among Wolves by Hans Fallada, the author of the brilliant but grim Every Man Dies Alone and the even grimmer The Drinker.

I finally finished The Passage. Started on The Lonely Polygamist.

I finally started In the Woods by Tana French which I was putting off because I knew I was going to love it. All of you who touted it so highly....thanks, it's great!

Happy Birthday to Joanne Harris as well!

I'm almost done with my early reviewer An Inconvenient Elephant. It's really been an enjoyable book!

Finished up The Fall of Berlin by Anthony Read and David Fisher. It was a different (and much better) book than I expected. Rather than just focusing on the last months of the war and the Battle for Berlin, almost half of the book was taken up by the story of life in Berlin from the early 30s to 1945. Working mostly from diaries and interviews with the underground resistance members and Jews who went into hiding, Read and Fisher paint a vivid portrait of life in Nazi Berlin. The only flaw in the book is that they literally leave off with the surrender of the city. A description of life under the early occupation is mostly missing.

Now I've started The Passage by Justin Cronin. I'm only about 50 page in so far, but I'm enjoying it.

>23 jennybhatt: jenwren18, I'm just like you -- often I'm motivated to finally read a book I've had for years because there's a movie coming out. I didn't know there was a movie of Water for Elephants until now, so I guess I'll be reading it soon, too!

I finished Richard Fortey's in Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth. He writes with awe, knowledge, and enthusiasm about the development of life with some lively descriptions of the people and expeditions who have uncovered it. It presents the history of life in its presently understood version; that our understanding can and will change with new evidence is consistently brought up. It's a wonderfully engaging and informative book.

Also reading Enemies of the People which is a memoir of Hungary in the cold war. Good

I've got a good start on When People are Big and God is Small and on To Kill a Mockingbird. The latter will likely go more quickly than the former.

Robert

I'm half-way through The laughing policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, as I plan to visit Stockholm next week.

>13 jfetting:: jfetting- It's not to late to jump aboard The Once and Future King Group Read.
I'm about 130 pages in and it's been terrific! Come on and join us!

>Rebecca- Every Man Dies Alone is an amazing book. One of my top books of last year. I would love to read more of his work!

I finished the YA adventure tale The Knife of Never Letting Go and it was quite good. Pretty exciting stuff and the 1st of a trilogy. Anyone looking for a Suzanne Collins fix, give this one a shot! Also on the homestretch of So Cold the River. This is a fun intense summer thriller!

Recently read Abhorsen and the preceding two books.. and I am now excited to discover a new author I like! I just reserved all 7 of the keys to the kingdom series at the lib and can't wait for them to come in.

I am currently reading Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain and Women Without Superstition: No Gods-No Masters by Annie Laurie Gaylor. So far both are good reads. I am learning a lot about history in both the fiction and non-fiction pieces.

Women Without Superstition looks good, madphill, I hope you'll review it.

I just finished Murder on the Eightfold Path by Diana Killian. The 3rd book in the Mantra for Murder mystery series. A fun cozy series.

I just started Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick. It is a Urban Fantasy series with a totally mortal actress as the main character. Just getting started, but I like her style so far.

Hi, everyone! First timer, here.

When I wake up in the morning, I will begin reading Lion by Nelson DeMille. This is the sequel to his 2000(?) book, The Lion's Game. DeMille is often my favorite author. Enjoy the week, all.

I finished and Karen Connelly's The Lizard Cage. Fabulous read.

Now I'm on to Adam Ross' Mr. Peanut.

teelgee -- I remember finishing Lonesome Dove and feeling the need to dust off my clothes (or take a long soak in the nearest creek). Love that book.

I'm still reading Bleak House -- seems like it's taking a long time, but it's probably because I keep reading whole chapters aloud (to myself -- there's no one else here). I keep imagining what it was like to read it serialized . . . having to wait for the next installment and the next and the next before you knew how things would turn out for Esther and Jo and Lady Dedlock and the Jellybys. And worrying yourself to distraction over what Guppy and Tulkinghorn and Mr. Bucket were up to . . . as the plot thickens. I enjoy Mr. Snagsby and his many coughs and his good heart . . . and Miss Flite and her birds . . . and, of course, Charley. And the two neighborhood gossips, Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Perkins. Excuse me, time to get back to that marvelous book . . .

I finished Zoenoffer by Karen Slaughter and Nation by Terry Pratchett. Liked both. Nation was the first book I read on my iPad, and I really love it. I think I will be reading even more now because it is much easier to read a couple of pages in the evening in between browsing than picking up a book. Great!

Yesterday I began reading Pascal Charbonnat's Histoire des philosophies matérialistes, reference to which I found in a book-review of a scientific journal and I just thought I'll have to read this one as a matter of interest. His intention is to give a materialist history of the philosophy of materialism from ancient greece to our days. This work of the french doctor of philosophy seems to be best regarded not only by his philosophical colleagues, but also by some of the contemporary french scientists, for he tries to interconnect dialectical materialism with evolutionist materialism. There are even some polemical invectives against the American movement of "Intelligent Design" and its popular, but contested "creationism" in the preface...

>Brenzi- I've been hearing some good buzz on Mr. Peanut. I hope you like it !

Finished D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and now ready to start The Wheel on the School.

Finished reading The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. It's pretty creepy. Left quite an impression on me.

My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/61652431

Or my 50 Book Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/94041

43, Charms43: Welcome to Librarything!! :)

My intention was to start The Rite: the Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio yesterday. But then my attention was caught by Jules Verne's Castle in Transylvania (originally titled Carpathian Castle)

>43 charms43: Welcome indeed, and have fun adding thousands of books to your wishlist.

You think I'm kidding? As you run around LibraryThing's many groups, it's impossible not to add some books, usually on every visit. It's part of the fun.

>53 richardderus:, I definitely agree! Ever since I joined.. anytime I come on here I end up adding another group of books to my wishlist. Makes me want to read everyday all day!

Welcomes charms!! I agree with richard. My TBR list has grown substantially since joining Library Thing.

#41--It will probably take me a while to finish it because it is about three inches thick. But I will do a review as soon as I can.

I just finished the rollicking adventure Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. For the Reading Through Time Challenge I am starting Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson as the July theme is Freedom.

I am also going to start The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, have heard so many good things about this one, and it's sequel that I couldn't wait to start it.

#43, Charms43 welcome and I have to confirm what everyone else is saying, be prepared for your wishlist to grow!

>44 brenzi: bonnie -- Wasn't The Lizard Cage phenomenal? Well deserving of the Orange New Writers award. Great review too!

This is my first post here.

Every summer, I take out my old, battered copy of Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Peters. I can feel the heat of a Virginia summer as I read. It has a lovely mixture of history, suspense, romance, and a little paranormal thrown in for seasoning ... a decaying family plantation, a toxic, bedridden grandmother, a medical student enlisted against her will for a summer of tending, an old love affair fanned throughout, great secondary characters, including a hound called Elvis, all beginning with the discovery of the old skeletons of a mother and baby in the first scene.

And then there's that thick summer heat, a character itself. And I hate summer heat! Maybe I like this book so much because I strive to make the setting of each book I write an important character in the story, like the canvas on which the story is painted.

I'm over halfway through Buried, again, and I'm lovin' it, again!

#38, msf59, I will review Wolf among Wolves when I finish it and so will let you know what I think. The Drinker was not up to Every Man Dies Alone, and it is probably one of the grimmest books I have ever read, and I read a lot of grim books. It is the cry of a lost soul.

Welcome, SharonKGarner! I couldn't agree more about summer heat, and also love it when weather becomes a character in a book. That's good writing.

>57 DeltaQueen50:, DeltaQueen50.. Hope you like Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie (and The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag when you get to it) those books are a lot of fun! I can't wait for the next one which comes out in 2011.. sigh, wish he would write faster.

In the past week I've been totally immersed in reading the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series (10 books) by Charlaine Harris.

I'm not sure what to read next, library due dates dictate that A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes should be next.

Welcome SharonKGarner - your description of Be Buried in the Rain has intrigued me. It sounds like a great read!

kiwiflowa, Love, love Sookie Stackhouse. Alas TrueBlood doesn't live up to the books. There's lots of lovely naked men, but no Bubba. I miss Bubba, he seems to be absent from the later books too.

Earlier today I finished

Deborah Kay Davies, True Things About Me

Laura Lippman, No Good Deeds

Now reading:

D E Stevenson, Miss Buncle's Book
Reprinted 1930s novel - a woman in an English village writes a book under a pseudonym which describes a lot of people in the village - some love it, others loathe it because of what it seems to say about them. I'm really enjoying this so far, and wish Persephone would reprint the others in the series (4 were written).

T H White, The Once and Future King

ed George Pelecanos, DC Noir

Angela Carter, Fireworks (Virago Modern Classics)

Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna

Irene Sabatini, The Boy Next Door

Find it later post. :)

I've been listening to Dexter by Design today while I flutter around the apartment pretending to be cleaning house but mostly playing with the parrot, checking out some new books I recently brought home, and rearranging furniture and stuff.

I just started The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, the second book in the Morland Dynasty series. I'm not sure what I think right now. The head of this generation is really obnoxious and whiny for being a grown man and the leader of a dynasty. Plus, I have no idea why Eagles-Harrod killed off Elizabeth Howard in childbirth. Seems completely unnecessary.

I finished Seven for a Secret by Elizabeth Bear. Was a bit disappointed, it wasn't as good as New Amsterdam.

Am now reading non-fiction Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron for a RL book group. a little over half-way through. Its not bad, but often its like Thubron is talking to himself and doesn't let the reader in on the conversation.

>59 SharonKGarner: Okay, now, Sharon...let's be clear about something...a newbie who posts irresistible sounding books is destined to make me an archenemy. I do not need *any* help adding books to the wishlist that ate New York.

Oh, and welcome! Enjoy yourself!

;-)

Finished off Three Men in a Boat and Skybreaker, both which I enjoyed very much. Now on to Starclimber.

I finished Good Omens before going off to a lovely, hot 4th of July picnic. Now I'm on to Secret Keepers an Early readers book by Mindy Friddle.

Just started Pastoralia from George Saunders. Pretty good so far.

Stayed up all night to finish Bleak House -- loved it, of course. Next in line: Louise Erdrich's Shadow Tag -- my 50th book this year -- and, though I didn't plan it this way, 25 of them written by men, 25 by women.

Just started Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce.

I'm reading Salamander by Thomas Wharton. So far so good, but the way the book is laid out is really irritating me: there are no quotation marks, just dashes.

Finished The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Catherine Schine last night. Am now reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and For the Common Good: Finnish Immigrants and the Radical Response to Industrial America.

I love three day weekends!

Thanks to Richard I read Montana 1948 and enjoyed it very much. I am now back to reading The Help which I am also enjoying tremendously!

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers and really am liking it.

#65-Bubba is great!!!

Over the weekend I started The Tudors and Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

In bed last night began reading Sleepless by Charlie Huston. Unfortunately, I am not troubled by that phenomenon and fell asleep before I got very far into the story.

Not sure what to think of it and haven't got the characters figured out yet, who they are and what their relationship is. Haven't even figured out what the heck is going on, except that it's set in a near-future dystopian Los Angeles (which isn't really that far from present-day Los Angeles where I live ~ haha).

I'll persevere, of course. Huston has never yet disappointed.

In Enemies of the People, using memory, their memoirs, interviews and most importantly the Hungarian Secret Service Files and FBI files, the author tells the story of her journalist parents who lived in Budapest from 1947 to 1958 before immigrating to America. It's a fascinating story. I've tended to think the cold war was largely contrived. I have to adjust that concept.

I am reading Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian.
I was not that taken with his book Midwives and was a bit reluctant to try anything else by this author. I am really enjoying it and the photographs are wonderful.

Mary- I loved Sleepless and I hope it starts locking in for you! Huston has created a fascinating world here! Like you, I've never been disappointed with this guy's work!
Speaking of crime, I just started Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski. I like this writer's style, a mix of quirky and hard-boiled.
It begins this way:
"See that body sprawled on the hardwood floor, marinating in a pool of his own blood?
That's me."

I really enjoyed Expiration Date. It's a fun read. I'm still reading The Castle in Transylvania. A bit too descriptive of the landscape for me, but the characters are a lot of fun.

I read a big chunk of Dave Barry Does Japan last night. I didn't finish it only because I began to nod off.

Some of it is funny; some of it not.

Robert

>38 msf59: msf59 - The last thing I need, while waiting for Mockingjay to be published, is yet another YA trilogy to add to the towering stack. {grumbles while adding to wishlist.}

Finished The Wheel on the School; ready to start Invincible Louisa tomorrow.

Could have sworn I had Fingersmith on my shelves, I didn't. Checked it out from the library. Really hard to put down.

>Maggie- Ha ha! The Knife of Never Letting Go is a good book and wookiebender, who recommended it to me, has also read the 2nd book in the trilogy and loved it!

>Cindy- Good to see you! I have still not read Sarah Waters. Puzzling, I know!

First Time posting!
I'm going to Finish The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim (I got it at a used book store the inside cover says 'Mrs.H.Morley. 1399 Queen St.E' (1920) the bottom is slightly damaged) and begin reading The Gallows of Chance also by E. Phillips Oppenhiem ('Ganther' is written on the inside cover, the spine is rather weak...I'm afraid it may fall apart!) Good murder mysteries.

Welcome Samaraleaf! Beware the great TBR pile - it will grow by leaps and bounds as a result of being here.

I finished The Boy Next Door tonight (review on book page); now for something a bit lighter, No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym. Pym can always bring a smile to my face; love her writing.

Finished Magician Apprentice. I just started Magician Master. Book Two of the series. I must say Magician Apprentice was the best Fantasy book I ever read.

I finished Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor on Saturday (reviewed) and Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos on Sunday (review forthcoming). Last night I started The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini for Orange July, and I'll start Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America by Lisa Gray-Garcia later this week.

>Samaraleaf- Glad you could join us! You've entered a wonderful place! Enjoy!

Finished Little Bee yesterday. I hesitate to say "great story" because it's actually quite heartrending, but it was a very well-written book and the story certainly kept me reading.

Last night, I started Fingersmith based on all the excellent reviews here on LT. Not too far into it yet, but looking forward to reading this!

I'm reading The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant and thoroughly enjoying it.

airship eagle. I'm enjoying it and wish I could find more time to read!

I finished Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum. I didn't like it nearly as much as I do mystery/crime/police procedurals by the various Swedish authors. What I'm not sure about is whether this is the fault of the author or the translator.

Next up is The God Engines by John Scalzi.

I just finished Jack Edmunson's The Sun Sharer and was very shocked by his controversial approach. I have never read a fictional autobiography which becomes a tale told by his conscience - I think? But the spiritual twist left me in a void that was filled by the the beauty and the harshness on occasion.
A fascinating read - to use a cliche - different.

Finished nowMaarten ´t Haart Die Netzflickerin

I'm still hanging out with the Tudors in Wolf Hall.

#12 calm

I read Night Train to Lisbon and loved it. I recommended it to a friend and she hated it so much she quit reading it. For some reason I had just read a spate of books about Portugal under Salazar and Shadow of the Wind set in Franco's Spain and Night Train struck a cord. Many people complain that it is to philosophical but if you live in that kind of environment daily you understand how people get to be more philosophical.

#92 msf59
I don't know how it has happened either, as I have not read any Sarah Waters books, and I have two of them on my TBR pile. Fingersmith and Night Watch. Maybe it is time to get Fingersmith off that pile and join in with some of the other LT readers?

I need to get to The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist! But now you've all gotten me in the mood for Fingersmith! What's an addict to do?

#23 jenwren18 and AMQS

Last summer I learned that the movie version of Time-Travelers Wife was about to come out since I had the book in the house I hurried and read it. I was at our county fair reading while watching my nieces and nephews putting their cattle through the annual beauty pageant (otherwise known as the 4H beef show) and diligently reading this book. My sister wondered what kind of book could so thoroughly occupy somebody to that extent that I would read in between classes and announcements? I showed her the book and she said "isn't the movie coming out soon?" well, duh! As soon as I finished the book I mailed it to her. She read it before the movie came out. Saw the movie. Pronounced it a dud and has been asking me for books to read ever since! She was in the hospital with pneumonia a few weeks ago so I sent her Blind Assassin. I figured that would keep her occupied in between breathing treatments!

Anyway, I figured after I had read the book that it would be really hard to make that into a movie so I skipped the movie. My sister said it was a wise choice. But I do wonder why more books aren't turned into movies? I think that perhaps it is because writing scripts is a much different skill than is writing a book.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcomes. LOVE this place!

I'm halfway through The Lion. My next book is The Hungry Season. I tried to read it earlier this summer, but I had to stop on page 20, because this family was just so devastated, and I don't even know what happened yet.

>107 benitastrnad: benitastrnad, what a great story! Looks like you may have jump-started your sister's reading. I think you're right -- that writing scripts and writing books require different skills. I think perhaps too many books get turned into movies, and get shortchanged in the process.

Last night's schedule got whacked by the length of the Hamlet performance I watched on DVD. But I managed to get a meager start on The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner as the clock ran by 2 a.m.

Robert

Finally finished Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything which frankly wasn't short enough. I like Bryson's writing style, but I just couldn't stay engaged with the material for the last hundred pages or so. All the scientific names and figures just started to become a blur at one point.

Now on to How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley, which is an Early Reviewer I got. I have high hopes it will be a good one!

I finished listening to The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason yesterday. What a wonderful book. It started out as a gentle period piece and turned into "The Heart of Darkness" or maybe "Apocalypse Now". I didn't see that ending coming. I also loved the story of the man with one story and all the history of piano's. Even the mathematics of the sound a piano makes was fascinating. Lots of history about Burma, Laos, and Cambodia as well.

At the end of the book was a note about the author in which it said that he spent a year in Burma studying malaria and then went to medical school. Is this guy trying to turn into another Michael Crichton, or what? Great book and I hope he writes another.

>Benita- Glad I am not alone in my lack of Sarah Waters! I too have The Night Watch but I have a heavy reading schedule right now! Maybe one of us will inspire the other!
Finished So Cold the River today and it was a very enjoyable thriller! A nice summer read!

>112 benitastrnad:, I have The Piano Tuner in my pile -- great review!

#110 Robert: Oooh, which Hamlet was it?

Still working on Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain. It is such a good book, but I feel like I am taking forever to read it. I have a short attention span and I am afraid I will lose interest and start another book that I will only half read. The last book I read was Oranges Aren't The Only Fruit. That one I could not put down. It wasn't too long of a read though. I am really getting some great ideas from you all in regards to my 'wishlist'. Thanks!

Scaifea, it was the Time-Life/BBC version. Captain Picard and Derek Jacoby were in it, but I don't have it in hand to tell you more.

I just watched their version of King Lear with Michael Holdern and John Shrapnel. Life's a bitch, and then you die. You get to know it on the way. Some people know it but stay in denial.

Robert

I finished The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - what an amazing book! I had already read and enjoyed Theodore Rex but this was so much better! It was a huge book but did not feel like it when reading it. I have never read a historical biography that felt so much like a novel.

I am going back to Agatha Christie with The Body In The Library and also have started Spindle's End by Robin McKinley.

Love seeing so many people picking up Fingersmith. It's an incredible book.

#119 The Body in the Library is such a great Christie. I just finished Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks and its got me wanting to read all my Agatha Christie's even more than usual!

I'm reading The Ghost Orchard by Carol Goodman, another one of the ones I picked up at a used book fair on a whim. So far its a little slow going, but still interesting enough to hold my attention and make me want to read more.

I finished Salamander last night. Not as good as I thought it could have been, which was a shame, and the way the book was set out continued to annoy me till the end. I had hoped I might get used to it, but apparently not.

This morning on the train I started The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis. I've already read a couple of her Falco books, so I'm looking forward to this one. There's nothing like a good Roman murder mystery to make a long train journey shorter.

I finished Superfreakonomics this morning despite much criticism of it's global warming point and moved on to The Hunger Games for some "lighter" reading.

I finished Louise Erdrich's Shadow Tag late last night, another extraordinary book by this author.

Now I'm reading Paolo Giordano's novel, The Solitude of Prime Numbers.

#112 -- I, too, loved The Piano Tuner. Mason's second novel, A Far Country, was less satisfying for me -- I never felt he took me inside his main character -- plus I longed for the mystery and enchantment of the earlier book. Still, I wouldn't have missed the chance to read more from this amazing young writer.

I am now reading Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay. I am still slowly reading Celtic Saints Passionate Wanderers.

105 - benitastrnad - I loved Night Train to Lisbon. Like you I have some Sarah Waters books on the shelves and still haven't got around to reading any of them!

So Fingersmith is on my TBR and intend reading it some time this month.

As I was typing this the post arrived and my June ER book is here. So very soon I will be reading The Gathering Night by Margaret Elphinstone.

#117: Ah, the Branagh version - good one. Last week I watched the newer BBC version, the one with David Tennant, and it's very good.

Currently working on New York: The Novel. I anticipate finishing it sometime next week, since I only get about an hour or so a day to read. It's been good so far, though.

Scaifia, All the Pretty Horses I found cliched and over-rated' How about you? I find the Arabian Nights endlessly fascinating and am currently on the third volume of the Burton translation. Once and Future King by White a great modern take on the Arthurian tales. Sholofsky/

I am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - it's rivetting! I expected an adrenaline high of a novel, based on all the reviews, but what surprises me is the original, complex characterization. Lisbeth Salander is a fascinating individual because she's overcome her dark childhood and transformed it into a source of power in a way that I think many of us deep down can relate to. You can read my full review at: www.the-reading-list.com

#128 sholofsky: Well, I'm about halfway through it and it's slow going (All the Pretty Horses, that is). I'm irritated at McCarthy because he seems rather pleased with himself as a writer, and for no good reason. Wow, that sounded really snarky; oh well, I guess I meant it to be - LOL!

As for Arabian Nights, I can give it a much better review. I'm about 3/4 of the way through this one (and that's saying a lot, no? Rather large tome, this one), and loving every story of it. I'm reading the Burton translation too, and it's funny that the original tales, oral in nature with a long long tradition, are much more vulgar in tone, much more meant for lower class consumption, and Burton translated them into high-toned English, which gives sometimes the wrong impression of how they were meant to be read.

I've finished and reviewed a satisfying novella of alternate history, David Moles's Seven Cities of Gold.

As a Buddhist Japanese aid worker is deployed into war-torn Antilia, up the mighty Acuamagna, she confronts bitter sectarian warfare between the savage Christians and the Muslim Caliphate of Andalusia. The nuclear bomb that finished destroying Espirito Santo, previously hit by a typhoon of unprecedented scale, seriously impedes her search for a lasting peace among the barbaric religious wars flaring all over Antilia.

Antilia = America; Acuamagna = Mississippi; Espirito Santo = New Orleans. One turn to the left instead of the right, in this case an exodus of Christian bishops from Oporto, Portugal, into the unknown instead of up into France, and the horrific Congolese wars happen on the banks of the Mississippi.

Good stuff! I'd recommend trying it out. http://www.store.pspublishing.co.uk/acatalog/current_catalog.html/ will take you there. A worthwhile investment.

Over the weekend I read Living Proof by John Harvey and started The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss.

>12 calm:, 105, 125: I'm another fan of Night Train to Lisbon.

>128 sholofsky:, 130: I loved All the Pretty Horses, and have re-read its ending more times than I can count. But it was taught at my daughter's high school and she hated it, so I wonder whether it's more of a guy's book.

The Double Comfort Safari Club was another quality entry in the Precious Ramotswe series, going over like a hot cup of bush tea.

I also finally read an old one I'd had on my radar for a long time, The Children of Green Knowe, and really liked its old-fashioned charm.

I'm now racing through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, and enjoying it as much as I did the first two.

I'm reading A Girl Named Zippy which finally inched its way to the top of my TBR list. It's ok summer reading, undemanding and cute.

Finished Zeitoun by Dave Eggers at a gallop and am starting (late) The Once and Future King for the group read.

I got this in my A Word A Day subscription, which I was catching up on today:

"Bibliophilia: the love, and collecting, of books. No problems there... But watch out. The next step up may be bibliolatry: an extreme fondness for books."
David McKie; The Baron of Bibliomania; The Guardian (London, UK); May 5, 2008.

Yeup. That's me. Bibliolater.

I just got started on an interesting Wall Street read called, The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane

Finished Jose Saramago's De tocht van de olifant (The Elephant’s Journey) and started Smilla's Sense of Snow.

I've just started Death at Charity's Point, the first in William G. Tapply's Brady Coyne series. I figure to read the first five of this series, at least, and then see if I want to continue. I've just read the first 15 pages or so. So far this first in the series seems to be well written.

Over the past few days I read "Luxurious Hearses," the longest story/novella in Uwem Akpan's stunning collection, Say You're One of Them.

Also, I've added The Only Game in Town: Sports Writing from the New Yorker (a birthday gift from my darling wife) and At the Jazz Band Ball: Sixty Years on the Jazz Scene by Nat Hentoff (a birthday present to myself!) to my list of "between books" (collections/anthologies I read one story/entry at a time between each full-length book I read).

I started listening to Battle of the Labyrinth the fourth one of the Percy Jackson series. This one should a nice summer time listen while driving.

Reading Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I loved The Talisman but I am not quite at thrilled with Black House at this point (this point being about 70% through the book).

I finished the very cleverly written Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. I reviewed it here.

I am now reading the book that everyone's been talking about Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. How are the rest of you holding out??

Great review. Brenzi. I'm out of breath just reading it.

I'm with jnwelch, I loved All the Pretty Horses and have read it twice. I don't recall it being derivative at all!

> jbleil- Hope you loved Zeitoun! It's an excellent read! And it's never to late to join the G.R. of The Once and Future King. The 2nd section is very short!

I finished Expiration Date! It's a hard-boiled, time-traveling romp. Lots of fun. Also just started the audio of Crashing Through by Robert Kurson. It's an amazing true story of a man, blinded since he was 3, who is given the chance to see! Excellent stuff!

I just finished The God Engines by John Scalzi and I've begun A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark.

I just finished Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann, which is the first book for my judging bracket for Nerds . As soon as I finish another book review I'll go and start my other book, Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt. I need to get moving on it, since my decision is supposed to go up on Friday. Gringolandia is pretty intense - story of a Chilean boy in Madison, WI in 1986 and his political dissident father who is released from prison in Chile trying to deal. It was very good.

>144 Citizenjoyce: Thanks Joyce!

Just finished The Boy next door and now reading A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I finished Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron. It was interesting, but had some issues with the writing. Some places had too much description, other not enough. Often seemed Thubron was having a conversation with himself, comparing the current status to his visits to the same places in the past.

I am now reading Stealing Athena by Karen Essex for a RL book group. Two track story of the Elgin Marbles. Ancient Greece when they were made, and the 18th C where Elgin is collecting them.

Sorry to hear about Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum, its the next book I have to read for my RL mystery book group.

One of my groups did The Piano Tuner and we all enjoyed it.

Will be interested to hear about The Solitude of Prime Numbers we are reading that next year sometime.

I just finished A Rule Against Murder, so I don't have any worries now about going to work with that book unfinished. (It's fabulous, by the way, I can't recommend this series highly enough!)

I'm also reading Essays of E.B. White and listening to The Penderwicks on my commute. (Touchstones not loading on that last one...)

I'm just starting City for Ransom by Robert W. Walker. The first three pages are just fine.

Stayed up late finishing The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest and loved it. What a great series!

I am reading Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs. I loved her earlier novel Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?, but this novel is darker and it hits closer to home for me. As an ex-professor, I find myself identifying all too well with the crises of one of the main characters....

Ex Lit Prof
www.the-reading-list.com

Since it is summer, I'm combining reading for pleasure with reading for work--although reading for pleasure seems to be getting more time...
In the last several days, I've read the two most recent in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I also stayed up all night on Tuesday to finish The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. Loved all three books in the series; so sad that there are others from Larsson we may never get to read.

I finished The Solitude of Prime Numbers. Mesmerizing. Disturbing. Haunting. The prose is spare, precise -- a little gem of a book.

Next up: You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon.

Message 65: Citizenjoyce

I loved Bubba too! Not being American and also being under a certain age I really had no clue who they were referring to at first. I think it's hilarious: "no wonder there have been so many sightings of him" lol

I have also been watching the True Blood Series and I'm disappointed. I love the vampires but the 'human' characters are irritating particularly Tara. And they are twisting the plot from the book so it's only vaguely similar. e.g. the maenad.

BTW I also read Good Omens last year. I enjoyed it but liked American Gods much more.

Well after my Sookie Stackhouse glut I tried to find a replacement and read Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton - ugh, massive disappointment there.

So I've now moved on to something completely different: The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison which was shortlisted this year for the Orange award. It's about a little girl who was an evacuee from London during WW2.

I'm reading Hocus Pocus bu Kurt Vonnegut. So far, it seems to be one of his better novels, and I have read several.

I've finished Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell. I didn't really like it much...review posted.

Tomorrow I'll be starting Pox Americana by Elizabeth A. Fenn and I'm really looking forward to it!

ETA: It seems the book still doesn't show up even with this fancy new tag system. Hmm... added tag to author instead...

ETA2: GRRRR! ...author tag doesn't work either. *grumble*

I finished Stealing Athena by Karen Essex. I eventually enjoyed it, but it started out too light and fluffy.

I am now reading Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum for a RL book group. First book published in English in the Inspector Sejer series.

I finished The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis last night on the train home. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Falco and all things Roman. I might have to dig out the old Latin books again and go for some of the real stuff.

I'm now reading La Prisionnaire by Malika Oufkir (the touchstone links to what I assume must be the American title, as it looks to be the same book), the memoir of a lady who grew up with the daughter of the King of Morocco and was then sentenced to life imprisonment with her family. It's very different from what I've been reading recently and I thought the change would do me good.

I finished Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum. I really enjoyed it. For Scandinavian mysteries its pretty well written/translated. No long pointless, gloomy passages.

One patch was a bit of a problem where they switched location, POV character with each paragraph with no set up or warning. Trying for excitement maybe ? Still not terrible.

Saw the villain once they focused on one aspect of the story.

Now reading the next in the series He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum.

I've just started Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton published by Penguin as a 'classic'.

I had some resistance to the writing style and was not liking the "hero", Quolye, when I started The Shipping News last night, but quickly became entranced.

I finished and reviewed a sentimental favorite comedy that held up really well: Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis, in my thread...post #54.

It's fifty-five years old this year, and doesn't look a day over...a day! Of course, now it's an historical novel. I think that would make the late Mr. Dennis feel suicidal, but it's still a barrel of laughs.

I've finished How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read... about why you should never read books anymore... and I liked it!

#142, praktiklyperfect-I loved The Talisman as well, and started Black House and had to stop reading it, it was just too scary and upsetting for me to read. I don't ordinarily give up on books but that was one of the few rare times I did.

#158 kiwi, I thought Guilty Pleasures was awful, cannot understand the following, I listened to it on audio and it was painful!

I ditched City for Ransom and moved on to a volume from my TBR shelves, The Verneys, which is much better written and has more interesting people, to boot.

I just started A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer. The writing is very good but I have a problem with the character, Claire. She's too perfect --gorgeous, smart, good mother, modern for her time period, etc. I would like her more if she had some flaws. Too early to pass judgment, yet.

I have recently finished both One Mississippi and The Law of Similars neither of which thrilled me. I then read this must be the place an ER book which I LOVED!!! I am currently reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood which I like but don't love yet.

Well, I guess I am just not in the mood for Sleepless (though I tried, Mark, really I did!) and put it down after a hundred or so pages to start on something a bit lighter ~ Heresy: a Thriller by S. J. Parris (no touchstone for either title or author, drat the touchstones!), which I am really enjoying. Also reading a little gem of a book, The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys, at work. Really short vignettes about various people and issues for each time the Thames has frozen since the 12th century. I cried over one I read yesterday ~ about the serfs and the hidden green of a cloak in 1536 CE. Others made me giggle. Some were sweet, some poignant, and some infuriating. Sort of like a Rutherford historical, only much, much shorter and about unrelated people. Only the event of the Thames freezing connects the stories.

I have wanted to read Frozen Thames for a long time. Darn - another book to put on the list. And just when I thought I was getting better about that ...

I finished reading The Sparrow at lunch today. For the last three days I have carried this book everywhere with me. I just couldn't put it down even when I wanted to do so.

This book was one of those books with which I had a love hate relationship. I loved it, but I knew how it was going to end, (It ends horribly), and I didn't want that to happen. I was compelled to keep reading all the time crying "no, change the ending!" One part of me couldn't wait to find out what happened and the other part of me dreaded it. It was a very gripping novel. I can't believe that I missed this book back in 1996 when it was first published. I would have missed it now, except that it is my book discussion group selection for this month. I can already tell that we are going to have a great discussion about this one.

When I was looking up book reviews of this book there was a quote from Nancy Perl, who had a column in Library Journal for book discussion groups titled "What to Read Next." She said that a good book for discussion was one that didn't tell everything there was to tell about the story. That leaves room for discussion. If the reader knows everything about the story then the only thing left to say is that you loved the book or hated it. That makes for bad discussions. I never thought of it that way, but have learned over the years that some books just don't work well for discussing even if they are good books. I guess a little mystery is good for discussion.

I am reading The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III by Tim Carroll and it is fascinating.

I finished Secret Keepers by Mindy Friddle and liked it very much. It's a book about life, mental illness, death and sex where the most graphic descriptions are botanical. In describing the "brazen ruses of orchids to lure pollinators" a character wonders "You've never seen such commitment to living...to multiplying. It never ceases to amaze me the shows they put on. All that finery to entice pollinators. Flowers are scented, glowing, magnificent reproductive organs."

I've started Ayaan Hirsi Ali's second memoir Nomad and am finding it very angry and harsh, but understandably so. She's quite a woman.

#174 Oh, The Sparrow is one of my top 10 of all times desert-island favorites. Children of God, the sequel, while not as amazing, ties up a bunch of loose ends and makes sense (of a sort) of all that happened before and is, I think, well worth reading. Plus there's more Sandoz, always a good thing.

Today I'm reading Best Hikes With Dogs: Arizona and trying to pick out a hike to go on before the month's out. This is the first time I've really read through it and it seems very comprehensive. I'll rate it after we go hiking!

Hiking in Arizona in July, ouch.

I am currently reading Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris. I just finished reading Twilight: the complete Illustrated Movie Companion by Mark Cotta Vaz.

Happy reading all!!!

This week I finished reading Coalitions in British Politics ed. David Butler. Not quite as dull and dusty as it sounds - honest. Also finished The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which is a rattling good yarn, although I found the ending slightly unsatisfactory.

Am still plodding away with J P Kenyon's The Stuarts, a good, standard account of seventeenth-century Britain.

Began to reread Ian Hunter's Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star - as enjoyable as I remember it - and have made a start on Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I have a feeling that this could be good.

Last week I finished Miss Buncle's Book, a 1930s story about a woman who writes a novel based on the other people in the village she lives in - the others recognise themselves and many (though not all!) are outraged. I think this book is just lovely, and quite funny. The only problem with this book is that it's one of a series of 4 and Persephone hasn't reprinted the others. Miss Buncle Married has been reprinted in a library large print edition and I've placed a reservation on it.

I also finished reading Angela Carter's Fireworks and I started reading Robert Lewis, The Last Llanelli Train about an ageing PI set in Bristol, the first in a trilogy. There are lots of alcoholic fictional PIs who appear to be rather self-destructive, but Robin Llewellyn has gone further than most.

I am reading Mister Monday by Garth Nix, and not liking it as much as I had hoped. I read the Abhorsen series last month and couldn't put it down so I hoped these would be the same. Its a cool story and very imaginative, but for some reason I'm just not getting invested in the character or story. Its a bummer. Wondering if I should just return it and move on or stick it out.

#107 (benita) and #109 (AMQS):

Re. movies being made from books - after every good work of fiction I've read, I find myself wondering why it's not a movie yet. Perhaps because, while reading, I'm seeing it all unfold as a movie in my head. But, yes, perhaps benita is right that it does take quite a different skill to write scripts than novels. Also, given the considerable financial investment required to make movies, perhaps aligning to current trends and ensuring commercial viability is more important than bringing good stories to life on the big screen.

>185 jennybhatt:, that and 98% of the time they completely botch the book when they try to make it into a movie. Overall, i'd rather they didn't try anymore.

The Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is excellent. Parts of the book have been changed, of course, but still excellent. The World According to Garp also excellent. I've also enjoyed all the Harry Potter movies and even thought the scene with the fountain in the headquarters helped me understand what was going on better than the book.

Last night I read The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling, which was a good, fun quick read.

This morning, for something completely different, I've started Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. I've been reading quite a bit of literary fluff recently, so it will be good to read something with a bit more meat.

Ich lese gerade "Die Jakobsleiter" von Maarten `t hart