Group Reading Log: September 2010

Have just started Craig Silvey's Jasper Jones, which is a re-read for me. I only read it last year, but it's coming up as the next book for my online bookgroup and I'm supposed to be moderating discussion, starting next week or thereabouts.

Always leaving things to the last possible moment, that's me...

I am reading The White Queen by Philippa Gregory - was a bit slow to get into it - but has taken off now so I am enjoying it :)

Have read The Ghost Writer by John Harwood - I started it last month, but put it to one side. I found the ending disappointing, and spoilt the rest of the book for me. Which is a major POO because I was really enjoying the spookiness of it all up until then!

Have now picked up Frankenstein, which I think I read as a teenager (my copy still has a $1 (!!!) price tag on it). So long ago now, that it's definitely due for a re-read.

just finished I, Strahd and liked it a lot. I doubt much in in will relate to the new Castle Ravenloft boardgame but I recommend it as a solid read to fans of pre-Twilight vampires..

next up I'm returning to the 'Tomorrow' series with book four, Darkness Be My Friend

#3 I was thinking when you talked about The Ghost Writer that it was the book that the film 'The Ghost Writer' was based on. However, I now realise that Robert Harris's book was called the The Ghost. I'm curious to read it, as it seemed to me that the film skipped a lot.
I'm reading Imperium by Robert Harris at the moment, as well as Breath by our beloved Tim Winton.
John Marsden and his wonderful 'Tomorrow' series. Sigh. I wish I hadn't already read them all.

#2 Oh, yes, I meant to say that I found The White Queen slow to get going, but after a while I was hooked. I need to read The Red Queen soon.

I'm *still* kicking myself for not picking up Tomorrow, When the War Began from the library the day it was there. It has, of course, been checked out ever since. Gah.

Going slow on Frankenstein. And Mel Brooks was obviously too big an influence on me, I'm insisting on pronouncing it "Fraaaahnk-en-schteeen". (I keep on even correcting myself. Oh dear, what a misspent youth!)

I got Don for Fathers' Day the first two volumes of The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. And I picked up the first volume while Mr Bear was brushing his teeth last night. Scary, scary, stuff, but excellent. freelunch, after half a book I recommend it, with the caveat that I'm even hiding the cover art from Mr Bear. It's almost giving *me* nightmares.

I have a bunch of The Walking Dead trades in my TBRs, I started buying them after loving Robert Kirkman's Invincible series. I might actually get around to reading one one of these days..

Of course, you've already got them. :) Will keep half an eye open for "Invincible", but will stick with this series for the moment.

I've just finished Darkness, Be My Friend and it was great, as good as the preceding books in the series. And the good news is I still have six more to go :) I think I might stop my 11yo reading at book three though as there are concepts in this one I don't think he's ready for yet..

next up for me: more Harry Dresden in Fool Moon

Hi! I'm back after a (fairly) long break. I've read a bunch of books while I was offline, including the Tomorrow series and the Ellie Chronicles. Has anyone seen the movie yet? I also read The Dark Tower series, as well as a bunch of other books.

I am currently reading Fat, Forty and Fired by Nigel Marsh.

Welcome back! Yet to see T,WTWB, and yet to read the book. *sigh*

Love the title of Fat, Forty and Fired. :)

I'm still reading Frankenstein. It is nothing like the movie! No Igor! No "it's aaaaliiiiiive!!!". No lightning strike!

It's strange how Hollywood ran with it and turned it into such a different, yet still iconic, story.

Hi everyone :) I read The Women in Black for Bookclub last month and found it quite delightful. I am now reading Aiding and Abetting and listening to The Lost Painting while driving. (I read Jasper Jones last year, wookiebender. Just bought a copy for a friend overseas. ) Haven't seen the movie yet fairy-whispers but the Tomorrow-bookmarkers were at our library today.

Hi Carole! I've got Women in Black on Mt TBR, and am holding off on reading it until December, when it's the book for bookgroup. (But I wanna read it *now*!)

Wookie, at this stage, the title is significantly better than the book.

If you are going to see 'Tomorrow, When the War Began', I recommend doing so before you read the book. It's a good movie but sadly, like most movies, it falls short of the book. Having said that, it is still worth seeing.

It doesn't take long to read The Women in Black The chapters are short too. Will be interesting to hear what you think when December comes fairy-whispers... :)

Finished - and thoroughly enjoyed - Frankenstein.

Now madly reading Foundling by D.M. Cornish, a young adult book due back at the library this Saturday. It's an excellent tale, so far. (Read faster! *cracks whip*)

I read Frankenstein a long, long,long (sigh) time ago ..... for English ..... :) I saw a really beautiful copy of an annotated version of Dracula in the library last week .... It looked interesting but much too thick for me to read at the moment ........ ! Finished reading Aiding and Abetting which I thoroughy enjoyed ..... It was about Lord Lucan and what might have been .... quite an amusing read. I have started another book by the same author, Muriel Spark called Symposium .... only 130 pages so will be another quick read!!

Well, I whipped through Foundling in record time. Not just because it was hard to put down and I was eager to get back to it each night, but also because the last 150 pages or so turned out to be appendices. (Glossary, maps, etc.) A good fun read, I'll be getting the second book out of the library this weekend.

It was also beautifully illustrated. It turns out the author - D.M. Cornish - is originally an illustrator, and I knew his art looked familiar, as he also did the illustrations for a gorgeous picture book called Emily and the Dragon which was a hit with both my kids. (Girls can't fight dragons. Harrumph to that!!)

I have no idea what I'm picking up next, as this was an earlier-than-expected finish to the book, and I hadn't quite planned my next read! (Yes, I plan in advance.)

Have picked up The Talented Mr Ripley. Didn't have to dust it as much as Frankenstein, but it's been languishing on my shelves unread for a very, very long time.

I have finished reading Fat, Forty and Fired by Nigel Marsh. This book was not nearly as entertaining as I had expected. There were some funny bits and I really related to Nigel's struggles with the children, but overall I was quite disappointed. To begin with, the story is non-linear, jumping back and forth from past to present and making it a little confusing to read. There was a lot of the 'whinging pom' attempt at humour, which was also off putting. The majority of the time spent reading this, I was a bit bored. This is a take-it-or-leave-it kind of book.

I attempted to read Unless by Carol Shields but the writing style really bugged me and I simply could not get past the first chapter.

Meanwhile, I also read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. When nine-year-old Bruno's father is ordered by the Fury to take command of Out-With, his entire family moves along with him. Bored, and missing his three best-friends-for-life, Bruno has no-one to play with but his older, and meaner sister, Gretel. Until one day, he decides to go exploring. After a while, he finds a new friend to talk to, though they cannot play together.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a brilliant book that is well worth reading. Seeing history through the eyes of a confused child, we are able to view events with a fresh perspective. This is one of those books that will have you thinking long after you finish reading.

If you read nothing else this year, read this.

I am currently reading Australia: A History in Photographs by Michael Cannon.

I've been absent from LT for a while, and I had a bit of a slowdown on the reading front. I've read less then half the books that I had at the same time last year. However, I have read a few good one recently.
I was surprised by how good I thought The Glass Room was.
I've read Brooklyn, The Dress Lodger and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but with those, towards the end, I started skimming. I found that the best way to enjoy them with my short attention span at the moment. All of the above are bookcrossing books.

The Dress Lodger is due to leave Australia soon, it one of perryfan's bookrays and is open to everyone. It is also in the top 50 travelled books on bookcrossing. It's one I would recommend. Great Historical Fiction!

I'm about to start Parrot and Olivier in America which will be my contribution to Fleebo's Booker Challenge this year.

>#22 Fairy-whispers, I found The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas a very good read too. One that made you think.
Also, I found Unless a drag for most of the books but the surprise at the end turned an ok book, into one I was very glad that I'd read. Also, I had to read about it on wikipedia to really attempt to understand some of the construct of the chapter headings. I have The Stone Diaries here but I haven't managed to get to it yet.

>#13,14, 16 >The Women in Black I found to be a delightful read and VERY telling of Australian culture in the 1950s.
Australian Family at the lunch table
"What do you call that, love?"
"Oh, that's something new I thought we would try, it's called Salami"
!!!!!!
Reminded me of the story my Mum told me- when she went to an Italian friends place in the 1950s and tried spagetti for the first time!
Although, even in the 1970s we were pretty uncultured. I was the first in my family to learn to use chopsticks at a Chinese school friend's 8th birthday party.
Anyway the food aspect is only one of those themes (well not really a theme, maybe only a theme for me ;) in the book that highlights how much we've changed.

>#6 livrecache, I really enjoyed The White Queen. I've given my Mum The Red Queen as part of her birthday present and I'm eagerly waiting for her to finish it ;-)

>#1 WB hope the bookgroup read of Jasper Jones goes well -another one I've been meaning to read.

KimB, I'm looking forward to Parrot and Olivier in America! (I must go and choose something nice and readable (err...) from the Booker shortlist...) I got it out from the library once, but it got reclaimed before I had a chance to start it. (So many books get returned unread by me! Oh well.)

Mum likes Carol Shields, and I've got a couple of her books on the shelves that I've been meaning to read.

And Mum & Dad tell us stories of their first zucchini! And broccoli! (I'm beginning to realise that anything with an italianesque name probably wasn't in Australia during the 1950s.)

I can pass on Jasper Jones to you, if you want to - this is a duplicate copy (long story), and will be bookcrossed and passed onto goodthinkingmax at least for the Miles Franklin shortlist reading challenge (jubby's already read it, and Fleebo I think is overseas). Since it's duplicate, I'm happy for it to travel wherever.

Nice to "see" you again!

I finished (and enjoyed) The Talented Mr Ripley but it was a bit spoilt by the knowledge I'd gleaned from the recentish movie adaptation. Not that I even saw the movie! Would have been more fun if I'd known nothing.

And am keeping the crime reads coming, with Gorky Park now. An excellent beginning, I'm only about 30 pages in, and am already wondering when I'll next be able to pick it up...

Ooops! Wookie, I've realised it's you who will be reading Women in Black ... not fairy-whispers and I look forward to hearing about how the discussion goes!! Lovely to read your thoughts on the book KimB .... That Salami comment brought a smile to me too .... !! We read The Stone Diaries for bookclub a couple of years ago. It was an interesting read ... especially because of the whole way in which it was written. I honestly thought it was a real autobiography!! *blush*
I finished Symposium and it was a treat to read. I must look for more of her books for I do enjoy her writing style. I also read Chicken with Plums a graphic novel set in Iran .... very quick to read (though I read took my time) and also well written. I have joined Aleon Blue's Anna Karenina Readathon and I'm slowly ploughing through it ....... slow-ly ...... but really enjoying it!! Happy Friday, everyone and enjoy the weekend :)

No worries, Carole! We'll be reading The Women in Black in December, I hope you don't mind waiting a few months. :) (This month was Jasper Jones, next month is Lovesong, then Truth - as Miles Franklin winner - in November.) I like getting my Australian fiction fix there, the problem with sites like LibraryThing (etc) is while I get great recommendations and read great stuff, it definitely biasses me towards US literature, and the Australian (and to a lesser extent, English) lit misses out.

Finished Gorky Park and it was quite, quite excellent. (Will return it to the Oz VBB, methinks.)

And have picked up The Earth Hums in B Flat which was sent to me by Jenniwren from the Oz VBB over a year ago, and has hovered near the top (but not quite at the top!) of Mt TBR ever since. I'm loving it so far.

Each quarter I take part in the "Set it Yourself" (SIY) challenge over on bookcrossing (it's run in the Book Talk forum, if you're interested). This quarter, I chose to read 10 books that had been bookcrossed by someone other than me (trying to clear Mt TBR!), plus 15 from my own collection. I also have not been buying books (library books, borrowed books, and bookcrossed books are okay though) - again, an effort to clear Mt TBR.

I started with a "TBR" count (according to LT) of 366. I now have a TBR count of 367. I have the feeling Mt TBR will never be conquered. (It went up because of library books, adding books to TBR catalogue which had been on my shelves forever but never catalogued, etc.)

As my Mum said, at least it's gone up slower than usual. Argh.

>26 wookiebender: - I finished The Earth Hums in B Flat last week - my review is up here in LT and on my blog.

Now reading The Passage by Justin Cronin. Hard to explain how I feel about this one - don't love it, but can't not read it - I feel like a rabbit stuck in an oncoming car's headlights, you know it's going to be uncomfortable but you can't move :)

Finished The Earth Hums in B Flat this morning on the bus, and enjoyed it very much. (I'll read your review in a tick, Sally!)

And have now moved on to The Sign of Four, the second Sherlock Holmes mystery.

ETA: Nice review! I liked how you mentioned that Gwenni just blurts everything out, not understanding what is happening, while it's clear to us. I thought that was one of the main charms of the story.

well I've been bogged down on Fool Moon for almost three weeks now (!!) I like it, I'm just not making the time to sit down with it (and I can't blame school holidays as I'd already been going on it a-week-and-a-half when they began.

starting on The Fry Chronicles tonight, I'll let Harry Dresden sit a while I think..

Oh dear, I hope that Harry Dresden recaptures your attention when you get back to it!

I'm only a few pages short of the ending of The Sign of Four (why didn't the bus run any slower on the way to work??), and it's been a fun romp. I think I'm slightly in love with Dr Watson. (And that Holmes fellow is rather clever.)

Will be moving on to Boyhood, the first in a fictional autobiographical trilogy by Coetzee. My first Coetzee, wish me luck!

I have finished reading Australia: A History in Photographs by Michael Cannon. This is a fascinating presentation of Australia's history from white settlement to the early 1980s. I tend to prefer photography over film - I feel it has more soul - and black & white is my preferred medium. Thus, I found this pictorial history thoroughly enjoyable. The beautiful photography is not the only thing this book has going for it, however. Each caption contains a little snippet of history, making this book not just enjoyable, but informative as well. Australian history is not covered in nearly enough depth in schools, and I found myself learning quite a lot of interesting facts about my own country. This is a perfect coffee table book and one I highly recommend reading.

I am now reading The Wild, Unwilling Wife by Barbara Cartland and Encyclopedia of the Unexplained by Richard Cavendish.

>30 wookiebender: the fault was all mine, not Harry's. I just finished Fool Moon. it was good :)

Yay! Harry Dresden has claimed another fan!

I finished Coetzee's Boyhood, and it was most excellent. Not quite sure why I was so scared of Coetzee before (probably because he's a Nobel laureate), it was immensely readable and terribly *true*.

The only drag was his school lessons on South African history. All those names I know nothing about! It would have been nice (but not essential, it's hardly required for the plot) to have some background on who they all were. (Must at least Google the Boer War now.)

Moving on to Emma Donoghue's Room. Looking forward to it, I've heard great things!