What Are You Reading Now? - October 2010

Happy October! What's everyone reading? I've been on a slight binge through my backlog of middle eastern contemporary history books this week, reading Killing Mr Lebanon: The Assasination of Rafik Hariri and its Impact on the Middle East by Nicholas Blanford, which was fantastic and which I really regret not having read sooner. Also:

The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon's Life Struggle by Michael Young, which was really quite compelling, despite Young's penchant for name-dropping and his tendency to begin each chapter with a discussion of some random European film. Definitely less impartial than Blanford's book, but that's understandable, given that Young is a Lebanese Maronite himself.

Hezbollah: A Short History by Augustus Richard Norton, which was really quite disappointing, especially since Norton is such a big name in Lebanon studies. Read much more like a series of thoughts on Hizballah - many of them quite shallow - rather than a single coherent narrative.

Syrian Foreign Policy and the United States: From Bush to Obama - four short papers of varying quality on Syrian foreign policy. Nothing really that exciting here.

Finally, I also started digging into the essays in Demystifying Syria and Foreign Policies of the Arab States: The Challenge of Globalization.

fanny, phew, an interesting binge.

For me: I started Wolf Hall last night (by Hillary Mantel). I've pick up Barefoot Gen again (Barefoot Gen, Volume Five : The Never-Ending War by Keiji Nakazawa); this time I taking it in slowly, maybe 30 minutes in any one day at most...so I can think about it a little while I read it. My poetry book is the San Pedro River Review : Vol 2 No 2, Fall 2010.

I've just started The Socorro Blast, a mystery novel that, unusually, happens to be set in my home town. Next up after that, I think, is Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht.

I'm nearly finished with the flawed UK version of Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, which I bought on my way back from London last week (more info on the mix up here). I'm also reading Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire by Iain Sinclair, and Pulp, a spoof of pulp fiction novels by Charles Bukowski.

I've finished The Shadow Woman, the latest of Åke Edwardson's police procedurals to be translated, and I've also finished Buddha's Orphans by Nepalese author Samrat Upadhyay which I enjoyed very much. I'm hoping to write some comments on the latter later today. It was an unusual book in some ways, but also brought to my mind Doctor Zhivago.

Last night at bedtime I picked up Lydia Millet's latest collection of short stories, Love in Infant Monkeys. The first story is about what's going on in Madonna's head after she shoots a pheasant (it's not quite dead yet). It's pretty funny. I think the title is called 'Sexing the Pheasant'.

I'm reading a fabulous find - On Black Sisters' Street by Belgo-Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe. Picked it up on spec in a Brussels bookshop the other day and I'm mesmerised.

Finished, The Historian which I wasted too much time reading.

To get over the disappointment I've started to read The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

I'm still plugging away with Hitler and Stalin, and have also started the new NYRB collection of stories and other writing by Vassily Grossman, The Road, which doesn't yet touchstone.

I'm jumping back and forth between The Line by Olga Grushin and Room by Emma Donoghue, both of which I love so far.

I've just finished Underworld by Don DeLillo whose writing here I found uneven. The opening chapter is one of the best I've read but DeLillo was obviously hard put to keep writing brilliant prose for 800 more pages... Also, just finished the highly entertaining The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon by Philip Graham, about the author and his family's experience of living for a year in Lisbon, published previously as serialized accounts in McSweeney´s. Also finished but was underwhelmed by Atomised or The Elementary Particles by Michel Houllebecq -- he fails to convince me.

Have just started Ides of March by Thornton Wilder and liking it so far.

I finished up the Mistborn trilogy and started on an ER book, Farmer Jane. Working my way through all my cookbooks preparing my Thanksgiving menu as well. Still feeling a bit in the reading rut and very behind on my reviews.

I'm in the middle of four just now: Anna Karenina, The Woman in White, Wives and Daughters (Gaskell - it's a reread, I love this book) and a non fiction The Proud Tower: A portrait of the world before the war 1890 - 1914 by Barbara Tuchman.

All four are great reading.

Just started Salamander by Thomas Wharton, picked out for me by my niece Caitlin. I'm also reading The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2010, edited by Freeman Dyson and looking through Presidential Doodles, although I might just keep this and read bits as I get to each President (I'm up to Fillmore).

Just finished reading 591606::L'Homme qui Rit (The Man Who Laughs) by Victor Hugo which I was reading alongside booksontrial. Very much enjoyed this. Still have not been disappointed by Mr. Hugo.

Reading mysteries:
Cruz Smith Polar Star - arkedy is exiled to Siberia and finds himself working on a fishing factory ship. Unfortunately this copy was heavily mildewed and -> asthma and my probably only reading 80% of the text. But i very much enjoyed what I did read.

Gunshot Road- Adrian Hyland's 2nd mystery set in the Australian outback - although the first I've read. Very interesting setting and characters. From the POV of a college educated, although not-degreed, very assertive young Aboriginal woman who's brought into, despite doubts on all sides, on the local constabulary. An eccentric aging geologist is murdered - and what seems to be an open and shut case of a bar room argument gone bad turns (of course) into a far more complex case than surface signs would indicate. There's a nice interview with Hyland discussing his use of site and situation here: http://jsydneyjones.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/mystery-down-under-adrian-hylands-o...

I've just finished and reviewed the fifth Inspecror Montalbano mystery, Excursion to Tindari, in my thread...post #205.

Most series mysteries sag a little about this point, the author seeming to run out of new and fresh things to do with the characters. Not this series, not yet anyway. Truly wonderful stuff, and from all signs only getting better!

One warning, though: Hide your credit cards, block Alitalia's number on your phone, and set NetNanny to ignore all mentions of Sicily or you'll be there in a trice.

Reading Nicola Barker's Wide Open currently.

I finished Doubt: A History, which took me a little while, but was worth it, and have now started Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold.

I'm reading Hav by Jan Morris slowly, as her descriptions of this imaginary country are clear enough to imagine myself there, and that takes time! Thanks to TomcatMurr for the recommendation.

I've also begun The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg and for the first time I may have found a Scandinavian crime writer I'm not in love with.

pump six and other stories - novellas and short stories, mostly set in societies of scarcity; some are set in the same calorie depleted world of the windup girl. Also my first book by Hakan Nesser, Mind's Eye an inspector Van Veeteren mystery. Translated from Swedish. So far so good. I'm still not sure what country the book is set in, however. Did the high school history/philosophy teacher kill his wife of 3 months? and after the teacher's convicted..and then killed..wtf?

While traveling to Boston and back, I finished four books and have now reviewed them on my thread and on the book pages: the stunning The Road by Vasily Grossman (which doesn't touchstone); Room by Emma Donoghue, which I found impressive and thought-provoking, if a tad manipulative; Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez which I found psychologically insightful despite its post-pandemic dystopian setting; and the witty and completely delightful The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History by Jill Lepore.

I'll look for your comments on The Whites of Their Eyes. I'm a little tired of them hogging the national discourse and that odd "if you disagree with me, you're not an American".

I have in my possession Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and, having read the first hundred pages, am rabidly figuring out how to be able to read more. He writes oddly--some of the phrases feel overworked--yet he manages to simultaneously be contemptuous and understanding of his characters. He also makes it impossible not to read the next page. May I add that I am sad that while we can drive while chatting on the phone, we can't read and drive? At least not successfully.

I am in the middle of Wolf Hall, another that RidgewayGirl enticed me into. My holds on The Children's Book and Wolf Hall arrived at once, and someone has a hold on Wolf Hall, so I have to rush through it to get done by Saturday. The Children's Book was much more leisurely.

Just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Hard to really tell what I think since I saw the movie first.

>13 auntmarge64:, auntmarge, how is the 2010 volume of the science and nature writing? I've enjoyed previous years.

>21 rebeccanyc: and 22 - I'll be watching for your thoughts on the Tea Party book too, Rebecca. Part of me really wants to know more about this movement and part of me doesn't want to waste my time learning about a group that seems repellent to me.

Just finished A World Without Islam for Early Reviewers, which was really a wash.

I'm slowly working my way through The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson. There are some interesting bits of social and political history in here, and some larger than-life-historical figures, but I'm wondering if this is just a series of sketches or if there is a larger narrative that the author is building toward. It is fun though, either way.

Finished Nicola Barker's Wide Open - a spectacular book, wonderfully crafted and full of odd-ball characters; and Susan Hill's The Small Hand, an entertaining ghost story. Comments for both are on my thread.

Have now started Andrei Codrescu's The Poetry Lesson and Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender. Have finally found my misplaced copy of Dreams of Speaking, so I hope to finish that soon also.

Finished The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, a great modern fairy tale with a darker edge and Call of the Wild by Jack London, which I thought was good but I have found little to say about it.

Started The Barrens by Joyce Carol Oates as Rosamond Smith. Will continue to read Maps of Time once I find it.

I've finished and reviewed the fifth Montalbano mystery, THE SMELL OF THE NIGHT, in my thread...#64.

I'm reading The Kindness of Strangers: Kitchen Memoirs by Shonagh Koea for my book group; it's a New Zealand writer's-memoir-with-recipes. I found her writing style off-putting at first, but once I got past the first chapter, I'm beginning to enjoy it a lot.

I have been severe with myself in the matter of buying books this year, but a forthcoming pay rise has led to a little splurge: I bought These I Have Loved: My Favourite New Zealand Poems, by mcqueenharvey::Harvey McQueen, and - after some internal debate - decided to buy the latest Buffy Season 8 trade pb, 10287660::Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 7: Twilight, collating Issues 31-35 of the 40-issue season. After a strong start, this series/season has tailed over over the past few five-issue sets. I'm hoping it will pick up again over the final two volumes.

And on to the sixth Montalbano mystery, this one about the Sicilian institution of smuggling, brought to a whole new depth of depravity...post #112.

I'm now reading my latest ER book, Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals by Jay Kirk. So far, I'm not loving the writing style, but I'm hoping it will grow on me.

Just skimming through this whole thread again - as a group, our reading is wonderfully eclectic.

I'm reading James Ellroy's follow-up to his earlier book about his mother's murder, My Dark Places. In The Hilliker Curse, I'm discovering that he's still messed up.

I finished Freedom by Jonathan Franzen yesterday.

Currently binging on fantasy. Also reading Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson (an ER book) and will be starting The Brothers Karamazov shortly.

Finished three books in a row, A Master by Colm Toibin, Granta 55 Children: Blind Bitter Happiness, and Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat by Sarah Murray.

Now reading V.S. Naipaul's Enigma of Arrival...lovely writing, as always from him.

Halfway through ian Rankin's The Complaints. Picked it up from a nearby pile while the bread was baking and well, now I'm hooked.

current: who fears death - Fantasy? cultural collision/allegorical fable by Nigerian/American Nnedi Okoafor.

the bird of the river Kage Baker's last book - NOT a "company" story; coming of age fantasy - oddly similar in many ways to "who fears death"

Still in and out of the art of the sonnet

Fakers - scams and fakes perpetrated for all sorts of reasons; from fraud to literary satires that become "real" and why people want the fakes to be true. Superficial analyses, but some interesting case studies.

I'm gaining a better appreciation for what it was like to live during WWII in Stud's Terkel's The Good War. I love oral histories, so I'm surprised that I haven't picked this up sooner. It's fantastic.

>37 bobmcconnaughey: I liked that particular Okorafor.

Finished the Rankin and am now back to reading too many books at once.

I'm reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. It's depressing and distressing but I can't put it down!

I finally got back to books last night, after a sojourn of work, newspapers and magazines. I've started Still Life by Louise Penny, which other LTers have raved about. But I left it home today - and I have two subway rides left! My own private famine.

Deebee1, I'd like to hear your thoughts about the Murray book. History of food is an interest of mine ever since I read Much Depends on Dinner by Visser years ago.

The book ADD has been really bad lately, really bad. I keep starting new books without finishing others. The books I am reading, for real, not in theory, are Zeitoun, finally saw it in paperback, so I got it. I'm in about 70 or so pages, and I'm a little scared of what comes next, but it's in my purse, so most likely will get finished. Also, Dragonfly in Amber, sequel to Outlander, which I recently reread. Also, Time Management for Unmanageable People, which, despite the subject matter, I am finding quite helpful. I've discovered pulp fiction this year (thanks RidgewayGirl) and will probably start Die a Little by Megan Abbott shortly.

I'm off from work for the next two days and I'm planning to read two LT Early Reviewer books I've recently received: All That Follows by Jim Crace, and How To Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu.

I'm continuing with The Poetry Lesson by Andrei Codrescu but I'm enjoying it less than I thought I would. There is plenty about poets (although it's mostly anecdotes about their lives which I find far less interesting than their poetry), and it is funny in places, but the "character" of the professor is not terribly likable, imo (one does wonder how autobiographical the professor is, he seems to share quite a lot of basic history with Codrescu). I shall soldier on.

I'm reading The Hopkins Manuscript by R C Sherriff - British 1930s sci-fi story in which the moon is on a collision course with earth.

I just finished and reviewed the stunning, if harrowing, Great House by Nicole Krauss, a novel about loss, memory, deception, and grief.

I've finished and reviewed Mood Matters: From Rising Skirt Lengths to the Collapse of World Powers, an Early Reviewers book, in my thread...post #150.

Not for a general audience. Fascinating thesis, that mood creates events not events creating moods, but just dry enough to put off the Cod: Biography of a Fish crowd. More the Longitude reader's speed.

I started Been Here a Thousand Years by Mariolina Venezia, which I will review for Belletrista, this morning. It's beautiful so far, and has caused me to ditch my North American travel plans for next summer to return to Italy - I think!

I've just started Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt, my first by this author. Like Cait, above, it's also a Belletrista read, so hopefully it'll be great and a review will follow!

I grabbed Susan Hill's Strange Meeting as I flew out the door yesterday enroute to a hair appointment (imagine being caught waiting somewhere without a book in hand) and now I'm hooked. Set in WWI, it's a story of friendship on the battlefield.

edited to add that I finished and made some comments on this book on my thread.

I finished and reviewed We Have Always Lived in the Castle for my RL book circle and for Mary's (bell7's) 75-Books Challenge "TIOLI" challenge to read a not-quite-horror book. My review is in my thread...post #117.

>51 richardderus:, that book is next up for my RL book club too. Having read your review, I'm not sure I'm going to like it though. I hope I can see past the implausibilities!

#51, When I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle last year I was just stunned that I had never read it before -- I just loved getting inside Merricat's seriously disturbed head and it instantly became one of my favorite books. In fact, thanks for reminding me -- I think I'll reread it for Halloween.

Some sort of pause button going on here ... haven't been able to get interested in fiction for weeks. I reviewed a couple novels from earlier this month (Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Walter Mosley's upcoming The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey) and read some light nonfiction (Christopher Marley's art book Pheromone and Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto). But I've otherwise been in an every-ten-years purge of my basement clutter.

Happy to say that Great House by Nicole Krauss might get me going again. I'm intrigued; Krauss reveals her story slowly and beautifully.

I've just finished The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder, a remarkable novel in epistolary form set in Rome during the period leading to the assassination of Julius Caesar. Caesar's letters to his friend Lucius Turrinus were especially thought-provoking and wonderfully written, amusing even. Also finished Yoko Ogawa's Hotel Iris, a disturbing novel about the affair of a 17 year old girl and an eccentric old man. There are some perverse and shocking scenes in the book which are not for meek and gentle folk.

Now reading Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin or Every Man Dies Alone (US title). Liking it so far, though I find Hoffman's translation a bit forced, sometimes sounding somewhat theatrical. (Here's one of those times when I wish I could read a book in the original!) And for a lighter read, now halfway into Jorge Amado's Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon).

I've started Gogol's Dead Souls, the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. My SO was complaining it was slow going, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I might even finish it by the time my book club meets on Tuesday!

Just started Noah's Compass. I have started about three different books and just can't seem to finish any of them - this one looks like it will stick.

Started The Next Queen of Heaven. It's nice to see Maguire out of the fairy tales. So far it's original and funny.

Today I'll start I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita, which is one of the finalists for this year's National Book Award for Fiction. It's a historical novel that consists of 10 novellas, which tells the story of the civil rights movement in San Francisco, including the fight to save the International Hotel in Manilatown, which was the beginnings of the Yellow Power Movement in the city. I'll also start The Words, Jean-Paul Sartre's autobiography, and I'm continuing to read A River Dies of Thirst: Journals, a collection of "poems, meditations, fragments and journal entries" by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, and Ignatz, a poetry collection by Monica Youn, which is a finalist for this year's National Book Award for Poetry. In case you're wondering, this is the same Ignatz that is the love interest of the cartoon character Krazy Kat.

Said I, to myself, "Oh, oh." I can't pass up Krazy Kat. It apparently is not easily available new despite favorable reviews, and the used price escalates. I did manage to find a copy for about seven and a half dollars total on Abe Books and placed the order.

Thanks,

Robert

I have been head down, posterior up finishing off edits to my novel manuscript this month, so my reading outside that has been little and light:

- I'm still working my way through A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction, one story at a time.

- I have read OK Alaska-set thriller Capitol Offense, by Mike Doogan, set in Juneau - as a political thriller, it's an interesting look at the political context from which Sarah Palin emerged.

- I have finished Volume 7 (of 8) of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 (the series continued in graphic novel format): I have often found the storytelling too rushed in comic format compared to the TV series, so I liked the slower, more character-focused approach in this volume, even though a major plot development revealed herein is ... puzzling.

>61 timjones:: I have the new Buffy installment coming in the mail to me right now, and am very much looking forward to it, especially given that "more character-focused" description. Even if, truth be told, there have been a few too many vampires in my recent reading already.

And I am currently reading Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin. I'm not very far in, but am already fascinated by Grandin's descriptions of how her mind works.

>62 bragan:, bragan: I liked the first few volumes - especially #s 2 and 3 - a lot, but I haven't enjoyed the latter instalments as much. Have you enjoyed them all the way through?

Overall, I have enjoyed the whole series, but I've definitely liked the first three the best so far.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. More like one continuous detour than a single overarching narrative, but so far I am loving the detours.

Not at all thrilled to have read Trespass by Rose Tremain, but read it I have and care I did not.