What You're Reading the Week of 17 May 2008

I enjoyed finishing Lee Child's Nothing to Lose, maybe a little more far-fetched than some of his and went on to start Trudy Canavan's Priestess of the White, a slow start in the first volume but warming up now.

My first replacement copy of A Florentine Death by Michele Giuttari arrived last week but when I opened it it had the same pages missing . . . still waiting for the second replacement.

what about the book james in the giant peach? that was a good book alright.Dont you agree?

Right now I'm just past halfway in Rick Perlstein's epic new book Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America and there hasn't been a dull page yet. Perlstein's history of American politics from 1964 to 1972 begins with the LBJ landslide over Goldwater in '64, and concludes with the Nixon re-election landslide over McGovern in 1972. Not just another psycho-history of Nixon, it's his premise that " between 1965 and 1972, America experienced no less than a second civil war, and out of its ashes, the political world we know now was born", the Nixon era responsible for laying the groundwork for the political divisiveness we're being forced to deal with today, and so far, the evidence is pretty overwhelming. What makes Nixonland such great cracklin' fun though, is Perlstein's gleefully sardonic style, always a shade shy of over-the-top, making it all about as entertaining, and as compulsively readable, as history can get. Perlstein sums it up well: "How does Nixonland end? It has not ended yet."

Hoping to be done and dusted with Midnight's Children shortly.

Other books in progress:

Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard
The Love Secrets of Don Juan by Tim Lott
Dr Mukti and other Tales of Woe by Will Self
The Word of Pod by Dave Podmore

#1: I snagged a copy of Nothing to Lose from Strand online last night. So I'll be reading it soon as well.

#2: I remember really liking James and the Giant Peach when I was younger.

Now that school's out, I'm doing my annual read-like-a-fiend bit. I read Murder on the Orient Express, Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry (which is wonderful), and I'm now reading Creatures of Light and Darkness (which I kind of want to chuck at the wall) by Roger Zelazny.

I finished up Duma Key this morning - best Stephen King in years. Really enjoyed it.

Halfway through The Monkey's Raincoat. I've read all the Nero Wolfe, Spenser and Ellery Queen novels, so I guess I couldn't live without another detective series.

I'll be starting The 19th Wife soon and from the looks of this one, it might be showing up in these posts for a while!

I'm nearing the end of the almost non-put-downable Small Island by Andrea Levy; also nearing the end of the too-put-downable War and Peace; have a couple of Early Review books in the wings, The End of East and Weaving a Way Home. Never a lack of wonderful things to read!

Last week I finished:

Soul Circus by George Pelecanos
Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos
Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold
Comeback by Richard Stark

I'm in the middle of:

Summerland by Michael Chabon
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

I'm about halfway through my ER book, Time Bandit by Andy Hillstrand and Johnathan Hillstrand.

I'm just starting Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King, book 5 in the Dark Tower series.

I have three books going this week, which even I think is a little ridiculous. My great big at-home book is a biography of Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee. I'm enjoying it - Lee's style is a little different than, say, the David McCulloch start-with-the-grandparents method, but its well done. She approaches different aspects of Wharton's life through Wharton's work from that period. I love Wharton's writing, but wow, was she a snob!

I'm also reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro, both of which are fantastic.

I can never resist commenting on an Ishiguro post. And as I've repeated ad nauseum, An Artist of the Floating World is my all-time favorite of his. I'm just going to have to postpone reading some other books and re-read that one--for what? the 6th? 7th? more? time?

I just finished Beautiful Children by Charles Bock and I thought it was really, really good. I just sort of inhaled it once the weekend hit, and now I'm reading The Red Badge of Courage. I chose that one because it's a classic, because of how good it's supposed to be, but mostly because it's short and I need something I can finish before the week starts up again and I have less time to read. I hate it when my books get drawn out.

#8: I think my friend's reading Sharp Teeth. Is that the one written in poetry? She won't say much beyond how many pages she's into it, so I'll ask you. How is it? Is it good?

# 12. I totally understand. I have the same problem with Lolita.

I'm really loving An Artist of the Floating World, and it may bypass Remains of the Day as my favorite. His writing is so beautiful, and it leaves me with this haunting kind of sadness - but a bittersweet sadness, you know? In addition, I absolutely love The Unreliable Narrator as a literary device, and Ishiguro does this brilliantly.

Ok, I'm done now. Really. I need to go see if there is a Kazuo Ishiguro group somewhere on LT.

#4 Midnight's Children definately dragged on towards the end!

Well into A Suitable Boy now; it is moving along alot faster than I thought and is quite enjoyable.

#14. Ishiguro uses that device in just about all the books I can think of, with the possible exception of A View of Pale Hills. He is a powerful teller of morality tales. The ending of Artist is something else.

In my personal opinion, Artist is a better book--a more powerful one--than Remains of the Day. It's a much stronger moral choice. The protagonist of Remains is sort of out of it and kind of drifts along; the protagonist of Artist is not but makes his choice deliberately.

#13 It's really interesting. I'm only about 100 pages in, but so far I really like it. The story is good, and the writing is excellent. It's an unusual reading experience; I keep finding myself losing track of the actual plot as I get lost in the lyrical flow of the poetry, if that makes any sense. So I can't read it on the train like I usually would; too many distractions.

I'm closing in on the halfway point of The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes. I'm enjoying it, despite it's somewhat uneven style. It's especially interesting as a glimpse of life and attitudes in England and Germany between the World Wars, and because of Hughes observations about what happens to a national psyche before during and after a war.

I just started reading The Year of Living Biblically and absolutely love it! I am only into the second month but it is one of the best books I have read so far this year. Of course, this is another book that I discovered because of LT so Thank you! to all who recommended it.

Still working on The Life of Thomas More. It's interesting and well-written, but slow going nonetheless.

I received,opened, and read my Early Reviewer book in one fell swoop. I could not put it down and didn't move for two and a half hours. Black Wave by John and Jean Silverwood. A story of survival under terrible circumstances while sailing as a family.

I finished Platform and really feel indifferent to this book. I also finished Water for elephants which was a better read :)

Am now reading Under the skin and I am only a few pages in.

#3 Really excited to see that Nixonland is out and that you're loving it - haven't seen it in NZ yet.

#2 - I loved James and the Giant Peach too and am giong to read it to my son when he's a bit bigger.

#7 Small Island was wonderful. I have another of Andrea Levy's on the bookshelf...hang on...Every Light in the House Burnin', her first novel I think. Anyone here read it?

I posted on the tail end of the May 10 thread... anyway, I'm reading Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon, Battle-cry of freedom by James McPherson, and Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry. I'm racing through Cross-stitch but so far (150 pages or so) am not blown away by her writing style - will keep going, though. I'm enjoying it but not desperate to run away and read it.

Started my April ER book Shades of Glory. I'm dithering about a second book - possibly L.A. Requiem, Murder on the Links, or Ella Enchanted. Something light, anyway.

I'm supposed to read The Merry Wives of Windsor AND Hamlet for a June bookclub meeting, but am dithering about starting either one of them too.

I'm working on both The Handmaid's Tale and Storm Over Morocco right now. Hopefully I can finish them both by the end of my flight tomorrow, but I'll have to get going on them to do that. I need to read more Storm Over Morocco in between chapters of The Handmaid's Tale, because otherwise I'll finish THT and not be able to read SOM by itself because Frank Romano's writing is just way too intense, somehow.

Chapter 6 of Speaks the Nightbird. Very good book!

Almost done with Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, and Early Review book. It's sad but wonderful. I'm about 2/3 through North and South on audio. I've read it in the past and love it, and it's interesting to hear it read aloud.

Today there was a local event called Garibaldi Fest. I went to it because my wife and her friend had a booth there. And lo! there was a bookmobile there, which grabbed me and dragged me inside. They bullied me until I bought a copy of Matter by Iain Banks. I didn't even know he had a new book out on 'the culture'.

I finished Hold Tight Thursday night, and I picked up Best Girlfriends Getaways Worldwide again. I'm about 2/3 the way through it, and love it, but Google slows my reading down... I check out every thing Bond writes about in the book.

Add to it, I've picked up the writing bug again, and had to start two seperates stories at the same time If I could just finish them, that'd be really great... that's definately slowing me down... Can I count my own writing as "What are you reading now?"

After BGGW, I'm onto Evanovich's One For the Money, Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan, and The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson... I wish I was a speed reader.

#22: keren7, I love Michael Faber's Under the Skin, one of the greatest modern creepfests I've ever read, and a book that should be read comparatively with Ishiguro's masterpiece Never Let Me Go.

#23: cmt, since I posted about Nixonland earlier today, I've read a rave review of it in today's LATimes, which called it "dazzling" among other superlatives it tossed about, and I'm still fairly wallowing in Perlstein's tour-de-force right now.

#29: Count it!, and I'll probably get around to O'Nan's book myself sooner or later, just hope it's not as morose and as downbeat as the reviews have made it out to be so far.

I finished listening to The Caves of Steel this morning, not sure what I'm going to queue up next, probably So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld.

I'm still working on The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson, although I think I may have burnt myself out on reading this past month - I'm having a hard time staying focused. I also picked Story of B off the shelf as an old favorite to poke through while I'm eating - doesn't require much attention on my nineteen-billionth read-through.

I'm celebrating the end of the college semester with Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, and The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. I'm also trying to finish my March ER book, Imagine Me and You by Billy Mernit, but I'm not loving it.

Today I finished Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear and Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh. I'm still reading And Ladies of the Club, but I'm halfway through with just over 700 pages left. And then, I'm going to start Fieldwork and Little Women.

Wow! I haven't thought of And ladies of the Club in ages! What a great book that is!

*does a happy dance*

Tonight I started reading a signed copy of A Dog About Town by LT author J.F. Englert. The book arrived in the mail for me today from the author. I'm thoroughly enjoying the book so far!

I finished Medicus: a novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie. It was a fun read about a bumbling doctor in the Roman army, stationed in Briton, who despite himself always does the right thing!

I am about to start Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

Still reading the first volume of Shelby Foote's Civil War Narrative, Fort Sumter to Perryville. (work keeps getting in the way} I've decided to read all three of the 800+ page books without anything in between. Looks like a summer in the 1860's for me.

My class on The Odyssey has three more meetings.

Just finished The Mystery of Olga Chekhova by Antony Beevor. This is the second book that I have read by Beevor and I like his style. I will be looking out for his books-they are all on my wishlist. i also read my ER book Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Very good book.
Now I am starting The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado and A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A.B. Yehoshua.

I just finished reading London Calling: How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City by Sukhdev Sandhu, the first book I've read in 3 months! I started Fanon: A Novel by John Edgar Wideman this afternoon.

Took a two-day hiatus from reading after finishing The House of the Spirits, but today I picked up Gaiman's Stardust, which I am enjoying so far.

Latest book to rev my literary motor. The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. Blurbers for the book if you pay attention to such things.

Amy Tan, Junot Diaz, Andrew Sean Greer, Aleksandar Hemon, Robert Olen Butler, Dorthy Allison, Jonathan Safran Foer.

I'll be watching to see if this book gets any award attention or shows up on some of the 'Best of Year' lists.

I just received an arc of a new book by Stephanie Kallos (Broken for you0 that will be published here in January '09. Although I am in the middle of five other boosk - very much not my style - I might put them down to get deep into this novel.

Yesterday I was out the Houston Public Library book sale, and now the book part of my brain has taken over and is totally scattered at the same time... so, where was I? Oh,

Finished Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish, which, before the book sale, had taken over my mind with ideas like intense "waste not, want not", and the constant work and huge amount of knowledge that went into making this Iowa farm work in the 1930's. Lots of interesting details here.

Current reading New and Selected Poems by Larry D. Thomas

Next should be Time Bandit, my Early Reviewer book. But, now I have all these new books...

I am still working on Know-It-All , have about 150 pages to go . I've been laughing my butt off ! Next up will be Garden Spells , which I've been wanting to read for the last few months .

I'll be starting The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. It's my ER book from April. Since I still haven't gotten my March book, I figure I'd better get going on this one so I can get a review in and keep my good ER name! I just finished Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, and I think it's one of the best books I ever read. I haven't said that in a long time (possibly since reading A Prayer for Owen Meany in grad school), so that really means something. I haven't gotten started on my new one yet because I'm still in mourning over finishing that one!

Finished both Far from the madding crowd (which I loved) and Help wanted, desperately (which wasn't that good, but which is now at least from my TBR) yesterday and went back to my collections of short stories Legends. Just read the next one by Ursula K. Leguin, which I was looking forward too, but was a bit of a disappointment. Still 5 to go though.

Just finished Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen, which I truly enjoyed. Started reading Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, a fun and easy read.

#36 SqueakyChu: I just started A Dog About Town, too and think it's hilarious. I read, then look at our two Labs--neither of whom could really pull off wearing a smoking jacket--and just giggle.

#38 Smiley: I think you'll be really satisfied with your decision, Smiley. In fact, since they read like novels, it's hard to put them down. The maps are among the best you'll find in any general history of the war as well as in some otherwise excellent ones of specific battles.

A great companion while you're reading is Ken Burns' PBS series, The Civil War. It's brilliant.

Of course, that assumes that you have nothing else to do with your life, right? :-)

Easy reads for the weekend... just finished Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Started The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester a while ago.

I just started Andrea Levy's Small Island last night. Unfortunately I was really tired after a long day and didn't get very far before deciding to go to bed. Even after only a few pages, and having seen teelgee rave about it in #7, I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy this book.

--> 49

I'm glad to hear there's someone else enjoying A Dog About Town. This is exactly the kind of book I'd normally ignore (as I did when I did not select A Dog Among Diplomats on the ER list), but, given the chance to talk to the author online and read his first book, I'm finding it to be delightful!

I'm up to chapter 4. I think the story is so cute (although I'm not sure the author would like me using the word "cute" to describe his novel! :)

I'm reading a non-fiction called Other Lives: The Story of Reincarnation which is my Go Review that Book! pick.

On the agenda for this week: Light Before Day, Fifth Business, Before Lewis and Clark, Penmarric, Never Let Me Go, The Earth Shall Weep, Clockers, and Arctic Explorations.

I think it's been awhile since I've posted...

I finished Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian (highly recommend), abandoned Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres and am now reading The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani, which I am enjoying very much.

For what it's worth, the de Bernieres book was not bad. Just not in the mood for it.

I finished Sarah's Key last night and am continuing with Astrid and Veronika.

#52 SqueakyChu: Actually, I'm not so sure that he wouldn't! Check out his picture (with Randolph) in your Gallery--fits the book to a tee. :-) In fact, I think he's doing his best to look like Randolph! No way--Randolph is clearly better-looking.

FINALLY started Lincoln, the biography by David Herbert Donald, which has been sitting there on one of my TBR shelves, glaring at me now for months.

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LOL! Well, "cute" is definitely a word I'm going to use in my review of this book!!

Saturday I finished Songs For The Missing: A Novel by Stewart O'Nan
no touchstones? it is an ARC from B&N

Then I read The Land of Osiris by Stephen S. Mehler
his wife Theresa Crater wrote Under The Stone Paw, and that inspired me to read his book. Interesting read.

I am about to start Ruby: a Nove by Mary Summer Rain

I finished Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan (an Early Reviewers book) last night and am still gathering my thoughts for my review. In the meantime, I've started Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep for my book club. Not my usual fare, but I am absorbed so far.

Read Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. How did that book make it onto the 1001 list? I thought it was terrible, more like a bad soap opera than a classic novel. I understand that it is supposed to be autobiographical. As a Hardy fan, I was very disappointed.

I just started Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.

I'm a few pages from finishing Michael J. Fox's 2002 memoir, Lucky Man -- it's greatly exceeded my expectations, both in content and writing (he says he wrote it himself, under the mentorship of his brother-in-law, Michael Pollan. Then it's back to climb the final hundred pages of This is Your Brain on Music. My reward: an arc of Anita Shreve's October release, Testimony.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See...loved that one!

I just finished The Hours and honestly, I think I might have liked the movie a little bit more which almost never happens. Though I did like the ending.

Then I plowed through the first third of Marya Hornbacher's Madness. I loved her other memoir, Wasted, and I am really, well, actually I can't say I'm enjoying this one. It's fabulous, don't get me wrong, but having had my own struggles with mental illness, it can hit a little too close to home at times. However, at points it can also function as cautionary tale and a "thank god I'm not worse book."

Anyway I definitely recommend it, even if you're completely unfamiliar with mental illness. Because I think she does a great job of taking the gloves off and being honest without being self-pitying. Plus, it's one of the few books that's motivated me to action. I've decided to go back into therapy after abruptly leaving treatment four months ago. So there's that.

#64 twomoredays: I'm not surprised that you might have liked the film a little more than the book--just look at the 3 main actresses! The guys weren't too shabby, either. Plus I thought the adaptation was excellent.

Good luck with your decision--I hope it turns out well for you.

I am reading Five LIttle Peppers and How they Grew by Margaret Sidney. I never read it as a child.

66> Five Little Peppers brings back wonderful memories for me. My sister and I would lay with heads at the opposite end of a couch reading that book to one another. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

I'm reading River of Doubt , A Thousand Splendid Suns , Antigone , and continuing with an ongoing effort to get through the Greek "lives" in Plutarch's Lives

I just finished The Red Badge of Courage and really liked it. I'm going to start Money by Martin Amis now. I like him a lot so this will probably be another good book for me.

Just started reading Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp That Would Be Human. I'm 100 pgs into it. A fascinating account of a cross-species language study done in the 1970s where a baby chimp was taken from its mother and raised with a family on the Upper West Side of NY. A must-read for animal lovers and anyone interested in sociological studies.

Thank you, framboise... I now have another book to put on my wishlist! ;-D

#54 alcottacre,

I think you will enjoy Fifth Business. My wife and I first read it to each other on a long car trip. I have given the book as a gift several times and everyone I've given it to has, at least, said they loved it and passed it on.

#49 Joycepa,

You are right. It is hard to put them down and I am enjoying volume one. As far as Burn's series goes I am going to wait until I have finished all three volumes of Foote and then watch it again immediately afterward. The first time I watched it I read McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom the following week. Personally, I don't think Burns' work since has measured up to Civil War, especially Baseball which was overlong for the subject. Maybe I'm just too used to his style by now.

I decided to put off reading Wolves of the Calla for now and am starting The Boleyn Inheritence (I have The Tudors on my mind too much after watching the 2nd to last episode of the season today On Demand).

Finished last week:
Emma by Jane Austen

Currently reading:
Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship by Nancy Kalikow Maxwell

Ongoing group reading:
The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
Strong Women, Soft Hearts by Paula Rinehart

Hallam's War by Payne Rosen..Civil War gally and I am really enjoying it...Unbridled Books is putting out some great stuff.

#73 Smiley: That's an interesting comment on Burns' other work. Does that include his latest, the WWII documentary? If you've seen it, have, what did you think of it? I have thought some about getting it, but have held back because a) I'm not that interested in WWII and b) I'm not so sure what I read of his approach and the sheer length is for me. Your comment has given me additional reason to wait.

I'm reading Tracy Chevalier's Burning Bright. So far I am halfway through and really enjoying it. I'm finding it hard to put down.

I've just started Shades of Glory my April ER book. I read Ella Enchanted over the weekend - an embarrassingly easy read but in my 888 challenge as an award winner. A re-telling of the Cinderella tale.

On the way out of the house this morning I grabbed Love Lies Bleeding by Edmund Crispin, another embarrasingly easy read but also for 888.

I seem to need a light book to counterbalance the serious stuff I'm reading.

Finished Time Bandit yesterday and really liked it! I am starting Bridget Jones's Diary today.

Finishing Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue as well as The Teachings of Don B by Donald Barthelme. Then it's on to The New Confessions by William Boyd, a book that's been waiting on my shelf for several years now!

#81 abealy: The New Confessions is one of Boyd's best novels, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Needed a new audiobook for my morning commute, so I started The Terror by Dan Simmons this morning. The reader is excellent (good Irish and Scottish accents) and the story has been recommended to me by some other folks. Looking forward to it.

I finished Edith and the Mysterious Stranger: A Family Saga in Bear Lake, Idaho by Linda Weaver Clarke and I started and finished Life Among the Dead by Lisa Williams, which I loved. Now I am starting on Admit One: A Journey into Film by Emmett James.
I loved the Idaho books..1890s-early 1900s, the west, strong independent woman..all the things I love to read...the 3rd book in the 5 books series comes out this summer!
I love paranormal, psychic, medium sort of things..so I really liked Lisa Williams book about her early years and how she got where she is now!

I finished Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch and I've started The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

#83 LisaLynne: I read Dan Simmons' The Terror back in February, and it was one of my favorite books this year

Right now it's The Risk Pool by Richard Russo. Have had it on my shelf for about 15 years. Not sure why I never picked it up before, but glad I did.

For short stories, I've started Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Beautiful.

I am currently reading Monarchy by David Starkey.

I finished Factotum over the weekend and I've got to say, this is my second Bukowski and I'm still left feeling unimpressed. I've now begun The Book Thief which I love so far. I have a feeling I'll breeze through it even though it's a pretty thick book.

I should finish Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner today or tomorrow. So rich and melancholy - I'm really enjoying its moodiness.

Then I'll probably try Christine Falls by Benjamin Black/John Banville. I have a couple of LT Early Review ARCs that I just got that may replace it though.

#31

I found Under the skin to probably be one of my best reads this year. Just wow - I really didn't want to put it down.

I highly recommend this book.

I am now reading Timbuktu.

I finished Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion Sunday. Currently reading/listening to: Humboldt's Gift, The Time Machine, A Hero of Our Time, Disgrace, Winesburg, Ohio and Letters from a Stoic by Seneca.

Just finished The History of Anonymity by Jennifer Chang. It was wonderful getting lost in her pages: like floating on the ocean. Now I'm working my way through Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger: seems relevant to LT users :-)

Flying through Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir...I'm so glad that she made the jump over to fiction! The Lady Elizabeth was equally as engrossing. Next up is The Road for book club.

The other day I finished Stephenie Meyer's The Host and last night I killed Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.

I'm currently tearing through Glass Houses by Rachel Caine. It's in the Morganville Vampires series. I just started it this afternoon.

I have yet to select my 2nd. I usually have two going at a time. I'm thinking about picking Inkheart up tomorrow, but I'm not sure. (The book fair at my school has a BOGO offer--It's a shame the books this time around are geared much younger than the kids in the school, Grades 4-6).

#77 Joycepa:

I wasn't interested in seeing the latest Burns on WWII because I have the British 1974 World at War series on DVD. I don't think Burns could match its scope or that fact that when it was made in 1974 it was a lot easier to interview survivors from all sides. I have not seen Burns' series but I had the distinct impression that it was going to focus on the American role, where World at War truly treats the conflict on a world wide scale. If you are at all interested in WWII I would see World at War.

#96 Smiley: You know, I vaguely remember titles by that name--wasn't that a series of books or articles first, something like that? I'd completely forgotten about it.

I'll check into that. As I've said, I'm not all that interested in that conflict, but I like to have good general histories around, including on film.

I started Time Bandit by Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand this morning.

All finished with The Blood of Flowers, which I enjoyed and thought was a remarkable insight into 16th century Iran.

Now, I am going for something lighter: Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. Pretty fun title, huh? =)

97: Joycepa

All I'm aware of is the documentary series called World @ War. I just checked my copy. 22 1/2 hours on 11 dics. Two programs a disc, I think.

I failed to finish Herodotus in time to return to my brother this past weekend, but hopefully I'll finish it this week. We'll see. I'm still listening to Ines of My Soul on my way to work, but should be finished tomorrow.

I finally finished Storm Over Morocco. It didn't actually take forever, it just seemed like it. Now I've moved onto Middlesex and am quite enjoying it so far.

Finished Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich...I laughed so hard that my side hurt! Today I started to read Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison

I finished listening to The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I continue reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: a novel by Lisa See, and have begun listening to Survival of the fittest by Jonathan Kellerman.

I also posted this in the non-fiction forum, so don't bother to reread it if you've already seen it there. :)

Last night, I started The Case of Abraham Lincoln by Julie M. Fenster and was engrossed to the point I stayed up 2 hours past my bedtime to read more of it. It's a slimmish volume ~ only 226 pages ~ but it's quite substantive, I think, and was written in a way that is reminiscent of Team of Rivals (which was, of course, much longer). It encompasses the period from March through early December 1856, though it brings in events and people from the past and future, and is about an apparently little-known case that Lincoln took on right around the time the Republican Party was being founded, while Lincoln was working as a successful lawyer in Illinois.

I'm reading Duma Key by Stephen King. I'm about halfway through and it is an excellent book. One of his best!

Also reading World Without End by Ken Follett. I loved Pillars of the Earth and this one is shaping up to be just as good.

Finally, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Yes, I've seen the movie--it was good--but I still want to finish the book. I always read the book, whether I read it before I see the movie or after!

I'm just over halfway through The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. So far it's been excellent. Wonderful characters, very smooth pacing, close observation, etc. Great stuff.

#105 storeetellr: Oh wow, one on Lincoln I had no idea about! Team of Rivals is on that dreary, ever-growing list of books I have to buy, but I've now added this one.

How did you like Team of Rivals? Anyone who reads in the Civil War knows about Lincoln's cabinet and the rivalry there among the Big Egos (especially Chase) but this looks like a detailed look at the situation.

I just finished Stiff, a history of cadavers by Mary Roach, and am about halfway through Blood and Vengeance, an account of the Bosnian War told through the eyes of a local family.

Then onto So Big by Edna Ferber.

#109 - I read Stiff recently and thought it was great - I'll be ordering some of Mary Roach's other books soon. Stiff was pretty revolting in places, but hilarious too. I was impressed by the way Roach was so funny without being disrespectful about the sensitive subject.

This week still reading The Quincunx, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli, a recent (2006) bio of Oscar
winner Elizabeth Taylor--an eye-opener.

#15, jhowell, A Suitable Boy is one of my all-time favorites. I loved it so much I started reading more slowly when I got close to the end because I didn't want to leave the world Vikram Seth created.

#18, rocketjk, I found The Fox in the Attic and, even more so, its sequel, The Wooden Shepherdess strange, but fascinating.

#39, torontoc, I'll be interested in what you think of The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit; I had mixed feelings about it.

#54, alcottacre, I loved Fifth Business so much I immediately went out and bought the next two books in the Deptford trilogy, The Manticore and World of Wonders.

I finally expect to finish Middlemarch today or tomorrow.

Edited to see if the touchstones would appear.

#112, rebeccanyc, I mostly enjoyed The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, particularly the sections of it describing old Cairo.

#112 - rebecca - I finished A Suitable Boy last night - I read it in less than 2 weeks which I never would have expected based on its girth. I loved it as well -- I miss all the characters already, and I've aded "two tight slaps" to my list of things I need to say!

I just started my April Early Reviewer book Love Marriage; I suspect it will suffer from being read directly after Seth's masterpiece.

#112 -rebecca- I really liked The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit for the descriptions of the life in Cairo and the relationship between the father and daughter ( Lucette) . I found the story of the emigration and eventual landing in New York to be very sad. Certainly, the way that women were treated was not something I agree with and the story of the"lost child " was horrifying. The end left me with many questions- what happened to the children in later life and I was curious about the author's progress from student to journalist.
I am now reading A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A.B. Yehoshua and Night of Many Dreams by Gail Tsukiyama. I see that I will have to take my copy of A Suitable Boy and move it forward on my TBR pile.

104 hemlockgang -- How did you like The House of Seven Gables. I had an incredible American History professor in college who gave me a love of Hawthrone. I visited the house of seven gables in Salem, MA -- worth the trip

jfetting:
I've heard Ishiguro mentioned. Is he as good as Yukio Mishima?

I've never read Yukio Mishima. If Mishima is as good as Ishiguro, then maybe I have a new author to read.

Ishiguro is awesome. Read him. Read anything by him (except maybe don't start with While We Were Orphans which is my least favorite. Although I'd rather read my least favorite Ishiguro than just about anything out there.)
Read everything else by him, and then come back let me know what you think!
If you don't believe me, I'd almost be willing to bet money someone else is going to pop up and agree with me!

If you don't believe me, I'd almost be willing to bet money someone else is going to pop up and agree with me!

...And that person will be me. :) Coincidentally, I just read my third Ishiguro novel today, An Artist of the Floating World. I think that The Remains of the Day is his best, with An Artist falling second on my list, and Never Let Me Go third. But they're all so good. His works have such a quiet, understated grace about them, and he has masterfully firm control of tone and pacing.

I totally agree. Go. Read Ishiguro. NOW!

Mishima was important, and was probably snubbed for the Nobel in Lit. because he was homosexual. An intriguing life and even more outrageous death.
One of his most well known works is The Sailor Who Lost Grace With the Sea.
Will try Ishiguro, since I believe he's all the rage now.

I have 3 posts in this thread alone about Ishiguro, including this one. ah well, it's good for the head size.

I not only agree about Ishiguro, I've been pushing him so much that you'd think I was his paid publicist. I have never read Mishima so can't comment. But I completely agree with jfetting. And however good Mishima is, Ishiguro is at last as good.

My least favorite is The Unconsoled, but everyone is going to have his/her favorite and opposite. jfetting is correct--Ishiguro's worst is better than a whole lot of stuff out there.

I'll pop up and agree with you too, jfetting! Never Let Me Go is amazing - bleak and terrifying but so emotionally gripping. This reminds me - I lent my first edition to someone over a year ago and they've still got it - must ask for it back!

#112 and #115, LouisBranning and torontoc, I too enjoyed the old Cairo sections (a time/place that interests me), but I felt the book lost something when they came to the US. Also, I didn't think it was especially well written, but the intrinsic (for me) interest of old (Jewish) Cairo kept me going through the early parts.

Andre Aciman's Out of Egypt was a compelling book about leaving Egypt.

116> I had some difficulty with the lengthy descriptive passages, but ended up enjoying the story. I will have to see the house someday!

I am a huge Ishiguro fan, too!

I finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and just started A Lost Lady by Willa Cather.

I know I'm in the minority, but I really hated Never Let Me Go . . . maybe because it got too much hype, and I was expecting something less predictable. Or maybe because I just wasn't in the mood to be inside the self-indulgent heads of thirteen-year olds, which is where most of the book took place. Nevertheless, I did admire the writing; but I enjoyed The Unconsoled and The Remains of the Day much more.

I'm brand-new to this group. :-)
I've just started reading "Oh, Behave!" because i'm assigned to review it for "Dogs in Canada." My current audio book (yes, I need books even when I'm driving!) is War In a Time of Peace.

#126 Cariola: Perhaps you are, Cariola, but even though I really loved the book, I didn't think it was his best. For me, it wasn't so much the 13 year old psyche, although it made the book more poignant in the end--it was Ishiguro's chilling vision of the moral choice a society could make--and I don't find anything unrealistic about his view. But the choice that the protagonist makes in the end is yet an individual moral choice in the face of great societal evil; I found it so poignant, so shattering that I cried.

I don't think it was perfectly realized by any means, but I thought the attempt had tremendous merit. Ishiguro's view of society as expressed in that book disturbed me for days. As a cynic on my best days and a misanthrope normally, I could see it happening.

#103 - Whisper1, Whatever You Do, Don't Run sounds good (the title does anyway). How did you like it?

I finished The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson yesterday. It was solidly good, enjoyable, very original fantasy, with an epilogue that just about blew my socks off. I don't know how I'm going to manage to wait until October for the third book!

I started Love Marriage today for LTER, but didn't get very far - I had a bunch of other stuff to get done this evening.

I started reading The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable a few days ago, but it's not really a book to be devoured in one sitting. For work/lunch/hammock reading I've picked up Death in Venice, but unfortunately it's not living up to my post-Buddenbrooks expectations! I thought maybe it was just taking a while to get started, but it's only about 80 pages :( Is the ending worth it, or does the narrator continue mooning about aimlessly for the rest of the story?
#127-- Welcome! I'm pretty new to LT too, I hope you enjoy it was much as the rest of us :)

Just finished The Eye of Cybele. Next up is Three Act Tragedy.

I managed to zip through 250 pages of my ER book, The 19th Wife last night - I was worried that it was going to take me a while to finish this one, but it moves along very quickly. Definitely enjoying it - although I wish LT would get the touchstone working already!

Lisa,
That's good to hear. I'm looking forward to that book, but don't have time for one that long that moves slowly. Now I can't wait to finish my current book and start it!

I'm only halfway through it but I'm positive Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong will make my top five for the year. I have always loved wolves, hell, I rooted for the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, and this book is full of wolf lore. Not for the squeamish as the battles between the Mongolians, dogs, horses, and other life of the grasslands vs. the wolves can move into Blood Meridian territory. The book is the winner of the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Trying to clean out my TBR pile while I'm on a book-buying freeze, so I'm FINALLY back on No Country For Old Men and Swann's Way. I don't know why I had such trouble with the first; it's really good.

Just finished A Lost Lady by Cather and I am starting my book club book now, Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation by Cokie Roberts.

Still slogging through The Quincunx; have 296 pages left and will definitely be finished by the time I go back to work on Monday after a week off...

#110 shariwalter

How's it going for you? I have to admit that I find it pretty convoluted (which was the point...) but did he have to drag it out for 781 pages?

Happy reading!!!

I just finished The Year of Living Biblically which I really enjoyed and found a very quick read. I am currently reading Barefoot Summers which is a series of essays by the author on her childhood, her life as a parent and her life as a grandparent. I have only read one essay so far but I did enjoy it. I am also currently reading Gardening When It Counts. I am not sure how much information I am going to take away from this one because I find the tone of the author to be very condescending and egotistical. We'll see.

I just started Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz. It's the follow-up to The Spellman Files the story of a P.I. family and all their quirks. Very entertaining. Lutz has a unique writing style that makes great use of footnotes! Highly recommended for fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.

I am rereading Prince Caspian and am also reading The Grave Tattoo and Bad Dogs Have More Fun.

I finished Timbuktu and am still haunted by this book days later. I am now reading The thirteenth tale and am enjoying it so far.

#112 > rebecca, I just finished The Fox in the Attic last night. "Strange but fascinating" is a pretty good description, although I wouldn't go so far as to say I was fascinated. Interested, definitely, and I certainly enjoyed the read, but it's tough for me to get wholly drawn in with a book that has such a cypher for its protagonist. The whole thing seemed an allegory for the relative states of awareness and turmoil of England and Germany between the world wars, and as such was truly effective. And I did learn a lot about Germany in the early 20s and especially the very early days of the Nazi movement. So I liked it overall.

At any rate, after spending some time with some story collections and other anthologies, I'm next going to read Plain Speaking: an Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman by Merle Miller. I seem to be mostly in a non-fiction mood these days!

During lunch I finished Middlesex for book club next week and started an ER book from the April Bonus Batch, The 19th Wife. I'm only about 20 pages in, but so far it seems well-written and interesting.

I am about 100 pages into Garden Spells. It's more romance-genre than most of the books I read, but I'm still enjoying it.

#139 kmbooklover - I'm just over 400 pages into The Quincunx - which sounds a lot, but my edition has nearly 1200 pages! I think it's excellent but I do agree that it's very convoluted. I have just got beyond Miss Quilliam's narrative and wonder whether that really needed to be spelled out at such length... but I'll reserve judgement until the end, because I suspect it's the kind of book where even the small details will prove essential to the outcome.

I'm working on two books at once this week: The Clinic by Jonathan Kellerman and People Of The Book by Geraldine Brooks. Both very different but I'm really liking them!

#108 Hi, Joycepa ~ I loved Team of Rivals. It was fascinating to watch the machinations of all those Big Egos and the brilliant way Lincoln dealt with it, while dealing with the horrific bloodshed of the Civil War and the egotistic generals and their mistakes, as well as difficult family issues, at the same time. (If I believed in reincarnation, I'd say that I must have been Mary Todd in that life ~ I could be so in love with that man!) Anyway, The Case of Abraham Lincoln shows Lincoln the politician rather than Lincoln the statesman, although the first glimmerings of his true greatness can be seen in the younger man.

Started SPQR XI: Under Vesuvius by John Maddox Roberts last night. So far, very good (as usual). Anyone who enjoys the Gordianus the Finder series by Steven Saylor or the Falco series by Lindsay Davis should enjoy these Roman mystery novels set in the final days of the Republic.

146
Hi extrajoker. I loved the book Garden Spells.

129
Hi Sandragon. I finished Whatever You Do, Don't run last night. It is a delightful book that I highly recommend. It is well written and quite funny.

127
Hi Petxpert. Welcome!

Right now reading Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges.

I finished the Five Little Peppers and am now reading The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up by Rich Blake. It is very good. A short read for all of you looking for a good short non-fiction book.

Thanks Whisper, I'm adding it to my wishlist.

Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - revisiting it to brush up for my review at book club next week

When We Get to Surf City Bob Greene's new book

Winding up Middlemarch

I'm about to start Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. I'm looking forward to it very much. I had a blast with the first three Thursday Next books and am eager for more!

I loved the first Thursday Next novel, but after that the idea had pretty much worn off. The second one was okay, but I had no real interest in reading the next. I loaned the first one to my cousin and she has devoured everything he's written.

I'm currently reading 100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed by Melissa P., after finishing Bridget Jones's Diary. Not liking 100 Strokes, too much though.

I have finally finished Ishq and Mushq and I have now started In Cold Blood.

Books I've read/finished this week:
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce
Tsubasa, Vol. 1 and Tsubasa, Vol. 2 by CLAMP

Currently reading:
Understanding Manga and Anime by Robin Brenner (I highly recommend this to anyone, particularly librarians, who know little-nothing about manga and want to learn. It's an absolutely fabulous resource)

I'm planning on starting Tsubasa, Vol. 3 tonight, and Slaughterhouse-Five soon thereafter.

Last week I was kind of MIA with jury duty, but I also got a lot of reading done and finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It was definitely worth the long haul!

I finished reading Monarchy and now I am re-reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Put everything else aside and plowed through The River of Doubt – by Candice Millard, an exciting work of history recounting Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing trip down an unknown tributary of the Amazon in 1914. Outstanding! Read it!

I am still working on Herodotus at night, but I did finish listening to Ines of My Soul, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is the first book I've listened to instead of reading. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to pay attention (my attention span is not the greatest) or that I just wouldn't be able to follow along, but I actually enjoyed it thoroughly. I liked it so much I immediately got another book on CD - Bless Me, Ultima.

Finished Billy Bathgate and The Secret Adversary. I think I'll start Lake Woebegon Days today. And still reading the love poetry in bed.

mid way into The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox and I am enjoying this book.

#104 hemlokgang - I have beeen interested in reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Would you recommend it?

Currently flipping through Defining Moments in Books.

I've got several things going at the moment:

Still reading Legends which is pretty huge so will take me another week or so.
Picked up Player Piano to read in the bath tub because Legends is just too heavy.
Also reading Lady Chatterley's Lover as my on-line book.

I finished Fieldwork and The Luxe. Fieldwork is one of the best books I've read all year. Last night I started a juvenile fiction The Willoughbys and read a few pages of Tree of Smoke.

This week I finished An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro and Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey, both of which I liked but in obvious different ways. I'm now reading Heretic by Bernard Cornwell, which I also anticipate really enjoying.

Last night I finished Love Marriage for the Early Reviewers program, and was not terribly impressed. This is one of the times that I wish the recommendations and the ER algorithm took ratings into account - I have a fair bit of literary fiction by young South-Asian women in my library, because people keep raving about it, but I've been kind of "meh"-ed by all of the examples of the genre that I've read so far.

Will probably start The 19th Wife this afternoon, so I can clear my plate of books that I am obligated to read.

Oh, I've also been dabbling in Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals by Marlene Zuk in small chunks while I'm at work.

#171 ishouldb: I read Fieldwork last year and really liked it, have recommended it several times too.

reeny, my 2 cents on Snow Flower and the Secret Fan--I loved it and am looking forward to reading her other books.

#173 fyrefly98--sorry to hear about Love Marriage. I am also reading it for ER and I like it so far--not that far into it and I hope it stays interesting.

>175 momom248: momom248 - I entirely expect that most other people will like Love Marriage more than I did... for instance, I know most people loved The God of Small Things, but it did absolutely nothing for me. Only about half of my ambivalence to Love Marriage is based on problems with the book itself, and the rest is entirely my reaction to the genre.

175> I recently read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and if the descriptions of foot binding were intense, you should see the photo my husband sent me of an elderly Japanese woman's bound foot, bare. It is hard to fathom that practice.........who came up with it anyway?

I really liked the book as well.

Men. It turned them on.

I just finished Money by Martin Amis. It was pretty good but somewhere near the middle-end started to get slow. I really liked the very end though. I'm now starting They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie. I've never read anything by her or ever even had her recommended. I just found it lying around and decided to read it. So I hope it's good.

I know the new thread will start any time now, but I just finished The 19th Wife from the April Bonus Batch and really liked it, and am now going to start my ARC of The Aviary Gate because it is being released in like 3 days.

I just finished The Boleyn Inheritence, I found it a bit disappointing, not nearly as good as her other Tudor novels. I didn't hate it, but I don't think I liked a single character in this book!

Along Came A Spider by James Patterson

Just finished The Crystal Skullby manda scott

I just finished Zuleika Dobson and found a lot of that Ewardian jargon, Oxfordian references, irony, inuendo and jokes probably soared over my head. It was a funny parody of love and relationships.

I finished The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. This is a wonderful book. I'm now reading O'Farrell's first novel After You'd Gone and I'm hooked. I think I found another "favorite" author!

I am almost finished with Astrid and Veronika and Memoirs of a Muse, as well as my audiobook, North and South. All three highly recommended (although Memoirs of a Muse can't compare to the other two.

I had better pick up my early review book, America, America, next.

#185 I have both of those books somewhere on Mt. TBR, but I hadn't realized that they were by the same author. They seem quite different. (Good for her!)