What You're Reading the Week of 26 July 2008

A summer reading week: Kathy Reich's Bones to Ashes; Jools Holland's autobiography Barefaced Lies and Boogie-Woogie Boasts; and Elizabeth George's What Came Before He Shot Her. Elizabeth was the best read of the three with Jools Holland trailing in a long way behind, his co-author Harriet Vyner needed to do something more.

Still dipping into Douglas R Hofstadter's I am a Strange Loop.

Finished:
Under the banner of Heaven- Excellent

Chip Kidd: Work: 1986-2006- Dust jacket art. Big book but not very many words. One of the most physically awkward books for reading that I've come across. It's a hardcover coffee table book but the text block is twice as long as the boards.

Little Brother, Cory Doctorow- An anthem for anyone born after 1991 or so. Good stuff.

Working on:
Joseph and His Brothers- Around day 27. This is going to take me over 100 days at my current rate.

The Summer Book, Tove Jansson- Beautiful vignettes.

A Thousand Hills, Stephen Kinzer- What's been happening in Rwanda since the 1994 bloodshed.

I'm reading way too many books right now.

The Power Makers by Maury Klein slow reading but good about the history of steam and electrical power and their influence on how the US developed
One More Year by Jana Krasikov disappointing, an ARC, short stories about a bunch of people I can't seem to care about
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet pretty good nonfiction about an autistic savant, very high functioning, and his life and how his mind works
Sojourn by Jana Oliver time travel fiction, great beginning

1491 by Charles S Mann and Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith

I typically do not read more than one book at a time, but there it is.

I am reading The Sleeping Doll by Jeffery Deaver, which is quite a page turner.

also reading The Richest Season by MaryAnn McFadden and Casesar's The Conquest of Gaul.

I am still reading Lucifer's Shadow . It just wasn't clicking with me, though to be fair I have had almost no time to read last week. I had been reading small sections, and the characters in the modern thread didn't grab me. The past thread was better, but the whole thread is written in italics. I find entire chapters of italics to be off-putting.

Anyway I am about 200 pages in, and it is starting to interest me. So I have hope that I will be able to finish soon, and will enjoy it.

Of course I am on-line again and not reading :(

On Pope Joan : I read it with one of my book groups, and have to say nobody loved it. It was rated OK to below average. I didn't hate it, but thought it was pretty forgettable.

Hunter's Oath by Michelle West.

I read her "Hidden City" (sorry links are wrong) and liked her writing. This earlier work is not as mature, but shows much potential.

I'm reading Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

I finished The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville last night - wonderful book full of quirky characters. Staying in an Australian theme with a very different book, Sorry by Gail Jones.

I'm reading Romance of the Rose by Julie Beard, chapter 6 & After Midnight, chapter 7.

I just finished The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

I'm currently reading The Masque of the Black Tulip, Eat, Love, Pray and Mediterranean Summer

I'm still working on The Magus by John Fowles which I'm really enjoying. After that, it's on to Bleak House so I can catch up with the Group Reads discussion.

Right now I'm reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King.

Still reading The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly. It was a difficult book to stay with at the beginning, but now the story is moving in a more interesting way. Finished my Early Reviewers Cool Jew by Lisa Alcalay. I wasn't very happy with it and will post my review today. Also finished Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski- now that is a wonderful book! Highly recommended.

My reading's becoming more and more sporadic now that I have more than one book going at once: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins, and rereading New Moon by Stephenie Meyer before Breaking Dawn is released. Case Histories is mildly interesting...it seems to be mostly a character study, so I'll have to read more to see how I like it.

And I'm gaining a new perspective on the Twilight series on my second reading. I still love the stories, but I find myself becoming more and more irritated with Bella. I really dislike how self-centered she has become, and how she shuts out everyone else in her life in favor of Edward. She never shows her other friends that she truly cares about them, and her closest friends are given that status simply because she doesn't feel pressured to keep up a conversation or give her full attention to the relationship. However, I still find myself completely engrossed in the stories...I can't pass up a good vampire/werewolf story!

Just finished up Pillage by Obert Skye an early review book - a children's lit about a boy and his dragons, the plot was promising but fell short.

Currently reading Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Miynowski - a teenage girl finds out that her little sister is a witch and intends to use her sisters new found power to get the things in life that she wants. - Quirky, funny but the MC is a little too self centered for my tastes

Just got Hello, Cupcake from Amazon, it's a cute book full of fun ways to decorate cupcakes that makes it look like you've spent tons of time on them. I'm looking foreward to making a few.

I also got Dreamscapes a lovely how to paint fairies and such, I'm sure that none of mine will ever look as good as the ones in the book but the artwork was soo great that I just had to get it.

I'm completely muddled in Mt.TBR because of packing. No idea where things are. So I picked up a loaner that friend said I HAD to read before I leave: Coming of Age in Second Life, an ethnography of a virtual community called Second Life, done exactly the way any anthropologist would conduct an ethnographic study of a real-world community, observations and pictures and the whole nine. Tom Boellstorff, the author, writes in academic prose, no question, and it's lacking in fluidity because it's a serious professional book about an anthropologist's rigorous and disciplined work in this community.

But it is fascinating to me because it treats this Second Life world as a real world. It does nothing with the "real-world" identities of the inworld avatars. This world, virtual that we label it, is a real world that continues to exist when participants go AFK, just like real life goes on without you paying any attention; it's not a computer game in other words, one that stops and starts at your whim, like The Sims or Civilization.

Oh goodness my geekiness is getting out of hand. I studied history and anthropology in college (no degrees, didn't want to teach) so this is red meat to the lion of my fascinations. And it's not my book! Waaaah

edited/typos (PREVIEW FUNCTION!!!)

I finished The Scarlet Letter this week and I'll be starting Uncle Tom's Cabin later today.

"edited/typos (PREVIEW FUNCTION!!!)"

seriously richardear, you need to relax.

I think that your recent position and bookish occupation has allowed too much blood to rush to your head.

As for the book.... may I just say AMAZON. You can evenhave it sent to your new place of residence. easy.

Do have a nice tall cool drink and put your feet up~

oops.. and I finished Friends, Lovers, Chocolate and enjoyed it. Now reading The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency ...and 1941

I'm about halfway through The Inheritance of Loss, and it's so beautiful that I want to go slowly and just linger in the the language. It's going to be a good weekend.

Finished a depressing but well written novel called Before by Irini Spanidou that I picked up on impulse in a bookstore because it focuses on a young woman living in downtown NYC in the 1970s, as I did (but not in quite the same life style as the protagonist).

Still reading The Rebel Angels, the first novel in Robertson Davies's Cornish Trilogy, and dipping into various nonfiction books. Am going to try to concentrate on one at a time and finish them!

I am reading Derailed by James Siegel, not an author I have read before.

>19 mckait: mckait, "relax" is not one of Richard's strong points...Mr. Man is working on that. I type fast but I typo a lot, so I try to slow down and end up typoing more. Since I am supposed to be Perfect In All Things (a phrase of reproach in my family), I get bent about oddball stuff. Like it really matters, eh what?

I just reviewed The Right Attitude to Rain and gave it three stars because I'm in love with Isabel. Otherwise, well....

I also used the jacket design as an illustration (thanks for the code, avaland, off in Oz that you are or are about to be) in the "Book Covers from Hell" thread. Gawdawful UK jacket art, a bilious lavender slashed with piddle yellow and raw-meat red, just so not the right thing for this series. Here. And the back jacket flap has the other two jacket illustrations on it, as an ad (!!) for the designer/illustrator! *urp* 'scuse me, things are backin' up on me. Each jacket succeeds in appealing to a _target market in its different homes, so clearly there is some cultural thing going on...wonder if any grad students in semiotics are looking into this...if not, they should!

>22 rebeccanyc: rebeccanyc, I admire your attempts at discipline. I don't emulate them, just admire from a safe distance.

I'm currently reading a Joyce Carol Oates book Wild Nights! Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James and Hemingway. I haven't read her books in awhile. This one seems to be pretty good thus far.

I haven't had time to read a lot this week, even though I'm on vacation, because I'm painting, gardening and enjoying my grand daughter. All of these activities tend to leave me too tired at the end of the day to concentrate.

I've just started The House That George Built which is a nonfiction book on the great composers of American popular standard music like the Gershwins, Irving Berlin and Johnny Mercer

#26. This sounds like a good book!

I'm still working on The Shadow of the Wind, which I think may finally have clicked for me. I'm still not in read-more-or-perish mode, but I've definitely sunk into the story. I find that the book as a whole has a very Spanish feel that I find very appealing.

On weekends, though, I find that I prefer to spend my time with nonfiction. I've been picking away at Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby?, a collection of fandom-related essays by Allyson Beatrice. I'm kind of on the fence about fandom. I've got a number of things that I really enjoy, (Buffy among them), but I'm leery of engaging in any communal activities related to them. It's been interesting to read Allyson's take on things, though.

I'm also working my way through The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II, which I was invited to download for free as a member of BzzAgent, a word of mouth marketing site. The book was written by the site's founder, I believe, and it's been pretty interesting so far. It's evidently meant to sell people on the whole idea of organized word of mouth, but the examples are interesting and the writing is pretty engaging. I've got a sort of low-key interest in admin studies sort of things, and this fits right in with that. It's available for download here.

I just started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time today. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I really like it so far!

I don't think this one will take all week, so I've got Animal, Vegetable, Miracle waiting in line.

I just finished A Short History of Tractor in Ukranian. Didn't like it at all.

I'm about to start A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable.

I'm still working on my "between books." Today I'll be reading the first half of the chapter on pitchers in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. That's to say, the entries for pitchers 1-50 in James' listing of the best 100 pitchers in baseball history (as of 2000 or so, when the book came out).

Next full-length read: Pope Joan

I'm reading His Way by Barry Gustafson, a biography of Robert Muldoon (Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975-1984) and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.

I'm almost finished with Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. After that, I've got The Red and the Black standing by. I hope it will last me 3 weeks in Africa because I don't have room to pack anything else...

Pope Joan has called out to me a time or two... I have thus far resisted. Not so with Isabelle Dalhousie...( sp?) I have succumbed to her charms as has RD.

I am midway through 1492..may finish it today, and then the #1 Ladies Detective agency.. which I have already begun... so by tomorrow at this time, I will be looking for something else on my TBR stack...

I finished The Manticore by Robertson Davies - underwhelming. I am afraid that I am just not as much of a fan of The Deptford trilogy so far, although Fifth Business was much better.

I am on to The Historian, ~100 pages in and loving it, it is right up my alley.

I'm about halfway through People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, which I'm enjoying, and am using the summer to dip into, occasionally, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe.

>35 jhowell: I keep starting The Historian with the intent to finish it because it's so good and something that I'd usually read. However, something else always pops in and grabs my attention and by the time I get back to Ms. Kostova I have to start all over. Many of my friends have done the same thing, and I know only one person who has actually finished it. Good luck.

I'm hoping to get enough downtime this week to make some real progress on The Shadow of the Wind, and I've also picked Drums of Autumn up again after being away from it for several weeks.

I am still listening to "The Masterharper of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey--only 3 discs to go. I am also reading two cartoon books, Pearls Before Swine's latest The Crass Menagerie by Stephan Pastis and Dilbert's Seven years of Highly Defective People by Scott Adams. I haven't gotten back to "Hawaii" by Michener but I did start Dog is My Copilot from the Editors of Bark.
I finished last week two young adult books Chinese Fables Remembered by Mira Kurita and Ghost Ship by Mary Higgins Clark. I am also reading Another Dimension by artist Linda Christine, whom I met at the Arts Festival today. She does wonderful other dimensional art.
I got my $100 worth of books from Daedalus this week and 5 books from BookMooch, so it was a good week. Also found another book on Henri Nouwen, a wonderful monk.

I listened to Dr. Death by Jonathan Kellerman on my 11 hour drive home from vacation. Good audiobook.

>31 rocketjk: rocketjk, from last week's thread: It's not a biography by any means, but I enjoyed reading Night on Fire by John Evangelist Walsh a zillion years ago...it was an account of Jones's first American naval battle, and it was gripping to my teenaged eyes. It was a YA book, so I hid it in my backpack, but what fun it was.

I've been interested in the man ever since I can remember because the romance of his story impressed my child-self (still does) and the adult in me finds his improbable rise and careful living (!) instructive.

The hard part of biographizing him, of course, is that the author must always assume readers know zip about the foreign milieus the subject inhabited. Best to err on the side of TMI than incompleteness, I guess, though I agree that it became a grind to get through some bits (though not those, for me at least).

Am now interested in finding a copy of The Sailor Whom England Feared by Mary MacDermot Crawford. Hadn't heard of it before I checked out John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy's page. That should e a fun read! This edition appears to be a facsimile of the 1913 original, and that should be a kick!

In the middle of:

The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
and
The Fall by Albert Camus which for some odd reason I am having a hard time getting through and I'm not sure why.

finished The Stars' Tennis Balls which was marvellous, I particularly enjoyed the dialogue.

next up: Afterimage

On the agenda for this week: A Little Learning by Evelyn Waugh, Stanley: The Making of an African Explorer by Frank McLynn, The Heaven Tree Trilogy by Edith Pargeter, Dawn of Modern Science by Thomas Goldstein, Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, still reading from my TBR mountain The Lost Men by Kelly Tyler-Lewis and listening to Oceans of Fire by Christine Feehan.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Loving Bleak House by Charles Dickens and still listening to Henry James Short Stories on audiobook.

Finished The Man Who Made Lists, the biography of the man who wrote the first Roget's Thesaurus - Peter Mark Roget. Very interesting!

Today I will begin Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 2012 The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck.

35 & 37 - I loved The Historian.... besides being a great story, the background about the Hungarian part of Europe was very interesting. I hope you enjoy it at least as much as I did.

Finished Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner- one of the finest novels I have read. Dark, dense, compelling.

>49 amandameale: amandameale, I agree about Absalom, Absalom! beng dark, dense, rich the way a superb simgle-malt Scotch is; but why are there so few heirs of Faulkenr in literature today? Compared to Hemingway, whose literary genes litter the landscape of books today, why did Fualkner produce so few practicioners of his style of craft?

It's the weirdest thing to me. The reading challenges posed by Absalom, Absalom! and Light in August seem to me so minor compared to the delights the stories offer. As I Lay Dying is a different matter entirely, of course. That really is a professional league read.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, et alii can be read more quickly, I suppose, but can they be read as deeply? That was not my experience of those two books, but I ask the question without a curled lip or a presupposed answer. Are the layers of meaning as satisfying to readers here in Hemingway as versus Faulkner?

I put off The Hero and the Crown again to start Into this World We're Thrown by Mark Kendrick and then accidentally started reading Scent of Darkness by Christina Dodd (I was there, the cat was there, the book was there and it just happened) which seems to be the one I'm sticking with.

The Prestige, mainly. Very good so far; I honestly think I like it more having seen the movie.

I just finished Just Do It by Douglas Brown and have recently started This Charming Man by Marian Keyes

This weekend I started Maggie by Charles Martin and I haven't been able to put it down. I originally picked up a book by Martin a year or so ago because the author info in the back said he lived in my home town of Jacksonville, FL. Plus the synopsis sounded pretty interesting. That first book When Crickets Cry was his the only thing he had out at the time. I can remember staying up all night reading and crying so hard I could barely see the words. So.... when I saw this new book at the library I snatched it up. I have not been disappointed. He does remind me of a "Nicholas Sparks" type writer, but not in the same way. It's just hard to explain. I guess you would just have to read one of his books to see they are wonderful. He's had several others come out in between that first one and the one I'm reading now and they were put on my BM wishlist immediately... so now for the waiting to begin.... Not sure after this what is coming off of the TBR pile, maybe The Jane Austen Book Cllub or Icy Sparks

I'm now starting Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I have the Historian. A hardback, shiny and new. I keep thinking it will be next, but something happens. Soon.. i will read it soon.

Finished two light reads.... a Mrs Dalhousie and #1 Ladies Detective Angency by Alexander McCall Smith. I was charmed by both.. what a quirky writer... quirky reads... and I do enjoy quirky!

Almost finished with 1941 and will begin The Eight by katherine neville

eta

since I am getting The Fire by Neville ( ARC)

>56 mckait: mckait...1941 or 1491, the Charles Mann history?

If you haven't yet read The Sunday Philosophy Club, that would be my next suggestion for an Isabel Dalhousie book. Save The Right Attitude to Rain for another, later, more desperate time. My review has mysteriously disappeared. I don't get it.

The Historian was such a great idea, and I loved the first 500 pages.

#56 mckait Read Never Let Me Go over a year ago and am still thinking about it. An amazing novel. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Listening to Mistress of Death by Ariana Franklin on audio and am absolutely riveted. The reader is truly excellent (wish I'd written down her name), and the characters, descriptions of medieval society, and story are perfect.

ETA that the name of the reader is Rosalyn Landor. Her delivery is flawless, and, when she does some of the masculine voices, you'd swear a male reader was doing the part.

Just finished Road to Dallas by David Kaiser. Found it a hard slog, with much too much detail, and just too many names, many of them self-repeating throughout the book.
I have read many books on the Kennedy assassination, and agree with Mr. Kaiser on the one gunman theory, but I truly think we are done to death (pardon the pun) with books on the assassination, in 1963.

Now reading , and really enjoying Rome 1960 by David Maraniss. Obviously, I'm on a non-fiction high, but soon hope to come down where love and guts and bleeding hearts will salve my tortured soul!

PS Road to Dallas and Rome 1960
Darn those brackets

I finished Lucifer's Shadow, which I finally came to enjoy. Once I put some unbroken time into reading, and the italics mostly disappeared, it really picked up.

It had a past track and a modern day one. The modern day characters were odd, mostly not developed and kind of bloodless. Eventually some of the modern day characters got better, and there was an unexpected twist.

The past thread was interesting all along and mirrored the modern day track.

The book is set in Venice and about a mystery concerto, musical instruments, talent, and collectors who go too far. It has both Vivaldi and the start of the family 'Paganini' in it.

Not sure what to start next.

Reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood right now. Very interesting, and heavily reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale by her.

I finished The Colour on a camping trip this weekend, and I'm starting Don't Move

>48 PallanDavid: I enjoy The Historian, as far as I've gotten in it, I just keep getting distracted. Maybe I'll buckle down (get away from all the other books in my house) and read straight through it next.

>52 ellevee: I tried to read The Prestige for a book club and I couldn't finish it becasue it was boring. Then I saw the movie and loved it. The thing is, I wouldn't understand the movie without having read about half of the book, and I didn't like the book until after I saw the movie.

I just finished Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki and am almost done with Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan, which I'm rereading.

I found my copy of the second Nefertiti book (2nd for me, because I read the other one first) called Nefertiti by Michelle Moran. So, I am going to start that.

Just finished The Tailor's Daughter: A Novel by Janice Graham. Excellent read!

I finished Elizabeth Taylor's A View of the Harbour this morning, and tonight will start another Virago Modern Classic, Diary of a Provincial Lady.

Just finished Life and Fate this afternoon. It is, without a doubt, one of the best books that I've read in years. It's not without its flaws. At the end of the book, a few of the characters reminisce about a gathering at the grandmother's house in Stalingrad before the invasion. That scene suddenly made me wish that Grossman had begun the novel at an earlier point and introduced the characters in some other context before plunging straight into the battle for Stalingrad.

After the unrelenting grimness of Life and Fate, I've started Bonk as a means to release the pent up tension. (Hmm, that sentence seems to say a lot more than I intended it to say.) My first impression is that it's sort of an intellectual after dinner mint--refreshing and pleasant, but not possessing any weight. It's cocktail party science journalism. That's not a criticism. I'm actually enjoying the book (even though some of her jokes are a trifle leaden).

Trying to tidy up some literary loose ends before we go abroad. Finished Measuring Time which I very much enjoyed. There's a lot in that book! Now, concentrating on the short stories in Transported by Tim Jones. So far, it's been quite a mix of short stories - more when I've finished.

I'm piling up the books to take with me. I think I have six or eight in the pile (all short novels or short fiction, one collection of short stories on the ipod). We have a lot of plane time over the next three weeks.

Just finished A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo and am starting Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and Field of Mars by Stephen Miller.

I thought I might be able to at least report finishing Princess of Roumania, but I did not have a lot of time for reading while on "vacation" at a Workcamp in Ohio. I think I read about 20 pages total all week. :-(

I'm also still reading The Solitary Envoy for Go Review That Book.

I finished Escape by Carolyn Jessop on Friday night. If you are interested in Warren Jeffs rise to power in the FLDS church this book will give you some insights.

I finished Sail by James Patterson on Sunday.

I am now reading Marley & Me by John Grogan for my book club.

There are some great books on this thread . . .

I am reading Rose Tremain's The Road Home.

I am reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, after seeing it mentioned many times here on LT. I'm about half-way through and am enjoying it immensely. Jeannette Walls does such a wonderful job of portraying her parents, and it's clear she loves them very much.

Well, life seems to have gotten in the way of my reading progress. I am still working on Half of a Yellow Sun and Excellent Women and dipping into The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell. Need to start an Early Review book, Woman of a Thousand Secrets, and also Midnight's Children for a group read.

Just cracked open The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It sounds like an interesting story, I only wish my copy had slightly larger print. It's teeny!

I finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho last night, didn't really care for it although it did have its moments. Too much blah blah and WAY too much 'the Soul of the World'! All in all I didn't really get anything out of it. It was recommended by a colleague of mine who has lost his book-recommending privileges for some time... ^^

Still reading To the lighthouse... I really should invest a bit more time in it, because at this rate I'll never finish it. Well, that will be my resolution for this week. I'll put in ear plugs to be able to ignore the other books calling me :)

#30 sydamy Ah, to each their own! I absolutely adored Tractors. But it may have been timing (read it Jan 2007) because now the idea doesn't sound so intriguing. I suspect I'd put it down now.

#56 mckait Me too! The Fire, that is. I'm considering a re-read of The Eight although I've already read it 2 or 3 times over the years.

#76 Elee The Glass Castle is probably the best book I've read this year. I agree with you. Her love for her parents absolutely shines through, even though they were less-than-ideal parents (and that's an understatement.)

I didn't get much reading in this weekend, but anticipate quite a few lunchtime forays into Sojourn while I eat my lunch at my desk. My favorite way to spend lunchtime.

ooops! 1491 richard..... and loved it!

The Eight is good, but she is rather overfond of the word sparkle...

Finished The Red Tent last week, wonderful book. Now I'm about 100 pages into The Secret River by Kate Grenville, which I bought about a year ago based on comments here on LT. It's been easy to lose myself in this one, I'm really enjoying it.

Finished The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry last night and started City of Thieves by David Benioff...think I am going to like it...love stories set during the seige of Leningrad.

--> 74

I loved Marley & Me. What an endearing book that was!

I'm now reading Maus by Art Speigelman. I've wanted to read this book for a long time as I'm a fan of good graphic novels. So far, it's excellent. I also have Maus II ready to read as soon as I finish the first book.

finished Afterimage, an OK-but-not-amazing Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel.

next up: The Man Who Folded Himself

I'm still reading Conquering Gotham.

I also started (and read half of) The Tudors: A Very Short Introduction. Not that I need a quick guide to the Tudors, what with all that I've read about them. Mostly reading it so I can tell if it's good to recommend to people who don't know anything about the period and can't/won't (or think they don't want to) "sit through" anything full-length.

I finished Sorry by Gail Jones very very late Saturday night; now enjoying The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.

I finished The Inheritance of Loss last night..my review is in Readerville .

Am now about 75 pages into Queen of the Road...It's OK so far, but not yet as fabulous as I hoped.

I finished I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak last night. I really enjoy his writing. Next up is The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.

Still reading Midnight's Children.

Just started to re-read Swann's Way.

Planning to read the whole novel In Search of Lost Time, using my Norwegian edition 'På sporet av den tapte tid' in 7 volumes (3665 pages).
I imagine it a real challenge.

Finished Invisible Life, starting Poe: a life cut short by Peter Ackroyd and a collection of short stories called Cairo Stories by Anne-Marie Drosso.

I finished Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer while out of town this weekend and just finished The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I decided to up the reading to multiple books at a time again, so I started Stori Telling, The Rum Diary, and Say Goodbye, my early reviewer book for June.

Finished Maggie and finally started The Jane Austen Book Club

Read Last Night at the Lobster and now am between books. Instead of reading, I am watching the Brewers vs. the Cubs. (Brewers fan here!) So I guess not much reading for me this week.

Having outpatient surgery tomorrow so I will have an entire evening to read in which no one anywhere can expect me to do ANYthing else! Woot!

Gutenberg by John Man goes to the head of the pile. So far managed 88pp between the bus and my desk at lunch, liking it very much. After I'm done with it, since I can't read The Lace Reader until it comes from Amazon*grumble* I guess I'll...I have no idea. PIck something up that I haven't packed yet? Open Mr. Man's gift box of road reads, which I will have to re-find since he re-hid it?

Just finished The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. What an inspiring, heartfelt, thoughtful and heartbreaking read. I cried my way through it and laughed in some parts too. Highly recommended for everyone!

framboise - do you know he died yesterday? I saw his lecture, it was all of those things.

#94-alpaorder - Hello from a fellow Brewers fan. My hubby pays a ridiculous amount to DirecTV so we won't have to miss a single game! Also, there was a previous thread about couples reading to each other. Told my other half we should do that and he is still laughing. His business partner says that my husband thinks they print the rest of the paper just to protect the sports page!

#95-richardderus - Good luck with your surgery and enjoy all that reading time.

Just finished Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk. Interesting book, stream-of-consciousness writing, not much of a plot. Next I am going to start The River by Tricia Wastvedt.

I finished reading The Sleeping Doll by Jeffery Deaver, and WOW! What an amazing thrill-ride! There are so many twist and turns in this book, I could not guess what was coming next. Great book!

My review is In the Shadow of Mt. TBR.

I'm a couple chapters into The Richest Season, which a really sweet book so far. And I keep reading the same paragraph over and over of The Conquest of Gaul... hmm...

Well, I finally started Pope Joan and got about a quarter of the way through this evening. So far I'm enjoying it OK, but not getting blown away. It's an interesting story, but doesn't seem much different from any other historical novel I've ever read, in terms of writing style or storyline. An interesting story about an interesting time, but not a great book, in my view. However, my most recent novel was The Yiddish Policeman's Union, so there's a bit of a high bar set here.

Next to To the Lighthouse I started More than human by Theodore Sturgeon.

finished The Man Who Folded Himself, a different (and excellent) tale of time-travel originally released in 1972 and recently updated and republished (I read the new version)

next up: The Memory Room

Last night I finished Life is Elsewhere by Kundera. I'm now starting Radetzky's March by Joseph Roth.

I'm right in the middle of Slow Motion Riot by Peter Blauner ~ excellent read!

Last book I read was The Secret Life of Bees. It was outstanding.

I have about 100 books in a cupboard, waiting to be read. My husband and I brought home 5 more today. I think we need therapy. :o)

porchsitter... I LOVED The Secret Life of Bees! Wonderful read! I was not so fond of the next one she wrote.. Mermaid Chair but it wasn't terrible. I guess her first was a tough act to follow....

I am happy to see you here in talk.. and was very happy to stumble across you at BM. Small neighborhood eh?

I am still reading The Eight . I have been spending way too much time playing with my new laptop !

Oh, and thanks to drneutron who helped me with this baffling touchstone thing.

Have just finished The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (during one of my free periods in school). The clear simple diction is appealing and most appropriate in the context of the Professor facing death. Heartwarming and full of useful tips to transform your life.

>96 framboise: et al
I've also finally picked up The Last Lecture and am enjoying it. When finished, I'll watch the lecture ... like reading the book before seeing the movie :)

Have picked up Apex Hides the Hurt by Colin Whitehead as something to read in the few days before we leave for vacation; I have another 6 or 8 books packed for the trip:-)

#104, Eustrabirbeonne, I read The Radetzky March last year and found it fascinating. Hope you enjoy it too.

Still working through Blindness by Jose Saramago. Yeah, so this guy is good. Really good. Turns out, the Nobel committee knows what they're doing. :)

>98 CatieN: CatieN, thanks! Nothing serious, so I think all wil lbe well. I'll know in about 6 hours. 'Twas I who started the chat about couples reading to each other, since my {insert favorite term for other half of gay couple here} and I have a habit of doing that. Tonight I'm promised a reading-to, since he's concerned that I won't feel up to reading. Misguided, but sweet, and unrefusable.

Brewers fan, eh? I've been a Mets fan since the Miracle Mets of 1969...started out being taken to San Francisco Giants games in Candlestick Park in the very earliest 1960s. Baseball is the best game, bar none.

>100 rocketjk: rocketjk, a very fair assessment of Pope Joan indeed. I don't have that kindness in me towards the book.

>103 anxovert: freelunch, I loved The Man Who Folded Himself in the original version read back in the 1970s, but will have to pick up the updated version to see what's new. Thanks for letting me know it exists!

>106 porchsitter55:, 107 The Secret Life of Bees was a good read, but I never got swept up and carried off and deposited, panting and delirious, on a farther shore the way so many of y'all seem to have been. I put it down, said to Mr. Man, "that was nice," and went on about my day. He picked it up and fell asleep four times before I Pearl-ruled it out for him. Does Sue Monk Kidd emit some double-secret-members-only alpha particle whammy that doesn't affect fat men between 45 and 50 or something? Mermaid Chair barely made it into Pearl-rule territory.

>110 avaland: avaland, have a delightful plane ride to Oz. Still available if you need a luggage bearer....

Finished Gutenberg last night with great pleasure. I recommend it for anyone who has the slightest curiosity about the revolution that gave us the objects of our obsession. He was not a very nice guy, but he was a very savvy one. I like the author, John Man, all the more for his habit of making dryly witty asides in the text. I like the balance between scholar's obsession and book-lover's paean that he struck with this book. The section that brings up Gutenberg's central technological revolution, the hand mold for casting sorts from a matrix, is particularly well-done.

Confirmed fictioneers will enjoy the story of Gutenberg's life, insofar as we know it, and its entanglement with one of the Middle Ages' most interesting men, Nicholas of Cusa , would make (and probably has made) a superior historical novel.

So have a good day ladies and gentlemen, I'm off to take advantage of health insurance for the last couple days I have it!

I'm STILL reading through Great Peacemakers, mostly because I can't be bothered to read more than about 2 stories at a time when I have good novels to read. I just started Stealing Athena by Karen Essex, which I need to review.

> #100 and #113 I agree with your comments about Pope Joan. It wasn't a terrible read, and it did inspire a great book club discussion, but I was underwhelmed.

I finished Bad Blood: a Memoir by Lorna Sage last night. I really enjoyed it. Now I'm reading Center of Gravity by Greg Cohen (no touchstones yet, I guess...)

I'm doing a lot of preview reading for my high school English curriculum right now. Currently, I'm working on:

Connections: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults edited by Donald R. Gallo
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Write Source 2000 for my Writing Lab
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
and last but not least Dracula by Bram Stoker

For my personal reading, I'm working on: Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson
and The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

> 106: Porchsitter55, I really enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees, too. I read the whole thing on a flight back to Maine from Roanoke, VA, about a 3 hour flight!

I really enjoyed The Mermaid Chair more than The Secret Life of Bees...a book very much like The Secret Life of Bees is Swan Place by Augusta Trobaugh

@ bettyjo (118): Thanks for the title! I'll put it on my "to read" list.

112: mikeepatrick, I couldn't get through Blindness, the writing style annoyed me too much. I craved paragraphs.

Hey mckait ~ it was great to see you at BM!! I literally laughed out loud at the unexpected coincidence when I found out it was you who requested the book from me!! I'm so glad to have you in my circle of friends. :o) I'm also pleased to be joining y'all here in this group ~ I've been meaning to drop in and share my latest "reads" but have been crazy busy....I'm looking forward to participating more often. Right now I mostly read at night, usually when I'm exhausted and bleary-eyed....I'm usually working on my antique business during the daylight hours....so it takes me awhile to finish a book.

bettyjo (118)....thanks for the recommendation, I'll put it on my list!

brokensnowpea.....WOW.....you finished The Secret Life of Bees in three hours!! That's awesome. It really was a good read. I do love reading but even if I was stuck on a plane for three hours I don't know if I could keep at it for that long. Of course I haven't been on a plane for almost 30 years (yes, really!!) so I'd probably be too busy watching my knuckles turn white from gripping the armrests of my seat and gritting my teeth to concentrate on a book! AGGHH! **grimace**

#116 - brokensnowpea

Glad to see you're reading On Writing! I found it to be a very enjoyable read...I really enjoyed learning about the thought processes that went behind some of his books, and I found it to be very insightful and surprisingly funny as well!

I'm still reading Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, and I'm surprisingly drawn into the story. After Case Histories, I'm planning on reading Relic by Douglas Preston, Different Seasons by Stephen King, and then rereading Interview with the Vampire and/or It. And then, of course, I have my copy of Breaking Dawn pre-ordered, so I'll be devouring that come Saturday!

I had to laugh too, Julie... :)

I went to your profile and saw the pic and though... I know her!!!!!

LOL

I finished reading The Eight, and will begin Angelica.

The Eight .. Remember when Dolly Parton was talking about her weight and said something about stuffing ten pounds of potatoes into a five pound sack?

That is how The Eight struck me. It was just too much. Too many historical personages, too many flights for life, too many mysteries, too many connections. It could have been a rollicking good read if pared down a bit, imo.
I will rate it a three, or a two and a half... still mulling on that.

Angelica looks quite promising... but they all do on page five.

I just finished People of the Book and have started The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

I must be on a Pulitzer kick.

I've got The Crimson Petal and the White in the wings though.

I started Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie then went to the library this morning to pick up five books held on reserve...one of which is Rick Bragg's New York Times articles...I think I'll read both this week.

I finished Don't Move on my lunch break and I'm starting What I Loved today.

Finished Three Cups of Tea which was enjoyable to read for my book club. Am now starting thanks to lots of LT recommendations Time Travelers Wife. So far so good. I started to read it a while back and wasn't in the right mood so I put it aside until now.

richardderus--good luck w/ surgery and hope you feel better soon.

My copy of Lace Reader awaits at Borders for 40% off--will have to wait til tomorrow to get it w/o hubby in the car. Can't wait to start that one. Another one LT readers have highly recommended.

#106 > I remember reading Slow Motion Riot about 10 years ago and thinking it was very good, indeed.

I've also read The Secret Life of Bees, which I liked quite a lot. Good story; interesting characters.

#97, 108, 109,

Regarding The Last Lecture: Yes I know Professor Randy Pausch died on Friday morning. I read his book in practically one sitting yesterday. What an incredible man. For everyone interested, Primetime ABC with Diane Sawyer is running a special on him tonight at 10pm eastern time. It's called "The Last Lecture: A Love Story for Your Life" and they originally aired it in April. I think they're going to have some updates from friends now that he has passed away.

see that richardear?

HE liked Secret Life Of Bees. You have a weird blind spit when it comes to Connie Willis too. tsk tsk.

Maybe you should give Bees another try, since other activities will be somewhat curtailed for now?

momomomom

I am picking up a hard back of Lace Reader. I sent the ARC to my daughter, and miss it madly. I am ready to re-read already.

I LOVED Time Travelers Wife, too.

#126 - I loved Half of a Yellow Sun, but then I'm old enough to remember the pics of starving Biafran children when I was in high school. Learned a lot of Nigerian history from that book. Also, enjoy the Rick Bragg book. My favorites were the one about the bible, the one about the accused child, the one about alligator hunting, and the one about the homeless under the bridge. It's been years since I read them, so I should revisit those stories. Can you tell, I absolutely love that man's writing.

Oops, forgot to say I just started Sounds of the River and will start Cures for Heartache this evening.

#123 ~ coloradogirl14......I have the Kate Atkinson book, Case Histories, in my cupboard full of books waiting to be read....I appreciate the recommendation! I almost chose it before picking Slow Motion Riot but I wasn't sure if I'd like it. It's always nice to hear when someone else gives the thumbs up!! I look forward to getting into it soon.

#129 ~ rocketjk.....yeah Slow Motion Riot is an oldie but a goodie. I find myself chuckling at some of the things the author writes about in the book that are so outdated now...(originally published in 1991)....boy, have things changed.....except human nature, of course, and sadly, racism. The book is still relevant and quite a page turner ~ I really like Peter Blauner's work. I have Slipping Into Darkness in my cupboard too, waiting.

Just finished People of the Book. Thought I'd dive right into March.

Lirael, by Garth Nix (the second book in the Abhorsen trilogy).

Still working through Queen of the Road...still not loving it.

#132
Thanks for sharing your impressions of Rick Bragg's writing. I am hooked! I wish I could write like him!
So many people on LT recommended Half a Yellow Sun that I thought it worth a try..glad you liked it as well.

Nothing I have on deck to read was looking interesting to me so I picked an Erma Bombeck book, Motherhood the Second Oldest Profession out of my tbr stack. I'm not sure I'm emotionally able to read this. In the space of two chapters I've already alternately laughed out loud and cried. The book is a little dated, but I can still identify with much of what she's saying in it.

>131 mckait: mckait, awright, awright, I know I'm inadequate in the Willis department. I can't do it, for some reason. But rocketjk is much younger and thinner than I am, so he's exempt from the repellent rays for fat men between 45 and 50 that Ms. Kidd emits.

Okay. Surgery (thanks for the wishes momom!) was supremely simple and very painless. I feel like I have a sunburn in a very weird place, but that's the cauterization. According to the doc, all is well, and I've milked this for all it's worth and gotten read to, cosseted, fed my favorite dinner (rice and collard green casserole, beef sausages, cucumber & onion salad, followed by peach cobbler), and cosseted some more.

Ain't love grand?

What Mr. Man read to me: The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (explain please why this lady has a touchstone and Margaret Atwood doesn't). It arrived while we were at the doc.

We are both hooked from the start, and he got tired and had to go to sleep at page 31. Skybo's home! Woot!

edited/typo

> 133 - porchsitter55, Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors, and I very much liked Case Histories, so make that 2 recommendations! She has a new book coming out in a couple of months too.

I am starting High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.

I just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, an excellent, fascinating read. Plus, I'm in awe of how eloquent his writing is, it's such a pleasure to settle in with one of his novels and meet these news faces he writes about. This one with stay with me for a long time - I know it.

#140 ~ Elee.....thank you!!! I will put Case Histories in the slot for next book to be read! Can't wait now!! :o) I will be watching for her other books.

# 138 - I loved Erma Bombeck. I can remember when her columns ran in the Trib, and when she died (I was a teenager) I was really sad. She was so funny.

# 139 mmm... collard greens... I'm glad your surgery went well, richard, and that you got some peach cobbler out of it. Absolutely, you should milk that for all it is worth. Margaret Atwood has no touchstone? That's insane. But then again, Jane Austen almost never has a touchstone for me, either.

#142 ktleyed - Isn't he wonderful?

I just finished The Magus yesterday, and so am alternating Bleak House with Balthazar, the second book in The Alexandria Quartet. I've become a huge Lawrence Durrell fan in the past week or so, and his writing in Balthazar promises to be just as good as in Justine.

#133 porchsitter55 - Case Histories is an interesting book...its main focus is on the characters, and yet, it seems to be pulling together a compelling detective story as well. I'm surprised by how much I'm drawn in by the story! I read some of it in bed this evening, and I kept thinking of other things I had to do, and yet I couldn't seem to pull myself away from it. I'm looking forward to reading more!

I'm not sure I've actively read this many books at once, but I can't seem to concentrate on any one work. So far this week I've finished two short books:
1. Politically Correct Holiday Stories by James Finn Garner
2. Marshall University, a Campus History Series selection by James E. Casto.

I'm also still working on:
1. Turn of the Screw, which I just cannot get into for some reason
2. Memoirs of a Geisha
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I read and reviewed a wonderful children's book today, Mishka: An Adoption Tale by Adrienne Ehlert Bashista. It's a beautiful and sweet story of a Mama and Papa adopting Yuri from Russia. It's told from the POV of Mo the stuffed bear who is a present to Yuri at the beginning of the process. Maggie and My review of it is In the Shadow of Mt. TBR.

PLUS! I'm giving away a signed copy of the book, so be sure to enter!

I just finished Orientalism by Said, and am still reading in Claudius the god by Robert Graves.

I just finished "This Boy's Life" by Tobias Wolff. It's an excellent memoir! I'm getting started on "In the Woods" by Tana French. I've heard so many great things about this book and I'm really looking forward to it!

#146 I loved Memoirs if a Geisha.
#147 Mishka looks lovely!

I did not start Angelica after all. My sister offered a book Sugar Queen by the author of Garden Spells. Now I thoroughly enjoyed Garden Spells but this one seems a little silly so far. I will go ahead and read it, as it is not challenging in the least, and who knows... I might enjoy it. But frankly when the first page has a young woman finding a local waitress living in her closet... and lets her stay there.. well, it has not grabbed my interest so far. And I admit it, my son had someone who lived in the living room closet when he was in college. They are now best of friends.. brothers almost.

anyway.. I ramble...

#144, jfetting, In the 80s I worked at McGraw-Hill and we used to joke that Erma Bombeck paid our salaries!

I finally finished The Shadow of the Wind last night. I had really high hopes going in, but the last 1/3 of the book just destroyed the whole thing for me. I posted my thoughts on my 2008 reading list thread.

Now I'm in the middle of The Kindly Ones, the next-to-last volume of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and I'm gearing up to start Sunshine by Robin McKinley. It's another one with a lot of hype surrounding it. Hmmm.

I'm still reading Einstein and will finish it in the next few days--group meets next week and a member's scientist husband will join us to answer any questions on quantum physics. Lest you get the wrong idea, it is likely that a few members will have not finished the book. The rest of us, well, we might want to know if the equations are written in upper or lower case....lol

Then...a break with The $64 Tomato and I'll jump into The Power Broker for another group.

I'm in the middle of Love by Toni Morrison. It's been a few years since I've read anything by Morrison, and I'm once again struck by what a wonderful hold she has over language. Love may not be her best book, but wow, does she write beautifully.

#139> "mckait, awright, awright, I know I'm inadequate in the Willis department. I can't do it, for some reason. But rocketjk is much younger and thinner than I am, so he's exempt from the repellent rays for fat men between 45 and 50 that Ms. Kidd emits."

LOL! Sorry, my friend, but I turned 53 this month. So you're right that I'm not between 45 and 50, but wrong that I'm "much younger." As for the "thinner," well, I'm working on catching up to you, but my wife keeps feeding me stuff like salmon and almonds and chard designed to hinder my progress, middle-age spread-wise.

However, I am still not liking Pope Joan all that much (reached the halfway point last night) if that makes you feel any better.

#27 I', enjoying it because there's a lot of information about the composers I didn't know- I'm just not loving the style in which it is written

Finished Lisey's Story by Stephen King, and about to start A Million Little Pieces by James Fray next.

see that richardear? neener neener!

LOL

Maybe you should have actually finished one of those Willis books?

I just finished NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Have not seen the movie yet but all my friends loved it. I found the book confusing with who was who and which who was making their appearance. I enjoyed ALL THE PRETTY HORSES more. Didn't care for the last chapter or so of OLD MEN.

Now I am reading a book a friend brought over 2 days ago for me to read. She says it is a great story mixing humor with hard facts. EXPECTING ADAM - Martha Beck.
About two Harvard graduates raising a Down Sydrome son at a time in their life when education and a great job are the priorites for them.

Just finished Case Histories and I thought it was excellent! Very rarely do I find myself sympathizing completely with a character, and I found this to be the case for nearly every character in the novel. The only problem was that one of the characters I really related to ended up becoming a bisexual spinster cat woman, which I'm hoping isn't indicative of my own life!

I just gulped down Our Spoons Came From Woolworth's by Barbara Comyns. Thank you Librarything! I doubt I would have known of this obscure, hilarious, tragicomedic slice of Brit Bohemia were it not for the connections that this website creates. A perfect summer read that went down like sweetened iced tea poured from a pitcher beaded with condensation and yellow with lemon slices.

#142--I felt the same exact way after reading Never Let Me Go 2 years ago. It was the first of Ishiguro's books I had read and for me, the best. I still recommend it to friends.

I just finished Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult and I loved it loved it loved it!! I have to read Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy before I leave for college so that should be my next venture. I'm going to read a companion to it, too, called Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett.
#146: Also loved Memoirs of a Geisha!

>162 framboise:,

Never Let Me Go was my first Ishiguro earlier this year, and I got the chance to recommend it to a coworker yesterday. She'd read and enjoyed Remains of the Day, so I'm hoping she likes this one as well.

Hi all! I'm new to the group. I just finished Hood and just started the second of the series, Scarlet. I've loved this author from the moment my eyes laid on his first paragraph many years ago. I thought the first book in the King Raven Triology was awesome and I'm sure I will not be disappointed with the following books!

> 165

Hmm. Just yesterday I was at a bookstore considering whether or not to buy Hood. Now I think I will definitely look into it.

I just finished reading Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance, am in the middle of Kage Baker's In the Garden of Eden and starting to read Connie Willis' The Winds of Marble Arch.

>160 coloradogirl14: - coloradogirl14, if you liked Case Histories you should read One Good Turn - Jackson Brodie is in that one too, although the story is very different and I liked Case Histories better.

I just finished The Glass Castle which was wonderful, and I've started on Einstein's Dreams which is wonderful too. I read about both of them here and probably wouldn't have come across them otherwise. Hooray for LT!

Einstein's Dreams (which I'm reading sloooowly because it's so beautiful) should keep me going for a couple of days before Breaking Dawn is released. Unfortunately, in Australia Breaking Dawn will not be realsed until Monday. Not fair!

if you're into the genre, i have been reading "harmonic wealth," a self-improvement book by james ray.

and i've been re-reading "Moby Dick," which is much different than i remembered.

Just finished Queen of the Road and felt it was pretty ho-hum. My full review is in Readerville

Will take a short break to prepare myself to spend the weekend with Breaking Dawn, which I will be reading under protest and only because I have to for work.

I am reading Runemarks which is kind of confusing since I know almost nothing about Norse mythology, but hopefully this book will teach me a thing or two. Also, I want to start Never Let Me Go. And I need to read A Clockwork Orange which I started like a month ago and just did not continue. I only have three weeks of summer left, so I want to get at least these three done. And hopefully the ER book that I am getting.

I am reading Runemarks which is kind of confusing since I know almost nothing about Norse mythology, but hopefully this book will teach me a thing or two. Also, I want to start Never Let Me Go. And I need to read A Clockwork Orange which I started like a month ago and just did not continue. I only have three weeks of summer left, so I want to get at least these three done. And hopefully the ER book that I am getting.

Started the ARC of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society last night and oh! bnbooklady and others who have praised it ~ I had to FORCE myself to put it down when I finished Part 1 and before I started Part 2 or I would not have gotten any sleep at all. It is simply wonderful! I found myself chuckling and tearing up, in equal measure, but mostly just compulsively turning pages. I will probably need to reread it because I'm reading it so fast this first time, but, if the second half of the book is as good, I don't think it's going to be a chore. :)

I finished The Road Home (the one by Rose Tremain) last night in a bit of a marathon - I just couldn't put it down. Picked up The Dream Life of Sukhanov again (about halfway through) but it just isn't doing anything for me. I have The Abstinence Teacher waiting for me so I might give that a try instead.

Oh those touchstones!!!!!

>152 xicanti: xicanti, I am so sad about your responses to Shadow of the Wind and yet I completely understand your point about the Big Reveal in this book. For me, I was completely convinced that Daniel did all these things because that's inevitably what Daniel would do. I also fell a little in love with Fermin, since he was so completely irresistable. Still and all, your cogent review in your thread helped me clarify some things I found bothersome about the book. Thanks!

>155 rocketjk: rocketjk, fifty-three? You need a new profile pic then, one that isn't 15 years out of date. As to salmon, chard, and almonds...would you and your wife like a son, slightly used, aged 48? Mr. Man is buying salmon on the way home as of now, and we're making sauteed chard with toasted almonds, salmon in clarified butter with capers and shallots, and strawberries and cream for dessert. Middle-aged spread be darned, I got me a 35-year-old who likes a little padding on his man, and LOVES to eat.

>158 mckait: mckait, be fair now..I finished every last miserable syllable of Doomsday Book even though I think it cost me three years off my life (not the crummy ones at the end, either, three good ones: 51, 60, and 63). I gave up on To Say Nothing of the Dog (yes, please don't) and Passage, won't try Lincoln's Dreams, and loved Inside Job very much! So I have an informed distaste for Ms. Willis. Nyah.

>169 bnbooklady: booklady, what the heck? They MAKE you read books? Breaking Dawn looks craptastic. Well, I ain't a big Meyer fan. And not precisely her _target demo, either, but you are...why the protests? ;-) obviously kidding I know you have better taste than that.

Mr. Man is still reading The Lace Reader to me every evening. We're both enrapt in the story, and discuss it during our few-minute checkin calls throughout the day. He said a few minutes ago that he wanted to adopt a little girl next year and anme her "Brunonia" in honor of the author.

I PRAY that he was kidding.

Richard: Breaking Dawn will almost certainly be craptastic, and yes, they can make me read books because my job entails planning and promoting release parties for said books (along with facilitating book groups), so it's a good idea for me to know what I'm talking about. At least it will be a quick read! Tell Mr. Man that naming a child Brunonia is just not right...but what about Sophya?

I was going to take a short reading break, but Christopher Meeks very kindly asked me to review his new collection of short stories called Months and Seasons, and since it's only 170 pages, I figured I'd be able to read it today and tomorrow. So far, so good.

>175 bnbooklady: booklady, Tell Mr. Man that naming a child Brunonia is just not right...but what about Sophya?

You're right, but my point is larger...CHILD?!? What!? The!? Hell?!? I am the grandfather of three. I do not wish to re-enter the lists of diapers, feedings, potty training, adolescence, etc etc etc ever ever again not to mention I'm old and feeble and can't be expected to play with a kid and...okay, I'm hyperventilating...gotta calm down....

I hope I'm just overreacting and this isn't the opening salvo in a new battle over child-rearing. It felt like a trial balloon, you know what I mean, the way you do with your husbad to see if he'll go with something you want to do but don't really want to commit to a discussion yet. *eep* Pray for me, booklady. O Saint Gutenberg, defend Your humble polybibliovorous disciple against late-life parenthood.

ETA: Oh great, another book on the wish list. Mr. Meeks owes you 10% of at least one sale.

Msg. 165: I agree. {Stephen R. Lawhead} is one of my all time favorite authors. Haven't yet read Hood and Scarlet but am saving them for an August day under the tree in the backyard. Can't put his books down once I start!

# 174 > Ha! That photograph's only about three years old! I just got lucky with the hair genes and the photo is sort of fuzzy.

Something happened Richardear, and To Say Nothing Of The Dog came here. I will be darned if I know how it happened. Seriously...

Granted Lincoln's Dreams was terrible.
Doomsday Book and Passage were both very good, my fave of the two being Passage.

At least we agree on Lace Reader and I think it would be wonderful for little Brunonia to live in a home with two avid reading dads. Let me know when she arrives. I will send a gift.

You know.. if you like Lace Reader and who could not, have you read Birth House ? It is another book about a family of strong women, and it is also a favorite.. a re-read at least once a year favorite like Lace Reader

booklady... I was in B&N today. There was a manager ( I assume) giving a tour to two kids that she had hired. She was EXPLAINING that this is the bargain section and blah blah and this is fiction, non fiction...

NO one who needs a tour should be allowed to work in a bookstore. They need to hire me. Seriously

#171: I highly recommend Never Let Me Go and A Clockwork Orange is my fave book of all time. I wish I could get that feeling of reading it for the first time again!

mckait: the store tour is just another exciting part of bookseller training...I'm sure if you had followed them around longer, you would have learned all about how in the "New In" bays for each genre, books are divided with hardbacks (we call them Trade Cloth) on top, trade paperback next, then mass market paperback on the bottom and are subsequently alphabetized within those groups....amongst many other fascinating facts.

they should hire you...LT would be a great recruiting ground for booksellers who know and love books.

At my last post I had not yet started Scarlet, but now I'm about half way though and find his use of language absolutely spellbinding! If you're a fan, you will love these books!

Finished Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 by Annie Proulx. I always read short stories out of order. The last one read, "The Wamsutta Wolf", was the most disturbing and one of the best.

Still reading Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. Still really enjoying it.

Started Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories by Carson McCullers. Now I've read the Other Stories and have to start the Ballad.

booklady

they both had such a look of wide eyed wonder! LOL

Sigh.. I applied there. I had an interview.. showed off my knowledge of books, authors and blah blah.

She asked me if I could work any hours .. I replied honestly.. I would not be at my best during the latest shift. I am more of a morning person. I could work any day..

She said that they can't hire anyone with scheduling constraints. Since so many students work evenings.. I never hesitated to say what I did.. but that was the end of that.

:_ {

>184 mckait: mckait, age prejudice in pretty clothes. Same thing happened to me several times when I was job-hunting.

See your profile for infuriated rant in micro form. I am seething.

Well, at the risk of being considered a reader of craptastic books, I am reading Eclipse and will dive into Breaking Dawn when it arrives on my doorstep tomorrow. Does it help to say that I have an almost-15-year-old daughter who is reading them and it's a good thing for us to be able to discuss books?

on my way rd....

I wish I could think that richard, but there are many older people working there...
most of those that I have struck up conversations with are teachers working second jobs. Others have been there since the last brick was laid.

They are all however.. every single employee ... thin.

I am not. I am a size 16/18

Is that it? maybe. Maybe this particular manager has this prejudice. They hired my son .. 6' blond curly hair, blue eyes, ex model. He was just out of the navy and was not a dependable employee at that time. We applied within weeks of each other.

Maybe she just didn't like me?

Whatever.. it is the same manager and I won't waste my time again. I would love to be able to retire to a bookstore job when my car is paid off. My job is so physically and emotionally draining... I wonder how much longer I can manage it.

I wish I could see it in my future... but...

Just started Oryx and Crake on audiobook.

Also currently reading:
Travels with Charley
True Tales of American Life
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

I stayed up late last night to finish The Secret River, it kind of left me in a state of shock.

Started reading the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant last evening. It's a book I've been meaning to get to for years but just kept putting it off.

Dirty Diplomacy by Craig Murray. He's the former Brit ambassador to Uzbekistan who had the courage to openly discuss the human rights atrocities in that nation.

I have a friend who worked for B&N for a while, and she says she wishes she'd worked at Borders instead. They have a looser dress code, and you're allowed to wear open-toed shoes there. Granted, she's a bit of a fashionista. (However, these policies probably vary from store to store--who knows?) I, too, just applied for a job in a bookstore (an independent) and am waiting to hear. I hope I get it, but I fear I may be older/less hip than their ideal candidate. Oh, well.

I, too, am a Kate Atkinson fan. I also loved The Secret Life of Bees and Oryx and Crake. I've never read Ballad of the Sad Cafe but just finished The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and was blown away by it.

These postings have given me lots of ideas for my TBR list. Thanks! Unfortunately I'm in between at the moment--not finding something I can stick with--but not for lack of ideas!

#189, dchaikin, The Secret River was an amazing book, one of my favorites of last year; I read it because of recommendations here on LT.

#193 rebeccanyc - yes, I agree. It was pretty amazing.

edited because I had "I was pretty amazing"... oops :}

>29 velocibadgergirl: velocibadgergirl - I am reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time also. So far it's good, it reads at a quick pace. A few days ago I finished Olive Kitteridge so this is a nice change of pace from that.

I have about 20 more pages before the end of Slow Motion Riot by Peter Blauner.....I just couldn't stay up any longer (wee hours) to finish. It's been a really good read ~ I've never been disappointed with Blauner.

Will start Case Histories by K. Atkinson next...cannot wait after getting good recommendations here!!

Hubby's reading Simple Genius by David Baldacci....he's 250+ pages in and is loving it.

I need to start making reading more of a priority and pencil in some relaxation time into my daily schedule.....I'm on the computer or running around all day, every day, usually, and hardly ever take a few minutes to grab my book and read....I find that falling into bed at 2am and opening my book is not the best way to do it. I'm just one of those people that gets up in the morning and jumps right into the activities of the day and the next thing I know, I've been working for the entire day without ever coming up for air. It's self-imposed labor though....I'm self employed....so what the heck. I think I will give myself permission to take a nice hour long break in the middle of the day and curl up with my current book-du-jour and relax! Ahhhh, sounds divine. I do love my job but good grief....I'm an awfully harsh taskmaster....to myself. Crazy!

Well, I finished Pope Joan last night. Overall, I did have fun reading it. The author managed to steer around some of the danger spots (as in "Danger! Cliche plot development ahead!") I thought we were going to bump directly through. The second half was a little better than the first, I thought, or maybe I was just used to the fact that there wasn't going to be much in the way of real character development by then. You start to enjoy a book for what it is rather than worry about what it isn't, I guess. So this one had a story line that moved along and was interesting in an adventure-novel sort of way, plus some very interesting historical information. The writing style was not particularly noteworthy, but was smooth enough not to get in the way. Except for the several occasions when we read, "Neither one of them guessed . . . " or "Little did she guess . . . " Really, isn't this what editors are for? That sort of thing will make me take an otherwise entertaining book less seriously, I'm afraid. I'm giving it three stars, but I'm feeling very generous in doing so.

I'm not sure what's next yet. I'm going to spend some time with my "Between Book" stack. Those are anthologies, etc., I read one entry/story at a time between my "full length" books. I'm adding Selected Tales by the Russian author Nikolai Leskov to the Between Book stack this time.

Today, I am reading the essay "How Writing is Written" by Gertrude Stein from Great Modern Reading selected by Somerset Maugham.

I started reading Lush Life this morning after finishing Twilight, which I was disappointed in. It sounded so good.

Just finished The Giant O'Brien by Hilary Mantel and am at the beginning of Field of Mars by Stephen Miller. Mantel's book is excellent and I am enjoying Miller's detective/mystery historical fiction account of 1913 St.Petersburg, Russia.

Reading Different Seasons by Stephen King, and rereading Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. However, all of that's going to be put on hold this weekend until I can finish Breaking Dawn, which I really am looking forward to reading!

I just finished The Likeness and really enjoyed it. I'm also reading Away by Amy Bloom. I've been reading that for awhile. I'll read a chapter and then not go back to it for a week or so. Last night I started The Emporer's Children.

>199 torontoc: torontoc, I so enjoyed The Giant, O'Brien! It was a four-star read. Very well-crafted, and characters that I found riveting.

>200 coloradogirl14: colorado, may Breaking Dawn bring you all the enjoyment a book can. I do hope to hear a good impression of Interview with the Vampire, too. It was a favorite of mine back when it came out (about the same time I did, ha).

Mr. Man will just about finish reading The Lace Reader to me tonight. We're heading into the home stretch, but mostly because he took it to work and read a big chunk as his breaktime read and I did a similar thing today. The tussle over who gets to read it when is probably funny to someone standing outside....

#202 richardderus - This is probably the 6th or 7th time I've read Interview with the Vampire, so that should give you an indication of how much I love that book! I've been in a bit of a vampire mode lately...

I finished A Princess of Roumania a few days ago. I wasn't blown away by it, and I'm not planning on finishing the series. I also finished Home to Holly Springs on audiobook. It was kind of fun to revisit familiar characters from the Mitford series, and the narrator was good, though a few characters' voices were not what I would have chosen.

I started reading Mr. Midshipman Hornblower today as "librarian research" into adventure stories, and am enjoying it so far. My new audiobook is The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult. The only other book I've read by the author was My Sister's Keeper which I enjoyed very much, so I'm hoping to like this one as well.

Have read The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray, The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon and First Impressions by Jude Deveraux since my last post...

The Libba Bray trilogy kept improving all the way through and I'm looking forward to reading more from her: I now have only 3 more Sidney Sheldon books to read and I will have read all his books and am now reading Carolina Isle by Jude Deveraux - not really a sequel but taking place in the same location as First Impressions...

#204 ~ bell7.....I'm a huge Jodi P. fan.....My Sister's Keeper is one of my favorite novels, ever. I'm not a person that cries easily and that book moved me to tears. I shared it with my mother and she also cried. I guess if a book can make me cry, that's a pretty good indication of a powerful story, in my case at least.

I also read The Tenth Circle and although it was very good, it didn't hit me as hard as My Sister's Keeper. Did you see the recent movie based on The Tenth Circle? Didn't like it as much as the book.

I have several Jodi P. books in my TBR pile....looking forward to them, hoping that they touch me as much as the two already mentioned.

>206 porchsitter55: porchsitter55 -- No, I didn't watch the movie because I wanted to read the book first. Generally I like the books better. I also don't cry easily, and I'm pretty sure (though my memory's hazy at this point) that I at least teared up for My Sister's Keeper if not actually cried. I was thinking that The Tenth Circle may be a bad commute choice if it makes me cry, so it's actually a good thing if it doesn't hit me quite that much. :-) I haven't listened very far on the 1st CD, but I'm enjoying it so far.

I am now about to begin...drumroll please... Shadow of the Wind which I bought for myself back on Mother's Day and am now finally getting around to reading. It's gotten so much attention here on the boards, I hope I like it.

>208 ktleyed: kt, me too me too! I want it to make you feel your whole life has been a dress rehearsal for reading This Particular Book!

Okay, so I'm overselling. I do hope it will give you a pleasurable read.

#209 richard - With that kind of buildup, it better be good! *kidding*