What are you reading the week of June 05, 2010?

Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak turns 82 on June 10th.



Other author birthdays this week include: Richard Scarry, Margaret Drabble, Ken Follett, Federico Garcia Lorca, Aleksandr Pushkin, Thomas Mann, Nikki Giovanni, Elizabeth Bowen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Patricia Cornwell, Immanuel Velikovsky, Saul Bellow, Ben Jonson, Yasunari Kawabata, Leopoldo Marechal, William Styron, Bertha von Suttner, Marguerite Yourcenar, Sara Paretsky

Oooh I love the Wild Things!

I am still reading and absolutely loving Het Zeewezen by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I hope for all Lindqvist fans this one gets translated too!

Hmmm well, I read a lot, but I have almost too many going on at once:

Dark Angel: Fallen by Jacob M. Drake (an advance copy of his newest e-book, which has not yet been released)
Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles Robin Hobb
The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Storyteller by G. R. Grove
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

In a few minutes I will go in and pick up The Forge of Christendom which will probably take several days of the coming week.

Robert

I've started and, so far, am loving The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco.

Still reading The Celtic Alternative by Shirley Toulson and The Mabinogion.

Just started Notwithstanding by Louis de Bernieres. i still long for him to equal Captain Corelli but I know that's asking an awful lot - this seems like a lot of fun and would be brilliant by anyone else's standards.

Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer

Red to Black by Alex Dryden, Russian espionage in the 21 century.

Over the past two days I've started perhaps five or six books, read fifty pages, then suddenly lost the desire to read on. It happens to me every so often. They've all been fiction books so I'm going to try a non-fiction book: The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.

I'll be starting First Light later today, looking forward to it. :)

Making inroads into Small g by Patricia Highsmith...so far, not my favorite Highsmith.

Still reading Havemercy by Jaida Jones, fantasy. Its become a bit of a slog. There is a relationship that is borderline inappropriate (grownup-child (who suddenly isn't a child anymore)). Nothing like the Swordspoint books.

I finished A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, Suze Rotolo's memoir of her life during that decade. Four years of that time she was Bob Dylan's girlfriend so an inside look at the early Bob Dylan is a major draw of the book. It's more than that, though, for she lived an interesting life herself and rubbed shoulders with multitudes of legendary figures of that time. I'm also reading Ten Hills Farm which I've slowed down on since I don't want it to be over. I've just started The Woman Behind the New Deal

I'm still reading my two books from last week, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, and Selected Cronicas by Clarice Lispector. I've also started Medicine in Translation: Journeys with My Patients by Danielle Ofri.

I am listening to Horns by Joe Hill and reading Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. Horns is awesome! I don't want it to end.

The Razor's Edge was pretty good. Interesting to read a talented novelist taking on big questions of God and religion while sympathetically skewering high society.

Now reading Zen Baggage by Bill Porter and Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak.

I am reading My Booky Wook still. Very interesting biography, I decided I have to take it in smaller doses though, so I picked up Souless by Gail Carriger. I saw Get Him To the Greek last night. The character Brand portrays is very much an homage to his personal life, I think.

Reading The Girl Who Played with Fire. The first 200 pages were a chore to get through, but then it kicked into high gear. Larsson desperately needed an editor. I'm not liking this one nearly as much as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Marika Cobbold, Aphrodite's Workshop for Reluctant Lovers

Rose Macaulay, Told by an Idiot
I've been meaning to reread her books for ages - I finally read a biography of her this year that I wanted to read for years. Tells the story of a family between 1879 and 1920. This is also my June Virago Modern Classic read. Quite enjoying it so far.

Jane Emery, Rose Macaulay
Biography of Told By An Idiot author

Sue Townsend, The Public Confessions of a Middle Aged Woman Aged 55 3/4
A collection of magazine column type pieces from the author of Adrian Mole. Ok, but probably of interest when you've read everything she's written.

ed Laura Lippman, Baltimore Noir
Akashic crime anthology for June (aiming to read one a month this year). This contains some of the best stories from the series that I've read so far.

Andrew Taylor, Bleeding Heart Square
Historical crime novel set in the 1930s by one of my favourite authors.

Diana Wynne Jones, The Ogre Downstairs
Am planning to read/reread the work of another of my favourite children's authors, and several other people on one of my LT groups are reading this one this month - I particularly liked this one as a child because it was about a group of children finding it hard to get on with their stepdad and I identified.

Rebecca Kloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
To review for the Bookbag. The story of a young black American woman who died of cervical cancer in the 50s and her cells have been used for research with consent never asked from her family. Several LT friends have read this one and there was an article in the paper about her.

#13: I liked the Suze Rotolo book too - the Dylan relationship was when they were both very young, but I thought she wrote about it in a very dignified way. The book was interesting for the way it evoked a certain lifestyle over those years, and for stories like her visit to Cuba in defiance of a US travel ban there at the time.

>13 snash: snash, I am fascinated by Frances Perkins! What a life she led. I've meade mental note after mental note to get that book, so thanks for bringing it up.

I finished The Missing by Tim Gautreaux -- a wonderful story set in the years following WWI. In fact, the book begins as the main character, Sam, steps off a troop ship in France and discovers that the amnesty has just been signed. Some of his compatriots are sorry about "missing" the war -- and that's only the first time you'll think about that title -- but they soon learn that there's plenty of danger involved in cleaning up after four years of devastation. Sam already knows too much about death -- about "the missing" -- and when he returns home to New Orleans he becomes involved in the case of a stolen child, a search that will take him far from home and far inside his own family history, a search for "the missing" in both his past and present.

I loved this story -- much of which takes place among the crew and entertainers on board an excursion steamboat on the Mississippi. There is music in this book -- and not only that provided by those entertainers. Music -- whether the kind played by artists on their instruments or the kind created by words, tenderly placed on a page by an author -- touches us deeply, evoking memory and passion and deep longing for all that is missing in our lives.

Now I'm reading James Joyce's Dubliners.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman - a gem I'm liking more and more with each story and hate for it to end.

>23 Copperskye: Oh no...another one who loves it...now I have to go buy the blasted thing.

Mollygrace.. #22 a bit ironic but the touchstones for "The Missing" come up with a different book titled "Found".
=:)

I'm still reading Breaking the Tongue. The more I read the easier it is to follow along.

Finished The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest last night. I'm going to miss Salander and gang. Have one to finish Caramelo and I've chosen Lost City Radio and Strength in What Remains as my next two in line.

Somehow changed my mind between the computer downstairs and my stacks upstairs. I've begun The Red Pyramid and Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women as my next two. The others will, no doubt, wait patiently for me.

>22 mollygrace: I've had that one sitting on my shelf for over a year now; glad to see your positive remarks.

>24 richardderus: You would really enjoy The Imperfectionists Richard. Guaranteed.

I'm reading (and enjoying) The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

#18 > Reading The Girl Who Played with Fire. The first 200 pages were a chore to get through, but then it kicked into high gear. Larsson desperately needed an editor. I'm not liking this one nearly as much as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Fred, that's funny. I'm exactly halfway through The Girl Who Played with Fire now and I have been thinking the exact same thing. Very slow at the beginning. One thing we disagree on, though, is that now that the actual action has picked up, I'm enjoying this a bit more than the first of the trilogy. C'est la vie!

Happy birthday, Maurice Sendak! And thank you so much for giving us Where the Wild Things Are. It sure saved my sanity when my daughter was a toddler and cranky when we were in the car. I'd start reciting it, and before long we'd be reciting it together. Stopped her fussing for long periods of time. She knew the words too. Would correct me most sternly when I missed a part or got it wrong. :) (BTW, she gave me a copy of the book and the movie for Mother's Day this year. Fond memories on both our parts. lol)

#28 Glad you're enjoying The Sparrow! It's one of my all-time favorites ~ in fact, I just downloaded the audio version from Audible.Com last night.

Am almost finished with The Secret Magdalene and in the middle of Dead Men's Boots. Also in the middle of Black Hills by Dan Simmons of Drood fame. I'm also in various stages of reading When Christ and His Saints Slept, The TMJ Healing Plan, Under the Dome and The Twelve Caesars.

I'm finally getting to Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and enjoying it but the middle section does seem very looooong.

Still making my way through The Passage. It is a little slow at the beginning, but I guess it is setting up a trilogy of LONG books. I had some good time to listen to So Cold The River while doing some grocery shopping this morning and it is getting really good.

Hi all - I used to follow this group and then for awhile I had to cut back on a lot of groups (having a baby can take up *so* much time, go figure), but I missed seeing what everyone here was up to, so I hope it's okay if I rejoin...

At the moment I'm reading:

All the Pretty Horses
1001 Arabian Nights
Rousseau's Confessions
I Promessi Sposi
Le Morte d'Arthur
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Thomas Jefferson (the one by Berstein - can't get the link to work)

#19 thank you for reminding me about The Immortal Life! I read an article about her, and the book, and then forgot the title, so now I can put it on my TBR pile.

I am currently finishing up Jane Slayre, another in the series of supernatural parody-ish books of classics. I picked it up because I enjoy vampire fiction, and Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books ever. I'm not loving it-I feel the character of Jane Eyre loses a lot in this version-but its a fun read.

scaifea, of course!!! We won't even charge you extra membership dues! ;o) Welcome back. How are you enjoying parenthood?

I'm reading Potiki by a Maori writer, Patricia Grace. It's lovely.

I finished my April ER The Goddess of Fried Okra and am starting The Lace Reader.

#35 teelgee: Thanks! Parenthood is emotional, exhausting, hilarious, crazy. In short, wonderful, despite the fact that after 20 months I still have no idea what I'm doing!

#36 I loved The Lace Reader-I'm really interested to hear what you think. I'd love to re-read it again at some point.

I'm reading and enjoying "If I Stay."

I am reading Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon for the Monthly Author group read for June. It's so 'readable' considering it was published in the 1860's. I am really enjoying it.

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass and I just started Warriors: Omen of the Stars: The Fourth Apprentice today by Erin Hunter.
Probably going to start Patrick Carman's Thirteen Days Till Midnight soon

I finished The Help and Gasoline and thought they were both excellent! I am about to start listening to Messenger of Truth, a Maisie Dobbs mystery, and I have begun reading Wolf Hall. A friend of mine and I have our own summer reading list and Wolf Hall is the first of 6 books we plan to read this summer.

37: I have no idea what I'm doing after 37 months (16 months with 2).

#43: LOL! I'm pretty sure I'll always feel this hopelessly lost; I think it just goes with the territory. Well, when they get to be teenagers, they'll at least agree with us that we don't know anything! ;)

>whymaggiemay- I recently finished Strength in What Remains and it was excellent! You won't be disappointed!

Fred & Jerry- I'm starting The Girl Who Played With Fire tomorrow. I guess I have been forewarned about the 1st 200 pages!

Anyone getting ready to read Henrietta Lacks, be prepared for a terrific story! And speaking of more quality non-fiction, I just wrapped up the audio of Columbine and it was outstanding, probably my best book of the year, in my humblest opinion!
I'm starting to sound like a literary Pollyanna, around here! I might need to throw a stinker in the works and then again.....nooooooo!

>37 scaifea: and 43 - I have a soon to be 17 year old and I'm still sort of winging it. Enjoy your little ones, the time slips by so fast!

For those interested in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the audio is phenomenal.

>DevourerOfBooks- I agree about the audio of Henrietta Lacks! Excellent! How's The Passage coming? I should have my copy in a week or so!

>msf59 - It is picking up! I thought the beginning was sort of slow, but now the virus is loose! I'm not sure I'll be giving it a 5/5 like so many have done, but I guess it still has 400 pages to change my mind!

>49 DevourerOfBooks: I'm also anxiously awaiting your opinion!

scaifea--welcome back!! Isn't parenthood wonderful, crazy, hard, rewarding, and the list goes on!! Enjoy every minute of these years as they go by way too fast.

rocketjk & fred---I was the opposite w/ Stieg Larsson books--I like the 1st one less and loved the 2nd one. I have Hornet's Nest waiting in the wings.

Had a wonderful day discovering a new bookstore today. Bought same kind of different as me which I'm starting tonight. woo hoo!

I finished The Dead Travel Fast on audio, and am now listening on audio to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Loved the first two, but the first edged out the 2nd, agree, the first part of the 2nd was rambling until the murders.

I think what I liked best about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the locked room mystery. The second book is more of a standard thriller. It's not bad, it's just less interesting to me than the first book. Also, Larsson seems to have a very black and white view of things. His bad guys are all cartoon characters. But the guy knows how to plot a story!

Curiously, I was reading a story on space.com this morning about some psychologists who are publishing a paper in which they claim that Anakin Skywalker suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder. Reading the description of BPD, I was struck by how well it described Lisbeth Salander.

Discuss. :-)

I'm finishing up Jeff VanderMeer's brilliant City of Saints and Madmen. Afterwards, I'll be starting on Toby and the Secrets of the Tree, an ER book that looks like it should be fun.

The Angel Game has been sitting on the shelf for far too long now - time to get cracking.

Really enjoying Lost Girls. A non-fiction reading like a novel. Over 500 pages and going pretty fast.

I'm starting Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry. I read The City of Thieves yesterday.

I finished Medicine in Translation: Journeys with My Patients by Danielle Ofri last night (4-1/2 stars), and Selected Cronicas by Clarice Lispector earlier this morning (3-1/2 stars). My next nonfiction read will be Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt.

Fred I believe I read somewhere that it was assumed Lisbeth has Ausberger's (sp?)which I believe is the autism where the social skills are lacking but the person is extremely intelligent. I do find the character of Lisbeth fascinating and am looking forward to reading Hornet's Nest.

61> I'm not a psychiatrist, so anything I say should be considered hot air. A friend's son has Asperger's, and I'd be willing to bet that no reputable psychiatrist would diagnose Lisbeth with an autism spectrum disorder. Her behavior is nothing like what I've seen in my friend's son.

On the other hand, Borderline Personality Disorder is generally associated with severe childhood trauma. Diagnosis requires five of a list of nine criteria. I think these five fit Lisbeth

Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.

A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.

Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., promiscuous sex, eating disorders, binge eating, substance abuse, reckless driving).

Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, threats or self-injuring behavior such as cutting, interfering with the healing of scars (excoriation) or picking at oneself.

Inappropriate anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights).

One could argue that the tattoos and body piercings are a manifestation of self-injuring behavior. (In and of themselves, tattoos and piercings aren't indicative of anything. It's only when present in the cluster of symptoms that they might mean something.)

Some other bits of information:

Disturbances in and uncertainty about self-image, aims, and internal preferences (including sexual)

Extreme "black and white" thinking, instability in relationships, self-image, identity and behavior.

I think the Asperger's description is just a pop psychology diagnosis. It is the mental illness of the decade, so everything can be explained as that. Journalists are herd animals. Of course, my guess is just as much a pop psychology diagnosis and carries no more weight than any other. It would be interesting to hear from a professional psychiatrist.

Reading The Gene Thieves by Maria Quinn on the Kindle--long-listed for the Ned Kelly. Near-future crime(?) story--haven't reached any crime yet but it was long-listed for the Ned Kelly.

Listening to The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell on CD. Very interesting, great story, but glad I read some reader reviews first so that I was forewarned about abrupt shifts in perspective, time, & setting. Story shifts between third-person & first-person and also changes perspective from Esme, to her niece, to her grandmother, and sometimes others; also shifts in and out of the past, often without any transition. I think this enhances the story but I might have been confused and annoyed if I were unprepared for it in the audio version.

Reading In Free Fall by Julie Zeh in hardcover--very intriguing police procedural that involves two physicists so lots of philosophical inner dialogue about the nature of time and reality. I believe I came across this author on LT so thanks for the recommendation.

Also still reading The Water Room by Christopher Fowler on the Kindle--very relaxing, can pick up and put down and it has some interesting history on the rivers that run through underground London. Usually read this one on the treadmill at the gym--could be why it's taking so long.

And have started The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg, EPub verson.

Don't believe I can keep any more narratives straight in my head so I need to finish one soon.

#51> momom248, To be clear, and as I said in my first post, I, too, am enjoying the second Larsson book more than the first, now that the mystery has actually gotten going.

I finished The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys this morning. I'm going out of town for work this week. I won't have much time to read, but I never go anywhere without a book, so I'm bringing A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson and My Life in France by Julia Child.

I just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray and will finish None to Accompany Me by South African writer Nadine Gordimer next.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Nelson DeMille's new novel, The Lion.

I got Napoleon's Buttons from the library last Wednesday. (I don't think I posted it in last week's thread though. Then again, I haven't made much progress on it anyway: I've been focusing on knitting a Clapotis.)

Fred--I think you are on the right track w/ borderline personality disorder vs. Asberger's. You are correct Lisbeth has many of those tendencies. I too would be interested in what psychiatrist would say.

rocketjk--glad you are enjoying the books--I will be interested in your thoughts after you have finished the 2nd. I will be picking up Hornets Nest shortly and will be interested in how that one is. I've seen mixed reviews on it.

Yesterday I finished Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood and enjoyed it very much. I am about to begin Frankenstein and am really looking forward to it.

As far as parenthood goes, we have four: 17, 15, 13 and turning 10 next week. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and constantly keep my fingers crossed that I am not ruining them completely. I said to my husband before: "Where did all of these kids come from and who thought I could take care of them?"

Finished "The Lieutenant" by Kate Grenville today. Enjoyed it more than "The Secret River", which I read in May, because it had a more positive ending plus I liked the exploration of two peoples learning each other's language.

#36 &....I read "The Lace Reader" last summer...enjoyed the mystery story as well as the history of lace-making in the US.

I just started The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest which picks up right where the second ended. I hope that Blomqvist and Salander spend more time together in this one as I felt the second fell short with them kept so apart.

Re. parenthood-Mine is nearly 5 and I have not a clue. When he was an infant, my partner kept saying, "I can't believe they just let us take a baby home." We are comforted by the knowledge that her dad who we both loved and admired confessed that he NEVER felt like he was sure he knew what he was doing.

I finished Cool Water, the debut novel for Canadian author Dianne Warren, earlier today. I loved this book and highly recommend it. It is written as a series of connected stories about some of the residents of the fictitious small prairie township of Juliet Saskatchewan and reminded me at times of Olive Kitteridge, which I read at the start of the year. I have posted a review which can be found on the book page here: http://www.librarything.com/work/9771760/reviews/60684783

Next up is The War Memoir of (HRH) Wallis Duchess of Windsor, an ER book.

(touchstones seem to be only partially working).

I had a lot of reading time in airports and airplanes this weekend, so I managed to finish two books - first, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (like almost everyone else here, apparently!). I agree with all you people who raved about it - it is among the most readable nonfiction history/biography/science-y books I've read in a long, long time. The other book I finished was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I admit it, I cried like a baby at the end.

Up next: Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki, Tinkers by Paul Harding, and The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters.

I just finished "The Goiod Soldiers" by David Finkel, just starting in on "A Star Called Henry" by Roddy Doyle.

Finally finished Naked Dragon by Annette Blair. Not as good as other books by Blair. Too much romance for me.

Just starting Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane which I recieved as an Early Reviewer from LT. I have read many good things about it. Looking forward to it.

I find the fact that readers in LT are discussing just exactly what kind of person Liz Salander is to indicative of the popularity of this whole series. NPR this weekend said that the popularity of these three books rivaled that of the Harry Potter books at the height of that craze. I have the first two books at home and haven't managed to pull them out of the TBR pile yet. I bought both when they first came out, but other things have pulled me away from reading them. I tend to always be behind trends or in front of them so am not worried about when I finally get to these books. I am sure that they will be as good when I finally do read them as everybody says. The fact that hardcore readers are talking about them to the extent that debates about what might or might not be the root of the leader characters personality, speaks volumes about the quality of the stories. I wonder why we haven't heard the same kind of discussion about characters in some of the other books that have more than one mention in this thread?

The Passage by Justin Cronin has been getting really good reviews from lots of different places. Is this the one that most of you are reading? Or are you reading the Connie Willis book with the same title?

I wonder how the Cronin book compares to The Omega Man by Crichton? Not that I am planning on reading any apocalyptic vampire novels. One The Omega Man back in high school was enough for me. And just to make sure Salem's Lot finished any thoughts about vampire novels as a way to relax!

I read Dubliners this weekend. I read "The Dead" every couple of years, but I hadn't read the other stories since college (long, long ago). I shouldn't have stayed away so long.

This evening I started reading The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli.

25 sebago -- I rewrote that message about The Missing so many times and I found the correct touchstone all but the last time, I guess. I, too, thought it strange that when you type in The Missing, you get "Found". Kind of comforting, though.

My brother passed a copy of Treasure Island along to me and even though I read it years ago, I am enjoying it tremendously.

I also plan on reading Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer, and This Charming Man by Marian Keyes this week.

I just finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. As a whole, the Girl Who trilogy was a very good read. Of the three books, The Girl Who Played With Fire was the weakest.

Next up for me is Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe.

My babies are 36 and 39. I agree it's amazing and frightening that you get this baby and then get to raise it in whatever way you can manage. By the time you have grandchildren though it's still amazing, but not quite so frightening. You kind of figure it's all going to work out. That is, if your kids didn't turn out to be serial killers or BP executives.

I finished and reviewed Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, a work of genius about the progress of civilization, and The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3: Subversive Stories about Sex and Gender edited by Karen Joy Fowler and am in love with every story. My favorites are Dearth by Aimee Bender about a single woman who gets a surprise and unwelcome gift of potatoes; The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. about a poor, misshapen woman who becomes a virtual Lindsay Lohan; Little Faces by Vonda McIntyre in which adults are women (and space ships) and the male companions with their gnashing teeth live within them; and Knapsack Poems by Eleanor Arnason which explores a race in which a person is composed of several different and intertwines bodies of any of 3 sexes. There are also non fiction articles about race in science fiction, Octavia Butler, and Alice Sheldon's lament of her loss of anonymity when her sex is discovered by the reading public. To me this is the perfect science fiction anthology. Which makes the fact that I'm now listening to Welcome To The Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut almost painful in its dated 1950's and 60's sexism.

I'm also 34 pages into The Girl Who Played With Fire and not finding it to be dragging at all. Loved Harry Potter love Salander, I guess I'm just a sucker for mainstream fiction.

>80 DeltaQueen50:, Deltaqueen, I read Treasure Island aloud to my girls ( 8 and 11) last year. You gotta love little girls running through the house bellowing "Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!"

Just started on Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee.

I just finished Het Zeewezen/Manniskohamn by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and all I can say to fans of Lindqvists other books (Handling the Undead and Let the right one in) is to find this book in a language you can read. What a wonderful story (the storytelling, not the happenings per se).

My next read will be Rahomon with some more short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

>78 benitastrnad:, We are talking about the Justin Cronin book, although 'other' doesn't seem to be working very well for the touchstone. I have to say that, for me, the book didn't really get interesting until page 550, which is a bit ridiculous. The rest was fine, but not mind blowing.

>73 lkernagh: Lori, thumbs up for that review! I've wishlisted the book, because it sounds like something I'd love. Thanks!

>82 Citizenjoyce: Joyce, the Tiptree Anthology series is amazing, no? *Such* creative, wonderful minds at work, and yet many (if not most) of those talents toil in obsucrity because they're *whisper* gay! Sad, isn't it, in this day and age?

My grandkids are 3.5-8 and I don't know how anyone ever raises a kid, so it's obviously part of the territory...fake it 'til ya make it.

Reading "A problem from hell": America and the Age of Genocide by Samatha Power.

Finished Ten Hills Farm this morning. It was an excellent history of a farm near Boston. Initially established by John Winthrop, Isaac Royall, John Stark, and George Washington all owned or passed through its door. The history also strives to tell the whole story, noting that the opulence of the estate was built and maintained by slaves both on sugar cane plantations in Antigua and on the estate. Since records of individual slave lives are so elusive, much of the story from the slave's point of view had to be conjecture but every effort was made to include their story and contribution. I found the book fascinating and engagingly written. Excellent, 5/5 stars

I'm reading Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber. The long, chatty footnotes render it unsuitable for bathroom reading (too hard to floss and flip back and forth), so I'm reading A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters on the side.

I've reviewed Aloha, Candy Hearts, a Russell Quant mystery, in my thread...post #250.

Since June is Gay Pride Month, I'm suggesting to those who haven't read a book with a gay main character that they try these charming, unchallenging mysteries. There is no discernable sex in them, so they're not likely to challenge the sensibilities of those not so inclined, and the world they create has a lot of charm.

>87 richardderus: Richard - I think you would enjoy Cool Water. Warren takes a more 'rabbit hop' approach to shifting the POV between the various characters - not quite the subtle shifts that occur in Mrs. Dalloway, but her approach works well here with this story and the numerous cameo appearances in the various chapters go a long way in conveying the interconnected nature of the stories. I borrowed the book from my local library to read and I am now keeping my eyes open for a copy to add to my personal library!

It's making me sick reading about all these people so enamoured with the Millenium Trilogy. I finished it back in March and have nothing more to look forward to unless his partner comes up with the fourth book, which she is said to have in her possession. :(

I'm reading "War and Peace." My father gave it to me for an Xmas present in 1967. I thought it was about time I read it. I usually read mostly non-fiction but W&P contains so much history that I don't really feel I'm reading a novel.

Just wanted to say thank you all muchly for your thoughts on parenthood - it's so good to know that I'm not the only one not afraid to admit my ignorance! LOL! Every once in awhile when Charlie toddles over and gives me a big hug and a slobbery kiss, I figure I must not be screwing up too bad, or at least he's not holding it against me. :)

I finished up Lady Audley's Secret last night. I think anyone that has read and enjoyed Rebecca wold probably love this book too.

Today I will start The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. The synopsis on the cover is wacky... I hope in a good way.

I just got back from my trip around Turkey which was really great, I still managed to get some reading done. Finished Sebastian (I'm going to try and do a nice review and try out the facebook integration) and started (once and again) Priestess of the White after the printing error debacle it took me almost a year to get back to it.

I'm reading:

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman

>92 lkernagh: Okay then, Lori, it's moved to my Amazon cart. Looking forward.

I finished the wonderful The Imperfectionists and I’m afraid it’s one of those books I’ll be telling everyone that they really must read.

And now I’m about 60 pages or so into Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages. What a riot. I just finished a couple of pages that had me in tears I was laughing so hard.

I loved The Imperfectionists - my only concern is how Brad Pitt's production company - which recently bought the film rights - will transpose this amazing novel into a film version. Only time will tell!

Finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, having inhaled it in a few days, fast for me. I loved having the ends tied up (except for one), but I think I liked The Girl Who Played with Fire the best. Like others, I'm sad there will be no more.

Then I turned back to my Kindle to find that it had mysteriously drained its battery while sitting quietly on my coffee table for three days, so I have to wait for it to charge up. Guess I'll browse around LT and Amazon and pick my next several reads.

I am closing in on 200 pages in into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and am having trouble putting it down now, it is so good.

#87 Tiptree Anthology series is amazing, no? *Such* creative, wonderful minds at work, and yet many (if not most) of those talents toil in obsucrity because they're *whisper* gay! Sad, isn't it, in this day and age?

I don't think they're toiling in obscurity. Maybe their works aren't regularly best sellers, but Ursula LeGuin, Eleanor Arnason, Vonda McIntyre, James Tiptree,Jr. and the others have had pretty big careers. Aimee Bender is new to me, but I've been hearing a lot about her work lately. Anyone here read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake? I have it on order at the library. She has a fascinating take on things. Maybe that's a problem. These authors have such a unique view of life and possibilities that it can be hard for some readers to engage. I think the fact that they're women might have more influence over their careers than the fact that they're gay, if they are. I don't know who is and who isn't.

I'm re-reading "The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann (I'm almost finished). It's generally regarded as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century but it demands an immense amount of knowledge of philosophy esp. of the time, as well as of music, art, literature, etc. etc. However, although the plot is fairly simple, it has some very interesting characters. In my opinion it is character-driven despite the long debates about deep issues. Some of it reads easily while other parts demand high concentration. (I found his "Buddenbrooks" an easier read.)
Anyone out there who has read this book? Or, better, who is a Mann scholar?

I have finished Rashomon and have started reading (the Dutch translation of) The Shadow of the Wind

Well, richardderus, you got me thinking so I googled gay science fiction writers and found a wikipedia site about the topic with 2 things of interest. First of all Nicola Griffith has written that LGBT readers tend to identify strongly with the outsider status of mutants, aliens, and characters who lead hidden or double lives in science fiction.

Then they had a quote from Geoff Ryman who had an excerpt of his book Air in the Tiptree anthology but I didn't include it in my review because I didn't think it was "science fictiony" enough. In a Locus magazine interview Ryman claimed that the gay and SF genre markets are incompatible: “In 1990, if you had asked me which was the worst thing to be labeled as, gay or an SF writer, I'd have said gay: kills you stone-dead in the market. Then Was came out.... They had it in the gay section of bookstores and they had stuff in gay magazines, but they didn't say SF — at which point I realized that being a science fiction writer is worse than being gay."16

Here's where my novel reading slows down considerably. Books for study have started arriving in the post and I'm going to have to do some serious stuff. Reading for pleasure will be confined to weekends (until the course starts properly) and in bed. I'm still enjoying The Angel's Game but at a slightly slower pace now.

#104, bookmonk, I am by no stretch of the imagination a Mann scholar (or a scholar of any kind for that matter), but I've read a lot of Mann over the past several years. I loved Buddenbrooks, which is really a 20th century version of a 19th century novel, and like you found it much easier to read than his other works, especially The Magic Mountain and even more so Dr. Faustus, because they are so dense and because I knew I was missing so many of the philosophical, literary, and musical references. Strangely, because it is so long, Joseph and His Brothers was actually easier to read, and I was able to understand (or think I understood) a lot more of the ideas behind Mann's version of the story. Of course, I spent the better part of last summer reading it.

I'm quite deep into Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence, which is in my opinion a little tedious though of course an extremely important book. On the lighter side I'm reading Unseen Academicals, the latest book in one of my favourite series of all time, the Discworld series of Terry Pratchett - it doesn't appear to be the best of the series, but it sure ain't the worst one either...

>104 Citizenjoyce:: Citizenjoyce
I enjoyed The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (my review here); got me interested in reading more by Bender.

>91 richardderus: for Richard's challenge, Elinor Lipman's latest, The Family Man, is gay, charming, and almost an armchair visit to New York City.

I'm currently reading Dangerously Funny about the Smothers Brothers and their battles against censorship. It's an easy, fascinating read! Next step: renting the DVDs of the show.

I'm reading The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French, which is very good so far. I'm also still reading (and enjoying) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

>107 Citizenjoyce: Joyce, the Ryman quote is a laugh riot! My probelm with the Conventional Wisdom (SF is for teenaged boys, whether inside or out; fantasy is for teenaged girls, whether inside or out) is, it fails to account for all the very, very good work being done in these fields.

More than a year ago, (Half-heimer's kickin' in, can't remember when exactly) I arranged an unsuccessful group read of The Mists of Avalon. When I went to buy the book, the bookseller said, "Oh, your daughter will love this!" While I was grateful the tactless little pisher didn't say my GRANDdaughter would love it, I was ticked by the assumption that a manly man (I only wear pearls and pumps around the house) couldn't want to read a beautifully written and richly imagined fantasy novel.

This perception is what prevents good SF, like Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days or the smart, scary Lake Overturn, or my forty-years-old favorite The Man Who Folded Himself, from joining the front ranks of SF acclaim. (And I confess that I don't want to read a beautifully written, richly imagined fantasy novel. They make me itch.)

But my grouchy, tendentious point in #87 wasn't that no one not gay writes gay-themed SF, but rather that a rich strain of dramatic tension is closed off to the SF market by the perception that the core audience won't buy it. Not true! Ethan of Athos, central character gay, has been in print for a quarter century, and I *promise* that the publisher isn't doing that as a favor to the author or some non-core audience.

Oh well. Some day my science-fictional prince will come....

Devil in the White City....not bad.

Just finished The Cathedral of the Sea..very good.

#116 I started Cathedral of the Sea a while ago but just wasn't inthe right mood for it and put it back on the shelf for a later try. Should I get excited about it again?

I've just finished and reviewed Date With a Sheesha, the seventh and latest Russell Quant mystery...what a wonderful, wonderful surprise and delight it was! The review is in my thread...post #11.

Anyone who's hesitating to delve into the series, take note: The rewards are getting greater!

I've just finished Lost in a Good Book and haven't decided which fiction book to pick up next. For my non-fiction read I've been dipping into Natural Acts, natural history essays by David Quammen. This is mostly a reread but it's a rerelease with additional essays.

I am reading The Lonely Tree by Yael Politis.

It is the tale of a great love story between Tonia Shulman and Amos Amrani but even more so it gives you a look into a society that was new to me: British Mandate Palestine in the 1940s.

OK, we know about stories about The Second World War but have you ever viewed it though the eyes of a little Jewish girl growing up in as she put it so succinctly: ‘this wretched not-even-a-country’.

This story doesn’t take sides instead it concentrates on the fate of the Shulman family. Tonia’s father is ready to fight for his new country; Tonia in contrast longs for peace and comfort and hence has set her eyes on moving to the USA.

How will this all evolve? I tell you more as I progress.

I just finished the quite charming Grayson and am two stories away from finishing the wonderful American Salvage.

Next up is the highly recommended by many on LT: The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

If you follow my posts (yeah right) you'll get the feeling I'm really into fantasy and sf. I only got a sense that they were considered lesser genres when I got into book and reading sites (not this one of course). Labels really ruin this industry there are bunch of stuff, good and bad that get published or not published where I live because of the labels they carry from your neck of the woods it really annoys me and increases my bill on amazon and book depository...

On the gay and lesbian issue, this week the first lesbian couple got married here and the look on their faces should have been enough to silence the issue forever, alas...

The Lace Reader was fantastic! I loved it too!

57, Booksloth.. I hope you love it! I love his books.

#124 I'm absolutely hooked! About half way through now and resenting all those hours I have to sleep when I could be reading.

Well, I finished The Passage late Monday night. It was okay, but certainly not mind blowing. I reviewed it on my blog today, but haven't had a chance to move my review to LT yet.

I am now about halfway through both Day for Night by Frederick Reiken and Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, both of which I am finding far more engaging.

On audio I'm still listening to So Cold The River by Michael Koryta, which is still fantastic.

>>121 Donna828:. Isn't American Salvage wonderful, Donna? I just loved it.

>127 nancyewhite:: Bonnie Jo Campbell is a genius. How does she make these down and out characters so likable? I finished American Salvage last night and will be writing a short review this morning to urge more people to read this book!

Have just started but am already impressed by Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.

I'm still only 100 pages into The Girl Who Played With Fire so am happily getting my regular fix, but for those who have finished the trilogy and are in Larsson withdrawal, I saw this on the Daily Beast this morning:

Does the world love Swedish crime novelist Stieg Larsson enough to put up with his teenage prose? The National Library of Sweden has acquired several manuscripts that the author, who died before his bestselling The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels took off, wrote when he was 17. That’s well before he was a journalist and novelist; he was 50 when he died. “We have received material from a small archive from a periodical called the Jules Verne Magazine, and in that small archive there were some manuscripts by the author Stieg Larsson that were never published,” said Magdalena Gram, the deputy national librarian of Sweden.
Read it at The New York Times

Even knowing there's a possibility Larsson could have changed a bit in the intervening 33 years, isn't tempting to find out if this budding feminist had any of the same sensibilities as a teenager?

#129 Oh, that's a lovely book, hazelk! Enjoy.

Everyone should read The Looming Tower. It is fantastic--well-written, easy to follow. In fact, it's been a while since I read it, so I plan to read it again soon.

I'm reading The Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub - so far very different from The Talisman!

I'm really sorry that I didn't read this thread earlier this week. I have many comments.

On the Steig Larrson books, I loved them. I also saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the movies this weekend and was very impressed. Even my husband, who hates all films with subtitles and has not read the book, was enthralled with the movie. I highly recommend.

I just finished The Imperfectionists also and am glad to hear so many good reviews. It was an exceptionally fast read for me, but I really enjoyed it.

I'm currently in between books, but Cool Water is sounding interesting.

I have been picking up and putting down books all week, but have now settled on Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. It grabbed me from the first page, and I am really enjoying it so far. Leaving on a road trip this Friday and I am planning on taking The Likeness by Tana French, it's nice and thick so should keep me absorbed for a few days.

I just picked up a new one by Glenn Beck called, "The Overton Window."

Well, I'm almost done rereading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, then I'm going to reread The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne or Wicked: Resurrection by Nancy Holder.

I just finished Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe and I'm about to start Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

I've finished First Light by Richard Preston and posted my review here. It was great, and I only wish I could read and understand the more technical books on the topic.

I'll be giving my brain a rest tonight, and will be starting A Winter Haunting tomorrow morning.

Just finished Alison Wonderland by Helen Smith. Entertaining, funny read. I look forward to reading her other works.

I have been on a whirlwind tour of southern Utah and Colorado with my mom and sister. We got back to Reno tonight and I was able to finish up The Sheltering Sky. On to Madame Bovary

This week I'm reading:
George Michelson Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence--part of my ongoing meditation/fascination/obsession with silence;
Mark Schatzker, Steak: One man's search for the world's tastiest beef--not sure if i will finish yet another food memoir about a single food item;
David Shenk, The Forgetting: Alzheimer's, portrait of an epidemic--anything by him i like--i had just read his The Genius in us all and thought it was very good and timely;
Lauren Weber, In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue--i, too, get most of my books from the public library
Stephen S. Hall, Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience--seems interesting and easy to read for the lay reader as it's written by another journalist
Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel--my big novel attempt for the month

Just finished Toby and the Secrets of the Tree, an ER book I will try to write up in the next couple of days. I found it quite gripping and moving overall.

Currently rereading Ricardo Piglia's Nombre Falso, a collection of short pieces that ends with a counterfeit lost Roberto Arlt classic. I first read it when I had only read a handful of Arlt stories, so I'm hoping to get more out of it this time.

Almost done with the audiobook of A Tale of Two Cities, which has been pretty enjoyable.

After that, I've got to read Finch before the library starts assessing fines.

I have just finished De schaduw van de wind (The shadow of the wind) and loved it very much. I have now started in Dead to the world

I finished The Time Machine by H. G. Wells last night. I've been exploring all the free classics out there that I can download on my ipad and am now trying to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of classics. I also downloaded The Story of My Life yesterday and Sense and Sensibility.

145: Hmmm, interesting. Free classics on an e-reader gets people to read them when free classics at a local library can't. Maybe I should be supporting these dratted things after all. =)

Seriously though, I've been meaning to get around to trying H. G. Wells for a long time. I need to do that soon... ...

Wow. I haven't been on this thread in probably close to a year. Anyway, I'm just starting If You Can Read This: The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers by Jack Bowen. I'm only a couple pages into it, so I can't comment just yet. But I'm also rereading the Harry Potters series for the heck of it, and I just started The Prisoner of Azkaban last night. On the lookout for another book to start soon, but I have too many to choose from.

So far this week, I finished At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman, Book Lust by Nancy Pearl (which did bad, bad things for my TBR list), and The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (his debut novel recently translated and made available in English).

Now I'm working on a couple of nonfiction titles - Farthest North by Fridtjof Nansen and Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar. Those should keep me busy for awhile.

Cool Water is not available on my Kindle, but I have started another great book: A Visit from the Goon Squad.

I'm about half-way through and loving it. Admittedly, I am a sucker for a book about quirky, interconnected characters, so this book appeals to me immediately. However, it is incredibly well-written with a story that draws you in from the start. The story centers around a high-powered music promoter/agent and the various people in his life. So far, highly recommend!

I'm reading Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.

#138 I adore Sharpe, seitherin. He's hard to find, but worth the search. I think my favorite is Blott on the Landscape.

I'm reading A Special Mission: Hitler's Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII by Dan Kurzman.

Thank you for the tip; I recently read the book and bought 2 copies for doctors I know.

Sorry, I was responding to the tip about the audio version of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

I'm just finishing reading Pearl Buck in China...it's the only biography of Pearl Buck I've seen that adequately explains what Pearl's life was like...even her autobiography, My Several Worlds, didn't explain a lot that was going on in her life that influenced her writing as well as her life. It's a must-read. It includes a great bibliographical treatment of her works, especially important for a writer of Pearl Buck's stature and prodigious output.

As I suspected on Saturday it took me most of the week to read The Forge of Christendom by Tom Holland. I have yet to review the three page chronology at the back, but have little doubt that I will do it tonight.

Tonight I will also be back to 13 Bankers by Simon Johnson. I want to finish that before taking on a little Shakespeare project inspired by my church reading group.

Robert

Edited to add: CURSE THE TOUCHSTONES!, also curse my Dell Inspiron laptop computer.

Reading Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. There's so much wow in this book, from the descriptions of how computers work to the portraits of those involved to Kidder's lucid, simple, and occasionally playful writing. No wonder he won a Pulitzer for this work.

If you know of any techies or reluctant readers, high school and older, put this in their hands!!

I'll second that. Great book.

I've started reading A Voyager Out by Katherine Frank. It's a biography of Mary Kingsley, Victorian explorer of West Africa. This is for my Books Off The Shelf challenge; I've owned it for at least twenty years.

#154 curse my Dell Inspiron laptop

When mine developed insoluble (by Dell, anyway) problems a year and a half ago, I switched to a MacBook Pro and have never looked back!

I finished and reviewed The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Now I'm reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I started listening to The Piano Tuner this last week and love it! I can't believe I had this book in my house for so long and hadn't even looked at it. I spied it on the recorded book shelves at the public library and said "why not?" I haven't regretted it. If it keeps up with the way it is going this one is going to be on my best of 2010 list for sure.

Surprisingly enough I am also enjoying reading Predictably Irrational. This one is much better than Freakanomics. I found that one to be over rated.

I am also steadyly reading Foucault's Pendulum for the LT group read of that book. Weird book.

I finished Shirley Jackson's enjoyable Life Among the Savages and just started Charles Todd's A Test of Wills, the first in the Ian Rutledge series.

Oh and listening to Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains.

I've reviewed Lonelyhearts in my thread...post #37.

Last night I began on Puppets by Daniel Hecht

Finished Nelson DeMille's thriller The Lion (sequel to The Lion's Game and Deborah Wiles's Countdown (a "documentary novel" mixing the story of a 5th-grader with historical/pop culture clips from 1962) -- both good.

Now I'm tackling two books about mistakes -- one on how we feel about Being Wrong, the other Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us.

I'm reading A Voyager Out, about Mary Kingsley, a Victorian explorer of West Africa.

#166 How are you enjoying it? It sounds fascinating.

I'm reading Foucalt's Pendulum also and with the group.

George Pelecanos, The Turnaround
Like The Way Home, the adults in this book are haunted by their actions in their teens, although there's a much bigger time delay here, 35 years on, from youth to middle age. I like this better than The Way Home though wonder why I find books preoccupied with masculinity and fatherhood so fascinating. I do prefer Pelecanos' earlier work though I don't think his concerns have changed.

Jane Emery, Rose Macaulay
Biography of Told By An Idiot author. Fascinating reading, I feel far more of a sense of learning about the author from this than from the Sarah LeFanu bio published a few years after this one (I discovered that both were available from the library reserve stock when searching the online catalogue).

Andrew Taylor, Bleeding Heart Square
Historical crime novel set in the 1930s by one of my favourite authors.

Diana Wynne Jones, The Ogre Downstairs
Am planning to read/reread the work of another of my favourite children's authors, and several other people on one of my LT groups are reading this one this month - I particularly liked this one as a child because it was about a group of children finding it hard to get on with their stepdad and I identified.

Aeronwy Thomas, My Father's Places
Memoir by Dylan Thomas' daughter

Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Story told from the viewpoint of a 10 year old (but not a children's book)

#167 It just keeps getting more intersting, KAzevedo. I gather from the introduction that she is well known in the UK, but not so much here. Our loss, but I'm trying to make up for it.

I'll start Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha either later today or tomorrow, after I finish The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I wonder if Stasia has started it yet.

I wrapped up The Forge of Christendom in a few minutes last night and finished 13 Bankers. I read a good bit of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres and then the first few chapters of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres.

Curse the Touchstones

Robert

I finished The Lace Reader. I loved it! I am starting on Brunonia Barry's next book, The Map of True Places. I hope it's as good as her first.

Thread, new: over here.

It's no frills, but it's needed!

Just finished The Gene Thieves--really good near-futuristic thriller set in Australia. Kept me reading even when my eyes were wanting to close.

>168 elkiedee:

Thoroughly enjoyed Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. But then I'm Irish. Currently enjoying Proust's Swann's Way. Fabulous book.