What are you reading the week of November 27, 2010?

Our illustrious authorial births:

November 27


L. Sprague de Camp (1907 - 2000) he's in the middle; Heinlein's on the left, Asimov on the right (!!)


Michael Stackpole, LT Author (1957 - )

hi there im currently reading, born bad by josphine cox and vanity fair hope to start reading a bit quicker now! x

Still reading Towards Asmara by Thomas Keneally.

I'm reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King and listening to The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Marking the thread.

Thanks for starting this week, Richard!

I finished Me Talk Pretty One Day last night. It was ok. The beginning section was definitely better than the second section IMHO.

After finishing that one, I started Shutter Island which is my first Dennis Lehane. I only read about 5 pages before realizing that if I wanted a decent amount of sleep, I needed to get into bed for the night! Don't have an opinion yet but hope to get a good bit read today and tomorrow.

I'm reading - and very much liking - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

I'm still reading The Earth Dwellers. It's incredibly fascinating so far, but I just haven't had much time to read so I'm not too far into it just yet.

I'm reading The Blind Contessa's New Machine (thanks, Richard), and Strangers in Paradise Pocket Book 3, in a graphic series that has me hooked.

I just started Lily White for my Colorful Reading Challenge. After this, I only need to read one book with a color in the title.

P.S. This book is sitting on Professor Jules Hilbert's bookshelf in Stranger Than Fiction. Do you think they just buy a bunch of books to fill the shelves in movies, or do you think they select them for meaning? I hope to find out when I read this. I'm waiting for, "Little did he know..."

I am about 75 pages into Hunger Games which I am reading with my 9 year old niece. So far it's good :)

Onto the last few chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is a good thing because I am going to see the movie tomorrow! Although I read it immediately when it came out, it's almost like reading it for the first time again. I hardly remember anything, probably because I swallowed the book whole in a mere two days. It's been quite epic reading them all consecutively. It makes me appreciate the magnitude of Rowling's accomplishment even more.

After finishing two short books O Pioneers! and The Return of the Soldier I'm now reading The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore. If it's even half a good as The Siege, I'm in for a treat.

bookaholicgirl> I've only read one Lehane but it was really good & I hope to read more someday when the books on the shelves are tamed. I was taking a mystery writing class, & the teacher picked one of his books.

I'm started reading Noir last night. It made it past the three chapters test, but it's an odd Cyberpunk Noir with a femme fatale of sorts of course, but perceptions appear to be arbitrary in his world. So, as a reader, I feel as though I'm walking on glare ice.

I have about 50 pages to go in Three Men in a Boat. It's enough fun but not something one has to go looking for.

Robert

Thanks for setting up the thread, Richard. And I loved the pictures you posted.

I'm still working on Middlemarch, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Best American Short Stories 2009 and I just started A Gate at the Stairs.

Read Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. It was a quick read but overall rather dissatisfying and kind of revolting. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/64991217

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

Reading The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr for my art book club. Very interesting.

>18 memasmb: Ohh I read that one a few years ago and was completely enthralled. So very interesting.

I've started listening to SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable by Bruce M. Hood about how people are able to believe in superstitions, religion, predictive dreams and all kinds of irrational things. He's is chair of Developmental Psychology and professor at the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, University of Bristol, United Kingdom.His research interests include developmental cognitive neuroscience. (Information I got from his site.) His credentials sound impressive, the work so far is interesting, but the narrator reads as if explaining things to a third grader. What a strange choice.

Earlier this month my daughter and I went to a talk and book signing by Dennis LeHane. Considering the success of the movies made from his books: Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island, Mystic River I thought the place would be packed, but there were only about 250 people there. The only one of his I've read was The Given Day about early baseball, beginning policeman's unions and the fight against anarchism and the Spanish Flu. I liked it very much, but it was out of the usual mode of his writing. He said he had written for The Wire, which, alas I never watched but heard good things about. He also said he might have an HBO series coming up. I'm looking forward to that. I always get his name mixed up with Tim LaHaye who has more than twice the number of readers on LT, but I will never be one.

Still working my way through Matter With Morris by David Bergen. At 100 pages in I am pretty much on the fence about abandoning the book or following it through to the end. It is a quick read so I might just plow through it this evening to get it over with.

Bought Becoming Jane Eyre and Water for Elephants today. I've read Water for Elephants but it was a signed copy since Sara Gruen visited the bookstore recently, so I bought it again.

Going to read Becoming Jane Eyre ! Excited. Heard its good.

Currently reading Black and White and Dead All Over by John Darnton. I'm really liking it so far!

I am reading The Reckoning by Howard Owen

I am still reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, King Lear by William Shakespeare.

As usual, I am reading too many books so I am trying to finish Flint And Silver and A Promise To Keep while I have also started Chasing the Dead by Joe Schreiber.

20> Joyce, I'm going to have to look for SuperSense at the library. It sounds interesting.

24> Crazy Isn't Their Eyes Were Watching God great! She was a fantastic writer.

SuperSense is great so far. Reading about dancingstarfish's purchase of a signed copy of Water for Elephants fits in with his discussion of people's natural inclination to believe that there is an essence of a person that can be transmitted through the things s/he touches or wears. He describes the reverence shown by people for a pen he said had belonged to Albert Einstein and the fact that even at a convention for scientists, the most rational people one would imagine, he could find few people willing to wear a sweater he said had belonged to Fred West. For those non Brits (like myself) he was an infamous serial killer.

You know how when you're pregnant it seems like every other woman you meet is also? Well, reading this book makes me look at everything through Hood's eyes. (Those 2 things go together if you just give it a minute.)

Just finished To The End of the Land by David Grossman. Am reading The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker. Will also read The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger for book group meetings this week.

I'm listening to the hilarious Cautionary Verses of Hilaire Belloc on audiobook right now, though I'm also finishing up Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for a Monday class (I can't say I'm a fan) and Out Stealing Horses for a Thursday book club meeting.

finished Bleak House finally yesterday night. Liked it very much, so it was rather longish in parts. Though nevertheless Dickens did a good job ad had some great characters at his deposal.
Currently reading then Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and am a few pages into Maria, ihm schmeckt's nicht which is a funny, light german novel about intercultural (german-italien) marriage and their cultures clashing.
Also planing on starting "Musik" by Thomas Meinecke but not am quite sure.

Groan! More recommendations. You guys will be the ruin of me. Becoming Jane Eyre (#22) sounds like another one I need to read for study purposes (currently working on different adaptations/prequels/sequels of the JE story). Sadly all I can find right now online is lots of used but very expensive copies but it's gone on the wishlist.

Then SuperSense (#20) sounds just like my kind of thing too. I'd heard that 'Fred West's jumper' story before so this is obviously where it came from - off to track the book down.

And I'm still loving Arcadia Falls. Just what I needed right now.

ETA (about 5 mins later) I just ordered Supersense after reading the first page on Amazon - I'm already hooked!

I've been reading The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. I've been listening to Little Heathens, a memoir about growing up on a farm, during the depression and my current graphic is The Night Bookmobile. It's very short, but very engaging.

have also looked at supersense on amazon and added it to wish list x

Finished The Alexandria Link and reading The Bone Collection.

I just finished and reviewed Job: The Story of a Simple Man by Joseph Roth.

# 35 ~ Oh, Rebecca, what did you think of it? I've just recently discovered Joseph Roth, I've read Hotel Savoy, Radetzky March and The Emperor's Tomb but not the one you mentioned. I'm looking for my next Roth, would you recommend that one?

I'm reading Complete Guide to Starting a Used Bookstore by Dale L. Gilbert.

Exploratory mission, only.

37> Oh, rocketjk, you're in trouble. ;)

Took a short Thanksgiving trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee and the River Aquarium. While there I learned about river sturgeon and big waves. Wouldn't you know it! I have two books in my collection about these very subjects. Philosopher Fish and Wave by Susan Casey. And so the Christmas break pile grows. and grows. At least with these two books I have a reason for reading them. I was fascinated by the river sturgeon exhibit at the aquarium. So much so that I donated to the sturgeon restocking program the aquarium has going. Did you know that the largest river sturgeon caught in the U. S. wieghed 450 pounds and was caught in the Snake River of Idaho in the 1880's? Since then the river sturgeon has been declared endangered. I also learned that they don't have to kill the sturgeon to harvest the roe. Makes me think that with the right management I could eat caviar without a guilty conscious.

#36, Lisa, I wrote a review of Job: The Story of a Simple Man that you can read on the book page, but basically I found that it is a deceptively simple tale that grew on me as I read it. It differs from the other Roth books you mention in that it takes place in a Jewish shtetl in czarist Russia and on the lower east side of New York, instead of in the dying Austro-Hungarian empire. All of the books you mentioned are ones I enjoyed -- especially, of course, his masterpiece The Radetzky March; I've also read The Tale of the 1002nd Night which did nothing for me, and Weights and Measures which I did enjoy. But the ones you've already read are my favorites.

i got to chapter 4 of vanity fair and i really cant read anymore, so i am onto life of pi and i must say i am enjoying this book so far x

I finished Towards Asmara by Thomas Keneally, interesting.

I am now reading Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck.

I have about 100 pages left of Decision Points by George W. Bush. It's pretty interesting to get a sense of his mind set when making decisions, whether you agreed with the outcome or not. I always liked his self-deprecating sense of humor and some of that comes through, too.

> #32 - Mark, I will be curious to find out what you think of The Imperfectionists. I enjoyed it when I read it earlier this year and thought the title was spot on for the story!

I finished, reviewed and cannot recommend The Matter With Morris by David Bergen. In one word: Ugh. Heading back into more enjoyable reading, next up is A Mortal Curiosity, book two in the Lizzie Martin mystery series by Ann Granger.

#42, FicusFan, enjoy the Pearl Buck. I read Pavillion of Women last year and found it very interesting. Currently reading Department of Dead Ends by Roy Vickers, which is a collection of inverted detective stories from the 30's & 40's of the cold case variety. The style is a bit mundane and the detective is a bit of an oaf, but I'm enjoying them.

>#40 ~ Thank you, Rebecca. I read your review and it's sounds like something I would enjoy. I will add it to my amazon wishlist.

I started The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss today and am about 70 pages in. I'm taking a break from Catch-22, which I'm enjoying but can't really get into, whereas I sat down with The Vesuvius Club and an hour passed before I even knew it.

Finished Stone's Fall. Good book, if maybe a little too neat. The character of Elizabeth is not wholly believable. The novel itself is a meditation on capital and business. The action moves swiftly and the reversed order of telling the story works well.

Starting the Folio Society edition of A.J.P. Taylor's The Second World War and Its Aftermath.

Just started The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House .

I finished Three Men in a Boat. I enjoyed it but probably won't read the sequel unless I stumble across it. Then I read Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I'll probably read another in that series, but it is not so compelling that I will do it soon.

There are a half dozen to a dozen books that I would like to read next. I will find out when I go to bed what it'll be.

Robert

Just finished The Romeo Flag.
Currently reading Document Z
Still listening to A Crown of Lights and have done a survey of the ER book just received--it might take awhile to get through it.

I just picked up To the End of the Land and will start reading that next. I read Her Fearful Symmetry a month or so ago and am still thinking about the ending on that one...

Hectic last week...almost no reading time....still plugging away at Cecilia Valdes and Deliver Us From Evil.

I am still reading both Stories from Ancient Iraq and Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack.

In last week's thread jnwelch asked what i thought of Underground. As expected, anything written by Haruki Murakami is well written. From that point of view, I'm enjoying it. But it's a depressing subject that's making me sad and angry. Aside from that, it's an interesting glimpse into Japan. I'm struck by how many of the people were heading into work, aiming to arrive >1 richardderus: hour before their offical day begins.

#47 HGregory. I'm pleased to hear someone else reading The Vesuvius Club. I read all three Lucifer Box novels this year and loved them. I hope you've continued to enjoy it.

Well, Arcadia Falls was very effective as a slightly creepy mystery and much better than many others of its genre - very enjoyable.

So it's back to study and I'm now moving on to a number of different prequels, sequels and adaptations of Jane Eyre, beginning with the libretto of Michale Berkeley and David Malouf's opera, which should take all of about 20 minutes, followed by Thornfield Hall - should be interesting.

Yes, Underground made me sad and angry, too, QuestingA. As does any story where followers "drink the Kool-Aid" and blindly go along with a charismatic leader.

As you say, it's also an interesting glimpse into Japan. The lives of many individuals affected by this event are memorably described. I work with folks in Japan and cannot imagine any of them going along with the behavior and reasoning that Murakami reports, but I can see them unexpectedly getting caught up in its disastrous effect.

Fixed the touchstone

Finished and reviewed Popular Hits of the Showa Era: A Novel by Ryū Murakami for Early Reviewers. This is very deft satire, but the grisly bits might put some readers off. I'm traveling this week and taking The Teotihuacan Trinity to force myself to at least skim through it before a trip to Mexico in January.

I finished and reviewed the excellent small book The Waitress Was New in my thread...post #271.

#58 Maybe it was you who recommended this one to me after I'd enjoyed Last Night at the Lobster - if not maybe I could cross-recommend that one. The Waitress Was New arrived this week and looks great - looking forward to it.

I picked up a book of poetry last night, The Other Side of the Eye. It's surprisingly good.

Okay, ugh, I just am not a "currently popular series" chick. I am dreading picking up Hunger Games and my niece (9) isn't liking it much either. I guess I don't find the premise orginal, the writing good or really, that it's saying anything new, interesting or worth reading for the younger set. I dunno. I feel like an alien.

So on to something I can just sink into and geek out on, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I am absolutely starved to read about someone making this world a better place. Or at least not maiming, destroying, belittling, obliterating, etc. each other and the planet. I am also starved for learning. It's just been a bad stretch of stinkers. Sometimes that happens!

Just started reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.
Nearly finished You are Here by Christopher Potter.

#61 Carolyn Schroeder

You are not alone. I didn't like Hunger Games at all.

Hunger Games was very YA, though I still think too upsetting for a 9 year old. The third book, Mockingjay, however was quite good and had adult themes; however I can understand not wanting to read 2 books to get to it.

50> If you weren't enchanted by Three Men in a Boat Mr.Durick, I'd steer clear of Three Men on the Bummel. It's a pleasant read and occasionally amusing, but lacks the inspiration of 'Boat'.

Have you read The Diary of a Nobody?

>64 Citizenjoyce:,
I agree, Hunger Games is probably not appropriate for the vast majority of nine year olds, the second and third books even less so.

cappybear, I think I have The Diary of a Nobody here somewhere. I have a vague memory of having opened it but not of having read it.

Robert

Yeah, I understand that now re: Hunger Games. I did consult three Mom friends first though and they all gave the thumbs up (had read it with their 9 and 10 year olds). Many of her friends in the same grade (4th) are reading it. And at Border's it was in the children's section, ages 7-14. But I agree with you guys. It's more violent than I thought it would be. Next time, Aunt Carolyn reads it all the way through and THEN pitches it to child, if okay. Lesson learned.

Really enjoying The Disappearing Spoon - various stories about elements and the periodic table. The author has a nice style. It reminds me a lot of Bill Bryson, whom I adore.
I'm about halfway through Blameless as well, but it's not keeping me interested. It doesn't seem as witty as the first two.

Carolyn> I'll be interested to see what you think of Team of Rivals once you get through it (a month or two from now). It's supposed to be excellent and it was the hot history book during my bookseller days. As for Lincoln history, I loved Manhunt.

Finished At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald. Now reading The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick.

I'm so happy there are still Penelope Fitzgerald books for me to read.

Linking on (thanks again, Joyce!). Lots of catch-up to do.

#67 MrD - I felt much the same way as you about Three Men in a Boat (pleasant read but not really anything special) but you must read The Diary of a Nobody which is in another class altogether and is an absolute gem. Great recommendation, cappybear!

>cammykitty- I'm a big fan of Manhunt too. I also have the follow-up Bloody Crimes sitting on my shelf.

Rereading All the King's Men after 20 (hell, 40) years. Have forgotten just what a terrific book it is. Seem to be on a Southern bent: Recently read To Kill a Mocking Bird (cant believe I haven't read it before) and reading The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty.

I'm almost half-way through Middlemarch by George Eliot, and absolutely loving it!

I've been on a mystery binge after reading and loving Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for my bookclub.

Forty Words for Sorrow and The Delicate Storm by Giles Blunt and a really fun southern (US) mystery The Devil's Hearth by Phillip DePoy.

Now I'm reading a trashy thriller - I won't even mention what it is. Sometimes I just have to read some trashy thriller/romance stuff.

Next up will probably be Dreams of my Russian Summers for my January bookclub meeting.

I finished The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss last night and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Just a ton of fun the whole way through, an absolute joy. I'm always careful throwing this word around, but I might even call it 'delightful'. I think I'm filled with delight now, having read that book. I will definitely be getting the sequels.

I have to read Death of a Salesman tonight for one of my classes and then it'll be back to Catch-22.

I just started the audio of Mr Toppit by Charles Elton. Still mostly setup at the point, but interesting.

Right now I'm reading Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, which is an excellent WWII story.

Finished Susan Hill's The Small Hand which I was quite taken with, even though I could see the end coming. I plan to read The Woman in Black over Christmas.

Also finished another good book The Perfect Nazi by Martin Davidson and am trying to decide which non-fiction to read next. I've had The Fascists in Britain by Colin Cross for years, so it'll probably be that.

msf59> I didn't know about Bloody Crimes! It's on my wishlist now!

I'm reading The False Friend by Myla Goldberg.

Two reviews...one ridiculous one sublime:

http://www.librarything.com/work/10359603/reviews/65087244

and, the dreaded other

Finished Department of Dead Ends by Roy Vickers--really very good inverted detective stories. Next up: Ian Thomas' Saving life of Christ

I read Toni Morrison's A Mercy and Dinaw Mengestu's How to Read the Air this week. Both books thoughtful and well-written. I think this is my favorite of Morrison's books. I prefer Mengestu's first book, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, but I like this second one, too, and in the end, I have a feeling it will work on me in a deeper and more complex way. Both the Morrison and Mengestu books made me think of a phrase used by Oliver Sacks in another book I read recently, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat -- a phrase used to describe the human brain: 'enchanted loom'. Both Morrison and Mengestu write about people who are minorities, immigrants, refugees -- people reinventing themselves, dreaming, creating their own stories, each trying to hold on to what they've been, where they're from, trying to reconcile their dream of America with the reality of America -- which reminds me of Joseph O'Neill's Netherland which I read earlier this year.

Reading The Iroquois Book of Rites by Horatio Hale to get a reality check after finishing The Song of Hiawatha.

I haven't read much science fiction since I was a teen eons ago. Can someone suggest an author who is, in their opinion, of course, the best sci-fi writer since Heinlein and Asimov.

Malachi Martin's Hostage to the Devil is better than most horror fiction. Found it for a dime at a book sale, said what the heck, and am using it as a diversion from my on-going read of Tragedy and Hope.

87 Ron> A reality check after The Song of Hiawatha sounds like a really good idea.

Best Science Fiction writer after the Golden Age? You might want to do a search for recent Nebula award winners. There are so many different types of Science Fiction now. If you want to try some Cyberpunk, I'd recommend Accelerando by Charles Stross. I wouldn't say anyone is "best" though. Wild Seed by Octavia Butler is a fantastic novel. Of course, there are tons more.

Ron, you could try Mary Doria Russell's first two novels.

Robert

Ron 87: Some love it, some hate it, but I enjoyed Dahlgren by Samuel R. Delany.

Just about finished with Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow.

Cindy- I listened to Homer and Langley a couple months ago. I liked it.

We are doing a Group Read of Jane Eyre. It begins tomorrow. I'll post the link:right here
A few of us procrastinators had not read it yet. Better late than never.

chumofchance> I love Dahlgren, and I know it's technically Science Fiction, but it seems like a genre all it's own. It's just so... Delany. It's indescribable. I tried writing a review of it once, and found words that were appropriate for a public space just wouldn't cover it.

I fiished and reviewed the fabulous The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore. Excellent and highly recommended. Now I'll move on to Jane Eyre.

I just finished reading On the Other Side of the Eye, poems by Bryan Thao Worra.

"what we have left to say could explode any minute."

There were some very good poems in the collection, but I'm sure he's already improved as a poet.

I also just started reading Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs. The 6th graders I work with will be reading it soon. At the moment, it seems like a well researched US/Mexico border crossing adventure.

>87 RonWelton: Ron...may I suggest Desolation Road and its sequel Ares Express? Ian McDonald also wrote the magisterial successor to Stranger in a Strange Land, called River of Gods...900-plus pages of fractured India on a broken Earth in 2047, 100 years since modern Bharati independence.

I'm wagering that this span of time will be seen as another Golden Age. So much very, very good writing going on in the genre these days.

Oh, I reviewed (sort of) Stork Raving Mad, silly frothy fun cozy mystery, 12th in a series that shows surprisingly little wear and tear.

I finished The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart. A stunningly beautiful, brutal, and ultimately uplifting literary Western.

Switching back now to The Risk of Darkness. Susan Hill is fast becoming my new favorite author.

I'm also reading Good Old Dog because my good dog is threatening to become an old dog any time now.

#93 msf59 You are in for such a treat with Jane Eyre. I was a latecomer too and only read it last year. It quickly landed itself a spot on my all-time favorites list. If I hadn't read it so recently I'd join you.

I've found it difficult to settle into a book after reading all 7 Harry Potter books in a row. I was so immersed in that world so everything seems jarring. So I've settled on a writing book. A classic really and by one of my favorite authors - Anne Lamott. Book=Bird by Bird. Fabulous so far and an easy read.

I've finally posted a review of Matterhorn in my thread...post #41.

Thanks to richardderus, cammykitty, chumofchance and Mr.Durick for their help with the sci-fi. I should have mentioned that I am restricted to e-books since I'm miles and an over-night ferry from a bookstore. Thanks to the above I was able to find some of their suggestions on kindle.

#98 I had to look up Good Old Dog and I see (if I have the right one) that it's a handbook on caring for your veteran. You've no idea how relieved I was as I was just about to warn you (thinking it was a novel) to stop immediately. In my experience almost all books about dogs end badly. Even the few that end well (I'm thinking The Incredible Journey) put at least one dog through such horrible suffering that no-one with their own much-loved pooch would want to read it. And as for other genres! The moment any dog appears in a horror story or a murder you know immediately that the dog is in big trouble (lookin' at you now, Stephen King). You do understand that even the one you're reading now will have that chapter at the end that will have you in tears hugging your dog? Dogs just do not do well in books. Meantime, my aging gorgeousness sends your aging gorgeousness a big 'woof'.

ETA - I just checked out his/her photo on your profile. I was right about the gorgeousness.

I did end up picking back up and finishing Hunger Games. I still don't see the hoopla, but it did get slightly better. I don't have any desire to read the other two, but if my niece ends up wanting to, I will. I do feel there are things she might want to chat about. So many of the kids in her class are reading it, so I think she felt obligated to read it. That being said, she said it's now better.

I'm about 50 pages into Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin and so far, it reads like fiction ~ very interesting. Goodwin is masterful at capturing the time and place, not only of the political arena in 1860 (on the eve of the Republican nomination), but of the lives of the "team." Just little interesting facts, for instance, how close male friendships were formed in a way they simply are not now. Her observations are sensitive and so far, a bit unique, on material many people/authors have tackled already. Although, from the introduction, she had access to material most didn't use and/or consider in their writings of Lincoln.

Finished Ship Breaker last week...it was OK - didn't love it like most of the other reviewers.

Thinking maybe I should read some 'adult' books since my last several YA choices have been somewhat disappointing - and I haven't qualified as a YA for many years! Perhaps I'm just not part of the audience anymore for YA...or I just haven't found the right one lately.

So, I'm going to try So Much for That and I hope it is both humorous and though-provoking...it deals with healthcare in America - certainly a hot topic.

I can't remember who it was who recommended Supersense not long ago (CitizenJoyce, could it have been you?) but I'd like to thank them. My copy arrived this morning and I'm going to give it 20 mins before knocking up a fish pie, it looks fascinating.

I'm also still going through pretty much everything that has ever been influenced by Jane Eyre; currently on Thornfield Hall, which is nowhere near as bad as I'd expected - pretty good, in fact.

All this talk about Jane Eyre has me thinking about re-reading it; great book.

The Blind Contessa's New Machine was a good read, with simple and lyrical writing. It's imaginatively based on the true story of the invention of the typewriter. Thanks to richardderus for recommending it.

Started Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Still reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice, but I just started A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell and Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa as well. In audio I'm nearly in the middle of Mr. Toppit, narrated by the incomparable Simon Vance.

I finished my research foray into Complete Guide to Starting a Used Bookstore: Old Books into Gold by Dale L. Gilbert. It was somewhat dated but very interesting. Hey, it could happen.

I've started Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver.

I'm reading an old favorite -- Graham Swift's Waterland.
I've felt myself drawn back to it lately and on the 7th page I understood why:
"Children, who will inherit the world. Children to whom, throughout history, stories have been told, chiefly but not always at bedtime, in order to quell restless thoughts; whose need of stories is matched only by the need adults have of children to tell stories to, of receptacles for their stock of fairy-tales, of listening ears on which to unload those most unbelievable yet haunting of fairty-tales, their own lives . . . "

Next up: Yesterday's Weather by Anne Enright

Ron87- I just thought of another SF novel you may like: Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I enjoy reading SF authors who create worlds only slightly different from our own.

Finished reading the wonderful Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Easily one of my favourites this year! My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/58388033

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

I am reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Paper Money by Ken Follett.

>107 DevourerOfBooks: Oh good, Joe, you liked it! I found it very satisfying.

>110 chumofchance: EXCELLENT suggestion! In fact, Snow Crash (must deliver the 'za) might should be on the list, too.

Ron, if you've never encountered Neal Stephenson before, go here and take a fast look around. The website's much like the man's fiction-writing, so if you don't like one, you won't be likely to like the other.

>111 Porua: Oh wow oh wow how I love Philip K. Dick! Have you read any of his other work? Maybe the story collection?

#111 Porua if you haven't seen the classic sci-fi film BLADE RUNNER with Harrison Ford, I recommend it. DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP was its source.

# 113 No. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is my first book by Philip K. Dick. But since I liked Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I may read more of his works in the future.

# 114 Yes, I know. I haven't seen the movie but I have heard that it is very different from the book.

I generally avoid watching movies that have been adapted from books. Among the ones I have seen (mostly accidentally without knowing that they were adaptations), 9 times out of 10 the book was way better than the movie. :-)

115> I agree, though I can think of a couple of notable exceptions (in my opinion) :-

The 1963 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird starring Gregory Peck was as good as the novel.

A Room With a View, probably a Merchant-Ivory job was actually preferable to the novel, but I'll admit I'm not a fan of E.M. Forster.

I very much liked both The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Never Let Me Go. Both changed aspects of the books but were very true to the spirit.

This morning I finished The Man Who Loved China. All the research that Simon Winchester did, and it still felt a little like he was coasting. Still it was worth the two days of reading.

Robert

My rule is to read the book first before seeing the film adaptation. While I agree with Porua that in most cases the book is better, there are always interesting elements that film artists can add to the mix. Along with Citizenjoyce, I found this especially so with the Swedish adaptation of GIRL WITH A DRAGON TATTOO. Since I am so unfamiliuar with Swedish language and culture, seeing the book filmed by natives, in native locales, and in the native language, really added to my experience of the book.

# 119 - Sholofsky
I so have to agree with you. I enjoyed the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as a book, and then was able to watch the Swedish adaptation and found that not only was it easy to follow with occasional glances at the sub-titles, but quite enjoyable and an enriching addition to the book.

I've got so behind on these threads.

Lots of books on the go as ever but I had to post and mention how much I'm enjoying and fascinated by Emily of New Moon - I'd read it before but a very long time ago. Although Emily's only about 8 at the beginning, there's a lot here for older readers, whether 14 or 41! Emily is an orphan, taken in apparently on sufferance by her strict aunt who disapproves of her father who just died, and of lots of the things that are important to Emily. Emily has aspirations to write... I've only a few pages left and think I will be picking up the other volumes very soon (it's one of 3 books and I have a set).

Porua> Usually I can't make myself watch a movie based on a book I've read, but Blade Runner is actually worth it. It's such a visual movie.

#103 Carolynschroeder

I had exactly the same reaction to Hunger Games. I read it because everyone at work was talking about it and how the local schools were requiring the 7th and 8th graders to read it. I was appalled at the pointless violence in the book and felt that the publishers were manipulating me into buying three books when they should have all been combined into one volume. I also have trouble with requiring a school full of kids to read the book. I think that unless you can talk about the book and try to figure out what the point of it is that it is just gratuitous violence and I am uncomfortable with YA's reading it. I thought the first book was so bad there is little chance of me reading the other two. I said that this book was so shocking that I might actually break under the pressure and read Twilight!

Worst of all it has movie written all over it. But then maybe a bad book makes a good movie while a good book makes a bad movie?

>102 Booksloth: booksloth - Big woof back at ya! Thanks for looking out for me. I know how all those dog books seem to end up these days (my favorite dog book as a kid was Beautiful Joe and I seem to remember him living on at the end). And I will probably skip that last chapter of this book for now - with an older dog and an elderly cat, I'm a little sensitive about that particular subject.

benitastrnad, do not give in to the pressure. Whatever you thought of Hunger Games it's worth 3 Nobel Prizes in comparison to Twilight. Do not go into sad, twisted night.

I finished At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle McGuire. It's a fascinating account of the influence of sex on integration. Many white men in the south, while decrying integration fearing it would lead to miscegenation, regularly engaged in "night time integration" cruising the streets of the black neighborhoods to find women to have sex with. Rape was common and unprosecuted. Rosa Parks, yes that Rosa Parks, was an investigator for the NAACP and specialized in supporting women who were sexually violated. It's an exploration of a little known side of the fight for integration.

Then I read I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas by Lewis Black which starts out absolutely horribly but ends well. The man needed a much better editor. Now I start Little Women.

#126 You're right on the money, Joyce! Today is one to celebrate--55 years ago to the day Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white man.

sholofsky, how's that for a coincidence? I didn't realize I was so timely.

I am reading The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, just to finish the trilogy. It is just not good in my opinion. I thought the first book was an above average mystery, but these second two are just not great. I feel like the same facts are continually hashed and rehashed; and each new character he introduces becomes more and more unrealistic and unlikable.

From what I am reading on LT, I take it I am not alone.

Cyber high-five to Rosa Parks. Sometimes it takes one snowflake to start an avalanche.

I finished Shutter Island last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved it, actually!

I am now reading The House of the Seven Gables - talk about a switch in books! Liking it so far but I do need to read it very slowly to enjoy the language, etc.

Another cyber high-five to me! Citizenjoyce> that sounds like an important book but a tough read. Just the little you said about it makes me shiver.

Niels Lyhne by Jen Peter Jacobsen...my first ever book by a Danish author!

Another cyber high-five to Rosa Parks.

I finished Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck. It was good but a bit long and repetitive in parts.

I am now reading Invisible Mountain by Carolina de Robertis, for a RL book group. So far it is good.

Have to agree - I have a great love for Dhalgren, though it may not be the place to start.

I finished A Mortal Curiosity by Ann Granger last night. It was an easy-reading murder mystery set in Victorian England, just what I was in the mood for. I am now revisiting a classic from my *gulp* long ago school days, Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Finished The devil's steps by Arthur Upfield--competent but unexciting mystery set in Australia. Am reading Twenty thousand leagues under the sea which is my first Jules Verne. The story part is good; it's just that there's so much science ( or pseudoscience) in it.

cammykitty, it's a pretty horrifying read, but it left me in awe of the courage displayed.

Started Setting Free The Bears, my choice for my book groups themed read on fictional zoos.

I'm having mixed feelings about SuperSense. I've always been fascinated by the subject of superstition and religion and, in particular, the psychology of why some people seem to have an inate need to believe these things. This book gives a number of significant insights into why this might be. On the other hand, I'm getting very fed up with his patronising style (to the point where I've had to grab a pencil and start writing comments and exclamation marks in the margins). I swear if he tells me one more time that (as one of these 'most people' he's on about) I am far too dumb to be able to fully take on board the whole point of evolution, I'm going to track him down and punch him.

It's one of those strange books in that a lot of research has gone into it and yet the author seems to draw conclusions that he doesn't really have an awful lot of evidence for. He will go from quoting, with all the correct references, some respectable scientific findings before going on to reach a conslusion about them that is based entirely on his own, unproven, speculation. All the same, provided one can discard these speculations and check out his sources (one part I've just read quotes as 'evidence' a poll on supernatural belief taken by 'Living' TV, possibly not the most reliable source of information on the subject) it's a fascinating book. and very readable.

>#139, Grammath, Setting Free The Bears is a good read. Not Irving's strongest offering but better than anything he's written lately...at least I think it is.

I've finished Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny and Falling To Grace by Jay Bakker this week. Last evening I began Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick which promises to be a devastating look at the lives of North Koreans.

#140 Sounds like the author of this SUPERSENSE is guilty of his own unwarranted extension of belief. I wonder, does he deal with the conundrum most scientists are afraid to touch, the fact that science itself is based on the supernatural, that according to the basic law of science--cause and effect--nothing should be in existence at all, not you, me or the lamp post? This is because at some point--going back to the Big Bang, then back to the forces responsible for the Big Bang, then back to the forces responsible for those forces, etc.--you realize there is no beginning, that for anything to exist, something would have had to come from nothing, a scientific impossibility. In other words, we must everyday believe in the unbelievable by the simple application of our senses. If this author has tackled this proven instance of the supernatural--or even had the courage to mention it--he will have truly earned my respect.

#143 In a nutshell, that's pretty much what the book is about. Although he doesn't attempt to reach a conclusion about whether superstitions or religions contain any truth, he posits the theory that believing in them is somehow wired into the human brain. That's fair enough, in many ways he has an excellent point, he just doesn't seem able to accept that there are some people (quite a lot of us, actually) who aren't just pretending when we couldn't care less about walking under ladders, don't feel the need to cross ourselves when we see a black cat and don't believe we have any kind of invisible friend. His theories are interesting and, in many cases, convincing, it's just his way of putting them across that frequently sounds patronising and a little arrogant.

I finished listening to All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki last night and really liked this book. It was full of zany quirky characters and a good story. The writing was good but it was the author's ability to make the characters sympathetic even when they aren't that carried this book. The book makes a good fictional companion to stand with the nonfiction works of Barbara Kingsolver Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Michael Pollan's work. In fact the author states in the afterward that the book was inspired by an article that Pollan wrote for the New York Times.

I thoroughly enjoyed this light look at a hefty topic. The book managed to educate and entertain in a relaxed atmosphere that put its characters square in the middle of ethical, cultural, and moral decision making that spanned the thought processes of several generations. And she did it without blaming either side of the genetically modified organism debate. That's no small feat.

Facebook does have good uses. I got this Flannery O'Connor quote there today:

"The two worst sins of bad taste in fiction are pornography and sentimentality. One is too much sex and the other too much sentiment. You have to have enough of either to prove your point but no more. - letter 3/10/56"

Absolutely agree with that quote!

Last night I finished an enjoyable mystery, Black and White and Dead All Over and got a start on The Merry Devils.

I finished How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Did not like it. Over hyped touchy-feely self-discovery self-absorbed kind of thing with time travel as the discovery mechanism.

Started reading Shadowheart by Tad Williams.

I've had a bad couple of days trying to settle on something, but I think I got into something last night with Krushchev by William Taubman. He was our Soviet dictator when I was a boy. Stalin was hardly known to us younger ones, and Brezhnev with Kosygin just seemed too dispersed.

Robert

@ Richard:

What a great quote, but since I'm a real sucker for a sentimental book I can't quite agree. I love Dickens, for instance. My favorite work of his is The Old Curiosity Shop, which fairly oozes with sentimentality, even by his standards.

I can acknowledge that a work is sickly sweet with sentimentality while loving it at the same time.

Just started That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo.

I am reading Le Carre's Our Kind of Traitor. This is the first of his novels that I have read in a long time. I was a huge fan of his Smiley series, but I thought he became too political (read anti-American) after that. I heard good reviews about this one, so I decided to give it a try. Thus far it's very good. I think it's vintage Le Carre.

citizenjoyce> I put it on my wishlist, but I'm going to wait for a week where I feel brave! I knew racism was bad, murderously bad, but I don't think I've imagined how bad it really was.

richardderus> That's a great quote! The last Flannery O'Connor story I read was "Good Country People" and it was in a horror anthology, of all places. That story shows she didn't have "bad taste in fiction."

booksloth> Thanks for the review of sorts of Supersense. Sigh... I wish people could right about superstition and belief without getting all smug and sloppy about it. & sholofsky> You may have hit something. Perhaps it's a widely held superstition that all things, including the universe, have a beginning. I personally can't imagine something without a beginning, but the singularity can't happen without stuff and... Ouch! My head hurts.

#153 Yes, I know, Cammy, you can go nutty contemplating it. The riddle of the origin of things is like that old Zen koan "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" I sometimes feel frustrated, however, that minds better trained than my own always fail to tackle this perplexing issue in their own backyard. I think you've stumbled upon the perfect way, however, for this author to have covered the topic in SUPERSENSE: like you said, as a superstitious belief that all things have a beginning. Anyway, sorry to give you a headache. Take two Tylenol on me.

Finished Twenty thousand leagues under the sea. I gather that some translations are much better than others. If that's the case, I must have read a bad translation. I got REALLY tired of the descriptions of fish.

Finished War and Peace, now I remember fully why I was impressed with this novel so may years ago. Hope to be posting review of The King's Daughter by Christie Dickason today. And, now reading Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy, an old paper back from my Russian Lit college days I luckily found buried in one of my bookcases.

Thanks for creating a new thread, Tamara. :)

I've just finished....and really enjoyed, Where We Know: New Orleans as Home. An excellent and informative look at the problems people of New Orleans faced after Katrina, and also of their unfailing faith and spirit. It so made me wish to go back.

I'm now reading Audition, and Reba and have just started Women, Food and God which I'm finding quite good and a very quick read.