What are you reading the week of December 31, 2011 to January 6, 2012?

"Time to make the donuts..."

(obscure reference, who knows it without using Google??)

December 31
Nicholas Sparks


Bob Shaw


January 1 (2012)
Lynn Abbey


Edmund Burke


January 2
Lynda Barry


Ulrich Becher
(no picture available)

January 3
JRR Tolkien


January 4
Max Eastman


January 5
Umberto Eco


Dorothea "Stella" Gibbons


January 6
E. L. Doctorow


Eric Frank Russell

I'm reading The Paladin, first time. So far, I'm really enjoying it!

I downloaded a few books to the Nook for vacation/travel. I couldn't wait though and started Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson and I love it. Cannot put it down.

Wow, what a start, fuzzi! Thanks for all the pics.

I'm finishing up with light holiday reading. Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee is another good sci-fi entry in the Liaden Universe series, and I've got Malice Aforethought as a witty mystery. My son gave me a wonderful one about designer toys from around the world, called I Am Plastic, by Paul Budnitz..

I'm still reading Hope Rising: Stories from the Ranch of Rescued Dreams by Kim Meeder. I'll be finished it today, and then will read The Simple Truth by David Baldacci. That should take me up to midnight New Year's Eve. Then I officially start both my Orange January challenge, and my 12 in 12 challenge. Can't wait! :)

Just finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett and beginning Hotel Angeline by 36 Seattle-based authors. Crazy book so far.

Great start, fuzzi! Thanks. I'm reading a couple of things: Graceling by Kristin Cashore (surprisingly good fantasy) and The Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn (just started but good so far).

I just borrowed a library ebook ~ my first one ~ and am excited to know the process worked and that I can now borrow library books and read them on my Kindle. The book? Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Good start, huh?

Storeellr, I enjoy the kindle library books too! Cat's Cradle is one of my favorite Vonneguts. The Help was a library ebook.

k4k

Thanks for seeing us out of the old year and into the new one with such a great beginning, Fuzzi!

My first completed book of the year will be A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. by Tony Horwitz. Horwitz is one of my favorite history writers. He makes history come alive, to beat an old cliché to death. Seriously, though...his passion for history is obvious in his writing, and he makes it so fascinating and fun!

k4k ~ I'm really looking forward to starting Cat's Cradle. It will probably be my first read in 2012, though that could change in the 1-1/2 days until Jan. 1. And I'm looking forward to doing more ebook borrowing from the library. It seems to me that it will be a good way to avoid running up fines. I'm at $6.00 now, just through forgetting to either pick up reserved books or to return borrowed books on time. BTW, loved The Help when I listened to it on the iPod earlier this year.

Reading An Artist of the Floating World as my last book of the year.

I finished and reviewed an ER book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai undercity by Katherine Boo; A terrific read. Now I'm halfway through my 75th book of the year, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome which is a charming change of pace. I'll finish it up tomorrow.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris... not a favorite so far. I checked it out of the library after listening to the Santa Diaries on NPR.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

The Art of Dahlov Ipcar by Carl Little

Thanks for the opening photo gallery.

I have almost finished Romulus, my Father by Raimond Gaita, I shall be sad when it ends, it is a wonderful little novel. It was made into a movie, this I saw a few years ago on ABC TV, however it is impossible to capture the magical essence of it on the sreen.

Next up, I am looking forward to Edna O'Brien's short stories.

Great pictures, thanks fuzzi.

I've listened to another CD of The Leftovers and am rather disappointed to find it sliding into the Woody Allen guys being turned on by under age girls realm. Really not my cup of tea. I'll give it another CD to see if it gets better. On the other hand World and Town gets better with each new complication in the plot and illumination of character. I'm glad I found Gish Jen. I'm also glad to have found A Small Furry Prayer after reading about people in love with their single dogs. I have 6 myself and am glad to hear about how Steven Kotler interacts with his dog family and how they interact with each other.

Citizenjoyce ~ I hope you like A Small Furry Prayer. I think you will find a few enlightening things in there as far as the "pack" goes (and 6 is surely that). It surprised me. I do have one dog now (my old gal - 14 years old - mixed breed), and one cat (but he's like a dog, more than the dog some days), but fostered dogs for 13 years, so I often had as many as 6 here, but usually just two. Even so, I wish I had learned some of the things in the book then. There are a lot of "meaning of life" tangents, which you may or may not find interesting. I'm a weird polymath brain type of person, so I always dig factoids and discoveries on things I don't know much about. But I realize it's not everyone's cup o' tea! Enjoy!

I'm reading 11/22/63 and loving it. It's 845 pages long and I find myself savoring it, reading a bit at a time. Not all time travel sagas work for me but this one sure does.

I just put A Small Furry Prayer on my wishlist. I'm going to see if the library has a copy...

#9 bookwoman

I listened to A Voyage Long and Strange in October and November. It was appropriate because of Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Day. I enjoyed the book and will try to find his new one on John Brown. I am thinking that perhaps Horowitz has a thing for Kansas, as Voyage has a section in it about Kansas and Coronado and his new book is about John Brown who got radicalized in Kansas. I saw Horowitz a few weeks ago on BookTV doing a talk in Wichita, Kansas about the John Brown book. It sounded very interesting.

I listened to two books on the trip back to Kansas. 3 Willows by Ann Brasheres and A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve. Both helped pass the time. Sad to say, I am only about half way through with Sea of Poppies. this is a wonderful book, but I am not spending much time reading. Started listening to Monster of Florence and even though I am not a fan of true crime books this one is interesting. But what a way to start the New Year! At least I am still working on Sea of Poppies and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy!

Just finished Robert van Gulik's Necklace and calabash and am into Girl with the dragon tattoo, which I've never read.

I finished A Small Furry Prayer. What a great book. (Hope you like it, fuzzy) Here's a quote that sums it up: And no matter where you look nor whose testimony you hear, you'll find none who have hunted the meaning of life in the world of animals and returned wanting. I have to say a big yup to that one. Now for my final animal book and final book of the year, I'm on to Alex & Me by Irene M. Pepperberg.

I've just finished Hope Rising by Kim Meeder. A series of tales from the youth ranch she runs that rescues horses from dire situations, and provides a place for troubled youth to come and be helped towards healing. This is an awesome calling she has answered.

Next up is The Simple Truth by David Baldacci. Definitely going to be my last book this year! Going to be interesting fitting it into less than 24hrs! lol

#17 I'm also loving 11.22.63. With around 250 pages to go, if I finish it today it will be my last book of the year; if it's still going tomorrow it will be my first of next year and count towards my BOMBS, despite having only been in the house since Xmas day! It's wonderful to see the master back on form and this is one of those rare books that has me wondering what's going on while I'm not reading.

In between gulps of that one, I'm also steadily making my way through If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley (subtitled 'An Intimate History of the Home). The TV series it accompanies was fascinating and the book possibly even more so, telling the history of the house, room by room, with a hundred little details you always wondered about (or hadn't even got round to wondering about) - eg. How many people could you fit in a Victorian bed? Who (or what) turned the spit in a Georgian kitchen? Why was it so fashionable for heavily pregnant Jacobean women to have their portrait painted before giving birth? This book also makes the perfect companion to Bill Bryson's At Home

Last book for 2011 was At Risk by Patricia Cornwell, which I picked up today at my favourite second-hand store and since it is too hot to do anything remotely useful around the house, I sat down with a large glass of water, a mince pie and read it from start to finish. Only got up for more water once, and also a second mince pie. Christmas comes but once a year!!

First book for 2012 will be perhaps Secrets in the Fire by Henning Mankell.

So glad you liked A Small Furry Prayer Citizenjoyce! That is a great quote you chose. There are a few favorite parts of that book, but I think I simply loved the way he "cured" Ahab's separation anxiety ... with love and praise. That one turned a few things I previously thought, on their heads. I don't want to go into too much more, so as to spoil the experience for other readers.

Neverwithoutabook ~ Hope Rising looks great! Thanks for dropping a note on that one. My Dad and Sister in Law/niece have horses and I bet they would love that one.

I was up to the wee hours reading Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson and wow, I really like it. It has that kind of love them or hate them characters as in Freedom: A Novel perhaps, but I have just totally lost myself in the world of the 1980s (and trust me, not sure I wanted to go back there, ha).

I like it with famour authors look older than me! Nicholas Sparks looks my like he could be my son! I'm reading Out of my life and thought by Albert Schweitzer. He was a pretty amazing fellow. (Oh -- and the word amazing is banned on the Lake Superior State College list of words to ban this year! I promise to use it only when merited.).

I decided to give Game of Thrones a shot although I don't read fantasy normally. I'm about 6 chapters in and I think it's just terrible. The first chapter or so gave me some hope but now (at 4% through) it's just descended into cliche after cliche and I don't know if I can handle it.

I'm about a quarter of the way into Thank You For Smoking, which I'm enjoying. Very funny. I've got a clear day ahead of me, and I'm going to try to power through the book today so I can include it on my woefully under-performed 2011 lists, both for my 50-Book challenge and my Books of the Shelf challenge.

Time to make the donuts... was a Dunkin Donut commerical... with Fred the Baker (and no I did not google).

Jenn

I'm trying to finish Watchmen before the new year, but I don't think I'll make it. I spend too much time looking at all the pictures!

22 Citizenjoyce
26 CarolynSchroeder
I have to share my favorite quote from A Small Furry Prayer, as the owner of 3 rescued and partially crippled chihuahua mutts...

"Sure, my posse was mostly crippled Chihuahuas, but you'd be surprised how much ass a crippled Chihuahua can kick."

Trying to finish Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter before midnight....not likely since I still have 200 pages to go and only 3 more hours before leaving for get together......

See you all next year! I hope 2012 brings love, laughter, and some delightful literary adventures to all of us! Stay safe!

#26 - CarolynSchroeder - You're very welcome! Some of the proceeds from sales of the book go to help fund their ranch. They need that funding, however, as the services they provide are free, and they sometimes have to pay for the horses they rescue. FYI...there may be tears! All in all, a heartwarming book. :)

I finished the delightful Three Men in a Boat; so funny and charming. Now I'm reading Sorry by Gail Jones. That is for Orange January.

I still have close to 200 pages to go in The Novel by Steven Moore. I've been reading it so far for about a week (I started December 23). It will be the first book I finish in 2012 unless I die on the road tonight, or somesuch. It is telling me a lot about the ancient novel throughout the world until 1600, and it is giving me a basis for deciding whether I will read any of them.

Robert

My ER book arrived today, and I couldn't wait to dig in, so I'm starting on Dancing With Colonels: A Young Woman's Adventures in Wartime Turkey by Marjorie Havreberg.

When Marorie Havreberg left her small SD town as a young woman to work in Washington DC for Senator Peter Norbeck, and then went to Turkey in the midst of WWII to work for the War Dept., she faithfully wrote letters home. This book is a collection of those letters.

I've only read a few of the letters so far, but I'm really enjoying them. They give a sense of who she was at the time ... a young woman brimming with life. It makes me regret the loss of the art of letter writing, and my own inadequacy at correspondence.

PaperbackPirate, I can verify how much ass a chihuahua can kick. One of my dogs is a chihuahua mix rescued by someone else when he was running down the middle of a busy street. They came into Petsmart while I was buying dog food on a Sunday, said the pound was closed and they weren't allowed dogs in their apartment and did anyone know what to do about him. I just stuck out my hand and they put him right in. He keeps my big hound dog in check pretty well - but then, anyone can keep Max in check. He's very noisy, but polite otherwise.
I'm about 1/2 way through Alex & Me, and again loving this animal book. The emphasis here is on science and Irene Pepperberg emphasizes the opposition she's had to overcome in her studies on animal communication. First of all she had to battle the prejudice against women in science, then she had to battle the very prevalent idea that animals are thoughtless robotic mimics with no ability to reason.

# 32 PaperbackPirate and # 38 Citizenjoyce: Your chihuahua stories reminded me of a time, (a long time ago), when my son and I were walking down the street and a chihuahua with a broken leg came charging after us with more fury than a pit bull. Poor little thing. I don't know how he broke his leg, but I know, for sure, that he was still up to kicking ass!

LOL!!!

Still reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere - in between making lentil soup and orange scones for New Year's Eve. Not sure what is up next.

My contribution to tonight's dinner is carmelized pineapple.....

Yum, caramelized pineapple. My daughter hates cooked pineapple, but then she also hates chocolate. Poor mutant girl that she is.

>41 callen610: calen610 I love Neverwhere! I've read it multiple times. Hope you enjoy it.

(24) If Walls Could Talk sounds like a fun book to read!

:putting yet another book on the library check list:

(30) Way to go, Jennifer! You win a free ziploc bag of fresh North Carolina air!

You can pick up your winnings at my place. :D

I remembered the commercials, but I didn't know Dunkin' Donuts was even around back then. I thought it was for Winchells.

Here you go, joyce, from 1983:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=petqFm94osQ

With an hour to spare, I finished reading my final book for 2011 -- Zeke and Ned -- which was terrific. Thanks, hazeljune, for recommending it to me. I've read several good westerns this year -- and tomorrow there's a Rawhide marathon on one of the cable networks. (Forget Dirty Harry --Clint Eastwood will always be Rowdy Yates to me.)

First up in 2012: Jim Harrison's new book, The Great Leader

I'm deep in The Simple Truth by David Baldacci and trying to finish before midnight! Might have to be midnight pacific time at the rate I'm going now though. lol

Finished Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses a bit after 10 this evening. I'll pick my official first book of 2012 in the morning.

#50 Neverwithoutabook - I was willing to go all the way to the Hawaii-Aleutian time zone to finish in 2011. Or set back my clocks. Or lie.

LOL - mollygrace - glad to see someone of like mind! I think I'm just going to allow that it counts for 2011 as I'm planning to finish it before I go to sleep. I keep getting interrupted, so not making the progress I wanted. That's fair...right? Happy New Year everyone!

Fuzzi, I can't believe I remembered the goofy mustachioed man and completely forgot who he was advertising.
I finished Alex & Me then thought, what the hey I could fit in one more so, with an hour to spare in 2011 finished the delightful Parnassus on Wheels. Happy 2012!

Just picked my first new book of the new year, and it's Double Star by Heinlein.

I finshed 11.22.63 almost on the dot of midnight - what a great way to end the year! IMO this is King's best work since Hearts in Atlantis and it's completely restored my faith in him as the modern Charles Dickens. My first book of 2012 is If Walls Could Talk, soon to be accompanied by something fictional and fairly short - I'm thinking either Novel on Yellow Paper or Invitation to the Waltz, both continuing my 'female authors of the 1930s' theme - any recommendations for either one?

Spent the last day of 2011 shelving and reading passages of books I like (more of the latter... should really finish shelving). For the first time in years, I was not in the middle of n books (the ones I had started and not finished are back in the waiting list - will be starting them again one day) - so decided to make a clean cut for 2012.

Starting 2012 with The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson.

I finished The Simple Truth by David Baldacci in the wee hours of the morning. Now starting Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels for both my 12 in 12 and Orange challenges.

Ploughing through Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore and just started Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend to lighten things up a bit.

Happy New Year, everyone! My final read of '11, was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. It was an excellent read. I started a memoir called House of Prayer No.2. It begins superbly. And on audio, I've been listening to The Great Railway Bazaar, which has been taking me on a trip through Europe and Asia.
Let's have another great reading year!

(54) joyce, I remember book covers a lot more than I can remember the title, author or even the plot!

I guess I'm more visually oriented...which is sort of strange considering I'm female. Men are supposed to be more visually oriented, while women are more aurally oriented....

12, 35> I love Three Men in a Boat, brenzi. I remember hearing someone say that it was the first book he had read that made him cry laughing, and parts of it have the same effect on me.

59> I'd be interested to know what you think of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, Fluffyblue. I bought the book a few years ago, but haven't got around to reading it yet.

Finished The Time Traveler's Wife yesterday and am not ashamed to say I had a tear in my eye at the end. It's the best work of fiction I read last year.

Am rereading Howards End Is on the Landing by Susan Hill. I apologise if I've mentioned this before, but my wife and I have a good many of the books that Hill talks about, many of which I haven't read; so I'm going to read them, instead of acquiring more. I've reached almost fifty-four years without having read a page of Anthony Trollope, George Eliot or Virginia Woolf, to name but three, and this needs putting right. This is one of two New Year's resolutions.

The other is to read some of the books, mostly non-fiction, that my wife has bought me over the years. I made a start this morning on Long Sunset by Anthony Montague Brown which has been sitting on the bookshelf for about fourteen years.

Have reached 1975 in The Kenneth Williams Diaries.

Finished the dark, yet marvelous Nightwoods by Charles Frazier. i continue reading Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and I am about to start listening to A Red Herring Without Mustard for something a little lighter.

Happy New Year!

I, too, liked Frazier's new one. I think he's an incredibly gifted writer.

I finished my last book for 2011 yesterday afternoon: the first book of Stephen Baxter's Northland trilogy, Stone Spring, which is an Alternate History taking place roughly 8000 years ago depicting Mesolithic cultures that once lived in and around the land bridge that once connected Britain to Europe. Liked it, despite a few quibbles, and will be interested in the rest of the series when it makes its way to the US.

Happy New Year all!

I'm continuing three reads this week, Tomatoland, The World We Found, and the audio of I Thought My Father Was God.

>65 Copperskye: - How are you liking Tomatoland? I heard an interview with the author and it was fascinating!

>66 callen610: It's an eye opening book and very readable. I now have other reasons besides taste for not wanting to eat those pretty and yet totally tasteless tomato-like things from Florida.

My first book of 2012 is Heartless by Gail Carriger -I've been resisting reading it because the next one in the series doesn't come out until March, but I couldn't resist any more.

>62 cappybear: Cappybear I made the same resolution about Trollope. Where are you going to start because I have no idea. I read George Eliot's Middlemarch for the first time a couple of years ago and loved it. So I've been reading and rereading some classics every year.

As far as Three Men in a Boat goes, I plan to reread it later this year when I get ready to read Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. I had never heard of it until recently but it was just so charming. Three Men on the Brummel is apparently a sequel to Three men on a Boat that I've already downloaded onto my iPad.

Another book that was charming in the same way was Parnassus on Wheels.

My first book of 2012 is *drumroll* Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. About 1/3 of the way in and enjoying it, though the story is very strange.

Ok, so I've already put aside Fugitive Pieces. I'm finding the writing choppy and it hasn't caught my attention. I was actually avoiding picking it up again and when I realized that, I moved on. I'll give it another try later this month. Meanwhile, I've started Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel. I'm twice as far into it and quite enjoying it.

pssst... Trollope newbies... the Barset books are a good place to start...

I'm starting off the year with Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories, which is fantastic, and Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

I just finished The Paladin, my first book of 2012.

(69) brenzi, I've not read Middlemarch, but my second book is a reread of Silas Marner by the same author. Have you read that as well, and if so, how would you compare it to Middlemarch?

Reading Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.

First book of 2012: The Honourable Schoolboy, by John le Carré. Very, very good. I actually almost liked it better than its predecessor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, or at least felt like I could follow the plot more easily. Looking forward to picking up Smiley's People later this year.

Now the hard part is choosing my next read! I'm doing more off-my-own-shelf reading this year and have plenty of good candidates.

I asked my daughter to select my first books is the year for me, so this afternoon I read First Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton for the first time in years. She also asked me to read The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright out loud, so we read 25 pages of that. My daughter loves reading but she likes to assert her independence by refusing to read any of my books, so I hope she continues to listen to this one. I have so many books that I know she would like, but I know that my recommendation would be the kiss of death, so I just keep quiet and try to find subtle ways to draw them to her attention.

The True Deceiver was a good start of the year(review up on the work page). Now off to Call for the Dead by John le Carre- I am on a mission to read the novels of authors I enjoy in their proper order (once upon a time I would read anything I can get my hands on... and a series order of 10,4,9,13,1,5,3 and so on was more a rule than an exception. And in most of the better series, reading in order adds a layer over the stories. :)

This afternoon I finished Professor Mommy: Finding Work-Family Balance in Academia, which was a long hold-over read started in September. It was very insightful and well-written, but being an academic mother myself, once the semester really started cranking, I found I didn't have time to read a book about how to balance said time! I'm glad I ultimately stuck with it, and highly recommend it to anyone - woman or man, parent or not - working in academe.

My three current reads are all hold-overs from 2011: God is in the Manger, my Advent & Christmas devotional which carries through Epiphany; Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, which I'm reading a chapter or two of in the mornings; and, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, a fascinating read on the neurological impacts of technology developments on cognition that I'm reading for a work group discussion.

Not yet sure what my first fresh read of the year will be, but I'm sure it will be fiction...

I finished and reviewed two great books today - World and Town by Gish Jen subtle and illuminating about a Chinese American biologist older woman trying to help her Cambodian neighbors; and a book I learned about here - The All of It - a combination harsh Irish upbringing story mixed with hard work and the Catholic church and fishing. Next up is, finally, Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending.

#74, enjoy Out Stealing Horses it is one of my favourites.

69>, 72> We've got a copy of The Warden, so I'll break my Trollope duck with that. Haven't decided which Eliot to read yet, but my wife loves Silas Marner, so it'll probably be that.

brenzi, I didn't think Three Men on the Bummel was nearly as good as its illustrious predecessor, but it has its moments. Have you read The Diary of a Nobody?

I'm a newbie to the group. I'm reading Calculated Risk, a Lt. Hastings Mystery by Collin Wilcox. I've read over half the book and I like the story but I just don't care for the Lt. Hastings character.

Finally chose my next read: New York, by Edward Rutherfurd.

I started reading State of Wonder by Ann Patchett last night and couldn't put it down. I regret that I downloaded it on my last night of vacation--now I have to wait until I get home tonight to read more.

I heard State of Wonder discussed on NPR yesterday, as one of the must reads for 2012.

Just finished my ER A Good American and reviewed it. I sooo enjoyed this book and recommend it highly. On to the next in my guilty pleasure series Clockwork Prince. Happy New Year everyone! =:)

Hi guyjay, glad you've joined us.

I've not read anything by that author. I've discovered that as I get older, however, that I appreciate mysteries a lot more than I did as a youth.

Now, where's my cane.........??? ;)

I finished Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley, which was a hoot! Two years ago, my first book begun in the new year was Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Last year, I decided to make reading (or, in most cases, re-reading) a Conrad novel to start the year a personal tradition, so I started the year with my all-time favorite novel, Lord Jim. To continue that tradition this year, I decided to read the rest of Conrad's novels in chronological order, at least one a year. However, I decided to skip the first two, Almayer's Folly and An Outpost of Progress, at least for now, because they're just not as good as the rest.

So 2012's year-beginning Conrad will be the unfortunately titled The Nigger of the Narcissus, a tale of the ocean which is by some critics considered the final, but clearly best, work of Conrad's early period, and by others considered the first of his middle period peak. Either way, it's a great work that I haven't read since grad school, around 20 years ago (ouch!), and I'm looking forward to getting into it again.

Even the preface Conrad wrote for the work is wonderful, beginning thusly:

"A work that inspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line."

Later, we read:

And if {the author's} conscience is clear, his answer to those who in the fullness of a wisdom which looks for immediate profit, demand specifically to be edified, consoled, amused; who demand to be promptly improved, or encouraged, or frightened, or shocked, or charmed, must run thus: My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see. That--and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm--all you demand--and perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.

Welcome, Guyjay!

I finished Dancing With Colonels by Marjorie Havreberg - the ER book I won, and which I enjoyed very much.

I am now back to A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz, which I'm also enjoying. Horwitz has a way of making history so interesting.

Happy New Year everyone!

My review for A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/74282303

I enjoyed it very much inspite of its length (Hey, it is the history of 'everything'. It has got to be long!).

After a much needed break from the series, I have started reading Phantom by Terry Goodkind. I have a love/hate thing going on with this series but I've come so far and I want to finish it.

Just finished the wonderful Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa. I am about to start Silence by Shusaku Endo for a year long author theme read here on LT, and I am listening to A Red Herrng Without Mustard.

I finished and really liked Double Star by Heinlein and now I'm loving Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

I'm reading Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library.

I'm reading Silas Marner, a reread but it's been at least 20 years.

It's funny, as I get older I find myself paying more attention to the stuff I used to skip over. Anyone else do that? :)

#95 - fuzzi - As I get older I find myself paying more attention to simply walking across the room without tripping over the tbr pile. Skipping -- over anything -- is way out of the question.

If I wasn't such a grump, I would learn to make one of those little smiley-face things to put at the end of my message so you'd know I was kidding, sort of anyway, but I'm not exactly your smiley-face kind of person. I figured out how to make a frowny-face one time, but it was still a little too cute for me -- and not nearly frowny enough.

The main character in the book I'm reading, The Great Leader, is probably opposed to smiley-faces, too. Detective Sunderson hasn't exactly said so, but you just have a feeling about these things. He's divorced and about to retire and worried about it, and his last case looks unsolveable -- though I wouldn't count him out -- he's like a dog with a bone. Oh, yes, he misses his dog, Walter, who died. So, you see, not many smiley-faces there, except on my face as I read this book -- Jim Harrison's writing is just so sly and wise and deep and Sunderson so real.

mollygrace ~ lol about the whole smiley-face thing. (Also thanks, The Great Leader is now on my wishlist.)

I've finished my first book, The Dead which was the second book in a YA zombie trilogy that I am really enjoying. I have now started on Nemesis by Agatha Christie and I plan on getting to Iron House by John Hart this week as well.

Just started Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai. It hasn't been all that long on the shelf but any length of time is too long judging by some of the writing; it's easy to see how it won the Costa First Novel award in 2010 and if it continues the way it's started it's going to be a real gem.

For non-fiction dipping in and out is The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth, a massively welcome Xmas present.

Is "Desai" a common Indian name? Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, Kishwar Desai......or one very literary family?

(96) molly, I got in the habit of doing smiley faces back when I first got online, in the mid 1990s. It stuck with me, and I still use them all the time, even if it's only the simple 'colon, right parenthesis'...

See? :)

I recently got snipped at because my smilies had no noses and could not breathe. I was like, okay, that is weird. So I don't use them too much anymore. On the heels of that, the ex-boyfriend (a 46 year old man) started using "emoticons" in a way that simply was disturbing. I sometimes think we've plum lost basic communication skills. But I still like a good nose-less smilie sometimes. I always put them on post-its in real life, so hey, it's the same thing.

I am also now reading Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg, which I am really enjoying. Nothing really that new here, or that I did not learn in writing class, but she says it in a refreshing way. Recommended for any writer peeps out there.

Carolyn, I think some people have way too much time on their hands if they have to snip about other people's smilies...

>:

101, 102, 103 -- I really wasn't trying to be critical -- I understand why people use the emoticons and I often appreciate their use. I didn't mean to sound critical or disparaging.

I've got a few things going right now, all of which I'm very much enjoying:

Come in and Cover Me by Gin Phillips (print)
Affairs of Steak by Julie Hyzy (Nook)
Crossed by Ally Condie (audio)

I'm currently reading The Palace of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafòn, and so far finding it to be a good read.

I finished and loved Spin, and next up is The Book of Lost Things.

Molly, you sounded amusing, rather than critical. Go ahead and embrace the curmudgeon within you!

I can see a bestseller coming up, bookwoman247: "Embrace the Curmudgeon Within You".

Jnwelch: Lol!

molly, I didn't take it as critical, and I'm very sorry if I sounded that way.

I like jnwelch's suggestion for a book....do it! Write it! :D

If you wrote a book about grouches who like chocolate, would you call it Fudge 'n' Curmudgeon?

105 DevourerOfBooks, as I have done so many times I have started to write a novel which with greatest likelihood will not progress, but if it does, steak will be important to it. I have put Affairs of Steak on my wishlist as a role model. Thank you.

Robert

#113 Robert,

We'll have to see how important steak itself ends up being, this is the 5th in a cozy mystery series that has as its protagonist the head chef at the White House. All of the titles are cutesy food/politics related: State of the Onion, Hail to the Chef, Eggsecutive Orders, and Buffalo West Wing. For those last two, the food in the title was definitely referenced as a more or less significant part of the story.

Oh gosh, I did not think you were being critical, molly! Embrace your inner curmudgeon - love that. I was referencing my friend (acquaintance I guess), who has the audacity to ping me repeatedly, to which I DO respond even when it is not easy - then my smilies are maligned. Ah well, people are strange, as the Doors said!

Finished both Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson and John McPhee's latest collection of essays Silk Parachute.

Liked Pettigrew except the slightly contrived ending, to add drama. McPhee's essays are always a lesson in excellent writing, but the essay on lacrosse was a bit too long and he enjoys writing about geology longer than I like reading about it.

Started Keith Harrison's translation of Sir Gwain and the Green Knight on New Year's Day because that is when the action in the poem begins.

#116
Smiley,

Your assessments of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and Silk Parachute are spot on! I heard an interview with Helen Simonson recently. Turns out she has lived in the US for 20 years. I had assumed she was English.

I'm starting a reread of the Smiley novels. This time in the right order. Love that character!

I think I'll work on Sixpence in Her Shoe. That will be book #3 so far in 2012.

Oh, and I'm going to try to read my Bible through this year, which works out to about 3-4 chapters a day. I'm not quite sure how to measure that, unless I just mark the entire Bible as 'read' at the end of the year.

Hmm. Gonna think on that. :)

I am reading, Peacock Angel, The Traveler. Its about the rise and fall of the first angel.

Oh boy, I need to put one of my Santa Thing books on my 'to read' list as well: My Side of the Mountain.

Thanks, Santa!

My very first book of the year is On the Road to Villisca: The Hunt for the Midwest Axemen. The writing is just terrible but there is very little of it, 80% of the book seems to be collected newspaper articles. The mysterious Axemen are keeping me interested, though.
I'm still working on my final book of 2011, too: The Long Ships.

Whew! I just finished The Sense of an Ending which maybe should be titled the Sense of an Explosion. My stomach is still churning. So, next up is my second, and by all I've read very different from Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black.

I finished both the Great Railway Bazaar & House of Prayer No. 2. A couple nonfiction titles and both were excellent. Next up, is The Invisible Bridge. It's a chunkster but I was determined to FINALLY get to this one.

I finished listening to The Leftovers while making dinner. What a waste of a good idea for a story. Not one of the characters is believable. Pity. My next audiobook is one I've been waiting for for 2 months - Factory Girls.

>73 fuzzi: Fuzzi: Unfortunately, I read Silas Marner when I was in high school, which was way too many years ago to think I might have an inkling as to what it was about it. I'm planning a reread sometime. Middlemarch was just wonderful in every way.

#100 I genuinely don't know, hemlok. The back cover biog doesn't say anything about her being related to the others but I suppose there's no reason why it should. I've been wondering the same thing myself.

#112 Pardon my ignorance - there is so much about America I don't know. Is 'fudge' really the same thing as 'chocolate' over there?

Yes#126: Yes, fudge is a form of chocolate. It's most commonly a form of chocolate candy, often homemade, but can be a particular flavor of chocolate sauce that would be used to pour over ice cream, etc..

I think I know too much about chocolate, lol! Maybe I should write Fudge 'N Curmudgeon after all! I bet I'm nealry an expert on both subjects! ;-)

#100 hemlok - according to wikipedia, Kiran Desai is the daughter of Anita Desai. That doesn't really answer the question of whether Desai is a common last name or not, but at least two of those three are related. Quite a talented family.

>126 Booksloth:, 127 Fudge can be non-chocolate, too, like maple, my favorite. Some places have more fudge flavors that you can imagine. I think of chocolate as a flavor of fudge, rather than fudge being the same thing as chocolate. Chocolate fudge I'm sure is the most popular flavor, though.

#100, #126, #128, Desai is a last name meaning Lord of the Land. Any Hindu lord in old India could have this title. I guess this means that they are not all related and that it is relatively common (as is van/von in a last name in Germany or the Netherlands). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desai

Re: Desai....thanks for all the feedback!

RE: Fudge: I spend my summers in Northern Michigan, near Mackinaw Island. It is a major claim on the Island that fudge was invented there. It is a confection which can come in many flavors, so it is not synonymous with chocolate. It is made with huge amounts of sugar and butter. Many American families have "secret" fudge recipes. It is cooked in huge pots then poured onto marble slabs where it is cooled and shaped into 6-8 foot long slabs. It is cut into half pound slices. Practically every other shop in Mackinac and on the island is a fudge shop, and tourists gather inside and out to watch the fudge being worked on the marble. If you love sweets....try looking at the website for Marshall's Fudge in Mackinac City, Michigan. To die for!

Yes - my strongest memories of Mackinac Island are great, mouth-watering fudge everywhere in the shops and a whole lot of horse . . . stuff around the island. (No cars are allowed on it).

#129 and #131 re. fudge: Yes, thanks for setting the record straight about fudge! I know there are other flavors, and have enjoyed maple fudge, I just didn't think of it. I guess I've always got chocolate on my mind! ;-)

Now, back on topic: I've just cracked open The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger. It seems to have gotten mostly bad reviews here on LT, but I've been really looking forward to reading this, anyway, because I love the premise, which is a Victorian-era (or so) lady's maid accompanying her ailing misstress to the warm, dry climate of Egypt, and finding a freedom she never dreamed of in England. But, it seems there will be more restrictions on her freedom than at first appears - or will there be? I love that this is based on the true story of Lady Duff Gordon and her maid, whom I'm assuming was given her correct name of Sally Naldrett. (I do hate that maids and servants were so many nameless entities at that time - or merely background figures.) I'll be pullling for Sally all through the book!

(125) Thank you, brenzi, I'll put Middlemarch on my TBR...

I'm about 1/2 way through Sixpence in Her Shoe and am really enjoying it!

Hey guys! Yes, I'm aware that chocolate is only one form of fudge, and that "fudge" and "chocolate" are not really synonymous. So when I made my little joke I was, you know, fudging.

Just finished reading Half-Blood Blues, which won the Giller Prize this year. I loved this novel about a group of mixed race jazz musicians living in Berlin during the Second World War.... My full review can be read at www.the-reading-list.com

118> As it happens, fuzzi, I started reading the Bible on New Years Day - a page a day. It'll take me forever.

Thoroughly enjoying The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. I'd forgotten how entertaining these yarns can be.

New Year 2012 finds me resolving to note here each book I read during the year. If I’ve time, I’ll include a wee quote to give a flavour of the book.

At the moment I’m reading two books – most unusual for me, I’m usually a strict one-book-at-a-time man, but it’s appropriate in this case as they were first published together in a three volume set. I refer to Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. (Forgive my lack of umlauts, they’re in very short supply up here in the Highlands.)

I’m one third of the way through Wuthering Heights. I read this one very many years ago, when I was a mere slip of a lad, and remembered very little from it apart from the name Heathcliff and a mental image of the Pennine moorlands setting, which might well have developed more from my own wanderings in those parts over the years, rather than from the words of Emily Bronte. I remember once visiting the ruins of the old farm, Top Withins, the site of which was reputedly in Emily Bronte’s mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights. It was winter and the old stone walls were encased in a thick coat of ice. I must dig out the photograph I took at that time. So far into the book, it’s surprising how little description there is of the moorland setting, there’s much more of the domestic details, the kitchens and fires and tea-making rituals. I’m enjoying the book, clearly the work of a fertile and emotionally intense imagination.

Reviewers here on LT complain that none of the characters are really likeable. A bit like real life, then, isn’t it? But it’s not entirely true, old Nelly Dean is a real old sweetie, and what a gossip! Isn’t it lucky she was always in exactly the right place at the right time, whether down in the valley at Thrushcross Grange or up on the Heights, so she can tell Mr Lockwood the whole past story of the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Remarkable! When Nelly is anxious to break off from her gossiping at 11pm to get to bed, Lockwood tells her to carry on, he’s happy to stay up till one or two in the morning since he lies abed till 10. To which Nelly sharply replies…

“You shouldn’t lie till ten. There’s the very prime of the morning gone, long before that time. A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”

Lovely Yorkshire wisdom! Quite right, too, Nelly, you tell him, the soft useless layabout.

As for Agnes Grey I’m three-quarters of the way through and should finish it tonight. It's a wonderful depiction of the trials and tribulations of a young woman’s first employments as a governess, having to look after some of the wildest most unmanageable children you can imagine. A governess’s life is clearly often not a happy one, shunned by the servants, excluded by the family, and half the time at war with the children, a hard and lonely life indeed. No wonder her heart is set a-flutter when a new young curate moves into the neighbourhood… Big chunks of this must be autobiographical, since the plot echoes so closely Anne’s own life, but of course, authors always embellish, exaggerate and embroider on their own experiences, so we can never tell which bits. One incident struck me as particularly eloquent, when a servant came bustling in breathlessly to the governess, Agnes Grey, saying,

“’You’re to go to the school-room directly, mum – the young ladies is WAITING!!’

Climax of horror! Actually waiting for their governess!!!”

The italics, the capital letters, the profusion of exclamation marks! What indignation at a lady governess, daughter of a church minister, being treated like this by a servant! It all shouts out that this is Anne Bronte herself, speaking directly across 170 years in exasperation, from her own life experience.

I gather the Brontes didn't much like being governesses. It wasn't exactly the Mary Poppins life Disney showed us.
Bookwoman, let us know when Fudge 'N Curmudgeon comes out. I'll be first in line.

Hello all,
I am listening to The Hunger Games on audio and loving it. I read the series last year, and I find that listening to the audio book is a great way to revisit a book before the movie comes out.

I'm also reading Secret Daughter upon recommendation here on LT.

~Beth

(137) cappybear, don't put a time limit on reading the Bible, just keep going at your own pace. There's a lot within those pages that might just make you go "Hmmm"...

I like reading the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, but the Laurie R. King books are pretty good, too (and I like how she fleshes out Sherlock into more of a 3 dimensional character).

HighlandLad, I enjoyed reading your post, although I'm not sure I want to try Wuthering Heights again.

As of this evening, I'm still reading Sixpence in Her Shoe, but I stopped by the library on the way home from work and borrowed Middlemarch based upon numerous recommendations here on LT.

I finished the absolutely must-read Sorry by Gail Jones. How this book has gotten such little attention is beyond me. The loveliest prose imaginable and in spades. Every page is quotable. It takes place in Australia in the years just before and during WWII. Highly recommended.

Next up is my second book for Orange January: White Teeth by Zadie Smith from the 2000 short list.

137 - cappybear -- being an obsessive curmudgeon (thanks, 108, 109, 111, 115), I used the way the Bible was organized to divide it into many, many parts -- book by book -- section by section. This involved using index cards (I love index cards almost as much as books) -- one card per book, listing all the sections by chapter/verse on the card. Of course, this took time and allowed me to avoid actually starting on this project for a number of days, but then you do get to mark off the sections as you read them -- oh, the thrill -- or, as I started doing early, circling the ones I wanted to return to for further thought and study. Lots of circles.

Anyway, I started in July of 2002 and I finished sometime in 2007. I wasn't always good about reading one section per day, so I don't know how many days it took, but my stack of cards is still with me and I've never quite finished going back to the ones I circled (need to get back to that soon). It sounds crazy but it worked for me. I kept the sections brief -- nothing more discouraging than getting bogged down in several long repetitive or boring sections (sorry, Grandma, I know the Bible could never be boring). But I'm so glad I did it and I think maybe I'll do it again sometime, maybe using a different translation.

However you choose to do this, don't let the begats get you down. It's a terrific journey you're embarking on -- I hope you have a wonderful time.

(143) mollygrace wrote "I love index cards almost as much as books"

Uh oh...I found another Tigger just like me....

#138 Highlandlad
Funny about Agnes Grey - I am about a quarter of the way through it. I started it yesterday. Agnes has only been at work as a governess for a day or so but I am silently encouraging her to go home. These children are quite unpleasant - especially the little animal torturing young boy. What a little creep!

Crap! Now I have a craving for my mother's peanut butter fudge. I wonder if she actually has a recipie written down.

Just finished the marvelous, thought provoking Silence by Shusaku Endo! God's silence in the face of suffering...no small topic! I will be starting to read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka.

I am really enjoying The Feast of July by H.E. Bates, his writing reminds me of D.H. Lawrence and James Hardy another reason that I like it is that is only 200 pages long!!.

What next? I received by Australia Post to-day, from the U.S.A. Doc by Mary Doria Russell, I think that it will be a queue jumper.

Thank you for all the enlightening comments about fudge (god, I feel hungry now)! It certainly sounds very different from what we call fudge over here - also made with loads of cream and butter but ours is like a very soft form of toffee and so delicious it's been my downfall too many times (it's also one of those things that if it goes wrong while you're cooking it it still tastes delicious so the texture may change but the yumminess never goes). Maybe we should have a mutual tasting session? Apologies for derailing the thread.

I finished Witness the Night (very patchy in the end and a good read though maybe not quite as good as I'd expected from the beginning) and have just started on The Nosferatu Scroll - a bit Dan Brown-y but a welcome relief from my Byron assignment.

I've recently finished Joyce's "Ulysses". It has taken me 7 or 8 years of off and on reading with a dictionary, "Ulysses Annotated" and cliff notes, but I have finished it. I'm now going to buy the audio so I can hear someone else's interpretations:-)

Im over half way through Checkmate by Malorie Blackman. I have read the other books in this YA series, and they are all really good. I even got a bit teary at the end of the first book Noughts and Crosses.

I finished Beyond Black last night, which sort of deteriorated towards the end, and started Whoopi Goldberg Book this morning for a bit of a change of pace.

Bukwurm, I can't believe your devotion!

Finished The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse a while ago. It was, as all Jeeves stories are, entertaining. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/77727481

Reading The Sable Doughboys by Tom Willard. It is the 2nd in the series of The Black Sabre Chronicles.

Finished the funny A Red Herring Without Mustard.....Will start listening to The Infinities by John Banville and I am also reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

I am reading Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James, except that the e-version I found split the book into two electronic files and I think my Sony is having trouble accepting two e-books with the same title (although they have different file names). Anyway, I have downloaded and am reading the first part.

#157> I read that collection a couple of years ago. Those are excellent and scary stories. Very good writing. Enjoy! I read the collection from a beautiful old paperback, which enhanced the experience for me, but to each his/her own, certainly.

I just started Cemetery Girl by David Bell this afternoon, having picked it up based on strong recommendations from my favorite independent bookstore and one of my favorite authors, and so far I am definitely glad I did.

I'm also about to start Gathering Blue, the second in the The Giver trilogy, which my book club is reading.

I've finished and thorughly enjoyed The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, and am just now starting The White Rhino Hotel by Bartle Bull.

I started the Steve Jobs biography this morning and it's fascinating so far. High hopes!

# 157 & 158 Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James is on my TBR list. I am saving it for Halloween but I am tempted to read it now.

#151, I too am halfway through Checkmate, did you read An Eye for an Eye? It was supposed to be included in my kindle version of Noughts and Crosses but wasn't, just wondered if I am actually missing much by not reading it?

#149 I take back what I said about The Nosferatu Scroll being a welcome relief from study. The only thing it's any kind of relief from is good writing but, for once, I'm going to keep going to the end.

I'm currently reading Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film by Vivian Sobchack. I particularly like the discussion about the differences between horror and sci fi films.

Cannery Row was terrific. It's now my favorite Steinbeck.

Finished Whoopi Goldberg Book on my way in to work this morning. This one's a keeper! There's just something about Whoopi that I've always been fascinated by. Maybe her outspokenness? Now I'm back to give a second try to Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.

I started The Hitchhikers Guide To The Universe this morning-it's a little too soon to say if I like it or not but I'm hopeful

New thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/130477

#163 - No I haven't read An Eye for an Eye - hadn't even heard of the book before your mention. I will have to look out for it as it has good reviews and I have loved every other book in the series. Apparantely it fits in between Book 1 and Book 2

Just seen there is a 4th book in the series - Double Cross - theres me thinking Checkmate was the last book

I read Rain Dogs by Gary McMahon.

'166 Couldn't agree more about Cannery Row. A gem to beat all gems!

141> 143> Many thanks for your advice about reading The Bible, fuzzi and mollygrace. I tried to read it about ten years ago but ground to a halt towards the end of Exodus. Better luck this time, perhaps.

Finished my first quick read of the year, Ethel and Ernest: A True Story by Raymond Briggs. Delightful and moving.

Halfway through Fugitive Pieces :)

NEW THREAD: http://www.librarything.com/topic/130477#t