What are we reading in OCTOBER 2013?

Just finished Joyce Carol Oates' The Rescuers novella/short story. Am looking forward to the next installment of Bridget Jones by Helen Fielding, which I have on order.

There's a new Bridget Jones book? That was totally off my radar.

I'm just about to start Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple, the audio book version.

The Bolter and Among the Janeites for me. They seem to be compatilbe. :-)

Anyone reading Longbourn over at the Janeites? Looked interesting, but I've read a lot of awful Austeniana.

I finished Where'd You Go, Bernadette? today and overall liked it, although the ending was a bit weak IMO. Still chewing it over some, but I'd recommend it.

> 4 Haven't read it, and sadly most Austen-inspired fan fiction is pretty bad. Like the concept of this one though. Would love to hear about it if you do read it.

I'm reading The Gallery of Vanished Husbands and Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe at the moment, and enjoying both greatly.

Thanks, #5. I've got Where'd You Go, Bernadette? in my pile. I'll move it to the top.

so far only reading men in oct. =( next, though, is listening to olivia, once i get through claudius the god, which is starting (350 pages in) to get a little tedious. and i might reread the women's room for book club coming up.

I've just started In A Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes, for book group.

Oh, forgot to ask before: my mum is going into hospital for an operation this week, and has tasked me with thinking of some good "light hearted but engrossing" books for her to read while recuperating. I would have nominated Barbara Pym (but she first told me about her) and Georgette Heyer (but I've already done so).

She does like classics (and has already downloaded "Middlemarch" to her Kindle in anticipation of post-surgery recovery), so I think her reading tastes are pretty highbrow (because I find classics fairly hard going, with some notable exceptions). She also happily buys "those green spined books" (Virago modern classics) whenever we run across them at the second hand bookshop.

I've been in sci-fi / fantasy land for most of this year (work's so busy I don't want to read anything based in reality) and Mum is decidedly NOT a fan of genre fiction, so nothing I've read recently is going to suit her.

Can anyone nominate any books you think she'd like? (Although I think Middlemarch would already take up more than enough time. :)

10> I was in the hospital about two-and-a-half years ago after a near-fatal heart attack (I hope your mother's condition is a lot less serious than mine was), and I was really too tired to do a lot of reading. My own personal opinion is that something like Middlemarch is going to be way to heavy and your mother would be better off with short stories instead. When you're tired out like you usually are in a hospital, your attention span doesn't really latch onto a lengthy book.

As for short stories, how about Sarah Orne Jewett? She could read The Country of the Pointed Firs and the accompanying "Dunnet Landing" stories. Pointed Firs, though often considered a "novel," is really more a collection of short stories united around the character of Almira Todd, with whom the narrator is staying.

Also, has your mother read Olive Kitteridge? That's got the same structure as Pointed Firs, a short-story collection organized around a central character.

Or if your mother's a Virago-ite, how about the short stories of Elizabeth Taylor?

Or something else like that....

ETA: If your mother's going to use a Kindle, make sure the hospital has an outlet readily available to her for recharging. At the same time, though, if your mother's tired out, a Kindle is going to be a lot easier reading (stuff like adjustable typeface) than a paper book will be. And the books I've suggested will all be available on Kindle.

Another thought. If your mother really does want to get into Victorian literature during her hospital stay, consider Cranford, which should be an easier read than Middlemarch. Cranford likewise has that episodic structure that doesn't require as much concentrated focus as a heavier novel does.

Thanks, all great suggestions! I'll pass them onto her pronto. I was thinking Alice Munro because of her recent Nobel, but I think your ideas are excellent.

Yes, *I* know that Middlemarch is far too heavy a read, but she's a very committed reader and does know what she's up against (she had major surgery for cancer a few years back; secondaries have appeared now so we're back up for another round of surgery and chemo, sigh).

Near fatal heart attack sounds awful, glad you're still around and reading!

Wookie, I enjoy Dorothy Whipple (cross betweeen Pym and duMaurier, maybe?). Am also reading The Enchanted April and would recommend anything by von Arnim!

I am thinking of you and your mother, and wish you both the best and much strength!

Started Mary Roach's latest, Gulp. I worried I'd find this less interesting than her previous books, but it's fascinating so far.

>10 wookiebender: She might enjoy Emily Eden--The Semi-Attached Couple and The Semi-Detached House. And yes to von Arnim!

I'm about 50 pages into Where'd You Go, Bernadette? and, so far, highly amused.

Just started Lauren Beukes The Shining Girls.

Downloaded Mad About the Boy, the sequel to Bridget Jones, but finishing Enchanted April.

Just this minute finished up both A Very Great Profession (4**** review coming) and a reread of Oryx and Crake. I'm about to start on The Year of the Flood and then go to MaddAddam, and I think I'll save any review of Oryx and Crake until I'm finished the trilogy.

I'm also going to get started in on Najla Said's Looking for Palestine. (She's Edward Said's daughter.)

Just finished Kingsolver's latest, Flight Behavior.

finally got listening to olivia from the library. haven't gotten too far but it's already powerful stuff.

>20 7sistersapphist: - and??? was it good? i love her but haven't read her last couple yet...

Just reviewed a Vita Sackville-West - Heritage and a Debbie Macomber - Starting Now - strange bedfellows, I must say ... http://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/book-reviews-81/

After about five months, my library's interlibrary system (which is usually fantastic) finally got Atwood's Oryx and Crake to me so I'll be starting that series over the weekend.

#13 & #15> Thanks for the further suggestions! She's currently recuperating well from the surgery, and today texted me to say she finally felt up to reading. :) I'll pass on the new suggestions next time I see her.

Finished Enchanted April and it was enchanting. Never read anything quite like it.

Halfway through Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. I can't say I'm not enjoying it, but, even though Bridget is 51, the schtick is pretty much the same, and I find myself getting annoyed with how feckless Bridget still is and how entrenched in the whole man=success equation she still is.

Finished Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and there are a few laugh-out-loud parts (though the poop, barf, and fart parts jokes seemed jarringly puerile). Fielding does her best not to make life after age 50 look too grim (g). The middle Girl-Loses-Boy section sags badly (vb), and Fielding has nothing really new to tell us about break-ups. But the ending mostly makes up for it as Bridget's knack for loyalty and sincerity kicks back into gear. I think that end owes a debt to Nick Hornby's About a Boy, but Hornby is not one of the dozens whom Fielding thanks in her afterword.

>21 overlycriticalelisa: Lukewarm on Flight Behavior. Even though I agree with Kingsolver's political stance, I found it didactic and a bit forced. Not up to Poisonwood Bible standards, for sure. I'd like to try another of hers soon. Any suggestions?

>27 7sistersapphist:. I think that Barbara Kingsolver has gotten much too preachy for my taste. Poisonwood Bible was my favorite of hers. I also liked her earlier works The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven. Although not preachy, her more recent The Lacuna dragged quite a bit. Really, aside from her earlier books, I must say that I enjoyed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle the most. I listened to it on audiobook, and it was informative but also a hoot!

I'm just about a third of the way through Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion and it's magnificent. I've read Macaulay's History of England, a good bit of Churchill's Marlborough, and 1688: The First Modern Revolution, and I saw The First Churchills (IMDb) many years ago, so this is an historical period that I'm reasonably familiar with, but I'd always seen Anne as something not much more than a figurehead (aside from her fight with Sarah Churchill). Anne Somerset's new biography is a really complete look at Anne and it's great so far, though perhaps a little bit more detailed than folks might like if they're not already reasonably familiar with the late-Stuart era.

When I have some time, I might also get hold of Somerset's The Life and Times of William IV – which would be a very important pre-Victorian study, though the one review I've seen here on LT notes its short length and praises it for its extensive illustrations, which might mean it's a bit simpler than I'd like.

I loved Flight Behavior and didn't think it was at all too preachy, but I've certainly heard that opinion.
Right now I'm reading my first ever Virginia Woolf A Room of One's Own and came across this sentence, Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. We've all heard that statement, but does anyone know if she was the first to make it or if she was even then quoting a common expression?

Joyce: I'm fairly certain that Woolf originated it. Is Room really your first Woolf? You're in for a treat.

A few months ago I read Mrs. Woolf and the Servants and was so disappointed in the way she treated and thought of her servants that I didn't know if I would like her writing at all. So agreed, she was a snob and was not perfect, but she sure can write and can examine a problem in entirely enlightening ways.

>27 7sistersapphist:,28

kingsolver is certainly clear in her stance on things. so far i don't mind that because i tend to agree with her. i *loved* the poisonwood bible but have heard others say it was too preachy or hit you over the head, but i didn't see it that way. so perhaps take it with a grain of salt, but i also very much enjoyed prodigal summer. those are my two favorites of hers, but i would like to reread her early novels (and i haven't gotten to her most recent two) one day when i have time (as if).

>33 overlycriticalelisa:. That's interesting, because unlike in her later works (including Prodigal Summer) I thought that Kingsolver fairly presented all sides of a complicated issue in Poisonwood Bible without coming to a "right answer" in the same way as she did previously in The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven. And while she dealt with the topical subject matter, she also carried on very well with plot and character development. I think that those things have suffered in her more recent books, and now she tends to firmly take a side and expound on the righteousness of her position while plot and character suffer.

I do tend to agree with her on the issues that she raises in her later works, but that's why they seem boring to me--"preaching to the choir" as they say.

>34 vwinsloe:

i thought she also presented all sides of the issue well in poisonwood but did feel like she came to a "right answer." interesting what you're saying about character and plot; a good, well written story can survive heavy-handedness, but if she's missing the meat of the book, that makes it harder to take, even when you agree with her points. i wonder (again, having not read the lacuna or flight behavior) if she has kind of tired (or something) of writing essays and is sort of doing more of that expounding in her novels now. it's been a while since she's put out an essay collection - those have always been very clearly from one point of view and supporting that viewpoint, and maybe if she's not writing them anymore she's transferring that to her novels.

all speculation of course.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home, about half done. Quiet little story of a grieving family at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the mid 1980s.

I wasn't expecting it to be a YA book, but once I got over that and accustomed myself to the slow-reveal pace of the book, I found myself enjoying it.

I wasn't a great fan of Poisonwood Bible. I didn't think it hit me over the head, it just seemed obvious that it was all going to end badly and there was no surprise to it. What I did think was great was the final few chapters (? I did read it a while ago) where we saw how all the girls grew up - I never liked the eldest daughter, but her story had me completely gripped at the end. I've got a few others of hers on the shelves, I should get back to her sooner rather than later...

I've been reading spooky novels in honour of Halloween - just finished The Haunting of Hill House by the marvellous Shirley Jackson (and I did have to sleep with the lights on at least one night); and have just started Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill.