*** November - What are you reading?

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*** November - What are you reading?

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1lilisin
Modifié : Nov 1, 2013, 1:27 pm

It's November. A time for nippy toes, blankets, cider, rustling trees and long days with books.

Unless you're in the South and you've just gotten over all of that nonsense. In that case, place yourself in a hammock by the beach and sip on a margarita for the rest of us.

And while we're reading, maybe we can celebrate some November babies.

Louisa May Alcott
Nadine Gordimer
George Eliot
Albert Camus
Andre Gide
Bram Stoker
Joseph Conrad
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Margaret Atwood
J.G. Ballard
C. S. Lewis
Carlos Fuentes
Chinua Achebe
Fyodor Dostoevsky

2Mr.Durick
Nov 1, 2013, 5:22 pm

I have not been able yet to trudge my way to the back end of Flight Behavior. I have about a third of it to go before next Wednesday night.

Robert

3rebeccanyc
Nov 3, 2013, 11:48 am

I just finished and reviewed a remarkable but puzzling book by José Donoso, A House in the Country.

4NanaCC
Nov 3, 2013, 12:43 pm

I'm still reading Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates, listening to Revelation by C. J. Sansom, and I just started Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson on my Kindle.

5kidzdoc
Nov 3, 2013, 1:38 pm

I'm now reading the novel At Night We Walk in Circles by Peruvian writer Daniel Alarcón, which is my LT Early Reviewers book for September.

6Polaris-
Nov 3, 2013, 1:43 pm

I've just finished the very excellent and moving memoir by Uri Avneri - 1948: A Soldier's Tale. My review is here. Am still reading Between Friends by Amos Oz (it's gonna be 5 stars - I've just the one story of the ten left, which I've been saving up for when my mood is just right to most enjoy the delayed gratification) and the thought provoking Jewish Journeys non-fiction by Jeremy Leigh.

About to start Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog and also Under Milk Wood both by Dylan Thomas. The latter is the audio verison featuring Richard Burton's wonderful dulcets.

For the Reading Globally Latin America theme read I have A Universal History of Infamy by Jorge Luis Borges on the radar...

7mkboylan
Nov 3, 2013, 5:28 pm

8dchaikin
Nov 3, 2013, 11:42 pm

Can't seem to read a book. But I can listen (current is still Inventing a Nation by Gore Vidal) and I can flip through pictures. I read The Property by Rutu Modan this weekend and most of Jerusalem : Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle. As for reading...well, I tried getting back into Religion and the Decline of Magic...couldn't...then tried to start The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro...couldn't get into it...then tried to start Black Box by Amos Oz...which still has a chance...now back to the graphic books...

9.Monkey.
Nov 4, 2013, 4:07 am

>8 dchaikin: What are you thinking of the Vidal? I recently read Creation and thought it was amazing.

10rebeccanyc
Nov 4, 2013, 7:32 am

I just finished the delightful mystery novella by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Where There's Love, There's Hate and reviewed it on my thread since there's a glitch with my copy of the book and I can't add a review to the book page.

11dchaikin
Modifié : Nov 4, 2013, 8:45 am

#9 polymathicmonkey - I'm not sure I can judge Vidal from this book. He quotes extensively and appears to dig up a lot of what might be considered dirt if these were living politician. I'm entertained, although at one point I had no idea what the book was doing - so either it or I got lost. If someone told me it was written very quickly by an knowledgable and opinionated author, I would not be surprised.

12.Monkey.
Nov 4, 2013, 8:48 am

Interesting. lol

13japaul22
Nov 4, 2013, 12:01 pm

I'm reading Germinal by Zola and just received TransAtlantic by Colum McCann after being on my library's waitlist for the last month.

14Mr.Durick
Nov 4, 2013, 2:43 pm

I started Where'd You Go, Bernadette last night. The only time I've laughed out loud is reading the grade key on the report card on the first page, but there's an indication that I am enjoying the book — I read 139 pages and quit because of the hour, not because I didn't want to read any more. Bernadette, and possibly the author, doesn't like Buca di Beppo; maybe I can understand some disrespect for the chain, but where else can you go for an adequate portion of good enough pasta?

Robert

15bragan
Nov 4, 2013, 2:48 pm

In finally finished Stephen King's 11/22/63, which felt like it took me about fifty years to read. Then followed it up with Once Upon a Time: Behind the Magic, because my philosophy is, if a TV show is worth watching, it's worth reading books about. Next up is Dodger by Terry Pratchett, which has been sitting on my TBR shelves longer than Terry Pratchett ever deserves to.

16Nickelini
Nov 5, 2013, 5:14 pm

I'm bored with both my paper books--Night and Day by Virginia Woolf (been reading it since June), and What Alice Knew: a Most Curious Tale of Henry James and Jack the Ripper. But I just started a new audiobook--The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst, and the language is gorgeous and lush. I think I'll like this one.

17Mr.Durick
Nov 5, 2013, 6:10 pm

I got through the introduction and first act of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus in the Norton Critical Edition last night. I have a plan; time will tell.

Robert

18.Monkey.
Nov 5, 2013, 6:31 pm

>17 Mr.Durick: I read a complete collection of Marlowe's plays, that was definitely the best of them, imho. Some parts got a little weird but it was mostly easy enough to follow. :)

19mkboylan
Nov 6, 2013, 10:20 am

Got Five Days at Memorial finally and everything else in my life came to a screeching halt.

20avidmom
Nov 6, 2013, 12:46 pm

>19 mkboylan: LOL! That's a good book then. :)

21dchaikin
Nov 6, 2013, 7:08 pm

#16 Joyce - it must be something in the season with the paper books.

22dchaikin
Modifié : Nov 6, 2013, 8:39 pm

Flipped audio books. I completed Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams and Jefferson by Gore Vidal - a book of discursive musings, which works for that era. Now listening to 1776 by David McCullough (who also narrates). I also finish a graphic or comic book - Jerusalem : Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle - which, while never not entertaining, surprised me in how much it eventually affected me. I gave it five stars and I'll look for more from Delisle. Finally, I think I am actually reading Black Box by Amos Oz. At least I opened it up again today and found myself drawn in...to a normal book...finally.

23avidmom
Nov 6, 2013, 8:08 pm

I don't know if "reading" is the correct word but I've been dipping into I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert.

24baswood
Nov 8, 2013, 6:34 pm

Have just finished The Martian Chronicles and I will follow on with more science fiction with Last men in London by Olaf Stapledon

25Mr.Durick
Nov 8, 2013, 6:41 pm

It is several decades since I read Stapledon, and I don't remember any content from Last Men in London so I may not have read it. I read The Martian Chronicles recently and did not find them entirely without substance. But I think that you will find more substance in the former than in the latter. I hope you have fun, and I know that you will report back.

Robert

26wandering_star
Nov 8, 2013, 10:11 pm

Slightly hungover and therefore my current book about Francis Walsingham and Elizabethan espionage, The Queen's Agent, is not quite suitable; instead, lying on the sofa reading Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors.

27rebeccanyc
Modifié : Nov 9, 2013, 12:10 pm

After stopping in the middle of the book for a few weeks, I've finished and reviewed philosopher/psychoanalyst Jonathan Lear's Freud, an insightful examination of some of his key theories.

28japaul22
Nov 9, 2013, 2:09 pm

Just finished Transatlantic by Colum McCann which I was kind of lukewarm about. I'm still reading and loving Germinal and about to start Harvest by Jim Crace.

29rebeccanyc
Nov 10, 2013, 12:01 pm

I just finished The Hare by César Aira , a fun but slightly bloated tale of search for a hare that may not be a hare and a look at the nature of story-telling.

31kidzdoc
Nov 10, 2013, 11:30 pm

I finished At Night We Walk in Circles, the latest novel by the Peruvian author Daniel Alarcón, which I won through LT's Early Reviewers program. I'm working overnight tonight and tomorrow, and if it's quiet I'll start reading The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto, another Peruvian author.

32Nickelini
Nov 11, 2013, 12:19 am

Yay me! I finally finished Night and Day. I started it on June 12 and have read 37 other books in the mean time. There's a reason it's Virginia Woolf's "most neglected novel".

33avidmom
Nov 11, 2013, 12:28 pm

>32 Nickelini: Congratulations!

34Nickelini
Nov 11, 2013, 12:39 pm

#33 - Thanks! I'm going to now take a break before I read anything "challenging".

35mkboylan
Nov 11, 2013, 2:51 pm

32 - Holy moly! Now that's perseverance right there!

36baswood
Nov 13, 2013, 4:56 pm

I am continuing with Albert Camus and have started Resistance, rebellion and death

37Mr.Durick
Nov 14, 2013, 10:34 pm

I picked up Trapped in the Mirror again last night and got through a chapter. Then I picked up Death and read a piece of it. I will probably pick up something else tonight.

Robert

38Nickelini
Nov 14, 2013, 11:28 pm

Robert - I've had nights like that lately. Last night I found myself picking up Fanfiction.

39avaland
Nov 15, 2013, 7:27 am

I'm reading We Are All Equally Far from Love by Palestinian Adania Shibli (the upstairs book), and Waiting for an Angel by Nigerian Helon Habilia (the downstairs book). I'm also toying with a couple of others, including a collection of novellas by Joyce Carol Oates called Evil Eye: Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong.

40wandering_star
Nov 15, 2013, 8:35 am

After a couple of false starts with other books, loving The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

41Mr.Durick
Nov 15, 2013, 3:49 pm

So I took The Presidents Club from the stack in the hall figuring I could read my book group's next book a little early. Lying in bed I fooled around on my Nook. Then I picked up Faust and got a real start on it. So I may have direction again – I can fool around, but I can't make a deal with the devil.

Robert

42bragan
Nov 16, 2013, 11:31 am

I recently finished Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz, because apparently I can never, ever get enough books on the early days of the US space program. I'm now almost done with Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, which is fun, in a rather geeky sort of way. Next up, speaking of geeky fun, is Chicks Unravel Time, featuring essays by women on the entire history of Doctor Who, which I am reading in honor of the show's rapidly upcoming 50th anniversary.

43Polaris-
Nov 16, 2013, 1:16 pm

44lilisin
Nov 16, 2013, 2:16 pm

I'm just one reading session away from finishing Kenzaburo Oe's Hiroshima Notes. I've already collected a few quotes that I'm excited about comparing with two other books I have read.

45Kammbia1
Nov 16, 2013, 4:11 pm

I just finished reading The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the first Retrieval Artist book. It was a good, solid science fiction mystery. Rusch is an excellent storyteller and I'm planning to read the rest of the series.

46rebeccanyc
Nov 16, 2013, 5:06 pm

I've finished The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce, which I've been dipping into since just before Halloween and found a lot of the stories well written and slightly scary, even if a tad predictable.

47avidmom
Nov 16, 2013, 6:55 pm

I started reading Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury. I've only made it through the introduction and I've already learned a lot.

48timjones
Nov 17, 2013, 6:03 am

This is really what I *was* reading, but all the same, some Club Read members may find it interesting:

Maybe Modern Life Isn't Rubbish After All: George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire": http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/maybe-modern-life-isnt-rubbish-after...

- my appreciation, and criticism, of Books 1-5 of George RR Martin's magnum opus.

49Nickelini
Nov 18, 2013, 3:23 pm

I'm distressed that I have to put aside the Annotated Pride and Prejudice so that I can read Ru for book club tomorrow night.

50baswood
Nov 18, 2013, 7:24 pm

Hope you don't rue the day

51avidmom
Nov 18, 2013, 7:50 pm

*snort*

52Nickelini
Nov 18, 2013, 7:55 pm

#50 - ha ha! - hmmm, maybe I do. It's been dark and chilly and rainy all day, so yes, yes I DO rue the day!

53mkboylan
Nov 18, 2013, 7:58 pm

choke!

54japaul22
Nov 18, 2013, 8:11 pm

Nickelini - I'm reading The Annotated Emma right now! We both read Lives of Girls and Women at the same time recently too. Weird!

55Mr.Durick
Nov 18, 2013, 8:34 pm

I have a couple of the Annotated Jane Austens, but when I spent a year reading her adult novels I read the Norton Critical Editions. I wonder how they compare.

Robert

56Nickelini
Nov 18, 2013, 8:45 pm

I'm reading The Annotated Emma right now!

Funny, I had pulled that one out from the very bottom of the TBR pile because Emma was the first Austen I read, and I really didn't like it. I think it will fix itself on the second reading, or that's what I expect anyway. But then on the weekend I rewatched the 1995 P&P, and I had to climb down to the bottom of my TBR pile and pull out Annotated Pride and Prejudice. Mr Darcy and Elizabeth will always trump silly Emma Woodhouse.

We both read Lives of Girls and Women at the same time recently too.

That IS very strange.

I have a couple of the Annotated Jane Austens, but when I spent a year reading her adult novels I read the Norton Critical Editions. I wonder how they compare.

I don't know about Norton Austens, but the Nortons I've had in the past have a few footnotes here and there, and then scholarly articles, whereas these annotated editions have the text on the left page and often a full page of notes on the right. There are also illustrations. It would be a horrible way to read one of these novels for the first time, but are excellent for fans or students.

57dchaikin
Nov 19, 2013, 11:26 pm

Flipping audio books. Finished 1776 by David McCullough, which was very entertaining. Now trying one of those from "The Great Courses" - The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy by Edward J. Larson. So far - very thin and sketchy on info. Wondering how much prep it would take for me to give the same lecture - not much, I think. And mine would be more accurate with less hand waving about how no one looked at soil types until science took up the scene and saved the day.

Anyway - I also finished The Elements: The New Guide to the Building Blocks of Our Universe by Jack Challoner, which was entertaining to me.

58baswood
Modifié : Nov 22, 2013, 4:59 pm

Another H G Wells novel The Sea Lady, H G Wells. This one has not got a good reputation. No reviews here on Librarything and a rating of 2.75

59NanaCC
Modifié : Nov 22, 2013, 5:40 pm

I finished Revelation by C. J. Sansom, and Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. Now reading The Worshipful Lucia by E. F. Benson and The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie.

Oh, and listening to Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

60Mr.Durick
Nov 22, 2013, 6:12 pm

I've read through part one of the drama in The Norton Critical Edition of Faust and set it aside to read The Presidents Club for my book group. Faust goes slowly but is readable, so I expect I will get back to it.

Robert

61japaul22
Nov 23, 2013, 7:49 am

Enjoying The Annotated Emma and The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West. I also just found out that The Luminaries, this year's Booker Prize winner, came in for me at the library. I know it's long, so I may have to put off one of the first books to finish it during the time allotted me by the library.

62rebeccanyc
Nov 23, 2013, 10:09 am

I just finished and reviewed Maíra by Darcy Ribeiro, a fascinating if occasionally frustrating look at an indigenous tribe in the Amazon and the intrusion on it of western "civilization."

63rebeccanyc
Nov 24, 2013, 12:31 pm

And now I've finished and reviewed Backlands: The Canudos Campaign by Euclides da Cunha, the book that was the inspiration for Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World, as well as the latest Inspector Montalbano mystery to be translated into English, Treasure Hunt.

64baswood
Nov 24, 2013, 2:33 pm

65Nickelini
Nov 28, 2013, 5:00 pm

Finished the very fun audiobook One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, I have more mindless chores to do as we are renovating so I have a lot of these hours to fill with books, and so I'm in search of another audiobook. Desperate for anything remotely interesting, I downloaded The Anglo Files: a Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall. The author, who is from the US, claims to have lived in London for 10 years and is married to a Brit, but after the intro and the first chapter, I'm finding her to be a complete moron. How do you write a "Field Guide to the British" when you are so clueless? I may have to finish this one just so I can write a scathing half-star review. Humphf.

66Mr.Durick
Nov 28, 2013, 6:14 pm

I have liked a good many half star reviews. Let me cheer you on.

Robert

67avidmom
Nov 28, 2013, 7:18 pm

Like Mr. Durick, I love a good bad review. Muahaha!!!!

68Esta1923
Nov 29, 2013, 12:29 am

After watching "The Life of Pi" (about which I had mixed feelings) I tracked down my copy of "Ti-Coyo and His Shark" by Clement Richer, which I read long ago. Reread it with great pleasure. If they are to be compared, Ti-Coyo wins by a wide margin.

69dchaikin
Nov 29, 2013, 1:16 am

It deserves a working touchstone, Esta. Here is my attempt:Ti-Coyo and His Shark.

While visiting family in Asheville, North Carolina, I'm reading Sarah's Ten Fingers by Isabelle Stamler and Exploring the Geology of the Carolinas by Kevin G. Stewart and Mary-Russell Roberson

70Mr.Durick
Nov 29, 2013, 6:29 pm

Although I should have turned back to The Norton Critical Edition of Goethe's Faust last night, the discomfort of having eaten too much led me to something presumably easier. I picked up Different Games, Different Rules by Haru Yamada and read about two thirds of it. I think that she may have lived a sheltered life or somesuch, but her sociolinguistics is at least competent. I expect, silly me, to finish it before the month is out.

Robert

71rebeccanyc
Nov 30, 2013, 11:53 am

I just finished and reviewed The Masterpiece, Zola's examination of the Parisian art scene and the nature of creativity.

72Mr.Durick
Modifié : Déc 2, 2013, 1:29 am

I finished Haru Yamada's book Friday night and Sunday afternoon returned to Goethe's Faust in the Norton Critical Edition. I read the introductory scene to part 2 and some commentary on it.

Robert

PS I suppose that this should be in the December thread. I'll put a copy there.

R