Edgar Allan Poe The Murders in the Rue Morgue The Gold Bug The Pit and the Pendulum

I finished Guy Claxton's The Wayward Mind quite enjoyed it, definitely a tour de force in exploration of the development of understanding of the unconscious mind, major brownie points for acknowledging and developing the idea that Julian Jaynes wrote about in 'Bicameral Mind' and yet vaguely unsatisfying.

I'm now started into Made to Stick by the brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath which is on a broadly related theme of why some ideas stick and others don't - and is, so far, a much more satisfying and engaging read.

Message edited by its author, Jan 18, 2008, 5:47pm.

I whipped through Amy Bloom's collection of short stories, Come to Me last night. Very good stuff. Then this morning started my first Anita Shreve book, Light on Snow. I was pulled in immediately.

Today I started a book called To see every bird on earth : a father, a son, and a lifelong obsession which I found in my library. I thought it would be interesting because of having once been a novice 'birder" myself. I got sucked into this book deeply, however, when the author made the comment about how birding is an obssessive hobby with birders liking to count all sorts of things (...including books. Hmm?!). I couldn't stop laughing. Then he talked about stamp collectors collecting bird stamps. I thought back. Oh, yeah! When I was a kid, I collected stamps...and counted them, too! :D

Well, back to my book...

Message edited by its author, Jan 18, 2008, 6:19pm.

I'm on Chapter 2 of The Cater Street Hangman.

I'm almost half way Royal Assassin, by Robin Hobb slow going...

About halfway through The Woman in White and am enjoying it immensely. Very compelling mystery, wonderful writing, and great characters, but oooh, Glyde and the Count and his lady are soooo creepy!

I started March last night and am enjoying it so far.

Started Loving Frank last night.

Finished The Kite Runner yesterday (it lived up to it's reputation, I loved it) and will be starting Storm Front; the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher tonight.

Still listening to Moby Dick, and almost finished reading As Nature Made Him: the boy who was raised as a girl.

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

And hopefully soon American Psycho as I can borrow it from the library when I turned 18 (on the 22nd of Jan) YAY!

No really, that's what I'm waiting for. Alcohol! nah! I want American Psycho.

Just started The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman. So far so good.

I'm reading one of those been-meaning-to-get-to-it-for-years books. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer. I'm on page 800, only 256 pages to go. *Wipes sweat off brow*

I generally have one non-fiction and one fiction book on the go.

Presently I'm slogging through Hermione Lee's very long yet comprehensive and interesting biography of Virginia Woolf. Fiction-wise, I'm powering through The Line Of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst as the mini-series is currently screening on the ABC.

I've just started Shamela by Henry Fielding, and Utopia by Thomas More.

I finished Robert Morgan's beautifully written Boone: A Biography, the life of the legendary American frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820), and though I found it fairly slow-starting, the pace picked up after about 75 pages, and I wound up really enjoying it. Morgan's been primarily a poet and novelist (Gap Creek), and this richly detailed foray into biography is narrative story-telling at its finest. I especially liked how Morgan went to lengths explaining how Boone's adventures inspired the literary world of his own and of future eras, strongly influencing James Fenimore Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, and Walt Witman, not to mention the esteemed English Romanticists Wordsworth and Coleridge.

I went straight from Boone to Charlie Huston's Half the Blood of Brooklyn, a gross, absolutely disgusting pulp-noir horror show of a novel, that I couldn't put down and found completely irresistible, even with its huge 'ick' factor.

Right now I'm nearly halfway through Zachary Lazar's terrific new novel Sway, a fictional retelling of the early days of the Rolling Stones in tandem with the story of Charles Manson and Bobby Beausoleil, with their convergence resulting in the tragedy at Altamont in 1969. Sway is nothing but pure dynamite so far, and I'm already wishing it were a hundred pages longer.

Message edited by its author, Jan 19, 2008, 6:37am.

My pleasure reading has taken a serious back seat lately. I'm enrolled in an online class and it is taking up alot of my time. I currently have three started - Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard, and Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.

The class I'm taking is "Understanding Adolescents". I think it's really a class about fantasy literature! :)

#15 I love Robert Morgan.

Currently reading two quite different books and enjoying them both: Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill and In the Forest by Edna O'Brien.

Message edited by its author, Jan 19, 2008, 8:17am.

I finally finished Baudolino after a concerted plunge towards the end. It was a very odd book, and didn't seem to be sure if it was history or fantasy. It also suffered from too much "telling" and not enough "showing". The beginning of every chapter seemed to be a reminder that the narrator was unreliable. Glad to be shot of it, I'm afraid.

Anyway, for something completely different, I'm now reading The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford.

#2: I read Come to Me when it was published in the early '90s and it has stucke with me ever since. In fact, I know it is hard to compare short stories vs. novel but I like it much better than Amy Bloom's acclaimed Away.

I mentioned last week that I was reading Geraldine Brooks's The People of the Book, but I set it aside when I picked up Sarah Vowell's The Partly Cloudy Patrtiot, which I thought was terrific.

Going back to the Brooks this weekend, as she will be visiting our bookshop on Tuesday. Looking forward to both the book, which is receiving mostly rave reviews, and the visit.

Touchstones are being touchy this am.

I just started a new book by Ron Leshem called Beaufort.

(Touchstones are wonky.)

I was interested in this book because I love the little old town of Beaufort in North Carolina. I read a few pages becasue I wanted to see if this book was about North Carolina or South Carolina (which also has a city of Beaufort). Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was about *Israel* and the first town it mentions (Qiryat Shemona) was one in which I lived!

I'm reading Beaufort now with much interest. The story was made into a film by the Israeli director Joseph Cedar (who also directed "Time of Favor").

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2129572/

I just finished Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives. It is a remarkable book, and becomes more compelling as it goes along (thanks to all those who encouraged me to continue), but I have to confess I feel I really didn't understand what it was all about!

I just read this year's Caldecott winner the 522 page The Invention of Hugo Cabret and all I can say is WOW!!! The story is about a boy who fixes machines and clocks and discovers a local toymaker's connection to an automaton his father found. While this is definitely the longest Caldecott winner it is great how the author intermixes story and illustration, and how the illustration moves the story sometimes more so than the words on the page.
I just finished this book and am so excited about it I just couldn't resist writing a great review and telling others to check it out.

I finished Schrödinger's Ball by Adam Felber, which I thought was hilarious and really enjoyed. I've picked up Gifted by Nikita Lalawani, which I didn't get through the Early Reviewers program, but found an ARC in the Friends of the Library bookstore about a month later!

I've been listening to Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen, which so far is okay, not great, but it's gone on the back-burner for a few days so I can listen to Beowulf while I've got it out from the library.

I just finished The Subtle Knife. Very good, although obviously a transition book as the second of three in the series - lots of stuff being set up for book three. I'm on to The Amber Spyglass.

I enjoyed your review of Schrodinger's Ball, fyrefly, and I've put it on my to-be-acquired list.

Right now I'm reading The Caravaners by Elizabeth Von Arnim, which is very funny, and I've started The Closing of the American Mind by Allen Bloom for the Go Review That Book! group.

Listening to The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad on audio book, and reading The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.

I'm planning on finishing off On Chesil Beach this week - need to find an hour or two where I can just sit down and blitz it. It's so short and it's not really a picking up and putting down again type book.

Also reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the Simon Armitage translation, which I'm enjoying muchly.

And I've just started Kim by Rudyard Kipling for Go Review That Book! I'm finding it fun and interesting but slightly bewildering. I don't know whether it's the language (lots of thees and thous) or the character labels or totally intentional on the part of the author, but it's slightly frustrating at times. I seem to end up reading each page twice...!

I'm within about 50 pages of finishing Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Good Wives.

This week i finished the historian, wasn't really satisfying. And I started yesterday a little book called Clemencia by a mexican author called Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, I'm reading it for school and I've been told it's really good.

Broken Prey by John Sandford. The one just before this was markedly better than the few before that, so I have hope.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. My first from this writer. Just decided to try some SF for something different.

Just finished Deeper by Jeff Long. It's the sequel to The Descent and I found it just as implausibly compelling to read. More fantasy/horror than thriller and thoroughly enjoyable with a grain of salt on the side.

I finished and enjoyed On Agate Hill by Lee Smith and I am continuing my Southern journey with Cross Creek by Marjoie Rawlings.

Finally gave up on Robinson Crusoe (which I found absolutely dreadful - it was so bad, it made me not want to read!!!), and as a result am making real progress in Vladimir Nabokov's Ada, which is far better - entertaining in the extreme :D

I' glad to hear that someone has read this book. I bought it when it first came out,not realizing that it was a YAB. I did find the illustrations interesting. I'm going to start reading it tonight.

I am reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I am reading this for my discussion group in early February. I must admit I was not looking forward to reading this. I am only a little ways into this and so far it is not too bad.

>33 What book are you talking about, precisely?

I just completed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which I had been meaning to read for some time.

Next up: The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

I am reading Lester R. Brown's Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. I just finished Alan Sinfield's The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde and the Queer Moment, which traces the development of the concept of queer identity, in a social constructionist framework, which I think he carries to implausible extremes.

Just finished Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective by Agatha Christie, which I enjoyed very much.

Still working on:
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Temple of the Winds by Terry Goodkind (audiobook)
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
To Infinity and Beyond by Eli Maor
Journey Through Genius by William Dunham

Will start today:
Nightmares in the Sky by Stephen King

I finished The Story of Forgetting last night - one of my early reviewers and absolutely loved it. I started Firefly Lane, my other early reviewer book, as soon as I was finished with that one. So far, eh ok I guess. I am only about 50 pages in or so but, while I don't hate it, I don't think it is what I thought it was going to be if that makes any sense at all. It seems a bit more like chick lit than I thought it was going to be and that is not a genre that I particularly enjoy but I am willing to finish it and give it a try.

I am reading Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais.

I read two more of the new ALA Award winners yesterday Caldecott Honor Henry's Freedom Box and The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain which is also a Caldecott Honor book as well as being a Sibert Award winner yesterday. I liked Henry's Freedom Box which is a true account of a run away slave who mailed himself to freedom. I thought The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain was less enjoyable and readable, although I did enjoy the style of the illustrations but again I highly recommend The Invention of Hugo Cabret!!

This morning I started The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime. I am trying to read more mysteries as they are in high circulation at the library where I work.

Finished Firefly Lane last night and had mixed feelings about it. It's too girly for me, but someone who likes that sort of thing would probably love it.

Today I'll be starting Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh for the Green Dragon group read, and after that I'll probably read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

Message edited by its author, Jan 20, 2008, 12:56pm.

I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which was quite good.

Now I am reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Enjoying it so far.

My Book Review Blog

I'm about halfway through Tithe by Holly Black. I expect to finish it later on today.

Finished The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty yesterday and am now going to start Acts of Worship by Yukio Mishima

The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux

#43 bunagsbooks - I just bought The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas at the weekend, so I'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

# 46 Booksloth - I finished reading The Phantom of the Opera last week and rather liked it. Hope you enjoy it too!

I am currently reading Hotel World by Ali Smith and The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan. I'm also rereading tow works foir classes I am teaching: Beowulf and Titus Andronicus.

I finished Dead Beat during lunch earlier and I've started Proven Guilty. Both are by Jim Butcher.

I am reading The Bright Forever, by Lee Martin. I recently completed Pilate's
Wife, A Novel of The Roman Empire. They are booth good.

Finished Half of a Yellow Sun, which was excellent. I'll definitely look for more books by Adichie. Started The Reluctant Fundamentalist which I'm finding absolutely gripping. Very interesting writing style as well. Thoroughly enjoying it. Also have started Eat, Pray, Love, Turn of the Screw, and A Ship Made of Paper.

I finished Pillars of the Earth last night, read a magazine, then started a review copy of Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult and am about half-way through. So far, so good... but not as good as My Sister's Keeper

Just finished Emma. I have to say that Disney princess movies and Jane Austen books have ruined any sort of reasonable expectations I might have had about dating, love and marriage.

I'm going to start Steinbeck's The Pearl. I might have to give it up for a while. I should start The hitchhikers' guide to the galaxy for The Belles' book club soon.

I've started In the Stacks a collection of short stories about libraries and those involved with them put together by Michael Cart. Also just cracked open People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

Tithe was just as quick a read as I anticipated, so I've moved on to The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. I'm in a children's/YA lit mood right now.

xicanti--I really enjoyed Holly Black's Faerie books...I just read them a few months ago...I am currently reading Crossroads of Twilight BY: Robert Jordan I'm almost done with the series..then its on to 1776 BY: David McCullough, that I will be reading with my friend... and then I'll start my 75 Books Challange for 2008....that should keep me busy for a while....

mamachunk

Finished One Mississippi yesterday, Started I am not Julia Roberts and promptly put it down after three chapters then started The Stupidist Angel and enjoying it very much. Yes, I know it is a little late for Christmas tales but Christopher Moore makes me laugh and right now I could use a little cheer. Any suggestions re: books that have made you laugh out loud?

I'm reading The Interpretation of Murder. Can't put it down! Great! Not at all what I expected! (actually finished now)

I have Beasts, Joyce Carol Oats and The Crime Writer, Gregg Hurwitz, going right now.

Message edited by its author, Jan 21, 2008, 5:28pm.

Finished Beware of God by Shalom Auslander on Saturday and started The Seven Days of Peter Crumb by Jonny Glynn.

I'm about 70 pages away from finishing Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." Not one of my favorites, but the end is getting interesting...

Message edited by its author, Jan 20, 2008, 11:06pm.

I just finished DEFCON-2, a book about the Cuban Missile Crisis that you should only read if you really like a lot of technical detail, names of missiles and acronyms. I started reading Clemente: the Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero about the baseball player Roberto Clemente. It was written by David Maraniss.

# 58: OneMorePage - I LOVED The interpretation of Murder when I read it last year. It's a great one for reading circles as there is SO much to discuss!

#47 Kell_Smurthwaite - So far I am loving it. If I didn't have to eat or sleep or work or all the other stuff I have to take care of, I probably wouldn't put it down until I was finished. So far it really captures the thoughts of the nine-year-old main character.

#47 Thanks Kell. I'm nearly at the end now and still enjoying it. I absolutely loved BITSP so hope our tastes are similar enough that you will too!

#53 Never, never NEVER give up on Steinbeck for anyone else. The man was a god and The Pearl is only a shorty. You have my permission to go sick for the next two days if necessary, then you can read both!

I should be finished with Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb today, then I'll be moving on to The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly.

I finished Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Good Wives last night. I think I'll read John Bossy's Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair next.

>66, Don't worry. I have today off, so I'll probably finish it soon.

#58...I ended up loving The Interpretation of Murder..it was slow at first, but soon picked up. Loved it by the end! Enjoy!

I finished Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris for Early Reviewers and started Pick Your Poison by Leann Sweeney.

Message edited by its author, Jan 21, 2008, 12:05pm.

OK well, to be fair, I haven't really had much of a chance to read anything much for the last few weeks. So... I'm still reading 1421 the year china discovered america, along with the wizard of the crow, and the great upheaval. But I received a copy of I am America (and so can you!) which is, of course, hysterical, but not something I can read very much of at once.

I just finished Firefly Lane yesterday and so far the only good thing that I can think of to say about it is that it only took me one day to read. I am still trying to compose my review in my head and am having a difficult time choosing how to word it without insulting people who may actually like this book. I am about to read Have You Found Her and am hoping that it is much better.

On Saturday and Sunday I read Bohjalians Buffalo Soldier. Terrific read. Today I am beginning The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz. It looks to be a good one. Next on my list is Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote.

Finished The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, which I thoroughly enjoyed, though it took me a long time to read. Have begun Summer Knight, a Harry Dresden fantasy-mystery by Jim Butcher, which is as usual really fun!

>68 I loved Good Wives; it made me a devoted Ulrich fan!

I am still reading My Place by Sally Morgan (the upstairs book); while I have also started Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana (the downstairs book).

Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig

I plan on starting Water for Elephants this week, with Wonderful Tonight up after that. Also, I'm book shopping on Sat. so I'm sure I'll come up with at least 1 I have to read right away.

Just finished The Pastures of Heaven by Steinbeck, a lyrical piece of writing--a collection of short stories organized around a locale, a valley near Monterey with a fictitious name, but which exists.

Starting To A God Unknown as my next Steinbeck.

I've been kind of slow with my reading due to a cold. I've just started both Hartsburg, USA and The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. Not in to either far enough right now to really have a good feeling.

I'm also listening to a book on CD Agnes and the Hitman which I have to admit I'm rather enjoying. It isn't the kind of thing I typically listen to but am enjoying the characters thus far.

read Subtle Knife and now I'm in the middle of The Amber Spyglass.

I'm in some kind of reading funk, and cannot figure out what the heck I want to read. Everything seems to be the wrong book. Fortunately, His Dark Materials doesn't take a lot of effort to get into, except for the mulefa bits, so it's a good match. No idea what I'm reading next, maybe Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh or Contact for group reads, or Half A Yellow Sun as the author is giving a reading in February. Also, I have 11 other library books lying about...

Just finished The Amber Spyglass - a good end to the trilogy, although I found this book to be a bit dogmatic in places.

>81 dchaikin - Interestingly, I seem to be in the same place as you - I can't decide what to read next. His Dark Materials kept me occupied for a bit, but now? I also agree with you on the mulefa bits - I could have done with a lot less.

I think on to The World Without Us by Alan Weisman or My Life in France by Julia Child.

#81 & 82 - My favorite parts were actually the Mulefa parts. How funny.

I just finished Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb (what a slog that was!) and am now about to begin Middlesex.

I just finished listening to Rose Tremain's The Colour, and reading The Subtle Knife. Now I am almost finished The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers by Delia Falconer and will start listening to Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. What's next to read . . . who knows . . . I have so many to choose from!

I'm currently reading Randy Wayne White's new book Hunter's Moon as well as The Argument Culture by Deborah Tannen. I'm also re-reading Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander.

I finished Unless which I found to be very touching and an excellent read. I am now reading Middlesex and am half way through and am really enjoying it.

I started Firefly Lane tonight, an early review book. I don't think I can read this. By page 10 I'm already loathing it. Just bad writing. And I held off starting Anna Karenina for this???

Reading for this week includes: Cultural Amnesia (which is taking me forever to get through, but is really excellent), The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America (ditto), The Intellectual Devotional, Einstein, Noah's Choice,The Founders of the Western World and Slander. For fiction reading this week, I am reading Bootlegger's Daughter, The Fortress of Solitude, Experiment with Death, and A Death in Vienna.

Just finished a light, quick read, The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith. Now I'm on to Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov which is just fantastic so far.

All other reading has been temporarily placed on hold because I discovered that I cannot renew Eat, Pray, Love at my local library, so I am having a massive reading marathon on it today. So far, so good, but I am only at page 100.

I have finished Tristram Shandy and am just finishing the criticism about it at the back of the book (norton ed.)

I really can't decide what to read next as I have so many ideas. I may whiz through a local studies book I got from the public library about strange tales in the fens and cambridgeshire.

Then who knows? Perhaps the biographer's tale by a s byatt

Touchstones are working for some reason!

#83 bunagsbooks - I like the mulefas, but those parts of the book have...well, if I'm tired, they aren't keeping me awake.

I've been trying to read the 1st 20 pages or so of various books to see if they catch my attention, trying to find the book that matches my mood. Last night I started Foreigner to how that would go - a hit so far! I think I'll go there next.

If that one doesn't work, tell us about your mood. I'm sure we'll all have lots of fun making recommendations!

:D
Recommend away, but if I (ever?) understood my moods, I at least wouldn't have any trouble finding books.

Any idea what type of thing you're after? Political, historical, creepy etc?

What are mulefas?

The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans. That's what I'm reading now - not an answer to anyone's questions.

I finished Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey, which was a solid, if not a stellar, read, and am now on to The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block.

I finished Never Let Me Go and Stardust over the weekend and started The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde this morning. I've heard mixed things about Eyre Affair but so (at ~60 pages in) far I am enjoying it.

>98 Morphidae - Mulefas are creatures in Philip Pullman's book The Amber Spyglass. Like otheres here I found that those bits of the book with the muelfas were the hardest to get through. I just found them so pointless much of the time.

Here's a Wikipedia description of them:

The mulefa are sentient beings who evolved in a radically different fashion than humans. An individual is referred to as a zalif. They possess an anatomy based on a diamond-framed skeleton lacking a spine, have hide, short horns and a trunk. Lacking hands, the mulefa make much use of trunk-gestures in communicating - small movements and "flicks" are an integral part of their vocabulary. The creatures simply referred to as "grazers", and appearing to be genetically similar to the Mulefa, are a source of milk, meat, hides and other materials to the mulefa. They form close-knit communities, closer than most human groups met in the novel. One of the reasons for the closeness of their communities is that, lacking two hands, it usually requires two or more mulefa trunks working together to accomplish complex tasks like tying knots.

A notable feature of the mulefa is their use of large circular seed pods from their world's "wheel-pod trees" to travel around their countryside; the disc-shaped pods fit neatly onto a spur on their front and rear legs when each zalif reaches a certain age. They then propel themselves using their two side legs, like a cyclist without pedals. Ancient lava flows (now solidified into smooth rivers of rock running across the land) serve as roads to ease transport. As the book notes, it is the three combined elements of seed-pod, spur, and rock formation which leads to the current mulefa existence.

Message edited by its author, Jan 22, 2008, 8:28am.

I loved the mulefas, though not as much as I loved the angels, who made me cry.

I've started two books, The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan, which I picked up in a bookstore yesterday while I was looking for something else, and Marco Polo by Lawrence Bergreen. I'm also planning to start Our American King, based on LT recommendations, and The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross, so I'll see which one wins out.

I just finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The River King by Alice Hoffman. I just started The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly and Third Degree by Greg Iles.

#96 Booksloth - I've had some surprise misses, so I'm honestly not sure. Thinking out loud, my biggest hit since I've tried this *mood* thing has been Out Stealing Horses which was a nice personal exploration of the narrator in a rather barren landscape. What caught my attention with Foreigner was the opening paragraph describing the emptiness of deep outer space. And I've been thinking about Desert Solitaire a lot recently, for whatever reason. So, I guess there is some kind of theme. Does that inspire any suggestions?

Message edited by its author, Jan 22, 2008, 8:57am.

Books I'd recommend are The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald and Lights Out for the Territory by Iain Sinclair. London Orbital is another good Sinclair book.

The Rings of Saturn is a strange, unclassifiable book; not entirely factual nor entirely fictional. It had the effect of lingering in the memory longer than most books I've read.

Although Lights out for the Territory and London Orbital are probably of most interest to those who have lived in London, or know the city very well, they are excellent in their own right.

For a fiction choice, I'd recommend The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, though I'm aware this is one of those 'love it or loathe it' titles.

Message edited by its author, Jan 22, 2008, 9:06am.

I finished March last night and really enjoyed it. I am currently listening to an audio version of Astrid and Veronika, an impulse grab at the library last weekend. Meanwhile, I hope to start The Leopard tonight, time permiitting.

Just finished Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde and am now starting The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears.
oops! All authors are spelled with the dreaded red letters in touchstones this morning.

Message edited by its author, Jan 23, 2008, 9:11am.

I finally finished The Agony and the Ecstasy this week -- good, but felt long. I am now reading Sarah Dunant's Birth of Venus which is a chick - litified version of the former. It is OK but I won't read anything else by this author -- too fluffy.

I finished Gifted last night - not bad, and the characters felt quite real, but not really an enjoyable reading experience, either.

I, too, am starting Birth of Venus today... but I'm absolutely in the mood for a little bit of fluffy reading, so that'll be fine. :)

#105 I've read your profile and see you are something of a scientist with geological leanings (not my field, to say the least) but how about widening out a bit into other scientific areas with something like A Fish Caught in Time, Almost Like a Whale by Steve Jones or something by Darwin? I know these are all non-fiction and I'm racking my brains for some fiction to go along with them. Not being a scientist myself I've no idea how good the research for this one was but a book that I found quite fascinating many years ago was The Experiment by Richard Setlowe, though it was a very long time ago and when I finally get round to rereading it I might not be so impressed.
I also see that you've recently read (and, I hope, enjoyed) A Thousand Splendid Suns. A few more along these lines (and I'm assuming you've read The Kite Runner, which is also brilliant) are The Hungry Tide, The Alchemy of Desire, The Bookseller of Kabul and Do They Hear You When You Cry?, though this last one is also non-fiction.
Then again, I also have a little collection of books that are sufficiently different from anything else to sometimes make a great change when you're a little bit jaded from your normal reading. Amongst these I would include Sea Otters Swimming in the Wild, Wild Surf, by John Bennett, Girlfriend in a Coma, South of the Border, West of the Sun and Cloud Atlas.
Hope something here might be a help or at least inspire someone else to come up with some good suggestions.

Message edited by its author, Jan 22, 2008, 10:14am.

Finished The seven days of Peter Crumb this morning and started Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. So far, it's a real treat for a book lover!

>101 & 102 Oh yes, I remember now. Wow, I usually remember books I read, but His Dark Materials left so little impression on me that I've forgotten a lot.

#113 we'll let it go this time ;)

#106 joehutcheon & #111 Booksloth
Thanks, that is a lot of suggestions... The Bookseller of Kabul and Cloud Atlas are on my TBR (er, along with ~ 600 other books). I'm intrigued by the London books. I'll poke around about the others.

#103 rebeccanyc

Can't wait to hear what you think about The Boys in the Trees, as it is on my TBR pile. The cover sold me!

The cover sold me too, plus the rave cover quote from Alice Munro.

Took a detour from the four books I've been on and breezed through Travels With a Donkey. An extremely pleasant, surprisingly fresh, travelogue.

Am about 100 pages away from finishing Lords of the White Castle by Elizabeth Chadwick - most of it over the past 3 days. Its good, but just. Not sure why I'm not liking it as much as Chadwick's other ones that I've read. She may be getting a little predictable for me.

I've been officially blown away by Zachary Lazar's new novel Sway, a dark and decadent take on the 60s that will be the very first book on my Favorites' list for 2008.

I've just begun The Reader by Bernard Schlink. So far it seems like it will be a very quick read.

Just finished The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman and I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing the movie now..and then read the 2nd book soon!! Now on to my ER book, Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. So far,it seems, a lot of people haven't liked it, but I shall soon find out myself!!

I finished The Thief on my afternoon break. The beginning was rather slow, but I enjoyed it from about the halfway point onwards. I'm still very much in a children's lit mood, so I plan to tackle The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan next. I've heard a lot of good things about this Australian fantasy series, so I'm looking forward to it.

Currently reading The Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte and will probably be reading it for a good month or so considering my schedule. I wish I had more time because I really am enjoying the book.

#1123: Arturo Perez-Reverte is one of my favorite authors, and I think Queen of the South is one of his best works. Hope you continue to enjoy it!

My favorite book by him so far is Territorio Comanche but it still has not been translated into English so I haven't had the opportunity to recommend it. (I read this book about 5 years ago so I would have thought it'd be in English by now.)

But if you do see it, I highly recommend it.
For the Queen, I'm trying to read at least a chapter a day. I've been greatly encouraged by others who find it to be his best novel as well. :)

I'll check for Territorio Comanche because I have decided to start reading him in Spanish. There are some other books of his that have yet to be translated. Can you recommend any others? I have all of his works that are translated into English.

I wish I could say I've read more but I've only read Territorio Comanche. I tried reading Limpieza de Sangre, the 2nd tome of his Alatriste series but put it down after 70 pages or so. But I think I just wasn't in the mood for more sword-fighting stories since I had just read Isabel Allende's Zorro and Ines del alma mia. Perhaps I'll try again. There is however a recent thread in the "Reading Globally: Ficton" group about Perez-Reverte so you could look for recommendations there. Sorry though that I can't recommend personally anything else by him.

Looked at your bio. Retired chemist, eh?
I'm currently a graduate student in organic chemistry. :)

Anna Karenina. I gave up on Firefly Lane. Just couldn't bear to read 500 pages of less than mediocre writing.

Asterix and Cleopatra by René Goscinny - the Turkish translation.

Lazarillo De Tormes – just started – haven't gotten through the edition's Introduction yet. But I'm finding Spanish to be a very lovable language these days, and only partly because it's so much easier than Turkish.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran – very depressing - should finish it this week.

Moby Dick – ETC (Estimated Time of Completion): late February. I hate reading about whales getting killed.

Further thrilling details can be found on my profile.

Finally finished David McCullough's John Adams. Great biography, good American history and long overdue. Don't know if it changed my opinion of Adams historically, but it gave me greater respect for the man.

I'm at a dead standstill with Mommsen's A History of Rome Way too dry. I may put it up for a year or two and try again. That's the only way I got through Melville's The Whale, on the third attempt. Also reading Christopher Hibbert's Rome the Biography of a City for a class.

I think I'll start The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig next.

After reading some good things about ella minnow pea by Mark Dunn on LT, I have just borrowed it from the library but am only up to page 3.

Just finished Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov. It was a great read, somehow humourous with an underlying sense of menace and "forces beyond your control". Left me thinking of Ismail Kadare. I will be seeking out its sequel, Penguin Lost.

Next up: War and Peace...

I went to look at Firefly Lane after reading teelgee's post here.

I read through all of the reviews and the response seems very mixed.

I am one of those people who looks at ratings when a new book pops up on the screen.

This one scored a 5 - of course only one person had put the stars under the ratings. Most people had just included them in their reviews.

I suppose I need to go to another thread to encourage those who put stars in their reviews to also put them in the ratings field so their opinions get reflected there too.

Am I right about this? I have never inlcuded starts in my reviews, so I want to make sure I am not misunderstanding.

I've been completely absorbed in Peter Duffy’s The Killing of Major Denis Mahon: A Mystery of Old Ireland, a true and engaging story of an Anglo-Irish landowner’s emigration scheme that went tragically wrong during the Great Famine. Not only does Duffy tell a tale that reads like a novel, but his exploration of the famine years in one community is a notable achievement in the use of local history to illuminate An Gorta Mor. Mahon’s murder made big headlines in England, prompting Queen Victoria to complain in her diary that the Irish “really ... are a terrible people,” while her anti-landlord prime minister declared the murders of landlords no more “atrocious” than the evictions that led up to them.

Message edited by its author, Jan 23, 2008, 8:28am.

I've just started the second in Mark Billingham's DCI Tom Thorne series, Scaredy Cat.

#133 I think when you mark the stars in your review, they also show up in your library and are calculated into the book's average. If what you mean is that certain reviewers didn't mark stars at all, you can leave them a suggestion on their profile page--much more likely to reach them that way.

>133 That just looks like a glitch in calculating the average star rating. The people with stars by their reviews have rated it, but for some reason the average isn't taking it into account.

If you look here you can see who has rated it what.

>131 judilou - I really enjoyed Ella Minnow Pea and I'm interested to see what you think of it. Towards the end I often found myself having to read the book aloud to get around all the missing letters. The book made me laugh when I first read through and gave me some serious thoughts to ponder when I finished and stopped to think about it on a grander scale.

Thanks fyrefly98. There is so much information on this site! I see now if I just click "members" for any book, it will give me lots more info.

I'm reading A Farewell to Arms, my Hemingway for the year.
Also I'm almost done with Travels with Charley, which I'm in love with. I'd never read any non-fiction by John Steinbeck and I've found myself enjoying it more than his fiction. I'm a sucker for travel memoirs anyway, but I really love this one.
I'm about 3/4 through Straight Man and I like this one too. Richard Russo is endlessly witty.

Starting Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult for Go Review That Book! here at LT

A chapter into The Brief History of the Dead. Will be interested to see how the premise-when you die you go to a city full of other dead people acting like living people- will play out.

Due to a series of interruptions, I`m still reading The Woman on the Spot by John Hunter. Hoping to finish it soon !

On my next break at work (in a couple hours), I'll be starting 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List by Patricia Schultz.

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#134 SeanLong - If you like Peter Duffy's writing style, you might check out his book The Bielski Brothers. I read it recently and it was very good.

#134 alcottacre, Thanks for the reminder for The Bielski Brothers. That was on my wish list and I meant to look for it at the library. I'll check their catalog now.

#129, let me know what you think of Imperial City--I have it on Mt. TBR.

Message edited by its author, Jan 23, 2008, 5:07pm.

I feel like a bit of a change, so I've chosen The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler as my next read. I enjoyed the movie, so it'll be interesting to see how the book differs.

I finished Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher and I've begun Icefields by Thomas Wharton.

Samuel Johnson Is Indignant, a wonderful collection of short short stories by Lydia Davis. Also reading Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier and The Complete Saki.
The nice thing about reading short story collections is you feel you can hop around from one book to another without worrying that you suffer from ADD...especially after just finishing Pynchon's Against the Day (brilliant!)

I'm just 50 pages into War and Peace, which I'm reading in conjunction with some of the online reading guides (so hopefully I won't miss anything major).

abealy, I just read Against the Day last month and couldn't agree more. I love great story collections as well, but don't skip around much, usually read them straight through. I have to recommend Jim Shepard's Like You'd Understand, Anyway, which was a surprise NBA nominee last year and definitely the best bunch of stories I've found in a long while.

> 138 Irisheyz I am about 3/4 through ella minnow pea and am finding it a lot of fun. But at the same time it really does present the reader with some unpleasant things to think about!

> kfl1227 I loved A Brief History of the Dead. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Re Against the Day, I have to enter a note of dissent. I got this for Christmas last year, and read the whole thing, but it was hard-going. To me (and I count myself a Pynchon fan) it was over-long, dull in long stretches, and generally unconvincing. Some brilliant passages, but these were like oases in a desert of dullness.

Maybe you have to be American to 'get' the book.

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2008, 5:54am.

That's a great idea for another thread - books you have to be American (or British, or pick-your-nationality) to 'get'. My suggestion would be American Pastoral by Philip Roth.

>150, Funny you should mention it, I recently picked up a copy of Icefields by Thomas Wharton - it's the only one of his I didn't have. The Logogryph was one of my favorite books of last year.

I just started The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy yesterday. I am perhaps 20-30 pages in and finding following the plot challenging but absolutely beautifully written.

Pretty much finished The Eyre Affair this morning on the commute in (only 10 pgs left which I plan on reading during lunch). Will be starting on Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher on my way home.

@154 judylou - I think that is what I really enjoyed about the book. Mark Dunn takes a weighty topic and makes his point in a humorous way. On the surface Ella Minnow Pea is this lighted hearted tale but the deeper meaning is something that has stayed with me in the years since I read the book. One of these days I'm going to look into some of the other things that Dunn has written to see if they are just as good.

the pillars of the earth by ken follett The longest book i have read in a really long time!!! i can't believe how good it is!

#160: amanaceerdh: that's encouraging, because it just came into the house Tuesday--going to be a while, but am looking forward to reading it.

I just started The Short Forever by Stuart Woods yesterday. I loved Dirty Work so wanted to try out some of his others.

#160 - amanaceerdh - that was my favourite historical novel ever - I now have my own copy to reread some day.
I am reading The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers - I like the British murder mysteries;this is my first by Sayers. Am enjoying it a lot. I will probably try one of Antonia Fraser's next - from her Jemima Shore series.
Am still working on The Fight for English by David Crystal. It's interesting - I like anything about the English language.

#160 and #161 If you liked this book, you'll like Sarum which is similar and came out before Pillars of the Earth. I read Sarum first before Pillars and thought Sarum was a much better book, and Pillars was only a pale comparison to it. Give it a try!

#160, 161 and 164 - I haven't read Pillars of the Earth yet but I do second ktleyed's endorsement of Sarum. I read this a few years ago and thought that it was an excellent read.

I started A Clockwork Orange. I am still working on Ines of my Soul and Maximum Ride. Hope to hae them all finished by the end of the month.

#166 How do you do that? I can cope with a fiction and a non-fiction in tandem but surely more than one fiction (assuming these are fiction, 'cos I'm not familiar with any of them except CO) requires more than one brain? Is there some kind of surgery I can get?

And I've just started A Quiet Belief in Angels (R J Ellory). Looks fascinating so far and I loved Candlemoth so I'm quite hopeful.

Hey, hey, #164, #165: thanks for the recommendation--will follow it up!

#163:

I especially enjoyed The Nine Tailors. The information on change ringing is interesting by itself and a friend tells me his in-laws thought Sayers' description of the fen country accurate. I like Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries because she generally sticks to the resolution of a single murder and doesn't just let the bodies pile up to keep the action moving forward. You will also learn something about cryptography if you keep reading Sayers. I think Strong Poison is one of her weakest books. Her nonfiction can be interesting too.

I just received an arc of Augusten Burrough's new memoir A Wolf at the Table, subtitled: A Memoir of my Father. I have gotten to know Augusten some over the years from my work at the bookshop, and look forward to reading it.

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2008, 5:48pm.

#134 alcottacre - Thanks for the Duffy recommendation. Duly noted.

And echoing #153, Louis Branning's highly recommended book of short stories by Jim Shepard, Like You'd Understand Anyway. Grand stuff, that. Louis and I have such similar tastes that sometimes I believe we were separated at birth.

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2008, 7:26pm.

#10 - American Psycho was great! Better than Alcohol!

Happy Birthday!

#108 & # 159 - Thursday Next in any of Jasper Fforde books is a pleasure!

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2008, 8:42pm.

Re Pillars of the Earth. I just had to chime in to say that, if you want to read a brilliant novel about building cathedrals in the 12th/13th centuries, The Heaven Tree trilogy by Edith Pargeter (better known for her Brother Cadfael mysteries) is wonderful. I enjoyed London by Edward Rutherfurd but haven't yet read his Sarum, though I plan to in '08.

I put Harry Dresden (Summer Knight) aside for awhile to finish Augustus by Everitt (touchstones not working for this one), which I got about halfway through in 2007. I'm also reading bits of Julius Caesar's Commentaries (unsure which translation).

Earlier this week I read The Stranger by Albert Camus, and now I'm reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

#157 avaland: I have no idea why I ordered Icefields instead of The Logogryph by Thomas Wharton. It was the latter book I went looking for because of a mention here on LT regarding it. But, at about half done, I'm really enjoying Icefields. I've added The Logogryph to my wish list and I will order it when my tax refund arrives. Buying books with the refund is the only fun thing about tax return time.

Change of plans for a post I made earlier....due to my early reviewer book (Sephardi Entrepreneurs) arriving today I'm going to put aside Butcher's Cursor's Fury to read it. The first bit that I read of Cursor's was really good though. =)

#175 et al Chiming in on the recommendation of Sarum. I read it many years ago, and it was fast moving and fascinating.

been a while since ive posted anything. Probably going to finish through Outer Dark tomorrow. Then Crying of Lot 49 is next.

Bookseller of Kabul is a great read as well as Reading Lolita in Tehran

Has anyone read Leaving Microsoft to change the world? I was so fascinated I couldn't put it down. Inspiring for all the booklovers.

Almost finished up with an easy read Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Just finished Ex libris by Anne Fadiman, which I enjoyed tremendously. I only regret that the book was too short. In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami is next (my first crack at Japanese fiction).

#183 omphaloskepsis - If you enjoyed Ex Libris, which is one of my favorite books, you might like to know that she has a new book of essays out called At Large and At Small.

Just finished ella minnow pea and

>159 irisheyz I agree wholeheartedly with all you have said

Now I am starting Something Rotten, Jasper Ffordes third Thursday Next book.

Almost finished Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, but I haven't really been enjoying it - I find it very blah. Also just finished The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, which was excellent.

NOW READING:
500 Ways to Change the World - Global Ideas Bank
Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders - Gyles Brandreth

ABOUT TO START:
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne

#181

I loved Leaving Microsoft to Change to World as well.

I am purging my library (just a little) to send books off to Better World. You can choose John Wood's Room to Read as your beneficiary if you want to.

#186 Kell_Smurthwaite: Yeah! I'm always somewhat wickedly pleased to find a fellow non-lover of Heart of Darkness - I too felt very blah about it (can one really be 'very' blah? hm, I wonder...) and I just don't see the appeal.

#186 & 188 Hooray! I'm not completely alone in the world! I studied HofD as part of my BA. Usually, unlike a lot of people who just get cheesed off with books they have to study, I find that, given enough effort, I can get to like almost any book but this one defeated me (as did Germinal, but that's another story - well, obviously). However, everyone else I have ever discussed it with seems to have thought it was pure genius. So glad to know there are others out there who also didn't get it.

Reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I'm surprised at how sad the ending is. Poor Moriarty, he didn't mean to be irresponsible, but he should have known better than to wife-swap...

Finished Beowulf: An Updated Translation the other day. It was really powerful how they celebrated the life of a legendary hero in an epic poem that reads like a eulogy at the end. Also finished Anil's Ghost which I hated for its pretension and over-written minor details. Beowulf handles the notion of war so much better, even though it supports battle, it shows the grief of lost battle-brothers without grim political unrest angst like Anil's Ghost does.

188 & 189 - i am SO glad I'm not the only one who thought HoD was rubbish! It just felt so very poibntless. Perhaps missed something (obviously I did, as it's held to be a classic), but it really didn't gel with me at all and I couldn't see the point in any of it even being written. I was especially non-plussed by the end, which seemd drawn-out, yet somehow abrupt (I'm not sure if I'm even making sense now, but I hope you'll understand what I mean). I'm not sure if it was the style of writing or the story, but I'm not much bothered about reaading anything else by Conrad, at least, not in a hurry.

#191 Actually, I think the bit about being drawn out yet somehow abrupt makes perfect sense. Took a long time getting nowhere.

186, 188, 189 I had to read Heart of Darkness TWICE in high school and resented every minute of it. Now that I am an English prof, I see some value in it--but I still can't stand it and will never teach it.

"Mistah Kurtz--he dead."

My first post, hoping it works. Reading Nick Hornby's How to Be Good. Laughed out loud for a solid five minutes during one passage.

Worked just fine, bosie. Welcome to the group!

Heart of Darkness is probably my least favorite book. So hard to get into. It does have literary value, but no pleasure value for me.

I'm right now caught between two fantasies - Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson and Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling. I want to give Malazan another try, but I just plain enjoy the second one more. Can't decide.

Mew is for Murder by Clea Simon. Gave up on Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult

>193 Cariola. You echo my feelings of Heart of Darkness.

I'm a newbie so this is my first post. I tend to read lots of books at one time. So far this month I've finished reading Johnny Got His Gun and The Naked and the Dead. I'm not normally a "war" kind of person but these were both really good books. I also finished Found on the Street by Patricia Highsmith. I'm very very slowly reading Oliver Twist and expect to be doing that for awhile. Finally, I am reading the non-fiction book Pulitzer Prize winner Legacy of Ashes.

welcome suzeqinsm! I used to read three or four books at a time (all different) but these days the most I read at a time is two.

You might want to consider one of the "Challenge groups". See the thread in this group called "Looking for a Challenge in 2008" (or something like that) for additional information.

I must be in a teen angst mood, I just finished both The Perks of Being a Wallflower followed by Thirteen Reasons Why. I highly recommend both! Not sure what's up next. I should probably try to finish my book club book, Quarantine, but I'm not really inclined to after the first hundred or so pages!

#148 whymaggiemay, I finished Imperial Life in the Emerald City today. I've put in a review. Basically, it was an easy, worthwhile read, though not perfect.

I just finished Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day by the editors of Grist Magazine.

I'm in the middle of Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but am feeling the need for some change...so will probably pick up The Echo Maker by Richard Powers and Mary, Called Magdalene by Margaret George for a little variety.

#193 Cariola: Well, it's official then: I definitely don't feel guilty for not liking HoD now that I know an English Prof. feels the same way! I do recall not hating The Secret Agent, but it wasn't one of my favorites either...

Heart of Darkness is great. Nostromo is a real stinker, though.

Has anyone seen the made for TV movie of Nostromo? It was't too bad. I had to read it for a college class several years earlier & I said in my essay on it that it had all the ingredients for a soap opera. The movie version trimmed it down quite a bit which helped to make it better than the book.

I watched a couple of episodes of a BBC serial adaptation (with Colin Firth in it as I recall), but found it almost as confusing as the book!

Just started A History of God by Karen Armstrong. Is there any evidence for whether atheists or believers read more books about god? One for the Happy Heathens maybe?

#204 I got lucky--did not have to read The Secret Agent. I did, however, get stuck with Lord Jim.

Another bad class experience was having to read a series of Melville's short stories. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about guano.