What You're Reading the Week of 2 Dec 2006

Posted last night: It's been a long day today including a family cremation so this is just a place holder for this evening . . . I'll add the rest in the morning.

The Great Wave David Hackett Fischer Had a few broken nights this week so there was quite a lot of reading in the early hours Christopher Brookmyre's Boiling a Frog - too much third person narrative and not enough of his excellent action//dialogue; Air Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones - a condensed twenty four hours in the life of a London airline duty manager - enough bodies, vomit and alcohol to put anyone off working in the industry (and maybe off flying too); Lynn Truss's opinion piece on manners Talk to the Hand - not a patch on Eats shoots and Leaves; Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin - her style isn't the smoothest, but the book illuminates her life with autism with great clarity and authority and left me wanting more; lastly The Devil wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger - completely delightful and compelling, though more for the detail than the storyline.

As of 0000H GMT of Dec. 2 , 2006, I have so far completed 59% of A Good Year by Peter Mayle.

After this book, I will either read the book Running with Scissors or The Good German.

Thanks again for the new week, GreyHead.

Finished:
-Chocolat by Joanne Harris
-re-read The Kite Runner for my book club (I have last read it two summers ago)

Reading:
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
-Frankenstein for school. Disappointed so far (I've read through Chapter 10. Victor just sat down with the creature to talk but the creature starts telling his story nex tchapter). For what sounds like it'd be such a good story when you hear someone tell it, the actual novel falls short. I expected it to be more action filled. But I think the themes are interesting & will make for good class discussion.

Right now I am reading The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel. This is the third book in the Earth's Children series, and I am not enjoying it as much as the first two. Although I am almost at the half way point, it still has some time to get better.

Just finished The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt, which was an adorable little fairy-tale-style children's book. Its premise concerns an attempt to define "delicious" for a far-away kingdom's dictionary, and the complications that ensue when everyone asked offers a different answer. I think this would be a great read-aloud for parents with younger children (kids who are starting to enjoy chapter books).

Started The Book Without Words by Avi. I've been on a young adult/children's book kick, mostly because I can read those quickly in between grading and prepping for classes, and Avi consistently provides short, intriguing gems (The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is one of my all-time favorites). This one hasn't grabbed me yet, but I'm withholding judgement until I finish it.

In Conquest Born by C. S. Friedman at the moment. I'm not finding it to be quite as good as her Coldfire Trilogy - the world building just isn't quite as solid and I feel like the story would have benefited by a little more upfront history about the various races and their conflicts.

Earlier this week I finished Primal Fear and Show of Evil both by William Diehl and The Awakening Volume 1 by Neal Shaffer.

In Conquest Born is C. S. Friedman's very first book (I review it on my blog here.

Right now, I'm reading Cheryl Swanson's Death Game.

I am deep into The Mayor of Casterbridge and utterly entranced (so entranced that I haven't made too much progress on the two other excellent books I am reading, The New York Trilogy and The Artful Egg). It is somehow only the second Hardy I have read, despite 9 consecutive years of literature study, and it is delightfully odd in ways that the stolid book cover description could never have anticipated.

I'm about 3/4 through listening to The Book Thief, which is just excellent. Markus Zusak has this way with words that in anyone else's hands would seem clunky and strange, but he is able to take a bit of description and phrase it so well that you know exactly what he means without ever having thought of it that way yourself. Also, the story's really gripping, even though you know the ending from the beginning.

I also just started reading Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. I'm not very far into it, but so far, the prose is excellent, it makes me hungry for french food, but the narrative has yet to settle down into a groove and actually start telling a story.

Started Paris Stories, another Mavis Gallant collection and a book I've been putting off for a while, Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower.

I just finished a very interesting book. How many of you are into graphic novels?

The one I just read was Quitter by Harvey Pekar. I liked it very, very much. It's his biography done in a manner which stresses his failures throughout childhood and young adulthood. ...and I *do* have to yet see the movie American Splendor which is also based on Harvey Pekar's life.

I'm 3/4 way through Arthur and George by Julian Barnes and have tasted the first few pages ofThe Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber. Have enjoyed the former and looking forward to the latter as the Victorian setting of the St Giles area of London interests me and the author has been recommended to me.

hazelk, I enjoyed The Crimson Petal... quite a bit, but Faber's 2000 novel Under the Skin is even more of a stunner, a great book.

>message 4 - stick with Frankenstein, it is one of my favorite classics. I found it gripping and emotional. I need to find just the right edition for my library.

But on to what I am reading. about 2/3 of the way through The Meaning of Night - A Confession and am about 100 or so pages into Sharp Objects and am relieved it isn't as bad as foretold to me. Maybe because I mix up my fiction so much it doesn't seem played to me as it did another reader on these boards.

I enjoyed The Crimson Petal and the White, but I strongly recommend Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters, for a great contemporary book with a Victorian setting and flavor.

I finished The Spy Who Came in from the Cold this afternoon, and really enjoyed it. I was concerned, because my two previous Le Carre forays--Absolute Friends and The Constant Gardener--were disappointing. But this was taut, spare, and compelling.

I am now starting Claire Tomalin's Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self. I've been looking forward to this for a while--I've read her Jane Austen: A Life and thought it was brilliant. I also find it fascinating that she chose these two subjects. Pepys left behind exhaustive biographical material, while there is almost nothing for Austen. Tomalin had to piece her life together tangentially.

Fans of The Crimson Petal and the White:
I recently bought The Apple. New Crimson Petal Stories by Michel Faber. Some of the stories pick up where the book left off, some were written previously. Faber had so many lettters asking what had happened to the characters he wrote these stories.

I had really been looking forward to Charles Frazier's new novel Thirteen Moons, but I'm almost halfway through it right now, and it's just about the sappiest thing I've tried to read all year. I'm giving it another 50 pages, but I may have to bail on it if I start to feel like I'm losing IQ points

On the recommendation of a friend, I just started Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I heard him speak this year at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.

I don't particularly want to start meditating, but I like reading his ideas. The book itself is very soothing reading.

Just finished A Christmas Carol this morning for the Green Dragon group's December reading and Color: A Natural History of the Palette. Finally!

I have Uglies to read for the YA December reading.

Hrm, what else. Need to finish LifeKeys Discover Who You Are and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Lastly, I'll probably start Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro (contemporary fiction) or The Queen's Fool by Gregory (historical fiction.)

My reading and LT participation were by a computer crash Thanksgiving morning. Now, with my hard drive replaced and most of my software re-installed, I can get back to the books.

Still reading Our Underachieving Colleges and Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet.

On a whim I plucked Intimate Friends: Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand and William Cullen Bryant from my own bookcase and read it during the commute. Not much text, lots of lovely Hudson River School paintings--I could also imagine myself walking in the woods.

Also have a couple of cookbooks from the library, which don't really count as reading, but I actually made a chicken curry for lunch inspired by (=I didn't follow the recipe exactly) a dish I saw in one of the cookbooks.

Color: A Natural History of the Palette sounds interesting. I will have to check it out.

I started The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne last night...it is so powerful for a YA book...

I finished Gilead and actually cried at the end - I don't think I've fallen in love with a book's narrator in a long time - he just sounds like a good man and the story was touching and well written

I am now reading The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon - so far have only read a few pages so can't really give a good review yet

Christ the Lord by Anne Rice

Re message 16 and John Le Carre I've read quite a few of his books, and to me the earlier ones are better ... maybe it has to do with when they were being written, but they seem to have an added tension his more recent books are sometimes missing.

Just started "The Sybil" by Par Lagerkvist (Touchstone doesn't seem to be working for the title.)

I'm reading Saturday by Ian McEwan. I've been meaning to pick up The Cement Garden for years, but never quite managed to get round to it, so Saturday is my first McEwan experience.

Not really sure what to make of it so far. Haven't read a lot of it yet, but his writing is quite dense, if that's an appropriate word, and it's a change in style from the last few books I've read, so it will need a bit of getting used to. Also getting mildly annoyed with his digressions into the life of a neurosurgeon every time there appears to be any hint of plot development. Perhaps this one is more about the journey?

... and going back to message 14, I second the recommendation for under the skin ... SPOILER ALERT:
---------------------------
I'll never forget the scene in which he describes the men being held in the "waiting area" ... all carefully positioning themselves so that they don't actually touch ... a minor part of the story I know, but it was one of those telling little details that made the book for me.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. So good that I didn't get anything else done all weekend!

#14: will take you up on that LouisBranning. Another book for the TBR pile it seems and this Michael Faber one is mighty thick.

#26: keep going - it's a really fine novel.

Eilis Dillon was a prolific writer of children's stories in addition to her novels and essays, most of which are out of print and difficult to find. I remember as child my mother reading to us from her books, and would sometimes read to us in Irish from Dillon's book, Ceol na Coille (Music of the Wood). Declan Kiberd wrote in Dillon’s obituary: "What Laura Ingalls Wilder did for children’s literature in the US, she achieved in Ireland, imparting a sure historical sense in books such as The Singing Cave. That interest in history was a natural expression of her curiosity of mind, and of her family inheritance." Fortunately, the NYRB has reissued her The Island of Horses and The Lost Island.

Having felt a bit of nostalgia recently, I read both books during the past two days and highly recommend them for those of you who have or know of teenagers who love to read. And by the way, the NYRB has reissued several children's classics that are well worth looking into, whether for yourself, child or teenager.

Currently reading Wolf Who Rules by Wen Spencer and absolutely loving it.

Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

These are the last of the pile of books that I picked up from the library the last time I went, and expect to finish them all by mid-week.

Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War
Rediscovering Homer : inside the origins of the epic
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre : a Casebook

No fiction this week, at least so far.

I'm currently reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire and after that who knows. I have quite a few to go through.

avaland, Shirley Hazzard's Transit of Venus is one of my favorite novels of the last fifty years, read it three times and it just got better every time.

I just finished a book entitled The Thrill of Hope, Concepts to Ponder which is refreshingly different and current.

avaland and LouisBranning, me too about Transit of Venus, one of my all-time favorites, and I'll just have to read it again one of these days.

I have just finished Last of the Wilds by Trudi Canavan, it was very good. It's second in the series, and is much better than the first one, which I thought was strange.
I am now starting to read Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn.

I am on the last little legs of Carl Lotus Becker's The Heavenly City of The Eighteenth Century Philosophers. A fairly quick read for my History of the Enlightenment class.

I'm around eighty pages into The Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, which I'm really enjoying. I'm also juggling Brothers in Arms, another great entry in the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Currently reading The sword of the rightful king by Jane Yolen and enjoying it so far. It's been years since I read an Arthurian novel and I'm enjoying the characters again.

I am the messenger by Markus Zusak is next on the list, and I have Norman Mailer's The executioner's song staring at me from a shelf. My brother is loaning it to me and I said I'd have it back to him by Christmas, so I suppose that means I should get going on it in its >1000-page glory!

I find it odd and amusing that I am still intimidated by long books even though I don't mind them in the least when all is said and done. Is it the anticipated time that they will take? I tell my students that just because a particular book is a little longer than those they're used to reading doesn't mean it's any more difficult, yet I have the same general aversion. Dearie me.

GreyHead,

Nice job on the graphic this week. I like how the 2 and the wave integrate.

Just finished Bellow's The Actual and loved it...

Now I am working on the following

The Devil Wears Prada
Count of Monte Cristo
The Moviegoer

Just finished Bellow's The Actual and loved it...

Now I am working on the following

The Devil Wears Prada
Count of Monte Cristo
The Moviegoer

Having finished The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (cool, but not as cool as it thinks it is), it's back to the real world with Fiasco.

I began Carpe Jugulum, it hasn't grabbed my yet like Hogfather. After this I really am going to be a good girl and finish the biography of Robert Graves and Les Miserables, which I am still reading.

Right now I'm reading Chrisy and Great Expectations for two different reading groups. I have a huge stack of ones to work on. I just started posting my library and realize most of what I've posted so far are ones I have not read yet. Need to get cracking.

I just finished reading Babyville by Jane Green this morning. I enjoyed that the book and how it handled 3 women's stories about pregnancies (wanted and unwanted) and infertility.

Tonight I need to start reading the Autobiography Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama for my bookclub.

Just started This book will save your life by A.M. Homes ... she's a fantastic writer.

I made it to page 250 in Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons before I bailed on it, pretty much a total disconnect all the way around, and a major disappointment as well.

Since this time of year is not conducive to reading a novel of any length, I'm reading Amy Hempel’s The Collected Stories. I read it back in May but upon a second reading, it’s even more impressive than the first go round. The woman conjures a mood in as few compressed sentences unlike anyone I’ve ever read.

I finished The Abortionist's Daughter (Elisabeth Hyde this past weekend...I guess I expected more of a murder mystery, and while the murder of the doctor is the central event of the story, it is almost more a book about families and growing up. It was a good and quick read.
For a complete change of pace, I've just started When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman. So far it is an interesting, if a little confusing, account of the battle for the English throne in the 12th century.

Starting Once a Wolf by Susan Krinard tonight. It is the second of a trilogy.

Finishing off Wise Children by Angela Carter, but was seduced along the way on Sunday by The Xenocide Mission by Ben Jeapes and The Underwood See, the third part of Michael Lawrence's Aldous Lexicon trilogy. Came to the conclusion the trilogy should have been read one after the other to prevent loss of plot for people with greying brain cells. Am also reading The Voice by Arnuldur Indridson and then I think I will have read all his novels which have been translated into English.

I just started reading Paula Fox's The Coldest Winter: A Stringer in Liberated Europe in addition to the other books mentioned earlier (#11), because it's thin enough to carry around with me on the subway.

I finished The curious incident of the dog in the night-time and it was very surprising - a very different story than the one I was expecting to read. Usually I'm pretty good at guessing plots but not this one - a very good read. I really enjoyed the writing and finished the book in 2 days - very easy to read and very well written.

Finished The Book Thief and loved it; it's a strong contender for my top 5 of the year. Started listening to the Series of Unfortunate Events books, starting right at A Bad Beginning.

Also finished Five Quarters of the Orange, and while I can appreciate that it was well-written, I just didn't care for it at all. Planning on going for a total change of pace and diving into some fantasy: Sea Dragon Heir by Storm Constantine.

I finished Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self today while lying on the couch with a cold. Once again I am impressed by Claire Tomalin's work. I was thoroughly engaged. Now I want to find a good book about The Royal Society.

I'm about to start The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner. This is an early work of his, written in the '40s.

Earlier this year I'd praised Adrian McKinty's Dead I Well May Be as one of the best Irish crime thriller's I'd read in a while, but the sequel to it, The Dead Yard, has turned out to be a major disappointment. I just finished it the other day and found absolutely nothing to like about it: the plotting seemed completely haphazard and unfocused, the characters both unlikeable and unbelieveable, while the violence portrayed at various points felt not only gratuitous but unnecessarily gross as well. On the "About the Author" page at the end of the book McKinty lists "binge-drinking" as one of his hobbies, which might account for the rank sloppiness of this avoid-at-all-costs stinker of a book.

I'm reading "The Eight" by Kathering Neville. I don't know exactly what will be next. Probably "Tintenblut".

Finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by which I was wholely dissapointed. For all the hype I was expecting something substantial, with an interesting theme or two, and I felt it lacked both. I enjoyed the plot twists and appreciated the insight into an autistic individual's world, but after the twists in the middle, the ending was unsatisfying. I was hoping for something more. Am I the only person who felt this way?

I'm starting Like Water for Chocolate for my book club. From what I understand, it's not really my type of book and it wasn't my pick (I wanted A Clockwork Orange or Life of Pi for conversation's sake). I've been told I won't like it, but I'm being openminded, and hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Well, I am buoyed by the enthusiasm expressed about Transit of Venus! I'm not very far into it yet.

kfl1227, I also read The Abortionist's Daughter and found it more than a bit light (and I finished out "who done it" when the character was first introduced). For a much better book, try The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage.

Agree with nicoletort about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime - after enjoying the novel for much of the first half and a bit, it did seem to tail off unsatisfactorily. An easy read though.

I am now reading A year and a day: A novel by Leslie Pietrzyk and so far it is pretty good - I thinks this is another book that will make me cry

I really envy you, avaland, reading The Transit of Venus for the first time, wow. At the moment I'm only 50-or-so pages into The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian and enjoying it quite a bit so far.

re: message 17 >> I'll have to look for that. I enjoyed The Crimson Petal and the White right up until the very end, when the loose ends ruined it for me. It's good to know that such a book exists.

I'm about 75 pages into Watership Down by Richard Adams. I really want to like it, but it's just not what I feel like reading right now. I'm not sure how far I'm going to get with it; it's starting to look like I'll be abandoning it.

I just started Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck. I haven't got far enough in to decide whether I like it or not. I think I should probably start over, since I was fairly distracted when I began.

I just finished Gilead last night. It's super saturated with theology and terms and concepts involving Christianity that at times it was truly difficult for me to make any real progress. Honestly it was pretty good though, just probably I'm not at that 'reading level' yet.

I'm currently re-reading Vernon God Little this week. Am currently at chapter 3. It didn't enjoy it so much the first time round, but I'm giving it another chance *shrugs*

Lostst: I don't think it's your reading level. Gilead is an unusual novel and I almost put it aside but I found the style had a comforting effect on me after a while.

I just started Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, just a few pages in so "no comment" yet.

#63 - I didn't like Curious Incident either and everyone in my book club loved it. I like the little "mystery" and the insight, as well, but I didn't like the writing and I felt that the "good" story could have been told in 10 pages.

Also wanted to chime in on The Crimson Petal and the White - I loved it, too. I read on another forum that the short stories were weak, though. I am taking the recommendation on Under The Skin - Thanks, LouisBranning. Add it to the ever growing TBR pile!!!!

Next will be The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin for my book club. It seems that quite a few LibraryThingers have read and enjoyed it so I am looking forward to it.

Hi! New to this board. Learning a lot. Mount TBR is teetering; I think it's time to sort. *shudders*

I'm reading London by Rutherfurd, trying to finish it by the end of the year to complete a challenge. It spans the centuries from prehistory (when Britain was a part of the European continent) to 1997. I'm in about 250 A.D. now. Yikes! :)

Concetta: Having worked with autistic children before, I found the writing dead-on. Remember that you're in the head of the autistic teenager.

Recently finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics and The Children of Men.

I have Broken English: An Ohio Amish Mystery, The Island of the Sequined Love Nun, and Marie Antoinette all waiting to be started.

Plus am listening to The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid during my daily commute.

mdbenoit - I am sorry, I didn't mean to sound insensitive - I realize that the author was trying to portray the mind of an autistic child with the style 0f writing - and as I said, I did find the insight interesting. But, I was bored with the story written in that way.

Currently Reading Victor Davis Hansons 'The Soul of Battle' and finding it an excellent read. Hope to have it finished by next week.

Cheers

I finished The Thirteenth Tale earlier this week, and tonight I'm starting Let Me Call You Sweetheart by Mary Higgins Clark.

For those of you interested in Special topics in calamity physics, there's a good, although somewhat negative, review of it on Slate (www.slate.com) ...

I'm really enjoying "The sirens of Titan" by vonnegut. Its witty and engaging, but there's also this great dreamlike quality to it. Maybe that's just me, though.

I am a little distracted by the other book I'm reading, and I know I'll catch hell from the literary gods: its called "Santiago's Love-Child" by Kim Laurence. So far that's a wide-awake kind of book.

I'm about 5 pages away from the end of Once a Wolf and then I'm on to Secret of the Wolf both by Susan Krinard.

I'm almost done Starless Night by R.A. Salvatore; next up is Siege of Darkness by the same author.

I just started reading Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min. Unfortunately I have noticed a dramatic change in the amount of time I have to read since the holidays have arrived.

Having finally returned to the world of pleasure reading upon successfully completing all final requirements for grad school (whew!), I quickly consumed First, Do No Harm by Lisa Belkin in an attempt to understand the ethics behind tough decisions that are made daily in my still-new working environment. I am now indulging in Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross.

Doing a re-read of one of my favorite short story collections, The Collected Stories by John McGahern. Most of these stories favor a first-person narrator, usually a young, educated Irishman from a rural background, most often a teacher, sometimes a former seminarian, always disaffected and searching for a stable relationship that will bring meaning to his life. These stories hold up over time, and never fail to impress or affect me in an assortment of ways.

mdbenoit:

The wirting style was one of the best parts of the book. The wandering while still to the point writing was perfect for me. It wasn't so much that, as the plot lines that bothered me. Too much twisting in the middle culminating in a rather dull, albeit happy, ending.

I was dissapointed to find that the insight into the autistic mind is the only part of novel deserving of the hype. I didn't find the plot extremely spectacular. Good, but not great.

I'm almost finished with The Ha-Ha by Dave King and have just started The Cider House Rules by John Irving.

Next up:

Kill Me First by Kate Morgenroth

>Message 64: avaland, thank you for the reccommendation...I'm looking forward to seeing if The Doctor's Wife can draw me in a little more...