what are you reading now?

Right now I am reading Anna Karinina and Pillars of the Earth for group reads and for myself I have chosen at this time a beautiful book called Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

(thought we needed some action here and was having trouble thinking of a topic--sorry it is not original)

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - for the second time, and I don't often read novels more than once. Beautiful!

I just finished A Song for Arbonne for a Green Dragon group read. I need to pick up an Early Reviewers book next. I owe a couple of reviews.

Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence, by Gene Brucker, quite an interesting little book.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the book I've just finished, The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow, by Donald McRae.

The Early Reviewers books, which I just picked up, are Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting and Gifts From The Child Within. I will try to be a good LibraryThinger and get these two books read and reviewed. I said it here!

Just found this group! I was torn – joining would be admitting my age and I've been avoiding that for a while now – or trying to (he-he!).

I've got several books going - Dance of Death by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment, and Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin. And right now I'm just finishing up Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant. Well, actually right now I'm lurking around on Library Thing – but I'll be getting back to my reading very shortly.

Anyway, I'm glad to know there's a group for us old (make that mature) folk here on LT.

I was torn – joining would be admitting my age and I've been avoiding that for a while now – or trying to (he-he!).

That made me smile. I waited until I was officially over sixty to join - Saturday was my 61st birthday and I joined yesterday.

I am reading Olive Kitteridge. Who'd a' thought there'd be a novel for us?

Robert

#6, "Dance of Death by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child".

I was beginning to think I was the only person in any of the groups to which I belong that has ever heard of Aloysius Pendergast. The Preston/Child Pendergast novels are some of the best entertainmant I've met. Their books, including their non-fiction and non-Pendergast, are some of the best current genre writing I've read. They are the only modern authors I read regularly.

If you have not read these gentlemen you are doing yourself a disservice. I would recommend The Cabinet of Curiosities as a starter, then go back and pick up Relic and Reliquary. Very entertaining and always a page turner.

Just finished Longitude by Dava Sobel which I really enjoyed. I think the next nonfiction book will be Mind Over Matter by K. C. Cole.

#9 - I absolutely agree! Anyone who loves a good thriller should definitely be reading these books. Although this is only the second Preston/Child work I've read - I also read Preston's Blasphemy earlier this year and loved that one, too.

And I've fallen hopelessly in love with Aloysius Pendergast!

Ah Robert;
You are enjoying a real treat. Olive Kitteridge, a book of short stories, is probably going to make my top 10 this year. It is excellent!~! I wish I were you; beginning it again. (and they should write a lot more for "us")
Anyhoo----I finished Gilead, wonderful book, then read The Talented Mr. Ripley, also very good and am now reading a biography: Carrington: A Life which is also very good so far.
belva

I finished Giovanni and Lusanna (which I definitely recommend!), and am now reading a book, the title of which I'm sure we can all relate to: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Allison Hoover Bartlett, about a book thief and a book dealer.

I'm reading Olive Kitteridge, a novel written in the form of a series of related short stories. This is one of those books I hate to see come to an end. Gilead was another great read. I'm looking forward to reading Home

Oh MarianV;
We have been reading the same material. But I am awaiting my copy of Home as I had to order it. Do you have yours on hand? I can't wait to get it and read it. Gilead was like reading a wonderfully sweet dream to me. I found it full of God, prayer, the Bible and yet not at all preachy. I didn't find it religious at all, but rather introspective. I loved it and wish there were many, many more like it.
But it is so strange that we have read the same books in almost the same order. (We must be so psycho together)
later dayz,
belva

I've placed an advanced order for Home in paperback. I can't imagine that it'll take me long to get to it once it comes, but it probably will.

Meanwhile I finished The Crying of Lot 49 last night. The cover promised some character dynamics; I didn't see any. Good linguistic fireworks, however.

Then I started Peyton Place. Fifty years later the book, fifty pages into it, is not the lascivious wonder that it was when it was freshly published. There may be characters in it; more about that later.

Robert

Well, I'm reading Grave Goods, the third in the series of historical mysteries by Ariana Franklin, plus am listening to The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde. I'm also working on My Name Is Will, an early review novel about "sex, drugs, and Shakespeare" and a coming-of-age type story about two guys named William Shakespeare, one from the 16th Century and one from 1986. Somehow I can't seem to get into it ~ perhaps it's because both of the Wills are rather shallow fellows and not particularly appealing characters. I'm going to persevere, though, as the writing is good.

am on to Of Mice and Men with group reads on the side of course.

Hi #18

No, I don't have a copy of Home yet. But I'm looking forward to it.
Have you read Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. That was one of those unusual type books which is really good. I picked it up because I've read & enjoyed her other books.

MarianV;
I've not read Lark and Termite yet, but it is on my list of TBRs. I have heard that it is very good. But I can't wait until Home arrives. It will definitely be up next after whatever I am reading at the time.

Finished Of Mice and Men and am now on to Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found by Jennifer Lauck. I am only on page 67 but am enjoying it so far. This is her debut novel and she has a follow up either already or on it's way entitled Still Waters.
later dayz,
belva

I read Lamb in book form a few years back ~ my favorite Christopher Moore novel. Now I'm listening to it on my iPod, just because I felt like a little gentle humor.

nannybebette ~ I love Of Mice and Men and have read it a few times, both in book form and as an audiobook.

>#21:
Mary;
Isn't it a lovely book. I think it almost to be a perfect piece of literature. I've not heard it done on audio; perhaps I should treat myself to that. Who is the reader?
belva

I forgot to post my read. Silly old woman!~!
I just finished The Black Fawn, an absolutely beautiful coming of age story of a young lad.
Now I am on to Antonia White's Frost in May. I am looking forward to this month's reading as hubby has the entire month off and will help me with "day care duty" of grandchildren plus I have a two week trip planned to my daughter's and she will be working part of the time so lotz of reading time for me there. And (**wonderfully heavy sigh**) then comes September and back to school for the little precious things and even the youngest will be in all day this year as he begins 1st grade. So all day to read or play on LT. I am drooling with anticipation.
hugs all round,
belva

Hi, Belva ~ Gary Sinese was the reader of the audiobook I listened to. He was wonderful!

Okay, that sells me. I will have to get it on tape or CD and listen to it. BTW, Donald Sutherland and James Earl Jones are quite possibly the two best readers out there today.
Thank you for the info.
belva

I, too, am a fan of Aloysius Pendergast.
I did find some of the books needed to be edited
with a sharper pen. But then, I read a lot and I'm critical about timing and flow and wordiness.
I read a lot of murder mystery novels which alows me to catch on to the plot without so many clues.
mtnmamma

You might want to try John Dunning's books
which are about book traders. He writes beautifully
and I read the whole series.
His book about WW11 radio station full of spies and so forth is also excellent and an unusual topic, which
I enjoy.
mtnmamma

I'm trying to think young". I just finished The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and am keeping it for my permanent collection (a somewhat rare thing for a Bookcrosser like myself).

#27 - mtnmamma:

Oh, I love John Dunning's Cliff Janeway series. I think I've read three of them now, and even though they were mostly written before the rise of the online book trade, all the insider info is still fascinating. And they're really very good mysteries, too. Yes, he does write beautifully.

Reading The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. Just finished The Man in the Picture, also by Hill. Two really spooky but elegant ghost tales.

Also reading The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker (online - couldn't find a print copy).

All of these are for the R.I.P. IV Reading Challenge which runs through October.

I seem to be keeping this thread alive all on my lonesome. Just started New Year's Eve, by Lisa Grunwald. It's "part contemporary family drama, part ghost story" – centering around twin sisters and their offspring. Recently saw the film based on the novel, and thought I'd give the book a try. So far, I'm enjoying it quite a bit - think it'll be a fast read.

I've been a bit off reading the past few weeks. Yes, I know, it's very worrying, because I'm a 125-book-a-year reader. So when I can't read, I know something's wrong.

I've been working on a few books ~ trying to get into reading SOMETHING ~ with varying stages of success. One is by one of my favorite historical fiction writers, Sharon Kay Penman: Here Be Dragons. I'm also reading Roanoke: a Novel of Elizabethan Intrigue by Margaret Lawrence, which held my attention for a whole two hours yesterday before I got tired of reading. Another historical novel I'm struggling with is The Sun Is My Undoing by Marguerite Steen, written in the '50s and set in the 1700s. It is a loaner I've had for a year, and I have got to get it back to my friend soon. I've also got a couple of paranormal romances next to my bed and one Nora Roberts novel, just in case I feel like something lighter.

The reason I hardly ever finish a book is that I can never read only one thing any given day. So...... I am wading through two ARC's from this friendly place, The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior and The Boy who Harnessed the Wind. I would probably have put them aside by now if I were not obliged to review them.
For relief I'm continuing Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson, a near-future ecological disaster bit of scifi and the middle book of a trilogy, and wonderful! Miss Mole by E.H. Young. Very good. But this afternoon I picked up a space opera for a reread, Prisoner's Hope by David Feintuch, and who knows what will appeal tomorrow!

I am also finding sticking to my books to be difficult however I did just finish reading Voyages of Hope The Saga of the Bride-Ships which was very good. The author was able to take some pretty dry history and give it a few entertaining twists. It read almost like a novel in spots.

As I just visited Victoria BC on Vancouver Island the book's location was quite relevant to my tourist self.

I am now trying to read The Hunger Games which should be pretty easy to get through as it is written for young adults, who are famous for short attention spans.

Sorry for having neglected this group. I'll try to be more faithful.

There are so many places to post what we're reading, and I don't like to spray the groups with my self absorption if I can catch myself at it.

Last night I finished Knowing, and I have Home ongoing.

Robert

Also been a bit off my reading. My oldest daughter is here visiting from CA & a lot of visiting & a lot of company. I did start an Anne Tyler book, one of her older ones If Morning ever comes. A nice relaxing read.

This week I'm reading From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell. It's the first book in her Inspector Wexford mystery series. I've read a few of the later books in the series, but somehow managed to miss this first one, so I'm going back and starting from the beginning.

War and Peace (Signet classics) (Paperback)
by Leo Tolstoy (Author), Ann Dunnigan (Translator)

Perhaps I should have read this years ago (It seems to me that I started it during my Navy tour--circa 1953; but discouraged by its size, gave up.). Now, in my seventh decade, I saw the DVD movie (with Anthony Hopkins) and felt that I must fill in the "gaps" left by the script writer. Irvin Yalom, in his book, Existential Psychotherapy, refers to characters in this book; this was an additional motivation to become more familiar with it.

October was a very slow reading month for me - only finished two books. Right now, I've got three going: Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow, Stardust by Joseph Kanon, and The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. Trying to do a little better in November.

Unlike those, who apparently have cumulative reading goals, unfortunately, I now have book markers in many books of various genres. In order to begin listing those, I just now reached for the nearest book (among the various stacks on the floor, gathered around my computer stand - the several book shelves lining the four walls are areadyl squozen with fat books). It was Gillian Rose's Hegel Contra Sociology. Damn! I must commence reading the rest of this book right now! And, I am already only half way through War and Peace. Such is my book karma.

Reading a couple of Christmas-themed whodunits - Santa Clawed by Rita Mae Brown, and Crewel Yule by Monica Ferris. Also still have a little more to go on Stardust by Joseph Kanon. And just finished (really - just a few minutes ago!) The Lover by Marguerite Duras. Trying to read fifty books this year, and I'm almost there.

Finished When Christ and his Saints Slept by Sharon Kaye Penman. this is the first in her "Eleanor of Aquitaine" series. It is the story of the battle fro the throne of England by 2 of William the Conqueror's grandchildren & how the English countryside was devasted in the process.
Very well written & historically accurate. I'll wait til after the holidays to read the next in the series. It's time for a gentler read. I have been reading Above the River the complete poems of James Wright.

I just finished War and Peace and am now in the middle of Nietzsche's Presence in Freud's Life and Thought by Ronald Leher.

Naren, we are kin some way - except that you are reading much worthier stuff than I am now ......
Nothing is exactly grabbing me, so I continue to read in those I have a commitment to while looking for the next big one. In hand over the past several days have been Drood (really O.K.), Wolf Hall (enjoyable; I keep waiting for it to grab me), The Well of Shiuan (as a newcomer to C.J. Cherryh I'm trying to read everything at once), Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (now that I'm getting her off the beaten track, I expect this one to pick up), and Sylvester (which I just finished and enjoyed so much that I moved right on to Cotillion; haven't read this much Georgette Heyer in years!). None of that sounds even vaguely respectable beside War and Peace and the Nietzsche/Freud. Oh well.....

Not being a TV watcher (My TV set functions as a DVD vehicle.), if I see a movie, I look for the "fiction" novel source to fill in the gaps, e.g., When Nietzsche Wept.

Reading "A Happy Marriage" by Rafael Yglesias, scenes from a 30 year marriage from the couples' first meeting to the wife's slow and painful death in middle age of cancer. This is an excellent book for those of us in our "mature" years because we are nearer the end of life and can identify with much of what this couple is experiencing.

Speaking as one of "those of us in our "mature" years because we are nearer the end of life", I heartily recommend reading Tolstoy's War and Peace while also watching the DVDs of the movie (with Anthony Hopkins). One can experience several life narratives "coming to a close".

I used to have 3 or 4 books going at once, but I've slowed down to 1 or 2. Just finished The Judas Field which gave very detailed descriptions of a Civil War battle, so I want to get something light now, I started Homesick at the New Yorker about the author Maeve Brennan which I now see is sad, so today I read some short stories from Demonology by Rick Moody, which were weird & I gave up on them. Mt. TBR is ready to topple over, so I'll find something quick.

Reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, and (mostly) enjoying it so far. Just finished Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist (terrific book), and an ARC of Joan Brady's Venom (only so-so). Just got Just Kids by Patti Smith - I've heard great things about it, so I'll probably start that one next.

#17 Thank-you for mentioning "My Name Is Will". I followed the link, read the Amazon reviews and ordered it. It certainly is no worse than the movie "Shakespeare in Love". More Shakespearean hormones on display. Any way, it, no doubt will compliment my Shakespeare fetish.

Naren

Tonight I'll be finishing up an ARC of The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw, and beginning A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters, an Amelia Peabody mystery. Next up: Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner - one of her Detective D.D. Warren novels.

Recently read Heresy by S.J. Parris (no touchstones?), and A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I am finishing The Oxford Book of Oxford by Jan Morris (bad touchstone). I have always been fascinated by Oxford never knowing why.

#52 - Morris' Oxford book is one of my favorites - hope you're enjoying it. I've read it many times, but it might be time for one more reread! Bought my copy at Blackwell's while visiting Oxford back in the '80s. I've always had a strange fascination with the place, too. All those ancient "dreaming spires," I guess.

The Discovery of Being by Rollo May

Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill

ETA: Edited to fix touchstone and author's name.

Paul Tillich by John P. Newport

Finishing up An American Type by Henry Roth.

Also reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, and A River in the Sky, the latest Amelia Peabody mystery, by Elizabeth Peters.

#57 jlshall Oh, is A River in the Sky out already? Yay! I love Peabody. Love to hear what you think of it when you're done.

I'm reading the LT ER novel (more like a novelette, size-wise) Time Among the Dead by Thomas Rayfiel. It's in the form of a journal written by an old man of the Victorian era at the end of his life. I like the author's writing style, the characterizations, and the journal device works really well.

Storeetllr--

I'm reading an ARC of the Peabody book, but I think it's due out this month. It's my first Peabody, but I'm loving it, so I'll probably go back and start at the beginning of the series.

I've seen other mentions of the Rayfiel book - sounds interesting, so I'm putting it on my wish list. I'm always looking for good, short books, since I'm the world's slowest reader.

Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through those Pearly Gates, by Thomas Cathcart & Ealliel Klein

I'm reading The Grand Alliance by Winston Churchill, the third of six in his The Second World War series.

Wow, you are whipping through those. You must find them engaging.

Robert

Time & Chance by Sharon Kaye Penman. It is the 2nd, in her "Eleanor of Aquataine" series. It is really good so far, but with that history, it's hard to go wrong.

Among other books. I am now reading John P. Newport's "Paul Tillich" and Theresa Brown's "Critical Care" (this for Early Reviewers).

Two books of short stories, "The Pangs of Love," and "Black Faces, White Faces." These are by Jane Gardam and are totally fascinating. (I hope to post reviews)

Reading Live To Tell, the new thriller by Lisa Gardner, and loving it so far. Also still wading through Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden, and also loving that one, but it's a real chunkster.

#62> Yes, I find them very engaging. I am almost through with The Hinge of Fate which is the fourth book in the series. It is interesting to learn how a world leader who was involved thought about WWII and what he did and to a certain extent why.

"The Face on Your Plate: The truth about food" by Jeffrey Masson

I finished The Hinge of Fate and have started Closing the Ring. I sometimes marvel at someone so totally unencumbered by humility but I do enjoy the books.

#69 Oh, dear, Winterville, that is pretty much the suckiest thing I've heard in a long time ~ maybe ever. I can't top it, though my mother did tell me once when I was around 12 or 13 that she wished she'd never married my father and had us kids. *sigh* What was WRONG with our mothers?

Tell you what. I'll adopt you if you adopt me. :)

I am reading "Oxherding Tale" by Charles Johnson (a first novel).

I just finished The 188th Crybaby Brigade and I am still working on Closing the Ring.

Just this minute, finished T. Harry Williams, 'Huey Long', the best political biography I've every read!!

I'm now being completely captivated by The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Just think. I've not yet read The Shadow of the Wind. Guess I'm due for another treat later then...

Finishedd Time and Chance by Sharon Kaye Penman, but I just happened to pick up a copy of The Devil's Brood and had to finish the trilogy (The first book is When Christ and his Saints slept the 3 books are referred to as the "Eleanor of Aquataine Trilogy". I entered that world and now I can't leave until the final regent bites the dust. Only 600 pages more.

The Reverberator by Henry James and The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: volume 6: From Dickens to Hardy. Very interesting and informative.

Ooooh, MarianV ~ I LOVE Penman's historicals. Sunne in Splendour's my absolute favorite, and the first by her that I read, after which came the Welsh trilogy. Now I'm planning to start the Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy. Time and Chance is right at the top of my TBR list. As soon as I finish my LT ER book The TMJ Healing Plan, that'll be next.

Heidegger and a Hippo go Through the Pearly Gate

Just finished Paul Harding's Tinkers and The Last Child by John Hart. Really loved Hart's thriller. Tinkers, not so much. Right now I'm in the middle of Scott Turow's new book, Innocent, and so far I'm enjoying it a lot.

Hi, everyone, I've been neglecting to post in this group but perhaps I can rally to do better. I am reading The Girl Who Played With Fire right now. It is the second book in Stieg Larssons wildly popular trilogy. There is an interesting article in the latest Time magazine about the unfortunate, and unplanned, consequences of his having died unexpectedly and at a far too young age. I do enjoy his writing. Has anyone else read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo?

Not yet, Maggie ~ I have The Girl Who Played with Fire on order on audiobook at the library though. I did try to read it in hardback a month or so ago but just couldn't get into it. It was a reading slump through which I was suffering, I think, and not the book. At least that's what I hope, and also hope that perhaps listening to it will work better for me.

Right now I'm almost at the end of an LT ER (Sumner Island) and will immediately start The First Rule by Robert Crais (touchstone not working). I'm listening to a Jayne Ann Krentz romance thriller and, as soon as that's done, will start Black Hills by Dan Simmons on audio.

It's so good to have the next book(s) lined up, isn't it?!

yup! I just resisted buying The Girl Who Played With Fire on CDs. I listened to the first book and really enjoyed listening to it. I bought Robin Hobb's latest Dragon book - Dragon Haven - in hard back yet! I also listened to the first book in this Rain Wilds series and really enjoyed it too. So, I am trying to take both authors back to the book. For new audio, I just picked up The Devil in the White City. Honestly, I should just not even go into a bookstore. I am supposed to be saving money for a possible move from one house to another. Sigh.

Oh, well, happy reading and listening.

Coffee with Shakespeare by Stanley Wells

I'm 70 pages into Innocent and not truly enjoying it yet. I've enjoyed Turow's previous works, but the extended angst about having an affair and good marriage v. bad marriage is wearing me down. How soon does it move on?

I'm also reading Innocent by Scott Turow. I too am somewhat put off by the excessive emphasis on having/not having an affair. I am enjoying the writing, however, and like the change of voice in alternating chapters. I keep noticing how much mention is made of people's self-images and appearance. I just finished The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry. which I enjoyed very much. I would encourage others to read it. I'm listening to The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg on CD in my car. I'm not sure I would like it so much if I were reading it but it's fun to listen to. I have about 10 minutes left to listen to of The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley on my mp3 player. Jayne Entwhistle is really fun to listen to on that one.

cherilove and terran - I just finished Innocent, and really enjoyed it, although not quite as much as I did the earlier book (Presumed Innocent). I was also a little put off at first with all that angst and some of the questionable (to say the least) choices the characters make. And I never really warmed to the son, Nat. But once the courtroom battle got underway, I thought things picked up remarkably. On the other hand, I was disappointed in The Map of True Places, but that might just be because I loved Barry's The Lace Reader so much - probably anything would have been a let down after that.

Out of God's Closet by Stephen Uhl.

Opened-at-random Max Beerbohm. (Should catalog/review!!)

Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, by Belle Yang

I mean to get around to Belle Yang. Should I do it sooner rather than later?

Robert

I finished reading The Girl Who Played With Fire and really loved it. It is book two in a trilogy written by Stieg Larsson and is very popular right now, and rightfully so. It is a griping story/mystery.

I am starting on Dragon Haven - book two of Robin Hobb's Rain Wild series. It is a new book and I don't know if it is doing well or not. We shall see.

#91 If you have read Belle Yang's other books (Baba: A Return to China Upon my Father's Shoulders and The Odyssey of a Manchurian), Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, appears, to me as the last of a trilogy, with many more of her "illustrations".

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose. I'm about midway through and enjoying it a lot, even though I haven't read any of the earlier books in the series.

The Assault on Truth, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Reading The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant, and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, and thoroughly enjoying both books. The stories have an oddly similar feel, too - both about young girls sleuthing close to home.

I just finished reading My Life in France by Julia Child and completely loved it. I am reading the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire which I am also enjoying. I believe the third book will be out in August and I am looking forward to it.

I am also thinking of buying some of the Julia Child cookbooks, probably starting with Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes 1 and 2. I have been looking on line and boy! they can be expensive but I think there are some Trade paperback versions which are not so expensive.

I've recently read all three of the Stieg Larrson trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and loved them all. The first is a bit slow to get into, but once you get going, watch out!!

Recently finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which is an incredibly sweet book about the time we were all born (mid-1940s). And now I'm in the midst of The Elegance of the Hedgehog which I'm also enjoying very much.

The Help made me more aware of what was going on in the American South in the '60s while I was busy having and raising a kid in California, literally in a different world.

"Stronger Than Iron" (an Early Reviewer Book)

My physical health more and more limits my mobility, and my reading has ijncreased to a book a day (or two). At the tender age of 67, I am discovering new authors every two or three months that I revere. James Lee Burke of the David Robincheaux series set inj Louiisiana around New Orleans, and Boy Howdy series set in montana, keep me going and growing. I've "saved" several authors FOR MY OLD AGE lol and now wish I;d dipped into some of them earlier. I found Fritz Leiber is not my taste. I simply cannot identify with his style. And Richard Matgeson is overrated. He's good, but God help you if you see the movies first (especially I Am Legend and The Shrinking man), because so much is different.I know I know. They are two different art forms. However, the story should not be changed, and I think modern directors do not put the story first. They are more interested in nailing the film watchner to his seat by steel exposures of sex and violence. Right now, tonight, I am halfway through Crichton's A CASE OF NEED, a third of the way through Matheson's THE SHRINKING MAN, both by the bed, and THE A B C OF BOOK COLLECTING (fifth edition) in the one bathroom, and LITERATURE TRIVIA in the second bathroom. In the gues room where i sometimes nap in the afternoon are THE DIABETES MANIFESTO and THE IMPERIAL CRUISE, both coming out this month (I review them for the publisher).

"Staying Up Much Too Late; Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and the Dark Side of the American Psyche" by Gordon Theisen

And Then There Were None is my current read. Read Agatha's Autobiography and so I am newly interested in her novels, although I do notice how dated they are. I am pretty dated, too.

I started Sense and Sensibility last night. That's an old people's and academics' book, isn't it?

Robert

I've just discovered graphic novels. My sister who is 14 years younger than me calls them comic books and says I must be going into my second childhood. My response is who said I ever left my first childhood?

Best of the bunch so far: Maus I and The Sandman series. Also Persepolis.

Edited to fix touchstones.

Try Maus II. It's also up there as best of the bunch. The story was not yet over with Maus I.

Maus II is on the hold shelf at the library, just waiting for me to come pick it up on Tuesday!

Good choice!

Yes it is! Heard about it on the 75-book thread for graphic novels. :)

May I ask what the difference is between comics (comic books) and graphic novels?

Thrin
$5.35 plus tax

:-) Thanks usnmm2!

Hahaha! Good one! My sister insists there is no difference (tho she's yet to read one). From my perspective, the themes in graphic novels (at least the ones I've read) are more subtle and the subject matter more substantive than comic books. Also, the writing, though necessarily condensed, is surprisingly intelligent and often witty (i.e., no "Bam!s" "Pow!s" "Crash!es" or "Holy Batshit, Robin!s"). Pretty sure graphic novels will never comprise more than a small fraction of my reading material, but every so often, a Maus or Persepolis will make a refreshing change.

Graphic novels tend to be more "mature" in their content. Sort of the old "classic comics" on steriods of years ago. (The ones we all used for book reports {wink, wink ,look up at the sky, dig toe into the dirt and I hope my 8th grade teacher not reading this}. But I'm also of the opinion that as long as people are reading it's a good thing.

Rereading "Britannia Mews." This long-time favorite never fails to hold my interest. (I should/will! write a review.)

The Clerk's Tale-Yes, I am still in the Middle Ages! 8^)

Reading Tassy Morgan's Bluff by Jim Stinson, and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

I haven't visited this thread in a loooong time: So, I'm reading A Clash of Swords which is book 3 of George R.R. Martin's Ice and Fire series, and it goes along, kind-of, with watching the HBO series of A Game of Thrones. And I'm reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption which gives some real life reality check to the idea of War. There are others I have my bookmarks in, but that'll be all I'll disclose here.

Hi, maggie ~ I haven't been here for a long time either! I miss seeing what everyone's up to. I see you and I are much alike in reading habits. I've got four going myself: Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich, Heartstone by C.J. Sansom, Relic by Douglas Preston (on audio), and The Help by Kathryn Stockett (also on audio). It's not that I get bored by any of them; it's just that I want to read all of them at the same time because I'm enjoying all of them so much!

Hi, Mary

I agree we seem to have some commonalities. I too have many books going at the same time, and yet and still, I take breaks, too. I'm a little full up of the George R.R. Martin series just about 1/4 of the way into book 3; so, I will probably put it down for a bit. My next book group meeting book I've finished so I may continue to work on getting Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption finished.

I always hesitate before putting a book down "for a bit" because I seldom pick it back up again. The only time it seems to work for me is if I'm putting it down to bump another book into top position because I simply can't wait to read it and need instant gratification. Then I can usually jump back into the first book when I'm done with the second.

#119 Loved Relic when I read it several years ago. Is the audio just as good?

I'm on a Colin Dexter/Inspector Morse roll right now - yesterday finished Service of all the dead and today The dead of Jericho. Also am reading The canon, a book about popular science and another of John Sarno's books, The mindbody prescription

I can't read just one book at a time - I pick up what appeals to me at the moment which is probably not the best way to read a book since I may let something sit for a week between readings.

In June, 1951, when I was being inducted into the Navy, I had, with me, a copy of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, which I had been reading while on the train taking me to the Navy center in Los Angeles. I guiess that I was about half-way through the book. However,the induction center people took everything: civilian clothes, wrist-watches, books, etc., etc., boxed it up and sent it to our home address. Now, I am again reading The Brothers Karamazov. It is a very existential narrative, which I, as a 17 year old (in June, 1951) would have had no idea about what Dostoevsky was trying to say.

That is a great circle of life story.

>122 fdholt: Hi, fdholt ~ I enjoyed it on audio, but I think the print version would have been just as good. The reader didn't thrill me, though he wasn't horrible. I am going to be reading the next ~ Reliquary ~ in print because I can't find it on audio at either of my library systems.

Oooohhhh, having the whole Pendergast series ahead of you. I AM SO JEALOUS. I'm reduced now to waiting for them as they come out. There are several other books written by them that feature characters from some of the Pendergast novels, por exemplo, Smithback is featured heavily in Thunderhead which is not a Pendergast book. Oh, how fortunate, and best of all, if you haven't read it, you still have Cabinet of Curiosities ahead of you. This is the novel in which Pendergast comes alive.

Your excitement is contagious, geneg! I've heard of Cabinet of Curiosities, which has gotten some good reviews on LT.

I've actually listened to two so far: Relic, the first, and Cemetery Dance, one of the more recent ones. I hated the narrator of Cemetery Dance so much it took quite awhile before I could bring myself to start at the beginning of the series, but I did like Pendergast and the writing a lot, so...

Storeetllr

Enjoy Reliquary. It was good!

Thanks, Fianna! Looking forward to it.

The Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell. I don't know how I missed these great mysteries but I am getting caught up now!!

>130 librarylady46: I've heard the Wallander mysteries are good but haven't started this series yet. Something to look forward to!

They did one season of Wallender starring Kenneth Branagh-it ran on Masterpiece Mystery last year but it has not come back for a second season! They were very good! They called him 'The Surly Swede' & he most certainly is a surly sort. I am hoping it will come back. 8^)

Just finished reading (must write review!) "The Upright Piano Player" by David Abbott. This is a first novel, written when he retired. (I have an Early Review copy.)

This is a first novel, written when he retired.

Oh! That is my dream! (Two more years. Two more years. But can I wait that long?)

I'll be interested to know your thoughts on The Upright Piano Player when you've gotten your review written.

I am still reading A Feast for Crows. I thibnk I don't want to see this scene....

Heidegger's Being and Time by William Blattner

I am reading 2 books on Pennsylvania Dutch needlework:
This is the way I pass my time and Samplers of the Pennsylvania Germans.

What is interesting is that the 2nd book lists a sampler made by an ancestor which is owned by our local historical society. There was a chart made of this and I stitched it, correcting Catarina's mistakes (which I think would have made my mother proud - a Weidner does not leave mistakes in needlework but rips, rips, rips).

>137 fdholt: :)

I stopped in the middle of Dance of Death ~ the tension was just too much for me just a the moment and I needed a breather ~ and picked up Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer which is the perfect antidote to the almost unbearable tenseness of the Agent Pendergast mystery/thriller.

138, Do you find the overall quality of the Pendergast series has had a hard time keeping up with the promise of Cabinet of Curiosities? Are you aware that Doug and Linc are working on a new, non-Pendergast series?

139 ~ I really liked Still Life with Crows and Brimstone, but you are right: The Cabinet of Curiosities was the best so far. I am having a hard time with Dance of Death for a couple of reasons: first, as I said, the tension is a bit too much for me at this moment ~ I see where this is going and don't like it one bit ~ so am taking a break from it with some lighter reading. Second, I always have a hard time when the villain seems omnipotent. Unless the bad guy is a supernatural being (and even then...), it always bothers me enough to interrupt my concentration when they are always one or more steps ahead of the protagonist and aware of things it is impossible for them to know.

No, I didn't know about the new series. What is the new series going to be about? I do have a non-Pendergast novel on my pile: The CodeX, which I will try to get to one of these days, though it's really Pendergast I'm stuck on. What an odd man, but very compelling.

I loved The Codex. They've also written several very good non-Pendergast thrillers together featuring characters from the Pendergast Series. The best example is Thunderhead with Smithback as a major player, along with Nora Kelley. The Ice Limit features the technology company that pops up from time to time in the Pendergast series, the name escapes me at this time. Both are excellent reads. I've read most of their books and while C of C sets the standard, the rest are really excellent in their own right. Faced with a Preston/Child novel and a Stephan King novel Preston/Child wins every time with me.

Having sent the girl from Still Life with Crows off to college, I'm very interested in seeing her return, and how she will fit into their ever changing menagerie of characters.

From time to time, my wife and I sit around playing a game we like to call "Casting Pendergast". Who do you think would make the best Pendergast? I've got my money on Orlando Bloom if he can gin up a credible upper crust New Orleans accent. I can't believe no one has picked up C of C for a movie.

Here's a link to their web site.

Hmm, Orlando Bloom? I love him as an actor, but is he old enough (or can be appear old enough)? Pendergast is at least 40 yrs. old in Relic, isn't he? Hmm, I'll have to think about who I think would make the best Pendergast. I have a definite mental image of him...

I loved the goth girl from SLwC and was hoping she's make a reappearance!

With appropriate costume and make up Bloom can look quite mature. (I hope)

I just saw a photo of him that shows him looking much older than he did when he played Legolas, but he has such dark eyes. Do you think tinted contact lenses could make them light blue enough?

Hollywood uses tinted contacts all the time. I picture Pendergast as being wiry leaning toward willowy. Tall, but not too tall. Blond with nearly white hair. The actor that closest fits the bill, to me, is Bloom. I've got Vincent D'Onofrio as my preferred Vinny D'Agosta.

Oh, no, that can't be true: Vincent D'Onofrio as Vincent D'Agosta? Too funny! (Have to look him up, see who he is.) If they can get his eyes light enough, then I can see Bloom as him (although he's much prettier than I imagine Pendergast being).

Maimoniides (Reader review)

Having just seen the film I am going to reread "The Shipping News."

Tina Fey: Bossy Pants

I am reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog and just enjoyed a scene with the concierge and a cleaning lady spend a twice a week "tea time" with each other, and how they each feel much like a queen in their friendship. Oh, joy! I know that feeling. A friend who knows you as well or better than you know yourself.

I am also reading A Dance with Dragons and have to put it down so I can make progress on books I have committed to read for book groups. This category included picking up and reading some of The Martian Chronicles and happily stumbled upon a radio show rebroadcasting some Bradbury short stories first recorded in the 1950s. It is no wonder I do not finish books quickly. Am reading too much at the same time. But I love it. No worries.

Hi, Maggie ~ Still reading multiple books at a time, I see. Me too, me too. I'm in the middle of The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter (so good!) on my Kindle, and am listening to The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell (read by Rosalyn Landor) on my iPod. Not sure what my next print book will be, but maybe either Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts or The Forest by Rutherfurd (could two books be more different?).

Yup, multiple books is me! And the funny part is that there are dozens more sitting here and there which I can pick up if any of the above do not please, in the minute. Severe case of Reading ADD!

The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency by Randall Kennedy

I finished my dog book (following atticus) and am moving back to the book group's next book The Terror. I am going to do a Read-A-Thon this weekend so I can get it and the Sci Fi group's book - A Soldier's Duty: Theirs Not to Reason Why by a local author, Jean Johnson, read. I believe she will be joining us at our next book group meeting. Should be fun! And I do feel an obligation to have actually finished reading her book.

Re-reading "The Sound of One Hand Clapping," by Richard Flanagan, one of the most beautifully written books I own.

A Murder in the Venetian Quarter which is my latest read in a long list of Medieval mysteries-tho this is the first one from the Fool's Guild series that have read. I have read a lot of books from several other Medieval mystery series by several other authors. I am really hooked on this genre. 8^)

Graphic novels (like Chew I and II and the Lucifer series by Mike Carey) and the novels of Georgette Heyer. Strange bedfollows, you might think, and you'd be right, but, then, I do like variety. Sadly, it seems I get that mostly through books these days.

Here Comes Trouble by Michael Moore

The Oath byMichael Jecks which is one of his Knights Templar Mysteries. I have read several of them & like them very much-this one is very challenging due to the numbers of characters & the complexity of the plot but I am determined to conquer it! At 500 pages it is nearly twice as long as the rest of the books in the series which I have read so far. 8^)

Reading The brothers Gwynedd, four novels by Edith Pargeter. Slow going but am learning a lot of Welsh and English history. Also started The gadfly by E.L. Voynich but it's very confusing. Many times, I simply cannot figure out who is talking. Must be the way as author writes in the 1890s.

Just finished Gene Ruyle's The stuff of a lifetime and need to work on the review.

Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio

Have any of you read The Time Machine? Any suggestions to make it more enjoyable? I am reading it for a real life, Sci Fi, book group and I'm finding it hard to slog through. But I feel obligated to read the book so I can go to the meeting and at least be able to say something half-way intelligent.

Just started reading (and listening to on CD) The Shining by Stephen King.

Nope. I never read the book or saw the movie before, although I'm a long-time Stephen King fan.

Nietzsche and Emerson: An Elective Affinity.

I'm reading the sad but beautiful Scenes From Village Life by Amos oz.

Reading The Seance by John Harwood, and Bid Time Return (aka: Somewhere in Time) by Richard Matheson.

Just finished reading My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. Still reading Richard Matheson's Bid Time Return. Also an Early Reviewer book, Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II, by Philip Eade.

Just finished reading Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and I'll declare it a great read for more "mature" readers. The protagonist is looking back over 60+ years of life. Set in Seattle, and covers the period of time between WWII and now.

Recommended.

The Stuff of a Lifetime: Self, Sense, Soul, and Spirit in Human Experience, by Gene Ruyle.

I'm reading my first Stephen King novel, his new one: 11.22.63 which a number of King fans are saying should be read by King virgins, like myself. The story is good - and enjoyable. My problem with King as a writer is that I find him stylistically flat - ok I'm only on page 85, so it might change. I found the same with Lionel Shriver's We need to talk about Kevin - great story, though.

I just finished The Hamlet by Faulkner, a group pf short stories tied together by place, time, and people into a novel of sorts. Very interesting read and in places it fairly zips along way faster than any other literary fiction with which I am familiar.

I'm currently about two thirds of the way through Mirage Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt. It's non-fiction, quite good and, if you like this sort of stuff, worth a read.

As for Stephen King, I can't get the horror of reading the edited version of The Stand out of my mind. I wish I was a Stephen King virgin. I describe his style as full bloat. I can't imagine how the unedited version of The Stand reads. That said, I expect he has improved over the years, I'm just not the guy who's going to find out.

Just finished The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. What a great little book! And a very fast read. I've got my husband reading it now.

Starting The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt, which is quite a chunkster and will probably take me several months to get through. Also still reading Bid Time Return (aka Somewhere in Time) by Richard Matheson -- hope to finish that one up tonight.

Finished Mirage. An interesting survey of a horrible time. Now reading John Cowper Powys' Porius. So far, an excellent read. It's a tome and might take a while.

I am back picking my way through Dance with Dragons. It think I've reviewed all the pages I've read previously and am, finally, into some new material. I really, really want to finish this book, this time!

>162 maggie1944:
Maggie, I'm a little late for you (I wasn't here in October), but I've read The Time Machine. I got into some classic SF when I was in high school, and that was my favorite. I read it over and over again. Did you get through it? What made it such hard going?

H.G. Wells and his device figure in Félix J. Palma's The Map of Time, which I recently read and enjoyed.

Meredy, it just seemed so dated. I felt like I was reading a book assigned to me in high school, and I'm a wee bit past high school now. hehehehe

Ah, but its voice and flavor are authentic! I'd rather read the real thing than an imitator trying to sound Victorian. And it's definitely a major monument in SF history, so that's another attraction. Besides...besides, when I read it, in the early sixties, it was after this: "Now that you have read the Classics Illustrated edition, don't miss the added enjoyment of reading the original, obtainable at your school or public library." Did anyone else take that admonition to heart? I did, many times.

Last year I read George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss for the first time. I bought a nice leather-bound, gold-stamped edition so it would feel real. That was slow going, all right, with all of Eliot's seeming compulsive documentation of the discourse and manner of speech of various classes of countryfolk, but it's still hard to find an author more gifted at revealing the workings of the human heart.

Right now I'm reading Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. It is a very good book, especially if you like stories set in the UK ( Scotland ). It is about a woman named Elfrida who is 62 and has completely changed her life by moving from London to now in Scotland. She has now found a new love....... Will see what happens. The descriptions of winter in Scotland are beautiful.

I just finished the Margaret Maron ( Judge Deborah Knott series ). I started reading this series because it was written by a native North Carolina writer. Also, I just love reading mysteries. Before this series, I completed the Tea Shop Mysteries set in Charleston SC.

How do people in this age group feel about e-readers? I just can't get into them, yet. I still love sitting in my library/reading room and looking at my modest accumulation of books. One can't do that with e-reader books, so I'll probably stick with the regular type of books.. they are so beautiful. Although, I do like to listen to audio books at night ....they help in getting to sleep.

I prefer real books myself, but my husband gave me a Nook, and it's very convenient. Especially, it's great for traveling; I can take a whole bunch of books without adding weight and bulk. Lately I borrowed his Kindle, and I like it too; the page-turning buttons are easier to work.

I think, though, that you'll have to pry my real books from my cold dead fingers before I give them up!

I'm a long way from being ready for an e-reader. Not only do I love the feel and smell and heft of a real book but an electronic page is never going to give you the fine, crisp resolution, typography, and page design of a well-made book.

Moreover, I regard a book--especially a nonfiction book--as a dialogue. The author's part is in print, and my part is in pencil.

There are times when I would really appreciate a lightweight library that I can hold indefinitely in one hand, but they don't outnumber or outweigh the pleasures of a physical book.

Besides, all I need to read a book is enough light. It does not depend on batteries or the continuity of a power source, and it will long outlast the present generation of software and devices. It will be decodable centuries from now, when e-readers and their technology are long obsolete.

I read in my color Nook, my Kindle, and my "dead tree" books. Not every book can be had on the ereaders so I do buy regular books all the time, I also need the regular ones for when I am soaking in my warm baths and reading. But I love the ereaders because my arthritis can be a problem when holding a book open. I really cannot read fat paperbacks anymore, my hands just do not want to hold them open. And heavy hardback books require special arrangements (pillows, sofa arms).

I also love that I can enlarge the font on the ereaders when I am tired and my eyes are grateful for large print. I am beginning to deal with cataracts and am grateful for all the help I can find.

The special lighting used by the Kindle means I do not need to assure myself of adequate lighting, as the Kindle does it for you.

If I were buying an ereader and was trying to decide between the Kindle and the Nook, I'd buy a color Nook. But I've not "shopped" a Kindle-Fire and I must say I am tempted to look at it. My Kindle is first generation and I am sure there are many improvements. That said: I do love my Kindle, and my color Nook!

I tried to read The Foundation Trilogy a few years ago. A true classic of the SF genre. I couldn't get past the first twenty pages. What an excruciatingly crappy book. My observation is that SF, with a few exceptions, The Day of the Triffids comes to mind, does not wear well.

I love reading books in any format: hardback, paperback (though I have the same issues with them as Maggie), trade, ebooks, audiobooks. Nor do intend to ever get rid of the books in my library or stop buying books and borrowing public library books. But I just bought (on sale) a Kindle DX which is bigger (and a bit heavier) than a regular Kindle Touch or Kindle3 Keyboard, but oh! It's just lovely to read with. I use my K3 for commuting & traveling and read paper books and ebooks on the DX at home.

Starting the week off with Staying On, by Paul Scott. Thought I had read this one back in the '70s, but I don't remember any of it so far.

Just finished Bid Time Return (Somewhere in Time), by Richard Matheson. Read it on my iPad, using the Kindle app. I think I do read faster on the iPad, and I'm getting to enjoy it more and more. I also "love reading books in any format" (right on, Storeetllr!), but I'm running out of shelf space for the "real" kind.

I think there might be a small group of Library Thing people doing a "group reading" of Herodotus The Histories. Does anyone here know anyone involved in this. I need a thread to pull....

There was one in the 1010 challenge (http://www.librarything.com/topic/79011). Don't know if there is a more recent one.

ETA: Apparently, there is!

Someone else sent me here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/106590

ER "Backward Ran Sentences" which is 800+ pages!! It's a challenge to review this category of book. (It is a wonderful anthology of pieces from New Yorker magazine.)

Just finished Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. Getting back to an Early Reviewer book now -- Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II, by Philip Eade. Should have finished that one long ago. Hope the prince is OK after his heart surgery.

I just finished reading The Last Gunfight which accounts the best historical information about the famous, or infamous, gunfight at OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. It was a very enjoyable read, thoroughly interesting and gives a seemingly realistic description of life in a rough and tumble pioneer community populated by "cow boys" (today they'd be called punks), miners, gamblers, and entrepreneurs of all types. While telling the story Jeff Guinn tried to account for what gun fighting in "the old west" was really like, with guns which did not shoot all that accurately, and when male pride often trumped common sense. And he describes accurately the famous characters of Bat Masterson, Doc Watson, and Wyatt Earp and his brothers. The hero which is the Wyatt Earp of movies and TV is made to be much more believable; and admirable despite some pretty heinous faults.

Recommended.

Currently reading John Cowper Powys's Porius. A work of historical fiction which attempts pretty successfully to re-sacrilize nature as it might have been understood at the time of the collapse of Rome. Set in modern Wales in the fifth century CE about the intersection of Roman civilization, their Brithonic allies, and the tribes of the Welsh marshes and river valleys as Roman influence crumbles into what we refer to as The Dark Age. The quality of the writing is absolutely top notch. I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction.

Thanks, geneg! I just added Porius to the mile-long wishlist. Maggie, The Last Gunfight sounds right up my alley, having just finished reading Doc, a wonderful novel about Doc Holliday, with the Earp brothers, Bat Masterson, and their various womenfolk, set mostly in Dodge City in the late 1870s (before the OK Corral). I've been casting about for something equally wonderful. In the meantime, I'm reading two undemanding fantasies: Clockwork Angel on my iPod and Graceling on my Kindle.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Received as Christmas gifts and plan to read ASAP: let's take the long way home and Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit! Both look absolutely wonderful.

The introduction of DVD movies, of such author's as Jane Austin, Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, has created a heavy reading motivtional requirement for me, e.g. Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace Anna Karenina, etc.; and also wanting to compare actors and actresses to their other movie roles (i.e. Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehley, et al.)

I was also given The Road by my grandson, at Christmas, and I opened it and fell in! Wow! It grabbed me and held my attention all the way through the scant 300 pages. McCarthy is an excellent writer and he captured such humanity while in a grim, dystopic, post apocalypse environment. One could be depressed by it but I was not and I believe this is in part due to McCarthy's ability as a writer and his intentions to not "choose sides" between optimism and pessimism.

I do recommend it, but probably not for the faint of heart.

196, That's quite interesting, and I have just uordered one of the latest series of lectures, from the Teaching Company, which is on the history and development of the apocalypse concept (from Paul and other sources), so, I may have to read The Road as a variation.

Ran across this via Twitter: The 20th Century in novels.

And now for something entirely different, I am reading Inheritance.

"Nobody Here Except All of Us," an early reviewer book. It is a fascinating telling of a true family history. (I'll be writing & posting my review as soon as I finish reading.)

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death." - Shakespeare: Macbeth.

They didn't call him Shakespeare for nothin'.

^201 Good quote at the last gasp of the waning year. (Mind if I borrow it?)

"Out, out brief candle; Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets its hour upon the stage and then is heard no more." Ian McKellan gives a good rendition of this in the DVD Acting Shakespeare.

I'm currently reading Started Early, Took My Dog, Kate Atkinson's fourth Jackson Brodie novel. I would definitely recommend it, but only after the other three, just because they're a pleasure you don't want to miss (if you like one, you'll like them all), and you may as well take them in order.

They qualify for the crime fiction genre, but they're so much more: you could make a case for mainstream fiction and even literary fiction. That the plotline involves one or more crimes and a detective out to solve them does not tell the whole story. They are intelligent, beautifully crafted, and rich in subtlety and allusion. Perhaps best of all, the author has a gift for showing us the inner lives of characters, a way of creating intimacy with them that few other authors can touch.

This one has been on my nightstand ever since it was released, and I've been saving it up. After several disappointing reads in a row, I was simply ready for something I could trust. Isn't it nice to have something like that within arm's reach?

The Feeling of What Happens, by Antionio Damasio.