What are you reading?

[Bette Davis 0]

 

Uncommon Arrangements by Katie Roiphe.

 

She has a new book out? Have you read Still She Haunts Me? It's one of my all-time faves.

 

 

I haven't read her novel about Lewis Caroll. It is on my list of must reads. Isn't that her only fiction book so far?

 

This is non fiction about London Literary couples circa 1910's-1930's. I have read the sections on Katherine Mansfield and John Middlebury, Jane Wells and HG Wells and Rebecca West and Vanessa Bell and Clive Bell so far. Excellent!!!

[virginia4 0]

I just read Happiness Sold Separately. Very good.

[GovMarley 90]

Just started "The Grave Tattoo" by Val McDermid.

[virginia4 0]

QUOTE(Trizzie @ May 11 2007, 12:06 AM)

 

can anyone give me a good reason to keep going?

 

 

 

Honestly?

 

 

No.

I agree as well - glad to see you gave up! Trizzie - I have FNKC as well but haven't started it - hope to hear that it's good. I just started "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver today and am totally sucked in already. Has anyone read it?

 

Freelancegirl - that's amazing! Is it available in England yet? I'd love to support a fellow chitchatter and it looks good to boot!

 

 

I just read We Need to Talk about Kevin. It was the most disturbing book I have ever read.

[Hoyaheel 1,874]

I'm getting ready to give up on Innocents Abroad (Twain) I keep reading another chapter and being bored to tears, plus I find the xenophobia annoying (I know, it's just a sign of the times in which Twain was writing, but still.....) How many times do I have to pick up and set down a book again before I give it up for good??

[fykeylicious 1,099]

I'm getting ready to give up on Innocents Abroad (Twain) I keep reading another chapter and being bored to tears, plus I find the xenophobia annoying (I know, it's just a sign of the times in which Twain was writing, but still.....) How many times do I have to pick up and set down a book again before I give it up for good??

How many pages in are you?

 

I'm reading about 8 books right now, and I'm not too into any of them, so I feel a little stalled right now.

[Hoyaheel 1,874]

I left it at home so I'm guessing--I'm on chapter XV, maybe 100? 150?

 

It's a library book, and I just renewed it, so I'll give it a little more time. I'm also in between a few books at the moment (with a lovely Harry Potter interlude over the weekend) and none are grabbing me so I've been catching up on magazines instead Oh well, if it doesn't happen it won't be because I didn't try I think because Innocents Abroad marks Twain's transition between journalism and fiction that it's a style I'm not used to for him--it was a style he wasn't used to--and that makes it all the more difficult. Just a guess on my part.

[Blondie 0]

I just read We Need to Talk about Kevin. It was the most disturbing book I have ever read.

I know - I could not stop thinking about it for days afterwards.

 

On another note, I just returned from holiday where I devoured Freelancergirl's book and I highly recommend. Great story, great writing.

[Trizzie 0]

I just finished Sammy's House, Kristin Gore's new book. It is an entertaining read.

 

I got my Harry Potter in the mail on Saturday!

[Hoyaheel 1,874]

I just finished Sammy's House, Kristin Gore's new book. It is an entertaining read.

I think I have her last book on my reading list. Or was it the other Gore?

[freelancergirl 0]

I just read Happiness Sold Separately. Very good.

Have you read Good Grief, her first book? It's one of my all-time favorites. SO good.

 

On another note, I just returned from holiday where I devoured Freelancergirl's book and I highly recommend. Great story, great writing.

Aw, thanks Blondie!!! I'm truly so grateful whenever anyone picks it up and enjoys it!

[bittermuch? 0]

Oh I think Good Grief was the last "chick lit-ish" book that I read that I liked.

[Trizzie 0]

I think I have her last book on my reading list. Or was it the other Gore?

Was it Sammy's Hill? (I think that it what it was called). If so, this is the sequel.

[virginia4 0]

I just read Happiness Sold Separately. Very good.

Have you read Good Grief, her first book? It's one of my all-time favorites. SO good.

 

On another note, I just returned from holiday where I devoured Freelancergirl's book and I highly recommend. Great story, great writing.

Aw, thanks Blondie!!! I'm truly so grateful whenever anyone picks it up and enjoys it!

 

I haven't read Good Grief but I will. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Bette Davis 0]

A biography of Aaron Burr. The old boy was actually a feminist!

[Miss Anthropic 0]

I am on a big Christopher Moore kick right now.

 

He is one of my favorite authors.

 

I have read...

 

"Lamb"

 

"Fluke"

 

"A Dirty Job"

 

And I am currently reading "Island of the Sequined Love Nun".

 

[bittermuch? 0]

Has anyone read Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex? I heard an old interview with him about the book on the radio last week while I was on vacation and it sounded interesting, so I picked up the book but then of course have not had the chance really to start it. I remember ultimately liking The Virgin Suicides, but feel like it took me forever to read because I kept putting it down. Wondering if this book will be the same way.

 

I've kind of cooled on the Philippa Gregory books. I finished The Virgin's Lover on vacation, and am about a quarter into The Queen's Fool, but I find her characterizations are shallow and bizarre and feel like every character behaves in extreme and arbitrary ways. No one feels real, which is usually half the fun of these historical fiction books - in good ones, you feel like you get to know and identify with someone long-dead who lived in a very different world. I almost felt that at times with Mary Boleyn, but never with anyone in any of the other books. The historical angle is just no longer interesting enough to keep me going for now. Is The Constant Princess better?

[Hoyaheel 1,874]

Is The Constant Princess better?

Well, the Virgin's Lover was my favorite. I can't remember how I felt about Queen's Fool.

 

Gregory, like many other authors I like, writes books that are too similar to read close to each other (in my opinion....I prefer to spread them out)

 

Have you read any of the Elizabethan mysteries by Fiona Buckley? Or, to go back a few years, the book that got me "launched" into Tudor history and historical fiction in general--The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George. I loved George's book Memoir of Cleopatra too. Mary Magdalene book was ok, and I struggled to get through the Helen of Troy book (most recent)

 

I don't like to read fiction that makes me think *too* much (for that, I'll read non-fiction, or at least, a memoir ) so we might not like the same type books.

[bittermuch? 0]

Thanks for the suggestions, Hoyaheel, those all sound promising. I think you're right about reading the books too close together. I started The Virgin's Lover right after I finished The Other Boleyn Girl, and started reading The Queen's Fool when I mistakenly left the in-progress Virgin's Lover at home while on a business trip.

 

I am fickle when it comes to fiction - sometimes I like to be challenged and sometimes I'm just lazy and want to be drawn along by a quick plot or escape into something a bit sensational. Lately the lazy rules.

Edited August 8, 2007 by bittermuch?

[fykeylicious 1,099]

I am fickle when it comes to fiction - sometimes I like to be challenged and sometimes I'm just lazy and want to be drawn along by a quick plot or escape into something a bit sensational. Lately the lazy rules.

I agree - right now I'm reading King's Bag of Bones, and I just finished Sharp Objects, which I liked. I'm reading We Need to Talk about Kevin next.

[virginia4 0]

We Need to Talk about Kevin is so disturbing. I almost wish I didn't read it.

[purplemyst 0]

I was given We Need to Talk About Kevin, but I'd just reread Kite Flyer and finally gotten around to A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseni), so I wanted something easier. Lucky for me, Harry Potter was just around the corner, so I read a lot of Mugglenet commentaries to fill in the gaps

[cydonia 0]

Reading Eragon. I know, pretty light reading, but it was given to me as a gift by a family member, so I feel obligated to read it. It's actually not that bad - again - very light but easy.

[sproutster 0]

I've decided that Revolutions is def a winter book. I just cannot get into it yet.

 

I've been reading Corrections this week. I cannot quite figure out why all the awards and I'm more then halfway in, it's like a study of mental problems in a family and seems to insinuate everyone is like that... blah I dunno.

 

Looks like I'll have to pick up We Need to Talk About Kevin. Need to be in a certain frame of mind.

 

Finished Ruins (reading tons of books while finishing Corrections.) Disliked the ending ~ was a pointless watch of suffering.

 

Special Topics in Clamity Physics - Eh... Good read until the end, no bang for the buck.

 

The book tho I haven't seen on this list that affected me deeply and I still think about is History of Love. OMG I was weeping like a 3 year old by page 14, and it took that heartbreak and stomped and kicked it as the grand finally (sp). It was a study in a type of misery, but really, really touched me.

[branchop 319]

I've been reading Corrections this week. I cannot quite figure out why all the awards and I'm more then halfway in, it's like a study of mental problems in a family and seems to insinuate everyone is like that... blah I dunno.

 

Corrections I felt the same way about. Unitl the very last page. And if you look ahead and read the very last page it seems very mundane. But after reading through everything, hating every minute of it, saying to yourself "Oprah liked this?" the lightbulb came on and I loved it, just about the last sentence. It actually made me want to read it again.

 

Then cooler heads prevailed and I didn't. I will be interested to see if you have the same reaction.