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Finished Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live yesterday morning. I was deeply annoyed with him and the book for about the first 100 pages, but eventually it grew on me. Don't expect it to be more than tangentially related to the premise (rock critic takes road trip across the country to visit sites of rock-n-roll deaths). I knew Klosterman tended to be a bit on the narcissistic and self-involved side, but I kinda expected his self-examinations and reflections to at least be inspired by the events that took place at the different sites he was visiting. Nope. But overall not a bad read if you can tolerate living in a world that revolves around Klosterman and the women he thinks he has loved for two hundred pages or so.Also just finished The Ghost Writer by John Harwood. Nice and spooky for the most part, and I find myself thinking about all the different things that Harwood may or may not have been doing with the book. At first I found the ending a bit of a letdown, but now I'm reconsidering. Worth checking out, especially if you like spooky Gothic/Victorian-inspired ghosty stuff.

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oh I read The Pilot's Wife a while back. I remember not being able to decide whether I liked it or not.just engaged in massive reading binge. Last four books: Bachelorette #1 (lame and a waste of my time but NOT SPOOKY which was my main criterion after waking up all scared and alone in my dark house - except for bad barking-at-nothing-so-must-be-ghosts doggie :blink: - the night I finished The Ghost Writer...), Going Down and High Maintenance by Jennifer Belle (both good, liked second better than first), and now Bergdorf Blondes. Am liking Bergdorf more than I expected to based on my general disdain for Plum Sykes - she seems to be making fun of the whole thing and highlighting how lame and superficial it all is, while simultaneously allowing us to revel in how lame and superficial it all is... am not quite done but so far give it definite thumbs-up as a beach or poolside read. B)

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Plum Sykes makes me stabby. :D I LOVE Jennifer Belle and totally recommend both her books too.I also recommend DOPE by Sara Gran, just finished that - awesome hard-boiled mystery which takes place in the 50s. Female narrator. Super cool.

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I am almost finished with "The Men I didn't Marry" by the same people who wrote the Botox Diaries. It is pretty good. Very quick read.

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Just finished "A Murder in Belmont" by Sebastian Junger. Worth reading but kinda disappointing - I really liked the excerpt in Vanity Fair, but it was practically as bad as a movie trailer and all the best parts of the book were in it so the book itself was a let-down.

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I just finished The Queen's Fool by Phillippa Gregory -- awesome historical fiction!

I loved it too, and am not normally a big historical fiction reader. After I read this one, I read all of them in the series...

 

The Constant Princess

 

The Other Boleyn Girl

 

The Queen's Fool

 

The Virgin's Lover

 

There may be others but I'm not sure.

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... and then there will be The Boleyn Inheritance...

 

and my love for all things English gardens made me pick up her books Earthly Joy and the sequel Virgin Earth about the royal gardener John Tradescant who brought back many plants that are now common in Europe from his travels to the colonies in America. Virgin Earth is the far better and easily readible as a stand-alone novel.

Edited by niobe

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... and then there will be The Boleyn Inheritance...

 

and my love for all things English gardens made me pick up her books Earthly Joy and the sequel Virgin Earth about the royal gardener John Tradescant who brought back many plants that are now common in Europe from his travels to the colonies in America. Virgin Earth is the far better and easily readible as a stand-alone novel.

I love Barbara Mertz, who writes historical mysteries about Egypt as Elizabeth Peters and some freaky-ish gothic type novels as Barbara Michaels (Mertz has a PhD in Egyptology from Chicago's Oriental Institute) Anyway, a Barbara Michaels book I just finished (The Dancing Floor) was about one of Tradescant's gardens--very very cool book and a quick read. It's a paperback I got at a book sale so if you're interested, send me a PM and I'll mail it to you :D

 

I prefer her egyptology books (fantastic characters--if you read, try to read in chronological order to get the best family character development) Her website is http://www.mpmbooks.com/ for a complete bibliography...

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It's a paperback I got at a book sale so if you're interested, send me a PM and I'll mail it to you :D

Thanks for your very kind offer, Hoya - but, as I live on the other side of the big water called Atlantic, it'd be cheaper to buy it.

 

I've duly noted the title, there's a trip planned to London in two weeks time, where I'll do some serious book shopping. I will, like Denise Richards in the recent photos, end up with one of those HEAVY stickers on my suitcase again, and will have to field questions from the customs officer like... don't we have any books in my home country. :D

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... I prefer her egyptology books (fantastic characters--if you read, try to read in chronological order to get the best family character development)

Forgot to mention: egyptology's another great tip, I got bitten by the Pharaoh bug when I first saw a King Tut exhibition in my hometown as a kid... Thanks!

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Forgot to mention: egyptology's another great tip, I got bitten by the Pharaoh bug when I first saw a King Tut exhibition in my hometown as a kid... Thanks!

For me it was a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum in NYC and the mummy room! For years I wanted to be an archaeologist....Now I just read about them and watch shows on the Discovery Channel :D

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I tried to get through "Outlander" but it just wasn't for me. I couldn't get into it. I know so many people love the books series. Finished up Patricia Cornwell's "Unnatural Causes"

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Read the Pilot's Wife several years ago. I agree with you Princess. Also read Fortunes Rocks and The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve, felt depressed after both. Just finished Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley, another classic Easy Rawlins mystery. They always leave me a little sad too. Starting 'The Fall of Rome' by Martha Southgate today. 'Jesus Papers' after that.

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Recently finished Shirley McLaine's Out on a Limb. Very good. Also read She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. How many things could happen to a person before they were 35? but good nevertheless. Now reading Good Faith by Jane Smiley (loved Moo and A Thousand Acres). Next I want to get Terrorist by John Updike.

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I heard John Updike on the radio this morning talking about Terrorist and now I'm interested too.Finished Flapper by Joshua Zeitz over the weekend - highly recommend.

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Just finished "Icarus" by Russell Stevens. Pretty decent thriller leading up the ending (I've read him ("Gideon") before and he's pretty good).I was also able to get "The Historian" on a fantastic discount at Borders.woohoo

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I was also able to get "The Historian" on a fantastic discount at Borders.woohoo

I just adored the Historian!!
I'm glad you liked it...I've been reading that people either really love it or really hate it. I'm just shocked that it was on the discount rack..they were going really fast :) It's going to be a while before I can get to it..I'm so behind in my reading.

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I was also able to get "The Historian" on a fantastic discount at Borders.woohoo

I just adored the Historian!!
I'm glad you liked it...I've been reading that people either really love it or really hate it. I'm just shocked that it was on the discount rack..they were going really fast :) It's going to be a while before I can get to it..I'm so behind in my reading.
If you liked the Historian, do you read a lot of vampire novels? JR Ward's new series is really good--hot sex and they're nice thick books that you don't read in a day. (Or at least, I don't!) The first one is Dark Lover.For me, I'm waiting for the new Susan Elizabeth Phillips book to come out. Anyone here like her too?

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