What are you reading?

[FrankieD]

Reading one book at a time is about all I can handle...except when I'm reading a novel and spend some time with a technical book at the same time...but never two novels. I've just finished The Sister with the First Look club and now I'm about to embark on my next adventure...The Appeal by John Grisham...which my mother encouraged me to read while making my usual Sunday visit yesterday. Having merely read the cover and flaps I'm about to jump in tomorrow...wish me luck!!!

                                                                                      Frankie D

[dhaupt]

I am just about to finish up The Killer's Wife a debut novel by Bill Floyd, just thinking about the book gives me shivers up my spine. It was a great piece of work and I would recommend it to anyone who loves great thrillers. I think the only thing the author didn't really comprehend was how women talk and think, since the book is told by the killer's wife his adaptation of her speaking and thinking is a little off and by that I mean the way he wrote her she sounded more like a man to me. But this is his first novel and I still give it 4 stars out of 5. It was terrific.

[Timbuktu1]

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ande wrote:

Am I the only person on earth who hasn't read Eat, Pray, Love yet?

Ande

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Yes

[ande]

I thought so!

Ande

[IBIS]

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dhaupt wrote:
I am just about to finish up The Killer's Wife a debut novel by Bill Floyd, just thinking about the book gives me shivers up my spine. It was a great piece of work and I would recommend it to anyone who loves great thrillers. I think the only thing the author didn't really comprehend was how women talk and think, since the book is told by the killer's wife his adaptation of her speaking and thinking is a little off and by that I mean the way he wrote her she sounded more like a man to me. But this is his first novel and I still give it 4 stars out of 5. It was terrific.

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That's interesting... the female or male sensibility that infuses a novel... can it be captured by a writer of the opposite gender? I've always wondered if it's a learned skill.

I've read male writers who captured, IMO, excellent female perspectives... Tolstoy's Anna Karenina comes to mind, as well as Flaubert's Madame Bovary.

Then there are female writers who captures the male sensibility wonderfully... George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, for example, or Middlemarch.

I can usually identify if the sensibility is off, or when it works very well... but for the life of me, I can't  figure out why.

IBIS

[FrankieD]

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Timbuktu1 wrote:

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ande wrote:

Am I the only person on earth who hasn't read Eat, Pray, Love yet?

Ande

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Yes

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Whoops...isn't this earth??? I know that I never read it either...but I do still eat and love!!!

                                                                                      FrankieD

[dhaupt]

Just finished The Murder of Roger Akroyd by Agatha Christie for my library book club. Really enjoyed it for a change, had to get used to proper english and I couldn't figure out until the end who done it.

[IBIS]

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dhaupt wrote:
Just finished The Murder of Roger Akroyd by Agatha Christie for my library book club. Really enjoyed it for a change, had to get used to proper english and I couldn't figure out until the end who done it.

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Have you read Pierre Bayard's Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? It's an interesting take on the Christie mystery...  if you can find a copy of Bayard's book, it would be interesting as a followup.

I don't want to spoil it for you, but Bayard thesis is that Poirot made major mistakes in his detecting, and the real murderer got away with it.  He goes into detail about who he thinks, using the exact same clues that Poirot uses, and comes to a totally different conclusion.

When I first read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, I felt that Christie had cheated, and was very disappointed.

Then I read Bayard's analysis, and I agreed with his alternate conclusion. It made a lot more sense.

Fascinating reading!

IBIS

[Bella_Edward_4…]

right now, i'm reading "Inkheart." i'm only on, i think, the 54th page, but it's really good! i just finished "Eclipse", it's the last book in the Twilight series; i don't want to be done with it, the next one doesn't come out till August 2nd! :0

[dhaupt]

Ibis,
no I didn't know about Bayard's book I'll have to get it and check it out.
Thanks

[foreverheaven]

A new book just published, "The Secrets of Death: In the View Of Astral Projection" by the author Sapphire.

This man surely can write, it chills your bones, all the secrets crossing over of his late father and author took a trip to Egypt, revealed the secrets of the Egyptian version, "The Book of the Dead"... fantastic read.

Message Edited by foreverheaven on 03-31-2008 12:21 PM

[Vonney007]

I just finished listening to Water_For_Elephants--unabridged version and was totally wrapped up in it all the way to the end.  I loved the way Sara Gruen jumped back and forth from 23-year-old Jacob

to the present day 90-or-93-year-old Jacob.  His youth was full of action and excitement, and presently he is living in a nursing home--the most boring place on earth to him.  He's losing his

short term memory, but every minute detail of his younger years he remembers vividly.

Written very well.

The old Jacob affected me a lot I think because I am nearing 60, about to retire in 5 years,

and wondering how I can stay healthy enough to live on my own forever.  The thought

of going to a nursing home to live out the remainder of my days makes me about as sick as it does

eveyone else.  So, I'm trying to formulate an essay in my head about how to look forward to living

in one of those places for sick old people, how to enjoy my time there, and whether or not I'll

be allowed to take my computer.  I think I should maybe consider getting a laptop just in case.

The food though, that may be a problem like it was for old Jacob.  I don't blame him for his refusal

to eat the stuff, and that is what was most difficult about the place.  That and the smell.  I hope

I live in one that will allow me to have a cat or dog too. 

[ande]

I thought it was one of the most charming books I've ever read.

Cheers!

Ande

Message Edited by ande on 04-07-2008 03:30 PM

[dhaupt]

I just finished Karen White's The Memory of Water
It was fantastic best read I've had in a while

As I read The Memory of Water it was like watching an artist paint, with every word she writes you can actually see the landscape she describes come to life.
It was a haunting tale of mental illness and about those who survive it and those who don't.
A bewitching tale of love and loss and love found at last, about the story of sisters and a love that only sisters can share and understand.
This book is a must read for any of you out there that love great fiction.

Happy reading

[msclapp223]

I was in B&N just a few weeks ago browsing and I picked up a book titled A Man of No Moon .  To be honest is was the cover that caught my eye and once I picked it up I read the jacket and now I'm working on finishing it.  I really didn't expect it to be as good as it has turned out.  I am not done with it but it has really been a good read.  Part romance and part drama it involves two American actresses who are sisters and an Italian poet who just so happens to be suicidal trying to cope with life and living in a late 1940's Europe.  It has been a wonderful surprise.  I am enjoying it very much.

[ande]

Who is the author? Good for you -- it's fun to make a discovery and share the news.

Ande

[Prentice-]

>After joining this book group and reading the threads I read The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco that was discussed here. I enjoyed the concept of the book and felt greatly rewarded by having given this book the time it deserved, and am even tempted to read it again, but so many books so little time etc... I thought the way the book was divided into 3 parts and the way part 3 revealed the answers to the mysteries brought out in part 2 was very clever.

The illustrations were just plain fun. Unfortunately, so many of the cultural references were lost on me since Eco is writing and referring to Italian books, radio programs and popular songs of the 1940s, but still I got a lot out of the book. When as a boy the main
character is involved in helping some Russians escape from Italy and one of his dear friends is killed in the process, he is only able to resolve his grief by turning again to literature and reading to go on living. There were times when the book got tedious, but it remained compelling and I kept coming back to it.

There are parts of this book that will become part of my memory as small bits of illumination in the dense fog of memory.

Prentice

[karinlib]

I know that this sounds like a cliche, but I am reading War and Peace (by Tolstoy).    I have tried to read it several times and I have always put it down at about 50 pages in.  I decided to try it again after reading Anna Karenina translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky.  So, I decided to look at 2 translations: The Pevear and the Maude (Inner Sanctum)   I have found that I like the Maude version better than the Pevear, because Maude translates most of the French right in the text, rather than putting the translations at the bottom of the page. 

I am really enjoying it this time, but I think it will take me most of the summer to read it.  

I am also reading James Herriot's books.

[Timbuktu1]

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karinlib wrote:

I know that this sounds like a cliche, but I am reading War and Peace (by Tolstoy).    I have tried to read it several times and I have always put it down at about 50 pages in.  I decided to try it again after reading Anna Karenina translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky.  So, I decided to look at 2 translations: The Pevear and the Maude (Inner Sanctum)   I have found that I like the Maude version better than the Pevear, because Maude translates most of the French right in the text, rather than putting the translations at the bottom of the page. 

I am really enjoying it this time, but I think it will take me most of the summer to read it.  

I am also reading James Herriot's books.

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Hope you get through it! I also have tried, for several summers to get through it with the same results. I really enjoy the first l00 pages and then.... I WILL read it one day!

[Melissa_W Moderator]

That's interesting - I'm just the opposite.  I like the Pevear (and their other translations as well) because only the Russian is translated.  It feels closer to the original in that there are two languages on the page.

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karinlib wrote:

I know that this sounds like a cliche, but I am reading War and Peace (by Tolstoy).    I have tried to read it several times and I have always put it down at about 50 pages in.  I decided to try it again after reading Anna Karenina translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky.  So, I decided to look at 2 translations: The Pevear and the Maude (Inner Sanctum)   I have found that I like the Maude version better than the Pevear, because Maude translates most of the French right in the text, rather than putting the translations at the bottom of the page. .

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