and how is it? (in short form)

I'm rereading A Wizard of Earthsea, trying to finish Orca, and will be starting On Chesil Beach tomorrow.

Earthsea is good, though not my favorite by Le Guin. The SciFi channel did a decent adaptation of it awhile back (at least, I liked it). Orca is really quite enjoyable and full of intrigue, I just need to set aside the time to read it.

I also recently finished The Sirens of Titan which, while a far cry Slaughterhouse-5, had some interesting story elements of its own. I'd only really recommend it to the Vonnegut completest though.

I am reading too many bad student papers, which is taking up all my reading time. Book orders are due soon, so I am also trying to read Eats, Shoots and Leaves to see if it would be worth using next year.

I'm trying to read Pillars of the Earth, but it's been a challenge because of very limited time lately. I've chosen to forego the Eyre books this month.

Robbie, hopefully one day you'll read The Eyre Affair because it's really wonderful :)

I've already read both the Eyre books so this month I'm playing catch-up with all the half read books on my nightstand. So I'm finishing Cannery Row, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Three Cups of Tea, and I Am America (And So Can You!). I plan to start The Pillars of the Earth after I finish those. My other two book clubs are reading Nineteen Minutes and The Reading Group next month so I'll have to start on those too. Yowza!

Well, I'm reading ALL the Eyre books--the two selected plus Rebecca & Wide Sargasso Sea. If I finish, I'd like to get through some more David Copperfield. I'm trying to read it in equal parts over three months. I'll see how it goes!

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortensen. It's absolutely amazing. I really think everyone should check it out when they get a chance.

I think I saw something on tv about Three Cups awhile back. Looked interesting.

I just came by some free copies of both Pillars and its sequel, so I'm hoping to read those soon as well, though not sure when.

Started Chesil this morning and am so far pleasantly intrigued.

I just finished The Kite Runner and in my spare time after the Eyre books, will work on some of the older "must reads" I've missed.

The Giver by Lois Lowry, and Northanger Abbey (which I didn't get to last month), for starters. And I'm still working on finishing the Left Behind series. I'm up to book 8 of 13.

Morgan- my principal recommended Three Cups to our staff. I'm anxious to read it- waiting for Amazon to deliver it to my door.

I just finished Jane Eyre, and I don't want to start The Eyre Affair until the discussions have started so I'm reading A New Earth in the meantime. I've never read Eckhart Tolle and I'm curious. I like reading "Oprah books" because of all the great resources she makes available online. I'm somewhat skeptical about this one, but I thought I'd give it a shot. So far it's interesting.

Oh, yeah. I'm also in the middle of Swann's Way. I finished the Prelude and Combray and I'm taking a little break before I move on to Swann in Love. I love it so far, but it's like meditating- I can only do so much at a time. I admire the people who have read all seven (?) volumes of Proust. I'm not sure I'm that ambitious.

I just finished Eat, Pray, Love and I am currently reading The Appeal by John Grisham. Both of these were short loan books from the library, so I need to finish them before starting on Jane Eyre. I've also heard very good things about Three Cups.

I'm reading Wuthering Heights along with Jane Eyre, and have postponed finishing The Painted Veil, Emma, The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide, and Les Miserables. This morning I was reading Jane Eyre during a break in chemistry class, and one of my friends leaned over and said, "Oh, Jane Eyre! I tried reading that once. I LOVE Jane Austen, don't you?!" I kind of gave her a blank stare and then replied, "Um...yeah, I do." :)

LOL, Ashley.

I'm about ten chapters into Three Cups and think it's a total snooze fest. What the man did was amazing but the story of how he did it could not be more boring IMO. I just don't think I'm in the right frame of mind for it. I think I'm more in the mood for "fun" reading. I Am America is hitting just the right spot.

I am reading Kite runner and My life in orange. Three cups of tea is on my list to read soon.

I read Kite Runner in Janaury. It was as good as everyone said!

I'm currently listening to 'The Guy Not Taken' by Jennifer Weiner. It's a collection of short stories, not great but cute. I also have 'The Book Thief' out from the library and 'Something Blue' by Emily Giffen, the follow up to 'Something Borrowed.' I really need to just call in to work and stay home and read my books!

Sarah -- I'm with you on Three Cups -- boring and irritating because the writing is really ho-hum and repetitive for no reason. It's sitting unfinished on my shelf.

Dottie, I'm glad it's not just me. My at-home book club loved it.

Joanie, I love Emily Giffin! She's fun and fluffy chick lit but she's smart.

Just finished Agatha Christie's The Big Four, a light, quick-read mystery. I haven't had the chance to get my hands on a decent copy of Jane Eyre and reading the text on a computer just doesn't seem very appealing to me, so I decided to follow the Austen vibe I got after reading Northanger Abbey last month and pick up Emma. So far so good.

Ashley, I love Jane Austen too. LOL

I need to read more Agatha Cristie. I always enjoy her books when I read them.

Heather, they're fun indeed. Of all the Christies I enjoy the Poirot books most.

I'm currently reading The English Patient and hope the book as good as the movie. Just finished Thousand Splendid Suns (I haven't had a chance to read Kite Runner)
Just found The God of Small Thing (English version)
This book is very poetic! I like it!different from the Indonesian translation, and yesterday i bought myself a copy of The Pillar of the Earth but i decided to keep the book for a while.
And i decided to put off Wuthering Height.
I don't know, I just can't seem to finish that book.

Dini, mabok ya baca di komputer? ;)
You and i share the same problem :D

I love Agatha Christie books. They are such a fun, quick, engaging read. I'm partial to Miss Marple. I first got into the books after watching a Miss Marple TV movie mystery and then I was hooked.

Now back to the thread question...

I'm reading "The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks. It's a non-fiction book about some of his cases as a neurolgist. He has some very touching insights on some of the disorders.

Dini, I hope that if/when you do eventually find a copy of Jane Eyre you'll post your thoughts, even if it's a couple months later. You always have really great insights and I'd hate for you to miss out on such a good book!

Iam catching up on a couple of biographies and some series books i like.A Vision of Murder by Victoria Laurie and Slash an autobiography plus browsing through Steve and Me about Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter.

Hi ya, folks. I've been traveling for work so I'm backed up on goodreads and emails. Nevertheless, I'm reading the Eyre books, Rebecca and then the Sargesso book. These books will probably take me through the rest of February or close to it. I did read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn just before I started Jane Eyre, which I found to be absolutely amazing.

I'm *so* jealous of the reading time you all have! I'll be getting a new job in June (sshhhhhhh! I haven't signed the contract, so I haven't given my 90 days notice yet), so I should have more time then. It doesn't make any sense to use that extra time to do my fair share of the housework, right?

I read one Agatha Christie recently, and I couldn't help being distracted by memories of an Agatha Christie parody play I was in once.

I read And The There Were None (actually, the non-PC title, Ten Little Indians) in seventh grade and had to sleep with the light on for a week. Creepy!

Sarah:
That's the one I read, too, and it's the story that the silly play I was in was loosely based on, so I kept sort of laughing to myself.

I can't get into Three Cups either. I thought I was the only one who didn't like it. I have absolutely no interest any longer. I am reading Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs and I love it, but haven't had a lot of time to get into it. My non-virtual book club is reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks which I can't wait to get my hands on!

I'm having a lot of fun reading Blowing My Cover My Life as a CIA Spy. It's interesting. Of course as it had to be approved by the CIA, it's not really deep or revealing, but it's still interesting and fun to read a personal account and see how much it varies from all the TV/movie versions. Plus it really seems to be getting into the psyche of that role... the isolation of it. I'm enjoying the "ride."

I've read a lot about the OSS - the CIA's precursor - and the women who were a part of it in the 40's during WW2, so this is the flip side I guess. What it has come to.

Yo Erie, high five! ;)

Sarah, I haven't given up on Jane Eyre. I'm steadfastly avoiding the monthly discussion threads so I won't get any spoilers, but I'll be sure to drop in by the time I get to it. Thanks for the encouragement!

I read And Then There Were None in high school and remember vividly how I felt about it although the details of the story escaped me. Seriously creepy stuff.

I read somewhere that the John Cusack movie Identity was based on Agatha's books And Then There Were None and Ten Little Indians. I enjoyed both the books and the film.

Really? I'll have to rent that movie. I absolutely loved Ten Little Indians--it's by far my favorite Agatha Christie book.

I'm finishing up _Male of the Species_ by Alex Mindt. http://www.amazon.com/Male-Species-Alex-... It's a short story collection in which the main character of each story is a father. Excellent work!

If I can influence you at all, I would strongly encourage you to try to read young (or emerging) writers...

Other books I've read recently that I would highly recommend are _How to Breathe Underwater_ by Julie Orringer http://www.amazon.com/How-Breathe-Underw... and _Later, At the Bar_ by Rebecca Barry http://www.amazon.com/Later-at-Bar-Novel...

I also just won a poetry award where the prize was a $100 Amazon gift certificate, so I'm TOTALLY buying books by emerging writers.

Take care,
S

I just today finished "when we were gods" a novel of cleopatra which was good but a little long I just checked out this groups book list and am excited to read some of them others I am less enthused about but will give them a try anyway
right now I am about to start "imortals" by tracy hickman an then I am excited to read "the three muskateers"

Congratulations, Shaindel! Very impressive.

I am reading the new "unauthorized" Tom Cruise biography. Oh boy, if this stuff is really true....

The Three Musketeers is one of my all time favorite reads Aaron. Hope you enjoy it.

Tom Cruise, Sera? Is that the book I've been hearing about in the news where the author refused to edit his book to Tom's liking or something? could be interesting.

Got my hands on a copy of Coffee at Lukes and should be starting that soon.

Hi, Heather. Beth is reading the Morton biography, but I do believe it is the one that you heard about on the news. I heard some excerpts from it on the radio and it sounds really creepy.

Thanks, Alison!

Here's the newspaper story about my latest awards... Craziness, craziness! And I had a short story come out Friday :-)

http://www.eastoregonian.com/main.asp?Se...

Now you can see why I think we should be supporting living authors ;-) I mean, my first grad degree is 19th Century Brit lit, but it doesn't help the Brontes any if we buy their books vs. getting them at the library (unless we want to highlight, annotate, etc). My friends don't eat if I get their books from the library vs. buying them :-)

Take care,
S

Erie... The English Patient is one of the best "modern" books I've read. Check out my review if you like. Anyway, it's outstanding. But I wasn't a fan of the movie, so I don't know how much you'll value my opinion.

Oops...sorry for the mix-up Sera and Beth - must have been reading something by Sera in another tab I guess. Multitasking will be the death of me one of these days.

I'm not a big fan of the English Patient movie either. So much so that it completely put me off the book, which is too bad as I hear it's pretty well written. Same thing happened with Memoirs of a Geisha.

The Tom Cruise biography, Beth? I'm going to let that one slide.

Haha. Seriously, you'll have to tell us the best dirt. Those celebrity profiles can be fascinating.

Speaking of celebrities...aren't the Grammy's tonight? Anybody know who's performing? I don't think they're letting Amy (Winehouse) come, are they?

can't she do her song "Rehab" from Rehab?
;)

For those of you mentioning Dame Agatha on this thread i want to plug one of her rather obscure books, "The Mysterious Mr. Quinn". No Poirot, no Miss Marple, just old Mr. Satterthwaite and his mysterious acquaintance, Harley Quinn.

Amazing stories!

Tom

O.K., I just caught a glimpse, and Amy will be performing live via satellite from London. I love her album. And Jason Bateman's doing a little hosting thing.

I love A. Christie books. My mom used to buy them for me when I was younger. I haven't read "Mr. Quinn", but I should. My first was "And Then There Were None", too. (And yes, I think it was called "Ten Little Indians" at the time). Don't know if anyone's seen "Murder on the Orient Express", but it's pretty good. It's like a celeb-fest of actors/actresses.

Thanks for the recommendation, Tom, I might check that out some time. Although it is rather difficult for me to find her non-Poirot/Marple books.

whichwaydidshego?... Wow, you gave 5 stars to English Patient? Well, I'm half-way reading this book. I enjoyed it. The book stands alone in my opinion. A catastrophic love story :)
I love the movie because of the cinematography was stunning. Although I'm a little bit disagree with Juliette Binoche plays Hana's role. She's a little too old in my opinion.

Here's a creepy Tom Cruise moment from the book I would like to share with you guys:

Scientology has this group called "Sea Org", which is apparently a bunch of young people who have to sign a billion-year loyalty pledge to the organization, and then they are secluded inside the organization and used as slave labor. (kind of like Hitler Youth?). Anyway, Tom and Nicole Kidman expressed a fantasy to run together through a field of wildflowers. So, the Sea Org drones were put to work for days and days, laboring in the muck and mud, to plant a field of wildflowers so that Tom and Nic could have their wish. Shudder, shudder.