Fall 2012 - What are you reading & why?

[Janice, Moderator]

Welcome to Fall 2012. Hopefully, starting a new thread will alleviate some of the problems people are having when using Goodread apps on various devices. Scrolling through multiple pages can be a pain.

[Nicole]

Rebecca...enjoying it.

[Chrissie]

Finished The Polski Affair
Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Starting: The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I. Another book about WW1. A true story.

[Janice, Moderator]

You're going to have a read-a-thon to yourself, Amber. You won't be able to put The Store down.

[[deleted user]]

Picked up the second Campion book, which is looking good. Mystery Mile
Also had Old Bear Stories arrive after winning a GR giveaway. It looks lovely - I'm too young to have had this read to me, so I may have to dip into that.

[Chrissie]

Helen, gosh I remember those books by Jane Hissey. My daughter and I loved those!

[[deleted user]]

Opps. Got that wrong. I meant they were published after I was at a suitable age, so I'm coming to them for the first time.

[Chrissie]

Helen, Hissey is a great child's author. Enjoy now then.

[Chrissie]

I finished the audiobook The Sandcastle Girls. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

My last try for Victorian lit will be North and South. The narration by Juliet Stevenson is perfect. When you start some audiobooks you know this immediately.

[Janice, Moderator]

Chrissie wrote: "I finished the audiobook The Sandcastle Girls. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

My last try for Victorian lit will be North and South. The narration by Juliet Stevenson is..."

I was just reviewing my to-read and to-listen-to shelves to see if I have books that I could use in my various challenges. I realized I could count The Sandcastle Girls as Syria in Around The World and swap out one of the selections for which I haven't acquired the books yet.

[Chrissie]

I didn't know where to put The Sandcastle Girls. I was torn between Armenia and Syria. It is about the Armenian genocide, clearly. However, it takes place in Aleppo, Syria. I place my books by where they take place so finally I changed it to Syria. Aleppo was then part of the Ottoman Empire. As I see it, it doesn't really matter. I also have another book to read for Syria: The Dark Side of Love, which I also have sitting here next to my desk!

[Janice, Moderator]

The book page shows the setting as Syria, which is what made the determination for me. I have this book on my "new release challenge" too, so I can double dip. :)

[Janice, Moderator]

I just started reading The Sugar Camp Quilt for my irl bookclub which meets on Thursday night. I'm annoyed that it is set in Pennsylvania. It has such a pretty yellow cover.

[Shirley]

Sadie Shapiro's Knitting Book



Made the mistake of looking through the TBR pile in the bedroom. After a few pages I was hooked.

This edition was Reader's Digest Best Sellers 1973 $5.95 and this one is not condensed. So cute!

[Kat]

I'm reading Matched to satisfy my dystopian addiction and Flowertown to satisfy my adult post-apocalyptic addiction.

On a completely different front, I've gone back to War and Remembrance and slowly working my way through it!

[Janice, Moderator]

Yellow alert!! , Flowertown is set in Iowa. Quick, add to your yellow rainbow lists.

[Kimberly]

Kat wrote: "I'm reading Matched to satisfy my dystopian addiction and Flowertown to satisfy my adult post-apocalyptic addiction.

On a completely diffe..."

Can't wait to see what you think of Matched when it's done Kat :)

[Kat]

Janice wrote: "Yellow alert!! , Flowertown is set in Iowa. Quick, add to your yellow rainbow lists."

Hehe I was wondering which Rainbow Fanatic would notice that one first ;-)

[Sam]

I've got three books on the go at the moment with Earth, Inversions and Death du Jour, all of which feed into my rainbow challenge ;-)

[Janice, Moderator]

Kat wrote: "Janice wrote: "Yellow alert!! , Flowertown is set in Iowa. Quick, add to your yellow rainbow lists."

Hehe I was wondering which Rainbow Fanatic would notice that o..."

I have a sneaky suspicion that I will never look at covers the same way. I'll be checking yellow books for setting, indigo books for publishing date, red books for author's last name for a long time after this challenge is over. *sigh*

[Nicole]

finished Rebecca 4 stars. now starting A Thousand Splendid Suns

[Chrissie]

I finished The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I
Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

and have started First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

[Pragya]

Chrissie wrote: "I finished The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I
Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

and have started First They Killed My Father: A Daughte..."

Chrissie, let me know how you find First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. I have it on my to-read shelf.

[Chrissie]

Pragya, OK.

[Shirley]

Started

Happy Hour



one of the whispersync bargains and I needed a fluff book after
The Orchardist

[[deleted user]]

Nicole wrote: " now starting A Thousand Splendid Suns"

That's some book. it's my real life reading group read this month. I suspect it'll prompt a fair amount of discussion.

[Shirley]

Judy wrote: " I needed a fluff book after
The Orchardist

How did you find The Orchardist, Shirley?"

I loved it and the narrator can move in tonight! His voice soothing and perfect. Feel free to look at my review.

[jaxnsmom]

Amber wrote: "I want to get through another yellow book for my rainbow, The Yellow Birds, which arrived on my doorstep just this week. (There's nothing like the smell of new pages to welcome you home from a long day at work!)"

This morning I got an e-mail from my library that The Yellow Birds is available from my holds list. I'm so far behind on September books that I'm trying to put off picking it up until Friday or Saturday, but it's such a temptation... You'll probably get to it before me, so you'll have to let me know what you think of it.

[Jennifer]

Janice wrote: "I just started reading The Sugar Camp Quilt for my irl bookclub which meets on Thursday night. I'm annoyed that it is set in Pennsylvania. It has such a pretty yellow cover."

Why are you annoyed that it's set in Pennsylvania?

[Janice, Moderator]

Jennifer wrote: "Janice wrote: "I just started reading The Sugar Camp Quilt for my irl bookclub which meets on Thursday night. I'm annoyed that it is set in Pennsylvania. It has such a pretty yellow cover."

Why Why are you annoyed that it's set in Pennsylvania?
"

LOL! Because if it was set in Iowa or Idaho, I could have counted it towards the rainbow challenge.

[Janice, Moderator]

I finished Let Me In on audiobook today so will start The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island for my around the world challenge.

I also started Red Glass in iBook for y rainbow challenge.

[Kimberly]

I'm starting Reliquary by Douglas Preston, it's the sequel to Relic which I really enjoyed so I can't wait to see what happens in this book. I'm also starting Sea Change by James Powlik I'm really into the whole monsters theme right now.

[[deleted user]]

I've just finished Mystery Mile. Really good and kept me on my toes most of the way through. He's becomming less Whimsey-esque, although I'm wondering if he has Bertie Wooster overtones. Lugg is a most unusual character!

[Susan]

I am reading for my book club, and listening to the audio of . I do so enjoy when the book covers coordinate -- this time in both colors and the depiction of rivers. One time i was reading five books and they all have red and black covers. Okay, I'm weird.

[Pragya]

Now we know how Susan picks up her current reads. ;)

[Almeta]

I've been reading . This is a booklet of various birds, their picture, habitat, and description of the sounds they make, both in song and as calls, with accompanying CDs of the actual sounds and narrated pointers for recognition.

I live next to a narrow strip of woodland along the banks of a creek. Hear all kinds of forest sounds but can't identify their origins, mostly because of the foliage cover. I borrowed this from the library to learn more about the birds in my backyard.

Will check it out again next spring, when the chorus is greater!

[[deleted user]]

That's a fab idea, Almeta. When i was running I'd often see & hear birds but not be able to identify them. partly that's 'coz i couldn't see them in the distance - i run without my glasses!

Anyway, got home with a pile of library books to find a GR giveaway prize on the doorstep. Shadow of the Horsemen. And opened it to find it signed and with a personalised dedication. how lovely. I'm already well disposed towards it.

[Shirley]

Almeta wrote: "I've been reading . This is a booklet of various birds, their picture, habit, and description of the sounds they make, both in s..."

Have you watched Steve Martin "The Big Year" or “Birders: The Central Park Effect,” HBO. The birds — 117 species in all — get their own credits in the film, in order of appearance, starting with a double-crested cormorant and ending with a hooded warbler?

[Susan]

Pragya wrote: "Now we know how Susan picks up her current reads. ;)" No, it has to be pure happenstance, otherwise I would have to be Organized and Plan Ahead -- two things I am incapable of.

[Kimberly]

Almeta wrote: "I've been reading . This is a booklet of various birds, their picture, habit, and description of the sounds they make, both in s..."

That one sounds interesting. I love books like that.

[Marren]

I am reading Great Expectations and Emma. I want to reread Austen's books.

[Jennifer]

Janice wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Janice wrote: "I just started reading The Sugar Camp Quilt for my irl bookclub which meets on Thursday night. I'm annoyed that it is set in Pennsylvania. It has such a pretty yel..."

Ah! That makes sense.

[Jennifer]

I just finished Brava, Valentine , which is the second of her books about an Italian-American family that owns a custom shoemaking company. I hope she writes a third and finishes the story. And the thanksgiving-dinner-gone-Hindenburg family scene was PRICELESS. I couldn't have stopped reading during that scene long enough to take my hand off a hot burner.

[Chrissie]

I completed the audiobook North and South and the DTB First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. here follow my respective reviews:
N&S - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
FTKMF - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

and now I have started the audiobook Empires of Sand. It is suppose to be a really good story and takes place in both France and Algeria. A book of historical fiction about a railroad being built in the desert, balloon rides and the Prussian attack in France during the 1870s. Also about the Tuareg people of the Saharan desert.

[Dem]

Just finished Tell the Wolves I'm Home
This is my review www.goodreads.com/review/show/370145136

I have just started Blue Asylum

[Janice, Moderator]

I finished The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of non-fiction in audiobooks. It was rather dry, but then it may have been dry to read in print format, too.

Since we're between months, I will start Boneshaker on audiobook. I try to listen to my audiobooks in the order I purchase them, and this one is next.

[Kimberly]

I've started tonight. I really like this author's series!

[Chrissie]

Janice, non-fiction audiobooks can be marvelous. Try Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 or Travels in Siberia.

[Janice, Moderator]

Chrissie wrote: "Janice, non-fiction audiobooks can be marvelous. Try Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 or Travels in Siberia."

I'll put them on my wishlist.

I do have a few more that I'll be listening to: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Lost in Shangri-la and The Autobiography of Black Hawk

[Chrissie]

Janice, Black Hawk is definitely worth listening too. I picked that up from Audible when it was free. Did you do that too? Nice!