what are you reading at the moment?

[Laurel]

I bought in on dvd to watch later yay!

At the moment I'm reading The Orphan Master's Son and dipping in and out of Vanity Fair on my kindle.

[[deleted user]]

The Orphan Masters Son is on my to acquire list I got a sample on my kindle and it seemed really good (and quite shocking)
I've tried Vanity Fair a couple of times -but just can't get on with it- I think it might be partly to do with a Dickens bias:0)

[Laurel]

I'm enjoying Vanity Fair - it's a bit tongue in cheek!

The Orphan Master's Son is ok, it has got some quite shocking elements but he has mixed it with humour to make his points rather than depress the reader.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Swamplandia! By Karen Russell. This is a really strange book - it starts off as a black comedy about an extremely dysfunctional, motherless family of alligator wrestlers, turns into a dark supernatural fantasy about a voyage to rescue a possessed sister from the underworld and then suddenly becomes horribly and chillingly real. I really need to read it again before I can decide what I think about it.
Don't Look Now and other stories up next.

[Laurel]

I like the sound of that one actually but my library hasn't got a copy :(
Enjoy Don't Look Now, I'm going to start The Birds today I think.

[Ellie]

I'm starting The Birds today, and may finally give Mason & Dixon a go. I'm partway through The Angel's Game by Carlis Ruis Zafon, too

[Laurel]

Are you enjoying it Ellie? I wasn't that keen the first time I read it, I expected another Shadow of the Wind which it isn't but then I re-read it on it's own terms and I loved it!

[Ellie]

I find I am not liking David Martin as much as I did Daniel Sempere. Not too sure about the whole selling-your-soul-to-the-devil thing either

[Hilary]

I wasn't at all keen on the Angels Game but I've never re-read it. I tend to only re-read books I've enjoyed rather than give one that I haven't a second chance.

[[deleted user]]

Nearly finished Don't Look Now and other stories , safely launched into The Historian and looking forward to starting A Severed Head - I've read this before but so long ago that all I can really remember about it is that I enjoyed it.

[Joy]

I'm 're-reading The Circle by Peter Lovesey. I think he's my favourite crime story author.

[Hilary]

I'm reading "Mao' s Great Famine" about the famine that engulfed China after The Great Leap Forward. I've previously read a couple of memoir type books set in this period and find it very interesting. It's been on my TBR shelf since it was published and the author has just published another book about the next period of Mao's dictatorship which I have added to my To Buy list. So I thought I'd better get into gear and get this one read!

[[deleted user]]

You're really into your dictators Hilary!! :0)

[Laurel]

I'm about halfway through Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle and am also reading The Calligrapher's Daughter which are both really good.

[Dee]

I'm very much enjoying "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

[Ellie]

That's not one I've heard of before, Dee, but it looks interesting

[Laurel]

Let us know how you like it Dee - it's on my tbr list!

[Hilary]

@ Lee I read Wild Swans when it was first published and got really interested in recent Chinese history. It's not that I'm into dictators particularly!

[[deleted user]]

Their Eyes Were Watching God is in my TBR pile to - I think it might be a Boxalls 1001-er

[Ellie]

*consults Excel spreadsheet*

You're spot on, Lee, it is indeed in the current edition of Boxall's

*adds to TBR pile*

[Joy]

It's strange how I can have a huge pile of books TBR and then pluck something at random. I found High Tide in the City on http://www.youwriteon.com/ quite by accident. I downloaded a free sample and was hooked, so have bought the whole book. It's a riveting sci-fi thriller.

[Laurel]

I've finshed The Calligrapher's Daughter which was a lovely story about a young girl growing up in Korea during the Japanese occupation. Still reading the Conan Doyle biography and will probably start The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Huraki Murakami at some point today.

[[deleted user]]

Joy wrote: "It's strange how I can have a huge pile of books TBR and then pluck something at random. I found High Tide in the City on http://www.youwriteon.com/ quite by accident. I downloaded a free sample an..."

Like the look of that one Joy.

[[deleted user]]

Laurel wrote: "I've finshed The Calligrapher's Daughter which was a lovely story about a young girl growing up in Korea during the Japanese occupation. Still reading the Conan Doyle biography and will probably st..."

I hope Conan Doyle is coming out well - he's a bit of a hero of mine.

[Hilary]

I have picked a recent buy of the shelf as some light relief from Mao. Sylvia by Dawn French. I wouldn't normally have bought anything written by a celebrity but I did enjoy her autobiography and Sylvia got very good reviews so I thought I'd take the chance. Only up to page 30 but its looking as though its going to be a very amusing read.

[Laurel]

Lee wrote: "Laurel wrote: "I've finshed The Calligrapher's Daughter which was a lovely story about a young girl growing up in Korea during the Japanese occupation. Still reading the Conan Doyle biography and w..."

Me too. It's a very sympathetic biography - I gather some of them just treat him as a bit of a crank once he takes up his spiritualism cause but this one is very non-judgemental which I like. I just finished it this morning.

[[deleted user]]

Excellent - I think he was a bit of a sweetheart.

[Laurel]

He does seem like a really nice bloke - even people who disagreed with him didn't really have anything bad to say about him personally.

[Hilary]

Just finished Dear Sylvia by Dawn French. I expected it to be humorous, and it is in parts, but I didn't expect her to write so movingly or to have such an interesting story line or such well formed characters. It may not be great literature but a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable read.

[[deleted user]]

I usually avoid books written by celebrities - but that one sounds worth a try - on to the TBR list with it :0)

[Hilary]

I only considered it because the reviews in the Sunday papers were so complimentary and said how unusual it was.

[Laurel]

I'm 70% of the way through Vanity Fair - yay!

[[deleted user]]

I'm afraid I've given up on the Historian - at least for the moment - I got about 150 pages in but was finding it more and more of a chore - I feel that it could do with some serious pruning - but maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it.

I've started Picnic at Hanging Rock from my TBR pile - it starts off like one of my mothers old tomes of school stories (Scholarship Sue, Damaris Dances etc) but quickly turns dark,gothic and mysterious (and, hooray! it's on the short side)

[Ellie]

Finished The Angel's Game over the weekend - disappointing - and also Thanksgiving by Ellen Cooney, which was a lovely little read, one that I thoroughly recommend. It tells the story of one family, through the eyes of the women of the house, over 350 years and 15 generations, as they prepare for Thanksgiving. Some lovely little examples of how history, both family history and the wider national events, touch lives.

I'm now going slightly mad, and tackling
- The Prisoner of Heaven, the third Cemetery of Forgotten Books novel, and as it's Daniel Sempere again, I'm hoping it will be better than The Angel's Game.
- A Severed Head, as the monthly read
- Animal Farm, which I reserved from the library some time ago, it came in this week and at only 95 pages I should be able to get through it rapidly
- The Birds and other stories as my author read (I'm a bit behind!)
- Kissing Bowie, advance copy for review
- Continuing to try and make it through Mason & Dixon

Sleep? Pah, who needs it.......

[Laurel]

@ Lee - although I loved the Historian, it is one of those marmite books!

Picnic at Hanging Rock sounds good though... is it true or is it fiction???

[Laurel]

@Ellie - hope you enjoy them all!

[[deleted user]]

@Ellie - good luck! I've added Thanksgiving to my to read list - sounds like my kind of thing.

[Ellie]

@Lee, I hope you enjoy Thanksgiving as much as I did :)

[[deleted user]]

@ Laurel - it pretends it's based on true events and apparently (I've just googled it) the author would neither confirm or deny that this was the case, however no record of the happenings has ever been found.......

[Laurel]

oooh intriguing!

[[deleted user]]

Finished - Picnic At Hanging Rock - marvellous plot - dark, disturbing and gothic. Unfortunately the writing style doesn't always match - sometimes it takes the tone of an old school story for young ladies "Ghastly Happenings at St Hilda's" perhaps. I enjoyed it though.
I shall be plunging into Daphne (Justine Picardie) shortly

[Joy]

I'm reading Vanity Fair . It is very witty in parts but also long-winded at times.

[Hilary]

I started Sabbaths Theater by Phlip Roth last night. I've read a couple of his books before but this looks to be very different ! The first line sets the tone, "Either forswear f***ing others or the affair is over".

[Laurel]

I'm getting to 'Daphne' shortly too, I need to finish The Wind-up Bird Chronicle first - about halfway through. I finished Vanity Fair the other day - loved it!

[[deleted user]]

Good stuff Laurel - I wasn't so keen on Vanity Fair but that might be partly because Thackeray was the big rival of my man Charles Dickens :0)

[[deleted user]]

Hilary wrote: "I started Sabbaths Theater by Phlip Roth last night. I've read a couple of his books before but this looks to be very different ! The first line sets the tone, "Either forswear f***ing others or ..."

I Say! - steady on Old Girl!
I've never read any Philip Roth - I had the idea that his books were all swearing and obscenities ?

[Hilary]

Not all, this one is a real surprise! I'm hoping that the sex gets toned down a bit as I get into it, there's been a lot of it up to page 20. I've read American Pastoral and The Human Stain. The first is very moving although a bit slow. A man who just keeps trying to be good and do the right thing. The second I really enjoyed, about a man with a secret! But they are very different from each other and neither is anything like this one - unless my memory is much worse than I think it is.

[Hilary]

I've just looked his books up on this site to see what other people thought and it reminded me of another The Plot Against America, I got this from the library so had forgotten about it but it was absolutely brilliant. For a while, until I checked and saw that Lindbergh had never been a president, I thought it might be based on facts.

[[deleted user]]

Think I might have to expand my to read list again....

[Laurel]

Am done with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which was really good. Now I'm reading Daphne by Justine Picardie which I am really enjoying so far and also The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery by Catherine Bailey.