what are you reading at the moment?

[[deleted user]]

@ Jenny - I never knew that - he was amazing in that film - hopefully he lived long enough to know how much people loved his performance.
@ Hilary - you've forced me to download it now!

[[deleted user]]

Not too far to go in Obabakoak now and then one of my favourites Five Children and It.

[Angela]

I'm starting Broken Shore by Peter Temple today. I'm excited because he is a local writer setting his story in Melbourne - I came across him on literature-map.com which is the most fun website ever! Anyone use it much?

[Joy]

Lee wrote: "Not too far to go in Obabakoak now and then one of my favourites Five Children and It."

Oh yes, I love E. Nesbit! Have you read The House of Arden and Harding's Luck? They are the same story from two different viewpoints and sort of interlock.

[Hilary]

@Angela who was the translator of the Dante you've just read and did you enjoy it.

@Lee the translator of my copy was Kirkpatrick as I said before I didn't particularly enjoy it. I've checked with the member of the group I read it with. Her translator was john Ciardi and she thought it was good with a good illustration. She remembers also that the Dorothy L Sayers translation was enjoyed. Unfortunately she doesn't remember which version was the most disliked except that it was a very expensive illustrated copy from Amazon.

I notice that Clive James has a version which has good reviews and I'm tempted by it except its £14 ish !!

[Jenny]

Angela wrote: "I'm starting Broken Shore by Peter Temple today. I'm excited because he is a local writer setting his story in Melbourne - I came across him on literature-map.com which is the most fun website ever..."

No I didn't Angela, but I now know that I should really really read some Djuna Barnes! Great site! BTW: For some reason I have quite a huge gap where Australian literature should be. Any recommendations?

[Anna]

Jenny wrote: "Has anyone seen the movie of 12 Years a Slave actually?"
Not yet but I'm halfway through the book, which I think is very moving. Certainly brings home all the horrors of slavery: the emotional and psychological damage as well as the terrible physical treatment. Will definitely go to movie once I've finished it.

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@ Angela -I'd never heard of literature map before - it looks great but catastrophic for my to read list!

@ Hilary - thanks for the info - I was wondering about the Clive James ( not the Clive James I presume) translation - but I gather that it hasn't got any notes, which could be confusing.

@ Joy - no sooner mentioned then downloaded - thanks, they look great.

[Tracey]

I'm away from home at the moment and had intended packing stranger in a strange land to finish - only I forgot it! I've therefore started reading secret scripture whichever was on my iPad as I'd got it cheap in the kindle store. I read it a couple of years ago and only vaguely remember the story but just know I'd enjoyed it at the time.

[Hilary]

@Lee I think it is the TV guy, Clive James. One review said it was so well done you didn't need any notes - not so sure about that myself though!

[[deleted user]]

Wow - well done Clive James

[Angela]

@Hilary - the translation of Dante is by Charles Sisson and the notes are by David Higgins. Oxford University Press. I really got a lot out of it.
@Lee - I know right? But it gets addictive!
@Jenny - A good couple of Aussie books I've recently read are:
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Just finished a book of short stories called Letter to George Clooney by Debra Adelaide
Stiff by Shane Maloney is a witty crime novel
Anything by Bryce Courtney, Tim Winton, Christos Tsiolkas...

:)

[Jenny]

Thank you Angela, Tim Winton is on my list of authors to read already, will go and have a look at the other ones now!

[Tanya]

I'm reading The Ophelia Cut by John Lescroart and A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher bySue Halpern both Goodreads authors.

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@ Angela -Love A Town like Alice and I got half way though Tim Winton's Dirt Music a while ago - I was really enjoying it and have no idea why I stopped reading it - I think I'll add it to my list for next month.

[[deleted user]]

@ Tanya - hello nice to meet you :0) . Hope you enjoy the group - if you absolutely had to name your 3 favourite books - what would they be?

[Hilary]

@Angela, I'm another fan of A Town like Alice, I'm sure I've read something else by Shute that I enjoyed as well but I'll have to investigate a bit to bring to mind the title. It was On The Beach, I read it a long time ago, it's definitely due a re-read.

[Laurel]

Wow literature map is crazy, I love it! Thanks Angela.

I've just finished Iron Council by China Mieville and The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman which were both great. I really need to finish Obabakoak now but the middle bit has kind of lost me.

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@ Laurel - the 3rd and last bit is so much better - I've just finished it and I loved it. While I was reading parts 1 and 2, (particularly part 2) I did wonder what Mr Boxhall was thinking - but I think it deserves to be on the list just for part 3.

[Tanya]

Lee wrote: "@ Tanya - hello nice to meet you :0) . Hope you enjoy the group - if you absolutely had to name your 3 favourite books - what would they be?"

East of Eden

A Fine Balance

The Bourne Identity

[[deleted user]]

I read East of Eden years ago - when I was in my James Dean phase - I think I was probably a bit too young for it - must try it again sometime.

[Angela]

Nevil Shute is so readable - apparently there is a miniseries of A Town Like Alice on YouTube. I want to give it a go while the story is still fresh

[Jenny]

I will keep an eye out for the miniseries!

I am currently reading Kinder Than Solitude: A Novel by Yiyun Li, a writer I had never heard about before this book, but I already know that I will try and get my hands on pretty much everything she has published so far. I keep thinking that where others write sentences she molds little jewels (apologies for the limping metaphor).

[georgiabread]

DIVERGENT!!!!!! :D :D :D

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@ Jenny - that sounds amazing - off to amazon to investigate .

[[deleted user]]

@ GAB - you what?

[Jenny]

Lee, I think Kinder than Solitude will only be available from March (reading review copy at the moment) but she's published quite a few other books already one of which is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... (add book function not working at the moment) which, now that I see the title, I think I have heard of before.

[Angela]

Divergent? Am I totally missing something?

[Tracey]

I read this on twitter this morning and really liked it. It reminded me of the spirit of Maya Angelou.

http://www.upworthy.com/163-years-ago...

[Hilary]

@ Tracey, that is just FABULOUS!!!

[[deleted user]]

I love that - amazing.

[[deleted user]]

She co -wrote a book!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Narrative-Soj...

Worth a go for 75p I think.

[Tracey]

Thanks for the tip off Lee. I've done it!

[Laurel]

Getting to the last third of Obabakoak and also (re)reading Gardens of the Moon which is all kinds of awesomeness :)

[Suzan]

I am reading The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules (Kaffe med rån). I've almost finished it and I liked it, though not as much as I had hoped. I was looking for a light read - that it is. I am excited to read the ending though, which I will probably do tonight :)

[Ellie]

I love that moment when you are close to the end of a good book and can't wait to finish it

[Suzan]

Ellie wrote: "I love that moment when you are close to the end of a good book and can't wait to finish it"

Me too, and I'm really excited to finish it, yet I am "wasting" my time on GR..

[Angela]

@Ellie sometimes I'm the opposite! If a book is amazing, I intentionally slow down because I'm sad it's ending!

[[deleted user]]

Finished Five Children and It which is even funnier and more charming then I remembered.
I'm now approaching the two thirds level of Stranger in a Strange Land and feel like getting the next instalment of The Pickwick Papers under my belt.

[Ellie]

There is that too, Angela. I do have a habit of racing to the end of a good book and then feeling bereft at the end, like an old friend has gone away!

[Joy]

Having mentioned Harding's Luck, I simply had to gallop through that again - sheer delight!

Also just finished The Husband's Secret which I enjoyed. The only thing I wasn't so keen on (view spoiler)[ was at the end (and in one or two places throughout) where the author talks directly to the reader about what might have happened if one thing had been different. Clearly John-Paul wasn't meant to have actually caused Janie's death - she died whereas a girl without her condition would have survived - but I thought it was clumsy to simply tell us that. Not sure how it could have been done but it would have been a better story if the fact of Janie's illness could have come out in the plot. (hide spoiler)] I seem to be talking myself out of liking it as I analyse it! I do think that Kate Atkinson did the alternative futures thing much better in Life After Life

[[deleted user]]

Loved Life After Life.

[Hilary]

I decided to start on Black Narcissus instead of Life After Life which I'll have to move up the TBR pile. I've only got as far as chapter 2 but I'm hooked already. I wish I didn't know how it ends from seeing the old film but as I can't remember how it got to that point it's still going to be a surprise.

[[deleted user]]

That's on my to read list too (or if it isn't it will be shortly)

[Jenny]

I have yet to read Life After Life but it sounds really promising.

I've finished Kinder Than Solitude: A Novel this weekend which was brilliant, and read my first Tom Stoppard play, Arcadia, which I am now dying to see performed. So witty, smart utterly dry and highly inappropriate.

So now I am on to The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness.

[Hilary]

Don't we all read such different things. It's so interesting to hear of so many titles and authors that are unfamiliar.

[Laurel]

Kinder than Solitude sounds great - have added that and the Laxness book to my tbr list!

Am looking forward to reading Life after Life as well - I picked it up on the kindle when it was only £1.99 or something like that cos I really liked her Jackson Brodie books.

I'm almost finished with Gardens of the Moon and then I'm not really sure what to read next...

[[deleted user]]

Just finished my latest instalment of The Pickwick Papers which was particularly funny and I'm just about to start Orkney by Amy Sackville - I've been saving it up for a while having really enjoyed her first novel The Still Point

[Laurel]

And that's another two added....

[[deleted user]]

:0)