What are you reading?

[Miriam]

Oh, that's a good strategy Lisa, thanks.

[Debi]

I've just come from the library, so I have a whole new batch of books to both enter and read. Finally have The Case For God and Await Your Reply, but it might be Easter before I see Wolf Hall. Ah, well, something to look forward to is always good, yes?

[Cordel]

I am looking forward to your discussion of The Case for God. I am reading other books at the same time, because it's dense, and I like to read a bit and then think about it.

Who wrote Await Your Reply?

[Debi]

Await Your Reply is by Dan Chaon, Sheila.

[Cordel]

Thanks, Debi. I took a break from Armstrong yesterday, and read Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn. It was an interesting change for me. I am back to Armstrong today. It requires some time of thought in between reading sessions, I find.

[Kat]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I'm still book-home shopping, you know?

Just back from five days of storms on the Inverness Ridge at Point Reyes -- I can pick 'em. At the least the rental cottage was waterproof and the we only lost electricity twice, 10 hours and 15 hours respectively.

[Kat]

Got some primo reading under my belt whilst at Point Reyes (yae flashlights!). It's been a while since I read such a string of finest kind tomes. Here's what I devoured: [sorry still can't figure out how to link, but thanks anyway, Debi; keep in mind, I'm kinda lame:]

"Disobedience" by Naomi Alderman
"The Confessions of Edward Day" by Valerie Martin
"The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox" by Maggie O'Farrell
"Foreign Land" by Jonathan Raban
"Family Money" by Nina Bawden



All finest kind.

[Kat]

OK, so that's not how it's done here. I await illumination and guidance. Thankee.

[Kat]

Also, Nina Bawden's "Family Money."

[Debi]

Kat, right above the posting box, there's a link to "add book/author." I've never used it, but I'll give it a shot: The Welsh Girl. If that works, it was easy-peasy.

It worked! Also, that's what I'm reading today and I like it very much. Anyone else read it?

[Kat]

I've enjoyed some of the Sharon Shinn Angel books -- the trope being a long-ago superior civilization left in orbit a mechanisim/computer that could be operated by singing and melody. But the titles out of that trope, that I've read, haven't done much for me.

[Miriam]

I haven't Debi, but it looks good.

I'm almost done reading Good to a Fault and am liking it very much. The blurbs are all over the place. One says ominous and the other likens her to Barbara Pym. Neither are correct, but I think the Pym comparison is closer. Very Canadian in ways I can't put my finger on, she's kind to her characters and I think her exploration of the "good Samaritan" an interesting one.

I'd forgotten about those Shinn books. I think I tried the first one once. It didn't take, but was interesting enough that I've always wanted to try again.

[Cordel]

I do love being able to order on-line from my local indie. I put in my order, and get a phone call when the book comes in, and go pick it up. Love it. I just read the comments on and ordered it.

[Miriam]

Look at you, all fancy with the picture. How did you do that?

Having an indie is great. We're lucky to have McNalley, which is an excellent spot for books. (I don't think you'll regret getting is Cordel).

[Nancy]

Now I'm all scrambling for Good to a Fault. Naturally, I want it desperately because I cannot easily obtain it NOW. It's The Bishop's Man all over again.

Books are like sex. It's the thrill of the chase.

[Nancy]

Kat, I adored both Disobedience: A Novel and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel is on my list.

Welcome home. I'm sorry the weather was terrible--I've seen a lot of those vacations. They're . . . unexpected.

[Lisa]

I'm reading Bronx Noir. And hmmm... maybe noir isn't my genre, or maybe they had to cast around a little to find stories set in the Bronx (as opposed to Brooklyn, of which there are I think three fucking volumes in the series). Or maybe it's just suffering in the light of the beautiful spare writing in Wolf Hall. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not exactly bestirring. But it goes quickly -- I'll be done in another couple of days.

[Karen]

Kat, sorry about the rain but at least you got lots of reading done. And you are now #9 Goodreads reviewer. Keep those reviews coming!

[Nancy]

I started reading The Privileges: A Novel last night. It's captured me and, except for the very good writing, I'm not sure why. I think it's going to get interesting.

And, yes, I am now reading 4 or 5 books at the same time. It's just something I'm going through.

[Lisa]

Oh, that one looked good, Nancy. Let me know what you think.

[Karen]

Yeah, Nancy, I remember Franzen recommending that book on that Guardian Christmas list. I definitely want to read it.

I can't seem to sort the posts by date anymore, have to manually scroll down to the end.

[Nancy]

I opened a a thread for Fear of Flying.

[Nancy]

Today I broke down and ordered the following:

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker AND

The Confessions of Noa Weber by Gail Hareven

I want to read them both and they're not available in my entire library system. Plus, I wanted to BUY something.

[Cordel]

That picture was an error, Miriam. I had tried for the title. You just go to add book/author. That time I hit the wrong thing.

I am still working on The Case for God, and finding it interesting but hard going.

[Lauren]

Nancy, I know the feeling! About buying, I mean. Let us know how the Hareven is.

I am reading Fuschia Dunlop's Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper which is about how she went to China for work and ended up studying the history of food and Chinese cooking. It's marvelous, especially if you don't mind reading about eating squidgy bits of offal.

[Julie]

To add a link or the picture, when you are in the comment box, click on "add book/author" right above it. A box will pop up in which you search for the book (on one tab) or the author (on the other tab). At the bottom of the tab, you can choose if you want to post a link or a cover (for a book) or a link or photo (for an author). Easy peasy!

I am reading like 7 books at once, but I'm trying to concentrate on RL book group books first. So I'm reading Gone With The Wind, which I am absolutely adoring, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which I just started tonight. After about 60 pages, I'm loving that one too! It's funny and smart and a little mean, just like me! :D

[Nancy]

I am almost always reading several books at once, Julie. I have a couple of short story and essay collections that I've been picking through for a few years. I think I'm going to make my Goodreads "currently reading" status reflect that.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I also purchased The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? by Padgett Powell. It was a total impulse, and the book is tiny. Anybody read it?

[Miriam]

I've committed myself, and my status is displaying my current book insanity.

[Cordel]

Hi, Pumpernickel. Yes, I loved TGLAPPS, as well. It was even more interesting because my ancestors come from the Channel Islands.

[Julie]

Miriam & Nancy, I have quite a few on my "currently reading" but I actually just removed a few. Moved them to the "On Hiatus" list I have, because I haven't read anything in them in weeks, but I do intend to finish them someday! I rarely give up on a book completely, though there are a few. I guess I'm just one of those people who can't commit to just one book! I'm a book whore. I read different stuff all the time, I buy more books than I will ever read, etc. You are my people.

[Miriam]

Julie, Quicksilver was on hiatus for the longest time. I contemplated ditching it, but just decided to finish it and moved it back onto the 'reading' list. I read a bunch of it this week and am gathering some momentum again.

[Lauren]

Julie, I hated that Hedgehog book with a burning passion. But you go, girl!

I finished Sharks Fin and Sichuan Pepper which was a well written, incredibly thoughtful book about eating in China. And I finished the first Colin Cotterill Dr Siri mystery and am onto the second one Thirty Three Teeth.

[Julie]

Yeah, I knew some people hated Hedgehog. But I really like it. I think if you can't get behind the irony, you're not going to be able to like it. It's for my RL book club, and I'm expecting to get annoyed with people in the group that I know aren't going to get it, and aren't even going to try to see anything except "I hate it! It's terrible. Period." We just did Cannery Row, which I really don't like, but I was able to see the merits in it, and try to view it in the spirit in which it was written. Some people flat out refuse to do that, and it kind of irks me. Open your mind peeps! (Not you Lauren. I know you're not at all like those people in my book club. They're good people, but still....I'm sure I annoy them sometimes too.)

Still, I was one of the people who also loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics, so it's not surprising me that I'm loving this one too! Now I need to read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and Little Bee, because apparently they have precocious young girl narrators too. I seem to really like that. (Also loved What Was Lost, with a precocious girl who got dead.)

[Lisa]

I'm reading The Magician's Elephant, and it's this beautiful little jewel of a book. I don't read a lot of kids'/YA, and this is just so nice and refreshingly straight up, like eating sorbet. Beautiful mysterious illustrations, too -- I forget how much I like pictures in a book.

[Meg]

Kat! How nice to see you here. I read The Welsh Girl after meeting Peter at a reception at Michigan, and I absolutely loved it. I was biased, as he's about the nicest guy you'd ever meet, but my whole book group loved it as well.

Anyone else besides Kat and me going to see Katharine at Kepler's?

[Lauren]

We had what for us is an epic snowstorm - 6 inches - but school was cancelled and work was closed. So I read two Colin Cotterill mysteries - hardly that but sweet stories about a coroner in 1976 Laos. And started Dawn French's book Dear Fatty which my husband had read over Christmas. We are both huge fans of the lady and the book is as you would expect - dear and funny and you wish she was your friend.

[Karen]

Hullo?

[Kat]

Hola!

[Karen]

Hola yourself, amiga!

OK, trying this linking thing so I can say I'm currently reading MJ's The Reincarnationist -- excited for her that the show debuts next week.

[Nancy]

Hola backatcha y'all! I just received and began reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. A fascinating, utterly different story/biography.

[Kaethe]

Oh, I want to read that. Medical research pushes all my buttons. Blast you, Nancy, that's two today that I have to read immediately!

[Lisa]

I'm reading Katharine Weber's True Confections. My extra-long, extra-ugly commute this morning meant I was able to really dig in. /silver lining

[Nancy]

Kaethe, So far the medical-scientific stuff is beautifully written, understandable, and fascinating. HeLa cells are everywhere: they've even been to the moon.

[Lisa]

Nancy wrote: "Kaethe, So far the medical-scientific stuff is beautifully written, understandable, and fascinating. HeLa cells are everywhere: they've even been to the moon."

Dang. OK, just Kindled it -- looks fabulous.

[Kaethe]

Yum! Nancy, you make it sound so appealing.

And I've got to read True Confections, too!

[Lauren]

I just heard about that book on NPR. You are so timely, Nancy.

I started Pearl Abraham's book American Taliban. it is such an interesting subject but the writing is not working for me. At all. It's an intriguing choice for her since she comes from a background that some would call religiously extreme.

[Karen]

Reading this thread and saying to myself I don't remember posting that. Did I have that much wine last night? Hi, Karen T.

Reading Elzabeth Taylor's At Mrs Lippincote's for the Virago Group and still plodding along on Robert Altman: The Oral Biography.

[Miriam]

Nice to see you here Karen. I was delighted to hear that M.J.'s book was getting a TV series. We're getting our cable back tomorrow (Superbowl over weekend - husband; Olympics - kids). I'm very ambivalent about getting it back, but the one perk is that I can watch the premier of Past Life.

I just finished reading Nikolski (for some reason the linking feature isn't working for me, and I can't figure out why it isn't). A very quick, easy and fun read. It reminded me of Winterston's fiction a bit. My only real quibble is that he introduces some fabulous ideas (a family that tends towards piracy and rootlessness, maps, identity hacking, the place/role of geography, the archeology of garbage) but really goes no where with them. Nonetheless, I'd recommend it plus one of the characters runs a second-hand bookstore.

I continue to trudge through Quicksilver, as well as pick at those other two huge books on my list. But I started reading Ghosts by Ceasar Aria this morning. It's short and promising.

[Nancy]

Do we have two Karens now? How can we tell you apart? Is the new Karen our former fearless leader?

[Kat]

Medical research pushes all my buttons.

Ayup. CLICK. Damn you, Nancy.