What I'm Reading DECEMBER 2015

[Sheila]

I 've just gone down the Scribe route as well and it works just fine on my Kindle Fire, Android tab, phone and the PC

[Larry]

Sheila, I tried again to install Scribd on the my Kindle Fire, this time going the external download route. You are right! It dies work ... many thanks.

[Nicole]

I was, as anticipated, gifted with A Brief History of Seven Killings this xmas (mostly because I specifically asked for it). If other people are interested in reading it in the first half of 2016, I'd be happy for the company.

[Sheila]

Nicole wrote: "I was, as anticipated, gifted with A Brief History of Seven Killings this xmas (mostly because I specifically asked for it). If other people are interested in reading it in the firs..."Nicole, I have the audio to listen to having decided that I'd struggle with reading the written accent, as I always do. So its on my to be read pile.
I am gradually working my way through the whole Booker Longlist interspacing them with other reads and am about half way through both the long and the short list, so will get to this one sometime next year. Just finished the excellentThe Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota. Great story, believable characters, topical in its portrayal of the driving forces and the plights of immigrants, legal and not. I'd recommend the audio for anyone not familiar with the Indian vocabularly, the Audible narrator does a really great job. I think the hardback comes out in the US early next year.

[Kat]

I just read a very strange, very short book called Memory Theater, by Simon Critchley. It's about a philosopher who inherits boxes of papers from another philosopher; in these papers he finds a prediction of his own death date. No doubt someone with a background in philosophy would have appreciated it more; still, there were a few fascinating paragraphs and a few lovely ones.

[Sheila]

Just listened to Walter Scott's short story Sir Walter Scott Collection: The Talisman, The Tapestried Chamber, a classic ghost story - there's something about a ghost story at this time of year, maybe its the sense f sitting round a warming fire telling a good tale.

[Sara]

Nicole wrote: "I was, as anticipated, gifted with A Brief History of Seven Killings this xmas (mostly because I specifically asked for it). If other people are interested in reading it in the firs..."

I have it to read as well--would love to join in a side discussion of it.

[Ann D]

I'm interested in reading A Brief History of Seven Killings, Nicole, but I think I need at least a month to catch up on other things.

[Mary]

Concealed in Death. The first third of this book is dull and predictable because it is nothing more than J. D. Robb's usual formula for this series based on the Eve Dallas character. I almost set it aside and at the very least had decided it would be the last of these books I would ever read. And then the plot got interesting and I was hooked. I imagine I'll check in with this cast of characters once again some day when I'm looking for a quick, suspenseful, feel good read.

[Nicole]

Ann, Sara, Sheila, what do you think about a side read in May? There's no classics selection that month. I have plenty of things to keep me busy until then.

[Sara]

Nicole wrote: "Ann, Sara, Sheila, what do you think about a side read in May? There's no classics selection that month. I have plenty of things to keep me busy until then."

That's good for me--it's a long book! Thanks for making the suggestion, Nicole.

[Ann D]

Nicole,
I will be traveling in May and July, but maybe I can catch up with you towards the end of May.

[Mary Ellen]

I haven't been around CR much in the last couple of months, and haven't read too much either. Life intrudes!
The last books I've read:
The Postmistress by Sarah Burke. I thought I'd like it, but I really, really didn't. A disappointment.
And two mysteries with contrasting detectives: A Question of Belief by Donna Leon, featuring the happily married (though, in this outing, separated from his vacationing family) Commissario Guido Brunetti; and
One Step Behind, by Henning Mankell, featuring the not-happy-about-anything Kurt Wallender. (An aside, and behind the times: sorry about the death of Mr. Mankell this fall.)

[Gina]

Nicole wrote: "I was, as anticipated, gifted with A Brief History of Seven Killings this xmas (mostly because I specifically asked for it). If other people are interested in reading it in the firs..."

I just ordered it from the library but there are seven people in front of me. It might be my turn around March.

[Mary Anne]

Mary Ellen wrote: "I haven't been around CR much in the last couple of months, and haven't read too much either. Life intrudes!
The last books I've read:
The Postmistress by Sarah Burke. I thought I'd ..."
Thanks for the aside, Mary Ellen. I can't believe I didn't know about Mankell's death.

[Sheila]

Today I started the next book in my 2015 Booker longlist read - The Moor's Account' s by Laila Lalami. I read another of her's some years ago Secret Son which I had liked. I'm only 2 chapters into this one and its going really well. It is a fictionalised account of the first African explorer of America, a slave who lands with the ill-fated Narváez expedition . Chapter 1 introduces the Spanish forces, the slave, his master and compatriots, their first encounter with American native peoples and the ultimately disasterous strategy of splitting their forces to go north and inland in search of gold in Apalachee. The second chapter takes us back to northen Morocco at the time when it was a haven for Moslems and Jews alike fleeing Christian persecution in Spain, and gives us the narrator's birth story, how his father and mother became his parents. Looks very promising fictionalised historical novel, I read that it was shortlisted for the 2015 Pulitzer also.

[Sheila]

Gina wrote: "Nicole wrote: "I was, as anticipated, gifted with A Brief History of Seven Killings this xmas (mostly because I specifically asked for it). If other people are interested in reading..."

at around 700 pages its a fair size of a read, Audible reckon 26 hours! So depending on how long your library loan period is it may take a couple. I notice that audible.co.uk at least have a free first chapter if anyone wants a taster.

[Nicole]

I also listened to this interview on the NYPL blog which made me very much want to read it, if others are interested: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/01/09/p...

[Mary Ellen]

Mary Anne wrote: "Mary Ellen wrote: "I haven't been around CR much in the last couple of months, and haven't read too much either. Life intrudes!
The last books I've read:
The Postmistress by Sarah Bu..."

I just found out when I went to his page here on GR. I knew he had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer, but I was surprised I had not heard of his death. I was sorry to learn of his premature death.

[Larry]

Quanjun wrote: "Just finished Dickens' Great Expectations. It was so good. Miss Havisham is a work of genius.

Reading Autobiography of Malcolm X now.

Happy new year everyone!"

Quanjun, Happy New Year! I bet I'm not the only reader here is impressed with the breadth of your reading!

[Larry]

Nicole wrote: "I also listened to this interview on the NYPL blog which made me very much want to read it, if others are interested: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/01/09/p..."

Nicole, many thanks for posting the link to this podcast. It's great ... I wasn't aware of the NYPL podcast series.

[Larry]

This thread is about WHAT we are reading ... this article in the link provided is about HOW we read and the move toward a digital world. It is by my favorite book critic, Michael Dirda. If you've read even a few of Dirda's reviews, you know that he is a lover of books and a collector of books. But he reflects on how things are changing:

"In my own case, I am grateful to have passed my life in what now looks to be print’s golden twilight. To me, books have long been things of beauty in themselves, as well as containers of knowledge and purveyors of adventure and romance. In those pre-Internet days you had to go out and actually find physical copies of a favorite writer’s works, whether in libraries or bookstores, in thrift shops or at yard sales. The hunt, sometimes extending over years, was part of the excitement. Even now, after a half a century, I continue to feel about books as I did when I was a 12-year-old boy riding a bicycle around Lorain, Ohio, stopping at Clarice’s Values, the Salvation Army store, and the St. Vincent de Paul charity shop, looking eagerly for something good to read."

http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/no...

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Quanjun wrote: "Just finished Dickens' Great Expectations. It was so good. Miss Havisham is a work of genius.

Reading Autobiography of Malcolm X now.

Happy new year everyone!"

Quanjun, we discussed Great Expectations way back in 2000 before we were on Goodreads. Here is a link to that old discussion: http://constantreader.com/discussions...

[Larry]

This year is over! Reading continues! For your current reading experiences, visit the What I'm Reading JANUARY 2016 THREAD. But don't stop there ... the CONSTANT READER offers so much more. Visit the other discussion threads. You won't be sorry.

Happy New Year!

[Ana]

I'm reading Muse by Jonathan Galassi. It's a real interesting take on the publishing world -- and it's short. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it through a big book over the holidays but am definitely interested to find out other readers' opinion on those huge volumes.