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What are you currently reading?
I see your point, Werner, but mostly I've been happy with sequels. Thanks, both of you, for the feedback on The Shack.
Oh, and does that review contain any spoilers?
No, Reggia, I read over the review again just now, and didn't find any spoilers.
Now I'm reading Fantasy, "Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale", by Carolyn Turgeon. At the same time I am reading "Georgie", a manga book (there's no Portuguese or English version of this Japanese book, but I can read French, so now I'm reading a book and practicing my French at the same time :) !).
...so now I'm reading a book and practicing my French at the same time :)
Cool! and welcome to the board, Catarina. :-) How are you liking Mermaid A Twist on the Classic Tale?
Charly wrote: "Finished Tourist Season, And Water for Elephants, which I found surprisingly interesting one I got into it. I am currently closing in on the finish of the Tender Bar."I really enjoyed The Tender Bar, recommended to me by my pharmacist.
I am currently reading Cloud Atlas to cleanse my palate after the bitter taste left behind by Dan Brown's Inferno.
Charly wrote: "Didn't care that much for Tender Bar"Sorry to hear that. I thought the scene where he couldn't find his girl on the mesa was worth the whole story. But I enjoyed the whole book and I don't read very many memoirs.
Reggia wrote: "...so now I'm reading a book and practicing my French at the same time :)Cool! and welcome to the board, Catarina. :-) How are you liking Mermaid A Twist on the Classic Tale?"
Thank you, Reggia! :)
I'm really enjoying the book. It's a good fantasy book and it's also nice to see how well the author treated the classic and created a new story at the same time!
Although my Goodreads friend Karin Kaufman's new novel,
isn't for sale in a print version yet, I was fortunate enough to get in on a giveaway offer for an e-copy, and started reading it this evening. (I expect to buy a paperback copy once they're available, which will be a ways down the road.) This is my first exposure to Karin's work, and I've been looking forward to it!
In the mail yesterday, I received my eagerly awaited advance review copy of the latest novel by my Goodreads friend LeAnn Neal Reilly,
, which she was kind enough to offer me earlier this summer. I was able to get started on it right away!
Can't link from the app (stupid thing), so will edit links in later, but currently focusing on the following from my currently-reading list of 15 ;) --ebook:
Is This The Real Life? by Mark Blake
Shadow's End by Moira Katson
audiobook:
J.K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", read by Stephen Fry.
paper:
Home Improvement: Undead Edition, anthology edited by Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner. Has stories by Seanan McGuire, Harris & Kelner themselves, Stacia Kane, Melissa Marr, Patricia Briggs, James Grady, Heather Graham, Victor Gischler, S.J. Rozan, E.E. Knight, Simon R. Green and Rochelle Krich. (If you're getting it, don't get it for the Charlaine Harris story, but DO get it for the Seanan McGuire short. That's my advice...)
A couple of days ago, I started on the memoir
. The author, Carolyn Jourdan, is one of my most long-standing Goodreads friends, but the book has been on my radar ever since it first came out in 2007. I'm glad to have finally gotten around to reading it! Memoirs aren't my characteristic choice of reading material, but I'm enjoying this one.
So, I had been waiting for Philippa Gregory's The White Princess to be published, and figured that when I ordered that, I would order SOME of the classics I've been wanting to read for so long. Well, 'some' turned out to be five: Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, The Book Thief, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The House of the Spirits. Ah, there's nothing like a little retail therapy in an online bookstore!
One of my other groups is doing a common read of C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce this month. I read this once before, about 20 years ago, but quickly realized that I don't remember it well enough to contribute intelligently to a discussion of it. So, I started a reread of it today.
Charly, I read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee a good many years ago (history is my undergraduate major). I found it an enormously powerful, eye-opening (and starkly tragic) book; I count it as one of the most educational history books I've read.
Earlier today, I started
an anthology of New Pulp short stories by Pro Se Press authors, featuring one of Pro Se's original heroines, the Pulptress.
Werner, this seems so interesting. I am going to read the kindle sample and see how I like it. I grew up on the Doc Savage paperbacks.
Banner, I've never actually read any of the Doc Savage books (though I've heard of the character, in discussions in the pulp fiction fan group I belong to here on Goodreads). But a modern-day book you might like, inspired by the same character, is Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom. Here's the link to my review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/55464353 .
It's only September and 'creepy' is going around. ;) I'm reading Hide Me Among the Graves.Glad you're able to balance author friendships and reviews, Werner. Sometimes those can be tricky.
Callista, I know exactly what you mean! I don't automatically read books by friends; I only do it if I think I might like them, and I've never had to rate a friend's book with less than three stars. So far, I've never had anyone upset at me because they weren't happy with a review, though I've had author "friends" who unfriended me when they realized I wasn't going to run out and buy their book(s). For some time, I've also followed the practice of warning a friend if my review would be less than four stars and would include significant negative points as well as positive, and offer to refrain from doing a review if they'd prefer that (I've had one who took that option!). I think that's only fair, especially when they've been kind enough to give me a copy of the book for free. But I'd never give a friend's book a glowing review that I didn't honestly believe in.
by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is a book that's been on my radar ever since it was published (I read reviews in the library trade journals), and that's been high on my priority list for reading ever since I snagged a copy a couple of years ago on BookMooch; but I just got a chance to start it this weekend. Set in early 19th-century Scotland, it features a young Sir Walter Scott as the main character, in a heady brew of Scots history and lore. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
Hi Werner! I've enjoyed my Scottish tales from that era... looking forward to seeing your review.
Still working on 100 Years of Solitude... somewhat of an unusual book but at least I can boast I read it, lol! I have a couple other books sitting on the bed in my TBR (to be read) pile. ;)
Reggia wrote: "Still working on 100 Years of Solitude... somewhat of an unusual book but at least I can boast I read it, lol! I have a couple other books sitting on the bed in my TBR (to be read) pile. ;)"Love in the Time of Cholera is my third favourite book of all time, so after I read it, I went looking for more by Gabriel García Márquez and read One Hundred Years of Solitude. I HATED it, LOL! Came very close to giving up on it, but my stubbornness carried me through to the end (I think I can count on one hand the books I haven't finished). Let's just say it was a bit TOO abstract for me. I hope you enjoy it more than I did, Reggia!
Reggia, I think the Scarborough book will be a pretty quick read, so I'm expecting to have my review up by the end of the month!
Reggia, I posted my review of The Lady in the Loch last night. Here's the link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/33319353 .My Supernatural Fiction Readers group is set to start a common read of Storm Front on October 1. Since that's so close, and I was ready to begin on a new book today anyway, I decided to go ahead and get an early start!
Banner wrote: "In the middle of The Book Thief. Very engaging story."Banner- One of my favorites.
Still plugging my way through Drood, and just started House of Leaves- perfect reads for a spooky month.
MichelleCH wrote: "Banner wrote: "In the middle of The Book Thief. Very engaging story."Banner- One of my favorites.
Still plugging my way through Drood, and just started House of Leaves- perfect reads for a spoo..."
MichelleCH. I've finished the Book Thief and also loved it. I'm look forward to the movie, but I don't see how it could capture some of the amazing moments in the book.
I'm current reading and enjoying Jane Eyre. It's my second read through, the first being 10 years ago.
The book I'm currently reading out loud to my wife Barb is
, an omnibus volume of the first three novels in Rosemary Edghill's Twelve Treasures fantasy series. It's been sitting in my massive to-read piles ever since I got it from the Science Fiction Book Club back in the 90s; so I thought it was about time we read it!
Charly, as you can tell, I'm not Reggia (she's much better looking!); but nonetheless, I think I've got this thread set so it will always appear first in the folder. Whenever you want to do that, just click on the edit link at the top of any given thread. At the next screen, check the box to designate the topic as "important." That's one of the privileges you have as a group moderator.
I'm finishing The Forgotten Garden a very interesting historic fiction. The story is about an abandon little girl in Austria in 1913.
Today my friend Jackie and I started on a buddy read of the first novel in the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series,
, by Ilona Andrews. We've heard a lot of good things about this one!
I haven't yet decided... start something new... or retrieve a book from the abandoned pile... headed to the library first so we'll see!
Reggia, this is my constant search for as well....the next book. Once I'm into a book, I relax. But when it's over I always have trouble deciding what is next.
I have too many books in my "to read" list. I find that I put books there that I may not be planning on reading to soon, but I don't want to forget about them.
Banner, there are times when I want to still savor a book.. it's as if I feel disloyal to pick up another one too quick.But I did finally settle for the next in the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Like the other, it is light and witty but I am enjoying this last, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detectives more than the last few in the series.
Charly, I am finding that true as well! I looked at my "unfinished" list recently and there are several that I did think I'd get back to... but no promises. :-p
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Sometimes, though, the author is telling a long story that can't be fitted into one volume, and you need to read the whole thing in order to know that story and experience it as an artistic whole. That's often the case with trilogies or other short series (such as the Twilight Saga, the Inheritance Cycle, or Krisi Keley's On the Soul series) that aren't intended to be open-ended. The Hunger Games trilogy definitely falls in this category! Then too, there are some open-ended series that have an episodic structure, built around a particular character or set of characters that the reader likes and wants to spend more time with. Reading sequels in these series is like visiting an old friend. :-)
For whatever it's worth, I gave The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity five stars, and even recommended it to a number of people. Here's the link to my review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/45339596 .