What are you currently reading? Showing 1,351-1,400 of 2,082

[Li]

I'm currently reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. After this, I'm contemplating on finally taking on the War and Peace before the end of the month.

[Reggia]

Hi Li! Both of those are on my someday-to-read list; the Eco one has been recommended to me many times. Are you enjoying the read?

[Li]

Hi Reggia,

Most of my readings so far have been thrillers/crime novels because I hope these page-turners would help me build up my vocabulary quickly so that I could get ready to tackle some serious literary stuff. I chose this book because it is in the "Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time" list by UK Crime Writers' Association. Although I'm only at page 232 of this 502-page book, I can see that it is more than a crime novel because it contains a lot of other elements, religious, psychological, human being, etc.. I wish I had taken some notes when I started the book to avoid the "who is this guy again?" moment, because that would help me get more out of this story. I believe I will need to read it a second time (I'm already starting to refer back to the beginning of the book from time to time to get a better understanding of events and story). I do enjoy the book so far and I'm agog to know whodunnit. A lot of characters in the book talk in Latin, I hope I'm not missing too much by skipping the Latin part.

[Werner]

While I'm waiting to start a common read next month in another group, I've been filling in the time by reading short stories from a couple of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes collections that I own. Having recently finished The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, I've now started on The Return of Sherlock Holmes. So, the latter book has moved to my "being read intermittently" shelf.

[Werner]

I'll be taking part in the Fans of British Writers group's common read of Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis next month. Although I'm a day early, it's not practical to start on anything else at this point; so I'm going to go ahead and start on that one later this afternoon.

[Reggia]

I'm reading Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah.

[Reggia]

I’m almost done with the above, and then I plan to tackle 1984 again. There was a scene that troubled me a few years ago, but going to work/read past it this time.

[Reggia]

There you are!

[Li]

Currently reading "How to Read Literature like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster.

[Werner]

Charly wrote: "Finished "Ghost Story" by John Sandford, 4 stars, reviewed."

Charly, did you mean to write "Ghost Story," or Holy Ghost?

[Werner]

As part of my continuing program this year of reading the four Jane Austen novels which, as of Jan. 1, I still hadn't ever read, I've now started on Lady Susan. This novella, written possibly as early as 1794 but not published until 1871, is untypical for Austen in some ways (it's her only work to use the epistolary format, for instance), and probably her least known work --I'd never heard of it until I stumbled on it some years ago in the BC library's copy of The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English.

[Werner]

No problem, Charly!

[Reggia]

Put aside 1984 already... I had pulled it out to reread for a local book discussion, but realized it was futile to think I'd finish in time. So I put it book on the shelf and am now reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I had gotten it for my son to read some time this past year, and now he wants me to read so we can watch the movie together while it's still on Netflix. This is not my usual genre so wish me luck! ;-)

[Werner]

As a kid back in the mid-60s, my first introduction to Sarah Orne Jewett's work was her historical novel The Tory Lover (1901). I liked it at the time; but I don't remember enough about the plot now to do it justice in a review, so it's been on my to-reread shelf for ages. Finally, I've decided that I have a window of opportunity for a reread; so I started reading it again last night. (Some of the lines in the opening description were still familiar! :-) )

[Werner]

Charly wrote: "They must be well written."

Not really. :-) I remembered the line that introduced one character because he had an unusual name; and the other one because of an allusion to real-life historical figure Sir William Pepperrell, whom I'd happened to read about elsewhere shortly before starting this novel.

[Reggia]

Finished the Hitchhiker's Guide... That was a very different read for me, and I was having a little trouble with all the odd-sounding names. About 3/4 of the way through, I watched a little of the movie on Netflix which made the story flow and come alive for me.

I'm now reading Precious and Grace, another installment of the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency, for something a bit light-hearted before getting back to my classics.

[Werner]

Continuing along with our reading together of Mary Connealy's Sophie's Daughter's trilogy. Barb and I started on the second installment, Wrangler in Petticoats while on the road trip we just returned from.

[Reggia]

Finished Precious and Grace... and still not ready for the two classics, so I've begun Ruth's Journey, a sanctioned prequel to Gone With the Wind . It is Mammy's story.

[Werner]

In another of my Goodreads groups, there was some discussion recently of British travel writer H. V. Morton and his books, including In Search of Scotland. I thought that might be the same book I read back in the mid-60s, but had forgotten author/title information for; and when I checked it out by ILL, it proved to be! Before I can do it justice in a review, I need to reread it; so, having a copy in hand, I'm proceeding to do that now. :-)

[Li]

I bumped into this book in my local library and borrowed it. So this is going to be my reading next week:

Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace

[Li]

Another book was recommended to me by members of a Wechat (a Chinese online social media platform) group. Apparently it is a best seller in China. So I will read this book first because I will be reading through the Chinese translation and thus will be able to finish it faster before turning my attention back to the Tolstoy book. This is a link to the original English edition of the book (Chances are that the Chinese edition I'm reading has been bowdlerized for the 'benefits' of Chinese readers. And the translation is bad, some words are calques from English words.) :

Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

[Reggia]

Still on Les Mis and Ruth's Journey -- getting a kick out of the unexpected discovery that Napoleon Bonaparte's conquests have come up simultaneously in both books.

[Reggia]

However unremarkable it may seem to you, I have never experienced while reading two totally different genres that take place in opposite parts of the globe and written 150 years apart yet have these parallel themes. *I* got a kick out of it.

[Werner]

As of last night, I've started reading my review e-copy of Death and Dark Money, the fourth novel in Seeley James' Sabel Security series. (I've mentioned the author and the series on this thread several times before!) Pia Sabel is one of my favorite fictional heroines, and all of the earlier novels in the series have gotten high star ratings from me; so I'm expecting to enjoy this one quite a bit as well.

[Werner]

Closing in on my goal for this year of reading all four of the Jane Austen novels that, as of Jan. 1, I still had never read, I've now started on the last one (last one to be read by me, that is --not the last to be written, since I've read them out of that order!), Mansfield Park. This one and Lady Susan are the only completed Austen novels that I've never seen an adaptation of, so I'm coming to it with relatively little previous knowledge.

[Werner]

This month, in another of my groups, there's a mini-common read of Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake going on. So, I started on this YA supernatural fiction novel today. Though I'm getting a late start, I expect it to be a fairly quick read. I've also just started beta reading my Goodreads friend Bill Kerwin's first novel, Big Sleep Boogie; but that one is still unpublished, so isn't in the Goodreads database.

[Reggia]

I've just begun The Bookshop of Yesterdays.

[Werner]

Next month, another of my groups will be doing a voluntary common read of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot. Since it's a thick book (over 650 pages in the edition I checked out from the library), I started on it a couple of days ago. That's not jumping the gun as badly as it seems, since I'll have no time to read today or Monday, and will be leaving on Wednesday to visit family for the rest of the week (and I don't bring books along on those trips, except for the one I'm reading to my wife in the car).

Speaking of reading to Barb in the car, we've started a new car book: on the heels of finishing the second volume of Mary Connealy's Sophie's Daughters trilogy, we've started the third book, Sharpshooter in Petticoats.

[Werner]

This past Thursday, I started reading The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories, edited by Tom Shippey. (He's also the editor of the companion volume, The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, which got five stars from me; and Oxford Univ Press' fiction anthologies always have a high standard of quality.) Since this will be a read for occasions when I'm spending time at the public library in Harrisonburg, Virginia, it goes on my "being read intermittently" shelf.

[Reggia]

I finished Bookshop of Yesterdays but not sure how to rate it. While I enjoyed reading the book, there were many issues that I think affected the overall quality.

I'm now giving a second attempt at reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was supposed to be a buddy read with someone in my local book group last October, but we both abandoned it pretty early on.

Although I've read many classics, zombies have never been my genre so I thought a combo like this would make it easier for me. I"m not sure if I'm going to be dealing with silly or macabre.

[Werner]

Interestingly, the (traditional) concept of zombies, corpses animated by a voodoo practitioner and subservient to his/her will, is rooted in Afro-Caribbean folklore, and has a long history. (For instance, the 20th-century Haitian dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier cultivated a widespread belief in his power to command zombies.) The whole "zombie apocalypse" sub-genre (which I personally don't get into either), with its tropes of a contagious zombie virus spread by biting and of zombies as rotting, un-dead predators roaming in hordes and looking for human brains to eat, was the creation of scriptwriters George Romero and John Russo in the 1968 movie The Night of the Living Dead.

Ever since 1968, of course, the Romero/Russo zombie model has come to completely define pop-cultural perceptions of what the term "zombie" means, and has been riffed off of (and sometimes just ripped off) in countless books and movies. The very real literary potential of the traditional zombie mythos, in contrast, hasn't been much explored in the English-language fiction of the supernatural, with some exceptions like Voodoo Moon by Wendy Corsi Staub. (less)

[MichelleCH]

Just finished A Land More Kind Than Home - which I loved and highly recommend, just started The Blind Assassin.

[MichelleCH]

I am about. a third of the way through, I can't tell where we are going with the story yet. That can either be a very good or very bad thing.

[Werner]

A few days ago, I was able to get, for free, a short e-novella by Kelly Armstrong, Double Play, a continuation of her Nadia Stafford trilogy, for my Kindle app, thanks to an Amazon credit earmarked for e-books. (I've never read the trilogy, though I hope to sometime, since one of my Goodreads friends rated the first book highly; but I know enough about it that I figure I can start with this story and not be lost.) Last night I was able to start reading it, sooner than I'd expected (long story!).

[Reggia]

Werner, thank you for the zombie background. It has helped in my current read which has turned out to be relatively painless and not at all frightening to me.

Considering the unmentionables (as the undead are referred to in this P & P & Zombies read), it has given good reason for things that we can't come to terms with in the original story which has proven quite humorous to me. I'm not a purist when it comes to the classics, so I usually enjoy a retelling.

[Werner]

Next month, another group I belong to will be doing a common read of two books by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: first, The Cost of Discipleship, followed by Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community. Since I was ready to start a new book, I've begun reading the first one a day early! (I've actually read both of these books before, in my early 20s; but I think I'm better able to fully appreciate Bonhoeffer's thought now than I was back then.)

[Li]

Started my first Charles Dickens novel, Bleak House. Planning to finish it in November.

[Donnally]

I am also reading Bleak House. But I have been going at it slowly, a chapter or two in the evening before drifting off to sleep.

[Li]

What a coincidence! They say the original book was meant to be read in this way - a chapter a day or whatever the interval was between two newspaper issues. I guess it is not meant to be read twice, as sometimes recommended for good books.

By the way, it didn't show up in your 'currently reading' list.

[Donnally]

I can be a bit sloppy about maintaining that list, but Bleak House is there now. I'm usually reading several books at once, and there are a few that I just dip into from time to time as the mood hits me. I've created an "Intermittently Reading" shelf for some of those.

[Reggia]

Donnally, I love your idea of an "intermittent" book shelf.

The talk of Bleak House has piqued my interest, so I went to my bookshelves to see if I had a copy, and discovered that not only did I have one but it'd been read halfway through (by evidence of a bookmark and post-its in it)! I am struggling to remember the story, though... and not sure why it wasn't listed on my Goodreads list.

I just finished two books today, and will probably next choose something from my abandoned list.

[Werner]

Barb and I recently finished Sharpshooter in Petticoats, the third novel in Mary Connealy's Sophie's Daughters trilogy (review to come on Friday, hopefully). One of the supporting characters there, Abby Linscott Sawyer, obviously has a fascinating back story. Back in the summer, I'd bought Barb another Connealy book, Wildflower Bride, since we both like this author's work. It turns out that the latter novel focuses on Abby; so we've started reading it as our new "car book."

[Reggia]

Charly, yes, but, of course Les Mis! It's off the shelf -- yet again! (To be sure, I did get a different translation.)

[Donnally]

Finished The Science of Right. Starting Riders to the Sea and Considerations on Representative Government while continuing on with The Aeneid, History of the Peloponnesian War, Experience and Education, What Is Science? and The City of God. Becoming active in GR and joining this group has made me become more conscious of keeping track of what I'm in the middle of reading. I find my interests are so diverse I need to have several things to turn to at any one time. In my younger days I used to read one thing and stick to it till I was done and then start something else. I find I can't do that anymore.

[Werner]

To fill in the time between now and next month, when I'll be taking part in a common read in another group, I've started reading a thick anthology I picked up this summer at the Barnes and Noble in Harrisonburg, Virginia: Great Ghost Stories: 101 Terrifying Tales. I expect to be dipping into it periodically, when I'm between other reads, for well into next year.

[Donnally]

Finished Riders to the Sea and What Is Science?. Started Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws And Consequences and Elements of Chemistry.

[Laura-Lee]

Werner wrote: "This past Thursday, I started reading The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories, edited by Tom Shippey. (He's also the editor of the com..."
Sounds like a good read (5 stars) and a good idea for a shelf: intermittent reading.

[Werner]

Laura-Lee wrote: "Sounds like a good read (5 stars) and a good idea for a shelf: intermittent reading."

Yes, I have good hopes that this will prove to be a five-star read; Oxford Univ. Press' fiction anthologies have tended to get high ratings from me. (And the "being read intermittently" shelf was a felicitous idea for me, at least --it's perfect for handling books that I'm dipping into off and on, but intend eventually to finish on that basis.) :-)

[Laura-Lee]

So glad to see I am not the only person who reads several books at the same time. I always equate it to flicking to many different TV channels with the remote control.
I have found "my people."
LLR

[Werner]

Apropos of the season, I've just started on an Agatha Christie mystery, Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938). It's a common read (multi-person buddy read) this month in another group, and given its date, fits into a thread dealing with classic Christmas writings in another, classic-themed group. But despite the Christmas connection, this isn't the sort of read that's apt to be adapted as a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie anytime soon.... :-)