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Jennifer
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Mar 31, 2008 10:20PM
I'm reading a fantasy book - Red Seas Under Red Skies. It's the sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora which I really liked.
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I'm reading a collection of fantasy short stories: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden.It's pretty cool so far... I particularly like the story structure.
Glory, I've been interested in checking out the Lies of Locke Lamora. It keeps coming up in my Amazon searches. I'm glad to hear that it's worth a look!
I am reading Duma Key...I love Stephen King!!! This book is huge and I only have about a week to read it so it's read, read, read in my house :)
Sabriel - It's definitely interesting, it's like Ocean's 11 crossed with the Godfather with a little bit of Oliver Twist. VERY funny dialogue, but lots of cursing. A little graphic violence. There were several unresolved plot points that I hope will be addressed in the sequel (so far, not yet!) there is apparently another book coming out in 2009. I am enjoying the second book - a lot of nautical stuff, but the same zippy dialogue.
Ashley -
Can't wait until you finish DK so we can discuss it! I loved the book while I was reading it, but was aggravated by several plot holes when I had time to reflect on them when I was done. I will be interested to get your take!
right now i'm reading 'the children of men.' i saw the movie when it came out, and i had been told the book was different. when i checked it out of the library, the librarian RAVED about it. so far it's fairly quiet.
currently reading Inkspell by Cornelia Funke. Though its an adolescent book, its very well written and draws you in. However, you need to read Inkheart first. But Inkspell is better than Inkheart
I just finished Red Seas Under Red Skies and I liked it BETTER than the Lies of Locke Lamora. The author, Scott Lynch, writes EXCELLENT dialogue, but I finally realized what was missing from the first book - women! The second book had some fabulous women characters including lady pirates. Pirates - arrr! Can't wait until the third book, but it's not due out until 2009!
I'm reading The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. It's okay thus far.. not great.
I'm reading I Love You, Beth Cooper. It's light and fun, but I'm not loving it.I'm reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan next. I've heard it's great! Anyone read it?
I didn't like I Love You, Beth Cooper.
You didn't like it? What didn't you like? Just curious..
I really liked Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, except for one part, which I'm sure you'll figure out when you get there.I was reading Tested (Linda Perlstein) and The Freedom Writers' Diary, but I finished both this past week. Now I am reading Volume I of Chekhov's short stories, which I found at a used book store over the weekend.
I just started reading The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller and I love it! It's so well written - I really like the 2 main female characters, Delia and Meri.
I stayed up late last night to finish the Senator's Wife and while I did enjoy the book immensely, I found the ending to be incredibly painful.
So I just finished Duma Key...I really liked it. It was long, but I expected that and would read all 600 pages again!!Not sure what book I will start next.
I am currently working on Beautiful Boy. So far just meh.... but I want to know what else happens!
I finished up the Orphan's tale short stories... loved them! . The structure of the book was very intriguing. It had a main framing story and, each short story spun out of the last (ie, one character would meet another and then that character would tell their tale an so on). They reminded me very strongly of the fairytales I was told as a child. They were sad, beautiful, strange and creepy all at once. Definitely on my re-read list.
Just finished Tangled Webs. I quite enjoyed it... Although I felt it wasn't quite as strong as the original Black Jewels Trilogy, it was enjoyable to spend time with characters I love...
Just finished reading Year of Fog about a missing child. I got really invested in it, but I thought the author was really trying to hard to convey a "lyrical quality." There were various very short chapters on memory (1-3 pages) which seemed to do nothing else but say "oooh look at me, I'm writing so pretty" and it really annoyed me. Overall - really enjoyed the book.
Hey Christy - I'm about to start the Double Blind!
I started the Double Blind but couldn't get into it, I'm now reading Confessions of a Carb Queen. I am always insanely interested in any book about food addiction or weight loss, this is no exception!!
I had a hard time figuring out who was in this group, not many of you have your Shape names... :o) i'm bookless...i'm on here today looking for something. So far I've found Beautiful Lies that looks interesting.
i also want to put together a summer reading list...
Check out the Who Are We thread in this group. And Hi!
Finished up WInterbirth... The first 150 pages or so were very slow going (hence only 3 stars), but the story really picked up by the last third. I'll pick up the next book in the series when it comes out to see where this author is going with the story...
I couldn't get into the Double Blind :(I just finished reading Soon I Will Be Invincible which was a really awesome super hero/super villain book (why aren't there more books about super heroes?). As a huge fan of X-men comics as a kid, it was hilariously factual for a comic book story (if that makes any sense).
I am in the middle of reading Swim to Me which is okay (I'm a huge fan of Weeki Wachi mermaids) but it's one of those "improbably coincidental things keep happening" kind of book which often annoys me. I'll finish it, but it's kinda eh.
Next up: Change of Heart but Picoult is kind of hit or miss for me (which she's great, I love it, but the books I don't like, I really don't like).
I finally finished Wicked, and I dont even know why I bothered to finish it. Im now reading a David Sedaris book,but I cant remember which one. I needed something fun and light after Wicked.
I didn't manage to make it through Wicked; however, after seeing the musical and loving it, I am determined to try again. Come to think of it, I bought 2 more of his books - and they still sit on my shelf, unread.I hate to post my books because I fear they are rather boring. I have been on a long kick now of reading books on povery, inequalities in education, hunger .. which is not exactly fun summer reading. LOL. I did just finish The Overspent American, though, and it was really good; it explained a lot about how our "keeping up with the Jones" has shifted over the years to trying to keep up with people that are in much higher income brackets. Interesting stuff ..
I do want to read Inkheart and Inkspell, and the Golden Compass series, at some point.
Elizabeth - if you haven't read it yet, I'd recommend Nickled and Dimed in America!Well, I finished Swim to Me which was just as pointless and meandering as I thought it would be. I also finished Change of Heart and I'm really getting annoyed with Picoult - she writes about the same stuff - prisons, child abuse, lawyers, trials and miracles. *yawn*
Now I'm reading Isabel's Bed, I'm on a work trip and I'm running out of books, so I'm stuck with it!
I went a little crazy at Barnes & Noble two weeks ago and bought a few books. Two have been disappointing so far.Animal Vegetable Miracle was NOT what I was expecting. I am a big foodie and grow a huge garden in the summer and I struggled with this book. I read the first 100 pages and just couldn't go any further... hated it.
Mayflower was the other book ... I can't really say it was disappointing, it just wasn't what I was expecting. While the truth about what the pilgrims went through to get to american, establish a colony and thrive is interesting, this book just didn't do it for me. Again, I read a little over 100 pages and I had to put it away.
I'm now reading The Secret Bride about Mary Tudor... wish me luck! I love these time pieces....
I couldn't finish Mayflower EITHER.I just finished Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me? Which was mostly harmless fluff, a little perturbed this poor young woman seems to have truly forgotten 3 years of her life, that seems kinda tragic.
I also read Little Heathens which was a non fiction account of growing up on a farm in the depression which I enjoyed.
I got a bunch of books out of the library, I'm honestly not sure what I'm going to read next!
I finished David Levien's City of the Sun and I loved it! It read like a movie script (in a good way) - I would love to see a theatrical version. I enjoyed the characters very much. The ending was a little too neat and happy, but overall a very good book!
I read Nickel and Dimed a few years back. Wasn't bad.I just finished
- Not Much Just Chillin' - a rather interesting read on middle schoolers and their lives at that age
Death at an Early Age - an old book, but Jonathan Kozol's first book on education in Boston's inner city (good, though I wish I knew how applicable it still is 20 years later)
Blowing My Cover - an auto bio about a former CIA spy (quick relatively fun read)
Inkheart - I couldn't put this down, very fun fantasy read, now I am looking for the next one
Two Income Trap - it cracked me up that I read this since I am a single income, but it offered a different perspective than the books on the middle class and debt than I've read lately
I just started The Master and the Margarita (Russian novel) and Rachel and Her Children (another Kozol about homelessness) and am finishing up The Golden Compass - all good
Elizabeth.... you're reading multiple books at once? how do you do that?i can only read one at a time, i mix up the story lines otherwise. haahaa
I have commitment issues? ;-)I don't know ... it's just how I've always read. I keep in-progress books in multiple rooms so read the book that's wherever I am .. and I like the variety of reading a few at once.
I just finished The Devil in the White City....I really enjoyed it!!!
Devil in the White City was great!I generally have several books going at once too - short attention span, I guess. If I am reading a GREAT book, it sucks me in and I can barely pry it from my fingers. But books I'm not that enthralled with, I randomly pick up and put down, sometimes I get involved in books I like better and go back to the other book later.
I just finished reading Charlaine Harris' Ice Cold Grave (one of her Harper Connolly books about the chick that can find dead bodies). It was just okay - much better than her Sookie Stackhouse books, but it still felt kind of fluffy. I read it in about a day.
I couldn't get through Gods Behaving Badly, which is disappointing, I looove Greek myths and wanted to love it, but it was just too British and twee (for me).
I am finishing up a book of Jennifer Weiner short stories - The Guy Not Taken and some of the stories have been VERY good.
I also have Lush Life by Richard Price and Panic in Level 4 in the queue.
i have Mayflower and it's collecting dust on my bookshelf. i can wrap it up and mail it to you if you want to borrow it? Let me know...we can exchange mailing addresses and I'll send it to you and then when you finish you can send it back.
i'm thinking of starting a book swap kind of thing on Shape that is like this. Postage for regular mail items isn't that much and, for example, if I send something to you and someone else sends something to me...then is all evens out. and it's ALWAYS less than buy the book brand new.
i'm currently reading "Salem Falls" by Jodi Picoult.it comes highly recommended by many...so far i'm about 50 pages in and liking it.
I am on the last of the Twilight series. I like to read what my students are reading and I have to say Stephenie Meyer finds a way to draw teens into reading. I am loving her story lines and her characters.....
I just read Darwinia which had a GREAT beginning, a "wtf" middle and an "I'm bored now" ending. I also read In Defense of food - which I thought was great, but I guess Pollan must not be a snacker - I'm trying to picture leaving my desk at work, to walk all the way downstairs to the cafeteria to eat my apple at a table (per his strict recommendation) and then walk the entire length of the building back to my office. To eat an apple at a table!
I read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and I hope there's a sequel because the ending didn't satisfy me.
And I read Bonk by Mary Roach. It was better than Spook, but I didn't like it as much as Stiff. Once again, her footnotes were the funniest thing in the book!
I just finished Belong to Me by Marisa De los Santos. I liked a few of the storylines more than others, but overall it was a winner. I also read Firefly lane recently, but I wasn't a huge fan. Huge sucker though, cried like crazy the last 50 or so pages.
I finally read the two other Gregory Maguire books I bought ages ago. I liked Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister better than Wicked (possibly because I was in the mood for something that didn't really require my thinking) and Mirror Mirror was good but not great. I may order a few more from the library ..
I have Wicked, I should get around to reading that! I just finished The Space Between Us and it was amazing. A very lyrical look at 2 women in India.
