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You'll have to let me know Sara if My Life in France is any good. I tried reading Julie and Julia My Year of Cooking Dangerously and quit. The Julia Child parts were interesting but the Julie parts of the book quite frankly ruined it. (I've read the same comments were said about the movie version.)
I'm currently reading Frankenstein, Graceling, and There's Something About Christmas
Sadie wrote: "I'm currently reading Frankenstein, Graceling, and There's Something About Christmas"
Graceling is a good book!
Graceling is a good book!
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not too far. Their servant girl has just been hung for killing his little brother. It is slow going because I'm reading it with my husband but only when we are driving to his parent's house on Sundays. Maybe we will finish it in time for next Halloween! :)
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I'm reading: Luncheon of the Boating Party which is about Renoir and the painting by that name, Truman, and Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics.
Just read three plays: The Last Yankee, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, and Green Grow the Lilacs: A Play, which I didn't know was the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! until I'd started reading it. Got a late start on the BOM "Theatre" but am quite enjoying the reread. Also reading an MC Beaton mystery, one of Madelyn Alt's witch mysteries and I have Maeve Binchy's Whitethorn Woods going in the car. Yesterday I finished The King's Speech which I really enjoyed. Guess I'll have to see that movie in addition to rewatching "being Julia."
I'm reading a play by Booth Tarkington called Clarence; A Comedy in Four Acts and Edith Wharton's Xingu, as well as Truman. In the car I'm listening to Consent To Kill and on the iPod at the gym, In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. Lately I've tended to read several at once!
And let me just say also that I'm really enjoying Evelina. I've read it before but that was nearly 20 years ago- I'd forgotten how much I liked it. I'll have to dig up her other books and read them.
Reading The Queen of Last Hopes
. I'm liking it although for some reason I'm finding the switching back and forth between points of view difficult-- probably because Margaret and Suffolk sound enough alike and are talking about the same situations to such an extent that the normal "separation" cues are missing. I'm enjoying it though.
Just started The Stolen Crown: The secret marriage that forever changed the fate of England
which seems so far to be about the same story as The Queen of Last Hopes
only told from the perspective of some characters on the other side of the conflict. Interesting, and I didn't realize that when I started it. Plus it's the last book I need for a couple of my May challenges so BOOYAH!
Started SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance and Deadly Notions today, having just finished The Thief of Venice and The Stolen Crown: The secret marriage that forever changed the fate of England this morning.
Just started on Ken Follett's Fall of Giants last night.
I finished three books I've been working on-- Franklin and Winston
, In the Shadow of the Crown
and Spinning into Butter: A Play
. "Franklin" was wonderful. "Shadow" was good in the beginning and then. Just. Got. Tedious. I was glad to see the end of it. "Spinning" was both good and disappointing-- it's about racism and she seems to get close to an a-ha moment without actually reaching it completely. But then, that may well be part of her point.
I just finished Murder Most Royal
and not a moment too soon. I'd set myself to finish reading all of my unread Jean Plaidy this year but I am SO SICK of the Tudors I could hardly get through this one. I just wanted them to line up Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard and lop their heads off on page 2 and be done with it.
Currently reading: Dean and Me:
,
The Voysey Inheritance (Methuen Drama), The Youngest: A Play, Divine Inspiration
and
A Fall from Grace: A Novel of Suspense. I'll probably also start either the next Chiaverini in my list, or the next Cleo Coyle. Or both!
I'm reading Strapless
which takes place largely in France, although I believe the artist in question spent much of his life in England. I can't believe the reaction the painting that is the subject of the book got at the time-- it's one of my favorite paintings.
I am almost finished with The Help. It is wonderful! I am definitely going to see the movie.
Just located this Wikipedia page about the winners of the James Tait Black Prize, one of the oldest prizes in the literary world. I think we can find some great reads from this list. Check it out!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ta...
Thanks!
Just finished Gone with the Windsors
. Good book but my god, Wallis Warfield Simpson was annoying and selfish. I read a bio of her about 25 years ago and thought the same thing then.
Jennifer wrote: "Just finished Gone with the Windsors . Good book but my god, Wallis Warfield Simpson was annoying and selfish. I read a bio of her about 25 y..."Wallis was most likely the most selfish and self-centered woman ever to come into contact with the royal family, IMHO. And I have always been extremely grateful that this King abdicated the throne to marry her, because he was such a very weak man. And he also backed Germany; if his brother hadn't come into power to save the day, Britain would have become a Nazi-owned country, I think. Thanks.
Second Chance
, The Beach House
and Lola Carlyle Reveals All
. I'm in the mood for some light reads.
Just finished This Charming Man
and ultimately really liked it, which is surprising if you consider that for the first 40% of it I was considering not finishing it because it annoyed me so much.....
I just finished a collection of John Galsworthy's plays. He revisited some of his Forsyte themes-- social injustice, the things that desperation drives you to and the price you pay for giving in to it, and women trapped in unhappy marriages-- in some of them. I really enjoyed most of them.
I finished the last batch of simultaneous books yesterday and have started a slew more (one in the car, one on the iPod to listen to while getting ready for work, a few on the kindle, and one "real" book to read and donate to clear shelf space. Murder by Mocha
Why Shoot a Butler?Fellow Travelers
TripwireThe Red Queen
Evergreen Gallant
The Red Queen
is getting better. Now, bearing in mind that my exposure to what historians call "primary sources" is ZERO, I'm wondering if the sort of feminist interior reactions the main character is having about being parceled off to husband after husband without her consent would actually have occurred, or if they are a way to ensure the modern audience can identify with her and respect her.
I'm reading a slew of books at the moment. One of them is And Then There Were None which for some reason I expected to be kind of a chore. However it's really captured my attention. Good mystery!
Finished As The Pig Turns
and was busily congratulating myself that I'm all caught up on this author when I found out she has published not one, but two more Hamish MacBeth since last I checked. Sigh. This one wasn't bad. She's been phoning them in somewhat the last couple years but still highly readable.
Finished Deeply, Desperately
(loved it-- did she really quit writing this series??) last night, and Crocodile on the Sandbank
tonight while I was cooking dinner. Really enjoyed it too, and fortunately the series is pretty good sized!!
Finished What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal
, which I liked but I liked the movie too so I expected to like this. Except at one point she makes reference to a screaming Americanism (or some other equally blatant adjective) and I frankly confess I didn't get what she was referring to. Too close to the trees to see the forest I guess!
ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "You'll have to let me know Sara if My Life in France is any good. I tried reading Julie and Julia My Year of Cooking Dangerously and quit. The Julia Child parts were interesting but the Julie part..."My Life in France is INCREDIBLE.
I just finished reading the complete original published works of Jane Austen. (So Love and Friendship, The Watsons, Lady Susan, and Sandition are unread) I'm currently reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (fantastic, though a book that seems to be written for interpretation as apposed to written for story) and Black Bodies and Quantum Cats by Jennifer Ouellette, a book ANYONE looking into basic physics should read.
Been traveling this week and teaching. And reading: Finished Painted Ladies
and Sixkill
, which I could hardly bear to read because Parker died and finishing his unread books gets me closer to none left, Death of a Kingfisher
(probably her best book in several years), Flowering Wilderness
, Maid in Waiting
and Over the River
, (the last 3 of the 9-volume series, my favorite series, and a rare reread), and a dazzling book called The Age of Desire
. It's a novel about Edith Wharton in middle age and the writing was spellbinding in places.
Three stories into Angela Carter's Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories. "Time, suspended like the rain, begins again in silence, slowly." I'm enthralled by her exquisite style.
I read Christmas Pudding - Nancy Mitford and Christmas Holiday - W. Somerset Maugham for a British lit holiday theme.
Just finished No Angel
which is the first of a trilogy and takes place in the era before and after the First World War. I was enthralled.
British Literature
Books mentioned in this topic
Truman (other topics)Three Men in a Boat (other topics)
My Life in France (other topics)
What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] (other topics)
Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics (other topics)
More...
I am currently reading My Life in France. I have been working on it for a while, but hope to be able to read some more as soon as my semester is finished.
I love this book, because I love to read about living in other countries and I love to cook. I can just imagine myself in Julia Child's shoes; living in a small french apartment trying new recipes for fun.