What are you reading?

[John]

I'm about to start The Holy Thief, the book I got as a Goodreads pre-release giveaway.

[Dorothy]

I seem to have a lot on the go at the moment. I started a book by Sarah Dunant which was given to me as a b'day gift but then a book I had on hold at the library came in so I've had to put the Dunant aside to read The Good Son: A Novel by Michael Gruber. I'm revisiting some Donna Leon mysteries on audio and have at hand a copy of Brunetti's Venice: Walks Through Venice with the City's Best-Loved Detective so I can picture the calles and canals.

[Roberta]

I just finished a novel called The Earth Hums in B Flat. Very sweet and a bit sad. Am now about to start Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story, a mother daughter journey that looks interesting.

[Roberta]

Are you planning a trip to Venice Dot?

I just finished Salaam Brick Lane: A Year in the New East End. Very entertaining and made me want to go back with better informed eyes. Recommended.

[John]

I am starting Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas. Our daughter leaves for South America in a few weeks and I want to learn a little history of the area.

[Roberta]

Another really good read in this area is Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. It's more Central than South America but really made an impression on me when i read it.

[Dorothy]

Roberta wrote: "Are you planning a trip to Venice Dot?
Sadly no. We'll only get as far as Vancouver this year.

I just finished Salaam Brick Lane: A Year in the New East End. Very entertaining and made me want to go back with better informed eyes. Reco..."

Did you read

Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali?

[Roberta]

I did. Just after I got back after discovering the area for the first time. I now have her book In the Kitchen but haven't started it. it's meant to be a mystery.

[Dorothy]

I recently read Michael Gruber's new book The Good Son: A Novel. I had read The Book of Air and Shadows last year and found it a really original plot involving a newly discovered 17th C manuscript. The present day action is interwoven with the story told in the manuscript. I enjoyed it so much I requested "The Good Son" from the library and was not disappointed. Again a unique plot line this time involving the Afghanistan conflict, Jungian dream analysis and Sufism. Highly recommended.

[Dorothy]

Now listening to the audio version of Jacqueline Winspears new book The Mapping of Love and Death I like the Maisie Dobbs series as they are set post WW1 and usually involve mysteries stemming from the war and the psychological effects of the conflict.

[Dorothy]

I took a series of mysteries by Veronica Stallwood to the Mystery bookstore to sell last Tuesday and made the mistake of asking if she had any books in by Stephen Booth...she did so I found myself buying 4 of his series set in Derbyshire....I have no idea when I'll get round to reading them!

[Roberta]

That mystery bookshop will get you every time. And isn't the dog a bonus?

[Dorothy]

Roberta wrote: "That mystery bookshop will get you every time. And isn't the dog a bonus?"

Yes...a warm greeting as usual :-) I've found 2 more V. Stallwood books to sell but I'm afraid to go back!

[Roberta]

I don't blame you.

Added The Good Son: A Novel, to my to read list.

[Dorothy]

Roberta wrote: "I don't blame you.

Added The Good Son: A Novel, to my to read list."

Hope you like it as much as I did.

[Roberta]

I have to finish The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, before anything else. They do get under your skin, even though there is something weird about the pacing and characterization of the series.

[Dorothy]

I've just finished Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant....life in a 16th century convent in Ferrara, Italy.....I found the description of the politics inside the convent very interesting. Now started The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato, lent to me by a friend who has just returned from Tuscany (lucky thing)

[Dorothy]

Finished off The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato last night which is a good thing as I can now return it tomorrow. Have started Kanata by Don Gillmor which has been on my 'to read' shelf since Christmas. After all this Italian Renaissance fiction, I'm now into a fictionalised account of the explorations of David Thompson.

[Roberta]

Just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire. What a page turner. It beats me how he does it. There is endless detail, grocery lists and so on and yet I'm reading as fast as I can.

I'm now reading Marcus of Umbria, the story of an American girl and the dog who adopts her when she moved to Umbria. A light relief after all the dramaq and tension of The Girl seies.

[Dorothy]

Just got back from Vancouver where I finally finished reading "At Large and at Small" by Anne Fadiman which is a little gem of a book of essays by this very literate lady. Highly recommended.
Also finished "The Mapping of Love and Death" another enjoyable mystery in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. As there was plenty of time for reading on the ferry and in hospital waiting rooms, I also read another mystery,Blood on the Tongue by Stephen Booth Back to Kanata now which, being a hardback, I didn't take with me.

[Roberta]

A real readathon. Hope everything is well in the hospital.

I just finished Marcus of Umbria, which I wouldn't really recommend. I think you have a word for her style...whinging.

[Dorothy]

Interesting. I just finished Kanata by Don Gillmor and although I finished it, I was underwhelmed by the prose style. It was a history of Canada told through the eyes of a fictional man and I found the whole thing very melancholy. Some interesting parts but somehow depressing.

[Roberta]

Sometimes I wish I could just put uninteresting books aside. I do sometimes but I am always curious to find out what happened, even to characters I don't care about.

One Canadian historical novel you might like is The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor, by Sally Armstong. From England to the Caribbean to New Brusnwick, Cahrlotte had an interesting life. And, although told like a novel, it is based on a real woman.

[Dorothy]

Roberta wrote: "Sometimes I wish I could just put uninteresting books aside. I do sometimes but I am always curious to find out what happened, even to characters I don't care about.

One Canadian historical no..."
That does sound interesting. I do occasionally stop reading a book in the middle (I've learned to give myself permission to do that :-) ) This one had enough of interest to keep me going but a very dull prose style, I thought. I'm very excited that I found #4 in the Stephen Booth mystery series I've been reading. I have read 1, 2 and 3...and I have 5,6 and 7 waiting to be read but I didn't want to continue until I'd read #4. Today I tried the library & Grafton Books without success but ran it to earth in Ivy's. Problem solved! :-)

[Roberta]

I just picked up his first. Will let you klnow how I like them.

[John]

Just finished a book about modern Germany now I am off to jolly old England in The Frozen Thames.

[Roberta]

I've got that. It's a nice looking book isn't it?

[John]

I am enjoying it,I just wish some of the stories were a bit longer. It would be interesting to read a full length book about these freeze overs.

[John]

I am about to start Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work. Working with your hands can be so rewarding.

[Roberta]

I'll be interested in hearing what you think of it. I was thinking my husband, who mostly reads tech manuals, gardening books and horror stories a la Stephen Kind, would think of it.

[John]

Roberta wrote: "I'll be interested in hearing what you think of it. I was thinking my husband, who mostly reads tech manuals, gardening books and horror stories a la Stephen Kind, would think of it."

I didn't finish it but that is not to say it is not a good book. I just didn't like the style. But I did like the concept, and rewards, of working with one's hands. Crawford said he did more thinking trying to work out mechanical problems than he did working for a think tank - and it was more rewarding. You can have the book if you like.

[Roberta]

Thanks John. I'd love to see what Jim thinks.

[John]

Seeing as the U.S. Open is on I decided to read "Open", Andre Agassi's biography. So far it is incredibly interesting. His father was a nut bar!

[John]

I have been reading a number of NF books lately so now I am going to try Every Man Dies Alone as a change of pace.

[Dorothy]

I've just finished The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury..another take on the history of the Knights Templar and the Catholic Church but with a slightly different take on the subject.

Also finished on audio Valley of Bones by Michael Gruber the second in the Jimmy Paz series...more on the rituals of Santeria as practised in Miami by Cuban immigrants, plus tribal warfare in the Sudan,

[Dorothy]

I've just embarked on The Engineer of Human Soulsby Josef Škvorecký..a rather dense book of more than 500 pages which will keep me busy for a while yet I think. So far I'm finding it quite engrossing.

[Jo]

Hi! I have just joined the group and read a great variety of books. Love books about Afghanistan specially liked The Places Between by Rory Stewart.Looking forward to talking about books with you .Jo Reed

[Roberta]

Welcome Jo. What kinds of books do you like to read?

[John]

Hi Jo. Hope you have fun talking about books with the rest of the group. Any genre of books you especially like?

[Dorothy]

Jo wrote: "Hi! I have just joined the group and read a great variety of books. Love books about Afghanistan specially liked The Places Between by Rory Stewart.Looking forward to talking about books with you ...."
Hi Jo...nice to have a new member of the group...which books about Afghanistan have you enjoyed?

[Roberta]

Hi Jo

Looks like it is working, even if I did ask a redundant question. I'll definitely get Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard, over to you.

My computer is about to go in for an overhaul so I will be off line for a few days but will catch up soon

[Roberta]

Dot wrote: "I've just embarked on The Engineer of Human Soulsby Josef Škvorecký..a rather dense book of more than 500 pages which will keep me busy for a while yet I think. So far ..."

Yikes - that sounds daunting. Let me know how it is.

[Dorothy]

I'm finding it a bit confusing as the author moves from wartime Czeckoslovakia to present day Toronto and various points in between. Some of the story is told through letter, though mostly it is straight narrative. Now that I've learned the difficult Czech names, it is easier to figure out which time period I', actually reading about at any particular time. What I find interesting is the weaving of themes such as repression, freedom, communism, fascism through the story. The main protagonist is a professor at a Canadian university and the juxtaposition of the youthful students and their understanding of politics having grown up in the safety of Canada with the professor having spent his youth in forced labour or camps is very moving.

[Roberta]

Dot, it sounds like a curl up and read book and reminds me of both Remarkable Creatures and The Children's Book, both multilayer, intricate kinds of themes book.

[Dorothy]

Roberta wrote: "Dot, it sounds like a curl up and read book and reminds me of both Remarkable Creatures and The Children's Book, both multilayer, intricate kinds of themes book."

Yes...though I'm thinking more Dosteyevsky or Tolstoy. There are some wonderful comic moments which lighten it considerably.

[John]

I don't know how many of you go to the Free Reads pre-release give away part of the monthly Goodreads newsletter, but I just received an e-mail to say I had won my second free book! This one is called The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe. Sounds odd and interesting. It reminds me of the Tarzan book written by Cheeta. So I am looking forward to receiving and reading it.

[Dorothy]

John wrote: "I don't know how many of you go to the Free Reads pre-release give away part of the monthly Goodreads newsletter, but I just received an e-mail to say I had won my second free book! This one is cal..."

Sounds like fun, John...let us know how you like it.
I've had to put aside Josef Škvorecký for the moment as a book I had on hold at the library came in sooner than I expected. It's called
Turbulence by Giles Foden
and I'm finding it really interesting. It's a novel but a blend of fact and fiction around the topic of trying to predict the weather in preparation for the D-Day landings in WW2. Some of the characters are real people involved in the scientific aspects of meteorology and physics, and one main character is loosely based on the life of a scientist and noted Pacifist called Lewis Fry Richardson. Lots of fascinating snippets of scientific facts included in the dialogue.

[Roberta]

John wrote: "I don't know how many of you go to the Free Reads pre-release give away part of the monthly Goodreads newsletter, but I just received an e-mail to say I had won my second free book! This one is cal..."

There's a Tarzan book written by Cheetah?

[John]

Roberta wrote: "John wrote: "I don't know how many of you go to the Free Reads pre-release give away part of the monthly Goodreads newsletter, but I just received an e-mail to say I had won my second free book! Th..."

The book is called Me Cheeta: The Autobiography it was quite funny and very scathing towards some Hollywood figures of that era. I just loved the idea of a biography from the chimps point of view.

[John]

After reading about Nazi Germany I need a change of pace so I am going to read A Good Man in Africa next.