Comfort Reads discussion
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What are you reading right now? (SEE NEW THREAD)
Mostly reading Goodreads book club selections:The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery: Volume I: 1889-1910 (on page 200, interesting, but not an easy read, as there is not only lots of information etc., the later entries are quite touching and emotionally draining)
The Neverending Story (reading this, or rather rereading this in German, wonderful, imaginative, but with an important message to find a balance between imagination and reality, on page 185)
For relaxation, I've been rereading the memoirs of James Herriot (they always both amuse me and ground me) and a new (at least to me) book of English language bloopers by Richard Lederer, The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches, and Boo-Boos
I'm reading a book for a March goodreads group: Woman on the Edge of Time (it's funny because it's about the future but was written in the 1970s so it feels dated), and I have 3 others I should be reading for March groups too but won't by March 1st: The Neverending Story, Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, and Snow Crash, and 6 children's picture books which I will read by this weekend. Thank goodness I've already read my real world book club March book.
Not so good is the huge pile of (non book club books) I'm eager to read.
I'm doing something I don't normally do - read 3 books at the same time. I know alot of you can do it, but it usually confuses me to juggle that many. I think I can do it this time because the books are fairly different in genre.No More A-Roving (Sylvia Thorpe) - typical historical romance written in the 1970's by an author I read when I was a teen.
The Long-Shadowed Forest (Helen Hoover) - really interesting nature primer written by the author when she and her husband lived in the Minnesota wilderness in the 1950's-early 70's.
Thornyhold (Mary Stewart) - I first read it last year, and it immediately shot to my top 5 favorite comfort read list, so I'm rereading it. You can't go wrong with Dame Stewart.
I'm reading Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century by Robert Charles Wilson. I'm right into it, a fascinating story, and it definitely is *not a comfort read. (Lisa, Snow Crash doesn't start till March 15 ;-))
Mod
Peregrine, that book looks interesting. It has quite a range of ratings among my friends who have read it. I'll be curious to see what you think when you finish.
Peregrine wrote: "(Lisa, Snow Crash doesn't start till March 15 ;-)) "Thanks. I do remember that now. I already have it in my pile at home. I'll try to read the others first. Too many books and I"m not sure when I'll read them.
(I have other group reads but they're books I've already read. Thank goodness.)
Peregrine wrote: "I'm reading Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century by Robert Charles Wilson."Ah, that's on my to-read shelf but it hadn't made it to my speculative-fiction shelf. That's been corrected. I'm also interested in hearing what you think when you're finished reading.
I'm reading Self-Defense by Jonathan Kellerman. I'm currently reading all of his Alex Delaware books in order. This is #9 in the series, I believe.
Listening to An Expert in Murder on the car CD player at the moment. I'm really enjoying it. It has a very authentic feel to it, and I'm loving the details of 1930's London life.
I just finished Await Your Reply: A Novel - great, great, great !! - and am now reading Let the Great World Spin which looks very promising.
Definitely 5 Lee! I'd give it more if I could!
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Mary wrote: "I just finished Await Your Reply: A Novel - great, great, great !! - and am now reading Let the Great World Spin which looks very promising."
I read Await Your Reply last month, and it was good! I have another one of his on my shelf to read.
I read Await Your Reply last month, and it was good! I have another one of his on my shelf to read.
Mod
I just finished My Life and Hard Times by Thurber. It reads like short stories but is actually a quick autobiography of his boyhood in Columbus, Ohio. Marvelously funny. Now I am reading Un sac de billes which received high acclaim in France and is about two brothers escaping from Vichy controlled France in WW2. In my view it is YA and a bit "too cleaned up" for its primary audience. So fart it feels like the author wants to soften the tale. It is an autoibiography, but I believe kids can hear the truth. These are just my first impressions.
I'm currently mostly focusing on doing research for some novel ideas I've got, and for them I'm mainly reading books about Finnish history and cultural history which are in Finnish only, so I don't suppose posting them will be that interesting... I'm having lots of fun reading about Finnish history in the 19th century, as well as the developments of early Finnish Gothic romantic literature in the 1840s!Otherwise I'm reading books in foreign languages to help me with language learning: Inkheart (Tintenherz) by Cornelia Funke for German and The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) by Henri Alain-Fournier for French.
How many languages can you read/speak? Five? Is there any Finnish Gothic romance translated to English? I confess I don't know any Finnish authors.
Lee wrote: "Christine, how are you doing with Cutting for Stone?"
I love the story and the characters, but I'm having trouble with some of the medical detail. I try to skim over some yucky stuff, but I'm afraid I'll miss plot so I end up reading it all anyway. I want to know if one of my predictions is right...it's killing me.
I love the story and the characters, but I'm having trouble with some of the medical detail. I try to skim over some yucky stuff, but I'm afraid I'll miss plot so I end up reading it all anyway. I want to know if one of my predictions is right...it's killing me.
Christine, I had the exact same problem. Medical stuff scares me to pieces! Lee recommended I read Cutting for Stone, and I am really glad I did. The characters - well you grow to love them. Check out my review - I gave no spoiler! You will probably get what I am talking about...... I JUST finished it!
Chrissie,
I do love the characters, and the plot so far is really good. I just have to make a face when I am reading the surgery stuff...haha!
I do love the characters, and the plot so far is really good. I just have to make a face when I am reading the surgery stuff...haha!
Christine, ugh I can hardly read that stuff. I am have a huge fear of hospitals....... Things always go wrong there! Nice to know I am not alone.
Mod
Peregrine wrote: "I've finished Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century and have written a review."Good review. This book is on my list. I'm not sure about it. I'd like to read it; it's just that my to-read list is out of control.
Lee, I am really glad I read Cutting for Stone!
Lisa wrote: Good review. Thanks, Lisa :-)
Lee wrote: "Mary, do you think it would be a good book for a book club read?"Lee, I think that it would be an excellent book club read - so much to discuss! Christine, what do you think?
Mod
Great review Peregrine. You've convinced me to give it go.
Mod
I know you are Chrissie, thanks for saying that. I guess I never hesitated in recommending it because there were so many wonderful aspects to the story that overcame any squeamishness to the medical bits.
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Lee, I think that it would be an excellent book club read - so much to discuss! Christine, what do you think?"
Great! I'm thinking about recommending it for a group read in one of my book clubs.
Lee wrote: "I'm sorry you guys are bothered by the medical stuff. I guess I was more fascinated by the detail than grossed out. The only scene I remember feeling tense about was when the twins were born."
That's the scene that I just got through. So maybe I have faced the worst of it already.
That's the scene that I just got through. So maybe I have faced the worst of it already.
Mod
Lee wrote: "Peregrine wrote: "I've finished Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century and have written a review."Great review Peregrine. You've convinced me to give it go."
Cool, Lee, thanks :-)
Right into another fascinating, challenging book: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. I've read this once before, about half my life ago. It was seminal in my literary and political education.
Lee wrote: "Can you believe that student nurse????"
No! AH! Ugh! That about sums it up. :)
Lee, I am very glad to be reading it, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I'm just a baby.
No! AH! Ugh! That about sums it up. :)
Lee, I am very glad to be reading it, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I'm just a baby.
Mary wrote: "Lee wrote: "Mary, do you think it would be a good book for a book club read?"
Lee, I think that it would be an excellent book club read - so much to discuss! Christine, what do you think?"
Yes, good one for discussion for sure!
Lee, I think that it would be an excellent book club read - so much to discuss! Christine, what do you think?"
Yes, good one for discussion for sure!
Just finished one that wasn't a "comfort" read (more like a weird one) which I enjoyed: The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry.Right now I am actually reading a comfort read: an Amelia Peabody mystery.
Mod
Peregrine, I read it half a lifetime ago too and loved it then. I think it's worth a re-read!
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Right now I am actually reading a comfort read: an..."
The Manual of Detection looks like an unusual read Susanna. Do you recommend it for mystery readers? Is it hard to follow?
The books most like it that I have read are the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde. It is honestly a very strange book, but I enjoyed it.It does have mystery elements, but it has a lot of other stuff, and overtones of Kafka.
The plot is pretty twisty.
Mod
Yes, I'm caught up with the 5 Thursday Next books so far published and I really like that series. It's really fun.
Jeannette wrote: "How many languages can you read/speak? Five? Is there any Finnish Gothic romance translated to English? I confess I don't know any Finnish authors."Hardly anybody knows Finnish authors. :P Even I don't read that many of them, though of course there's some really good stuff. But because we're such a small language area, very little of our literature gets translated into other languages, and even that little easily disappears into the massive volume in books available in a language like English. My favourite Finnish author is probably Tove Jansson, who wrote the Moomin books which are quite popular also outside our country. :-)
I'd be very surprise if any of that early Finnish gothic literature would be translated into English - most of it's not even generally available, because it wasn't exactly considered a valulable part of our literary canon and so has largely been forgotten. But I'm finding it culture-historically interesting to read about it, since it certainly was popular in its time like Gothic literature everywhere.
And um, I speak six languages, by the latest count. Finnish as native language, then English, French, Swedish, German and Hungarian. I can sort of read literature in all of them, though with Hungarian it has to be very easy literature... I really love learning languages, and have been blessed with great opportunities to do so. Helps that since our own language is so tiny, our education system makes sure we can learn lots of other languages if we're interested.
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Comfort Reads
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We won't shelve these books on the group bookshelves unless they turn out to be comfort reads for you. If you finish your current read and want to share it as a comfort read we would love it if you would post in the appropriate thread! Thanks.