Books on the Nightstand discussion
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What are you currently reading?
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Oct 03, 2008 06:33AM
I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I absolutely loved it. I am going to recommend this book to everyone! I loved all the characters and the writing was extremely witty...my only complaint was that I wanted the book to be longer.
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Glad to hear you'll be recommending it to friends!
i'm currently reading the monsters of templeton by lauren groff.i too love spending days in a bookstore.
browsing and picking things up and reading covers and inside pages.
i've actually made a date with myself to do it this week :)
I am just about to finish Devil in the White City. Very well written and interesting.
Sheila,I also thought that Devil in The White City was well written and an excellent story!
There must of been many hours of research put into that novel.
I wonder how much is true and how much is fiction?
It sure read true.
I have a friend whose great grandfather was somehow connected with the city during that time. My friend recommended the book and said that most of the book echoes stories passed down from his relative.
Sheila - one of my book groups read Devil in the White City last year and enjoyed it and I was talking to someone this week who said they were doing it for the townwide read since they thought it would appeal to both men and women.I just finished Kate Atkinson's latest When Will There Be Good News (an unfortunately appropriately title for these days). Really enjoyed it - she is one of my favorite writers. The plot is a bit convoluted and I suspect it will be easier to follow if you have read the first two books that feature Jackson Brodie - Case Histories and One Good Turn - but I just love the way she writes. And recognizing all the cultural references makes you feel so connected.
Dottie
I just started raeding Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. An aunt at Random House sent me a galley and so far I am enjoying it. I started it on my commute to work today and I really appreciate that each chapter is relatively short. I like being able to finish a chapter before I get off the subway...that way I am not trying to sneak reading in at work!
Mod
All - Devil in the White City is definitely a true story, but boy, does it read like a fantastic novel!
Jennifer -- who is your aunt? I haven't read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet yet, but it is on my stack. Short chapters are definitely helpful for subway commutes!
I started The Gathering by Anna Enright, the winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, today. I've heard good and mediocre reviews of this book, but I think I'm going to give it high marks. The entrancing language alone is worth the reading. Enright has that gift of putting words together like few others can.
My lovely and wonderful aunt who directed me on my path to a publishing career and who gives me the best books...is Joan DeMayo.
Mod
I really want to read The Gathering, even more now that I know that you like it. Thanks!
Jennifer,
I don't know Joan well, but I do know that she has fantastic taste in books, so you are in very good hands! It's so cool to have a family connection to your career.
I'm about halfway through The End of California by Steve Yarbrough. I'm really liking it so far.My audiobook in the car is Miss Julia Strikes Back by Ann B. Ross. This is a great series for driving around town listening.
Ann and Michael,Thank you!!!...I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE by Julia Glass arrived yesterday and has been slotted into the infamous TBR pile. I'm really looking forward to reading it!
I'm over 100 pages into RACING IN THE RAIN and even though it followed EDGAR SAWTELLE, it is holding it's own with me and I've had some good chuckles out of it.
Yes, it's totally different from the SAWTELLE novel, but I think it's going to be a fairly quick and satisfying read for me...along with supplying some outright *laughs* that the other couldn't offer.
Mod
Thanks for letting us know that it arrived, and congratulations again on your win! Hope you enjoy.
JT: I finally picked up the P&V translation of Anna Karenina at my local B & N. I'm diving right in next week!Did you finish? Is this a novel you can read and enjoy without discussing it with others?
I'm still quaking from "Out Stealing Horses"!
I also started 'the 19th wife yesterday and I am loving it so far. For me this is the first book I have read in a few months that I knew I was going to enjoy right from the first page.
I'm sorry, I have to say that POTE was one book that I HATED. (I heard it as an audio book read by Richard E grant- good reading although male narrators breathy female falsettos always creep me out!) If t had been recommended to me as crappy airport fiction it may have been ok but people said it was sooo well written and, well, it wasn't. I wish I could have the 8 hours or whatever that I spent listening to it back!ETA: I hadn't read the whole thread when I posted that and I see that some posters loved this book- my opinion wasn't directed at you, but at a poster who hadn't read it yet, I hope I didn't sound (very) rude.
Mod
It occurs to me that if you only spent 8 hours or so listening to Pillars of the Earth that it must have been the abridged version. That might account for some of your displeasure. The book weighs in at something like 1000 pages. The unabridged audio is narrated by John Lee and runs a whopping 41 hours!
(just checked, and the abridged audio narrated by Richard Grant is 6 hours -- versus the 41 unabridged ! I can see why you might not have gotten the love that so many of us feel!)
Hmm, I can't imagine an abridged version of Pillars of the Earth! How could they cut out 35 hours without seriously mutilating the plot?I loved both Pillars and the sequel, World Without End. I can't say they were well written, really, but the fantastic, fast-moving, twisty turny plot almost completely made up for the not-so-good writing, in my opinion.
I think you would have to read/hear the whole thing to really enjoy it, though. Despite its heft, it goes pretty quickly.
Ann and Erin, what a relief. I usually don't buy abridged audiobooks, don't know how that slipped by me. I couldn't reconcile what I'd heard with what others describe! I don't think I could "go there" again but maybe I'll try the sequel now.
Taueret, the sequel is equally good! And, it just came out in paperback a few days ago. I hope you get to read it and that you enjoy it!
Well I'm STILL reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." It is a really good book, but I just can't find more than 10-20 minutes to sit down with it. I think I'm experiencing it in "real time." It's going to take me 14 years to finish! My plan this weekend is to get it done. We'll see!
I am currently reading "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss and Michael Chabon's new non-fiction book of essays "Maps and Legends." I just finished Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" and I absolutely loved it! So I decided to pick up his new book (which btw, has an amazing cover). My first impressions of Chabon's essays is that I think that they'e a little too cerebral. I'm disappointed that these essays appear to be playing to a more narrow readership because the writing is more professorial and doesn't have the fire and entertainment value of Kavalier & Clay. Not that I don't appreciate informative and intellectual; it's just that that wasn't how this book was billed/advertised as. Meanwhile, I'm really loving "The History of Love." While it's not a book that I would have expected myself to read; I'm really glad that I succombed to all the hype surrounding this beautiful and haunting novel.
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I adore The History of Love! I think it's brilliant, and am eager to hear what you think when you finish.
I'm sneaking in a non-Random House book: In The Woods by Tana French. I love it, and it has kept me up too late for the last few nights.
Mod
Under the heading of books that really took me time to read - Just finished The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer (for a book group) and it is a fascinating look at what it does to an upper class family when the unimaginable happens - their adult son murders a friend. It takes them through the trial and she revisits her frequent subject of the reversal of roles of black and white people in South Africa but the structure makes it a very slow read. Some of it is stream of consciousness and you aren't quite sure whose consciousness is streaming until you do some re-reading. Dottie
So far, the only parts of "The History of Love" that I'm not liking are the chapters quoting the book "The History of Love" "written" by Zvi Litvinoff. I found the writing terrible and almost self-indulgent. The writing is just not of the same caliber as appears throughout the rest of the novel. Supposedly, this is because the author of these excerpts from THOL is not Nicole Krauss, but male author Zvi Litvinoff but I still think the writing could have been better. But on the whole, (ignoring the parts I disliked), I'm really liking THOL.
I just recently discovered this podcast and joined this group, and I've been have an absolute blast catching up on everything!I just finished reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and since it's been mentioned quite a bit here, I thought you all might be interested in the review I just posted on my blog this morning. (Click here for that link.) I read this book as part of a blog tour, and hopefully the author will also be doing a guest post on my blog soon.
Anyway, just thought I'd plug that here! I look froward to participating more in the future and I'm for sure hooked on the podcasts now! They are exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks!
--Suey
Mod
Nice to meet you, and thanks for your very nice words!
Ann
Ann - Just finished Hands of My Father that I got at NEIBA - that's a terrific book. Incredibly honest. I had never stopped to think about what it must be like for a child with that kind of responsibility. thanks for telling me about it.Dottie
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I just finished Tana French's In The Woods. I loved it, and can't wait to read the next in the series. I definitely have a "thing" for psychologically scarred police detectives, especially if they are Irish or British.
I put Anna K. on hold AGAIN and have been reading 'So Young, Brave and Handsome' by Leif Enger (LOVED Peace Like a River) and 'Free-Range Knitter' by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Also Tom Rath's 'Strengths Finder' for work!!Ann, have you or Michael reviewed/recommended either of Enger's books on your podcasts or lists? I haven't been keeping up . .
Thanks! It's fun to see what everyone's reading.
Mod
I realized I haven't answered this question in awhile... I'm reading CONTAGIOUS, Scott Sigler's sequel to INFECTED, plus a few various super-hero graphic novels.
In the Woods is the next choice of my mystery book club so I am taking that and her new one with me for the weekend.Read a mystery ARC entitled Dog on It - due out in Feb. I love mysteries and have a fairly inclusive taste in them but I don't much care for mysteries where cats- dogs - hamsters - solve the mysteries so I didn't have high expectations of this one since it is told from the dog's point of view. But it is really a delight. I think the difference is that this dog is a DOG - not a really hairy person. I am thinking of carrying biscuits in my car just in case I meet Chet.
dottie
I'm about 3/4 into WATERLAND by Graham Swift for my on-line Cafe book group. Swift is the author of LAST ORDERS-winner of the Booker Prize in 1996.Swift is a storyteller much in the style of Ian McEwan (Hello Ann!)... (tho' not as prose laden)
The book plot is thick with characters and nature scenes and moves through several generations of families.
The "ghosts in the closets" of these families are very slowly and dauntlessly revealed.
Overall...a realistical and intelligent...rich tapestry of a story.
I am about half way through with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and I am really enjoying it. Usually, I can read a 500 copy book in about a week but I have been reading this slowly so I can enjoy it for longer.
I also started Cutting for Stone which has also grabbed my attention from the first few pages.
I also started Cutting for Stone which has also grabbed my attention from the first few pages.
Alexandra and Ann, I just finished The Hunger Games 5 minutes ago. I think it's up there with The Book Thief in terms of powerful, gripping, wonderfully written YA/adult crossover literature goes. I agree, Alexandra, definitely one of the top books of the year!
Mod
Jennifer - Cutting For Stone is my favorite book of 2009 (so far). I absolutely love it and can't wait to hear what you think. (for the rest of you, you'll have to wait til February to read it).
Susanne - read Graham Swift's Tomorrow, and I do see the parallels with McEwan in terms of story and perhaps style. I was let down by the ending, so that colored my impression of the book, which had me racing through the pages.
Dottie, I'm laughing at the dog biscuits for just in case. That's the sign of a real reader :)
Erin - Yay! I'm a bit surprised I haven't heard more buzz "out there" about Hunger Games, but then again, The Book Thief took awhile to crossover, too.
So I finished "Maps & Legends" by Michael Chabon and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the last few essays. I loved them; Chabon's writing was at its best when blending personal experiences with his sometimes verbose explanations on the craft of writing. It could have been a great book with some judicious editing. Now I'm reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." Usually I'm a fast reader, but with this book the writing is so lush and fierce that I just had to slow down. It's on loan from the library so I might not finish it in time before it needs to be returned (which is definately a first for me, a notorious speedy reader). And because "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" is so in demand at my library, I'll have to be placed on the hold list for it all over again (before I got it, I'd been on the hold list for like a month- which is a first for my small library). Definately a book to buy, not borrow.
Catyche, I love that you call the writing in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle "lush and fierce." I think that's perfect! A way better description than I've been able to come up with.
Catyche, you said this is a book to own, not borrow and I believe you're right. A good friend loaned me The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and I loaned it to my husband who returned it but this brings it home. I want my own copy!
I FINALLY finished Edgar. I liked it but I didn't like how long it took me to read it. I usually read pretty fast, and I enjoyed slowing down with this one, but I just didn't have time to really spend time with it. I was glad to be able to move on! I liked the story though.
I just wanted to say thank you thank you THANK YOU for recommending The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie SocietyWhen I started it I was a little apprehensive because I have read other "letters as the dialog" novels and haven't been impressed. This book is so much fun! I love the characters and getting to know them through their letters! Thanks again for the recommendation.
Mod
I just finished reading Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian and once I picked it up, I could not put it down. I am always drawn so completely into his books that I'll look up and realize it is the middle of the night. He is definitely one of my favorite authors.
I just finished Michael Connelly's the Brass Verdict which didn't disappoint. Before that, I gobbled up the new Warren Buffett bio.Now, I'm on to reading Duma Key - Stephen King's most recent novel.
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