What are you currently reading? July 2011

[Janny]

I just finished A Visit from the Goon Squad bij Jennifer Egan and I think it's the best book I've ever read.

[Flora]

I just finished One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd and really liked it despite the brutal ending. I'm also just 100pg from finishing The Three Musketeers. And I'm just starting Titus Groan

[Amy]

Kirsty wrote: "I've just finshed Goon Squad and am now starting The Bee-Loud glade... I have high hopes for this one as not only is it recommended by Ann and Michael but I also have friends who have read and love..."

Liked The Bee-Loud Glade a lot! The plot idea was so novel to me.

[Callie]

Finished A Dirty Job yesterday, and really enjoyed it. Lots of laughs, lots of suspense, lots of surprises.

Too bad the library's closed today, have to wait until tomorrow to find something new to listen to!

[[deleted user]]

Callie wrote: "Finished A Dirty Job yesterday

Somebody's gotta do it.

[Vanessa]

I finished The Postman Always Rings Twice for book club. I wasn't sold on it when someone picked it but it's very readable.

I'm now reading The Sign of Four, a gift from a friend who wants me to complete the ACD catalog.

[Gerald]

Kathy wrote: "After hearing Booker Prize-winner John Banville interviewed on the BBC, I thought I'd try one of the mysteries he writes under the pen name Benjamin Black. While it was beautifully written, [book:C..."

Just heard him interviewed on the NYT podcast.It was one of the few NYT podcast interviews that I fast forwarded to the end.He left me very cold.ger

[Gerald]

Kathy wrote: "After hearing Booker Prize-winner John Banville interviewed on the BBC, I thought I'd try one of the mysteries he writes under the pen name Benjamin Black. While it was beautifully written, [book:C..."

Just heard him interviewed on the NYT podcast.It was one of the few NYT podcast interviews that I fast forwarded to the end.He left me very cold.ger

[Julie]

Just finished http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1283... -- engaging book of short stories by the author of Saul & Patsy, Feast of Love. I wrote a long review at the library today! copied over into GR, if you're interested.

[JT]

Just finishedSnow Flower and the Secret Fan (nothing like a movie adaptation to light a fire under your TBR list). Currently in the middle of The Girl Who Played with Fire and still working my way through Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. I'm dying to finish because The Passage is calling my name!

[Kirsty]

Amy wrote: "Liked The Bee-Loud Glade a lot! The plot idea was so novel to me."

I'm loving it! I agree, the plot idea is brilliant and it's so well executed. I'll be sad when this one ends.

[Tracey]

I am reading by Meg Mitchell Moore. I saw her speak at the Newburyport Literary Festival in Newburyport, MA before her book was out. I'm liking it so far!

[Shelley]

I'm about 1/3rd of the way through Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy. It is great writing but I have to force myself to keep reading because the subject matter is quite depressing. Anyone else read this book? Thoughts?

[Vanessa]

Shelley, I haven't read Blood Meridian but I read The Road and it was also quite depressing. Possibly the most depressing thing I'd ever read. After someone told me what Blood Meridian was about, I had no urge to read further. Ever.

(but I heard McCarthy on Science Friday a few months ago in a panel discussion with Lawrence Krauss and Werner Herzog to discuss Werner's new movie and he was quite modest and charming which, admittedly, surprised me. I guess I expected a morose mistanthrope.)

[[deleted user]]

I need to read more McCarthy. I love the darkness!

[Katie]

I'm reading my first book on my new nook: Swamplandia!. I'm about half-way through and absolutely enthralled.

Next up, for book-club, is Cast of Shadows: A Novel.

[Lil]

I am reading The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan because I couldn't resist the urge to buy it NOW! after Ann's glowing recommendation! About 1/4 way through and loving it!

Listening to March by Geraldine Brooks. Not sure how I'm going to end up feeling about this one yet. This book has haunted my bookshelf and guilty conscience (supposed to read for book club years ago and never did) for several years and I finally decided to give it a solid try. The main character is the absent father from Little Women and he's definitely not a character you love and sometimes it's hard for me to enjoy a book when the main character is difficult to be around. I'm pushing on, though, and am curious to see how the experience will turn out.

FInished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet for book group recently and really enjoyed it. I had not read anything about the Japanese internment in a novel before. My favorite part of the story was the way the author developed the relationship between father and son.

[Melissa]

Finished and loved it. I am now starting
My teenage son has been encouraging me to read the George RR Martin series. I am intrigued, but I don't know if I want to invest the time.

[Vanessa]

Did anyone else get the farewell email from Borders? I was really sad, if not surprised, they had to close for good then that email their CEO sent out thanking me for my patronage made me cry. I've been shopping at Waldenbooks since my Judy Blume/Harriet the Spy days.

I hope it means good news for indies but I HATE to see any bookseller go under.

[Trish]

I need to read more McCarthy. I love the darkness...

Okay Eric, then I have got the book for you: The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart. This is a debut novel! that reads like the work of a much older man. You will not believe the language in this. And talk about darkness! This is "a man's novel" the way debut novel American Rust by Philipp Meyer is "a man's novel." Check it out. Published by HMH.

[Trish]

Did anyone else get the farewell email from Borders?

When life deals you lemons, make lemonade. Just think of all those books you've been wanting to buy. Go get 'em, girl!

[Frankie]

Vanessa wrote: "Did anyone else get the farewell email from Borders? I was really sad, if not surprised, they had to close for good then that email their CEO sent out thanking me for my patronage made me cry. I've..."

My first job was as a Borders bookseller, and I can tell you that the majority of us were people who loved books and were excited to put them in people's hands. They were a very good employer and I am truly heartbroken that they have been forced to close their doors. I will be forever grateful to them and Amazon for making reading affordable for me when I was a broke college kid. I'm surprised how emotional this announcement has been to me - they were my local bookstore and I spent many happy hours shelving and then later just reading and perusing.

[Amy]

Vanessa wrote: "Did anyone else get the farewell email from Borders? I was really sad, if not surprised, they had to close for good then that email their CEO sent out thanking me for my patronage made me cry. I've..."

I got it too. I try to shop at the Indie in my city (town really) when I can. Otherwise, I switched to Barnes and Noble over Amazon since at least B & N is a physical bookstore where I can go to get personal recommendations. No Borders where I live now - years since I bought anything from them.

[[deleted user]]

Trish wrote: "Okay Eric, then I have got the book for you: The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart. This is a debut novel! that reads like the work of a much older man."

Thanks, Trish. I'll check that out. Still working on "A Dance With Dragons", but I have little time to read right now, as I'm approaching tech week for a production of "As You Like It", practicing law, blah blah blah.

[Vanessa]

Toni, I worry too. I'm a total Luddite when it comes to reading. I want to shop for books in person, I want to hold a book, I want to see the cover art and admire the trade paperback font, I want to see what other people are reading. To each his own but I hate e-readers and don't want to convert. Whither the library and local store to browse in?

And I actually own a Kindle so I'm not speaking as someone who won't even try it. I really don't like reading books on it. I did get the NYT for a while on there and that I liked.

[Tracy]

Vanessa wrote: "Did anyone else get the farewell email from Borders? I was really sad, if not surprised, they had to close for good then that email their CEO sent out thanking me for my patronage made me cry. I've..."

Vanessa,

I too received the email today. I no longer have a book store in my town. In fact I no longer have a book store in the county I live in.

It is difficult to believe people dismiss book stores in favor of e-readers, enough so it can knock out 40 year institution that has been a place I have been going to since I was just a boy.

Maybe I'm different from most people, but, Border's and any other book store for that matter, is more than a place to buy a book or magazine. It is about a relationship you have with the people you seemingly see with every visit, the employees and a sense of belonging.

Nearly every weekend for the last 16 years, my son and I would make a trip to Borders. It was something we both looked forward to. As a Father I beam with pride as I watched my son go from Hop on Pop to Wishbone, the puppy detective to a well read young man who, has wide rangeing interests.From E.A Poe to Dante to Stephen King to Alexander Dumas, as well as interests that include a deep appreciation for the Civil and World wars.

Is this something we could have accomplished through an E-reader? Defenders of technology will say yes, I say it couldn't and wouldn't have come close.

I feel I have lost more than a book store. I have lost a common bond with my son, a shared experience that a L.E.D screen can't replace.

Did I feel like crying? I'm fighting the urge to do so right at this moment.

[Callie]

Borders closing is very sad, but it has been criminally mismanaged for a while.

I think that the age of book super stores is coming to a close, and though it may take a bit, I really think they will be replaced by smaller, independent stores. It's like how a bunch of chain restaurants closed recently... in many places, those spots have been filled by independently owned, often much better restaurants.

Maybe I'm naive, but I feel optimistic. :)

[Melissa Wiebe]

I've picked up Sing You Home again and have read quite a bit today and I am having a problem with how the evangelical Christians are being portrayed in the book. While I realize that its a characture of the group as whole and their belief systems, especially when it comes to children being raised by gay couples, I find it unsettling, especially since I am an Evangelical Christian myself. I realize that its only a portrayal, but I find it disheartening because not all evangelical christians are like how they are portrayed in the book. While I don't agree with the gay lifestyle and don't agree with heterosexual couples living together before they get married, it doesn't mean that I can't love the same as those that agree with how I live and choose to live. I hate the feeling of being lumped in with a group that has people that doesn't tolerate those who are different.

[Melissa Wiebe]

Callie wrote: "Borders closing is very sad, but it has been criminally mismanaged for a while.

I think that the age of book super stores is coming to a close, and though it may take a bit, I really think they w..."

It won't end; there are mega bookstore chains that I think will stick around, if there is proper management. ChaptersIndigo here in Canada has been managed properly and I think it also helps that ChaptersIndigo has no major competition and have therefore been able to build brand loyalty among their customer base. And yes, I do shop at their stores, whether it be Chapters, Indigo, or Coles; the loyalty card helps with prices. It all depends on management. Most people in the suburbs and major centres like them, especially in the suburbs; if you are an independent store, you have to be somewhat different in order to gain the market or you have to live in a smaller community that doesn't allow for chain stores (mostly they are resort communities, but they do exist).

[[deleted user]]

Just want to say THANKS to Ann for the recommendation of The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. I'm having a great time reading it!!!

[Ann]

Kent, so glad you are enjoying The Last Werewolf!!

It's so hot this weekend that I turned to thrillers (can't concentrate on much else). First up was HEADHUNTERS by Jo Nesbo, which will be published here in the fall. It's a standalone, not part of any series, and very good. Not as creepy as THE SNOWMAN, which will be a relief to some of you and a disappointment to others ...

I'm reading another thriller that comes out in January and I'm not sure if I can talk publicly about it or not, so I won't name it. I will just say that it's incredibly smart and is delivering everything I love in a great thriller -- page turning intrigue and also great insight into a subject area I don't know much about. OK, that's enough of a tease .. this one will for sure be a "book I can't wait for you to read," in January.

[Karen]

I'm reading Ann thanks for the recommendation! This book is excellent.

[[deleted user]]

This is the second volume in Wolfe's tetralogy "Book of the New Sun". In the first volume, lead character Severian starts out as an apprentice torturer and it's not a spoiler to say he ends up as the ruler of a continent (the Autarch) in the final volume. These books are his memoirs, written from the seat of power.

The setting is our world of perhaps thousands of years hence. Space travel had once been common, as had contact with extraterrestrial races. Now there is no more space travel, and we're stranded on "Urth", along with the remnants of alien races we've brought here, which have in some cases been genetically spliced with humans. The world under the dying sun is by turns beautiful and harsh.

But to describe this series in terms of run-of-the-mill science fiction does it a great disservice. This is high literature. It's multilayered and is susceptible to different interpretations and meanings. Severian is an unreliable narrator, and often it seems there is more mystery in the tale than revelation. Speaking of Revelation, one way to look at it is as a Christian allegory. There are stories within stories. Wheels within wheels.

It's the kind of book that affects your dreams. I can't praise it highly enough.

[Jo Ann]

I just re-read The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson and loved it even more the 2nd time. John was here in Fayetteville, AR night before last for a reading, and my book club had dinner with him...it was his first meeting with a book club, and I think he had a blast. Our book club surely did! I would highly recommend this book for any book club...let's just say ours was a VERY spirited discussion!
Thanks to BOTN again for introducing me,and others, to such wonderful authors from the 2011 Retreat!

[Kate]

Finished The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady and really enjoyed it. Also re-read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil for one of my book clubs and I loved this as much now as when I read it in 1994. Currently reading Turn of Mind which has been very well reviewed and it is great. The voice of the main character captures you right away and I am having a hard time putting it down. I'm glad it is too hot out to do too much, so I have a great excuse to get back to it!

[Trish]

I am reading The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Aline Bronsky, published by Europa towards their 2011 Summer Challenge. It has the fantastic voice of a 40-something woman who has enough confidence in her own talents/beauty/cooking to swamp ordinary mortals. Funny, unblinking, piercingly sharp. Highly recommended. What a blogger this woman would make!

[Melissa Wiebe]

Currently reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and A Great and Terrible Beauty.

[Jay]

I finished The Last Werewolf and I liked it but I think it did suffer from me having to high of expectations based on what I had heard. I don't want to spoil it in any way so all I will say is that it picked up for me at the end. I also really enjoyed the times when he was in werwolf form. I think part of the reason I didn't enjoy it at times was because I found the main character a bit too whiny and cynical. I think I understand what the author was doing but it got to be slow going at times.

I also finished listening to American on Purpose. All I really have to say is if you like Craig Ferguson at all then this will give you no reason to not continue. He doesn't break any new ground with this but his self deprecating and humble take on his own life is entertaining.

Finally, I am about a quarter of the way through A Game of Thrones. This is one I was reluctant to start because of the page count but now I look forward so much to my next opportunity to pick it up and read until sleep overtakes me once again.

[Vanessa]

I'm celebrating summer by reading some southern Gothic, Everything That Rises Must Converge.

I got a huge stack when I was at the library. I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. Possibly The 19th Wife because a co-worker recently discovered Big Love and has been talking about it. Now I miss the show (I like to pretend it ended at season 3. The last two seasons were cray cray and kind of awful.)

[Flora]

I'm currently half way thru Titus Groan and I just don't like it and am not sure that I'm gonna finish it. And I certainly don't understand why its compared with LOTR

[Tracey]

I am reading The Beginners. It's not that long so I'll probably finish it but I'm really not that into it. The story doesn't seem to be going anywhere and if there is a mystery, I don't think I care about it any more.

I also just finished Her Sister's Shadow and Turn of Mind which were both good.

[nancy]

Just finished Silver Sparrow...a good read

[JT]

I'm just about finished with The Girl Who Played with Fire and just wrapped my third re-read of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (I'm going back through and re-reading them all again). Trying to decide between Wolf Hall, The Invisible Bridge or A Visit from the Goon Squad next.

[nancy]

I say The Invisible Bridge!

[Diane]

I just finished The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, I adore Flavia. I am now reading Bee Loud Glade to get ready for the author talk. I wasn't a book I would normally choose, but after reading the first few chapters, wow. So glad we are doing an author chat, I am dying to talk about this. Also reading More Tales of the City and The Imperfectionists.

[Diane]

I just finished The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, I adore Flavia. I am now reading Bee Loud Glade to get ready for the author talk. I wasn't a book I would normally choose, but after reading the first few chapters, wow. So glad we are doing an author chat, I am dying to talk about this. Also reading More Tales of the City and The Imperfectionists.

[Flora]

I think I'm gonna put Titus Groan on hold and start Dracula in Love

[Vanessa]

Blech, did not like Everything That Rises Must Converge (although Flannery had a knack for picking great titles.) Despite the elegant writing, the book was making me hate life because I felt like I had to finish it.

Anyways, I have a stack from the library to choose from next: After Dark (my first Haruki Murukami), The 19th Wife (for mine and Toni's shared love of Big Love), a few graphic novels, and I have to read Madame Bovary for next month's book club.

(I'm sure someone will be looking at my review history one day and writing my opinions off for all eternity for giving Flannery O'Connor 2 stars and "The Sinestro Corps War Part 2" 4 stars.)

[Esther]

I'm reading Good in Bed. I'm not really a chick-lit reader but when I was still working at the library some of my favourite readers said it was good.
It's not bad and I did want something light but I think I'll need to follow it with something dark and dystopian.

[Paula]

Should have Her Fearful Symmetry finished by the end of the month. Oh, how I regret putting her first book, The Time Traveller's Wife, down two-thirds of the way in ... to never pick it back up! One of my biggest reading regrets.