Books on the Nightstand discussion
What Are You Reading May 2012
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Tasha
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May 13, 2012 06:57AM
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Julie wrote: "How did I miss this fascinating book/author? What a way with language. I'm only 35 pp in and can hardly wait to pick it up again tonight: We Need to Talk About Kevin."I haven't read that Julie, but I did read "So Much For That" last year and enjoyed it very much!
With my mother hospitalized it's been tough on my reading.So I am stuck on "American Gods".Wow I just do not have the time.ger
Every now and then I read a book that blows my mind, and this was one of those. Fascinating, insightful, un-put-downable. I am fascinated by neuroscience and art, and loved every moment of this book. Proust Was a Neuroscientist
Gerald wrote: "With my mother hospitalized it's been tough on my reading.So I am stuck on "American Gods".Wow I just do not have the time.ger"Sorry to hear about your Mom. Hope all goes well.
Just started Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind
. I have seen the movie numerous times, but never read the book or anything about Margaret Mitchell. I LOVE this book!
Just finished Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children I have to admit that I'm still kind of digesting it. It's one of those books that I probably wouldn't have chosen if someone hadn't recommended it to me, but I think I liked it. I nearly gave up on it, but the more I read the more I found myself enjoying it. Without giving anything away, I will say that I didn't like the ending, but I'm glad to see that it's the first in a series. I'm just impatient when things aren't wrapped up neatly.
OMG! Must report that I just went to my library's ebook site and was looking at my hold request list...
had 556 people on the list! I have never seen anything like that. I think the most I ever saw for a book before was maybe 45 for a popular book. I am of the anything that gets people reading camp. I put it on the list after three white haired ladies at the lunch table across from me were discussing it last week. Expect my review in a year or so! Had to share.
Amy wrote: "Just started Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind [bookcover:Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood]. I have seen the movie numerous times, but n..."Oh, Amy, you are in for a treat. One of my all time favorites!
Lil wrote: "OMG! Must report that I just went to my library's ebook site and was looking at my hold request list... had 556 people on the list! I have never seen anything like ..."Wow that is too funny. I decided to read it in my "spare" time since everyone else seems to be reading it. Trying not to form an opinion as early on into the book as I am...
Started Infinite Jest last week. Didn't know anything about it (other than "tennis" and "footnotes" rumblings), and I'm finding it surprisingly compelling.
Mod
had 556 people on the list! I have never seen anything like ..."Ha! Want me to bring a copy to Oxford for you? Or maybe I should make it my Yankee Swap book ... I can't remember who ended up with it at the Yankee Swap in Vermont.
Mod
had 556 people on the list! I have never seen an... I can't remember who ended up with it at the Yankee Swap in Vermont. "Somebody on the other side of the room, Ann!
Ann wrote: "Lil wrote: "OMG! Must report that I just went to my library's ebook site and was looking at my hold request list... had 556 people on the list! I have never seen an..."Yankee swap brawl!!! I'm ready!
Started
last night. Enjoying it so far.
Julie wrote: "How did I miss this fascinating book/author? What a way with language. I'm only 35 pp in and can hardly wait to pick it up again tonight: We Need to Talk About Kevin."Yikes - finished We Need to Talk About Kevin last week (read my review and others) and picked up Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue. I read her Room last winter and we're discussing it for book group on Tuesday, May 22. Have to ask myself why all the 'dark' stories?? I seem to be addicted at present to novels dealing with the less desirable characters/-istics of human nature.
Still working on Fire & Ice series with book #2 A Clash of Kings, but then got distracted by the #2 of the Divergent series Insurgent, while also listening to The Lonely Polygamist. Literary ADD.
Skippy dies on the first page. Hell, he dies in the title, so I'm not spoiling anything.
The novel takes place in the fictional Seabrook College for Boys, a Catholic middle/high school. The school's denizens include Daniel "Skippy" Juster, his roommate Ruprecht Van Doren, and a large cast of drug abusers, fart lighters, dweebs, school bullies, victims, priests, and burned out teachers.
Skippy, the ostensible main character, is a hapless young man awash in a soup of depression, unknown trauma, and adolescent hormones. Skippy is a bit of a cipher, and is buffeted about mercilessly by forces larger than himself. But after his passing, he comes to mean different things to the other characters. Ruprecht is a would be scientist obsessed with M-Theory. He is searching, in his tinfoil hatted, shambolic way, for a way to break through the barriers into other dimensions. Carl is an unstable thug with a drug habit; he's a loaded gun waiting to go off. Howard is the school's history teacher, who has never quite grown up, and who desperately needs a catalyst to find his better self. Lori is a student at neighboring St. Brigid's, hovering between the dangerous Carl and the more wholesome Skippy. All of these characters are lost, and it is how their arcs connect that make this book what it is: a glorious exploration of youth, age, existential despair, and the way in which we tentatively carve out a meaning for our lives in an absurd universe.
I find Murray to be a more focused disciple of Thomas Pynchon in the way he brings together sophomoric hijinks, occasional stream-of-consciousness passages, and arcane detours into science, history, and mysticism. Unlike in Pynchon's books, Murray's story reveals itself to be surprisingly linear. Plot threads are ultimately resolved in ways that will satisfy old-school novel readers, even though Murray borrows techniques from Pynchon and Joyce.
The last pages are especially thrilling, as the various characters' stories come together. This is the best book I've read in 2012 so far (May 20). Highly recommended.
Finished The Reversal, on audio, and really liked it. The narrator, Peter Giles, reads quite a few of the Michael Connelly books, and it is like hearing an old friend at this point. My only complaint is that the book loses steam in the final chapters - kinda like the author was in a rush to tie things up. One of the other books I have in flight is Girl Reading: A Novel, and though I am not a fan of short stories, am really liking it.
Finished Beneath the Shadows, which is a good Swedish mystery, but not as violent/ graphic as Stieg Larsson's trilogy. Now reading As I Lay Dying,because even though I am not going to Oxford Booktopia, it has been a long time since I have read Faulkner.
@Eric, glad to hear you highly recommend Skippy Dies. I've had it on my radar for awhile now but i've never been quite sure if it will be a good read.
I finished listening to "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson. It was delightful. Even though I could guess almost immediately where the book was headed, the fun was in discovering the obstacles in the path of the romance between the title character, a retired British officer and widower, and a Pakistani woman who runs a small local store. Although fairly lighthearted, the book touches on a number of serious, contemporary issues. I understand that movie rights have been purchased, and I hope someone can make a decent movie version. I'm now listening to "The Lonely Polygamist" by Barry Udall, the story of a man with four wives and 28 children who is struggling to keep up with his family and in fact has been seeing a fifth woman. I love the author's writing style, humorous but not making fun of this large and unconventional family and their unorthodox lifestyle.
In print, I'm working through a Scandinavian crime fiction novel called "Sun and Shadow" by Ake Edwardson featuring a hot shot young policeman who's trying to solve a horrific crime involving a couple murdered under mysterious (and kinky) circumstances. Clues almost from the beginning hint that the killer may be a police officer, and the backstories of several other officers on the force show that at least one has serious mental health issues stemming from an incident he witnessed. However, I doubt that the author is telegraphing the killer's identity so blatantly. I'm sure there's a plot twist coming that will turn things upside down. The writing style, or perhaps the translation, leaves something to be desired. The narrative seems to be rather jerky to me, and unappealing. I'll keep reading to find out the solution to the crime, but whether I read any others in the series is uncertain.
I just finished reading Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly.Mixed feelings about it.
http://jannyan.wordpress.com/2012/05/...
Half-Price Books may be the death of me. This week the $1 cart yielded Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class and both chunky volumes of the Gadshill edition (1897) of The Pickwick Papers. Heaven knows when I'll get around to the latter, but I've wanted a decent copy for a long time.My lunchtime read this week will be John Oller's Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew. The current Teetering Stack also includes Ann Patchett's The Magician's Assistant, a self-tutorial on Web page design, Neil Hanson's Monk Eastman: The Gangster Who Became a War Hero, Rick Gekoski's essay collection Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoir, Editor to Author: The Letters of Maxwell E. Perkins, and a P.G. Wodehouse compilation that I'm saving for "dessert." Something tells me that Sam Weller and Mr. Pickwick won't have my full attention until 2016 or so...
I just finished the Stephen King book The wind through the Keyhole and I have jumped on the Fifty Shades of Grey bandwagon. It isn't my usual bag but I'm willing to see what all the fuss is about. I also just picked up a copy of State of Wonder by Ann Patchett which just came out in paperback.
Kathy wrote: "Half-Price Books may be the death of me. ."I know what you mean, Kathy. I worked at HPB in MN for 4 mos. and probably spent at least 1/2 of my part time wages. On my Teetering Stack: Faraway Friends
I just started
I absolutely adored
. So I'm very excited to read book two in the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy.
Karen wrote: "I just started I absolutely adored
. So I'm very excited to read book two in the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy."I am a Tudor buff, but did not love Wolf Hall. Liked it, but felt like I had to slog through many parts of the book. I do have the sequel on my TBR.
Finished
by Nell Freudenberger. Thanks Ann for the recommendation. Made my Best2012 list.
Karen wrote: "I just started I absolutely adored
. So I'm very excited to read book two in the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy."Started the audio of Wolf Hall so I can then listen to the audio of Bring Up the Bodies and wish I was going to Santa Cruz for Booktopia :) The narrator's voices are great - it just took me awhile to get them all. Lots of players... lots of similar/same names.
I just finished A Game of Thrones.I had started The God of Small Things a couple of weeks ago but didn't want to haul the DTB on vacation. The writing style is interesting but I don't really like any of the characters.
Now, I am distracted again because my hold came up on Defending Jacob and since there is long lines, I can't renew. This is the first time I'm getting a Kindle book from the library. So far, I'm through Part 1 and finding it a compelling read!
Setting Faulkner aside for now as I have too much going on to concentrate. I pickedCrooked Letter, Crooked Letter which has been on my TBR pile for ages!
Tasha wrote: "Started last night. Enjoying it so far."I loved Water for Elephants. It prompted me to read more about circus life. So I picked up
Under the Big Top: A Season with the Circus which I finished this weekend. In it, the author spends a season with the circus, performing as a clown and learning the ins and outs of the show and the people who make it happen. It was a bit difficult to follow in places because the narrative switches between performances and stories and interview with the circus people. Despite that, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it as a follow up to Water for Elephants if you find yourself wanting another look at the circus world.
Thanks for the rec Tricia! I'll take a look at the book.
The Best American Noir of the Century. Pretty great short story collection that takes a look at short fiction written by some of the noir genre's most influential writers. Taking me a while to read it but it's excellent.Also, I read the most recent Not Yet On The Nightstand newsletter and thanks to Ann, I picked up an advanced readers copy of The Dog Stars. Not far into it but liking it so far. The prose is excellent!
Reading Learning to Swim: A Novel by Sara Henry. I love her writing style but have to confess that I never would have picked this up if it hadn't been recommended here. It's something about the title....too mundane. But this is so wonderful that if I didn't have to go to work, I would read it in one sitting.
Just finished The Cabinet of Curiosities. I listened to an audio of this book, the third installment in the Pendergast series, and I think it is the best in the series so far. It reads well as a stand-alone book as well, so would be a good intro to the series. I was fascinated by the historical details about the cabinets of curiosities and 19th century New York city. My only complaint is that the book rushes to an ending - almost like the authors ran into a deadline.
A twist in the most requested library book ever story...I got fifty shades of grey via library e-book, despite being like 400th on the waiting list just a couple days ago. Checked and now there are 600 people on the hold list for ten copies! Weird, maybe I am not a math whiz, but that doesn't quite work out. I'm guessing they must have some sort of trigger for extra copies via overdrive? Any librarians here know the answer?Just finished Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter and it was very powerful. This was a story that I'll be turning over in my mind for a while. Highly recommended.
Mod
which for many reasons made me think of
. Would give it 4-1/2 stars if I could (minus 1/2 star for a font used that I had trouble reading).Going to concentrate on
Linda wrote: "Finished [bookcover:The Expats: A Novel] which for many reasons made me think of . Would give it 4-1/2 stars if I could (minus 1/2 star for a font used that I had troubl..."Just notified that there is a copy of Expats on hold for me at the library. That one is jumping up on my TBR as the waiting list is still loooooong for the library.
Nancy wrote: "I finished listening to "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson. It was delightful. Even though I could guess almost immediately where the book was headed, the fun was in discovering the o..."Thanks for the reco Nancy. Just started listening to Major Pettigrew and am finding it delightful as well.
I finished World Without End on audio and I loved it. For some reason (I'm pretty sure that reason is named John Lee) I really have enjoyed Ken Follett's books on audio.Now, I am in desperate need of an audiobook recommendation! I can't read Major Pettigrew until the fall, which is when my book club will be reading it. Any help would be appreciated!
Callie wrote: "I finished World Without End on audio and I loved it. For some reason (I'm pretty sure that reason is named John Lee) I really have enjoyed Ken Follett's books on audio.Now, I am in desperate nee..."
Listened to two audiobooks this month that were good. Both were BOYNS recommendations:
by Lauren Groff and
by by Nell Freudenberger.
How about a little non-fiction....I really enjoyed this
Getting started with
. It is way out of my comfort zone so I'm not sure how I'll respond to this one.
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