This week, I are mostly reading....

Deer

I'm reading My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Not bad. Everyone has been raving about her so thought I'd give it an old bash. Just finished Birds without Wings by Louis De Bernieres (sp). That was excellent and didn't want to stop reading it.

Kolodny

dudara wrote:

Neal Stephenson - Zodiac

It's a good one.

Blush_01

Finished Girlfriend in a Coma - pretty good, but lacking something. Microserfs was better. Don't know what to read now though.

Tar.Aldarion

A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow - G.R.R. Martin

Fantastic, as usual.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Just finished Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Probably the best book I've ever read. Depends how you define "best", of course. It's a good 'un though, I daresay by anyone's standards. The realism (if you're into that sort of thing) and characterisation are second to none.

It's by no means a light read, but its depth is its strength. It's the kind of book that, more than any other, you can just live in. Heh, I mean, it's the kind of book that finds you walking down the street or on the bus to college, wondering

how exactly Tertius Lydgate is going to pay that debt off, or if Fred Vincy and Mary Garth will ever tie the knot

.

I recommend it, anyway.

Demetrius

Witness by Budd Hopkins.

"True story" alien abduction codswaddle (but I can't put it down:( )

dudara

"Kushiel's Chosen" by Jacqueline Carey, second in the Kushiel series. Superb fantasy.

tbh

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky.

Loving it so far.

r3nu4l

Fury by GM Ford and Ulysses by James Joyce.

dudara

"Mothership" by John Brennan. Quite funny in places with a Terry Pratchett-type humour

Deer

tbh wrote:

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky.

Loving it so far.

That's a fabulous book. Tragic story behind it too.

I read Amongst Women by John McGahern - reviewing it for my book club. Thought it was over-rated. I didn't hate it but it's certainly not going to be imprinted on my memory as a good book.

I also read Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine. I didn't like that either (God I'm so negative this week!). I just didn't get it and everyone else I know loved it!

BossArky

I'm on a bit of a role the past week or so:

Finished Cosmos by Carl Sagan,
Read The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
Read The Player of Games - Iain Banks
Started The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie

Blush_01

Reading Edna O'Brien's The Lonely Girl. (Also known as The Girl with Green Eyes?It's the american edition, the name was changed or something, I guess.) Second in the Country Girls trilogy. Enjoyable.

Deer

I'm halfway through the Satanic Verses now and am finding it easier than the last time I read it. Rushdie is an absolutely amazing writer. You just whirl around inside the book. Because I'm not too familiar with islam or the Koran I don't know exactly why it was so controversial. I've a few ideas though and it's something to google. This time I'm going to take it nice and slow though. I also have a book called Old Filth which I'm going to start tonight to give myself a bit of a break from the verses.

Mrs. MacGyver

The State of the Union by Douglas kennedy. it's one of those books you are sucked into snd you cant put it down!

Mrs. MacGyver

Deer wrote:

I'm halfway through the Satanic Verses now and am finding it easier than the last time I read it. Rushdie is an absolutely amazing writer. You just whirl around inside the book. Because I'm not too familiar with islam or the Koran I don't know exactly why it was so controversial. I've a few ideas though and it's something to google. This time I'm going to take it nice and slow though. I also have a book called Old Filth which I'm going to start tonight to give myself a bit of a break from the verses.

can you get the satanic verses here. i have salamar the clown , his other book and i've just started it.

Deer

You can indeed. I ordered it through my local bookshop but I'm sure Waterstones or any major bookshop that you live near would have it or order it for you. Shalimar the Clown is a good basic start with Rushdie. You might also like The Ground Beneath her Feet and maybe the Moors Last Sigh.

Just found this on the web. Now I'm not saying I'm going to use it but it might be handy to anyone who's high brow enough to read it - 94 pages of notes on the verses - might take a look at them myself!!

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/satanic_verses/.

dudara

Coming to the end of "The Birth of Venus" by Sarah Dunnant. Quite good book, set at the end of Medici-era Florence.

tSubh Dearg

I'm currently reading A Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin.

It's very good. You really feel for the characters, so much that I get a bit cross when he has bad things happen to the ones I like best and I have to put it down for a bit.

delly

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford

Valmont

I gave up on "notes from the underground" by Dostoyevsky, so I'm reading something easy now. "Loamhedge" by Brian Jacques. It's all about mice, rabbits, hares, badgers and squirrels going on all sorts of adventures and fighting sea rats, quality stuff.:p

I've got "Interview with the vampire" just looking at me on my shelf, I'm putting it off as long as possible just so I can savour every minute of it!:D

Deer

delly wrote:

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford

Very funny. Really liked his style of writing.

As for Interview with a Vampire - I loved it when I read it seven years ago. In fact the name of the child vampire imprinted in my memory and I ended up naming my daughter after her - Claudia!

Valmont

Deer wrote:

Very funny. Really liked his style of writing.

As for Interview with a Vampire - I loved it when I read it seven years ago. In fact the name of the child vampire imprinted in my memory and I ended up naming my daughter after her - Claudia!

Does your other half know that?

"You named our child after a vampire???!!!"
hehe

mariaalice

i am reading two Ken Bruen books there brill

OctavarIan

Endymion by Dan Simmons.

Loved Ilium and Olympos, and the two Hyperion books, now I'm devouring the Endymion omnibus!

Andy-Pandy

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, and then The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

dudara

Just started "Quiksilver" by Neal Stephenson

Beruthiel

I've just started 'Choke' by Chuck Palahniuk.

Deer

I've abandoned my attempt at the Satanic Verses as I've left it at my mothers house. I have now been reading for the past two days The Sparrow by Maria Dora Russell. I'm finding her writing very unique. Can't put my finger on it. The subject is also quite unique - a jesuit mission to outer space. Good book and worth a read.

dabbler2004

I'm (just about) finished Blowfly by Patricia Cornwell, it's not bad, passes the time and is an entertaining read......as soon as that's finished I'll be starting 'Cell' by Stephen King, looking forward to that one.