What are you reading?

[JustSkipIt]

I just started Ultra-Marathon Man. The first chapter was very good and easy reading.

[Boschi]

The Living by Annie Dillard.

Swapping off reading it aloud at bed time if we both have the energy. Busy time right now, so it's slow going, but am really enjoying it.

[Carnival Kid]

Actually this book is what I'm NOT reading at the moment as I'm busy finishing another. I realise that's against the spirit of the thread but I couldn't think of where else to put this.

I just came across an absolute bargain in the bookshop today. (Maybe I should have started a thread on bargain buys instead. I'm looking for a good coffee bean grinder if anyone can point me in the way of a good deal.)

It's a book called Calendar Girl by Stella Duffy. It was in the crime fiction section and is about a stand up comic called Maggie who has fallen for 'the girl with the Kelly McGillis body', a mysterious woman who can't commit herself.

So sayeth the cover, which is as far as I've got so far. The cover also indicates drug smuggling, gambling and prostitution are also involved which would explain why it was in the crime fiction section.

If all of this sounds right up your street, and you're a British Kitten, then you can buy the book in Waterstone's for the princely sum of 99 pence. You can't say fairer than that. If it's rubbish you can always use it for kindling on bonfire night. (Again a British thing but if you wish to join our nation in celebrating the foiling of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament then you're more than welcome. We celebrate by setting fire to things, which I think has a nice irony to it.)

[NewRuthRising]

I've started Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. I'm trying to read lots of classics this year, rather than the rubbish I usually read.


Ooooh, Bonfire Night! I love bonfire night. Last year there was a huge effigy of Guy Fawkes hanging onto Big Ben a la King Kong.

We also sing songs! Rememeber remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot!

[river]

i am reading a fanfiction and another book called the storm

[DameSansMerci]

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning French"...because my professor makes fun of me and I have an exam coming up next Wednesday...*sobs*

Jenny

[Smilis]

I'm reading Go ask Alice by Anonymous.
I've read it before but since I gave my pupil it for homework
I kind of have to reread it in order to bug them with questions
about it. I'm sure it's a book you've all read in school since here it's
a must if you want to pass English A.

[Alcy]

Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks, I'm normally more of a Tad Williams, Ian Irvine girl but I read the Word and the Void series and they were alright, and given that this is a sort of sequel it seemed like a good idea to read it!!
Great book, my only gripe was that it's not long enough! I like my books with some meat on them, if it's big enough to be a doorstop, then that's about right!

[Uzu]

Currently reading the graphic novel 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. It's a story about a small town in Alaska that finds itself under siege by vampires during a month long period of winter darkness.

So far it's zipping along brilliantly, there's some great characters and Templesmith's Impressionistic sketchy style, although at first a bit off putting, has kinda grown on me.

Overall, '30 Days of Night' is a great survival horror story which delivers more than just the gratuitous guts 'n' gore. I can see why such a compelling plotline might be made into a movie. I really hope they do! And if they do, my money's on Julianne Moore for the part of the kick ass female sheriff 'Stella'. oh please...please...pretty please...:pray

[badkitty]

Well, I've always had a taste for post-apocalyptic fiction, or anything with a generally dystopic view of the future (not sure why, it might be the strict Italian-Catholic upbringing, I don't know). So I just went through this really weird phase where I read three books that really screwed with my head, one worse than the next. I started with The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier, which was amazing. I followed that up with Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguru. Again, freaking brilliant (he's the same author who wrote The Remains of the Day).

But the absolute number one all time mind job was when I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I have never, in my entire life, read anything so utterly horrible and utterly gorgeous, ever. This was about a week ago, and I can't stop thinking about it. I can't read anything else. I can't bring myself to pick up another book until the taste of that one leaves my mind. Which I'm not sure it'll ever do entirely.

I'm going to take a break soon from all that angst, and read Artemis Fowl, because my 12-year old nephew says it's quite entertaining. I could use something like that. When I'm ready.

[JustSkipIt]

The King of Torts by John Grisham. So far it sucks but I picked it up at a sale for 50 cents and wanted something brainless. That it is...

[Brianna]

I've started reading homelan by R:A Salvatore. Is the first part of a triology

[JustSkipIt]

I just started Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chodron.

[Brianna]

I've started reading homeland folowing book Exile I love this books and Drizzt Do'Urden character!!

[umgaynow]

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
by: Christopher Moore

Absolutely fricken hilarious and very smart and really more about spirituality than sacriligeous although it certainly has a wicked sense of humor in the process...I haven't been able to put it down

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin

Ms. Grandin is an autistic woman with a doctorate in animal studies and is an expert in animal communication...this is a truly fascinating book, not just about how animals perceive the world but also the differences between and functioning of the "normal" human brain, the autistic brain and the animal brain...it really makes you think about the assumptions society as a whole makes about people whose brains don't necessarily function the same way as those of the general populus...I definitely reccomend this one

[Boschi]

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Fiction. Good so far.

Also just finished listening to Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver on tape. It's like nature geek soft porn. If you get a little excited thinking about scrotum shaped orchids, pheromones and moth abdomen extrusions then read away!

[Knock yourself out]

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

I enjoyed that a lot - I thought it was a good exploration of immigrants and their children.

I recently read The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson. Clearly not aimed at my age group (I wish books like this had been around when I was a teen) - very funny and insightful with great dialogue.

[db]

A short story, actually. Why I Live At The PO by Eudora Welty. It's hillarious.

[JustSkipIt]

I traveled this week and read most of Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chodron and all of Where the Heart is and HP #1 (again). Now I'm rereading To Say nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.

[Auriam]

:'( :'(
I don't have the time for read
i mean i read a lot in the moment but it's for college books like
Element de linguistique générale: André Martinet
Initiation à la phonétique
suff like that !
I'm a student in science of language and i'm french

[erith]

This is probably the wrong thread for this but I was listening to the start of Women's Hour on BBC Radio 4 and they're about to have a discussion on Ian Rankin's comments about women writers and lesbians in particular including more violence towards women in their books than male writers. Ian Rankin was too scared ...uh busy to appear on the show.

Unfortunately I just arrived at the office and can't listen to it. It might also be available on the BBC website.

[maudmac]

Hey, erith. Welcome to the Kitten!

I hadn't heard about what Ian Rankin said before now, but I found Danuta Kean's blog and the article in The Independent.

There's also the Great books by women, or with great female characters thread, which has been a little dead the last few months and could use a nice interesting discussion about this, if you'd like to continue over there.

[boomstick79]

Uzu - they are making a film of 30 days of Night, and alas the sheriff is not being played by Julianne Moore. Instead it's Melissa George, who was Lauren in Alias and also starred in Mulholland Drive. More details here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389722/


Topic: My friend has lent me the entire Calvin and Hobbes collection which I am working my way through. Funny stuff!

~Lou

[erith]

Hey, erith. Welcome to the Kitten!

Thanks, Maudmac.

I hadn't heard about what Ian Rankin said before now, but I found Danuta Kean's blog and the article in The Independent.

Interesting links. I'm not sure what to think of him now.

I'll now pop up to the Introduction thread which is where I should have started.

[river]

i am reading Eragon. its the book to the movie. very great stuff!

[HalfCamel]

Venus Envy by Rita Mae Brown

It's a quick read and it's funny and a little insightful... but I have to say that this book is giving me issues I hadn't thought about and it's making me a bit uncomfortable. Which, I guess, is what a good book should do.

[Uzu]

Uzu - they are making a film of 30 days of Night, and alas the sheriff is not being played by Julianne Moore. Instead it's Melissa George, who was Lauren in Alias and also starred in Mulholland Drive.

Cheers, boomstick79 for the heads up!^^ Pity about no J. Moore *sobs* but hmmm...that lassie who played Lauren, eh? Yeh, I could live with that.

Topic- Just finished Dust by Charles Pellegrino. Not a bad wee read full of scary and plausible science. It's basically about dust mites going apocalyptic on everyone else's collective ass. Apparently if you screw up the delicate eco-balance of Mother Nature, dust mites will start devouring all the bigger life forms on the planet. Which I think is a great way to get your kids to tidy their room... "Hoover that carpet or the dust will EAT you!"

Highlights include a maverick palaeobiologist floating in an airborne science lab and the *real* reason why the dinosaurs died out.

[idontlikejam]

im reading The Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman at the moment.

they really are amazing, if you can get hold of any i definitely recommend it. good mix of fantasy/horror/myths/drama. plus, lesbians

[boomstick79]

Somehow I've ended up with about 5 books on the go through recommendations and people chucking them at me at work so the sequel to 30 Days of Night,'Dark Days' is currently on my shelf (thanks for the tip Uzu!) as is the complete Calvin and Hobbes that I'm still trying to work my way through, a compendium of lesbian vampire stories, PJ Tracy's 'Want to Play' and Martina Cole's Close. I think I know what I'll be doing on my days off next week....
~Lou

[FoxInTheSnow]

Right now I'm reading Killer Bears, which is a collection of essays on bear attacks in the US and Canada, and X Stands for the Unknown by Isaac Asimov. I'm also struggling through Plains of Passage by Jean Auel, but I've been reading it since April and it just doesn't interest me as much as the other Earth's Children books.