Books: Whatcha readin lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 07:41 AM

Our little village mobile Library van has just been. I got eight books and had a natter with the people in my road. This van spends twenty minutes at each location, and you can have the books for eight weeks. I got some excellent History books, one on the Tudors and another on the Stuarts, two Agatha Christies, two biographies, of life in a country house and a servant's experiences below stairs, and some gardening books, and all free! That should keep me quiet for a while! I do love our Libraries, mobile and buildings. I hope the Local Authority doesn't axe them here in Norfolk UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: kendall
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 02:41 PM

Q, it's there, you just didn't see it. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 05:16 PM

Eliza, do keep up the interest in history. Great minds seem to find it a subject hard to resist!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 08:46 AM

I used to think Stephen King was just a whimsical macabre horror writer

then he wrote The Green mile.


Does Dawkins supurbly titled The Greatest Show on Earth deal with the early evoloving cell with no impenatrable membrane that is later replaced with the selfish gene that has a wall which denies sharing?


I hope the internet does not evolve along similar lines!





I can not read easily, so I rarely undertake large books.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: kendall
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 10:41 AM

King has written other good stories, Deloris Claiborn and the Green Mile.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 10:43 AM

Not trying to suck up to Little Hawk (really!) but I just started "Star Trek Memories" by William Shatner :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 06:38 PM

One of the best books that I read last year was 'The Dervish House' by Ian McDonald. It's a SF novel set in Istanbul in 2027 - and completely unlike any SF novel you've ever read. For a start all of the characters are Turkish - not an American or a Brit in sight. It's a complex and fascinating piece of work.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 08:09 PM

Fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series might want to see THIS THREAD. Beautiful song!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 12:48 PM

Currently reading Joanna Trollope's latest [I think], Daughters In Law; good, but I feel her work is rather falling into a pattern: tho I suppose same could have been said of her famous ancestor - uncle 5 generations back Anthony], one of the greatest of Victorian novelists, all of whose works I read with great enjoyment when younger, & could embark on projects to read entire works of Dickens, Jane Austen [greatest of all for my money], Hardy, George Eliot, Conrad, Henry James etc. Nowadays I am less adventurous, & tend just to reread favourites like Dorothy L Sayers; tho do try to keep up with some contemps I admire, like above-mentioned J Trollope, Ben Elton - simultaneously just rereading his High Society, good novel about drug scene, & recently reread his Popcorn, which I highly recommend - Howard Jacobson, Stephen Fry.... Other C20-C21 I like are the Drabble sisters {Margaret D & her older sister A S Byatt}, Nancy Mitford, Forster ~~ not a chronological list, just as the names occurred to me. Dislike the other Bloomsburys (V Woolf &c) as rather rarefied; & could never abide the priggish self-satisfied D H Lawrence.

That's just novels ~~ have read much in verse & drama too over the years of a long life; but enough for now ...

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 01:37 PM

Monique, thanks for the mention! (I missed seeing it, earlier.)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 11:36 PM

Finished Victoria Thompson's Murder n Sisters' Row and am almost done with Cara Black's Murder in the Bastille. This is the fourth book in her series of Aimee Leduc's Investigations, each set in a different arrondisement in Paris. I wish the maps in the books were larger! Next up is Nevada Barr's The Rope, another of the Anna Pigeon mysteries. Anna is a US National Park Ranger.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 11:47 PM

ChanteyLass, I just ordered the first two of the Gaslight series from paperbackswap.com. Thanks for the recommendation. I also see I am far behind on Anna Pigeon! Last one I read was No.11...the next one sounds grisly, not sure if I want to read it or not, High Country?

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 12:46 AM

Kat, enjoy the Gaslight mysteries. Like most writers, Thompson gets better as she continues to write. I like the books because they give a little flavor of old NYC. A similar series by Rhys Bowen features Molly Murphy and is set in NYC at about the same time.

I think I liked High Country. The hardest ones for me to get through have been ones dealing with physical and/or sexual child abuse. I think Hard Truth and Burn were two of those. There may have been a third, or I may be confusing it with another book. Two of my favorites by her were Blind Descent and Liberty Falling.

In both series, I like seeing the way the main characters develop their lives and relationships.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 05:26 AM

I second Shimrod's championing of the Dervish House (in fact it was Shimmy who put me onto it - thanks!). I wish more sci-fi/speculative fiction was half as good as this.

On a similar note, I'm now finally getting round to reading China Mieville's 'The City and the City'. Brilliant. I like everything I've read by him (Kraken, Perdido Street Station) but this far and away the best. A tale of two separate cities sharing the same geographical space...

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 02:16 PM

I don't know if anyone here likes Alexander McCall Smith's 'The Number 1 Ladies'Detective Agency' series? There's a new one coming out next month, called 'The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection'. They're delightful books, gentle humour and poignant human problems all set in modern Botswana. He's an excellent author, with other series, but the Botswana one is my favourite. I've already pre-ordered a copy of 'Limpopo...'

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 02:51 PM

Desert Gold by Zane Grey. This western gem written in 1913.
I am just getting 'round to reading his novels.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 11:33 PM

Just moving on to 'Blue Highways' by William Least Heat Moon. A tale of his travels in his van, nicknamed 'The Ghost-Dancer', through every county of the lower 48, driving only on the back-roads. I expect this one to take a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 11:59 PM

Eliza, there are several of us who love that series. I've read them all but the latest. Have you seen the few episodes they made of it on netflix? Really well done on location in Botswana; just as he describes it in the books.

Backwoodsman, thanks for the info about Blue Highways. I've just ordered it from paprebackswap.com.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 06:03 AM

Yes, Kat, I did see the short series and agree, just the same atmosphere as the books. But no Rra Polopetsi, instead a jolly hairdresser who seemed to be gay. (I've no objection, but I did like Rra Polopetsi and his sad story.) Did you like "The Double Comfort Safari Club" and "The Big Tent Saturday Wedding"? Poor Rra Phuti Radiphuti and his amputation! Can't wait for the new one!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 12:51 PM

Oh! I think I missed the last one you listed, Eliza. I'll have to go look for it, now. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 02:14 PM

@katlaughing - ...I've always thought of the UK as having so many ancient buildings and artifacts intact from the different reigns, only to find there's very little left of the Tudors...

My local pub, The Old Hall, to which I shall shortly wander over for a couple of pints of Lancaster Bewery's 'Bomber' was completed in 1598. Most of the buildings in the village were built in the early 1600s, and the barn of the other pub (The Royal, which I much prefer but it's a pop quiz night) was built in 1500. It's all still here, and most old buildings are 'listed' - which meants that it's pretty much against the law to demolish them.

If anyone's interested, I've just finished Iain M. Banks 'The Use Of Weapons', and am now re-reading Le Carre's 'The Honourable Schoolboy'. His best book, I think, but read TTSS first.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Max Johnson
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 02:23 PM

I was that GUEST.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 02:43 PM

Oh dear, kat, I'm very sorry if I've spoiled the plot for you if you haven't read that one yet. Oops!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 01:37 PM

Currently reading Mill on the Floss. by George Eliot. It starts off as a sort of tale about childhood, then takes a dramatic turn. I'm frugal,(read cheap) and bought a lot of the free books on Kindle. I've learned to appreciate them in my old age. But beware of the typos

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 01:41 PM

Elmore, I'm v interested in what you say about typos on Kindle. I haven't got one as yet, could you tell me more please?

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 08:56 PM

Generally, the free classics have a typo here and there ,but not to the point of being unbearable. Forget about free poetry. It's unreadable. Books you pay for are mostly okay. An exception was a crime novel by Val Mcdermid, which I paid for. Typos were so frequent I gave it up. Still, I enjoy the Kindle. My wife gets books from the library on her Kindle.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 11:27 PM

P.S. Instead of the word"classics", I should have used Victorian. I didn't mean Sophocles or that bunch. Regards, Elmore

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 12:02 AM

Eliza, no worries. I don't think you spoiled the plot. I love those books, regardless and will enjoy it when I get it.

@Max, the Guest who was Max(**bg**) thank you! I know there are many more old buildings there than over here. The ones you describe sound wonderful. I would love to see them. (And, I thought it was incredible when I moved to New England and lived in a house from the 1700s!)

I, too, am interested in hearing that about Kindle. Since I did my own book, I was very careful about typos. SO far, no complaints. It helped that I used the same file I'd used for the paper version and that I am said to be an good copy editor.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 06:05 AM

"Backwoodsman, thanks for the info about Blue Highways. I've just ordered it from paprebackswap.com."

Kat, I'm so hacked off - I thought I'd bought the book from the Kindle store, but after a few pages of what I thought must be the Foreword, I realised I'd bought a study manual which summarised each chapter down to half a page or so. The Amazon Kindle Store didn't make it clear that it wasn't actually the book, which isn't available for the Kindle!

I'm currently searching for a hard-copy version! Grrrrrrrr!!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 10:20 AM

Backwoodsman, I just checked paperbackswap.com. There are 3 copies available of Blue Highways (different copyrights: 1983, 1986, 1991). If you aren't a member, I could purchase a credit (I just used up the ones I had) and get it sent directly to you. It's only 2-3 bucks and the mailer pays the postage. Send me a PM if you'd like me to do that,okay? With your mailing addy, of course.:-)

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 12:00 PM

I thought some of you might like to read this. It is an inscription in a book, Messer Marco Polo by Don Byrne, of my paternal grandfather's:

This volume is the property of one Frank Hudson a resident of (a) village hamlet (in?) town of Carbondale which is situated near the foot of (Mount) Sopris. Whosoever shall steal this book may the hungry hounds of hell pursue his soul through the eternal fires of damnation until the same are congealed by the frost of the big winter.

No wonder my family is passionate about our books!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 03:19 PM

Kat, this grandfather of yours sounds like one of my kindred spirits.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 03:57 PM

CLass(how do ya like that for a name contraction?*bg*), my maternal grandfather had the first lending library in New Castle, Colorado - his own private collection. Each book had an ink stamp "From the private library of" with his name and the book number.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 01:36 AM

I had a lending library of my books in my basement! Bobbsey Twins, Honey Bunch, Trixie Belden, Cherry Ames, Vicky Barr, Nancy Drew, Tom Corbett, Hardy Boys, etc.! As the only only child in the neighborhood, I had more time to read than my friends did, and my parents had a little more disposable income than their parents did. However, I also toted home a stack of good literature from the library each week.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 04:21 AM

OH! The Bobbsey Twins! My auntie in Canada used to send me those for Christmas and I absolutely adored them. I'd forgotten all about them. I also seem to remember she sent a book called (I think) 'Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy' and a game called Howdy-Doody. Thank you for the memories!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 08:27 AM

This seems interesting: Fisherman teaches himself to read, then writes his autobiography

There is an advertisement at the start, but the story is worth the wait, IMO.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Ed T
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 10:00 AM

Try reading this:
Washroom reader

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Neil D
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 11:31 AM

I just finished "Drood" by Dan Simmons, an entertainingly bizarre fictionalization of the last five years in the life of Charles Dickens, from the Staplehurst Rail Disaster to his death exactly five years later. It includes his involvement with a demonic underworld master criminal named Drood and mesmerism. The story is being narrated by his increasingly drug-addled collaborator Wilkie Collins, author of "the Moonstone". I hear that Guillermo del Toro will be making it into a movie, which should make for a spectrally atmospheric period piece.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 11:40 AM

maeve, what an inspiration! I can't wait to show that to Morgan.

EdT. LOL!

Neil, that sounds really interesting!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 11:59 AM

Hi Kat, Maeve - I just bought a copy of 'Blue Highways' on E-Bay for 99p (a dollar and a half) plus postage! Thanks you guys!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 01:52 PM

Kewl!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 04 Feb 12 - 01:36 PM

EdT as much as I love Moby Dick, that is one edition I won't buy or read, but what an achievement!

I finished Nevada Barr's The Rope and am now rereading Tom Brokaw's BOOM! Voices of the Sixties. About three years ago I wanted to read AND discuss it, so I suggested it to one of my book clubs who agreed on the choice. That club is organized by my local branch of the YMCA but meets at an assisted-living residence. Residents, Y members and anyone else who comes can participate. The year we read it, we had the liveliest discussion in that club that year. I then suggested it to my town library's club, but the month we were supposed to read it there was a huge storm, parts of the library were flooded, the library was closed for two months, and when we met again we moved onto the book for that month! Then we were going to read it last year, but something else went wrong (can't remember what) and by the end of the year we had skipped that book and one other! Finally we are reading it. It's a long one but interesting and easy to read.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Feb 12 - 10:27 PM

That sounds good, ChanteyLass. I just finished the book in which my granddad wrote that warning: Messer. Marco Polo. It was really good. I'm reading The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days by Andy Adams. I think it first came out around 1903. Just got Margaret Coel's newest paperback Wind River Reservation mystery. I really enjoy them. They get better as she learns more of the landscape and the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes. It's one our fav. places in Wyoming, so it's been good to see her improve.

I also just got Blue Highways in the mail, plus the second of the Gaslight mysteries. The first is on its way. Now, I hope someone at paperbackswap wants some of my listed books, so I get more book credits, but I have plenty to keep me going, for now.

Oh, one more which my son recommended: The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz who comes from a long line of Toltec wisdom leaders.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 05 Feb 12 - 09:49 PM

Margaret Coel's books sound interesting. I wish I wasn't so back-logged with books I want to read in between the choices of my book clubs! At least I know I'll never run out of things to read.

I hope you like the Gaslight mysteries. They are more like cozies than hard-boiled mysteries. but the info on old NYC is interesting. It's good that the author admits that she was not entirely accurate about something at Coney Island in that second book. I liked some things I learned in Murder in Chinatown, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 19 Feb 12 - 11:01 PM

I finished Tom Brokaw's Boom! Voices of the Sixties for one of my book clubs and am trying to squeeze in at least one book of my own choice before starting the book for my other club. I have started Jane and the Canterbury Tale by Stephanie Barron. It's the 11th in her series in which Jane Austen solves mysteries.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 06:18 PM

I finished Jane and the Canterbury Tale (another cozy) and have started Marcia Muller's City of Whispers, the 29th in her mystery series about San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone. This should be a hard-boiled mystery, not a cozy. It is another independent choice, but when I finish it I'll have to read the next book for one of my clubs.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 06:28 PM

I just finished a book by Dave Eggers titled What Is the What? It's the story of a boy in South Sudan who spends 15 years as a "Lost Boy" in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, and then ends up in Atlanta with hardships that are almost as challenging. It really gave me a feeling for the refugee problem in Africa.

Somebody suggested I read some of Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma mysteries set in ancient Ireland. The one the library had available was Smoke in the Wind - which is set in Wales, not Ireland. I'm almost done, and it's hard to pull myself away from the book to do anything else. The plot is very well-constructed, a very satisfying mystery. I hate mysteries where the mystery isn't credible - this one is very credible.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 10:54 AM

I have just finished The Illiad (Rieu translation) It is a few years since I read it and I enjoyed it every bit as much this time round. Also just finished Niall Fergusons book "Civilization, The West and The Rest". Very thought provoking.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 11:41 AM

"How to MAKE Friends..." is about creating androids.

Just finishing "The Other Tudors" subtitled Henry VIII's mistresses and bastards, Philippa Jones. He really did get around and there are still descendants alive.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MAG
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 04:29 PM

somebody above mentioned 'the last temptation," i just finished the new tony and carol mystery; a real downer
currentle reading "girl who fell from the sky," current Portland Reads" book.

Also very much enjoyed "city and the city" -- on a Nancy Pearl list; good source of goods reads.

confess I also reread T S Eliot, please don''t stone me, anti-pedants.