So, what are you reading today?

pantsonfire321@aol.com · Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:40 am

Just finished Escape from the Kray madness by Chris Lambrianou .

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:45 am

Brownley wrote: I think it was re-released this year?

But it first came out in 1958

I watched a documentary about Auschwitz, and they interviewed Elie Wiesel, so ordered his book because of it

I totally recommend it Cher! Its only 126 pages, which you would think is a quick read, but I found I could only read a few chapters at a time as my eyes were blurry and I couldnt read the text (kept getting the tearsies). Very very sad.

I agree with Beagle, stays with you long after reading it :-1

Being Jewish, I'm sure this book would have a tremendous impact on me. And I know what you mean -- just because it is a short book, it doesn't mean it is a quick read.

You know, the older I get, the *more* difficult it is for me to read things that are upsetting. I can't even watch "Animal Cops" on T.V. --- it rips me up to wrap my brain around heavy and sad things. I'm really changing as I age -- I tend to look at reading as more of an 'escape' from real life.

Do you guys know what I mean?

Yavanna · Post by **Yavanna** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:09 am

Kind of ; I find myself welling up really easily at ads for charities (ones for kids or animals always get me going) etc.

But as far as reading is concerned, I don't feel the same ; I enjoy reading all sorts of books but generally don't enjoy "happy" or "frivolous" books much. I'd rather read a crime thriller than chick lit, for example. Bridget Jones? Bleh......

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:39 am

Yavanna wrote: Kind of ; I find myself welling up really easily at ads for charities (ones for kids or animals always get me going) etc.

But as far as reading is concerned, I don't feel the same ; I enjoy reading all sorts of books but generally don't enjoy "happy" or "frivolous" books much. I'd rather read a crime thriller than chick lit, for example. Bridget Jones? Bleh......

yeah, I don't do chick lit, either. I need something with a little meat in it.

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:42 pm

cherandbuster wrote: yeah, I don't do chick lit, either. I need something with a little meat in it.

AMEN!

Two words - Danielle Steel :rolleyes: (I wish we had an icon that was throwing up because that is what I would have used here instead of this one). I'm sorry if this comment offends those of you who enjoy her books, but I just cannot stand them.

Rapunzel · Post by **Rapunzel** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:15 pm

I like amusing chick lit that makes me laugh. Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series totally creased me up, especially the third book in the trilogy - Shopaholic gets married - it was hysterical!

I also liked The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne, this rang a lot of bells with me and I thoroughly enjoyed her mad family. I was thrilled to hear she'd brought out a second novel, but sadly found that to be a complete let down. The author is a friend of Sophie Kinsella's and has plagiarised the theme from her second Shopaholic novel, which is a shame. The original book is worth reading though.

I recently read The Learning Curve by Melissa Nathan where the main character reminds me very strongly of our Pinky! There is an introductory note from the author which breaks your heart as she suffered breast cancer and knew she would die before this book was published. Telling her infant son how much she loved him was incredibly emotional for me. I have also read The Nanny by Melissa Nathan, which also struck a lot of chords as I used to be a nanny and have experienced a lot of similar situations.

The Bridget Jones novels, imo, were far inferior to the films. One usually finds the book is SO much better than the film, but in this case I wondered how they could create such a good film (the first Bridget Jones) from quite a mediocre novel.

On reflection, they had Richard Curtis on the team and he has a golden touch with comedy.

Danielle Steele was hugely popular in the 80s as I think she opened up a new genre in womens lit. But the genre has moved forward rapidly since then and left DS behind. The majority of her stories follow the same well worn path so if you've read one, you've pretty much read them all! Bit of pointless trivia for you - she employs a nanny for each of her children and the nannies are only allowed to be English or Irish, no other nationality is allowed. Weird.

Adam Zapple · Post by **Adam Zapple** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:09 pm

I went to the Library yesterday to see if they had any of the books on my reading list. They had three of them but for some reason my enthusiasm for reading had kinda taken a nosedive. I like Cold War espionage thrillers ala John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum. However, today's political/espionage thriller writers seem to have tunnel vision. If I read one more novel about terrorists trying to sneak a nuke into the U.S. I think my head would have exploded. So feeling kinda depressed and thinking there was nothing good to read, I continued to browse. Before I knew it my attitude had changed completely and I was finding lots of books to read. I eventually selected 12 books (that's all I could carry) and if the first one is any indication, I done good.

Just finished "The Judas Field" by award-winning writer Howard Bahr. It's a fictional civil war novel set in 1885. The central character is Civil War vet Cass Wakefield who agrees to accompany is terminally ill neighbor, Alison Sansing, from their Mississippi town to the battlefield of Franklin, Tennessee where Alison's father and brother fell while fighting alongside Wakefield. For twenty years, Alison has longed to bring her family home to be buried in the family plot and facing her own mortality she sets out with Cass to find the battlefield where Cass buried them. Along the way, Cass fights his own demons as he remembers his nightmarish experiences as a rebel soldier. Eventually joined by a couple of fellow soldiers they must face the Angel of Death once again on the battlefield that nearly took them the twenty years ago. Better than "Cold Mountain", Bahr has recreated a vivid portrait of the post-Civil War landscape and with colorful prose brings to life the horrors of battle. At 292 pages, this is a short read but one that you shouldn't miss. A great novel. This was my first Bahr novel but it won't be my last.

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 9:37 pm

Arrians "Campaigns of Alexander", okay its a bit highbow and all that, but its a cracking book, and still in print 2,000 years later, I wonder will people still be reading "Lord of the Rings" in 4006?, come to think of it, probably yes. That is, if there are any people in 4006.

Adam Zapple · Post by **Adam Zapple** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 6:11 am

Just finished an excellent "who-done-it" murder mystery set at West Point Military Academy in 1830. Author Louis Bayard invokes shades of Sherlock Holmes and the macabre of Edgar Allan Poe. In fact, he employs as a central character a 1830 plebe and aspiring poet by the name of Edgar Allan Poe. The book is titled "The Pale Blue Eye", a reference to Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". And the ending is a surprise, I didn't see it coming at all. A very enjoyable book.

Marie5656 · Post by **Marie5656** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 6:23 am

Right now, I am close to finishing One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz. It is an interesting story, a bit far fetched but interesting.

Here is what the back of the book says:

Michelina Birdsong is on a mission. She is following a missing family to the edge of America..to a place she never knew existed--a place of terror, wonder and shattering revelation.

What she finds there will changer her life and the life of everyone she knows--if she can find the key to survival.

At stake are a young girl of extraordinary goodness, a young boy with killers on his trail, and Mickey's own wounded soul.

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 6:42 am

Beagle wrote: I just finished Digging to America by Anne Tyler and I'm currently reading The Bell Jar.

I just finished the Bell Jar and have started Memory Keeper's Daughter.

Adam Zapple · Post by **Adam Zapple** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:21 pm

"One Mississippi" by Mark Childress - a story set in the 1970's about a teen whose family moves from Indiana to Mississippi and his adjustment to a new culture and a new school. It is a funny and charming book and if you are a child of the '70s as I am you will find it somewhat nostalgic. Some scenes are laugh out loud funny. But the ending was dark and rather depressing. Good up until that point.

"The Man From St. Petersburg" by Ken Follett - set in WWI London, a Russian anarchist tries to stop an alliance between Russia and Great Britian that will bring war with Germany by assassinating a visiting Russian prince. I thought this was a political/espionage thriller but it was more a cross between Pride and Prejudice and Columbo. This was more a romance novel than anything. Not what I was hoping for.

"The Deceiver" by Frederick Forsyth - as British intelligence services begin to downsize after the Cold War, a longtime agent's colleagues look back on his illustrious career. This novel is what Cold War thrillers are supposed to be...Mr. Follett should take notes. This particular novel is like four small novelettes culled into one story. I'm a little over halfway done with this one and it is excellent.

chocoholic · Post by **chocoholic** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:16 am

I've just been given a book by Frank Warren, "Post Secret". It's weird and wonderful at the same time.

It all began with an idea he had for a community art project, he started handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places and between the pages of library books etc., asking people to write down a secret that they had never told anyone and to mail the postcard to him anonymously.

He had an overwhelming response, the cards were like works of art, Frank Warren calls them "graphic haiku" and they are very powerful, thought provoking and in some cases really touching and upsetting.

There is also a website - www.postsecret.com -where you can view some of the replies that he has received.

It's a stunning and very unusual book.

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:07 pm

I'm reading a history of the Roman Empire, I'm up the rule of Marcus Aurelius, its a good read.

Snickz · Post by **Snickz** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:02 pm

I love to read and will read almost anything!

Having just finished another Deighton novel I stumbled across "Flowers in the Attic" in a second hand shop (I love hunting through them!) and I can't put it down....

for a book that I always passed over I really wish I had read it years ago...

ARgi · Post by **ARgi** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:10 pm

Snickz wrote: I love to read and will read almost anything!

Having just finished another Deighton novel I stumbled across "Flowers in the Attic" in a second hand shop (I love hunting through them!) and I can't put it down....

for a book that I always passed over I really wish I had read it years ago...

what's the story about? :sneaky: it sounds familar

ARgi · Post by **ARgi** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:11 pm

i'm reading 'The Tale of Genji' by lady murasaki.

old, old, old japanese novel. interesting so far...but the main character is a douchebag. :wah:

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:14 pm

Just finished The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

chocoholic · Post by **chocoholic** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:41 am

I've just finished "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer, it's a brilliant read.

It's the story of a 17yr. old girl who goes back to live with her father in a small town in the USA and falls in love with a boy she meets at her new school, only problem is that the boy in a vampire and so are all his family!

If you get the chance to read it give it a go, it's not a horror story as such and there aren't pages of blood and gore.

The is a sequel due out and I'm looking forward to reading it very much.

SuzyB · Post by **SuzyB** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:45 am

Just finished Martina Cole 'Close', just about to start James Patterson 'Cross'

Snickz · Post by **Snickz** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:53 pm

ARgi;439708 wrote: what's the story about? :sneaky: it sounds familar

You know what the story's about Arg....4 kids locked in a room waiting for their rich grandfathers death, their mothers betrayal of them....it's bloody great!

Unlike our time....locked in the deep bowels of LCO dungeons by the SP and forced to listen to VR....

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:32 am

Just finished "Northern Lights" Phillip Pulman, its excellent.

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:41 pm

Pinky;442256 wrote: Are you going to read the next two? They're just as good. I really lost myself in them and was gutted when I got to the end of 'The Subtle Knife'.

I will get them off my sister later on this weekend, he is an excellent writer, I havn't enjoyed a fantasy novel so much for long time, I am looking forward to the other two with great anticipation. If you like fantasy books may i recommend the Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance, its suberb.

Adam Zapple · Post by **Adam Zapple** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 3:22 pm

A Tourist In the Yucatan - by James McNay Brumfield. This is pulp fiction but good pulp fiction. A couple vacationing in the Yucatan and exploring the Mayan ruins find themselves caught up in the criminal underworld. The wife disappears and the husband must run from both the Federal Polizia and the drug kingpins as he searches for his wife and the truth that will clear them

A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest J. Gaines - This is one of the books that can't fail to move you. Set in 1940 southern Louisiana it's the story of a young black man, Jefferson, who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and ultimately convicted of a murder he did not commit. Grant Wiggins an educated black man who returns to the plantation of his childhood and takes the only non-field working job he can get, teaching the black kids. But when Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to die, his grandmother, Miss Emma, begs Grant for one last favor: to teach her grandson to die like a man. As Grant struggles to impart a sense of pride to Jefferson before he must face his death, he learns an important lesson as well: heroism is not always expressed through action--sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough. The ending of this book had me all choked up.

Marie5656 · Post by **Marie5656** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 4:53 pm

Right now I am into A Man Called David, by David Pelzer. It is the final book in his trilogy...starting with A child Called It and The Lost Boy. It is his story of surviving serious abuse by his mentally ill, alcoholic mother. Sadly his dad just sat back and watched. Some teachers finally banded together and called in Child Protective. I have yet to read the secod book in the trilogy, as it seems to be always checked out at the library.

Marie5656 · Post by **Marie5656** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 5:08 pm

Pinky, I will admit, the first book was difficult, and I did not read it in it's entirety. The second, covers his time in Foster Care, and the last, his adult life. It is interesting to read now how his life was affected by his childhood. His marriage broke up due to it.

vampress.rozz · Post by **vampress.rozz** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:21 pm

Tom Holt "My Hero" Just finished Robert Rankin "The Brentford Chainstore Massacre" sick in places and well funny My type of book.:sneaky:

Fibonacci · Post by **Fibonacci** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:35 pm

I Just Finished Re-reading The Lord Of The Rings. The Fifth time and its still good!!!

G-man · Post by **G-man** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:44 am

Nothing light... (ie mostly technical stuff at the moment... you really don't wanna' know! ) ...I should be reading some good fiction now, though... at least whilst I recuperate for the next day or two...

Yavanna · Post by **Yavanna** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 6:07 am

I've just bought The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Anyone read it?

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:07 am

Pinky;450679 wrote: I'm reading one of the books Sheryl kindly sent me!:-6

That was so nice of Sher

vampress.rozz · Post by **vampress.rozz** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:23 am

Hamster;450983 wrote: I've read them all and theyy are sooo good!!

I only "discovered" Robert Rankin this year and have been frantically buying them up at the boot fairs....to quote one stall holder "you must be really sick" followed by laughter...so pleased to meet ya Hamster

Adam Zapple · Post by **Adam Zapple** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:50 am

Just finished "Cell" by Stephen King. In my younger days, I read everything he wrote starting with The Shining and The Stand when they were first published. But as I aged I outgrew him. I still occassional pick up one of his books but like "Cell" I only find them mildly interesting now.

guppy · Post by **guppy** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 12:04 pm

I am listening to "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks.

Linio · Post by **Linio** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:40 am

I'm reading Hyperion from Dan Simmons.

A great Science Fiction book. If you haven't read it already, I recommend it

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:59 am

I am in the middle of The City of Falling Angels by Peter Berendt. (author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)

It's nonfiction and is about the lives and culture of real-life Venetians. (Venice, Italy) It also deals with the 1997 fire of the Fenice, Venice's opera house and how it affected the residents. It's really interesting from a cultural standpoint and it's written casually so you can get right into it.

:)