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What are you reading now?

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  • Currently I'm reading "The Oxford Murders" by Guillermo Martinez. Fascinating!!!
  • I'm reading three books at the same time - an amazing feat I know! (A few chapters of each at a time - one after the other really!!) Four quarters of Light by Brian Keenan because I want to go to Alaska and that's what the book is about. 'Kinflicks' by Lisa Alther - a book from the 70s that was the forerunner of Chick lit though to vaguely compare it to that does it a disservice. (Not that I have anything against Chick lit - I don't) Kinflicks is very funny and beautifully written. The third book is 'The Death Collectors' by Jack Kerley. I wish I could write like him. Grrrrrr
  • Narnie - enjoy!
  • Taffeta Punk and Tessa Tangent; and Fleur and Flick - I love it!
  • What do you love Jay? Our reading choices, our wit, our brains or our bodies??
  • Now I'm rally confused because apparently I am logged on as Mo but I thought I was Flick. I AM Flick or am I having a personality problem.
  • Now it's really me. Phew, got rid of Mo. I did it with a machine gun in the garage and it was very messy
  • Flick - That seems to happen occasionally on Talkback. People temporarily take over other contributors' names, but eventually they give them back!!!
  • Your names, Flick, or should I say Mo?
  • i wish I knew who I was. I've called myself after the heroine in book number 6 who's resourceful, energetic and witty but I fear I'm more like the heroine in book number 1 who was depressing and a twit. She is definitely confined to the never to see the light of day pile. If it wasn't for the fact that she was raped, kidnapped and psychologically tortured I wouldn't mind being the heroine of book 4 or maybe I should be the Russian spy of book 3 or the Colombian slave of book 2. Help! Flicking from one character to another. Guess I have picked the right name. Congrats on the book Jay, i'm too lazy to post in that part. My computer is slower than a tortoise.
  • Thanks, Flick. Just be yourself.
  • I've just finished Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint - I love the crow girls, who can change from silly to deadly in the blink of an eye.  Charles de Lint is incredibly good at female characters.

    I'm about to re-read Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson, a world where Shakespeare's plays are literally true, and characters speak in blank verse....
  • I'm reading Kingsley Amis's "Memoirs" and he writes about the frequent offensive remarks (allegedly) aimed at him and his work by another writer, John Wain, who he'd known for years.

    Amis was obviously delighted to hear that Philip Larkin had made the following comment:


    "Isn't England a marvellous, free, open country? Take a fellow like old John Wain now. No advantages of birth or position or wealth or energy or charm or looks or talent - nothing, and look where he is now....."

    That must rank pretty high in the list of put-downs!
  • Has anyone read Topics About Which I Know Nothing by Patrick Ness?

    It's a collection of short stories - I think! I've read four of them and still don't know how to classify them.

    I suppose it's a topic about which I know nothing!
  • hoorah!!! exams are over so now ive got a whole year to read whatever i may choose instead of english texts!!

    im currently reading alexander mccall smith's no.1 ladies detective agency. finding it a bit slow to get into but hopefilly il get there.
  • The wonderful thing about McCall Smith is the very simple language that builds up into a vivid picture of Botswana.  For instance there's a whole chapter or so of digression where Mma Ramotswe thinks that no-one would ever write the story of her father's life - and the next chapter is exactly that.  It has nothing to do with solving any mysteries, but everything to do with what Botswana is like.
  • Tessa, have you read Growing Rich?  I saw the TV adaptation and read the book years later - it's very creepy, which is right up my alley.

    http://www.redmood.com/weldon/growingrich.html
  • i completed the no.1 ladies detective agency last night. although it took me a while to grow into it, i loved it. it was very different to what i was expecting and i love the simple way the mccall smith managed to solve little crimes and how he still managed to interwine mma rotwesana's (spelling was off the top of my head as im at work so apologies if its wrong (probably guaranteed)) past life, emotions and her current life.

    now i have moved onto dan brown's da vinci code. im intrigued as to see what all the fuss is about. i know the main plot is all about mary magdalene and jesus supposedly being married as one of the disciples in da vinci's painitng of the last supper looks like a woman. but as far as im concerned that is completely fictious and a very extreme idea. especially as ALL the painitngs from that era made men look feminine and women look masculine.

    =D
  • Jennifer - the Botswana series is lovely. Each book is a little gem! It helps to read them in the right order, but it's not vital.

    I've just started reading the biography of Richmal Crompton. Apparently Martin Jarvis does a fantastic job reading the Just William books on tape - I'll have to pluck up courage and go into the children's section of the library to see if I can find any to listen to whilst I'm in the kitchen!
  • Of course it is ... !
  • Jennifier, Jesus did marry Mary Magdalene - in the Bible (apparently, I don't read it) it describes Jesus having his feet anointed by her - which was an ancient wedding ceremony...
  • Well, TaffetaPunk, there's a strong suggestion that the Marriage Feast at Cana is Jesus' own wedding, but the woman anointing his feet is a bit more problematic.  Firstly, she's never named in the Gospels, and secondly, one Gospel has her anointing Jesus' feet and another has her anointing his head.

    Jenny, find a tape of Martin Jarvis reading Just William if you can - he's a delight, and sounds just perfect.
  • TaffetaPunk- Evaine is right, the woman who annointed Jesus' feet is not named. she was a sinner coming to ask for forgiveness and to show her repentance she poured expensive perfume over his feet. the jewish leaders with Jesus at the time were horrified. but Jesus showed how we were meant to love each other and respect each other by forgiving her and not turning away. she still remained nameless. mary magdalene was named as she was a disciple, after her repentance that is.
  • I am just about to read the trilogy of 'The Forsyte Saga.'  My friend bought me it for Christmas and I forgot all about it.  I loved the TV series and it will be interesting to see if the books are very different.
  • I am reading a great book at present, 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow', by a Dane, Peter Hoeg.  I started reading it after my daughter returned from an expedition across Greenland's ice-cap.  I'm enjoying the Greenlandic scenes and the wonderful descriptions of the snow.  I believe it has been made into a film.
  • To be followed by a book about the discovery of another code within The Da Vinci Code Code - and that would be called The Da Vinci Code Code Code.
  • Am I the only person in the world that disliked the Da Vinci Code (and Digital Fortress and Deception Point)?( You might wonder why I read more by Brown but I believe in giving a guy a chance plus my husband had already bought them) I also didn't like Kate Mosse's Labyrinthe. Boring. Nor Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs. (Yet loved her others.)Too much on the same religious theme. I have now read the Michele Roberts 'Impossible Saints' as recommended by TaffetaPunk.  What a writer! (talking about Michele here as I've not read anything by TP!!!!!!)Most impressed. She's shocking, provoking and poetic. You just don't know what you're going to read next. Though not for everyone I think. I'm now reading an Anne Rice book Blood Canticle(First time on Vampires - interesting experience) Michael Connelly's 'A Lincoln Lawyer' and 'Prince of Thieves ' by Chuck Hogan. Brilliant crime read.
  • Something quite different for me - I've picked up the complete poems of a Canadian Indian woman called E Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), called Flint and Feather.  Apparantly she was famous at the end of the 19thC and died in 1913, in Vancouver.  She travelled widely, even coming to London, and in Canada it seems she often travelled vast distances by canoe.  From the little I've read she was quite scathing about the white man stealing the Indians' land - and yet her white audiences loved her.
  • Flick, glad you liked Impossible Saints - her writing isn't for everyone, I agree, but she doesn't hold back with what she wants to say.  Her latest is Reader, I Married Him - and even I didn't expect that...

    Tessa, you will enjoy The Eyre Affair, I promise - in fact, having read Jane Eyre makes it all the funnier, because you can see where he's played around with the plot.
  • I've just been to the library and found The Seven Basic Plots by (appropriately enough) Christopher Booker.  Fascinating stuff so far - I've gone through Overcoming the Monster and I'm now at Rags to Riches.

    I'm also re-reading The Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner, after reading a critical assessment of it in A Fine Anger.  This is fascinating, too.  The stories are written very simply, with not a word wasted, but there are all sorts of allusions, and connections between the stories.  You don't need to know, or even notice, these things to enjoy the stories, but once they're pointed out, they greatly add to the richness.

    I wish I could write half as well....
  • i have finished the dan vinci code. anbsolutely loved it. fantastic plot line and a real page turner!!

    attempted to read the gathering light by jennifer donnelly but gave up. the style was just so whingey and it didnt grip me at all!!

    am now reading love and devotion by erica james. time for a light read whilst im working lots of overtime now ive finished college =D.
  • Just about to start "Dialogue with Dogs" (why dogs behave the way they do).

    I wonder if anyone's written a book for dogs on understanding humans (why we behave the way we do). I'm sure it would be very enlightening for them!!
  • I spent this afternoon reading what I'd been missing since I came over to Switzerland - y'see, I'm not great at packing, and in the last-minute rush, I left behind the book I'd been reading and had almost finished (d'oh!), called Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris.

    Now, I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever read a book with such clever (and I mean CLEVER) plot twists.  I didn't see any of them coming, and I'm going to have to read it again now I know what they are, so I can figure out how she did it.  I would recommend anyone to read this.
  • This month's book at my reading group is called 'The Reading Group' (in a senior moment the author's name eludes me).
  • Since my last post on here I've read Jonathon Strange And Mr Norrell (Brilliant), We Have To Talk About Kevin (Scarily brilliant), On Beauty (Ok) and The Time Traveller's Wife (Brilliant). Now I am bookless! I'm off to sea for two weeks at the end of this month and humbly request suggestions for a tome to keep me entertained on the high seas. Has anyone read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse? Is it any good?
  • I forgot, I also read The Lovely Bones which was also brilliant!
  • Narnie, not a tome, but Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris :o)  You'll be trying to work out how she did it...
  • Can you believe that I actually forgot to go to the bookshop yesterday? What a numpty! Roll on tomorrow.
  • i lvoed love and devotion!!! just very easy to read and gets you into a very lovey-dovey mood, but in a good sense if you understand me. the majority of erica james' characters always end up with happy endings or if the dont she shows them pulling through.

    i am now beginnning to read labyrinth by kate mosse. it was one of this years richard and judy's reads, and was voted by the nation as the best read on their reading list. anyone else read it? or any of the other richard and judy books? have to say that their summer reads look a bit tedious and boring.

    also debating whether to read the holiday by erica james. probably will read it next week when im on holiday in jersey, yay!!!

    =D
  • I fear I'm going to get blasted by a machine gun here but I did not like Kate Mosse's book. I thought it was rather childish. But I didn't like the Da Vinci Code either and the two are on the same sort of religious theme. Nor did I like The Cloud Atlas, or the Olive Readers -  old Richard and Judy reads but I did love the Time traveller's Wife and The Lincoln Lawyer which were also old ones of theirs. Phew. I've seen some reviews for the books they are promoting this time and some look OK but nothing I'd pay full price for.
  • Fact remains, though, that R&J's book club has got more people interested in reading - so much so that sales have shot up as a direct result.

    If more people read, this can only be a good thing.  Whether we all like the books they promote is, in all honestly, neither here nor there.
  • After having read 'Lords and Ladies' by Terry Pratchett over the weekend, I'm now a third of the way through Jasper Fforde's 'Well of Lost Plots', number three in the Thursday Next series.  Quite absurd!
  • Carry on writing like you :o)
  • Just started 'Sex, Lies and Fairytales' by Kate Thompson - poor Pixie, a famous novelist having trouble escaping the media!  We should be so lucky...it's a good light read, sent me to sleep last night.
  • Yes, try them. The Vatican has a vast library, and I'm sure if it is something they can answer they will. It may take time getting an answer. I'm sure you always do so, but be as specific as possible about the information you need-approximate time period.
    Hope you get the info you need.
  • I'm reading E.V.Lucas's autobiography (Reading, Writing and Remembering, pub. 1933). We bought it years ago in a secondhand bookshop for £2 and it's been sitting around waiting to be read ever since.

    In the first chapters he talks about books he read as a child and young adult. I've never heard of most of the authors, but I'll have to make a list of the ones who sound the most tempting - you never know what you might find in old bookshops or charity shops!
  • I'm reading Lord Peter Views the Body, by Dorothy Sayers.  It's a collection of short stories that I hadn't come across before, so it's nice to find new stories featuring one of my favourite sleuths.
    I did find the first couple of stories a bit disappointing, though.  Lord Peter seemed to wrap up the case rather too easily, I thought.
    However, the one with the ghostly coach and four was great fun, and any story that starts by finding a bargain in a second hand book shop gets my vote.
  • Tessa - glad to hear I have another Fay Wheldon fan on here, she does bring her characters 'alive'.
    I stopped reading 'heavy' books years ago as, in my work, I had to read The Finance Act each year and absorb it - can't tell you how fascinating THAT was!
    I must get back to more 'taxing' reading now - pun intended!
  • Evaine - There are some Peter Wimsey repeats coming up on TV very soon - on BBC3, I think.
  • Everything I've read recently has been set in Edinburgh - just discovered Ian Rankin, and am hooked on the Insp Rebus novels, he's a great writer and I love Rebus already.
    Also just finished the third in the 44 Scotland St. series from Mr McCall Smith, so funny and warm, they are real comfort books.
    cheers,
    Lizzie
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