What book are you reading?

[ReturningWest]

I just finished Mary Boleyn The Mistress of Kings by Alison Weir, I was surprised how much I liked it. Not a novel but a well researched book on her life.

[netwit]

Originally Posted by C2ShiningC

Since the last time I posted, I have re-read "The Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell and "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford, both beloved books from my childhood, and they have held up well - I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading both. I also finished "Bag of Bones" by Stephen King which was a good read as well, and quite spooky.

I also read "The Year of Wonders: a Novel of the Plague" by Geraldine Brooks, which completely immersed me in 1600s England. She is such a wonderful writer, and her stories are so well-researched - I have really liked all of her books to date. It is a pretty grim, depressing story, but then it is about the plague.

After that, I read "The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham, another post-apocalyptic novel I had not heard of before. It was a good premise, told well, but towards the end it was again another example of "telling" rather than "showing" - just too much dialogue and not enough action. It was still a good read though.

I have now started two books, "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, and "The Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon, both of which I found through this thread. I've started Outlander first and am already enjoying it.

I've been eyeing that book for a while now - let me know what you think of it.

[DawnMTL]

A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion by Ron Hansen.

It's touted as a novel but it's based on a true story, so much so that many reviewers said that there was nothing about the book that made it fiction.

What I'm finding is that it reads like an investigative report. There's no filling, no padding. "Just the facts, ma'am." But it's interesting so far.

[sgresident]

I am reading "the litigators" by John Grisham. I used to read his books, then I got turned off by them and thought I would try again. I cannot get into it at all.

[Red On The Noodle]

Originally Posted by C2ShiningC

I also read "The Year of Wonders: a Novel of the Plague" by Geraldine Brooks, which completely immersed me in 1600s England. She is such a wonderful writer, and her stories are so well-researched - I have really liked all of her books to date. It is a pretty grim, depressing story, but then it is about the plague.

I liked this one also. A very good read. Thanks for reminding me of the title -- I need to read it again.

[The Time Baroness]

I have now started two books, "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, and "The Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon, both of which I found through this thread. I've started Outlander first and am already enjoying it. [/quote]

First, let me start by saying "slight spoiler alert" for Outlander. I loved it at first, but it gets very, very disturbing later on. That's all I'm going to say, but it did ultimately turn me off of that book.

I'm now reading The World According to Garp by John Irving. Can you believe I've never read it? I've read most of his other books. Some, like A Prayer For Owen Meany, are among my favorite books of all time. Others I didn't love so much. So far, I like this one but parts of it seem familiar to me. I'm sure I haven't read it...maybe I saw the movie once.

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by The Time Baroness

I'm now reading The World According to Garp by John Irving. Can you believe I've never read it? I've read most of his other books. Some, like A Prayer For Owen Meany, are among my favorite books of all time. Others I didn't love so much. So far, I like this one but parts of it seem familiar to me. I'm sure I haven't read it...maybe I saw the movie once.

His new book In One Person is coming out in May 2012. I got the advance reader's copy and couldn't get past page 10. Just a warning to read a bit of it before biting the bullet and bringing it home.

[Soda120]

On my second day of reading One Day I Saw a Black King. It is a beautiful, yet realistic, book so far. It transported me to wherever the characters were. Threatened to bring a tear to my eye, too.

The author is J.D. Mason. She also wrote And On the Eighth Day She Rested. Want to read that, too.

After completing One Day I Saw a Black King, I want to finish Hard Times (author: Charles Dickens).

[PinkString]

Finished "Silver Bells" a little over one day. Was a good fast read.

Started "Darkness" by Sam Siciliano. Set in 1899. Someone or something is killing people, draining all of their blood...oooh, I hope it gets really interesting and fast.

[netwit]

A little more than a week ago I also finished Hex, by Allen Steele, part of his Coyote series. I originally discovered the first Coyote book at a used book sale. It then languished on my bookshelf for another year or two before I read it, and I was just blown away by it. So since then, I've religiously read his other Coyote books.

Hex isn't a bad book but it didn't measure up to the first or even the second and third in the Coyote series. What I loved about the first book was how thoroughly he imagined this new world of Coyote, and the interplay of characters. His characters were so well imagined that you loved them all - each character had his good and bad points.

Hex lacks that level of characterization. I feel for the writer of a book as good as Coyote in trying to write another book that will stand on that level, but at the same time when I read Hex, there's this niggling, uncomfortable feeling that it was churned out simply to add another book to the series, rather than the writer really having a story he cares about and is prepared to work at no matter how many roadblocks the characters throw up in an attempt to avoid the writer's intentions.

I finished Midsummer Night by Freda Warrington, and even though it is fantasy, you can buy the characters and their motivations. Warrington is an old-fashioned story-teller in the British tradition and I didn't want to move from the couch until I'd finished the book.

Then, because Midsummer Night was so good, and in an effort to prolong the agony of anticipation of what I hope will be really good books, I read Ann Rule's Don't Look Behind You.

Unless my memory is failing me, it seems to me that her earlier books were more interesting. This one was nothing exceptional in terms of the way she tells the stories and the writing. It didn't require any level of concentration. I had no problem putting the book down.

I had also recently read my very first book by Orson Scott Card. I can't find the book at the moment, and so can't remember the title, other than that I thought it was quite good. He really did an amazing job of getting into a kid's head.

So that led me to picking up Ender's Game. It's been around for a few years and I'm not sure why I've never read it before. I've only just started it, but it seems to hold the same promise of being really good at getting into a kid's head.