What are you reading now, beginning of 2012?

[posey]

I am reading Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending. Loving it.
Also Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I have never read them before but am in the process of reading them to/with ds and thoroughly enjoying them.
Have got so many books piled up to read it is really quite exciting!

NoWayNoHow that is exactly how I felt...confused at "he" all the time. I also think it would be better read in longer sittings. I was tending to only be able to read a bit at a time, so never really got my teeth into it. One day, I may try again. Thanks for the tip

I'm reading 1222
which is a murder mystery
it's quite good but hasn't really gripped me yet. I can read a bit one day and then not read it for a couple of days.
Just finished The Hunger Games which I thought were very good, but wasn't sure about the ending. They are all Kindle books.

Finished Dance With Dragons - phew

Now reading Bob Mould (Husker Du frontman)'s autobiography. Much easier going!

I have to read 'Dorian Gray' and 'Northanger Abbey' for class.....I want to kill myself at the thought.....

Tilly...

...I don't know what others would think of The Night Circus but I thought it was interesting. It is one of those books that I thought had elements of being really special in some of its plot ideas like The Time Traveller's Wife or 100 Years of Solitude. But for some reason, it didn't quite make it to that level of brilliance (too similar to other Victoriana/magic stories I have read?) but I did find it enjoyable. And others might disagree with me and find it amazing/crap.

nursenic - it could be worse . My idea of hell would be having to read & study Dickens novels - I loathe them with a passion. Sorry Dickens fans!

Duchess Thankyou for giving me a little perspective. Yes, it could be worse. I will never again have to read Virginia Wolf's 'The Waves'!

I read something by Hilary Mantel a couple of years so. I thought it was a complete waste of time, pointless book, not even well written. Could someone tell me why people like her? Perhaps I'm missing something, but I do know a couple of other literary types in rl who don't rate her either.

Jux not read anything of her's except Wolf Hall, so can't comment on her other stuff, but I can genuinely say that it was one of the best books I've ever read. Completely engaging, fantastic story that she brought entirely to life with her interpretation of Thomas Cromwell's character. I absolutely loved it.

nursenic I've never read Dorian Gray, so can't comment, but Northanger Abbey is great - give it a chance!

Read Death comes to Pemberley at Xmas and thought it was an easy read - bit daft but quite enjoyed being back with Austen characters - seems I'm in a minority of one! Loved Wolf Hall but read it on hols and think you need time to get into it. Currently reading Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - bought by my best friend for me for xmas. It's a story about the plague... so am hoping it cheers up but can't see how! Don't usually do sad stories...but it is well written so far if a bit bleak.
Best books of last year The Room and The Help - thanks to book club :)

Terpsichore Wolf Hall (also can't can't wait for next one, it is going to be a trology apparently) and The Children's Book have been two of my absolutely favourite reads recently. What else have you liked? Any recommendations? Have you ever read This Thing of Darkness - saw it recommended on here once. It's about Darwin's voyage on the Beagle to South America, but really more about the ship's capitain and his relationship with Darwin. Great book IMO!

For those with Wolf Hall on their book pile, I'd like to second NoWayNoHow's recommendation - one of the best books I've read for a very long time. I agree with Carrie - give yourself time to get into it, and if you can sit and read it in big chunks not little bits or you might lose the thread!
Can't wait for the next part to come out.

What did people think of the Finkler Question - I've just finished it, personally I found the central characters rather irritating and the whole thing very self absorbed, with too many contrived, pseudo-intellectual, not very funny jokes.
Maybe that was the point and I missed it!

Just started reading A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French. The book I read before this one was Room by Emma Donoghue, which I thought was brilliant!

I read Finkler last year and was unimpressed. Not dreadful, but I have read many much better books in the past year. It was the first Howard Jacobsen I had read, and I really didn't see why it won the Booker. Certainly didn't make me laugh out loud once. Maybe you have to be male/Jewish/living in north London/working for the BBC to find him funny? Though oddly I saw him talk at the Hay Festival (I read the book just before that, but after booking tickets), and in person he really was funny. Though I did bristle at his description of himself as 'the male Jane Austen'.

Wolf Hall has been lurking by my bed for more than a year now. I've read some of Hilary Mantel before and really liked it, but I'm not a historical fiction fan. Can you promise me I'll really like it? Maybe I'll move it to the top of the pile, where it can hide the two volumes of IQ84 for a while.

Storyteller - the Roald Dahl biography. It's very good.

I've just begun Philip Roth's Nemesis.
Just finished The Provincial Lady in London.

A Greater Love - Olga Watkins. About love in WW2 - tis rather good.

I've read Wolf Hall - which I loved - wanted it to keep going forever, and The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry - which is very sad.

I thought I'd be put off by the present tense in Wolf Hall, which generally I hate - it's very modish at the moment and I suspect a lot of younger writers use it because they think (wrongly, in my view) that it makes things seem immediate and exciting. BUT I have to admit it didn't bother me at all because the writing is so good.

I am a history graduate who usually steers well clear of 'historical fiction' - but honestly, it was gripping. I think you do need to be sure of having time to concentrate on it, though; it's not really a 'dipping in' sort of book.

SkiBumMum, I'm just about to start that Roald Dahl biog!

Just finished a book with Rachel DuPree in the title and devoured the Dickens biog b Tomalin but am bewitched currently by Pigeon English - a wonderful central character.

I've just finished The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and it was superb.
I am now reading something by Nina Bawden. I only knew of her as a writer for children, but I am really enjoying it. It's called Time for a Change, I think.

I'm Kindle reading "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas. After missing the televised version before Christmas and hearing how gripping it was I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about.

Pretty good but I think it probably works better on screen (or maybe I just have a short-attention span/get interrupted too much!). I seem to find all of the characters annoying so far... hmm.

MandyT68

The Personal History Of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber

I loved this book too.

dubaibaby, I read that last year but I didn't see it on TV. I quite enjoyed the book.

I'm reading "The book of Spies" by Gayle Lynds. It's a bit like The Da Vinci code if anyone likes that kind of thing.