What Are You Reading? Feb 07

[suedonim]

So what are you reading, to start the new month? I'm reading 'Notes On A Scandal' by Zoe Heller. I found it hard to get into but am doing a bit better now. It won't be on my list of all time faves unless something amazing happens, though!

usauk mum - have you read 'wicked'?? What is it like? I have it on my pile to read - would love your input.

I'm moving between 'Baudolino' (Umberto Eco - good for showing off on the train) and 'Firewall' (Henning Mankell - Swedish thriller - good for nail biting in the privacy of my own home). Both are great!

Cellophane by Marie Arana - not enjoying it, very similar to 100yrs of Solitude which I also didn't like. Kooky families in the Amazon obviously don't float my boat. Will give it until the weekend before giving up.

Just about to start Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (Christmas present). Also have a copy of Arthur and George sitting by my bed (also Christmas present), but don't really fancy it somehow. Finished The Lovely Bones last week - loved that one.

Just finished The Memory Stones by Kate o'Riordan which was a really nice read and am just starting The Good Earth by Pearl Buck.

I am reading Light on Snow by Anita Shreve which I am enjoying.

Glad to hear good things about Wicked, I just got it for my birthday.

"Jane Eyre". I'm re-reading it, coz I've just read "Rebecca" and "Wide Sargasso Sea", and thought I would do a bit of, well, you know, linking....Aksherly, coming back to it as a 40 year old, rather than a teenager, I think "JE" is a load of overwritten twaddle, but DH points out that it is all to do with the Victorian sublimation of sex (notwithstanding the fact that Charlotte B.never had any). Mr R's marmoreal temples and glinting eyes are getting a bit much for me.

Reread Mansfield Park yesterday as had to sit on the sofa most of the day with ill child's head in my lap. Am reading nothing but stuff about the hundred years' war for the next two weeks however as my OU course has started in earnest. Have got enormous pile of stuff to wade through and am panicking a leetle.

I'm reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and I am loving it. Fabulous.

Struggling to get into Madame Bovary. I know I should be loving it but... Felt I should read something classic to counteract all the rubbish I'm drawn to!
Just finished The Island which I really enjoyed (don't think I was supposed to like it)

'Notes on a scandal' is such a nothing book.

QApart from MSc course work am about to start 'The Farm'.Factual account of family forced to sell up after 200 years.
Farm turned into trendy housing natch.

I am reading Love and Other Impossible Pursuits which is much less chick-lity than it appears fortunately. I also have Notes on a Scandal, This Book will Save your Life and The Good Life. All going in my hospital bag!

I didn't like notes on a scandal, but I will go and see the film out of interest. i always like to see the film after I've read a book, it's always disappointing, but I feel the need to do it anyway.

I loved Poisonwood Bible too.

A friend recommended Robert B Parker books to me. I thought they wouldn't be my thing at all ( American Detective) but I'm addicted.

I went to the library today and oredered 5 more for next week.
Anyone else read them?

Tory Hayden - Beautiful child, Have read the other books also.....

I am currently reading Running with Scissors, not really enjoying it.

TBH, don't know if it's me or the books but I've not enjoyed the last few books I've read.

I'm obviously a weakling going to bed way before you lot

I really liked Wicked. I read it about, 6 yrs ago (?) bought on a trip to CA. I really enjoy authors that put a spin on tradditional fairytales. It made me think, "oh, yeah it could be that way" Just reinforces the concept that everything is different depending on your point of view. I've read "Confessions" as well -- but don't remember it as clearly as Wicked.

Noticed that Mirror is set in Italy, so will be giving it another go soon. Now that my brain is killed dead by working so hard I might get into it.

um, Marina: have decided Ings not quite up there with Mitchell because Ings is a bit ill-judged in the sex bits. (Mitchell doesn't really do sex bits, does he? Or if he does - think there may be some in Number 9 Dream - it's because the script required it -)

dh says that this is because Ings has heretofore done science-fiction (which is of course notorious for ill-judged sex)

Have had flashbacks to the ludicrous sex scenes in various sci-fi classics I have read over the years bink

is it worse in (a) science fiction (b) fantasy? Discuss, with reasons for your view.

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I quite liked Notes on a Scandal, but I did find it very sad - all the stuff about the loneliness of having no family and getting old. A friend of mine thought it hilarious though. Have recently read Vikram Seth's "Two Lives" which was really good though made me weep uncontrollably at several points. (I should point out that I am pregnant and therefore extra susceptible). I loved Julian Barnes' "Arthur and George". It's one of those books that's very hard to put down.
If you want a bit of very easy reading, Elizabeth Peters series of novels about a lady egyptologist having adventures of derring-do in the 19th century are good fun. The 1st one is "Crocodile on the Sandbank".
Has anyone read any Arturo Perez-Reverte? The "Seville Communion" is brilliant - sort of thriller mystery but with a handsome Catholic priest as protagonist - very sexy!

I love Tristram Shandy. It does need a particular sort of reading rhythm, though - you have to bounce through it - going with the digressions - filling in the voids - seeing what's not being said -

Some people find it deadly; probably the same people who don't like Moby Dick.

Does that help?

What do you all think I should arm myself with for upcoming jury service?