What is everyone reading?

[MrsSpoon]

Just nosey and looking for recommendations or titles to avoid.

I am currently reading the new Kate Atkinson, the name of which escapes me. It is fantastic thought nothing could live up to Case Histories but this is just as good.

3rd Chapter of Life and Time of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson. Is laugh out loud!

LAst orders at Harrids, really enjoying the black humour

I've just started the Bill Bryson one today. Looks good so far.

just finished angels crest by lesley schwartz is compared to the lovely bones on the cover but thought it was much better very moving

just finished salmon fishing in the yemen! A richard and Judy one - very different to what I'd normally go for, but it jumped off the shelf to me, and I did enjoy it (dh looked oddly when I produced it from bag though!)

Currently reading The Pearl by John Steinbeck, which is beautiful (and quite short which is another bonus). And before that I read Chart Throb by Ben Elton - vital to read this before X Factor starts again if you haven't already...
Just scanned thread and I second the recommendations of Barbara Kingsolver and The God of Small Things.
I started Cloud Atlas in January 2006 and still haven't finished it.

Tigi, I just read that too. I struggled a bit at first, but loved the ending. Brilliant!

Hi All, new to the site - kind of, so just wanted to say hi! I have a DS who's 2 and 1/2 and am pregnant due Jan 2008.
If you haven't read them I highly reccommend the Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Brilliant!! (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass). His other books are pretty gripping too.
HotCrossBunny - the author you were looking for is Adriana Trigani - briliant books, 'nice' easy reading books ;)
Enjoy!
deb

Hi I'm new to the book club but this afternoon I've just finished reading Therese Raquin by Emile Zola - please do not read it if your looking for a book to cheer you up because there's not really one happy moment in it but I found in really good and it only took me a week to read which is the quickest I've read a book recently. The other book I'm reading is One Unknown by Gill Hicks (Survivor of the London Bombings) I think I cry everytime I read it sometimes because its very moving and other times because its funny. IMO Gill Hicks is a truly inspirational and amazing lady and has written an excellent book

I got this set of classic travel writing things from The Book People for dh and have started on them myself. All little pocket volumes (not very challenging) but lots of food for thought.

That Herodotus did enjoy a good yarn.

'Therese Raquin by Emile Zola - please do not read it if your looking for a book to cheer you up'

morgansauntie. That's an understatement and a half!

I am currently avoiding Coetzee's 'Disgrace' (I have been avoiding it for about two months now).

oh - avoiding - I'm avoiding The Cryptographer- concept just too jolly high (& execution not all the way up to it)

What about sneaky stolen reads? I have nicked Carbonel & Kingdom of Carbonel (while dd was asleep) & had lovely time. Am planning to do same with her entire Twins at St. Clare's boxful.

NO, DSs not old enough for that to be a real option yet. Noddy and his car isn't tempting me at all. I am waiting until they're older so that I will finally have an excuse to read Harry Potter and see what all the blooming fuss has been about. I will also be foisting The Dark is Rising onto them. And, in the interests of resetting the gender boundaries, I might introduce them to Ballet Shoes and the Chalet School books.

That Joshus Ferris book - is it the one set in an office?

Yes and it's glorious, really it is. Some bits will appeal more to some people than others, so it's maybe not consistently genius, but really I am dreadfully hard to impress and it did me.

Re HP - ds (8) finally picked one up last month (& is now upstairs finishing vol. 5). It means I get to be Snape when sending them to bed.

Now reading The Book Thief, just started and very intriguing.

The Redbreast - by some Norwegian whose name escapes me atm. My DB lent it to me. OK so far.

I'm reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter & although I've read some terrible reviews, for the moment I'm completely hooked. The writing's good.

Not fiction, but am reading The Perfect Summer by Julie Nicolson which is a social history of the summer of 1911 and covers all areas of society from debutantes to the women on strike at an East End jam factory.

Sauce The Memory Keeper's Daughter is the next book on my list after I have finished the book by Gill Hicks. I'm really glad to hear your enjoying it because I have read mixed reviews as well.

Policywonk your right my comment on Therese Raquin was an understatement and it was a strange choice for someone with clinical depression but I found it really absorbing rather than depressing and since reading it my passion for reading has returned. I will definitely try another Zola book

I know Therese Raquin should have accents but I'm not sure how to do them and I was reading an English translation - my French isn't that good!

Currently reading Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". Am almost finished and will probably move on to either "the Book of lost things" or "Gods behaving badly"

I've read some excellent books this year. The Kite Runner, Suite Française, Digging for America (I'd forgotten how good Anne Tyler is), Love Falls, Shantaram...

I'm reading Black Swan Green by the Cloud Atlas guy, David Mitchell. Would recommend it.

Really enjoyed the Memory Keeper's Daughter, by the way. Plot had a couple of gaping holes in it, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and I got through it very quickly, whereas it normally takes me about a month to read a novel these days.