What book are you reading just now, why are you reading it and are you enjoying it?

[imaynotbeperfectbutimokmummy]

I am reading the life of pi by Yann Martel.

I am reading it because i bought it from the charity shop a while back, it sat around for a bit and i had just finished a huge tome about India. I also am trying to "read better".

I am enjoying it, its very entertaining, although it hasn't really challenged my beliefs in any way.

Am loving Pi's exclamation of "Jesus, Mary, Mohhamed and Vishnu" - I think it pays to cover all bases

I am reading " things i want my daughters to know" by Elizabeth Noble.
I had a recent cancer scare that went on for a few months, and although the book could be seen as a bit "cheesy"... it's had me in tears. (of laughter and sadness).

im reading "the well of lost plots" by jasper fforde, cos ive just read the first two and i need to know what happens next!

im loving it. very funny. makes me smile on the train!

chegirl welcome back to the world of reading! And oh yes, miserylit, huurrrlll! Have you read Wild Swans? Sort of auto/biog but if you like Maya Angelou...

You can get most libraries to order books in for you (whoever said their library didn't stock The Female Eunich). Only costs 55p for adult books, free for kid books, bargain if you ask me!! I recently ordered in Tom Sawyer for DS1.

There are a lot of survivors of Abuse books out there, aren't there? Quite grim, mostly I can't stomach them. I managed Runaway by Skye Sinclair, though, that's a cracking good read although it's veracity has been widely questioned.

Just finished Deaf Sentence by David Lodge. Bit of a return to form after a few disappointing books from him, imho. Very poignant.

Mainly read it out of curiousity as I was a huge fan in my teens (then met him, which put me off for a while ).

Next book is the Boy in Striped Pyjamas.

CheGirl Seeing whole sections of MisLit just depresses me. I understand they may have been cathartic to write, but unless the reader has been abused themselves what could they relate to? Seems a bit voyeristic to me, but this comes from someone who has to turn over when the NSPCC ads come on...

Janeite I read another 200 ish pages of TH@R last night & I kept thinking any minute now the plot will grip me properly but it just wasn't happening! Kept linking it to scenes in Atonement too, from the film tho, haven't read the book..

Ikwym about Pillars, it seems he had improved a lot by WWE. Although with both of them quite a few times the plot was so predictable that I just flicked forward to what I knew the outcome would be

Not sure whether I'll persevere with TH&R. On my To Read Next Pile are 'Restoration' by Rose Tremain (as I really liked Music&Silence), 'Our Mutual Friend' (a Dickens I haven't read) & 'Arabella' by Georgette Heyer (Someone said if I loved Austen then I'd enjoy Heyer's books)

Hmm, what to pick ?

I've just finished Scotsboro: a novel

It's brilliant. It's all about the Scotsboro trials in Alabama in 1930's told mostly from the point of view of a journalist who gets to know one of the women accusing nine black boys of gang rape.

It depicts the power of the mob, how being black means doomed and poor white also means doomed in that era + region.

It makes you think a lot about society and how it happens that people can be so easily pitted against each other with true hate. It will make you feel great anger and hope without sentimentality

It's un-put-downable. I can highly recommend it.

Agree with you there Winky I thought it was a brilliantly written novel.

Mrs Danvers. I liked 'Restoration' a lot though I must admit I can now remember nothing at all about it.

I read my first Heyer this year (in case you haven't guessed, I am a huge Austen boffin!) and really enjoyed it - it's basically a mix between Austen and Jilly Cooper. I keep trying to find more in the library but they've never got any in.

what does mislit mean?

I'm reading 'Contagious: Cultures, Carriers and the Outbreak Narrative' by Priscilla Wald and 'Intersex (for lack of a better word)' by Thea Hillman. Both for my MA, enjoying them very much.

Socttsboro.
its ok

afetr the shiteola that was " home" its a blessed relief.

have just ordered 6 to take on hol

cyteen, what is Intersex about? I think there is a novel of the same name by Jeffrey someone?

Am currently reading Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm, have owned it plus the previous one Age of Revolution for years, literally, (bought 2nd hand when I was a student I think) and tried to read them several times, but for some random reason I zipped through the first one after turning them up when we moved, and am really enjoying the 2nd right now. Interesting background to the current economic situation & parallels with China/Asia today I guess.

Unfortunately Pembs library system has those two but not the next one so will have to shell out unless I can find a 2nd hand copy

The novel is Middlesex, and very good it is too Intersex is a collection of little vignettes about the author's experience of being intersex - she's a gay woman with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. I'm writing about Middlesex as part of my dissertation so thought this would be an interesting read.

How lovely to have such a long list (mostly) of recommendations. I'm reading Miss Pettigrew lives for a day, because DH bought it for me for our anniversary. It's a hoot - uptight spinister governess meets "caberet artiste" and learns to let go a bit. Very easy read.

what is mislit

Miss Pettigrew is lovely.

mislit = misery literature

''I avoid anything with illness in it, and anything bad happening to children, i don't find that entertaining to read. ''

What you said above practically sums up MisLit maynotbeperfect. You can't miss them as they usually have forlorn looking children on the cover and emotive titles...

I'm trying to imagine a Jilly Cooper/Jane Austen hybrid Janeite, never read JC...is she a bit similar to Jackie Collins?

Never read Jackie Collins, so can't compare. Only read Cooper as a teenager - tis all Scottish blokes called Rory and girls called Ffffffion, if I remember correctly. And parties in castles.

Re-reading May Contain Nuts and it's making me laugh (perhaps not in a good way) because it's so true to life round here.

Maybe not then, as Collins' ones are mainly L.A shag fests with heroines called things like 'Lucky' if memory serves!

I'm reading 'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman, because I love him and it is a good (easy!) read.

I am reading Paul Theroux's railway travel books as we cannot go away on holiday. So far I have 'been' from London to Istanbul, Boston to Patagonia and all round Britain.

gentle otter that sounds really great. I have always wanted to travel around europe etc by train. I did go from ashford to switzerlnd by train allthough it was for work not really a holiday, i loved it.

The frustration for me is that my lovely dad used to work on the railway. This entitled his family to cheap and a certain amount of free travel. At the time, the ferries were run by sea link which was a subsidiary of british rail. I literally could have travelled around europe for free - but i didn't. That goes down in my list of regrets

might have to take a look at those books