What are you reading now and next?

[LaSoiDisantDame]

P;ease indulge my nosiness

haven't seen one of these threads for a while, & love scanning them for future reads.

I am reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Dickens) & One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest(Ken Kesey) Find msyelf swapping these two around according to my concentration levels but enjoying them both in different ways

On my To Read Next Pile is Revelation (C.J Samson -loved the first three), A Prayer for Owen Meany and This Thing of Darkness (Harry Thompson)

But I know when I;ve read two of those I will panic & need new ideas. Help!

Thanks to Janeite's 'championing' This Thing of Darkness on several threads I am finally reading and enjoying it enormously. I shall probably read the (non-fiction) Agent ZigZag next or a thriller (always good to read in a warm bed or bath on a cold dark winter's day.)

And here she is...the human bad penny.....

Nooooooooooooo - the last one is great - weird....but great....and rather lovely....and very sad. Please read it.

Insomnia is good too.

Hungry Hill is annoying me - old Daphne seriously needed lessons in the use of semi-colons: and she layers on the foreshadowing with a huge, dirty shovel.

I'm reading a book about Kirsty MacColl by her mum - two thirds a mix of bio/memoir and one third about the campaign after her death to get justice - she was killed by a speedboat which shouldn't have been there, and which was owned and quite likely driven by a very rich powerful man, so it seems likely that a lot was hushed up.

It's far from objective for obvious reasons and sometimes a bit repetitive but definitely worth a read.

Not sure what next, I have a lot of library books out. Perhaps the new Anne Tyler or the new Margaret Atwood, as I might not be able to renew those otherwise - I already had to return one copy of Noah's Compass (the Tyler) and place another reservation with a different library (they're free where my dp works and his office is in the central library building).

Can't get into anything at the moment.

My f is recommending 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' like crazy. Anyone read that?

nsf I haven't read it but it got the thumbs from teddymummy further up the thread!

that would be 'thumbs up' then

I've just read Larklight out loud to DS. Fantastic!

I'm reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. It's great!

Now: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Next: Mrs Tim of the Regiment (MN book club book)

LaSoi, may I second the friend who suggested 'A Place of Greater Safety'. An excellent book!

Have just read Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite
Want to read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters next

I have just finished 'The Brutal Art' by Jesse Kellerman, which was an enjoyable easy reading thriller, and am just starting 'Blindness' by Jose Saramago, which looks very interesting. Both are MN recommendations, which is where I seem to be getting most of my reading material from nowadays!

J - Loved Half a Yellow Sun - moving story with great characters and tells you a little about Nigeria.

Tiger - I thought A Quiet Belief in Angels was okay, but it didn't half go on towards the end and I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.

I absoloutely hated (loathed actually) 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' but dp loved it.

Have finished 'Hungry Hill', which was okay - and am not at all taken by the Edith Wharton one; so may start 'Half Of A Yellow Sun' tonight. If it is intellectual or depressing though, I really don't feel up to it.

Never heard of 'Blindness' - what's it about?

Teameric > What do you think of Poppy Z Brite, I never got along with her stuff

LoveTheCarbs > Blindness is great, if you enjoy it I suggest you try Seeing as well.

Janeite > It's about people randomly going blind and it being contagious and the aftermath. It's a really interesting read, though strangely written.

Gosh - that sounds interesting - and terrifying. Will google.

There's a film of it too, which isn't too bad, though it loses the scary terrifying atmosphere of the book. (Admittedly my biggest fear is going blind, due to an idiot optician when I was 9)

Just finished the latest Dick Francis, have just started Persuesion by Jane Austin and will probably read a Tess Garritson book recommended by DH next.

Lucky you - Persuasion is one of Austen's finest (though they are, of course, all fab!) - I envy you.

just reading the other hand by chris cleve - v good and have jsut read the stieg larson trilogy which i loved - great thread for inspiration !!

pipsqueak a friend of mine lent me The Other Hand by Chris Cleave and I struggled through it.

Gave it back to her and she asked what I thought. Trying to be polite I said "er, it was ok - not great IMO" to which she replied "that's exactly what I thought!"

I was at her having recommended a book that she didn't think was FAB!!

foosa
I just read American Wife, and I really enjoyed it. Had to consciously make myself believe it was fiction though.

Kushiel's Dart followed by mystery book from Janeite Both are book swap ones.

Really enjoying KD - nice bit of fantasy and sex, what more could you want?

I re-read Arcadia (Tom Stoppard)before that, and have Alias Grace & something about a knife dancer as my handbag and bathroom books....

I finished reading the Kirsty MacColl book - very interesting - the writing is a bit uneven. Jean MacColl or as she's better known Jean Newlove sounds like an amazing woman herself, she's written this book in her 80s and seems to have carried on working in theatre and dance well into her 70s.

I've raced through the Anne Tyler quite quickly despite spending a lot of the last few days with two sick children, it's a good read yet with more depth and as usual with her books I want to read the books I haven't read yet (two of her three previous ones I think - Digging to America and Back When We Were Grown Up) - and reread the others, most of which I read about 20 years ago.

Flame, I think Alias Grace is the only Atwood novel I haven't read in print, I listened to an audio from the library but felt I need to read it properly myself, though again I'd like to reread her earlier books as it was a long time ago. The bits I remember of Alias Grace made it sound very interesting. I have her newest novel watiting for me at the library - dp will probably pick it up on Tuesday, so I'll need to read that soon as I expect others will have reserved it and be waiting for it.

Flame - the good news is that dd1 finished it tonight, so it's here waiting to be packaged up. Do you want me to send you another Austen too?