What book are you currently reading?

[MIbarra]

I am reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Interesting so far.

[kitkatz]

Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Confessor by Terry Goodkind

[paris]

Audition by Barbara Walters.   Interesting, a little slow but I keep reading. 

[BigSteve]

Just fininshed a great political mystery, "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith. It's set in the last years of the
Stalin regime in the Soviet Union. It's violent at times, but it really gives you an idea of the mind-set
of the times.

[kristina]

Just finished a great political mystery, "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith. It's set in the last years of the
Stalin regime in the Soviet Union. It's violent at times, but it really gives you an idea of the mind-set
of the times.

That sounds very interesting and reminds me of a real Soviet-mystery I tried to figure out many years ago:
I came across the poetry of a Soviet literary critic Yuli Daniel, who also was a well known translator.
In February 1966 Yuli Daniel and his friend Andrey Sinyavsky were sentenced to forced labour at a trial in Moscow
where access to the courtroom was "severely restricted". Although the trial  supposedly took place behind closed doors, with neither the public nor foreigners allowed in, only questionable fragmentary evidence ever reached the outside world,
but strangely enough, a verbatim record of the trial did leak out.
I happened upon Yuli Daniels poetry quite by chance and was taken by its poignancy immediately. He had composed it whilst in prison awaiting trial.
What I read about the trial, I felt was staged. Something felt not quite right.
The defendants appeared overly confident, in what surely must have been a very worrying situation. According to reports
mysteriously published in the West the defendants showed a boldness in their defence such that their replies occasionally bordered on jest and even insult.
This attitude I failed to comprehend as it must have been quite clear to them that their lives were hanging in the balance, as was the security
and welfare of their families. Like a play, the documents of the trial included moments of farce and drama. Both Yuli Daniel and Sinyavsky maligned
the work of Pushkin, Mayakowsky and Shakespeare and with regard to Pushkin that was surely tantamount to blasphemy in a Russian-Soviet law court.
I began to feel unconvinced that the trial was properly conducted, which led me to wonder if the trial really existed at all.
After I had read the trial's transcript, I was left with a distinct feeling of discomfort.
This reported case aroused a storm of protest in the West and many Western intellectuals like Pablo Neruda, Sartre and many others
signed petitions to support Yuli Daniel and Andrey Sinyavsky.
I am still wondering whether this was a "political media-spoof" going out of hand and whether Yuli Daniel and Andrey Sinyavsky really existed or not?
I still don't know the answers to this mystery.

[Jill D.]

This weekend I read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" , which was written by the same author as "The Kite Runner". Excellent book - I highly recommend it. It's a heartbreakingly beautiful story; the author is a wonderful storyteller.
 

I am currently reading "Bringing Down the House" - it's about a group of MIT students that beat the odds in Vegas playing blackjack.

[paris]

Jill, I loved both Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.   Both wonderful and taught me more about that area.   

[jbeany]

"A Secret Garden" and "Stuart Little".  I was in the mood for some classic kids stuff.

[David13]

 

[okarol]

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz (Odd Thomas is featured in this book, maybe 5th in a series...?
My favorite character to come along in ages!)

[kitkatz]

I have picked up Hells Aquarium- part of the Meg Series.

Maria and I went to two bookstores while I was in milwaukee. I mailed home two boxes of books! Large flat rate boxes. Around 20 books.  Yes I am spoiled!

[marti824]

The Godfather Returns - by Mark Winegardner

very interesting so far, nothing like the movie sequel. Almost as good as he original.

[Rerun]

After Long Silence (a memoir) by Helen Fremont
True story
These sisters grew up Catholic but always felt odd.  Never had Grandparents or relatives only one aunt who lived in Italy.  They started finding clues that their parents were in a Jewish concentration camp in Poland during WWII and came to the United States to start a new life and leave the old one behind.... far behind.

[YLGuy]

I just re-read Half Blood Prince as the movie comes out on Wednesday.  It was so good I re-read Deathly Hallows and now am re-reading The Order of the Phoenix.

[Wallyz]

The man who loved China, by Simon Winchester

[paris]

The Priest.  Also about concentration camps and the Jews trying to connect their lineage from present day to before Christ.  It is part mystery part history.  Very good so far.  I think I will read Rerun's suggestion next. 

[cariad]

Our Mutual Friend - love Charles Dickens!

Also, my Spanish tutor is helping me read short stories in Spanish by famous authors. We are reading "Vultures without Feathers" by Peruvian author Julio Ramon Ribeyro. It is beyond heartbreaking.

I have been on a quest for about 10 years to read at least one work (preferrably the most famous one) by each Nobel laureate in literature. I do not like to read poetry in translation, so I told my Spanish tutor that I have avoided Octavio Paz so far. She recommended his book "Labyrinth of Solitude" saying it was a masterwork on the history and culture of Mexico, and that I would also get a feel for his poetry from it. I think once I finish Dickens, I will check that one out next.

[mcjane]

Haunted Idol

Biography of Cary Grant

[monrein]

Front Yard Gardens

[kitkatz]

Hell's Aquarium

[MandaMe1986]

Last two days I have read two books.

James Patterson : The 8th Confession

and

Luanne Rice : The Geometry of Sisters

[BigSteve]

Kit: I know you like science-fiction so maybe you would like the book I just finished. The title is
"The City and The City" by China Mieville. It's a combination of sci-fi and detective fiction. I
throughly enjoyed it.

[kitkatz]

I will look for it. 

I am currently reading Christine Feehan's Mind Game about her Ghostwalkers.

[jbeany]

I will look for it. 

I am currently reading Christine Feehan's Mind Game about her Ghostwalkers.

Steamy stuff, kit!

I'm in he middle of "The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" and it's absolutely hysterical.    Here's an excerpt. . .

"We all read, with dismay, the sad story of a good woman wronged in south Mississippi who took that option and made a complete mess of the entire thing.  See, first she shot him.  Well, she saw right off the bat that that was a mistake because then she had this enormous dead body to deal with.  He was every bit as much trouble to her dead as he had ever been alive, and he was getting more so all the time.  So then she made another snap decision to cut him up in pieces and dispose of him a hunk at a time.  More poor planning.  First she didn't have the proper carving utensils on hand and hacking him up proved to be just a major chore, plus it made just this colossal mess on her off-white shag living room carpet.  It's getting to be like the Cat in the Hat now, only Thing Two ain't showing up to help with the cleanup.  She finally gets him into portable-size portions, and wouldn't you know it?  Cheap trash bags.  Can anything else possible go wrong for this poor woman?  So the lesson here is obvious - for want of a small chain saw, a roll of Visqueen, and some genuine Hefty bags, she is in Parchman Penitentiary today instead of New Orleans, where she'd planned to go with her new boyfriend.  Preparation is everything.  However, if you have been particular, you shouldn't need to be prepared to this extreme.  Try to avoid getting involved with somebody who's gonna need killing before it's over.  It may seem to you that that narrows the field somewhat, but be diligent. "


Now there's the best dating advice I've ever heard!

[Rerun]

Funny Jbeany!  I may have to get that one!!!

I'm reading "The Great Influenza" by John M. Berry
It is about the flu of 1918 killing as many as 100 million people world wide.  It is interesting so far.