Browsing the library shelves

[fisssh]

aka: So ... read any good books lately?

Here's a place to share recent or recommended reads with each other.

I just read a prepub copy of The Sisters Mortland by Sally Beauman, which I found quite intriguing. The first part is the diary of an English girl who is having her portrait painted with her two sisters one summer. Slowly you begin to realize that something is not quite right with the girl. Twenty years later, the portrait is exhibited, bringing up memories of a tragedy that occurred that summer. Different people have different perspectives on what went wrong, and the portrait itself offers some insight. Even when all the facts are revealed, the truth remains elusive. A thought-provoking page-turner.

What have you all been reading?

[truehobbit]

What a great idea for a thread, fisssh!

And, oh, how I love the pic of Frodo reading you have in your sig!

That sounds like quite an interesting book!
I don't read a lot, really, because most new books either have the flavour of shallow mass-production or are too, hmmmh, how to describe it, 'problem oriented' - focusing on troubled characters, analysing problems, mainly of a kind I can't sympathise with, and all without offering solutions...well, I'm sure I'm not making much sense here, but the thing is that I rarely seem to find a book that's a good mix between "instruction and entertainment" - the way you describe The Sisters Mortland it might just be one - or at least that's what "thought-provoking page-turner" sounds like to me.

[Sassafras]

Um, to tell the truth, I haven't been reading anything unless it's on the internet these past few weeks.

I am waiting for George RR Martin's 'A Feast for Crows' to arrive in semi-breathless anticipation ... problem is it has taken him almost four years to write it and I've forgotten much of the convoluted plot that preceeded it in the other three volumes.

Other than that, I dip into a lot of Tolkien ... mostly for reference or to illustrate a point ... although I did reread the Lothlórien chapters for pleasure about a month ago ... and what a pleasure it was

[vison]

As usual I have about six books on the go. I can't sit and read for hours and hours as I could when I was younger, so every time I sit down I pick up something different.

I re-read an awful lot. It's hard to find "new" books I like, and being naturally quite lazy I find it's easier to just pick up an old one, I know I love them all.

One thing I do more of now is to read poetry, as we were discussing in another forum.

I used to take several current affairs magazines, having this conviction that a citizen ought to be well-informed, but my well-informed self didn't seem to have much effect on how the world is run, so I have let that slide. I read The Vancouver Sun from one end to the other every day and that is more or less it, except for a couple of blogs and websites I check now and again.

Right now: Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy. LOTR. Much Depends Upon Dinner, by Margaret Visser. A new-to-me biography of Alexander the Great. A Man of Property by John Galsworthy. Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope. Made in America by Bill Bryson.

I've read all these books many times before, except the biography of Alexander.

I'm about to start The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime.

[truehobbit]

Um, to tell the truth, I haven't been reading anything unless it's on the internet these past few weeks

Um, yes, very similar here! (Which somehow explains my vague response above, I guess. )

And, like vison, I'm always reading several books at once - which also means I hardly ever actually finish one!

I don't re-read a lot, though - there's so much I've not yet read and want to read, thinking about it sometimes drives me crazy.

So, recently, I have read a bit in LOTR and the Sil, to keep up with internet discussions, I usually read something on the train, and for the past months this something has always been a Terry Pratchett book (currently Mort), and for entertainment at home I'm reading "Quincunx" by Charles Palliser, which is really good, but also very long and partly could have done with a bit of cutting.
It's a mystery tale, set in 19th century London, the convoluted nature of the story is reminiscent of Dickens, it's quite lively in describing the way of life at the time. It's not a new book, I've read it before, ten years or so ago, in German, but last year a friend gave it to me in English for a present, so I started reading it again, as I had forgotten all about the plot anyway.

[Pearly Di]

And, oh, how I love the pic of Frodo reading you have in your sig!

So do I.

In fact, I have this very same poster in my bedroom. A friend from the US sent it to me, in October 2001, two months before the film came out ... the American Library Association produced these two gorgeous film posters, one of Fro-baby reading in his tree, the other of Arwen sitting with her book in an autumnal Rivendell, in her 'requiem' dress (you know, royal blue bodice and crimson sleeves ...)

Goodness, I can't remember the last piece of fiction I read. I have been a voracious reader all my life but I haven't been in a fiction phase for a long time ...

But people were discussing Dickens and Jane Austen in another thread, so I'll talk about them.

My favourite Dickens novel is Great Expectations. It's such a humane, grown-up novel. I reread it about a year ago.

Pride and Prejudice is a masterpiece. I read it in France this summer - it had been 20 years since I last read it - I thought it was total genius. Persuasion is also a fine work ... very touching.

Sassy, the Lothlórien chapters are my favourite in the whole of LOTR. (And your sig pic is so much my personal vision of Ossiriand, the land of the seven rivers, where the Green Elves dwell and sing in the trees in the summer ... ... it's a vision which haunts me.)

[SilverScribe]

I read voraciously, my biggest problem is the sheer volume of books I face every time I enter a book store these days. I mean walls and walls and WALLS of books, I don't know where to start . . . *sigh* and I just don't recognize most of the authors any more.

I just finished a very interesting book called "Dies the Fire" by S.M. Stirling, about what would happen to society if all our modern "power" suddenly stopped functioning, like electricity, combustion engines, gunpowder . . . it wasn't bad and the sequel "The Protector's War" is out in hardcover. I'll wait for the paperback though.

I'm also waiting for GRR Martin's A Feast for Crows to come out in paperback, I know the hardcover is out but I figure the time waiting for the paperback will give me opportunity to quickly re-read the first 3 . . .

I'm currently working on another Canadian Author by David Adams Richards called "Mercy Among the Children" that's set in the Maritimes among the very poor. It was slow going to start but it's turning out to be quite a good read . . .

Then, I think I'll give Anna Karenina a go, haven't read Tolstoy for a while . . .

:D:D

[Sassafras]

Di, I mean Pearl, my sig pic is of my beloved beech trees. Sadly there are no beeches in California. I miss the luminous green of my English childhood very much ... there used to be a great walk of beech trees in Buckingham Park and I spent endless hours basking in their green glory ... but that's for another forum.

On books ... I love Dickens. Not so much Austen <ducks> Although I fully expect that fault to be remedied if we have a group read

The Lothlórien chapter are my favourite too. Always have been. Galadriel has always awed and intrigued me. She seems so remote and yet so close all at the same time. Ah, the mysteries of Elves...

[Athrabeth]

It tends to be "feast or famine" for me when it comes to reading for personal pleasure. When I know I have a break from work coming up, I stockpile a selection of books to enjoy, and count the days until I can get at them.

This summer, I read The DaVinci Code as my "jellybean book" (one that's sweet and shiny and quickly gobbled up) and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, as my "chocolate truffle book" (one whose luciousness must be savoured more slowly). I also read The Pagan Christ as my "brain bending book".........you know, the type of scholarly work that reminds you of slogging through a Philosophy 301 course.

I have always tended to re-read books that I particularly like. This summer, it was Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.......the most charming account of how, in the 1950's, he and a friend set off to scale an 18 000 foot high mountain in Afghanistan after becoming enamored with climbing "mountains" in Wales. I love all of Newby's personal travel and adventure books, but this was the first one I ever read about 25 years ago while we were in, fittingly enough, Kashmir, India.

I already have my books waiting to be packed for our Mexican holiday next month: Le Carre's Constant Gardener, A Fine Balance, which I have wanted to read for a couple of years now, ever since listening to parts of it on CBC Radio, and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (I think Peter Jackson is going to be directing the film version in the next year or so). For my "re-read" (if I get through all those), it will be Forster's A Room With A View, which I dearly love.

........oh, and I just read "Treebeard" again this week.

[Frelga]

I mostly stick to escapist literature. I went through several Pratchetts and my last read was The Other Wind by Le Guin. Pride and Prejudice is waiting on the shelf.

[vison]

Athrabeth, I read "A Fine Balance" after hearing parts of it on CBC radio, too!

I loved that book. It's hard, though. I mean, it's a hard world and life and I loved every word of it. Mistry is a sw00nable writer. "Family Matters" is great, too.

[Athrabeth]

Athrabeth, I read "A Fine Balance" after hearing parts of it on CBC radio, too!

I loved that book. It's hard, though. I mean, it's a hard world and life and I loved every word of it. Mistry is a sw00nable writer. "Family Matters" is great, too.

Ooooooo.........I can hardly wait. I do so love "Between the Covers" on CBC, don't you? I've been introduced to many a good tale listening to that show.

The Kite Runner, which I mentioned in my earlier post, is by an Afghani writer. Novels that reveal the intimacies of another culture are wonderful things, because through them, I glimpse so many truths about the human condition. It's always a revelation to me how, at our centres, we are all so much the same.

BTW, have you read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy? It is set in modern Kerala, India. It was actually physically and emotionally painful for me to read certain parts of it, but she is a glorious writer with a stunning mastery of the English language. And thankfully, there are achingly beautiful and wickedly funny sections as well. I highly recommend it.

[Pearly Di]

BTW, have you read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy? It is set in modern Kerala, India. It was actually physically and emotionally painful for me to read certain parts of it, but she is a glorious writer with a stunning mastery of the English language. And thankfully, there are achingly beautiful and wickedly funny sections as well. I highly recommend it.

Oh goodness, that is an astonishing novel. So traumatic!!! Sheesh!!!! But Roy writes like an angel. Like. An. Angel.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Love story set during World War 1, flashing forward in time to the 1970s. Be warned, the war scenes are deeply harrowing to read ... I felt physically nauseous reading them, he describes the terror and claustrophobia of the trenches so well.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Heh, I loved this. This is set in the spring of 1666 and is based on a true event. As the deadly Plague laid waste to England that year (to be purged in the Great Fire of London) the villagers of Eyam in Derbyshire made a pact to isolate themselves in quarantine. (This is absolutely true, btw.) The novel is written from the perspective of 18 year old Anna Frith, a servant and young widow with two little boys, as she watches the terrifying disintegration of her community. The novel explores her complicated relationship with her master, the Rector Mompellion and his wife Elinor. Mompellion rallies the village to begin with but as the death toll rises, Anna's faith - and Mompellion's - starts to unravel at the edges ... It's a powerful, haunting novel, and very sexy to boot. Wonderfully written, with some very unexpected plot twists ... I couldn't put it down.

Girl with a Pearl Ear-ring by Tracy Chevalier. The movie version was very faithful.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd ... goodness, I LOVED this. Gorgeously written, and so life-affirming ...

I have on my list to read A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot, which was recommended very highly to me. I adored the film.

Frelga, there's nothing wrong with reading escapist literature! I often only fancy escapist stuff myself these days ...

Lots of George R.R. Martin fans here. I've never read his stuff, just haven't got round to it ...

Sass, I vaguely remember that you said before that you grew up in England. Ah, those great beeches. Quickbeam was a Beech Ent, wasn't he? (goes to check.) Galadriel is far and away my favourite Elf - she fascinates me.

Pearly Di

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I already have my books waiting to be packed for our Mexican holiday next month: Le Carre's Constant Gardener,

Ath, I just stared reading The Constant Gardener and I like it very much.

[Athrabeth]

I already have my books waiting to be packed for our Mexican holiday next month: Le Carre's Constant Gardener,

Ath, I just stared reading The Constant Gardener and I like it very much.

My friend, I'm already envisioning myself under a palapa with nothing else to do but read and nothing else to decide but whether to have fruit salad or guacamole for lunch. And the first book I'm diving into will be Le Carre's.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd ... goodness, I LOVED this. Gorgeously written, and so life-affirming ...

That was amazing book! Another one that I want to read again just to savour the texture and flow of the language, and to revisit those beautifully drawn characters...........just lovely!

Oh goodness, that is an astonishing novel. So traumatic!!! Sheesh!!!! But Roy writes like an angel. Like. An. Angel.

Traumatic is an excellent way to describe the experience. You KNOW something so unspeakably horrible is going to happen (or actually, has happened, and will finally and painfully be revealed). It hung there over me like a brooding shadow. Somehow that shadow could not wholly darken Roy's illuminating study of love and life and family through the eyes of that wonderful little girl, but as I said, there were many moments when it became almost unbearable to read on.

[fisssh]

I loved the Kite Runner too, Athrabeth. I thought it would be heavy going, but it was a wonderful story and beautifully written, and it gave me a real understanding of Afghanistan which I knew nothing about beyond the news. Truehobbit, I think you might like it, because it is both instructional and entertaining. (The Sisters Mortland is more of a "troubled character" story so that might not suit you!)

I also loved the Year of Wonders, Pearl. Again, I thought reading about the Plague would be rather dreary, but it was such a rich story with a great female character. The ending was a bit ... convenient ... but otherwise it was excellent. I hope you like A Very Long Engagement. I loved it. Haven't seen the movie yet.

I think I'll try God of Small Things next. I also have a copy of the Quincunx that I've always meant to read.

Doesn't Frodo look peaceful in my sig? *sigh* I have the American Library Association poster too!

[Athrabeth]

I loved the Kite Runner too, Athrabeth. I thought it would be heavy going, but it was a wonderful story and beautifully written, and it gave me a real understanding of Afghanistan which I knew nothing about beyond the news

Exactly! I loved that insight into the traditional courting protocols that Amir and Soraya (and their families) have to go through.

And Hassan is such a memorable character.

[SilverScribe]

*sigh*

I think I'll just sit in the corner quietly and take copious notes and scribble down a very long list of books and authors to check out in the coming winter months . . .

[MaidenOfTheShieldarm]

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Heh, I loved this.

As did I. It was a really interesting book, especially since it was based on a true story. I should read it again sometime . . .

I know The Kite Runner is very popular and probablyl an excellent book but I didn't really care for it. I found some of it very clichéd and some of the connections/coincedences were hard to believe. Plus, I didn't like the narrator and had no respect for him. I find it difficult to enjoy a book with such a narrator. I found the stuff about Afghanistani culture far more interesting.

As for myself, I'm currently in the middle of a brilliant book called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. By the end of the first chapter I had added it to my list of all time favourite books and 500 pages into it, I have read nothing yet to change my mind. I can't really describe the plot . . . it starts during the Napoleanic Wars in England. There are two magicians, but that's not even the half of it. There's a king who will someday return, and magic and fairies and Faerie and war and tragedy and everything (even footnotes about historical English magicians). Clarke has a wonderful writing style and delightful sense of humour and irony.

[vison]

I have Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell half-read on my table. I like it very much, but I can't read it much at a sitting. It is excellent fun, but the style and language can be tiring. Ms. Clarke does a pretty good job of imitating 19th century style, etc., but it can still be wearing.