What are you currently reading?- Page 20

[wexy]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:29pm

I'm reading 'The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz and I agree with Sweet Siren that it is great. He is an amazing writer. I also read "Drown" his collection of short stories.

[Craww]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 2:33pm

I'm reading Watership Down. I never actually read it because I knew it would destroy me.

[Plum]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 12:24am

Reread The Fifth Elephant a couple of weeks ago while flying. Oh, Pterry. Never change.

Also just read the really depressing The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down. Next up is William Styron's Darkness Visible.

[Q]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 12:35am

PLUM!!!!!

[Plum]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 12:40am

Hi?

[Kasie]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 5:27am

Right now I'm reading The Secret. It's actually a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 10/5/08 at 10:45am

I just checked out a few books from the library. I'm going to start Rebecca later today. I've never read it OR seen the movie, believe it or not!

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 8:33am

Bump...

The Brothers Karamozov by Dostoevsky

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 10:54am

INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:53pm

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

[DBillyP]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:03pm

Over Thanksgiving, I read The Screwed Up Life of Charlie The Second by Drew Ferguson, a silly little romp about an awkward, gay high school soccer player. A good vacation read.

On the plane back to Dallas, I started Secrets of the Pharaohs: Uncover the Timeless Mysteries of Ancient Egypt in advance of a cruise that includes a stop in Egypt.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:43pm

I'm just finishing Duma Key by Stephen King. I've actually been enjoying it more than Lisey's Story. They really seem like companion novels.

[Weez]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:56pm

Ah, I knew there was already an existing thread. ^_^

I'm currently reading all the Diana Wynne Jones I can lay my hands on. Just finished 'The House of Many Ways', am midway through 'Hexwood', and will be moving onto 'The Lives of Christopher Chant' when that's done. :3

[Robert Taylor]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 5:54pm

Whoops, didn't see this one.

I recently finished a novella entitled DISQUIET by Julia Leigh. It's quite gothic--almost horror but not quite, and it's one of the best works I've read in ages. It concerns a woman, fresh out of an abusive marriage, and her children finding solace in the manor of her mother. It's creepy and there is a sense of dread and unease everywhere, from the grandmother's habit of leaving chicken legs all over her bedroom floor for her cats and not picking them up to the way the woman continually answers questions about her husband with a simple "He murdered me." It's a short read, probably two to three hours, but it stays with you long after you finish. I still get goosebumps thinking about certain passages.

http://www.amazon.com/Disquiet-Penguin-Original-Julia-Leigh/dp/014311350X/ref=ed_oe_p

I'm currently a few chapters into THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, which is engaging if ordinary so far. I want to finish it before the film comes to the dollar theater this Friday, so I'm going to read for two or three hours tonight. For those who don't know, it's about (so far anyway) a fourteen year old girl and her black nanny escaping a group of racists and an abusive father in South Carolina during the Civil Rights era. The girl is on the hunt for the truth behind her mother's background. It's pleasantly written and I can see why it is so popular with book clubs, but none of the characters are clicking with me yet. Perhaps when the "Sisterhood of the Bees" shows up the book will perk up as well.

Next up I'm diving into Austen's PERSUASION which is her only novel heretofore uncracked by me.

Matt, I haven't read either Lisey or Duma yet and I was curious as to whether I have to read one to comprehend the other, or if they are fine standalone. Because, at least in terms of plot, Duma Key seems much more enticing.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 6:05pm

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett..just started and love it.
Am also about to start 'Mary, Queen of Scots, and the murder of Lord Darnley" by Allison Weir on my Kindle.

I usually read two things during the same time, one print, and one electronic.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 6:39pm

I just finished the J.D. Robb one (as referenced in the other thread), and started The Fourth Hand by John Irving.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 6:40pm

Robert - Lisey and Duma are very much standalone novels, not at all like the pairing of Desperation/Regulators. The stories have nothing in common, but their underlying themes are vaguely similar, almost parallel to an extent, which is why I find them to be an interesting compliment to each other. I think they are both quite strong King novels, but Duma has the edge for me. The way the plot unfolds feels more like you are experiencing King's own journey of discovery while I felt like Lisey seemed much more deliberate and predetermined. To me, Duma reads as a more personal novel, but they are both worth picking up.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 6:45pm

"It's Only A Movie" - A Biography Of Alfred Hitchcock

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 6:52pm

Blind Fall by Christopher Rice

(Yes, he's Anne Rice's son.)

[DBillyP]

Posted: 12/11/08 at 1:30pm

DM, have you read his others?

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 12/11/08 at 1:35pm

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It's kicking my butt.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/11/08 at 5:55pm

I read A Density of Souls and The Snow Garden by Christopher Rice and was not inspired to pick up another. I sincerely hope he has improved. Did anyone else find him to be a colossal letdown?

[Jack King]

Posted: 12/12/08 at 1:02am

I'm slowly re-reading THE THIRD DEADLY SIN. What an awesome idea for a book.

It would make a fantastic slasher movie.

Maybe even a musical. Sweeney Todd type musical.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/12/08 at 4:08pm

SHEPHERDS ABIDING by Jan Karon. It's schmaltz, but this is the time of year for that. It had excellent characterizations and a charming setting.

[kate2]

Posted: 12/12/08 at 4:40pm

Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison and Broadway Nights by Seth Rudetsky