What are you reading?

Chris P

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Nearing the end of White Oleander. I've wanted to read this since it came out, and it's been worth the wait. However, I'm also looking forward to finishing it so I can get to the next book on my list.
 

DanielSTJ

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Their Eyes Were Watching God- Zora Neale Hurston

It is AWFUL. I don't even...

*UPDATED*

Autobiography- Benvenuto Cellini
 
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Chris P

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Just like someone without mental illness, only moreso - Mark Vonnegut.

Mark has borrowed a lot of his style from his father, and fills in a lot of details I didn't know. As much as I like learning about Kurt (that's why I was interested in the book), I look forward to hearing Mark's own story about his struggles with mental illness.
 

DanielSTJ

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True At First Light- Ernest Hemingway.

*Updated*

Sanctuary- William Faulkner

*Updated*

American Pastoral- Phillip Roth

It REALLY isn't great. I don't know how this won the Pulitzer.
 
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Brightdreamer

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A December update to kill some time:

Recently Read:
Monstress Volume 1: Awakening (Majorie Liu, YA fantasy/graphic novel, Nook via Hoopla): In an alternate Asia where the world is split between humans and "arcanics", the arcanic teen girl Maika Halfwolf struggles to figure out who she really is - and what the hungry, alien thing inside her wants. She doesn't remember how it came to be there, but it has a way of killing to satisfy its strange hungers. Her quest for answers takes her into the human city of Zenoba and the stronghold of the Cumaea, powerful matriarchs who derive their power from rendered arcanic bones in the form of miraculous "lilium"... where her search draws the attention of enemies she can ill afford, and may restart an interspecies war.

On the one hand, this art deco/anime-flavored story has undeniable imagination, set in a complex and layered world. On the other hand, it's almost too complex; sometimes it's hard to figure out who is where and doing what for which reasons. Most of the characters tend to be unlikable for various reasons; it took most of the volume for me to begin to warm up to broody, foul-mouthed Maika. I'm intrigued enough by the premise and late developments that I might read the second volume (also free via Hoopla), though it's not quite my cup of cocoa.

On Writing (Stephen King, memoir/writing, paperback): Prolific author King discusses the craft of writing, with notes on what it has meant to him through his life, as well as how it helped him come back after a nearly fatal accident.

An intriguing look at the development of a best-selling writer with a singular career. I found the memoir parts a little more interesting than the writing parts; it's not that the latter bits were bad, but writing advice can be found elsewhere, while the autobiographical snippets and personal connection were unique to this book. His recounting of the 1999 crash serves as a capstone to the book, as his ongoing recovery brings him back to the keyboard and the craft that's as much a part of him as breathing, tying together the theme.

Currently Reading:
Walk the Earth a Stranger (The Gold Seer trilogy Book 1, Rae Carlson, YA fantasy/historical fiction, Kindle): Teen girl Leah's ability to sense gold has helped her family scrape a living from the hills of Georgia... but when she comes home to find her parents murdered and their stash stolen, she must strike out on her own. The newly-opened gold fields of California are the logical place to go - plus, it's a continent away from her scheming uncle, who knows about her special gift. But the gold rush is calling everyone, friends and enemies, and even if she had the whole world to run in, it might not be far enough.

A decently paced tale with a strong, if fallible, heroine. If it's not outstandingly great, it's solidly good so far, not shying away from some of the less pleasant aspects of frontier life.

Mort(e) (The War With No Name series Book 1, Robert Repino, sci-fi, paperback): Once, Sebastian was a simple housecat. Then the Change came, wrought by the ant colonies that have risen up to challenge humanity's dominance. Animals begin walking on two legs and speaking, gaining human-level intelligence - and now humans are the hunted. And thus Sebastian finds himself a warrior in the battle to exterminate humanity... but one memory from his pre-awakened life nags at him, the friendship he shared with the neighbor dog Sheba.

Only a chapter in, but so far it's a decent tale that looks to be a good, if dark, ride. Holiday stuff keeps interfering with my reading time, though...
 
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Dallas

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The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern. Wonderful writing, but the story does jump around a bit.
 

Atalanta

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The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. Just finished it. Too much print given to scientific in-fighting, but also provides some astonishing insights I've never heard before, like... the evolution of mud particles. Who would have thought??

When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. This one's been on my reading-list since it was published years and years ago. Eminently readable. I'm not sure I would have gotten as much out of it back then as I am now.

I also still have Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel until the end of the month. Woohoo! Like most of her stuff I'll probably end up reading it in one night.
 

DanielSTJ

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It's been on my list for years and now you people are making me want to read it right now. Two of you makes it a conspiracy. I'm suspicious.

:chair

I didn't like it at all- but hey, that's just me.

*Updated*

Songs of Innocence and Experience- William Blake
 
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Chris P

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The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern. Wonderful writing, but the story does jump around a bit.

I thought she was a master of scene descriptions and world building, but the story, jumping or not, just didn't interest me.

Speaking of jumping around, I've read about 75% of Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad within the past day. It's catchy and addictive, but don't expect to be able to say what the book's about; it seems to change every few chapters.
 

Chris P

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Breathing lessons - Anne Tyler


I was really impressed by Celestial Navigation, so I have high hopes for this one.
 
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SciSarahTops

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Reading about writing... less of the actual writin
Just finished the gameshouse trilogy by Claire North. I'm not sure there is an author I love more (at least not in this precise moment).

Currently reading
'Pirate Women - the princesses, prostitutes and privateers who ruled the seven seas' by, Laura Sook Duncombe
'Anathem' - Neal Stephenson
'Happy' by Derren Brown
and finally 'Siege and Storm' by Leah Bardugo. Quite a nice little selection across genres.
 

Lakey

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'Anathem' - Neal Stephenson

One of my all-time favorite books - I've read it perhaps half a dozen times (and that's no small investment of time).

I've been slogging my way through Henry James's The Ambassadors, and concluding that I just don't understand why he wrote it the way he did. It feels to me like he bloated his sentences with needless words and obfuscated their meaning with nonstandard word order just to make the book more difficult to read. But that can't possibly have been his intention, and so I am at a loss to understand it. I read The Bostonians about a year ago, and while it too often used five words when two would do, I don't remember it being so difficult to follow. It was languid, but not incomprehensible.
 

DanielSTJ

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Tropic of Cancer- Henry Miller

*UPDATED*

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie- Muriel Spark

*UPDATED*

Complete Poems and Selected Prose- John Donne
 
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Atalanta

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My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier. As predicted, I skipped meals and exercise and basically lived on the story until I was finished. It's one of the best "God, what have I done?" novels I've ever read. I like it better than Rebecca. Du Maurier was ruthless. :heart:
 

oneblindmouse

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My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier. As predicted, I skipped meals and exercise and basically lived on the story until I was finished. It's one of the best "God, what have I done?" novels I've ever read. I like it better than Rebecca. Du Maurier was ruthless. :heart:

I'm a huge Daphne du Maurier fan, so I'm glad you enjoyed My cousin Rachel. (I have a daughter named Rachel after my great aunt, and a granddaughter named Rebecca!!!). Have you read du Maurier's The Scapegoat?
 

Atalanta

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I'm a huge Daphne du Maurier fan, so I'm glad you enjoyed My cousin Rachel. (I have a daughter named Rachel after my great aunt, and a granddaughter named Rebecca!!!). Have you read du Maurier's The Scapegoat?

So nice to find another fan! I've only read three of her books, I think, including Jamaica Inn. She's one of those authors I feel like hoarding, so I don't binge read from a finite collection. That sounds so weird, but it's already painful that I've read everything from Edith Wharton I can legally read. Once they're gone, they're gone.

I will put The Scapegoat next on my list though. :D
 

Diana Hignutt

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I'm on a Dumas' Musketeers kick. Just finished Twenty Years After (which I loved) and am about to begin The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.