What are you reading the week of August 22, 2010?

[DUgosh]

Wild Justice by Phillip Margolin Amanda Jaffe #!

[willing dwarf]

1. Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

Though I've got to wonder why-- pre-WW I Europe is still so much the same, but so differnt from Europe today.

[Bobbieo]

2. Assegai by Wilbur Smith. Africa in the early 1900s

[MaineDem]

15. I liked that

Good reading, I thought.

[applegrove]

3. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. About a bunch of working women and the civil rights movement in the

South. I'm really enjoying it.

[Little Star]

11. I couldn't put it down. Read it in one day.

[applegrove]

13. I loved it too. Especially all the love between 'the help' and the children.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. The Buccaneers, by Edith Wharton

They made a movie out of it, which I thought sucked purple nickles, so I got the book the other day.
Wharton is a caustic writer of people and social behavior of the turn of the century.
I find her amusing and enjoy her perceptions that era.
The Buccaneers is the story of American girls who went to Europe to find rich husbands.

For the record, the movie version of her book, The Age of Innocence, was very true to the book.

[Fumesucker]

5. "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi

The book is a Nebula winner for 2009 and a Hugo nominee for 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl

The Windup Girl is set in the 22nd century: Global Warming has raised the levels of world's oceans, carbon fuel sources have become depleted, and manually wound springs are used as energy storage devices. Biotechnology is dominant and mega corporations like AgriGen, PurCal and RedStar (called calorie companies) control food production through 'genehacked' seeds, and use bioterrorism, private armies and economic hitmen to create markets for their products. Frequent catastrophes, such as deadly and widespread plagues and illness, caused by genetically modified crops and mutant pests, ravage entire populations. The natural genetic seed stock of the world's plants has been almost completely supplanted by those that are genetically engineered to be sterile.

The current monarch of Thailand is a child queen. The capital city is below sea level and is protected from flooding by levees and pumps. The three most powerful men in Thailand are the Somdet Chaopraya (regent for the child queen), the chief of the Environment Ministry General Pracha, and the chief of the Trade Ministry Akkarat.

[Supply Side Jesus]

6. Clash of Kings by George R R Martin

book 2 Song of Ice & Fire

btw, HBO is in production for a 10 episode season on Game of Thrones...

[hippywife]

7. Still reading Her Fearful Symmetry.

About half way through and still enjoying it. I'm just trying to be a wee more judicious in my reading, and not letting other things go by the wayside. LOL

:hi:

[hippywife]

19. Okay...I finished this last night and

I have to say I hated the last quarter of the book. I saw what was coming and I think it was a totally inane idea. :shrug:

[bluethruandthru]

22. I'm with you on that.

Once I realized where it was going, I just dreaded finishing it. It really went off the rails for me. Too bad, I thought it had a lot of promise in the beginning.

[hippywife]

25. Dreaded finishing it is a good way to describe it.

I just kept reading it thinking, "She isn't really going to do this, is she?" meaning the author as well as the characters. :eyes:

[bluethruandthru]

26. I keep wondering if she wrote that book with the intention

of ending it like that. It seemed like the book was heading towards an examination of what love can overcome, what it can't, how selfless can love be and also how selfish. Maybe it did examine those things, but in a really awkward way. :shrug:

[hippywife]

28. I think you are right.

It did explore all of that and came up with a really f***ed up ending. But I guess life does the same, no?

[bluethruandthru]

29. True.

That'll teach me to have high hopes for a book, right? :) I should have known. I was not a fan of The Time Traveler's Wife either.

[fadedrose]

8. BAD THINGS HAPPEN by Harry Dolan

A page turner - no parts to "skip over." I liked it.

[azmouse]

9. "The Glass of Time" by Michael Cox

[Little Star]

10. CANE RIVER by Lalita Tademy

Anyone here who already read it? How did you like it?

My daughter just lent it to me and says it is her very favorite. I am starting it tonight.

She also lent me "Red River" Lalita Tademy's second book which she has not read yet. Hope they are both good!

[hippywife]

14. I finished it not too long ago.

In the last couple of weeks. I enjoyed it. :hi:

[sueh]

12. World Without End by Ken Follet

[bluethruandthru]

23. Great sequel to Pillars of the Earth!

I loved both books and I rarely like sequels.

[fadedrose]

16. THE EDGE OF THE CRAZIES by Jamie Harrison (eom)

[fadedrose]

27. This is a good book

Had to read fast because I wanted to see what would happen next, and I think I sensed the author is a fast talker and writes the same way. I will read the 3 books that come after this. Hope they're as good. Main character is Sheriff Jules Clement in Blue Deer, MT.

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/H_Authors/Harrison_Jamie.html

If you like mysteries, you'll like this one.

[MountainLaurel]

17. "Before the Frost" by Henning Mankell

As well as "The 900 Days" by Harrison Salisbury and "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie.

[hippywife]

18. O Pioneers by Willa Cather.

I know, I know! A really old book. Published back in 1913. But I enjoy reading stories of folks making it out on the plains. I'm not far into it but it fine so far. It reads like it was written for young adults, really.

[northoftheborder]

20. Current books reading

I just finished "Spies of the Balkans" by Alan Furst. Will probably read his "Spies of Warsaw" next. Both from same period: early WWII.

[pscot]

21. I wonder how many baby girls are being named

Lispeth this year. I'm on the last book of the trilogy and it's been a rush from beginning to .....

[bluethruandthru]

24. Innocent by Scott Turow. n/t

[japple]

30. The Good German by Joseph Kanon EOM

[fadedrose]

31. GOING LOCAL by Jamie Harrison

Tough book to follow, no segues make it impossible to remember how a paragraph started and how it differs from how it began. The author seems to give me more credit for brains than I actually have.

Parts of this book have some wonderful expressions that make it worthwhile. Not as good as THE EDGE OF THE CRAZIES, but I'm going to go for sequels 3 and 4, regardless of the strain of reading this book.

It's like a lot of the pages were put in a blender and put back together again, almost, but not quite, the way it should be. Or maybe the author had to write real fast because of continuing emergencies interrupting her. Long paragraphs too. Very long sentences.

If you're tired of James Patterson, this is the one for you.

[fadedrose]

32. Last 100 pages or so were funny -

My criticism of the book still stands, but it has its moments.