Well I am shocked about Ann Perry. I do enjoy well-written, succinct mysteries, but I confess I have not been able to like any of the 3 by her I've tried to read.

Now I am trying to read John Banville's "The Sea." I believe it's only the 2nd Booker I've read.

Years ago, I read an article about Anne Perry's past -- pretty horrifying stuff. I had never heard of her, so couldn't form an opinion about her writing. I confess, however, that I've never attempted to read one of her books since then.

Granted, she's allowed to get on with her life, but I can't help but wonder how one moves on from something like that. And writing murder mysteries does seem an odd way of moving on.

I haven't been around too much because, honestly, I have been reading, reading, reading. Also the problem with posting when I am at work. :(

Working on Labyrinths, a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges. What a mind this man had! He explores astounding ideas in his writing, and his intellectual capacity is almost unbelievable.

Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It by Gary Taubes. I finished reading this and immediately turned back to the beginning and read it again. This book has changed my entire worldview.

Deep Play by Diane Ackerman. Wonderful poetic prose about our innate desire to seek out peak experiences, whether by climbing mountains or...reading books.

Gotta go...more reading...

Anne Perry was 16 years old when she and her best friend, who collaborated with her in writing murder mysteries at the time, murdered the friend's mother. The friend's parents were getting a divorce, and she didn't want to move away. They were sentenced to five years in prison because of their age and told never to contact each other again.

I agree that it is an offputting situation, but I have read all her books and like them very much. (I'm a big fan of Victorian mysteries.)

Siobhan, I Googled the Taubes book out of interest. Please read the review at "Science Based Medicine". It doesn't approve of the diet Taubes recommends for various reasons, including too much salt, which I am not allowed!

I apologize for any misunderstanding - it is not my intention to give anyone dietary advice or advocate for any particular position. I will be more careful in the future.

Siobhan, No,please don't worry. I didn't take it as advice. I never diet anyway, just have a low salt intake as recommended by my doctor. I was interested to see what the book was about. You did nothing wrong at all.

I've just finished John Banville's highly acclaimed "The Sea." I've made my comments on that book's discussion thread.

Hey Wood - I read that Banville last year and was v impressed (and exhausted!) by it... Will check your comments....

I have just returned from a week on the white sunny beaches of Mexico - tough life I live! I managed to do lots and lots of reading as well which was really one of the highlights of the trip for me.

* Necropolis: London and its Dead - Catharine Arnold. A good non-fiction about the history of London and its many grave yards... Went on a bit in places, but mostly very good.

* No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting - Anne McDonald. Quite a few of you have read this, and I absolutely *loved* it despite not being a knitter myself. (I know how to knit - or at least did in HS.) Very good sly sense of humor from the author and who knew there were loads of knit-ins??

* Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2) - Suzanne Collins. Good second part of the trilogy.

* England for All Seasons - Susan Allen Toth. American author who is in love with UK and this is her jumping around the country somewhat randomly from place to place. Quite interesting, but I thought she came across as thinking that her readers were a bit simple and very bumbling.

* In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians - Michael Cart (ed.). A mixed bag of short stories, some rather strange, some pretty good. A mix of genres (spec fiction, sci-fi, detective fiction etc.) and some international authors.

And now reading an Aussie book called Of a Boy by Sonya Hartnett, which was short-listed (or long-listed?) for 2003 Man Booker prize... Very good so far so we will see things progress. It's called a novella so should be a quick read.

Welcome back from your trip Lemonhead. That book of short stories looks right up my alley--will have to check it out.

I am really enjoying "The Road Home" by Rose Tremain.

Purple - I think you will like at least some of the stories in the collection... They can't go too wrong if the topic is Libraries! :-)

I'm taking a break from "Middlemarch", decided to read "The Mysterious Benedict Society", it's cute.

I've read several of the Susan Allen Toth books about England but something in them did not quite ring true with me. I can't quite put my finger on it. Around the same time, I read Paul Theroux' "The Kingdom by the Sea". His approach was quite the opposite, not idealized, but rather gritty. Somehow, I thought his view more realistic, whereas Toth tends to see through rose-colored glasses. My two cents worth.

I was disappointed in the Toth books, too, Mary, and couldn't quite put my finger on why. For one thing, most of us don't have the leisure and/or the funds to see a country "one little segment at a time."

I have finally finished 1Q84. I have never spent so much time reading one book. Magical realism is not my thing, but the story (parallel universe) was interesting and the ending satisfactory.

Reading the latest Maisie Dobbs today, and it is a pure delight after the plod through 1Q84.

I'm finally able sign back on with my iPad; I didn't sign on for a few days and couldn't figure out how to get back in, but now I'm back.

I've been re- reading some old favorites but have also just finished some new to me books as well. These include Wild by Cheryl Strayed, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillip Sandker and a coffee table book by Tony Hillerman called Hillerman Country that contains beautiful photographs of the areas he wrote about with narrative explanations and excerpts from many of the books. It made me want to visit that part of the country to see it for myself.

I am on a J.D. Robb reading spree and have finished three this month (including a reread of the first in the series) and am on the fourth, Survivor in Death. As you can see, if you read these books, I am way behind.

I am also reading several other books, including London, the Biography by Peter Ackroyd. It has been an on and off read for me for over a year and it will take me at least to the end of the summer to finish it. It's the kind of book you don't want to end, even if it is over 800 pages long.

lemonhead, years ago I read Ivy Days by Susan Allen Toth and loved it! I think I went on to read a sequel to it but can't recall the name of it. I haven't kept up with her other writing though.

After finishing To the Lighthouse, which I liked very much, I'm starting in on Orient Express by Graham Greene. I usually enjoy anything by Graham Greene and had never read this one though I probably saw the movie at some time.

JW - perhaps I should try her other books... I might be rather a hard audience to reach with her UK-tourist take with my English background. Thanks, also, for letting me know about Woolf's book. Perhaps a re-read is in order at some point.

I have finished an super-great read of an Australian novella called Of a Boy by Sonya Hartnett. Here is what I wrote on my blog about it:

I don't seem to have read that much Australian literature, so thought I would get this one, a novella that was shortlisted for 2003 Man Booker Prize (as it was called then), and also the winner of the Miles Franklin Award. And this read was a corker!

Written from the POV of a nine-year old boy who is living with his grandmother (a reluctant caregiver) and his layabout but nice uncle Rory, this gives the reader an inside look at how Adrian sees the world: he is worried about quicksand and spontaneous combustion, he only has one friend and that's a bit shakey), he knows that his parents didn't really want him, and the world is spinning uncontrollably and confusingly around him.

What makes things even more unstable for Adrian is that three young children go missing and the media are full of their story for weeks. And it is this unexplainable disappearance that worries Adrian the most -- if it could happen to those children, it could happen to him. And if his parents don't want him and his grandma is not that enthusiastic, who would look for him?

I really just wanted to squeeze little Adrian and say life gets easier for the most part. But he's a character in a novella and so, as the reader, you are forced to sit there, watching him worry about things that nine-year olds shouldn't really be worrying about.

Hartnett really did a good job of bringing Adrian�s thoughts to the fore in this story. I could really understand why Adrian felt the way that he did and did some of the choices that he did because if I had had his life experiences, perhaps I would have done the same. His wary development of some neighborhood friends is nerve-wracking -- I so wanted things to work out well for him.

And then, the ending! Wow. I certainly didn't see that coming. It was an excellent and shocking finish to the story and I am still thinking about it hours after I finished reading it. A very good read.

I was so glad to be rid of the parallel universe that I've read straight through Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear and Death Comes Silently, the new Death on Demand book by Carolyn Hart. It was like eating chocolates after a long spinach diet.

Just finished the biography of Edith Holden, the author/artist of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, which was written in 1906 and not published until 1980. This was one of the first "real" books I ever bought with my pocket money, and I just loved it, rereading it and looking after it with care. In fact, 30-something years later, I still have the original childhood copy. (Well, I was 16 or 17 - does that count as childhood?)

Ina Taylor, the author, has done her best with rather sparse material and somewhat subdued subject matter. Holden was not someone who lived a very exciting life, but she did love art since she was a child and wrote and designed loads of postcards that she sent to people who she met along the way. It was really rather sweet how much effort she would put into these postcards - individual ones were made and sent to every child in the house in question, so everything was very "fair". (Sounds like my family growing up!)

She had six brothers and sisters, all the sisters being encouraged to be artists of one stripe or another and three of them going to serious art school. It's interesting that Edith receives all the attention as her two younger sisters were actually really good artists in their own rights, focusing more on William Morris' Arts and Crafts Movement.

The Holdens' financial solvency started off fine, but ended up in disarray through poor management of the family business and the brothers taking sides in how to manage it once the father had stepped aside. This financial instability also meant upheaval for the family as a whole, as they had to move quite frequently. I can only imagine how stressful this must have been for the females in the family, gender roles as they were and with few other ways to support themselves realistically.

Edith really was a good artist, and exhibited many paintings (separate from the diary work) at prestigious English art galleries. But it is for the Nature Notes that she remains famous. If you haven't really looked at her book, it's really interesting for the level of detail and the literary quotations that have been chosen to match the season. It's not really a book you *read*, but more of one you browse through.

This was an interesting (although slightly superficial) biography about an author/artist with whom I have been fascinated for years. It was cool to see the photos etc. of the places she lived and stayed. I really felt sad for her to die drowning in quite a shallow river whilst she toppled over trying to reach a branch with some nuts that she wanted to draw (presumably). At first, I couldn't understand how an adult could drown in a few feet of water, but then realized that her clothing must have weighed her down substantially. (I remember that the clothes could weigh 30 lbs or more at one time, and I am not sure that Edith was a big swimmer.)

Just an interesting book overall.

Hello all! Remember me? My desk top is so old, I was unable to sign on here since the bookmarks were arriving. So, first, thank you all for the delightful gifts and I use them all the time. I received an IPad from my children and husband for my birthday, and here I am. I had even stopped reading here, as it's no fun if you can' t talk back. Veronicae - who is happy to be "home"!

Welcome back, Veronicae! I have the same problem sometimes, isn't it frustrating? Glad your problems are solved.

Liz, Edith Holden is one of my favorite artists. I have both of the "Edwardian Lady" books you mentioned in your post. I love the fine detail of her work, and her exquisite handwriting.

Hello. I enjoy reading what you're reading. My book club read Half-Blood Blues and we didn't like it very much. We felt it was an interesting topic, the treatment of jazz music and musicians during WWII under Hitler, but the writer didn;t handle it very well. It's one of those boos that jumps back and forth in time, plus it is written in dialect so I had had to stop every once in awhile to figure out what decade we were ina dn what exactly they were trying to say.

Now I am reading The Art of Fielding and enjoying it very much. It is built around the sport of baseball and college life, but is really not a sports book. I have a ways to go with that one.

Next is Madeleine Albright's memoir Prague Winter and I can hardly wait to get to it. I admire her, and her life story is fascinating.

I never heard that about Ann Perry. Totally creepy. I don't care for mysteries so I've never read her.

I am reading Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr. It is the newest of a long line of Bernie Gunther books but the first one I've read for some reason. Bernie is a policeman in Berlin. This book is set in 1941-42, and he is not a fan of Hitler. I am quite enjoying it.

Hi all,
Just finished Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo. Religion and belief are so personal that I shall not add opinions or comments.

Now reading In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson for book club. I read this author before.. Thunderstruck and Devil in the White City and found both to be fascinating reading. He writes historical non-fiction. I am only 100 pages into Garden but so far, fascinating. It looks at Germany in the 1930's before Hilter came into full dictatorial power. We see Germany through the experiences of William Dodd and his family, the US ambassador to Germany at that time.

Welcome back veronicae!
PAM

Welcome back, Veronicae!

I have just finished up a sad but good book called Let Not the Waves by Simon Stephenson. It's about how tough it was for him to deal with the unexpected death of his close elder brother who died (along with his gfriend) in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

The book is a meditation, really, on how Stephenson and his family try to accept the unacceptable of his brother's death - how hard it was just to get confirmation of his death, how tough it was to get a positive ID on a human body that has been subjected to the water and to the sun, about how challenging it was to get the body repatriated.

Sounds like rather a morbid book, but it wasn't. Stephenson brought in lots of other topics at the same time, mentioning Greek myths, the legends of the First People in Oregon, the science of tsunamis, and how he himself travelled back to Thailand to see the scene of where it all happened.

A provocative and well written book, Stephenson's background as a screenplay writer definitely helped making the plot move quickly and logically. This was sad, but it was a good read, and it acts as a fitting tribute, I think, to a brother's love for another.

I'm currently engrossed in Tony Horwitz' "A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering early America." The author covers Columbus, the Vikings, DeSoto, Jamestown, Roanoke Island mystery, Plymouth, and so much more. As his books always are: vibrant to read with meticulous historical research.

I'm almost finished with Billy Boyle by James R. Benn. It is a WWII book with a young Boston Irish cop who is a nephew of General Eisenhower and thinks he will have an easy desk job in London--but Ike sends him to a high level meeting where a high level officer is murdered. In spite of feeling out of his element, he is pursuing the killer regardless of how much he is outranked. And he has met a pretty English girl.

I have now finished the first three volumes of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire fantasy. It is supposed to end with volume 7, though only 5 have yet been published. I've just started volume 4, but I think I'm going to set it aside and read something else for a while. Yesterday I picked up The Annotated Emma at our local semi-independent bookstore.

Rosefolly

I am happily returning to Herzog after reading bloom: finding beauty in the unexpected by Kelle Hampton. Had I known this was a blog-to-book book I would not have bothered. The author is a mother of a girl named Nella who has down syndrome. When Mrs. Hampton talks about her children and people other than herself the book is enjoyable.

I've just started listening to the fifth Simon Serrailler book by Susan Hill, Shadows in the Street. There is only one more to listen to after this, until another is released. The author certainly does not feel the need to wrap up loose ends when finishing the book but now that I'm used to that it is okay. It is good to be listening to them one after another because sometimes the loose ends are covered in the next book. She does a wonderful job with her characters; they feel like old friends to me now.

Lemonhead, I've been reading your book blog and was intrigued by your description of Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster. While it was a bit predictable, I really enjoyed the main character's voice and thought it was charming. The author certainly had some modern views for the time (1912), which I liked very much.

Woodnymph, I love Tony Horwitz, and I wish high schools could use A Voyage Long and Strange and books like it to teach early American history rather than the dry textbooks they currently have. I thought it did get a bit sloggy towards the end regarding the seemingly endless number of Spaniards destroying everything in their paths, but on the whole I flew through that book and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reading his newest book, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War.

Next up is a re-read of Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden for my book group next month.

In an attempt to weed out my TBR pile, I finished When You are Engulfed By Flames by David Sedaris. I am told it is not his best book of offbeat short pieces, but I still enjoyed it. As much as I enjoy Sedaris books when I am reading them, I seem to forget them very quickly. Not sure why this is.

sheri, I completely agree with you that schools should use books such as "A Voyage Long and Strange" to teach history in a manner that is not deadly dull. I remained engrossed and entertained until the very end, and picked up a lot of information that was completely new to me, especially about the Spanish in the deep South (de Soto).

That will be a hard act to follow. I do want to find the Simon Serailler series by Hill that I've not yet read.

I agree that history could be a lot more exciting and "immediate" if teachers utilised Horowitz' writing. Perhaps some do?...

I finished up another PG Wodehouse (who I adore right now), but am spreading out his work so I don't get sick of it.

Picked up my first ever read of Edith Wharton with House of Mirth which I really truly loved. What a great story - can't believe that I have only just now picked it up. The ending was a bit annoying, but considering the time when it was written, perhaps it was the "safest" ending for her cutting-edge heroine and her issues. I have The Age of Innocence in the wings.

And then needed to travel all day yesterday for stuff so spent a lot of time at the airport in various cities. Time passed quickly though as I was immersed in the hysterically funny Gone with the Windsors by Laurie Graham. Oh. Man. Truly funny in places and I ended up snorting at times from laughter, which was a bit embarassing on the plane. :-) Great book.

Tim - I have the same problem with Sedaris' books. I enjoy them at the time, but not many of the stories stick in my head. (Excluding the Christmas elf one.) :-)

While still working on The Annontated Emma for my bedtime reading, during the day I am listening to a recording of The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I listen while sewing Regency costumes for the Louisville Jane Austen Festival this summer. I'm working on Rouan's right now and hope next week to start on mine. I enjoy listening to books when sewing, though sometimes I'll put on DVDs of movies I've already seen. That way if I miss some scenes I can still follow the story. My mind seems to want something else going on while I do handwork, or even while I run the sewing machine. I started this habit while making quilts but have carried it over into costume sewing.

Rosefolly

Finally finished reading Peter Guralnick's 2-volume bio of Elvis Presley, a true classic both in the realms of biography and the music business; promised myself that I would finally finish Death Comes To The Archbishop after 20 years of trying. But there staring at me wickedly from the coffee table was Gerald Franks's bio of Truman Capote, so that's where I am now. In some ways these are very similar stories, about men possessed of tremendous energy, talent, determination and flair, yet heading like trucks with no brakes into tragedy.

Lemonhead - thank you for mentioning Gone With The Windsors! Never heard of the author, so I looked her up, liked what I saw, and ordered it. I also ordered her book about the Kennedys - the theme of nanny and children seemed appealing. When reading the reviews of her books, a few people called her a new P.G. Wodehouse. I remember reading some of his books aloud to my mother decades ago, and both of us cackling away!

Just realized I haven't posted here for ages! Back is better, must get with it! In the summer I like to read non-fiction for some reason, and I am enjoying After the Ice - A Global Human History by Steven Mithen. I am surprised how engaging I am finding this book. Mithen really makes our ancient ancestors come alive.

I have just finished reading a wonderful book "the 10PM Question" by Kate DeGoldi, I am now part into and loving "There Should Be More Dancing" by Rosalie Ham.

I just revisited an old favorite: "Rebecca." Somehow, I never tire of Du Maurier's inimitable style and landscape descriptions. This re-read made me long to get back to England....

I just finished reading The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney. The main character is a part-gypsy private eye. And the clients are... you guessed it... gypsies. Set in England, this is a mystery about a young gypsy wife who "disappeared" twelve years earlier. It was a really different kind of read especially since we get a taste of gypsy life in England. (modern day winnebagos, not horse-drawn caravans.)

Count me as another fan of Gone with the Windsors. I had to order it from amazon uk because I just couldn't wait for the US release date. I learned about it here on RP many years ago. Lemon, I remember snorting with laughter too... albeit in a much more private environment than an airplane. Your story made me laugh, thank you!

rosefolly, I was just given a lovely present of a thornless zepharine rose. It is my second and I love it. I immediately thought of you when the gift was given to me.

PAM

I recently finished, and enjoyed, I Thought You Were Dead: a Love Story by Pete Nelson, with a wise, sarcastic, talking dog - what's not to love?

I'm currently reading two books:

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer - which is an eye-opener, but not as dogmatic as you might think, and
In the Company of Others by Jan Karon -- a Father Tim novel set in Ireland -- good but not great.

Next up: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, also by Foer and Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls for book clubs.

I finished I am Messenger. Still plugging away at "Middlemarch".

Just finished Everything Under the Sky by Matilde Asensi.

Set in the 1930's, a Parisian woman (who was born in Spain) heads to China to tidy up the affairs of her recently-deceased and long-estranged husband. When she arrives she finds things are not as she suspected. Her late husband collected Chinese artifacts and one of them is extremely important in Chinese history. Unfortunately, to settle her late husband's debts, she must embark on a journey to solve the riddle of this artifact and hope to find the treasure at the end. But the bad guys want the treasure, too. It reads like an Indiana Jones/American Treasure movie set in China. The author explains a lot of the Chinese philosophy in depth: the I Ching, Five Elements, Feng Shui, Taoism, martial arts and so on. It is also laced with long paragraphs of Chinese history. I personally loved the philosophy and history in the book. As a martial artist and martial arts instructor, I enjoyed seeing the main character "on the path" although she had no idea she was on it.

PAM

Finished up Gone with the Windsors by Laurie Graham which was rolling-in-the-aisles hilarious for most of the time. She had really done her research and once I got the Edward/David/Albert/Bertie/George stuff sorted out, it went a lot smoother. I do think it would have been a stronger book if it had ended sooner - sort of went on a bit at the end, I thought. Still, a very good read and I have ordered one of her back list titles. I have read her The Future Homemakers of America but can't remember a thing about it. May have to reread that. Are Graham's other books as hysterically funny as this one?

And then reading a non-fiction called Off-Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore by Ken McAlpine. It's rather ponderous right now, so we will see if this continues in this vein. Not bad, but a bit deeper and more philosophical than I had anticipated. Might need to put it on the shelf for a later date.

And then reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle which is great so far. Hooray for Project Gutenberg!

Liz, glad you have enjoyed the Laurie Graham books; I think it was probably me who recommended them to you all.
I recently read her The Unfortunates set in New York from the Titanic disaster onwards, with a Jewish heroine who is a mustard heiress. She has a new one coming out any day now A Humble Companion.
The Future Homemakers . . . is about a group of US Air Force wives based on a base in East Anglia . . .very funny.

I'm reading a rather odd book that is nevertheless fascinating - The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac - Great Outdoors. It intersperses tales of survival under very unusual circumstances against great odds with tips on how to survive dangerous situations. Every subject is distilled down to a page or two, so it is quite a page turner.

I finished Orient Express by Graham Greene. I'm sorry to say it wasn't nearly as good as several other Greene novels I've read.

And there were some very disturbing anti-Jewish overtones. The book was published in 1932. An introduction by Christopher Hitchens makes a strong case for not making too much of these overtones, but still they are undeniably there.