In comparision to much of what is mentioned on this thread, I am reading a big pile of summer fluff and reading it fast so I can get to more of same. A Thousand Splendid Suns, not fluff, wins the best of show in June.

I read A.M. Homes' The Mistress's Daughter which is her memoir about making contact with and eventually meeting her birth mother at the birth mother's behest which leads to meeting the biofather also. This is not a "happily ever after" book but rather sad and uncomfortably honest and actually a decent book. For my bookclub's selection, I have started the same author's fictional "This Book Will Save Your Life" featuring a middle-aged male character, disengaged from life and trying to reenter same--pretty blah.

I finished up A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards written by Ann Bauer; fiction, basically a family unravelling with a mother's search for answers revolving around the eldest son with some sort of developmental disorder similar to autism or Aspergers but isn't quite... definitely a good story especially if you have experiences with "special needs" (as known in the US) children.

Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself is amusing and I'm reading it at the same time as Tony Hawks' Round Ireland with a Fridge, also amusing but more droll. Uncracked is Annie Proulx's Postcards which I received as a birthday gift from my father's wife. I haven't read any of her books and may save it for the beach later this summer.

Have to add, Atonement did nothing for me, though I have enjoyed other of his books, specifically Enduring Love and Saturday (the only others I've read.)

I'm in a dry spell, with regard to reading. Whenever "the world is too much with me", I retreat to an old favorite, the "Miss Read" series. Now I'm re-visiting "At Home in Thrush Green", a village in the Cotswolds. I find these so comforting and quaint enough to intrigue me with the language, landscape descriptions, and characters. However, I have to wonder if rural England has now lost much of what Dora Saint describes, in terms of the old "mom & pop" stores in the village, folk walking everywhere, vast old farms set in remote lanes, constant teas with scones and biscuits, charming rectors who intervene in villagers problems, pristine forests, etc. (In the Sixties, when I visited the UK, Miss Read was an accurate depiction).

bookmom, Try and hang in there with Homes' This Book Will Save Your Life. I found it ridiculous and enlightening at the same time. How easily we can remove oursleves or get involved in lives of others held fascination for me, as well as that there is good in almost everyone...somewhere.

PAM

Just finished The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips - loved it. Very different from his new novel, which I read first. Really a good summer novel, not fluffy but not overly thought-provoking or depressing. Very entertaining and a satisfying but enigmatic ending. Interesting use of deux au machina too. I will probably read his first novel sometime this summer, Prague. On the table right now, though, is The House Near Paris by Drue Tartiere, which I was fortunate to obtain via interlibrary loan.

PAM, thanks for the encouragement--I'll finish it because it is my bookclub's choice.. though I'm halfway through and neither the story nor the style is clicking for me.

Martin, how are you doing on Dead Souls? I am reading Wuthering Heights via dailylit.com, but in a greedy and unintended way. This morning, I read 7 installments... just depends on how much earlier I get up before the rest of the family.

just finished a definite "womens" book but I loved it, flighty or not-Julia's Chocolates by Cathy Lamb. it may appeal to anyone who enjoyed Billie Letts book-Where The Heart Is. It made me happy to read it.

Mmm, sometimes I like flighty, esp if chocolate is in the title (and I loved Where the Heart Is)

Planning to start Widow of the South next

I am reading the Stephen Booth mystery books - this one is the 5th in the series - One Last Breath.
Booth sets his mysteries in the Peak Distict of England and has great characterizations and descriptions of the area. Sometimes I think when reading him that he loves the geography & history of Derbyshire and just sets his mysteries there so he can write about the countryside-always fascinating and very enjoyable.

Pat

Finished Changing Places today-it was enjoyable but very predictable.

I just finished Larry McMurtry's When the Light Goes. It is a continuation of the story of Duane Moore who we first met in The Last Picture Show. It was a quick read. It seems to address the topic of people's insecurities about their sexual performance. Some of it was more than I wanted to know. It was okay.

Just finished Lynda LaPlante's new one, The Red Dahlia. It appears to be the second in the series starring Det. Inspector Anna Travis. It's a murder mystery and a body is found in London that bears striking resemblance to the Black Dahlia murder in 1940's Los Angeles. And the coincidences and similarities keep piling up.

It was a bit plodding in parts, but overall, a good though slightly "dirty" mystery. I kept on turning the pages and left off the dusting and the dishes just to read another chapter... that's always a good sign. Upon closing the back cover, I was satisfied with the ending. Highly recommended if you are an Elizabeth George fan.

Just ordered The Woman in Black, The Haunting of Hill House and Murder in the Adirondacks. Thanks to all who suggested them on other threads! They'll be here anytime between I dunno... 2 and 67 days.

I have no clue what-so-ever what in the world I will read next. The only decision I can make right now is that it is definitely time for tea.

PAM

Having completely typed my hand into cramped pain today due to a July 6th deadline, I made tea and settled down to begin The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart-prolonging (I thought) the pleasure by first carefully reading the introduction by Phyllis A. Whitney...who gave away plot details like nobody's business and who should definitely know better, being an author of suspense novels herself. I'm a bit peeved at her, but will read on anyway, as I have wanted to read this classic crime novel for quite some time. However, note to self-read the introduction AFTER the story from now on!

ccr, yikes (both to your hand, and the intro) I hate when that happens, in intros, reviews, whatever.

>The only decision I can make right now is that it is definitely time for tea.

Hee, there are some days thats the only decision I can make!

Finished reading Widow of the South. This really could have been an excellent first novel. He had an excellent story, a true account of a woman in Tennessee who's home was the field hospital during the battle of franklin, and 1500 soldiers are buried in her land. He starts out great - but then he throws in this love story that doesn't make sense, has this woman doing things that would be totally out of character, and well, it well down hill from there. Pity - the guy obviously knows his stuff, and based on the first part of the book, knows how to write. He just hasn't learned to stick with his story. But the one good thing is that I learned about something I didn't know before, and now I need to find some good nonfiction about the account.

Here is a link that might be useful: Widow of the South

Cindy, my stepson lives in Franklin, Tennessee, and we go there once or twice a year to see him. It's a truly beautiful area, and I always enjoy visiting there. If you like, the next time I'm there, I'll pop in a bookstore and see if there are any recommended local histories that might be good accounts. Sadly, it might be a few months before I'm there again. I'll try to remember to ask my stepson as well, although he is not a reader and probably won't know what to recommend.

I've gotten through the fourth Harry Potter book and am enjoying reading them again. I've been so immersed in them that I dreamed about Harry every night for three nights in a row and even recall one dream where I was attempting to ride a Nimbus 2000. It didn't go well. I vaguely remember clutching it in fear as I flew through the clouds, but I recall very clearly some sort of death spiral.

I'm reading What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman right now since it's due at the library soon.

Chris in the valley,

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I went back through my book list and realized the one I was mixing up with the Egyptologist was Cleopatra's Sister by Penelope Lively. I had looked at the Egyptologist at Barnes and Noble which is why it sounded familiar.

PAM, Did you find A Northern Light and Murder in the Adirondacks? Just wondering if you found them as interesting as I did.

Thanks to another post here (I forget who recommended this), I checked out The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden. I hadn't read anything by her before and enjoyed it immensely. Because of that, I went to the library to find more of her works. This evening, I sat down with An Episode of Sparrows and looked up an hour or so later to realize that it was after 7 and I hadn't started dinner yet. After dinner, I sat down with it and finished it. I really like it when a book catches hold of me like that.

color, thanks for offering! If you do find out anything, I'd love to hear about it (in the back of the book Hicks lists a bibliography; that probably would be a good place for me to start in the meantime, nu?)

Just finished HP book 6. >blinks tears out of eyesOnly three and a half more weeks to go...

I will be SOOOO annoyed if my copies don't make it to Greece...

Rouan-so glad you enjoyed Rumer Godden.

I'm still hooked on the Miss Read series, thankfully out in paperback. I'm trying to figure out why I like these so much, while I hated the Jan Karon "Mitford" books.

(By the way, what is a "tied" house, for those of you who know England better than I?)

I am waiting for "On Chesil Beach" to come from the library, at present.

Rouen, glad you liked "The Greengage Summer." (It was I who recommended this). I usually have to re-read it every other year. I adore the family in it and the setting.

Mary, a 'tied house/cottage' is a property owned by one's employer. So it could be a vicarage/rectory or a gardener's cottage on an estate or maybe just a farm labourer's cottage in a village.
Until recently (and the law may have changed) when/if a worker changed jobs he would leave the property. Difficulties used to arise where for eg a 'worker' had died leaving a wife and children as there was nothing to require the owner to allow them to stay on in the house, especially if another family needed it. If a worker got the sack the family was usually thrown out.
We live in a village that used to contain many tied properties lived in by the agricultural labourers who worked for the local land-owner. As less people are needed to work on the land thanks to modern machinery these places are rented out in the normal way to anyone willing to pay rent at the going rate.
The advantages for those still living under the old system is that the Estate provides them with free fire wood, carries out any repairs and can offer them a 'new' place to live out their days as they have built a small block of retirement homes.
Up to WWII, when times were hard, young men from the village were helped to emigrate to New Zealand as the then owner had been the Governor General of that country.
I know the system sounds very patriarchal to those from the Land of the Free . . . and maybe that's why your ancestors originally left Europe. ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Workers on our local estate.

Veer, here they are called company towns and they flourished in coal mining communities decades ago. Maybe still, for all I know. The mining company built the houses and ran the stores, generously extending credit until "I owe my soul to the company store" and no one could quit and move on. My grandfather was a miner for a while and my grandmother told me, as a cautionary tale, about those caught up in the company web. For those willing to save rather than spend, it was a decent deal.

I am also reading "The Greengage Summer" by Rumer Goddin and enjoying it. It's perfect for summer time!

I have a plane trip on Thurs so I need to pick a good book or two for that. Choices, choices....

Veer and Chris. The estates of a large and wealthy family that made their money during the "robber baron" era of US history are near my home. Along the fringes are many duplex homes that were for their house staff to live in...mainly Irish immigrants. It was only in the last 25 years or so, that they ceased to be rental property (which was the first step after being servants quarters.) The house staff still lived there...renting them. About 25 years ago, they went on the market...and some families tied to the original immigrants did purchase some of them.

rouan, yes, thank you. I did order Murder in the Adirondacks and it should be here in a few days. I didn't get the other one yet. Figured I should read one first and see if I am interested in reading more.

PAM

Chris and Veronicae, I should have mentioned the housing owned by the various mining and milling companies in the UK; I don't think any of these co's actually had their own towns.
By today's standards they were totally substandard with no water or sanitation laid on, probably just a stand-pipe and privy in the yard shared with many families.
A cheap method of building was the back to back house. These were built in rows or blocks so the back wall of one house shared the back wall of the one behind with the 'back' houses reached through narrow alleys. This meant that there was only a single window in the one room on each floor. Often, even these crowded places were subdivided with a family on each of the two/three floors. They were breeding grounds for all kinds of diseases and bugs. Most of them were pulled down in the '60's and replaced by 'high rise' blocks of flats that, in their turn, are being replaced by 'low-level' housing.

Mary does this answer your question?

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:2117364}}

Vee, yes, thanks. When I lived in West Virginia many years, I recall seeing the remains of some "company towns" where the miners lived, all just alike, in a row, with the "company store." Likewise, in North Carolina, there were "Mill towns", similarly, where workers often toiled in horrific conditions.

There are several Levittowns in the U.S., although some have since changed their name-the one in NJ is now Willingboro. They were mass-produced suburbs built by William Levitt and his sons for the returning WW II soldiers and the growing middle-class who wanted to own their own home-the American dream. He planned the whole community-roads, houses, landscaping (they ALL had the same shrubs and trees in the yard, and were provided detailed instructions on how to care for them) shops, churches, schools, open space-and the houses were built assembly-line style, with specialists in one area of construction moving from house to house doing their one job. William Levitt tried to cater to every need, so the residents could find everything nearby.

I just posted the info below on the bio/autobio thread. I'm also finishing Good Omens, which I was partway through when it had to go back to the library. Then I have to read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult for my book group.

I just picked up Mockingbird by Charlie Shields, the unauthorized bio of Harper Lee. He interviewed 600 people, but Lee herself would never speak with him and she refused to even provide corrections when asked.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorite books, and I've always been interested in Lee. I hope this book sheds some light on this enigmatic individual.

I also just bought Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick, which looks very interesting.

Am continuing to read various translations of The Divine Comedy - presently, a prose version from Borders Classics (no info on who translated/adapted it) without illustrations; Longfellow's translation, without illustrations but with notes written by Longfellow; and a post-modern adaptation of The Inferno by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders with terrific illustrations by Birk done Dore' style, but with Hell being Los Angeles.

Other reading:

Bury the Lead - a fairly entertaining mystery by David Rosenfelt.

Gilead - a definite 10 on a scale of 1-10, IMO, by Marilynne Robinson. Will read it again this summer. Rare and beautiful.

Going to the cabin for a spell, and am bringing Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden. Godden is a new author for me, but because of all the positive remarks about her on this forum, she will be part of this summer's reading. Looking forward to it.

I have Collected Stories of Muriel Spark that was mentioned on another thread and am enjoying it tremendously. She writes with such precision and dark humor. Thanks to grelobe for recommending it!

Middlesex continues to please me. There's a description of the Ford assembly line that is like a symphony, with a repeated theme line, and a musical effect, that was especially apparent when I read it aloud to my husband.

I have to thank all of you; I just picked up another load of books from the library. I now have The Ways of My Grandmothers by Beverly Hungry Wolf, Mr Skeffington by Elizabeth von Arnim, and River-Horse and PrairyErth by William Least Heat Moon as well as a couple of others that I requested on my own: Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris and Friends in High Places by Marne Davis Kellogg. Now see what you have done to me! LOL

Now I just have to decide which to give up so I can read this weekend, housework or gardening. hmmmm...I think it's a clear choice. Reading wins out over housework anyday!

the dust is always with us.....but the books must be returned before their due date.

I just finished, in one quick rainy afternoon, the first in the Dido mysteries-Death's Autograph- and I liked it. Attractive characters and a believable mystery. And I love Dido's dad, Barnabas. Spunky retired Oxford professor, Signal Corps codebreaker during the war, and very very clever.
And I learned that the first Dido was the Queen who founded Carthage.
According to legend, anyway.

>According to legend, anyway. cc - I think the legend you mean might be the Aeneid by the ancient poet, Virgil. I am reading the Aeneid (a chapter a day) through dailylit.com, which martin z presented to Reader's Paradise Forum a while back. It's been great fun to have a chapter of the Aeneid appear in email every day. Also fun to see that Dido's name is still making an appearance in literature.

I've just finished Jeannette Wells' The Glass Castle and it is a wonderful memoir. It was also very painful to read as I've known a couple of people who grew up in similar circumstances and I was re-experiencing their pain as I read.

Just finished Ian McEwan's newest, "On Chesil Beach," which I read almost at one sitting. At first, I was thinking this was one of his weakest, but now that I am mulling it over, I've reversed my prior conclusion. I know this story will stay with me and the writing is superb, in my view.

I particularly liked the way the author portrayed that time period of England, under H. MacMillan, in the Forties and Fifties, as well as the now vanished rural countryside, where one might traverse meadows and forests, wandering between quaint villages. Really, in this novel, McEwan is depicting a vanished society. So it all goes much deeper than the bare outlines of the plot.

Colormeconfused, I think you wanted to discuss the ending of this? What was it about the finale that troubled you?

Did anyone else see any symbolism in the bird singing at the end -- the bride wants it to be a nightingale, but the groom tells her it is a blackbird....

Postscript. This might be a good book to discuss here, provided enough posters have read it....

Woodnymph, I agree with you about the symbolism at the end of On Chesil Beach. To those who haven't read the book, the following contains MILD SPOILERS: What bothered me about the ending premise of the book is probably a result of my own upbringing and may be a difference in culture or socio-economic status during the 1960's. McEwan made the effort to let the reader know that this event happened before the sexual revolution, when unmarried couples were expected to be chaste and modest. It didn't make sense to me that pre-marital sex was taboo and not even discussed, and yet, when things didn't go according to plan on the wedding night, the outcome was to immediately abandon the marriage (on the wedding night, no less)and run home to file for divorce. That seemed like a very contemporary solution. It was my thought that it wasn't until the sexual revolution of the 1960's that divorce was more accepted and utilized. The idea that a couple was so morally "upright" (sorry, I couldn't think of a beter word) that they didn't even really talk about sex before the wedding would automatically consider divorce after a rather unfortunate sexual experience on the wedding night didn't seem logical to me. Maybe that's a misunderstanding on my part of the mores and expectations during that time.

I've just started The Jewel of Covent Garden by Wayne Worcester. It is another purported newly discovered Dr. Watson story of Sherlock Holmes by an author I've not read before, but it starts well and suits me on a rainy afternoon after I've finished the cleaning (at least as soon as I can tear myself away from you all).

chris, since you just read The Glass Castle, I am just wondering how you feel about it. My book club read it a while ago and we were split... some of us felt quite sorry for her and the hardships she faced, others of us thought it was heavily "padded" with sympathetic stories. What are your thoughts?

PAM

I just finished the new Stephanie Plum, Lean Mean Thirteen and it was definitely good. I think the overall goofiness of the set up and her family have become so familiar now that they're not particularly laugh-inducing anymore. However, the introduction of a taxidermist to the story definitely helped the laugh factor. Lots of Ranger time, and a good, fun, fast summer read.

Veronica, I absolutely LOVED Middlesex. I'm looking forward to a re-read at some point.

Next up, I think, will be a re-read of HP and the Half-Blood Prince before the new one arrives.

Pam, I, too, read it for a group discussion. I didn't think it was padded, but one of our number thought she saw an editor's touch and felt it was very much a check-list kind of memoir. I did not. I thought it was written as unsentimentally as possible. She didn't judge her parents and she didn't wallow in the misery of her upbringing. I've actually known a couple of people not so different from the author and the stories were very familiar to me. The hiding out in the bathroom to avoid other kids seeing that she never had food for lunch made me ache because I remember my friend telling me the same story. (Said friend has turned into a workaholic who brings home a seven figure income, but she still struggles with the issues.) Another friend depended upon the goodness of school friends and their mothers to survive and she went on to get a couple of ivy league degrees and a successful career, so that part of it was entirely believable to me also. People can overcome their beginnings and thrive. In short, this all rang true and unexaggerated to me.

PAM, our book club read The Glass Castle a couple of months ago and our discussion night turned out to pretty emotional and difficult for several members of our 10 person club. This lead me to believe that the situations in the book really do happen in real life more often than we might want to believe. The evening was so tough on some in our gals that we finally had to break off the book discussion and move on to happier subject matter.

Jodi-

I read The Glass Castle when it first came out. I was totally amazed by her memoir. Just finished Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner. I'm now reading John Katzenbach's The Analyst and Flirting With Danger by Siobhan Darrow, which is a memoir. They are all good. I was glued to my seat (almost literally) by John Katzenbach's The Wrong Man-an excellent thriller; also finished the second book of Beverly Connor's mystery series -my daughter grabbed them both but I'm pretty sure Bk.1 is One Grave Too Many and Bk. 2 is Dead Guilty.

Now reading Paul Collins Banvard's Folly: stories of people who did not change the world, and Pavillion of Women by Pearl S Buck (that someone here recommended.) Considering I've been in a book drought lately its nice to have a few on my table actually being read!

Interesting comments about The Glass Castle. Before I read it, a librarian friend told me it was OK but felt, as some have indicated, that it was repetitive and "padded." After reading it for my bookclub, I disagreed. Really, how does one "pad" a memoir when writing about what happened to oneself? It strikes me as discomfort on the part of the reader more than anything else.

When we discussed it in my bookclub, noone felt it was overdone. What surprised me was that some of our members felt the family situation was ultimately the mother's fault and that she was an enabler for the father's alcoholism--and my bookfriends with this view were ones with alcoholism in their own or their parents' lives.

color, I'm thinking about what you wrote above re "Chesil Beach" and would have to agree. The sudden split did seem rather hasty, in my view. Well, it was extreme, I think. I would have to agree with your points.

Did you, at some point, wonder about the father-daughter relationship in her youth, whether it was, er, less than wholesome? It crossed my mind that if so, then this would explain her behavior. But then does the author just want to hint at this and leave it up to the reader to decide?

Just finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a fast, intriguing read.

I'm thinking about starting A Changed Man by Francine Prose next. Has that one been discussed here? I've also got Blue Latitudes by Tony Horowitz, another library book, sitting on my nightstand. Hmmm.

Woodnymph, I'm glad that what I was thinking wasn't totally off the wall. The extreme reaction and resulting divorce didn't make sense to me, but I thought maybe I was missing something and just didn't understand. I also wondered about the relationship between the father and the daughter. Whether or not it was, as you say, less than wholesome, I would have to think that in some way it was unhealthy at least. Something didn't seem right, that's for certain. And you're right. It would certainly explain her behavior and her attitude about sex.

I've been sucked into the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. There are like 28 books in the series and I'm dreading reading the last. Thankfully Pratchett seems to be a prolific writer so hopefully the saga will continue. Discworld isn't my usual genre, I tend to lean more towards the literary end but I am sure glad I fell into these. Any other Discworld fans out there?