Vee..An Oyster farm, that should give you a clue to her behaviour!

I finally finished Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari". Basically this is about his long journey from Cairo to Capetown in 2003, with a comparison as to his time spent in Africa in the 60's, as a Peace Corps worker. Theroux is candid in his opinions and does not sugar-coat any facts or events. He has formed his own strong opinion on why Africa, with its various tribes and nations has not prospered, despite all the foreign aid it receives from many Western nations. I found his exploration of the various cultures fascinating, albeit at times shocking, and learnt a lot of history I'd never known re "the dark continent."

I've just started Broken Harbor by Tana French. I have liked the other books I've read by her. Have the new James Lee Burke waiting (my very own copy), as well as three other library books.

I'm just about to start the epically long London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins, and am continuing a read about how "highly sensitive people" can stand up in the world. If you like that Quiet book which was a bestseller earlier this year, then you would probably like this one if you haven't already read it. (This one is a bit older -- 1997 -- but is still relevant for its comments.)

I finished my first Kate Atkinson book, Started Early, Took my Dog, and then my book club selected her new book, Life After Life. So, I'm currently on an Atkinson binge, which is great. I like her writing and they are completely different books. I will say, for both books at the beginning, it is a little difficult to keep all the characters straight, especially if I put it down for a few days. Hopefully this is not an early sign of dementia for me.

I also started Artful by Ali Smith, but I'm disappointed so far.

I have run out of my favorite mystery authors so read Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl since it had been laying around the house for a few years. Very enjoyable.

I seem to be on a travelogue reading jag. I am about to finish Rob Gifford's "China Road." The author is a NPR reporter who spent years living in China. This NF work details his travels along the Silk Road, through the Gobi Desert from East to West, into finally Russia. He writes with verve, insight, and humor and I am thoroughly enjoying the journey.

I have started The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway, her first book, and I am really liking it. It is a time travel story.

Vanishing Point a whodunnit by Patricia Wentworth was a not very engaging read written in the '50's with so little 'plot' it could have been called Vanishing Pointless.
Now reading the strange and rather morbid The Black Monk by Anton Chekhov; at least it is short. ;-)

I've just finished A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Quite good, but I didn't really connect with it. It's part of the Century project and those interested can find my comments on it in that thread.

I am rereading the Roderick Alleyn books by Ngaio Marsh now and have reached Artists in Crime.

Some light summer reading fare for me includes the final volume of The Hunger Games trilogy (Mockingjay) which is fun and action-packed so far.

My other read is London Belongs to Me by Normal Collins which I am really enjoying. (It also fits into the CoB project.) The volume that I own is 700+ pages and may well set a new record for tiniest print ever. It's a bit OTT in all the action that these house-mates get into, but it's fun all the same.

Some light summer reading fare for me includes the final volume of The Hunger Games trilogy (Mockingjay) which is fun and action-packed so far.

My other read is London Belongs to Me by Normal Collins which I am really enjoying. (It also fits into the CoB project.) The volume that I own is 700+ pages and may well set a new record for tiniest print ever. It's a bit OTT in all the action that these house-mates get into, but it's fun all the same.

Some light summer reading fare for me includes the final volume of The Hunger Games trilogy (Mockingjay) which is fun and action-packed so far.

My other read is London Belongs to Me by Normal Collins which I am really enjoying. (It also fits into the CoB project.) The volume that I own is 700+ pages and may well set a new record for tiniest print ever. It's a bit OTT in all the action that these house-mates get into, but it's fun all the same.

Still reading London Belongs to Me.... :-)

I have finally gotten around to reading Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, which was discussed here several years back now, so i was thankful to find that the discussion is still here! I found the creepiest aspect of the book was how the poltergeist was never really explained (after thinking about it this morning, I came to the same conclusion that Froniga explained so well in her post on the TLS thread), and kicked myself for finishing it up just in time to go to bed in a dark bedroom. So I quickly turned to another book (Pratchett's Dodger), and read a chapter to turn my mind to another topic before turning out the light. :)

I finished my travel-themed books and am now trying to re-read Hardy's "Tess of the Durbervilles." This went way over my head in high school. I am struck by the author's sensitivity to womens' issue -- surely far ahead of his time, as this was written in 1891. I seem to recall a long-ago discussion we had on this forum on "The Mayor of Casterbridge."

Finished The Enchanted April. So nice to read a positive book with a Happy Ending! I'll write more about it on Liz's century of Books page.
Now reading The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen . . . good so far.

Still reading London Belongs to Me...

So - where is everyone? It's quiet here right now. Perhaps it's just the end of the summer... (We've just had the most amazing rainstorms two nights in a row. What a treat for us semi-arid desert dwellers!)

Lemon, I am checking the posts but haven't anything to contribute at present. We are in the middle of Winter and the weather is terrible! Rain and howling winds are making me miserable and I moved into another area of the retirement village recently and am still trying to fit everything into the new set-up.
I just feel more like looking at pleasant TV programs or DVDs than reading. Perhaps I can pick up a book again when I feel more settled?

I recently borrowed from the library one of their recommended 'book of the month' titles The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen and found, to my surprise, that I really enjoyed it.
It takes its title from a real incident in the remote Western Isle of Benbecula , when a bear escaped from a circus. and remained free for about a month.
The actual story revolves round a 'diplomatic family' who come to their Scottish holiday home to get over the death of the Father in 'strange' circumstances in the then East Germany.
Pollen does a good job describing the off-beat Islanders, the distracted Mother and the left-to-their-own-devices children, especially the truly horrendous middle daughter and her nastiness to her little autistic brother.
The book does jump about from the 'then' of Germany to the 'now' of Scotland plus some strange bear happenings but once over that hurdle it is a gripping read.
.

I am almost finished with The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley. I am not usually a fan of either science fiction or romance, but I love Ms. Kearsley's books. This one goes back and forth between present-day England/Scotland and the Russia of Peter the Great.

I finished Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and am really glad I re-visited it. By the end, I could not put it down. I've seen 2 film versions, but I don't think they do justice to this classic.

Did anyone here archive Hardy's "Mayor of Casterbridge" when we had our discussion on this forum?

Reading of the "Enclosures" and how it changed the English landscape, has made me dig out my copy of "Lark Rise to Candleford" for a re-read.

My computer suffered a nervous collapse, and had to be rushed into repair. Said repair took two weeks! That period is the longest I have been without a computer, and internet, since way back in the 1990s. You never realize how dependent you have become on technology, until you are forced to exist without it. The first week was sort of an adventure. The second week was like something out of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. I am a little embarrassed now how morose I became.

During the first week I read four books, though technically one was started ages ago. The first book was my first Dorothy L. Sayers mystery: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, which I absolutely loved. I have not enjoyed a mystery so much in awhile. I have no idea why I put off reading Sayers for so long.

The second book I completed was Suite Francaise, which I enjoyed, and yet kept putting down and not touching for weeks. I guess I felt the ghost of Irene Nemirovsky over my shoulder as I read the book. It is difficult, however, to be truly objective about a book which was neither completed, nor edited, and whose author died in the Holocaust. It is a wonderful book, but it comes with a lot of baggage.

The third title was a slim volume of Miss Marple stories The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie. A few good stories, but on the whole not a very memorable effort on Christie's part.

The fourth was another book of short stories and pieces, Dawn Powell's Sunday, Monday, and Always. It is a reprint of the only published book of Powell stories printed in her lifetime. For the reprint, editor Tim Page included some of her best stories, which for some inexplicable reason never appeared in book form. The stories at the beginning of the book were not very strong, and read more like very compressed characters sketches. Powell, however, hits her stride and the majority of the book is unforgettable. Powell was such a hardscrabble writer, one who loved people, even when they're at the worst, but refused to sentimentalize them. The result are stories which are sad, funny, and very human. The book also included one non-fiction piece, Powell's famous What are you doing in my dreams?, about her relationship with dead loved ones. It sounds macabre, but I found it a funny, sweet meditation on the dreams, memory, time, and how our subconscious keeps alive our relationships with our lost loved ones. I believe it was the last piece she published during her difficult, last years.

I've been rereading the Roderick Alleyn books by Ngaio Marsh at an almost furious pace and analysing them as I go, but right now I am reading Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson. It's a delicious comedy of manners and I am enjoying it very much. Wikipedia tells me there is a TV series based on the first three books in the series and I think I will seek it out once I have finished the book.

I have started Light of the World, the latest Dave Robicheaux by James Lee Burke. I have always loved Burke's writing; it is lyrical in spite of his books being detective novels. It seems to me, though, that his pschopaths are becoming more psycho and the bad stuff is getting worse. This one started out creating a feeling of dread in me.

Does anyone else read him and have comments? I'm thinking I will go back and read the first book in the series to see if I'm remembering correctly. I know there has always been violence in them.

Netla, I have the DVD set of Mapp and Lucia. They are well cast and quite delightful. I think you will enjoy them. I came across these books when I went to the UK and even went to Rye, (Tilling) saw the places mentioned in the books and bought a postcard from the local bookshop which depicts a scene from them. I use it as a bookmark.

I'm reading Carl Hiaasen's Bad Monkey, which is just the thing for the end of August. He's reliably hilarious and his convoluted plots and over-the-top characters are always a pleasure.

Next up: The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro for my bookgroup.

Finally completed London Belongs to Me which was rather a slog in the end. Not bad, but I thought it went on a bit. (Would have made a good soap opera on TV which is not surprising when I learned that Collins (the author) worked in the TV industry. I think it was made in a TV series in the end?)

And then a zippy read through Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899) which I enjoyed. It's thought to be a Feminist classic, but Chopin herself didn't intend it to be that way. (Although it's difficult to see how an author could write this story and not have a feminist slant...) Perhaps she was going for individual freedom as opposed to being linked with one gender...

And now starting a YA non-fiction collection of letters and diaries from a variety of women, famous and not, who illustrate what life was like in early America and up to 1990. Obviously, just a glance at things as its scope is so big, but fun to read. Abigail Adams gets remembered for her letter to her President hubby - "remember the ladies" -- he absolutely didn't, writing back that he didn't want to "subject [men] to the despotism of the petticoat..."

Interesting. The more things change....

I just finished INFERNO by Dan Brown.
A good read with an unexpected ending.

Not sure what to read next.....
Distant Hours by Kate Morton?
The Venetian Affair by Steve Berry ?

I am currently reading "Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric. This is based upon events in Bosnia, beginning with the construction of the bridge during the Ottoman Empire rule, ending with its destruction during WW I. This is part of the assigned readings for my college class on History of Eastern Europe.

I've just started Lexicon by Max Barry, and so far it's really pulled me in. It's early yet, but it reminds me a bit of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, which I loved. It's been a long time since I've started a book that I can't wait to get back to. A promising start!

I ordered and have just read two Susanna Kearsley books that the library didn't have and I couldn't find locally--The Splendour Falls and Season of Storms. I think I have now read all her books and enjoyed them but probably should have spaced them out a bit more.

I've just finished Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by the ever-inquisitive Mary Roach. As might be expected it was funny but also full of interesting facts and observations and information on the weird and sometimes wacky research behind interesting discoveries.

I have had "The Heist" by Janet Evanovich on loan for weeks and can NOT get into it. I usually gulp down the Plum books in one sitting if possible. Possibly the characters are too ...oh, I don't know...I just cannot relate to them!

Netla - I adore Mary Roach and her writing. She came to campus one day for a talk, and she was absolutely hilarious. Really recommend that anyone see her if she comes your way - truly interesting and funny way to spend your evening.

I have just finished Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller (1998), a debut novel by a daughter of a Korean immigrant wife and her white US missionary husband who now live in Hawaii. The books flips back and forth between the daughter's present time PoV and the mother's (now dead) PoV and the cultural/generational clashes that arise. The mother can see spirits and goes into trances - a gift that she believes she was given after having suffered as a "comfort woman" to the Japanese troops when they invaded Korea.

Not a straight-forward narrative and quite a bit of magical realism (naturally, since we see some of it from the mother's PoV). Normally not a big fan of this, but this book worked for me once I got the hang of the writing style.

Not a happy book, but a good one with a strong ending. I also liked learning about the various beliefs and customs for some of the villages in Korea - fascinating. (Still not a big fan of kim chee.)

:-)

Just enjoyed Island Summer: Memoires of a Norwegian Childhood by Tilly Culme-Seymour.
A very small island (no more than dot-let on a map) situated at the very Southern tip of Norway facing Denmark, in the gulf known as the Skagerrak, purchased by the Grandmother of the writer . . . or possibly swapped for a fur coat in 1947, is the setting. A small house/cabin was built and three generations of the family have lived there during the long summer days, fishing, swimming, living off the small amount of land.
Today this area is something of a millionaires playground and luckily Grandmother came from the famous shipping-line family of Fred Olsen, otherwise this sort of life would have been seriously money-draining.
T C-S writes knowledgeable about traditional Norwegian cookery, mostly warming simple food . . . the sort of book that Frieda (were she 'here') might enjoy. A pleasant, undemanding summer read.

My final book of August was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's a perfect combination of science writing, biography and memoir. Recommended to anyone interested in medicine, biology and biography.