Did some travelling this weekend and made a serious dent in "Count of Monte Cristo" which I am really enjoying (despite the fact that I kept falling asleep over it last night).

Finished up "The Boy with the Top Knot" autobiography, good but not stunning.

Dipping into this year's "Best American Travel Writing" book for 2009, edited by Simon Winchester and looks good, but then I love this series of books.

Also started "Class Matters" by the staff of the NYT which is a study of how class is treated in America (socio-economic class). I have heard many people say that America is "classless" with regard to middle class, working class etc. and this book is a collection of essays exploring that idea: how does class affect American life nowadays? The essays cover the past twenty years, so it should be interesting to see if there have been any big changes over the years... Also, should be interesting to compare with the recent class-related book I read about England not long ago....

I am reading Her Fearful Symmetry,by Audrey Niffenegger.

And ejoying, I am half way thru. Very strange characters and a very likable ghost.The setting is next door to Highgate Cemetery,London.

Have any of us read Barbara Kingsolver's-Prodigal Summer? I shall try for The Bean Trees at my library.

Vee, Thanks for posting that info. I had always wondered what on earth a "Margrave" was. :-)

Junek, I read and loved Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer." It was just my cup of tea. Let us know what you think of it.

I have quite a dilemma - I am enjoying Byatt's The Children's Book very much, but it is long and dense. I have two much shorter books beckoning, and the shorter books have to be returned to the library in less than a week - so - hmmmm, writing this makes the decision rather easy. (The Byatt is also from the library, but I have two weeks left.)

The shorter books are Stewart O'Nan's Songs for the Missing and The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan.

Barbara Kingsolver has a new book coming out on November 3 called The Lacuna. Copied from a review, "a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breachÂthe lacunaÂbetween truth and public presumption." I'm looking forward to it, but I hope she isn't as preachy in it as she has been in the last few of her books. I, too, loved The Bean Trees.

woodnymph
I did so love Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, just like you it "was just my cup of tea". Wonderful setting your Appalachian Mountains and the wonderful characters with their stories living in the valley. The leading lady she really was somthing special. I followed it up with Poisenwood Bible but it was not my cup of tea (did not finish). I shall look forward to Bean Trees.
I am new to this wonderful site, an Aussie, I have been surfing the net for so long and I think that I have struck gold. Lots of movement, which is what I like.
There will strange time lapses in my postings compared to your time.

Holy Cow! was interesting - a woman's search for spirituality among India's religious groups, discovering they all had something she admired but also something she detested. She ultimately found peace within herself, but upon finishing the final chapter my first thought was "congratulations, you grew up!"

Am now reading Petronius, The Satyricon.

I have this month so far read three of Elizabeth Strout's books.
Abide With Me.
Amy and Isabelle.
Olive Kitteridge. All very good especially
Olive Kitteridge,Elizabeth won 2009 Pulitzer Prize for ficton with Olive. Please read, I would so love to discuss, especially Olive Kitteridge.

junek, I'm an Aussie too, and you will find that we have people from all around the world here, some of whom stay up funny hours, so there is posting pretty much 24 hours a day.
I'm reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and it is every bit as good, maybe better, than the others. I will report in when finished.

astrokath,
Hi there fellow Aussie. I have read the first of the three,Dragon Tattoo, and did enjoy, I just loved our leading lady.At one stage her dress sense was described as "she must have been suffering from colour blindness".

Have you had any luck with on-line book discussions in Australia?. I belong to First Tuesday Book Club however it in not a patch on this site. In fact it seems to be dying.

I just finished a collection of Sookie Stackhouse short stories by Charlaine Harris titled A Touch of Dead. I enjoyed the series so much this past summer and it was great fun to dip into it again. For anyone interested, according to her website the new Sookie book will be available in May of 2010.

I'm currently reading Medicus by Ruth Downie. It's set in Roman Britain and features a down-on-his-luck doctor who is drawn into a murder mystery. I'm not a big mystery reader, but the setting and characters are quite different and I like it so far.

Junek, I've read and enjoyed Olive Kitteridge -- some stories more than others -- but I thought Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves, also nominated and one of the Finalists, was the better novel. Still, OK is a very fine read and Olive's distinctive (curmudgeonly) voice is one of the many pleasures of the book.

Reading 'Killer Cruise' by Laura Levine. I am a bad person! I find the emails from the parents that pop up between the chapters in the main story so funny that I read them all first.
The new Kerry Greenwood 'Forbidden Fruit' is on my request list at the library. My favourite Aussie mystery writer but I shall put on weight reading about the yummy breads her baker/sleuth makes :-(
Welcome Junek. There are about six of us currently posting from Australia and probably several lurking in the Bush!

annpan, Thanks for the welcome.

I ordered Bean Trees from my library this morning, it is at another branch but available. They ring me when it has arrived.

I have finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a very unusual book whenever I see twins it will bring the novel back to me. Audrey also wrote The Time Traveler's Wife, I have noted that it has has some very good reports from RP.

I have started to read 'A Kiss Before Dying' by Ira Levin, he also wrote Rosemary's Baby. On the back cover it says 'Don't read it on a train..you'll pass your stop' This sounds good to me.

I must give Kerry Greenwood a look see.

Just read The Graveyard by Neil Gaiman and am re-reading with my 10-yr old son. Very interesting and perfect for October. Also read Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr and what a nice surpise - - loved his voice and style. I am presently reading Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart.

astrokath, based on your preliminary review that The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is at least as good as the other two books, I broke down and ordered it today from Amazon.uk. I have to say I did it partly just to see what the process of ordering from another country was like and it was as easy as ordering from the US. My information was instantly available to them. I've never done this before but just couldn't wait until next JUNE to read the book.

Not that I need anything to read, of course. Currently I'm reading Wolf Hall and have The Little Stranger and The Children's Book waiting, along with many others.

I admit it -- I'm a bookaholic and don't want to be cured.

junek - Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer was fabulous. I am so glad you liked it.

siobhan- your interest in goats made me think of Prodigal Summer even before it was mentioned here...have you read it? One of the characters took up raising goats to sell. It might be fun for you to read, if you haven't already.

Am working on the book review column for this magazine for December so am reading Christmas-related books - this is weird for me since it's only October, but it is what it is.

Reviewed Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman" which I just love and am hoping will get more readers this way. I just love Briggs' work and am working on getting all his ouevre. I got Fungus the Bogey Man the other day in a charity shop in England, but haven't had a chance to read that yet. I remember it's disgusting in its way though. :-)

I've been re-reading a lot of old favorites this month, primarily because I couldn't find anything I really felt like reading, but that has changed. Several books that I requested from the library have all come in....at the same time, of course, so now I have a plethora of reading material.

One book that I have been reading sporadically is New Hampshire Child: the Derry Journals of Lesley Frost (daughter of poet Robert Frost). Rosefolly, our youngest sister Sheila, and I traveled to New Hampshire together this summer and visited the early homestead of Robert Frost, his wife and children. There was a copy of this book on the site and I thought it looked interesting. One thing that I had a little trouble with at first, is that the pages are photocopies of Lesley's actual diary pages. It took quite a while for me to get used to her handwriting and spelling (she started these diaries at the age of 4 or 5) and then I discovered an index at the back of the book that elucidates much of the writing which helps a lot.

I also read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I found it interesting but have to admit the part I found most interesting was the first part, set in Italy. It gave me quite an urge to go to Italy and try the food myself! Somehow I don't think that's the impression she meant to leave for her readers.....LOL

I am no longer reading 'A Kiss Before Dying', I put it aside in disgust, rubbish. I value my reading too much to tolerate bad books.I am now reading 'Harland's Half Acre' by David Malouf. It is a very old paper-back, slim (which is to my liking) set in outback Australia and I am so far loving it.

captainbackfire I collected from my library a listening book of Barbara Kingsolver's 'Small Wonder' she is also the reader. I am planning a long bus trip next weekend so this should help the time skip away.

I also ordered from my library 'Forbidden Fruit' Kerry Greenwood, 'Wolf Hall' and 'Plague Of Doves' Louise Erdrich this was mentioned by Georgia peach.
On the library shelf I took out a copy of Louise Erdrich's
'the master butchers singing club' the cover looks great.This author is new to me, maybe another to add to my favourites.

Just finished The September Society by Charles Finch. I liked better his 1st book, A Beautiful Blue Death, but this 2nd book with gentleman sleuth Charles Lenox is still quite good.

I'm not getting to read as much as I would like lately. I recently made the switch from the PC world to the Mac world, and it's been a bit challenging. I'm having to stay in the PC world for some things.

Junek - I'm a Kingsolver fan and I also enjoy Louise Erdrich. Her books can be somewhat dark, but she's an excellent writer.

I finished "Loving Frank," about Frank Lloyd Wright, and enjoyed it. We'll be discussing this at my book group next week. I'm not sure what to read next. I've downloaded several samples onto my Kindle, but nothing has really jumped out at me. I'm in the mood for a Harry Potter-type book, but not a weak imitation. Any suggestions?

Frances, I picked up the Kingsolver at the library today. I haven't read anything of hers and have always meant to, so a book with goats is a good place to start. I do love goats - I have two friends with farms (different people) and both have dairy goats. I love to help out, but I don't think I could structure my life around milking. I read just about everything I can find about goats. (Okay, this probably too weird to be admitting here.)

I returned the two shorter books to the library and dove back into The Children's Book. I just couldn't stop thinking about it; I wanted to know what is going to happen to the characters. I also have The Whole Five Feet - What the great books taught me about life, death, and pretty much everything else by Christopher Beha. This is a memoir about the author's reading of the Harvard Classics. So far, so good.

It is fluff and fun month here for me. I've been turning to easy mysteries as my schedule is not allowing me to read for much longer than 15 mintues at a time. (I do hope that will change - and SOON!).

I read Victoria Thompson's Murder at Waverly Place. Set in Victorian New York, the mystery begins in a seance. When one of the aristocratic attendees is found stabbed during the seance, confusion reigns. This is, I believe, the latest in the series featuring Mrs. Sarah Brandt. It is the first one I've read.

Now onto another light book by Emily Brightwell - Mrs. Jefferies and the Yuletide Weddings. Like I said, it is a book I can read for 15 minutes and then put down. The characters are familiar so only 50% of my attention is needed. I am only on page 40, but so far, I am enjoying it.

My TBR piles and lists are growing by leaps and bounds. I must re-arrange my schedule to allow for more reading. Absolutely must.

PAM

I have just picked up a bookcrossing.com book left at the local train station. I seem to recall seeing a post about this scheme but have never come across any of the books. Not a title that I would normally read but I was interested to check out its journey before I leave it for someone else to find. I must have been an attractor today as I was also given a newspaper by a fellow passenger!

PAM, I have read a few of Victoria Thompson's mysteries and enjoyed them.

I finished The Depth of Winter by Rennie Airth. The setting is WWII with John Madden's children grown. I enjoyed it, but I still like the first of the Madden series best--River of Darkness.

Reading now A Week in October by Elizabeth Subercaseaux. A dying woman records her thoughts and experiences in a journal, which her husband finds.

carolyn, thanks for the positive feedback. The Thompson book was a fun read and the seance/spiritual setting made it intriguing. I knew that the Victorian Era was a hotspot for things spiritual. Now this has piqued my interest to learn more. I know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a big believer, so maybe that's a place to begin. (Perhaps I'll begin a new thread on this topic.)And I will make a list of the Thompson books from stopyourekillingme.com so I can read the rest of them in order.

PAM

Read Kathi Appelt's wonderful children's book, The Underneath, over the weekend. This was a 2009 Newbery Honor book, and I actually liked it better than Gaiman's The Graveyard Book which was the Newbery Medalist for this year. Appelt's book is about an unlikely friendship between an old hound dog and a mama cat and her two kittens. It would be easy to dismiss as just another one of those heart-warming animal tales, but is oh so much more. The summary of the book doesn't mention the mythology that's included in the storyline, but there is some of that and the author does a wonderful job of establishing the setting (Louisiana bayou) as character. For younger children, I would recommend an adult read this first to ensure the emotional themes of the book aren't too heavy, as it does deal with issues of abandonment, neglect, betrayal and cruelty that may require a more mature reader. Anyway... my rambling way of saying this is a lovely book, written in a poetic style, and should not be overlooked by lovers of anthropomorphized animal stories.

Yesterday I finished the third of the Sookie Stackhouse books, Club Dead by Charlaine Harris. I am finding them very entertaining, but think that like the Janet Evanovich ones, I might eventually tire of them.

Currently reading and almost finished with "A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir" by Augusten Burroughs. I read "Running with Scissors" a couple years back and couldn't believe how he was raised and what his mother was like. "A Wolf at the Table" focuses more on his father. Poor, poor kid.

Last night, I finished Emily Brightwell's new title, Mrs. Jeffries and the Yuletide Weddings. It is a cozy mystery and I enjoyed it. Just a few minutes ago, I started reading U is for Undertow, the brand new Kinsey Millhone mystery by Sue Grafton. As usual, I am getting sucked right in! Must run... I've only two hours before my kids' school buses drop them off...time to read!

PAM

On the 15th, Thursday last week, I ordered The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest from Amazon.uk and it arrived in the mail today! That is almost as fast as I would have received a book from Amazon.com with Prime two-day shipping via UPS. I am totally amazed and impressed.

Anyway, now I am in a complete quandry about what to read. I started Wolf Hall, took a break to read Frozen in Time and Ice Blink, bought and ordered four more books concerning polar exploration, and now this book has arrived. What to do? What a lovely problem to have.

I finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest last night, and thought it every bit as good as the others. I am just sorry there won't be another with the same characters. This one was fast paced and horribly plausible in the plot, I thought.

Finished reading "A Wolf at the Table" now reading "Three Cups of Tea"

Not had much time for reading this month as we have been undertaking a much needed house-cleaning . . . at least all the bits that show. It was a good excuse to steel myself to get rid of several tatty paperbacks and a pile of old but mildewing hardbacks.
I finished and quite enjoyed Sarah Waters Little Stranger
and planned to write something pithy on the thread but can't find the envelope on which I wrote my ideas.

Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler. I always enjoy her books, maybe because her characters are so true to life and their situations so ordinary and believable. I don't think anyone here at RP has mentioned reading this.

Hopping by Melanie McGrath. Not about jumping on one leg, but the story of East End of London 'Cockneys' spending the summers in the Hop Gardens of Kent with
good descriptions of the work and living conditions. Whole families in small huts with NO facilities of any sort but preferable to the slum conditions and lack of fresh air back in the London Docks are interesting, but the book was let down by the added 'romantic' element used to pad it out. Perhaps I've just read too many books about the warm-hearted but poor Eastenders . . . lets have a sing-song down the pub, go home and beat the wife and kids and steal anything not nailed down.
I've started on a couple from my TBR pile. Nina Bawden's amusing A Nice Change about a group of holiday makers on a trip to Greece and now The Photograph by Penelope Lively.

lemonhead, I forgot to ask the first time I saw your post. Did you ever read Raymond Briggs' book Ethel and Ernest? It is like a graphic novel but tells the story of his parents' marriage. It is a wonderful book. I usually read it once a year.

I requested Mary Roach's book Spook and a few other titles about seances and spiritualism from the library.

Sue Grafton is ON in her new Kinsey Millhone book, U is for Undertow. I cannot put it down! I started it yesterday and will probably finish it tonight. It is the best Kinsey in quite some time.

Next up - my daughter (12) and I are reading Bram Stoker's Dracula together. This will be her first reading, and my fifth. It is a perfect time of year for her to read Dracula for the first time and I am thrilled she asked me to read it with her and discuss it! Afterward, we will watch the 1977 Frank Lagella (sp?) version of the movie.

PAM

Well, I'm almost done with the first of Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh trilogy, Here Be Dragons. While the research is impeccable and she tells a good story, I have to say it falls flat next to Dorothy Dunnett. IMO, of course, but she lacks the humor and the bursts of derring-do of DD. I love Dunnett because she's so completely over the top.

I also think that Penman is constrained by concentrating on the actual historical characters, rather than inventing characters that interact with, and comment on, the real people of the time. The latter, of course, is a strategy that lots of historical writers use...Valerie Anand, for example, or Gillian Bradshaw.

To be fair to Penman, I will definitely finish the trilogy, and probably go on to Sunne in Splendor.
She might surprise me...

I've been sidetracked by magazines and life in general, and am still only half way through Medicus by Ruth Downie. However, The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt arrived this morning, and that will definitely be next.

PAM - you asked if I had read Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs? I have and love it. It's such a poignant story...

Reading-wise, I finished up "Sahara" by Michael Palin - what a journey he and his team took. Picked up "Pole to Pole" by same author for more armchair travel...

Over the weekend, read "Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress" by Dai Seiji about two city youths in China sent to be re-educated in a small isolated village during Mao's Cultural Revolution and the importance of books. Good. I had read this only a few weeks ago, but forgot to take notes for this book review column I do and where I want to mention it, so had to read it again.

Now on to "Three Letters from the Andes" by Patrick Leigh Fermor, which is interesting but written a while ago in the "tally ho" "what-eh?" fashion of upper class people from England. (He's traveling with Dukes etc.) A bit dated, but interesting all the same.

Next up is Dracula, the original version. I have been watching "True Blood" which I love and want to go back to the original.

This weekend, I am flying down to Austin to go to the Texas Book Festival.... Hoping to see Margaret Atwood but so are five million other people so will have to see...

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Book Festival

Have just finished The Underneath by Kathi Appelt and extend much gratitude to Georgia for recommending it here on this thread. Wonderful story, beautifully written. I agree it is better than The Graveyard Book, which I loved. Appelt's work was the perfect antidote for me right now as I have just lost a beautiful cat friend. But I don't want to imply this book is sentimental or 'twee' or anything of the sort - in fact it is rather harsh and deals with very difficult issues. I may have to buy a copy, as I got it from the library.

I'm currently engrossed in Helen Rappaport's "The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg". I've read quite a bit about the fate of the last Tsar and his family, but I must say that this author has presented some new facts from her research, and the tenor of the NF is quite moving.

I came back from the library today with The Children's Book, which I had to return last week with 200 pages unread, and Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. Not sure why I snatched this off the New Fiction table because I despised The Time Traveller's Wife. Perhaps everyone deserves a second chance.

I'm also reading Brad Kessler's Birds in Fall, which I can hardly put down. But it is not a lengthy book, and I have it finished soon.

Siobhan, I have just finished Her Fearful Symmetry and don't quite know what to think. I liked The Time Traveller's Wife, and this is quite different. I didn't realise going into it that it is a ghost story. The main characters (twins) I found rather annoying and the story itself quite unnerving, but not in a ghosty way, just for how the characters act. I enjoyed the writing, but still thinking about the book as a whole.
Also finished Dick and Felix Francis's latest Even Money, which I thought not as good as the last two they wrote.

astrokath, I have not long read Her Fearful Symmetry,the book like you left me thinking about it alot. I found the setting, Highgate Cemetery and the lodgings, next door quite interesting.
I do not think that I shall ever see sets of twins without thinking of this book.

Finished up "The Trial of Terror" by Paul Gallico - good and different from the usual type of book I read which was refreshing. Now I need to find out something about Hungary in the '50's and what was going on then.

NOW I can start "Dracula" for my fiction choice, and then I think it's time for "Pole to Pole", the travel book by Michael Palin. I am enamoured with his work right now.

Mostly I've been reading forgettable mysteries. I read Robert Parker's The Professional and it was pleasant but, well, anemic. Listened to The Lost Symbol and was greatly disappointed. I kept falling asleep during the lectures. In short, the lecture to adventure ratio was too high. I expected to enjoy it. Daddy was a Mason and I grew up with lots of old Mason stuff around the house - mostly clocks. We had a huge blue Mason's Bible, the last half of which seemed to be about Egyptology (could have seeded my early interest in archaeology) and had lots of discussion of symbols so none of this stuff was really new or exciting to me.

Just now I'm in the middle of Nevada Barr's 13 1/2

Finished The Good Thief an enjoyable story, but it didntÂt live up to mine expectations, after having read a few rave reviews on the web. It is written in a smooth way and I think a pre-highschool can really like it. The plot is good but after a little while, you wonder where is going toÂ, and after I closed it , I asked myself , what was all this about?

At the moment I am halfway through "Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue" : Scenes From the Non  Christian World by Paul Bowles It is a travel and memory book about his travels in the 50s, mainly in Morocco, but also India, Sri-Lanka and South America , Mexico.

grelobe

Before I start Dracula, I found a 7-day library book (why do I do this to myself?) and started reading another AJ Jacobs' life experiment called "The Guinea Pig Diaries". If you liked the previous books (the one about living biblically and the one about reading the encyclopeadia A-Z) then this is the same vein just slightly different. I like it though.

I finally finished The Children's Book and closed the cover with regret - really outstanding. Byatt really made me think but entertained me at the same time.

I picked up Her Fearful Symmetry and it seems to be pulling me along. I hope I don't regret reading this book, as I do her first novel. I am sure the fact that I am reading this reveals something deep and mysterious in my personality, as other authors have turned me well off their works, and I am never tempted by them. We'll see.