Great book lists & it's nice to see how many are listing books I've enjoyed. If y'all like Miss Read, dip into the Angela Thirkell books. Very much in the same vein as Miss Read - books about lives in provincial Britain.

This month I've read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime which is my Tyler Library book group selection for December. Then Young Adolph by Beryl Bainbridge about a young Adolph Hitler coming to Liverpool in 1912 to sponge off his brother & his wife. And then for fun, Heavenly Date & Other Flirtations by Alexander McCall Smith, a book of delightful short stories about the myriad forms of dating an love.

Currently half-way through House of Mirth by Edith Wharton & enjoying a re-read of it after many years.

I've just finished 2 well-written books on 9-11 and the WTC events, one fiction, the other factual: First, Frederic Beigbeder's "Windows on the World", then "102 Minutes, the Untold Story of the Fight to Survive inside the Twin Towers" by journalists, Dwyer and Flynn.

After reading those gripping accounts, somehow I am not sure I'm ready to tackle Hardy"s "Mayor of Casterbridge", although I have checked it out.

I've just started " Children of the Western Plains, the 19th century experience" by Marilyn Holt, about life and labor in pioneer America.

High on my mental TBR list are Jared Diamond's books.

Finally got hold of Holiday in Death by J.D. Robb. It has been unavailable from the library for 6 months - someone always got there first and grabbed it before I could. I'm trying to read the series in order of publication because there is enough character development that I find it easier to keep up that way. (My one annoyance is that I keep waiting for Roarke to stop being so damn one-dimensional and perfect, but it isn't happening. Meanwhile everyone else gets to grow and show new sides to themselves).

I finished Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book". It was good, but maybe not as good as it was portrayed to be by hard core Willis fans. I got a little frustrated that it took almost 400 pages for her characters to figure out something that they should have figured out 200 pages back, and Willis' 21st century where time machines are ordinary felt a little too much like the 20th century in all other respects. The series of misunderstandings and mishaps that occurs, though it created suspense and pushed along the plot, was overdone for my personal tastes. I also wondered what someone in the medical profession would think about how she handled the epidemics. It didn't seem all that credible to me. While the historical parts re 14th century England were well researched and quite detailed, it somehow also lacked a certain atmospheric authenticity due to some stereotypes she chose to focus on (at least in my mind). Otherwise, it was an enjoyable read and felt much more like an historical novel than a science fiction novel (which isnÂt a bad thing, since I like historicals too).

Anyway... moving on, I picked up something I think will be more challenging and I hope I'm up for the task: Saramago's "Baltasar and Blimunda". Has anyone read it? I read "Blindness" earlier this year but haven't read any of his other books yet.

Finished "The Great Influenza" by John M Barry about the 1918 flu pandemic - interesting contrast to what people are saying about the potential for the avian flu right now. The book was pretty good although it did go on a bit about the scientists... learned a lot about virology though so that was interesting.

Also finished "Never Let Me Go" which was good in the end. Took a little while to get going but enjoyed it a lot towards the end. Really well written, so will be reading more of his work.

Now... what next? It's like having a box of chocolates before you and choosing... :-)

Finished and thoroughly enjoyed Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. A little more complex and perhaps not as pointed as Cloud Atlas but still - very good. I'd enjoy discussing it - if only to play "spot the connections!"

Now reading The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch. (Booker Prize Winner 1978). Very good indeed so far...

Just finished Alas, Babylon for my bookclub-we all enjoyed the book, but found it much too plausible for comfort. Also finished Royal Feud about the parellel lives of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the Duchess of Windsor
Next up-that's a toughy. Shadow Divers is the next book club book, but the new book by the author of Garden of Good and Evil is waiting for me at the library...and my plethora of quick and easy mind-candy mysteries keep rolling in from paperbackswap! I need a vacation-complete with loooooooooooong plane trips on which there is nothing to do but read.

crazydogs: I too read Reviving Ophelia when my daughter was young. If you let it, it will make you want to lock them away from the bad world forever-I had to keep reminding myself she was writing about her patients, the girls who had been driven to extremes. When my daughter was older we talked about some of the situations the author references as "common" or "pervasive" and my daughter disagreed. But it does help you start necessary conversations about personal safety and respect when the time is right.

IÂm not a great fan of short stories but I wanted to try reading James Joyce and thought that his collection of short stories, Dubliners, might be the place to start. Although I could not say that I loved the stories (they are rather dark and pessimistic), I have to say that I did enjoy them once I got going, very worthwhile reading, and surprisingly accessible. They are thought-provoking and certainly show JoyceÂs great talent as a writer, and his tremendous powers of observation.

Also finished The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis.

Mumby,
You thought Joyce's short stories were good. Wait until you read Chekhov!

Just finished Who Wrote The Book of Love by Lee Seigel and it was quite enjoyable and funny. Now it's on to a reread of By The Sword. It's a history of fencing that I've previously found quite enjoyable. Since I'm getting frustrated with my fencing and, as a consequence, am losing enthusiasm for it, I figure this may rekindle my interest. Also, I've undertaken to read Schools and Masters of Fencing : From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century by Egerton Castle. It's another history of fencing but this one was written in the late 1800s.

Who knows? Maybe this is my fencing phase. Either that or it's time to take up archery!

I'm reading for the first time Hardy's "Mayor of Casterbridge", and am liking it much better than I'd imagined....

Picassocat,

Do you have any particular recommendations for short stories by Chekhov? Unless I read any in school and simply don't remember, I probably haven't read any of his works because I spent years avoiding Russian writers. But now that I have completed and loved Anna Karenina (thanks to RP), perhaps I can tackle some other Russian writers.

I'm reading City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (which I've not read). It's part travelogue, part a tale of a famous opera house that burned down just prior to his taking up residency in Venice. He meets a lot of interesting people, and you do get a nice feeling for Venice beyond what the tourists see. I'm about half way through and enjoying it.

I've also just started Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther, which was recommended by a friend. I may look for the movie after I've finished the book.

Sheri, after you have finished Mrs Miniver try reading The Real Mrs Miniver by 'Jan Struther's' granddaughter Ysenda Maxtone-Graham.
Quite an interesting character with a far more colourful life than the saintly Mrs M.
If you see the film have a box of tissues to hand. Rather sentimental (esp by English standards) but Churchill always claimed it was the film that helped bring America into WWII.

mumby - Chekhov's short stories are a delight to read. In fact, a fellow member here at RP, Treasa, put me on to Chekhov a few years ago. His most famous stories are: The Lady with the Little Dog and probably Gooseberries. But most of his stories I love. I think the translators of the Russians matter to some extent. Pevear and Volokhonsky's translations of Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina were brilliant. They also translated a fine edition of Chekhov's Stories. I am keen to read more Russian literature soon.

Adam

Here is a link that might be useful: Stories by Chekhov

Finished Holiday in Death, which was the best of the series I've read so far.

Now reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Also reading Grafarþögn, a crime novel by Arnaldur Indriðason (published in English as Silence of the Grave). When it won the British The Crime Writers' Association's 2005 Golden Dagger award, I realised I had never read it, which is strange because Arnaldur is one of my favourite crime writers and I try to get his books as soon as they are published.

Just finished reading Must Love Dogs, which was fun enough to keep reading, but just cute and all on the surface.

Now I am in the middle of The Crack at the Edge of the World, centered on the great San Francisco earthquake, but roaming around in the geology of the entire earth--plate tectonics, and the like. It is very enjoyably written, and I am reading it in bits and pieces to make it last. You have to see the dust jacket on this one: it is folded in several wide pleats and opens up to the size of a poster with pictures of the quake.

At this point I snuck in a quick rereading of Julia Tavalaro's I Look up for Yes (May have that title a bit wrong) because I had promised to send it to another PaperBackSwap.com member.

I just started Sleeping with Cats yesterday and already like it so much that I have put it on my PaperBackSwap Wish List, so I can have a copy to keep. Of course, anything with a lot of cats in it will catch my interest, but I love Piercy's warm and enthusiastic view of life and the descriptions of her fascinating family and childhood in a poor section of Detroit. I keep telling myself I have to get on with The Mayor of Casterbridge, but I read it years ago and know it is not going to give me the warm fuzzies, to say the least--though I liked Hardy in my youth--and I have been tending toward books that make me feel good, lately. Well, maybe it's time for a change...

Mumby; re Russian writers

Andrei Makine has written some wonderful novels. He currently lives in France but was raised in Soviet Russia. My favourite is Dreams of My Russian Summers .

Here is a link that might be useful: Dreams of My Russian Summers

Have now just finished The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch which has jumped into my top five Booker list. Marvellous book. I've never before read anything by Iris Murdoch, so I'll have to remedy that omission.

Dido - I've just browsed through the RP archive of book reviews, and found my review of Every Man For Himself. I quote:-

"A story of a bunch of thoughtless rich prats on the Titanic, most of whom get drowned. Can't say I was sorry."

I guess we'll have to agree to differ on this one!

Biwako, I liked "Sleeping With Cats" a lot, too.

The Grandmothers by Doris Lessing. A collection of 'long' stories, of which the title story was by far the most powerful.

Cranford by Mrs Gaskell, which I haven't read since I was about 12 and we 'did' it for English. I think I enjoyed it this time round far better. Lots of gentle humour in this classic tale of a small Cheshire town where there are few gentlemen and the ladies go to great pains to behave properly despite their genteel poverty.

Mantrapped by Fay Weldon. Never read anything by her before; have kept confusing her with Mary Wesley.
This is part autobiography and part strange tale of what happens to three characters who's lives come together with very unlikely results.

Just finished The Mayor of Casterbridge for December.

Thank you Adam & mummsie for the links and recommendations re Chekhov & Andrei Makine. They have been added to the TBR list!

Vee, glad you enjoyed Cranford - it's one of my favourites.

I'm reading Bleak House as part of an ongoing readalong, also The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.

Next up will be Upstream by Sharon Butala, for my bookclub. She's a Canadian writer but I haven't read anything of hers before.

I've almost finished "Mayor of Casterbridge". I liked it so much that I'm considering looking into other Hardy work I've not read, such as "Jude the Obscure."

I've got "Lady & the Unicorn" waiting on the TBR pile, but really feel I must try for an ILL to obtain "Cold Comfort Farm, " as December is almost here....

Vee, I just picked up a nice paperback copy of Cranford at our local library book sale. I'm looking forward to it! Mrs. Miniver was absolutely wonderful -- Struther has a gift for elevating mundane, every-day sorts of things (like the shape of the bannister beneath your hand or the familiar snick of your key in your own front door) to poetry. Definitely a keeper.

Three of my library requests arrived at once, I'll have to just close my eyes and pick one when I go get them tomorrow.

I seem to have started a holiday reading theme this month. I've started Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas which will be followed by Skipping Christmas for my book club.

I'm so glad others have read The Mayor of Casterbridge because I am looking forward to the discussion! Russ is leading the discussion, right?

I've had a fairly productive month for reading so far. I finished Daughter of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold. I liked it enough that I will look for other books by her. This weekend (a 4 day weekend,thanks to Thanksgiving Day and a vacation day!) I read The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamont, And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander, The Venetian's Wife by Nick Bantock and reread both Rose Daughter and Beauty by Robin McKinley. Both are retellings of the story of Beauty and the Beast, written 20 years apart. I still prefer Beauty over Rose Daughter, but find that upon a second reading (I first read it several years ago), I liked Rose Daughter much better than I did the first time around.

This afternoon I finished Dynasty: The Stuarts 1560-1807 by John MacLeod. A compelling read, though the author's sour appraisal of this doomed family is anything but romantic. He concedes that the Stuarts themselves often had a unique glamour and charisma, but often were too egocentric and immature to deal with the political realities swirling around their heads. For some rulers, Charles I and his Queen Henrietta Maria, the author has nothing but contempt. However, MacLeod surprises the reader by showing begrudging respect for some of the family's more maligned members, namely James VI and I, James II, and Queen Anne.

MacLeod raises, with tantalizing briefness, the issue of whether the Hanovers deserve the throne of Scotland, which was politically united with England against its will just when the Stuart dynasty was near extinction. MacLeod suggests that there are many more persons better entitled to the crown. For example, when the British parliament decided to name Electress Sophia of Hanover and her son (the future George I) as the successors to William and Mary, and Queen Anne, there were at least 48 people who had better claim to the crown. Fascinating!

It is perhaps not the deepest book on the subject, but I stilled learned a great deal.

I've been reading some kid lit for a change of pace. I just finished Diana Wynne Jones' "Howl's Moving Castle" which was great fun to read. Now I'm moving on to L'Engle's "Time Quartet". I was probably in 4th or 5th grade when I read "A Wrinkle in Time" so I'm looking forward to reading all the books in the series this time.

I've just started Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed". It's a heavy read, so I am not sure if I will finish the entire work.

I just finished Tracey Chevalier's "Lady & the Unicorn." I really enjoyed the story, as told in the various voices of the characters, as well as the fascinating description of how medieval tapestries were woven in Belgium. Another winner by this author, IMO. Chevalier seems quite skilled in historical research.

I just finished a couple of books I didn't really like much. Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts was frustrating because it could have been much better. The female protagonist was supposed to be really smart and clever, but was so dense about realizing the identify of the villain it totally ruined the book for me.

Maybe A Miracle by Brian Strause was just plain boring. The narrator is the teenage brother of a girl in a coma from nearly drowning. Most of the book is about his life, and how he's sooo much smarter than everyone else around him. But his life was boring, and his attitude was irritating.

Thank God for libraries! I just visited two of them yesterday and checked out a couple of books. I've been looking for one of them, Hidden River by Adrian McKinty, since it was released in May. Couldn't find it anywhere, in new or used bookstores. There it was in my local library.

I'm nearly through The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen by Kevin O'Keefe. His research appears to be sound, and I was rather surprised by just what the "average American" believes. Interesting and very readable.

I have my third James Anderson mystery, The Affair of the Mutilated Mink (which is actually the second book in the series) waiting in the wings.

Did not finish A Million Little Pieces about James Frey's battle with addiction. Overhyped; there is just so much else to read.

For US Civil War buffs, Widow of the South by Robert Hicks, a fictionalized account of the catastrophic battle at Franklin, Tennessee.
A young Southern woman, whose home (Carnton Plantation) was the battleground, hospital and graveyard for thousands of soldiers, helps recount the event. She, slightly mad/eccentric over the deaths of her own young children, tended the 1400+ graves until her death.

Just started Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett. Also about to embark on The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder; it reads like an Advent Calendar, with one chapter for each day in December up to the 25th. I will start off, reading just one chapter each night.

Jane
UK

Oh dear, I have just a few more days to finish up The Mayor of Casterbridge for the discussion, but that shouldn't be hard.

I've since read The Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz and being a dog lover, I enjoyed it thoroughly. He is a 50-ish man who buys a 42-acre farm in upstate rural New York with the thought that he and his three border collies could herd rented sheep together.

Slammerkin by Emma Donahue was a different kind of book about a poor London girl during the 18th century. It's not what I thought it was going to be and every time I made a prediction I was mistaken so that alone kept the pages turning. I can't whole-heartedly recommend it but neither can I bash it to pieces. It was pretty good, not super, not awful, just middling.

Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs was another Kathy Reichs starring Tempe Brennan.

Then I read The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. Again, pretty good. After reading the book, I have no desire to see the movie. There was a movie, right? It was just another book that was enjoyable to read but no page-turner.

I think I need a winner now that I've muddled through all of these "just okay" books.

PAM

Jane - that sounds like a lovely idea. Please forgive me for copying you - I shall do the same!

Mary Woodnymph, a good companion book to Diamond's Collapse is David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. I enjoyed the historical parts of Collapse, but the last few chapters became very preachy. Quammen is a journalist, rather than a research scientist, and writes quite entertainingly. He goes back and forth between expository chapters and first-hand accounts visiting the field with various research scientists, so you get a good sense of the connection between the phenomena and the theory.

I have McCulloch's The Reformation, Paolini's Eldest, and 1776 all sitting reproachfully on my nightstand as I go slumming with a series of re-reads from Elizabeth Moon.

cheryl

I have finished Mayor of Casterbridge and am busily reading Cold Comfort Farm.

Pam, I liked Emma Donoghue's book Life Mask better than Slammerkim. It has the same main character.

I just zipped through Everybody Into The Pool by Beth Lisick. Her stories of her life definitely put the "fun" in dysfunctional as she recounts her very normal upbringing followed by her adult adventures living as a performance artist/musician/poet in San Francisco. Her self-deprecating sense of humor and similar-to-though-probably-saner-than-Anne-Lamott voice carries the reader through her stories knowing she'll be just fine. Very enjoyable.

Carolyn KY,

Thank you so much for telling me about Life Mask. I requested it from the library.

PAM

I have recently finished

Snobs by Julian Fellowes, which was entertaining and The Colour of Law by Mark Gimenez, which was a bit predictable but not bad.
I also read Codex by Lev someone, but like his name, it was forgettable *g*

I can't restrain myself, I have to know what Pam means by this...."We know the other author who died 50 years ago and yet has become an unmentionable on this forum because of a troll."

karalk:
The author in question, if named, triggers a "troll"- a insidious poster who hijacks the thread (and then other, non-related threads) with obsequious rantings and has also been known to email other posters and rant more. Any negative postings trigger venomous responses. It's scary. So we, like Potter, have an author "who must not be named."

karalk, not to be exclusive, I'll give you some clues to the identity of the author who is unmentionable:
One of her books is about her life on a chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state.
Another is about her stay in a T.B. sanitorium.
She wrote several children's books as well.
She was born March 26, 1908 and died February 7, 1958.

It's really too bad that a troll poisoned the name of this writer, because her books are delightful to many readers. The troll is long gone, I hope, but we were burnt so badly by her that "the author who should not be named" is a long-standing inside joke now.

Oh, I know exactly the author and the book. It was one of the books on my parents shelves that I used to go back to time after time. What on earth would someone have against her? Ah well. (btw, google 'chicken farm Olympic Peninsula Washington' and it comes right up, author and title)

Cindy it wasn't that this troll/s had anything against the writer; quite the opposite in fact. As you will have probably found from your googling they started some sort of 'club' in her memory and were offering special deals/new info/bios etc at a considerable price. They also collected everyone's email addresses from the thread on the subject (much easier in those days) and bombarded them with stuff. It went from being funny to being infuriating.
I think they/she (some of us think it was a one-man show, others that a couple of trolls were involved) are still out there on a mountain top in Central Europe.Their 'English' was slightly spy-like unt to be trusted not.

Wow! We really are at the mercy of the whole world when we log in to the internet. Although I think its the greatest thing since diet coke, it scares me.
I had never heard of she who shall not be named, but the movie was my favourite when I was a little girl. I shall order the book today.

Eh, we're at the mercy of the whole world when we get out of bed. If you use your head and trust your gut, you can stay out of trouble.

veer, thanks for the clarification (and actually I didn't catch that - I just googled to get the name :) So its like those emails from Nigeria, on a grander scale. Doesn't sound like this troll was as bad as others I've known. Some have taken down entire sites due to their venom.

Thank heavens...when I saw the title of this thread, I thought I had slept for 2 full months...and missed my end of Sept vacation to Maine.