Since I put up my Christmas decorations (nothing too crazy, but just something to make the house a bit more festive), I pulled out an edition of "Yuletide Tales and Poems" put out by Barnes and Noble. A good mix of seasonal stories, poems and carols some of which I had not heard of or read before. Enjoyable selection and helped me clean my brain of that awful Margaret Forster book I read the other day.

Next in line is the non-fiction "Workhouse: The People, the Places, the Life Behind Closed Doors" by Simon Fowler and then I also plan to pick up a fiction but still on the fence as to what that will be yet.

I did originally have the winter goal of reading some of those incredibly LONG novels out: Ladies of the Club etc, but so far haven't even made a dent in those. Still, a few more months of winter ahead so won't give up hope on that goal just yet...

I'm almost done with Dogtown - Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town by Elyssa East. I'm approaching the end with that mixture of excitement of finding out what is going to happen next and wanting the book to go on because it is so good. I had never heard of Dogtown (Massachusetts) until last summer when a local newspaper published a story about it, and I admit I started this book because of a bit of morbid curiousity about the 1984 murder detailed in parts of the book. Then I got caught up in the story of local characters, the long and colorful history of the place, and the pleasure of reading a nonfiction book that gallops by like a lively novel. I can't wait to visit this place myself - it is maybe twenty miles from my home. One terrific thing about living in the Northeast is that so much is published about this area, both fiction and nonfiction.

Siobhan: that's so funny - I was just listening to Elyssa East discuss her book the other night. It was on an overnight radio show from the U.S. (Coast to Coast) that I hear on a local radio station. It sounded very interesting and I'm glad to hear from someone who has actually read it and enjoyed it.

Now that I'm done with Lady Macbeth - I had to take a breather after finishing to 'savour' the story - I'm about to dig into David McCullough's 'John Adams' that I couldn't resist picking off the library shelf even though I also have "Wolf Hall" beckoning. Looks like I have some heavy reading ahead the rest of this month! I look forward to reading the posts on the "Wolf Hall" thread.

siobhan,

I loved Dogtown also,is Anita Diamant the author? . If so she also wrote The Red Tent which was sooo good also.

No, Diamant's book is The Last Days of Dogtown and is a novel. This book I am currently reading is completely different, a nonfiction book that details the history and goings-on in a unique place at the eastern side of Massachusetts, USA. There is another book out currently, also called Dogtown that is about rescued dogs - which may be a very good book, but I don't know, I haven't read it or heard anything about it.

I'll be looking online for an interview with Elyssa East. I'm sure it would be interesting to hear her talk. I seem to remember reading somewhere that she wrote this book as her thesis for her MFA at Columbia University, so I am guessing she is pretty intelligent.

I've looked through this twice and don't see the reply I made yesterday to junek-2009, so I'll say it again. If I'm just blind, sorry.
junek-2009 -- I'm only about 100 pages into the book due to "the season". But Sunday night I had a hard time putting the book down to go to bed, so it seems to be a good start.
p.s. I really liked The Red Tent also.

I don't know if this is an appropriate post for this thread and if inappropriate, I'm sure it will be cut. Are you aware that there is a Kindle application for the iPhone and the iPod touch. I never thought I would like to read this way, but I find it to be a wonderful reading device when I am waiting for appointments, etc. Much better than carrying a heavy book around with me. Truth be told, I got interested in one book and just read it on my iPod in two days. Just passing on the info.

As usual, I have two or three books going. I am truly loving Edgar Sawtelle, and I am so grateful for the discussion here that sounded so interesting. It's hard to go from that to a "blood and guts" mystery novel I read after I go to bed!!

I am still reading Jane Eyre and sooo enjoying it. I think it will be my summer read (Aust) for a while yet, I read only a few pages a day, and then savour it. I am not far in, she is still a 10 year old at the school and has just been humiliated in front of the whole school by Mr.Broklehurst.

jungseed, Seeing that you liked the Red Tent you may enjoy
The Virgin's Knot by Holly Payne, different era but so good.

pammyfay,

No, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. :) I'll look to see if we have that channel available on our cable network.

junek- I'll request that book the next time I am ready for new books. Thanks Ruth

I have finally finished The Girl Who Played with Fire. It is a busy time of year, of course, and besides that we are moving into a different house after the holidays so I'm really busy; but I thought this book moved too slowly. It named every street anyone walked down, the corners they turned, the roads they drove on. It could have been 50 pages shorter if all that had been left out. I suppose if you lived in Sweden it might be interesting, but I didn't like it as well as the first one. It ended well, though.

I've just finished Francine Prose's "Anne Frank: the Book, the Life, the Afterlife." I found it extremely interesting, as it tells how the diary was found, eventually edited, and published by father Otto Frank, who was the lone survivor of the Frank family from the Nazi concentration camps. Prose goes into a very revealing background, starting with Anne's own family history. I had not realized until I read this that there are now 3 versions published of the diary.

Unless I find something compelling today at the library, I will return to the Ted Kennedy memoir....

Well, I just finished The Prospector by Le Clezio. It was really good. An adventure type novel that tells more of the protagonists life than what is written in the prose. It took me a while to read it, and some moments are not always clear (maybe this is due to the translation, or I just might need to re-read it) but the overall affect is thought provoking.

Next up...well, I was just given Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. As I am a musician and music teacher I am excited to read this one, however I also have The Poisonwood Bible and Like Water for Chocolate that I've been meaning to get to.

I am now about a third of the way through "The Girl in the Blue Dress", a novel based upon the unhappy marriage of Charles Dickens and wife Catherine. Vee, I think you had recommended this? Vee, do you think that in real life the widowed Queen Victoria actually sent a note to Dickens' widow, requesting a personal interview? Since the novel is fiction, I am curious....

Mary/woodnymph I don't think Mrs Dickens was ever received by Queen Victoria, although Charles Dickens met the Queen not long before his death and one of their daughters Katey, who became a competent artist, was presented later.
BTW there is a newish book about her Katey: The Life and Loves of Dickens' Artist Daughter by Lucinda Hawksley; I haven't read but it had good reviews.

Hello all - just discovered this site. I'm getting all sorts of good ideas for future reads. I'm reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo right now and am enjoying it. Although I would rather curl up with a book, I usually end up listening to them on CD as I have an hour drive to work. So hopefully some of your suggestions will be available as recordings.

Beth, we're happy to have you with us. This is a recurring thread we have every month to discuss current reading.

Rosefolly

Finished "The Help" and loved it. I think we'll be reading it next year for my book discussion group. I'm now reading a book called "Diana Lively is Falling Down." So far so good. It has some laugh out loud moments.

Woodnymph2
I've just finished Francine Prose's "Anne Frank: the Book, the Life, the Afterlife." I found it extremely interesting, as it tells...

Do you know thereÂs also a book written by the women who helped to hide the FrankÂs family?
Title is Anne Frank Remembered the Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family
I havenÂy read it yet, but it is on my amazon wish list, because it looks interesting

Here is a link that might be useful: Anne Frank Remembered

I am reading two books at the moment - a forthcoming one called Mr Rosenblum's Lists and Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker. The first is a 'nice little book' - the publishers think it will rival TGL&PPPS but I am not so sure.
The second is going quite well - I will wait for the dénouement before deciding.

When I left for my parent's house for Christmas I accidentally left behind the book I was reading (Empires of the Indus), so I am now reading Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor, the second part of his proposed trilogy about his walk across Europe from Britain to Turkey. The language is lovely and he is very honest about not remembering many things, but never the less it is an interesting story about a journey through a Europe that has been forever lost. I dearly hope he publishes part three some day.

With work winding down for the year, I am planning my reading for my week off. Just finished last night a book called "The Northern Clemency" by Philip Hensher set in the '70's in England with a family who moves from London to Sheffield and their lives as they grow up and disperse. Found it very interesting and bought back a lot of memories, plus it was a good story.

Then also reading a quarterly journal called Lapham's Quarterly which had a special issue of the topic of medicine ranging from extremely old times to now. Really interesting (mostly) - one account is of a woman in her fifties who had a double masectomy WITHOUT anesthetic in the early nineteenth century. Her account is incredible - all she had was a handkerchief covering her face.... Yowzer.

Just about to pick up "Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Florence Nightingale" by Gillian Gill (due to my current obsession with Victorian times), but not sure what my fiction will be.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lapham's Quarterly website

I have been recently cleaning up my house, since I can't enjoy a holiday if my home is messy (my late grandmother's influence here). I am ashamed to admit how many books I found with bookmarks in them, some I can't even remember starting.

Veer and Woodnymph, I am interested in Katey and The Girl in the Blue Dress, since neither mother nor daughter had very happy lives. Of course neither did any of the sons of Charles and Catherine Dickens apparently.

Lemonhead, there is a surprising literary connection to mastectomies. The 18th century writer Fanny Burney apparently underwent the first such operation, also without anesthetic. Also, the Reverend Patrick Bronte had a cataract operation with any kind of sedation. It is really horrible to think of such things.

rambo - I would be interested to hear what you think of The Poisonwood Bible when you finish. I enjoyed it. I will admit it got a little slow in spots, but still enjoyable.
I seem to remember reading Like Water for Chocolate but for the life of me, nothing is coming up in the memory banks. What was that one about or who were the main characters?

Christmas is coming. My gifts are not wrapped. My cakes are not baked. We are moving on January 11. Packing must start immediately after Christmas.

I am about 1/3 of the way through a library copy of Wolf Hall, which I am loving, and other library requests have come in--Daniel Silva's The Defector, The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl, and Far Cry by John Harvey. I simply can't let these go back to the library unread, and this doesn't take into consideration my own stack of TBRs.

Do you think anyone would notice if I just check into a hotel and disappear for the next month?

I finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger last night. It really started out well. But slowed down and then slowed down more. Most of her characters where well written. I wish she would have developed some that she didn't and gave me less of others. By the time I finished, I was glad to be done. It seemed to me to start good that just continued down hill. Over all it really was just an ok read.
Started The Local News by Miriam Gershow. Is the story of a girl whose older brother goes missing. Hope it's good.

jungseed - I am about half way through Like Water for Chocolate.
**SOME SPOILERS** The main character is Tita and she is able to influence those around her through the food she cooks. The love of her life marries her sister because she is not allowed to marry and her emotions are absorbed into the food she cooks and then other react to the food in various ways. It's really good so far.

rambo,
The movie was fabulous (Mexican) it would be so good for you to watch following the reading.

I have had a thin reading time recently with several books not finished. Saving Caravaggio by N Griffiths was one. I suppose it was a whodunnit, but so little happened that by half way through I gave up. If you know Florence or Naples in winter it might be of slight interest.
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill had good reviews and I certainly found the subject unusual. A Dutch man living in New York gets involved with a group of ex-pats from India, Pakistan, the West Indies who play cricket each week in various odd corners of the city; anywhere they can find a piece of grass and always after the baseball games are over. Again, nothing much happens but it is well-written and good to read last thing at night . . . it wont keep you awake.
The Tin Can Tree by Anne Tyler. One of her very early books from the late '60's. Once more a 'slight' story concerning the aftermath of the death of a child in rural N Carolina and how those left behind deal with the tragedy.
My difficulty with this was because I am English I was quite unable to find a niche/pigeon hole for the characters. All British people (especially women) even unconsciously, do this all the time.
We 'register' by the setting, the way a character talks, his occupation. those little social 'clues' how and where someone fits into society (even if it in non-PC and we would never admit it).
With this group of characters in rural NC I was quite out of my comfort zone. Were they poor and not very well educated? Perhaps they just lived very narrow lives and had not travelled further than the next town. Why did one young man do nothing but lie around the house all day with a mystery 'condition' without someone sending him to see a doctor? Maybe the summers were just too hot to do anything.
I wonder if American/Canadian readers have similar problems with novels set over here.
And I know no-one has the time to reply what with wrapping up presents, cooking, more cooking, pulling their hair out etc. ;-)

I just finished "The Girl in the Blue Dress" by Gaynor Arnold. It certainly did not improve my already negative opinion of author Charles Dickens. I thought the novel could have used some editing and was not all that well-written.

Next --- Just could not resist the "mind candy" of the latest Dan Brown oeuvre: "The Lost Symbol." I am sure I will learn more about Freemasonry than I should ever wish to know, but so far it is a compelling read.

After that, on the TBR pile is a work about H.D. Thoreau that looks promising.

Vee, what is it about the Anne Tyler books that draws you to read them? (I know you've read several).

read the first bit of the Nightingales book, noticed it had a HUGE complicated family tree at the front (bad sign for me), and then decided to put it down. I am not really that interested in who was related to who and how and when, so now have to choose something else... Hmm What will it be?

Vee - I read and enjoyed Netherlands not long ago. You're right - not a lot happens, but it's good all the same. As for difficulty in being to "pigeonhole" people like we can in England pretty easily, I have found that class is more fluid over here in the US. People seem to be float from one class to the next without much difficulty (speaking from a social point of view). But this could be wrong and just in the city I live in. It's definitely not so easy to place someone into a certain class like you can in the UK.

Thanks rambo - now I remember the book. Did not see the movie.

veer- yes, I have alot of trouble with British slang. Sometimes the context just doesn't tell me the meaning of the slang word used.
Just a guess, but North Carolina in the 60's, a mystery condition would probably be a mental issue. I'm now being non-PC also but I'd say mental retardation. They certainly couldn't speak of that back then. If the person was home and not "put away" that would mean the family was poor.

I just finished Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. It's a bit different as each chapter is a short story unto itself, though all are linked by the main character. She's quite an insightful writer, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm not sure what's next, but I do know there are at least two books for me under the Christmas tree!

I finished The Local News by Miriam Gershow yesterday afternoon. It was an ok read. You really cared about the girl.

Finished up "Stranger in the House" by Julie Summers, a NF about the men who were demobbed after WWII and how it was for the families who rec'd these sometimes complete strangers home. Annpann - you might be interested in this one...

Now reading "The Long Weekend" by Robert Graves (he who wrote "I Claudius") and Alan Hodge. Written in 1940, it details the social history of Great Britain between the two big wars, 1918-1939. It's quite amusing in places - at one point, the big countries all got together and tried to get a treaty going to ban all wars forever. WWI had affected them so badly that they could not conceive ever having another war so they thought this was realistic. Can you imagine any one trying this today??

Anyway, fascinating book (with a few boring political parts) but it talks about fashion, entertainment, women's rights, employment -- everything about how life was back then. This was the time of my grandfather and grandmother and it's intriguing to think of them wearing and doing some of these trends...

Have had very little time for reading this last few days.
Sheri, you asked about Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures. I am about half way through and find the way the story is told I just don't care about Mary Anning, her 'posh' friend or any of the fossils she digs up.
Perhaps it is because it is written in 'two voices'. The middle class friend is 'cod' Jane Austen, against Anning's country bumpkin (who comes over as more realistic).Add to this the Americanism's; sorry but Chevalier has lived in England long enough to know we don't say 'out back' and 'gotten' and her aristocrats just don't seem convincing.

Vee, thanks for the report on Remarkable Creatures. Your comment about not caring about Mary Anning sounds about right given my experience with this author -- I had no liking at all for the main character in The Virgin Blue, either. I'll put it on my "get at the library someday" list! Many thanks!

I'm reading one of my Christmas gift books, A House in the Sunflowers by Ruth Silvestre. This is one of my favorite genres, the "I bought a house in a foreign country" memoir. So far, she's having a much easier time of it than Peter Mayle did, LOL. A pleasant book and an easy read, just right for after the holidays.

I went browsing for a readers' message board tonight, and when I saw that someone was reading Crossing to Safety, I knew this was the right one for me. Stegner is unsurpassed for description - the opening "walk in the woods" left me damp and muddy! Surprised that everyone liked The Help - I thought the characters were a bit predictable and overdrawn, but Stockett was dead-on in conveying the unwritten but well-defined relationship between white women in the pre civil rights era and the black women who worked for them. I look forward to finding some great reads on this board!

I once more have started The Screwtape Letters. Previous halts in reading it have not been due to lack of interest or enjoyment, but that something else comes up. I hope to finish it this time.

I also need to finish St Nicholas by William Bennett and My Life With the Saints by James Martin, a Jesuit priest. Serendipity abounds with the last book mentioned. I stumbled on the book at the book store - read a few very enjoyable pages and decided to take it home. I went to a quilting retreat a few weeks later, and took the book with me. Besides our retreat group, there were a few other events that weekend...one a large group of people carrying that book. I asked why...and found out that Fr. Martin was presenting a seminar that day. I walked up to him (something shy me never does) and spoke with him for a few minutes, and he signed the book for me. A few weeks later he was speaking at a seminary near by (the one where I sing in the choir!), and we went to hear him. It was an awesome presentation. The book is well written, well balanced between good humor and good religion. I would like to finish all three before midnight on Thursday...but it won't happen. However, I will enjoy taking them into the New Year with me...like all my old and comfortable friends here.

Finished Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol." Although it was way too long, in my opinion, I thought it held together far better than "The DaVinci Code." At least it aroused my interest in the Science of Noetics....

Also have just read "Pompeii: The Day a City Died" by Robert Etienne. Very interesting, but such a pity that due to intrusion of tourists, lack of proper funding, as well as earthquakes in the region, the lost city is still deteriorating even more rapidly. Also, the many excavations exposed the artifacts to air, which further erodes their condition....

I finished The Defector by Daniel Silva last night. It is similar to the others in the series, but I like them a lot. Moved a lot faster than Wolf Hall, but I find myself thinking about the latter frequently as I am putting away the Christmas stuff and beginning to pack in earnest for my upcoming move. I've been in this house 36 years, and it is crammed to the rafters. I can hardly wait for DH to find out that I'm packing a box of smaller empty boxes--but I might NEED them.

Finally finally finally have time to really read. December was crazy-a needlepoint gift that I almost finished...for DD and her DH to celebrate their cross-country tandem bicycle honeymoon. Several writing deadlines and the holiday frolics. Plus work. It all eats into reading time. There should be a law or something.

Anyway-my current upstairs book is The Poisoned Chocolates Case courtesy of wigardener-really enjoying it. Downstairs is The Fleet Street Murders mentioned above. On the TBR pile-my very own copy of Wolf Hall and library copies of What Remains of Heaven, The Brutal Telling and My Antonia for bookclub. Riches and Bliss.

I'm reading The Terror after seeing it mentioned here. Got it on ebay for 50 cents plus shipping. It's long and I'm a slow reader, but it does keep me reading so maybe I'll finish it sooner than I thought!

Ok, did the board crash earlier today? From the posts, it looks like any posts between 2-ish EST and just before 1 pm this afternoon (EST) got deleted! And this isn't just on RP but on the Music forum as well .....

Anyone else notice this or was I in some time warp of some sort?!

no, I noticed it too-a post I thought I had uploaded disappeared, but I thought I had just hit "return to the forum" instead of "submit"...it's been known to happen. but then I started noticing that there were NO posts from today anywhere.....very peculiar indeed.

dyno, I noticed on 'the Game' where I and a number of others had posted the usual witty, erudite, insightful additions only to find by mid-afternoon (my time GMT) they had vanished and only the posts of the day before remained. I even checked the calendar to see if I had lost a day somewhere . . . not uncommon between Xmas and the New Year in the UK when all the holidays/days off blend into one long week.

Hello, all. If you read the message at the top of the screen, it explains how the postings got deleted yesterday morning. It happened to all of us, on all the threads. Seems to be fixed, now.

I'm reading a wonderful book about the history of the founding of the early colonies: "Roanoke, the Abandoned Colony" by Karen Ordahl Kupperman. It's about one of those historical mysteries that has never been solved....

Welcome to the board fiddlehead. I have found a lot of my new reads here on this board and there are some great discussions.

At the moment I am about half way through The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. It's very easy to read and very compelling so far. Definitely not light in it's content, but Hill really draws the reader in.

Did you know that the "Book of Negroes" is published as "Someone Knows My Name" in the USA? And, that Lawrence HIll is the brother of Dan Hill, the musician? Apparently their father was a stern taskmaster who thought that Dan was frivolous being a musician. Dan has written a book now too which is a memoir. I'd like to read it.