February - what are you reading?

[mellenhead]

I read Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein. It pretty much railed against all the pink themed stuff out now and the whole "princess culture" little girls get sucked into. Some of it was interesting but most of it was totally over to the top, at least in my opinion.

I just started Swamplandia! which is good so far but I'm a couple chapters in.

[Spudd]

I finally finished "The Pillars of the Earth". Holy long book. It was good, though. I just felt stressed because it was a library book and there were other holds on it, so I had only 3 weeks to get through all 1000 pages.

I just returned it and picked up "This is Where We Live".

[Malanee]

I just finished Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - can't wait for the next book in the series!

Now I'm reading cutting for stone and it is wonderful.

On my list:

Burning Chrome by William Gibson
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

[Sílvia]

Ruth, I almost picked up Cutting for Stone at the store the other day. Now I'm sorry I didn't!

Spudd, holy crap, only 3 weeks to get through Pillars? It took me 3 months! Of course I had a 2-year-old and a translation job at the time which I could only do when said 2-year-old was asleep, but still!

I'm still working on World without End, the sequel to Pillars of the Earth. I almost gave it up around page 300, but now it picked up. It's almost like reading the same book, it's just way too similar to Pillars.

[mellenhead]

I finished Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. It was decent but by all the rave reviews I kept reading I expected more.

I'm about 1/4 of the way into A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and I LOVE it.

After that I have Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua at home from the library but I don't think I'm going to end up reading it. Just flipping through it the tone managed to annoy me.

[Spudd]

I finished This is Where We Live last night. It was really good, thanks to whoever it was that recommended it (Rowan, I think?).

Next in line is Unbearable Lightness, which is Portia de Rossi's autobiography and discusses her eating disorder. I think it will be interesting. Kenneth picked it up yesterday and started reading it, and he seemed really engrossed, which is saying something.

[Bugsy]

Still reading "What to Eat," but I also started "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" because it came in at the library. "What to Eat" is so interesting; food politics are fascinating and also disturbing. And so far the other is quite good too, though I'm fewer than 100 pages into it.

[Blush]

I'm almost done Rescue by Anita Shreve. I have not been that impressed. Next up is The Geography of Arrival: A Memoir by George Sipos. It's by a man who immigrated to my city (and Spudd's hometown) as a child and his experience. It's only 152 pages and is nominated for an award so I'm looking forward to it.

[Beverly]

I finally finished This Body of Death by Elizabeth George. It was good, but sort of depressing (all her books are lately, it seems). I haven't decided what to read next, but it will probably be Room, since I just got it in the mail yesterday.

[Sílvia]

Beverly, do you also have to buy all the books you wanna read in English? I hate that . There's a library that belongs to an English school near here, but I'd have to pay for parking there, so I think it's worth buying whatever I want in paperback.

[Beverly]

Yeah, I do, and it irks me, too! The library in town has a decent-sized English collection for a town its size -- probably a couple of thousand English books, but most of them I'm not interested in reading. Also, the library is twenty minutes away, and for whatever reason, I hardly ever go there. I buy quite a few books from ebay (either .com or .co.uk), and that's usually a bit cheaper. Still, though, I spend way too much money on books.

[Sílvia]

Yeah, me too, but it's my only luxury, so f-it. At least I can say to myself that I'm improving my English. What's your excuse?

[mellenhead]

I finished A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. It was quite good! Yes, it's another book about witches, vampires, etc., but it's a more adult one.....and not anywhere as goofy as the Sookie Stackhouse novels. There is a lot about history weaved in through out the book - I would definitely recommend it.

I tried to start reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua and I can't do it. The tone and subject matter annoyed the hell out of me, as I suspected it would.

Next up is The Cypress House by Michael Koryta.

[Blush]

I just finished "A Geography of Arrival" by George Sipos. It was neat to see my city though the eyes of a young boy in the 50's and 60's.

Last night I started "Five Quarters of the Orange" by Joanne Harris. I think she also wrote Chocolat.

[Rowan]

Wah! I'm in a book funk. I finished The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman this weekend (which wasn't good) and haven't been able to get into anything since then. I had gotten Being Polite to Hitler from the library but the character/intro just didn't grab me so I dumped it.

Mellen, I put A Discovery of Witches on my queue at the library. Sounds good.

Spudd, glad you liked This is Where We Live.

I have a pile from the library but everything just looks ick. Hope this doesn't last long.....

[Blush]

Well, Five Quarters of the Orange is not grabbing me at all. I also picked up The Glass Castle at the library this week so we'll see.

[Malanee]

Also on my list this month:

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
The Stuff that Never Happened by Maddie Dawson
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell