It's January - what are you reading?

[mellenhead]

The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey - Excellent! And long!

I have a few books at the library to pick up tonight, The Obamas, The Marriage Plot and The Flame Alphabet.

[Bugsy]

Last week I read "Maus: My Father Bleeds History" (Part 1) by Art Spiegelman. It was excellent, and I just picked up the second part yesterday. Haven't started reading it yet but will do so shortly.

[mellenhead]

The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus - strange strange book, though I did enjoy it. The story is about speech, especially the speech of children, becoming toxic to adults. The writing is beautiful and descriptive but the ending didn't really deliver.

Next up is either The Obamas or The Marriage Plot.

[Sílvia]

Rowan, glad you loved Kevin. And I know, you don't really "love" a book like that, but it's great reading, isn't it? A bit unrealistic and you can tell she doesn't have children, but still.

I finished If Today be Sweet and it sucked. Why does this keep happening? I love a book, then I read another one by the same author that it's just "meh", then by the third one I'm starting to think he/she was just lucky in that first book. Bah. This last one had no freaking plot!! It was all about whether or not a widowed Indian woman should stay in the US living with her son and daughter-in-law now that she had no one in India. My mind was made up on page 1, don't move into your daughter-in-law's house, period.

Then I read Jemima J, which apparently is hated by thousands of people for being offensive to overweight people and unrealistic. It is both, but I found it fun anyway .

Now I started This Body of Death by Elizabeth George and it's a little slow moving so far.

[Spudd]

On vacation I finished the third Stieg Larsson book, which was entertaining. I'd recommend it.

I started "World Without End" by Ken Follett, which is the sequel to the Pillars of the Earth. It's as expected, which is to say, not deep but a fun page-turner with interesting historical tidbits.

[mellenhead]

Finished up The Obamas by Jodi Kantor - I thought it was a really interesting look at the behind the scenes type stuff and general dysfunction going on in the White House. I also thought it made both of the Obamas come across as fairly normal down to earth people.

Next up is The Marriage Plot.

[Rowan]

I finished Robin Cook's latest this weekend. It is officially the last of his books I will ever read. They've gotten worse over time but the story was boring, he's overly wordy to a point of pompousness and downright wrong in some of the science/medical education items he writes about. I like reading medical thrillers and there's not very many authors to choose from but he's out.

I also finished A Grown Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson which I liked. Not my favorite of hers but good. Funny though it was a 4 star up until about 30 pages out or so and then I felt the ending was rushed. Hate that.

I have Stephen King's latest 11/22/63 next. I've heard good things but it's huge....has anyone read it yet?

[mellenhead]

I finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugiandes (sp?) - it was quite good! Loved all the characters and the end brought everything together.

I also read The Informationist by Tyler Stevens - it was a thriller and was pretty gripping. Usually I end up figuring out the ending half way through the book but I didn't with this one. Looks like the author is setting up for a series with the main character so I'll probably pick up the next one.

Rowan, I started that Stephen King book and quit about 60 pages in. I just couldn't get into it and I was not slugging through that huge book if I didn't enjoy it. His recent stuff is so hit or miss.

[Rowan]

I totally hear you on King. It makes me sad that its so hit and miss. I love a good Kennedy controversy so thought I would give it a shot. We'll see...

I have The Informationist on my TBR list - I'll have to move it up the list at your recommendation. Wasn't the author raised in some crazy cult?

[Blush]

I read something by John Grisham on my pb but I can't remember what...something old.

When I got to the library I got an older Marian Keyes (Angels)--meh; a Joyce Maynard that I'm reading now (Labour Day), something by Anita Shreve and "Un Amico Italiano", a memoir by Luca Spaghetti, of Eat, Pray Love fame.

[Bugsy]

I finished "Maus II: And Here My Trouble Began," by Art Spiegelman. Excellent also, and I'm not sure I could choose which of the two parts was better. Very glad I read them.

I'm just getting started on a long translation of the Tao Te Ching, the sort of bible/guidebook of Taoism. It'll probably take a long time to get through. I also still have some of "Farm Anatomy" to look through as well.

Then I have "The Alchemist," by Paolo Cuolho (last name might be spelled wrong). My friend T chose it for her book club that I'm considering joining. The author is Brazilian.

[Spudd]

I enjoyed The Alchemist.

[Sílvia]

Ew, seriously, Spudd? I was going to say that Paulo Coelho sucks! He does! His books are all self-helpy and badly written and just....just.... bad! Where's Lana to help me here? Once she and I talked Beana out of reading him, lol! It's disgusting that he's pretty much the only Brazilian author who's internationally famous. Ugh.

Anyway... How's World without End going, Spudd? I thought it was the exact same formula of Pillars. I loved Pillars, but thought I could have skipped WWE.

Still working on This Body of Death, which is better now. She spends way too many paragraphs on descriptions, which I just hate and am skipping at this point.

[Spudd]

LOL, Silvia. It was kinda self-helpy but I thought the message was nice and it was presented in a fun way. It entertained me, at least.

For WWE, I agree, it's pretty similar to Pillars. I'm enjoying it well enough but I can't say it's a #1 pick. Right now the plague is starting to spread so that's kind of entertaining. Heh.

[Blush]

I have turned into such a book skimmer. /confession

[Rowan]

It's ok Blush, we still love you.

[mellenhead]

I totally hear you on King. It makes me sad that its so hit and miss. I love a good Kennedy controversy so thought I would give it a shot. We'll see...

I LOVED his writing in The Dome (hated the ending but that's another rant). Then I couldn't even get through Full Dark No Stars.

I have The Informationist on my TBR list - I'll have to move it up the list at your recommendation. Wasn't the author raised in some crazy cult?

Yes! I forget the name of it but I think she lived on a commune and only had (has?) a 6th grade education. Another thing I liked about the book because it was set in unusal places (Cameroon, Guinea, etc)

[Beverly]

I was going to say that Paulo Coelho sucks! He does! His books are all self-helpy and badly written and just....just.... bad!

Finally, one we agree on! I HATED The Alchemist, for all these reasons.

[Bugsy]

Aw crap, that's too bad that so many of you didn't like it. I'll give it a shot and see what I think.

[Sílvia]

Oh, I should clarify that I haven't read The Alchemist! I *have* read one of his other books, though, and from everything I've ever read/heard, they're all equally bad.

And Beverly, we agree sometimes, don't we? Ok, we may have disagreed a lot lately, but I have a feeling that our tastes are not that different. Hey, I also hated The Postmistress!