Book a Week in 2013 - week twenty seven

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday, dear hearts! Today is the start of week 27 in our quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Welcome back to all our readers, to all those who are just joining in and to all who are following our progress. Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 Books blog to link to your reviews. The link is below in my signature.

 

52 Books Blog - Eurorail through Europe: Monday is July 1st and that means it's time to continue our travels across the continents. If you've been doing the continental, I hope you had a grand time traipsing through Africa and are ready to take a ferry from Morocco over to Spain where we will begin our trip through Europe. I'm going to splurge on a global Eurorail pass which will let me visit multiple countries. Perhaps I'll take a champagne tour through France, watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, sleep in a historic castle in Ireland, explore the black forests of Germany, or hike up through the Swiss Alps.

 

Currently in my backpack is Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Midnight Palace, Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Frank Delaney's Ireland, and Matt Rees' Mozart's Last Aria.

 

Check out the link Eurorail through Europe where I've highlighted a couple books from several countries to help get you started on your travels. How about taking a literary tour of Europe. Be sure to check out Adelante's program- Ireland's Nobel Literature or Literary Traveler's Le Belle Epoque in Paris. Or take a tour of libraries starting with the world's largest library, The National Library of Spain in Madrid, founded in 1712 by King Philip V. Be sure to check out Flavorwire's stunning photo's of Europe's Most Beautiful Libraries.

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

 

Link to week 26

[Robin M]

I'm currently reading Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane, #4 in her Chase Putnam series.

 

Anyone want to tackle Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler later in the month? It's # 28 on SWB's Well Educated Mind fiction list.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[Onceuponatime]

I finished The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession. It was a historical fiction, mystery, and meta-book, all in one. It was based around the question of proof of Shakespeare's authorship of the plays attributed to him. I found the story engaging, even though there was more than enough about the intimate lives of the main characters.

 

 

 

I'm following that up with Will In The World by Stephen Greenblatt, a non-fiction about the kind of world Shakespeare must have grown up in and how that would have contributed toward his eventual "genius."

[mumto2]

I am finishing my second Elly Griffith's mystery this weekend. Yesterday I read "The Janus Stone" and got so caught up in the main character's life I started the next one "The House at Sea's End" and am almost done. Good forensic archeology mysteries with interesting characters. The current one is about WWII age skeletons being found on the coast by Norfolk. Analysis indicates they were German.....

[Just Robyn]

I'm currently reading Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane, #4 in her Chase Putnam series.

 

Anyone want to tackle Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler later in the month? It's # 28 on SWB's Well Educated Mind fiction list.

 

That sounds really awesome, and if I can pick up my reading pace, I may join you on that.

 

This week I got very little reading done, but I can't come up with any particular reason for it. The only thing I read completely was the 2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month that some of you read last year. We tried and liked the refrigerator oatmeal from her website, and we all liked it, but I don't think it's any cheaper than cold cereal. I think it may even be more expensive, though I realize it may be cheaper for *her* because she makes her own almond milk.

 

Anyway, I'm finally ready to sit down and get some reading done today. I hope to finish The Kings of Clonmel (Ranger's Apprentice 8).

[Stacia]

I finished So Long A Letter earlier today. It's a fascinating & bittersweet look at women's roles (written by a woman) in post-colonial, male-dominated Senegal. Interestingly enough, I read So Long a Letter quite by chance after having just finished Xala by Ousmane Sembène, a male Senegalese author.

 

Xala centers around a story of an upper-class Islamic businessman who is marrying his third (and much younger) wife. Part of the discussions in Xala center around the roles of the wives, the resentments between them, etc.... So Long a Letter also is viewing the life of women in polygamous marriages, emotionally & articulately poured out in a letter/diary format that a new widow writes to her friend. Part of her angst & sorrow centers around the fact that after 30 years of marriage, her husband married a second wife (who has been a wife for five years by the time the man dies). There's a lot of depth & emotion to this story, many facets of life examined; Senegal in the novella is on the cusp of various social changes as the country straddles the traditional African ways, yet also encompasses some of their inherited European mores. Mariama Bâ was apparently a well-known feminist in Senegal, and I'm happy that serendipity led me to reading So Long a Letter immediately after Xala, partly for the female vs. male view of polygamous marriage in Senegal, as well as the examination of gender roles there.

 

So Long A Letter won the first (in 1980) Noma Award for Publishing in Africa & rightly deserves it, imo. This is a well-done, touching look at the confines, compromises, & choices that comprise one's lifetime. A recommended novella, especially if you're looking to read African literature.

 

Not sure what fiction I'll pick up next. Additionally, I'm still slowly making my way through my non-fiction books: Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster and Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams.

 

--------------------------

My Goodreads Page

My PaperbackSwap Page

Working on Robin's Dusty &/or Chunky Book Challenge.

Working on Robin's Continental Challenge.

Working on LostSurprise's Dewey Decimal Challenge. Complete Dewey Decimal Classification List here.

 

My rating system:

5 = Love; 4 = Pretty awesome; 3 = Decently good; 2 = Ok; 1 = Don't bother (I shouldn't have any 1s on my list as I would ditch them before finishing)...

 

2013 Books Read:

01. Women of the Klondike by Frances Backhouse (3 stars). Challenges: Dusty; Continental – North America (Canada); Dewey Decimal – 900s.

02. Equator by Miguel Sousa Tavares (3 stars). Challenges: Dusty; Continental – Europe (Portugal) & Africa (São Tomé and Príncipe).

03. UFOs, JFK, & Elvis by Richard Belzer (2 stars). Challenge: Dewey Decimal – 000s.

04. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – North America (USA).

05. The Twelve Rooms of the Nile by Enid Shomer (3.5 stars). Challenge: Continental – Africa (Egypt).

06. The Hard Way by Lee Child (2 stars).

07. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy (3 stars).

08. Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron (3.5 stars). Challenge: Continental – North America (Canada).

09. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes (3.5 stars).

10. The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye by A.S. Byatt (4 stars).

 

11. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – Asia (Pakistan).

12. Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr (4 stars). Challenge: Dewey Decimal – 600s.

13. The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – Europe (Sweden).

14. A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – Asia (Pakistan).

15. Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley (4 stars).

16. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (2.5 stars). Challenge: Dewey Decimal – 900s.

17. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – North America (USA).

18. Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar (3 stars). Challenges: Dusty & Chunky; Continental – South America (Argentina).

19. The Tenth Circle by Mempo Giardinelli (3 stars). Challenge: Continental – South America (Argentina).

20. Nick & Jake by Jonathan Richards and Tad Richards (3.5 stars). Challenge: Dusty.

 

21. A Funny Dirty Little War by Osvaldo Soriano (3 stars). Challenge: Continental – South America (Argentina).

22. Winter Quarters by Osvaldo Soriano (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – South America (Argentina).

23. The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski (3.5 stars).

24. Wheat Belly by William Davis M.D. (2.5 stars). Challenge: Dewey Decimal – 600s.

25. Secret Societies by Kelly Knauer (2 stars). Challenge: Dewey Decimal – 300s.

26. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (2 stars).

27. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (5 stars). Challenges: Dusty & Chunky; Continental – Asia (Japan).

28. The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats by Hesh Kestin (4 stars). Challenges: Dusty; Continental – North America (USA).

29. Sacré Blue by Christopher Moore (3 stars).

30. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (5 stars). Challenge: Continental – Asia (Japan) & North America (Canada).

 

31. Phoebe & the Ghost of Chagall by Jill Koenigsdorf (3 stars).

32. I Will Have Vengeance by Maurizio de Giovanni (3 stars). Challenge: Continental – Europe (Italy).

33. Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost (3 stars). Challenge: Dewey Decimal – 900s.

34. Hammett Unwritten by Owen Fitzstephen (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – North America (USA).

35. All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel (5 stars). Challenges: Continental – South America (Argentina) & Europe (Spain); Pick A Book By Its Cover

36. This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong (3 stars).

37. Xala by Ousmane Sembène (3.5 stars). Challenge: Continental – Africa (Senegal).

38. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ (4 stars). Challenge: Continental – Africa (Senegal).

[melmichigan]

I'm currently reading Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane, #4 in her Chase Putnam series.

 

Anyone want to tackle Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler later in the month? It's # 28 on SWB's Well Educated Mind fiction list.

 

 

:party: A new author for me to try! I've been in a slump.

[eaglei]

Just marking this thread for later . . .

 

Love-love-love this thread!!!

 

Thanks, Robin, for keeping it going - and also everyone who posts to it!

[Kareni]

Yesterday I reread Laura Kinsale's The Shadow and the Star which is a historical romance set in Victorian era Britain and Hawaii.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[ladydusk]

Making some headway in Brat Farrar by Tey. DNA testing today would easily solve the mystery of who he is. Makes it a little less intriguing.

[Onceuponatime]

I would like to read If On a Winter's Night, but it's not in either of my libraries. I'll have to find it somewhere else.

[mlbuchina]

 

Currently reading The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food (Jennifer 8 Lee), a fun, pop culture, Travel Channel-esque foodie book about the history Chinese restaurants in America

 

Oo... I saw this book at 2nd & Charles the other day. Let me know what you think of it. I love Chinese food. :)

[Stacia]

52 Books Blog - Eurorail through Europe: Monday is July 1st and that means it's time to continue our travels across the continents. If you've been doing the continental, I hope you had a grand time traipsing through Africa and are ready to take a ferry from Morocco over to Spain where we will begin our trip through Europe. I'm going to splurge on a global Eurorail pass which will let me visit multiple countries. Perhaps I'll take a champagne tour through France, watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, sleep in a historic castle in Ireland, explore the black forests of Germany, or hike up through the Swiss Alps.

 

Currently in my backpack is Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Midnight Palace, Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Frank Delaney's Ireland, and Matt Rees' Mozart's Last Aria.

 

Check out the link Eurorail through Europe where I've highlighted a couple books from several countries to help get you started on your travels. How about taking a literary tour of Europe. Be sure to check out Adelante's program- Ireland's Nobel Literature or Literary Traveler's Le Belle Epoque in Paris. Or take a tour of libraries starting with the world's largest library, The National Library of Spain in Madrid, founded in 1712 by King Philip V. Be sure to check out Flavorwire's stunning photo's of Europe's Most Beautiful Libraries.

 

Love your description of Eurorail travels, Robin. Wish we were all there in reality doing it! Thanks for the links too. Will have to check those out. Definitely want to get some more European reading in, but I also still have some various African books here to consider....

 

Anyone want to tackle Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler later in the month?

 

I'll definitely participate in a Calvino read!

 

Well, shoot. I had a big post typed out and my computer ate it. :glare:

 

I have a couple of books aready in my TBR that fit right in on the Eurorail: The Nautical Chart (Arturo Perez-Reverte, Spain) and The Island of the Day Before (Umberto Eco, Italy). I read so much British and Irish fiction already it doesn't seem right to include those.

 

Currently reading The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food (Jennifer 8 Lee), a fun, pop culture, Travel Channel-esque foodie book about the history Chinese restaurants in America, and World War Z (Max Brooks). I enjoy vampire apocalypse novels so why not zombies, too? :)

 

Don't you hate it when computers do that??? All those books sound good. Any vampire novels to recommend? (I much prefer vampires over zombies, lol.)

 

I finished The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession. It was a historical fiction, mystery, and meta-book, all in one. It was based around the question of proof of Shakespeare's authorship of the plays attributed to him. I found the story engaging, even though there was more than enough about the intimate lives of the main characters.

 

I'm following that up with Will In The World by Stephen Greenblatt, a non-fiction about the kind of world Shakespeare must have grown up in and how that would have contributed toward his eventual "genius."

 

I need to see if my library carries The Bookman's Tale. Continuing on your theme, you may want to see if you might be interested in The Marlowe Papers. I saw it on the 'new releases' shelf in the library in Charleston when I was there & thought it looked quite excellent (but I was too brain dead to tackle it then). Need to see if the library here at home has it....

[mlbuchina]

I finished reading The Sugar Queen and The Girl Who Chased the Moon, both by Sarah Addison Allen. I was thinking of giving up on The Sugar Queen, but decided to push through. I'm glad I did. I didn't love the book, but it had a nice second half and was worth reading at least once. Out of all of Allen's books, this one was my least favorite. I really enjoyed The Girl Who Chased the Moon, but I felt that one of the story arcs wasn't given the ending it deserved. In that, I mean, it ended too abruptly. It felt like the author was in a hurry to finish writing, and just wanted to wrap things up quickly. Other than that, it was an enjoyable read. I think that my favorite of her books is Garden Spells.

 

Now I am reading The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards. This one is a little slow going, too, but I'm hopeful it picks up quickly. I loved The Memory Keeper's Daughter, so I have high hopes for this one.

 

The Round Up

42. The Girl Who Chased the Moon

41. The Sugar Queen

40. 1Q84

39. The Long Winter

38. Warm Bodies

37. Garden Spells

36. The Peach Keeper

35. The Memory Keeper's Daughter

34. The First Four Years

33. These Happy Golden Years

32. Little Town on the Prairie

31. Amglish, in Like, Ten Easy Lessons: A Celebration of the New World Lingo

30. The Call of the Wild

29. By the Shores of Silver Lake

28. Pippi Longstocking

27. On the Banks of Plum Creek

26. Hiroshima

25. Farmer Boy

24. 1984

23. This Book is Full of Spiders

22. Little House on the Prairie

21. Evolutionism and Creationism

20. John Dies at the End

19. Much Ado About Nothing

18. Little House in the Big Woods

17. Hooked

16. Anne of the Island

15. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen

14. Anne of Avonlea

13. Anne of Green Gables

12. The Invention of Hugo Cabret

11. The Swiss Family Robinson

10. Little Women

9. Why We Get Fat

8. The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye

7. Outlander

6. The New Atkins for a New You

5. A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows

4. Liberty and Tyranny

3. Corelli's Mandolin

2. The Neverending Story

1. The Hobbit

[Mothersweets]

I finally finished Brave Companions by David McCullough. I started it back in January and really don't know why it has taken me so long to pick it back up again and finish it. :confused1:

 

This is a compilation of essays that McCullough had written over 20 years about famous and not-so-famous people. Really wonderful, incredible, fascinating, talented people. Some I had heard of and some I hadn't. I am planning on buying a few copies to hand out to friends and family - it is that good.

[SunnyDays]

I've been quite remiss on posting here the past couple months, but I am still reading! I have, however, pretty much abandoned all challenges and am going to read whatever the heck I want, LOL! :D

 

Michele, I love Sarah Addison Allen's books. I've read all four of them and can't wait for more! Amazon lists a new one scheduled to release in February.

 

This has been "delve into old favorites" month for me. I'm re-reading the Harry Potter series, this time DS is finally reading along too! And I just finished an old Nora Roberts trilogy, the Gallaghers of Ardmore set in Ireland.... Fun light summer read.

 

So far I've read 32 books for the year. I'm working on HP #2, The Writers Jungle, and I'm going to start Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, which looks fun.

 

[mumto2]

I requested "If on a Winter's Night......" but I have some serious doubts that it will show up. The system accepted my request but shows no copies. I think that means deep storage.:( We shall see......

 

Edited to add: I was just reading about it in wiki. Apparently frequently used in lit classes so I moved it to dds library card. Her books seem to arrive from deep storage. :lol:

[mumto2]

Yesterday I reread Laura Kinsale's The Shadow and the Star which is a historical romance set in Victorian era Britain and Hawaii.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

I love the ebook library! I really did not expect to ever find this book but I gave it a try and like magic it's on my kindle. :) Looking forward to it!

[Jane in NC]

If on a winter's night a traveler is one of my favorite novels! I will love hearing what y'all have to say about it.

 

My husband and I have very different tastes in reading yet both he and I are fans of Italo Calvino. My husband's favorite work is Calvino's retelling of Italian Folktales--but he also really likes The Castle of Crossed Destinies.

 

Over on the high school board, we often recommend the short story collections t zero or Cosmicomics for those doing sci fi units. We added some of Calvino's folk tales to my son's reading list in middle school.

 

And how many of us have felt like The Baron in the Trees, the young man who takes to the tree tops instead of dealing with pressure on the ground?

 

Italo Calvino is one of my Old Friends. Amazing writer.

[Stacia]

And how many of us have felt like The Baron in the Trees, the young man who takes to the tree tops instead of dealing with pressure on the ground?

 

I read this so many years ago. I need to revisit it again someday.

 

I like the idea of some of his folktales for middle school. Perfect idea for my ds. Thanks!

[Mom-ninja.]

I think I may be the only one here who does not like Addison's books. Not my thing.

[ladydusk]

I think I may be the only one here who does not like Addison's books. Not my thing.

 

Nope. I didn't care for Garden Spells and probably won't try others.

[MomtoCandJ]

I'm reading Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born. Does anyone have any recommendations on more books like this?

[Mothersweets]

Making some headway in Brat Farrar by Tey. DNA testing today would easily solve the mystery of who he is. Makes it a little less intriguing.

 

I really liked this book - made me want to move to England and ride horses.

[Mothersweets]

I'm reading Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born. Does anyone have any recommendations on more books like this?

 

 

Have you read Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife ?

[Paisley Hedgehog]

. 

 

[JennW in SoCal]

I am almost half-way through my second major chunkster of the year -- The Count of Monte Cristo. And it is a MAJOR chunkster, clocking in at 52 hours on audible!! I'm both listening to it and reading it on my iPad which meant I was flying through it for a while as I could keep up even while driving. But I seem to have hit the mid-latitude doldrums in the book. I finally searched for a synopsis of the book to find out just why the plot was taking a long, and seemingly pointless side trip to Carnival in Rome. Now that I know why I can move ahead.

 

And some comments about other points in the current thread, without any handy multi-quotes...

 

How is it I had never heard of Italo Calvino's works? I'm happy to see my library system has most of them, though I may wait to check them out til I'm done with the Count.

 

And I enjoyed Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells, though it wasn't my favorite thing ever. Her other titles mentioned on this thread have sounded like perfect summer reading.

 

The David McCollough book Brave Companions sounds like a perfect book to have on the shelf since it is a collection of shorter essays. Sometimes you just want a bit of non-fiction, rather than an entire tome.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I finished Le Guin's, Searoad. It was a wonderful little book. It's a collection of short stories, but with a connecting thread of taking place in a small sea-coast town in Oregon. It's a bit sad, but so beautifully written. It's like prose and poetry combined. The book is neither fantasy or sci-fi, which is what she is known for.

 

I started reading The Innkeeper's Song, by Peter Beagle (The Last Unicorn). So far I'm enjoying it.

[Stacia]

Loved The Passage by Justin Cronin for scary, kiss-your-hiney-goodbye vampires. None of that sparkly, swoon worthy, chisled jawline carp in sight. ;)

 

Ah, I didn't realize The Passage was a vampire book. I know I've seen the title of it, but somehow the vampire part escaped my notice. How scary is this book? (I handled World War Z & John Dies at the End, plus various Ann Rice vampire & witch books, so will I be able to handle this one w/out being terrified? :lol: ) And, even though I put the laughing head there, I really do want to know!

 

I am almost half-way through my second major chunkster of the year -- The Count of Monte Cristo. And it is a MAJOR chunkster, clocking in at 52 hours on audible!!

 

One of my favorite books & definitely a major chunkster. Love the story though.

 

I finished Le Guin's, Searoad. It was a wonderful little book. It's a collection of short stories, but with a connecting thread of taking place in a small sea-coast town in Oregon. It's a bit sad, but so beautifully written. It's like prose and poetry combined. The book is neither fantasy or sci-fi, which is what she is known for.

 

Have you read A.S. Byatt's The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye? Even though I'm not generally a fan of short stories, I loved her writing in this lovely little collection.

 

Once upon a time, when men and women hurtled through the air on metal wings, when they wore webbed feet and walked on the bottom of the sea, learning the speech of whales and the songs of the dolphins, when pearly-fleshed and jewelled apparitions of Texan herdsmen and houris shimmered in the dusk on Nicaraguan hillsides, when folk in Norway and Tasmania in dead of winter could dream of fresh strawberries, dates, guavas and passion fruits and find them spread next morning on their tables, there was a woman who was largely irrelevant, and therefore happy.

[mlbuchina]

http://www.christinefeehan.com/dark_series/index.php

 

Stacia, have you read anything by Christine Feehan? She was recommended to me recently, and her Dark series looks interesting. Something about vampires that won't become vampires if they find their true love? Her Ghostwalker series was even more highly recommended.

[Stacia]

http://www.christine...eries/index.php

 

Stacia, have you read anything by Christine Feehan? She was recommended to me recently, and her Dark series looks interesting. Something about vampires that won't become vampires if they find their true love? Her Ghostwalker series was even more highly recommended.

 

No. I will have to look into those.

 

Maybe you'll have to read one first, though, and tell me how scary it is (or not).

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/tongue.gif

[melmichigan]

http://www.christine...eries/index.php

 

Stacia, have you read anything by Christine Feehan? She was recommended to me recently, and her Dark series looks interesting. Something about vampires that won't become vampires if they find their true love? Her Ghostwalker series was even more highly recommended.

 

I forgot that I downloaded the first one after someone mentioned her, maybe Robin or Kareni? Somehow I'd forgotten the Dark Prince I have is the author's cut, which makes it 501 pages.

[Stacia]

melmichigan, you'll have to let me know if it's scary if you read it.

 

Ok, so I gave up on Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster. Blah. My book club is reading it, but I just can't get into it. I made it about halfway through. It's a transcription of a series of lectures Forster gave in 1927 about the topic of 'novels'. Maybe it would be better in audio format since they were lectures in original form? I've never been much of a fan of Forster's fiction (I know, sacrilege), but I was hoping this would redeem him in my eyes. Oh well.

 

Now I'm starting Altazor or A Voyage in a Parachute (1919): A Poem in VII Cantos by Vicente Huidobro.

 

From the back cover:

The first modern poet of the Spanish language -- in many ways its Apollinaire -- Vicente Huidobro is generally considered to be one of the four greatest Spanish American poets of this century. Yet unlike his peers -- César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, and Ocatvio Paz -- Huidobro is still little-known in the United States.

 

Altazor, a book-length poem first published in 1931, is Huidobro's masterpiece and one of the wildest poems of any language. The century's great paean to flight, the poem sends its hero (Altazor, the antipoet) hurtling through Einsteinian space at light-speed, as all places and times collapse into one.

[mlbuchina]

 

 

No. I will have to look into those.

 

Maybe you'll have to read one first, though, and tell me how scary it is (or not).

 

:p

 

Well, looking at the first book in the series makes me think it won't be too scary. It's a romance novel, and those aren't scary, right? LOL

 

 

[mlbuchina]

 

 

I forgot that I downloaded the first one after someone mentioned her, maybe Robin or Kareni? Somehow I'd forgotten the Dark Prince I have is the author's cut, which makes it 501 pages.

 

Wow. The one here at the library is 447 pages, but that includes a short story at the end of the main title. I wonder if your's includes the short story?

[Jane in NC]

Ok, so I gave up on Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster. Blah. My book club is reading it, but I just can't get into it. I made it about halfway through. It's a transcription of a series of lectures Forster gave in 1927 about the topic of 'novels'. Maybe it would be better in audio format since they were lectures in original form? I've never been much of a fan of Forster's fiction (I know, sacrilege), but I was hoping this would redeem him in my eyes. Oh well.

 

 

:svengo:

 

Off to revive myself with a glass of wine!

[Stacia]

Well, looking at the first book in the series makes me think it won't be too scary. It's a romance novel, and those aren't scary, right? LOL

 

 

Well, I kind of thought that too. But chick lit &/or romance are not my genres of choice, so I might end up finding it quite scary. :eek: ;)

 

:svengo:

 

Off to revive myself with a glass of wine!

 

 

You crack me up. Enjoy your wine. :D

[mumto2]

I just finished my next Flavia "Speaking From Amoung the Bones" by Alan Bradley. I take back my previous designation this one is the best! :) What a cliffhanger. I know the next one comes out in 2014. Any idea when? Dd and I NEED to know what happens next! Our speculation does not agree. I wonder who is right?

[mumto2]

I love the more romantic vampire novels. I have also read more then my fair share of the bloody ones. My favorite (which I have stashed in the states) is a series by Linda Lael Miller. The first is "Forever and the Night". These were my first, followed by Anne Rice. :lol: This series should have been listed as "comfort" a few weeks ago.

 

Another funny series is bt Mary Janice Davidson. They all start with Undead and...... This series deteriorates hugely as it progresses but the first few are a great read.

 

All the talk about the Dark series made me go serching for it. I actually found the Dark Prince as an ebook from the library so hopefully I will read it soon. ;)

[Violet Crown]

Completed

16. Aldous Huxley, Music at Night

 

A collection of essays, some reasonably good, many quite dull. I think I'm not a Huxley fan. I was also quite bothered by the frequency with which an essay on some social problem or other would conclude with a nod toward eugenics as probably the way the problem would be solved. Maybe he was just a creature of his times, but his fellow essay-writing Englishman and exact coeval C. S. Lewis had no time for "selective breeding" as the future of progressivism.

 

Now finishing The Wasp Factory, which is just becoming sordid, and then back at least a century. Neither the present one nor the one recently past seem to agree with me.

[Robin M]

Ah, I didn't realize The Passage was a vampire book. I know I've seen the title of it, but somehow the vampire part escaped my notice. How scary is this book? (I handled World War Z & John Dies at the End, plus various Ann Rice vampire & witch books, so will I be able to handle this one w/out being terrified? :lol: ) And, even though I put the laughing head there, I really do want to know!

 

 

 

One of my favorite books & definitely a major chunkster. Love the story though.

 

 

 

Have you read A.S. Byatt's The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye? Even though I'm not generally a fan of short stories, I loved her writing in this lovely little collection.

http://www.christine...eries/index.php

 

Stacia, have you read anything by Christine Feehan? She was recommended to me recently, and her Dark series looks interesting. Something about vampires that won't become vampires if they find their true love? Her Ghostwalker series was even more highly recommended.

No. I will have to look into those.

 

Maybe you'll have to read one first, though, and tell me how scary it is (or not).

 

:p

I love the more romantic vampire novels. I have also read more then my fair share of the bloody ones. My favorite (which I have stashed in the states) is a series by Linda Lael Miller. The first is "Forever and the Night". These were my first, followed by Anne Rice. :lol: This series should have been listed as "comfort" a few weeks ago.

 

Another funny series is bt Mary Janice Davidson. They all start with Undead and...... This series deteriorates hugely as it progresses but the first few are a great read.

 

All the talk about the Dark series made me go searching for it. I actually found the Dark Prince as an ebook from the library so hopefully I will read it soon. ;)

 

I loved Christine Feehan's Ghostwalker series. The Dark Prince not so much. The characters are very emotional, almost soapy emotional so yes, they are much more like romance novels and not so scary. Intense, but not overly scary.

 

The Passage wasn't overly scary so Stacia, you should be able to handle since you handled the other books okay.

 

But keep in mind that I've read some that are pretty graphic and scary and ones you wouldn't want to read right before you go to bed or while you are eating. So ones I might consider not scary may be for those who aren't used to them.

[Stacia]

But keep in mind that I've read some that are pretty graphic and scary and ones you wouldn't want to read right before you go to bed or while you are eating. So ones I might consider not scary may be for those who aren't used to them.

 

:eek: and :ack2:

 

:lol:

 

(Yeah, I think you are made of much tougher reading mettle than me, Robin. And, thanks for the feedback on the books too. I may have to try The Passage but may pass on the soap-opera-y ones.)

[Paisley Hedgehog]

. 

 

[JennW in SoCal]

people being exsanguinated. That just goes with the territory ;)

 

 

Now there's a word you don't often see on the WTM forums. Had to look that one up because I didn't think it meant sanguine people being made uncheery and pessimistic. Though having all your blood drained could do that to a person.

[Stacia]

I didn't find The Passage scary at all, but I don't usually get scared by books. I have been disturbed before (a few of the police procedurals I read contain some pretty graphic content), but I don't think that is the same thing. IMHO, there was nothing disturbing about The Passage. As with any non-romance vampire novel, however, there are impalings and loss of limbs and people being exsanguinated. That just goes with the territory ;)

 

LOL. Yep, I know that stuff comes w/ vampire stories. (Hey, even "The Night Circus" had a sign that said "Trespassers Will Be Exsanguinated". I know that because I have it marked as one of my fave book quotes over on Goodreads.) I don't know why I can usually manage vampire stories, but usually not other 'scary' types. I think I'll put The Passage on my list of books to read during my 'scary' October reading month.

 

The only thing that slightly disturbs me is this part of the amazon description:

But, these are not sexy, angsty vampires (you won’t be seeing "Team Babcock" t-shirts any time soon), and they are not old-school, evil Nosferatus, either. These are a creation all Cronin's own--hairless, insectile, glow-in-the-dark mutations who are inextricably linked to their makers

 

No angsty teen vampires. Perfect. Real vampires should have gotten rid of these guys a long time ago.

No old-school, evil Nosferatus. Aw. Darn. Those are the vampires I know & love.

Hairless, insectile, glow-in-the-dark mutant vampires? Hmmmm. Close to creeping me out w/ that description alone....

 

:tongue_smilie: :lol:

 

Still, I think I'll give it a go in October (but maybe only during daylight hours).

[Paisley Hedgehog]

. 

 

[Stacia]

 

Now it is forever in my Internet history for Big Brother to see. :lol:

 

Well, be careful. You could be exsanguinated for that.

[Kareni]

I read and enjoyed Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell as did my recent college graduate. It's a quick read and entertaining.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mlbuchina]

I loved Christine Feehan's Ghostwalker series. The Dark Prince not so much. The characters are very emotional, almost soapy emotional so yes, they are much more like romance novels and not so scary. Intense, but not overly scary.

 

 

Well, geeze. I don't want my romances to be soap operas. Poo.

 

From the description I got of the Ghostwalker series, I think I will enjoy it a lot, too.