What Are You Reading??

Finishing off Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein.  Really enjoying it.

Just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  It's a story about a young girl, narrated by Death, set in Nazi Germany.  His writing style is brilliant and thought provoking.  He mixes words in a most unusual way that really brings images to life (for me, anyway).  Highly recommended.

A sample:  Upon her arrival, you could still see the bite marks of snow on her hands and the frosty blood on her fingers. Everything about her was undernourished. Wire-like shins. Coathanger arms. She did not produce it easily, but when it came, she had a starving smile.  Her hair was a close enough brand of German-blonde, but she had dangerous eyes. Dark brown. You didn't really want brown eyes in Germany around that time.

We just read that in our book club. I just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer which I thought was good if a bit conceited.
Now reading short stories by a Pakistani writer Daniyal Mueenuddin "In Other Rooms Other Wonders" pretty good so far even though I usually hate short stories

That sounds really good Ruth, I'm going to check it out!

I've got loads of books that have been arriving from Amazon over the past few weeks and have been slowly working through them. I've been reading the historical fiction trilogy about Henry II by Sharon Kay Penman and just finished it off ... for history buffs, Penman is great, very true to fact.

Right now reading a book by an Indian author (whose name escapes me) called The Unexpected Son. It is ok, kind of fluffy after the hardcore 800 page historical tomes from Penman though.

What I'm really looking forward to is the latest book by Jonathan Franzen, Freedom, which hasn't arrived yet. I loved The Corrections and I've heard good things from other Franzen lovers about Freedom so I'm looking forward to it.

yeah Local I am also thinking about reading that one. The Corrections was brilliant and I only read it cos my cousin recommended it to me after she was the translator for it here (into Hebrew) and now I definitely want to read his new one.

Polished off Puppet Masters, now digging into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Heck, everyone's doing it.

Just finished reading Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union"...it was absolutely brilliant. 

Just finished re-reading the Hobbit. Classic stuff.

I recently finished 'A Gesture Life' by Chang-Rae Lee. In terms of style it has a lovely spareness lit up with the occasional wordy gem.

It's about a man who served as a medic in the Japanese army and explores the idea of 'comfort women' during this period. For anyone with an interest in war-time history (unless you're purely into the planes, bombs and guns side of it) it's a good read. I could also recommend it for people who enjoy well drawn, realistic characters.

I also loved A Gesture Life, Kanga. Chang-Rae Lee's most recent book, The Surrendered, is also very good, you should definitely pick up a copy if you liked A Gesture Life.

Since I do teach Am Lit, part of work is to sit and read....life is hard...just finished Moby Dick, Mosses From an Old Manse, The Red Badge of Courage, The Gilded Age, A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur and an anthology of short stories...it is always nice to have several books going at the time...and classics are good, dash it all

Just finished The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. This is the second book I've read by him and at some point in every chapter I have to laugh out loud. Although it is basically him reminiscing about 1950s America, it really does take a fairly serious tone describing American politics at the time as well as reflecting on the death of the American downtown.

Just finished reading Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union"...it was absolutely brilliant. 

  Bought that at London Heathrow and read it on the way over. Great read and filled me with the hitherto unknown desire to visit Alaska. 

Picked up two by Haruki Murakami: After Dark and hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Earth.  I'm a pig in poop. 

hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Earth

That is a fun, fun book. Enjoy!

Just started "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson...I am on some kind of steampunk trip these days...have a bunch of novels awaiting order on amazon.cn...steampunk is fun...