What are you currently reading??

[KristiB]

I like David Sedaris but I find I laugh out loud more when I hear him read so I usually download his audiobooks-or even better-see him live.

I'm reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. It's very very very good although some truly disturbing things happen. I guess the sequel Children of God is excellent too and makes The Sparrow seem even better as it ties things up.

I'm surprised there haven't been movies made of these.

Has anyone else read them?

[witchcurlgirl]

Originally Posted by KristiB

I like David Sedaris but I find I laugh out loud more when I hear him read so I usually download his audiobooks-or even better-see him live.

I'm reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. It's very very very good although some truly disturbing things happen. I guess the sequel Children of God is excellent too and makes The Sparrow seem even better as it ties things up.

I'm surprised there haven't been movies made of these.

Has anyone else read them?

No, but I read her 'A Thread of Grace' and really liked it.

[KristiB]

I loved Thread of Grace! We read it for our book club.

These are kinda sci-fi but deeper. I'll post the Amazon description since it describes the book better than I can.

Don't let the "Jesuits in space" put you off. Although it might offend the Christian right and some Catholics the way Pullmans books do. It really is good and I'm not a sci-fi/fantasy fan!

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong... Words like "provocative" and "compelling" will come to mind as you read this shocking novel about first contact with a race that creates music akin to both poetry and prayer. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
An enigma wrapped inside a mystery sets up expectations that prove difficult to fulfill in Russell's first novel, which is about first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. The enigma is Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit linguist whose messianic virtues hide his occasional doubt about his calling. The mystery is the climactic turn of events that has left him the sole survivor of a secret Jesuit expedition to the planet Rakhat and, upon his return, made him a disgrace to his faith. Suspense escalates as the narrative ping-pongs between the years 2016, when Sandoz begins assembling the team that first detects signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and 2060, when a Vatican inquest is convened to coax an explanation from the physically mutilated and emotionally devastated priest. A vibrant cast of characters who come to life through their intense scientific and philosophical debates help distract attention from the space-opera elements necessary to get them off the Earth. Russell brings her training as a paleoanthropologist to bear on descriptions of the Runa and Jana'ata, the two races on Rakhat whose differences are misunderstood by the Earthlings, but the aliens never come across as more than variations of primitive earthly cultures. The final revelation of the tragic human mistake that ends in Sandoz's degradation isn't the event for which readers have been set up. Much like the worlds it juxtaposes, this novel seems composed of two stories that fail to come together. BOMC, QPB and One Spirit Book Club selections.

[witchcurlgirl]

^^ I'll pick it up. I liked her style. I passed Thread onto a few people and they all liked it as well.

[ariesallover]

Originally Posted by Fluffy

^Oh, wait until you read about his brother's dogs. There's a part in there that's just gross!

I just finished the one about Brandi, the lost child neighbor. It really did give me the chills.

[Laurent]

Re-reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and I'm about 3/4 through it. I forgot the true ick factor on this one and I've had to step away from it a few times.

[ariesallover]

Dress Your Family was not about the funny. Satire yes, kind of a cutting look at his family life without any mercy but still subtle in some ways. Definitely not Me Talk Pretty.

I'm now reading Naked in bits and drabs.

I finished this one: Amazon.com: Telling Moments: Autobiographical Lesbian Short Stories: Lynda Hall: Books. There were maybe 4 stories that had that wow effect out of the whole thing: one involved a woman being kept by a baroness, another was a construction worker mourning the death of her mother, and another was about a performer who buries herself in dirt during her period. The rest were feh.

I'm halfway through this one: Amazon.com: Shy Girl: A Novel: Elizabeth Stark: Books. Things are pretty stock in terms of characters, but it's well done in developing the story and highlighting tensions among the women. I doubt it will go on my top books of '08 like Dearest Anne.

[Laurent]

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. My first crack at it. I'm about 45 pages in and so far it's pretty engaging. Stomach churning, but good.

[sophie]

The Twilight Series by Stephenine Meyer. I just started Eclipse. Im dissapointed to say that I heard the last book 'Breaking Dawn' wasnt that great. I guess ill see.

Im also re-reading "Heartsick" by Chelsea Cain in preperation for the sequel "Sweetheart", out next month.

[Just Kill Me]

Right now my head is all over the place; I managed to devour The Secret Life of Bees (it was okay, could have been much longer). Picking through Steppenwolf and funny thing I've been reading a different David Sedaris from all of his books before bed each night. My favorite is the one about his brother and the baby; I have one of the alphabet pals and I know exactly what he's talking about.

[cmmdee]

Originally Posted by Laurent

Re-reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and I'm about 3/4 through it. I forgot the true ick factor on this one and I've had to step away from it a few times.

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Total ick factor but the prose is so beautiful, IMO. It's crazy.

I'm reading Inside the Jon-benet Ramsey Murder Investigation by Steve Thomas, thanks to that thread here at GR. LOL. It's mainly depressing me seeing how botched the investigation was and what a jackass the DA was. Who's side was he on. Really?
Am only halfway through and it's due back to the library soon and I'm not sure I'll renew or finish it. Bah.

[ang]

i finished snuff by chuck palahniuk awhile back...that was a fun read.

now, i'm reading eat, pray, love by elizabeth gilbert and i am ADORING it.

Amazon.com: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia: Elizabeth Gilbert: Books

[cmmdee]

Just finished True Lies of a Drama Queen by Lee Nichols.
It was cute.

[MarieAntoinette]

Lolita is one of my favourites as well. The writing is so beautiful, it makes up for the icky stuff.

I'm reading the autobiography of Marianne Faithfull at the moment.

I recently finished Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt's La Part de l’autre which plays with the idea that Hitler would have lived a different life if he would have been accepted at art school. That book was pretty interesting and even funny at times, when Hitler gets send to Sigmund Freud for some therapy.

I also read a biography on Frida Kahlo some weeks ago. She seemed to be an interesting person to bad she was sick a lot of the time.

I like David Sedaris' books. I read most of them a couple of years ago during my summer holiday. His short story Santaland Diaries had me rolling on the floor with laughter.

[stylejunkiex]

and


Really interesting.