What are you reading?

[Auburn]

I'm reading Sarah Waters' 'The Night Watch'

I have to say that it's a truely awful book. Boring as hell! I was very disappointed after the brilliance of Fingersmith.

[FineyMcFine]

Mrs. McFine is reading The Night Watch right now too and she asked me "Is this book this boring the whole way through?" I said "Yep." There are many reasons why I thought it was boring but one of the main ones is, I didn't really identify with or care that much about the characters. And I could have, but Sarah Waters didn't write them in a way that allowed the reader to do that. It was all very distant and boring.

I'm reading a book of short stories right now called Thrilling Tales.

[Knock yourself out]

The Night Watch is so over-rated that it hurts. I think it is okay but just that - okay - it is on the Man Booker Prize longlist and I want to know why. It doesn't help that you know how it ends from the beginning and that's not even interesting. Still the British cover is handsome.

[Auburn]

Yes, the ending is at the beginning, isn't it? I suppose that sets a precedent for the entire book, because if the end is awful, how on earth is the middle and the beginning going to be better?

I agree about the characters, SallyMcFine, they are all weak. Weak in the sense that there's nothing about them to make you sympathise, be happy for or have any type of emotion for at all!

There was no plot, no sense of suspense, nothing to laugh about, nothing to cry about. There was a mundane steadiness about all of the scenarios of each character from the end to the beginning. It's a shame. This book could have been good if Sarah Waters had used the imagination and talent we have had a glimpse of with 'Fingersmith'.

The Night Watch was her first book being in third person, wasn't it? I never thought I would ever say this, but, perhaps she should stick to first person.

And Knock-yourself-out, I would like to know why this awful book is on the Man Booker Prize longlist too!


On a different note. Im going to read 'The Copycat' by Erica Spindler next.

[db]

I just finished reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. It was a good, if sad, read.

[NewRuthRising]

The Witches Bible. Plus Carol Vordeman's Bumper Sudoku Edition

[JustSkipIt]

I just finished Language of Love: Non-Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. It was amazing and a living breathing work. One that I would like to aspire to embody. Next, I'm not sure what I'll read.

[Boschi]

The Living, by Annie Dillard.

Very Dillard - emotionally cool, yet captures images, notions, and characters in ways few others can.

The book is an account of various people who settled and lived in the Pacific Northwest coast (of the U.S.) in the early/mid 1800s. It amounts to a collection of short stories that fit loosely together by virtue of characters. The stories are not highly dramatic - they are simply accounts, sometimes poignant, sometimes mundane, that when viewed together indirectly capture the texture of the land, people and time.

Beautiful. I like Dillard for being able to write about both the wonder and brutality of life in a way that is respectfully matter of fact - life is simply life. An accumulation of people and events, neither distinctly good or evil, but with moments of both and all manner of facets.

I'd recommend it.

[kivrin]

I'm reading again (and I don't really know how many times i've done it)
"life, the univers and everything" [/b][/i]

[Brianna]

Well I've already finish The Hitch Hiker's Gide to the galaxy. My girlfriend let me and well I really like it. Thanks baby!!!

[notl33t]

Finishing up Jacqueline Carey's the third of the first three Kushiel books so that I can get on to the fourth book. Mmmm....can't wait to get the fourth in paperback. Soon it shall be mine . . .

[bookworm_willow1]

Currently reading: Ghosts of Albion: Accursed by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden (names you know

It was a slow start, but it is getting progressively better. It's funny though...
you can tell where one writer starts and the other stops. Still pretty good so far, but I'm only in chapter 7.

[HalfCamel]

I have to say that it's a truely awful book. Boring as hell! I was very disappointed after the brilliance of Fingersmith.

These were my exact thoughts, Auburn, well put. And I agree with everything that Sally and K-Y-O said too. The only reason I finished reading the book was because I kept hoping that it would get better... but it didn't.

On topic: I'm reading House Rules by Heather Lewis.

[Brianna]

starting reading "moonraker's Bride"

[diamondforever]

Right now, I'm reading Ill Met By Moonlight by Roberta Gellis and Mercedes Lackey. It's the sequel to This Sceptre'd Isle which is about elf activity in the 1500s. Very nice tie to the historical period, with the main character having a very large hand in the royal matters - Henry VIII and the whole succession business with Mary, Edward, and Elizabeth.

[dynigirl]

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

[roomforsquarez]

I recently finished Curious Wine- Kathrine Forrest. It was a lovely, nice little romance. Set in a snowy cabin, two women paired up to share one of the rooms, there's this obvious connection between them... yum! Also, Girl Walking Backwards- Bett Williams, which is more of a younger, coming of age type book. And now school books take up most of my reading time. *sigh*

[kayaushk]

MInd Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos
by K.C. Cole

Fun, short, 3 page essays on science stuff

[NewRuthRising]

A biography on Jung, a book about reincarnation, another about neurophysiology, and another called The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse. I'm trying to figure some stuff out.

[Lucian]

The Hobbit

[Bound2Her]

go ask alice

[MagicPancakes]

Just finished Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice

[the hero factor]

I'm rereading Firestarter by Stephen King. IMO, there's just nothing like a good Stephen King book.

[Guppy]

Black Notice by Patricia Cornwell. i just finished Unnatural Exposure this afternoon.

[DreamLover]

Turn back time by Radclyffe

[Knock yourself out]

I have just finished Slow River by Nicola Griffith which was recommended on the "Great books by women" thread. I do love a smart resourceful heroine (who is not without flaws) and this is the case with Lore. Slow River is excellent plausible science fiction - Ammonite next for me, I think.

Slightly OT: Nicola Griffith's website has a recent list of her favourite things which (delightfully) includes Buffy.

[cattwoman]

Jennifer Government-Max Berry

Ripped from Amazon:

In the horrifying, satirical near future of Max Barry's Jennifer Government, American corporations literally rule the world. Everyone takes his employer's name as his last name; once-autonomous nations as far-flung as Australia belong to the USA; and the National Rifle Association is not just a worldwide corporation, it's a hot, publicly traded stock. Hack Nike, a hapless employee seeking advancement, signs a multipage contract and then reads it. He discovers he's agreed to assassinate kids purchasing Nike's new line of athletic shoes, a stealth marketing maneuver designed to increase sales. And the dreaded government agent Jennifer Government is after him.

[JustSkipIt]

I've been on a brainless kick. Last week I read DragonSong and DragonSinger and HP 6. Today I'm reading Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Ahhh...

[willowsbrain]

"Evolution of Physics" by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld

[Maca]

Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs