Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
I just finished The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton, a wonderful novel which took me forever to finish due to my crazy schedule and its 848-page length. But it was so enjoyable that I actually miss reading it, now that I've finished it. I gave it as a Christmas present because it's one of those books that I think a lot of people on my list will enjoy.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
I'm obviously on an entirely different page if not in a different space-time continuum. Just finished Tiffany Reisz's The Siren.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Laura N
I just finished The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton, a wonderful novel which took me forever to finish due to my crazy schedule and its 848-page length. But it was so enjoyable that I actually miss reading it, now that I've finished it. I gave it as a Christmas present because it's one of those books that I think a lot of people on my list will enjoy.
Oh good to hear, that is one on my list of books that I keep. The only decision to be made is whether to read it myself or go audio so I need to go listen to the voice narrating and decide. Thanks for mentioning this one so positively.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 4
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
I just finished Little Golden America by Ilf and Petrov, documenting a 2 month roadtrip that the authors took across the US in 1935. I'd read their two best know novels, Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf, so I thought I'd give this non-fiction book a try.
It's very interesting. Keep in mind that these are two Soviet writers acting as special correspondents for Pravda during one of the most repressive periods in their nation's history. Naturally, there is a fair amount of criticism of capitalism, and an assumption that communism is the future. They even conclude (at least for the record) that they wouldn't really want to live in America when they have such a worker's paradise at home. For all that, they are amazingly upbeat about the virtues of the United States and its people, so much so, in fact, that I can't help feeling that we no longer deserve such praise.
Setting that aside, it's an interesting look at a country which has since changed almost out of recognition. They were out there on the road (with a couple of American guides) actually meeting people and seeing how they lived. As foreigners, their perspective, political bias aside, is often thought provoking.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Having listened to Marc Maron's interview with Dr. Phil Stutz on his WTF?! podcast, I bought Stutz's book The Tools (co-written with Barry Michels). After that I started to read Barbara Ueland's classic, If You Want to Write, then figured I'd be better off just writing already, sheesh, so I started reading Jeanette Winterson's Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? I'm about a quarter through it, enjoying it very much, taking note of familiar themes and such.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
I just finished P.D. James' book The Private Patient. I am now working through the short stories in Otto Penzler's The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries (I bought it for the Christmas break, but never got to it.)
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just stared Blindness by José Saramago. Excellent so far.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Currently in the middle of The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by Douglas Adams.
Hoping to get through the 'trilogy' (all five books...) and then crack on with his Dirk Gently series.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished Still Alice by Lisa Genova and about to start Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. It was pretty intense on the olde noggin.
David
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Patrick Leigh Fermor's The Broken Road. It was a bittersweet read, being posthumously published. Currently ploughing through the Anabasis as my paperwhite experience barometer.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Last night I started Voyage to Alpha Centauri by Michael O'Brien.
The storyline--of a Nobel Physicist travelling with a small colony to a planet in the Alpha Centauri system on a spaceship he himself designed--explores human nature and the cosmos, man's image of himself, and where he is going-and why he seeks to go there.
Our hero Dr. Hoyos has signed on as a passenger because he desires to escape the seemingly benign totalitarian government that controls everything on his home planet....
A long, fascinating read, like many of his books.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Hi
Just started Michael Connelly's The Reversal and at the same time working my way through Laurence Oldfields new Pen Repair book, but that don't count.
Paul
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Paul-H
Hi
Just started Michael Connelly's The Reversal and at the same time working my way through Laurence Oldfields new Pen Repair book, but that don't count.
Paul
This book turned out to be quite a coincidence as on page 157 there is reference to a Lawyer throwing his pen down on the desk and how this showed disrespect to his Montblanc Pen. Product placement gets everywhere these days ;)
Paul
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Recently finished "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "The Great Gatsby." Getting ready to work through "Great Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe," and looking forward to "Macbeth."
The joys & tribulations of being an English teacher...
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished Sherlock Holmes. I loved all the many references to writing in the Victorian era.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood', I'd forgotten just how beautiful this story is...and now getting into Agatha Christie's 'The Labours of Hercules'.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Finished Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle and have to say liked 1Q84 so much more. Will take a break before reading A Wild Sheep Chase. Rereading Justin Cronin's The Passage before diving into The Twelve.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dreck
Recently finished "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "The Great Gatsby." Getting ready to work through "Great Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe," and looking forward to "Macbeth."
The joys & tribulations of being an English teacher...
"Once upon a midnight dreary, ....."
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?