And then I've got to try to read the three I've not yet read by next Tuesday. Looks to me as if I'm not going to make it.... I think I'll leave the Coetzee till last - though I know people rave about him, I've always found him hard going.

Rosefolly

Now on to a book about goats.

Next on the TBR pile is "We Two" by Gillian Gill. This is about the romantic marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It seems they were rivals struggling for power, as well as lovers.

After this, I will hopefully read "Three Cups of Tea" which a friend has loaned me. She found it fascinating -- an American who built schools in Pakistan.

Finally, I picked up an older "Miss Read" for one dollar at a library book sale. Her books are to me as comforting and warming as a good strong cup of English tea....

Now, the second book I want to mention works the other way. I am one of the biggest Nicholas Sparks' fans around. Skip the new one. I was suspicious when the forward mentioned who named the main character, as they were planning the film. Sounds like the film was thought of first, characters set for the stars...and then the book composed. I read a few pages...and tossed it back in the library sack.

I've finally received The Lost Symbol from the library and while I'm only 30 or so pages in, it is a bit clunky and I'm finding myself picking at the writing rather than enjoying the story, which is shaping up to be exciting. We'll see how the rest of it goes.

I would like to read We Two but the library isn't buying books right now due to budget cuts....and I'm in the same boat. Maybe someday. Wolf Hall is another one on the someday list.

I enjoyed the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie but do not laud it as highly as some reviewers. It was somewhat implausible.

Three Cups of Tea we've talked about here before-a noble cause pursued by a hard-to-work-with maverick chronicled in a roughly written book. I heard his co-author Relin speak last November, and Mortenson definitely walks his own path-sometimes to the detriment of his cause, and with little regard for those he expects to be helping him.

I am just finishing The White Tiger. The characters are well thought out and Adiga really paints a good picture of the surroundings. I like it; it's a good story.

It's about the building of a famous house in Czechoslovakia in the 1930's and the life of that house up to now. The house actually exists (though the house and the nearest town have had their names changed), but the story is entirely fictional. It's a fascinating story.

Glad I read it, equally glad I didn't buy it :)

I just finished Undone by Karin Slaughter and thoroughly enjoyed it-a good thriller & a continuation from her Grant Co. series!

I have barely started The Hunted by Brian Haig.

Pat

I just finished His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis and am now reading a bio of Martha Washington by Patricia Brady.

I'm also reading a book about raising goats which is very enjoyable, and am off to a country fair to see actual goats.

* Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

* An Open Book - Michael Dirda (lit critic I have a craze on - this is his autobiography littered with what he read as he grew up - very well read even when young)

* Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie (read this whilst eating a pile of chips (English-style) and fried egg and English bacon. Yum.)

* Is There Anything You Want? - Margaret Forster (great story which intermingles about five different characters from five diff POVs - you can't daydream during this book or you could lose track of who is who, but it's excellent all the same as they all link together somehow.)

* Conde Naste's Book of Unforgettable Journeys - 21 of their best travel writing stories over the past few years

And now reading "The Boy with the Top Knot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton " by Sathnam Sanghera, a witty British book about a young boy growing up in a Sikh immigrant family in an industrial city in the UK and the secrets they are keeping....

I bought a ton of books whilst I was in the UK. Their charity books (esp Oxfam) have a brilliant selection to choose from and they're so affordable....

Mary, was it you who said you didn't care for it?

The library has noticed me that Byatt's Booker Prize Short-Listed work is ready for me, so I'm off. This inter-library loan business is like Christmas all year long!

Carolyn, about Conroy's latest, every single review I read of it was negative. It was even labeled "purple prose." I've not attempted it yet....

I also purchased a cheapish copy of Possession by Byatt and The Glass Room on the strength of Martin's recommendation and the blurb on the back.

Now all I have to do is read them :-)

Does anyone else still do DailyLit? I remember there was a craze on it a while ago.

grelobe

But yesterday I received an Amazon order containing A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd, An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon, and The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth, with Necessary as Blood by Deborah Crombie and Sand Shark by Margaret Maron in the mail. Riches, I tell you! It's riches!
" . . . richer than I you can never be, for I had a mother who read to me."

I have recently read:

'The Bean Trees' by Barbara Kingsolver. This was recommended several years ago on RP by Marg from Texas, who was a teacher if I remember correctly. I bought the novel at the time, but it ended up lost amid my other tomes. However, I came across it the other week and couldn't put it down. It's a fabulous quest narrative, with memorable characters.

'Butterfly' by Sonya Hartnett.
'Young Hearts Crying' by Richard Yates.

Now, I'm into "We Two" as fascinating biography by Gillian Gill about the lives and origins of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It is very well researched and a pleasure to read. What I find I still do not understand is the prevalence of German royalty in the courts and on the throne of England. So many seemed to be marrying German upperclass gentry from the various principalities. So many from the House of Hanover. So many from Wurtemburg, Hesse, Saxe-Coburg and on and on. And it amazes me how all the European and Russian royal families were so closely interlinked via marriage in the 17th, 18, and 19th centuries.

Instead I am reading Holy Cow! by Sarah MacDonald in preparation for my upcoming trip to India. I have only read half a chapter, but memories of my previous visit are already flooding back.

Just into the very beginning, so I'll report later.

Finished up "The Boy with the Top Knot" autobiography, good but not stunning.

Dipping into this year's "Best American Travel Writing" book for 2009, edited by Simon Winchester and looks good, but then I love this series of books.

Also started "Class Matters" by the staff of the NYT which is a study of how class is treated in America (socio-economic class). I have heard many people say that America is "classless" with regard to middle class, working class etc. and this book is a collection of essays exploring that idea: how does class affect American life nowadays? The essays cover the past twenty years, so it should be interesting to see if there have been any big changes over the years... Also, should be interesting to compare with the recent class-related book I read about England not long ago....

And ejoying, I am half way thru. Very strange characters and a very likable ghost.The setting is next door to Highgate Cemetery,London.

Have any of us read Barbara Kingsolver's-Prodigal Summer? I shall try for The Bean Trees at my library.

Junek, I read and loved Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer." It was just my cup of tea. Let us know what you think of it.

The shorter books are Stewart O'Nan's Songs for the Missing and The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan.

Am now reading Petronius, The Satyricon.

Have you had any luck with on-line book discussions in Australia?. I belong to First Tuesday Book Club however it in not a patch on this site. In fact it seems to be dying.

I'm currently reading Medicus by Ruth Downie. It's set in Roman Britain and features a down-on-his-luck doctor who is drawn into a murder mystery. I'm not a big mystery reader, but the setting and characters are quite different and I like it so far.

I ordered Bean Trees from my library this morning, it is at another branch but available. They ring me when it has arrived.

I have finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a very unusual book whenever I see twins it will bring the novel back to me. Audrey also wrote The Time Traveler's Wife, I have noted that it has has some very good reports from RP.

I have started to read 'A Kiss Before Dying' by Ira Levin, he also wrote Rosemary's Baby. On the back cover it says 'Don't read it on a train..you'll pass your stop' This sounds good to me.

I must give Kerry Greenwood a look see.

Not that I need anything to read, of course. Currently I'm reading Wolf Hall and have The Little Stranger and The Children's Book waiting, along with many others.

I admit it -- I'm a bookaholic and don't want to be cured.

siobhan- your interest in goats made me think of Prodigal Summer even before it was mentioned here...have you read it? One of the characters took up raising goats to sell. It might be fun for you to read, if you haven't already.

Reviewed Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman" which I just love and am hoping will get more readers this way. I just love Briggs' work and am working on getting all his ouevre. I got Fungus the Bogey Man the other day in a charity shop in England, but haven't had a chance to read that yet. I remember it's disgusting in its way though. :-)

One book that I have been reading sporadically is New Hampshire Child: the Derry Journals of Lesley Frost (daughter of poet Robert Frost). Rosefolly, our youngest sister Sheila, and I traveled to New Hampshire together this summer and visited the early homestead of Robert Frost, his wife and children. There was a copy of this book on the site and I thought it looked interesting. One thing that I had a little trouble with at first, is that the pages are photocopies of Lesley's actual diary pages. It took quite a while for me to get used to her handwriting and spelling (she started these diaries at the age of 4 or 5) and then I discovered an index at the back of the book that elucidates much of the writing which helps a lot.

I also read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I found it interesting but have to admit the part I found most interesting was the first part, set in Italy. It gave me quite an urge to go to Italy and try the food myself! Somehow I don't think that's the impression she meant to leave for her readers.....LOL

captainbackfire I collected from my library a listening book of Barbara Kingsolver's 'Small Wonder' she is also the reader. I am planning a long bus trip next weekend so this should help the time skip away.

I also ordered from my library 'Forbidden Fruit' Kerry Greenwood, 'Wolf Hall' and 'Plague Of Doves' Louise Erdrich this was mentioned by Georgia peach.
On the library shelf I took out a copy of Louise Erdrich's
'the master butchers singing club' the cover looks great.This author is new to me, maybe another to add to my favourites.

Junek - I'm a Kingsolver fan and I also enjoy Louise Erdrich. Her books can be somewhat dark, but she's an excellent writer.

I finished "Loving Frank," about Frank Lloyd Wright, and enjoyed it. We'll be discussing this at my book group next week. I'm not sure what to read next. I've downloaded several samples onto my Kindle, but nothing has really jumped out at me. I'm in the mood for a Harry Potter-type book, but not a weak imitation. Any suggestions?

I returned the two shorter books to the library and dove back into The Children's Book. I just couldn't stop thinking about it; I wanted to know what is going to happen to the characters. I also have The Whole Five Feet - What the great books taught me about life, death, and pretty much everything else by Christopher Beha. This is a memoir about the author's reading of the Harvard Classics. So far, so good.

I read Victoria Thompson's Murder at Waverly Place. Set in Victorian New York, the mystery begins in a seance. When one of the aristocratic attendees is found stabbed during the seance, confusion reigns. This is, I believe, the latest in the series featuring Mrs. Sarah Brandt. It is the first one I've read.

Now onto another light book by Emily Brightwell - Mrs. Jefferies and the Yuletide Weddings. Like I said, it is a book I can read for 15 minutes and then put down. The characters are familiar so only 50% of my attention is needed. I am only on page 40, but so far, I am enjoying it.

My TBR piles and lists are growing by leaps and bounds. I must re-arrange my schedule to allow for more reading. Absolutely must.

PAM

I finished The Depth of Winter by Rennie Airth. The setting is WWII with John Madden's children grown. I enjoyed it, but I still like the first of the Madden series best--River of Darkness.

PAM

PAM

Anyway, now I am in a complete quandry about what to read. I started Wolf Hall, took a break to read Frozen in Time and Ice Blink, bought and ordered four more books concerning polar exploration, and now this book has arrived. What to do? What a lovely problem to have.

Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler. I always enjoy her books, maybe because her characters are so true to life and their situations so ordinary and believable. I don't think anyone here at RP has mentioned reading this.

Hopping by Melanie McGrath. Not about jumping on one leg, but the story of East End of London 'Cockneys' spending the summers in the Hop Gardens of Kent with
good descriptions of the work and living conditions. Whole families in small huts with NO facilities of any sort but preferable to the slum conditions and lack of fresh air back in the London Docks are interesting, but the book was let down by the added 'romantic' element used to pad it out. Perhaps I've just read too many books about the warm-hearted but poor Eastenders . . . lets have a sing-song down the pub, go home and beat the wife and kids and steal anything not nailed down.
I've started on a couple from my TBR pile. Nina Bawden's amusing A Nice Change about a group of holiday makers on a trip to Greece and now The Photograph by Penelope Lively.

I requested Mary Roach's book Spook and a few other titles about seances and spiritualism from the library.

Sue Grafton is ON in her new Kinsey Millhone book, U is for Undertow. I cannot put it down! I started it yesterday and will probably finish it tonight. It is the best Kinsey in quite some time.

Next up - my daughter (12) and I are reading Bram Stoker's Dracula together. This will be her first reading, and my fifth. It is a perfect time of year for her to read Dracula for the first time and I am thrilled she asked me to read it with her and discuss it! Afterward, we will watch the 1977 Frank Lagella (sp?) version of the movie.

PAM

I also think that Penman is constrained by concentrating on the actual historical characters, rather than inventing characters that interact with, and comment on, the real people of the time. The latter, of course, is a strategy that lots of historical writers use...Valerie Anand, for example, or Gillian Bradshaw.

To be fair to Penman, I will definitely finish the trilogy, and probably go on to Sunne in Splendor.
She might surprise me...

Reading-wise, I finished up "Sahara" by Michael Palin - what a journey he and his team took. Picked up "Pole to Pole" by same author for more armchair travel...

Over the weekend, read "Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress" by Dai Seiji about two city youths in China sent to be re-educated in a small isolated village during Mao's Cultural Revolution and the importance of books. Good. I had read this only a few weeks ago, but forgot to take notes for this book review column I do and where I want to mention it, so had to read it again.

Now on to "Three Letters from the Andes" by Patrick Leigh Fermor, which is interesting but written a while ago in the "tally ho" "what-eh?" fashion of upper class people from England. (He's traveling with Dukes etc.) A bit dated, but interesting all the same.

Next up is Dracula, the original version. I have been watching "True Blood" which I love and want to go back to the original.

This weekend, I am flying down to Austin to go to the Texas Book Festival.... Hoping to see Margaret Atwood but so are five million other people so will have to see...

I'm also reading Brad Kessler's Birds in Fall, which I can hardly put down. But it is not a lengthy book, and I have it finished soon.

NOW I can start "Dracula" for my fiction choice, and then I think it's time for "Pole to Pole", the travel book by Michael Palin. I am enamoured with his work right now.

Just now I'm in the middle of Nevada Barr's 13 1/2

At the moment I am halfway through "Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue" : Scenes From the Non – Christian World by Paul Bowles It is a travel and memory book about his travels in the 50s, mainly in Morocco, but also India, Sri-Lanka and South America , Mexico.

grelobe

I picked up Her Fearful Symmetry and it seems to be pulling me along. I hope I don't regret reading this book, as I do her first novel. I am sure the fact that I am reading this reveals something deep and mysterious in my personality, as other authors have turned me well off their works, and I am never tempted by them. We'll see.