What are you reading the week of January 16, 2011?

[DUgosh]

The Butter Did It by Phyllis Richman

[Cleita]

1. Light reading.

"Cry Wolf" by Patricia Briggs about werewolves, and the setting of the novel is in the Cabinet mountain range in Montana, a place I'm very fond of in real life.

[elias49]

2. "Last Night in Twisted River"

by John Irving.

[Enthusiast]

13. I liked that.

Just finished it recently. I love John Irving.

Now I'm reading THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST.

[MrModerate]

3. "The Australians" by Thomas Keneally.

Novelist/historian focusing on the people who have occupied Australia from (perhaps as early as) 100,000 BCE to the 1850s and the Eureka Rebellion by the gold miners of Ballarat, NSW.

Interesting snippet: the Pilbara region of West Australia includes surface features that date from the continent of Gondwana (which broke, with Laurasia, from the supercontinent of Pangaea about 200 million years ago). Which makes it some of the oldest land on the planet.

[Cleita]

4. That sounds interesting.

I will pick it up. Thanks.

[MrModerate]

5. Highly recommended. He's what's sometimes dismissed as . . .

A "popular historian" because his novelist's ear and appreciation of drama make his work so readable. But his facts are impeccable.

[Enthusiast]

14. Australia's unique tectonic

history accounts for the unusual biological evolutionary history. It is a fascinating place but too far away for me to conveniently visit. I find plate tectonics to be a most captivating subject. Gondwana must have been one strange place! :hi:

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Steppenwolf

I'm liking it so far

[doc03]

7. Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills n/t

[azul]

8. Dismantling the Empire by Chalmers Johnson.

Mostly essays posted on Tom'sDispatch from 2004-9.

Also Nutrients and Epigenetics, Choi and Friso editors. This is taking more than a few weeks.

Also Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Don't remember when I read it last but I must've been a kid.

[fadedrose]

9. THE NIGHT VISITOR by James D. Doss

Am spending time with old friends - my 2nd reading of this book...




(4th of year)

[mvccd1000]

11. When you recommended Doss to me...

... who was the other author you mentioned at the same time? I received a C.J. Box book (Blue Heaven) for Christmas and really enjoyed it. I was surprised that I had never read him before. I can't remember if he's one of the authors you spoke of.

[fadedrose]

20. There's quite a few

I intend to read these series all over again:

Craig Johnson (all)

William Bernhardt Jr (start with very first)

Tony Hillerman

William Kent Krueger

Joseph Heywood

P. T. Deutermann

P. J. Tracy (First 3 books are best, 4th is not bad)

Robert J. Tanenbaum (First 17 books are superb, after that, so-so - ghost writer quit)

Brendan DuBois

Find them all at:

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/index.html


Metzger's Dog; Stand-alone, by Thomas Perry & Carl Hiaasen

[mvccd1000]

21. Thanks -

I couldn't remember if CJ Box was one from your list.

I've read all the Deutermann and most of the Tanenbaum books, but I tried two Hillerman books and could barely even finish them. I'll have to look into the others.

[fadedrose]

23. I agree with you about the Hillerman books...

I read them because I got very interested in Indian beliefs and ceremonies, but as far as story lines go, or humor, they were not very satisfying.

But I did enjoy learning about the dances, prayers, blessings, "sweat" boxes and other customs used to clean the believers.

[fadedrose]

31. What a book...

It has humor, mystery, lots of diaglog, many little plots, well-defined characters, and the narrator always has sarcastic funny things to say about the characters. He acts more like he knows them than if he created them. Will read this again next year.

[Lint Head]

10. Keith Richard's autobiography.

[mvccd1000]

12. Free Kindle Books.

I just downloaded about 30, ranging from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to Mark Twain, to Upton Sinclair, to Dostoyevsky, to Dante.

I don't know where to start! :)

[abluelady]

15. "Bury Your Dead" by Louise Perry

[fadedrose]

16. BURY YOUR DEAD by Louise Penny

This is a great series, recommended by Centipedeshoes. I had some trouble with the French names, but am eagerly waiting for the next one.

Start with the first, if you can:

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/P_Authors/Penny_Louise.html

The crimes are so insignificant compared to some mysteries, but I've fallen for the characters. And there's dialogue which I consider very important.

[MountainLaurel]

17. "Bright Sided" by Barbara Ehrenreich

And at the gym I'm listening to Sir David Attenborough's "Life on Air."

[pscot]

18. The shadow of the wind, by Ruiz-Zafon

Also rereading Faulkner, Hemingway and Dumas.

[japple]

25. The Shadow of the Wind is a wonderful, beautifully written book.

I loved it and am happy to know there is a (in the words of the author) "semiprequel." So happy to have discovered this author.

[pscot]

29. I haven't really got into it yet

I had begun with Hemingway and Dumas, so Señor Ruiz Zafon is up against some tough competition.

[jannyk]

19. My Father's Glory/My Mother's Castle - Marcel Pagnol

I've read the book(s) before and own the movies, but I've run out of unread books and Pagnol is always worth rereading.

[japple]

22. Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into

the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel. It's for my book group and I haven't started it yet. Actually, I've been putting it off for 3 weeks, trying to work up some enthusiasm for it.

[LearnedHand]

24. "The Fiery Cross" (fifth in the Outlander series)

I really love the characters and the story, but the pacing of this book is a little slow.

[AngryOldDem]

26. "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham.

Interesting plot interweaving the lives of two fictional women (one present day, the other in the 1950s) with that of Virginia Woolf. It won the Pulitzer, although I'm not sure when.

[hippywife]

27. I find myself waiting for books from the library again.

And I'm venturing off into a little non-fiction for a change. I'm waiting on Karen Armstrong's Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life and Vanessa Woods' Bonobo Handshake. I've heard some really great NPR interviews with these ladies and am looking forward to reading their books.

I had heard part of an interview with Karen Armstrong on another program earlier but To the Best of Our Knowledge on NPR had a great program involving both of them the other day:

http://www.wpr.org/book/shows.cfm

[fadedrose]

28. Get a couple of old ones you read and liked...

if the ones you really want aren't in yet.

I'm amazed at how much I overlooked and forgot in the ones I'm rereading.

[MaineDem]

30. "61 Hours" by Lee Child

Another Reacher book.

[jannyk]

32. I read that last week - enjoy - I did!

I have now read 2 'random' Reacher books and have decided I like them enough to start from the beginning. I am patiently waiting for the 'Killing Floor' to arrive.

[krispos42]

33. I finished "Worldwar: In the Balance" by Harry Turtledove

Now I've got to de-lend the rest of the series from my brother so I can finish it. After I finish "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight", of course!

[Onceuponalife]

34. Storyteller by Amy Thomson n/t

[fadedrose]

35. GRANDMOTHER SPIDER by James D. Doss

Good, as usual. Hare-brained crime-solving solution worth the time. Author reminds me of Hitchcock in some ways; wise guy like Alfred in narratives as on TV and strange endings, though he was not a writer like Doss.

Last 100 pp (out of 300) even harder to believe than usual.

(my 5th book of the year)