Current Reads

Yep, what both of you said about Code Name: Verity. Such a great book.

I finished Whispers Under Ground already. That really is a great book. I couldn't help but binge-read it, though I managed a little self control by waitng until Sunday evening.

About a third of the way through The Thirteenth Tale and seriously loving it.

I also don't like China Mieville. His style just doesn't work for me, it feels like he's trying too hard.

I'm about half way through Gone Girl and, oh my, that

Spoiler:

I'm loving it. I have to admit she got me with

Spoiler:

I read Where We Belong by Emily Giffin last week. I really enjoyed it. It's a nice little summer read. Probably a little too heavy to say it's a beach read. But enjoyable.

I'll read anything Emily Giffin writes, seriously. I didn't think I'd even like her work, but I zipped through all her novels within about a month or two last year. They're pretty addictive.

Swarley wrote:I read Where We Belong by Emily Giffin last week. I really enjoyed it. It's a nice little summer read. Probably a little too heavy to say it's a beach read. But enjoyable.

Good to hear! I just bought it (along with Stephen King's 11/22/63). I'll get to it after I finish I Capture the Castle, which should be soon because I'm devouring that book. I like Emily Giffin's books. Her stories and characters have more nuance than I would have expected from reading summaries of her stories. It's my kind of summer reading. :)

Why do none of the libraries seem to have the Rivers of London series available? It's been on my list this entire year, and it's still not in circulation within the large L.A. library system. Seriously?

I just finished Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore and while I was really enthusiastic about starting it (19th century France, lives of the Impressionist, actual pictures of the art in the book), I feel kind of meh being done with it. The more I think back on it, the more annoying I find Bleu.

Have now started A Brief History of Montmaray due to seeing reviews of it further up thread and it's a very cozy read so far.

I just finished A Brief History of Montmaray a few days ago, and I loved it! The first 20 pages or so, I didn't think I'd get into it, but then I rocketed through the rest.

The sequel is nearly as good (though obviously doesn't have the same visceral excitement), and I can't wait for the third one. Out in October, tentatively?

I just put the sequel in my library queue and can't wait to get my greedy hands on it now!

Kushiel's Dart. I'm struggling. For a book about a courtesan who gets off on pain it is really boring. I keep reading that it picks up after the first 300 pages, and I have a compulsion to finish books I start so I'm going to continue, but jeez.

While in North Carolina this past week (I just like to throw that in there because I will probably never get to say that again) I read The Night Circus. I had held off on buying it because of all the publisher hype and I was afraid I'd buy it expecting this great read and then be really disappointed (which happened with Kate Mosse's Labyrinth - terrible book!) but I broke down a few months ago and bought it.

Oh my God! Such a great read! I really loved it. I found it very engrossing right from the start and I was always eager to get back to reading it. Brilliant book.

Then I read the new Heather Wells book by Meg Cabot. I enjoyed it but not as much as I've enjoyed the previous books in the series. I just thought that the situation got resolved a bit abruptly. Still a good beach read though.

I just finished In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. All seven volumes. I've been reading this book for two years and I just finished so I had to come here and tell someone. It was amazing. Beautiful. Life-changing. But, at the same time, it'll be nice to read something else for a change. I can't believe it's over.

That's one of my reading goals. Did you read all the books straight through or did you stop and read other books in between?

I'm currently reading Death Comes To Pemberley, and I loved everything about the autumn ball preparation, but now that the mystery's in progress, I'm bored. I'll finish it since it's short enough, but I really hope the story picks up because I just don't care at this point about stupid Wickham. I want to go back to Georgianna and her suitors already! Way to miss the point of the book, I know, but all the potential marriage talk had me hooked!

I read other books at the same time, all the way up until the last one which I just sucked down in six days. It's also the shortest, and the first half is really action-heavy, so it went quickly. If I hadn't read anything else I probably could've gotten through Proust in four or five months instead of 20. I'm glad I took my time, though, so I didn't get burned out.

I'm currently re-reading Christine, which I first read years ago and haven't re-read since now. You can really tell it's one of King's earlier works. It doesn't grab me as much as I remember it doing. And maybe it's the fact I've been doing a lot of King re-reads lately, but man, do most of the characters have a lot of issues with overbearing mothers.

Next up is a re-read of every single Judy Blume book ever because I have nostalgia, damnit.

Gone Girl just flipped over into OMG CANNOT PUT DOWN last night, and I was up til 3 am. Whoops. I have a theory about the end...we'll see if I'm right. I can't tell if I figured something out or if I'm being manipulated to think I figured something out. (I love that.)

I also just read Ender's Game for the first time. A couple of people I knew coincidentally were reading it at the same time, and I borrowed it, because I've always meant to read it -- sci-fi canon and all. I liked it more than I expected. It certainly anticipates a lot of stuff -- videogames, iPads, the Internet. That's all. (When he describes his onscreen character as a "figure" or something I was like "you mean your avatar?" and then remembered "oh yeah, videogames hadn't been invented yet." (or, had barely been invented)

It would make a great movie. Is there a history of people trying to develop it and failing? It seems like a natural to me.

Is there a history of people trying to develop it and failing?

Yes. But it looks to actually happen now.

It really is a bloody good book. However, the sequels are a prime example of diminishing returns, and Card is a prime example of STFU about your personal beliefs and just write great books. That said, if you can accept his personal beliefs on the subject of sexuality, the Worthington Saga and Pastwatch are also great books. I'm happy I bought them before I discovered I had to boycott him. :)

Yeah, I'd heard something about his beliefs emerging as a little alienating. :/ I may or may not read the sequels. I quite liked the ending to this one. I may check out his other stuff though.

Cool that it's going to be a movie! Reading it, I was thinking, even if they didn't want to develop it BEFORE, now that The Hunger Games has done so well they'd be CRAZY not to jump on it; it has a lot of similar elements.

Red Wolf wrote:I'm happy I bought them before I discovered I had to boycott him. :)

Ha. Yes.

I actually really liked the Speaker for the Dead sequels. Not classics like Ender's Game, but parts of them really stuck with me over the years. The one I absolutely loathe and wish I had never read is Ender's Shadow, which made me feel like the things I loved about the first book were a lie.

I'm reading Ice, a YA fantasy novel that I picked up because it was recommended by Tamora Pierce. It's kind of meh.

To be honest, after the mess that was Mastiff, Tamora Pierce is on notice as far as I'm concerned. I wish I'd never read that one - it's actually tainted the previous books for me.

If that's Sarah Beth Durst's Ice, then I can recommend two other YA retellings of East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Jessica Day George's Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, which is my favourite, and Edith Pattou's East was also pretty good. They're both period pieces as opposed to Durst's modern setting. I recently read Durst's Enchanted Ivy, which was one of her better books.