Currently Reading

[brightphoebus]

Eek, I didn't know that is who it is based on. Is it very true to life? Did all the Andrew stuff really happen?

I've just got to the proposal (not really a spoiler, given the title!), and I'm trying hard not to imagine Dubya in the hunky boyfriend role...

MM, how did you get on with the novel? I read today in the Guardian that the Andrew stuff did happen, and she spent the following years living as quietly as she could, just as the book depicted.

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently read in Catherine de Medici: A Biography by Leonie Frieda for something factual this year. Only a few pages in but enjoying it and it corresponds with a book I read in 2008 called My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy. Catherine De Medici was, amongst other things, Mary Queen of Scots' mother in law.

[benmed15]

Reading "The Good Wife" by Stewart O'Nan. Really enjoying it.

[Minxminnie]

MM, how did you get on with the novel? I read today in the Guardian that the Andrew stuff did happen, and she spent the following years living as quietly as she could, just as the book depicted.

Yes, I found that out too! Wikipedia, though, so I'll look out for it in the Guardian.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through, but I'm stalling a bit now. She definitely needed an editor. It's a bit dry now, the life of a well to do Midwest mom, but it will hopefully pick up soon.

[brightphoebus]

Yes, I found that out too! Wikipedia, though, so I'll look out for it in the Guardian.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through, but I'm stalling a bit now. She definitely needed an editor. It's a bit dry now, the life of a well to do Midwest mom, but it will hopefully pick up soon.

It's worth sticking it out, MM. I did skip the ghastly Iraq war stuff, though, because I can't bear to read about it in any guise, fictionalised or not.

[ottilie]

The Dumas Club - Arturo Perez-Reverte

 

On loan from a friend and rescued from where it's been languishing, near the bottom of Mount TBR, for too long.

[megustaleer]

At the moment, A Rare Benedictine - Ellis Peters, although I will probably be on to something else before the day is done if the weather does not improve.

[Jenmcd]

Just started The Spare Room by Helen Garner this morning. This year I've been reading one book downstairs and one in bed so my new bed book will be East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

[megustaleer]

The Bronski House - Philip Marsden

[hannibalheyes]

The Last Child by John hart - a recently-released thriller. Was up till almost 2am last night - couldn't put it down. Hoping for a sunny day so I can read it in the garden today!

[Jenmcd]

Just about to start Enduring Love by Ian McEwan.

[lunababymoonchild]

Read the first few pages of The Rapture, current group read.

[Grammath]

My new audiobook is the third in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series "Love Over Scotland".

[Jen]

My new audiobook is the third in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series "Love Over Scotland".

I've just finished the fourth of these, I find them great books to read when you've finished something a bit more challenging.

 

Now, I have started Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, a novel featuring Mary Annings, the fossil hunter from Lyme Regis, Dorset. I was brought up near to there and the early part of the book describes the area in a way that makes me quite homesick. I can remember going fossil hunting with my Dad and brother when I was tiny and the magic of finding something so ancient.

[Minxminnie]

Having eventually finished The American Wife - more because of a busy schedule than lack of interest - I have gone back to Ghosts and Lightning.

[Grammath]

I started China Mieville's debut "King Rat" over the weekend and am already 150 pages in. Having won the Arthur C. Clarke award three times he's probably the UK's most highly regarded young sci-fi/fantasy writer and this is where it began.

 

Its debt to Neil Gaiman, particularly "Neverwhere" is rather obvious, and the drum 'n' bass references already date it quite badly, but its a good read in a mindless sort of way.

[benmed15]

Started The Easter Parade by Richard Yates.

[Minxminnie]

Started The Easter Parade by Richard Yates.

Oh, I liked this - let us know what you think!

[Jenmcd]

Just started on Slow Man by JM Coetzee over lunch.

[benmed15]

Oh, I liked this - let us know what you think!

Loved it. 2 for 2 on Yates' books.

[leyla]

After two disappointments in a row - Douglas Coupland's Generation A and Ewan Morrison's Distance - I have reduced the chance of a hat trick by choosing an author I love - Jonathan Coe.

Feel bad as haven't read this thread or indeed most others here for months.

[FirelightSpirit]

Just about a hundred pages into Ruth, one of Elizabeth Gaskell's earlier novels.

[Colinj]

It is certainly keeping me awake because I am still trying to find out when the story gets going. Slow boring and complicated, not my best choice this week but I will try and finish it.

[Grammath]

After two disappointments in a row - Douglas Coupland's Generation A and Ewan Morrison's Distance - I have reduced the chance of a hat trick by choosing an author I love - Jonathan Coe.

Feel bad as haven't read this thread or indeed most others here for months.

Hope you're getting on well with your Jonathan Coe, leyla and it is getting you out of your reading trough.

 

I, too, am "reading" Coe: my new audiobook is "The Closed Circle", the sequel to "The Rotters' Club". That was a brilliant novel, as was the other of his I've read "What A Carve Up!", so I'm hoping this means three in a row. I find his writing hugely readable and funny.

[Lady Lazarus]

I'm reading The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins.