Are You Currently Reading A Book?

[gdulaney]

Jemima J

I enjoyed Jemima J!!

Well, I finished Gateways. Stopped by the library last night and picked up Lifeguard and 4th of July by James Patterson, so I'll start one of those tomorrow.

Ginny

 

[Laura]

When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone. I just started Chapter 3. It's about the ancient Goddess religion in Europe and the Middle East.

 

[KarenB]

I am slowly getting through "Life of Pi." It's not that I don't like it, but once school starts (I'm a teacher) pleasure reading takes a back seat at times.

Robin-DH read J. Buffett's book and enjoyed it. We saw his Salty Piece of Land concert in August!

Karen

 

[froglady]

I'm listening to "Lessons of Terror" by Caleb Carr, and reading "The Little Ice Age."

 

[momof3disneyholics]

I wish I could find time to read a book, but I usually just Dis in my little but of free time instead.

 

[clarabelle]

I am slowly getting through "Life of Pi." It's not that I don't like it, but once school starts (I'm a teacher) pleasure reading takes a back seat at times.

Robin-DH read J. Buffett's book and enjoyed it. We saw his Salty Piece of Land concert in August!

Karen

Im am not sure why life of Pi was so popular
Maybe it was the ending?

 

[LoraJ]

Im am not sure why life of Pi was so popular
Maybe it was the ending?

I couldn't get through the first part. I think I'll have to try again at some point.

 

[sjh801]

I voted yes because I have to read the first 31 pages of The Five People You Meet in Heaven before Sunday for our adult Sunday School.

I haven't started it yet, but DH finished the whole book in 2 evenings.

You'll do it. It's a quick read.

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

Chill Factor by Sandra Brown. I'm a fan of hers, but am somehow having trouble with this one. Might be the fact that my two-year-old wants every second of mommy's attention and I'm exhausted when she goes to bed at 8:30 .

 

[sjh801]

I am slowly getting through "Life of Pi." It's not that I don't like it, but once school starts (I'm a teacher) pleasure reading takes a back seat at times.

Karen

I can so agree. My goal was to read all of the Harry Potters this summer, but I am just finishing Order of the Phoenix and really want to begin Half Blood Prince. But first grade teachers don't have a lot of spare time during the first two months of school. My goal is to finish Order of the Phoenix toady and squeeze in The Mermaid Chair for this month's book club at church.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

Right now reading two books, 1776 by David McCullough, obviously about early Revolutionary America, and Radical Evolution by Joel Garreau, which discusses the changes that we are making to their own bodies due to modern day technological advances in genetics, robotics, information technology and nanotechnology and how it is speeding up and/or changing the ways the we evolve as human beings. I'm a big time non-fiction junkie and can't tell you the last time I actually read a work of fiction...

 

[raammartin]

I checked out several Nicholas Sparks book from the library. Right now I'm reading Message in a Bottle and have less than 100 pages and I'll be finished with it.

 

[froglady]

Im am not sure why life of Pi was so popular
Maybe it was the ending?

DD calls it allegory for dummies. I listened to it on CD while travelling home from dropping said daughter off at college. I enjoyed it.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Family First by Dr. Phil McGraw

"Your Step-by-Steph Plan for Creating a Phenomenal Family".

I'm really learning alot about myself and my family, and I'm excited to rework, address some of our issues and recreate my "phenomenal" family!

 

[julie_yet]

I'm reading Eldest by Christopher Paolini. It's the second book (Eragon is the first) in the Inheritance Trilogy. It's a young reader fantasy book. You can really tell he drew from LOTR and Star Wars. Right now I'm about a 3rd of the way through.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Yes, I read a lot. I can finish entire novels in a day if I feel up to it.

Over the last two weeks....

I finally gave up on The Third Translation by Matt Bondurant...I wanted to like it...ancient egypt and all that, but it's just so poorly written (no quotation marks when characters are talking makes it so hard to follow) that I could not take it any more. It's a shame because it IS a good story and the author really knows his Egyptology, but trying to be artsy backfired big time. It's just unbearable to read. I make it to page 249 out of 378 before shelving it for good.
Overall grade: D.

From there I started American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is a favorite author of mine anyway and I knew I was going to like this from the get go. It's about what might happen if all the old gods (Odin, Anubis, Thoth) and folk heroes (Johnny Appleseed etc.) no one thinks about anymore, who came to America originally in the minds of some of the oldest immigrants, decided they wanted to be worshipped again. Sort of. Kind of. Hard to really describe it. It's a brilliant story, well written, fascinating read. If you read it, I'd highly recommend having a guide to world mythology near by for reference. The plot follows an a guy who just got out of prison and can't wait to start his life anew, a changed man. On the eve of his release he learns his wife is killed in an accident that changes everything. He meets a mysterious man on a plane and finds himself wrapped up in a battle between the old gods and the new...with a twist.
Overall grade: A+

After that, I read Fluke by Christopher Moore. I usually expect Moore's books to be hilarious and was upset at first that Fluke does not start out as funny as his previous ones. But the more I read, the more I got into it. The middle and end more than make up for the slow start. Fluke is about a marine biologist who has set up to learn the secret of the whale song and winds up falling overboard on an outing into wild world under the ocean where he learns not only the whale song, but pretty much everything else any biologist could ever want to know about life on earth...
Overall Grade: B+

After that I read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold because I've had it on my shelf for ages (used to work for the publisher) and wanted to find out if it was as good as people said. Read it in about 5 hours on a rainy Sunday. It was...eh. Overrated I suppose. I mean, it's a good story, it's an interesting perspective but I guess it's just not my sort of book. Ending was, in my opinion, disapointing. But for a quick read on a rainy afternoon, it's okay. The story is about a little girl who is murdered who narrates the story from her heaven as she watches the search for her killer and the lives of her family from above.
Overall grade: C+

Back to Gaiman after that. I picked up a copy of his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors. Like most short story collections, it was not as good as a novel in my opinion. Some of the stories were awesome (Chivalry, BayWolf etc.) and some were even too "out there" for my tastes. Gaiman bounces from genres I like (fantasy, horror) , to genres I could care less about ("adult", 17th century verse, techno sci fi) and while I read every story and poem in the book, I'd probably only read a third of them again. His vampire take on Snow White was the icing on the cake and probably the best story in the book. But it gave me nightmares. So no more Gaiman for me for a while...
Overall Grade: B-

Needing something a little fluffier than that, I picked up a copy of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Sussana Clarke yesterday. I'm on page 60 right now and so far, I'm loving it, I just haven't had a lot of time between yesterday and today to read much. It's set in Victorian London and follows the stories of two magicians who want to bring "real" magic (ie. Merlin type stuff) back to England. I'm not far into it enough to give a real opinion...and it's about 800 pages long so it should keep me busy for a while.

 

[simba928]

6X: Uncensored Confessions- It's about these four ordinary teens and one of them is "discovered" and they form a band. It is all about the drama and stuff that comes along with them forming a band and getting signed and stuff.

The one I read right befor this, though was Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks. It is about a sheriff whose wife is killed and he falls in love with a woman. He has to raise his young son, solve the mystery surrounding his wife's death and decide whether he is ready to start a relationship with another woman. It is an excellent book. I loved it.

 

[lewdyan1]

I am half way through Kite Runner and I have Confessions of a Super Mom, on deck.

 

[wasabi girl]

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, it is one of his discworld novels, I've just started.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

If you count my texbook for a grad school class.