What Are You Reading?

[PrincessKitty1]

I just finished a mystery (my favorite genre!) called The Bookwoman's Last Fling by John Dunning. What a page turner! You don't have to be a book person (like me!) or a horsey person (it takes place around race tracks and a horse rescue farm) to enjoy it, but you will especially enjoy it if you are either.

John Dunning also wrote Booked To Die, which I read several years ago and was also a page-turner.

I've pre-ordered Marcia Mueller's Vanishing Point (protagonist is Sharon McCone) from Amazon, but it doesn't come out until mid-July--AFTER my vacation is over. Darn! So I'm looking for some good mysteries (or even other genres--I'm wondering if I should start reading romance novels! ) to read on vacation.

 

[becka]

I am reading a book called A Long Way Down. I cannot remember the name of the author right now. It is about 4 people in London who have gone to the top of a building on NYE to commit suicide and run into each other. I can't decide if I like it yet or not...

 

[Simba's Mom]

Just finished "The Two Minute Rule" by Robert Crais this afternoon. Next up, Nora Robert's "Blue Smoke".

 

[Just2554]

I've pre-ordered Marcia Mueller's Vanishing Point (protagonist is Sharon McCone) from Amazon, but it doesn't come out until mid-July--AFTER my vacation is over. Darn! So I'm looking for some good mysteries (or even other genres--I'm wondering if I should start reading romance novels! ) to read on vacation.

If you like mystery/detective stories, I highly suggest you check out Dashiell Hammett's work!! You may be familiar with the classic movies The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon. Well Hammett wrote the books and they are absolutely fantastic, complete page turners with memorable characters (Nick and Nora Charles anyone??).

Now I'm currently reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. It too is a classic movie featuring Humphrey Bogart, but it is also a really complex, interesting book.

 

[Dana49]

I'm almost halfway through "The Great Deluge" by Douglas Brinkley. It's about Hurricane Katrina and its effect on the city of New Orleans and the Mississippi coastline. It's very interesting, but it's long.

On deck is the supernatural thriller "House" by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. I love the occasional scary novel.

 

[scanne]

Um, I'm reading "Potty Training Problems." My DS3.5 refuses to potty. He'll be 4 in August. What am I to do???

I just finished "The DaVinci Code." I can't wait for the next Harry Potter. I have a Jean Auel book on my nightstand that I started 2 years ago - "Shelters of Stone" and since I'm done work for the summer this Friday, I'll have more time to read.

 

[Plantlady]

I'm rereading "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" for the 100th time. Our small town library is only open a couple hours a day, and I can't seem to get there to get another book. So, I am just rereading an old favorite.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

If you like mystery/detective stories, I highly suggest you check out Dashiell Hammett's work!! You may be familiar with the classic movies The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon. Well Hammett wrote the books and they are absolutely fantastic, complete page turners with memorable characters (Nick and Nora Charles anyone??).

Now I'm currently reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. It too is a classic movie featuring Humphrey Bogart, but it is also a really complex, interesting book.

So I'm not going to find his work hopelessly dated?? I do read some classics--two of my favorite writers are Willa Cather and Jane Austen--but I have a tiny prejudice against male writers, thinking I am not going to be able to identify with their characters enough to enjoy the book.

I totally forgot or didn't know Hammett created the Nick and Nora characters.

 

[amy4bruce]

I'm reading a thriller called Brandenburg by Glenn Meade. It's (I think) about a plot to bring about the Fourth Reich, and, if the first 131 pages are any indication, decidedly mediocre.

On the other hand, I just finished an omnibus of books about Jeeves and Bertie Wooster by P. G. Wodehouse, which was absolutely hysterical.

I've just returned from my local theatre, which was playing V for Vendetta . I mention it because, a few months back, the release inspired me to reread the Graphic Novel. If you're inclined, check out the book, not the movie.

Someone once gave me a t-shirt that said, "So many books, so little time." Too true.

(Fast edit - an egregious typo, now gone.)

 

[Jeanny]

I'm reading Diane Mott Davidson's series, I'm on Tough Cookie now...
Janet Evanovich's next book, Twelve Sharp, comes out June 20 and she'll be at Foxwoods that day for a book signing. I can't wait!!

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

I don't know if this counts: - but DD and I are just finishing up "Peter and the Starcatchers", then it is on to "The Kingdom Keepers"..I don't do too much reading on my own anymore.....technically, I am in the middle of about 8 books, none of which I can seem to get back to....

 

[Just2554]

So I'm not going to find his work hopelessly dated?? I do read some classics--two of my favorite writers are Willa Cather and Jane Austen--but I have a tiny prejudice against male writers, thinking I am not going to be able to identify with their characters enough to enjoy the book.

I totally forgot or didn't know Hammett created the Nick and Nora characters.

His work isn't dated at all. Nick and Nora are still the charming couple they always were, full of prohibition-era booze and banter. I'm going to steal an Amazon book review that I think sums The Thin Man up perfectly (since I don't have time to write my own full-out today):

The Thin Man marks the first time I have thoroughly enjoyed a Dashiell Hammett novel. The tale is told in the first person by Nick, who is a retired private eye who quit the business after marrying the independently wealthy Nora. Nick and Nora essentiality live life at parties or lazing at home, almost always with cocktails in hand. What makes this duo so charming is their easygoing marriage in which they display affection for one another more via wisecracks than kisses. On top of that, playful Nora is the one person who has Nick's number: he can say no to anything and anybody excepting his wife, for whom he is head over heels.

While Nick & Nora Charles are the characters who steal the spotlight, Hammett paints a fantastic array of characters involved in the disappearance of an eccentric inventor named Clyde Wynant, as well as the murder of his secretary. Most entertaining is the trio of Clyde's family: his ex-wife Mimi (a shallow woman who tries to lie her way out of trouble, with little success), son Gilbert (fragile inquisitive young man intrigued with detective work, human nature, and the effects that illegal drugs have on the mind and emotions), and Dorothy (manic young woman who recognizes her family's erratic behavior, but has trouble tempering her own identity).

The majority of other characters are the colorful and pulpy gangsters, thugs, and cops. You will not find the coarse, gritty realism of a Raymond Chandler story. The Thin Man is more of a "Who Dunnit?" romp that deals with the collection of dysfunctional folks who have ties with the disappearance and the murder.

When all is said and done, Dashiell Hammett leaves "The Thin Man" as a solid packaging consisting of both his excellent descriptive writing and a well plotted story.

And The Maltese Falcon, well it is the definitive detective novel. Sam Spade is the archetype for the detective in contemporary literature and Hammett's style is classy, intriguing, and downright suspenseful.

Seriously, if you like detective/mystery stories, you won't be disappointed with these two!

 

[JVL1018]

Well, I just spent $100 at B&N- I went in just to browse, you fellow readers know how that goes..I got among other things, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig. I've heard good things. I did notice a new Patricia Cornwell novel, noot a Kay Scarpetta though, so I didn't pick it up yet..
Anyway, I am actually reading 3 books as we speak, my main one is If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahearn.

What I do to get book ideas is every few months I go to th AOL reading message boards, I think they are Booktopia and Bookworms(one more active than the other) and just read all the messages while scribbling down books that look interesting or that people have said they really enjoyed.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

On deck is the supernatural thriller "House" by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. I love the occasional scary novel.

Are you the poster I mentioned this to?? Have fun with the book, you'll love it!

 

[eclectics]

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm finally getting around to The DaVinci Code. Very good so far! I have never read Bentley Little so I purchased two of his paperbacks. They are next in line.

 

[fabumouse]

I am reading a book called A Long Way Down. I cannot remember the name of the author right now. .

It's by the same guy who wrote "High Fidelity": Nick Hornby. I finished it and still cannot decide if I liked it. It's a really easy read, though.

I picked up a recent book by John Irving, "Until I find you". I find Irving's writing to be rather fluid without sacrificing complexity. I'm also in the middle of 10 other books that I keep putting off in order to read fluff. I have *got* to quit this Costco addiction (where I pick up most of these books that congregate on my nightstand).

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm finally getting around to The DaVinci Code. Very good so far! I have never read Bentley Little so I purchased two of his paperbacks. They are next in line.

I am just now reading the Da Vinci Code too. I saw the movie and am now getting to the book. I am slowly reading it, I think because I pretty much know the story now.

Hey, I have been interested in Bentley Little, too. PM me if you like his work

 

[mrsdon]

I just finished the The Other Side of Love by Jaqeline Briskin.
A very good, but long book set during WW2
I started reading Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag.

 

[DMickey28]

I just finished Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen. The first book by him that I have read. It was pretty good. I also just read a book by the women who wrote the Devil wears Prada, it was good too. I also just finished The Other Women. I don't remember the author and am too lazy to go upstairs to check. I go through phases reading. I read all three of those last week. Sometimes I will reach a dry spell in which nothing sounds good and I keep buying books at the store that sound good but I can't get into them. Then I go through months when I read all the time! At least then I always have a great selections. I usually average $45 at the book store every few weeks.... Don't do well at the library. Usually end up oweing more than if I just bought them!

I need to keep a list of the good things I hear about other books.

 

[hpygrll]

I'm reading "Two Little Girls in Blue" by Mary Higgins Clark - hers are fast reads.

To the other poster....I read "A Long Way Down" - kind of different - but I liked it.

Jenny