<p>I almost always wait for books to be available at the library. Ours is very good and books can be requested online from any branch and sent to our branch.</p>
<p>I did buy the last Harry Potter book, however! An investment for the whole family, shall we say.</p>
<p>i am currently reading “the mercy of thin air” and find it enchanting so far.</p>
<p>I’m 1/2 way through “Yiddish Policemen’s Union” and love every word so far. I couldn’t wait for the paper back. His first book “Amazing Adventures of Kavaler & Clay” was one of my favorites. I didn’t want it to end. I really enjoy his humor and his flawed but lovable characters.</p>
<p>Currently reading Jeffrey Deaver’s Garden of Beasts. Good so far.</p>
<p>Just finished Yiddish Policemen’s" – I won’t give any spoilers to skiers-mom, though. It’s a strange enough book as it is. The Yiddish references and language were also a challenge to me, but I found it enjoyable. “Kavalier & Clay” was more enjoyable for me, but it concerned an area (golden age of comics) that is a hobby of mine, so I found it much more approachable than the Yiddish Policemen’s Union. </p>
<p>Now I’m re-reading “Night Watch” by Terry Pratchett – part of his Discworld series. I won’t try to describe it, it’s the only sci-fi/fantasy series I’ve ever liked outside of Asimov. I’m 99% sure your club wouldn’t consider them important enough, but they are laugh out loud funny and surprisingly thought-provoking. </p>
<p>Oh! and my collection of comic strip books is always close by (Zits, Foxtrot, Baby Blues and my classic Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County collections). Not much help for a book club, I suppose :)</p>
<p>Michael Chabon’s latest is also in my ‘to read’ pile. He’s one of my favorite authors, and has been for years, although The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was one of my least favorite of his. skiers-mom, it wasn’t his first. His first was Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which was published twelve years before ‘K & C’, then Wonder Boys (my favorite!), and two wonderful short story collections, all written before ‘K & C’. Try Wonder Boys, it’s terrific, and the film adaptation is also very good. :)</p>
<p>over30, I’ve read Unless. I love all of Carol Shields books, particularly The Stone Diaries, Unless, and Larry’s Party. Carol’s daughter is a friend of a friend, and I was fortunate enough to meet Carol several times before she died. Larry’s Party was adapted as a musical and performed by two other theatre friends of mine so I have always felt particularly blessed to be able to enjoy Carol’s wonderful writing on many levels.</p>
<p>over30, I personally enjoyed The Lay of the Land very much…not an epic, but human sized and fully realized, deeply funny, honest and I love the details about real estate as a great vehicle for character development for the supporting cast. I remember reading Ford when I was still young and finding the protagonist in The Sportswriter to be a little too screwed up and old for me (I had no kids! I was a newly wed! Life was still flawless!), and suddenly I am the same age and at the same passages of The Lay of the Land chapter in Frank Bascombe’s life. If you liked Frank’s struggles as Divorced Dad in Independence Day, you will like Thanksgiving with 50ish Frank, his adult children…the son alone is worth the book purchase, and the return of his first wife when his second wife goes AWOL.
I love Richard Ford.</p>
<p>I’ve enjoyed all of our most recent book club books - Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen), Devil in the White City (Erik Larsen), The Glass Castle (Jeanette Walls), and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See) . I’m reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky for myself right now - very compelling and beautifully written.</p>
<p>DH gave me Miss Chopsticks by Xinran Xue, one of my favorite Chinese authors. I loved her book Sky Burial and I was fortunate enough to listen to her lecture once. </p>
<p>Not too far into Chopsticks–but along with the NYT, The London Times, I heartily recommend Sky Burial. <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Burial-Epic-Story-Tibet/dp/1400095646/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-9775851-4986862?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188878214&sr=1-1[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Burial-Epic-Story-Tibet/dp/1400095646/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-9775851-4986862?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188878214&sr=1-1</a></p>
<p>Just finished Stardust (and saw the movie!). Am now reading Ultra-Prevention: The Six-Week Plan that Will Make You Healthy for Life. Then I’m going to read Middlesex.</p>
<p>I read “Like Water for Chocolate” a few weeks ago (movie version was out several years ago). Great, short, dramatically romantic novel set in Mexico–magical-type writing.</p>
<p>just came back from a delightful reading-intensive vacation. Have just finished “The Private Lives of the Impressionists” and also “The United States of Arugula” (a must-read for foodies). great fun.</p>
<p>“Middlesex” was surprisingly entertaining. I have to say that I discovered it before Oprah. I just finished “The Time Traveller’s Wife”, interesting concept, could have been executed better, but worth reading - we’ll see how the movie goes.</p>
<p>Booklady - thanks for the input on “Kavalier and Clay”. Wonderful story, WAY too long. Really had to force myself to finish it, and I was embarrassed to admit this to my literary niece who gushed over it as she pushed it into my hands. </p>
<p>Keep going, folks. I’m looking for the next volume. . .</p>
<p>Having badgered the “undergraduate library” here to increase their science fiction holdings I am indiscriminately reading every new book they get in. Currently, that’s Spin State by Chris Moriarity, which I may not finish.</p>
<p>Just finished “The Bourne Ultimatum” which has absolutely no resemblence to the movie.<br>
I’ll give “Water for Elephants” or “The Book of the Dead” a try next. Just received these two in the mail from my sister who sends me all her books after she reads them.</p>
<p>Just finished Saturn’s Race by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes and started I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe. I’m also browsing six books on deck and patio design and construction – but that’s probably not the sort of thing that fits here.</p>
<p>This summer I read “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. Excellent read, but so depressing.</p>
<p>Just finished Ruth Rendall’s latest, “The Water’s Lovely” - a bit of a disappointment, sorry to say. Last night, I started “Revolutionary Road”. Leonardo De Caprio and Kate Winslet were in my town over the summer filming the movie version. Very tortured so far - intellectual malcontents in post-war suburban Connecticut. Ouch!
It reminds when a few years ago, a neighboring town was the setting for Ang Lee’s star-studded movie, “The Ice Storm.” All the townsfolk, my in-laws included, were quite impressed with the whole thing. Then the movie came out and the inhabitants were portryed as desperate, lying, substance-abusing, key-swapping swingers. Ouch again!!
Aaaahhh! Suburbia!!!</p>
<p>On deck for me (and getting top recommendations from everyone I know who has read it) is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.</p>
<p>Beach lit - I just finished Tommyland by Tommy Lee and John Daly’s bio…trashy but fun reading.</p>
<p>Now tonight I will get serious and start “A Thousand Splendid Suns”.</p>