<p>I have moved on to The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty. She’s a good writer. I’ve only just started it but she’s already laid a layer of intrigue or mystery.</p>
<p>I’m reading “Hamlet: A User’s Guide” by Michael Pennington, who played the role for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1980s. Because I recently watched the 2010 RSC production starring David Tennant and I can’t stop thinking about it. I also watched Tennant’s episode about Hamlet on “Shakespeare Uncovered” and I still can’t stop thinking about it. </p>
<p>I’m reading *Claire of the Sea Light *for the CC Book Club. (Like so far.) I’m also reading the latest CS Harris book *Why Kings Confess * - Regency Romance plus mystery/thriller. Total page turner, I’m completely addicted. When those are done I will probably read the newest Brandon Sanderson fantasy - but it’s a whopping 1080 pages the second of upteen volumes. I don’t know if it’s really worth it. My son really liked it, but does say that we should be reading the blogs with it because we clearly don’t remember/didn’t catch all the clues from the previous book.</p>
<p>I’m reading “My Life in Middlemarch” by Rebecca Mead. It’s sort of memoir/biography/discussion of the book all mixed together. I’m really enjoying it. I just finished “Every Story is a Ghost Story”–biography of David Foster Wallace. Sort of accidentally reading author bio’s back to back.</p>
<p>Currently reading “Carthage”, Joyce Carol Oates. Depressing. Just finished “The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt”, Jon-Jon Goulian, (depressing) which I meant to read when it first came out but it went out of print really quickly, in spite of one of those record breaking advances. Just passed on to a house guest who needed an airplane read, a (depressing) book whose title and author I can’t remember: the narrator dies again and again starting at birth in 1930 England. I think she’s meant to assassinate Hitler but I only was 3/4 way through. If anyone knows the title, I could look up the ending “A Week in Winter” by Maeve Binchy. Kind of depressing though everyone pretty much lives happily ever after.</p>
<p>I need some happy books! On my to-do list is to order “Boy, Snow, Bird” Helen Oyeyemi. However, I am pretty sure it will be depressing so I may reconsider at this point. I am really looking forward to Megan Abbot’s new book: “The Fever” which also looks pretty depressing.</p>
<p>I am reading Despearate Package, a book about the Donner Party. So far, it’s amazign - really interesting!</p>
<p>@abasket - a word of caution about Divergent. I loved the first two books, but the third one and the ending of the series ruined the series for me. YMMV, and some people loved the ending and thought it was completely appropriate. It definitely wasn’t for me.</p>
<p>“Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much,” by Sendhil Mulainathan and Eldar Shafir. I saw it referenced in something I was reading months ago and put in a request at the library, but it has been a while and I can’t remember the original reason for getting it. Nevertheless, it is a mix of economics and behavioral psychology research that explains why poor people are bad with money and busy people are lousy at time management.</p>
<p>Interesting topic, and explains a lot about the whats and whys of human interaction. Did you know that if you give a poor person money his IQ goes up by 10-15 points? It has been thought provoking.</p>
<p>I’m reading The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, a common One Community, One Book selection…nonfiction…American history with which I’m not very familiar–stories of the Depression, extraordinary endurance surviving the Dust Bowl. Stories about people who are now in their 80’s and 90’s. Writing is excellent! </p>
<p>I just finished Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley - #5 in the Flavia de Luce series. The setting is England shortly after WWII - in a smallish country village. Flavia is 11 and the youngest of three sisters. With her mother deceased and her father away during the war, Flavia has enjoyed more than a bit of freedom. She is a gifted child (chemistry with an interest in poisons) but still comes across as a child as she roams on her bicycle Gladys. It turns out that she may also be gifted in the art of solving murders - hence the series. I enjoy the books. The first book *The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie<a href=“not%20my%20personal%20favorite”>/i</a> won the following awards: </p>
<p>Barry Award for Best First Novel (2010)
Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel (2010)
Anthony Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2010)
Dilys Award (2010)
Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel (2010)
Agatha Award for Best First Novel (2009)
The Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger (2007)
Spotted Owl Award
Goodreads Choice Nominee for Fiction & Mystery/Thriller (2009)</p>
<p>I’m currently reading Claire of the Sea Light for the CC Book Club - good so far and a smooth read. </p>
<p>I am also finishing Naamah’s Blessing by Jacqueline Carey - #3 in the Moirin Trilogy, also known as #9 in the Kushiel’s Universe series. I highly recommend the first in the series Kushiel’s Dart for those of you who like fantasy - and go on from there. With my recommendation, I include these words from Kirkus Reviews: “Superbly detailed, fascinatingly textured, and sometimes unbearably intense: a resonant, deeply satisfying, and altogether remarkable debut—but, emphatically, not for squeamish or judgmental readers.” </p>
<p>Squeamish or judgemental? I have to admit I only read one Steven Brust book, because I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the idea of an assassin being the hero. :)</p>
<p>^^^ I’d describe myself as both squeamish and judgmental but have no problem with the books. I hesitated for a bit before starting Kushiel’s Dart<a href=“in%20anticipation%20of%20squeamish/judgemental%20feelings”>/i</a> but have now read its 1000+ pages twice … and could easily do so again. I think the squeamish/judgemental warning come as a result of Phedre’s (main character) profession - the oldest profession, though with a twist. It turned out much less graphic than I anticipated. I guarantee that you’d have little trouble wrapping your head around Phedre as heroine … and her profession as integral to the story. The book starts when she’s a child and continues till she’s about 20. She’s trained from a young age to use both her “gifts” and be a spy. The political situation in her medieval-times, fantasy country Terre d’Ange (hmm … France) goes to hll in a handbasket and Phedre - and Joscelin her companion - are in a unique position of being able to help. It won the 2002 Locus Award for Best First Novel.</p>
<p>The book picks up speed when Phedre is turned loose to do what she does best. She’s in her teens at that point.</p>
“A Week in Winter” by Maeve Binchy. Kind of depressing though everyone pretty much lives happily ever after.</p>