<p>A book that I read in 2006 was Shantaram, an epic novel set in Bombay and Afghanistan about an escaped convict from Australia who carves out his place in the Indian underworld. Beautifully written by first-time novelist Gregory David Roberts, it brought to the streets of Bombay and the daily life and struggle of its residents. If you liked A Fine Balance (another novel set in India), then I would also recommend Shantaram.</p>
<p>wis75 I always let Mathson read HP before the rest of us. I remember when the first really fat one came out (#4?), he read all 600+ pages in less than 8 hours. He was in middle school at the time I believe. </p>
<p>By the way, I am finally reading Neuromancer. I can appreciate it’s groundbreaking-ness, but I have to admit I don’t think I’m really going to enjoy it. I have this silly desire to like the characters in the books I read. There’s no one here I’d want to have dinner with!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That was me. The last chapter was strange…but I’m glad you liked the rest!</p>
<p>Just finished Alice Hoffman’s ‘Skylight Confessions’. Wrenching but the writing is unbelievable.<br>
Anybody out there read the new Jodi Picoult ‘Nineteen Minutes’ yet?</p>
<p>Thanks booklady! The last chapter was so…girly. Extra credit fluff that girls feel compelled to do. Grrrrrrr.</p>
<p>Loved the rest of it though. Loved the history of Chagall and the lost Yiddish stories. Not so long ago that sad history. Judging Chagall via literature was also interesting…I felt like it was a tiptoe on a very real Jewish undercurrent, an undercurrent the size of a tsunami.</p>
<p>Now, what else do you have for me? Did you try ‘Oracle Bones’ by Peter Hessler?</p>
<p>If anyone sees DotX, tell her cheers’ DH is reading The Road. He says “It is getting better–or maybe I’ve gotten used to everything being covered in ash.” That book is so dark. Dot’s a bit of a worry…</p>
<p>Mathmom- The 4th H P book was 734 pages, #5 was 870… I just checked son’s bookshelf, your son and mine would have been flipping pages at the same rate… Didn’t like Neuromancer, long time ago so don’t, and don’t want to remember it. Could list zillions of books I do like, guilty of staying up too late to read them. Thank goodness there are people out there who like writing as much as we like reading!</p>
<p>cheers, I haven’t read ‘Oracle Bones’ yet, but it sounds very interesting (I see it’s coming out in paperback in May). And speaking of things Chinese, I highly recommend ‘The Distant Land of My Father’, by Bo Caldwell. It’s the story of a young woman who is brought up in Shanghai in the 1930s: even though it’s fiction, you’d swear she was writing from her own experience. It’s a wonderful portrait of a time and place and of her relationship with her parents - but it’s not ‘girly’ at all. :)</p>
<p>The History of the Peloponnesian War</p>
<p>Its one of those books I used Clift notes to get me though in college, but 30 years later I want to read from cover to cover. Go figure.</p>
<p>just finished Deafening by Itani- a girl loses her hearing from scarlet fever in the early 1900’s- it’s her story of being deaf in a hearing world and her relationship with her husband while he is away at WWI and his letters describing the war. I haven’t wanted to start another book because I don’t want to lose the characters yet!</p>
<p>Who recommended ‘March’ by Doctorow? I read that after ‘Team of Rivals’–and loved the tie in-- and sent it to my mother for her birthday because she is still sighing about ‘Team of Rivals’–one year later.</p>
<p>Thanks for the recommendation booklady. I didn’t mean to say that ‘World To Come’ was girly–far from it. Imeant that the extra fluff at the end felt like something an insecure author would add–just in case you didn’t think the whole book was enough. The ‘Extra credit’ habit. That insecurity felt girly to me. I’m a tough old broad.</p>
<p>I’m in the middle of ‘Birds Without Wings’. (Who recommended that one? It’s fantastic). </p>
<p>I sitll have a few more CC recommended books in the box my husband brought back. You all get to buy such inexpensive books. Lucky ducks!</p>
<p>Well, now that someone else has brought up HP, I’ll admit my dirty little secret. I don’t have the greatest memory for detail, and detail is important in the HP books. So I’ve started with #1, and will re-read all 6 in expectation of #7, hoping I’ll remember enough for the book to make sense!</p>
<p>Book threads are the best! </p>
<p>In recent years I’ve become a nervous flyer and need a good book to keep my mind off hanging in the air. I’ve read some of the suggested books which were wonderful though “Never Let Me Go” was wrenching.</p>
<p>I’ve been in the mood for Sci/Fi and recently finished
(and recommend):
“Enders Game” Orson Scott Card
“Swan Song” Robert McCammon </p>
<p>My daughter has just started:
“The Shadow of the Wind” Carlos Ruiz Zafron
I’m not sure what it’s about but came highly recommended by friends.</p>
<p>I’m going to pick up “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” for
my flight on Thursday since it seems to be popular with the other
avid readers here!</p>
<p>anitaw and always: wow, we are “on the same page”- I too just finished Year of Magical Thinking, and am almost done with Slouching Towards Bethlehem; then I will re-re-reread The White Album (one of my all-time favorites)
somehow I had never read Bethlehem and it was like discovering buried treasure!
(all Didion)</p>
<p>Finished reading the Inheritance of Loss…(Fabulous!!)
Reading Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea…</p>
<p>couldn’t resist posting here, despite not being a parent</p>
<p>The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs.</p>
<p>*like foodaholic, I also couldn’t resist posting here:)</p>
<p>mauretania, now that you’ve read Ender’s Game, check out Ender’s Shadow, it tells most of the events of the first book from Bean’s point of view. It’s really fun.</p>
<p>You didn’t think that “Never Let Me Go” was a poorer version of Louis Sachar’s ‘Holes’ ? I did. And I loved Ishiguro’s first books.</p>
<p>The Year of Magical Thinking is a good primer for old age.</p>
<p>I recently read Never Let Me Go at the urging of a colleague, and I was disappointed with it, too. I wouldn’t call it a poorer version of Holes, and it definitely had some strengths, but I thought it was really half-baked in many ways, and as the book went on my annoyance at its failures of imagination overwhelmed my admiration for Ishiguro’s ability to inhabit a voice.</p>
<p>Indoctrination U: The left’s war against academic freedom by David Horowitz. </p>
<p>Very interesting.</p>