Books on the Nightstand discussion

I am currently reading Pope Joan.

Started

currently reading Where Tigers Are at Home

I'm reading . Enjoying it so far.

I am reading about four books right now because nothing will stick with me enough to make me want to commit to it. (I don't like any of them enough to post them here!)

I'm trying to finish The Great Gatsby and I just started Cloud Atlas.

Helen: That's the worst!!

Just started Defending Jacob for my bookgroup. Also reading/listening to The Dinner based on a recommendation in the 'April thread'. Will likely also read Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead since it was loaned to me by a coworker.

Just started The Murder of Cleopatra by Pat Brown and Cleopatra: A Life biography by Stacy Schiff. I like to read multiples on the same topic for depth and comparison.

I'm currently reading A Touch of Death by Charles Williams. A neglected master of pulp mystery fiction with an engaging, readable novel about the search for 120,000 dollars taken from a bank gone wrong. I post a full review when I finish.

Marion

I'm currently reading The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. After that its Suspect by Robert Crais because my supervisor at work told me I had to read it (its a dog thing). After that is NOS4A2 by Joe Hill and then The Bone Man by Wolf Haas. I suck at following any sort of reading plan/order, so we'll see how this pans out.

Finished up Ready Player One tonight. Is was fast and fun and hit the spot. If you were around during the 80's I think you'll appreciating all the references.

"And now for something completely different"...Pride and Prejudice.

I'm gonna keep posting this in *every* "What are you reading (in) May 2013" thread I find! I think there are now three?

I'm reading The Little Book (by Selden Edwards.) I picked this book up a couple of years ago at the Elliot Bay Book Company at their old store front in Seattle. I'm not sure why I didn't read it right way, but it's been sitting on my bookshelf long enough! It's a time travel book wherein Wheeler Burden ends up in Fin de Siecle Vienna, a time of high art and arguably the pinnacle of European society. More than the setting though, the connections between people in Wheeler's life become a fascinating plot device. It took the author over thrity years to bring this book to bear but last year a companion work/sequel, The Lost Prince was published. I think there was quite a bit of buzz about it at the time and I'm sorry that I didn't use the buzz as a prompt to try out a Selden Edwards' book sooner!

Finished My Cousin Rachel, My Cousin Rachel which I loved and am now reading One Last Thing Before I Go One last Thing Before I Go which is completely different.

I know! Next time, I will leave it to someone else to start one. Sorry for all of the confusion.

I am going to Norway next month and decided a good exercise is to read books set in that country and then look up the city and street names on a map. A plot adds spice to the geography lesson.

Reading The Golem and the Jinni

Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "I'm gonna keep posting this in *every* "What are you reading (in) May 2013" thread I find! I think there are now three?

I'm reading The Little Book (by Selden Edwards.) I picked this book up a co..."
. . mea culpa. I did NOT see the first thread when I logged into GR/BOTN so started the 'What are you reading May 2013?" discussion thread under 'Book Specific Discussions'.

Listening to Junot Diaz read on audio. Usually I don't like when authors read their own work but he's doing a respectable job. I'm glad I decided to listen to the audio because there's some really cool Latin music throughout the story.

I recently finished I Want to Show You More by Jamie Quatro. It was so good that I had to read a non-fiction book afterwards because I didn't want to be disappointed when my next book wouldn't measure up. It's a book of short stories, some of them loosely joined, and I don't have enough distance from the book to say anything but gushy adjectives.

I'm reading The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson until NOS4A2 by Joe Hill comes in for me at the library. So far, this has been an amazing month for reading.

I finished Crime and Punishment and The Time Machine recently.
I am now reading Alif the Unseen and dipping in and out of Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories - enjoying both very much.

I'm zipping through The Age of Miracles. It is good but I feel like I am waiting for something to happen.

I started re-reading The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron this morning. In addition to reading the book, I've decided to start a group here at GR with the hope of having others to work the 12 week process the book lays out with.

If you feel inspired to, come and join me :-)
The Artist's Way Group

Right now I'm reading The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud in hardback, Mad River by John Sandford on my kindle, and listening to The Snowman by Jo Nesbo on my ipod. When the Snowman gets too intense (which it does for late night listening), I switch to The House of Silk for a while

I am reading I was 6 when this happened and watched almost everything live on tv including the Oswald shooting. It is really cool to get to hear the Secret Servicemen's account. On a side note, the descriptions of several events (not just the shooting) are very descriptive and you can watch certain clips on YouTube while reading the descriptions. For instance when the Kennedys land at Love Field in Dallas.

I am also starting should be interesting.

I am reading the Booker prize winner, . The writing is elegant and there is an interesting theme about what time means to people but the story moves slowly. Nothing in it feels urgent.

Readnponder wrote: "
I am going to Norway next month and decided a good exercise is to read..."
Jackie, I just finished Man in the Window, KO Dahl. It's an engrossing Norwegian thriller with family intrigue and local color, including consistent descriptions of the many ways of being cold :-) I highly recommend it.

Finished so far in late April/early May:


Currently reading:

P.A.F.P wrote: "I am reading the Booker prize winner, . The writing is elegant and there is an interesting theme about what time means to people but the story moves slowl..."

I loved this book in the end. I enjoyed the whole time perspective and its meaning, too.

Currently reading "Reconstructing Amelia".

This week's lunchtime read will be Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which so many BotNS listeners have liked. At home I'm alternating between John Sutherland's entertaining doorstop of a hardcover Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives and Edna Ferber's 1917 novel Fanny Herself on the Kindle. Next up: Nicholson Baker's essay collection The Way the World Works, P.G. Wodehouse's The Prince And Betty (1924), and playwright Paul Rudnick's I Shudder and Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey.

I just finished Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls on audio which I loved and Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality also on audio and loved that one too. I'm now reading Fair and Tender Ladies.

Esther wrote: "I'm zipping through The Age of Miracles. It is good but I feel like I am waiting for something to happen."

I felt the same way. Wasn't my favorite book.

Hi. I am a new member of Books on the Nightstand as of this afternoon and new to online groups this year. The range of books members are reading is exciting and refreshing. I noticed Cindy is reading Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. I found Schiff's style hard going, primarily because of the lists and lists and lists. We do need to know what this incredible woman accomplished, however, so I kept reading. I'm looking forward to Cindy's review. I am currently reading Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver and my latest cigarette in the girls' room, A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny.

Working on these and liking them both a lot:

I didn't get as much reading done in April as I'd hoped. Let's hope May is a bit more productive (especially since I have only 2 more weeks until graduation!).

Started off the month reading The Realm of Last Chances which I received at Booktopia Vermont and then started Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count for book group.

Challenges for the month...
Oldest TBR (2010): Run
Oldest TBR on my bookshelf: Outliers: The Story of Success
Book with the month's number in it: Five Quarters of the Orange
Newly published in current month: Inferno (if I have time) or Is This Tomorrow (cause it does double duty with Booktopia #2)
Random: Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968
Booktopia 2: The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, On Sal Mal Lane, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope: A Novel, and The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

And I am listening to Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald on Audible, which I am loving and breezing through! Up next on Audible is Tigers in Red Weather.

If I have any extra time (HA!), Flight Behavior and The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun are next on my list. I also really want to get to The Book of My Lives, The Dinner, and Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories. But Flight Behavior has been my "next up" to plan for a few months running now... maybe in June when I go to Mexico on vacation I will catch up :)

Trying to stay ahead of movies by reading the source material, I'm in the middle of November Man by Bill Granger. How did I miss this spy series in 1980's when I could barely get my fill of LeCarre and Ludlum?

I am reading Gone Girl and I am really enjoying it. I am having a hard time putting it down at night:) One of the best suspense/thrillers i've read in many years.

Portia wrote: "Hi. I am a new member of Books on the Nightstand as of this afternoon and new to online groups this year. The range of books members are reading is exciting and refreshing. I noticed Cindy is re..."

Hi Portia, and welcome! I am a fairly new member myself as well. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. I read that last month, and I REALLY enjoyed it. I have loved all of Kingsolver's novels, but I didn't really connect to any of the characters in The Lacuna. But I loved, loved, loved Flight Behavior. Anyway, happy reading!

--Kate

Kathy wrote: "This week's lunchtime read will be Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which so many BotNS listeners have liked. At home I'm alternating between John Sutherland's entertaining doorstop of a hardcover..."

Kathy, I may just have to read I Shudder and Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey - I'm originally from New Jersey, and that title alone is pretty incredible. Let me know what you think!

Thanks, Kate! I am your humble student on BK.. I'll "force" myself to read faster so we can discuss sooner. I will make one comment. I haven't seen a sea of butterflies but I have seen stunning displays of nature where logically there shouldn't be, so I feel BK chose the perfect premise. Best, Portia.

Kate wrote: "Kathy, I may just have to read I Shudder and Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey - I'm originally from New Jersey, and that title alone is pretty incredible. Let me know what you think! "

It is a great title, isn't it? When I first saw it on the library shelf I assumed it was horror short stories. Then I noticed the author name and saw the Peeps photo and knew that the essays might get into grim subjects like HIV on occasion, but would also include some very funny bits.

I have just started The Housekeeper and the Professor and my library reserve book of short stories by Jess Walter titled We Live in Water: Stories just came in. So I'm still trying to finish William Souder's On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson, Author of Silent Spring. Souder attended our book group's discussion on April 29th.

Listening to Fall of Giants which I am really enjoying.

Dipping in and out of Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship on Kindle.

Reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson in hardback.

Next up will be How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran for book group and then booktopia Bellingham books!

I just finished Eleanor & Park. It was amazing.

Not sure what to pick up next!

Abused, it's written by someone in my town that I know. I just bought this copy and since I tend to see him, I thought I should read it. It's slim. I'm only 10 pages into it and think the writing style will be problematic, but hope the story compensates.

I've been rereading A Visit from the Goon Squad, which I really think might be one of my favorite books of all time. It's a comfort read for sure.

Dawn wrote: "I read R.J. Palacio's WONDER this weekend.

Michael included it in the new "BOTNS Two Books" book; I've heard Ann talk about it; heck, I've heard Ann's daughter talk about it ....

my 10 year old..."

Wonder is one of the most engaging and attitude changing books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I second your opinion that it should be required reading for everyone.

Auggie!

Shannon wrote: "Dawn wrote: "I read R.J. Palacio's WONDER this weekend.

Michael included it in the new "BOTNS Two Books" book; I've heard Ann talk about it; heck, I've heard Ann's daughter talk about it ....

m..."
And, I've said the exact same thing after I read it. Powerful, powerful book.

Loved The Killer Angels on audio. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....

Currently reading Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on audio, Lost in Shangri-la on audio, and Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books on my nook. I need a DTB. Miss the rustle of paper as I turn pages.