And what are we reading now?

lavawitch · **Posted:** Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:10 pm

indigozo wrote:

When I was at secondary school we had to keep a record of books we read. My English teacher was not that impressed with my choices... (not in an unkind way). I think 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants' was the tiping point and he gave me a scribbled list of suggested books. I found it recently, now aged 23, having not read any of the books and decided to give them a go. I've started with 'A Room with a View' and its fine but these sort of books, with an older style of the English language, take a long time for me to get into. I'm hoping it will be rewarding in the end. Has anyone else read it and enjoyed it?

I may be reading to much into it other than him suggesting broadening your reading horizons, but it so annoys me when English teachers are snobs about books.

I had tons of students read Twilight and the Hunger Games and similar and I would encourage anyone to do so--at least they are reading! Most teenagers that I work with think that books are poisonous objects. And! Thanks to the genius marketing, quite a few actually read Withering Heights afterwards too. So Twilight sucks. Not reading sucks more.

Hell. I'd be happy if my students would at least read the Wikipedia articles they are copying and pasting from. (Yay school is finally instituting an honor code this year)

FrauleinB · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 7:01 am

Jean Genet - The Thief's Journal

It's like a semi-fictional autobiography about his life as a thief, homosexual and vagabond. Sartre was pretty fond of him. Genet writes beautiful, but for some reason I have a hard time picking up the book and reading it (at page 40 now). Has anyone else read something by Genet?

ndpittman · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 9:26 am

@FraleinB I remember that name from somewhere, but I can't think of from where. It might have been my post modern lit class in grad school. OR I'm thinking of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. :)

I'm still reading Townie, and I really like it. It's gritty, and I'm sorry that the author had such a violent and hungry upbringing, but the writing is excellent.

pizzicato · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:20 pm

@FrauleinB: I've only read Genet's 'Les bonnes'. However, I really liked this play ... I remember it made me want to read more by this author, I just haven't got around to doing so.

jojo · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:39 pm

missmuffcake wrote:

jogirl wrote:

missmuffcake wrote:

How to Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran

How are you liking it? I've heard extremely mixed reviews.

I am on the first chapter...so far I do not. I read it is supposed to be funny and witty, I do not get that so far. :/

Massive thumbs down from me too.

jojo · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:42 pm

jogirl wrote:

indigozo wrote:

When I was at secondary school we had to keep a record of books we read. My English teacher was not that impressed with my choices... (not in an unkind way). I think 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants' was the tiping point and he gave me a scribbled list of suggested books. I found it recently, now aged 23, having not read any of the books and decided to give them a go. I've started with 'A Room with a View' and its fine but these sort of books, with an older style of the English language, take a long time for me to get into. I'm hoping it will be rewarding in the end. Has anyone else read it and enjoyed it?

I loved A Room with a View. I know what you mean about it taking a while to get into, but it is well worth persevering, and if you like it, have a go at some of his others. Howard's End is wonderful, as is A Passage to India.

I read A Room with a View when I was 15 on an English teachers recommendation & loved it. I really should re-read it & I'll check out Howard's End & A Passage to India too.

eight · **Joined:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:17 pm **Posts:** 497

I am reading a biography of Lana Turner. Scandalous! :)

Tzippy · **Posted:** Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:12 am

The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory

julialegume · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 11:28 am

Just finished Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and starting Oryx and Crake.

Olives · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 11:35 am

I am halfway through dune for the first time. I'm not sure how I feel about the book, but I think it's funny that when people (read, my nerdy friends) see me reading it they're like "you're reading dune? Is it your first time? What do you think?" and expectantly stare at me.

Padraigin · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 8:13 pm

Reading Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. It is a perfect evening for reading about vampires; cold, windy and rainy with thunder storms.

Next up – The Shining, also by Stephen King. I want to re-read it so that I’m all set for the sequel – Dr. Sleep – that is supposed to come out in January 2013. Looking forward to finding out what happened to Danny Torrence and his mom after the Overlook Hotel.

very veggie · **Posted:** Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:29 pm

I'm reading The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton. It's the autobiography of a man with a not-so-squeaky-clean life who becomes a (pre-Vatican II) Trappist monk, and then a highly regarded theological writer. It's very good so far.

missmuffcake · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:57 am

I finally finished "How To Be A Women"....oh god out of the whole book I thought 2 chapters were OK and that is it. Maybe I think there are bigger issues facing women right now (with all the republican-rape-abortion stuff) going on to really care about this women's bland opinion. I hate women who tell other women that they cannot get plastic surgery,dye their hair be strippers or what have you in the sake of being a feminist. Women did not fight for the next generation just to have other women tell us what is proper or not.
Like I said 2 chapters were OK, one she talked about having an abortion, not many people do that, public or not, so kudos. Also she talked about not having kids/childfree after she had a chapter on motherhood...

I just down loaded Dare Me by Megan Abbott...

ndpittman · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:17 pm

I just started The Laws of Evening, and I really like it. It's a quiet collection of short stories, mostly set in post WWII Japan, and it's interesting (and sad) to read something set in that time period from the Japanese perspective. I don't want to get political or anything, but it must have been very terrifying to be in a time when everything you knew (culturally) was changing. True of many different time periods, I suppose.

Anek · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:25 pm

Just finished "My secret garden" by Nancy Friday (thank you BBC for listing the "shocking" books of every age), and I found interesting how little things have changed in the last 40 years.

Now I'm reading "Lost in a good book", Jasper Fforde. Fun, but I liked the first one better.

molly · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:51 pm

I just started a re-read of The Passage by Justin Cronin because the second book comes out next month. It's just as good the second time!

SuprgrrlJes · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:52 pm

I just finished Scott Jurek's Eat and Run. I'd read one review on Amazon or something saying that it got repetitive after a while (race after race, etc.), but I think that's when I was most into the book. Fantastic read!

Chickpea · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:23 pm

Yeah I read this recently. I found it very inspiring. I loved the quotes at the beginning of each chapter & the recipes at the end of each one. What a great guy.

happyfaced · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:25 pm

i dropped off some books at our local book exchange and found some newish Armistead Maupin books i hadn't read yet. (superw00t!) Michael Tolliver Lives and Mary Ann in Autumn. they're both so awesome!

alan · **Joined:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:27 pm **Posts:** 505

Just finished Lidia Yuknavitch's Dora, enjoyable read, farcical fun.

lilyyw · **Posted:** Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:24 am

ndpittman wrote:

I just started The Laws of Evening, and I really like it. It's a quiet collection of short stories, mostly set in post WWII Japan, and it's interesting (and sad) to read something set in that time period from the Japanese perspective. I don't want to get political or anything, but it must have been very terrifying to be in a time when everything you knew (culturally) was changing. True of many different time periods, I suppose.

I really enjoyed The Laws of Evening. . . I took a contemporary short fiction class a few years ago, which basically consisted of reading [mostly] awesome short stories and discussing them.

Speaking of awesome short stories, I'm jumping around in "The Best American Non-Required Reading of 2010" (gift from my mom) and just finished Sherman Alexie's "War Dances". . . beautiful.

Chickpea · **Posted:** Tue Sep 11, 2012 3:49 pm

happyfaced wrote:

i dropped off some books at our local book exchange and found some newish Armistead Maupin books i hadn't read yet. (superw00t!) Michael Tolliver Lives and Mary Ann in Autumn. they're both so awesome!

I love Armistead Maupin books. I'm gonna have to try & find Mary Ann in Autumn as I haven't read that one.

bunniee · **Joined:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1435

I'm reading Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, and remembering why I got into the series in the first place. I don't know why I stopped at book 4 and didn't continue, but I'm glad I finally decided to read book 5. I got to borrow it for free on my Kindle, which is even better.

seitanicverses · **Joined:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:57 pm **Posts:** 3857

I'm reading the biography of Scottie Fitzgerald (Scott and Zelda's daughter), written by Scottie's daughter using some of her mother's unfinished memoirs, and have Linda Wagner-Martin's Zelda Fitzgerald biography to read next.

GymClassZero · **Posted:** Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:15 pm

Just grabbed a stack of Jeff Lindsey's "Dexter" books. So, so excited! I read the first two and I've been jonesing for more ever since. So glad I went to the library.

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