What are you reading?

[Lacey]

So what is everyone reading right now?

Lately I've been gobbling down Anne McCaffrey's Pern series - in some cases rereading stuff that I hadn't read in ages. Finished up "Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern" last week. It was one of those books where I knew how it was going to end from information in other books, but I didn't know exactly the way it was going to come about. And the ending did leave me rather disappointed. It felt like a case of, "Let's throw in a pointless tragedy to pull on a few heart strings."

So now I've started reading, "The Woad to Wuin" - the second of the Sir Apropos of Nothing books. The little bit I've read so far leads me to believe that it will live up to and surpass the first. Anything that can spoof the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy in about 50 pages is well worth it! The first book was gritty, philosophical, and laugh out loud funny, and it's looking like the second is going to fit in all of those same categories. :D

[Vio&Juni]

Playing Moldovans at Tennis by Tony Hawks. It's funny to read a book about your country in times you've known, but seen with different eyes.

[Suki Wingy]

Well, in the summer I read a lot at night, I go through a book in 3 or 4 days. Right now i'm reading an, um, interesting book called something likeDark Horses and Black Beauties next in line are Stud, Adverntures in Breeding, The Dalmatian(again) and I am going to attempt to read The Complete Dog Book. which is simply a collection of AKC standards for all the breeds it accepted as of whenever this book was printed.

[finn's mom]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. :)

[kimboe]

I'm just starting to read "Spanish Holiday" by KATE CANN so far it's not to bad!

[lizbud]

I'm just finishing up with How To Be The Leader Of The Pack
by Patricia McConnell. Can't wait to start reading The Ice Castle
by Jeannette Walls.:)

[PJ's Mom]

What the Dog Did : Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner :)

[luvofallhorses]

Chicken Soup for the horse lover's soul :)

[Mutt_Maniac]

I am reading "Snail Mail No More" by Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin...

[Karen]

I was just going to post a thread about reading. I was going to ask how many books you read at once ...
I got to go to the Book Expo America, so have a lot of books at my disposal.

Many of them are "prerelease," so don't be surprised if you haven't yet seen them in stores.

I am currently reading ...
Faithless by Karen Slaughter. It is very good so far (about halfway through), she's a good suspense writer, and the book continues many of the main characters from her previous books I've read, which is cool. Her characters are well done, and feel like real people, not just cartoonish stereotypes, so it is always a good read. Plenty of good detail, not too much

Splintered Icon by Bill Napier. (about halfway through) One of the many books that are seeming to be marked as the next Davinci Code, but I haven't read that, so cannot compare. So far this is a good mix of historical fiction mixed with historical fact, and a good modern setting and characters. Doesn;t (so far) get bogged down in a lot of unnecessary detail, just fleshes stuff out enough to be quite interesting and keep one guessing ...


The King in the Window by Adam Gopnik. An 11-year-old American living in Paris with his kind of eccentric parents is the main character. Aimed at teens and tweens, probably the Harry Potter crowd, I'm only a third of the way in. It jumps right in and hooks you right away, you empathise the character's struggles with the odd, otherworldy situation he is dealing with, as well as his normal, lonely average 11-year-old existence. Set in Paris in the winter, plenty of "local color" without it becoming overwhelming. Really good so far ....

[Buddy Blaze Lover]

Originally posted by luvofallhorses
Chicken Soup for the horse lover's soul :)

That's EXACTLY what I'm reading!!!! lol Krista, we think alike!!!:D:D:D

[Vette]

I havent picked up a book in a long long long time. :o


my dad told me that Stephen King retired..
is it true?

[sirrahbed]

Karen - I will sometimes have 2-3 books on my nightstand that I am reading though I prefer to finish one at a time and if I really am loving it, I will read it straight through!!

A PT friend gave me the first book in a series by Beverly Lewis, called The Covenant and I LOVED it and this week I read books 2, 3 and 4. They are about an Old Order Amish family in Pennsylvania. The author also has another series written about Amish living in Lancaster County. They are fiction but the author's mom was Amish and Lewis grew up among the people of that church. They are easy reads but just what I like now and then. The rest of the books in this series were The Betrayal, The Sacrifice, and The Prodigal.

Last night I started Monster which is the newest Frank Perretti.

I am in the middle of a Chicken Soup book - I think it is Pet Lovers or Dog & Cat Lovers. My "to be read" stack is about a foot high:p

I LOVE Karin Slaughter and did not realize she had another book out!! I requested it from the library!! The publishers date said August 2005 - weird eh?

[Toby's my baby]

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech :) Sharon Creech rocks...so i've heard :p

[K9soul]

I'm rereading a favorite at the moment (Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead). I can read a fiction and a nonfiction at the same time but not two fiction novels at the same time. I get too deeply immersed in the characters and story and I would find it too distracting and disorienting to switch gears mid story. I generally read at least a couple hours a day and tend to go through a novel a week on average. Barnes & Noble loves me :p

[sandragonfly]

well..what do you (everybody) recommend? :o :D

I think the last book was Woman Murders I took off my mother's shelves ages ago and still need to finish 99/100 of the pages.. :o :p

[Karen]

Originally posted by K9soul
I'm rereading a favorite at the moment (Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead). I can read a fiction and a nonfiction at the same time but not two fiction novels at the same time. I get too deeply immersed in the characters and story and I would find it too distracting and disorienting to switch gears mid story. I generally read at least a couple hours a day and tend to go through a novel a week on average. Barnes & Noble loves me :p

I have what my mom always called "a garbage head" in that we keep all sorts of useless knowledge up there. So I can read several books at a time, and instantly pop back in to the story. I keep book seperate physically - The King in the Window is my kitchen or taking-with-me-in-case-there's-a-wait book, the Splintered Icon (due out in September 2005) is my computer desk book, and the Karin Slaughter book is my nightstand book! ;)

I recently finished these:

No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark - good, but not her best. Standard MHK, suspense, some romance, a real fast read. I didn't like how quickly everything tied up at the end, and how neatly it did, with no grey areas between good guys and bad guys, but it's a good simple story.

Their Magician and Other Stories by Gloria Kurian Broder - due out in July 2005. A really good set of short stories, many with Russian flavor, but definitely American stories, and set here. Thoughtful, interesting stories, each different from the next, not all happy endings, but each story is a solid entity unto itself, with believable, normal, flawed human beings at their center.

and I'll go the other one in a minute. I could describe the cover (royal blue and black, silver lettering) but cannot recall the title off the top of my head.

[micki76]

I'm jsut finishing up Karen Robards' "Bait" .

Next up is "Forty Words for Sorrow" By Giles Blunt.

[RICHARD]

Nelson De Mille....and anything that Gutenberg has done...;)

[sandragonfly]

posted by gina's ark inc.
Woman Murders
Woman Murderers :rolleyes:

I only took that one out because it has pictures in it ...lol. I've never liked to read. I'm trying to love it since everyone is!

[Karen]

Okay, the other two I just finished over the weekend:

Killing Her Softly by Beverly Barton - Really good suspense/mystery. The ending was pretty much a surprise, I grew to care about various characters, hoping which one was or was not the villian. The main characters were pretty well fleshed out, fair amount of thought and depth to them. Again, kind of stayed away from the cartooney stereotypes, even though several of the main characters are lawyers. ;)

City of Towers by Keith Baker - Excellent Fantasy/Science Fiction. Many mythycal characters like orges, a Phoenix, goblins, elves and halflings, hippogriffs, etc. make up the ordinary population of this world and city. Set on another world, "magic" and various "powers" pretty believably done, well-described imagery, and good characters, it's the first in a series, and I'm looking forward to reading more!

[elizabethann]

A Walk Across America.

[prechrswife]

I just finished The Cat Who Went Up the Creek by Lillian Jackson Braun. I haven't picked out my next book yet because I just finished that one last night.:)

As for reading multiple books at a time, I don't usually do that, but my husband does. I tend to just read one at a time, but very quickly.

[JenBKR]

Something by Sandra Brown...can't remember the name offhand. Not one of her better books. I usually like suspense & mystery...James Patterson, Tami Hoag, Mary Higgins Clark, etc.

[katienoonan]

I am reading the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I just bought Angels and Demons yesterday so I am going to read that one next.

[MariaM]

Order of the Phoenix! :) :) :)

[Lacey]

I think next up on my reading list will be "All the Weyrs of Pern." I read it before a few years back, so maybe this go around I'll be prepared for a certain event in it and won't end up bawling my eyes out.

There's an amazing used book store two minutes from where I work, so whenever I start to run low I collect books that I've already read and trade them in for store credit. My list of "books that I hope to find at McKays" keeps growing whenever I try out a new series there. :D My only gripe with McKays is that they price the Redwall books only slightly cheaper than what you could find them for at Waldenbooks.

If anyone's looking for some good reading, I highly recommend:

Anything by Neil Gaiman. "Coraline," "Good Omens" (co-written with Terry Pratchett of "Discworld" fame), "Neverwhere," and "American Gods" feature high on this list. I found "Stardust" to be so-so, with the characters seeming a little stiff, but that's not stopping me from eagerly awaiting "Anansi Boys" to come out.

McCaffrey's Pern series is also extremely fascinating. The whole series takes place over a span of 2500 years, and it's just absolutely amazing to see the culture she manages to create. My advice is not to read the books in chronological order, but to start instead with the Harper Hall Trilogy and follow it up with the Dragonriders of Pern part of the series. Because if you start with "Dragonsdawn," you're going to get a lot of names thrown at you and have no clue what their significance is.

Glen Cooks' Garrett, P.I. series is another fun read. You can start with pretty much any book in the series and you're given just enough backstory to (1) whet your whistle for more of the books and (2) keep you from being confused about who's who. They're just the right mix of funny and sarcastic. Though from Petty Pewter Gods on down the line they start to lose something.

Spider Robinson - highly recommend. Sci-fi with the empath's touch to it. The Callahan's series is an excellent place to start, though the early books can be tough to find. The main theme behind the series is that "shared pain is lessened; shared joy increased." There are tall tales and awful puns and people overcoming problems together. PT's Thursdays always seem to have a similar feel to these books. And, if you're not easily offended, the two Lady Sally's books are also very good reads, and really, the fact that they take place in a "house of ill-repute" isn't that big a deal.

[furrykidsmother]

I love anything that Danielle Steele writes. I am currently reading "The Wedding". I think I have every book that she has written. I am also a Stephen King fan, although I haven't kept up with his novels as frequently these past few years, but I do not believe that he has retired. I am reading only 1 book at the moment, but I have been known to have 2 or 3 going at the same time.

[Suki Wingy]

Originally posted by kimboe
I'm just starting to read "Spanish Holiday" by KATE CANN so far it's not to bad!
I've read that before, it takes a change 1/2 way through

[Suki Wingy]

Originally posted by prechrswife
[B]I just finished The Cat Who Went Up the Creek by Lillian Jackson Braun./B]
that one took me for ever just to read the first chapter, then I put it down never to pick it up again

[Samantha Puppy]

Just finished James Patterson's "Sam's Letters to Jennifer" which wasn't bad but nowhere near as good as "Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas".

[Vio&Juni]

Originally posted by Karen
I have what my mom always called "a garbage head" in that we keep all sorts of useless knowledge up there. So I can read several books at a time, and instantly pop back in to the story.

I do the same all the time. Unfortunately, now I only have time for one book, otherwise... On my coffee table, waiting already, I have The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (English), The Essential Hemingway (English) and a book with several novels of D.H. Lawrence (Russian). I read D.H. Lawrence many times, in English and Romanian, and Russian. I love The Rainbow, but I want to re-read it again.

[tomkatzid]

Just finished "A Brother's Journey, surviving a Childhood of Abuse" by Richard Pelzer. He is the younger brother of David Pelzer, " A Child called It", the worst abuse case in CA. history. VERY VERY sad.

Now I have several PScs, PScs2 and Painter books to get too.
Katz

[K9soul]

In thinking about it more (on the multibook reading subject), it's not that I can't remember story lines and what's going on with each book and its characters, it's more that I actually get emotionally invested in the book I'm reading and I can't seem to change gears in that way very easily. I have read multiple books at once, mostly in college, but I never seemed to get "into" them to the degree I would if reading them singly. It's an interesting subject, one I hadn't thought a lot about before.

I suppose also I tend to be a systematic type, finishing one thing before I start another. I'm the same way with tasks.

[luvofallhorses]

Originally posted by Buddy Blaze Lover
That's EXACTLY what I'm reading!!!! lol Krista, we think alike!!!:D:D:D

awesome :D even though I am on the 3rd story :o

[sandragonfly]

CORALINE!! I've read that book for school! I loved it but weird I still don't remember I wanna to read...lol.

but...guess what?! I only whinned to my friend how all of you & the mayor loved reading.. she gave me this book, Of Mice and Men - john steinbeck..

it'll be my first book ever! :D *proud..* ....only 107 pages to start... *:rolleyes: :p*

thanks lacey for ideas!!

[NoahsMommy]

I'm currently reading:

The Other Side of the Story - Marian Keyes (LOVE this author!)

The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts - Lillian Jackson Braun

The New Eating Right For a Bad Gut - James Scala, Ph.D.

When those are done, I have...

The Scent of Scandal - Carole Matthews

Weekend in Paris - Robyn Sisman

But...all current reading will cease when I get Harry Potter 6!!! YAY!!! Can't wait!!! :D

[JenBKR]

Originally posted by tomkatzid
Just finished "A Brother's Journey, surviving a Childhood of Abuse" by Richard Pelzer. He is the younger brother of David Pelzer, " A Child called It", the worst abuse case in CA. history. VERY VERY sad.

Now I have several PScs, PScs2 and Painter books to get too.
Katz

I never heard of that book, but I read all of the David Pelzer books. They are really emotional. I'll have to look for the Richard Pelzer book

[Lacey]

Originally posted by NoahsMommy

But...all current reading will cease when I get Harry Potter 6!!! YAY!!! Can't wait!!! :D

Ditto that!

[dukedogsmom]

I haven't started it yet but hopefully soon. It's called Chatter. It's about global espianage and how the government listens in on our phone calls and taps into emails.

[smokey the elder]

Robert Jordan's New Spring , the latest in the never-ending Wheel of Time saga. The Wheel of Time is infinite, and so is this series!;) :p

[Denyce]

I have the latest book in the Wheel of Time series but I haven't read it yet. I keep feeling like I have to reread the series every couple of years because it is so detailed I forget some of it from year to year. I am also getting older and am wishing I hadn't collected the whole series in hardback. It is getting harder to hold up those heavy books while reading. *L* I wish he would end it already!

I love to read and probably spend about 50 - 75 a month on paperbacks. I love almost every kind of book except for those bodice ripper romance books. :p

Denyce