What Are You Reading

[Sunny]

I just got Sayers second book, Clouds of Witness in the mail today and can't wait to start it. The only thing keeping from doing so is that I'm in the middle of Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

Ah, both very good. Clouds of Witnesses is one of my special favorites.

Thanks to PaperBackSwap.com I received four books by Alistair MacLean in yesterday's mail. Needless to say I spent several hours last night immersed in The Secret Ways, which hits the ground running , and read several more chapters on the way to work this morning.

 

[Parallel Guy]

Just finished Up Front by Bill Mauldin. If you want to know what the regular GI thought in WWII, you could do worse than read this. Plus it's short (228 pages). Plus his cartoons are wonderfully sardonic.

 

[thunderw21]

Animal Farm
My second time, I love that book.

I too finished Up Front recently, I have a 1946 first edition copy of it. Great read as well.

 

[brylcreem boy]

I need to stop messing around on the computer and read more books.[/QUOTE]

Amen to the above! I am actually reading a book for work right now. 1st book I've read in about a year. The Title is... "It's Your Ship" by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff, former commander of the USS Benfold. It's pretty good stuff so far. This guy clearly shows that the American Military understands leadership better than most business corporations, It's definitely all about grass-roots leadership. Something I think needs to be more commonplace in today's business.

 

[Harp]

Willa Cather's My Antonia.

 

[thunderw21]

Willa Cather's My Antonia.

Ah, I started that about a month ago but the going is slow.

 

[Polka Dot]

Oooo, I read that last year and really enjoyed it. How do you like it so far?

I love it, though it's making me procrastinate on two seminar papers I have yet to finish. The only thing I don't like, though quite common in books from the 19th century, is Gaskell's phonetic rendering of the Milton dialect. I just can't stand it when authors do this; I wish they'd content thsemselves with diction, rhythm, and the occasional apostrophe. On the other hand, Gaskell doesn't even approach Margaret Mitchell on this score, so I'm coping.

Overall, though, fantastic book.

 

[Harp]

Ah, I started that about a month ago but the going is slow.

Cather, like Crane, is an author who ventured too far past personal
experience to be embraced; yet her talent cannot be denied. She's not
at the level of the Bronte sisters, of course, but she has her moments,
and Antonia is rightly credited her masterpiece.

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Been trying lots of new things recently; coworkers suggested I'd enjoy reading more classic mystery.

Found this page off Wikipedia's "Mystery Fiction" page to be a most promising guide: mainly because it identifies schools of different styles of mystery, for a broad sampling of every kind:

Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection (don't know if this has already been posted)


Besides random samplings of whatever "feels good", starting with these, reccomended by coworkers:

- Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841)
- Ellery Queen (Dannay & Lee) "The Roman Hat Mystery" (1929)
- Georges Simenon: whichever I get my hands on first- Trois chambres ?† Manhattan, Maigret ?† New York, or Maigret se f?¢che (1946-47)

 

[Rosie]

Sacred Woman: A guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind and Spirit by Queen Afua

Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones by Stephanie Bird (I began reading this earlier but put it down for another book)

Re-reading, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

 

[Harp]

The Ghosts of Hopewell by James Fisher.

 

[Phil]

On The Road by Jack Kerouac

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Just finished Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. A heavyweight, but I find her writing addictive.

After all that heavy grief stuff, think I will read an Evanovich mystery.

karol

 

[Harp]

Joanie strikes again, huh? lol

 

[Lotus Leroux]

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

 

[Sunny]

I just finished four new-to-me Alistair MacLean books in three days:

• The Secret Ways
• Night Without End
• The Black Shrike
• Golden Rendezvous

That man could really spin a tale and write. Wow.

 

[Harp]

Moliere's The Misanthrope.

 

[Dutch McCoy]

I just finished Live and Let Die by Ian Flemming and I am about to start Moonraker. I am not sure why I am suddenly into the James Bond books but I am. Pretty good reads, too. I would suggest reading them in chronological order. There really is a lot of continuity.

 

[Dan G]

I just finished four new-to-me Alistair MacLean books in three days:

• The Secret Ways
  [*]Night Without End
  [*]The Black Shrike
  [*]Golden Rendezvous

That man could really spin a tale and write. Wow.

Boy I love Alistair MacLean's books! What a storyteller! I wish he had been my story telling grandfather.lol

 

[Sunny]

Boy I love Alistair MacLean's books! What a storyteller! I wish he had been my story telling grandfather.lol

Dang, that would've been amazing! And I'm SO glad to know I'm not alone in this appreciation. I just wish his later stuff had been better.