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What I'm reading

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:19 pm
by KillerTomato
I'm only about halfway through, but I need to share:

"Three Bags Full" by Leonie Swann.

Originally published in Germany, it's a sheep detective story. The flock is surprised to wake up to find their shepherd with a spade in his heart, and set out to figure out whodunnit. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in the flock, probably the smartest in the town of Glennkill (in Ireland), maybe the smartest in the world, they eavesdrop (making sure to tell everything to Mopple the Whale, known as the Memory Sheep), investigate, and ruminate (get it?) over the crime, life as a sheep, the meaning of life and grass....

Even only halfway through, this may be one of the best books I've read in ages.

(And yes, I know I'm a sucker for offbeat mysteries. The evidence of Jasper Fforde, Janet Evanovich and others must have tipped you off.)

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:35 pm
by TheCalvinator24
Settling Accounts: Return Engagement

I'm a few years behind. I actually read about half of this one in short sessions at a Borders Bookstore. I checked it out from the library this time. My library doesn't have the next 2 in the series.

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:36 pm
by otherindigo
Just stopping by to say hey.

I've been reading tons of action research proposals. I'll be glad to get back to my regular "fluff" books.

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:41 pm
by Bob Juch
otherindigo wrote:Just stopping by to say hey.

I've been reading tons of action research proposals. I'll be glad to get back to my regular "fluff" books.
Good to see you! Image

May your reading material soon improve.

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:52 pm
by otherindigo
Bob Juch wrote: Good so see you! Image

May your reading material soon improve.
That will be sometime at the end of the semester. I still have a group presentation, 20 page research proposal, and an action research presentation. Fun times.

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:56 pm
by Rexer25
Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book

It really, really works.

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:08 pm
by silvercamaro
Rexer25 wrote:Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book

It really, really works.
So, what do Annie and Molly do after you're snoring?

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:13 pm
by lilyvonschtupp26
KT-

I'm adding it to my To Read list! It keeps growing.

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:18 am
by cindy.wellman
KT!!!

HI!!!!!!

:D :D :D

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:33 am
by earendel
TheCalvinator24 wrote:Settling Accounts: Return Engagement

I'm a few years behind. I actually read about half of this one in short sessions at a Borders Bookstore. I checked it out from the library this time. My library doesn't have the next 2 in the series.
You sure are - The Grapple and In at the Death are out now. Since my library, like yours, is behind on acquiring these, I've been reading the latter book in installments when I'm at Borders. I'll buy it when it comes out in paperback (same for The Grapple).

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:38 am
by MarleysGh0st
earendel wrote:
TheCalvinator24 wrote:Settling Accounts: Return Engagement

I'm a few years behind. I actually read about half of this one in short sessions at a Borders Bookstore. I checked it out from the library this time. My library doesn't have the next 2 in the series.
You sure are - The Grapple and In at the Death are out now. Since my library, like yours, is behind on acquiring these, I've been reading the latter book in installments when I'm at Borders. I'll buy it when it comes out in paperback (same for The Grapple).
Luckily, my library got those in quickly. I just finished In at the Death last month.

I know Borders is welcoming about folks reading in the store, but trying to complete a book that long there is pushing it! :wink:

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:19 am
by earendel
MarleysGh0st wrote:I know Borders is welcoming about folks reading in the store, but trying to complete a book that long there is pushing it! :wink:
Not when you read as fast as I do. :mrgreen:

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:22 am
by MarleysGh0st
earendel wrote: Not when you read as fast as I do. :mrgreen:
Is there some pop cultural meaning to the "Mr. Green" icon that I don't get? :?

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:23 am
by earendel
MarleysGh0st wrote:
earendel wrote: Not when you read as fast as I do. :mrgreen:
Is there some pop cultural meaning to the "Mr. Green" icon that I don't get? :?
I have no idea - I just picked it from the list.

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:29 am
by PlacentiaSoccerMom
Jeff just came home from his trip and gave me the book The Lost A Search for Six of Six Million which he said was incredibly good. It's good so far.

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:30 am
by fuzzywuzzy
Hiya, KT, How are you? :D

I am currently reading:

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

I am enjoying it! I am waiting for the new Patricia Cornwell to come out this month!


fuzzy

Good Book

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:29 am
by jsuchard
As PSM mentioned above, I would suggest The Lost: A Search for Six in Six Million. I just finished it yesterday on the plane-trip home, and could hardly put it down during my 3-day trip [Damn meetings! Got in the way]

This is actually the only book I have read so far specifically about the Holocaust, but it is excellent. The author is a book reviewer and writer for the NY Times and other literary sources. He's in his mid-40s, and decided to try to track down what happened to his grandfather's eldest brother (and his wife and four daughters) in their Galacian hometown during WWII. The family knew that they had been "murdered by the Nazis", but didn't have any firm details.

The book is, therefore, a mixture of a detective story, family history, and memoir, where the author often contemplates (in a fantastically erudite fashion) the meaning of interpersonal relationships to family, to community, and to God (even though the author is pretty much a self-professed secularist).

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:37 am
by minimetoo26
Rexer25 wrote:Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book

It really, really works.
I will have to check that one out. I cut out yesterday's Jump Start and changed "the twins" to "Erin" and put it on the fridge. But she's been very good about the potty so I will cut her some slack this week about the bedtime.

Your avatar is waaay too cute! I just thought a whiny toddler tantrum was more "me", especially when coupled with the "more like mommy" bib...

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:40 am
by MarleysGh0st
I'm reading one of the Harry Turtledove alternate histories I missed along the way, In the Presence of Mine Enemies. I'm not finding enough time to get through it, lately.

With audiobooks, I just finished Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen Bown, and started Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess. The latter is a historical novel about Catherine of Aragon, told from her perspective. I've previously listened to The Boleyn Inheritance, which continues the stories of Henry VIII's wives with Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard; it was quite enjoyable.

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 9:15 am
by ladysoleil
I'm rereading Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I decided I should really give the last book a fair shot because when I originally read it the ending pissed me off so much I wanted to hurl the book out a window.

I'm a little less bitter about it now. Yeah, it still irks me, but the initial rage has subsided enough that I've ceased to be cranky about it. If I ever should meet him I intend on giving him a piece of my mind, though. ;)

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:02 am
by TheCalvinator24
ladysoleil wrote:I'm rereading Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I decided I should really give the last book a fair shot because when I originally read it the ending pissed me off so much I wanted to hurl the book out a window.

I'm a little less bitter about it now. Yeah, it still irks me, but the initial rage has subsided enough that I've ceased to be cranky about it. If I ever should meet him I intend on giving him a piece of my mind, though. ;)
I loved the ending. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:33 pm
by starfish1113
fuzzywuzzy wrote:Hiya, KT, How are you? :D

I am currently reading:

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

I am enjoying it! I am waiting for the new Patricia Cornwell to come out this month!


fuzzy
I LOVED this book! It is a non-fiction book that reads like a novel.

As for me, I'm reading Clarence Thomas's memoir, My Grandfather's Son. Still in Chapter 1. I'm amazed at the level of poverty that he (and his family, friends, etc...) had to endure. Regardless of what you think of him politicallly/philosphically, it's a tribute to him - and his grandfather, apparently - that he has risen to where he is.

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:40 pm
by mrkelley23
KT talked me into Jasper Fforde, and I'm on The Well of Lost Plots now.

Also picked up a collaboration between Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston that I'll start once I've finished that one.

Fforde is a little too cutesy with the puns for me to rave about, but the books are certainly readable and smile-inducing.

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:57 pm
by Catfish
starfish1113 wrote:
fuzzywuzzy wrote:Hiya, KT, How are you? :D

I am currently reading:

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

I am enjoying it! I am waiting for the new Patricia Cornwell to come out this month!


fuzzy
I LOVED this book! It is a non-fiction book that reads like a novel.

As for me, I'm reading Clarence Thomas's memoir, My Grandfather's Son. Still in Chapter 1. I'm amazed at the level of poverty that he (and his family, friends, etc...) had to endure. Regardless of what you think of him politicallly/philosphically, it's a tribute to him - and his grandfather, apparently - that he has risen to where he is.
Me three on TDITWC. I listened to it. I also recently listened to Larson's Thunderstruck, about another murder mystery and Marconi. In fact, I liked them both so much, I actually bought them rather than just borrowing them from the library. :shock:

I also agree with Marley about the Philippa Gregory audiobooks.

I just finished listening to The City of Falling Angels, by the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, another book I listened to. TCOFA is about Venice, to where we plan to travel in 2012 upon my son's high school graduation. When he was 8, he told us he wanted to see Venice before it falls into the sea, so we made it a goal.

I'm reading with my eyes What is the What, about a Lost Boy from Sudan.

And I read a page a day of Don Quixote, via e-mail from here: http://www.dailylit.com

I also spend my day reading radiology journal articles, but not for pleasure.

Love,

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:37 pm
by Chronic Diarrhea
Could someone slip me some of that reading material through the bathroom window? All I have nearby is the Classifieds section from June, and I've already read it 12 times....

And if you happen to have a gallon of Pepto, drop that by too.... Oooooooohhh!!!! :shock: