What Are You Reading Now?

[DVV]

Hélas, ma chère Maria, je ne comprends rien à l'allemand et ça m'empêche de chanter des lieder.
Sinon, j'aime bien la Meyerbeer. Bien fraîche, avec une belle mousse.

[mariab]

Pas de problème. By the by, the first book is gonna come out in an American version at some point as well, possibly by the UofC Press. Not before 2015 though.

Sinon, j'aime bien la Meyerbeer. Bien fraîche, avec une belle mousse.

C'est une bière juive alors. Ou bien une (blague) belge? ;-)

[miss marple]

Reading The invention of Murder by Judith Flanders, How the Victorians revelled in death and detection and created modern crime. A good ramble through 19th crimes and the appalling, libellous press freedoms.The early 19th cent press makes the news of the world look like the gospel. Hanging as a spectator sport and murder as melodrama.
A very enjoyable read.
All her books are interesting, she has written about Victorian shopping and the Victorian home.

Miss Marple

[The Grave Maurice]

I agree, MM. It's an interesting book that has oodles about 19th century crime and discusses why it was viewed as "entertainment". (It might also help to explain why some of us hang around here.)

[DVV]

Looks very interesting, thanks.

[The Good Michael]

I am finally filling a serious literary gap and working my way though Pratchett's Discworld novels.

Good luck. I tried, but couldn't get through the second one. They are just too silly for me...kind of like everything after the Hitchhiker's Guide, which was silly, but one silly book was fine. The rest in that series were irritating.

Mike

[lynn cates]

sequel

Hello Robert. I read the sequel, "Tragedy on the Mountain Side" by Eileen Dover.

Cheers.
LC

[Ally]

Good luck. I tried, but couldn't get through the second one. They are just too silly for me...kind of like everything after the Hitchhiker's Guide, which was silly, but one silly book was fine. The rest in that series were irritating.

Mike

Yeah to be honest if I had read the first books first, I never would have begun the series but I read a one-off later written book and it was well done. The first few I believe are pretty weak. Actually any of his books (which includes the first two ) that features Rincewind as the main character are pretty weak. The books are basically divided up into subsets of Rincewind books (suck large), Granny Weatherwax (hit or miss, some good, some not), Death (hit or miss), and the Sam Vimes books (all of which so far I like).

He has a tendency to get going too much with his own wit and I usually feel that the books need to move more, but they aren't horrible (except the Rincewind ones).

And besides, people need a bit of silliness in their lives so that they don't turn into cranky, stodgy old dour sourpusses.

[Carol]

I've almost finished Richard Dawkins' book - The God Delusion.

Carol

[The Grave Maurice]

I just finished Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers and I'm not yet sure what to make of it. It was shortlisted for the Mann and Giller prizes and won a Governor General's literary award, so it must be pretty good, but it struck me rather as though Of Mice and Men and Don Quixote had been rewritten by Sam Peckinpah. I thought parts of it were brilliant but I'm not sure the whole thing works. I'll have to think about it for a while and would appreciate hearing any opinions.

[DVV]

"The Life and Times of Sir Captain Reginald Hutchinson" by one Melvyn Fairclough.

[Carol]

"The Life and Times of Sir Captain Reginald Hutchinson" by one Melvyn Fairclough.

You never cease to surprise me, mon ami.
Carol

[Sally]

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman.

Delightful. And a much better bet for the identity of Jack than any artist - fictional character or no.

[DGB]

Really excellent book. Have read all three in the series and eagerly await the fourth, later this year.

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman.

Delightful. And a much better bet for the identity of Jack than any artist - fictional character or no.

[c.d.]

I just finished "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." Set in London and the town of Guernsey in 1946. The whole book is a series of letters back and forth. The Literary Society is made up of the most wonderful characters who coped with the German occupation in World War II. Absolutely excellent writing. I really enjoyed it. Over 1,500 reviews on Amazon.

c.d.