I am reading "The Grapes of Wrath". This is my first entrance into Steinbeck's works. I'm finding the start a bit trying to get through, but I have read worse books and I will persevere! And I feel guilty when I don't finish a book, because I'll always be wondering what happened? I could've known but didn't take the chance to read it!

The second I'm starting I have to read by Thursday! But it's short, and from what I've heard it's interesting. It's also a children's novel, called "The Mouse and His Child".

That might be a hard one to start Stwinbeck on - though it is worth it in the end. If you want to start with something a little less um, dense, you could try Cannery Row.

Thanks for the suggestion, agony. I'll look that one up.

I just finished Sparkle Hayter's "Bandit Queen Boogie" It was so much fun. If you like 'caper' novels, and like them fast and funny, check it out. All of her stuff is a hoot.

Anthony Horowitz's Evil Star is finally out, and I'm already halfway through it.

I'm taking a brain break during finals and rereading "Castle Roogna" by Peirs Anthony (book #3 in the Xanth series).

At the moment I'm reading lots of information about Data Structures, Advanced Programming(java), Database Systems, Communication Networks, Artificial Intelligence and Operating Systems as I have exams in all of these subject areas within the next month first one today! -ARGH!-

However I would much rather be reading Polgara the Sorceress (Eddings) as that is the book I started reading last year and never finished, or Angels and Demons (Dan Brown). Even the problems of philosophy I would much rather be reading than what I doing!

Currently rereading both "The Cat Who Blew the Wistle" by Lilian Jackson Braun (the "Cat Who..." series) and "Night Mare" by Peirs Anthony (book #6 in the "Xanth" series)

Just finished "Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson. I really liked this book; it is a mystery, but that is really secondary to the character studies. (Which is good, because the only mysteries I can stand are those that are about characterization rather than the mystery itself.) She's a rather quirky writer, and there's a lot of humor in it, even though it's about very sobering and sad crimes. I'd like to read her other novels, they sound equally interesting. Is anyone familiar with her?

Now I have to decide what to read next-- "The Nanny Diaries", McLaughlin & Krauss, "The Cabinet of Curiosities", Preston & Child, or "Orson Welles, The Road to Xanadu", by Simon Callow. Maybe I'll just start them all.

Dragonkin, you've got me itching to go on a Xanth jag again. Hereby added to the waiting list.

Ah, so many books, so little time...

"The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. Yeah, I'm one of the TWELVE people who haven't read that book yet. Seriously, what is wrong with me? Actually, I really want to see the movie,but I want to read the book first.

>>> but I want to read the book first.

So you can be like everyone else and say "it wasn't as good as the book"? You know it'll happen. It always does. (we need a cynical smilie *sigh*)

Me, I'm reading "Cell" by Stephen King ... it's not bad, nothing too taxing but can't help thinking about "the Stand" as I go through it.

SillyLily...you're not alone. I haven't read that crazy book either. It just sits here and stares at me and I can't or won't pick it up! One of these days...

"I haven't read that crazy book either. It just sits here and stares at me and I can't or won't pick it up!"

Perhaps that's because you have a poetry book to read as well!!! ( )

I'm reading "S is for Silence" (Sue Grafton) I've followed the series since the letter A!

I'm reading 'Kill the Messenger', by Tammi Hoag.

I just finished "Cell", and it wasn't as good as what it will cost me - I borrowed it in CD form from the library, and managed to somehow lose one of the CDs. I'll have to go on Monday with my checkbook and see what this will cost me. I wish it would have been a better book, to be worth it.

I read all the Kate Atkinson books, she's quirky! She'll smooth over any possible dysfunction you may perceive in your own family!

I also read the first pages of the Da Vinci Code about twenty times, then got to the thirtieth page, and then gave up. Very odd. So that means that three of the twelve are here today! One of the reasons is that my spouse wrote on that mystery, so I'd kind of had it up the wazoo with the subject. I think I caught a silly French error that anyone with a year or two would have caught and was unimpressed.

"The Nanny Diaries" is very very funny and I highly recommend it. I actually talked about it elsewhere on this site if you want to see neurotic parenting by the wealthy through the eyes of their au pair. I have witnessed many of the things in the book myself as an au pair, babysitter and young mom. It's a wonder kids from that environment manage to grow up reasonably well. I really laughed hard and bought this one for my collection and I'm cheap about that!

Another recommendation but while searching the Amazon entry for it, I read some of the reviews...they went from one star to five stars and little in between! Sounds like a love hate thing. Jodi Picoult "The Plain Truth".
This is a story set in Amish country and I found it particularly good because I have lived there or near there and also in Amish country in Indiana. It's part of my own heritage and I found the book did have some doldrums but it seemed to me that that represented the rhythm of life there in the community.


I wouldn't mind reading another Stephen King novel, but I'm still chewing on that darned movie "IT" with that clown image and haven't got up my strength yet!

I currently have 4 that I am reading or going to start.

Currently reading:
"Murder@Maggody.Com" - Joan Hess (an Arly Hanks mystery)
rereading "The Cat Who Went Into The Closet" - Lillan Jackson Braun (The "Cat Who..." series)

Going to start:
"Get Off The Unicorn" - Anne McCaffery
rereading "Harpy Thyme" - Piers Anthony (the "Xanth" series)

Just fininished Sense and Sensability

Now reading "Another Ace in Hole" by Annie Proulx -- it's set in the Texas Panhandle -- great characters, several themes including agribusiness, myth of the american west and more...

"Another Ace in the Hole" is a real favorite of mine - just loved it.

I'm reading "Death in Holy Orders" by P. D. James. I've never read any books by this author before but I've heard they are good.

Currently reading a book on how to look after a Springer Spaniel Puppy, good reading, but none of it seems to be working with the dog, he's not taking any of it in at all......

"Blind Eye - How the Medical Establishment Let A Doctor Get Away With Murder" by James B. Stewart

If someone asked you to name the most prolific American serial killer, who would you say? Gacy? Dahmer? BTK?

Meet Dr. Michael Swango. Young, blond, handsome and charismatic, Swango seemed a godsend wherever he was hired ro practice medicine. Acclaim would turn to disbelief, dismay then horror as the evidence mounted that he was killing his own patients. Swango would leave that hospital only to be rehired at another hospital. Today, the FBI thinks that Michael Swango is probably the most prolific serial killer in American history.

From Ohio State University Hospitals, to Illinois, South Dakota, New York and, finally to a remote missionary hopital in Zimbabwe, Stewart brings to vivid life the true story of a psychopathic phtsician and those who protected, trusted, pursued and loved him.

This true story is a 'can't put it down' work that won a Pulitzer Prize for the author.

Quote:

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So you can be like everyone else and say "it wasn't as good as the book"? You know it'll happen. It always does. (we need a cynical smilie *sigh*)

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You know what? Now I'm not sure I want to read the book first. Because I might enjoy the movie more if I don't know what's coming...Oh! What to do, what to do!