Just finished "Sin Killer" by Larry McMurtry. It's the first of 4 books about an English family in the early American West.
The first 40 pages were a bore and I thought that ol' Larry went off the edge...but I kept reading and was glad that I did. I'm looking forward to the next three.
Also reading "The Last Convertible" by Anton Myrer. A good yarn about WWII era college students and their continuing relationships after the war.

Flyingcow, I've also read Hope Was Here. I thought it was very good.
Right now I'm reading Witch Child, by Celia Reese.

Ok, after taking far too long on the Kerouac book (which was fantastic, it just took a little longer for my poor brain to take it in ), finished The Metamorphosis and Other Short Stories by Kafka and He Died with A Falafel in His Hand by John Birmingham in about a week. I'm now in the process of reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.....

I just finished Jane Eyre and am on to The Poisonwood Bible.

I hope you enjoy the Poisonwood Bible Lady Catriona, i found the first have really hard going as I really didn't care about any of the characters. Second half I could hardly put it down, well worth reading.

I am currently reading the Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser, not far into yet(only on Catherine of Aragon) but so far so good.

Just finished "I'm OK...You're a Brat" (GREAT parenting book) and just finished re-reading Lord of the Flies, The Fifth Sacred Thing, Stranger In a Strange Land, Anne of Green Gables.

May seem strange, but I read about 5 core books at a time, then shift to a new five, as well as work my way through reference books and medical texts (usually no more than 2 at a time). And I'm unemployed right now, so I get to read more than usual

Starting on Sacred Sins by Nora Roberts, Candide by Voltaire, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg by Pearce, and Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession by Erma Bombeck.

ShadowHippie

Here's an incredible story of what I've just finished. 3 years ago I sent compliments to a web site author and asked him to recommend a good read on the subject. His reply came in via email 1 year later (he was a busy guy). The book he recommended was a short run and was published in the late 40's. My chance of finding it here in the Brisbane burbs where not healthy. I advertised in the personals, I searched every second hand book store, I sold my soul to find this book to no avail, admitted defeat and got on with my life. 3 months ago I went to the Life Line charity book fest to collect my years reading. 60 acres of books spread over 1000 tables. Upon the doors opening shouldered off the hordes and ran to the nearest table. I looked down at several hard back spines and a small book trapped below got my attention. It looked like an old readers digest novel. I dug it out and read the spine. 'The Jungle Is Neutral' Spencer Chapman. The book I had searched for for 2 years. What where the odds? I admit to screaming like a girl for a few seconds. It was a lottery win for me. I would have prefered 6 million but this was a close second. Oh, the book was awsome! Good luck finding it though!

I'm reading "Alice in Raptor, Sort of" By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and "Ginger Pye", by Eleanor Estes. Both are very funny books.

What a fantastic story Bertho! Just goes to show that sometimes there's a book out there looking for you !!

Reading The Trial by Franz Kafka. Recently read a series of short stories by Kafka and was impressed. I have the same feeling about the book...

I'm reading two books right now: What Mrs.McGillicuddy Saw by Agatha Christie, and The Tower Of London (which is in the Wonders Of Man series published by Newsweek) written by Christopher Hibbert. Plus, I'm picking up Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens from the library tomorrow. I always have several books going at once--one non-fiction, and one or two fiction.

I'm rereading "What Color is Your Parachute"...my Bible...
And still wondering if I'll ever feel like finishing that Ben Elton one on the reality shows...

I'm reading Mistletoe Mysteries, which is a collection of short stories edited by Charlotte Macleod and Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens.

I'm reading "The Grapes Of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. I don't have to read it for school or anything I just really like his books. I also checked out "East Of Eden" from the library. So far I've read "Of Mice and Men","The Pearl",and "The Red Pony".("Of Mice and Men" is my favorite so far)

I don't know if French books can be included in this thread, but because of the subject I thought it worth including two books on" France vs. America".
There is Jean-François Revel's book on the causes and irrationalities of French anti-American prejudices: "The anti-American obsession" and there is also Philippe Roger's "The 'American enemy' .Genealogy of French anti-Americanism."
Revel's book was published by Plon; Roger's by Editions du Seuil.
No idea whether there is an English version (already).
Revel writes: "Anti-americanism is the way the French come to terms with their own failures". Especially the French left shows a stubborn blindness to the qualities of the U.S.A. His worry is that in not wanting to see their own French and European shortcomings the French intelllectuals actually push the U.S.A. into an even more isolationistic position.
Revel strongly disagrees with the fashionable French left and,very surprisingly for a Frenchman, holds the view that Europeans should abstain from criticizing the Americans at all. A point of view which neither Sir Winston Churchill nor Chris Patten would have shared. "Good friends dare to be critical of each other."
As to Philippe Roger, though he may be the less well-known author of the two, he is probably not the less interesting, and certainly the more concrete in his argumentation.
He points out that already Voltaire and Buffon had ludicrous
ideas about the U.S.A.
In his studies of American fauna Buffon wrote stupidities such as: in U.S.A. the colours of animals are paler; animals tend to be falser; dogs don't bark and tigers are cowardly. What he said about people was even more hilarious.
Stendhal felt it would not be possible for him to live over there because "there was no opera in U.S.A." (Sic).
The Spanish-American war over Cuba ( 1898) increased the anti-American prejudices among French 'thinkers'.
In twentieth century many Frenchmen behaved as if an American invasion had taken place that was about to destroy the delights of French cuisine (...McDonalds; Coca Cola etc..), would ultimately force the French to give up any 'independent"
French foreign policy of their own and would not fail to bring about a general overtake of French industry by American multinationals.
In Roger's opinion few French authors on the U.S.A. are reliable because most of them talk about U.S.A. from hearsay.
Alexis de Tocqueville 's "On Democracy in America" (1835) is in his view one of the rare exceptions..
Especially most of what was written in second half of 20th century is too biased to be any trustworthy.
And yet at same time, and paradoxically enough, France is one of the few West-European countries that never was at war with the U.S.A, whereas at one time or other there were military confrontations between U.S.A. and other European countries such as Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy.
So here is ammunition for a French-American debate provided by one group of Frenchmen against another.
For those who have not heard of either of these French philosophers:
Revel was the author of "Neither Marx nor Jesus" (1970) and "The Totalitarian Temptation"(1976).
Roger is the editor- in- chief of the philosophic review "Critique" and is a lecturer at the "School of Higher Studies and Social Sciences" at Paris.

Well Flemmie, can't say I haven't seen it in the bookshops, but haven't yet dared get it. Now I suppose I'll have to!
I sure live it every day!

The last thing I read in French was Amelie Nothomb. Interesting work, wouldn't want to translate that!

I'm in a doldrums over the recent French authors, though I do eventually read about ten a year. I absolutely hate reading in translation if I know the original language, so the libraries, which are very poorly stocked aren't a whole lot of fun for me. If I see another Mary Higgins Clark in French I'll die.
I do look at old book stands at the flea markets though.

So maybe I should break down and buy the Revel.

I never read just one book at once. It's a bad habit of mine. I get things mixed up. Anyway, I'm reading 'Lady of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger, and 'The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams. Nothing very heavy, but oh well...

I'm reading the Douglas Adams books at the moment too. As the people doing my punzzles at the moment will be able to testify. I make a point of reading them all at least once every two years, and I always find something that makes me laugh again.

I'm on "Moby Dick" and poems and stories by Melville, Kate Chopin's last story collection, "A Vocation and A Voice", a book on U.S state flags, Max Allan Collins' "Kisses Of Death", "Meshuggenary" by Stevens, Levine and Steinmetz and Humphrey Carpenter's "A Great, Silly Grin". tjoe};>

I'm reading the Aeneid by Virgil and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. That's a combination, isn't it?

I Think the Prisoner of Azkaban is the best of the four Harry Potter books.

Ok, it's been a while since I've written here, so I'll try to write down the ones I have read in the mean time....

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Girl Who Swallowed Bees - Paul McDermott
(I have a feeling I've missed a few)

...and am reading Dirt Music by Tim Winton at the moment...

Tanzen, I only noticed recently that Paul McDermott had written a book. Does he write as beautifully as he sings?!?

At the moment I'm reading a book called 'Japan at War, An Oral History' Personal reminiscences from everyone from convicted war criminals to a fashion designer. Can't put it down!

PS This is my first ever forum post! Something else to be doing when I should be doing something else!

I'm reading Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. I just got finished reading THe House on the Hill, by Elien Dunlop. It's not a scary story, but it's more of a mystery.

I'm reading Anne Rice's 'Blood and Gold', and trying to get past the first chapter in another one called 'Wifey' by Judy Blume.

'Stang