I just wtarted “Under the Big Sky: A Biography of A.B. Guthrie Jr.” It’s the story of how he came to be a writer. I normally steer clear of biographies (but that’s hard to do when the library keeps sending them). This one’s actually written in a style that is anything but dry (and the narrator happens to be one of my favorites).

Oh yes, "Germinal"! So depressing. I remember all the "like marching through a night of a sky without stars" bits. Shades of A level French. I can't remember things perking up, but I suppose they did. Good luck!

I love that book. Have you read L'Assommoir? Gervaise in L'Assommoir is Lantier's mother.

Just put "The Day After Tomorrow" in my tape player. At first I thought I might have to throw it away, as the tape sounded like it was dying, but I'm already halfway through the first of four cassettes, and all is fine. All I can say is, **I love *mysteries!

No, I haven't read L'Assommoir. I might try to find it when I finish Germinal.

"Nana" was my favourite Zola.

Another of Gervaise's children. My favorite is L'Assomoir. I've read 19 of the 20 Rougon-Macquart novels. The only one I'm missing is His excellency Eugene Rougon.

I've moved on to my first Tom Clancy novel(no, really). It's on four cassettes and is called "The Sum of All Fears." So far, it's interesting.

Reading "Brother Odd" by Dean Koontz - not really enjoying it.

I have always enjoyed Dean Koontz's work, especially his earlier stuff, but Brother Odd was one of the few I had a hard time getting through.

Re reading "The Day of the Triffids" and enjoying it immensely. In his quiet English way, John Wyndham really was one of the best Science Fiction authors of his time.

I'm reading quite a few books right now. I am reading Cascade by Lisa Tawn Bergren, Insurgent by Veronica Roth, and Sir Percy Leads the Band by Baroness Orczy.

"The Burglar in the Rye", by Lawrence Block. I've probably talked about this series before - I just love it. Tremendously engaging characters, ridiculously convoluted plots that don't always play strictly fair - everybody lies, even sometimes our narrator - clever dialogue with a lot of wordplay, and a lighter-than-air touch. Block is very well acquainted indeed with the Mystery genre, and he plays with the conventions wonderfully - the climax of every book is an "I suppose you are all wondering why I gathered you here" expostulation, for example. I strongly recommend this series to anyone who likes a playful - and literary - touch to their mysteries.

Yes he was I agree. "The Midwich Cuckoos" is my personal favourite of his.

Started a delightful book called “Don’t Dump the Dog,” about canine behavior problems and how to fix them. I don’t have a dog, and have never wanted one, but some parts of this book are just hilarious. It does, though, give practical and workable solutions to conquering your pet’s bad behavior. The author cares for a log of dogs, having established this “stray rescue” shelter. (I’ve actually read other books about dogs because the library sent them to me, but this is the first one that actually piqued—and held—my interest.) This is one of those books on digital cartridge, so it tells me the approximate reading time in that one book (and there’s no changing tapes or sides.) Approximate time: four hours.

As I listen to some of the chapters, I'm reminded of my friend, who has a miniature pincer she dubbed "The Dog From Hell." I never did understand why, if she wanted a big dog in the first place, she got a tiny one (she said it's because she doesn't have much room for the animal to run around, but I'm hearing her complain about what a pain he is. Could just be me, but sounds like a waste of money (I think she said she paid around $90 for Dante.)

Sometimes I call my dogs "the Dog from Hell" too, but IMO, dogs are never a waste of money.

Currently I'm reading Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly about the Civil War and assassination of Abraham Lincoln. I read great reviews about this book and the historical accounts. Instead of reading like a history book, it reads more like a novel.

"Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter. All of Walter's books are good, and getting better. This one is totally mainstream fiction - he started out with crime fiction but has been moving away from it for some time. This one is a great story about, oh, life and love and meaning, and all that good stuff - and movies. It moves between Italy in the early sixties and the present, and has given me a great desire to watch some Richard Burton films - he's one of the characters, the lovely old drunk. I think most people would like this book.

ClaraSue, I've read some criticism of O'Rielly's research when it comes to details - as an example, the Oval Office didn't exist in Lincoln's time. Did you get the sense this was just the odd detail he got wrong, or was his research a little sloppy overall?

I read that too, agony, about the Oval Office, but I don't think his research was sloppy overall. There's a great many details in the book that are collaborated by other authors and by photos and history books. Some details that are possibly wrong, in my opinion, was because of his zeal to have it read like a story and not just like a history book.

Yes, a little artistic license.

Just started "Radical Innocent," about the author Upton Sinclair.

Just finished Dennis Lehane's "Live by Night".

I wasn't too crazy about his last two books and was sadly thinking that he'd lost the magic, but I was wrong. This is without question the very best gangster novel I've read; I'd put it in the top five crime fiction, and possibly my top twenty novels of any kind. Really extraordinary. Not for the faint of heart - it's very violent - but if that doesn't bother you do yourself a favour and give it try. The story is a basic gangster story - violence and betrayal - but my goodness can that man write.

Reading 'To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

It has my full interest now. It was a bit boring in the beginning, but not anymore. It is long and it is one tough cracker, but I am set on eating that cracker fully, metaphorically speaking.

Also, takes the numero uno spot in my mind.


This book won it for me. Kudos to

He is the TRUE main character in my eyes.

I'm reading one of the best books on the American Civil War. Its title is " Freedom" by William Safire. It's a mixture of fiction and historical facts and really very interesting.

ren asked me to put something in Bookworms about my Auntie Nina Bawden.
Firstly - she died in August this year - aged 87
She wrote @48 novels and used to write one adult novel then a children's novel. Probably her most well known novel was Carries War which tells a tale of my father and Nina when they were evacuated to Shropshire in WW11. It has been made into TV series and a couple of years ago a Westend play. She was shorlisted for the booker prize in 1987 for Circles of Deceit - a complicated family yarn.
Nina and Austen (uncle) were both in the Potters Bar train crash - Nina badly injured and Austen killed. Nina's last novel was Dear Austen - written as a letter to Austen outlining Nina's ongoing fight for justice with the railways. A fight she ultimately won.
She was a lovely Aunt with a wicked sense of humour and great warmth. Missed by us.

I'v just started 'Stranger In A Strange Land', by Robert A. Heinlein, and 50 pages in, i'm hooked.
Normally i'm not reader of science fiction, but since reading an article about the top ten science fiction books of all time, i decided to pick this book out of the bunch and give it a go.
If his other books are as good as this one is turning out to be, why did i wait so long?