What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Nuncio]

The film version was a saccharin travesty.

Or, possibly, a 'Traversty'.

[her_welshness]

Edith's Diary by Patricia Highsmith.

I have had to put it down as it is breaking my heart but the writing is brilliant. It is about a woman who keeps a happy diary of events throughout her life, but slowly you can see the cracks in her life and relationships. I'm not sure whether I can continue reading it  

[tiermat]

Just finished Terry Pratchett's Nation and now reading "Unseen Academicals", I don't think I have laughed so much at one of his books in a long long while, and I am only ~50 pages in!

Makes a nice change from the heavier books I have been reading recently, such as TGWTDT and The Man Who cycled the World....

[geoff]

Recently: A Gate at the Stairs by Laurie Moore. Quite brilliant & shocking with beautifully evocative writing. Though opinions about it differ in the household.

And a couple of children's books:

Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

The Thirteen Treasures - Michelle Harrison

[Wascally Weasel]

Lanark, A life in four Books by Alisdair Gray

[Deano]

Just finished the Monkey Wrench Gang.  Powerful, angry stuff.

And I've started to read Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.  The first few pages were dense with references, but I think I've got the measure of it now, and it's shaping up to be the novel The Da Vinci Code probably imagines itself to be.

[mark]

The Climb, by Anatoli Boukreev. I've read it a few times before, but it's worth re-reading. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a rebuttal of Jon Krakauer's account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, where several commercial expeditions to Mt. Everest were caught by bad weather high up on the mountain. Boukreev paints an excellent picture of all that can go wrong when people try to purchase an adventure instead of learning how to have their own adventures.

[Mr Larrington]

London: The Biography ~ Peter Ackroyd

Only thing I could find in the airport bookshop that actually appeared to be worth a punt.  I am not a teenage girl and thus am not interested in vampires.

[jogler]

I should be reading Mark Beaumont's "The Man Who Cycled Round the World" courtesy of this forum's lending library but mrs. jogler got to the post-delivery first & hasn't yet put it down
It must be good 'cause she is reading it avidly;something she very rarely does

[Katie]

I'm between books having lost volumes 5 and 6 of Scott Pilgrim somewhere in the depths of the house.  Must make a trip to the library...

[Rhys W]

Just finished Ian McEwan's The Innocent, which I found pretty powerful, and reminded me of other European existentialist novels. So much better than Solar, which to me read like a long drawn-out bad joke.

Now I've just started It's All About The Bike, and then it's on to Jean Bobet's inspirationally-titled "Tomorrow We Ride".

[SiD]

The Golden Age of Advertising - The 70s.

It's 350pp but I 'read' it in about an hour.

[mark]

"Churchill's Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made".

Apart from being excellent reading, this is the first book that I've purchased for my Kindle.

Mr. Larrington has pointed out one more benefit to owning a Kindle: as long as I've got a cell phone signal or Wi-fi connectivity, I will never be limited to the selection in the airport bookshop.

[her_welshness]

Right, have set myself the target of reading all 6 short-listed Man Booker titles by the time the winner is announced (mid October).

So far have read 'Room' by Emma Donoghue, very good stuff - I think she gets into the mind of the little boy really well.

Have just started reading 'The Long Song' by Andrea Levy. So far, so good 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. Nearly finished it. It's enjoyable, but it's not as heavyweight as it thinks it is.

[Dinamo]

Michael Hutchinson ~ The Hour

Reading this again    a jolly good read.

[citoyen]

Right, have set myself the target of reading all 6 short-listed Man Booker titles by the time the winner is announced (mid October).

I'll be very interested to hear how you get on. Have to admit the Andrea Levy one doesn't appeal at all - from the brief extracts I've read, I think I would find the narrative style rather irritating over the course of a whole novel.

I really like the sound of the Tom McCarthy one though.

d.

[padbeat]

2/3 through The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, which is excellent and not just a Swedish Rebus as I saw it described.

One niggle, though - I had to remove a sticker from the cover describing the author as 'The New Stieg Larsson, which given that Jo Nesbo started first, and indeed was known here first, I kind of object to. Mankell as the next Larsson? Peter Hoeg? Ibsen?

[Flying_Monkey]

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Superb and intimate account of one Jewish family in an alternative 1940s America led by Nazi-sympathizer, Charles Lindergh. And, what's more, surprisingly readable and not at all self-consciously 'literary'.

[Deano]

The New Penguin History of the World, 1,264 pages

How does it end?

[Deano]

I have Number9Dream on a shelf to read shortly.

If you like Haruki Murakami, you'll like Number9Dream. Both Mitchell's first two novels were, let's say, highly influenced by Murakami.

I've just finished Number9Dream, and I see what you mean - though it's not as if he tried to hide it.

I enjoyed the book, as well - very dreamlike, and I came to enjoy the narrator's lies, after finding them irritating at first.  It's all completely unbelievable.

[clarion]

The New Penguin History of the World, 1,264 pages

How does it end?

Sudd

[Mr Larrington]

The New Penguin History of the World, 1,264 pages

How does it end?

With a whimper?

[her_welshness]

Right, have set myself the target of reading all 6 short-listed Man Booker titles by the time the winner is announced (mid October).

I'll be very interested to hear how you get on. Have to admit the Andrea Levy one doesn't appeal at all - from the brief extracts I've read, I think I would find the narrative style rather irritating over the course of a whole novel.

I really like the sound of the Tom McCarthy one though.

d.

OMG just finished reading 'The Long Song' by Andrea Levy. I absolutely loved it. I can imagine why she does not appeal Citoyen, but she is a bloody good story-teller. It must be hard for the Booker judges to even compare these books, they must all be immensely different.

Tomorrow will start reading 'Parrot and Olivier in America' and then 'The Finkler Question'. Working in public libraries is cool 

[Sergeant Pluck]

On Roads - Joe Moran.

It's probably been mentioned upthread, but just in case it has not - beautifully written, draws you in to a contemplative vibe, always thoroughly interesting and amusing