While She Knits

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

What are you reading right now?  How is it?

What's next on your TBR pile?*




*the towering To Be Read stack o' books that threatens to take over your living space.  We all have one.  Admit it.

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I am reading Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett and really enjoying it. Steampunk dragons! Sweet manlove romance! Multiple points of view! Yay.

I just--finally--got my hands on a copy of Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind. That's on deck.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading the two sequels to that! -high fives- I find them very restful books, a nice way to procrastinate on my school readings.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I'm reading War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (or something like that), having seen and adored the play. No idea what I'll read next. That's almost always a mystery to me until I have no choice but to decide.

[readingisgoodforyou.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

I just bought War Horse over the weekend. I wanted to read it before the movie came out. I figure if the movie trailer can make me tear up, the book has to be good.

[ladyadeone.livejournal.com]

Currently reading a book of short mysteries by Dorothy Sayers. Quite entertaining, and even more fun to read aloud with a friend.

TBR ASAP: Heist Society: Uncommon Criminals. I'm waiting for my sister to hand it over! The first one was good, though I found the romance a bit cheesy.
Prized, by Caragh O'Brien - It's not coming out till November 8th, but I loved the first book, Birthmarked. It's [yet another] YA distopian novel, but I found it to be unique and interesting. Can't wait for the sequel!

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

I, um, have two stacks.

I am currently reading Neverwhere, for the first time (I KNOW) and re-reading Venetia, by Georgette Heyer. And I just got The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, which I am VERY EXCITED about.

[readingisgoodforyou.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

I just got The Scorpio Races from the library as well, though it's not first in line on my TBR pile. I hope it lives up to my expectations.

[chubbyleng.livejournal.com]

I... am reading books for English class that I would never have touched if I hadn't taken the course. We're starting "Emma" now by Jane Austen, and finished "Foe" by JM Coetzee this week (which is a fabulous book *about* writing). Within the next two weeks, I have to write an essay about "Moby Dick"!

I managed to sneak in "The Perilous Gard" by Elizabeth Marie Pope, which was recommended by someone in the last WSK post. I loved it!

[keestone.livejournal.com]

I love love LOVE The Perilous Gard! :D I'm pretty sure that was the book that started me on my mild Tam Lin obsession. Speaking of which, have you read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin? A very different book, but also a delight. (And that book of course, got me reading Christopher Fry's The Lady's not for Burning, among other things.)

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Hoo-hah!

At the end of The Perilous Gard, the minstrel Randal is beginning to make a song about the events in the story, with only the first verse written so far. I wanted to hear the rest of it.

So I wrote it. (http://filk.cracksandshards.com/PerilousGard.html)

At some point I wrote a letter to Ms. Pope's literary agent, who iirc replied that this was OK and that furthermore the lady liked the song! :-)

To the original question: I am rereading Diana Wynne Jones's The Merlin Conspiracy.

[meltintall3.livejournal.com]

<3

*puts The Perilous Gard in the re-read stack for after she learns the tune*

[veriloquently.livejournal.com]

I am in the middle of The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje (and hoping to get to see him when he comes for an author event at my library next week), and I've also got Have His Carcase, by Dorothy Sayers, on the go.

I just finished The FitzOsbornes in Exile, which I loved, because I'm on a definite 1930's England kick at the moment. It's what I Capture the Castle would have been like with debutantes and the League of Nations.

[octopirock.livejournal.com]

The last book I read was The Inheritance and Other Stories, by Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm. I had picked it up thinking short stories would be just the thing for the semester from hell, but managed to read it all in two days instead. That was a while ago, and currently I have nothing on stack, having learned from the above mistake. You could say that Introduction to Mineralogy by William D. Nesse is my current bible though, given that I've practically memorized some parts.

(And - hey! I haven't posted in maybe several years, mostly due to college being silly, but I do lurk most posts).

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Good to see you back! I hear you on the college being silly front. My post count always goes way up in the summer and then wayyy down during the school year.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Currently working through Grimm's fairytales in French, which is lovely and interesting and oh so gruesome, and about to start The Scar by China Miéville, who is brilliant and reminds me very muchly of Neil Gaiman mixed with Mervyn Peake.

(There's also a prodigious pile of books on the French colonial period in Morocco that shall not be mentioned. Not at all.)

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Les contes de fées Grimm en français, c'est une entreprise ambitieuse! J'ai jamais eu l'occasion de les lire ni en anglais ni en français. Ils sont difficiles? Je ne me trompe pas en pensant que vous étudiez le français, n'est-ce pas?

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

I just finished rereading Fire and Hemlock (Diana Wynne Jones). *huge sigh* It is so good. No I want to spring up, shoot a movie of it, and make it into a graphic novel. And add all the books and stories and ballads mentioned in it to my TBR imaginary-pile. Which also includes Chime and lots of other DWJ rereads. And those Miles books that you guys are always talking about... :/


...They'll never bring you down, Checkers! :)

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Miles miles miles miles miles

oh and DWJ! Fire and Hemlock's one I haven't checked out yet. Must do that asap.

[sgwordy.livejournal.com]

I just read Jemisin's latest (last of The Inheritance Trilogy) and now must turn to my stack of "assigned" reading. Which, coincidentally, includes The Cat's Table (mentioned above) which is part of my stack for review.

[charismitaine.livejournal.com]

I just finished The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, which I really enjoyed!

Now I'm almost done with Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, and listening to the audiobook of Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers (despite the fact that I've already re-read it once this year).

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

I'm reading The Eagle of the Ninth for a second time.

And I just finished American Gods. It was good, in a sprawling way. And I re-read Sabriel by Garth Nix.

I have a Don Delilo book on my to-read pile, as well as The Shield Ring (Sutcliff again) and a bunch of Fullmetal Alchemist. :)

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I love Sabriel! And everything by Garth Nix!

and FMA.

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

I promised myself I could read Robin McKinley's Chalice again in November when I get my Halloween sewing done. I just finished Lackey's Beauty and the Werewolf (trash reading, not quite up to her usual standard), and want to start Pratchett's Snuff. My nonfiction pile has a book on the Orthodox Church, a book on 16th century Italian werewolves, and a book on Joan of Arc (love!).

That is, of course, only the top of each pile.

[kaeyko.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love the fact it sounds like everyone borrows too many books from the library and then can't read them fast enough before they have to return them. Or maybe that's just me. XP

I have everything on this list (http://kaeyko.livejournal.com/39022.html) that isn't crossed off yet. Just finished The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara and working on Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia. Gillian Slovo's Every Secret Thing in also in the current pile.

And also the first Moribito novel by Nahoko Uehashi, Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness, and The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love the fact it sounds like everyone borrows too many books from the library and then can't read them fast enough before they have to return them. Or maybe that's just me. XP

I'm at the point where librarians comment on how many books I take out. >_> Don't judge me! This is how I deal with stress, just give me the books oh my gosh.

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Rereading the Pendragon books by DJ MacHale. They're great, and I recommend them. (Thus the post about them.)

I'm in a weird place right now considering all of the last 3 or 4 books I've read have been rereads, which is unusual for me. Not including the Queen's Thief and Miles Vorkosigan rereads, of course, which happen almost continuously and never really stop. Anyway, I don't have any new books at the moment---school is kicking my butt---and I'm not sure what I'll do when I finish my current book. Reread something else in the tiny box of books I brought from my parents' house? Seek out a used bookstore and hope for the best? Or break down and resort to buying one of the many excellent suggestions on my multi-page Amazon wish list, all collected from these excellent recs on Sounis... I think it might be the latter.

Just want to say, I love While She Knits posts and I'm going to be looking into all of the great recommendations that everyone is giving.

[filkferengi]

You should check http://www.paperbackswap.com/home.php to see if any of the books on your wish list are available. From the "search" drop menu, look under "book browser." If it says "order this book", it's available; if it says "post this book", it's not. Since you're in the US, if you find something available, I can have it drop-shipped to you.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

I am in the middle of Sabriel but stopped because it was freaking me out, and also have some books by Basil Davidson about African history to read. Happily, the uni library gave me those until February. :D

And then I have a separate pile of... knitting books. Actually.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

How exactly is it freaking you out? See, I read Sabriel back when it first came out, and I don't really know how to explain this because it's 15 years since I read it and I don't exactly remember much, but I got really squicked by it somehow, like the whole thing just had a horrible vibe. I thought recently that maybe I should go back to it and see what it was I hated about it, but the last time I was in a library that had it, I got a bad vibe just looking at the cover.

(And now I sound like an utter flake, I'm sure.)

[cerisaye.livejournal.com]

I am reading Philip Kerr's Dark Matter which casts Isaac Newton as Sherlock Holmes, with an OC as his Watson. It's ok but is more plot than character based, though his imagining of 17th C London is pretty good. I picked up Kerr's novel because I recently finished Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, the first of his Baroque Cycle, set in the same period with some of the same characters including Newton. I turned to Stephenson looking for something meaty after finishing GRRM's ASoIaF, and I have to say it was a good choice! I love Dorothy Dunnett's historical fiction, and Stephenson's books have a certain similarity that appeals to me.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star, which so far is a fun school story but there are these murders, too...
Just finished Goliath.
Next up: Nowhere Girl, by A.J. Paquette, who is in my crit group. I want to see how much it's changed.

I'm supposed to be reading (for my book group) The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper. I have a weird book group. So far I've read about 15 pages, and I'm not sure I'm going to that meeting.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

The only author that even comes close to getting thrown across the room by me as much as Fenimore Cooper is Harold Bloom. In fact, the only good thing about Fenimore Cooper, IMNSHO, is Mark Twain's brilliant sporking of him. http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html

So yeah, I'm kind of leaning towards suggesting you skip that meeting. :)

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

I'm not reading anything at the moment, but I just finished Chime by Frannie Billingley a few days ago. I liked parts of it very much, and other parts not so much. My only advice is to be patient, the first chapters are kind of hard to get through, but it picks up after that.

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

Oops, forgot about the 'To be Read' part....My TBR pile hasn't come out yet! I'm waiting for Inheritance, coming out early November, and 'Liar's Moon,' the sequel to 'Starcrossed' by Elizabeth Bunce, also coming out early November.

[meltintall3.livejournal.com]

Currently reading: Factoutum, the final installment in the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy. I am between a third and halfway through, and still do not see how this is going to come to a satisfactory ending.

Just finished my first time through the second volume of the FMA manga, so there's plenty left in my TBR pile; Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson which reminded me of The Man Who Was Thursday in a good way even though I was clueless enough that the final third made me sit up and go "HUH? RLY? ..." and Rouge's Home which is the second Knight and Rouge novel by Hillari Bell.

[readingisgoodforyou.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Is "Factotum" the third book in the trilogy? I think I eventually stopped reading that because I didn't know how it was going to end well for the characters and I couldn't stand the thought of that happening. Let me know if it does end all right, will you?

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

I'm reading the last book of Laura Anne Gilman's Vinart War trilogy, The Shattered Vine. She's not a great writer and the books aren't very well edited (lots of grammatical errors, a bit too repetitive), but for some reason I'm compelled to finish the series. The main character reminds me a little of Merlin in Mary Stewart's books (asexual, frightened of his power, etc.) and while the central conceit of a world built around magic wines is almost laughable, it's also novel and interesting.

As you can see, I'm torn about this series, but I'm still reading it, so...

On the nonfiction side, I'm also reading Elizabeth David's An Omelette and a Glass of Wine and Lisa Fain's The Homesick Texan Cookbook, both terrific books about food and memory.

[wanderingdreamr.livejournal.com]

Let's see, reading lots of comics these days (local libraries FTW) and reading A Wizard of Mars by Diane Duane. I absolutely adore her books (even if the protagonists are way younger than I remember, in my head canon I've aged them all up at least two years) because of the way she makes her fantasy feel like sci-fi (sure it's stories about magic but there's a Doctor Who cameo in one book and I'd be surprised if the characters didn't know where their towels are) and how there are so many little moments where magic and real-life overlap in just hilarious ways.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

I just read that awhile ago! It was after a sort of fantasy/sci-fi drought, and it was so comforting to be able to hang around wizards again. I like how we get to spend some more time with Kit's family in this one.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

I'm currently reading Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon. So far, it and the first book in the trilogy are worthy additions to the Deed of Paksennarion series (which I didn't think was really true of the previous duology).

Um, which TBR list? :-p

I've got a stack of comics I need to catch up on. The most recent Fables trade is at the top of that.

I believe I'm two behind on Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books, and Ghost Story by Jim Butcher is also near the top of my prose for fun list. And Half a Crown by Jo Walton, but I don't actually have my hands on that one yet.

That's all going to have to take a back seat to the Reading for Work list though. I'm currently reading Samuel Beckett's More Pricks than Kicks, The Philosophy of Samuel Beckett by John Calder and Performing Embodiment in Samuel Beckett's Drama by Anna McMullen. Beckett's novels Murphy, and Watt are at the top of that to read list. And lots and lots of journal articles on the subject. And some other non-Beckett-related stuff. Actually, a lot of non-Beckett-related stuff, but I still need to get a proper handle on exactly what is on that list. And I need to get more of a shape on my To Read for My Own Research list again. *sigh*

[chocolate-smash.livejournal.com]

I just read dreadlocks by neal shusterman and re-read howls moving castle.Also FMA 19-21.