While She Knits

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I cannot think of anything clever tonight (long week), so just tell me

• what are you reading?
• is it any good?

Comments

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

--paragraphs about the use of alliteration in "The Bells"/paragraphs about various Romeo and Juliet characters
--occasionally

[chubbyleng.livejournal.com]

In English class, I'm supposed to be reading "At Swim-Two-Birds" by Flann O'Brien, which I find to be incredibly... er, slow.

So instead I took up Lloyd Alexander's "Westmark", and actually just finished it today. It was good. I liked it; I liked comparing Theo to our own very honourable Costis. =) And I've started "The Iron Ring" by the same author just this afternoon. I hope it's good.

Hmm... I finished reading "The Fall of a Kingdom" by Hilari Bell last week, which was very good. It was recommended a few times here by booksrgood4u and 1221bookworm. And I'm expecting "The Squire's Tale" by Gerald Morris some time soon, which was also recommended several times in previous WSK threads. =D

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I remember reading the Westmark trilogy years ago, and enjoying it - until I hit the last one, which for some reason I can't now remember in detail I hated so much that I've refused to re-read it.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I just finished re-reading Elizabeth Enright's The Four-Story Mistake. I love love love her books.

We came home early from school (weather alerts) and I brought with me our new copies of Hilda Van Stockum's The Borrowed House and Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Sherwood Ring, which undoubtedly I'll reread this weekend. I didn't go up to Mom's house because of a)the weather and b)the nasty cold and incipient laryngitis I've got making me feel crummy.

I'm also about to read Boscobel Tracts, which is a collection of accounts of Charles II's dramatic escape after the Battle of Worcester. It's from around 1850, so you probably don't have access to it, but you could read Georgette Heyer's Royal Escape for a retelling of the story.

I'm also re-reading Rosemary Sutcliff's Bonnie Dundee and having my heart broken all over again.

Also In the Garden of Beasts, about the American ambassador to Germany and his family, just as Hitler came to power.

Also Why Humanae Vitae Was Right.

Also just finished Constance Savery's The Reb and the Redcoats, which is a most unusual book because it is set during the American Revolution but takes place in England and was written by an English author (the Reb in question is an American prisoner of war).

Also just finished Jane Duncan's Camerons at the Castle and am once more loving the book and gnashing my teeth at the author for the way she ***RUINS*** things by playing merry mayhem with selective aging (and if you're interested in reading my long post on that let me know and I'll open it to public viewing).

So many books - so little time, especially when I keep falling asleep because of the aforementioned feeling crumminess.

[ayvara.livejournal.com]

I've been reading "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro for school which I have mixed feelings about, and for fun, I've been reading Margaret Atwood’s "The Handmaid's Tale" as well as re-reading "Rise of a Hero" by Hilari Bell.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I love "The Bells!" "molten golden" is just so golden sounding! And the tinkle-twinkle-sprinkle part is so very silvery.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

WESTMARK

I was rereading that a few years ago and stopped before the last book got really sad--I don't remember why it does, I just remember being depressed as a child.

Let me know what you think of The Iron Ring! I'd love to have someone to talk to about it.

on a complete side note, Lloyd Alexander's death was the first time the death of a famous person I didn't know made me cry. I'm so glad to hear about someone reading him! /loves forever

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Oh, and how could I forget: a charming (and staggeringly expensive) book called Polly Poppingay, Milliner. A girl goes to stay with her aunt, a milliner, and ends up using bits and scraps to make doll-sized hats.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

I am reading Young Men In Spats, by PG Wodehouse. It is very good.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I love "The Bells" too. Especially walking around my room, reading it aloud. :D

[openedlocket.livejournal.com]

Paper Towns by John Green

It's all right, but not as good as his most recent novel, "The Fault in our Stars".

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that, but I've read all (or most) of his Jeeves books plus a few others. Do you recommend this one?

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I've read (half of) Never Let Me Go and sort of intend to keep going at some point... it was well-written, I thought, but I also thought I could predict the ending or at least whatever the "secret" was. Have you gotten that far yet? Don't spoil it for me, but do you think it's predictable, or were you genuinely shocked?

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

I do! It's lots of funny, entertaining stories about various Drones. I haven't read that many of his other books, but the format of this one is like the Mr Mulliner stories -- hello, we're sitting around, I say ~ why is Freddie put off by the sight of that cat? well, let me tell you a story ....

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I just finished The Decoy Princess by Dawn Cook, and it was a quick read that I found enjoyable, if a bit less enthralling than her other books. She has a way of making characters stand out no matter how generic you would logically expect them to be---for instance, the love interest, who's a cheat at cards and turns out to be a bit of a thief as well, is somehow never bland or annoying. I would recommend it.

Right now I'm reading the second book in the Danger Zone series about Max Gordon, by David Gilman. They're like Alex Rider for a slightly older age group, and it's much-needed, because now that Alex Rider is all but over I'm suffering severe teenage spy withdrawal. Max is a great character and surprisingly, not an Alex clone; he's a lot more articulate and clever. I highly recommend this one.

I also finished the Rai-Kirah trilogy by Carol Berg, and oh my gosh I have never read anything this amazing before [ETA: except QT and select others, of course]. Every book was better than the one before it. So. Much. They're very graphic, though, so be warned. But I recommend these most of all right now. The books are over now and I'm still excited.

[ayvara.livejournal.com]

I have finished the book and I have to say it was a little predictable, especially the "secret". I knew a bit about the plot, so maybe that isn't fair of me to say, but everyone in my class said they were not surprised either. I thought the book was well-written and I liked the theme and style, but the characters were rather flat and uninteresting.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Reading Hidden Truth by Dawn Cook, and loving it immensely. :)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I need to read some Dawn Cook.

I am reading a creepy and unsettling book--Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson. As the book starts, a woman wakes up next to a stranger, 20 years older than she remembers being. Her husband, Ben, tells her she has a traumatic brain injury from an accident that causes all her memories since then to disappear each night as she sleeps. Each morning she awakens to this same scene of knowing nothing. A doctor she's been seeing calls her each day to tell her to look in the closet for a hidden journal she's been keeping. The first page in the journal says, in her handwriting, "Don't trust Ben." Each day she discovers a bit more about herself and the mystery surrounding her accident, and writes it in the journal so she can find it the next day. You just have this feeling of helplessness and fear as you experience each day along with the main character.

I'm also halfway through Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett, and it is laugh-out-loud funny. I'll be glad to get back to it after I finish the other book.

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

Yay! I think if I *had* to decide which was favorite, it would be 'Hidden Truth.' Where are you?

*Pretends to use 'Hidden Truth' icon if LJ would only let me*

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

I wasn't as impressed with Dawn Cook's 'Princess' series as I was with her 'Truth' series. And whats-his-name annoyed me. Dunstan? Duncan? Tess is a strong heroine though.

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

Reading The Spirit Eater by Rachel Aaron. It's the 3rd book in her Legend of Eli Monpress series. I am really enjoying the series, the charachters are lovable, and the dialogue is so funny. Go Nico!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

"Read the first page of the book." Le Guin, City of Illusions iirc. Also Soldier of the Dawn & sequels, by Gene Wolfe.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Anastasia on Her Own, by Lois Lowry. There were a half-dozen or so books strewn across the sidewalk the other evening, probably from the free table outside the Anarchists' bookshop (but they were closed). I wasn't going to pick any up b/c I was in a bit of a hurry and I have Too Many Books ("No such thing!") already. But when I saw the author on the last one and realized that we I don't have a copy...

I read it that night. :-) Lois Lowry is always a winner.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

THE ANASTASIA BOOKS. I loved those books so much as a kid. :D

[star-aesh.livejournal.com]

I just finished the first volume of "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. It is so good. There are footnotes and arachic spellings and the narration follows lots of different people but isn't confusing at all (third person omniscient is so good for that). There are three volumes in my box set and I am very pleased to have more to read next.

I'm also rerereading "Dealing with Dragons" by Patricia C. Wrede because it is awesome. The library used to have a version of it on cassette (sadly no longer) with a full cast and I can hear the cadence of the voices when I read the words :D

I'm listening to "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde as well and having fun with the (intentional) queer theory implications.

For class, we're starting "The Changeling" by Thomas Middleton but I've already finished it. Oh, Renaissance-era revenge tragedies! You so misogynistic.