Back in business

    After that small hiatus in posting due to a technical problem - solved with a flash of genius by our very own Dark Puss, and my thanks to him for his expertise - it looks as though we are back in business here.
     But what to talk about today? After a very busy weekend with little or no reading time I am 'behind' with my books. I'm still utterly gripped by Stone's Fall and with a bit of luck and a following wind I may even reach the end today, and when I do finish it it will be passed straight on to Mr. C. who is already practically reading it over my shoulder and urging me to get a move on so that it can flit across to his bedside table a.s.a.p. (He's marking time with an old favourite P.G. Wodehouse the while).
    What about everyone else? What are you reading? What have you just read? What can you particularly recommend just now?

Comments

[Barbara]

After several detective stories in a row I felt like 'a nice book' so I'm re-reading The Herb of Grace by Elizabeth Goudge. You'll have us all agog to read Stone's Fall!

[margaret46]

I try not to recommend books because I would be so disappointed if the next reader didn't enjoy it.So I only tell them what I am reading without making any comments about it. My husband gave me a copy ofJulian Fellowes novel 'Past Imperfect'and now I have started his earlier one called Snobs.

[Dark Puss]

Cornflower is too kind! Her favourite cat is currently nearly finished with The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom and just about to start A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I can certainly recommend the Nooteboom. I have just finished and have recommended, with some reservations, on Cornflower http://www.cornflowerbooks.co.uk/2009/04/prime-number.html#comments, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines.

[Cornflower]

I read "Past Imperfect" last year and enjoyed it greatly. Julian Fellowes 'does what he does' very well indeed, I think.

[Mary McCartney]

I've just finished 'Bird by Bird' by Anne Lamott and am starting 'Star of the Sea' by Joseph O'Connor.

[melody]

I am currently really enjoying Suzanne Berne's The Ghost at the table and recommending it to everyone I meet, I haven't actually got to the denouement yet but I just know it isn't going to disappoint! Loved Molly Fox's birthday too but that isn't a book for anyone who needs a strong plot.

[Claire]

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher. 800 pages but I didn't find it overly long. A real page turner. On the short list of the Booker last year.

[sandpiper]

Mary - I love "Bird by Bird", I've reread it more than once.

Just finished "The Affinity Bridge" by George Mann. A bit flimsy, some annoying mistakes in it, but it has zombies & brass automata, so not all bad.

I've started "When the Lights Went Out", which is a mammoth history of the 70s. I don't read much political history, but I've found it quite easy to get into. It has to be sandwiched between fiction sessions, though!

About half way through "The Murder Book" by Guillermo Martinez. I enjoyed his "The Oxford Murders", and am equally intrigued by this one, and eager to see where it ends.

[Barbara MacLeod]

Just started "A fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry.

[Linda C]

I've been on "house arrest" for a couple weeks (and couple weeks more) after minor foot surgery. My TBR pile is shrinking! Recent reads include: Blonde Roots (excellent--really got me thinking about racism), Molly Fox's Birthday(liked a lot), The Seamstress(excellent), and a strange one: Season of the Witch by Natasha Mostect, a real page- turning cyber-mystery of sorts (not at all the sort of thing I usually read), but really compelling. Excellent also: Still Alice (Lisa Genova), a first-person novel about the grim subject of Alzheimer's, but quite good and Cutting for Stone, a long saga set in 50's to present Ethopia/USA written by physician Abraham Verghese--his first novel after some excellent non-fiction.
Linda C.

[Nicola]

I'm reading Persephone's Journal by Katherine Mansfield and David Mitchell's Black Swan Green for my alumni book group.

By the way, listened to your radio piece. Very impressive! Nicola

[Karen]

I'm reading The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. It's set in the deep South in the early 1960s, and features an idealistic young white woman, newly arrived back in her hometown with her college degree, who, neither employed nor engaged to be married, begins interviewing "the help" -- black women who have raised the white folks' children and cleaned their houses for generations -- and writes a book about their experiences. Very, very good.

[Lisa W]

A Fine Balance was a book that stayed with me for a long time after I read it. It really made me think about how we regard people of different cultures, and how we value human life. If you like this book, you may also enjoy Rohinton Mistry's "Family Matters."

This past week I finished "Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy and "Things to Make and Mend" by Ruth Thomas. Both were very enjoyable. I am three chapters into "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie," and am looking forward to reading more about the precocious Flavia de Luce and her chemistry experiments!

[Rhys]

I have read and enjoyed recently:

1 Olive Kitteridge....a Cornflower Bookclub contender?

2 Margaret Drabble's memoir and book about jigsaws.....she and I have been conversing for 40 years...and the conversation goes on.

3I have nearly finished The Northern Clemency.

4 I have started The Secret Scripture....

And

5. I have tried to read James Patterson ...but they don't make sense to me..although very excitingly written.

And

6 Today I am going to read St Matthew's Gospel.

[Cornflower]

Thankyou, Nicola!

[Cornflower]

I'm breathless after reading your list, Linda! Hope the foot is mended soon.