Friday reads

   

    From time to time we have "what are you reading? " posts here, and I like them because they give everyone the chance to say what they are currently reading and perhaps mention how they are getting on with it - it's a nice way of spreading the word about books of all kinds, which is what this site is all about.

    On both Twitter and Facebook there is a "Friday reads" meme/page/'thing' run by The Book Maven whereby again everyone just states what they are currently reading, so let's adopt that tag today and see what the Cornflower readership is reading.

    To get us going, my "Friday read" is I am the Blade by J.P. Buxton which I began last night - it grabbed me from the very first page and I'm loving it (I even took it to read in the bath)!

    What's yours?

Comments

[Kirsty]

I'm struggling through 'The Still Point' by Amy Sackville for book group next week. The book itself is a beautiful object, stunningly designed, but the novel is irritating. The story itself is enjoyable, and the characters are believable, but the writing style feels contrived and like the author desperately wants to be Virginia Woolf... but isn't.

Waiting in the wings for when I finish it are 'The Invention of Murder' by Judith Flanders and 'We Had It So Good' by Linda Grant.

[Cornflower]

Kirsty, I've had The Still Point on my wishlist for a while so I'm very interested to read your impressions of it!

[Caroline]

I'm half way through Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' which I wanted to read before seeing the forthcoming film. I'm not sure about it. I can appreciate it's cleverness both in terms of the plot/conceit and as a sustained act of ventriloquism but I wouldn't mind not finishing it, which is rather a bad sign. The characters don't quite engage me enough which is surprising as I have a pretty low threshold when it comes to narratives told by young people/coming-of-age novels. By contrast, my previous book was 'The Mountain Lion' by Jean Stafford which gripped and unsettled me and is still making me think. Next stop, 'Midnight's Children' for which I have high hopes.

[Becky]

'The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate,' a wonderful young-but-not-immature-adult novel about an 11 year old girl growing up in Texas in early 1900's, AND 'The Mermaid Chair,' which I was really enjoying until 'Evolution' completely captured me!

[Barbara]

I've just started The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby, which I got from the library yesterday. Also re-reading some Josephine Elder. Socks on the needles.

[Sarah Wiss]

I'm in the middle of Yiyun Li's Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, a collection of very involving short stories of life in modern China.

[Audrey]

Chatterton Square, by E.H. Young, for a Virago Reading Week. Enjoying it so far (about 100 pages in, but the only character I truly like is Miss Spanner.

Just finished The Bookshop, too. Thanks for suggesting we read it!

[julie]

I'm about half way through The Woman in White, just about to meet the mysterious Count Fosco! However I am alternating with 1939: The Last Season by Anne De Courcy which has turned out to be quite an interesting read.

[Dark Puss]

South Riding of course! As usual I won't offer an opinion until the CBG discussion in February. Also re-reading various chapters of Pedro de Alcantara's Indirect Procedures; if you wish to know why read my comment here.

[Lisa M.]

I'm only a few chapters into Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen and finding it wonderfully mystical and bizarre. Love his writing and so looking forward to curling up with the rest of the book this weekend.

[Pam]

Across the pond here I'm a short distance into The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer, finally my turn on the library wait list. In Paris in 1937 right now, love recognizing the street names and places, but dreading the bad things I know are coming. Still, I hope worth learning about the holocaust in Hungary, and the novel has gotten very good reviews.

[Harriet]

I'm reading Stone's Fall by Iain Pears. A huge novel and I've only just started it but I'm loving it. Very happy to hear someone is reading Chatterton Square, a fine book IMO.

[Claire]

Felicia's Journey by William Trevor - I would recommend. As ever, War and Peace and North Riding of course!

[B R Wombat]

I've just finished The Bookshop, of course, and am now on Three Legions which is all three of Rosemary Sutcliff's Roman books in one volume. An old school friend was re-reading them and I thought I would too. Then I discovered I'd never read them in the first place. I haven't got very far in the first book yet, but I'm loving it. I suspect that modern books for young people are racier and easier reads. The only fly in the ointment is that my Kindle has spoilt me for dead tree books. This one is an old paperback from the library and has small print and is fragile - not much fun for someone as Kindle-smitten as I am.

[Susan in TX]

I'm currently right in the middle of The Warden by Anthony Trollope (my first Trollope and enjoying it), and expecting South Riding in the post any day now.

[Dark Puss]

North Riding?? Is that a sequel?

;-)

[Dark Puss]

Dear Wombat, I was extremely familiar with Eagle of the Ninth as a child and it was not until I read it to my son a few years ago that I discovered that it was the first part of a trilogy set during Roman occupation of Britain. He loved them and read them all himself about age 9 or 10 I think.

You say all three, actually there are eight novels all relating to generations of the Aquila family and the dolphin ring. Three Legions is a book containing the first three in the series. Of course it depends a little on what one means by "Roman"! I'm pleased you like them, and (for sentimental reasons?) I think the first is still the best.

[GeraniumCat]

Oh, I hadn't noticed we were reading South Riding in February! How serendipitous that a copy arrived unexpectedly today in the post!

I am reading The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell - wartime work parties and rationing.

[Jo]

I have just finished Murder on the Orient Express and have yet to decide what to read this Friday!

Too much choice I feel.

[serenknitity]

That's next on my list, it's top of the teetering pile on the bedside table.

Listening to Johnny Depp read Keith Richard's 'Life'. Drugs, rock n'roll and wild times coming out of the car speakers as I tootle round suburbia.

[rj]

The Pyramid by Henning Mankell. Prose like cold icicles. The perfect thing to read while stuck indoors.

[B R Wombat]

Now, I'd no idea that I'd more than a trilogy in store - thanks for that, o dark one.

[Margaret Powling]

Just finished the third Charles Finch mystery, The Fleet Street Murders and have just moved on to South Riding - from London to Yorkshire and from the 1860s to the 1930s, just like that!

[Mary Grover]

I've almost finished reading Shirley Hazzard's beautiful novel "The Great Fire." I have deliberately held back, wanting to know what happens to these characters and not wanting the book to end. But I expect I'll finish it tonight. I also have in progress Saul Bellow's "Herzog" which has been on my list to read 'this year' for a couple of years now. I'm ambivalent about it for now and I'm well into it. I've been thinking what a challenge it would be for books on tape since it goes back and forth between what Herzog is thinking and what he is writing in his many letters.

[Linda C.]

I've just finished "You Know When the Men Are Gone," half dozen or so, somewhat related, short stories by a new young writer, Slobhan Fallon. Ms. Fallon writes with a clear, raw, hit-you-in-the-gut brilliance about the military wives (and some widows) of the soldiers fighting in Iraq--how they cope (or don't) with loneliness, fear, anger. Sounds pretty grim, and, it is. It's not a book I would have chosen (I got an ARC), but it's one I'll never forget. Ms. Fallon, a military wife herself, puts you there with them as she describes what it is like for them and their wives while they are gone and, equally important, when (and if) they return.

[Jill]

I am happily whipping through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Whipping because at over a thousand pages it is a considerable read and I have to finish before bookgroup in a couple of weeks. I am thoroughly enjoying being in the 12th century and it is also enjoyable after reading Testament for Cornflower bookgroup in 2010. South Riding arrived yesterday so I am looking forward to that too.
I'm afraid dear Cornflower that you discuss so many fascinating books that sometimes it is hard to keep up.

[Karoline]

Still reading Jill Liddington's Rebel Girls for the same reasons mentioned in the craft post

[jilly]

I've just finished the first part of the Transylvanian Trilogy, They Were Found Wanting, by Miklos Banffy, (translated from Hungarian but with some irritating printing mistakes). It's extremely long and gives an interesting and detailed impression of life in the early part of 20th century middle Europe - I have been absorbed by it and shall definitely read the following parts although I find some of the politics difficult to follow. I thought some of your readers might be interested to hear about this writer.

[Dark Puss]

Jilly, you thought correctly, many thanks for posting.

[Cornflower]

Thankyou, Jilly - Mr. C. has read that book (I bought it for him on the recommendation of Susan Hill, if I remember correctly) and he found it much as you've described.

[charlotte]

I am about halfway through Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre.(as part of my project to read my way through the "1000 books to read before you die"list.) Just starting to warm to it. I have had to make a character list (a la War and Peace),to remember who everyone is and what part they play. Can't help wondering if I should have read the previous Smiley novels first!.

[Delyn]

Just finished " Never Let Me Go" ( Ishiguro) which I found hugely disappointing, as did the rest of my Book Group. In fact, I would go as far as to say it was the least satisfying of all the books we've read over many years.
Now reading "The Underpainter" -Jane Urquhart, which I bought in Canada a few years back but am only now getting round to reading and am enjoying it. One out of three -"The Book Shop" and "Never Let Me Go" both disappointing - isn't bad!

[Merilyn]

I have just finished Still Life by Louise Penny. I have only recently started reading mysteries.This one was a great cozy read.Although abit strange to be reading in the middle of summer. I certainlt will read her other books in this series.

[Anji]

I am half way through Drums of Autumn, part 4 of the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon. 3 down, 3 to go. Each book in the series is about 900 pages long but it doesn't feel like you're wading through a thick book, I have become engrossed in the story.

Last night I finished Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I am waiting for my copy of South Riding to arrive.

[Julie Fredericksen]

"The Poison Tree" by Erin Kelly:

"London,the steamy summer of 1997. Karen is a straight A student just out of her final year at university. When she meets Biba, an exotic free spirit whose life of bohemian excess couldn't be more different from her own, Karen is spellbound. Soon she moves into the crumbling mansion at the edge of Queen's Woods that Biba shares with her protective and enigmatic older brother, Rex..."

[Carole]

'No and Me' by Delphine de Vigan - almost in one sitting and I enjoyed it.
I really didn't like 'Never Let Me Go' and gave up on it.

[Sandy]

Oh dear I discovered the Friday read on Sunday!

I'm half-way through 'Anibal' by Anne Bragance which is funny and moving simultaneously.

[Stephanie]

'How to Live A life of Montaigne in one question and 20 attempts at an answer' by Sarah Bakewell. An interesting non fiction book that provides a good sense of the era that Montaigne lived in (16th century) as well as a perpsective from other writers of later eras as to how they viewed his work. A very enriching boook.

[Kitchen Colours]

This is a nice idea, I know I missed the friday, but here goes anyways. :)

I've recently dug up all my old Sven Hassel books and am going through them all again. What a great read!