Past, present, future

   

    My goodness, three days without a post, and still no joy with updating sidebars, but the reading goes on apace. I've just finished Khaled Hosseini's And the Mountains Echoed (the chap can fairly tell a story!) and am about to begin The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker before going on to Iain Banks's Stonemouth, my first of his books.

    But while I go off now and write a bit about The Razor's Edge for tomorrow, I'd love to know what everyone else has been reading or what you have in prospect for the weekend.

Comments

[adele geras]

Do read Iain Bank's THE CROW ROAD. It's terrific.

[Chris]

Having finished The Razor's Edge, I'm reading Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, I couldn't resist it as, in my humble opinion, Wolf Hall was soooooooo good. As for the weekend plans, it will be allotmenteering for me as the weeds seem to have control.

[Cornflower]

I'll add it to that (very lengthy) wish list! Thanks, Adele.

[Cornflower]

Good luck with those weeds, Chris, and what a great book to pick up after your hard work is done.

[Karen (at Curate's egg)]

I certainly agree with Adele re 'The Crow Road'. Iain Banks is such a good story teller.

I've just finished 'The Bell Jar' for the third time and I'm as much in awe of Plath's way with words as the first time I read it.

I'm currently reading 'Gone Girl'. I didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me.

[Cornflower]

I've never read The Bell Jar (though I have both it and Gone Girl here) - I should move it up the pile. Thanks, Karen.

[Sue]

I've just begun Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death following your recommendation. Enjoying him so far.

[Cornflower]

Good! Sidney is lovely, and the plots are interesting 'vehicles' for the character, I think.

[Nan]

You have heard that Iain Banks is ill? http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/21/iain-banks-updates-fans-cancer

I've read only one of his books, but I loved it so much I read it twice and bought it so I could read it again. Nonfiction - Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram. His passion for life jumps out of the pages. I own The Crow Road but haven't read it yet.I have the worst feeling that I have already told you all this. If so, just delete. :<)

[Nan]

I sure do have trouble leaving comments. I can't do it at all via Safari, and Chrome cuts off the words.
:<((

[Kate/Massachusetts]

I will look for Iain Banks' books. Thanks for the recommendation. Currently I am reading a book on knitting sweaters according to your body shape:
http://www.amazon.com/Knit-Flatter-instructions-youll-sweaters/dp/1617690171/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369416747&sr=1-1&keywords=knit+to+flatter

I don't know if it is available outside the U.S. I've taken several of her workshops and found the information very helpful.

[Susan in TX]

Just finished a very brief book, A Midnight Clear by Katherine Paterson - short stories all with a Christmas theme - and found it wonderful. Only to find out, I had been given an abridgment -my copy only had 5 stories, apparently the original has 12 so I am keen to seek it out. (It is marketed for young adults, but I found it a great blend of funny, tear-provoking, and thought provoking. Have started Louis L'Amour's Sackett Land. This is the first in the "Sackett Family Saga" and a new genre for me. I've always thought of him as a "western" writer (as in "wild west"), so imagine my surprise when I found that this book starts in c. 1600 in Cambridgeshire, England. I hope to get to Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies before the holiday weekend is out and also have Pym's Some Tame Gazelle queued up.

[Karoline]

We've come up to Northumbria on holiday, so I'm hoping I can finish The Razors Edge in between visiting castles

[Cornflower]

Yes, such sad news about Iain Banks, and I'll make a note of your recommendation of Raw Spirit, Nan.

[Cornflower]

How strange! I use Firefox and all seems fine.

[Cornflower]

I see Amazon UK has it - thank you, Kate.

[Cornflower]

I like the sound of the saga, Susan, and Mantel and Pym will be excellent reading.

[Cornflower]

How lovely, Karoline!

[Dark Puss]

Bedside reading at the moment is the excellent Programming in Python 3 by Mark Summerfield.

Prospects for the weekend including marking three MSc dissertations and working on my talk for MCNEG 2013 in Ipswich. More entertainingly it includes final planning for another visit to Morgana next week and possibly assisting the artist Jayne Wilton at an evening event in Great Missenden.

[Cornflower]

Programming in Python 3 - not a likely candidate for a CBG read, I feel.

[Dark Puss]

But we could submit actual examples for you to evaluate!

[Freda]

I've to read Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese by Tuesday morning for book group - 400 pages to go and a busy weekend ahead, but I'm loving it and will probably stay up very late nights to finish it...hot bath,log fire, glass of wine...what a treat!Have a good holiday weekend.

[Cornflower]

That sounds great all round, Freda. Enjoy your weekend!

[Chiara]

I started The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall by Paul Torday yesterday, and am gripped by it. Edgy and yet somehow such a comfortable book. Have a good weekend.

[Deirdre]

I'm reading The Still Point of the Turning World: A Mother's Story by Emily Rapp following your review and Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind in between walking and gardening! Have a good weekend!

[Claire]

Night and Day, Virginia Woolf. Her most conventional novel for me so far. Greatly enjoying it. Bedtime reading is Doreen, a Persephone. Can I put in Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory as a suggestion for you. Such sad news. Would also endorse The Crow Road.

[Dorothy]

Curently reading 'The Round House' by Louise Erdrich.

I also recommend 'The Wasp Factory'. I first read it while on holiday on Colonsay in the 80's!

[cindy]

Currently reading 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers' non-fiction about Mumbai slum-dwellers. And listening to 'Brideshead' read by Jeremy Lyons. How's that for opposites? Am loving them both, and wonder why I've never dived into Brideshead before, loving Waugh as I do. He can paint such a picture in so few brush-strokes.

[Caroline]

I have just finished reading The Age of Miracles and I'll be very interested to read what you think of it!

[Kate/Massachusetts]

Amy's knitting blog might interest you:

http://www.amyherzogdesigns.com/blog/

[Cornflower]

Indeed! Thank you, Kate.