What are you reading now?

[lilwriter85]

Mentor by Tom Grimes

[Jenny]

Last night I got "Dinner with the Smileys" from the library. I stayed up late reading and will probably finish it tonight. Excellent book. Recommended.

[EyeQueue]

Dystopian fans ;)

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

LOVED that book. Had no idea until I read it like 15 years ago that Orwell was influenced by it.

[JesusFightClub]

LOVED that book. Had no idea until I read it like 15 years ago that Orwell was influenced by it.

My dad has some books of Orwell's letters and I remember one of the letters was about "We". Orwell read it in French and he didn't like the English translations of it, IIRC. He didn't like "unif" as a short for uniform, as I recall, but I might be misremembering.

I will see if I can find the book next time I go to dad's house. It's really interesting to see the comparisons (note the endings of 1984 and We!) but allowing for translation, it's possible that We is the better book...

[gingerjo]

Switching between a few books on the Kindle atm. A fascinating one is Girls of Riyadh, which details the private lives of (admittedly privileged) Saudi women.

[Melissa19128]

Speaking of dystopian: I just finished Divergent and am getting ready to start on Insurgent. The first one was pretty good, if slightly derivative of The Hunger Games. I think the movie is coming out later this year or next year.

I LOVE the Divergent series! Wait until you finish Insurgent, you will want the third book in your hands that minute. Only 2 more months to go...

[Melissa19128]

This is another dystopian series that was really good.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11614718-delirium

[Tallulah]

Switching between a few books on the Kindle atm. A fascinating one is Girls of Riyadh, which details the private lives of (admittedly privileged) Saudi women.

Sounds interesting. I will definitely check it out.

[Tallulah]

Just finished "The Memory Keepers Daughter". Loved it!

Currently reading "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth". I am 7 months pregnant with our first and getting anxious. Anyone else read it or similar books on natural childbirth? Also loved "Homebirth in the Hospital".

[NDC22]

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes was amazing. I don't like time travel or crime novels and this book is both of those. A serial killer travels through time to find certain "shining" girls and kills them. What is super creepy is he finds then when they are children and meets them and gives them a little memento and tells them he will come back for them later. The novel takes place in Chicago between 1930's and the 1990's and eventually he finds one girl that doesn't die....she is the one that must track him down. Very well written. This author is able to write so different for each character through the decades. Amazing. Plus apparently they have made it into a movie already.

[Talika]

Just finished 2-weeks vacation that allowed me to read 13 books.

The one that impressed me the most (I pick the books so randomly I don't know what I'm getting until I open it for the first time) is biography of Ani Choying Dolma, a Buddhist nun (http://www.choying.com/about-ani-choying.html)

[NDC22]

I also read The Son by Philipp Meyer. This guy is going to be the next James Michener. About a family living in Texas over the course of 100 plus years. How one family lived through the last of the Comaches, big cattle, and big oil. Very very graphic, especially when young Elie is taken as a child by the tribe and lived as a slave and eventual warrior of the Comaches. It also has a huge family mystery taking place through the book and I finished it with my jaw dropped open. Meyer writes so beautifully, and so detailed. Seriously was one of the better books I read. I can't wait to watch his career.

[Nastyasty]

I just finished Big Brother by Lionel Shriver, which I believe is semi-autobiographical. It's very clever with a double twist! Like most of her books, it's quite dark in places, though not as much as We Need To Talk About Kevin.

[Lainey]

I just finished An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon, and now I don't know what to do with myself. I think I might read A Brief History of Nearly Everything.

[herebedragons]

I just finished Equilateral by Ken Kalfus. It was okay.

About to start 1984. I'm ashamed that as an English major in college I never got around to reading it. Better late than never though!

[previously]

Just finished Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. A fascinating portrayal of a young girl taken from her family to live in a leper colony in 1890's Hawaii, and her life thereafter. Quite well-written.

The Colony is another really good book about Molokai.

[Shirley MacLaine]

I'm sort of in the middle of Medical Apartheid... put it aside because it's pretty heavy stuff, emotionally

[niagarahauls]

I just finished "The Chaperone" by Laura Moriarty. It's about a 15yo Louise Brooks. The summer before she becomes famous she travels from her native Wichita, Kansas to NYC to attend dance school. The book is written entirely from the perspective of her 36yo chaperone. It was a fun read that had some interesting feminist elements also as the former suffragette and future flapper clash over appropriate behaviors. The book covered topics from orphan trains, prohibition, gay rights, up to World War II.

I just downloaded "Quiverfull" and "Catching Children" by Kathryn Jordan on my Kindle after a recent board discussion.

[Hedgehog]

I'm re-reading the Parasol Protectorate Series by Gail Carriger. I love the main character and all the steampunk devices. It's complete brain candy.

I've also got The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt on my bedside table right now, though I haven't opened it yet.

[mamacat]

I just finished "One Thousand White Women" by Jim Fergus. "The Fifth Woman" by Henning Mankell is probably next.

[Syd+Marky]

I just finished "One Thousand White Women" by Jim Fergus. "The Fifth Woman" by Henning Mankell is probably next.

I read "One Thousand White Women" about a year ago, and I really liked it.I would definitely reccomend it.

[mamacat]

I got it from a friend, and honestly didn't expect to like it as much as I did!

[silversurealism]

I finished Fierce People by Dirk Wittenborn because I watched the film on Netflix (because Chris Evans -swoon-) and was curious about the novel. I thought the movie was pretty disturbing and messed up, but it has nothing on the book. They left out quite a bit and changed things around in the movie. Not the best book I've read, but in the top 10 for most disturbing. I'd toss it up there with some of the stuff Heinlein wrote near the end of his life.

[fatcat]

I am reading through Dream Work by Mary Oliver (kind of for my dissertation), and a book of essays on religion and the environment edited by Roger S. Gottlieb. Interesting but a bit too complicated to be fun reading.

I also recently finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which had been recommended to me on several sites. Thought it was pretty good and thought-provoking. I think I'd like to read some YA/ fantasy next for fun (as I usually do). I am also planning on reading a bit more in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

[lilwriter85]

I am reading through Dream Work by Mary Oliver (kind of for my dissertation), and a book of essays on religion and the environment edited by Roger S. Gottlieb. Interesting but a bit too complicated to be fun reading.

I also recently finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which had been recommended to me on several sites. Thought it was pretty good and thought-provoking. I think I'd like to read some YA/ fantasy next for fun (as I usually do). I am also planning on reading a bit more in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

I read that a few years back and I totally recommend it.