Book Rec

[Penny4]

I just thought I would sharea book rec with you...

I finished reading "Wild" by CHeryl Strayed. It is a memoir of the author's hike on part of the Pacific Crest Trail when she was in her 20's. As someone who has never camped a day in my life, I was fascinated by her story. It's partially about her hike and partially about trying to find herself, to use a cliche.

Very good read!

Anybody reading anything interesting?

[malkin]

Slogging through The end of illness.

I don't recommend it. Preachy, common sense; early to bed early to rise, in the future we'll read your DNA and you'll be healthy; we'll be wealthy, and no one will be wise.

[lph]

Malkin, you crack me up. On a regular basis. Thanks!

I'm reading The Hunger Games. Hadn't expected to be, but I'm hooked.

[Dogmama]

I'm reading In One Person by John Irving. About a boy struggling with his sexual identity in a small town. Classic John Irving - if you like him, you'll like this book.

Read Calico Joe by John Grisham. Entertaining & quick read, if not somewhat predictable.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - one of my new favorites. About a widower who deals with his inflexibility around life issues. Could not put it down.

[indysteel]

Just finishing Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It's a mystery/thriller. It held my attention, but it's not exactly high art. Also recently finished Jill Homer's Be Brave, Be Strong about her 2009 race of the Tour Divide. I enjoyed that immensely, and it's only $2.99 on Kindle. I'm slowly working on Bleak House and another book called Turn Right at Matchu Picchu by Mark Adams. Richard Ford's Canada and the last one Dogmama mentioned, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, are on my short list.

[Over50Newbie]

Just finished "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly. It was so good that I read it in one sitting. A fascinating book about a truly horrible tragedy in America. I highly recommend it!

[Irulan]

I'm working on 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, and Animal, Vegetable Mineral by Barabara Kingsolver.

The Wild is on my book group list, but I'm not excited about it. One, a review I read likened it to Eat Pray Love except the author didn't have a contract to write it before she set out, unlike the EPL gal, and two, I have consistently been rather disgusted with tales of people who set out in the woods without knowing what they are getting into; ( as in, how stupid can you be) so yes, I'm being closed minded about it.

[sookiesue]

Love John Irving! I was going to recommend In One Person, too! My favorite Irving is Prayer for Owen Meany, close second is Cider House Rules.

[indysteel]

Love John Irving! I was going to recommend In One Person, too! My favorite Irving is Prayer for Owen Meany, close second is Cider House Rules.

Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books. I've lost track of how many times I've read it, and the ending still gets me every time.

[Catrin]

Lately I've been reading far more than watching TV or Netflix, and I do enjoy good mysteries. I've been enjoying some of the Pitt series by Anne Perry. Perhaps not high literature, but enjoyable. I've heard about "Wild" at a book club I attend occasionally, it is one of the books suggested for next year.

I love "Bleak House" though it is quite bleak, Indy thanks for the recommendation for Jill Horner's book. I need to get away from my period piece/mystery run. I've also been reading "Mapheads" by Ken Jennings, a wonderful book on maps and those of us who love them and the different perspective they can provide.

For some reason I've not read John Irving, will add "In One Person" to my list.

[indysteel]

Thus far, I've not found Bleak House to be any more bleak than the average book that I've read. Maybe most of what I read is depressing; I don't know.

[Crankin]

I've hardly been reading, which is unusual. By the time I get home, and do my notes, I'm tired. But, I did read that book about the Olympic track cyclists, Gold. It was not that good. The writing seemed amateurish, even though the author (whose name escapes me now) had a huge best seller before. The ending was predictable, too.
It was the first book I read on a Kindle and I did not enjoy it. I had an actual physical feeling of wanting to turn paper pages and I couldn't read as many pages at a time; it was like when i tried to read research articles for school on line. I ended up getting a laser printer and printing them out! I know this shows my age, but it's a real, weird physical feeling I got when I was reading. I will probably download a couple of books to read while I'm away, but I will not make it a regular habit. I experience the same feeling when my morning paper doesn't arrive early enough for me to read and I read it on the I Pad. It feels like I'm reading some pop culture article on the Yahoo home page, instead of the Boston Globe.
Any recs for good historical fiction?

[Irulan]

I love well written and researched historical fiction. Not, bodice ripper historical fiction, if you know what I mean. Someone I know actually said that Outlander was historical fiction and I just about barfed. It's time travel romance disguised as historical. Not that I didn't enjoy the first few of that series, it's just NOT historical fiction. Sorry.

Sharon Kay Penman writes about Medieval England and I love her books.
The Welsh trilogy, Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning, is fabulous. Her series on Henry II is also very good, and her take on Elanor of Aquitane. http://www.sharonkaypenman.com/penman_bibliography.htm

For adventurous historical, you can't beat Bernard Cornwell. He's covered the Napoleonic Wars with the Sharpe series , King Alfred the Great with his Lords of the North series, and he's also done some great books on the Civil War. The Sharpe series is cut of the same cloth as the Patrick Obrien/Jack Aubrey stuff, so it's adventure tales with a lot of historical basis and detail. ( And Sean Bean played him in the BBC series, what's not to love about that?)

I've also really enjoyed the Thomas Shardlake mysteries set in the time of Henry VIII, by C J Sansom. This is literary mystery, not the usual fluff of many mystery series. It's pretty deep stuff, and very authentic to the period.

I could not get into Phillipa Gregory at all. I read one of them, and it seem so contrived I had to toss it. It may have been one of her true fiction and not the bios she's known for.

Wilbur Smith is another author I like. He writes about Africa, primarily South Africa, from about the 17th century on. The history is told through the Ballentyne Family, from the earliest settlement by Dutch to the end of Apathied. His really "famous" book ( ie, supermarket bestseller) "River God" is not his best work.

Hope you find something you like! I love reading on my Nook and iPad.

Who is on Goodreads?

[OakLeaf]

I just finished "The Weird Sisters" by Eleanor Brown and just loved it. It's about three adult sisters, daughters of a pedantic Shakespeare professor (hence the title), each with a crisis of her own, and an ailing stay-at-home mom, learning to find how they each fit into the family as adults.

It's totally NOT about my sisters and me, but there are enough parallels (probably common to any family of three sisters and a mother and father who've stayed married) that it was extra engaging to me - but I think any woman with a sister would find some home truth in this novel.

The conceit of the book is that it's narrated by the sisters collectively as a sort of Greek chorus. Each individual gets to speak in her own voice, but the whole history of their growing up together is always present. It doesn't necessarily sound like it would work, but it does.

[Catrin]

Irulan - I agree the Penman books are pretty good and I also have enjoyed the Shardlake series. I've not read anything by Bernard Cornwell yet though I have seen part of the Sharpe series - I will have to add him to my list.

It is nice to see what everyone is reading. I finally joined Good Reads the other day and am figuring out how it works. I read mainly classics and fiction - especially historical fiction, mysteries, fantasy/speculative/science fiction.