Whatcha reading part two

I am new here, but it takes a long time to get to the final messages of the other post, so I thought I would start a new one. I have been downloading free books lately - all those books I could have/should have read in high school and college. Lately they include alcott's Little Women, James Joyce's Ulysses, and James Hardy's Jude the Obscure. On the Amazon side I just started Suze Rotolo's A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir. She was the partner of Bob Dylan in his early years (anyone remember that album cover?). So far it is surprisingly well written - not a tell all gossip book, but a thoughtful recollection of the times. I was reluctant to download it but now I am glad I did. If you are a fan of Dylan and know the times, I would recommend you consider it.

Just finished a Kindle "freebe," A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming. It was light reading and amusing for a mystery...better than I anticipated for a free book.
Now reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski...a must for dog-lovers. Very poignant and well-written.

Over the weekend, I finished The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura. I thought the beginning was a bit rough to get into, but then I really began to enjoy it.

Now I am reading Persuasion by Jane Austen, the only one of her books I have not read. I also picked up a freebie Kindle book- Topper by Jason Thorne Smith, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

I just finished Sanine by Mikhail Artsybashev. Typical upbeat Russian novel; three suicides! It was very well written and had a lot of interesting ideas, but it's hard to say I enjoyed it. Maybe it's not meant to be enjoyed.

I just finished Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and am now contemplating whether to go straight into the sequel or read something else

I am reading 1776 by David McCullough. Decided to go for history for a couple of weeks. Then back to the classics? Middlemarch? Not sure...

--k4k

Oh, I've been meaning to read 1776. I read his book on John Adams and liked the style. It's something you'd recommend, k4k?

Demiguise,

So far I am enjoying it, but I am just barely in to the 2nd chapter, so I am not sure I can recommend it yet. I finished the Amazon sample and downloaded the full book ($9.99). We moved a lot when I was younger and somehow I never had a good course in early American history because I kept changing schools. I hope this will be a fun way to catch up.

So you liked John Adams?

Fair enough. You'll have to let me know what you think of it once you get further into it. :)

I did like John Adams, but then, I'm rather a geek and think that The Histories by Herodotus was one of the more entertaining, chatty, and gossipy books I've ever read. :D

I do have to say, however, that I enjoyed reading Dearest Friend by Lynne Withey better. Maybe because Abigail was a bit more engaging and not quite as unbending as her husband was. Or because she was simply an amazing woman who I look up to.

I would also recommend Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 by John Ferling. I learned so much I never heard about in school. I learned a little about the American revolution and then it seemed like we skipped to the civil war. I never knew all the other things going on in between!!!

I finished Persuasion last night. I don't know how or why I had missed reading this before, but I'm glad I finally did. It won't be replacing Pride and Prejudice as my favorite, but I did love the story; maybe because I am able to relate to Anne somewhat.

Taking a little break from all the classics Marius is holding for me to read a paper book (gasp!)- Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh. This looks like a quick read, however, so I will probably start on Wuthering Heights before the weekend.

Laurie R. King's most recent standalone Touchstone is a wonderful read. Slow build but then it starts to take off! Thoroughly enjoyable.

jillmwo, thanks so much for the recommendation about touchstone. I have started it and so far I am really enjoying it. It is a bit slow at the beginning, but i am in the "take off"!

You're welcome, tasidog! I'm now on to two biographies at the moment, one of Frances Hodgson Burnett and the other of Aimee Semple Macpherson. Just curious to see how well the university presses are developing content to go on the Kindle.

in addition to my classics (free of course), I just started One Minute to Midnight by Michael Dobbs. It is about the Cuban missile crisis. I will date myself here, but I was a young adult then and I remember too well. This is a very well written book with meticulous research - gripping and informative, whether you lived it or not!

We lived it, too. My DH was stationed at Ft. Sam in Texas. With a few hours notice(and time to write a will, etc.) he was off to Florida and would have been in the invading party. That was a frightening time.

Well, Demiguise, I finished 1776. I liked it enough to get very, very tense during the siege of NY. Worried what was going to happen! In the end, I felt it was more of a strategy-of-war kind of book. I did get some insight into the major participants in the battles, which was interesting. I can't say it was a favorite book for me, but I did learn quite a bit and had a better understanding of why they did what they did, (e.g. why DID Washington cross the Delaware??). I found some interesting 1776 wartime maps on line at Library of Congress that you can download and zoom in on. They were helpful.

I am going to take a break and read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Then I might take tasidog's suggestion of One Minute to Midnight. I was a young'un during that time, but I remember my friends all had bomb shelters in their basements.

kerrim, you might be interested this- alot of new information not previously published. About your husband going to florida, there is quite a bit about this, including generals and admirals wondering if the state sink into the ocean because of all the men and equipments sent there!

>17 krazy4katz: krazy4katz, thanks for your views. I think I might file it away for winter reading. Especially since at the moment, I have two books going which are kicking my butt- Wuthering Heights and The Princess of Cleves. :)

Early this morning, I read a short treatise On the Vice of Novel Reading by Young Allison.Can you imagine, some people think reading fiction is a waste of time! WE know better. Ha!

I love my kindle because of all the free books available(especially Mobi). I have downloaded the charlie chan series, most of Jane Austen's works, the series written in the 1915's that Hitchcock used for 39 steps,, the original Mapp and Lucia books, and on an on! So amazing!!!!

Yeah for free books (and short stories!!)On the road to Galena, Il.,yesterday, I read two F.Scott Fitzgerald short stories. The Swimmers and A Short trip Home. Now on to Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith. Enjoyed the Sunday New York Times again on Sunday(of course.ha!)

yes kerrim, i love that i can get the sunday NYT for .75!!! I also get the NYT blog for 1.99 a month. It updates at least twice a day for 1.99 a month and has extended articles on the major news headlines of the day. I have been using the free 2 week subscriptions for major newspapers to get a daily paper and get a sense of newspapers all over the country. Actually, there are enough so far to get almost half a year of free daily newspapers from all over the country!

This hot and humid weather has greatly increased my reading ADD! Since finishing Persuasion last week, I haven't been able to settle on anything for any length of time. I've been bouncing back and forth between Five Children and It, Wuthering Heights, Garden Spells, and Topper. Unfortunately, none of them are able to keep my interest for more than a few pages, so what I'm mainly doing is running my battery down. *cries*

I am having a quick read of the life of Black Hawk after visiting the site of the Apple Fort attack near Galena, Illinois. This biography is considered one of the best Illinois records.

I just downloaded the sample of America, America: A Novel by Ethan Canin. It looks interesting; has anyone read it?

I downloaded the sample and read it and it's definitely on my reading list. There seem to be several story lines running through it, including one about a family political dynasty and a character similar to the young Ted Kennedy.

Just finished Love over Scotland by Alex McCall Smith. He is such a moralistic (is that a word?) writer), and writes a good story. You all would enjoy Ethan Canin. I will soon start that latest book, too. Kindlers aeem very quiet lately. You are all very interesting and fun.

I just finished Chocolat. I loved the movie, so I decided to get the book. The book was wonderful too. If you enjoyed Like Water For Chocolate, I think you'll like this too.

Just finished reading The No. 1 Ladies' Dectective Agency also by Alex McCall Smith. Thought I would be ready for some heavier fare after that, but I find myself now reading the second in the series, Tears of the Giraffe. I am enjoying it more than the first one. I have had a really hard time at work in the last month, so I took a day off. My brain hurts, it is so tired, so maybe this series is just what I need.

k4k

thanks kerrim, after reading the sample I have downloaded America, America and hope to start it next week! I was hoping to read it this weekend but lots of family coming to visit from all over!

By the way kindley group, if you have a Mac, you probably know you can't use mobipocket reader for conversions. But there is a new program called Stanza for macs that works for conversion into Kindle and it is free. The website is http://www.lexcycle.com/

I find it a lot easier to use than sending stuff to amazon for conversion. It will export the book or pdf right into the kindle!

Just finished Five Children and It, which was really quite cute. I think I might be ready for something a bit more weighty and grown-up, so I'll tackle Wuthering Heights tomorrow. I actually have the weekend off, and the weather is supposed to be a bit blah, which makes me think it'll be perfect for curling up with Marius. :)

I just finished Careless in Red by Elizabeth George. I highly recommend it! I think this is one of the most sophisticated pieces she has written in the Thomas Lynley (british inspector) series. While you will miss so much of the subtlety of the book if you haven't read her earlier books, I really think it stands on her own. If you like english settings and detective novels, and rich writing, you will love this book!!!!!

Reading The Moonstone. Collins has such a gift for voices.

I am slogging through a biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett. It got a good review in the NYTimes, but I am finding the writing rather shallow.

31-tasidog, thank you for the lexcycle.com info. i have downloaded it and will try it soon!

Thanks for the Careless In Red recommendation, Tasidog. I downloaded the sample a few weeks ago and will get to it if I can ever find my way out of midieval English cathedrals! World Without End...1026 pages but worth it.

Wooo-hooo! just got the first free book via Stanza (lexcycle.com... see 31). I downloaded Brave New World by Aldous Huxley so I'm going to read that now. It has been many years since my first reading so it will be interesting to see if my opinion of it has changed. I hope not as it is one of my favorite books!

davidpall, I am glad Stanza worked! Brave New World is a great book - oops, well, I read it a long time ago too, so let us know if it still is!

oh my goodness jillmwo, thanks for referring to The Moonstone. Often seen as the first English detective novel!! I downloaded from Mobi (free of course) and will get to that asap. I have just started Pretty Birds by Scott Simon on the Bosnian war and how young women served as the snipers... very disturbing and very well written.

I tried Stanza and did not have that great an experience. Maybe it was me not knowing what I was doing, or maybe it was the fact that Stanza is still in beta. ;-)

I had a pdf of "Isaac Newton" by Gale Christianson from Wowio that I had Amazon convert. I tried Stanza, but there were too many typos. The Amazon version was better. In the end, I liked the Kindle store version enough to buy it anyway ($7.16). The formatting was just so much better I decided it was worth it. I am reading it now. Starts off with Oliver Cromwell and the execution of Charles I. Great historical context.

--k4k

I am reading Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding (author of Bridget Jones' Diary) and then I think I will either reread the Twilight series or Harry Potter on the kindle.
I have a bunch that I am waiting to start - such as Pillars of the Earth.

krazy4katz, I haven't experienced the typo problem yet with Stanza but I will watch for it. I don't use it much for books because there are so many sources already kindle ready. but I do use it for personal documents and .pdfs (mostly recipes). I have had problems with some .pdfs and then use the amazon conversion. I am cheap and don't use the .10 conversion, but the free conversion from Amazon. So I like not having to log on to convert, download and then move to the kindle. With stanza I can do it on my desktop and directly move into the kindle. But I am cheap (and a little lazy too).

I am in the middle of Havana Nocturne by T.J. English. It describes the rise of the mob in Havana, Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s and their dream of establishing a mafia controlled country, and the parallel rise of the Castro revolution. A great historical read so far - true crime, political history.

I just read and LOVED Gargoyle Andrew DavidsonI also have another thriller to review, but I'm so behind on my book reviews, I can't remember the name of it off of my head. But the Garboyle is one of the best books I've read in the past ten years. Hmmmm the touch stones aren't working with this one....it's new, but that's strange. I'm glad to see you're all doing well. I'm still in the hospital and I did leave a post. I got several messages on my profile and I want to thank you for that.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm star and I started with the first group of "pioneers". I LOVE my kindle and I'm a reviewer. Unfortunately, I'll be in the hospital for a while...so, it's very nice to see SO many new faces and I'll try to be around as much as I can. Nice to "meet" you all!

And to those of you that know me, Love ya!
xo Star*

Star, you are one brave gal. I am fairly new to LT, but enjoying it a lot. Count me as one of your friends.

Hi Star,

Nice to meet you. I am presently reading Escape by Carolyn Jessop about her experiences growing up in a polygamous family of the FLDS sect. I am thinking of a long novel after that. Count of Monte Cristo? Something else? Who knows? I always seem to pick my books at the last minute.

Hope you get well soon,

k4k

Just updated on my blog with a quick rundown of what's currently on my Kindle.
http://individualtake.blogspot.com/2008/08/so-i-got-kindle-from-amazon-about-two...

Hope it's not too repetitive.

Maybe it is the Olympics, but I have been reading some detective novels based in China. One is the inspector Chen series by Qiu Xiaolong and the Red Princess series by Lisa See. Each come from different perspectives of social class in China and are fascinating to read. I really recommend them. Not all the series are on the kindle, but some are.

This week I joined a monthly book club at my Public Library. Our book for the next meeting is about China, The Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler. I was delighted to find it on Kindle.
Btw, I took Kindle with me to the meeting and it was a great asset during the decision-making on what to read next. I could read reviews of the suggested books to the group in mere moments.

I'm in the middle of The Sand Pebbles, which oddly enough is about China.

I just downloaded Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I usually avoid the best seller list, but this sounds interesting. I had forgotten that Germany did take over the island of Guernsey during the war. We should not forget what the Brits suffered during that horrible war. (Actually, million s of people all over the world!)

I just finished The Language of Baklava, an Amazon ebook for the Kindle by Diana Abu-Jaber. It's the story of her family, and the experience of growing up in an environment of mixed religion and culture. Her father is a Jordanian immigrant who married an Irish Catholic American woman.

Her father is a good cook, so all of her reminiscences revolve around food, and each chapter ends with a recipe.

After being distracted by some short stories by Francis Fitzgerald, I finally finished The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I was amazed by all the info the author(s) packed into this book. I would recommend this as a good read. It is good to be reminded of the things that happened during WWII. For a brief respite, now on to Aristotle Youth and Age. Quite a switch. Ha!

The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester. I owned the hardcover but can't find it in the disaster that is my living room. If you're unfamiliar with the book, it's a historical overview of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Marvelously done!

Still reading the autobiography Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela! I think it is about 600 pages long in real life. I am enjoying it, but I might have to take a break in the middle to read something else. If you are looking just for a biography, this is too long. But if you also want to learn a lot about South Africa and the rise of the ANC, it is really interesting.

Just finished WORLD WITHOUT END by Ken Follett, worth every step of the journey. Also THE ORACLE BONES by Peter Heller about ancient vs. modern day China...excellent if dry in spots.
Our Cover to Cover book club is reading NIGHTS IN RODANTHE by Nicholas Sparks and it's a quick read but, so far, a bit disappointing since it seems so formula driven. I'm hoping there is a turn in the plot soon.

The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin. About a third of the way through.

I just finished Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris. 5th book in the Southern Vampire series. Pretty fun read.

I finished The Adventures of Ibn Battuta and I'm now reading The Travels of Marco Polo. They're both good books, but they're paper, what a drag. I find myself constantly reaching for the text size button. And they don't come with a built in dictionary, sheesh.

Just finished Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson which turned out to be better than expected. Now reading a finalist in the Man Booker Literary Awards A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. About a dysfunctional family in Australia. Kindle has four of the six finalists available. The winner of this prestigious fiction award will be announced on October 14th.

Just finished reading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett on my Kindle. Enjoyed it very much and just wondering what to read next. I don't think her earlier ones are available for the kindle. Do I want fiction or nonfiction? I just don't know....

k4k

What did you finally settle on, k4k?
I'm reading the Man-Booker prize winner, THE WHITE TIGER by Aravind Adiga. Very good!

Thank you, Bookworm, I will have to add that sample. I almost have more samples than books on my kindle now. I am so torn between reading old classics that I have missed and reading all the new books out there. Too bad I have to work for a living!

I decided to go back to memoirs. I am reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It is very good, especially when she gets to the part where she is trying to leave her traditional, repressive life behind. Oddly enough, it reminds me of Escape by Carolyn Jessop. Strange to think that fundamentalist Islam and the FLDS would have elements in common, but they do.

Excellent point, K4K, as always. I can see where both FLDS and Islam would have repression in common. Interesting too because I've been reading more middle-Eastern authors lately and also books about women escaping from offshoots of religious organizations and cults here in our own country.
It's amazing the injustices that go on right in our own back yards and each book makes me more and more aware of the madness.

Hi Bookworm,

Yes, it is very interesting to read the experiences of women in the Middle East. I am hoping that In the Land of Invisible Women will be out in kindle format soon. k4k

(slap to the forehead) I discovered a Kindle group elsewhere because all of a sudden Distant Cousin started selling like gangbusters. I put it on Kindle late last year, but I hadn't realized what avid readers Kindlers are. Over 100 copies went in a month. So I started looking around and I found you guys. Blimey! I never knew! Maybe I should get a Kindle...except they're out of stock at the moment.

The book is Distant Cousin, a sci fi/adventure/romance that you can read about at Amazon. Basically, a girl speaking an extinct Indo-European language shows up at an observatory warning of imminent disaster and she's tossed out, chased by SWAT teams, but finally figures out how to get her message across, and maybe make a boy friend in the process.

I think the free sample feature helped, and maybe the bargain price. I'm starting to love the Kindle! For anyone interested, Distant Cousin is the first. Distant Cousin: Repatriation is the second, and Reincarnation is the third. Go, Kindle!

I just now bought a copy of Distant Cousins, I'll let you know what I think of it.

I haven't posted much recently, I've been too busy reading; 146 books since I got my Kindle last February.

I good free Gutenberg book I finished recently was Tenting To-night by Mary Roberts Rinehart. She was a prolific mystery writer at the turn of the last century, but this book is an account of her trip through Glacier National Park in Montana before it was officially a park. It's well written and very funny. If you get the HTML version, it has some very nice pictures in it.

Just finished Octavia Butler's Fledgling and I'm now back to Kim Harrison's "The Hollows" series with A Fistful of Charms (#4). Those are both Amazon purchases, but the majority of my Kindle library is free downloads, primarily from Feedbooks|Mobile.

Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo! Great book, but it took a while. Now, what to read next... Lincoln, The Book Thief, one of the free books I downloaded from Amazon, or another classic? I have at least 15 samples on my Kindle. It could take me a week to make a decision! k4k

I misplaced my MAC card, so I had to have my bank cancel and reissue. I've got a temporary card that I can use on ATMs, but with the cancellation I won't be able to order anything from Amazon until I get the new card and enter it in my Account settings.

I'll have to be content for 7-10 days with whatever I've already downloaded from Amazon and with anything I get from free sites like Feedbooks! (So I won't be able to read the sixth book of Kim Harrison's "The Hollows" series until then....)

I just finished a wonderfully done mystery Spam & Eggs by Andrew Kent. It's available at a reasonable seven dollars and change for the Kindle edition. It's excellent!

I am reading The Life of Pi after taking in Sense and Sensibility. I think I may need an emotional break after this. Maybe Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court or something like that will provide the necessary relief. Looking at my previous posts, I never read what I predict will be the next book. That is why I used to have such a large TBR pile before I had a kindle. Now I just have lots of samples.

k4k

I finished Fifty Famous Stories Retold today, and started His Majesty's Dragon.

Just finishing up 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, still working on A History of Histories (the first book I bought for the Kindle, last May, and only half-way through, but I'm determined!). I've got a couple of samples I think I'll look at next: The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa and Jesus, Interrupted (touchstone not working), then I've got to get back to reading something for the Pulitzer Fiction Challenge. Maybe Gilead.

Recently finished The Years by Virginia Woolf. This was free from freebooks.com. I don`t read Woolf often, but i`m always amazed at her genius. Her method of entering the minds of her characters is wonderful. I think--how did she DO that?

Eleanor Porter's Pollyanna, part of an eleven-book file published by "Samizdat Express" for 99 cents. I downloaded the sample, and it turns out that the sample contains all of Pollyanna (the first book in the file) and stops a little ways into Pollyanna Grows Up, so I don't even need to shell out the 99 cents to read all of Pollyanna. Now how's that for being a cheapskate?

Hayley Mills way my very first screen crush, from back way more years ago than I want to admit. My favorite Hayley movie, though, is The Trouble with Angels and Jane Trahey's Life with Mother Superior isn't available on Kindle. One of these days I'll have to break down and buy it out-of-print in treeware, but it's kind of pricey on Amazon or eBay.

Just finished: ANGELS AND DEMONS by Dan Brown also THE SOLOIST.
Now reading: CUTTING FOR STONE by Abraham Verghese...awesome first book of fiction by the talented and humane physician who wrote MY OWN COUNTRY.

Loving Days' End by Scott Collins. Haven't finished it, but tearing through. Good weekend read

Currently on chapter 5 of Rabbit Boss by Thomas Sanchez. It is a multi-generational story about the Washo Indians in Northern Nevada. I read Wa She Shu by Jo Ann Nevers first and wanted to learn more.
So far, not really enjoying the story as each chapter jumps to a different time period and a different person. The author does not give many hints as to what time period the chapter is in or even who the main character is of that chapter.
The book has many great reviews so I will stick with it - as at some point it must start to make some sense (I hope) :)

I just started Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and I am glad I bought this on Kindle as the kindle weighs about 10% as much as the book does. And the endnotes! I hate endnotes in dead-tree books. They're much more manageable on the Kindle.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel winner of the Booker Prize. The hard cover is not available in the USA on Amazon...only the Kindle edition! I've just read the 1st chapter and I think we have a winner. The Strangest Man a biography of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo also looks like a winner. Dirac was raised in a pretty weird family. His dad only spoke French in the house, and his mom only spoke English. Dirac and his brother weren't allowed outside much, so until Dirac was 6 years old, he thought that all men spoke French and all women spoke English. The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes good stuff. Finally, The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow and The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington. wonderful books all. I resolve not to buy another book till I've finished reading these.

I have just begun Alexander McCall Smith`s new book La`s Orchestra Saves the World. His African series has not been favorites for me, but all the other books have been terrific. His characters and sense of place are his strengths.

On the Kindle, I'm currently reading:

The Thirteen American Arguments by Howard Fineman
The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H. W. Brands
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Finishing The Years by Virginia Woolf. I have really enjoyed it. I am also reading The Looming Towers and just started A Scattered Life. All are distracting me from what needs to be done these next few day.

I just downloaded The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence to my kindle for $1.05. I already own the 1991 printed version which was based on an "abridged" version Lawrence wrote in 1926 hoping to get some much needed cash. His previous version, written in 1922, is longer than the 1926 version, and contains material which the publishers feared might result in lawsuits for slander or libel. The kindle version appears to be the longer 1922 version. I compared the lengths of some of the chapters, and the kindle version is longer. Haven't found anything libelous yet though.

I just finished My Life in France by Julia Child and Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. They're both very fun books, if you liked the movie you'll like the books.

I just uploaded my new historical novel, Flesh and Grass. It's too new to Touchstone! It's about a blind kid growing up in Colonial Delaware. It is available in the Amazon Kindle store; I'll probably do a paperback later. Text-to-speech is enabled.

Libby Cone

War on the Margins

Thanks, reademwritem, I will check it out. I have a sample of War on the Margins on my kindle for future reading.

Right now, I am reading The White Tiger. I love it! After that, I am planning to co-read Madame Bovary with a friend who just purchased a kindle. We like to read a book at the same time so we can talk about it.

k4k

Did you like The White Tiger? Doesn't really make you want to travel to India, does it! Seriously, I thought it was a terrific book.

My new book, Flesh and Grass, is finally Touchstoning! A paperback is in the works for those of you without Kindles.