Dear Readers,


I now consider this blog to be my Juvenelia. Have fun perusing the archives, and find me at my new haunt, here.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Snowy Sunday De-Lurk: What Are You Reading?

Greetings from a nook of the Hudson valley, where we have been snowbound for about eight hours, stalled on our way to Vermont.

So I finally finished the first book of Little Dorrit, all 450 pages of Victorian prose. I had to pause around page 200 to read/review a humorous novel about therapy and self-help novels, among other topics. Now I have to pause again to read/review a historical fiction about Jews during the Civil War, which seems pretty cool to me.

Little Dorrit, is great, interruptions aside. It's not David Copperfield-level breathtaking amazing Dickens, nor is it Hard Times level didactic Dickens. It's somewhere in between, and I love it. My favorite Dickensy characters so far are the effusive Flora Finching, the enigmatically angry Mr. F's Aunt, and the Society-mindful Merdle clan.

So, just like last time... let's have at it! My favorite lurkers, tell us what are you reading! And what are you planning to read over the holidays? How do you like or dislike it?

I wrote an end-of the year book wrap up for WeNews and a gift guide for RHRC if you're looking for ideas.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:37 PM

    i am unsuccessfully attempting to force self to finish the last 70 pages of Dreams From My Father before 2009. (started out so great! got so boring!)

    then when i have done that, i will finally be able to get to Gentlemen of the Road (love me some Chabon), followed most likely by a little Patchett and a bit of Lahiri.

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  2. Anonymous7:47 PM

    Oh, man, reeeeeding! I am currently flipping through a guidebook to England that my parents gave me tonight for Chanukah. Beyond that, I'm in search of plane reading, if anyone has suggestions...

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  3. Anonymous8:13 PM

    I just started Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (yes I'm the last person on earth to finally read the HP series). I am enjoying the darker tone of book 5 compared to the others. I'll be taking it and The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter (for and early January book club meeting) with me on my holiday travels, as well as my new Verilux PageLite book light.

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  4. I've interrupted my reading for some heavy duty writing these past few weeks. However, I am in the middle of "Dreams From My Father." "Lipstick Jihad" and I just bought Jennifer Weiner's "Good In Bed" which has been highly recommended to me by various folks over the last couple of years. Also, to JaneFan - you've got company. I started the first HP book and never got into it.

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  5. I just finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and am in the middle of reading Umberto Eco's Six Walks in the Fictional Woods. The other day I read a short novel, Child of the Jago, by a contemporary of Dickens.

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  6. I am reading a LOT, because I'm trying to finish the 50 books in a year challenge and I've read 42. Almost... there... so of course I'm looking for short books, but some of the ones that I've read recently and would recommend are Wide Awake by David Levithan, a young adult novel about some high schoolers' experience trying to get the first gay Jewish President elected, and The Kid by Dan Savage, a book about Savage and his partner's experience with adopting as a same-sex couple.

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  7. Anonymous1:50 PM

    I just finshed Toni Morrison's What Moves at the Margins,, and I'm about to start Paul Campos' The Obseity Myth.

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  8. I just finished After Dark and A Christmas Carol. Dan Savage's The Commitment is up next.

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  9. I loved Little Dorrit... you're making me want to read it again! I was GOING to use it as part of my PhD-dissertation-that-never-happened, actually.

    I just got a book called "The Northern Clemency." I've read a lot about it, and I've really been looking forward to it, but haven't had a chance to start it yet.

    I've been reading MFK Fisher's "Two Towns in Provence," and I have "How to Cook a Wolf" on my Amazon wish list.

    Recently finished Neil Gaiman's "Graveyard Book" (enjoyed it, though not quite as much as Coraline!)

    I also just bought Laura Miller's new book about the Narnia series--read about it in Salon, and her experience resonated with mine, so I'm looking forward to that one too.

    But who has time to read? Between work, Chanukah and Christmas planning, I barely have time to comb my hair. Sigh.

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  10. Well, it's no longer Sunday.... but:

    I'm also trying to make my goal for the year - I'm at 54 out of 60. So close! So I just finished Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen, which was underwhelming, and now I'm absorbed in A Very Long Engagement (English translation). I tried to read it once before and wasn't really having it, but now I've been sucked in. And I have some Dickens/Wharton/Gaskell lined up to read once I'm done. You can never have too many books on the go at once, really.

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