What are you reading?

[Hollylane]

The Walking Dead, Vol. 1 (1-6 issues) a graphic novel by Robert Kirkman

Strangely, for me, this is a really good read.

[EmJay]

I haven't opened a book in so long but seeing this thread really makes me want to start a new book. I love reading, it puts me in my own element and relaxes me a great way to end my evening too. *wanders over to my bookshelf*

[Butterbean]

I picked this book up after seeing this author interviewed. She's a wonderful storyteller. I've only read one of the stories so far but it is fascinating. I'm going to work on finishing this up.

[Soon]

Originally Posted by Butterbean

I picked this book up after seeing this author interviewed. She's a wonderful storyteller. I've only read one of the stories so far but it is fascinating. I'm going to work on finishing this up.

I remember reading this way back when (uni days).

Such interesting stories!

[cinnamongrrl]

I am currently very engaged in Captured by Indians~15 Firsthand Accounts 1750~1870
The entries offer a great deal of insight into the (then) unblemished culture of early Native Americans.
The only downfall; they are original accounts...I can adjust to the vocabulary of the day...but some of the authors were just better writers than others. I muddle through the ones that dont write as well. The stories are still very interesting.

[Soon]

Amazon: Book Description
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor’s Children, a masterly new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed and betrayed by a desire for a world beyond her own.

Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago compromised her dream to be a successful artist, mother and lover. She has instead become the “woman upstairs,” a reliable friend and neighbor always on the fringe of others’ achievements. Then into her life arrives the glamorous and cosmopolitan Shahids—her new student Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale, and his parents: Skandar, a dashing Lebanese professor who has come to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard, and Sirena, an effortlessly alluring Italian artist.

When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies, Nora is drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family; she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora’s happiness explodes her boundaries, and she discovers in herself an unprecedented ferocity—one that puts her beliefs and her sense of self at stake.

Told with urgency, intimacy and piercing emotion, this brilliant novel of passion and artistic fulfillment explores the intensity, thrill—and the devastating cost—of embracing an authentic life.

[sara-bera]

The short fiction of American literary cult figure Paul Bowles is marked by a unique, delicately spare style, and a dark, rich, exotic mood, by turns chilling, ironic, and wry—possessing a symmetry between beauty and terror that is haunting and ultimately moral. In "Pastor Dowe at Tecaté," a Protestant missionary is sent to a faraway place where his God has no power. In "Call at Corazón," an American husband abandons his alcoholic wife on their honeymoon in a South American jungle. In "Allal," a boy's drug-induced metamorphosis into a deadly serpent leads to his violent death. Here also are some of Bowles's most famous works, including "The Delicate Prey," a grimly satisfying tale of vengeance, and "A Distant Episode," which Tennessee Williams proclaimed "a masterpiece."

Raymond Carver once said that he liked short stories that had "some feeling of threat or sense of menace." He would have loved Bowles's work. These pieces, set mostly in Tangier where Bowles, an American expatriate, lived most of his life and died in 2001 are often bizarre, sadistic, and menacing. In appearance, Bowles was an elegant man, but as a narrator he was remote, pitiless, and unsympathetic, and he dealt harshly with his characters, whether Moroccan or European expatriates. In "The Garden," "Mejdoub," and "Things Gone and Things Still Here," which echo Moroccan legend and folklore, the unrelenting desert is a huge presence. In other stories, like "The Hours After Noon" and "Too Far from Home," Bowles exposes the psychological fragility of the non-African in the North African desert, where Western values are a chimera. Containing 62 stories arranged chronologically and spanning 40 years, this edition is being published as part of the 30th anniversary of Ecco Press, of which Bowles was a cofounder. Essential for larger fiction collections.

[JAGG]

A book called "Life after life."

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by JAGG

A book called "Life after life."

I loved it!

[mythy]

I am reading Innocence by Dean Koontz

and his Odd Thomas books are cracking also especially with a nice cuppa

[Fancy]

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

No Harry Potter anywhere near this book. Reviewers have called this book dull, but I'll read it anyway. I think I can't expect to keep her on a Harry Potter pedestal and should go into this book not considering her previous fame.

Sane New World: Taming the Mind - Ruby Wax (going to see her speak on mindfulness and brain science in 3weeks as a result of this book)

The Brain that Changes Itself; Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - Norman Doidge (the book that inspired Wax to go back to education and get her Masters degree from Oxford)

[anaisninja]

Still struggling through "The Celestine Prophecy."

[deathbypoem]

Freakonomics

[*Anya*]

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

By Susan Cain.

"At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.

Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.

Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."

[okieblu]

Making Money-Terry Pratchett

His work is just a hoot.

[willow]

Just started, The Hunger Games Trilogy.

[silkepus]

Ive spent the last two days reading The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, it's 3 am and I just finished it (and I have to get up in less than 4 hours argh, why did I not put it down)

Either way, I hate it. And I love it. Why! Why did it have to end like that! Why Hall! How could you!



Tomorrow is going to be balls. Not only will I be tired I'll be constantly haunted by the ending

[LaDivina]

I just finished Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy a couple days ago (for the 23421978th time) and am almost done with The Invisible Ring, from the same world.

[Corkey]

"The Fires of Vesuvius Pompeii Lost and Found"
by Mary Beard.