What are you reading?

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Originally Posted by Critical

I just started The Namesake by Jhunta Lahiri and am really enjoying it. Her previous book won the Pulitzer so my expectations were pretty high. So far, so good.

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I finished it last week and absolutely loved it. Very moving, and the prose is stunning. Let me know how you like it.

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Originally Posted by haejin

Currently rereading "Battle Royale" by Koushun Takami. The idea behind the plot is interesting: 42 students are sent to a remote island, given weapons to kill each other with, and the last student alive "wins." But I guess it's pretty predictable, in terms of who'll be the surviving student.

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I had no idea this was originally a book! I loved the movie.

Yeah, Texie, although BR the book is quite different from the movie, if memory serves me. I also like the BR manga series. :nerd

You FORTers read! :wow So many modern works I've never even heard of...

I just finished The Name of the Rose. I would like to say I breezed through it. I would like to say I didn't nearly drown in all the religious, historical mumbo jumbo. :teeth My last book before the summer (when I get most of my reading done) should be Savage Beauty. My grandma sent me a copy, so I'm obligated to know it before I see her next month, but I do enjoy my biographies. :nerd

I recently finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Very good!

I'm two thirds through Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. It's been collecting dust in my bookshelf forever, but there's nothing like an epic list of required reading to get you jump-started! I'm loving it; the language is beautiful and the story incredibly powerful. I love how there is no true evil present, no moral judgments, just ordinary people making mistakes and creating their own terrible destinies. The English translation is wonderful. Has anyone here read anything by Flaubert?

Next week will be a busy one: I have to read Crime and Punishment in its entirety before Friday! :ohno Reading the great classics on a time schedule feels a bit like binging on fois gras, but at least I'll finally get round to reading Crime and Punishment. So far, I've only read The Brothers Karamazov, which I loved, so I have high hopes.

Oh, and I should probably clarify that I'm a Lit major, just in case people start thinking I've made up the reading schedule myself. Ideally, I would like a bit more time to reflect upon these great works.

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Originally Posted by John

Continuing my Robert McCammon obsession, I'm now reading "Speaks the Nightbird, Volume I" (there are 2 so far). It's fiction, set in 1699 New England, and is about a witch trial.

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I'm halfway through Volume II. Apparently, this is the end of the series, but I sure wouldn't want to read Volume II without having read Volume I. The first book just stops, cold. The second book picks right up from the next sentence, basically, with no review at all. Good thing I bought them together, or that would have made me super-mad.

I am just under halfway through Bushworld by Maureen Dowd.

Dowd is a columnist for the New York Times and Bushworld consists of columns that were published in the NY Times between 2000 and 2004 (with one or two earlier ones about the Bushes thrown in). If you didn't know anything else, just judging from the newspaper for which she writes and the cover on the book (Under the title Bushworld are the words "Enter at Your Own Risk") you could tell that she does not like George W. Bush very much. The feeling is probably mutual - he apparently gave her the nickname "The Cobra".

If you are someone who supports George Bush you will not enjoy this book. You may even find it unreadable. Dowd mocks him ruthlessly. She usually refers to him as W., but she also calls him George II and the Boy King. Similarly she uses other nicknames for the other members of the bush administration (the nicknames change depending on the context).

My favourite column so far was a mock re-enactment of the Supreme Court discussions before they decided to stop the recounting of Florida ballots in 2000.

Some of the columns are very amusing. Others are intended to create a sense of outrage against the administration, rather that to amuse. On the whole Bushworld is entertaining (given the caveat above), but it better in small doses than trying to read it in a single sitting.

I'm about three fourths of the way done with Memoirs of a Geisha. I absolutely love it and can't put it down. I just love learning about different cultures and situations, and this book is perfect! :up

I've just bought and started The Forest by Edward Rutherford (Sarum, London). I'm a sucker for those historical fictions that trace the progress of one family or a small group of families for millenia.

If you're a fan of old-school Ken Follett, give Rutherford a try. The Rutherford style is a little more dense and a little more esoteric, but otherwise, I find them both touching on similar themes.