What are you reading?

After all the rave reviews, I ordered "Twilight" this morning. Can't wait!

The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra (Khadra is a pseudonym of a former officer in the Algerian army)

This is one of the books that Giz recommended that I read after I finished the Kite Runner. It's the story of 2 couples living in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. It's very interesting, but also very unpleasant. It starts with the stoning to death of a prostitute. One man is a jailer and another man is educated and formerly of the middle clase, who is horrified to find himself taking part in the stoning. The jailer's wife is ill and the other man's wife is basically housebound because of all the restrictions put on women.

Okay, you all talked me into it; I'm ordering Twilight right now and I don't even like fantasy/vampire stories!! :lol It does sound good! We should have an online meeting with the author. :)

I just finished The Ra Expeditions by Thor Heyerdahl (a Norwegian made famous by his Kon-Tiki experiment in which he used a balsa wood raft to travel across the Pacific Ocean).

In this account Heyerdahl is interested to see if the striking similarities between ancient Mesopotamian civilization and the mysterious Olmec culture in Central America could have been caused by said Mesopotamians crossing the Atlantic thousands of years before Christ in reed boats - and by reed he means papyrus reed.

I thought it was a very entertaining read...especially in the beginning in which Heyerdahl treks around 1960's Africa scouting reed sources and recruiting colorful boat builders from Chad...and adventure in itself! He is clearly a scholar who has a great deal of research to back up his beliefs (it is present throughout the book) and you cannot help but admire an academic who puts his theories to a true test.

Expedition is plural in the title as the first expedition, while moderately successful, was plagued by the expected problems of designing a ship from the walls of a Pharoh's tomb. Reed boats just aren't that popular nowadways!

Anyway, I do not claim to know about the veracity of Heyerdahl's more academic claims in the story but I thought it was a fairly interesting adventure and Thor Heyerdahl's clear writing style made the trip across the Atlantic (with 6 other men, a monkey and duck named Sinbad) a good deal of fun!

Well, just received Geek Love from half.com so I will start with that and read Twilight once I receive it.

I loved Twilight. :biglove I'm sure you'll like it too, DJeterfan & lildago.
Now I have to peruse the shelves for another book to read.

I'm currently reading The Famished Road by Ben Okri. It won the prestigious Booker prize back in 1991, and it was certainly well-earned. It's totally different from anything I've ever read. Set in rural Nigeria, it tells the story of Azaro, a spirit child who has decided to stay among the living. He is also the narrator of the novel, which results in a story that defies logic and gravity in very unique ways. Very intriguing. Yet another :up among my required reading!

Also finally got round to reading The Colorado Kid. I read it in one sitting - that's a Stephen King first! I agree with pretty much everything phat said: it has its moments and I liked the overall feel of it, but the ending disappointed me (as I'm sure it will many other readers) and, perhaps due to the slightness of the book, I never truly felt as if I got to know the characters. Still, a decent way to spend an evening if nothing good is on the telly.

Speaking of Stephen King: According to his website, we have two brand new novels penned by King to look forward to next year. The first, Cell, is being released on January 24 - just a couple of months away! - and Lisey's Story is due out October 24 next year. After a bit of Googling, I managed to find a short description of the two novels:

Cell: "Buyer should be aware that CELL is a violent piece of work, which comes complete with zombies set in motion by bad cell phone signals that destroy the human brain. Like cheap whiskey, it's very nasty and extremely satisfying."

Lisey's Story: "Stephen King has written a magnificent novel very much in the mainstream of his work, about love, marriage, blood ties, and madness which calls to mind Gloria Naylor’s description of 'Bag of Bones': ‘a love story about the dark places within us all’."

Sounds rather promising, don't you think? A horror story about cell phones hasn't been done outside of Japanese cinema, has it? Lisey's Story sounds like classic King; let's hope the book lives up to the blurb.

Ooh, new King novels? :yay They both sound exciting, in different ways. Thanks for the heads-up, Geek. :up

No probs, Lucy :) I like the sound of both of them too. It's good to know he's still working - all those rumours about him going blind and retiring made me worried for a while, even though he's denied them repeatedly.

I am reading The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd.

Really liking it so far and hopefully I will like the ending.