What are you reading?

[Gutmutter]

Has anybody who's read Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo read the next in the series, Girl who Played with Fire?

Yes. Several of us here have. I can speak for myself. As soon as I finished the first, I downloaded the second and started right away - so it was like reading one long book.

[Bearcata]

I just read Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier and would recommend it. It's set in the early 1800's in Lyme Regis, England where two women fossil hunters discovered first one and then another prehistoric skeleton. The book covers a lot on class structure, women's place (none) in the scientific community, how little women had to say about their position in life, but more interestingly, it looks at what happened when dinosaurs were first discovered in terms of how religious people (almost everyone) had to deal with God creating the earth and why some of his creatures no longer exist. I had never been subjected to that line of thought and it was really interesting to me. I didn't find out until the end of the book that the characters were all based on actual historical people during this time. Highly fictionalized of course.

I have this on hold at the library. Thought it would be interesting to read as I have just finished Amanda Quick's Ravished which is a story about a female paleontologist but in a more romantic setting.

[norealityhere]

Yes. Several of us here have. I can speak for myself. As soon as I finished the first, I downloaded the second and started right away - so it was like reading one long book.

Thanks, Gut,

Any input you can provide on it?

TIA

[Gutmutter]

If you liked the first one, you'll like the second one. There's the same issue with Scandanavian (?) names. (Am I remembering the setting right, or is it Sweden?). There were some bad guys in the second book I never did sort out because of their names. But the main characters have some interesting developments aside from the story line and the method of squirreling around for information stands. If you could handle the violence in the first one, I don't remember it being much worse in the second. I really liked them both. I'd say again, that if you liked the first one, you'd like the second one, and there's a 3rd coming out this year sometime. He had planned 10, I think, but he died.

[brunette trixie]

I just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy last night, for a small book that was some heavy reading. It was an excellent story, but the lack of punctuation really bothered me. No quotation marks, no apostrophes in contractions, it was kind of distracting to me. I've never read any other of Cormac McCarthy's novels, does he always omit punctuation?

[Gutmutter]

Brace yourself - that book is going to stay with you for a long time. At least it did for me. I don't remember the punctuation at this point.

[MsDiva2007]

Dead by Midnight by Beverly Barton

[Critical]

I finished Saving CeeCee Honeycutt last night. It was just lovely. The story wasn't anything groundbreaking, but the writing was very good and the author has a way with character development. It was just sweet and satisfying.

Now I'm reading A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux. I saw a good review of it in The Week and decided to give it a try. I've not read anything by Theroux in years - since I read The Mosquito Coast probably twenty years ago. I'm surprised that I haven't read anything else he's written, in light of how many books he's written. This one is sort of a literary thriller set in Calcutta. So far, I'm enjoying it, although it's not a quick read. Theroux is big on description and exposition, so it just takes longer to read.

ITA about The Road, Gut It's still with me. My mother hated it and can't understand my gushing over that book. I just found it so moving and the writing was beautiful. I probably won't see the movie though, even though I'm a huge Viggo fan.

I'll have to put the new Tracy Chevalier on my list. I've read all of her books, including Burning Bright, which wasn't quite as good as some of her earlier books. I really like her writing style and she always manages to write about things I'm really interested in!

[norealityhere]

If you liked the first one, you'll like the second one. There's the same issue with Scandanavian (?) names. (Am I remembering the setting right, or is it Sweden?). There were some bad guys in the second book I never did sort out because of their names. But the main characters have some interesting developments aside from the story line and the method of squirreling around for information stands. If you could handle the violence in the first one, I don't remember it being much worse in the second. I really liked them both. I'd say again, that if you liked the first one, you'd like the second one, and there's a 3rd coming out this year sometime. He had planned 10, I think, but he died.

One of the women who's on the Library Board said that she liked the first book because there wasn't the usual violence that there is in most mysteries. I kind of wondered if she read the same book that I did.

Thanks, Gut. And, yes, it was set in Sweden.

[MizDaisy]

I finished the Guernsy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and didn't want it to end! I thought the story of the author(s) was just as compelling as the book. A very satisfying read. Thanks to all here who recommended it!