What Are You Reading the Week of 19 April 2014?

Halldór Kiljan Laxness (born Halldór Guðjónsson 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels. He received the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature; he is the only Icelandic Nobel laureate.

Laxness was born under the name Halldór Guðjónsson (following the tradition of Icelandic patronymics) in Reykjavík, the son of Guðjón Helgason and Sigríður Halldórsdóttir. In 1905 his family moved from Reykjavík to Laxnes (Mosfellsveit, now part of Mosfellsbær, the rural part outside of the town center), about 15 km northeast of the capital. He soon started to read books and write stories. At the age of 14 his first article was published in the newspaper Morgunblaðið under the name "H.G." His first book, the novel Barn náttúrunnar (Child of Nature), was published in 1919. At the time of its publication he had already begun his travels on the European continent.

In 1922, Laxness joined the Abbaye St. Maurice et St. Maur in Clervaux, Luxembourg. The monks followed the rules of Saint Benedict of Nursia. Laxness was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church early in 1923. Following his confirmation, he adopted the surname Laxness (in honor of the homestead where he had been raised) and added the name Kiljan (an Icelandic spelling of the Irish martyr Saint Killian).

Inside the walls of the abbey, he practiced self-study, read books, and studied French, Latin, theology and philosophy. While there, he composed the story "Undir Helgahnjúk", published in 1924. Soon after his baptism, he became a member of a group which prayed for reversion of the Nordic countries back to Catholicism. Laxness wrote of his experiences in the book Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír: "The essential feature of Vefarinn mikli is the witches' brew of ideas presented in a stylistic furioso of style." The novel, published in 1927, "... created a sensation in Iceland and was hailed by Kristján Albertsson as the epoch-making book it really was. In the future Laxness was always in the vanguard of stylistic development..."

"Laxness's religious period did not last long; during a visit to America he became attracted to socialism." Partly under the influence of Upton Sinclair, who he befriended in California, "... Laxness joined the socialist bandwagon... with a book Alþýðubókin(The Book of the People, 1929) of brilliant burlesque and satirical essays... one of a long series in which he discussed his many travel impressions (Russia, Western Europe, South America), unburdened himself of socialistic satire and propaganda, and wrote of the literature and the arts, essays of prime importance to an understanding of his own art..." Laxness lived in the United States and attempted to write screenplays for Hollywood films between 1927 and 1929.

By the 1930s he "had become the apostle of the younger generation" and was attacking "viciously" the Christian spiritualism of Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran, an influential writer who had also been considered for the Nobel Prize.

"... with Salka Valka (1931–32) began the great series of sociological novels, often coloured with socialist ideas, continuing almost without a break for nearly twenty years. This was probably the most brilliant period of his career, and it is the one which produced those of his works that have become most famous. But Laxness never attached himself permanently to a particular dogma."

Salka Valka was published in English in 1936, receiving a glowing review from the Evening Standard: "No beauty is allowed to exist as ornamentation in its own right in these pages; but the work is replete from cover to cover with the beauty of its perfection."

Halldór's next novel was Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People, 1934, 1935) which was described by Jane Smiley as ".. one of the best books of the twentieth century."

This was followed by Heimsljós (World Light, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940) described in the words of Magnus Magnusson as a book "... which has been consistently regarded by many critics as his most important work." He also traveled to the Soviet Union and wrote approvingly of the Soviet system and culture.

Laxness translated Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms into Icelandic in 1941, with controversial neologisms. Laxness published a sprawling three-part historical novel Íslandsklukkan (Iceland's Bell, 1943–46). In 1946 Independent People was released as a Book of the Month Club selection in the United States, selling over 450,000 copies.

In response to the establishment of a permanent US military base in Keflavík, he wrote the satire Atómstöðin (The Atom Station), an action which, in part, may have caused his blacklisting in the United States. "The demoralization of the occupation period is described... nowhere as dramatically as in Halldór Kiljan Laxness' Atómstöðin (1948)... {where he portrays} postwar society in Reykjavík, completely torn from its moorings by the avalanche of foreign gold."

In 1953 Laxness was awarded the Soviet-sponsored World Peace Council Literary Prize. An adaptation of his novel Salka Valka was filmed by Sven Nykvist in 1954. In 1955, Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland":

His chief literary works belong to the genre... {of} narrative prose fiction. In the history of our literature Laxness is mentioned beside Snorri Sturluson and the author of the Njals saga, and his place in world literature is among writers such as Cervantes, Zola, Tolstoy, and Hamsun... He is the most prolific and skillful essayist in Icelandic literature both old and new...

In the presentation address for the Nobel prize E. Wesen stated:

He is an excellent painter of Icelandic scenery and settings. Yet this is not what he has conceived of as his chief mission. 'Compassion is the source of the highest poetry. Compassion with Asta Sollilja on earth,' he says in one of his best books... And a social passion underlies everything Halldór Laxness has written. His personal championship of contemporary social and political questions is always very strong, sometimes so strong that it threatens to hamper the artistic side of his work. His safeguard then is the astringent humour which enables him to see even people he dislikes in a redeeming light, and which also permits him to gaze far down into the labyrinths of the human soul.

In his acceptance speech for the Nobel prize he spoke of "... the moral principles {his grandmother} instilled in me: never to harm a living creature; throughout my life, to place the poor, the humble, the meek of this world above all others; never to forget those who were slighted or neglected or who had suffered injustice, because it was they who, above all others, deserved our love and respect..."

Laxness grew increasingly disenchanted with the Soviets after their military action in Hungary in 1956. In 1957 Halldór and his wife (Auður Sveinsdóttir) (1918-2012) went on a world tour, stopping in: New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Madison, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Peking, Bombay, Cairo and Rome. Major works in this decade were Gerpla (The Happy Warriors, 1952), Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing, 1957), and Paradísarheimt (Paradise Reclaimed, 1960).

In the sixties Laxness was very active in the Icelandic theatre, writing and producing plays of which Dúfnaveislan (The Pigeon Banquet, 1966) was the most successful. He published the "visionary novel" Kristnihald undir Jökli (Under the Glacier / Christianity at the Glacier) in 1968. He was awarded the Sonning Prize in 1969.

As he grew older he began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease and eventually moved into a nursing home where he died at the age of 95. He was married twice, and had four children.

I love Laxness! Have read several of his novels....Independent People is my favorite!

He's an amazing storyteller, isn't he? He's been well-served by his translators over the years.

My two-star review of the RL book circle's latest read, Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, is over on my thread if you're curious about why I didn't like the book.

On ipad audio I'm about 1/3 of the way through Fuse, the second of the Pure trilogy. It's rated much higher than Pure on LT, and maybe it will get better, but Ach, all the romance and romantic bickering is driving me crazy. Why? Why?
My dog park audio is still Son of a Witch. Does nothing good ever happen to anyone?
Speaking of which, still reading on paper Nothing to Envy. Kim Il-sung has just died with attendent popular hystrionics, though some of the population realizes that the new god, Kim Jong-il will be even worse. However, even with a book focusing on such deprivation large swaths are devoted to romance. I know she wants to show that even under dire circumstances people are still people and fall in love, but I do believe it's possible to show a person is human without concentrating on such a small part of their existence.
In the car still listening to Broken Harbor.
Aside from romance, which fortunately is completely absent so far from Son of a Witch, not much good is happening to anyone in my reading universe. So, there you go, I guess that's another reason to concentrate on romance. It's one of those nice things you can do for free in secret.

Today I finished Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean. It's an excellent collection of stories which I very much enjoyed. The stories have varied styles with very unique characters and each is doused in Caribbean color and flavor.

Journey to Portugal by Jose Saramago
Originally published in Portuguese in 1990, English translation edition 2000.
It's a travelogue of his 1979 trip of his native Portugal. The author refers to himself as the traveler in the narrative. Odd!
I like photos and maps though.

#Molllygrace, I am still reading Deep Sleep by Frances Fyfield I will be away for a few days over Easter, however I shall take it with me in the hope of finishing it, I am expecting a wonderful twist at the end,this seems to be her style!!

What an interesting background he had! Thanks for the bio - it's fascinating to learn about these authors.

I've just finished Gregor the Overlander which was fine. So I'm now concentrating my efforts onto Atonement by Ian McEwan and Allegiant by Veronica Roth (which I know has a bad rep but having read the first two parts I feel the need to read the final one - I'm not far enough in yet to have much opinion). I'm also reading Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World by Graham Phillips.

I am about half way through Natchez Burning which is very good and I will also be reading Medicine Walk which is a quick and wonderful read.

I began my final read on Henry VIII's wives, Catherine Howard: Henry's Fifth Failure. Although she was only wife 5/6, I read out of order!

>1 richardderus: Once again, Richard, thanks for putting an author on my radar whom I hadn't even known about. And, me a former bookseller! *Hangs head in shame.*

I am still reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's not as adventurous as I thought it might be, so far (2/5 of the way in), but the main characters are quite interesting. It's a very good read.

>11 bookwoman247: Gracious, imagine how many writers there are that we haven't heard of! It's scary the volume (!) of books that are readily available now, erstwhile bestsellers and gone-by classics...unknowns who will be discovered in 50 years...I'm always astonished at how many writers lots of people know, given the river of them that there is.

>12 richardderus: And how wonderful you are to introduce us to so many!

I get to root around all over creation to find them, which is a reward in and of itself to me...and what a reading-list expander. My wallet emits tiny little moans of terror as I click madly away....

>14 richardderus: I was wondering how you find all these interesting authors, Richard. Thanks for doing it!

I finished The Outcast Dead, which I loved.

I've started both Moral Disorder and In Paradise and although I'm about 50 pages into both, I don't feel committed to either. I suspect it's me and not them.

Ye gawds.

Mind of the Raven is $1.99 on all ereader platforms! I love ravens and crows, the smartest birds around, and this is a scientific study of their intelligence.

The Zane Grey Megapack has 42, yes forty-two, of his novels for 99¢!! Listen, it's dated and it's pulpy, and it's a buck. Why not? The reason there are 42 of them is that they're good stories. (He wrote hundreds, so he was doing something right.) Kindle only.

Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey series, starting with 2001: A Space Odyssey, is on sale today, 19 April, ONLY for $1.99 each on your Kindle. At the very least get the first one so you can see what the forty-plus year fuss is all about.

Also only on Kindle is a megapack of 200, TWO HUNDRED!, Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales complete with Dulac illustrations, for 99¢.

Finished The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch a novel about witch hunting in 17th century Bavaria. Started The Dark Monk by the same author part of a series. Fascinating that he can trace his lineage back to actual hangmen.

>17 Travis1259: I'll have to dust that one off, it's been on the TBRs forever. As what hasn't, it seems.

Happy long weekend, David!

The World Literature Group on Goodreads is reading Icelandic Literature in 2014. We read Iceland's Bell in January and Fish Can Sing in February (a re-read for me). Independent People is scheduled for November if anyone is interested in joining us. Of course, one can always visit the threads for the previous two to see what our thoughts were and add anything they think is missing.

Finished Joy for Beginners earlier today, which was a light, pleasant read. I've moved on to Lookaway, Lookaway, which promises to be interesting, given it's set in my home state, opens with a character starting college at my alma mater (the fall after I graduated, in fact), and is about the hidden side of old family Southern society.

I'm still reading and loving The Granta Book of the African Short Story by Helon Habila.

CarolynSchroeder - Good to know you liked the Spanish Language stories. I will definitely be on the lookout after your recommendation and my positive experience with this anthology.

I finally finished Nothing to Envy and am glad to be leaving North Korea for a while. Next up is Frog Music because I always love Emma Donoghue.

I thoroughly enjoyed Nancy Horan's book about Fanny Osbourne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Under the Wide and Starry Sky. Now I'm reading Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey.

I've just been doing a little library sifting and purging, and I uncovered on my bookshelf a pristine hardcover (complete with a B&N sales slip dated 7-21-06) that I have no recollection of buying: Days of Magic, Nights of War, by Clive Barker. Not only does the book look entirely unfamiliar to me but I would have said, if asked, that I'd never even heard of it.

So I guess I have a fresh option now, having just finished The House on the Strand,, which was a disappointment. I sincerely hope this is one of Barker's better ones.

21/PaperbackPirate - I just looked on the shelves and still have The Best of Young Spanish Novelists if you would like it. Happy to send it off or do a swap (whatever/if you are comfortable with). I rarely keep books, almost always "pay them forward" so to speak. This one must have been waiting for you! Feel free to email/pm or whatever we do here!

I am reading We are Water by Wally Lamb and it's a bit of a deep muddle at the onset, but I like the story and have liked everything by him thus far, so will keep going a while and see where it takes me. I hear it "kicks in" in the second half.

Also sprinkling in Raymond Carver - more from a writer's perspective of a master of the craft of the short story. Enjoying them greatly though. Amazing all the stories that were within his (and everyone's I think, if we look) arms' reach.

started Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr

I don't know how they're deciding what ebooks to put on sale over at HarperCollins. A new book, one I've been noodling over as a summer read, is now $1.99 on all ereaders: A Garden of Marvels, about a frustrated home gardener's researches into botany. Since that's almost identical to how I operate (dang that didn't work now lemme see here where are the books about it), how could I resist?

Damned crack merchant publishers.

Reading my ER book Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies. I'm enjoying the book, but I find it occasionally frustrating. The author, Lawrence Goldstone, is clearly a good writer with an interesting story to relate. Unfortunately, he goes terribly awry whenever he tries to explain small technical details. For instance, when trying to explain why Samuel Pierpont Langley's aerodrome failed catastrophically Goldstone makes a silly blunder which could have been prevented by asking someone to fact check the text.

Specifically, Goldstone claims that Langley failed to understand the scaling issues involved when moving from models to his full sized, manned aerodrome. He then proceeds to bungle the scaling issue himself, by claiming that when you double the weight of the vehicle you require eight times the lift. This is not just wrong, it's really wrong. In steady, level flight lift always equals weight. Doubling the weight only requires you to double the lift. They scale together. The scaling issue that Goldstone botched is that doubling the linear dimensions of a three dimensional object increases the volume and thus the weight by a factor of 2*2*2 or eight. Doubling the size (not weight) requires eight times the lift (remember lift=weight in steady, level flight). There's a certain irony in asserting that someone didn't understand scaling laws and then making a hash of them yourself. It was a stupid, preventable mistake.

I admit that such errors are a little nitpicky, but they really bother me. However, the history is interesting and well told. I'm only about a third of the way through the book, and I'm enjoying it...until those time when I bite down on a piece of gristle. I can certainly recommend the book for its history. The early days of aviation were filled with interesting characters. Just realize that you will come away from the book with less true knowledge of aerodynamics that you started with.

Am 150 pgs into The Goldfinch. Haven't had much time this week to read, but the last couple of times I have, it put me to sleep! I really want to like it more, as everyone's talking about it. Its length is daunting though.

I've read 26% of The Goldfinch so far, and I'm loving it. I thought I might get bored because it is so long, but I'm not. I think my mood at the time has as much to do with whether I love a book as the actual writing does.

I just finished reading the Scarlet, which is the second entry in the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. I am glad that people here on LT have pushed me into reading this series. It really is good - and fun. My short review follows.

I started reading Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynn. I have high hopes for this one. It is my book discussion group's selection for May so I need to get cracking on it.

It is another outstanding entry in the sub-genre of Dytsopian YA Literature. It may not appear to be a Red Riding Hood story but it is. Like the first novel in the series, Cinder, the skeleton of the Grimm's fairy tale is all there. There is a big bad Wolf, a grandmother who gets eaten by the wolf, a hunter, and oh yes, a girl in a red hoodie. Make that a girl in a red cloak. The wonderful part of this novel is what the author does with the bones of that old fairy tale, turning it into something new and fresh that quickly drags the reader into the story.

This is a series novel and the author does an outstanding job of tying it into the first novel of the series. Maybe that should be tagging it onto the first novel, Cinder, as the book tags back and forth between the two stories, that of Cinder, and that of Scarlet. This provides a neat continuity between the two novels that is always hard for series novelists to do. Meyer definitely maintains the excitement and thrills found in the first novel in this second one, making this reader anxious to read the third in the series.

#28
I, too, dislike it when authors make simple mistakes that could have been corrected by fact checking. Who do they think reads their books - people who wouldn't notice such mistakes? If so, that is a silly assumption on their part.

I have had Independent People on my TBR list for a long long time. I keep thinking I will get to it, so I had better do so soon. My former boss was from Iceland and she suggested that I read that book at some point.

I was surprised to see that he was only in his 50's when he won the Nobel Prize. That would not happen today. Nowadays the committee waits until a writer is tottering into the grave before giving them the prize.

Oh, dear. After posting at #24 above, I've learned (a) that this book is second in a series and (b) that it's juvenile fiction. A bonus for the library donation box, I guess.

This thread has made me aware of Laxness for the first time. Thanks, richardderus.

Goldfinch readers: I nearly gave up halfway through, and I still think it was overlong, but persisting to the finish was worth it.

>34 Meredy: Happy that he's gained a new brain to woo.

Clive Barker wrote a JUVENILE book?! And parents BOUGHT it?! SMH

#34: Glad to hear that. I will persist as well. But I feel it will be a long 600 more pgs.

Silly me thinking there had to be more joy in Emma Donoghue's Frog Music than there was in the North Korea of Nothing to Envy. I have to take a break now because my stomach is lurching from 19th Century baby farms in San Francisco.
And then there's stupid Fuse. I read that a Twilight producer is going to be putting out a Pure movie. That's fitting, because this is another purity ring of a story as much as Twilight was. Which rather surprises me. I remember how much I liked The Anybodies which was Julianna Baggott writing as N. E. Bode. I wonder why she's writing this, it seems like a christian spiel to me, which is not what I'd think about her. But I'm sure it's raking in the money.
At least it's Sunday which means good TV tonight. Something to wash my brain out.

>35 richardderus: Well, I think so. LT tags include "children's" and "YA," and it has nice illustrations. And he did write The Thief of Always.

I have no idea what I could have been thinking when I bought this. Anyway, bye-bye, book.

I've finished Atonement and can't believe it had sat untouched on my shelf for so many years before I got around to trying it. I'm wondering whether to look out for any other titles in the audio section at the library by the same author as reading on LT there seem to be quite mixed reactions to some of his works.

Progressing quickly through Warrior Woman by Marion Zimmer Bradley and have made a good start on listening to The Good Thief's Guide to Berlin, thanks to MrsLee's suggestion in another thread - this is proving to be a favourite and I can see me hoping the library have more of them.

I've also made a start on Divine by Mistake by P C Cast. Current evidence suggests it might have been a mistake to try this at all as I'm spending more time cringing than anything else. At the moment I'm doubting I'll make it through the book, let alone the trilogy - thank goodness they were a cheap pick up from a charity shop. Anyway it's a little too soon to give up, so here's hoping my current opinion will change and the book will improve...

Is anyone familiar with Lindsey Davis's Falco series set in Ancient Rome? I've been browsing the local library audio section to see what they have that might tempt and they have some of these but the available titles don't start until about halfway through the series and even then aren't all consecutive. What I'm wondering is whether they're a good set to dabble in and whether they need to be read from start to finish or are they the pick up randomly kind and still enjoyable in that way?

> Peace2 Even when I don't particularly like a book by Ian McEwan, I always appreciate having read it. I think he's worth my time and attention. I loved Atonement but my favorite McEwan is The Child in Time.

Mollygrace, I have finished reading (and loved) Deep Sleep and started on another Francis Fyfield novel Trial By Fire, I love the main characters that run thru these novels, Helen the lawyer and Geoffrey the policeman, I quote from this latest that I am reading "they are miserable apart and tricky together".

hazeljune, I have Deep Sleep on my "wish list," which means I'll probably be ordering it very soon. I look forward to reading it - thanks for the recommendation.

>37 Citizenjoyce: Reading about those baby farms in Frog Music is when I started thinking seriously of abandoning the book, and I gave up shortly after that. Fiction, yes, but too painful to read. I didn't care for the characters up to that point anyway except for one who was already dead, and I didn't need to subject myself to such awful mental images when I was trying to go to sleep at night.

It was one of those books that makes me list all the presidents in chronological order or all the states in alphabetical order, something like that to get the nastiness out of my head.

#37 & #43
In my opinion Emma Donoghue is one of the prime pervayors of "misery porn." I stopped reading anything by her for that reason.

Currently reading The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon, which I am enjoying immensely. Pitch perfect historical horror fiction that reads like Pet Sematary meets Blair Witch, but with less gore and less shaky-cam. I'm counting down the minutes till my lunch break so I can keep reading!

Also plan on starting Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach very soon.

I am currently reading The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. Am a massive fan of his work.

Almost done with The Goldfinch and loving it. I don't want it to end!

Seems like a bunch of us are reading or have recently finished The Goldfinch. I'm 23% through so far.

I'm about a third of the way through Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, the current selection in my "underrated classics" book club. The writing is beautiful, but the book is very depressing so far. Don't at least some literary couples have a happy marriage?

I'm about fifty pages into One Hundred Years of Solitude and really enjoying it so far. I was worried by comments that I'd seen that the names are hard to keep up with, but so far I'm managing fine. Otherwise it's a thoroughly engaging read, really captivating even though it moves slowly.

Based on some of the comments here and those elsewhere I'm really looking forward to starting The Goldfinch sometime soon though!

I'm halfway through Love in the Time of Cholera and Marquez's writing never ceases to amaze me.

Okay, I know the League of Po-Faced Anti-Amazonians hate these posts, but hey guess what? I think more people like 'em than leave me private nastygrams!

Two excellent non-fiction books are $1.99 each on ALL EREADER PLATFORMS (so STFU about Amazon):

The 100 Thing Challenge is a call to arms for a less materialistic, more value-centered manner of living. It's excellent, but then again, for me there's a huge chance of confirmation bias coloring my opinion.

Farmacology is another bias-confirmer for me...I know not everyone can afford organic produce...I sure as hell can't...but everyone can learn at least a little bit about how to introduce a little freshness into their diet.

>43 TooBusyReading: I agree it's the pits that the best character was killed off right at first. It would have been a completely different book if told from the frog catcher's point of view instead of Blanche's who is so addicted to cock that she enjoys being a prostitute. From what I've read, that's more a male fantasy than an actual situation.
>44 benitastrnad: Hm, misery porn. Well, horrible things do happen in her books, I'm thinking of Slammerkin, but horrible things happen in life; so as upsetting as the books are, I wouldn't call them porn.
Having excaped from the Pure trilogy knowing there's no way I'd read the last one, I've started The Silent Wife which was recommended by my book club. Nice to be dealing with adults who are screwed up but not to the extent of Donoghue. The main characters have a dog named Freud because the woman is a psychologist and, having studied Freud's misogyny, loves being able to say "Freud is chasing his tail, Freud is licking his butt."

Finished the disappointing The Dovekeepers.

Next up for listening at home is Watership Down. I continue reading Maidenhair and listening to The Black Cross in the car.

I'm several chapters into The Canvas on my fast track. I've also just completed a few very quick reads since my last >400-pager.

>54 hemlokgang: I listened to Watership Down a few years ago and loved it. It was the perfect way to revisit a well loved book I had read years ago. Is Ralph Cosham the narrator?

I've just finished The Book of Ebenezer Le Page which is officially the best book I'd never heard of. Someone on LT recommended it and I'm delighted they did. It's a first person account of a man's life on Guernsey spanning the years 1890 to 1970 and I can't get his voice out of my head. A wonderfully rich story with unforgettable characters, this is the author's only book, written in 1976.

> 56 coppers.........This is my first time with this story. I have always wanted to read it. Ralph Cosham, the great narrator of the Three Pines mystery series by Louise Penny, is the narrator, and I have been immediately drawn in.

Finished Maidenhair which started out marvelously and then, for me, fizzled after about the halfway point. Darn!

Next up to read is an Early Reviewer edition of Snow in May by Kseniya Melnik. A friend read it recently and said she loved it. Looking forward to it! It's a rainy day, I've done my chores, so perfect time to settle in for a good long read!

I could not hang with We Are Water despite usually liking Wally Lamb. Just ... yuck.

So I downloaded Farmacology as Richard posted (for 1.99) and it is great! I am an eco yogi health nut, so figured it would be oft traveled ground, but lots of wonderful ideas and innovation and some surprising parallels between medicine and farming. I do tend to love books written by doctors too. Fun, interesting read so far.

I finished Margaret Atwood's Wilderness Tips. Among other things, Atwood is a wonderful short story writer and this collection is a terrific example.

Now I'm reading Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.

#54 Hemlockgang--Sorry you didnt like The Dovekeepers, I really enjoyed it. Just finished Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell. So depressing..Now going to pick up A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor.

#57 Narrator lady - I also think I will try The Book of Ebenezer Le Page. When you say you couldn't get his voice out of your head, do you mean that you listened to the audio or do you just mean you can't get the character off your mind? Did you read or listen?

#61. brenzi, I loved The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox I can highly recommend Instructions For A Heatwave by Maggie.

Another The Book of Ebenezer Le Page fan here. It was one of those wonderful reading experiences where you know that the author was not influenced by the trends of the time, just wrote what he knew. That is so rare these days. Everyone is trying to be like someone/something else, it seems.

I finished listening to the the World War I epic A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin. I can write the review for this book in one word - interminable. I wanted to read this book because it is about Italy and the Italian Front in World War I and also because of the World War I group read going on here in Librarything. There is not much written about the Italian Front in World War I (it doesn't have the glamour of the Western Front or the repercussions of the Eastern Front) and I thought this epic novel would fill that gap. It doesn't. I think it is a good paeon to the beauties of Rome, but other than that I couldn't figure this book out. This shouldn't surprise me because I didn't care much for the other book of Helprin's that I read - Winter's Tale. Helprin seems to be a writer of some regard and frankly, after plowing through two lengthy novels of his, I wonder why. This novel might be a farce, but I am not sure. It might be magical realism, but I am not sure. I am sure that it is not a war novel, or historical fiction. I finished it, but I would not recommend this novel.

I finished Allah Is Not Obliged only because it was a short book and so I marched on. It was told from the mouth of a child soldier; an interesting approach but it didn't work for me. The techniques used to suggest a hardened youthful voice were irritating and despite them the narrative did not feel as though it was coming from a child. It did provide an overview of the chaos in West Africa.

Started ER book The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor. I have to admit I love books that have just about anything to do with Ireland or Scottland... Will write a review when I finish, but so far I am liking it quite a bit. :)

>66 benitastrnad: I've read four of his, and the first, Winter's Tale was the only one I liked. I kept thinking another one of them would recreate the pleasure of the first; now I think of that one as the anomaly, something not to be recaptured.

I'm reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. (I love author's name!)

She also wrote Eleanor & Park, one of my favorites this year - with endearing, quirky characters; young love; social issues; challenges, and triumphs.

I put aside The Goldfinch which I am 25% through so far in favor of Cat Sense, a nonfiction book about understanding cats' behaviors. It got really interesting from chapter 3 on. I am gaining more understanding of my own kitty.

#63 Iudita: I meant that I couldn't get Ebenezer Le Page out of my head. I read it in print but since it's a first person account, it was actually his "voice" I felt I was hearing in my mind.

BUT, since I narrate audio books, I always check to see if a book is available in audio and in this case the narrator is more perfectly suited to a book than any I can think of. The narrator is the well-known actor Roy Dotrice who is best known for recording the Game of Thrones series. Dotrice is 90 years old and was born on Guernsey where the story takes place; he left for England with his mother just before the Germans arrived during WWII. Guernsey is almost another character in the book and of course Dotrice pronounces all the places correctly with a lilting Guernsey accent. Since the patois is a mix of English and French, this would be extremely difficult to pull off for anyone else.

When I reread The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, you can bet it will be on audio.

>72 NarratorLady: Your comments make me consider for the first time the possibility that I might actually enjoy an audiobook. I don't even know where or how to get one, but I think maybe I'll inquire at my local library.

>58 hemlokgang: It's a wonderful audio although it took a little bit for me to stop wondering how Gamache had somehow fallen in with rabbits! :)

>61 brenzi: Oh I hope you like it, Bonnie!

>57 NarratorLady: >72 NarratorLady: I must have heard about Ebenezer Le Page on this thread. It sounded wonderful but when I checked it out of the library, the print in the copy I had was too small and close and so I sent it back unread. I was thinking about buying a digital copy but now the audio sounds terrific. I'll see if I can find it in the library catalog.

> 74. LOL!

I finished Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey, an author who never fails to impress and delight me. This is a love story about two people trying to find one another again, but it is also a powerful story about family. Livesey creates relationships that are so intricate, so multi-faceted, so revealing -- i think she's a remarkable writer.

Now I'm reading Casebook by Mona Simpson.

Almost finished with Wiley Cash's latest This Dark Road to Mercy. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's an entertaining story with impressive writing, but it just doesn't resonate with me.

Well, I was going to post about both books that I read this week yesterday afternoon, but somehow I got sidetracked. :) Anyway, I started reading Cold Mountain: A Novel by Charles Frazier on Friday, April 18th - and, my goodness, what an excellent book. I finished it on Tuesday, April 22nd! :)

Then, on Wednesday April 23rd, I started reading All Through the Night: A Suspense Story by Mary Higgins Clark. While it certainly wasn't an absolutely terrible book, I just wasn't all that blown away by the mystery. I finished the book yesterday afternoon, Friday, April 25th! :)

I'm listening to Flowers in the Attic and am reading "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat".

I'm currently obsessed with FITA, I listen to it whenever I can! It's such wonderful storytelling, and I think listening to it makes the book even better, because the voices are so well done!