A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. (His previous novel was The Curious Incident of the Dog at Nighttime.) I'm enjoying it quite a bit - the people he writes about are sad gits, largely, but Haddon makes it work. There's a nice sense of humour that alleviates the gloominess, and he switches between his characters quite effectively.

My mum's reading that.

I read The Curious Incident... I liked it, but I still thought it was a bit over-hyped.

I was not at all impressed by Spot of Bother.
I enjoy Curious Incident, but I'm glad I read it before the hype.

I'm still working my way through Perdido Street Station.

Just finished "Obasan" by Joy Kogawa.

I'm also reading a short story anthology called "Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic". So far, so good. Some very nice stories in it, especially the ones by Kelly Link and Gene Wolfe.

I read Crime and Punishment on vacation and it was marvelous, I couldn't put it down, which surprised me because I was expecting it to be a harder read.

Now I'm reading Harriette Wilson's Memoirs and it's adorable.

Have you read The Brothers Karamasov, Silky? If so, how did you like it? I was going to read it soon but one of my friends has just been labouring over it for ages & found it really tough-going so I'm not sure if I shouldn't save it for later, when I feel more equipped to deal with boring books.

Now that I've finished reading American Gods and Lisey's story (amazing book), I'm turning my attention to the stacks upon stacks of unread Star Wars novels I own. Now I'm starting off on SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE by STEVE PERRY, which reads pretty well at the start, and I think I will be enjoying every bit of it. This won't take long I think, it has only 300 plus pages. But I think I may re-read it.

I haven't, Cass, but I'm dying to. I think there must be something wrong with me. I started reading Tolstoy because I loved the movie Anna Karenina, and by the end of the book I was heartbroken for it to end, I wanted it to go on and on. I found my gramma's copy of C&P and was excited to read it because I loved Tolstoy so much (and I'm not allowed to buy new books, so I have to read what I can find in my house) but saved it for a time when I was more open to something serious...I was totally surprised that I couldn't put it down. I read it on vacation, and I preferred finding out if the criminal finally got caught to spending time with the babies.

Now I'm absolutely dying for someone to buy me War & Peace for my birthday (to get around the "no-book-buying" rule) so I can read it.

There must be something wrong with me. So many books, so little time!!

There can't be anything seriously wrong with anyone who likes Anna Karenina. Banish the thought!

I loved both Anna Karenina & War & Peace so any Tolstoy is fine by me but remembered I found Dostoyevsky hard-going at grammar school. I then started with Poor People (his first big success) & that was okay, but then it was short. I'm still not sure how I'd take to him going on for 1500 pages.

Monstrous Regiment

on holiday i read "the zenith angle" by bruce sterling - a post 9/11 techno thriller about a geek recruited to fight computer terrorism. kind of farcical. followed that with pat cadigan's "dervish is digital", about the lone cop in techno-crime having to deal with some online fraud. and started pd james's "children of men" on the plane home. once home i finished the original "ghost in the shell" manga that i had started before i went away, and returned to ian mcdonald's "brasyl", which i also started before i went away.

HP-Deathly Hallows.

*headdesk*

In self defence, mainly, so I can get to the end before I see a spoiler

eastern standard tribe - cory doctorow
pattern recognition - william gibson
-both audio versions, having read them both before.

quote:

Originally posted by Nymeth:
Monstrous Regiment

once you're done, you are formally requested to go to the pratchett thread and review it

I must admit, i didn't think much of it myself, but i know others who loved it.

*goes off to Pratchett thread to review MR, even though Smaug wasn't talking to me*

smaug was talking out loud - that is enough for everyone to take notice of her

*sits up straight - takes notes*

Preacher, Vol. 4: Ancient History.

Finished up Shadows of the Empire, decided to take a break from Star Wars again, and decided promptly to re-read Anansi Boys.

I also opened my drawer and pulled out my unread copy of On Writing by S.K. I'm now on page 10.

Speaking of Pratchett - reading Wintersmith and it's pretty much Maeve's fault.