Books you're currently reading???

[DanaC]

k, I am now halfway through Whiteout and I gotta say it rocks!

David tennant is the narrator, and he is always stunning at narrating novels. It's like having a full cast of characters, because he 'acts' each one so well. His female voices aren't remotely irritating ( @ Clod: I have found some male narrators do very annoying chick voices; mind you I have heard female narrators do deeply annoying guy voices too). Then again, one of his early tv roles was as a transexual called Davina who was very sexy and feminine.

It's a really tense story. And, i literally can't put the bastard down! My bath finished running over half an hour ago, but i just couldn't take my ipod off. I will probably have to add some more hot water to the bath to heat it back up again now.

[Pico and ME]

Sounds like I'm gonna have to get that one, Dana, I've always been a fan of Folletts novels. Ive just finished listening to Stephen King's Then End of the Whole World (and other stories), Terry Brook's Magic Kingdom For Sale (Sold) and Michael Crichton's Next. Kings was a lot of fun -Matthew Broderick and Tim Curry are narrators and I love those guys. Next was hard to follow as an audiobook and Dyan Baker does annoying women. I've loved Terry Brook's Sword of Shannara. This one was OK, but really doesn't have the same magic. Im getting ready to listen to Nora Roberts Strangers in Death, a mystery. Since my eye surgery, these audio-books are a life saver since I cant really read or watch TV.

[DanaC]

I loved Magic Kingdom for sale (Sold) but I've never heard the audiobook. The narrator can make or break a story I find. There have been a few in the last year that I've had to give up on, just because I couldn;t get along with the narrator. The Witches of Chiswick was one like that. It's a story I've been meaning to read for ages; then saw it available as an audiobook. Got it and hated it. It's probably a really great book and very funny; but the narrator was pants.

The guy who narrated Darkly Dreaming Dexter was excellent. Can't recall his name now. That was beautifully read; if you haven't heard it yet, I can highly recommend it.

At the moment though Tennant is my favourite narrator. His light Scottish lilt is just adorable; and when he does the character voices they all take on real personality and a range of accents and cadences. Most of his readings are of Doctor Who novels but he's done three straight novels too. Whiteout, Quite Ugly One Morning, and another one the title of which escapes me just now.

I'm planning on listening to Quite Ugly One Morning next, so I'll let you know if it's any good.

I haven't actually read any Follett before; but after listening to this story i am going to seek out more: either as audio or in print. Brilliant story teller. His characters are so 3 dimensional. And the action is very well-paced.

i've got another audiobook on standby that i got for mum and she said was great: The Truth About Melody Brown. but it's something like 9 hours, so am waiting til I have more time on my hands lol.

I rarely actually read books these days. I find my eyes closing after a few pages. From time to time I'll hit a reading mood, but mostly if I am reading it's for my studies and is heavy-going history texts. Reading for leisure is an increasingly rare occurence now, especiallly since I got my ipod :P If it wasn't for audiobooks I'd probably get through less than 3 books a year at the moment.


[eta] Oh! another excellent narrator is Paul McGann. He narrated Vurt by Jeff Noon and also some of the Sharpe novels.

[Trilby]

Hey - Dana likes something David Tennant has done - who'd a thunk it?

I read Devil in the White City - awesome and informative and creepy - the trifecta of good.

currently reading The Moonstone. digging it. After Austen and Bronte and Dickens (the trifecta of suck) this is a breath of fresh 19th Century air.

[wolf]

Finished Prince Caspian this morning. I'm taking wee break, mainly because I have to go visit a patient today (to celebrate her out of the hospital anniversary) and I don't want to leave the Kindle freezing in the car. I rummaged through the to read stack and came up with a Star Wars short story collection, Tales of the Empire.

[wolf]

Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! - Katharine DeBrecht
Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper! - Katharine DeBrecht
Help! Mom! The 9th Circuit Nabbed the Nativity - Katharine DeBrecht

These are HILARIOUS. If you're a conservative. Libs will despise them. The illustrations are dead-on caricatures, and you have to really look at everything to catch some very clever jokes.

There's supposed to be a fourth one coming out that includes a female governor saving the day. Based on the sample pages I looked at, it appears to be a sequel to Liberals Under My Bed.

[Trilby]

LIT - mary Karr (The Liar's Club) about her alky-hall-ism. Doing this one for fun.

[wolf]

I won LIT as a free firstreads from Goodreads. Unlike most drunken memoirs, it's both good and readable. Mary Karr can write. She is a poet, and therefore understands the melody of words.

That's probably a paraphrase of my posted review ... which I may have posted here as well, but I'm too lazy to check.

[DanaC]

Bah! i just checked and the audio of Whiteout that's available on the USA Audible site is narrated by somebody different to the one on the UK audible site. So, whilst i can still recommend the story, I can no longer recommend the narrator, since I don't know what she's like.

Started Quite Ugly One Morning, last night. It's very good. This one I can recommend the narrator (Tennant) as his is on the USA site as well.

Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, set in 12th century England, was a great read..but long (1000 pages). The sequel was a disappointment.

Just finished Everything Under the Sky, by spanish author Matilde Asensi. A Spanish artist and her teen-age niece, due to circumstances beyond their control, go on an Indiana Jones type romp through China in the 1920s, searching for lost treasure from China's first emperor.

Just starting The Collector of Worlds: A Novel of Sir Richard Francis Burton about his adventures in India, Mecca and Africa.

Blizzards make for good reading time!

[Sundae]

Just finished Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron.
Disaffected youth as the narrator, but was everything Holden Caulfield was not (to me at least). And some beautiful writing to boot. Far too short - loved it.

Am currently reading a foreign book. I knew this because a number of times during the first two chapters I had to refer back to previous text and still couldn't work it out. Yes. It is American.

Now I've been reading American books since I was a child (What Katy Did, Little Women etc), and I thought I was used to mentally translating. But this one gives fewer clues as to context. I am beginning to understand why Merkins get Harry Potter transalted.

FTR the book is The Birthing House by Christopher Ransome. No opinion on the text so far.

And for the pedants among you, who are wondering what could possibly confuse me to this extent; two examples:

He ordered the country fried steak with three over easy [ordered it again] Now lightheaded from all the hash browns and gravy...

Whaaa? Don't know what three over easy means. I guessed it was eggs (which is just weird anyway). Where did the gravy and hash browns come from?

They went to a lunch of the locally renowned Cornish pasty stuffed with cubed beef, potatoes, onions and rutabaga. The miners' dish was hard and salty, even with the cocktail sauce you were supposed to splash all over it.

WHAAA?
Okay, I translated rutabaga, it was in the Belgariad. But - salty? Badly made I say. COCKTAIL SAUCE? You what, you what, you-what-you-what-you-what? (Football chant, usually to refs)

I'm not saying either of the above is incorrect. But they are jarring to an overseas reader, and have jerked me out of the story in a way that the previous novel set in NY never did.

Cubed beef, I ask you.

[Pete Zicato]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

Whaaa? Don't know what three over easy means. I guessed it was eggs (which is just weird anyway). Where did the gravy and hash browns come from?

Country fried steak is a steak (normally a tougher cut) breaded and fried like chicken. It is generally served with a milk gravy. Hash browns are de rigueur for breakfast eaten out.

You are correct that the three over easy are eggs. The eggs are turned during frying.

[classicman]

Unthinkable

excerpt in link - Start on Paragraph 4

[Clodfobble]

I'm reading "Earth Abides," which was discussed at some point earlier, recommended by glatt I think. It's a big change of pace from the books I have been reading recently (which have all had complicated plots, and many intertwining characters,) and I'm liking it a lot.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I'm reading "Earth Abides," which was discussed at some point earlier, recommended by glatt I think. It's a big change of pace from the books I have been reading recently (which have all had complicated plots, and many intertwining characters,) and I'm liking it a lot.

Simple can be a very good thing, if the writer has talent.