The "I am currently reading" thread

[bluecanary]

Have just finished "The Insult" by Rupert Thompson. I happened across it in a charity shop and was intrigued by the synopsis. It's about a guy that gets shot and goes blind, only to discover that he can see at night - or can he? One of the strangest books that I have ever read, and am still undecided about whether I enjoyed it or not.

[Demanufactur]

I am reading 'Lords of the North' by Bernard Cornwell. I have read the 'Pale Horseman', and 'The Last Kingdom', the latter was the best. I think it is a bit cheesey in parts, but it has surprised me a few times. I like how he really tries to keep to facts, even the names he gives the characters have meaning.

[Suffragette1]

I've just read a fabulous book, The Journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling. Her debut and sadly only novel, as tragically she died 2 months after its completion. Set in the late 1850s, (against the backdrop of the American Civil War), it's Dickens meets Sarah Walters. The narrator, Dora Damage, runs a bookbinding business with her ailing husband in Lambeth. As they start to lose business, she is faced with the stark choice of poor or whore house at the same time as trying to conceal her daughter's epilepsy to keep her out of the asylum.

 

A woman ahead of her time, Dora agrees to start taking on the binding of pornography, which back then was the preserve of the aristocracy and the elite.

 

It's beautifully written, witty, tense and highly informative; the author certainly knew her stuff. I strongly recommend it.

[Chris_Sleeps]

I'm reading 'Hitler' by Ian Kershaw. A massive book, but i'm enjoying it so it should be finished by 2010.

[taxman]

I am reading "The Gardens of the Dead" by William Broderick

 

It's OK but I feel myself being manipulated by plot devices that the author has used to "hook" the reader. His debut novel "The Sixth Lamentation" was brilliant but he seems to have lost his spark with the new one. It's still readable but I'm finding myself not engaging with any of the characters and storyline is plodding along predictably.

 

I'll finish it, but unless it culminates in something wonderful then I won't be bothering with any more of his books (if he ever writes any)

[Ouija]

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I've nearly finished it. I found it a bit long and the big guy didn't show up till the last few pages so it wasn't what I'd been hoping.

[taxman]

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I've nearly finished it. I found it a bit long and the big guy didn't show up till the last few pages so it wasn't what I'd been hoping.

 

I enjoyed that one, kept me gripped throughout

[Shape]

I'm just about to give up on Saturday... I've tried and tried, but Ian McEwan and I just don't get on. I didn't like Atonement either. New book tomorrow!

[Suffragette1]

I'm just about to give up on Saturday... I've tried and tried, but Ian McEwan and I just don't get on. I didn't like Atonement either. New book tomorrow!

 

On Chesil Beach is better. Saturday, I agree was a dead loss. Atonement just irritated me, altough I thought his descriptions of the stifling heat were good.

[taxman]

I'm just about to give up on Saturday... I've tried and tried, but Ian McEwan and I just don't get on. I didn't like Atonement either. New book tomorrow!

 

Atonement was OK but the second half of the book just seemed stuck on and really didn't bare any relevance to what had gone on during the first part.

 

I've finished The Gardens of the Dead

 

It was OK - gripping enough but just didn't cut the mustard really. No character I particularly liked or believed in and a plot so full of holes you could have used it as a colander