What are you reading now?

I like fictions about women forensic scientists. Rather odd because I'm not at all morbid. I just find it all facinating. Solving the crime using science. Came across a great used bookstore...the biggest I'd seen in my life...and picked up a book written in the 1970s about crime science. In it were stuffed all sorts of news clippings as though the previous owner had done tremendous research using this book. I tried not to look too obvious with this treasure falling out between various pages...looking around I quietly tipped them back in the book and took it to checkout, me being the only one in the whole warehouse who knew I was buying a piece of someone's intense work. It was as though I was analyzing the person who was analyzing the criminal.

At this book warehouse is a section of first editions and signed copies, so I am not going to spill the beans about this place until I can get back and take another look at a book I suspected was unusually rare... and subsequent Internet search has not only confirmed, but lists it as being one the THE great books of the last 100 years to own. (That is, if I can verify that it's a first edition.)

I'm 121 pages into Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. It's turning out to be very good. I just finished reading the Mayfair Witch stories by Anne Rice which were excellent as well. I keep dreaming about the character Lasher for some reason!

I'm planning to read Black House by King/Straub next and then the new Harry Potter book followed by American Psycho. I can't seem to get enough of books at the moment!  

LisaE, have you read Patricia Cornwell?  (Probably a silly question).  I love her books, even if Scarpetta is a bit too over-the-top perfect.  I love forensic stuff too, though.  I also really like Elizabeth George mysteries, which don't have as much to do with the science end but are pretty involving.

My dh has been really into mysteries etc. for a while, but he prefers stuff like Raymond Chandler.  He did get me reading Andrew Vachss, though, which are fantastic (if very sad and slightly disturbing) books in the Chandler vein.  (i.e. hardboiled tough guy fights crime, but in Vachss the protagonist is a criminal himself-he's fighting people who do bad things to children, mostly.)

I read American Psycho years ago, thought it was pretty blah to be honest.  Not much plot, unlikeable main character, which I know is the whole point, but it wasn't a "read it again and again" kind of book.  Of course, there are some who think it was one of the most important books ever etc. etc., I'm not one of them, it was kind of throwaway to me.  Interested to know what you think.

I loved "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera
need to reread it though.

LisaE, have you read Patricia Cornwell?

I was very much into Patricia Cornwell until I read (at the time) all her books (perhaps 10?) and found they were getting to a stage of ending ...and not ending. In other words, the final page didn't really tie up the book. And you were left with having to buy the next one. And I think that's a nasty marketing ploy. And I don't like her treatment of women. If there are any women of power, then they are lesbians. I personally don't think sexual preference has anything to do with success or strength. Scarpetta is supposed to be Cornwell, and yet Cornwell is lesbian and Scarpetta is not. So...she makes all her strong women lesbians and leaves herself lover with a man (well...I'm not going to ruin any endings by revealing what happens to her male lover) who is loosely based on her married FBI-agent lesbian lover who in real life gets shot at by her jealous husband at a church in Manassas, Virginia....LOL, sorry, I am rolling here. Life is very much stranger than fiction! Topping it off with her Ripper claims, she has gone down a few notches in my book. I prefer Kathy Reichs.

I really enjoyed Cornwell's first 5 or 6 books- great stuff! In that same vein, have you read Kathy Reichs? She's quite good because she's actually a forensic anthropologist in real life! Deja Dead is her first one (I think). My favourite crime writer is Anne Perry! I lover her Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series!

Ahhhh The Other Boelyn Girl was *fantastic*!  I'd never read Philippa Gregory before (they seemed sort of cheesy- guess it's my kind of cheese! hehe) I'm pretty much a nutter about the time period anyway, though. After reading that, I reread two Elizabeth biographies and Alison Weir's new one about Mary, Queen of Scots- I'm basically itching to get my books shipped over- I have tons I want to reread!

Also just read an advanced copy of Jane Smiley's 'Good Faith'- but I don't recommend it...

Currently in the middle of Beatrix Potter's Journals- very cool stuff!

Has anyone read Alice Sebold's 'Lovely Bones'?

Book #1 reading - Life On The Other Side - Sylvia Browne
Renowned psychic Sylvia Browne takes us on a guided tour of life after death. With warmth and  candor, she shows us the landscape of the Other Side; how spirits live; the way souls return to this world; and more.

This sounds like a really interesting book...think I'll definately look to read this one.

I just finished "Love, Lucy" by Lucille Ball.  It was really good.  I'm a big fan of autobiographies.  I've started reading the bio of Albert Einstein but it's going a bit s_l_o_w!!!  Not that the subject matter isn't interesting, just don't care for the way the author is telling the story.

kcg,

You just named the next book I'm going read...the Katherine Hepburn bio...I hadn't heard of it until your post...thanks!!!

Two other books I really liked were Goodwin's "Franklin and Eleanor" and "Truman" by David McCullough.  I loved both of these.

-Sandy

I've been hearing quite a bit of hype regarding Terry Prachett lately. I've read a short story of his before and loved it so I've decided to try out the discworld series.

I've just finished reading Strata, which apparently is the beginning of the idea of Discworld (if that made any sense) Really loved it. He is a funny writer and I found it hard to put the dang book down!

Ashley - I know what you mean  I really enjoyed the book I read and my mum and brother both say they're really excellent books!  

I've been told that he doesn't really get into his flow with how good the books are till the 3rd or 4th.  He's written so many it seems, just looking from the page that says how many he's written in the front of the one I read it's got to be almost 20! I'm definitely going to read more of his stuff as I say

I'll have to give the book you read a go and then go through them all in order of writing.

Wow, this thread is full of so many different types of books - it's great! I used to be solidly into fiction, but I've moved throuh all sorts.

I've currently been in the middle of Betty Boothroyd's autobiography. I thought I should learn something of British politics while I'm here, and a strong woman in a position of power seemed the best place to start. She has a strong American connection from having gone to the US and worked there for a bit, so even though I'm only half through, I want to recommend it to UKYers.

I also recently read some great nonfiction books about living in a National Trust house by Mary Mackie. A 2 book series, Cobwebs and Cream Teas; and Dry Rot and Daffodils: Behind the Scenes in a National Trust House. I enjoyed learning about what goes on in those manor homes when the tourists aren't trampling through them.

I do agree about Patricia Cornwell, I actually enjoyed them a lot more the 1st time I read them, and while I have met several lesbians over the course of my life, I've never seen such an enormous amount of them as seem to people the Scarpetta books these days! (Not that there's anything wrong with that )

I read Katherine Hepburn's Me, it was very good, I would also very much recommend Ava Gardner's autobiography, Ava: My Story...what a cool woman.

Right now, I'm reading a very fun book, especially for all of us here I think, called "To Marry an English Lord: Or, How Anglomania eally got Started", by Gail McCoil and Carol McD. Wallace.  It's about how in the late 19th century all these American heiresses began marrying English nobility becasue New York was too socially exclusive...lots of fun, much more fun than it sounds.  It's kind of hard to find (I've had my copy for about 6 years I think) but worth it!

Hello,

Pie is reading The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (working way through dark tower series).  So far its very good, better than I expected. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


Mash is reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.  It seems to be a good read so far.


Pie and Mash    

Can I just share my excitement for a second?  [smiley=sunny.gif]

I just got to meet one of my favourite authors when he came in the bookshop the other day to sign his new book! And, SO, This is the book I'm reading at the moment;

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

For anyone else who has read his stuff (Notes from a Small Island was a well-known bestseller of his )- he's a truly nice guy and very interesting. I don't get too excited over the "famous" people that come into the shop (to be honest...I don't even know who most of them are if they aren't American...so their fame is lost on me hehe  ) BUT- it was a definite thrill to meet him!

It's basically a layperson's guide to LIFE. Put in terms that even someone like me with a teensy science brain can handle hehe

That's so cool Jennydee.  

At the moment I'm reading 'I Capture the Castle'  by Dodie Smith.  One of my children left it lying about and rather than watching the Simpsons for the millionth time I picked it up.  I've got to say it's really really good.  If I'd read this when I was thirteen or fourteen I know I would have become absolutely OBSESSED with it.  It's that kind of book.