What are you reading?

Now I've finally started Never Let Me Go.

I didn't end up liking it.

Anyone familiar with Joan Didion, particularly The Year of Magical Thinking, or A Book of Common Prayer?

I didn't end up liking it.

I'm a little on the fence about it. I didn't dislike it really, but I wasn't sure why it garnered all of the over-the-top praise that it did. It was a bizarre concept, obviously, and I'm not sure that it was justified - it felt bizarre just for the sake of being bizarre and I was left trying to figure out if he had some sort of message that he was trying to get across or some sort of political parallel that he was ineffectually drawing. I ended up deciding he didn't and wondering why he bothered. 

Anyone familiar with Joan Didion, particularly The Year of Magical Thinking, or A Book of Common Prayer?

Yep as a matter of fact I just started re-reading The Year of Magical Thinking last night!  It's a great book but quite sad also.  I haven't read anything else by her but am definitely planning to do so.

Cool, thanks!
(what drew you to it initially?)

Margrave of the Marshes -  John Peel & Sheila Ravenscroft

Cool, thanks!
(what drew you to it initially?)

I had heard a lot about Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne but never read any of their works.  I read a lot of good press about that book in particular and I happened to be in the bookstore and just picked it up.  It was definitely worth it - hardcover even - but it was, as I said, sad...I'll lend it to you if you'd like!

I had heard a lot about Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne but never read any of their works.  I read a lot of good press about that book in particular and I happened to be in the bookstore and just picked it up.  It was definitely worth it - hardcover even - but it was, as I said, sad...I'll lend it to you if you'd like!

Yes preeese 
(not a rush though; it's time for me to make an ordered list!)

I was in need of something light and airy after finishing We Need To Talk About Kevin (which I ended up really liking a lot) so I just quickly raced through Vincent And Joy by Lisa Jewell. Good, happy chick lit - exactly what I needed.

I like her stuff!  Is that a new one? 

I'm a little on the fence about it. I didn't dislike it really, but I wasn't sure why it garnered all of the over-the-top praise that it did.

I felt exactly the same way.  And as time has gone by, I then began to wonder why I bothered reading it.

DH seemed to think Ishiguro was making a sort of social commentary on real life, using the bizarre unreal construct to do it.  Something to do with memory, 'you can't go home again', learning to let go of the past, etc.

Tender is the Night Not a very thick book so hopefully I'll be able to make my way through it quickly.

I like her stuff!  Is that a new one? 

It's her newest, but not brand new - it's in paperback. It's good. Maybe not as good as earlier ones, but worth reading.

DH seemed to think Ishiguro was making a sort of social commentary on real life,

See, that's initially what I thought, and maybe I'm just too thick to get what he's driving at, but I just can't come up with an explanation that makes any sort of real sense.

I'll add Vincent and Joy to my list then for when I get to Borders.

Just finished reading 'I Have Heard You Calling In The Night' by Thomas Healey... a 'man and his dog' story that made me cry.  :\\\'(

I just finished Philip Pullman's Northern Lights. Next on my list is  More What If: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, ed. by Robert Cowley. Then I suppose I will read the rest of Pullman's Dark Materials books. (They are my husband's so I don't have to go out and buy them.) The first book seemed to end just as the story was beginning; maybe because it was supposed to be a children's book Pullman felt that he had to break it up into shorter pieces. Or maybe he just wanted to make it a trilogy for the sake of being able to call it a trilogy. And to get people to pay for three books instead of one.

I recently found a medieval book (i.e. in Middle English) on gynaecology. Really cool. I couldn't read it from cover to cover though, as it got be pretty tiring having to constantly check the footnotes to translate words. It was like high school English all over again. The theory of the seven-chambered uterus was interesting though.