What are you currently reading?

[heledd]

EEk!! Out of books again. Just finished 'The Soldier's Return' by Melvin Bragg, and picked up 'The Demon Haunted World ' - again. Need to scour the local book lending bars again

[Katrina Rose]

I'm currently reading A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons. The reviews are average but I believe it's anything but average. Plus, I connect to his style of writing when he reflects to the past which he does often. I can't wait to leave a review of this book.

[shellilea]

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H.P. Mallory. I found it in Amazon's free book list for Kindle. Not a bad read, but I prefer darker stories

[usdfg]

Just finished reading Eagle Day, its a fiction book talking about the events that prevented Hitler from attacking britain on september 16th. Pretty good

[karend2007]

Today I finished 'May I Have Your Attention Please?' by James Corden. I'm not much of a fan of autobiographies, but I enjoyed this. It made me laugh out loud a lot.

Having seen the film adaptation, I thought that I would give the novel 'War Horse' by Michael Morpurgo a try. So far it's very good.

[Suzanne]

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo. Hugo can be very preachy, he mentions that his great grandfather was an archbishop or something. It doesn't bother me because he writes quite a bit about the disicion making of the characters and he focuses on the personalities of these characters more than the invluence of God. There is a pasage that reads, "there are many names for God, but the best name is compassion." This is said by the Bishop of D.. who is a great influence on the main character, Jean Valjean. Compassion comes from God, evil comes from society according to Hugo, and Hugo does focus on society. The characters are shaped by society, and their personalities reflect how society has affected them. I find Hugo's preaching to be less in Les Mis than in "Hunchback".

When reading Hugo his novels read like the words are spoken and not writen. I feel like Hugo is telling me the story. Les Mis is certainly miserable. Hugo has a flair for the melodramatic. But, how he describes the inter workings of the characters emotions and thoughts and dreams make the novel interesting. Descision making and the thought process behind those decisions bring in the previous lives of the characters, and although these persons have changed due to society there is still a hint of the compassion of their lives once lived as innocents.

His opinions about 18th hundred French society are clear. He touches on women and describes women as slaves of poverty and maternity. Like Dickens he vehemently criticises the law, law makers and law enforcers. But, unlike Dumas, Hugo embraces these criticisms and makes them a central force in his novel. So, Hugo is not as much fun as Dumas, but I am enjoying Les Mis, but it sure is miserable!

[karend2007]

'Les Miserables' is a novel that I'm going to read next. It looks a challenging book, particularly the size of it!

I look forward to reading your thoughts on this when you have finished.

[Cattleman]

I am currently reading three books; "Bones in the Earth" by Michael Swanwick, a science ficiton novel involving time travel and paleontology (yes, dinosaurs), "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan, and (audio book) "We Bought a Zoo" by Benjamin Mee.

[heledd]

Just finished My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates, an author i was introduced to by Booktalk. Brilliant writer, just can't get enough of her

[writerjohnb]

Cattleman - if you enjoy paleontology and SF, you should check out Robert J. Sawyer, the award winning Canadian author. His scifi always has a strong scientific basis.

I'm slogging through Gods and Generals, by Jeff Shaara. Although it's well written, it alternates scenes between 4 POV characters who were influential in the civil war, which makes it hard to get into the story because the novel begins years before the war and all the characters are in different locales. I'm hoping I'll get more into it once the war begins.