Tea & Books - What are you reading?
I have a stack of library books which are glaring threatingly at me, in full knowledge that their due date looms ever closer… I need to put down some good, hard time and show those pages who’s boss! Books I have out, some of which I am in the middle of, others which await the next couple weeks:
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
Prospero’s Children – Jan Siegel
Un Lun Dun – China Mieville
Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter – Diana Souhami
On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan
Indiscretion – Jude Morgan
A Spell of Winter – Helen Dunmore
The Book of Ballads – Charles Vess, &c.
Petrograd – Philip Gelatt
I think I may have a problem.
Un Lun Dun! I have a serious book-crush on China Mieville.
Oh I love to see someone who supports their local library!
Also someone who’s a voracious reader! Enjoy!
I hear you. I’ve taken to using the Library’s online system to stagger when books arrive so I only have three or four at a time, then I let more come in when I’m done those.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is my absolute favourite book. I hope you enjoy it.
Love Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, fantastic book. I also like China Mieville but haven’t read Un Lun Dun yet. Let us know how it is!
I’m reading the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and drinking Lapsang Souchong Black Dragon from Upton. It seems to go well together with all the talk of Sherlock`s pipe.
If you want a good tv show that does Sherlock in a modern cell phone world check out Sherlock by BBC a great show (90min episodes) 3 episodes per season … 3rd season to come out soonish. Highly recommended.
LOVE the BBC Cumberbatch/Freeman Sherlock show! I never thought I was a Sherlock fan, caught the first episode on accident which made me read the first three books in the series. I’ll be reading the others at some point…
I’ve got The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand sitting next to me right now. The last novel I finished was Crime and Punishment. I enjoy challenging reads because I feel that they definitely improve my reading abilities. So far so good I’m enjoying The Fountainhead.
Oooo CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is quite the novel. That Raskolnikov is quite the character!
I just got my new book Blood Line by James Rollins. My mom got it for me knowing it’s my favorite series. Right now I’m craving some Autumn Dragonwell-style Laoshan from Verdant to go with this. An excellent tea to go with an excellent series! I’m so excited to start reading it!
Heard so many good things about King of Thrones, I had to have it. Starting it….now.
Hope you like it! It took me a while to really get into, but I really enjoyed it! :)
I’m on the second one now, and flip between really enjoying it and being very angry about what is going on half the time. I was surprised at how easy it is to remember who is who – I like the way the chapters are split up. : )
Just finished it. This Martin has eye for detail. So many characters. And the Dothraki WoW. Starting Clash of Kings now.
I am starting it tomorrow. :) Hope it as enjoyable as the first book!
I’m 2/3 through Clash of Kings (second one) and it’s still impressive. So many hatable characters! :)
I have to say, Tyrion is my favorite character. Just the right amout of evil mixed with a decent amout of nice, and overflowing with wit.
Oh this one will make you squirm. BUT it has a nice twist at the end!!! ;0)
I don’t have the 3rd book. What will I do tomorrow?!?
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Huge book, and VERY dense. He uses a large vocabulary and has a very unique and at times hard to follow style of writing but it’s brilliant.
Love seeing what everyone else is reading! It has given me some inspiration for my own reading list. Right now I’m in the middle of The Female Man by Joanna Russ. I was supposed to have read it for a Feminism & Science Fiction class I took a few years ago, but I’m just getting around to it now…oops. Love me some sci-fi, especially dystopian, and this book is an interesting twist on that theme.
About to finish Maeve Binchy’s “Whitethorn Woods.” Lots of little people-intensive vignettes all linked to a little town in Ireland. Definitely a cozy cup of tea read. Unfortunately, I don’t have a chintz settee to settee on while reading it - it just begs for overstuffed furniture!
She’s been around a long time … lots to choose from. I think my favorite so far has been “Quentins;” same thing—-individual backstories that all have something to do with a restaurant in … Dublin, I think.
If you like cozy UK fiction (I don’t consider it chick lit, exactly), Rosamunde Pilcher is wonderful, too. Her vivid descriptions of houses, rooms, places, etc. will make you drool.
I used to work at an independent bookstore and sold a lot of Maeve Binchy, but somehow never got around to reading her. Alexander McCall Smith has made me quite fond of multiple backstories, especially in a British setting! Thanks for the recommendation!
Loved 44 Scotland Street and would like to read the others. Corduroy Mansions was cute—finished it recently and loved the puppy plot. (I’m really a cat person and people keep recommending books with heavy dog storylines lately :)
Nothing wrong with a good puppy book :D I’m a dog person but a lot of novels seem to be about wolves,cats or horses. I wish there was an author who would write dog books that were like Watership Down or Tailchaser’s Song. If you know of any let me know :)
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