Read Any Good Books Recently?

[lolopixie]

If you're into Dracula and Frankenstein and, hell, scholarly kickassness mixed with travelogue mixed with romance, this is one the best reads I've had in years: http://www.amazon.co...a/dp/0316011770

It's like 8,000 pages long but worth every single one of them.

If you liked The Historian, I recommend you read A Discovery of Witches. http://deborahharkness.com/discovery-of-witches/ It is the 1st book out of a trilogy, which the 2nd book releases in Summer 2012. I fell in love with this book. I was literally running home from work to read -- GO AWAY! I NEED TO BE ALONE WITH THIS! Deborah Harkness, the author, is a professor of History at UC-Davis and a wine-blogger. She does an amazing job of bringing the reader into the setting - there is so much history in this book, and the way she talks about wine...my god! I want her life.

[poeteer]

Deb Harkness works in the History dept at USC (I think she has a degree from UCD) -- I know people who have worked with her. I think I'm going to be reading A Discovery of Witches after I finish We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Glad to hear it's good.

Edited December 4, 2011 by poeteer

[lolopixie]

My bad on the school mess up - regardless...still want her life!

[yank in the M20]

I'm reading A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book. I've been reading it for weeks, both because I'm busy with apps and work and also because it's one of those books that are just really nice to dip into from time to time--really lush and evocative.

And on the fantasy sort of note, have any of you read any Kevin Brockmeier? His stories in The View from the Seventh Layer are magic realist fables. Absolutely beautiful. And Kelly Link. Any Buffy fans out there have to read her!

[perrykm2]

Hunger Games sounds like Battle Royale.

But anyway, I reread My Year of Meats (not for a class this time,) and it was great again. I also picked up Year of the Flood recently, which is holding up to Oryx and Crake.

[fredngeorge]

I thought of another must-read series for my fellow literature-addicts. If any of you haven't read Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, I suggest running out and buying The Eyre Affair immediately to distract yourselves during breaks from the maddening application process. These novels are seriously good fun!

[MrBrooklyn]

I'm reading Swamplandia! It's enjoyable, if anxiety-inducing to consider that it was written by someone in her twenties.

[yank in the M20]

I'm reading Swamplandia! It's enjoyable, if anxiety-inducing to consider that it was written by someone in her twenties.

I read her first book of short stories. Also really good. All the books I'm reading lately are coming from thrift stores so someone really needs to donate Swamplandia!

[Strong Flat White]

_Vacation_ by Deb Olin Unferth... my new favorite!

[Jbarks]

Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life by Julia Briggs. It's a bio structured around Woolf's works. Even though I'm a medievalist, I can never get enough Virginia Woolf!

[lolopixie]

I just finished Nunez's Boundaries. If you are a Caribbean lit person, read it. So good. Now I'm intrigued by The Marriage Plot. I looked up the synopsis and reviews - seems right up an English major's ally! Downloaded it to the ereader and am about to start. Excited about it. Loving the new ereader. I fought them for so long, but now that I have one and don't have to leave the house to get a book...priceless for good old pleasure reading.

[cquin]

I just finished Nunez's Boundaries. If you are a Caribbean lit person, read it. So good. Now I'm intrigued by The Marriage Plot. I looked up the synopsis and reviews - seems right up an English major's ally! Downloaded it to the ereader and am about to start. Excited about it. Loving the new ereader. I fought them for so long, but now that I have one and don't have to leave the house to get a book...priceless for good old pleasure reading.

Nook or Kindle?

[poeteer]

I'm reading the first book of A Game of Thrones! It's fun, if you're looking for some light reading. I bought it for my Kindle at the airport and spent the entire five hour flight reading it -- my eyes were hurting but I couldn't stop. It's a good supplement to Skyrim, if you're playing that, which I am, because I am a double loser.

[Jbarks]

I've been on a Virginia Woolf kick lately. I just finished The Years, re-read Jacob's Room, and now I've started The Voyage Out, which I've never read, even though I've read Melymbrosia.

[bdon19]

I haven't had much time for pleasure reading with all these apps and work, but I did finally get myself to begin Swann's Way. I do this literally every break, get to about page 20, and then decide I don't have enough time for it. This time I've gotten about 100 pages through, and hopefully once apps are done and my class schedule is a little freer, I'll be able to finish it.

I also just started Lawrence Durrell's Justine. I'm feeling it's going to be one of those books I read very slowly, because if I plow through it the beauty of the language won't have the effect it should.

[lolopixie]

Nook or Kindle?

Nook

[litjust]

As a lover of dystopian literature, I'm always on the lookout for contemporary authors who write in this genre. Last week, I stumbled upon Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. I enjoyed it!

[andsoitgoes161]

It Chooses You by Miranda July. It's a quick read, but I love her uncommon insight into life's banalities and allowed myself a couple hours worth of leisure between finishing my apps and beginning the period of several months I'll be spending with George Eliot (read: my master's thesis. Ick).

[ComeBackZinc]

Cosmopolis by Stephen Toulmin

[Starlajane]

Are we allowed to post here if we aren't English lit majors? Well, I apologize in advance if this is inappropriate:

I finished 1984 a couple of weeks ago and needed something lighter over the holidays, so I picked up All Creatures Great and Small, which I just finished (my life's calling was to be a vet but I suck in math--142 quant on my GRE 0:). I'm now reading O Pioneers!; apparently, I am on a bit of a "country life" kick after the uber-urban 1984. Or maybe it just got me thinking about Animal Farm (which I've already read).

I am going to read Paxton's Vichy France when I finish Cather.

[lolopixie]

Are we allowed to post here if we aren't English lit majors? Well, I apologize in advance if this is inappropriate:

No problem at all!

[litjust]

Are we allowed to post here if we aren't English lit majors?

No problem at all!

I can't stay away from this particular forum, and I'm not an English lit major Just a lover of literature, rhetoric, and composition.

[cquin]

It Chooses You by Miranda July.

Omg, is this a new release?? I adored No One Belongs Here More Than You but was losing hope that she'd ever put out another book again.

[Timshel]

I needed a break from "literature" for a while, so I'm reading Russell Brand's memoir, My Booky Wook. It's been a nice distraction.

[wintergirl]

As a lover of dystopian literature, I'm always on the lookout for contemporary authors who write in this genre. Last week, I stumbled upon Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. I enjoyed it!

I also love a good dystopia so will have to check that out ... someday. But I love postapocalyptic lit even more, so I ordered Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (who happens to be my favorite living author) and can't wait to read it ... someday.

Over break and my on long plane ride back to school yesterday, I've been working on The Outlander by Gil Adamson. An engrossing read for anyone who, like me, can't resist Western frontier stories--especially ones about women kicking ass and taking names. : )