Thanks, biz. 
No, reading the description of The Master of Petersburg, I imagine I would feel kind of lost - I donāt really know much about Dostoyevsky.
I may try Youth and will definitely give In the Heart of the Country a gander, as I have a copy and jimipresley keeps on about it. My favorites so far are Waiting for the Barbarians and Age of Iron. Disgrace was not one of my favorites, but even one or two of my students in Taiwan have read the translation of it.
I just finished reading āChild 44ā by Tom Rob Smith. Basic premise is a child killing serial killer on the loose in Soviet Russia around the death of Stalin.
Have to say I enjoyed it a lot, and would recommend it to thriller/crime fans.
I ran across a review of Patrick Rothfussā new book which said, āItās even better than the first one, and thatās not easy.ā Not having read either, Iām working on the first: The Name of the Wind. Not too far into it, but itās definitely a pleasure. Not sure how to describe it, being still new to it, but at first blush I guess it might be described as āHarry Potter for grad students who read George R R Martin and Stephen Kingā.
edit: I take it back. Thereās far too muchā¦ something, I donāt knowā¦ maybe someone with a thing for Aristotelian poetics will know how to say itā¦ too much beauty in this book. My earlier comparison does Rothfuss a disservice.
Started, and put down and restarted Paolo Bacigalupiās The Windup Girl several times in the last month and canāt decide if I like it or not. Iām finding it very difficult to get into, but Iāll crack onā¦ once I start anything like this I have to finish it.
Iām currently reading Jules Verneās 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea for the first time. I somehow never got round to it before. Not bad.
I just finished reading Speaker for the Dead, part of the Enderās Game series by Orson Scott Card. Iām not a huge sci-fi fan at all, but wow, what a great couple of books. Even more surprised that my fiancee is enjoying Enderās Game quite abit since she is truly not a sci fi fan (including movies).
Tom Holt - Dead Funny.
Bit tough to get into, as in itās not the easiest read. But I enjoyed it.
āThe girl in the pictureā - a biography of the girl in the famous [favurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Th%E1%BB%8B_Kim_Ph%C3%BAc]picture[/favurl] from the Vietnam war. In the photo, she is running down the road naked after being hit by napalm.
Itās the most amazing story. I canāt say I fancied reading a history of the Vietnam war but the experiences of her and her family are jaw-dropping. She had a lot of difficulties and opportunities as a result of media attention and eventually defected to Canada. Itās well written - not really a misery memoir.
Great read!
āWhere Men win Gloryā by Jon Krakauer. Interesting read, making me even more cynical about Americaās āwar on terrorā.
Just finished āWhat Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Dayā by Pearl Cleage. (On my Kindle! Oh, I LOVE it!)
A bit of a diary of a middle aged black woman who finds out sheās HIV positive. It sounds like it would be heavy, but itās not. Itās marvelous!
JUst finished The Yiddish Policemanās Union by Chabon (Love him!) and currently have The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov), Living to Tell the Tale (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), and Stones INto Schools (Greg Mortenson) and then Sex Drugs and Coco Puffs for comic relief.
You know Mortensonās been criticized in the news a lot lately, right? Not that that should dissuade you from reading the book, but perhaps a lot of the content should be taken with a grain of salt.
Reading Tim Wintonās The Shallows. Not enjoying it as much as his other books: I loved Dirt Music and Breath.
You know Mortensonās been criticized in the news a lot lately, right? Not that that should dissuade you from reading the book, but perhaps a lot of the content should be taken with a grain of salt.
[/quote]
Wasnāt aware of that 
live in a media vacuum here my friend. The book is alright, my Mom sent it to me, along with a bunch of religious books. So this is the one that wins. Sheāll ask me āAre you reading those books I sent youā and Iāll go, hells yeah Mom. And itās actually fairly well written for that style of bookā¦
Seems like anyone who does anything gets criticized a lot in the media though- theyāre always looking for a new angle on everything. New angles sell. Anyways Iāll google that :discodance: thanks!
[quote=āfeeā]Just finished Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Itās a collection of personal essays and pieces that have also been featured on NPR and āThis American Life.ā
I think Sedaris is very good writer. He can say a lot in a short essay, and his endings are always very witty and/or strong.
And his essays about attempting to learn French in Paris might be of interest to those trying to learn a second language as an adult (say, those trying to learn Chinese in Taipei).[/quote]
I just finished this and also recommend it. This is the second book Iāve read by him. The first, Naked, I picked up on a recent trip to the States. Itās also well worth reading.
Some other things Iāve read recently:
[ul][li]Just Kids, by Patti Smith. About Smith and Robert Mapplethorpeās life together in the late 1960s and 1970s, and their growth into artists. A lovely book. But I know some people who will be deeply disappointed to discover Smith was not a smack-mainlining lesbian. 
[/li]
[li]The Beatles, by Bob Spitz. Especially strong on their early years. [/li]
[li]The Invention of Air: A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America, by Steven Johnson. About the theologian and chemist Joseph Priestley. It was OK. [/li][/ul]
Now Iām going through What Fresh Hell Is This? by Marion Meade, a biography of Dorothy Parker (best known for her stinging remarks).
[amazon]0316776963[/amazon] [amazon]0316777730[/amazon] [amazon]0060936223[/amazon] [amazon]B000Y8Y1MG[/amazon] [amazon]B0031MA7UW[/amazon] [amazon]0140116168[/amazon]
[quote=ācranky laowaiā][quote=āfeeā]Just finished Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Itās a collection of personal essays and pieces that have also been featured on NPR and āThis American Life.ā
I think Sedaris is very good writer. He can say a lot in a short essay, and his endings are always very witty and/or strong.
And his essays about attempting to learn French in Paris might be of interest to those trying to learn a second language as an adult (say, those trying to learn Chinese in Taipei).[/quote]
I just finished this and also recommend it. This is the second book Iāve read by him. The first, Naked, I picked up on a recent trip to the States. Itās also well worth reading.
[/quote]
HOlidays on Ice (also by Sedaris) had me in stitches.
Just about to start āChina Roadā by Rob Gifford, currently working my way through āLong Walk To Freedomā, Nelson Mandelaās autobiography. Also 'Around Africa On My Bicycle (Riaan Manser) - lunatic rode around Africa in just over two years, 36500km, 34 different countries. Heās (Iām) currently in Togo.
Next three are Endurance: Shakletonās Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing), The Long Walk (Slavormir Rawicz) and the Private Life of Chairman Mao.
I be ābook busyā 
Indeed you are. Some interesting reads there. I picked up a copy of āLong Walk to Freedomā the other day. Itās in my queue of books to be read. Iām currently reading āThe Three Emperorsā (Miranada Carter) about events that lead up to WW 1. Itās interesting, but one of those books that Iāve been dipping in and out of while reading other lighter stuff (Henning mankels Wallander series).
I just finished Bill Carterās The War for Late Night about the battle for the Tonight Show. Really, I couldnāt care less about late night talk shows, but picked this up on the strength of a trustworthy recommendation. This is a really, really well-told story of a series of mistaken assumptions, communication failures, oversized egos and intense competition. Well worth reading.
They wrote a book about THAT? 
I guess, why not??