What Are We Currently Reading?

[ursula]

On 2/17/2019 at 3:23 PM, Spartan Girl said:

I finished An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obiama and yikes it was depressing.

Wow, I'm still struggling through the second chapter, waiting for it to hit its stride and I'm already depressed. Are you saying it gets worse? (No spoilers please, just a general 'yeah it stays as depressing all through' or 'if you're already complaining now then...'

1 hour ago, MissLucas said:

You haven't - or at least only a little bit with regards of the survival of some characters. However I think Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom is the stronger series.

I am definitely getting that vibe. I've finished Shadow and Bone and I'm reading Siege and Storm. I'm seeing names that appear in Six of Crows/Crooked so reading the series out of order does spoil things a little. 

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 4:58 PM, peacheslatour said:

I've been reading a lot of Barbara Michaels lately. Not very intellectual, I know.

Maybe not intellectual, but hardly mindless.  Some of her books are really well written and clever.  Some, not so much.  Which ones have you read?

[peacheslatour]

6 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Maybe not intellectual, but hardly mindless.  Some of her books are really well written and clever.  Some, not so much.  Which ones have you read?

Oh, boy, let's see. Ammie Come Home (my fav), Witch (I really liked that one) Be Buried In The Rain (meh) The Walker In The Shadows (just ok.) and now I am reading Vanish With The Rose (good, she has finally learned to cuss). Have you read any?

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, ursula said:

Wow, I'm still struggling through the second chapter, waiting for it to hit its stride and I'm already depressed. Are you saying it gets worse? (No spoilers please, just a general 'yeah it stays as depressing all through' or 'if you're already complaining now then...'

Yes. Way, way, worse.

[proserpina65]

4 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Oh, boy, let's see. Ammie Come Home (my fav), Witch (I really liked that one) Be Buried In The Rain (meh) The Walker In The Shadows (just ok.) and now I am reading Vanish With The Rose (good, she has finally learned to cuss). Have you read any?

I've read pretty much everything she ever published.  I'm also very fond of Ammie Come Home.  Have you read Shattered Silk or Stitches in Time?  They follow up with some of the same characters.  I really like Shattered Silk.

I actually love Be Buried In The Rain, it's probably tied with Wait For What Will Come as my favorite of hers.  I do agree about The Walker In The Shadows, it's okay but not particularly good.  I liked Vanish With The Rose - I learned a lot about old roses from that one.  And I also really enjoyed Houses Of Stone; it's one of my periodic re-reads among her books.

Edited February 21, 2019 by proserpina65

[peacheslatour]

You got me proserpina! I just ordered Houses Of Stone and Wait For What Will Come from Amazon! Have you ever read any Lillian Jackson Braun?

[Bunty]

Love Barbara Michaels and while most of her titles under the name Elizabeth Peters have a different feel I think Devil May Care is similar in style to her Barbara Michaels books.

[DearEvette]

On 2/9/2019 at 2:35 AM, GaT said:

I just started Summoned To Thirteenth Grave by Darynda Jones, the final book in the Charley Davidson series. I'm actually very nervous about this book & kind of put off reading it because I have a horrible feeling that Darynda Jones is going to really screw this story up. She's made some plot choices in the series that I hate, & IMO really veered away from the original premise of the series, but I kept reading & now, this is the end.

Another thing that bothers me about this series is the lack of the word "the" in the title of some of them. For example, this book is called Summoned To Thirteenth Grave instead of Summoned To The Thirteenth Grave. There's books called The Curse of Tenth Grave, & The Trouble with Twelfth Grave, & The Dirt on Ninth Grave, &  there are others. I once contacted her about this (it really bothers me) & I don't remember her response, but I remember it sounded bitchy & it didn't answer the question. Anyway, it's an annoying naming convention.

EDITED: Well, I finished the book & hate it. I can't believe what she did with a series that had so much promise.

I gave up on this series around book 8.  I loved the first four -- LOVED THEM.  But as the series went on, it felt like she had made up her overall myth arc on the fly to keep the series going.  So the back story and the ongoing high stakes plot felt muddled and lacked focus and momentum.  And I could never get really invested in the Charley/Reyes relationship.

Edited February 22, 2019 by DearEvette

[GaT]

10 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I gave up on this series around book 8.  I loved the first four -- LOVED THEM.  But as the series went on, it felt like she had made up her overall myth arc on the fly to keep the series going.  So the back story and the ongoing high stakes plot felt muddled and lacked focus and momentum.  And I could never get really invested in the Charley/Reyes relationship.

I'm going to put this in spoilers in case someone is reading the series, or they just don't want to know

Spoiler

The original premise was a private investigator who happened to also be the Grim Reaper. She had a complicated family & she worked cases. When she basically got rid of the family & changed it to Charlie being god a from another universe, that ruined everything for me. Then of course she had to give them a baby, who will be the star of the next series.

[proserpina65]

22 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

You got me proserpina! I just ordered Houses Of Stone and Wait For What Will Come from Amazon! Have you ever read any Lillian Jackson Braun?

I used to read her Cat Who series, up until The Cat Who Saw Stars.  I'd started finding them rather repetitive awhile before that but tried sticking with them.  Just couldn't do it anymore.  But the early books are quite charming.

It's kind of like Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series - at a certain point the author needs to stop dragging it out.  Of course, with Grimes, she gave the main character a very specific backstory and then tried to retcon things when it became obvious he'd not still be on the job at his age.

Edited February 22, 2019 by proserpina65

[peacheslatour]

36 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I used to read her Cat Who series, up until The Cat Who Saw Stars.  I'd started finding them rather repetitive awhile before that but tried sticking with them.  Just couldn't do it anymore.  But the early books are quite charming.

It's kind of like Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series - at a certain point the author needs to stop dragging it out.  Of course, with Grimes, she gave the main character a very specific backstory and then tried to retcon things when it became obvious he'd not still be on the job at his age.

I tend to agree although she shook things up quite a bit in her last one before she died.

[babyhouseman]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

I used to read her Cat Who series, up until The Cat Who Saw Stars.  I'd started finding them rather repetitive awhile before that but tried sticking with them.  Just couldn't do it anymore.  But the early books are quite charming.

I read the series and thought the quality declined. I read somewhere the original author didn't write the last books.

[peacheslatour]

20 minutes ago, babyhouseman said:

I read the series and thought the quality declined. I read somewhere the original author didn't write the last books.

Did you read the very last one?

 

[Black Knight]

3 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Did you read the very last one?

Do you mind sharing? Under spoiler tags, of course. I read all the early books and loved them, but then basically forgot to keep up, and it sounds like that was a good thing.

[peacheslatour]

13 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Do you mind sharing? Under spoiler tags, of course. I read all the early books and loved them, but then basically forgot to keep up, and it sounds like that was a good thing.

If you haven't read the later ones I don't know if spoilers will make much sense or really have the impact that they would if you had. But here goes:

Spoiler

Polly goes to live in Paris permanently and the converted apple barn burns down. 

[Black Knight]

Heh. I didn’t realize 

Spoiler

that the gif you posted was so literal!

[GaT]

I'm reading Cast In Oblivion by MIchelle Sagara, it's the 14th book in The Chronicles of Elantra series. It's also dragging. 😞

[Haleth]

I finished Winter of the Witch, the third in Katherine Arden's series that began with The Bear and the Nightingale.  While I enjoyed wrapping up the story, the third book creeps into YA territory with a young, female protagonist who is nearly all powerful and thwarts armies and demons galore.  B&N was a fantastic book but the charm and quality definitely diminished over the series.  It was disappointing.

Right now I'm reading Diane Setterfield's Once Upon a River and loving it.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Haleth

[Crs97]

I just requested Once Upon a River from the library so am happy to hear you’re enjoying it.  I loved The Thirteenth Tale, but her second novel was quite the sophomore slump.

[HazelEyes4325]

4 hours ago, Crs97 said:

I just requested Once Upon a River from the library so am happy to hear you’re enjoying it.  I loved The Thirteenth Tale, but her second novel was quite the sophomore slump.

 

I need to buy Once Upon a River as the waitlist is quite long at my library and, from what I've heard, it might be keeper-shelf quality.  The Thirteenth Tale is my favorite modern novel, but I heard such bad things about Bellman and Black (I think that was the title?) that I never even tried it.  However, everything I've heard out this newest novel is that it is as good as her first but very different.

[Bunty]

2019 has been quite the feast bookwise for me.  One of my favorite authors has 2 books out in both her series.

Cast in Oblivion by Michelle Sagara #14 in the Chronicles of Elantra series 

Firstborn by Michelle West (pseudonym) #7 in her House Wars series

She uses different names as they are different flavors of fantasy-- Chronicles is more toward the urban fantasy side. Blurb
 

Quote

These follow the adven­tures of Private Kaylin Neya, a young woman who serves the Hawks in the towering Halls of Law. She’s Elantra’s version of a police officer, a mortal in a city ruled by Dragons.

House is more of a grand epic political fantasy
 

Quote

The Hidden City intro­duces Jewel as an orphan living in the slums of the capital city, Aver­alaan. She is unex­pect­edly rescued from this exis­tence by Rath, who aban­doned his own family when his sister joined House Terafin. Now his sister is The Terafin, head of House Terafin, while Rath has become a recluse, prowling the ruins of the under­city, finding relics of an earlier age and selling them to the highest bidder.

When Jay steals Rath’s money, he seeks her out to reclaim what is his. Discov­ering her under a bridge and deathly ill, he takes her in and nurses her back to health. But once she has recov­ered, Jay insists she must repay her debt, and Rath finds that he cannot be rid of her. Even worse lies ahead. Driven by visions she can’t control, Jay begins to rescue other chil­dren and bring them into Rath’s home. As Jay forms the group that will become her den, Rath walks a far more dangerous path. For the demons that once nearly destroyed the Essalieyan Empire are stir­ring again, reaching out to strike down any who can give warning against them. And soon Rath, who treads ancient ways hidden beneath the slums of Aver­alaan, and Jay, who is cursed with the untrained talents of a seer, will find them­selves targeted by these deadly beings….

[Spartan Girl]

12 hours ago, Haleth said:

I finished Winter of the Witch, the third in Katherine Arden's series that began with The Bear and the Nightingale.  While I enjoyed wrapping up the story, the third book creeps into YA territory with a young, female protagonist who is nearly all powerful and thwarts armies and demons galore.  B&N was a fantastic book but the charm and quality definitely diminished over the series.  It was disappointing.

It was okay, but what ruined it for me is that

the priest creep was allowed to kill himself instead of Vasya killing him. I wanted her to give him the comeuppance he so richly deserved and it didn't happen! What a rip

[Haleth]

11 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

It was okay, but what ruined it for me is that

  Hide contents

the priest creep was allowed to kill himself instead of Vasya killing him. I wanted her to give him the comeuppance he so richly deserved and it didn't happen! What a rip

I agree.  That would have been the better payoff.

[Minneapple]

I read Once Upon a River and enjoyed it greatly. Wonderful characters and lovely prose.

[bybrandy]

On 1/20/2019 at 2:18 PM, Shakma said:

I finished Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty, last night.  I thought it was okay.  The reviews on this one seemed to be pretty mixed, but I think Moriarty had some good characters, here, there were just too many of them.  If it had been Seven Perfect Strangers, that might have been better; that way,

I made this literal observation to somebody after reading this book!

I am the person that hates Where the Crawdad's Sing.  Hate.  It is just me  And maybe hate is strong.  I liked all the talk about the marsh but other than that?  I was pretty angry at the whole book.

 

[Black Knight]

12 hours ago, bybrandy said:

I was pretty angry at the whole book.

I don't know anything about this book. What made you so angry? The plot, the characters, the writing style...?

[emma675]

On 2/21/2019 at 3:53 PM, peacheslatour said:

Oh, boy, let's see. Ammie Come Home (my fav), Witch (I really liked that one) Be Buried In The Rain (meh) The Walker In The Shadows (just ok.) and now I am reading Vanish With The Rose (good, she has finally learned to cuss). Have you read any?

I adore Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters! One of my favorite authors, I think I've read every book at least twice. I really like Devil May Care, The Seventh Sinner, Summer of the Dragon, and the Amelia Peabody series.

I just finished Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (I know, I'm behind). Jaw dropping. Elizabeth Holmes is just...I don't know if she's a textbook sociopath but she seems close. It's just an unbelievable story. 

[dubbel zout]

Jane Doe, by Victoria Helen Stone. Thanks to the multitudes who recommended it within this forum! I'm really enjoying it, and it's a quick read. Next up is An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones, which I'm sure will be wrenching. 

[Black Knight]

5 hours ago, emma675 said:

I just finished Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (I know, I'm behind). Jaw dropping. Elizabeth Holmes is just...I don't know if she's a textbook sociopath but she seems close. It's just an unbelievable story. 

Yeah, I commented when I read it that in a way it was like reading a thriller.

This book went to press before Theranos shut down, etc. but Vanity Fair just put out a follow-up article covering the final months at Theranos as well as Holmes's current state of affairs. You'll definitely want to read it.

[annzeepark914]

I'm reading Bury The Lead by Archer Mayor. It's one of the latest in the Joe Gunther series. I normally don't read police/detective books but this series is not typical. The stories take place in Vermont & the author has richly developed the main characters. He also shows his love for this small, beautiful state & its old towns, one of which, Brattleboro, is where these people live & mostly work. The books are more like novels with a bit of suspense.

[Slovenly Muse]

Whew. Well, friends, ever since I saw it listed as #1 on a list of greatest works of English literature back in high school, it has been my personal goal to read James Joyce's Ulysses before I die. I'm not intimidated by big books, and I've studied a lot of classic literature (I didn't major in English Lit, but it was close). I'm 35, so I've had this goal awhile, and I recently finished Infinite Jest, so I felt ready to take on a new challenge, and I decided to give it a go. Man, oh, man, this book is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I realized right away that it is not the kind of book you just "read." I did a bit of research, and now I'm reading Ulysses in one hand (a 700 page book, thankfully on my Kobo), a book of annotations in the other (another 700 page book, thankfully on my phone), and the SparkNotes summary/analysis of each section cued up on my browser. Yep, reading this book in any meaningful way means reading 3 books at once. I am committed to finishing this book before I die, even if I have to live another hundred years to do it! Seriously, I can see why this is the book with one of the lowest reader completion rates... it's hard to keep going! Each section is long and difficult, punctuated by flashes of brilliance that make it worthwhile, but depending on the section, those flashes can be very far apart. Each section is written in a unique style. Some are beautiful, poetic, and absolutely a delight to read, and others are a completely interminable, impenetrable slog. The delight one feels in finally finishing a section is matched only by the dread of beginning the next. I've been reading it for months and I'm about a third of the way through. I'm not letting myself read anything else until I finish this, because I know if I start another book for casual reading, I'll get distracted and never pick up Ulysses again, so of course, all I want to do now is read something else! But I'm gonna do it. I'm going to finish this book!

Has anyone else climbed this mountain? Any words of wisdom for me?

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Has anyone else climbed this mountain? Any words of wisdom for me?

Not that particular mountain but I did read Pillars Of The Earth and The Hunchback of Notre Dame simultaneously because THOND was so densely filled with references to Gothic architecture I needed a primer on the subject.

[Katy M]

50 minutes ago, Slovenly Muse said:

Whew. Well, friends, ever since I saw it listed as #1 on a list of greatest works of English literature back in high school, it has been my personal goal to read James Joyce's Ulysses before I die. I'm not intimidated by big books, and I've studied a lot of classic literature (I didn't major in English Lit, but it was close). I'm 35, so I've had this goal awhile, and I recently finished Infinite Jest, so I felt ready to take on a new challenge, and I decided to give it a go. Man, oh, man, this book is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I realized right away that it is not the kind of book you just "read." I did a bit of research, and now I'm reading Ulysses in one hand (a 700 page book, thankfully on my Kobo), a book of annotations in the other (another 700 page book, thankfully on my phone), and the SparkNotes summary/analysis of each section cued up on my browser. Yep, reading this book in any meaningful way means reading 3 books at once. I am committed to finishing this book before I die, even if I have to live another hundred years to do it! Seriously, I can see why this is the book with one of the lowest reader completion rates... it's hard to keep going! Each section is long and difficult, punctuated by flashes of brilliance that make it worthwhile, but depending on the section, those flashes can be very far apart. Each section is written in a unique style. Some are beautiful, poetic, and absolutely a delight to read, and others are a completely interminable, impenetrable slog. The delight one feels in finally finishing a section is matched only by the dread of beginning the next. I've been reading it for months and I'm about a third of the way through. I'm not letting myself read anything else until I finish this, because I know if I start another book for casual reading, I'll get distracted and never pick up Ulysses again, so of course, all I want to do now is read something else! But I'm gonna do it. I'm going to finish this book!

Has anyone else climbed this mountain? Any words of wisdom for me?

My only words of wisdom would be quit while you can.  Like you, I thought I would read Ulysses because it's supposed to be so great.  I start reading and it's OK.  But then it just gets weirder and weirder.  There's a whole page I think that is the same word, or rhyming words over and over. It switches to playlike format for a bit. I quit 1  paragraph from the end, but that was like 50 pages.  And I think it was mostly one long run-on sentence, but I may be mistaken about that.  Just, RUN!!!!

[cherrypj]

2 hours ago, Slovenly Muse said:

Has anyone else climbed this mountain? Any words of wisdom for me?

There are lots of other, more enjoyable mountains to climb. I feel bad about your rule of "no other books while reading this one."

I picked up Middlemarch and gave up 75 pages in. Just fuck it. Am reading Lucky Boy and Robin (Williams) right now.

[GaT]

4 hours ago, Katy M said:

There's a whole page I think that is the same word, or rhyming words over and over. It switches to playlike format for a bit. I quit 1  paragraph from the end, but that was like 50 pages.  And I think it was mostly one long run-on sentence, but I may be mistaken about that.  Just, RUN!!!!

What?? I've never read it & never had any interest either, but I had no idea it was weird, I thought it was just the story of Ulysses. 

[Silver Raven]

I read War & Peace, though there are a lot of spots (the ninety pages of agriculture philosophy, for example) that I skipped over.

[Slovenly Muse]

And I'll confess that I did not read every word Moby Dick had to say about sperm! 😉

Thanks for the words of discouragement! I am determined to finish, but I know it is crazy. When I started Ulysses, I didn't tell anyone I was reading it, A: Because it's impossible to say the words "I'm reading Ulysses" out loud and not sound like an asshole, and B: I wanted to read it for the pleasure of experiencing the so-called greatest work of English literature, and not for some empty reason like bragging rights. But now that I'm this far in, I'm seeing how much of an achievement just finishing this book really is! Like running a marathon - regardless of what I thought or felt along the way, I deserve a T-shirt just for reaching the end, damn it! Those bragging rights are starting to look pretty appealing.

5 hours ago, Katy M said:

There's a whole page I think that is the same word, or rhyming words over and over. It switches to playlike format for a bit. I quit 1  paragraph from the end, but that was like 50 pages.  And I think it was mostly one long run-on sentence, but I may be mistaken about that.

I understand Finnegan's Wake is even worse for that. Joyce really did love his nonsense! I love The Dubliners so much, learning about (and experiencing) his novels is a hard pill to swallow. There exists a photo of me affectionately cuddling the statue of Joyce in Dublin. I may burn that picture before this book is done!

34 minutes ago, GaT said:

What?? I've never read it & never had any interest either, but I had no idea it was weird, I thought it was just the story of Ulysses. 

It's a... ugh... "comedy," supposedly, covering one full day in Dublin (mostly one specific person's day, with a few other POVs), and everything that happens to the main character over the course of the day is intended to mirror or parody a chapter of the epic journey of Odysseus. I can't say it's not brilliant, but I can say it's extremely frustrating.

I'm doing it, though! I've come too far to give up now!

[Haleth]

I had to read Moby Dick in college.  I admit to skimming all the information about whaling and ships, but tucked in between those chapters was a really good story of about 100 pages.  🙂

[dubbel zout]

I had to read MD in college, too. I'd read Billy Budd in high school, so I was prepared for all of Melville's digressions. He did love to gas on about tangentially related things and then cram in the actual story in the final 100 pages or so. Heh.

[helenamonster]

15 hours ago, Slovenly Muse said:

And I'll confess that I did not read every word Moby Dick had to say about sperm! 😉

6 hours ago, Haleth said:

I had to read Moby Dick in college.  I admit to skimming all the information about whaling and ships, but tucked in between those chapters was a really good story of about 100 pages.  🙂

3 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I had to read MD in college, too. I'd read Billy Budd in high school, so I was prepared for all of Melville's digressions. He did love to gas on about tangentially related things and then cram in the actual story in the final 100 pages or so. Heh.

In my senior year high school English class, our final project was to pick a book from the Norton Critical Editions collection and write an essay on it (Norton Critical Editions are classic works of literature that also include a bunch of secondary sources at the back that give the works context and help with analysis). One girl in my class picked Moby Dick. When I was talking with my teacher about my paper, we got into a conversation about what other students were reading, and she mentioned the girl reading Moby Dick. My teacher's exact words: "I tried to get her to pick something else. She says she's enjoying it, but nobody enjoys Moby Dick." Even the English teachers are out here telling us to not bother with that one!

(Most kids picked A Clockwork Orange. I picked Tess of the d'Urbervilles and it remains a favorite to this day.)

[Katy M]

I liked Moby Dick.  But, I didn't read it for school.  Having to sift through it for symbolism and stuff would have probably killed it for me.

And I actually didn't care that much for Tess of the d'Urbervilles.  Oddly enough, I felt like the whole point of the book was that men suck and had I not known better I would have never guessed that it was written by a man.

[Spartan Girl]

Finally read A Simple Favor and...I didn't like it. It's basically Gone Girl if Amy's idiot friend/patsy was more involved. 

[blackwing]

On 12/3/2018 at 12:05 PM, SierraMist said:

I read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton).  Evelyn Hardcastle will die every night at 11pm until the main character can solve the mystery.  Beyond that, it's best not to read any spoilers.  The book is mind bending in it's originality.  I didn't really care about the characters, but I gave it 4 stars for its clever concept and ingenious plotting.   

I am reading this book right now.  I'm about 3/4 of the way through.  I am very confused about the timeline and the jumping around (some sort of outline or something on the end pages would have helped) but this is definitely a unique concept and pretty interesting.

On 3/3/2019 at 3:50 PM, peacheslatour said:

Not that particular mountain but I did read Pillars Of The Earth and The Hunchback of Notre Dame simultaneously because THOND was so densely filled with references to Gothic architecture I needed a primer on the subject.

Read both, although not at the same time.  "The Pillars of the Earth" is my favourite book of all time.  So much better than its two sequels.

Talking about difficult books... I am proud to say that I made it through both "Middlemarch" and "Bleak House" although it was years ago so I am hard pressed to remember any details.  "Moby Dick" was assigned in freshman year college English class and the teacher even said that we didn't have to finish.  So I never did.  One of these days I will read it.  I vaguely remember that George Costanza once named the one book he would bring with him to a deserted island but I can't remember if it was "Moby Dick" or "The Three Musketeers".  One of these days I also want to read "War and Peace" although I tend to think the title "War, What is it Good For?" is much more appealing.

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Read both, although not at the same time.  "The Pillars of the Earth" is my favourite book of all time.  So much better than its two sequels.

I agree. I hated World Without End. It was basically a rip off of God Is An Englishman and so fucking mean. Never got to Column Of Fire after that dog.

Edited March 4, 2019 by peacheslatour

[Black Knight]

I finally read Moby Dick a few years ago when the opera of it was premiering (it's an awesome opera by the by), and I agree with what was said upthread about 100 pages of it making an awesome story. I did read all the rest too and I didn't hate it, but some of it was certainly tedious.

China Mieville did a retelling of Moby Dick that I read after reading the original, titled Railsea, and I loved it. It's a great science fictional take on the basic concept.

[emma675]

I'm finishing up I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara and I may never sleep again. 

[Silver Raven]

Adding to books that are hard to read, Les Miserables.  It's always amazed me that Jean Valjean, the protagonist, doesn't even make an appearance till about 200 pages in.

[GaT]

I just started Dead Guilty by Beverly Connor, book 2 in the Diane Fallon series.

[Haleth]

War and Peace and Les Miserables are two books I always consider reading but never manage to pick up.  I love both stories but I'm afraid it will be a chore to read them.  Life is too short.

[dubbel zout]

I slogged through War and Peace because I thought, as an English major, it's one of those books I should read. (This was long after college, too.) Too my mind, there was too much war and not enough peace. I skimmed through the endless descriptions of the battles. Though I did enjoy having "The 1812 Overture" in my head while I was skimming.

One more note about Moby Dick: We had to write a paper on it, and when I went to discuss my topic with my professor, he asked how I was liking the book. I said I wasn't, but I understood why it was considered a classic. He sighed, and then said that's about as much as he could want. Heh. Interestingly, that paper was the best I wrote for that class. Go figure. (And during the final, the professor asked us to rank our three most liked and disliked books that we read during the semester. Everyone started figuratively rubbing their hands together, and then he gave us the caveat: We couldn't put MD on the hate list. The groaning was very funny.)