What are you reading?

[rocklobster]

Currently reading book 2 of the Divergence trilogy, Insurgent

[LastLfan]

Doctor who:harvest of time. I believe it's an original story written by Alastair Reynolds. Pretty good so far, it's a third doctor story and I'm starting to like him more and more

[the_wolfs_howl]

Finished rereading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so now I'm starting Prisoner of Azkaban.

[SierraLea]

I finished the Ranger's Apprentice book, and will probably not be reading much for a while since school just started. But does anyone know a good Christian Historic Novelist? There's this one that I can't remember the name of the book or author, but she wrote a series that was placed in Victorian times and one placed in Pioneering America. Her stories always had romance, and a bit of a plot twist. The first of her Victorian series featured an English girl who grew up in India. Please help me find this Author! I want to base a lot of my senior thesis for college around these books!

[SierraLea]

I found her! Her name is Lori Wick. If you've never read something by her, I highly recommend it. She writes mainly romances that always center around a theme of Christianity and are extremely pure. She writes in a variety of time periods, so you're sure to find something you like.

[Atria35]

Lessee...

Grendel, a retelling of Beowulf from the POVof the monster
pillars of the Earth, very cool book and am enjoying it a lot
Caleb's Crossing, not a huge fan of pilgrim-era stories but this one is very good.

[rocklobster]

Started Book 9 of Ranger's Apprentice last night.

[GeneD]

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

[scribbledreamer]

I finished Divergent a few days ago. It was very intriguing, if a little disturbing. Waiting for Insurgent to be returned to my library now...

[peacenotus]

The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck.

Written during WWII and used as Allied propaganda. It's a "fictionalized" telling of the Nazi invasion of Norway.

I'm currently on a mission to read as much well-written WWII historical fiction (and non-fiction) as I can find.

[rocklobster]

Scribbledreamer. I like that username.
Anyway, finished Ranger's Apprentice book 9 on Wednesday and will be starting Imagica by Clive Barker today.

[Furen]

I'm reading Lunatic by Ted Dekker, it's really good.
I would read the rest of the books before it though.

[Okami]

I just finished Christine Stevens' Music Medicine.

[the_wolfs_howl]

The Merchant of Venice - Interesting, but not my favorite Shakespeare by any means.

[Sheenar]

Reading Les Miserables for the first time --really loving it so far! I am 8% of the way through, according to my Kindle.

[ClaecElric4God]

Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan - by Alan Booth.
I can't tell if this author hates Japan, or just life in general. His writing style and personal viewpoint are so depressing. I read the summary of this book and thought, "Oh, cool. Some guy wandered around Japan and complied an account of his visit and experiences. It'll be a nice blend of good and bad, unbiased and unstereotyped.
That said, he does give a straightforward, unsugar-coated picture of Japan. But...it's not very optimistic. He spends the whole time complaining about it. All I can think the whole time I'm reading is, "Why on earth would you waste your time if you hate it so much?" I just get this impression of a guy sticking a pin in his thumb to see what it feels like, then complaining to everyone around him how much it hurts, without taking the pin out. So everyone else has to suffer through his self-inflicted suffering.
Long story short, I'm sure this is a gem underneath all the sardonism and overall grumpiness of the author, but I don't think I'll be finishing it. It's too dry and uninteresting.

[John_Smith]

Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan - by Alan Booth.
I can't tell if this author hates Japan, or just life in general. His writing style and personal viewpoint are so depressing. I read the summary of this book and thought, "Oh, cool. Some guy wandered around Japan and complied an account of his visit and experiences. It'll be a nice blend of good and bad, unbiased and unstereotyped.
That said, he does give a straightforward, unsugar-coated picture of Japan. But...it's not very optimistic. He spends the whole time complaining about it. All I can think the whole time I'm reading is, "Why on earth would you waste your time if you hate it so much?" I just get this impression of a guy sticking a pin in his thumb to see what it feels like, then complaining to everyone around him how much it hurts, without taking the pin out. So everyone else has to suffer through his self-inflicted suffering.
Long story short, I'm sure this is a gem underneath all the sardonism and overall grumpiness of the author, but I don't think I'll be finishing it. It's too dry and uninteresting.

Ha, you give good book reviews. I won't be getting that one anytime soon.


I just started The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's the third most recent novel, and ninth overall in the series. I wonder how Haruhi will almost end the world this time? Or maybe this will finally prove my theory that Kyon's the real reality warper? All I know so far is that Koizumi isn't smiling. And if Koizumi isn't smiling, then something must be wrong!

[PandaPop]

Just started Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, thanks to a recommendation by WorldsTraveler and BananaLobster >.<, 10 pages in so far so can't say anything yet but once I finish I shall!

[Kaori]

Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn by Robert Holdstock: Fantasy novel about a forest, Mythago Wood, which spawns living, human embodiments of myths of the collective human consciousness. Skillfully written in the way that the end goes back to the beginning and illumines it, while moving past it to a resolution, but it is a bit too visceral for my taste. Celts who fight naked, preparing severed heads for funerary rites, bodily functions, and so on.

Light from the Christian East: An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition by James R. Payton, Jr. The author is a Protestant scholar who specializes in Orthodox history and Orthodox-Protestant relations. Very helpful in the way that the author laid the necessary groundwork for real, fundamental-level understanding of Orthodoxy by discussing the differences in philosophy and approach between the Eastern and Western churches. In topical chapters as well, he tends to approach the matter by giving a brief overview of the Western viewpoint on a particular issue, then comparing that to the Orthodox view. So, it is pretty friendly towards Western Christian (Catholic or Protestant) readers in the way that it approaches Orthodox teaching on an issue by contrasting it to Western Christian teaching, and it was extremely helpful to me in certain respects as I have been trying to learn about and come to an understanding of Orthodoxy. However, because the author, although obviously extremely knowledgeable about and sympathetic towards Orthodoxy, is himself a Protestant, not Orthodox, and it is extremely difficult to adequately represent a way of thinking or a cultural background that is not your own. So I have been reading this book with a grain of salt, as at times I have not been entirely sure whether certain statements about Orthodoxy were expressed the way that an Orthodox Christian would have expressed them. For example, IIRC, when discussing icons he did not mention that to the Orthodox, icons are not merely a representation or a reminder of the person or thing represented, but they make present the person or thing represented in a real way, which I think is very important to know. Also, this book is not intended to be exhaustive and thus does not address certain elements of Orthodoxy that stand out as being radically different from Protestantism (e.g. veneration of Mary and the Saints). With those two caveats, the book is cautiously recommended as a helpful way of introducing Orthodoxy to those with Catholic or Protestant backgrounds, but it should be balanced by the perspectives of the Orthodox themselves.

Fr. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, v. 1: Doctrine. This is written by an Orthodox clergyman and can be read on OCA's website, so I think that it can probably be said to definitively express Orthodox doctrine from an Orthodox standpoint. I'm told it is a lot like a catechism, and it is "intended to provide basic, comprehensive information on the faith and the life of the Orthodox Church for the average reader." That pretty much sums it up.

[rocklobster]

Started The Emperor of Nihon-Ja book 10 of Ranger's Apprentice.

[Adie]

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It's fantastic, but I can tell it's going to make me cry at some point.

[iceninja]

The Count of Monte Cristo. It is so good, but insanely long and complex.

[Atria35]

I've been re-reading the Harry Potter series. Up to Goblet of Fire <3 As good as when I first read them all!

Also been reading Mr. Norris and Johnathan Strange. It's an unusual story, deeply enjoyable, but I'm still only in the first three chapters.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Much Ado About Nothing (by Shakespeare, obviously) - I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed this one. The relationship between Benedick and Beatrice was particularly fun to watch.

[GeneD]

Snap Atria35, well mostly. I'm reading Harry Potter for the first time, in chapter 6 of Prisoner of Azkaban now. I tried the first book a long time ago and thought it was boring and a bit creepy. The more "for-kids" type of writing in the first and second book was a pain to get through but I obviously enjoyed the first book a lot more this time around and hopefully I can get through them all eventually.

[Atria35]

Snap Atria35, well mostly. I'm reading Harry Potter for the first time, in chapter 6 of Prisoner of Azkaban now. I tried the first book a long time ago and thought it was boring and a bit creepy. The more "for-kids" type of writing in the first and second book was a pain to get through but I obviously enjoyed the first book a lot more this time around and hopefully I can get through them all eventually.

It's hard to remember that, as dark as these books are, they are "for kids". In that light, the writing style makes sense, but the away she gives information and introduces people to the world is far more sophisticated than most children's literature. She never treats the reader like an idiot and every single thing needs to be explained in a huge exposition (or "footnotes" which seem to be becoming more popular), which is a fantastic departure from most writing that involves people being thrown into a magical world.

Harry Potter. Only magical book serious where wizards having a bank is taken to be for granted. Because there is a point: where else would wizards keep their money?

It's rewarding to get through them all and see what the big deal is. It's really not the ending that is the reward - though it is fantastic in its own reward - but really how things that seem throwaway or unimportant in the first three books become Big Major Things that either are important plot points or contribute to the overarching themes of the story. In ways that you simply never expect from what is, in the end, a children's series. It was a landmark in children's literature for a reason, and I hope you enjoy them more when you start seeing things come together.

Also, I started reading the series when I was ten when the first book came out, so that does contribute to some of my fangirlism, but I admit that my appreciation of the series has only deepened as I've gotten older. Thank goodness!

[Lynna]

I just finished reading Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis. I had bought it for a friend, so I read it in less than 24 hours in order to give it to her. I could barely tear my eyes away. Lewis considered this his best work, and it's easy to see why. It has a much more mature style than Narnia and is much more eloquent than some of his other works. I must say that I wasn't always clear on the symbolism and significance of the ending, but I think that's on account of my hurrying to finish it so quickly. It's sad that such a good book is quite difficult to find.

[rocklobster]

Finished The Phantom Tollbooth. Great children's classic. Tomorrow, I'll be starting book 11 of The Ranger's Apprentice.

[yukoxholic]

Currently reading: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and after that ends (I don't have much left) I will be starting Unwind by Neal Shusterman.

[invaderv93]

Currently halfway through Clash of Kings (I know, I'm very late to the party on that one but better late than never). Also just finished Layer Cake, which is wonderfully gripping and written with a great, twisted sense of humor, though it's definitely MA only.