Quick survey: What are you reading today?

[SCWillson]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

You know, I am old-fashioned too, and pretty darn tired of apologizing for it. I say if you want to write pornography, write it but don't take perfectly good characters that have touched so many people's hearts and twist them around into some foul sordid bit for your own pleasure.
Jennifer

I don't think anyone could have said that better!

[Pat Floyd]

I'm so behind on VBC reading! When you're in the mood for good humor, check out Jeanne Robertson. Her name will take you to some of her performances on YOUtube. She is quite Southern, from Alamance County, North Carolina. I especially like the one about rafting on the Colorado River. She calls her husband Left Brain.

Jennifer, you must listen to "Don't send a man to the grocery store."

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Pat Floyd

I'm so behind on VBC reading! When you're in the mood for good humor, check out Jeanne Robertson. Her name will take you to some of her performances on YOUtube. She is quite Southern, from Alamance County, North Carolina. I especially like the one about rafting on the Colorado River. She calls her husband Left Brain.

Jennifer, you must listen to "Don't send a man to the grocery store."

Will do!
Jennifer

[donatello77]

Just finished reading the Hunger Games novels and about to start reading some John Irving!

[MaryL]

Gave up on Deanna Raybourne's latest "The Dark Enquiry". Am so tired of willful misses who charge blindly in to prove they can and then expect to be rescued. One of the reasons Russell appeals I guess.

I did get a Kindle Fire for Christmas and am enjoying the free books-right now on Ben Franklin's Autobiography. I remeber reading it as a young teen, but am enjoying it so much more now-life experience flavors our perceptions...

[Lenore]

I have a group of close friends (we are five women) who go away together for a long weekend or even a week once a year. We usually read a couple of books before we go and then discuss them when we're together. Often, but not always, they have something to do with where we're going. They can be fiction or nonfiction. This year it's Maine. Does anyone have a book recommendation about Maine or set there? (The group has already decided on NO Stephen King horror fiction.)

[MaryL]

Just discovered a great site:Longitude Books-see Dana Stabenow's blog today- that lists books set EVERYWHERE! They have a number of listings for Maine, although not the one I most recently read: The Poacher's Son by Mike Bowditch. It was very evocative of Maine, the more so as my daughter was in school there near where the protagonist was assigned.In the end it was OK but not great in the sense that a lot of first novels are-trying too hard to give background and get too much story into one book. However, it is better than 90% of what is out there.

[Pat Floyd]

Originally Posted by Lenore

I have a group of close friends (we are five women) who go away together for a long weekend or even a week once a year. We usually read a couple of books before we go and then discuss them when we're together. Often, but not always, they have something to do with where we're going. They can be fiction or nonfiction. This year it's Maine. Does anyone have a book recommendation about Maine or set there? (The group has already decided on NO Stephen King horror fiction.)

A low key sort of book I enjoyed is The House by the Sea: A Journal, by May Sarton. It's set in southern Maine. I recall liking John Irving's The Cider House Rules a long time ago. Katherine Hall Page's rather cosy series has two books set in Maine on Sanpere Island: The Body in the Kelp, which I don't remember reading and The Body in the Lighthouse, which I enjoyed.

[Pat Floyd]

Books I've enjoyed recently are Deborah Crombie, No Mark on Her, Helene Tursten, Night Rounds, set in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Charles Todd, The Confession. The order of my listing inadvertently reflects my degree of enjoyment with Crombie coming first. This book is set in the general geographical area of the one we read together, Leave the Grave Green. At some point both Duncan and Gemma reflect briefly on Duncan's unprofessional behavior during that long-ago case. I wondered if our discussion influenced that bit. So far Helene Tursten is my favorite Swedish mystery writer. Only four of her books are available in English. I like her people and her plots except for The Torso, which too gruesome for me. The Charles Todd book in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series was good, but moved a bit slowly.

[leohandyman]

I'm about to start third choice by Margot Dalton. It was an old book but it is my first time to read about her writing. The plot is finding who is the murderer.