What should I read next?: The book ending support group discussion

I'm reading ths book that I check out from my college Library. It is called "Unstrange Minds:Remapping the World of Autism;A Father, a Daughter, and Search for New Answers" by Roy Richard Grinker.

Nothing! Help!!

What are you into Christina? Maybe I can help recommend some books

I am reading The Almost Moon.

I'm reading The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. I've become a huge Perrotta fan. This book is about a high school sex ed teacher and her daughter's Christian soccer coach. Very good book.

Hello! I am a new member. I just finished Merle's Door, Lessons From a Free Thinking Dog. It is non-fiction. You'll enjoy it much more if you have a dog I think. We have a five month old puppy so I found it very helpful. I just started Madame Bovary. How I made it through college without reading this is beyond me.

I haven't read Madame Bovary either, but it's on my list of books to read before I die.

Sad as it is I can't remember all the details of them :\ but I keep my "currently reading list pretty up to date.

Christina, I would browse through people's reading lists and see if there is anything that catches your eye. That's what i tend to do and I've found a lot of really great books that way.
:-)

The Fanatic *still* - don't really recommend it. Well written and all and a fabulously well researched plotline, just hard to read for long periods because of the 17th c Scottish dialect it's written in!

Also have The House at Riverton and yet another Inspector Morse on the go :)

Christina- Have you read Water For Elephants? If not, I highly recommend it. I loved it!

Hello! I'm new to the group, and right now I'm reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I'm about 1/4 of the way in and enjoying it so far...

Rach- That is how I felt about the Historian. I haven't finshed it but still pick it up from time to time.

It's not difficult to read or anything, just very long and detailed to the point where you get a little lost in the details and forget what's happening in the story, and that gets frustrating.

I'm now reading "Wasted:A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia" by Marya Hornbacher. I'm also reading "Where The Heart Is" by Billie Letts

Avoid the Fanatic then and I'll avoid the Historian!!

I LOVE where the heart is. It's such a good story.

I am going to be starting to re-read the classic novels they make you read in High School like To Kill a Mocking Bird, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, etc.

All to prepare myself to take the English Certification for teaching next year. I'm going to continue to read all the other stuff I'm reading, I'm just going to throw these in too.

If anyone wants to join me in my task, I would love to have someone to bounce ideas off of for subtext and what not...stuff that will help me when teaching.

Thats cool that you want to be a teacher Aimee. What grade do you want to teach? I'm also in college to be a teacher. I want to teach elementary. I would love to teach reading. TEACHERS RULE!!!

I sincerely hope that is so as I'm about to give up rather a lucrative career to start teaching myself. I'm going for lower primary (not sure what that is in the US) but it's ages 4-7 :)

Hello. I just joined this group, and I am currently reading "The Double" by Jose Saramago. I finished "All The Names" (also by Saramago) yesterday, after 6 days of struggling with it.

He has a very unique writing style, using run-on sentences, little puncutation, alot of internal dialouge, and very long paragraphs. Its hard work to sit and read him for more than an hour straight. But his storylines are very interesting and in the end, the books are very thought-provoking and remain with you long after they are done.

My two favorite from him are Blindness and Seeing. Has anyone read any of his novels? I would be interested to get your take on them.

Lori: I have never heard of him, but am always open to new authors and will definitely give him a look. Is there are particular one that you would recommend beginning with?


Ashley: I am hoping to be a middle school Language Arts/Math teacher (odd combination, to be sure, but I like and have a proclivity in both subjects)

Rach: I didn't know you were going into teaching children! Yoga, right?

I am reading The Female Brain by a woman neuropsychiatrist - it is actually overwhelming as far as information that I did not know or have a clue about - the book is well written and you won't have trouble understanding the gist of what is said as long as you can read - I'm sure I'm going to read it a couple of times -my reason for reading it is I saw it at the bookstore and just looked at a few pages and realized I better read it before my Daughter becomes a teenager- it covers that period of time -- also covers the time from when boys and girls are in the womb on - if you ever wonder why you or someone else does what they do or don't do, this book will more than explain what goes on in your body and brain. To say the least it is pretty mindblowing.

Aimee, defintely pick up Blindness. Its about a town that suddenly goes blind (all they see is a whiteness), one person at a time... and once the government realises its contagious, they quarentine the ppl in an insane asylm... Its much better than I am making it sound... you really have to read it to appreciate it. I remember the book like I read it yesterday, and Its been about 2 yrs if not more since Ive read it. Very Very interesting....

Just started 'Invisible Monsters' by Chuck Palanhiuck (sp?). So far, like all of his books, it has me falling forward headfirst into it...shouldn't take me long.

Oooohh, that was my first Chuck P book, I really liked it. It is a crazy book, the further in you get, the more messed up the story gets....

Have you read him before? Survivor and Choke are both really good as well.... as is Lullaby and Diary (both of those are creepy, sleep with a nightlite on kind of books), Haunted just grossed me out.... but well written none the less.....

If you cant tell, Im a big Chuck P fan.

I'm a big Chuck P fan as well. I've read Survivor and Diary already. and am looking forward to reading Haunted, Choke, & lullaby

Even now it's pretty crazy, but I zipped through like 50 pages in 45 minutes. Could not stop!

Invisible Monsters was one of my all time favorite books and definitely my favorite of Chuck's books.

I'm half way through now. It reads REALLY fast. I am totally loving it!

Hello, new member here :) I am working on Love in the Time of Cholera right now. I love this author, although when I tried to read 100 Years of Solitude I couldn't get through it. That's not due to his lack of talent but to the fact that his story-telling method is so strange that I started to forget things that I had read in the beginning. I think the key with him is to read the book quickly before you have time to forget the facts. Anyone else experience this with Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

Actually, When I read "Like Water for Chocolate" it felt like it went faster than I had anticipated. I love Marquez. I've only read two of his books, but the two you mention are on my to-read list!

I'm reading "Keeping Faith" by Jodi Picoult

reading Unhooked - just finished The Female Brain which was excellent book about hormones and the brain and a lot of other things

finished Samedi the Deafness yesterday.. was a little upset with the ending. thought that it should have ended the page before....

Last nite I started The Book Of Samson. half way thru with that one already... its quite a fast read.

Finished Invisible Monsters Last week. LOVED IT.

Then read Mermaids Chair. Total change of pace, but not a bad read.

Currently reading Never Let Me Go and I am seriously in love with it so far. Highly recommended!

Emma Lee, how are you fairing with Saturday? I hated hated hated that book... It took me two weeks to get through, which is forever for me. It kept putting me to sleep. It was so slow paced.....

I am currently reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak for one reading group, and "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen for another. Sometimes I switch over to a classic for good measure.

Emma Lee, not to ruin the book for you (tho it sounds like you already know the plot), you will be waiting quite awhile for a little action.... set the alarm so you dont sleep too long :)


as for me, I am going to start Come Closer monday (im tied up with work on the weekends).. I preread a chapter online and its a bit creepy. About a woman who slowly becomes possesed by a demon or something. Some reviews are making me nervous to it, they say it scared the shit out them!!! So im half excited and half afraid.

Water for Elephants is on my To-Be-read shelf! I think I'll grab that one next.

Huh... read Come Closer in only a few hours. Its was a terrifingly quick read, and not nearly as freaky as i thought it would be. But very good!

Now half way thru You're Not You. A big change from what Ive been reading lately, its about a college girl who decides to pick up a part time job working for a lady with ALS, and how this job changes her. Its borderline Chick-lit fiction. More substance than the usual chicklit, and so far, not too bad. I needed a break from all the creepy heavy stuff Id been plowing thru.

Book Thief is the next one up! Id be interested in talking to everyone whose read it once im done!

Right now I am reading "An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England" - it is a book club pick and I am about 50 pages in, so far so good

EMMA LEE don't give up on The Historian, it is well worth the slow start

Janet

I just finished Water for Elephants and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Atonement is the next in my pile. After that, I am cleaned out of new books and looking for suggestions!

I'm reading Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen. It's a memoir about coming to America as a refugee and growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I just finished Atonement. I loved it and I can't wait to see the movie. I found the first 75 pages very slow and hard to get through, but stick with it because the last two thirds of the book is beautiful. I needed something light after that, so I am reading the "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks.

That is so good to hear because I am having a really hard time starting Atonement. I am about 50 pages in, so I will stick it out!

How funny! I just started Reading "Saturday" by the same author (Ian McKewan) and I had some trouble with the first 1/4 of it but it's really starting to pick up.

Maybe I will try to tackle Atonement as well...

I had suffered thru Saturday for two weeks. That book was constantly putting me to sleep... the last 50 pages or so were worth the suffering, but damn... can that author drag out a day, huh???

Just finished "The Book Thief". Great book but it emotionally wears me out so I am going to read "Water for Elephants" and then try to find something a little lighthearted.

Hey L -- Just finished Book Thief as well. Such a depressing read. But a book written with WWII in the background was bound to be, no?

I have a few christmassy reads tucked away that i will pulling out over the next few days. The Gift, and The Stupidest Angel. Not sure which I will start with. But I guarentee I will have my nose in something new over the next hour or so!

Hey Lori
Yeah, it's weird that this is the third book I read in the last month that centers around World Wars.(The Book Thief, Farewell to Arms, and The Photograph) I am definately needing a pick me up kind of book....or at least something not centered around war.

I began The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore last nite... wow. What a contrast to the Book Thief. Its funny and wacky and just what i needed to get out of the funk. Not to mention that it is christmassy, so it helps to get me into the christmas spirit.... Im already half way thru it!

L -- You should definetly pick up something light and funny. Too much war and gloom and doom can be a downer!

So I was in the library waiting for my daughter's daisy scout meeting to end, and I picked up "The Bean Trees" by Barbara Kingsolver to pass the time and decided that I would finish this one before I read "Water for Elephants".
"The Bean Trees" is set partly in Kentucky where I am living now, but in the mountain region where my husbands family originates. It is helping calm the waters after so many depressing reads of the past few weeks. It is also a quick read so I will be able to finish "Water for Elephants" for one book club's December pick.

Starting to read The Quit Girl by Hoeg - looks pretty good - if you read it,what did you think

Has anyone read A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author of the Kite Runner? It is sitting here on my desk but for some reason I am avoiding it ... I just finished a novel called Matrimony by Joshua henkin which I thought was pretty good. i read a lot more non-fiction than fiction, but this one restored my faith!