Wednesday, August 15, 2007

"under the radar" books

Nancy Pearl delivers another armload of "under the radar" books.

My reading list grows exponentially.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Reading week of August 13

I've been working on the same three books for a few weeks now, which is totally wrecking havoc on my goal of finishing twenty books this summer.

~
HP and the Deathly Hallows—I'm reading this aloud to John, which is a considerably slower way to read a book. It also ensures that I can get him to look up characters and terms online when we stumble upon one we can't remember.

~Angelica by Arthur Phillips—My book group will be discussing this coming Thursday, and as I'm at the half-way point, I need to motor. However, I am getting a boost from the unabridged audio during drive-time. Much to my surprise, I am enjoying this Victorian ghost story and look forward to the discussion. I'm also thinking about adding Wilkie Collins (Woman in White, Moonstone) to my reading list.

~The Places in Between by Rory Stewart—This fantastic travel essay is lunch-break reading, and I'm enjoying it so much that I don't want it to end. Stewart writes about his walk across Afghanistan, just after the Taliban has fallen in 2002. The walk is part of a larger walk the author has taken across Central Asia. I appreciate travel essays that are insightfully written by keen observers. Stewart supercedes most in the genre as he scrupulously records details about history, politics, religion, geography, topgraphy, culture, and more. My interest in reading classic walking/travel essays is piqued, and I've just added Patrick Leigh Fermor, Bruce Chatwin, and Colin Fletcher to my burgeoning TBR list.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Booker long list announced

The Man Booker Prize long list has been announced. I am familiar with exactly one of these books (the McEwan), but haven't read it, which is not all that surprising since only two of them have been released in the States.

The Booker Prize website received a face lift to coincide with this year's announcement. The prize's chair has a bit of fun writing a blog that is worth checking out. The shortlist will be announced in September, just in time for finalists to make my 40 at 40 reading list.