What book are you reading at the moment?

Question

I'm reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, only a chapter in but it seems really good. Would you recommend your current read? Tell me a little about it.

I can't pick a best answer, most of the books seem really interesting so I think I'll leave it up to the voting process.

Answer 1

The Complete Shirlock Holmes. C.Doyle. Just the thing for a night owl. bored with clueless TV. I read with a map of England at ready.

Answer 2

When Darkness Falls by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory. It's the last book in the Obsidian Trilogy and I really liked the first 2. I'm just getting started on this one. The central theme of this fantasy book is good vs evil - sort of the regular - it's the writing that's so compelling. I care about the main characters and even feel sympathy for some of the evil ones. It has elements of magic with dragons, demons and elves to boot! Excellent if you're into fantasy.

I have been rereading Jane Austen and plan to start Emma soon. It's about a girl who finds it difficult not to meddle in other people's lives finding herself to have superior knowledge of how others should lead their lives. But she does have a good heart, there's only one person she manipulates to abuse - a person malleble to suggestion.
By the end of the book, she learns more about herself than how ignorant she is at reading others. The movie Clueless is based on this book.

Answer 3

The Children Of Hurin by Tolkien and edited by his son, Christopher.

This book is about the times way before the tales of the Lord Of The Rings. In the lands that Treebeard once walked. Lands of the forest Angband and were ruled over by the first Dark Lord Morgoth.

These are the tales of Morgoth's children Turin and his sister Nienor and the wars waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves.

Its a difficult read in as much as the reader must follow many lines and definitions as portrayed by Tolkien in the Forward and Introduction of the book.

If you are into heavy fantasy reading, this is another book you can enjoy.

Answer 4

I am currently reading "Hope" by Lesley Pearse.

It's Somerset, 1836 and baby Hope is cast out from a world of privilege as proof of her mother's adultery ...

Smuggled away from the rich Harvey household to a nearby village, Hope grows up in the arms of the warm and loving Renton family, her true identity a secret. But when her idyllic childhood comes to an end when she is taken into service by the Harveys, setting in motion a chain of events that will see her blackmailed into leaving her beloved family for ever. destitute on the streets of Bristol, Hope nevertheless finds the courage to nurse those dying of cholera and soon her new found talent for healing sees her heading for the horrific battlefields of the Crimea. But the secrets of her past are not yet done with Hope Renton - and she must return to England to face the legacy of her birth ...

This is such a good read, I can't put it down and I would recommend this and any others by her, if the plot above appeals to you.

Answer 5

Half of a Yellow Sun is a really good choice!! If you like it, I would highly recommend Purple Hibiscus by Adichie as well (her first novel).
And if you want to read more Nigerian books, why not try Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, or Famished Road by Ben Okri? They are really excellent reads!

As for myself, I just got into a Japanese literature phase: I have just finished A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, and Music by Yukio Mishima. I am now reading The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Mishima, again! His prose is wonderful, and I really feel like I am dragged into a completely unknown universe -- it feels like it should be familiar but it isn't. Japanese philosophy and symbolism is so remote from what I am familiar with that I feel a bit confused, but completely fascinated!
Music is about psychoanalysis, and presents the Japanese approach to psychoanalysis, which is really interesting.
The best Japanese novel I have read so far is The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki: it is quite long, and you follow the life of four sisters of a traditional family, and how they each deal with tradition vs. westernisation. Really interesting. There are lots of food descriptions that made me sooo hungry!

Happy reading!

Answer 6

I read about three books a week and usually the books are thrillers or CSI type books as like something that will surprise me at the end!!!! Love horror books but not a lot being written at the moment unless someone knows of some good ones. Reading Val McDermid at the moment - what I usually do is get the last book and then get all the ones on the lists page and read through them in order as a lot of thriller books are written like that.

Answer 7

Last night I finished Storm Front which is the first book in Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series. The series is a mystery/urban fantasy series about a wizard living in Chicago. This is the review I wrote for it on the LibraryThing website:

"Harry Dresden is the only wizard you will see listed in the phone book. Unfortunately this seems to lead to more crank calls and curiosity seekers than actual business. So, when Harry gets a legitimate call from a woman looking for her husband it is a relief to know he'll at least be able to pay his overdue rent. And when Harry gets a consultation call from Lt. Karrin Murphy of the Chicago P.D. he feels that his cup has runneth over. That is, until he arrives at the crime scene and realizes that whatever is going on is very, very bad. Suddenly Harry has two cases to investigate and it's not long before he realizes he may have gotten himself in over his head. As the cover says, "Magic. It can get a guy killed."

It is unusual for me to enjoy mysteries but I do have to say that Storm Front was an enjoyable ride. Harry Dresden is an intriguing character with a dry wit and ironic point of view that certainly appeals to me. I kind of like to think that if Harry Potter makes it through Hogwarts that he would grow up to be Harry Dresden. I'm also not the type of reader of visualizes as I read. Descriptions typically kind of just roll over me. However, some of the scenes described in this book definitely inspired visualization. I particularly enjoyed Harry's entrance into Marcone's bar, I could actually see it in my head and it looked pretty darn neat! Storm Front was a very enjoyable introduction to the Harry Dresden series and I will certainly be looking for more."

In answer to your other question, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to recommend the book. I really liked it.

Answer 8

I have just finished "An Act of Treachery" by Ann Widdecombe.It is wonderful.It is about a girl called Catherine in occupied France during world war 2,who falls in love with a married German Officer.Don't think it is a soppy love story anything but,Just imagine how she was shunned because of that.You feel that you should hate her and have nothing but contempt for her but the author has made her into such a feisty character that you have to try hard not to grudgingly admire her.Brilliant writing.Before I finish I would also like to recommend "Flash Houses" by Aimee Liu.It is about child prostitution in China.Well written and thought provoking.

Answer 9

Count Zero by William Gibson. The second in a trilogy of books (first book is Neuromancer). I really wish I'd found this book earlier, it seems like the archetypal student novel; it's basically about a post-modern society, artificial intelligence, cyberpunks manipulating futuristic technology. I want to read the Drenai series by David Gemill next, and then maybe the Bonfire of the Vanities.

Answer 10

I have 4 books on the go at the moment (depends on the mood I'm in) Blood Beast - Darren Shan, a young man discovers that demons do exist, and they are pure evil, that he can do magic, and hes not too sure whether hes got the family curse, lycanthropy.
Maximum Ride (saving the world...) James Patterson, about a girl called Max, and her friends, who can fly. Their DNA was combined with avian DNA, and their escape from the institute where they were held.

The above two are marketed for older teenagers, but my friends and I have enjoyed reading them (we're all on the wrong side of 30!)

Leaving Dirty Jersey - James Salant (I'm actually re-reading this) . Its an autobiography of his descent into crystal meth addiction, and his gradual efforts to get clean. It has certainly opened my eyes as to just how low people will go to get their next hit.

BNF (British National Formulary) v.38 got a test tomorrow on pharmaceuticals....

Answer 11

Currently reading The Testament of Gideon Mack, by James Robertson.

It has received good reviews, and it is well-written, but I'm not sure yet if I can recommend it. So far there has been lots of labor & no baby, if you know what I mean. Hoping that all this "narrative" goes somewhere productive. But the concept is fascinating: a Scottish minister (and adulterer) who doesn't believe in God claims to have encountered the Devil after falling into a chasm & being swept away by a raging torrent.

We'll see where it goes................