What BOOK are you reading right now?

nice book review c.i.

That's another great benefit of eReaders (that I didn't think I wanted until I got one lol) -- it's way easier to take multiple books with us on vacation!

With the restrictions on baggage on airlines today, the Kindle is a life-saver. LOL

That may be part of the reason Mr.Irish got me one...I'd always make him lug my books in his carryon.

Nemesis Jo Nesbo good if you like a bit of suspense

I'm finally reading The Graveyard Book by Gaiman. Thanks JD - (I assume djjd recommended it).

I highly recommend the book. Well at least the audiobook read by the author himself.

A great read read by a great reader.

I'm now reading "The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet." It was on NYT's best seller's list. My roommate on the last cruise recommended it, and my wife happened to have borrowed it from one of her friends. I'm enjoying it, although some of the history is not accurate, the story is pretty good about a Chinese boy and Japanese girl during WWII and later. The years are intertwined in the story, taking you backward to the time of the war, and taking us into the 80's. I'm only about half through, but can highly recommend it to others.

i know i have recommended it, here, glad you're enjoying it, Neil Gaiman is a fave author

i love Gaiman's voice

I would like to hear his stories in his own voice.... Maybe I'll buy a book on disc.

I'm in a rest phase -

I recently read two police procedurals set in.. yes, Italy: A Deadly Paradise (small town near Perugia) and The Last Enemy (Perugia, Venice), by Grace Brophy. I liked them both. (Soho Crime Series, natch).

Then I read The Glittering Prizes by Frederic Raphael. Loved it, just like I loved the Brit tv series back in the eighties. This fellow wrote the movie Two for the Road, if any of you remember that, with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Repartee in that movie too.

After the pause, I'm going to read The Edge of the Storm by Agustin Yanez (in translation).

Quoting the bit on the back cover of the book -

"The novel is an original, in writing, structure and treatment of Mexico and its revolution. Densely textured in the prose, evocative in almost every scene, there is a hard, naturalistic quality to the incidents, the people and their thoughts. . . . The large array of intensely believable characters, the heavy-textured but flowing prose, the authenticity of each incident are only some of the marks of the major writer." (NYT Book Review)

Try Gaiman's short story collection Fragile Things in audiobook format. A great listen!

is that the collection that has the story where the woman buys the holy grail in a charity shop (i have fragile things and m is for magic, but can't remember which one contains the story), it's such a great story

I don't remember that story so it must be the latter.

yep m is for magic and originally in the anthology smoke and mirrors, great story, it's called Chivalry

http://www.helium.com/items/1558405-short-story-review-chivalry-by-neil-gaiman

We all know her, that nice old lady who lives down the street. She has outlived most of her friends and family isn't around all that much. She lives a simple life keeping her house because that is what she has always done, she doesn't have a lot of money but she doesn't really need all that much money because she has what she wants, except that she is a little lonely.

"Chivalry" by Neil Gaiman is a story about that woman. One day while visiting the local thrift store where she finds books and nicknacks for her mantle she finds a old cup. The holy grail. She takes it home and puts in on her mantle.

A few days later Sir Galahad appears at her doorstep. She knows she shouldn't trust him because there are men who prey on old woman but he shows her identification from King Arthur himself, and tells her he is on a quest for the holy grail. She admits she has it to him and he offers her a bag of gold, but it looks good on her mantle and so she turns it down.

Her life continues the same until Galahad returns again, this time with one of the mystical swords that are in the arthurian legends, but the old woman has no need for a sword, though it seems clear that this is Galahad's prize possession. Instead though he sits and has some tea with the woman.

Again he returns, this time the woman sees that he has injured himself some, his arm is stiff and he has a cut on his cheek. Before he speaks of the grail she has him help her move boxes around her attic for some time and then he gets to bargaining. He has three objects from her, a fruit that will give eternal life, the egg of a phoenix and the philosophers stone.

At this point the woman decides that she likes this young man and agrees, though she turns down the fruit. It is not something that an old woman should have, though I suspect she simply knows the knight needs it more, and it is clear that the real reason that she gave him the grail isn't the gifts but that he spent time with her.

This is a fun story with a great deal of humor but there really is a point to it as well. The great gifts that Galahad gave her didn't mean nearly as much as his spending time with her and we should all remember that.

I'm reading Dead Europe, by the same author (Christos Tsiolkas)of the previous book I read, The Slap.

I finished Slap & rushed of to my library to borrow this one. Early days, but I'm engrossed already.

I realize that this novel & the author will mean nothing to most of you (who aren't Australian) but I'm pretty excited to have finally discovered Christos Tsiolkas.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Reviews/Dead-Europe/2005/05/26/1116950809861.html

Thanks, Tsar.

The Edge of the Storm is one of the great Mexican novels of the XX Century (among the top 3, IMHO).

I hope the translation is good, because Yáñez was a master of language and inner dialogue.

Very strong, compelling. First chapter blew me away, as they say. I'm at page 103..
Translator seems competent to me - Ethel Brinton.
The illustrations are frame-able, seem to be woodcuts - Julio Prieto.
This is a Pan American Paperback, put out by the University of Texas Press.

It was from a list of recommended books by you, fb, that I ordered this from amazon.

So, to remind me, what are the others in the top three..

some of your links, and my take on Cortazar -
http://able2know.org/topic/1042-280#post-4476484