What BOOK are you reading right now?

I was having a good run with my reading until a few weeks ago.
I just haven't found the right book to grip my interest, since the last one that did.

So today my library has informed me by email that Jonathan Franzen's Freedom is now available for me to collect, from its available 12 copies (it must be very popular). I put in my request for it only a few days ago. I hope it turns out to be a good read.

In the meantime, while beginning to read new novels, written by unknown authors, then losing interest pretty quickly, I have been listening to Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man, via audio recording.
How droll & what fun!

Is it better on audio?

I know I should enjoy Hammett, but I get bored reading him!

Well I never read him, Deb, so I can't compare.

But listening (via an excellent reader) is quite fun!

I find thrillers boring anyway. I also find self-help books a drag. Twenty years ago, there was a self-help book (it helped me so much that I have no idea who its author or title was!) that several people recommended. I couldn't wade through the print copy but I could listen to the audio version.

Yes - I plan on reading next week while traveling and on vacation.

The Thin Man movies are good fun, William Powell and Myrna Loy

@plainoldme

there's something funny in the statement that 'Thrillers' are 'boring'!

I'm divided on thrillers. I generally hate the best seller types, all pumped up to plot point timing, pulsing, pulsing.
But, I think some crime fiction can be counted as literature.
Soho Crime fan here, though not all of their books that I've read, getting up around fifty.
Since I've just been reading Balzac's Old Goriot, I might describe that as subtle crime fiction.

Thanks for the kind thought!

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page is all free and it's wonderful!! It supports various readers or you can just read it directly from there.

My reading preferences very from Historical, Historical Fiction, Sci Fi, etc...

By the way, I love Dashiell Hammett too, MsOlga. His stories are interesting and easy to read and follow.

My recent list is pretty long so I'll highlight just a few that stood out:
For Sci-Fi it's got to be Joe Abercrombe's Trilogy "First Law" Think Lord of the Rings with attitude. It's very gritty and dark, but you really develop relationships with the characters and the world seems very real. He's really gifted, in my way of thinking.

Historical Fiction: I'm sure he's been mentioned but anything by Matthew Pearl is well worth the time. His "Shadow of Poe" was done so well that they actually exhumed Edger's body and found that he may have stumbled upon something that wasn't considered, regarding the life and death of Poe. Absolutely brilliant author.

For Historical: Another River, Another Town is a great, and fast read, about life in WW2 from the eyes of a Tank operator. It's well written in a very easy and personable way. As if the guy is just telling you face to face. And it can be read in an afternoon (albeit a long afternoon) if you can spare the time.

Another good Historical Fiction author is David Liss. His "Conspiracy of Paper" is very interesting.

I also just Finished James Harriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" series. That guy knows how to speak to the heart of things. I'm not ashamed to admit I cried a few times.

If you want a fun 'way out' kind of book, Jonathan Howard's "Johannes Cable" series is great fun.

Last but not least, I read the Hunger Games with my daughter last week. We loved it. She loved the romance, I loved the character and plot. It's written for teens in mind, but so was Harry Potter - not that the two are comparable because Harry Potter may be the best series I've ever read.

For books I've read over a month ago, and maybe my favorite of all time, I'd suggest Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" His writing style and story development is the perfect balance for my tastes.

Sorry, it's a bit long but maybe someone will find some new kind of treasure they've been looking for as a result? I hope so anyway.

And thanks to all for the input. I've written down a few I'll be looking into myself!

Happy Reading.

some good stuff, i quite enjoyed The Hunger Games myself (actually was a bit disappointed by the final book), also enjoyed Carr's The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness

Jonathan Howard is on my radar, if you're looking for way out you might enjoy Jesse Bullington's The Sad tale of the Brothers Grossbart
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2009/10/sad-tale-of-brothers-grossbart-by-jesse.html

I'm sure I liked The Alienist but not apparently with much avidity. That's not a neg, just a lack of complete tharn. Speaking of tharn, I did like All Creatures Great and Small at the time, and probably still would.

I think I've read all of Hammett, but I backed off with Red Harvest. (back then)

Finally got around to Leonard Lopate's interview of the book's author, Brian Christian (aired two weeks ago).
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/apr/04/most-human-human/

I have a little painting with a quote from George Eliot: It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Today, Liane Hansen interviewed an American expatriate novelist, Donna Leon, who lives in Italy and writes mysteries featuring an Italian detective.

She began writing when she turned 50. At 67, she has 20 novels to her credit.

Three cheers for older women and their determination to be whatever they want to be.

It's not a book but Lewis Lapham's essay, "Mark Twain and the Loss of American Courage," in the April edition of Harper's is well worth seeking out.

Currently engrossed by Shadows On The Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer. He's always a good read. This tale is set in the late 1940s with an interesting cast of characters. The book was shelf sitting, then taken away, then placed aside, then dusted, finally decide maybe it's in need of being read.

First ran in The Forward back in 1957-58 in splendid Yiddish a part at a time, then later translated and made as a book.

Many the purpose this book serves. The Jewish side of life, the time (that era just after WW2, especially the Jewish perspective greatly interests me...maybe because little was discussed home at.), and a warm connect there seems always to be with Mr.Singer and his writings.

I bought Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos at a used book store more than a year ago. I just started reading it and am on page 33 of this massive, epistolary novel.

It's impressive! Laclos manages to give each of his characters a unique voice. I know the basic plot because I saw two of the movies based on this book: Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont. However, because Laclos writes each letter as the character, the book is fun. I find myself excited to learn what Cecile is thinking and how Presidente de Tourvel will react next.

That's a very cynical book pom. Read it fast is my advice.

finally finished Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, really enjoyed the WWII bits, but about half way through i started skimming the modern day chapters, they just didn't hold my interest

now starting the third book in Stephenson's Baroque Series, as well as reading Pax Britannia: The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus, a steampunk Doc Savage like thing

Ulysses Quicksilver, dandy, adventurer and agent of the throne. A steam-punk hero on a dark alternative universe where Queen Victoria has ruled for 160 years, sinister powers plot against the British Empire and dinosaurs roam the Challenger enclosure at London Zoo. This is the world of Magna Britannia, a brave new age of steam populated by heroes and villains, monsters and grotesques.

Volume 1 in this series collect together the first three Ulysses Quicksilver novels: Unnatural History Leviathan Rising and Human Nature.

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Pax-Britannia-The-Ulysses-Quicksilver-Omnibus/Jonathan-Green/Pax-Britannia/9781907519567

I'm reading Fernand Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II, vol. I.

Excellent so far (I'm on page 43) and I expect it to continue to be a good read.

Last week: I finished the audiobook of 177g by David McCullough.

Juggling two audiobooks presently:
While walking home, I'm listening to Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner.

And I'm over half way through The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Ron Pearlman is a great audiobook reader. Very effective in pace and tone (the book and the reader). Very creepy! Great stuff so far.