What BOOK are you reading right now?

Iain M Banks' The Player of Games

and Homer's The Odyssey

Received the following books for Christmas, but have yet to read:

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Catherine The Great by Robert Massie
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
The Swerve: How The World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
The End of Sparta by Victor Davis Hanson
Love and Rockets by Gilbert & Jamie Hernandez

Ha! I got all but the last two on your list, plus Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.

We could compare notes, but it'll be a while before I get to most of them.

a detective story with food in it? sounds good to me. Well, kidding, I've read some exceptionally stupid detective stories with food in them, but I can usually tell those kind a mile away by now, cute stories with a hook, while others have more gravitas (apparently the new chic word).

That slightly rings a bell, read something similar but the protagonist wasn't the eunuch. Will post if I remember.

Thanks for the link, I've read it. I suppose we won't find out anything about John Snow until the damn thing's published.

No, but upon a second, slower reading, I have my theories!

I did enjoy the pace of this particular chapter and hope it's indicative of TWoW throughout. (Only two books remaining...so much to cover!)

Recently read: The Help and Code Talker.

Currently reading two young adult novels: I Shall Wear Midnight (by Terry Pratchett) and Luca and the Fire of Life (by Salman Rushdie).

I'm loving Kate Grenville's The Lieutenant, the Chrysanthemum and The Sword, (yes, I know it's old) and and Careless in Red.

Loved The Help.

Finished reading Christopher J Koch's novel, Highways to a War & have borrowed another book by the same author from the library. The Memory Room. Will start reading it today.

The Memory Room:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-reviews/the-memory-room/2007/11/27/1196036874692.html

Also borrowed this audio book which looked interesting, though the author is a totally unknown quantity ... Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/09/abraham-verghese-cutting-for-stone

Cutting for stone is waiting for me on my Kindle.

Ah!
We can compare notes then, Deb!
I just checked the number of discs in the rather big audio book box ....
19!
It's a long read. Be warned!

Lol! I have so many books in the queue that I have no idea when I'll get to it. Let me know when you start listening and I can read it then.

Will do!

That author, Verghese, seems to be a fascinating person - very advanced in ideas re physicians and patients (I think he's a doc at Stanford, but that's just off the top of my head) and a well reviewed writer on various subjects. I think it was Kara who talked about him somewhere on this thread, and then I looked him up.
Naturally, sieve brain doesn't retain much of that.

Thanks for that, osso.
I might see what more I can find out about him via a bit of Googling.

Speaking of Kara .... haven't seen her for quite a while.
Always interested to read her knowledgeable comments about books.

Starting Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises...


On another note, All men , Unite: http://able2know.org/topic/182113-1

mars, Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba for some 20 years, the longest he's lived anywhere. I had the opportunity to visit his home which has been converted into a museum near Havana. Here's some pictures I took.

His home.


Looking through the front door into the living room and dining room.


Living room.


Ghost of Hemingway.


Painting of bull fight in his living room.


The Royal typewriter he used to write his stories. He stood up when he typed.


Dining room.


His reading room was on a tower next to the house.


His boat, Pilar; he loved to fish.

interesting pictures, i saw a documentary on his life, didn't get a chance to see that place though.

but i have seen an Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike contest

I've just finished reading Worse things happen at sea, by William McInnes and Sarah Watt - a Christmas gift. (He's an Australian actor and she was a film maker and animation artist)

I found it quite sad. It was obviously written when she knew she was dying from breast cancer There's quite a bit about death - of their first child, both their fathers, her preparation for her own death, but there are some really funny bits as well about relationships, families et al. It seems that they've written it for their children but have decided to share it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-05/sarah-watt-dies-aged-53/3637600

I'm reading The Hare with the Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal.

It is remarkable. It was recommended to me by my sister-in-law and my brother, people of exquisite taste and refinement.
Seriously, I would say it is a minor masterpiece.