What are you reading this week of September 6, 2015?

[hermetic]

I'm still reading Kingsolver's 507-page The Lacuna and I'm with scarletwoman in saying this is one of the best books I've ever read. I spent some time in Wikipedia looking at pictures of Diego and Frida and their art and there's even a picture of the blue house. I have become so involved with these characters that even though I knew what was going to happen, I was just heartbroken when it did. Such amazing writing.

So, what are you reading?

[MuseRider]

1. I have not read that Kingsolver book.

I love her books.

I wonder if I can find that in audio. I will look, the only way I can read enough is to use audio, just started it a while back and am going through books like mad!

Thanks for writing this, I will certainly find and "read" it somehow.

[pscot]

2. Seveneyes by Neal Stephenson

I've read most of Stephenson's fiction and I'm a big fan of his earlier work, but his last two have been disappointingly prolix and tendentious. He's always written long, and ideas have always played a role, but sheer inventiveness has carried him. Lately it has seemed like story has become secondary to a not entirely coherent world view. I'm not sure what to expect from this one, but when he's on his game he's very good.

[Enthusiast]

3. Hello, everyone! Thank you for the thread, hermetic.

Earlier in the week I finished Lighthouse Island by Paulette Jiles. I would certainly be interested in reading a sequel. Now I'm reading Strip Jack by Ian Rankin. The Rebus books are always fun.

Mrs. Enthusiast read Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke. She liked Pegasus Descending very much. Now she is reading The Third Gate by Lincoln Child.

[Enthusiast]

4. We will add The Lacuna to our 'to read' list. Thank you, hermetic!

[scarletwoman]

5. Hi, hermetic! Thanks as always for doing this thread!

The Lacuna is definitely a very special book. Having you bringing it up has been making me think I may have to read it again soon. It might be just the thing to move on to when I finally leave Tibet...

I'm near the end of #6 of the Inspector Shan Tibet series, The Lord of Death - only two more books to go. I'm already grieving that there are only two left, I've been so thoroughly wrapped up in these books, in the country and the people, that I can't imagine what other books will ever pull me in and engage so deeply as these books have.

Part of what has taken me so long to read each book is the emotional toll that each one has exacted in my heart, mourning the unending atrocities of the Chinese occupation and ongoing cultural genocide being committed against the Tibetans. It's very hard to read these things - however I am extremely grateful to the author for bearing witness.

[shenmue]

6. Just finished "The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold

It was good. Took me many tries from the library to finish it. That's happened to me a lot lately...

Now I don't know what I'll pick next.

[japple]

7. Thanks for the thread, Hermetic. Your reaction to The Lacuna is identical to mine.

I loved everything about it, but most especially the 2nd part of the book. Of course the 1st part is wonderful, but the 2nd was set in Asheville, NC in a part of town where I worked from 1981-1987. I was completely mesmerized by the story and it ended way too soon.

The way she brought in the plight of WWI veterans and the Bonus Army was brilliant and a part of history that I had never read. It never ceases to amaze me how she can write about such complex subjects and make them easy to understand and enjoyable at the same time. I have loved all of her books, but The Lacuna is a masterpiece.

I'm in the middle of Ivan Doig's final book, Last Bus to Wisdom. The main character is an 11 yr. old boy with a wild imagination on a bus trip from Montana to Wisconsin. Wonderful reading...

[Enthusiast]

8. Mrs. Enthusiast just got Last Bus to Wisdom from the library.

[japple]

9. I am loving it...