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OK I'll add it to my re-read shelf.

Finished Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go a little while back. This is one people seem to either love or hate. I loved it, and I'm excited to read more Kazuo Ishiguro.

Now I'm reading Italo Calvino, If On A Winter's Night A Traveler. Well, I'm not so much reading it as tolerating it in hopes that it will get better! So far, it's too smarty-pants by half!

And I'm listening to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which isn't on the list but by all accounts should be.

Oh, and I'm dabbling in Aesop's Fables before bed. They make perfect late night reading - they're so short and pithy they are almost like little sound bytes.

Judith,

Sorry I wasn't clear, I could have sworn I wrote your name! Read Wharton's THE CHILDREN it's very funny and her ghost story collection as I belive I said before...

I agree about James, but I remember from a class I took that most of the women didn't relate and thought him misogynist. Then again, we also read MOBY DICK in that class and I loved but most hated...lol.

Have you read Patricia Highsmith?

Peace,
C

Just finished Bunner sisters, have to admit have books haven't read any Wharton where the ending is happy. I've read the house of mirth, Ethan Frome, Summer and the age of innocence.
I only have one of her books left the glimpses of the moon.

Courtney:

I LOVE Patricia Highsmith! Such smart mysteries! She is right up there with P.D. James for me in that genre!

We appear to have many books/authors in common! I'm off to check out your shelf!

J.

Let us know what you think of "The Glimpses of the Moon", Deanne.

Have you read "The Children" or the Ghost Stories as Courtney suggests?

The ones I've read have no happy endings either, but they are really good historical fiction and make an important social comment.

Have any of you read "Sister Carrie" by Theo. Dreiser? No happy endings there either, but so much to learn about the turn of the century in the big cities....

Oh Melissa, keep reading! PORTRAIT OF A LADY is a great read! I felt the same way at beginning and remember being very satisfied at the end that it all turns out as it was meant to.

Peace!
Courtney

Hi,
Found the list of 1001 books last week as a spreadsheet on the internet and instantly saved it on my desktop.

You can tick the books off as you go along and the spreadsheet will - based on your life expectancy, gender and age - provide you with the number of books you have to read each year before you die.

This is the link:

Judith,
WOMEN IN LOVE was Lawrence I t'm pretty sure. I loved "Washington Square". Right now I'm reading "fluff" for the summer. It's hard to concentrate with a 12 year old only child and a chronic pain condition. Once my son is back to school I hope to get back to the classics or at least some fun historical fiction.

I've never even heard of ASPERN PAPERS? Is it good?

Peace!
Courtney

I have CHOKE to re-read and SNUFF to read on my stacks, but I keep passing them by for even "fluffier" stuff this summer. Has anyone read SNUFF?

Peace!
Courtney

THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho

Just finished Tale of Two Cities. I am in freakin' love with Dickens. I just now set the book down and am still covered with chill bumps.

It makes me sad that books like this earn places on young people's hatred list because of forced readings in high school. My sister hated this book for that very reason. Sadness.

I just finished The Dogs of Babel. Ugh. I want to bleach my brain to get rid of the memory. What a bad book!

Is The Alchemist on the list?? I just finished it too, and it was REALLY bad. i love the concept and the ideas, but I felt like I was reading a dumbed down version of The Secret. and THAT made me feel dumb too. I felt "talked down to." I REALLY feel the need to read a classic and get away from the recent stuff for a while.

Finished Choke by Palahniuk. I left a few musings on the discussion thread. Still mulling a few things over before I write my review.

What did you think of the novel? I just got a copy of it from a friend.

I am finishing "The Brothers Karamazov." It's an intense, and very dense, read. But I am fascinated by it.

Just finished The picture of Dorian Gray... absolutely loved it! probably one of the best psycho thrillers I loved and honestly got creeped out by it. Plus Oscar Wilde has a great way of writing, although I did find the chapter detailing Dorian's interests a bit long and hard to read. All in all, thought it's a great book and will probably read it again some day! Loved it!

A Question of Power by Bessie Head (off the new list). Ack, it was difficult. Knowing little about Africa and less about mental illness, I felt I just wasn't 'getting' it. But maybe others will.

I enjoyed "The Aspern Papers". It is a novella, about the length of "Turn of the Screw".

I was trying to think of "Portrait of a Lady" when I typed "Women in Love". "Women" is a Lawrence, and is quite good. Have you read much of his work?

We do have a lot of books in common, Judith...I checked yours as well.

"Sister Carrie" was a great read, very heavy.

Peace!

I had to take a break from the list for a little while so I just read a book called "The Wednesday Wars". It isn't very long and it's young adult fiction so it went pretty quickly. I recommend it to anyone who likes young adult fiction. I thought it was very nicely written and a moving story.

I just finished "Rob Roy" by Sir Walter Scott. It was great--there was history, romance, father-son conflict and resolution, some sword-play, and beautiful descriptions of Scotland. The dialect was a bit tedious, especially since the character development is very dialogue-driven, but I found my German lessons quite handy in understanding it (good reminder that English used to sound far more Germanic than it does now). Also, one of the best female characters I've read in a classic for a while in Diana Vernon. That said, I'm definitely reading something modern and fast next...

Just took a nice break from the list, and did some YA with the Pulman Golden Compass series(nice if you like fantasy) and Baldacci "Stone Cold" a spy type beach read.
Started "Everything is Illuminated", interesting POV changes so far.

I just finished The Virgin Suicides - though it was hard to keep the movie images out of my head while reading it.

Judith,

have read WOMEN IN LOVE and LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER.

Peace!
C

Goodbye to Berlin by Isherwood not what I was expecting.
Galen not sure that English was more Germanic then or that we English were less lazy about learning other languages. Tried speaking German in Munich, I was spotted instantly as English and the waiter reverted to English. Have to admit his English was better than my German.
I've also noticed that in books where the characters were of a higher class they often spoke other languages, ie the Russian nobility talk in French to each other.
Saying that English did start off as a dialect spoken in Germany it probably sounded even more Germanic.
I've also just finished Ivanhoe, fantastic read better than Rob Roy.

Jane Eyre - Loved, loved, LOVED it!

"Twiligth" by Stephenie Meyer, looking forward to read "New Moon"

I just finished "A moment on the Edge". Not on the list, but a nice break to be reading short stories. I'm getting ready to go get Cocaine Nights from the car.

Kieffala,
Enjoy the first few pages of Cocaine Nights. That's as good as it gets.

Finished "Moon Palace" by Paul Auster. Quite a good quick read.

I loved Jane Eyre too. What a heroine!

I feel like the only person in the world that didn't know about "Twighlight" series, but now 3rd has come out to so many bad reviews I'm glad I wasn't hooked and looking forward to it.

Anne Rice's early books were enough vampire for me for a lifetime (with exception of course of DRACULA itself.

Happy reading!

The spy who came in from the cold by LeCarre. Fantastic book with a very clever and intricate plot, just what you would expect in a novel dealing with espionage at the height of the cold war.
The title basically deals with the term used when a spy wants to finish his career in the world of secrecy and come in out of the cold.
It's the first book I've read by LeCarre, couldn't put it down and ended up reading past midnight.

I know why the caged bird sings - fantastic memoir of an amazing author's formative years and the struggles inherent within. very quick and gripping read!!!

Just finished Ethan Frome - I enjoyed it and will definitely be reading the other Wharton on my bookshelf.

Courtney--

Yeah. Don't feel left out about Twilight because you are missing nothing. If you are someone who likes to read good books then I suggest you stay as far away from the Twilight series as possible. There's probably more plot in the first two pages of Dracula than in the whole of the Twilight series.

Deanne--

Have you seen the film? It's in beautiful black and white, and so entertaining! Lately I've been on a Le Carre cinema kick -- I'm watching the "Tinker Tailor Sailor Spy," and "Smiley's People" series.

i just finished Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - i breezed through it.

Just finished "Vanishing Act" by Jodi Picault. I don't think it's on the list, but it was a good read, and raised some interesting questions about identity, memory , and good and evil.

A Tale of Two Cities

Pamela
No I haven't seen the film, sounds interesting. I remember the BBC did some of LeCarres books but they were on after I'd been sent to bed, usually with much complaining.
Who's in the films. I know as a child there was a resurgence of espionage related media, I think it was mainly to do with Kim Philby and the Cambridge four, a ring of Brits who spied for the Russians. Philby died in 1986 and I think it all resurfaced again.
Nearly finished Ormond.

Yeah Haylee,

I'm pretty relieved. If I am going to read fantasy or vampires I go for Bram Stoker any day.

Peace!

Yeah Haylee,

I'm pretty relieved. If I am going to read fantasy or vampires I go for Bram Stoker any day.

Peace!

A Dry White Season by André Brink. This is a book I doubt I would ever have come across without the list. At first I thought "Oh no, another African book" (because I had so much trouble with A Question of Power) but this one was very readable. I gave it four stars.

Hi Pamela,
We tried to watch "Tinker Tailor..."recently, got it off Netflix but it was so dry and also confusing. It was the BBC TV production not the film you must be talking about because it was in color. Did you love the book?

Deanne, Maureen

Richard Burton is in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

Tinker Taylor, Sailor, Spy is based on the Philby affair. It is a lot of fun.

Maureen --I must confess, I have not read the book. Yes, I saw the BBC production, and it is confusing -- although it comes together later on, but it is a bit slow-going in the beginning.

The Black and White film is The Spy Who Came in the Cold. I like Tinker Tailor, but I think you might really enjoy the film version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Just finished The Book Thief. Thought it was on the list but it is not. Bet it gets on an update though.
It was good, not great but a good book. Starting , In the Name of the Rose, Umberto Ecco.
Has anyone else noticed that there are so many repeats of authors on the list...come on..can't there just be one book by each! ha ha ha!