This sticky has never quite returned since the evil hacker...

Since finishing my Betsy-Tacy read-through on the 17th, I've been floundering a little (since I really want more Betsy-Tacy and there isn't any ). Only book completed: Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke. Thanks to whoever recommended it! (lost in hacking) I enjoyed both the story itself -- except it kept me up too late because I had to finish -- and the author's choice of quotes. The ending left a few things dangling, though. Is there a sequel?

Current reading:
To promote restful nights: Return to Thrush Green (Miss Read) to promote restful nights
Improving reading; The First Emancipator. The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves. (Andrew Levy).

But I still have to decide on airplane books for tomorrow!

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Castor oil: Triacylglycerol from Ricinus communis containing hydroxy-fatty acids.

What am I reading.....
Elsie in the South - Martha Finley (I only have four more titles to go for a complete set.)

Stormy Petrel - Violet Needham, and thank you very much GGB.

Badger's Moon - Peter Tremayne

Third volume of Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy

A Crack in the Edge of the World - Simon Winchester

Longitude - Dava Sobel

Hand of Ethelberta - Thomas Hardy

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Windscreen broken. Cause unknown. Probably voodoo.
He sat musing with the dead chicken in his hand.....

What am I reading?

The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd

Dear Departed - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - detective fiction and a complete contrast to her Morland Dynasty series

The Stormy Petrel - also thanks to GGBP, who may yet turn me into a Violet Needham reader, something I never was in my salad days. But the ones they've republished so far are so deliciously Ruritanian, at least IMHO.

Didn't realise there was more than one title in The Suitable Boy series, either - thanks Cath, I'll have to look out for the other two.

Have also just read two very good 'plane reads' but have lent them to a friend and if you think I can remember either of the titles now.....!!

It's so true what you said Kathy - the feeling after finishing a long read-through is one of vulnerability and unsuredness (is that a word?!). You're almost afraid to read anything else in case it takes you down an unfamiliar path.

After I finished the mahoosive (thanks Mia for that word!) readthrough of CS books a couple of weeks ago, I've read:

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Women in the Wall by Julia O'Faolain

I've talked about the first two in other threads. The third is ongoing and is a fictional (but based on a true story...) account of Queen Radegund, a Thuringian princess who was stolen as loot and then brought up to marry one of the Frankish kings. These are my PhD people, and it's great to see them come to life like is only possible in fiction novels.

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[size=75]"Somehow, he felt, as he had never felt before, the want of a woman to sit facing him as he read a new book on pulmonary complaints." (Jean of Storms)

Graaargh, I can't remember which order they go in, but there's Inkheart and Inkspell, with a third volume due out late this year, I believe. Will check with Useful Housemate later.

I'm not properly reading anything: when i grow up i am going to read Philippa Gregory and Jasper Fforde, but I daren't start them with the PhDofDoom still half-baked... At the moment am reading Wish for a Pony, by Monica Edwards, and have just finished According to Jennings (Antony Buckeridge) and Friday's Tunnel (John Verney).

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I'm not leading you astray: I'm walking beside you.

Ahh, it's so nice to now think "what am I reading?" without having to dredge up titles of things I was being forced to read at uni. *sighs happily*

Bedtime reading isThe Call Up by Tom Hickman which is a history of National Service and Asa Briggs' Social History of England, which recall using a lot for A level history.

Gym reading is a Famous Five reread whilst cross training & exercise biking to keep my mind off it

Book in my handbag is An Honourable Defeat by Anton Gill about the German Resistance to Hitler.

And I have a collection of Saki short stories on the go back at my parentals which I forgot to bring back with me to finish

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"I've noticed very few people are scary once they've been poked in the eye" Temperance Brennan, Bones

Spending the weekend reading so my list is rather long:
Jo of the CS
Rebel at the CS
New House at the CS
In the High Valley
Merry Begins
More About Rebecca
Sprig Muslin
Charity Girl
Regency Buck
An Infamous Army
The Clicking of Cuthbert
Wizard's holiday
A Gentleman of Leisure
Faun & Games
2 random chick lit books - no idea what they are called
Jean Nouvel - Les elements de l'architecture

I've just finished The Ready-made family by Antonia Forest and am about to start The Chevalier, one of the Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Morland series

Just finishing Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, finding it hard to put down, about a Spanish boy who finds a rare book in the cemetry of lost books and tries to find out about the author. Thriller, love story, interesting characters. Recommend it.

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52/52 books - whoopee!

I've just finished reading Regeneration by Pat Barker. I studied World War One texts for A-level lit recently, and that book is one of my favourites. I have a soft spot for books with early mentions of homosexuality.

A friend lent me The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis, although I've not got very much into this yet. We tend to have similar taste in novels though, so I'm willing to give it a go.

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these precious illusions in my head did not let me down when I was a kid
and parting with them is like parting with invisible best friends
- Alanis Morissette - Precious Illusions

I have just finished 'The killer joke' by Anthony Horowitz, hilarious
Very similar to Jasper Ffordes books.

It's a fanstastic book, Ali, isn't it? We read it at our reading group and it made for interesting discussions. I love it too.

Open on the sofa downstairs at the moment I have The Mystery of The Hidden House by Enid Blyton

Next to the bed I have Return to Thrush Green by Miss Read and An Order for Death by Susanna Gregory

Elsewhere about the house I have I Never Knew that About England by Christopher Winn and Sharpe's Havoc by Bernard Cornwell

I also have Read Me Two, which is a book with a poem for each day of the year. There are probably a few others around as well, but I can't remember the details at the moment

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“I have had too much experience of life to believe in the infallibility of doctors. Some of them are clever men and some of them are not, and half the time the best of them don’t know what is the matter with you.” ~ Miss Marple

I am about to start Anne of Green Gables for the very first time, so I will prolly read nothing else until it is finished!

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‎"To have a second language is to have a second soul." Charlemagne
"Two languages in one head? No-one can live at that speed!" Eddie Izzard

I'm about to go on holiday and so have packed, with my sister, a silly amount of books, given that we're going for 2 weeks. It includes, naturally, a large amount of CS for research and enjoyment purposes, Nicholas Nickleby, Vanity Fair, Once and Future King (T.H. White), The Looking Glass Wars (Frank Bedor), Boy Meets Girl (Meg Cabot) and a lot of other stuff that I've already forgotten. Hurrah for two weeks without tv. Hurrah for the fact that Neighbours is n't on during our break from tv.

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...Brown geese that fly with the moon on their wings...

Current reading:

The Ship Who Searched - Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes Lackey

The Kalahari Typing School for Men - Alexander McCall Smith

The Sixth Form at St Clare's - Pamela Cox (Enid Blyton)

Jingo - Terry Pratchett

Himalaya - Michale Palin

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Lime Green Musing http://www.annersley.co.uk
New RCS started on Lime Green Musing

My current reading...

Beauvallet - Georgette Heyer - it's so nice when a book you really really really want suddenly pops up in your library! Prob not going to be one of my fave GH's, but good read.

Little Lord Fauntleroy - F H Burnett - never read it before and vaguely felt I ought to, being a classic and all! OK but said Little Lord is even worse than OOAO.

Espresso Tales - by Alexander Stuart McCall

Have recently reread all of the Anne books (thanks to Project Gutenberg!)

Also thoroughly enjoyed 'Over the Edge' by Michael Bane. Story of an American man who decides to try a whole heap of extreme sports.

Realised except for the last book on Lesley's list that I have read all of hers!!

My kind of thinking!

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[size=75]"Somehow, he felt, as he had never felt before, the want of a woman to sit facing him as he read a new book on pulmonary complaints." (Jean of Storms)

I'm reading the three Science of the Discworld books. I can understand some of the science and almost understand some of the complex things that they explain.

Re Georgett Heyer, an article in one of the newspapers last week defended her as a good read. I agree. I love her books. When I was at school, our elderly History mistress told us to read Georgette Heyer to help us to understand the Regency period. And how anyone can understand the Battle of Waterloo without reading 'An infamous Army' passes my comprehension. I love 'The Grand Sophy' and 'The Nonesuch'.

ETA: I popped into Oxfam today and bought 2nd hand copy of 'The Full Cupboard of Life' by Alexander McCall Smith today, a good find at 99p.

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Carpe diem, carpe noctem, carpe pecuniam et exe, celerrime.
A certain edge when she spoke of Mrs Maynard, certainly, but, after all, not everyone could love Joey.
'Life,' said Marvin, 'don't talk to me about life!'