What are you reading in general?

[Dragonlily]

I don't want to tell any more about the plot. CAST OF SHADOWS develops so naturally and organically that it wouldn't be right to jump ahead of the step-by-step character growth.

[kevinswatch]

Have you really not finished Runes yet?

On page 194, I think. -jay

[Reisheiruhime]

i IS b reenin bad fnficton.

Really bad fanfiction.

[dennisrwood]

A Field Guide to the Shells
Of Our Atlantic Coast

by Percy A. Morris
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University

1947


found it at the hospital while getting x-rays

[Rincewind]

I don't want to tell any more about the plot. CAST OF SHADOWS develops so naturally and organically that it wouldn't be right to jump ahead of the step-by-step character growth.

why not like, clone his daughter

[Dragonlily]

It wouldn't be her. The clone would grow up with different experiences than the daughter did. It would be like raising someone who had stolen her face.

[variol son]

I have just read one of the most moving books I have ever read; The Five People you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

It is the story of Eddie, an 82 year old man who dies and finds that when you first get to heaven, you have your earthly life explained to you.

A truly beautiful story that I would reccommend to anyone, though I thing Tracie, Fist and Michael would love it especially. Both of the quotes from my signiture are from the book.

Wow is all I can say.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[duchess of malfi]

Mitch Albom is our long time local sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Long before he wrote that book and became well known, he was loved around here for his unusual and moving sports columns. I remember one from many years ago that he wrote about backpackers in the western US. One had gotten lost and the authorities had to send out dogs to find him. The dogs led the rescuers through miles of desert wilderness to find the lost, hurt hiker. The dogs suffered from pain and injury in the attempt. When they finally found him, their only reward was being able to lie down next to him and lick his face. I am not ashamed to admit that the story of the dogs made me cry like a baby. And it is rather telling that I can remember a newspaper column years after the fact.

Tonight I started reading the latest novel by a marvelous writer named Susan Vreeland.

The first book I read by her was called Girl in Hyacinth Blue and it followed a painting by Dutch master Vermeer back through time and showing its impact on its owners through the generations. The story of the Dutch Jewish family who owned it during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands was particularly moving.

The second book was called The Passion of Artemesia, and told the story of a great (and little known) woman painter. But her story also tells how an artist's greatest passion can be for his or her art, and how an artist can be married to the creative drive rather than to another human...wonderful stuff.

Here is the Barnes & Noble review:

In her luminous debut novel, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland told the story of a Vermeer painting that transformed the lives of its many owners with its beauty. Now, in her stunning new novel, she tells the story of a painter who transformed Renaissance Italy with the beauty of her work. The Passion of Artemisia chronicles the extraordinary life of Artemisia Gentileschi, the first woman to make a significant contribution to art history.

At age eighteen, Artemisia Gentileschi finds herself humiliated in papal court for publicly accusing the man who raped her -- Agostino Tassi, her painting teacher. When even her father does not stand up for her, she knows she cannot stay in Rome and begs to have a marriage arranged for her. Her new husband, an artist named Pietro Stiatessi, takes her to his native Florence, where her talent for painting blossoms and she becomes the first woman to be elected to the Accademia dell'Arte. But marriage clashes with Artemisia's newfound fame as a painter, and she begins a lifelong search to reconcile painting and motherhood, passion and genius.

Set against the glorious backdrops of Rome, Florence, and Genoa, peopled with historical characters such as Cosimo de' Medici and Galileo, and filled with the details of the life of a Renaissance painter, The Passion of Artemisia is the story of Gentileschi's struggle to find love, forgiveness, and wholeness through her art. At once a dramatic tale of love and a moving father-daughter story, it is the portrait of an astonishing woman that will captivate lovers of Gentileschi's paintings and anyone interested in the life of a woman who ignored the conventions of her day and dared to follow her heart.

I was very excited and happy to see a new Vreeland book at the store the other day. It is called The Forest Lover and tells the story of a great Canadian painter, Emily Carr, who breaks out of the strict Victorian life expected of her in early 20th century British Columbia, in order to befriend and paint the Native Americans whose traditions and way of life are either rapidly changing or vanishing altogether. I have only read the first few chapters, but it looks as if Vreeland has delivered once again.

She is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.

[Loredoctor]

I have just read one of the most moving books I have ever read; The Five People you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

It is the story of Eddie, an 82 year old man who dies and finds that when you first get to heaven, you have your earthly life explained to you.

A truly beautiful story that I would reccommend to anyone, though I thing Tracie, Fist and Michael would love it especially. Both of the quotes from my signiture are from the book.

Wow is all I can say.

Sum sui generis
Vs

Will try and find it!

Nice quotes.

[Ainulindale]

Non-genre book I'm reading is Zorro (well it could be genre I guess)

[The Leper Fairy]

I'm reading Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. It's hilarious.

"Ting-a-ling!"

[Lord Mhoram]

Robert Graves' I, Claudius.

[duchess of malfi]

Robert Graves' I, Claudius.

Ooooo, good one!

[danlo]

Learning With Purpose-a teacher's "Self Determination" manual for at-risk students, by my Professor.

[Dragonlily]

THE CRAZY DERVISH AND THE POMEGRANATE TREE by Farnoosh Moshiri. She was an established writer in Iran but became a political refugee, studied so she could write in English. This book is in-depth short stories. It's obvious that she has really listened to people with other experiences, in addition to writing from her own.

I also have her novel THE BATHHOUSE. Have to read that next.

[Damelon]

Robert Graves' I, Claudius.

Ooooo, good one!

I agree.

[CovenantJr]

Finished The Real Story a couple of days ago. I own books 4 and 5, but in the absence of 2 and 3 I've moved on to Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

[Dragonlily]

I recently reread REDISCOVERY by her, CJ. It was coauthored by Mercedes Lackey. Yours must be the one where humans originally landed/wrecked on Darkover, is that right?

[CovenantJr]

That's right. Being a slow reader (I read at the speed of speech) I haven't made much progress. So far it's like an episode of Kirk-era Star Trek

[Avatar]

Busy on Attilla:A barbarian king and the fall of Rome by John Man.

Too soon to have a proper opinion, but he seems to be trying to be very scholarly. My suspicion, as yet unverified, is that this would have done better as a historical fiction, but I'll see how it goes.

--A