I changed the book titles in the sidebar so I thought I would explain. I finished “Middlesex”, by Jeffrey Eugenides. I loved this book, even though it took me forever to finish. It is a compelling novel about a young girl who is born as a hermaphrodite; genetically male, but morphologically female, at least until puberty. The book is very well plotted, with scenes and characters that are vivid and alive. I haven’t read his “Virgin Suicides”, but liked this one so well I will probably get that to read as well.
I am partway through the Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt biography, which sounds horribly dull but is actually quite good. I have it on audio to listen to on my Ipod, and the narrator cracks me up. He does a wicked Winston Churchill imitation whenever the author quotes him.
Les Miserables is on the back burner. It’s also on audio, but I only got part 1 of it, and now the second part is unavailable. Plus it is nearly impossible to keep track of all the characters while listening to it rather than reading it in print. Live and learn.
I just started the Da Vinci Code, and am listening to that one as well. The Ipod is a wonderful way to listen to books and knit at the same time! I took it on our trip to Germany and “read” and knitted all the way over and back.
The Fforde book is one I am reading in print. It was recommended by Kim Salazar, and it is truly a wonderful book. It is not too taxing mentally, but not your typical mindless “whodunit”. It has enough literary references and plot twists to keep you reading. I am nearly done with that one, and have the second one in the series at the ready.
I loved Middlesex too. His descriptions were amazing — I could picture every scene perfectly. Plus I’m glad it covers too much time and has too many characters to be made into a Hollywood movie (knock on wood).
Middlesex was the best book I’ve read in a long time. I’m definitely going to add Virgin Suicides to my list now.
Where do you get audio books to listen to on your iPod? That’s a great idea, and I’d love to do the same thing!
Audible.com is where I get them. They have a couple of levels of membership, but the one I have is $19.95 a month; I get to download 2 books per month with this. They have a pretty wide selection.
Hmmmm…we seem to have similar reading taste. I started ” Da Vinci Code” with great anticipatory gusto , put it down, needed more info on Louvre, googled it, I devoured much ( I was an art history major )picked up ” Da Vinci” and promptly lost interest. I’ll try again. I love your blog…. I’ll bet my orange cat Ripley could TKO your orange cat Lucy ( If they held cat boxing matches)…Ripley is a heavyweight, and then some….sorry to ramble on,
Pat