What Are You Reading? March 2012

princess garnet · Post by **princess garnet** » Mon March 26th, 2012, 11:52 pm

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.
First published in 1838 and was written as a serial. I started reading this 3 years ago but stopped. With Dickens's bicentennial birthday this year, it seemed like a good idea to restart this novel.

emr · Post by **emr** » Tue March 27th, 2012, 6:56 am

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Tue March 27th, 2012, 11:06 am

I'm reading Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death that Changed the Monarchy by Helen Rappaport (NF).

bevgray · Post by **bevgray** » Tue March 27th, 2012, 11:23 am

Still working through the Nevil Shute's I haven't read before.

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Tue March 27th, 2012, 2:36 pm

Finished Cry to Heaven and now for something completely different: Hillary's Choice by Gail Sheehy.

Brenna · Post by **Brenna** » Tue March 27th, 2012, 5:44 pm

Hunger Games

LoobyG · Post by **LoobyG** » Tue March 27th, 2012, 6:05 pm

[quote=""lauragill""]I had to do the same with Daughter of Troy. It started out interestingly enough, in the Greek camp, but then there's this extended flashback in which Briseis spreads her legs for what seems like every prince in Anatolia who isn't named Hector or Paris. The author could have truncated this, and given us more about what happens to Briseis in the years after the war.[/quote]

I got to that part Laura and just lost interest completely, it's a bookcrossing book so I'm going to send it on its travels again I think

I did enjoy the beginning in the Greek camp but Briseis just loved herself a little too much for me. I've struggled a bit to get into Shute's 'In the Wet', so I've put that aside too for the moment and am starting 'Marie, Mistress of the Islands' by Robert Gaillard - not heard of him before, it's set in the Caribbean islands in the 18th century

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed March 28th, 2012, 12:33 am

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas.

lauragill · Post by **lauragill** » Wed March 28th, 2012, 2:18 am

[quote=""LoobyG""]I got to that part Laura and just lost interest completely, it's a bookcrossing book so I'm going to send it on its travels again I think

I did enjoy the beginning in the Greek camp but Briseis just loved herself a little too much for me. I've struggled a bit to get into Shute's 'In the Wet', so I've put that aside too for the moment and am starting 'Marie, Mistress of the Islands' by Robert Gaillard - not heard of him before, it's set in the Caribbean islands in the 18th century

[/quote]

Had all those sex scenes served a purpose, it would have been different. In fact, it's historically inaccurate, because Lyrnessos is being portrayed as a Minoan-type matriarchy when it would have been an Anatolian state with Anatolian customs and gods. It either would have been a dependency of Wilusa, or possibly part of the Arzawa Confederacy.

The author should have cut most of that stuff out and developed Briseis beyond the Trojan War. How did she come to live in the ruins of Mycenae? What did she witness while she was there?

Berengaria · Post by **Berengaria** » Wed March 28th, 2012, 3:02 am

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]I'm reading Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death that Changed the Monarchy by Helen Rappaport (NF).[/quote]
I read the sample chapters and I liked the diction...very easy to read!