What Are You Reading? September 2012

Ludmilla · Post by **Ludmilla** » Thu September 27th, 2012, 5:21 pm

Just finished Jetta Carleton's forgotten little gem of a novel, The Moonflower Vine, which is a family saga set during the first half of the 20th century in rural Missouri. I grew up in this area, so it was like stepping back in time to the world of my parents and grandparents. Similar to Harper Lee, this was the only novel published in the author's lifetime (though I see where a 2nd novel was recently discovered and posthumously published). Carleton was truly a gifted storyteller with a rare and canny ability to engage all of your senses and paint a picture with words.

R.W.Ware · Post by **R.W.Ware** » Thu September 27th, 2012, 7:04 pm

Finished Donald Maass's The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great, added Peter Straub's Floating Dragon. Read Steven Pressfield's Turning Pro. Still working on Duggan's Conscience of the King, Abercrombie's The Blade Itself and Sharon Kay Penman's Here Be Dragons. I must admit that I thought Penman's book would be much smoother. The dialogue is stilted and as-you-know-bob-ish and some of the scenes are cheesy and difficult for me to believe. And it's a might-thick tome for that to be an issue. I hope it gets better.

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Fri September 28th, 2012, 1:50 am

I have started Sister Queens by Sophie Periot.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Fri September 28th, 2012, 6:07 am

I have a stack of HF to finish up, so I'm back to Through a Glass Darkly. In non HF, I'm reading S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire for book group.

I have Riley's Marigold Chain on my kindle, but they made the font so tiny that I have to blow it up to second-to-largest setting just to get fewer than 800 words to a screen, which means that any time I switch to another book, I end up with three words on the page. I am not so entranced with the book that it's worth it.

Nefret · Post by **Nefret** » Fri September 28th, 2012, 6:14 am

The Hole in the Universe by K.C. Cole *pets new science book*

SCW · Post by **SCW** » Fri September 28th, 2012, 12:27 pm

Finished This Shining Land by Rosalind Laker
I've never read any novels about the German occupation of Norway before. There are a lot about the occupation of France, Italy, Poland, even the Channel Islands. I would like to read more

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Fri September 28th, 2012, 2:51 pm

Finished NF Aetius: Attila's Nemesis by Ian Hughes, a competent and useful biography. Now taking up an ARC from LibraryThing, Constantine the Emperor by David Potter from Oxford University Press.

rebecca · Post by **rebecca** » Sun September 30th, 2012, 4:44 am

I finished 'The Crown' and have just started to read 'The Casual Vacancy'(not HF-And it's definately not Harry Potter

) by J. K Rowling.

Bec

annis · Post by **annis** » Sun September 30th, 2012, 6:26 am

Posted by SCW

I've never read any novels about the German occupation of Norway before. There are a lot about the occupation of France, Italy, Poland, even the Channel Islands. I would like to read more

An old one I enjoyed was John Steinbeck's The Moon is Down. It's the story of resistance in a small Nowegian village. It's a bit of a classic, but not technically HF because it was published in 1942, during the war.

@ Rebecca: Casual Vacancy has been compared to Eliot's Middlemarch, and I was amused by a Guardian review which dubbed it Mugglemarch

Wolfshead · Post by **Wolfshead** » Sun September 30th, 2012, 11:54 am

The Leopard Sword by Anthony Riches. This guy is a great writer.