Any new books you're dying to read? I'm trying to be good and not check my Amazon wish list to see if anyone got me anything, but I'm hoping to have plenty to read in January.

What have you been reading lately? Anything good? Anything awful? Anything you'd like to recommend?

-- Anonymous, December 17, 1999

Answers

I've been on an Alison Weir kick (you're completely to blame for this, Beth). I've been through The Six Wives of Henry VIII and The Children of Henry VIII and am now ready for The Life of Elizabeth I. I'm also looking forward to the new Haruki Murakami book. It's been out for a while but I've been saving it for Christmas.

On a similar note, I've become addicted to looking at other people's Amazon wish lists. You can learn so much about the

-- Anonymous, December 17, 1999

Margaret George, Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles. Two weeks off ought to be more than enough time. If I can find Cold Comfort Farm today at the library, that too. After reading John Fowles's The Maggot, anything else by him. Like Jenn (call I call her Elphaba? that's a great handle), Murakami sounds good; I loved the fantastical Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. And because I read them within a month of each other, and oh maybe also because they're both Japanese, Murakami reminds me of Yukio Mishima, and I should read more of him too.

Plus I asked for a slew of books for Christmas, including Gail Carson Levine, who wrote Ella Enchanted, a retelling, sort of, of Cindarella (which makes me more anxious to read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Salon review to the contrary).

-- Anonymous, December 17, 1999

I'm waiting for my copy of "The Artist's Way" to arrive, courtesy of our beloved Beth C., doyenne of this here site.

Still re-reading "Dune" -- still stuck in with the Fremen. And I will no-doubt get a good book for Christmas from my folks (now if only my mother-in-law would get off her high horse and realize that books are what I value most in life next to the people I love and stop complaining about how hard I am to shop for, because I don't like chi-chi clothes and jewelry)

Hem.

Um yes -- for a truly excellent read, try "In A Dark Wood Wandering" by Hella Haasse. It's a novel about late 14th/early 15th century, featuring Charles VI and VII, two Dukes of Orleans and many other fascinating historical characters.

It's dense, poetic writing full of detail and intrigue. I couldn't put it down.

For your convenience, the Amazon ref: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0897333365/

-- Anonymous, December 17, 1999

Let me advertise "King Leopold's Ghost; a Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa," by Adam Hochschild (Houghton Mifflin 1998). It details how the Congo's natural resources -- including, most importantly, people -- were exploited by Europe in the Scramble for Africa, circa 1865 to 1910. The tale is told in crisp and chilling summary. I can't say I've enjoyed reading about the atrocities committed on helpless civilians, but I'm finishing the book with the satisfying, shaky feeling that I had when I left the theatre after "Dead Man Walking." Try it if you're liking laissez faire capitalism too much.

-- Anonymous, December 17, 1999

oooh. I just read a completely wonderful book by Nicholas Evans. He is the one that wrote 'Horse Whisper' or is is whisperer? I can't remember this late at night BUT. The new one 'The Loop'. Is absolutely wonderful. It's a good story and I read the complete book in less then 18 hours.

Also. I love romance books. Unashamedly. Nora Roberts is fantastic. She has a new trilogy coming out and I read the first one: 'Jewels of The Sun'. Irish folklore, Ireland, true love. Mmmm.

I'm also eagerly awaiting the delivery of my very first Harry Potter... books. The first two in the series!

Trying to get into Anne Rice 'Cry to Heaven'. It's a stretch right now. I'm trying.

-- Anonymous, December 17, 1999

right now i'm in the middle of taking the wall, by a woman named jonis agee. i bought it for a class next term, and started it out of boredom, and it turned out to be really wonderful. it's a collection of short stories about stock car racing, not a topic i'm usually interested in, but agee writes beautifully. whole heartedly reccommend this one.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 1999