I’ve read While Christ and his Saints Slept, it’s quite good. I knew very little about that period in history and learned a lot. I actually got interested in it because of the Cadfael books being set in the same time. I didn’t realize the next one was out, thanks for mentioning it!
Have you read The Sunne in Splendour? It deals with Richard III, he’s not quite the villain as depicted in other works. I really enjoyed it.
oooh, loved Little Green Men, Miss Creant! It’s amazing how often I find myself in a (self-created) position to quote my favoite line:
"It’s so hard to find dwarfs who can pass the background check."
dwyr–once you read Mists of Avalon go back and read The Forest House and Lady of Avalon. Gives the history of a few of the chars in Mists and I found both extremely interesting.
As for me…I just finished Young Wives by the same lady wrote the First Wives Club and it was hilarious.
I also just finished The Talented Mr.Ripley which was suprisingly dark and spooky.
I am about to start on The Loop by Evans (the guy who wrote the Horse Whisperer which I lurved), which so far seems to be very good.
On my list for this summer is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, of course and possibly Les Miserables by Hugo.
IDBB
Yup, but Sunne in Splendor is one of three books by Penman that I don’t have copies of yet. I liked it a lot when I read it (in 96 or 97), so much so I took it out of the library twice. I’m probably going to buy it to reread again after finishing the 50 book challenge, only because I don’t count re-reads, and it’s a sizeable book. The only book of hers, besides the one I just got, that I haven’t read yet is the mystery that isn’t *Cruel as the Grave - part of the reason I haven’t read it is that I never remember what it’s called, lol. Something about the queen, I think.
Sadly, Kumar and Clark’s Textbook of Clinical Medicine.
I’ve just re-read Samuel Shem’s House of God, which made me even more worried about my rotation on Monday.
Phillip Suskind’s Perfume was the last non-medical related book, which I really enjoyed.
Empire from the Ashes tis like starwars on steroids. David Weber
I should finish up Wuthering Heights tonight – just picked it up off of my bookshelf and thought ‘hey, I’ve never read this.’ After that I’m likely going to read the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake… written in the 1940s, it’s a pretty excellent chronicle of a dusty, ancient castle and its denizens, very grey people inhibited by their decorum and traditions… beautifully written, if you like your fantasy epics (nothing supernatural but I would still classify it as fantasy) written very purple-y.
I’m currently reading Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot
Cool book, I don’t even like geometry
Currently I’m reading Skin Flutes and Velvet Gloves. Entertaining as much as edifying, really. Next up is Ahab’s Wife by Naslund, If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Calvino, That Old Ace in the Hole by Proulx, and I need to get back to reading Terkel’s American Dreams. Then the second week of vacation…
Oh yes, I always read Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, because it’s the sort of summer I wish I could have had.
I just finished reading the first three Harry Potter books and the last three Deathgate novels by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. I’m in-between books tonight. I’ll probably re-read something from Heinlein or Edgar Rice Burroughs until I get a new book.
Currently reading: Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger; Tor! the story of german football.
Nikolaj Gogol; Petersburg tales. (When commuting to/from work.)
Snorre Sturlason; The prose edda. (When on the toilet)
“It’s Almost Summer! What Are You Reading?”
Do some people only read in the summer? I think it best to read year around. It’s good for you.
No, it’s just that it’s a few months early for the “It’s Almost Fall! What Are You Reading?” thread.
Last night I finished Crisis Four by Andy McNab. Dammit, I need to go out and buy some more books because I’ve got nothing new to read.
Right now I’m reading all sorts of stuff by Ken Follet.
This is giving me some good ideas. I’m heading to the mountains of New Mexico soon to spend a couple of weeks by myself. I hope to do a LOT of reading (and hopefully a lot of writing, too).
My current reads are:
Tales From Watership Down by Richard Adams - I am really enjoying this because what I loved most about Watership Down were the fables and legends that were interspersed through the main story, and Tales has more of these.
Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl. I came across this in the sale stacks of the library and remembered reading an exerpt from it in grade school. If you don’t know, it’s about a cultural anthropologist from Norway in the 1950s who wanted to prove that it was possible for the Polynesian Islands to have been settled by natives from Peru. So he gets a crew of six men (mostly other European scholar-types) and they build a raft from balsa logs (!) and set out from Peru to cross the Pacific. It is an incredible tale and the story is well-told in the book.
BadBaby I hope you enjoy Ahab’s Wife! I loved it. When it came out there was some discussion here, and it was criticized for presenting a too “modern” heroine. I disagree. There were many progressive females in nineteenth century America, a few of whom actually show up in the book.
Hey I Love Me, Vol. I stick around and you’ll see that there’s a “what are you reading” thread every couple months. The ‘summer’ bit was only an attempt to be seasonal. 
dwyr and other Avalon lovers: I made it to the library on Saturday and saw the other books! I wish I’d seen your post I_Dig_Bad_Boys. Maybe I’ll pick them up on my next haul. For now I have A Thousand acres by Jane Smiley; The Secret History by Donna Tartt, (jarbabyj’s recommendation), Fair and Tender Ladies (which I’ve already read; it’s wonderful) and Black Mountain Breakdown by Lee Smith; Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King; and The Rainmaker by Grisham. That should hold me for a while!
Polished off Alec Baldwin Doesn’t Love Me & Other Trials from My Queer Life yesterday—absolutely hysterically funny.
Currently in the midst of The Family Tree by Sheri Tepper, which is terrific, although it’s taking a while for the two threads of the story to merge; also re-reading one of John Dunning’s book mysteries (for the life of me, I can’t remember if it’s Booked to Die or The Bookman’s Wake).
I also bought The Alienist by Caleb Carr and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters over the weekend (hey, Lambda Rising was having a sale!). I love Waters—read Affinity last week. Sarah Waters rocks, by the way—IMHO, one of the best lesbian writers since folks like Dorothy Allison and Jeannette Winterson emerged on the scene. Her books are true pleasure reading, too.
booklover – I loved Affinity, which is the only book by Sarah Waters I’ve read – let me know what you think of Fingersmith.
Also loved The Family Tree, which I wanted to get for cranky for the book exchange, but I couldn’t find a copy of it --Amazon had NO Tepper when I looked.
I’m now reading kurt vonnegut’s “Timequake” and in a few days I’ll start on a book by Henry David Thoreau titled, “Faith in a seed”.
I’m sure there will be lots more such as more hemmingway, welsh and Palahniuks new one which come out soon…