What are you reading the week of Sunday, March 15, 2015?

[scarletwoman]

Hello, everyone.

This will be a very brief post - I've been sick all week and am not up to writing much.

This week I read two books, Forty Days Without Shadow (pretty cool, no pun intended), and The Life We Bury - mixed bag, some really good elements mixed with some unfortunate eye-rolling elements, would still recommend as interesting.

Anyway, here's the weekly thread, I'm counting on the rest of you to carry on.

I'm going back to bed.

[TexasProgresive]

1. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor, Dostoevsky

I read this in high school but being quite rebellious I don't think I really appreciated how good the writing is. I am in Chapter 5 of Part 1 and there are 6 parts with an epilogue. It was while reading The Murder of Harriett Krohn that my thoughts turned towards this book. Something about the murderer in that book resonated with what I remembered of Raskolnikov. The real shock is that I remembered anything of this book as I have not thought of it since 1967. The mind is a wondrous and STRANGE thing.

[Enthusiast]

3. TexasProgresive, is Crime and Punishment challenging to read?

Do you find it entertaining? I have always wondered about the great Russian literature. Should I or shouldn't I?

[TexasProgresive]

7. It has not been a hard read so far.

There are a lot of characters with Russian names (ya think?) but it is not hard to follow the action. If you want to take a peek at it you can read it online for free at the following site.
http://www.bartleby.com/318/11.html
Here's the first paragraphs of the opening chapter where we meet the main character, Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov, a student.

ON an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge. 1

He had successfully avoided meeting his landlady on the staircase. His garret was under the roof of a high, five-storied house, and was more like a cupboard than a room. The landlady, who provided him with garret, dinners, and attendance, lived on the floor below, and every time he went out he was obliged to pass her kitchen, the door of which invariably stood open. And each time he passed, the young man had a sick, frightened feeling, which made him scowl and feel ashamed. He was hopelessly in debt to his landlady, and was afraid of meeting her. 2

This was not because he was cowardly and abject, quite the contrary; but for some time past he had been in an overstrained, irritable condition, verging on hypochondria. He had become so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but any one at all. He was crushed by poverty, but the anxieties of his position had of late ceased to weigh upon him. He had given up attending to matters of practical importance; he had lost all desire to do so. Nothing that any landlady could do had a real terror for him. But to be stopped on the stairs, to be forced to listen to her trivial, irrelevant gossip, to pestering demands for payment, threats and complaints, and to rack his brains for excuses, to prevaricate, to lie—no, rather than that, he would creep down the stairs like a cat and slip out unseen.

[Enthusiast]

10. Thanks, TexasProgresive. That doesn't seem bad at all.

Perhaps one day I will read Crime and Punishment.

[Enthusiast]

2. Sorry that you have been feeling badly, scarletwoman. Thank you for creating the thread.

I am reading Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris.

I'm a bit behind on my reading due to the better weather and the basketball tournaments.

I put new line on three fishing rods, four rods to go. Now I have to change the oil on a boat and two motorcycles. This is a monumental task (to me) that will cut into my reading. This happens every spring.

Mrs. Enthusiast is reading The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah. The Point of Rescue is another of the books recommended by Tana French. Mrs. Enthusiast was having a slog with this one for a while. We didn't realize it was like the third in a series. My fault.

I hope you feel better soon, scarletwoman. We will soldier on without you.

[pscot]

4. The Forsyte Saga by Galsworthy

on e-reader, of course.

[shenmue]

5. Luke Delaney, "The Keeper"

[Enthusiast]

6. That sounds scary, shenmue.

I read about it on FF.

[shenmue]

9. It is.

I usually don't go for the gory ones, but I haven't read much Delaney, so I thought I'd give this book a try.

[TexasProgresive]

8. Rest well and get well, dear One.

[hermetic]

11. I'm back in Wales

with Rhys Bowen's third Inspector Evans tale, Evanly Choir. Like the others, this is light, easy reading, just perfect for a day in bed. Hope you feel better soon, scarletwoman.

[Paladin]

12. "The Whites," by Richard Price, writing as Harry Brandt

Another hard-as-nails police procedural from the great Richard Price ("Clockers," "Lush Life&quot . Currently on the NYT Best Seller list; rave reviews on the back cover from Stephen King, Michael Chabon, and Dennis Lehane. Hope somebody competent does a movie of it.

[japple]

13. Back to Oryx & Crake, which I will finish this week. Next, I'll read Book 2

in the MADDAdam trilogy--the Year of the Flood.