What book are you currently reading or what was the last book you read?

I'm reading "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov (Yesterday I bought it, a hardcover published in the Everyman's Library series by Alfred A. Knopf), it's wonderfully translated from the Russian by Michael Glenny. You'd love it, it's also published in paperbacks with reasonable prices, but I don't know if its translator's the same person. The last book I read was "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston, also a great novel on her family's plights as Chinese immigrants in the US after World War II even though her mother was a doctor.

I admire your reading since I've never read Dostoyevsky at all, any recommendations for "Crime and Punishment" to me?, thanks. I tried to read "War and Peace" by Tolstoy (the latest English translation into English published by Penguin Books) but I stopped months ago, I hope to reread it when I'm on long holidays later.

I'm currently reading Brothel, Mustang Ranch. It's the behind the scenes, not necessarily in the behind the scenes in the bedroom, but what it takes to work in the business as a legal prostitute. 12 hours on and 12 hours off; line ups when the doorbell rings; make a deal and then proceed to the cashier; tip everyone that looks your way AND give the house half your take. Oh, and still pay room and board. Sorry. You didn't ask for a review or summary, did you? And I still have some pages to go.

I just finished Night. I knew it had great reviews and I finally got a copy. Today at a football game when my friend mentioned marching and how someone had to take more steps to keep up(there's a dad that pushes his tuba-playing son who is in a wheelchair and sometimes he gets out of step), it brought back some of the very vivid images in this book about life (or more like survival) in a concentration camp. The author's father can't stay in step and he's beaten repeatedly. Other things he saw, heard and smelled were disturbing. Somehow he was able to hold on to his humanity. Quite a read.

I'm reading "Hatchet," by Gary Paulsen. I haven't read it in years, but I remembered liking it. I just finished reading Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," and strangely, the two books have a lot in common.

But "Crime and Punishment" is my favorite book. I read it for a high school class (we could choose whatever we wanted), and one day, the teacher had us all explain what was happening in our books. Most people said things like, "He's becoming a basketball star," or "The characters are falling in love." I was the only one who got to say, "He's hiding out because he just murdered two people with an axe." Coming from me-- the quiet student who didn't get into trouble-- I think it surprised everyone.

It's a violent book, which people don't expect from a "classic." But it's not mindlessly violent, and Raskolnikov is really haunted by that act.

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe vs. Wade by Ann Fessler

Very good book. My huband's maternal grandmother was forced to surrender a child and his mother found about it after her death. These two half sisters found each other and it had a huge impact on the extended family. I was always intrigued by the story, and when I read a review in the NYT I had to find this book; it was well worth it.

I'm reading The Dollmaker by Harriette Simpson Arnow, it an interesting book, with tons off mental imagery for your brain to chew on. The theme is poverty, and how advances in technology does not mean a way out of poverty for many poor in America. Sad book, it also shows you that you have to fight for what you want/stand for or you will lose it. Another theme is conforming and becoming like everyone else to survive, giving up identity for acceptance. This book deals with so many themes, and I feel they are still very relevant w/ today's society.....a really good book!

I finished The Night of The Burning: Devorah's Story by Linda Press Wulf last night. It is a great book. Although the book cover just doesn't do it justice. It is about two young girls who are orphaned in Poland in 1920 after 'Cossaks provoke Christian Poles to attack their Jewish neighbors.' As their communities sole survivors, they are rescued and sent to an orphanage. There they are selected to be part of a group of 200 Jewish children being sent to South Africa. The novel takes place in Poland, England, and South Africa. It is very interesting. Very exciting. And it is based on a true story.

I just finished Shakespeare's _Titus Andronicus_ for a class (it's considered his earliest tragedy and so isn't exactly the "brilliant" Shakespeare stuff we're accustomed to). It's rather gross, a tale of gruesome revenge in which Titus' daughter is raped and then her tongue cut out and hands cut off, and, in revenge, her rapists are baked into a pie and fed to their mother. But the movie _Titus_ starring Anthony Hopkins (and based on the play) is excellent. It's great to read the play and watch the movie side by side.

I'm on a Dean Koontz fest at the moment.

The current book is Winter Moon. The previous one was The Eyes of Darkness. And I have a stack of about 12 more I plan on reading this month.

I just finished the Hitchhiker's trilogy: the restaurant at the end of the universe by Douglas Adams, and I'm currently reading the Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon.

I recently finished The Time Machine, by Wells; it was one of our required readings for a class, and I've read it before, but I still like it. Outside of class, the last book I read was Lisey's Story by Stephen King. I enjoyed this one as well; it was better written than much of his recent literature.