Thirteen hours- Deon Mayer.

The love of a good woman by Alice Munro.

Also, read it before coming to Switzerland. I was actually reading it while on vacation with my Swiss boyfriend. We definitely discussed quite a bit of the details. The book is very informative, but not a bible on Swiss culture/history.

I still find it interesting, that when having a party with 10 or so people, you have to clink the glasses with each person individually, and say their name while looking them in the eyes. In Canada, its simpler, we just raise our glasses all together in the middle, and say "cheers" lol

Oh and I just finished reading Shantaram, and about to start A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I'm reading Testament by Anita Shreve.
Some of her books leave me cold, and this one I've had sitting around for quite some time, because I haven't liked the last couple of books I've read.
I've got to the last few pages, and it's almost reduced me to tears once or twice towards the end.
It's a very simple story of life and love. Nothing too profound, but showing how one simple stupid act can snowball.
I'd recommend it, mainly to the ladies I suppose.

I'm reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. A fun read so far!

The knight in rusty armor by Robert Fisher.

Quite an interesting philosophical tale...

The Tin Drum- Gunter Grass.

Nemesis by Philip Roth - finished after trying to make it last.

Cued by the recent weather, just picked Man in the Holocene, by Max Frisch off the shelf (auf Deutsch natürlich) for a reread.

`The way of the knife`- by Mark Mazzetti.
The inside account of the CIA`s transformation, after 9/11, from an intelligence agency into a global killing machine . . . . . scary stuff and a really good read.

I'm midway through the book mentioned here: I've just published my first novel!

It's moving, well researched, excellently characterised with moral depth and maturity.

"The examined life" by Stephen Grosz is a beatiful book showing how a great psychoanalyst works to find the source of his client's problems. Not a word of jargon, just a series of short vignettes describing how Grosz strives to help people to understand themselves. Humane, because it also reveals his own fallibility.

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway.

Leslie Kean's UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record

Impressive by the quality of the persons she interviewed.

I'm reading "Quicksilver" by Neal Stephenson.

Set in England between 1666 and 1713, is, as always with Stephenson, a fascinating mix of history and fiction.

O Anibaleitor, by Rui Zink. (that's the Portuguese name, I don't know whether it was translated into English or not). A touching love statement for reading.

"Tender is the night" by Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

I am thinking that if the English Forum had been there in 1925, Dick and Nicole Diver would have been regular users.

If you are an American expat in Switzerland this is a must read.

"Perdido Street Station" by China Miéville.

The guy has an incredible imagination.

Paul Auster, fab. I enjoy him portraying complicated, personal stuff in a simple, direct way.

I'm reading "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndham in French (and trying to work out why they chose to translate the title as "Le Village des Damnés").

I'm also reading a book called "The Mind of the Maker" by Dorothy L Sayers (play writer and detective novelist), which explores how the act of creation, in particular writing, can be linked to basic Christian truths. Her main premise is that God is a creator and that mankind's instinct to create is one of the ways in which we are made in the "image of God". It's a fascinating blend of a theological treatise and a study on the nature of writing.

It is summer now, nothing too heavy. Consumed: How We Buy Class in Modern Britain by Harry Wallop is a "everyone is looking at me wondering why I am laughing to myself" sort of book.

How to be a Heroine, or What I've Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis is in many ways another one of those...so guess the guys in white coats will be meeting me at the station

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