I finished the third section of Les Misérables this week. Finally. I feel really guilty saying this, but I'm not really in love with Hugo's masterpiece. At least right now. I am in serious like, but whenever I feel a bout of true endearment coming on he quenches the feeling by going off on tangents that may well last thirty pages or more. I'm sure it's all very important to the story, but it does slow things down rather abruptly just when I've gotten on a bit of a roll. So I've finished with "Marius" and am now embarking on "Saint-Denis". But first, a little lesson on the Revolution of 1830, and the changing of rulers and maybe a little something on Louis-Phillipe and we'll see what else. I love historical fiction, so I am not sure why I am dragging my feet so much with this book. Now that I've made it through three of the five sections and am well past the halfway mark, there is no turning back. I can see this is just the sort of book that is going to have painful moments as I go, but in the end it will have all been worth it and I'll forget the pain. Right?!
After really enjoying listening to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, I'm struggling to find something else equally as entertaining. The biggest factor for me in liking an audio book is having a good reader. A good reader reading a mediocre book can still be a pleasant experience, but a so-so reader will just ruin it for me no matter how good the book might be. I'm probably too picky, but I am very sensitive to how a voice sounds. I started listening to Sepulchre by Kate Mosse. For a while I was really enjoying it, but after a scene where the mother of one of the protagonists (the story flips back and forth in time, so really there are two main characters) was brutally murdered and well, other things were done to her as well, I started losing interest. As I have several books loaded on my player, I decided to give Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse a try. I really liked her fist book, but thought her second book was just okay. I think I may skip the third book altogether. I was surprised to discover that there is a man and woman reading this book. It's a strange set up, though. The woman seems to read all the parts except for one male character (the part of Jacob). The thing is she really doesn't change her voice at all to differentiate the 
parts and that started to grate on me. And I'm thinking that maybe the novelty of a teenage vampire has worn off no matter how beautiful Edward Cullan may be. So I'm not sure what to listen to. Maybe I should go back to podcasts again for a while.
Since I'll be returning The Sister to the library this week, I get to choose another library book to read. I've got it narrowed down to The Island of Eternal Love by Daina Chaviano, The Spiritualist by Megan Chance and The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman. I can't quite decide what I'm in the mood for. When you read something really good, sometimes it's hard to choose a book to follow it. Has anyone read any of these three? I know I seem to see Katie Hickman's novel popping up all over the place. While I decide I'll be reading Jane Austen (I was feeling a little tepid about it, but now that I am into the story again, I'm really enjoying it) and Bibi Gaston. I also need to choose a short story, which I haven't given much thought to this week. What will you be reading this weekend?