What are you reading this month, dopers?

[XaMcQ]

Tell a little about what books you just read, are reading, and plan to read next. Why did you pick them? Did you enjoy them? Etc.

This month I've read Young Men and Fire, by Norman MacLean, about the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire that claimed the lives of fourteen Smoke Jumpers. My younger brother is a firefighter, so I'm interested in stories about fighting fires, and the reviews on amazon.com were mostly good. I found the story fascinating but the prose hard to put up with. From there I jumped to Sebastian Junger's FIRE, which also has an account of a forest fire disaster, along with accounts of reporting from a war zone and other interesting pieces.

Then it was back to fiction. I read a pretty intriguing first novel by Kit Whitfield, called Benighted, in which she creates a world where almost everyone is a lycanthrope, and tells us what it is like for the few who aren't, along with a murder mystery.

Rachel Caine's new Weather Warden book: Firestorm, was sadly disappointing. This is book five in the series of fast-paced action/paranormal/romance books about a secret group of paranormally talented people who control the elements of Fire, Air & Water, and Earth, with the mostly unwilling help of the enslaved djinn. I loved the first three, was a bit let down by the fourth and found the fifth one too repetitious and chaotic, with too much happening and not enough of it forwarding the plotlines laid down in the previous novels.

I took a step down to a book I expected to be bad: Josepha Sherman's The Shattered Oath. Standard fantasy fare about an exiled Prince of the Fae in the human realm. It was cliche and amatuerish in spots, but not as terrible as I thought it might be, and it was free anyway.

Much anticipated books have just arrived in the mail, though!

To Ride a Rathorn, by P.C. Hodgell is what I'm reading now. Hodgell is a marvellous fantasy writer whose books come out way too far apart. This is book four of a series she started in 1982 with God Stalk, and you do need to have read them all, in order. But it's great stuff. I expect to love it.

Robin Hobb's new book, Forest Mage also arrived. I loved the Farseer works, and while I didn't like the first book in this series as much as I loved those, I admired her ambition to do something entirely different and difficult besides.

Also, I'm looking forward to reading E.E. Knight's Valentine's Exile, book five of the Vampire Earth books. These books about a ragtag group of human resisters fighting back against an alien occupation kick ass and take names.

Books in route to me from paperbackswap.com are A Perfect Storm, which I have read from the library and will reread when I get it, and Faery in Shadow by C.J. Cherryh(a favorite writer most of the time).

How's about you guys?

[Queen Bruin]

I'm re-reading Dune in-between all my readings for school (Ostrogorsky and Tacitus, anyone?). I like to read it every few years or so* and find that like in re-readings of LOTR, I notice details that I hadn't before.

I've never read any of the other books in the Dune series, but I've heard bad things. I'm still deciding whether I'll go there or not.

*usually at weird life crossroads, where I benefit the most from getting the Litany Against Fear pounded into my head every 50 pages or so.

[Guinastasia]

I'm re-reading two Star Wars novels and I just checked out a bunch of books from the library as well. I'm reading them two at a time:

Princesses: the Six Daughters of George III by Flora Fraser

And a novel entitled The Kitchen Boy: a Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander

I also have Keith Olbermann's new book on order from Amazon.com. I can't wait until it gets here!

[blondebear]

Three Days to Never by Tim Powers. I always hoping that he'll come up with something that I like as much as The Anubis Gates. I'm about 40 pages in--so far, so good.

[silenus]

S. M. Stirling's A Meeting At Corvallis arrived last week, so it's currently being read. Next up will likely be Robert Rankin's The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.

[susan]

I just read To Feel Stuff, which was set in the Brown University Infirmary and was really not worth the time. I've just started Mapping the World of Harry Potter, a collection of essays by SF writers I mostly haven't heard of. I ordered A Meeting in Corvallis from SFBC, but somehow they didn't register it, damn it, so I'm having to re-order.

I have the second set of Gene Wolfe "Sun" books waiting, and about 10 non-fiction works on Southeast Asia. I'll probably re-read HP and the Order of the Phoenix and HP and the Half-Blood Prince in the next few weeks.

[koeeoaddi]

I'm in the middle of The True History of the Kelly Gang (http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Kelly-Gang-Peter-Carey/dp/0571209874), by Peter Carey. A fictional account of the life and death of Australia's famous outlaw, Ned Kelly and an amazing book -- evocative, incredibly well imagined and genuinely exciting. It won the Booker Prize in 2001 and it's an adjectival* page turner.

*Since the book is presented as a series of journals and letters from Ned Kelly to his baby daughter, our hero tries to clean up his language to spare her delicate sensibilities. He substitutes "adjectival" for the more colorful expletive -- as in "Shut your adjectival mouth or I'll blow your adjectival head off." It's my new favorite word. :)

[AuntiePam]

I just finished Forever by Pete Hamill, which I must have heard about from a Doper. It's about a young man who emigrates to America from Ireland in 1740, seeking vengeance. In America he's given the gift of eternal (?) life, as long as he doesn't leave Manhattan. The book's full of interesting and well-told historical detail, but I think Hamill copped out on the ending.

Just started The Dogs of Winter by Kem Nunn. I picked this up because David Milch is shooting a pilot based on Kem Nunn's "surf noir" books and I was curious.

For me, "surfing" is Frankie and Annette with a dollop of the Beach Boys, so I was skeptical about someone making noir out of a happy sunny California sport. Well, this is very noirish and a great read. Much as I'm ticked at Milch for his part in what happened to Deadwood, I'm looking forward to John from Cincinnati.

Next up is The Road, where Cormac McCarthy takes on a nuclear holocaust. :cool:

[PastAllReason]

I've moved seriously into a non-fiction phase, and I'm simultaneously reading a few different books.

I'm just finishing Guns, Germs and Steel. I'm about 3 pages from the end in the 2003 Afterword. Adding to the Jared Diamond fest I'm about half way through Collapse too. I found the chapters on the Norse in Greenland and Iceland very interesting.

I'm also reading The Long Tail. I first read about the article on which the book is based right here on the SDMB. I don't recall the thread, but to the poster who posted the link, thanks. The article was great, and so far so good on the book.

Last weekend I bought a book called The Lost Millenium which examines the history of chronology, and claims by some that we are not actually in 2006. It's written by a mathematics professor from the University of Victoria, and so far seems to be a fairly serious examination of the subject.

In the same section of the bookstore I also picked up a book that posits what life would have been like in 500 in Great Britain and Ireland. I haven't started it yet.

[Cisco]

I'm currently reading:

Off the Main Sequence and The Number of the Beast by R.A. Heinlein

Burning Chrome by William Gibson

Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

Bully for Brontosaurus, Ever Since Darwin, and The Mismeasure of Man by S.J. Gould

The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan

Don Quixote by Cervantes

Six Easy Pieces and Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feinman by Richard Feinman

A few dozen comic books

Buddha, Volume 4 by Osamu Tezuka

A Contract with God and Minor Miracles by Will Eisner

A Sci-Fi anthology called Greatest Stories of Science Fiction

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

and

The Tao of Willie by Willie Nelson

And I'm into them all enough that I made that list without going to look at the stack. And I know it's comprehensive. Unless you count the stack of National Geographics that I'm behind on.


And yes, I have really, really, really bad ADD. Thanks for asking.

[susan]

I admire people who read twenty or thirty books at once. It's second only to my admiration of people who stack books all around their offices and homes rather than getting them back on the shelf. (Seriously--I really like this.)

[Marley23]

In the last few weeks, I've read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, and Native Son by Richard Wright. I'm now working on An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser. When this book is done, which is going to take a while because it's long and the writing style isn't thrilling, I will have read the top 21 books on that Modern Library list I'm always talking about.

[Lissa]

I admire people who read twenty or thirty books at once. It's second only to my admiration of people who stack books all around their offices and homes rather than getting them back on the shelf. (Seriously--I really like this.)

You wouldn't like it if you had to live with it. To paraphrase The Simpsons, "Nothing stubs a toe like Leon Uris."


Guin, I really liked The Kitchen Boy. I just finished his latest book: Rasputin's Daughter. If you like The Kitchen Boy, I think you'll like this one, too.

Right now, I'm reading Mary, a fictionalized biography of Mary Lincoln. I've always had a soft spot for Mary, who I feel got the short end of history's stick, and this book gives a sympathetic portrayal. [Note: there are some issues in the book which sticklers for historical accuracy may decry.] I'm really enjoying it.

I'm also reading [/I]The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All[/i] which I'm not enjoying as much.

[toadbriar]

I'm short on fresh book right now, so I am rereading.
I just finished a short story anthology called Blue Motel. I am currently reading something from a forensic psychologist called Guilty By Reason of Insanity.

I'm not sure what I'll read next - whatever looks good that I forgot I had - probably some old Year's Best Horror or something. I do mean to reread The Raptor and the Lamb, which is a quite engaging comparison of how carnivores and herbivores are adapted to suit their various niches. I may also reread Tribe of Tiger, which is about different feline species, current and extinct (nimravids are coooool!)

I'd like to read House of Leaves but I've not picked it up yet. Most of my books are used, so it's hard to pay $20 for a new one.

Oh I did forget I was trying to find Deviant, which is a book about Ed Gein. I have it somewhere but forgot what it looked like. I should see again if I can't dig it up.


sorry.

[DataZak]

Currently reading Gene Wilder's autobiography, Kiss Me Like A Stranger. I have the latest Discworld novel, Wintersmith and Robert Harris' Imperium arriving soon from Amazon UK

[araminty]

I've been getting a lot of reading done, and most of it within my self-inflicted novel niche - modern fiction by young male authors. I don't know why, but that's all I feel like reading currently.

On the train on Saturday I read The Conjuror's Bird by Martin Davies, and Sea Otters Gambolling in the Wild, Wild Surf by John Bennett, on my return trip last night. Short books, in fact, a little too short, as they didn't quite fill up my 2-hour journeys. Really enjoyed both.

I also recently finished The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which was a little fraught, but still a good read. Maybe that was the translation. Speaking of translations, The Dream Merchant is a YA novel by Isabel Hoving, translated from the original Dutch. Another good fun read.

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch appealed to my inner beachcomber, trapped inland. A very good scientician's novel, lots of tidbits and a greenie message.

I'm sure there's more I've missed. Oh, one to avoid: Odalisque by Fiona McIntosh. Although it reminded me that reading bad fiction sometimes is a good reminder of what GOOD fiction shouldn't be like. Does that make sense? No.

[manx]

I've almost finished The Constant Gardener, by John LeCarre. I loved the movie, and I plesantly surprised to find myself really liking this. My mum's a big fan of his, so I'll snaffle a couple more of his books of her bookshelf, see if I've found myself a new author to enjoy.

I've just started Sarah Waters' Night Watch. It's shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, and I'd like to be familiar with a couple before they announce it. So far it's good.

At work I'm reading Black Dogs by Ian McEwan. He's quickly become one of my favourite authors, and when I finished Black Dogs I'll only have a couple more of his books before I've read them all.

[cactus waltz]

I'm reading a title called Kreol, by author Gunnar Harding. It goes into depth with some of the most prominent characters in the pre-jazz era of New Orleans.

next title might be that Everything is illuminated which seems to be the hot thing in the litterary community.

[twickster]

Susan Orleans's Orchid Thief, on which the movie Adaptation was based.

I'm not engrossed.

[elfkin477]

My goal this summer was to finish three series by the first day of fall - The Dark Tower series, The Crown of Stars series, and what exists yet of The Young Wizard series - with a couple of days to spare, I did that.

In a very rare turn of events, I'm currently only reading one book: Idlewild (http://www.amazon.com/Idlewild-Nick-Sagan/dp/0399150978/sr=1-1/qid=1159181777/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2557312-9335914?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Nick Sagan. So far it's strange, and I like it :)


toadbriar, House of Leaves is one of the worst "horror" novels I've ever read (not worse book, mind you. It's just not a horror novel like claimed IMHO) but you can get for much less than $20 at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_kk_2/104-2557312-9335914?ie=UTF8&search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=mark%20z.%20danielewski) and Half.com (http://people.half.ebay.com/Mark-Z-Danielewski_W0QQmZbooksQQcidZ1024454446).

[PerditaX]

I just finished Spider Robinson's Very Bad Deaths. I love Spider's storytelling, and I'd heard him read the first chapter aloud at Necronomicon 2004 when it was still a work in progress. It's a different genre for him - suspense more than S/F (although there is an S/F element: Spider's favorite, telepathy) - but he pulls it off. The ending left the door open for it to be the first in a seriesanic , but it's a complete, self-contained novel, and I enjoyed it.

I'm currently reading a fascinating nonfiction book, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament by Kay Redfield Jamison. As a person with Bipolar Disorder myself (as is the author), and on the "creative" side, the topic is very close to my heart, but it's interesting reading for anyone.

[Baldwin]

Currently reading 1776, by David McCullough. It's about a bunch of guys who did some stuff.

Just finished World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (who also wrote The Zombie Survival Guide). Really impressive; the book is made up of "interviews" with survivors of a great worldwide plague of flesh-eating zombies, a couple of decades in the future. Brooks obviously did a tremendous amount of research to achieve verisimilitude in the first-hand accounts.

[Only Mostly Dead]

On the Metro, and other out and about errands where a book comes in handy, I'm just starting into a rereading of Asimov's Foundation series (as in, I'm about 30 pages into Prelude To Foundation).

In the home, mostly because I am one of those people who needs something to read on the toilet (don't judge me!), I am reading Wicked a half dozen pages at a time, and have been for about two months.

[Khadaji]

I just finished The Sister's Grimm: (book 2) (http://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Grimm-Unusual-Suspects-Book/dp/B000GCG98O/sr=8-4/qid=1159186163/ref=pd_bbs_4/102-4509460-2209754?ie=UTF8&s=books)

Although it is a children's mystery, I stilled enjoyed it and will read book 3. I bought it and read it because I was looking for something light to read.

I am slogging through The protector's war (http://www.amazon.com/Protectors-War-S-M-Stirling/dp/B000F5ZH1M/sr=1-1/qid=1159186248/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4509460-2209754?ie=UTF8&s=books) I bought it on impulse at Border's with high hopes, but it has not lived up to said hopes. It is painfully slow and I wholeheartedly recommend that you avoid it.

I just finished Ghost's of Albion (http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Albion-Accursed/dp/034547130X/sr=1-1/qid=1159186322/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4509460-2209754?ie=UTF8&s=books) It was a mediocre read, and I would not recommend it either way. I suspect that there are much better books to be found.

[DrFidelius]

Raj, which is a history of British India.

The Plague Dogs

Turtledove's Blood and Iron

and Vinge's Rainbows End.

I've been very busy this month and my reading time has suffered for it.

[CalMeacham]

I'm more than halfway through Homeward Bound, which looks as if it might be the last book in Harry Turtledove's now eight-book series on the War between The Race (lizardlike alien invaders) and the Humans. Overall very wwell done, with some weird alternate-history vibes (James Dean starred in "Saving Private Ryan", although the last name wasn't Ryan. And the aliens have a classic book whose title translates as "Gone With the Wind")


Next I'm going to read The Da Vinci Code, because Pepper Mill had a copy of it.

I've got A Plunge Into Space in my bagf. Jules Verne wrote the introduction. It's about a trip to the moon via a sphere coated with anti=-gravity material. (This book came out before H.G. Wells' "First Men in the Moon"!), and apparently features the same situation that showed up in Goodwin's "The Cold Equations", but over half a century earlier.


And I notice that I keep flipping through my copy of The Moon is a Harsh Mistrress, so I must be in need of a Heinlein fix, and I'll probably re-read it soon.

[Trunk]

I'm anxiously awaiting The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, a story of valueing players in the NFL, centered mainly around the rise of the status of the left tackle.

Sports Illustrated and The New York Times Magazine both ran excerpts of it this last week.

[yellowval]

I can only read one book at a time. Currently I'm reading Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis. I found a great set of Sinclair Lewis books when I was on vacation for $18. They were printed in 1945 and are gorgeous. So now I'm trying to read all the ones I haven't read yet. I'm really enjoying it so far; I'm about halfway through.

[susan]

You wouldn't like it if you had to live with it. To paraphrase The Simpsons, "Nothing stubs a toe like Leon Uris."Oh, I know what it's like. I haven't hung around with voracious readers in tiny apartments for nothing.

[Anaamika]

Haven't read any of the other posts yet, I will, shortly. But I didn't want to forget what I had to say first.


I just finished a book called Riot. Basically, the premise is a romance set in the middle of the Babri Masjid/Ram Jamnbhoomi riots in India in the early 90's. The romance is secondary, though, at least to me.

I knew about the riots and thought it was eminently silly. For those who don't know or don't pay attention to news out of India (sadly, very common), basically the claim was that a great temple to Rama was torn down by the Muslim king Babar hundreds of years ago, and in its place, the Babri Masjid was erected. So the Hindatva - an extremist pro-Hindu India group - decided to collect thousands of sanctified bricks and march, asking the Babri Masjid to be removed and the Hindu temple to be re-erected.

The thing is, the book was written really well. I do not feel that the Muslims don't have a place in India, I guess. At the same time I do feel like - well, you have your own country now, right? You asked for Pakistan. You tore India apart so you can get your Pakistan. So why dont' you go there? Then, too, I understand that not all the Muslims asked for or wanted a separate Pakistan.

I also understand the Hindus on both sides. Hinduism has traditionally always been the one religion that does not claim to be the Only Way. So we should respect the Muslim viewpoint, and India is one, and should be that way. On the other side, the Hindus who want the Muslims out have some good points, too, although not concerning the Muslims. But when they stand up and say that India has always been shown to be less than what it is, I agree. When they point to people like Mother Theresa, who never fully understood our country, or to the Western media, which goes into the filthies slums of Calcutta and never shows any of the grandeur and beauty that is India, I agree, they are looking for the most dramatic points and not showing the true India.

i didn't mean to talk so long but the whole book really affected me. Particularly the descriptions of why each side came to the riots. The Hindu boys and young men, and why the Muslims reacted so violently. All in all the whole thing breaks my heart and also puts me deep in thought.

[Anaamika]

Raj, which is a history of British India.

.
Is this worth it? After my extraordinarily long post re: Riot, I do want to read more.

On the side, I am also working on SOul Mountain as well as Murder on the Orient Express. A bit light these days, since this weekend I was knee-deep in playing Okami.

[MsRobyn]

In addition to my various textbooks, I'm reading:

American Gospel (http://www.amazon.com/American-Gospel-Founding-Fathers-Making/dp/1400065550/sr=8-1/qid=1159195401/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1466598-3472747?ie=UTF8&s=books), by Jon Meacham, a very well-written history of religion in America that includes primary-source documents dealing with religion and religious freedom.

And Folk Devils and Moral Panics (http://www.amazon.com/Folk-Devils-Moral-Panics-Anniversary/dp/0415267129/sr=1-2/qid=1159195547/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-1466598-3472747?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Stanley Cohen. It's a sociological case study of a series of incidents of minor vandalism and how the British public got worked up into a hysteria. It's for my thesis, and it's kind of dry, but it's still interesting reading.

Robin

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

My most interesting reads this month have been:

Fevre Dream, by George R. R. Martin. I loved it, and I bought a copy of A Game of Thrones, but someone suggested a collection of his sci-fi stories, Tuf Voyaging, so I think I'm going to read that next.

A Confederacy of Dunces - a classic I have always meant to read, and I enjoyed it.

The Kid and The Commitment, by Dan Savage. They're hysterically funny in spots, and really sentimental and touching in others.

Stolen, the second of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. The first book was very good, but I was less impressed with this one.

At the used book store the other day I found a nice copy of Mrs. Mike, a book I read repeatedly when I was a little girl. I might read that next.

Rachel Caine's new Weather Warden book: Firestorm, was sadly disappointing.Hmm, I was thinking about trying the Weather Warden series. I like Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher.

[XaMcQ]

Hmm, I was thinking about trying the Weather Warden series. I like Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher.

I really loved the first three. Rachel Caine's webpage mentions that she's been in treatment for cancer, so I hate to be too critical of the way the series seems to have stumbled. It's just reminding me a little of the way Laurell K. Hamilton has gone to seed(well, not so much in the hard slide into all sex, no plot) in that she's embarked on a series and either not had a clear plan on how to get from begining to end, or somewhere along the line she changed her mind and is now floundering. Either that or she's decided to see how far she can string her readers along(which I do think LKH is doing), and I am not quite ready to think that yet.

[Crafter_Man]

A Well Regulated Militia (http://www.amazon.com/Well-Regulated-Militia-John-Carpenter/dp/1413788890) by John Carpenter

Digital Signal Processing (http://btobsearch.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780073048376&z=y&btob=Y) by Sanjit Mitra

[Guinastasia]

Well, my Amazon order came, and so I'll add to the list:

The Worst Person in the World: And 202 Strong Contenders by Keith Olbermann. So far it lives up to the hype.

Have I mentioned how much I love Keith Olbermann?

[Beware of Doug]

Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show by Geoffrey Nunberg

Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean

[Lissa]

In addition to my various textbooks, I'm reading:

American Gospel (http://www.amazon.com/American-Gospel-Founding-Fathers-Making/dp/1400065550/sr=8-1/qid=1159195401/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1466598-3472747?ie=UTF8&s=books), by Jon Meacham, a very well-written history of religion in America that includes primary-source documents dealing with religion and religious freedom.

And Folk Devils and Moral Panics (http://www.amazon.com/Folk-Devils-Moral-Panics-Anniversary/dp/0415267129/sr=1-2/qid=1159195547/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-1466598-3472747?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Stanley Cohen. It's a sociological case study of a series of incidents of minor vandalism and how the British public got worked up into a hysteria. It's for my thesis, and it's kind of dry, but it's still interesting reading.

Robin

You might also like Hellfire Nation (http://www.amazon.com/Hellfire-Nation-Politics-American-History/dp/0300105177/sr=1-1/qid=1159208007/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9289531-2185651?ie=UTF8&s=books), a history of sin and American politics. It's a very interesting read.

[Cluricaun]

I just finished England’s Dreaming, the ultimate story of punk rock and the Sex Pistols by John Savage and just started A Pickpocket’s Tale- The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York which so far appears to be an expanded and annotated version of an autobiography by one George Appos, a career criminal growing up in the Five Points section of New York.

I stopped in the non fiction section of the library first this time..... ;)

[Kyla]

I just finished the whole of the Chronicles of Narnia, for the first time since I was about twelve. That was really very fun.

In theory, I'm also reading The Balkans, by Mischa Glenny, and The Autobiography of Henry Adams, but I haven't progressed very far in either book lately.

[Lamar Mundane]

The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud. A novel about three young people in New York in 2001. It uses 9/11 as a plot device, but only in a minor way. Messud is a brilliant writer, maybe the best new novelist I have read in a decade, but her half-page long sentences, full of semi colons and dashes, leave me exhausted.

The Miracle of St. Anthony, by Adrian Wojnarowski. The story of Bob Hurley, basketball coach at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, NJ. A tiny school, abandoned by the church but held together by a group of dedicated nuns, educating the poorest of the poor, somehow manages to win 22 state basketball titles and send nearly every senior to college.

I have on order Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris.

[Cemetery Savior]

Three Days to Never by Tim Powers. I always hoping that he'll come up with something that I like as much as The Anubis Gates. I'm about 40 pages in--so far, so good.

I just started the Anubis Gates. About 15 pages in, so no discussion points yet. I also just finished Drawing of The Dark by Powers.

I just ordered Pynchon's new one on Amazon (rotten pre-order!), and pre-ordered Gene Wolfe's new one (the name escapes me now, but it's in the Latro series).

Recently finished:


1776
An omnibus work of Tom Holt's
Independent People (Halldor Laxness?)
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami)
And.....tried Finnegan's Wake again (feeling arrogant), got through page 43!!!!


-Cem (who hopes one day to get into triple-digits on FW)

[Cemetery Savior]

Just finished World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (who also wrote The Zombie Survival Guide). Really impressive; the book is made up of "interviews" with survivors of a great worldwide plague of flesh-eating zombies, a couple of decades in the future. Brooks obviously did a tremendous amount of research to achieve verisimilitude in the first-hand accounts.

I'm going to get it tonight...didn't know it existed.

-Cem

[Sunrazor]

I'm in grad school, goin' for the ol' English MA -- up to my butt in Victorian lit this semester. Carlyle, Coleridge, Dickens, Tennyson, Eliot, Mill, Bronte (both of 'em) and on and on and on. Enjoying it? Nope, but I knew it wasn't going to be fun.

[Mrs. Cake]

Currently reading:

Collapse by Jared Diamond, having recently re-read Guns, Germs and Steel

The Hedgehog, the Fox and the Magister's Pox by SJ Gould

Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson, a chick lit/vampire book for a little light bedtime reading

Also re-reading my Agatha Heterodyne books, if graphic novels count.

In the stack waiting to be read are:

Fluke having only belatedly discovered Christopher Moore and working my way through his novels

The latest Amelia Peabody book, the name of which escapes me at the moment

My semi-annual reading of Little, Big by John Crowley, one of my 10 desert island books.

[mack]

I'm currently reading:

Burning Chrome by William Gibson

That has one of my favorite science fiction short stories: Hinterlands


I'm reading 1919 by John Dos Passos, a sort of epic many slices of many lives around the time of WWI. The second book in his USA trilogy.

I took some time during my vacation to read The DaVinci Code.

[Sophie_Z]

I'm rwading Harry Turtledove's WorldWar/Colonization series. Tjis is what L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth wants to be when it grows up.

[Sophie_Z]

I'm rwading Harry Turtledove's WorldWar/Colonization series. Tjis is what L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth wants to be when it grows up.

This. This is what it wants to be.

[ExTank]

S. M. Stirling's A Meeting At Corvallis arrived last week, so it's currently being read. Next up will likely be Robert Rankin's The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.

Being a cheapskate with limited shelf space (my books may be reaching critical mass; if a new black hole appears near St. Louis, MO, it's just my book collection finally imploding under its own mass), I'm waiting for the paperback, but The Protector's War came out recently, and I'm working my way through it.

[Jophiel]

The Plague DogsAssuming you enjoy the book, should you ever stumble across the animated film, I reccommend it. It's one of the few animated film adaptations I've ever seen that holds faithful to the novel.

For that matter, should you get sick of the book, the film is a good way to find out how the rest of the book goes in 90min ;)

I'm currently reading A Concise History of Poland by Jerzy Lukowski & Hubert Zawadzki. They managed to boil 1,040 years of history down into three hundred seventy pages so I'm guessing that's pretty concise. I still need to finish Guns, Germs & Steel and a biography I have on Abigail Adams but the Poland book was bought for a research paper I'm doing so it got top billing.

[DrFidelius]

Regarding Raj:

Is this worth it? After my extraordinarily long post re: Riot, I do want to read more.

I'm finding it fascinating but slow going. Huge areas of personal ignorance are being cleared away, but I'll need to read it through again so that some of the names will stick...

[The Scrivener]

France and the French: A Modern History by Rod Kedward [a few chapters only]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams

Beyond Band of Brothers -- Maj. Richard Winters [ret.]

"No Exit" -- Jean-Paul Sartre

The Great Starvation Experiment -- Todd Tucker


I'm still on a WWII kick.

[Kythereia]

Very Good, Jeeves, War of the Worlds, The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Neverwhere, Soul Music (for our Discworld Reading Club threads), Tender is the Night, and Akhenaten by Naguib Mahfouz (I remember checking the book out of the library and reading about his death two or three days later, on the BBCNewsworld feed, and having a moment of "He can't be dead, I'm still reading one of his books!")

I'm due back at the libary tomorrow, so I'll have a host of new books then.

[wonderlust]

I finished Fall of Hyperion this month, which I didn't like as much as Hyperion while reading it, but in retrospect I do.

I finished A Wild Sheep Chase, my first by Haruki Murakami. I was underwhelmed, but will give him another try since I want to like him.

In my new effort to include short stories in my reading, I'll slip some Burning Chrome in between reading my next book, which may jump-start me into continuing that series.

My next read will be The Prestige, by Christopher Priest, because I like reading the book before seeing the movie, which will be out next month. I'm also hoping to start River of Gods, by Ian McDonald soon.

[wonderlust]

gah! pressed enter too soon, sorry. :smack:

...My next read will be The Prestige, by Christopher Priest, because I like reading a book before seeing the movie, which will be out next month. I'm in the mood after just seeing the probably inferior film, The Illusionist. I'm also hoping to start River of Gods, by Ian McDonald soon.

twickster, I'm sorry you're not enjoying The Orchid Thief, which is obviously nothing like the film, but I really loved the book for the amazing history of orchid collecting, the bizarre people inhabiting the sub-culture, and the extremes people will go to for the plants. The swamps and odd folks reminded me of southern gothic fiction.

[Lissa]

[QUOTE=Kythereia]The Memoirs of Cleopatra/QUOTE]

I've got a real soft-spot for Margaret George. I love her books though sometimes the historian in me gets irked at inaccuracies.

I just finished her latest, Helen of Troy. Quite good. I suggest, though, that you skip, Mary, Called Magdalene. I thought it was tedious. Her books Autobiography of Henry VIII and Mary, Queen of Scots are great and stand among my all-time favorites.

[Shirley Ujest]

Yarn Harlot by Stephanie Pearl McPhee. If you read her blog, it's just like that, only more portable than your laptop.

[jsgoddess]

Let's see.

This morning I finished Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, the second in the Percy Jackson series. Highly recommended for fans of Harry Potter.

Earlier this week I finished Madeleine Brent's Golden Urchin (someone on the Dope recommended Brent), Patricia Wrede's (and someone else) Sorcery and Cecelia, the second book in the York series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (can't recommend it), and Elizabeth Young's A Girl's Best Friend.

Currently reading Bujold's The Vor Game. Getting ready to start Angie Sage's Flyte, Charles Stross's The Family Trade, and Edith Pattou's East.

And I want to plug a book I read a couple of weeks ago: Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer. This is great fantasy. Read it! (And the author swears he won't fall prey to Robert Jordan syndrome when I questioned him on his blog.)

[Hypno-Toad]

Just finished Warfare in the Classical World and now halfway through the latest issue of Air & Space. Next up is Rum: A Social and Sociable History.

[susan_foster]

Just finished Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's (http://www.amazon.com/Basilica-Splendor-Scandal-Building-Peters/dp/0670037761/sr=8-1/qid=1159282804/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books) . I thought it was good in that it taught me a lot about Roman/Papal history, but it wasn't great in a literary sense. It did make me go to the library yesterday, and pick up biographies of Michaelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.

In the middle of Garlic and Sapphires (http://www.amazon.com/Garlic-Sapphires-Secret-Critic-Disguise/dp/0143036610/sr=1-1/qid=1159282906/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books) . I had read Ruth Reichl's other 2 books, and considered them okay. I love this one. Sometimes you just read a book by an author that reaches you, when all of his/her other ones don't.

Tried to read Grass (http://www.amazon.com/Grass-Sheri-S-Tepper/dp/055376246X/sr=1-2/qid=1159283011/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Sherri Tepper, but I just couldn't get into it. I had loved Beauty (http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Spectra-Special-Editions-Tepper/dp/0553295276/sr=1-1/qid=1159283072/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books) , so I had high hopes.

Read Blue Screen (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Screen-Sunny-Randall-Novels/dp/0399153519/sr=1-1/qid=1159283140/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books) in one night. I always felt that Parker's Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone books were too similar, so I'm not sure that I liked

That they became a couple at the end.
Then again, his Spenser novels are not high literature either, and I don't expect them to be.

And in between, I reread Feet of Clay (http://www.amazon.com/Feet-Clay-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0061057649/sr=1-1/qid=1159283399/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books),Thud! (http://www.amazon.com/Discworld-Novels-Paperback-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0060815310/sr=1-1/qid=1159283302/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books) and Going Postal (http://www.amazon.com/Going-Postal-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0060502932/sr=1-1/qid=1159283332/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books) . There's something funny about Pratchett's later novels; it takes me time to get to like them, but they do improve on reread.

Up next? Well, I've got a stack of about 30 books out from the library, and a bunch of unread books on my shelves, so it'll be what hits me right. Top contender is Never Let Me Go (http://www.amazon.com/Never-Let-Go-Vintage-International/dp/1400078776/sr=1-1/qid=1159283449/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6874187-6139260?ie=UTF8&s=books), and I have several by Octavia Butler and Charles deLint.

Susan

[Gangster Octopus]

I am currently reading The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny On the Bounty (http://www.amazon.com/Bounty-True-Story-Mutiny/dp/B000ESSROE/sr=1-1/qid=1159286944/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6126412-1128807?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Caroline Alexander, which is extremely fascinating.

I also have a copy of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (http://www.amazon.com/Fiasco-American-Military-Adventure-Iraq/dp/159420103X/sr=1-1/qid=1159287003/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6126412-1128807?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Thomas Ricks, to read on the plane to Ireland in a couple of weeks.

[gigi]

I loved Prep and identified strongly with the main character, so I sprang for The Man of My Dreams in hardback (amazon discount). I've just started it and already I am connecting with the characterization of the main character's dad--he's just like mine was, with his mood dictating how the rest of us were allowed to act. I also have Saturday by Ian McEwen and Gilead by Marianne Robinson in the partially-read stack.

[gigi]

Pardon me, Marilynne Robinson.

[What Exit?]

I am reading our very own, Malacandra’s Dreams of Flight. I am really enjoying it so far, I am about 75% of the way through it.
It is a fantasy coming of age story, quite a good read.

Jim

[Gordon Urquhart]

I'm about a third of the way through Robert McCrum's biography of P.G. Wodehouse (http://www.amazon.com/Wodehouse-Life-Robert-McCrum/dp/B000HDZ9N8/sr=8-3/qid=1159308310/ref=sr_1_3/002-4050627-9328027?ie=UTF8&s=books). It's a great read, and I'll likely be reading McCrum's My Year Off before the year is out.

Before that, I'd read Meet Mr Mulliner, the seventh or eighth Wodehouse book I've read, and which inspired me to read his biography. Prior to that, I'd read and much enjoyed The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. I might read The Selfish Gene when I've finished Wodehouse (the biography, not Plum's entire literary output).

[hlanelee]

CQE Primer by the Quality Council of Indiana.

Coupled with Business Statistics by Triola, Mario, and Franklin.

Got to take a test in December. :rolleyes:

[twickster]

twickster, I'm sorry you're not enjoying The Orchid Thief, which is obviously nothing like the film, but I really loved the book for the amazing history of orchid collecting, the bizarre people inhabiting the sub-culture, and the extremes people will go to for the plants. The swamps and odd folks reminded me of southern gothic fiction.
I'm enjoying it enough to finish it, but I'm not particularly wowed by it. One possible reason is that that book has been seriously overhyped by now. Another is that I'm not unfamiliar with some of the stuff she's talking about, since I read a fair amount on plants, gardening, natural history, travel and exploration in pursuit of all of these. Plus, I don't think the book is particularly well done -- it's repetitive, and not terribly cohesive; it reads more as a series of essays that she didn't take sufficient time to knit into a single narrative.

Plus, there's a fake interview of herself by herself at the front, which strikes me as pretty :rolleyes: -- esp. since she misspells Nicolas Cage's first name in it, which just seems careless as hell to me.

So -- I'm finishing it, but I'm pretty damn "meh."

(BTW -- never saw the film; may add it to my Netflix queue, may not.)

[elbows]

Re enchantment, Jeffery Paine. (I love the crazy wisdom!)

But I just now finished, A River Sutra.



::::swoon::::

[wonderlust]

Plus, there's a fake interview of herself by herself at the front, which strikes me as pretty :rolleyes: -- esp. since she misspells Nicolas Cage's first name in it, which just seems careless as hell to me.I read the book before the movie was made, so I never saw that part.

[twickster]

I read the book before the movie was made, so I never saw that part.
Yeah, I think the less hype you'd heard about this book, the more you'd enjoy it. It's not a bad book, but it's making me cranky on a number of levels -- all of which are probably more about me than they are about the book itself.

[AuntiePam]

I read The Road yesterday, Cormac McCarthy's new book. It's about a man and his son trying to survive after an apocalyptic event -- probably something nuclear. It's very bleak but very affecting, and probably the most realistic PA book I've ever read. Yes, people will eat people. It's a given. Highly recommended.

[Really Not All That Bright]

Fury by Salman Rushdie. And the Florida Life, Health and Variable Annuity Study Manual.

[Kizarvexius]

Just finished reading In Cold Blood. While I found it fascinating, I was left with the distinct impression that the book could have been whittled down somewhat, as there was a lot of needless repetition. The product, one supposes, of Capote's anxiousness while awaiting the execution of the killers.

My next project is Bleak House (Darles Chickens). I started it a couple of months ago, but had to put it down for one reason or another. Since I liked what I'd read up to that point, I'll give it another go.

[DaddyTimesTwo]

I got several of Rhys Davies Constable Evans mysteries from the library but could only finish two of them. Somehow the quaintness made me want to puke after two of them in a row. Before that I finished several of Christopher Moore's novels. That guy is talented and funny.

In a more serious vein, I bought Mark Kurlansky's 1968 and George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War, both on the recommendation of friends. I'm trying to broaden my horizons, I don't read much (OK, any) non-fiction and these were touted as both very good and very readable. And I haven't started either one yet, life and sleep have been keeping occupied. :o

[alice_in_wonderland]

Primate Behavioural Ecology. It's a page turner, for sure.

[Caridwen]

Dreams of Trespass Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi
Great book, here's a little synopsis
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/mjiyad/forum/messages/204.shtml

The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby

http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/murasaki/

[pinkfreud]

I like to read two books at once, and alternate between them.

I just finished Scott Smith's The Ruins and Douglas Preston's Tyrannosaur Canyon. Loved the former, thought the latter was mediocre and disappointing.

Next up: Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston (again) and Lincoln Child. I have very high hopes for this one. Simultaneously, I'll be working on Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer. I love Connelly's tough-cop books, but dunno about his entry into Grisham/Turow territory.

[Godfrey Daniels]

Just started Turow's The Laws of Our Fathers, with Self-Consciousness by John Updike on deck. A friend moved and purged his book collection, so I ended up with several by Updike, all hardcovers in new condition.

[Sonia Montdore]

[QUOTE=Guinastasia]I'm re-reading two Star Wars novels and I just checked out a bunch of books from the library as well. I'm reading them two at a time:

Princesses: the Six Daughters of George III by Flora Fraser


Guinistasia, I'm looking forward to reading that, too! It's on my Christmas wish list. Since I probably won't get to read it until January, would you kindly spoil it a little for me? Who does Flora Fraser think fathered Thomas Garth? Does she lean toward the Duke of Cumberland or general Garth?

[Sarahfeena]

I admire people who read twenty or thirty books at once. It's second only to my admiration of people who stack books all around their offices and homes rather than getting them back on the shelf. (Seriously--I really like this.) That is so funny to me, because I really really really wish I could manage to read one book at a time, all the way through.

Even more than that, I really really really wish I could stop leaving my books stacked up all over the place.

My sister reads one book at a time...it sits on the table next to her reading chair, and when she is done, she puts it away. That is awesome to me, and something I don't think I could ever do.

[Sarahfeena]

I forgot to list what I am reading. Currently, The Ruins (Scott Smith), Collapse (Jared Diamond), a novel about Fort Dearborn, called Fort Dearborn (can't remember who that is by), and The Fellowship, which is about Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowship.

[AuntiePam]

Next up: Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston (again) and Lincoln Child. I have very high hopes for this one. Simultaneously, I'll be working on Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer. I love Connelly's tough-cop books, but dunno about his entry into Grisham/Turow territory.

I liked Cabinet. It was my first Preston-Child book and it was better than I thought it would be.

Come back and say how you're liking The Lincoln Lawyer, please. I've been thinking about getting that one.

[Rebecca DiMwitter]

I like to read two books at once, and alternate between them.

I just finished Scott Smith's The Ruins and Douglas Preston's Tyrannosaur Canyon. Loved the former, thought the latter was mediocre and disappointing.

Next up: Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston (again) and Lincoln Child. I have very high hopes for this one. Simultaneously, I'll be working on Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer. I love Connelly's tough-cop books, but dunno about his entry into Grisham/Turow territory.


I'm reading Cabinet of Curiosities right now and enjoying the hell out of it. I've also got Forever Odd by Dean Koontz as a backup book at the moment (Odd Thomas was one of the few Koontz books I have actually liked so felt as tho the sequel might be a good read, MAYBE) & in the car (for lunch hour reading) is A Portrait In Sepia by Isabelle Allende, my 2nd time thru this really excellent book! Still trying to get the local library to find their long-lost (apparently) edition of Three: Wise Blood, A Good Man is Hard to Find, & The Voilent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor, and I see that Fevre Dream by George RR Martin is ready for me to pick up today!

Cool.

--Beck

[Rebecca DiMwitter]

Oops, that's The VIOLENT Bear It Away, as you Flannery O'Connor readers will surely have surmised.

--Beck

[SkeptiJess]

Princesses: the Six Daughters of George III[/i] by Flora Fraser

Guinistasia, I'm looking forward to reading that, too! It's on my Christmas wish list. Since I probably won't get to read it until January, would you kindly spoil it a little for me? Who does Flora Fraser think fathered Thomas Garth? Does she lean toward the Duke of Cumberland or general Garth? I'm not Guinastasia, but I did read this book, so I'll answer for her. Fraser doesn't merely lean towards General Garth, she names him flat-out and completely discredits the Cumberland-as-Daddy-notion. I enjoyed the book, although I don't think Flora is quite as readable a writer as her mum. Definately well worth the read, though.

jsgoddess, did you enjoy the Brent book? I was the one who recommended them, so I feel a certain responsibility. Still, it's a quick read, just in case you didn't like it.

As for me -- my husband was working from home all month, so I've been reading slower than usual. But I'm working my way through the Modesty Blaise novels (written by Peter O'Donnell, who was also Madeline Brent) and enjoying them very much. I'm one of those people who has to read books in order, though, so as of 20 minutes ago (when I finished A Taste for Death), I'm taking a break from Blaise until Amazon sends the rest of my order.

No worries, though. I've got a big stack of books here to see me through. I've got several mysteries (Electric Blue by Nancy Bush, and Messenger of Truth by Jaqueline Winspear) and I just picked up Charlaine Harris' latest, Grave Surprise. I've also several children's books here (Gail Carson Levine's
Fairest, Cinderella (As If You Didn't Already Know the Story) by Barbara Ensor, and an anthology of modern fairy tales, The Dark of the Woods, edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling.

Kevin left for Texas this morning and will be gone at least a week, so I imagine I'll get through quite a few of these before he gets home.

[jsgoddess]

jsgoddess, did you enjoy the Brent book? I was the one who recommended them, so I feel a certain responsibility. Still, it's a quick read, just in case you didn't like it.

So, you're the culprit! :D

I did. If you've read that particular one, would you consider it pretty representative of Brent's other work?

[koeeoaddi]

I'm reading Cabinet of Curiosities right now and enjoying the hell out of it. --Beck
So glad to hear it, Mrs. DiMwiiter. I loves me a Preston/Child convert.

I had to sneak back into this thread and gush about The Thirteenth Tale (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780743298025&itm=1), by Diane Setterfield. I nabbed myself an advance copy of this a few months ago and forgot about it until yesterday when I started to casually flip through it and wound up reading over half the thing in one sitting.

It's great -- a little Gothic wonder with nods to Shirley Jackson, the Brontes, Daphne du Maurier, Wilkie Collins and others who write this kind of book. My favorite kind of book, I think.

I haven't finished it yet, but if it ends as well as it starts, it may be the best thing I've read since The Last Witchfinder. If she screws up the ending, well then, nevermind.

Here's an excerpt. (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780743298025&displayonly=EXC&z=y#EXC)

[SkeptiJess]

So, you're the culprit! :DCulprit, I!

I did. If you've read that particular one, would you consider it pretty representative of Brent's other work? Very representative. All of the Brent books are excellent -- if you like one you'll probably like them all. Seek out Stranger at Wildings next, just because it's my favorite. Love the hero in that one.

koeeoaddi, please report back after you finish The Thirteenth Tale. I've picked that one up several times, but haven't bought it yet. Mostly because I'm so far behind in my reading already. If it's good, though, I'll grab it next time I'm at the book store. I have a return anyway, that I'll be getting store credit for (I bought a book I already owned, like a dummy, and then lost the receipt!).

[pinkfreud]

...I see that Fevre Dream by George RR Martin is ready for me to pick up today!Oooh, Fevre Dream is a goodie! One of the best vampire novels ever. George RR Martin sure can span the genres.

[Guinastasia]

[QUOTE=Guinastasia]I'm re-reading two Star Wars novels and I just checked out a bunch of books from the library as well. I'm reading them two at a time:

Princesses: the Six Daughters of George III by Flora Fraser


Guinistasia, I'm looking forward to reading that, too! It's on my Christmas wish list. Since I probably won't get to read it until January, would you kindly spoil it a little for me? Who does Flora Fraser think fathered Thomas Garth? Does she lean toward the Duke of Cumberland or general Garth?


She believes it was Garth, although she DOES say it's possible that the Duke did indeed assault his sister.

[Sonia Montdore]

[QUOTE=Sonia Montdore]


She believes it was Garth, although she DOES say it's possible that the Duke did indeed assault his sister.

Thanks! :)

[Denis]

Rereading a couple of King's: Different Seasons and Hearts in Atlantis.

Also hitting Catch-22 again.

Nothing new.

[Malacandra]

I am reading our very own, Malacandra’s Dreams of Flight. I am really enjoying it so far, I am about 75% of the way through it.
It is a fantasy coming of age story, quite a good read.

Jim

You're most kind. *blushes modestly*

I've lately caught up on some of the John Carter of Mars series after finding some downloads on the internet. I saw jetan, Barsoomian chess, on the Variant Chess website and it went on from there. (Ever since reading the rules for jetan thirty years ago, I'd be wondering how winning a game under the "Chief takes Chief" rule could ever actually happen. I've worked it out at last.)

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

I read The Road yesterday, Cormac McCarthy's new book. It's about a man and his son trying to survive after an apocalyptic event -- probably something nuclear. It's very bleak but very affecting, and probably the most realistic PA book I've ever read. Yes, people will eat people. It's a given. Highly recommended.I put The Road on my list. I love PA fiction!

I just started The Reckoning, a book about the murder of Christopher Marlowe. I didn't know there was any controversy surrounding his death, until I was reading a romance novel last week starring Marlowe as a vampire and from the references in the novel I gathered there was more to his death than a simple tavern brawl.

[koeeoaddi]

koeeoaddi, please report back after you finish The Thirteenth Tale. I've picked that one up several times, but haven't bought it yet. Mostly because I'm so far behind in my reading already. If it's good, though, I'll grab it next time I'm at the book store. I have a return anyway, that I'll be getting store credit for (I bought a book I already owned, like a dummy, and then lost the receipt!).
I just finished it. I suppose I should take some time to reflect. To think about what might be incongruous or improbable or too perfectly wrought. Nah. The book was fabulous! Go read it.

[You know that quick little hair-on- the-back-of-your-neck chill you get at the moment you realize where the plot is going? That sucker lasted for at least 60 pages. Maybe I'm coming down with something.]

[Bobotheoptimist]

I feel like an underachiever this month, only have two books going (not counting the Magic Treehouse books for the youngest son) -
The Wounded Land Stephen R Donaldson (Book 4 of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
and
The Art of the Rifle by the late Jeff Cooper (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=389868)

As soon as I finish the Covenant books, I'm going to dive headfirst into the Aubrey/Maturin series again. I've a stack of archaeological books that I'm trying to avoid reading, so I'm going back through some of the oldies but goodies.

[Rebecca DiMwitter]

I just started The Reckoning, a book about the murder of Christopher Marlowe. I didn't know there was any controversy surrounding his death, until I was reading a romance novel last week starring Marlowe as a vampire and from the references in the novel I gathered there was more to his death than a simple tavern brawl.

Are you enjoying this? Enough to recommend? I had to add it to my library request list after reading your post as the subject matter interests me greatly.

LOVE these threads, thanks for this one, XaMcQ!

--Beck

[AuntiePam]

About halfway through The Master of All Desires by Judith Merkle Riley (sp?). Nostradamus, Catherine de Medici, dysfunctional family, angels and demons, and it's hilarious.

I'd read another Merkle, The Oracle Glass, and while it was good, I don't remember it being so witty. Highly recommended.

[Dr. Rieux]

Speaking of Marlowe, I just finished Harry Turtledove's Ruled Britannia.
As a fan of Shakespeare and Marlowe I thought it was a lot of fun. The major characters--Shakespeare and Lope De Vega--were well-drawn, as were many of the supporting cast--Marlowe, Burbage, Will Kemp, and various fictional characters.

(Ah, to dream of the plays Kit would have written in a additional five years--Alexander, El Cid, Caligula...)

[Abby_Emma_Sasha]

In my day I read many books. From Flaubert to Dickens to Grisham. In the last ten years since I have had the internets I have been sorely lacking in my literary consumption.

What with message boards and chat rooms (no, not those kind) and the new TV season I have no time to open a book. But I want to, i really do. I'm looking forward to reading the Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris semi biographies, and some of you have gotten me interested in other authors. I hope I can tear myself away from the Law & Order trilogy long enough to read some wonderful prose, but I can't bank on it.

[Knorf]

Ignorance by Milan Kundera. Marverlous, marvelous book. One of my favorites of his novels.

On the table next to my bed are also a collection of poems by Coleridge ("That sunny dome! those caves of ice!")

and

Failed States by Noam Chomsky, which has done nothing for me. I'm going to exchange it for something else.

[Shodan]

Duel, which is about the first 80 days of WWII, as Hitler vs. Churchill. Little dry, but a different perspective than most histories of the era.

Hollywood, Interrupted - a gossip book about how dreadful celebrities are.

Mask Market, the latest from Andrew Vachss. I am wondering if I am not getting burned out on the Burke series.

Why Me?, a follow-up autobiography from Sammy Davis, Jr. I read Yes I Can many years back, when he was still married to May Britt. My gosh, what a self-centered ass hole he seems to have been.

And I just got a bunch of old, old hand-to-hand combat/jujitsu instructional manuals on CD. And I read myself to sleep at night with my copies of The Development of Muscular Bulk and Power and The Development of Physical Strength, by Anthony Ditillo.

Regards,
Shodan

[monstro]

By Brother's Blues by Pearl Cleage. The book is not only set in my hometown, but in the actual neighborhood I grew up in. It's alright, except that Cleage's attempts at magical realism falls a little short. Also, the description of the setting is not really accurate. She would have done better creating a new neighborhood from wholecloth rather than using an existing one. But it was still a blast to read.

[monstro]

That should be Baby Brother's Blues.

[wonderlust]

I guess this counts: I just ordered the new next-generation eInk Sony Reader (http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/) . It doesn't ship until November.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

Are you enjoying this? Enough to recommend? I had to add it to my library request list after reading your post as the subject matter interests me greatly. I wanted to wait until I was finished to reply, but it's been a busy weekend so I'm only halfway through it.

I am enjoying it. I don't know what the author's conclusions are going to be, so it's reading like a murder mystery. The depiction of the Elizabethan intelligence network is fascinating. There are quite a lot of "characters" to keep up with, but so far I'm following it okay. I've read biographies of the Tudor and Stewart royals, so I'm familiar with most of the famous people mentioned, but that's about the extent of my knowlege of this period.

[Uzi]

Currently, I am alternating between Perry Rhodan (english translations) and the Destroyer series. I read one book from one series and then one from the other, uh, yeah, that'd be alternating :rolleyes: I download them and put them on my Palm. I figure I've got well over 750 books on it now. In between times I'm working on a book called 'Life is a series of Presentations' by Tony Jeary and one called 'The Culture Code' by Clotaire Rapaille, a pretty interesting read. Both books I read a bit then digest before coming back to them.
When I get home I'll have "Letters to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris, and "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, bought together at Amazon. I just wish I didn't read so damn slow.
And during all this I'm only up to episode #416 in MST3K. Is there any cure for this sleep business because it's really cutting into more important things?

[Kythereia]

Update, wot? I turned in my books at the library and got:

Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Once and Future King and The Sword in the Stone, Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen, Louis de Bernieres's Birds Without Wings, Mimus by Lilli Thal, Wideacre by Philippa Gregory, and The First Vial by Linnea Heinrichs.

[Khadaji]

Currently, I am alternating between Perry Rhodan (english translations) and the Destroyer series. <SNIP>Is that the Destroyer series originally created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir?

[Uzi]

Is that the Destroyer series originally created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir?

That's the one.

[Khadaji]

That's the one.
I used to love those! OK, it would never be mistaken for great lit, but they were fun. I stopped reading them after Murphy stopped writing. They lost his zing. But they were fun for many years.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

Update, wot? I turned in my books at the library and got:

Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Once and Future King and The Sword in the Stone, Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen, Louis de Bernieres's Birds Without Wings, Mimus by Lilli Thal, Wideacre by Philippa Gregory, and The First Vial by Linnea Heinrichs.Kythereia, I'd be interested to hear what you think about Wideacre. I have kept almost every single book I've ever bought, but that's one of the few I've despised enough to get rid of. Looking at the Amazon reviews, it seems that people either love or hate this book.

I really wanted to like Gregory - she's prolific and she writes the kind of historical fiction that I should enjoy. I tried a couple of her other books, and I just can't read her.

[pinkfreud]

Come back and say how you're liking The Lincoln Lawyer, please. I've been thinking about getting that one.It's a dandy. Michael Connelly is in fine form here. This is a gritty, cynical legal thriller, with a not-very-likeable protagonist/narrator, and it moves along at a nice brisk pace. I think I like Connelly's cop books better, but if he writes more legal stuff, I'll definitely be interested.

[AuntiePam]

pinkfreud, thanks. My replacement Amazon gift certificate came in the mail (I accidentally tossed the first one) so I ordered the Connelly book. Also ordered the Kristen Lavandstratter (sp) books, and one other title I've forgotten.

I'm about halfway through Martha Peake by Patrick McGrath. The OP asks us to say why we choose a book. I grabbed this one because it's been in the TBR for years and I was tired of looking at it.

Then I wonder why I should bother to read it, because the DJ blurb and the book's first few pages seem to give away the whole story. Martha's tormented drunken father does something terrible to her, she emigrates from England to the Colonies and dies young, after doing something heroic to help the American Revolution.

Well, it's damn good. McGrath writes like a dream. He's fleshing things out nicely and telling a great story.

[Kythereia]

Kythereia, I'd be interested to hear what you think about Wideacre...

Finished it, and... well, I'm still a fan of Philippa Gregory. But the patience is starting to wearing thin.

Beatrice turns me off. I can't sympathize with her as a heroine, and I can't appreciate her as a well-crafted villain. All of the other characters (with the exception of Celia) seem one-note and equally tiresome. I've been outraged by books and I've been enthralled, but this is one of the few where I just gave up because it didn't feel like it was worth the effort.

First The Virgin's Lover and Virgin Earth, and now this. I really did like The Other Boleyn Girl (in spite of the ludicrous way Gregory portrays Anne Boleyn sometimes) and The Constant Princess, but there are other just as good portraits out there (Robin Maxwell's The Queen's Bastard, for example).

I'm starting on Heinlein now, after reading the Lovecraft stories. This should be fun. :)

[Dung Beetle]

Recently read:

Hit by a farm : how I learned to stop worrying and love the barn by Catherine Friend. Good title, huh? The book was a decent light read but nothing special.
Remember me : a lively tour of the new American way of death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen. Morbidly interesting, but Mary Roach's Stiff was better.

Currently reading:

Packaging girlhood : rescuing our daughters from marketers' schemes by Sharon Lamb. Enjoying this one, though the author's just preaching to the choir. I'm hoping that by the time it's over, I'll have more new constructive ideas about daughter-raising.

In the To-Be-Read Pile, I'm catching up on my kiddie lit as usual:

The wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
The children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
Charmed life by Diana Wynne Jones
A wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Plus:
Service and style : how the American department store fashioned the middle class by Jan Whitaker
McLibel : burger culture on trial by John Vidal. (I'm nearly always reading something about the evils of food or food production, it seems.)
Jeans : a cultural history of an American icon by James Sullivan
Last laughs : funny tombstone quotes and famous last words by Kathleen E. Miller

Waiting for me at the library:

The beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson
Chuck Klosterman IV : a decade of curious people and dangerous ideas by Chuck Klosterman
Rumspringa : to be or not to be Amish by Tom Shachtman
Prisoner of Trebekistan : a decade in Jeopardy! by Bob Harris

[twickster]

The wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Quite possibly my most favorite book of my well-read childhood.

(I'm nearly always reading something about the evils of food or food production, it seems.)


If you haven't read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma yet, add it to the to-be-read pile.

[Dung Beetle]

If you haven't read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma yet, add it to the to-be-read pile.
I read it not too long ago, and it really was a good one. Thanks!

[Elendil's Heir]

Thanks, Quasi. We have regular monthly book threads now; here's the current one: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=633201

I'll suggest a mod close this zombie thread.

[Marley23]

Thanks, Quasi. We have regular monthly book threads now; here's the current one: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=633201

I'll suggest a mod close this zombie thread.
Thanks, Elendil's Heir. Quasimodem, I hope you'll join the active discussion.