Whatcha readin' November edition

OK, we had enough interest here such that I guess we can try to do this monthly.

I am still reading the latest Potter. It has picked up and I’m enjoying it more than I was at first.

I am also still reading Alpine for you. I hate putting a book down, so I guess I will finish it, but I am underwhelmed. None of Ms. Hunter’s characters are likable, including the protagonist Emily Andrew. I think she is striving to make them quirky, but for me they just come off as annoying. None of her male characters are pleasant at all, except for the “leading man” who may become the protagonist’s love interest.

She doesn’t seem to like men much. At one point the man paid to help run the vacation they are on has died. One character mentions that maybe he died from the stress of trying to be the perfect escort. Maddy’s protagonist says that he probably read “one or two vacation books and threw some underwear into the suitcase - pretty stressful for a man.”

She doesn’t seem to like women much more than men, although she doesn’t bash them quite as hard. Emily Andrew spends three month’s rent on a watch just because she doesn’t want the clerk to know she can’t afford it. I can’t imagine who this type of woman appeals to.

I am also reading some tech books, including one on a game development tool called 3D Game Studio. It looks like a lot of fun and I may play with game development again.

I’ve finished Mark Twain’s San Francisco and most of Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii, and the introduction (165 pages!) to The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, so I’m still on my Twain kick for now.

Halfway through Richard Russo’s Risk Pool. Damn, he’s a fine writer. I’ve read all of his books before, but thought I’d give them another run through. Fantastic.

Last week from the library I took out 3 Russos, a couple of David Halberstams including The Best and the Brightest, and a couple of brainless thrillers by one of my faves, Thomas Perry. I’ve got my work cut out for me!

Mostly I’m reading Retirement Plans: 401(k)s, IRAs, and Other Deferred Compensation Approaches for an exam I have to take in a few weeks.

For recreational reading, I’m re-reading Gulliver’s Travels which I haven’t read in about 25 years - I’m getting a lot more out of it now than when I was 13.

I’m also reading Simply Christian by N.T. Wright, but I’ve been on the same page for about four months now so at some point I’m going to have to admit it hasn’t held my interest.

Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner. Tamerlane turned me on to it and I’ve bought a couple of extra copies since to give as X-mas gifts since I’ve enjoyed it so.

Just finished How Starbucks saved my life: a son of privilege learns to live like everyone else, by Michael Gill. A big pile of glurgy crap. A formerly rich guy finds fulfillment in a low-prestige job. I read all the way to the end to see if he could teach me how to do it, but no. He was just weird.

Current book One red paperclip: or, how an ordinary man achieved his dreams with the help of a simple office supply, by Kyle MacDonald. You may have heard about this guy. He traded his way from a paperclip to a house in about fourteen trades. Light, fun book.

Car audiobook The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King, read by Anne Heche. I like to do my re-reading in the car. I’m not particularly enjoying Anne’s interpretation, though. She sounds like she’s reading to a kindergarten class. If there’s another audiobook waiting for me at the library this weekend, I’ll probably drop this.

Just finished Halting State by Charles Stross. Good near future police thriller, but I’m not a gamer, so I’m sure I missed many of the inside jokes.

Just started An Arsonists Guide to Authors home in New England by Brock Clarke, and already it has pulled me in deep. And I picked up the Space Opera Renaissance anthology for my Thanksgiving trip.

The two next on the pile are God is not Great by Hitchens and The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. The last of the books I picked up on a trip to Powells this past Labor Day. After that I’m digging in to the Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Chabon and Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. It’s going to be a good month.

I just finished Pillars of the Earth, which was okay, and now I’ve started the first **Flashman **book. I’ve heard a few dopers talk about this series. So far the book is great - Flashman is like the anti-Sharpe.

Next I’ll probably read some more of Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey books, picking up with Have His Carcase. I’m looking forward to the first book with Harriet Vane as a major character.

I have looked at this more than once. I am a big ol’ sap and so I kinda like gurgy crap, but I suspect that I would end up feeling as you did (that he is just weird.)

To get the full flavour out of Flashman, it helps a bit to have read, at some point in your life, Tom Brown’s School Days:

I’ve had to read a lot of Great Literature over the past few years, so I’m taking a break with some fantasy and science fiction. I’m reading Charles de Lint’s Jack the Giant-Killer right now. It’s a library book so I need to finish it up soon. Up next is John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids which I decided I needed to read after a character in Friendly Hostility got a pet triffid over the summer.

Ah, my genre books. How I have missed you.

I honestly can’t recommend it. I guess the most interesting part was seeing what kind of a company Starbucks is to work for. According to Michael Gill, they’re just peachy. :slight_smile:
**
Spazcat**, I’ve got Day of the Triffids in my to-be-read pile too, but it’s a long way down!

I just (last night) finished Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky. Two novellas published in one volume, both taking place in France during WWII. The first one is about people trying to flee Paris ahead of the German army, and the second is about the German occupation of a small French village.

Nemirovsky wrote them while she was living in an occupied French village during WWII. The two novellas were intended to be the beginning of a longer series. Instead, Nemirovsky eventually died at Auschwitz. I confess that I initially picked this up because her personal story seemed so compelling. The book itself is also excellent on its own, it reads as a series of snapshots of individuals whose lives intersect throughout the German occupation.

I am currently waiting for a book to come in the mail, which is annoying because I thought it would be here by now so I didn’t plan ahead. Oh well, maybe a trip to the bookstore is in order (no really, twist my arm… )

I’m almost finished with Next Year in Cuba by Gustavo Perez-Firmat. Pretty interesting account of a historic* Cuban exile. Some of his experiences assimilating mirror mine, so it’s touching. I like his description of his status as “living on the hyphen”, not quite Cuban, not quite American.

My next one is Titan by Stephen Baxter. I’m in a little of a Baxter kick, since I just discovered him and find him very readable. I just wish one of his stories had a happy ending.

*historic = those who left right after Fidel took power.

I’m currently finishing up The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and halfway through (which is pretty much “finishing up”) The Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick.

I can’t believe I’ve never read it before (Blade Runner, that is) as I’m really enjoying it and am also glad I haven’t seen the movie. I plan to after I’m finished with the book but I am going to cut through the shit and head right for the director’s cut.

After those are finished I plan to read *Cunt: A Declaration of Independence * by Inga Muscio.

After that, who knows. I’ll either raid my bookshelves for books unread or raid someone else’s as I’m wont to do.

I’m still working on World Without End. It shows how busy I’ve become…I think I polished Pillars of the Earth off in less than a week, but that was years ago.

I just finished Pratchett’s Making Money. Fun book, but mostly forgettable, just like most of his other books. I’m pretty sure he just writes them using a template, but it’s a fun template, so I don’t mind.

Swinging to the other end of the spectrum, I’m just starting Flim-Flam by James Randi and I’m enjoying the hell out of it. Randi really takes the concept of “cranky exasperated old man” and runs with it.

The movie doesn’t bear a lot of resemblance to the book. That’s generally true in science fiction, but it’s paticularly true of the work of Philip K. Dick. It makes me wonder why they try so hard to get his works for filming, when they’re going to essentially jettison it all anyway. The closest movies get to his writing is the overblown Paycheck, o possibly a Scanner Drakly (I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say.)

I’m having a Chuck Palaniuk period (hell, is there supposed to be an H in his name? I just slam my hand on the keyboard and see what comes out!).
I just finished Survivor, now I’m halfway into **Lullaby ** and next is Rant. They’re good easy reads, I just have trouble finding time to do it.
Plus, when I’m just wanting to read a little I am keeping William Gay’s I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down on the bedside table. It’s a collection of short stories but I’ve only gone through a handful. If anyone can comment on Gay I’d love to hear feedback. I have been reading Chuck so much lately that anything other than his sometimes jarring writing style took me a minute or two to get used to!

Finished The Time Traveler’s Wife and am now continuing on with the Aubrey/Maturin series with Treason’s Harbour.