Whatcha Readin' August 2012 Edition

[AuntiePam]

Started and dumped What I Did by Christopher Wakling. It's from the POV of a six-year-old and it's annoying as hell. I quite liked the five-year-old in Room by Emma Donoghue, but the writing in this one is a bit cutesy.

Picked up Hell or High Water by Joy Castro, set in post-Katrina New Orleans. The main character is a newspaper reporter, a woman born in Cuba and brought to the US as a baby by her single mother. When the story starts, she's been given an assignment that she hopes will take her off the lifestyle page and into serious reporting. I'm really liking the story -- lots of interesting details, very engaging, fast-paced.

[Mrs. Cake]

Just finished Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu, which I liked quite a bit better than his last few books. Almost gave up on him after the one-two disapointment of You Suck and Fool.

Getting ready to re-read Tales of the City for the first time in maybe 20 years. Wonder what it will read like now?

[Sigmagirl]

I finished The Stranger You Seek and enjoyed it, though I called the identity of the killer about a quarter of the way in. I can still enjoy the craft and the main character was attractive.

Now reading Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder. I don't know anything about it, but I must have read a good review because I wrote it down in my notebook.

[Marley23]

Almost done reading Bangkok 8, a crime novel set in Thailand. It's a quick read and I've really enjoyed the protagonist, a sarcastic Buddhist detective.

[Snickers]

I finished Divergent, and I liked it enough that I'm waiting for the sequel, Insurgent, from the library.

Then I started Dust, a YA zombie book told from the zombie's point of view. I'm about 15, maybe 20 pages in, and it's not captured me. It's pretty meh. I don't buy the mechanism the author has given the zombies to communicate, I'm not satisfied with the characterization, and I'm just not really that interested. I think I'll let this one go without going any further, and pick up something new at lunch.

[Siam Sam]

Originally Posted by Marley23

Almost done reading Bangkok 8, a crime novel set in Thailand. It's a quick read and I've really enjoyed the protagonist, a sarcastic Buddhist detective.

That is a good book and very accurate. The vaginal dart shooting is spot on. I knew one girl who could nail a moving target every time without fail. Oddly, and as I've mentioned elsewhere on the Board, John Burdett's names of places in Nana Plaza and Patpong are all real, but he makes up bar names for Soi Cowboy. Dunno why. All I can figure is he doesn't want to make any waves there -- I happen to know Burdett likes Soi Cowboy -- but if I were a bar owner, I'd love a mention in his book.

The other two books in the trilogy are worth a read, but this one is the best.

[Marley23]

Originally Posted by Siam Sam

The vaginal dart shooting is spot on. I knew one girl who could nail a moving target every time without fail.

I think she'd have had to change her specialty if she kept blinding her customers.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Originally Posted by Marley23

I think she'd have had to change her specialty if she kept blinding her customers.

...or switch to ping pong balls!



Anyway, I am reading Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel by John Guy. Its a really good repackaging of the former Archbishop of Canterbury's life, upbringing and dalliances with Henry II.

In the on-deck circle I've got Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith of Abe Lincoln Vamp Hunter fame. Its a retelling of the birth of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of the Three Wise Men, whom are murdering, infamous thieves in this retelling, fleeing Herod's prison and no doubt having wacky adventures with Jesus, Mary and Joseph in tow.

I also have Firebird by Jack McDevitt, a sci-fi novel. I've never heard of this writer...is he any good?

[Siam Sam]

Originally Posted by Marley23

I think she'd have had to change her specialty if she kept blinding her customers.

Originally Posted by FoieGrasIsEvil

...or switch to ping pong balls!

There's always the vaginal bottle-opening trick.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Snickers

Then I started Dust, a YA zombie book told from the zombie's point of view. I'm about 15, maybe 20 pages in, and it's not captured me. It's pretty meh. I don't buy the mechanism the author has given the zombies to communicate, I'm not satisfied with the characterization, and I'm just not really that interested. I think I'll let this one go without going any further, and pick up something new at lunch.

For a second I thought you were talking about a different YA book titled Dust, which is an excellent dark fantasy.

[Snickers]

Hmmm. That does look pretty good, AuntiePam - I'll have to check it out!

[Sigmagirl]

Purgatory Chasm was quite good, and I'll be looking for his other books. The premise: a recovering alcoholic and parolee belongs to an AA group whose members will do anything for each other, and they call on him when somebody needs a little ass whuppin'. One old guy says he took his classic car into a restoration shop for some work, and they've had it for a long time and haven't done any work and won't give him his money back, and he want the narrator to go over there and get his car and money back. But things aren't always what they seem! and he steps in a big ol' pile o'shit.

I like imaginative plots instead of just the usual "I'm a PI and this is my case," unless those are extremely well written. Now starting A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming, second in a series about a female Episcopal priest; here, one of her acquaintances has been the victim of a gay-bashing. I'm just starting so I don't know if that's the main plot.

[Dung Beetle]

Starting today on Cold in July, by Joe R. Lansdale, who continues to cement his place as my second favorite living author.

[gallows fodder]

Originally Posted by Alice The Goon

The Crimson Petal And The White. I'm enjoying it.

One of my very favorites. Let me know if you want to discuss it!

I've been reading some YA books to compensate for my weakened attention span. Last week, I finished Kristin Cashore's Bitterblue, which started out gripping and...uh...ended up dripping (with overwrought emotion). What a let-down.

I just finished the second book in James Dashner's Maze Trilogy, The Scorch Trials, which was a disappointment after the really decent first book, The Maze Runner. Same "kids trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world in a rigged scenario" vibe as the Hunger Games, but much better written (and the similarities end there).

Today I've started Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Sigmagirl

I like imaginative plots instead of just the usual "I'm a PI and this is my case," unless those are extremely well written.

Then you'd probably like Hell or High Water by Joy Castro. I'm not finished yet but it's shaping up to be a five-star read.

The main character isn't a PI (and doesn't want to be), but as she does a newspaper story on registered sex offenders, she's asking around about an active serial killer. Mixed in with this are her memories of growing up in a housing project, being neither black nor white in a black or white society, having friends with privileged backgrounds, and being sexual but so afraid of relationships that she carries condoms and picks up guys in bars.

The interviews with the RSO's are intriguing, and scary, and educational without being preachy or judgmental.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

Over the weekend I got sidelined by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. The first two are set in 1910 and 1969. Not as good as the earlier volumes, I'd say, but still pretty interesting, with so many British pop-culture allusions, I'm sure many are going over my head.

Finished this, and also Robert Lacey's The Queen: A Life in Brief, a very short (166 pages) bio of Elizabeth II. If you want a once-over-lightly of Her Majesty's life, this is a good one.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by RandMcnally

I'm about a quarter of the way through Cloud Atlas. It's a book I would never read myself, but my friend raved about it over and over, so I'm pushing my way through it. I'm liking it so far. It's...different.

Oddly enough, there is a film version being made. Has a trailer out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s

[LVBoPeep]

Originally Posted by Malthus

Oddly enough, there is a film version being made. Has a trailer out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s

Wow, that will be something if they can pull it off.

[Alice The Goon]

Originally Posted by gallows fodder

One of my very favorites. Let me know if you want to discuss it!

Okay- I am almost done with it and I'll PM you.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by LVBoPeep

Wow, that will be something if they can pull it off.

The trailer looks great - but how they plan to put it all together, I dunno. I am cautiously optimistic ...

[Allatsea]

Originally Posted by yellowval

I finished #4 in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, "On the Banks of Plum Creek," and started "By the Shores of Silver Lake." I love how the writing in the series gets more mature as Laura does. "Silver Lake" started out really sad and I was sobbing in the first chapter.

I'm also reading "The Terror" by Dan Simmons but am having a bit of a hard time getting into it. Has anyone else read this one? Does it get better or am I better calling it quits before I get 350 pages in and feel like I have to slog through the rest?

It gets better - hang in there! I read it about two years ago and it's still in my head when many I've read since have flown.

[Sigmagirl]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

Then you'd probably like Hell or High Water by Joy Castro.

Ha! I had this on reserve at the library and picked it up yesterday! I finished A Fountain Filled with Blood -- don't bother -- and am about 2/3 through The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths, third in a series about an English anthropologist who works with police. I'll look up her previous books. And I'll start Hell or High Water tomorrow!

[Chimera]

Mostly through New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, a compilation of new(er) Cthulhu stories. The Neil Gaiman story A Study in Emerald is excellent and can be found on-line for free. I also liked Old Virginia and Another Fish Story, among others. Down to 4 stories left.

[Rollo Tomasi]

I finished Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns earlier this month, and I actually liked it more than The Kite Runner. I found the historical material interesting but the characters rather flat in Kite Runner, but I thought this one was much more well rounded and compelling.

I'm now working on Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo. The movie is coming out in a few weeks, and I like to read the book first whenever possible. So far, it's . . . interesting. DeLillo's style might not be quite my thing, but I do like the writing, even if I'm rarely ever sure of What It All Means.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Siam Sam

There's always the vaginal bottle-opening trick.

"Ya looked like ya might be thirsty!"

Old joke.

[Dung Beetle]

I’m reading Beany Malone, by Lenora Mattingly Weber, a teen read published in 1948. Cozy and wholesome to the max.

[TheMerchandise]

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Jacob de Zoet, a stubbornly honorable clerk, is at the center of the story, as he tries to acquaint himself with Japan of the year 1799. It's an exotic land, both geographically and psychologically. Jacob is surrounded by an unsavory lot of fellow tradesman, a group of sycophantic Japanese interpreters and the beguiling burned midwife Orito.

This was my first experience with David Mitchell and I'm incredibly impressed with him as a craftsman. The amount of research that he must of done to create this novel is astounding.

[Snickers]

I finished The Diary of Anne Frank last week - a really good read. I do rather wish that she would've focused more on politics and what was going on for Jews, but she was also a) 13 - 14 and b) stuck in the Annex all of the time, and thus might not have known. Very sobering, and very tragic.

[koeeoaddi]

Originally Posted by Mrs. Cake

Getting ready to re-read Tales of the City for the first time in maybe 20 years. Wonder what it will read like now?

I read the first four books in the series again a few years ago and thought they were fun and nostalgic, rather than dated, though I think the second and third books (More Tales and Further Tales) hold up better than the first.

I'm reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and listening to The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection. No, not at the same time, but when I fall asleep listening to The Limpopo Academy, I have dark violent dreams in hot lyrical locations.

[yellowval]

Two more Laura Ingalls Wilder books down—The Long Winter and Little Town on the Prairie. Working on These Happy Golden Years now, then just The First Four Years to go.

[Sigmagirl]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

Then you'd probably like Hell or High Water by Joy Castro. I'm not finished yet but it's shaping up to be a five-star read.

I'm on page 44. So far I'm very interested in this book. But I find it amusing that the character carries a Sharpie marker so she can go around correcting graffiti, and yet the book misspells "minuscule."

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Snickers

I finished The Diary of Anne Frank last week - a really good read. I do rather wish that she would've focused more on politics and what was going on for Jews, but she was also a) 13 - 14 and b) stuck in the Annex all of the time, and thus might not have known. Very sobering, and very tragic.

Highly recommended for background and photos: http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-wor...+life+in+words

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Sigmagirl

I'm on page 44. So far I'm very interested in this book. But I find it amusing that the character carries a Sharpie marker so she can go around correcting graffiti, and yet the book misspells "minuscule."

I found one site that says "miniscule" is okay, but most disagree. Yep, that's almost a Gaudere's Law thing right there.

I'm reading Pale Criminal, the third in Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy. It's set in the fall of 1938, and PI Bernie Gunther is back with the police department and looking for a serial killer. Julius Strecher is prominently featured. I looked him up at Wiki and was pleased to read that his execution didn't go smoothly.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

I found one site that says "miniscule" is okay, but most disagree. Yep, that's almost a Gaudere's Law thing right there.

I'm reading Pale Criminal, the third in Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy. It's set in the fall of 1938, and PI Bernie Gunther is back with the police department and looking for a serial killer. Julius Strecher is prominently featured. I looked him up at Wiki and was pleased to read that his execution didn't go smoothly.

Be sure to read the subsequent Bernie Gunther novels that follow the Berlin Noir trilogy. If anything, I find that Kerr has grown as an author.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Malthus

Be sure to read the subsequent Bernie Gunther novels that follow the Berlin Noir trilogy. If anything, I find that Kerr has grown as an author.

I plan to. But does he get laid in every book? Women are falling into his, er, lap in the first two books.

[delphica]

Originally Posted by Dung Beetle

I’m reading Beany Malone, by Lenora Mattingly Weber, a teen read published in 1948. Cozy and wholesome to the max.

I loved this series when I was a kid ... it's SO dated but I think that's partly why I liked them, I was intrigued with all the weird (to me) details about life in the 1940s and 50s.

[CalMeacham]

Reading Ken Follett's World Without End(the sequel to Pillars of the Earth) on audio. I have two hardcover copies at home that I never got into, but it's easy to read on my commute to and from work.

I'm also reading Robert Booth's Death of an Empire. I've been looking for a book on tyhis topic for a long time -- until the first half of the 19th century, Salem Masachusetts was a rival in trading, power, and money with Boston. It had a worldwide trade empire, and the world's richest man lived there. But during that time Salem fell, never to rise again. I always wondered how and why, and assumed that it had something to do with the shallowness of Salem's port, which couldn't accommodate ships of deeper draft as it could the brigs of the earlier period. But huge ships can still come in to Salem's outer harbor (abnd have, in recent years, to deliver cargos of oil to the Salem power plant), so if that was all there was to it, the trade could have migrated out to the outer harbor, instead of totally disappearing. It's a complex story.

[Sigmagirl]

I listened to one of the Bernie Gunther novels on audio book and couldn't get into it. It's just the kind of thing I'd like, so I don't know why. Maybe I'll give Kerr another try.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

I plan to. But does he get laid in every book? Women are falling into his, er, lap in the first two books.

He gets increasingly world-weary, but basically yeah. It's a noir obligation, that the cynical detective have doomed relationships with dangerous women. I will say this though - in the later books his doomed relationships are well worked into the plots, providing some real jaw-dropping twists.

[Dung Beetle]

Originally Posted by delphica

I loved this series when I was a kid ... it's SO dated but I think that's partly why I liked them, I was intrigued with all the weird (to me) details about life in the 1940s and 50s.

Yeah, I'm digging it, but my library doesn't have any of them...I don't know if I want to put them through fourteen more interlibrary loans.

[Elendil's Heir]

Just finished reading Robert Lawson's Mr. Revere and I with my two youngest boys. I liked it more than they did, but the Boston setting was timely, given our recent visit there. Tonight we start Robert Heinlein's Have Space Suit - Will Travel.

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

...I'm reading Pale Criminal, the third in Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy. It's set in the fall of 1938, and PI Bernie Gunther is back with the police department and looking for a serial killer. Julius Strecher is prominently featured. I looked him up at Wiki and was pleased to read that his execution didn't go smoothly.

Robert Harris's alt-history masterpiece Fatherland offers a very interesting look at the Berlin police and criminal subcultures under the Nazi regime.

[Siam Sam]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

Robert Harris's alt-history masterpiece Fatherland offers a very interesting look at the Berlin police and criminal subcultures under the Nazi regime.

I second Fatherland.

[Meurglys]

Originally Posted by FoieGrasIsEvil

I also have Firebird by Jack McDevitt, a sci-fi novel. I've never heard of this writer...is he any good?

I like him a lot and read this one in h/c last year. It's volume 5 in an ongoing series but I hadn't read the previous 3 and had no problems with it. (I had read vol 1 back in 1989!)
I thought it sagged a little in the middle with lots of short scenes which didn't appear to progress the plot much but it picked up again. Very good.

Currently I'm making my way through the complete Kefahuchi Tract Trilogy by M. John Harrison. I bought Light when it came out in 2002 but failed to read it, so I wasn’t able to read Nova Swing when it came out in 2006, but now Empty Space is out, I’ve finally started!

I’m now about 2/3rds of the way through the final volume. Great stuff, but not an easy read.

[Stowed Bob]

Metaplanetary by Tony Daniel. I've only known him for a short story I read over a decade ago called A Dry, Quiet War. I got instantly hooked, which I didn't expect and haven't experienced for years, so I'll have to fish through his backlog of novels.

[Sigmagirl]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

Then you'd probably like Hell or High Water by Joy Castro. I'm not finished yet but it's shaping up to be a five-star read.

OK, I finished and I thought it was extraordinary. I definitely will read this author's next book, and I think she has the makings of a series here. In her acknowledgements she cites Ned Sublette's The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square, and I read that one before it was even published. And she's coming to Bouchercon so I can meet her!

[RandMcnally]

Originally Posted by RandMcnally

I'm about a quarter of the way through Cloud Atlas. It's a book I would never read myself, but my friend raved about it over and over, so I'm pushing my way through it. I'm liking it so far. It's...different.

I just finished it. It took a while for me to get really into it, but once I did I finished it faster than I anticipated.

Now I have no idea how they're going to do the movie.

[slm2955]

Casual vacancy- J.k rowling

[Dung Beetle]

Starting on Wool, by Hugh Howey. Sci-fi about an underground society.

[yanceylebeef]

Originally Posted by Dung Beetle

Starting on Wool, by Hugh Howey. Sci-fi about an underground society.

You are in for a ride. I tore through the five books in about a week and a half. Great world building!

[Rollo Tomasi]

Originally Posted by slm2955

Casual vacancy- J.k rowling

Did you get an advance reader copy?