Time for falling leaves, hot cocoa and silly witch decorations on every door and lamp post! So it’s October, time for scary reading! I need to dust off the Ray Bradbury and reread them.
I started the third John Rain book, Rain Storm by Barry Eisler this morning, yes start the month out with assassins!
So tell us Whacher readin!
Khadaji was one of the earlier members of the SDMB, and he was well known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader; and he started these monthly book threads. Sadly, he passed away in January 2013, and it was decided that we should rename these monthly threads in his honour.
Well, I am reading a ghost story, but it’s nothing to do with the season. I’m always up for a ghost story!
This one is Rooms, by Lauren Oliver. It’s about a family who has gathered in their old home for the reading of the father’s will, and the characters all get to tell a part of the story, the viewpoint changing with each chapter. Among them are two ghosts, who fill us in on the history of the house. It isn’t at all scary, but I’m liking it a lot and feeling that the author is redeeming herself after her last YA book.
I’m on a computer history binge. I just finished reading Ghost in the Wire by Kevin Mitnik about his computer and phone hacking exploits. It was pretty good. The bulk of it is basically him bragging about how he fooled this or that secretary into giving him access to their computers, which probably isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed it. And the cat and mouse game between him and the Feds is exciting.
Also each chatper has a code string to start with. I’m almost done solving them (granted, most of them aren’t particularly difficult.)
On the same lines, read Masters of Doom about the creators of ID software and their creation of the videogame Doom. Mainly focuses on the personalities of John Romero and Carmack, and about the early gaming culture that grew up around the same time. Also a good read. I was old enough to play Doom at the time, but wasn’t really old enough to know how it contrasted against earlier games, or be aware of the Modding and deathmatch groups that it spawned. So its kind of interesting reading about history that I sort of lived through, but didn’t really get to fully observe at the time.
It’s not your typical EOTWAWKI books. The protagonist is not a hero but maybe he grows to be one. Takes place in England after a massive asteroid strike. Meets some good people and some bad and some in between. Sometimes you want to slap him but he keeps on keeping on.
About a fifth or so of the way through 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles C. Mann. So far, every bit as good as his first one, 1491.
Just to say, I agree with providing the link to the previous month’s thread. That provides a continuum both forward and backward.
With a bit of time on my hands, I read Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet series (which must have been recommended here some time). I was thoroughly entertained. It did a good job at space warfare. The obvious comparison is, of course, David Weber’s Honor Harrington; and it’s much better than Weber’s last few. The characters are more believable, the space action has a little less of a hard-on for detailed description of fictional technology, the plot is less convoluted, and there’s some sympathy for both sides of the action. His hero’s repeated success are at least somewhat plausibly explained; so overall, I’m very satisfied.
Otherwise, I’m reading Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is delightfully lyrical; Matthew Guerrieri’s The First Four Notes (on Beethoven’s Fifth and its cultural impact); and Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge. I’m switching between those as the mood strikes.
John Irving’s “The Fourth Hand” - about four chapters in.
Not sure about it currently - don’t really care for any of the characters (not that that is essential). I will stick with it as it’s an easy read and I need to keep my novel quotient up.
Abandoned Levi’s “If This is a Man/The Truth” (see previous such thread) as just was not in the mood despite the writing being excellent. Will come back to it I am sure.
I’m still really enjoying The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs, and am now more than halfway through.
Read a little more last night of the novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, and I’m still underwhelmed. It might not pass my must-hook-me-by-page-50 test.
On the home stretch of Death of a King by Tavis Smiley and David Ritz, about MLK’s last year of life, and it’s remains so-so. Just not very engaging writing. You certainly get a sense of what a difficult last year he had, though, what with SCLC financial problems, being outshouted by Black Power leaders, frequently being away from home, and his adultery roiling his marriage.
Finally getting around to reading Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), by Jerome K Jerome - something I’ve been meaning to do for years. (Nay, decades…)
Next up is The Ides of April, the first book in Lindseay Davis’s new mystery series starring Marcus Didius Falco’s adopted daughter Flavia Albia. It’s set in AD 89, twelve years after Nemesis, the last Falco book.
While I enjoyed the biographical info on Franklin as well as some of the other individuals (David Rittenhouse sounds particularly interesting!), the text felt a bit dry and repetitive at times … tho it might have been me. The notes and bibliography were very thorough, so Lyons definitely did his homework. It just didn’t quite grab me, but is probably worth the read if you’re interested in the Enlightenment as well as the struggles & conflicts between the leading men of the early United States.
On a lighter note, I rather enjoyed The Clockwork Scarab by by Colleen Gleason. I think I spotted this in the New Reads list on the Indiana Digital Media website. I’d just come off a wonderful steampunk trilogy (Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld) and was looking for something similar. I’m also a sucker for literary mashups - so finding that the main characters were the niece of Sherlock Holmes and the sister of Bram Stoker piqued my interest.
While Miss Alvermina Holmes (she goes by Mina) and Evaline Stoker come from different social circles - they are called to serve the Crown in a clandestine capacity to investigate the suspicious disappearances of several society belles. The titular item becomes an important clue - and the game is soon afoot!
A fun read - Gleason drops you right into an steampunk Victorian London, where buildings tower so high they need support from balloons, and the streets are multilevel - the higher levels being toll-based. And yes, vampires are real; but supposedly nearly exterminated, thanks to the Stoker clan. Mina and Evaline are well-drawn characters, with their personality quirks not distracting too much from the overall story. Being a YA novel - there are romantic interests, of course; they toe the line of being a bit overdone (but I’m not quite the intended audience). There’s plenty of action and danger along the way, and both young ladies comport themselves well.
The time travel element seems oddly placed - I think the story would have been just fine without it, but I imagine it comes more into focus in the (presumed) sequels. Thankfully, this novel wraps up its own story (am not terribly fond of cliffhangers), but leaves the door open for more Stoker/Holmes adventures.
Worth at least a library read if steampunk, literary mashups and strong female leads are your thing.
You might also like Cincinnatus by Garry Wills, about George Washington and the Enlightenment, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, about the Framers in their relationships with each other (friends, foes and frenemies). Both quite good.
After seeing it mentioned in one of our previous threads, I read Jo Walton’s My Real Children. I liked it very much overall, I especially liked that even though one of the two lives was pretty much objectively “better” than the other, the other one still had some great high points and really moving emotional moments so it wasn’t like one good life and one bad life.
I also read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, which is a YA novel that got a lot of hype recently. It was a bit on the sensational side for my taste, and I didn’t love it, but I can definitely see the appeal for teens who like that kind of high drama, and despite my eye rolling at the basic plot (rich teenagers who are jaded, yay!), it was a well crafted book.
Thanks for including the link to last month’s thread!
hands you broom for thwacking me if I do