John Crowley’s Little, Big,
China Miéville’s** Looking For Jake and other stories**,
Walter Moers’ The City of Dreaming Books and
Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith.
Also making my way with a magnifying glass through Nick Yapp’s Getty Images - 1900s, just for steampunky background.
The Knife Man which I bought in the Hunterian Museum when I was in London. It’s about the birth of modern surgery. Also has body-snatching.
My version is the UK version, and I’m not sure it’s released in the US, but it’s great.
This guy is the probable basis for the fictional characters of Jekell/Hyde and Dr. Doolittle. He infected himself with syphillis/clap for scientific purposes.
Fascinating.
(I read it while I was in London, but it’s worth 2 or 3 reads.)
I’m about halfway through Science Friction by Michael Shermer, a collection of essays he wrote over the years (including a very moving one about his mother’s fight with cancer) and just finished The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
I also have to wholeheartedly agree with the other Discworld fans on the board. The Colour of Magic is probably the weakest book in the series. Terry started to find his footing with The Light Fantastic, but it really wasn’t until Wyrd Sisters and Guards, Guards! that he really hit his stride. Mort is significant in a number of ways, but those others really show his talent.
Second Chance by Brzezinski and the Art of War by Sun Tzu
I,m about halfway through Proven guilty by Jim Butcher a Dresden files novel
That’s my favorite novel of all time.
I’m currently reading Frank Portman’s King Dork, which is one of the more hilarious and amazing coming of age novels I’ve read. It’s a direct pastiche of/homage to Catcher in the Rye that manages to directly make fun of Catcher throughout. Any high school nerd that was way too into music will love this.
Coincidentially, this is what I plan to read next, followed by Gilbert’s three-volume History of the Twentieth Century. Gilbert’s WWII book has very nice black-and-white maps- something which Shirer’s is sorely lacking.
Almost done with the first Dresden Files book.
Going Long: The History of the American Football League
1912: Roosevelt, Wilson, Taft & Debs and the Election that Changed the Country
Found some old Lloyd Biggle’s and Eric Ambler’s at the used book store. Currently it’s Doctor Frigo by Ambler.
The ladies of Grace Adieu, by Susanna Clarke, is a book of short stories set in the same world as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Very enjoyable.
The book of story beginnings is a new kid’s fantasy novel; not a new idea, but a pretty good story nonetheless.
Anna Karenina is my bedtime reading.
I’m reading Creed or Chaos, by Dorothy L. Sayers. I began to read her theological essays just out of curiosity, since I was very fond of the Lord Peter Wimsey books. Her essays on Christianity are marvelous, in the league of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.
I’m reading Rant, but Chuck Palahniuk. It’s all signed and junk. Plus, here’s a photo of me with the author.
You may all bow down in my presence, for I am the coolest reader on the board.
I’m working my way through The Ancestors Tale by Dawkins now.
I just finished the first Thursday Next book, The Eyre Affair, after reading the third The Well of Lost Plots. The third is better. Some of it is very funny, and I’m hoping this series will be a tenth as good as Discworld, but I need to read some more to see.
Let us know what you think. I personally have only read Ambler’s short stories and A Coffin for Dimitrios.
I had dinner with the guy in midtown Manhattan about 20 years ago. He was remarkably knowledgeable about wine.
Friday I got Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It’s your basic boat anchor. The book runs to 1600 pages, plus a CD-ROM with a pair of PDFs: one containing source citation notes; the other, 958 pages of “endnotes”. With Bugliosi, the endnotes are usually as important as the main text (hell, his “note” on the alleged audio recording of the assassination runs sixty-odd pages!), so I’m having to print out that sucker; I’m up to page 200 (well ahead of my reading).
See ya in six months.
In anticipation of the release of Reclaiming History I made my self reread David Lifton’s Best Evidence (the book propounding what I suppose could fairly be called the Body Snatchers Conspiracy Theory). In comparison to Bugliosi, Lifton flails.
Wheee…twicks liked the book I pimped.
[pressing my luck] So, is ** Soldier of the Great War** still in the queue? [/nagging]
I just pitched Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I got half way through and just couldn’t keep going. It’s not that it’s a bad book, really. It just meanders and I have a progressively shrinkng attention span. I accept any blame you JS&MN fans want to shoot my way.
Instead, I started A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot. AuntiePam recommended the movie, which was excellent. The book is even better. It’s about a young girl who doesn’t believe that her fiancé was really killed on the Somme and how she discovers what actually happened to him. It’s a love story/war story/mystery/historical novel and it’s completely absorbing. I was up till 3 am last night and I already know what happens.
Ditto, except I’m re-reading it, so I do have a clue what it’s about. I’m working my way up to Reaper’s Gale, and I’m hoping that re-reading only Midnight Tides and The Bonehunters will be sufficient to get caught up on the plot.
I’m reading a fun book called American Pie by Pascale Le Draoulec, which my mother recommended to me. It’s a food/travel memoir about, well, pie! The woman who wrote it, though an American herself, was not terribly familar with pie, because her parents were French immigrants who apparently stuck more to their native cuisine. She becomes intrigued by pie as the quintessential American dessert, so she decides to take several cross-country road trips, looking for the best examples of pies all around the US. The people & pies she finds are fascinating, and she includes recipes she collected on the trips. I’m really enjoying it.
China Mieville, Perdido Street Station. Holy crap, it’s good.
Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker. Also very good.