The Song of Solomon is pretty good.
I just read Watchmen and I was reading Foundation and Earth, but I just noticed that about 50 pages of the book are blank! I will be going with much annoyance tomorrow to see if I can exchange internet bought items at a B&N store.
I plan to be reading Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell soon as well as Ringworld and Neuromancer.
Am reading War and Peace with my dad, stepmom and sister (who all live on the other side of the US). So far we are only about 200 pages in, doing 35 to 40 pages weekly. We discuss it on a private forum.
I love it. Everyone should read it. We are reading the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsy translation. We’ve agreed at the end to select 3 other passages to read, and compare the translations.
I’m nearly done with The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakow and next on my list is The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I’m currently reading:
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited, which as a whole is OK, but I’m really digging Prinke’s essay “The Twelfth Adept”, which is a biography of alchemist Sendivogius. I appreciate the research and thought (even if some is speculation) that went into it, and especially appreciate the unexpected peek into the court life of Rudolf II (which is a personal interest, but I’ve never seen some of those details before).
Talking Figure Skating by Beverley Smith-- The author interviewed a few different people in each category (coaches, boot-makers, choreographers, judges, doctors, fans, parents, etc.) in order to get as compleat a picture of the world of figure skating as she could, and then wrote a chapter about each topic. It’s really fascinating, but unfortunately it’s so old (11 years is a long time, especially since the sport has gone thru a compleat overhaul in terms of the point system, which has altered much of the environment) that it’s not as useful anymore as it could be.
And I just finished up Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. One review in the book mentions “the pervasive paranoia of Thomas Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49”, an unreliable narrator, and “the sardonic black humor of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams”. That’s pretty good, but I would also add the twists and turns of Alias. The twist at the end is especially noteworthy. A little bit more: a woman is being interrogated by a psychiatrist about her life, which includes being recruited by a secret organisation which wants to rid the world of evil by killing serials killers and other such evil people who haven’t been caught by the law by killing them with special guns which give them heart attacks. Is she for real, or is she crazy? Is that even the question you need to be asking? Really exciting…
I liked it a lot…not a book I’d put on a best 20 ever or so list but a worthwhile interesting read
Finished Beat the Reaper - a book that I liked surprisingly well despite all the negatives things I’m going to say about it.
Starting with the inside flap:
This was the hook that made me buy the book. I thought there might be some intrigue and played right it would be interesting. Nope. Not at all. We know within the first few pages that Peter and Pietro *are *the same guy. (I didn’t spoiler that because it is spelled out for you in the first chapter.)
OK, so the flap jacket was written poorly.
Josh Bazell, the author, is a real MD and he fills the book with medical terms and jargon and then indulges in the annoying and oh-so-trendy conceit of filling the book with footnotes. Since I have mentioned in the past that I find this annoying, you might think that I might be entertained with the fact that the author doesn’t take it seriously. But no, I found it more annoying than if he had taken it seriously. (At one point he mentions a job found in hospital, then in the footnote says: This is a real job, but not interesting enough to explain.)
Josh is fairly full of disdain for modern culture and he’ll interject that in the book regularly. I didn’t always disagree, but find it distracting.
The worst, most egregious thing was the ending. I will not explain it, even in a spoiler, but I will just say that I could not suspend my disbelief enough to buy it - and that is saying a lot. I am almost always the one who will say: if you wanted reality, why were you at a movie? (or reading a book?) But in this case, I just couldn’t buy it.
Now the odd part is, after all that, I still found it to be enjoyable. Fast paced, easy reading and moderately interesting.
Two books I read in January had twisty endings. I asked about twists in a Yahoo book group – how readers felt about them. I thought one response was perfect: If you roll your eyes, it didn’t work. If you go “Ahhhh”, it did.
The Book of Lost Things. A 12-13year old boy, after the loss of his mother and the hasty remarriage of his father and birth of his new half sibling while living on the outskirts of soon-to-be war torn London, starts hearing books talk to him.
I am in the first 75 pages and David, our hero, is just about to be brought over into the fantasy world.
I’m reading Alison Weir’s Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. Katherine is familiar to many historical fiction fans because of Anya Seton’s wonderful novel Katherine. I don’t dislike Weir’s book, but I must say that the novel was a more satisfying read.
Apparently very little is actually known about Katherine Swynford, so this biography is full of guesswork, mostly based on the records of gifts that were given her by John of Gaunt. It’s a constant stream of: Katherine perhaps lived here in this year, and she probably had her third (or maybe fourth) child in this year, and she might have been doing such-and-such in this place at this time. Weir originally wanted to write a biography of John of Gaunt, and I really think she should have stuck with that.
Finished The Grandmothers. It is not fair that someone can write like that at the age of 25.
Finished The Lost Patrol: The Mounties’ Yukon Tragedy by Dick North. Well written but not earth-shaking.
Re-reading old favorites, as I tend to do when under stress:
Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford
Classic Crimes by William Roughead
Left off in the middle of Main-Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland because it was confusing to read it simultaneously with The Grandmothers. I’ll pick it up again soon.
It wasn’t the twist. I like a good twist. It was the absolute impossibility of doing what he did, even in a desperate situation. I suppose I must spoil it now, since I did bring it up.
He finds a way to cut open his leg and pull out his own shin bone to use as a knife to stab and kill his enemy
Well, that’s just ridiculous.
Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn
100+ pages in and so far … very good!
I just finished reading Lost Continents (an examination of the Atlantis myth by L. Sprague de Camp). He has some great snark about people who promote the myth.
I also ran across a copy of Turtledove’s The Misplaced Legion in a used book store, so I decided to start rereading it for the first time in 20 years (holy crap, I’m getting old). It’s minor but entertaining.
And before too long, I’m going to remove the shrinkwrap from the brand-new copy of The Complete Don Martin I just got and start flipping to random pages. (Original price: $150, discounted to $50. Score!)
I’m about to finish All the Pretty Horses. It’s my first try with Cormac McCarthy and I’m enjoying him. He builds shock and suspense well, while still keeping the story deeply personal.
Next up is probably Life of Pi.
Recently completed:
Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World by Lawrence Goldstone & Nancy Goldstone ~ Great book and really tempts me to start finding some older editions of books that I love.
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen ~ this was ok. I liked the premise but the story didn’t grab me.
The Four Feathers by A. E. W. Mason ~ I thought this would be more action but was disappointed. It was mainly a weird love triangle between people that needed to be smacked.
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler ~ found this in a bargain bin at a local bookstore. It was tolerable fluff once I got past my irritation of the main character.
Presently reading:
The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 by Samuel Bawlf ~ I’ve been reading this one for a while but it’s not the fault of the book which I’m really enjoying. It’s my bedtime book and I’ve been staying up too late to read lately.
Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America by David Petersen ~ really enjoying this so far.
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz ~ recommended by many people on this board. Loving it!
I’m currently reading My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, on the recommendation of Elendil’s Heir. (BTW, thank you, EH!) I like Conroy’s writing style a lot, so I’m enjoying the story, despite the fact that so much of it is about basketball. I admit I’m just skimming through the detailed game descriptions. Also, I’m hoping there’ll be a scene in which Pat beats the crap out of his dad, but I doubt it. I’m amazed Pat turned out so well, coming from such rotten parents.
My car audiobook is The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. I’ve read Coraline and American Gods and wasn’t crazy about either of them, but since this got a Newbery Medal, I thought I’d check it out. It’s very obviously a children’s book, but I’m liking it a lot so far. When I have a car book that makes me think, “Yippee! It’s time to go to work!” or “Thank goodness, traffic is slow”, then the author’s doing something right. I don’t know if I’ll say this was a great book when all’s been said and done, but I really want to know what’s going to happen next.
I also saw Gadarene’s thread and picked it up on the strength of that – I’m sooooooooooo glad I took it out of the library and didn’t buy it. Agree that it’s way too male. I also thought the ending was rushed and fairly arbitrary. (My comments in the original thread.)
I just finished The Circus Fire. So sad. Now reading *The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre *by Stephen D. Youngkin.
I didn’t get very far in that book, maybe not even 5 pages. Great premise, for sure. I remember one of the characters in the logging camp saying nobody knew how far it was to the nearest town. Huh? I know there was no Mapquest in 1918, but if you’re in a logging camp you’re gonna know this. There was some really clunky dialogue too.
SigmaGirl, I read The Circus Fire last month. I wish O’Nan would write more nonfiction, or that more nonfiction writers would write like O’Nan. He was very restrained and non-sensational.