Gordon, Bonk’s in my TBR pile. If it’s as good as Stiff and Spook, I’m expecting a really good time.
I finished What I Was. It was…okay. It held my interest and I didn’t expect what happened. I still can’t understand for the life of me why her other books are considered YA and this one’s not.
Just finished Mind Wide Open, by Steven Johnson, about the inner operation of the brain. Pretty interesting discussion of the various compartments functioning at different speeds and performing different functions at the same time, the effect of chemicals, etc.
Currently reading Awake, a novel by Elizabeth Graver. First I’ve read by her, and I’m enjoying it.
I forgot to mention that I also finished reading Roald Dahl’s The BFG to my son. It was decent. If I’d read it as a kid, I’m sure I’d have liked it even more, especially with all the whizzpopping going on.
I’m not sure what we’ll read next, but one of the things I really appreciate in a bedtime story are short chapters!
I think it is a toss-up between the Bros. K and Ulysses for book I’ve started the most and not yet finished. In TBK I’ve repeatedly run into the Grand Inquisitor like a brick wall, and in U the Cattle of the Sun always take out of me whatever motivation I have left at that point.
I just finished Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I really enjoyed it. I think I’ll have a few days’ think about it, now. I have a biography of Shakespeare (William, not FU) on my bedside table, but I don’t know when I’ll get to it. It’s hard to read and knit or crochet at the same time, and I’m currently committed to making chemo caps.
The rest is noise by Alex Ross
I just finished Soon I Will Be Invincible (based on an SMDB recommendation from the “recommend a book with someone with powers” thread) - loved it!! Why aren’t there more superhero books??
I finished American Gods with an overwhelming sense of disappointment and wtf-ery. The climactic final battle was, borrowing the description from a Goodreads reviewr, an unholy mess and the ending just kind of wandered around aimlessly before dying a pointless death in the sky above Iceland. This sentence from the end of the Author’s Note also ticked me off:
Um, yeah. Where did you expect it to be, Neil? Paraguay?
I just found this thread. Hello.
The missus gave me a Kindle and I’m in the midst of a Wodehouse rash. Cheap, and always pleasant, although cricket makes quiddich look simple. Currently on Love Among the Chickens.
Lest you think me frivolous, I recently read Is Sex Necessary? by Thurber and White. OK, that’s frivolous too. How about Borges’ Labyrinths? That’s so frivolous it’s deep. Sins of Scripture by J. S. Spong? The Creation by E. O. Wilson? No, too serious (albeit instructive). Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle?
:rolleyes:
(To be honest, that may be the most amusing thing in the Beagle book, and I’m not entirely sure it was meant to be humorous.)
Two out of three books for the first week in May are old school.
Alas Babylon and On the beach.
So far these books offer a weird look at how the end of the world was to be percieved. Only part way through Beach , so I have to wait to see what happens, since I never read the book before and never seen the movie.
To round off the week , I just bought Hilldiggers by Neal Asher
Pro’s we get another drone to match sniper and arrak
cons this one seems to be moving slowly
Declan
Currently reading: No Country for Old Men. I’ve already seen the movie and I’m very surprised at how closely it followed the book.
Up next: A Thousand Splendid Suns.
After that, not sure. I’m going home soon and will likely pick through my mom’s books. I’m thinking Princess Bride might be calling my name.
I’m reading Hard Men Humble: Vietnam Veterans Who Wouldn’t Come Home, by Jonathan Stevenson. It’s about Vietnam veterans who choose to live in Southeast Asia and it’s pretty engrossing. The men profiled are so different in temperament, politics, educational background and attitudes towards the war that the book seems like a bit of a pastiche of a dozen interesting mens’ stories. So far it doesn’t draw any conclusions about these guys and I’m not entirely sure what its point is. But then I’m only about 3/4 through.
Just finished The World Without Us thanks to several BART trips to SF. Very depressing - you wind up thinking that humanity disappearing would be a good thing.
Now reading Hollywood Urban Legends by Richard Roeper, from 2001. Much better than I expected, though it was pretty amusing reading how Mel Gibson kept his religion to himself.
Next up, our autographed copy of Bonk.. I’ve read her other two books, and my wife went to see her at Kepler’s when I was in DC. I’m looking forward to it.
I just finished two books. One is an anthology, The Starry Rift (edited by Jonathan Strahan, I think?)- I’m likely going to reread it, or parts of it, as I go home on Saturday. (My dad and my brother are doing the driving, so I get to read.)
The other was The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey, the first of the Elemental Masters series so of course the one I read last.
I don’t get to start any new fiction for at least another week, but I plan on picking three authors from The Starry Rift and getting one book from each at the library, once I am home.
Just finished Dog Days. Butcher fans take note: If you want something along the line of the Dresden books, here it is. It is not quite as good, but it is his first and may improve. The hero is not as confident, too self-deprecating.
But all in all, not too bad.
Started Mr. Twilight. Not far enough into it yet to have an opinion.
I’ve decided to dive into the Falco series of Roman detectives by Lindsey Davis, so I’m on The Silver Pig now, and I’ve just finished The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss (League of Gentlemen, Dr. Who) - a delightful, decadent Edwardian spy romp. With illustrations of … Beardsleyesque tone.
I just read Everybody Into the Pool by Beth Lisick. From the American Library Review:
So that’s what it’s about, and it was amusing in parts, but the overall experience just left me irritated with her. Her actions seemed bizarre to me, and at odds with what she says she was thinking. For instance, in high school she gets asked to a formal dance by the guy of her dreams. An hour before the date, her mom comes home with a dress (ugly and the wrong size). She wears it, since of course she has given the matter of what to wear no thought of her own. Huh?
A far more extreme example: She reads that all people are somewhat bisexual. Intellectually, this makes sense to her, so she sleeps with a few women. Although she doesn’t feel attracted to any of them, she keeps trying because she figures she just hasn’t found the right one yet. Okay, she must be pulling my leg.
Anyway, I could give a lot of examples, but the whole book was a giant WTF for me. I was sufficiently entertained to finish, but I won’t be reading any more of her stuff.
I’m two stories in to my next book, The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter. It’s a collection of beautifully retold fairy tales and I’m loving it. I’m giving this a more careful reading than is usual for me, because the stories really deserve to be savored. Five stars.
Next bedtime story book for my son is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, by Roald Dahl. I remember that it’s not really one of his better books, but I flipped through it the other day and decided to go ahead with it if for no other reason than…Vermicious Knids!
I decided to put off the Bernstein in favor of my first reading of The Lord of the Rings, starting with The Hobbit.
I recall reading somewhere that The Hobbit was written as juvenalia, whereas the trilogy had a far more adult style… which I hope to God is true, otherwise I might not make it too far.
There are some technical bits in Descartes’ Error that are a bit of a slog, but they’re skimmable. The book presents an interesting view of emotion, reason and the self. But I don’t have the expertise to spot flaws in his reasoning. Still, it’s a good read. Damasio is a good writer and comes off as an engaging compassionate human being.
I’m finishing up the Odyssey and working through an anthology of Space Opera, both books I was reading last month.
I’m reading The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct by Ross Bernstein. Extremely enlightening: How pitchers decide when to brush back a batter, the politics of the bench-clearing brawl, steroids and drug use (haven’t gotten to that part yet). Lots of frank explanations from real players who tell you why they do the things they do.