I liked it a lot. I thought it was a very impressive first novel/series. My only complaint was that pretty well all of the characters were a trifle too carefully ambiguous in their morality.
I just started When We Were Romans, the new one by St. Matthew Kneale.
So far, I like.
Agreed. I thought that a brilliant book and world building.
The Sharing Knife is pretty atypical for fantasy, I thought. I still like it quite a bit, but yeah, I’d say it has as much to do with a romance as it does with fantasy. It’s surprising I like it since romance isn’t my thing at all in books.
*
The Hallowed Hunt* isn’t as strong as the first two Chalion books, but still very worth reading.
True. I think Abercrombie got the “Fantasy Characters are Grey This Year” memo. That can be hard to pull off without becoming too unrealistic, characters always doing the expedient thing, even when the fate of the world is at stake. Even gray characters should stand up for something once in awhile.
Roughly one-quarter into my first re-read in several years of John Irving’s The World According to Garp.
Many quirky characters and lots of fun.
I read that when I was pretty young and came to the conclusion that Irving is insane. I wonder if my perspective would change if I read it now?
Hard to say, but I’d imagine there would be a good chance of that.
I just got Indignation by Phillip Roth. It’s a lovely hardback edition. I’m about half a dozen pages into it.
I’ve just started Dorothy Sayers’ The Nine Tailors. It’s the only Lord Peter book I haven’t read, and I’ve been saving it. I’m about to learn a lot about English change ringing.
Finally finished Guyland by Michael Kimmel. It was decent. Now I just want to keep my son tied to my apron strings forever, and certainly never let him go to college! 
I just started The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, about a mute boy who runs away with his dogs when his father is killed by his uncle. So far so good.
Also started the audio version of Into the Blue by Robert Goddard. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get past the voice of the reader (Frederick Davidson). He comes off as a haughty waiter.
Read Lemony Snicket’s new picture book (The Lump of Coal) to the kids. Don’t bother.
We are now reading What I’d Say to the Martians: and other veiled threats, by Jack Handey. Much better!
Just finished Year of the Horsetails by Tapsell. A book long out of print, it is I think the only book I’ve ever read that really captured what I imagine the reality of steppe nomad warfare was like - I also read a much more modern fictionalized biography of Genghis Khan which was IMO less realistic.
The interesting thing about Year of the Horsetails is that it is set in a time-period that is not exactly defined - some of the peoples mentioned appear to be real *(Sakas), others fictionalized (Tugars).
Y’know, I’m now 99% postitive that I somehow missed Reaper’s Gale. Crap. I’m enjoying Toll the Hounds though. One thing that I like about Erikson is that when I’m not fathoming the ‘Big Picture’, I can still enjoy the story.
And now that I know it exists, I’ll have to get that other book too. Double crap!
Triple crap! I’m told there will be 22 Malazan books by the time Erikson and Esslemont are finished.
And yeah – I gave up on the big picture a long time ago. I’m just tickled when I can remember a character from one book to the next. I was so proud in Bonehunters when I knew why Rhulad Sengar was looking for people to fight with.
Just finished Anathem. Enjoyed it very much. Now working through Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Quite a whiplash in writing style and storytelling going from one to the next. All audiobooks.
I’ll be listening to Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book after Blood Meridian. I only get time to read while commuting.
Finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It was good and held my interest, but some parts were very hard to take. A side-effect I noticed while reading the book is that I started liking my real-life dog a little more. Normally she’s something of a pain in the ass.
Partially read, then abandoned:
Great Hair, Nick Arrojo (non-fiction)
The Sister, by Poppy Adams. A story about two sisters, a decaying mansion, family secrets…all the right ingredients, but I read more than fifty pages and had to admit I just didn’t care.
Currently reading The Barn House, a book you may have heard of. I like it.
I just finished The Reconciliation, which left me feeling pretty “meh.”
I’m listening to the audiobook of *Ender’s Game *and the production and performances are excellent. People have been trying to get me to read this book since I was eight years old and I never bothered to pick it up. Now, I wish I hadn’t been quite so stubborn about it.
Strongly recommend So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger. It’s set in 1915 and narrated by a guy who was feeling like a failure after he couldn’t come up with another book after writing an unexpectedly successful novel, and he ends up making friends with a guy who turns out to be an outlaw, and when the friend sets out to go look for the wife he’d abandoned years before, the narrator goes with him.
Totally not my kind of thing at all, but it’s wonderfully well written and … just read it. You can thank me later.
Link.
I’m re-reading The Truelove. I always sing the praises of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, but every time I pick one up I’m still surprised at how good it is.
I’m hoping my husband will get tired of me reading bits aloud to him and just read the damn books already.
I’m reading The Castle in the Forest, by Norman Mailer, and enjoying it very much. It’s about Adolf Hitler’s parentage and the formative years of the Fuhrer, as told through the eyes of a demon working for the Devil, whose job it is to lightly influence young Adolf’s development. I’ve never read Mailer before, but if there are any other fictional books by him that anyone would like to recommend…
Marvel is releasing a comic version of it next year. Here’s a preview. It’s always freaked me out a little because the Earth bits of the story are set in Greensboro. I’ve been to Greensboro. My sisters live near Greensboro. It is **not ** a science fiction city. Annoying as hell to drive through, yes. Setting for classic sci-fi, 
.
I finally found a copy of Robin McKinley’s Dragonhaven at the library last week. I’m only halfway through the first chapter (curse you Sunne in Splendour for being so addictive) but it’s an interesting departure from her usual fare.