Spring is here! Has it stopped snowing East Coat US people? Did it ever start out here in the US West? Those of you going into winter, I hope it isn’t as odd for you as it was for us.
I started The King’s Bishop By Candace Robb yesterday. So far, I’ve nothing to complain about…
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 we decided to rename these monthly threads in his honour.
March Thread: In like a lion, out like a lamb!
Just finished The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell. Fantastic! It is jam packed with Christian history and takes place in the Vatican country. As an atheist, I’m kinda surprised I enjoyed it so much, but I was glued to the pages right up to and including the very last one! Highly recommended.
I started, then gave up on Flowers in the Attic. I had no trouble with the trashy aspects, I had no trouble with the melodrama, I could even deal with the crap writing, but I just could not get past “Good golly-lolly!”
I finished The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud over the weekend. Such a fun read. I love all aspects of it: the mysterious aspects of The Problem that have made the dead restless; the pushme-pullyou between the three main protagonists, Lockwood, Lucy, and George; the thrilling encounters with ghosts. It’s pure enjoyable whimsy.
On the other hand, I’m still soldiering through Gravity’s Rainbow. I am simply determined to finish it. I can’t imagine that it will end any other way than in medias res, but this month I absolutely shall find out.
On audio, I just finished Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo. I found the human protagonists mildly interesting but was riveted by any & all bonobo anecdotes in the book; luckily there were many. I think I’ll try to find some of the research papers generated by the couple in the book and read them, and if I can cadge any money, I’ll give Friends of Bonobos a contribution. Bonobos are definitely worth saving on their own merits, irrespective of any research they can provide.
I’m about to start Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge for my treadmill book. I just couldn’t resist it when I spotted it at the used bookstore last weekend.
And may I just say: St. Louis has several nice bookstores for both new and used items, to my husband’s visible wrath and dismay!
Started The Alphabet House by Adler-Olsen last night. Put it back in the “return to library” pile after 2 pages. Read Wild by Cheryl Strayed last weekend and couldn’t put it down. So much of the book is her feelings and emotions so I can’t see how that would translate to a movie. Reading Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent and as usual he makes me laugh out loud. Finished Shackleton : By Endurance We Conquer because polar exploration is still fascinating. Have started dressage lesson again so a few dressage books on my bedside reading pile.
Still re-reading my way through Pterry’s universe. Carpe Jugular is up now. I’m also finishing up The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis, and I just startedAfterParty by Daryl Gregory. Also So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson just dropped into my kindle a couple of days ago. Really looking forward to that.
Currently enjoying Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale. It’s an alternate history in which Rome never fell, and in 1208 is seeking to expand the empire to the new world. It’s assumed to be a barbarous place but when they eventually reach the Mississippi they come up against the Cahokian mound builder civilisation and perspectives change…
I’m about a third of the way through and enjoying it a lot, even if the Roman forces seem to be based on the ‘classic’ Legion without 1000 years of development. The pre-Columbian America of the 13th C is nicely depicted though.
There’s a note at the end about the historical tipping point which may explain the lack of Roman development but I’m saving that, and other appendices, for after I’ve read the story.
My March Amazon Prime Lending Library choice was Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe. I’d seen it in a Kindle Daily Deal and the description piqued my interest.
Thomas Foley, a minor civil servant in the Central Office of Information is tapped to represent his country at Expo 58 - the World’s Fair to be held in Brussels in 1958. Specifically, he is to keep an eye on The Brittania, the focal point of the UK Pavilion at the fair. He is uncertain at first about the assignment, as it will take him away from his wife and young daughter for six months, but soon discovers a sense of freedom inspired by the modern, optimistic environment of the Expo.
But all is not well - it is the height of the Cold War, and the Belgians have put the United States pavilion smack dab next to that of the U.S.S.R – with representatives from both countries treating the Brittania as semi-neutral territory. Thomas finds himself bumping into two rather odd men who appear to be emissaries of the British Secret Service… and then there’s the lovely Anneke - one of the Expo hostesses who seems to have taken quite an interest in Thomas…
This is the first Jonathan Coe novel I’ve read, and I may have to track down more of his work. In some ways, this novel is a bit of a sendup of 1950’s spy novels; but at the same time, it’s an interesting character study of a mid-century, middle-class, middle man like Thomas. The plot runs along well, with both humourous and tense moments. The world building is nicely done - I had no idea that the Expo '58 actually existed & if/when I ever get to Europe, I’d love to see what remains of the site.
I’m currently reading The Sin-Eater, by Sarah Rayne. A spooky old house, a ghost, and an eeeevil chess set, yay! But then I got to a flashback which is supposed to be this Really Awful Thing that happened, and it’s so ludicrous it’s nearly funny. Uh-oh.
Do you mean the now-former Royal Yacht Britannia? Or something else?
I’m more than halfway through John Scalzi’s The Human Division, the most recent of his Old Man’s War series of hard (but witty) military sf books. It was originally serialized and is actually a collection of interrelated short stories, some of which are frankly better than others, but overall I’m really enjoying it.
When I finish it, I expect to return to Edmund Morris’s magisterial but quite readable Colonel Roosevelt, about T.R.'s post-White House years.
I just finished Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. The book wasn’t bad but very obviously by the same person who wrote Fight Club. Same writing style, similar concepts even some of the same subject matters. In fact, I’ve heard that a lot of his books are pretty similar.
While I’m thinking about Fight Club, if I didn’t know the movie as well as I did I think the book would have been completely lost on me. Oh, and the movie Choke was horrible.
Right now I just started Bad Monkey and about 80 pages in it’s pretty good.
As for my next book, I’m hemming and hawing about picking up The Princess Bride. I’ve been sitting on Dark Places and Doctor Sleep for a few months now as well.
Somewhere else I mentioned that I’ve seen the movie a million times so maybe I’d read the book, OTOH, I’ve seen the movie a million times, so why read the book.
I have no idea how different the movie and the book are.
Recently finished Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. God I love that writer. He’s so philosophical and poetic, and he writes the most amazing metaphors. I want to be like him.
In the middle of The Death of Money by James Rickards. It’s nonfiction, and I’m taking a bit longer with this book than I normally do because it’s not really a relaxing read. But it’s so educational, and I feel like I’m learning so much about how the world economy works and how different countries depend on one another.
And finally, I just started When She Woke by Hillary Jordan this weekend. I think I’ve read half the book in the last two days alone. It is so compulsively readable! It’s a re-imagining of The Scarlet Letter, and Jordan is just so good with words. The main character is so likeable, and the imagery so real, and the issues so profound. I definitely recommend it so far, but I’ve read in reviews that the last 80 or so pages are pretty bad, so we’ll see how I feel in a few days.
I really enjoyed the story, but holy crap was that a long book.
