Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
It’s broken into four parts narrated by four different people centred around the same incident (sorta). It’s very good.
Janet Evanovich, Visions of Sugar Plums. Lighthearted and fun reading.
I am rereading Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor after being reminded of it in another Cafe Society thread. How sweet to have forgotten all and begin again!
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, by Ray Kurzweil.
Great read so far, even though it is mostly optimistic on the future, for many people it will be scary: YMMV on this one.
And I also just finished the Al Franken book also: IMO, just like Equipoise said.
I’ve been on vacation, so I’ve gotten quite a bit of reading done in the last week.
I finished: two books in a similar vein, Carolyn See’s Making a Literary Life and Stephen King’s On Writing; Philip Roth’s Goodbye Columbus; Carolyn See’s Golden Days; and a compilation called Dorothy Parker: Complete Stories.
Well, let’s see. On the nightstand is Burr by Gore Vidal. I never got around to reading Vidal before, and I’m enjoying his writing.
In the bathroom is Hold On, Mr. President!" by Sam Donaldson. This is not as well written as I might have expected from someone who writes for a living, but it has a lot of interesting insights on politicians and political news reporting.
In the queue is The Rainmaker by John Grisham. This will be about my seventh Grisham book, and I intend to read them all and then keep up. I really like Grisham’s style.
I haven’t read either of the Al Franken books I know about yet, but have read Parliament of Whores by P. J. O’Rourke. I like O’rourke, and he makes me laugh, but I have to be careful not to read him too often. I’m afraid he might convert this old liberal. Can’t have that! 
Oh, this just happens to be my 1,000th post since my new incarnation after the Great Crash. I was going to make number 1,000 in GD, but I’m not feeling all that serious tonight. 
I’m currently in the middle of the first trilogy of Farseer books by Robin Hobb. I picked them up based on a recommendation I read here. Best story I’ve read in a long time.
Finished Heinlen’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls last week. I did not like that book at all. The characters are all exactly the same. I like some of his other stuff but that on was just bad IMO.
Iain M. Banks is up next. Excession and Look To Windward
I’m reading, Glen Cook’s, “Deadly Quicksilver Lies”.
Then on to the next in the series.
W.C. Fields: a Biography by James Curtis. I’m about halfway through and it is a very interesting read.
Nonfiction, as usual: The Primal Feast: Food, Sex, Foraging, and Love by Susan Allport. Pop science more or less on evolution and natural history – about critters eating, basically. It’s interesting, but not the best effin’ book I’ve read in years. Or even months.
I’m reading the <b>Iliad</b> too Sir Dirx!..but I’m doing that for fun, so maybe I win the freak contest this thread 
Also having a go at <b>Les Miserables</b> and <b>Minority Report</b> by Philip Dick which is very, very good. It’s a collection of his short stories - they are so…witty. Good stuff.
I’ve read the entire series (that one’s not technically in the series, but still…). And it’s so true to life! I even drove through Chambersburg once to check things out.
I don’t mean to nitpick here, but it’s Jared Diamond. Just in case anyone wants to look it up.
I liked this series a lot! I just read it recently. Had never heard much about her writing–she’s pretty obscure–and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I usually don’t like quest-type fantasy much. I also read the 2nd in the series but have yet to get through the third.
<obligatory fanatical fan comment>Were you reading an early book? I liked them myself, but they’re generally agreed to be pretty bad. Terry Pratchett gets far better with age. His later books–say “Small Gods” or “Jingo”–are very different. They hardly even seem to be written by the same person. And they really have very little continuity–if you care a lot about spoilers, some of that goes on, but I think they can all stand on their own. My first was “Feet of Clay” and it’s in one of his “mini-series” within the Discworld universe.</obligatory comment>
Books I’m reading:
Angelica by Sharon Shinn. I really liked her Samaria series at first, but my hatred is starting to grow. I’m not sure if I’ll even read this one, which just came out recently. Her characters seem more and more like Mary Sues every time I read one of her books. The vaguely Romani-like race she calls the Edori also annoy the fuck out of me, and this features them prominently. Honestly, woman. Making every single Edori virtually perfect is just as racist as making them all EEEEEeevil. No culture is perfect.
Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermeyer. This little gem of a YA fantasy book was recently reprinted and my library finally got a copy. It was just as good as I’d always heard it was. And there’s a sequel coming out!
The Lord of Castle Black by Steven Brust. Another book I’d been awaiting forever and finally got my hands on. I know the ridiculously overblown prose annoys a lot of people but I like it. Also, I was checking on Amazon to make sure of the title and apparently he’s writing a book about Sethra Lavode. Yay! I always liked her character.
and lastly:
Tong Lashing by Peter David. The third and last (possibly?) in the Sir Apropos of Nothing series. The anti-hero is great fun; I absolutely love him. The puns get on my nerves, though.
It was the first in the series; I thought it made sense to read them in order. Couldn’t get through it, though. It’s very rare that I leave a book midstream.
I’m reading That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx. It’s pretty darn funny.
Guys and Dolls, the collected short stories of Damon Runyon. Once you get into the rhythm of his prose style, it just carries you along with lots of laughs and no small amount of biting between the lines commentary.
Next on the list is The Illiad (put me down as another freak panel member I guess), although I’d like to find a better translation than the E. V. Rieu edition I have.
Then comes Paradise Lost, which I will follow up with The Human Comedy, if everything goes according to the schedule I have in mind right now.
Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I checked it out of the library and it was so good, I think I’m going to have to buy it.
I also have Forever Amber and Aztec checked out of the library based on some Doper recommendations.
Plowing through some series I started and will damn well finish. Takes a bit longer to do when you don’t read them all straight through, but I like mix it up.
Hornblower and the Antropos is in my bag for train reading.
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon is by the computer in the living room and Orson Scott Card’s Shadow of the Hegemon is by my bed.
All will be dropped the minute I get my hands on Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Right now, Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) by Al Franken.
Next up is Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer and Porno by Irvine Welsh. It’s the sequel to Trainspotting.
Finished Hell House, and started Domain by James Herbert last night.