I’m currently reading the entire Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes canon. Right now I’m on The Return of Sherlock Holmes (“The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist” to be exact).
I just started The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood today. Yesterday I finished a book on Chinese-Canadian history called The Forbidden City within Victoria by David Chuenyan Lai (Good, but dry reading. It takes a geographer to make a book about persecution and resistance, opium dens, gambling, bordellos, and secret passages, boring).
I’ve been on a CanLit kick for most of the last year. I finished:[ul][li] Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood (short stories – absolutely execellent)[] Moons of Jupiter by Alice Munro (more short stories, and again, wonderful)[]Canadian Short Fiction edited by WH New (a very bad anthology of short stories)[]Obasan by Joy Kogawa (poetic, beautiful, incredibly depressing)[]The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood (my favourite of hers, now)[]The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence (depressing, but good)[]Survival by Margaret Atwood (non-fiction, wonderful read – a manifesto about CanLit)[]Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan (clunky and strained in places, but an intelligent read)[]Bonheur d’Occasion (aka The Tin Flute) by Gabrielle Roy (very depressing, but also very funny in places, and very good)[/ul][/li]
That’s all I can think of off hand. I think I’d recommend them all except for the WH New book. The man has taken the weirdest and the worst this country has to offer and stuck it together. He’s obsessed with writers who write about the act of writing, which I find to be a form of intellectual masturbation, myself.
No Man’s Land by John Toland - The last year of WWI
Wake Up Screaming - A collection of short stories by H. P. Lovecraft
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris - The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
Whatcha readin’, whatcha read, and whatcha gonna read? I’ll focus on the first.
I’m currently reading The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy and Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. The former is a quick read during free moments, the latter is the first of this year’s thick summer tomes.
I recently read Evan Hunter’s “Streets of Gold.” I had noticed that several people on a Hunter message board mentioned looking for the book, and then I noticed one (hardcover & dust jacket) in the thrift store for a buck.
Incredibly good book about a blind jazz pianist living in NYC from around 1940 to 1970. I love the line “Nobody does musicals like the Americans. Not even England.”
Evan Hunter’s early books are so good and so hard to find.
I also read Andrew Vachss’s “Blue Belle.” Good Burke mystery.
I’m currently in The Lake House by James Patterson, and I swear his pacing downright sucks some times. I plan on picking up the remainders of the Deathstalker Series by Simon Green. I finsihed the first two over the winter but have to spread silliness out a bit. I also plan on picking up Songs of Susannah now that FG has reminded me it’s due.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. It’s really long, it’s pretentious, and half of the big elaborate metaphors go right over my head, but I like it anyways.
Anything by Tom Sharpe i can get my grubby paws on, James Clavell’s asian saga and Azumanga Daioh by Azuma Kiyohiko
Currently - Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. Interesting - most of what the author seems to focus on is in the 70’s - that’s when he seems to see the smallest changes that cause the biggest problems.
I am thinking of reading Fast Food Nation - it’s recommended by a lot of people. We’ll see - I can have a bit of a weak stomach - but it may be worth it.
Susan
This is the next intended book on my list, though I can’t in good conscience really get into any of the latter books before going through the previous ones. So it’s still four full books (plus my current reading) down the line.
And the current reading: The Picture of Dorian Gray. I’m finding it somewhat slow and laborious to find the story in Wilde’s 2-page paragraph descriptions and musings, but the language is so well crafted that I don’t really care.
Messiah by Gore Vidal - written in 1955 and about, would you believe, the rise of a new religion and the consequences thereof. Just finished Julian, also by Vidal, an account of the life of the Roman emperor who tried to roll back Christianity. Possibly the best book I’ve ever read and for a Creative Writing student, bloody depressing. I feel like a common hack after reading his stuff.
I’m halfway through Ringworld Children too 
…
I just heard about this on the radio this morning. I may have to head to the library.
As for my reading, I’m in a Summer session class, Studies in the Novel. I’ve read Catch-22, Joan Didion’s Democracy, Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods, Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. At least one book a week for 7 weeks, yikes! I still have three weeks left, and a couple of good books to go. I really enjoyed Didion’s book, and would recommend it to everyone.
Tonight, I get to read Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. I better get busy.
Have you tried library book sales? I found a slew of vintage Ed McBains (Evan Hunter) at local sales. Have to get there before the grubby booksellers, though, who scarf up everything.
You’re right about Hunter- he has to be one of the most consistently talented writers out there. Read Nocturne just a few years back and it was easily as taut and perfectly orchestrated as any of his 87th Precinct books from the fifties.
I’m still plowing through The Confusion by Neal Stephenson.
It’s very very good, but extremely slow going. Its a weird combination of historical fiction, history-of-science, and just a hair touch of science fiction.
Not to sound discouraging, and I’d love to be wrong, but I just couldn’t will myself through that book. It came with the highest recommendation from a friend of mine whose literary tastes are impeccable. Tell me after tonight how very stupid I am for having not liked it.
And on my “graduating college doesn’t mean my mind has to turn to mush” non-fiction list, I’m thinking of trying out Rousseau’s Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Emile and the Second Discourse were wonderful reads, so I hope I won’t be disappointed.
Hello. My name is dangermom, and I am an InterLibraryLoan addict.
I currently have 8 books out on ILL, and about 10 slips filled out and waiting in my bookbag. I can only submit 4 at a time, which is probably a good thing. ILL means that I have to read whatever comes in right away, because I have to return them on time (I don’t pay overdue fines, so I can keep regular library books for weeks on end, until I’m in the mood to pick them up).
So, I just finished London under London, which is about the rivers, sewers, Underground tunnels, bizarre schemes, and other interesting things to be found under London’s streets. Very cool book.
At the same time, I read Dodie Smith’s I capture the castle, a diary-format novel which is too complicated to explain, but really a lovely book and I hope more people read it. It’s ‘by’ a 17-yo girl who lives in a rented old castle, but they have no money whatsoever because her genius writer father is depressed, so her sister is determined to marry for money, because at the moment they’re living on the wages of the guy who is supposed to be their own hired hand. Two rich and eligible brothers show up from America (but they really are the castle’s owners)…
Now I’m on Life and letters on the Roman frontier, which describes life as a Roman soldier near where Hadrian’s wall now stands (only this is before it was built). Based on archaelogical findings of written records.
And also The oaken heart by Margery Allingham, a ‘strictly honest’ description of life in her English country village during the first part of WWII. But I only just started that; the villagers are currently busy worrying about the local schools and overlooking the war.
I just finished Survivor by Chuck Palahnuik of Fight Club fame. This guy is seriously messed up in the head, let me tell you. A truly excellent read.
I’m now trying to plow through A Brief History of Time, since it’s been on my list of books to read for over a year now. I tend to do most of my reading while I’m doing my cardio at the gym. Some of the looks I’m getting while reading this on the elliptical trainer are priceless.
Next I think I’m going to reread A Catcher in the Rye. It’s been about 10 years since I last read it, and I remember really liking it. After that…well, let’s finish the Stephen Hawking metaphysics book first.
Just finished Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Funny stuff, but a total cop out in the end ;).
Now I should go back to Post Captain by Patrick O’Brien (I have this habit of reading like 3-4 books at a time, stopping one in the middle and starting a new book, then going back to the old book later).
May I suggest his Empire series, and his book of essays entitled “United States.” I love Vidal’s work.