Finished Notes of a Native Son , a collection of essays by James Baldwin. Powerful, especially the title essay, which is about his life leading up to and following the death of his father.
Now I’m reading Across the Green Grass Fields, a fantasy by Seanan McGuire.
I decided to cancel Audible (budgetary reasons) and I had one credit left over to use but I couldn’t choose - severe FOMO. So I said to myself, I says, “I never read Moby-Dick.” So, yeah, I called him Ishmael and it’s a good thing the narrator has such talent or I’d have fallen asleep at the wheel a few times already. Not to say it isn’t a good read - it’s much funnier than I thought it would be. I mean it’s not a laugh riot, but Melville knows how to turn a phrase. On the other hand, this guy is long winded. I’m on chapter 42 out of 120-something, which is a treatise on the nature of the color white. I think I have another 14 hours or so left on it.
Finished Across the Green Grass Fields , a fantasy by Seanan McGuire. Meh.
Now I’m reading Something to Shout About, a historical novel by Patricia Beatty.
I have completed The Seventh Secret by Irving Wallace. Feel very disappointed by the way it ends. Up until the last chapter this book read like an exciting thriller perfectly suited to be made for screen adaptation. The conspiracies and rumours that Hitler did not die in that bunker on 30th April 1945 aren’t anything new but the story Wallace crafted and the character development of four uniquely different people with totally different goals and motivations to want to band together to find the truth was an excellent idea. The way the secrets unravelled and the hidden figures who they are up against to try and connect the dots too was very well written. I was expecting and looking forward to a strong conclusion but instead what was served up was something abrupt and a let down.
By the end we know the secrets of this timeline. The unanswered questions have been answered. A conclusion has been met but no closure. It was like the author felt the need having gone so far deep into this alternate history timeline to suddenly take you back into reality where the truth once again gets to escape.
Thanks for that review, Boycott. Good to know. If you want to read more in that vein, check out The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin, about Dr. Mengele’s plot to clone Hitler, or Fatherland by Robert Harris, an alternative-history novel in which Nazi Germany won WWII in Europe and Hitler is preparing for a summit meeting with President Joseph Kennedy in 1964. Both are terrific page-turner novels.
Finished it, and really enjoyed it. Highly recommended - a great romantic comedy that will leave you smiling. I’d love to see a movie made of it someday.
I’ve now begun You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe, a lighthearted, slightly feminist biography of George Washington. I like it so far.
Just finished: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, by Lois McMaster Bujold. (The “Red Queen” is Cordelia Vorkosigan.)
Now reading: 1632, by Eric Flint.
Next up: 1633, by David Weber and Eric Flint.
Thanks for the recommendations. I will check them out. Fatherland is familiar to me although I have never got round to reading it. This is the first time I have heard of The Boys from Brazil and it sounds interesting. I’ll add them to my list.
There’s another Irving Wallace book I hope to get a copy of soon too called The Man which is a 1960s book about the first black (unelected) President of the United States and how he tries to navigate the political and sociological troubles of that era as well as the personal scars it all brings and exposes. I had planned to get this one first actually but seeing it was over 700 pages long put me off. There have been times where I dived into a really mammoth sized book and struggled to get into it even after 200 pages. I’d never read his work before so wanted to start off with something easier and The Seventh Secret had an eye catching synopsis and conveniently is half the length.
If you liked Fatherland, I recommend Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois. It’s an alternate history novel where the Cuban missile crisis turned into a limited nuclear war and the United States is now a second-rate power.
1632 was great. But the series really went downhill.
I read The Man awhile back and, although it’s quite dated now, even quaint, I’d say it’s still worth a read. Probably pretty realistic as to how a black President would actually have been treated in the mid-Sixties, the challenges he would have faced, and how he might have led.
Little_Nemo and I have discussed Resurrection Day here before, I think; as it happens, I’m not a fan of the book.
I’m halfway through The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox. It starts as a mystery in present-day England but soon turns into large-scale fantasy with gods, demons, and parallel universes, yet still stays grounded in normal people.
I’ve had it on my list since seeing a review on Slate that described it as a “fantasy masterpiece,” a “majestic, brain-bending novel,” and " one of those books that is just too big for your mind to entirely take in." My enthusiasm was slightly tempered by mixed Goodreads reviews, with some people loving it and others describing it as a mess, confusing, and “unexplained balderdash.” One review in its entirety: “I had no idea what was happening. There’s a talking bird.”
And halfway through, both Slate and the detractors are kind of right. It can be frustratingly opaque at times, and the scale can be ridiculously large. But the world-building is fantastic, the characters are enjoyable, and characters manage to be both mysterious and well-fleshed out at the same time. I like books that keep you wondering what is going on, and I like fantasy with normal dialog, so this is right up my alley.
Finished Later, by Stephen King. It’s part of the Hard Case Crime series, but as he tells us over and over again, “This is a horror story.” It was lovely, vintage King, but there were in fact some really disturbing bits. Read at your own risk!
Started this morning on The Desolations of Devil’s Acre, by Ransom Riggs…and I’m not going to finish it. It’s the final book in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series, that I’ve followed all this way, but I guess there was too big a gap between the time the last book was published and the time this one came out, because I don’t really remember what’s supposed to be happening and there’s no recap. It’s a well-written book, and a nice weird story overall. But I’m done here.
Just finished: 1632, by Eric Flint.
Now reading: 1633, by David Weber and Eric Flint.
Next up: 1634: The Baltic War, by Eric Flint and David Weber.
Finished Something to Shout About , a historical novel by Patricia Beatty. Meh.
Now I’m reading The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science, by Seb Falk.
I started this morning on The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James. It’s a Gothic novel about a governess in a secluded English mansion on a cliff by the sea…in other words, just the sort of thing I love! However, I’m getting an amateurish vibe from the writing so far. I wonder if it’s just the usual book-suffers-by-comparison thing that happens after I read a good King novel.
Off-topic post here, but I saw this link over at Wonkette and wanted to share it with some readers:
Funny stuff!
Yes, thanks. Those are some pretty bad (but funny) covers.
Oh dear, those are ummm… yeah.
The ones way off the mark are the best!
Tangentially related, but you might be interested in Ken Kamler’s Surviving the Extremes. Kamler is a physician who has journeyed into the wilds of the Amazon, the top of Everest, and numerous other exotic locales as an expedition physician. He has some pretty wild stories.
I just read two YA novels that address rape. The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith was brutal, raw, and quite chilling. Similarly with Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which I wasn’t as impressed with as The Way I Used To Be – but it was still a worthwhile read. It wasn’t as emotional, which I suppose appeals to some readers but considering the subject matter glossing over the emotional aspects seems to be doing the subject a disservice. It apparently is the standard go-to YA book that addresses rape and sexual assault although, as an English teacher, The Way I Used To Be, while pretty heavy, would be a beeter choice if I was going to actually assign either one as class reading.
I’m also reading our own CalMeacham’s The Traveler. I’m just starting it, so I’ll check back here when I’m done.
I picked up a copy of The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine based on this thread from last year (it took me a while to find it, but that’s the book referenced in the OP). I’m not one for smutty romance but I might give it a shot.
Finished it, and was disappointed. The title has nothing to do with the book, the main antagonist appears for just a few pages and abruptly dies, and the science-y part of the book is completely unconnected to the quincentennial.
I just started John Le Carre’s 1964 espionage novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which has long been on my reading list. It’s downbeat, grim but interesting so far.