I like to read three books at a time: one fiction, one non-fiction, and one audio.
The fiction book is How High the Moon, an adorable book about a spunky 10 year old growing up in a small town in the 1950s. I’m pretty early on in the book still, but I’ve read and adored two other books by the author, so I have high hopes for this one.
The nonfiction book is The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver (creator of the FiveThirtyEight blog). It’s about forecasting, and the techniques and limitations associated with the craft. I was expecting it to be more dumbed down than it is, and I must say I’m pretty impressed with the amount of respect Silver has for his reader audience. It’s also heavily footnoted, so that if you’re fascinated with the topic you can read more about it, but if you’re not fascinated you can just skip over the extra info.
The audio book is The Book of Lost Things. I already read the book in print form, and liked it so much I decided to buy it in audio format. It’s about a boy who slips into an alternate world populated with characters from fairy tales, but it’s not a cheerful story. There’s a good bit of death and darkness, and lots of adventure.
I’m just finishing off The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s mainly set in Kiev in December 1918, just as the Germans are withdrawing and Ukrainian nationalists, Tsarists and Bolsheviks are jostling for control. It only covers about a month and feels very modern in style, with flashbacks, dream sequences, visions, violence, brutality, horror and more!
It centres round a young doctor just de-mobbed from the defeated Russian army returning to his hometown and his friends, who are in the same boat. Intrigue and rumour swirl about; no one really knows what’s going on as attempts are made to rally the city’s defences, only for them to collapse in disarray and desertions in the snow and gloom of winter.
A great look at the dying days of middle-class Tsarist society, as they hide their valuables, fear the late night knocks on the front door, and still try to cling on to the niceties of life…
Because you reminded me of these books, I read Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out. I’ve read Friday-Thursday, so I’m out of days now; the next one is Conversations with Rabbi Small.
I just finished this, and enjoyed it very much. The writing is a little amateurish, and the book doesn’t have much emotional depth, but it has an engrossing plot, for certain readers. It’s near-future science fiction: an astronaut is left for dead on Mars, and he writes a journal describing in great technical detail the steps he takes to survive long enough for a chance of a rescue.
I read the newest Naomi Novik book, The Blood of Tyrants. Laurence has amnesia for much of the book :rolleyes: but it was pretty good anyway. Laurence and Temeraire counter Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.
I read The Great Gatsby, and I didn’t like it very much.
I’ve started The Book Thief, and I don’t think I’m going to like it very much. So far I am not charmed by the quirky narration.
The Book Thief? It’s by Markus Zusak. I don’t go out of my way to read YA books, but this one sounded interesting. It’s a novel of the Holocaust narrated by Death, who is poetic and not entirely coherent. There’s a 2013 movie.
I read The *King’s Daughter *by Christie Dickason and Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors. I picked both up at a yard sale for under a buck. The first is about the eldest daughter of Charles I. The second is about a young woman in revolutionary Paris. The first works IMO because the main character is likeable. The second does not because none of the characters are even remotely sympathetic. Even the main character is a twit.
Yes, I wound up only giving it four stars on Goodreads because although it was lots of fun to read, the main character spent a lot more time doing math than saying to himself, *Holy crap, I am the only person ever to be alone on a planet! Unless you count Adam. Or The Little Prince. * If it had been me, I’d have sat around going Whoa! until I [del]died[/del] killed myself. Those astronaut fellers, they’re different from the rest of us.
I got that through Net Galley a few months ago and loved it.
I finished Tim O’Brien’s “The They Carried” last week, and I don’t know the last time a book completely knocked me on my butt the way that one did. I highly recommend it. I also completed a re-read of “A Farewell to Arms,” which my book club will be discussing next week.
I’m now reading “The Quick,” by Lauren Owen, and “Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century” by Peter Graham, and I’m not enjoying either one a whole lot. “The Quick,” which I got through Net Galley, started out good, but then twisted into something I wouldn’t normally read. I’m going to try to finish it, but I’m struggling. The Anne Perry book is interesting, but the writing style is throwing me off a little, and I’m finding myself confused at times over the 3-4 different nicknames that are used interchangeably for several of the people involved.
Finished going back over the pertinent parts of the Lonely Planet – Singapore guidebook. Now we’re ready to go, just a couple weeks more. Been awhile since we were there last.
Now I’ve started rereading a slim volume entitled Old Singapore, by Maya Jayapal. It’s part of Oxford University Press’ Images of Asia series. I first read it in the 1990s. It’s a good, concise history of early Singapore, mainly covering the first 95 years from 1819-1914. As you can probably tell, I’m in a Singapore state of mind.
My to-read pile is getting a little backed up - after reading a really great collection of George Orwell’s essays, I decided to check out Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Coming Up for Air. They were both written while he was struggling financially, especially Keep the Aspidistra. Coming Up for Air is a bit strange in that it has almost no dialogue, but isn’t too dense - it’s like a massive stream of consciousness of a man in a midlife crisis. Apart from them, I also am looking forward to Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett (YAY! TERRY PRATCHETT!), and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman. I’m really not much of a Gaiman fan (apart from Good Omens, which I could talk about forever), but I heard that The Ocean is pretty different from his other work, so I’m giving it a try.
It’s never too late to join the Discworld party! I agree with the others upthread - The Color of Magic isn’t amazing unless you enjoy the fantasy quest genre, in which case it’s a clever satire of it. My first Discworld novel was The Hogfather - if you want to get into the whole Death mini-series, and get used to Ankh-Morpork, it’s a great place to start. Most books you can just jump right into, but for some it’s more enjoyable to have background knowledge (for example, my favorite Discworld book is The Truth, but it’s really hard to get through it if you’re not familiar with Vetinari, the Guards, Ankh-Morpork, etc, etc). If you like Tiffany, you might also like Susan, in which case The Hogfather is great as well.
Susan <3 For that you need to start with Mort, Soul Music, The Hogfather, Thief of Time. (I’m holding out for Susan and Lobsang romance )
I really liked Ocean at the End of the Lane, it’s a “dreamy” narrative but well done and easy to read. I read it in an afternoon on vacation last summer.
Finished Old Singapore, by Maya Jayapal. Very good, like I remembered it. Among the more interesting nuggets is the fact that the Revere Bell, a bell cast by Paul Revere, was in 1843 presented to Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore by his daughter Maria, whose husband Joseph Balestier was the first American consul there. It’s now on display in the National Museum of Singapore. And the first motorized ambulance appeared in 1913, but a shortage of spare parts meant it was not uncommon for the patient being transported having to get out and push.
Next up: Bangkok Noir, a collection of crime-fiction short stories by 12 local writers, mostly expats but a couple of Thais, edited by the Canadian writer Christopher G. Moore, who also contributed one of the stories. The authors and publisher are donating half the earnings from the book to selected charities providing education to needy Thai children.
Yes, it’s excellent. Check out his novel In the Lake of the Woods sometime - a modern mystery with a Vietnam War backstory. Very good stuff.
I’m alternating these days between Machine of Death, ed. by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Malki, and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and enjoying both.
I finally finished The Perfect Storm. My sea-faring ancestry was fascinated by the descriptions of storms at sea, professional fishing, and how fishing boats work. The part of me that’s currently living in the NC mountains was thrilled at the mention of the Blizzard of '93 in the final chapter. I remember that blizzard, although I was living near Charlotte at the time and all we got were thundersnows.
Pressing On, Roni Stoneman’s story of her family (bluegrass, ya’ll). I recently met someone who knew the family and helped with the book. He says she’s a nutjob (a compliment) and that the book is a hoot.
I read that a while ago. In fact, I think I started a thread based on that premise. I agree, it’s a bit uneven but the fact that it’s so novel made up for a lot of the weaknesses.
If you are interested in short story collections might I suggest “The End is Nigh”?
Oh! I spent yesterday (10 hours and 49 minutes, less the trip to the store for Easter choco and walking the dogs) reading Coming Back by Marcia Muller.
It was Sharon McCone’s first case since being shot in the head in Locked In and it was a decent page turner. Having sort of been there, my husband had a severe brain injury 20 years ago, I appreciated the POV both of Sharon and of her co workers who started out uncertain of whether they wanted to “trust” her or not. Fortunately the action ramped up before I could more than mildly annoyed at the men for treating Sharon like a child… my own emotional scars from that time got pretty itchy tho.
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