I’m listening to that on audio right now, and it’s excellent. If you haven’t read Parade’s End before (I hadn’t), Ford’s narrative technique of describing key events in flashback or character-to-character storytelling can be a little frustrating at times. Ultimately it’s worth it though - I don’t know that anything has captured so well for me the mindset of English society strata before and during WWI as well as this has.
I wish my library had the audiobook! I’m on book 2 and think it’s marvelous. Someday I’d still love to listen to it.
You might just ask your library to purchase the audiobook, then. Quite a few libraries have a ‘purchase upon request’ policy. It’s how my home library got this book on CD - I asked for it. 
I’m about halfway through The Guns at Last Light, the third book in the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson. I have to say, these three books are the best I have ever read on WWII in Europe. Atkinson is a brilliant writer especially when it comes to imagery.
I finished The Chinese Orange Mystery and realized why I have such a problem with Ellery Queen novels. Ellery himself is insufferable. I had the overwhelming urge to slap him upside the head six or eight times throughout the novel, mainly when he was being smug about figuring out something. I also felt the murder itself was overly convoluted, but the stamp angle was interesting. I wonder if the Chinese stamp with the design printed on the gum side actually existed. That would be a collector’s dream.
I’m reading The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters. It’s the second in a series (Amelia Peabody). I’m very much enjoying it. I like the writing style and the setting (Egypt in the very late 1800’s). Apparently the series continues on through WWI.
I’ll probably read Horns after before moving on with the series.
Finished The Son by Philipp Meyer. This would be a great Father’s Day gift if your dad or grandpa likes westerns, or Texas history, and doesn’t mind a lot of violence. If he liked Lonesome Dove, he’d probably like this.
Also finished Stoner by John Williams. It’s the life of a college professor in Missouri, from about 1900 through the 1960’s. I liked it a lot, but many Amazon reviewers found it depressing.
About halfway through Night Film by Marisha Pessl, where a reporter investigates the apparent suicide of the daughter of a cult film director. I’m not entranced, but I’ll finish it.
Thanks, Grrlbrarian, I did do that. They said they would acquire the audiobook, but wound up getting the eBook instead.
I’m half way through War, by Sebastian Junger, about his experience as an embedded journalist in Afghanistan in 2007/8 and it’s every bit as riveting as I expected. I don’t think the man has written a bad book.
I like those books. The first few are cute, and then they start to get really good as Ramses grows up. I think the series peaks with He Shall Thunder in the Sky, set during WWI.
I’m reading Anna Karenina, and it’s taking forever. I like it pretty well, but it’s not going to be one of my favorites among the classics. I saw the Keira Knightley movie last weekend and I really loved the “style over substance” aspect of the film. Matthew Macfadyen as Stiva was really amusing - you don’t see him playing comedy roles very often.
I’m now halfway through Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. More often than not, I strongly suspect that almost everything is wooshing by over my head, but the writing is simply gorgeous, and I’m enjoying the “ride” of learning about Urth and its relationship with our own Earth, so… I guess I’m going to be plowing on into the second half. Also, if I don’t keep going while this thing’s still fresh in my mind, it’ll be hopeless to try and follow anything.
Almost done with Etiquette & Espionage, the first in a new series (Finishing School) by Gail Carriger. Set in the same steampunk meets urban fantasy world as her Parasol Protectorate series, we follow 14 year old Sophronia Temminick – who is rather a tomboy and much too interested in mechanicals for a girl of her station – to finishing school. But this school doesn’t just teach Young Women of Quality about manners, fashion and marrying well, but also how to become an intelligencer, and potentially an assassin. It’s also located on a gigantic airship that floats above the moors, has a vampire for a professor and a werewolf on retainer. Sophronia is thrown into a bit of a mystery right from the start, and, with her unlikely friends - does her best to solve it.
The world building is a treat if you’re into this sort of thing, the characters are reasonably well-drawn and the plot jogs along nicely. There’s bits of clever writing, and the audiobook performance by Moira Quirk is masterful IMHO, giving the flighty Dimity just a touch of a lisp and Lady Kingair a Scottish burr. It’s labeled as YA - and certain elements (sex & violence) are toned down from the Parasol Protectorate. One of my GoodReads friends complained that the main characters are just re-treads of Alexia & Ivy - but I don’t quite see it. I enjoying this outing just as much as her previous works & am looking forward to the next novel in both/either series.
That said - Carriger really needs a new cover artist - the character poses are dreadful!
I zoomed through Joe Hill’s latest NOS4A2 earlier this month - what a ride! Victoria “Vic” McQueen - a somewhat troubled young woman, discovers a talent for finding things - using her birthday bike and a condemned covered bridge - to travel where she needs to go. But she’s not the only one with this sort of ability. Charles Talent Manx can also travel beyond this world - in a 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith with the titular license plate - taking children with him who never come back. Charles and Victoria’s lives intertwine not once, but twice, with chilling results each time.
While I saw elements of Stephen King’s work - for example, Bing Partridge reminded me of The Stand’ s Trash Man (intentionally, I believe, as he says “My life for you!” at one point in the story), and Manx had a bit of Pennywise about him - Hill’s writing stands very much on its own. He is adept at both world building and character development - and the plot carried me along effortlessly. Vic is not a spotless heroine, and Manx and Partridge both have reasons (tho not excuses) for being who they are. Even the supporting characters are well-rounded, with their own backstories. There are some ruthless scenes - this novel is not for the squeamish when it comes to child abuse or violence - but it is IMHO so worth it. I can’t wait to see what Hill comes up with next and I will be getting my own copy of this novel soon - just need to decide if I want an analogue or digital version.
There was a male fantasy author who decided to take a bunch of pictures of himself posing the way the female characters posed on the front of his books and posted them on his blog. I can’t remember who it was, but John Scalzi linked it on the Whatever. It was hilarious.
I’ve just made a very hard decision. I’m going to have to throw out a book. My copy of James Herriot’s Cat Stories has been damaged beyond what I’m willing to foist off on an unwilling person so I can’t even leave it behind on a park bench. What happened to it? Ironically, cat pee. There were some kittens let loose in my bedroom once upon a time and they peed close to my bookshelf. That was the book that took the most damage.
plays Taps as she chucks it in the trash can
James would understand. 
I just finished Stephen King’s Joyland. For those of you who like the ghostly/precognition/coming of age flavored stuff, if you were scared off by the aliens/zombies/can-toi junk, come back and try this one. King’s still got the magic!
Next up: Hauntings, edited by Ellen Datlow.
I finished re-reading Vanity Fair (after cracking the screen on my e-book reader, I had to dig into the dead tree collection). Still as funny as the first time!
Now I’m starting Pride and Prejudice; seems pretty good from the first few chapters, and as a bonus it’s less than 700 pages.
I finished The Rook, which was much more fun than I expected. Something about the book description made me think it was going to be Very Serious so it was a pleasant surprise that it had a nice sense of humor to it.
I’m now nearly finished with Jo Walton’s Farthing, which I am liking for the most part, although I may change my mind depending on where some plot points end up. I will say one thing for this author – I don’t always love her books, but I nearly always wish I could chat her up about why she made certain choices.
At that time, I think I will be able to pick up the two books I purchased recently and have been dying to get to, only I had these other ones out from the library – Joyland (so I was very pleased to see Dung Beetle’s favorable comments) and The Golem and the Jinni.
I saw the movie a few months ago (having never read the book), and had a similar reaction. The purposeful “stageiness” of the movie, blurring the line between a play and a movie, was very well-done, I thought. I was especially struck by the moment when the young farmer steps through the door of the theater, right out into a vast, wintry landscape - wow! A little odd, though, to see Knightley and Macfadyen as siblings after they played lovers in Pride & Prejudice.
I’ve been on an early American history kick lately. I reread a bit of Richard Norton Smith’s Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation over the weekend, focusing on foreign policy and the Citizen Genet controversy, and also read quite a bit more of David McCullough’s John Adams. Good stuff.
Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul. Bunch of little, good stories in there.
I finished Beauty Bound by Rita Freedman. It’s about the idea that women are/must be beautiful, and how this plays out in historical and contemporary culture. (Contemporary here meaning the late '80s, since that’s when it was written.) It was interesting, and she said a lot of things that still seemed relevant today. Then again, there were also a lot of things that made me think “Has society changed or have I just never encountered this supposedly common attitude?”, or occasionally “Has society changed or is my attitude different because I’m queer?”. I liked the section explaining the concept of “penis envy”, I found myself laughing aloud at the thought that anyone had seriously believed that.
Now I’m reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I’ve heard a lot about it, mostly along the lines of “It’s a girl-meets-vampire story that’s actually good”, and I’ve read and liked some of her other books. So when I saw it at a secondhand bookstore this weekend, I grabbed it. I’m about halfway through, and I’m really enjoying it. I love the worldbuilding, the subtle and blatant ways life would be different if magic and monsters were real.
That’s one of my favorite vampire novels. (Maybe I should be embarrassed that I have more than one favorite vampire novel.)
I finished Anna Karenina. It’s too long, and sometimes it’s tedious and frustrating, but I’m glad I read it.
I just read While You’re Here, Doc, by Bradford B. Brown, which is a nice collection of animal stories. Brown was a veterinarian in rural Maine in the 1950’s-70’s, and the title comes from the propensity of farmers to come up with extra unscheduled jobs when he visits: “While you’re here, doc, can you take a look at my goat?” The book lacks the magic of James Herriot, but it’s an interesting read. There’s a followup book that I’ll have to get.
Stephen King has a new novel and I was not informed?!? I’ll be heading over to my library site to put my hold request in on that.
I’m currently re-reading “Under the Dome” in anticipation of the mini-series next week.