Speaking of the Thirties - just finished the graphic novel The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures by Dave Stevens. Not as good as the movie, but it had its moments.
I’m almost finished with The Searchers. So far, the things that annoyed me the most in the movie are not in the book. It makes me wonder what John Ford was thinking. I never thought I’d say this, but I wouldn’t mind seeing this movie remade.
I don’t read much non-fiction, but I’m currently halfway through Philip Lawler’s Faithful Departed, on the collapse of Catholic culture in Boston.
As you’d expect, sexual scandal plays a big role, but Lawler is interested in a bigger picture- he sees the roots of collapse as being apparent much earlier than most people know.
Interesting. What does he say are the three biggest reasons?
Recently finished (all via Kindle):[ul]
[li]Amped by Daniel H. Wilson – About a future where some humans are given neural implants that either fix organic problems (like epilepsy) or amplify their intelligence. The setting was predictable – “amps” have come to be seen as separate from/less than unmodified humans – but I enjoyed the storytelling. This was my first Wilson book (I gave it a shot because Joe Hill mentioned/recommended it on Twitter a while ago), and I liked it enough to immediately download another one.[/li][li]The Other End of The Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia B. McConnell – Every now and then I pick up a dog book, then I spend about a week worried about whether I’m a good dog owner. This book was interesting, but didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know.[/li][li]Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe – I no longer remember what possessed me to download this autobiography, but I liked it![/ul][/li]Currently reading (via Kindle and paperback):[ul]
[li]The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie To Everyone–Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely – I’ve only been reading this for a few days; so far, it’s ok.[/li][li]The Maul and The Pear Tree by PD James and TA Critchley – This book was published years ago and had been lying on my “to read” pile for ages, and I finally picked it up and started reading it last week (I’ve been escorting some people in a space where no electronic devices are allowed: “real” books to the rescue!). This is a fictionalized account of the 1811 Ratcliffe Highway murders in London: I’m about halfway through and am enjoying it, but then I’m a huge PD James fan.[/ul][/li]Up Next (all via Kindle):[ul]
[li]Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson[/li][li]The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (see below)[/ul][/li]
I downloaded The Loved One last night because of you guys. 
I liked it quite a bit, but a lot of people didn’t.
Lawler is a very good reporter and historian, but he’s also a Catholic traditionalist (so am I) , and that floors his diagnosis of what went wrong with American Catholicism.
He’s absolutely right to believe Catholic culture was dying in Boston (and elsewhere) long before 2002. But I think he misses completely the biggest problem: prosperity. People who are fat and happy are less likely to abide by rules and discipline.
Regardless, it’s clear that American Catholics had stopped going to Mass and stopped following Church dogma long before molestation scandals were revealed. Lawler thinks bishops like Cushing were too slow to discipline rogue theologians and “Catholic” politicians who thumbed their noses st the Church… but I think something HAD to be wrong long before the Sixties. A healthy Church couldn’t have gone straight to Hell so fast.
I liked it so much I went on a recommending spree. (No spoilers at that link)
Just finished Dear Socks, Dear Buddy by Hillary Clinton, about kids’ letters to the Clintons’ White House pets. It also has some advice on encouraging children to write, and proper care for dogs and cats. Nice pics and some funny stories, too.
Polished off The Rook yesterday, after a marathon all-day read. (Some days you just get comfy on the couch and start reading and never stop. I didn’t want to do things like go to my piano lesson, or leave the couch to eat. Cancelled the former, couldn’t avoid the latter, as I rather wanted Chipotle and they don’t deliver.) I cannot recommend this book enough. A supernatural MI5, people who are tied in to the emotions of every left-handed person on the planet, flesh-crafting Belgians–this book has it all. My goodreads review sums up my feelings on it:
[QUOTE=Me!]
What a great read. Myfanwy Thomas “wakes up” in a rainy park, bruised and battered, surrounded by a ring of corpses–all of whom, for some reason, are wearing latex gloves. From there, with the help of letters from the woman who had lived in her body prior to that moment, she learns that she is a top executive–a “Rook”–of the Checquy, a sort of supernatural MI5 charged with protecting the United Kingdom from all manner of supernatural menace. The men and women of the Checquy have superhero-like powers, though none fit into the usual hackneyed mold–one is a single mind in four bodies, another emits gasses from his pores, and if you let this one lick your eyeball, it’ll get you high. Myfanwy enters this world, trying not to be found out as an amnesiac while at the same time trying to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that wiped her memories and is rather intent on killing her. All with lots of dry, wry humor along the way.
Hope to see more from this author (this was his first novel) and in this universe!
[/QUOTE]
No idea what I’m reading next. Leaning towards another Flashman novel, even though I’m perilously close to being “done” with the series. We’ll see.
You might enjoy Charles Stross’s Laundry series, as well. Tinker Tailor meets Cthulhu. Haven’t read 'em, but a friend of mine loves 'em. Here’s the first book: The Laundry Files - Wikipedia
Threw it on an Amazon pre-order, I may not get it until October but I have plenty of reading material to keep me occupied until then. 
After seeing several people mention Diana Gabaldon’s books in these threads, I picked up *Outlander *a few months ago. I just finished the fifth in the series a few days ago and am feeling conflicted about reading three more. I think I will take a little break.
I needed something with fewer words, so I read Sophie Kinsella’s I’ve Got Your Number. It was an eye-roll-inducing piece of fluff, but was rather what I needed at the moment.
Next up, I think, will be Wintersmith. That sounds like a good read for the commute.
I liked it, it’s a light read aimed to young adults. But one of his best ones in my humble opinion.
I finished “Still Alice.” I really liked it until about 3/4 of the way through. By the end I really could not stand the characters anymore (what a selfish ass her husband was!) and if the author name-dropped Harvard one more time I thought I was going to scream. I did have some strong emotional responses to it, but overall it left me feeling annoyed.
I’m really getting into 11/22/63 now. I also started “Uncle Al” by Dierdre Marie Capone and an Amazon freebie, “Village Books” by Craig McLay.
Currently reading Saga: A Novel of Medieval Iceland by Jeff Janoda.
Amazing resemblence to a gangster novel, which strikes me as likely historically accurate … these Norsemen are as cunning as they are greedy and brutal, plotting with relentless precision to take each other’s lands (and even their freedom), leading to murder and revenge, in the absense of any sort of law other than custom upheld by the fear of starting the cycle of murder and revenge going …
In short, a perfect libertarian society. 
Good news: I checked the author’s website and he’s recently sent the first draft of the second Checquy novel off to his publisher, so there’s more of this to come. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.
Just added it to my wish list!
Pre-order? It was published in October 2012.
Yes it was, but the other things on that order won’t be published until this October.
If you like podcasts, Hppodcraft discusses it at length starting here.
But how does that matter? Did you tell Amazon to ship everything at once, or something?