So far, so good. I’m about 60 pages in and enjoying it so far.
I read GWOM a few years ago and was underwhelmed. The world Lethem built was certainly offbeat and interesting, but it didn’t seem practical or logically consistent, all in all, and the characterization was rather thin. Just IMHO.
I’ve just finished Eric Brown’s The Serene Invasion. Peaceful aliens arrive on Earth and prohibit violence! And that’s not all. They also provide free energy, cheap housing and clean water for all!
It’s told in sections a decade apart as the changes in society become obvious and the reasons for the aliens’ apparent altruism become clearer.
I enjoyed it a lot, and have now started on his Engineman, about an ex-space pilot sidelined by technological advances but, like all his ex-colleagues, addicted to the sensation of ‘pushing’ a ship lightyears through space…
Sorry – I’ve been reading and haven’t updated at all since April. Hope y’all don’t throw me out of the club! 
Started off with 2 wildly different books about the same subject:
Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan, by Bob Greene. Most MJ books are salutary, detailing the life of a man who has seemingly gone from success to success (until he started managing NBA teams that is), but Rebound is about a man who, after the loss of the one person most important to him, finds himself at a loss, depressed, and at odds with the world around him. Following Jordan from the time his father was killed to his re-entering the NBA (this was written before the ’96 team went 72-10), it presents a more human Jordan, one who makes the decision to step off the carousel and try to recapture the spirit of doing his job in a venue where he isn’t The World’s Most Famous Athlete. He failed in the latter, but succeeded in the former. Though he was a middlin’ baseball player, finally ending up with a .202 batting average in AA ball.
For a different view of Jordan, I then turned to Sam Smith’s 1992 hack job The Jordan Rules, a book definitely written with the agenda of “I’ll sell more copies if I paint Michael like a dick.” And, true, Jordan could be a dick – he hated playing with second tier teammates and it wasn’t until his baseball journey that he learned how to play with teammates who weren’t as talented or as dedicated to winning. But this book portrayed everything that MJ did as a result of selfishness, assholeness, or whatever (though nobody came out worse than Stacey King), and the fact that the Bulls won the championship in the year the book was based (1990-1991) definitely didn’t help Smith’s argument that the Bulls would never win the championship because Jordan was too much of a “me first” player.
Going from non-fiction to science fiction, I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312, a book that could have been about 100 pages shorter. Telling the story of a solar system-wide civilization, 2312 is a standard KSR book – lots of ideas, lots of meditations on What It All Means, some plot, an ecologically-oriented viewpoint, LOTS of time spent in the minds of characters, and a reader who sometimes thinks “C’mon, move it along guy!” If you like space-oriented science fiction, KSR, ecology-heavy novels, or books where the author goes on about “What I’m Thinking Now”, give 2312 a whirl.
Coming back to the present day, I had picked up the third novel in Larry McMurtry’s Last Picture Show trilogy, Duane’s Depressed. Actually, he was depressed in the second book too, Larry. I liked this one more than the previous novel, Texasville (read here for my April review.) This one, like the previous book, was just kind of rolling around without much of a plot – Duane decides to stop driving, he’s tired of his life, and HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! something happens that’s so shocking and unexpected that I couldn’t put the book down after that. I really liked this book and thought it much better than Texasville (though if I hadn’t read Texasville, I would not have liked this one that much.)
Turning back to non-fiction route, I picked up one of my wife’s discards Ideas that Changed the World by Felipe Fernandez Armesto. “Ideas” are defined as political, religious, or philosophical ideas, with a few smattering of scientific ideas… but only those that had an impact on the philosophical or political landscapes. So, for example, the “idea” of anti-Americanism made the list, but the “idea” of mining did not. Written in a “DK books” style, this one wasn’t difficult to make it through but the selections were bizarre at times.
Half-Priced Books had a 20%-off sale this weekend so I picked up Justin Cronin’s The Passage, a wonderful apocalyptic novel about the end of the world, vampire-like beings, and “civilization” 100-years hence. There’s a thread about the book already in existence, so I’ll post more about it there, but I highly recommend this one who appreciates these type of novels. Apparently this one was highly anticipated and well-received, but I never heard about it until I purchased it on Friday.
As of now, I’ve read 50 books since the beginning of the year – 34 fiction, 16 non-fiction, a total of 21,937 pages, 391,000 sentences, over 5 million words, and 27 million letters. Dayum.
I’m just about 25% of the way i to Eric Ambler’s The Mask of Dimitrios (sometimes retitled A Coffin for Dimitrios).
Haven’t participated in one of these threads before, but what the hell.
I’m reading The Dresden Files - White Night. It’s book 9 of the series and I’ve pretty much been plowing through then entire series one at a time for the last 6 months or so. I’m about a quarter of the way through this one. All in all, the series is fun fantasy writing that does a better job than most of looping together a bunch of disparate myths and legends and framing them in a classic noire detective theme.
I like reading big epic stories in a binge, kinda like you might if you Netflixed the entire Mad Men series over the span of a month or so. So far this one has been pretty satisfying, good characters, fairly mature subject matter, doesn’t take itself too seriously and Butcher is actually pretty witty. As fantasy/mystery books go these are somewhat less predictable than most. I’ll probably continue with the series until I run out of books. Unless the next A Song of Ice and Fire book miraculously comes out before then.
Finished The Darkling. The wheels kind of fell off at the end, but for the most part I enjoyed it. I plan to keep an eye on this author and try her again if she writes something similar.
I couldn’t make it to the library, where The Golem and The Jinni is waiting for me, so I started on Tell the Wolves I’m Home as recommended by delphica upthread. I’m liking it so far and it’s a quick read.
Finished The Unwinding:An Inner History of the New America by George Packer. I don’t know what to do. I sorta hoped that there would be a “Here’s what you can do to help fix things” at the end, but that wasn’t the point of the book.
Started The Son by Philipp Meyer. Multi-generational saga of the settling of Texas, beginning in 1836. It’s quite raw and violent, sort of a cross between Cormac McCarthy with the rawness but the writing style is more like Larry McMurtry. So far, the story has three different points of view – a young boy who was kidnapped by Comanches, the boy’s son, ostracized because of his sympathy for Mexicans and Indians, and a great-granddaughter who got rich via oil. It’s really good.
I finally finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay – which is fantastic. I don’t get a lot of reading time, so it took me a while to get through, but I miss it already. Chabon, is gifted at getting you to know his characters. I’d definitely put this up into the top ten of my favorite books ever.
Now, I’ve borrowed Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – which seems epic in length, so don’t expect a review out of me until late summer at this rate. But chapter 1 was good.
I saw a trailer for Ender’s Game recently, so I decided to finally read that. It was really, really good. I can tell it’s one that will stick with me for a while. Now, do I want to read the rest of them, too?
Also, I’m not at all convinced that this will make a good movie.
I recently finished The Great Gatsby and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to the movie.
Last night I started The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. The dialogue is just a little hard to follow, but the story is interesting enough to keep me going.
Well, I raced through the book and finished it this morning. Pretty good. The book had some interesting backstory, incl. on how Blomkvist’s story on the crooked businessman Wennerstrom went pear-shaped, and quite a bit more on Harriet Vanger returning to help run the business after she came home from Australia. Also, the death of the serial killer, Martin, was almost off-handed in the book, but was much more interestingly handled in both movies.
IMHO, no, don’t read the rest. They don’t measure up, and the world Card creates is less compelling after the original book.
Finished Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen, a well-researched book about the voyage of Magellan, greed, power and the spice trade.
Started Frozen in Time, Mitchel Zuckoff; this is a true story about the loss of several airplanes that crash-landed on the Greenland icecap in WWII, the SAR missions to find the crews, and the present-day effort to locate and recover some of those aircraft under 50-200 feet of ice.
Re-reading If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, as part of a complete re-read of the Bernie Gunther novels.
These are real treats. They are hardcore noir detective novels set in and around the lead-up to WW2, the Nazi regime, and the Cold War aftermath. The notion is that the hero, a sometime police officer who quits the German police force in disgust when the Nazis take power and becomes a PI, is thrust into the stew of mid-century German history and attempts to keep morally sane and physically alive - which tasks proves somewhat contradictory - while earning a fast mark. Naturally, his detective skills get him sought out by Nazis, and after the war, Communists, CIA agents, and gangsters of all sorts. Highly recommended.
You don’t really have to read them in order - they jump about in narration. Though one would probably want to start with the first three. http://www.amazon.com/Berlin-Noir-Violets-Criminal-Requiem/dp/0140231706/ref=cm_cr_dp_asin_lnk
No. No you do not.
Thanks for mentioning this, I read it over the weekend and enjoyed it very much. Fuller has written a couple of other books set in Africa, so I’m going to check those out.
I loved Kavalier & Clay! His novel The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is really good, too.
I just finished The Sibyl in Her Grave, unfortunately the last book in Sarah Caudwell’s wonderfully amusing mystery series featuring an unlikely set of detectives: a group of rather frazzled young English barristers, who are more usually occupied with setting up trust funds or defending clients from accusations of tax evasion. (Caudwell was herself a barrister.) These books were such a surprise.
Now I’m reading The Dazzle of Day, a science fiction novel by Molly Gloss. It has Quakers in Space, which sounded promising, but so far I’m underwhelmed.
I enjoyed that series, too. Particularly as I’m a lawyer. 
My job is so much duller than theirs, though!
Mine had covers by artist Edward Gorey, which struck me as wonderfully apropriate.
John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey series is also a good read for anyone interested in British barristers, on- and off-duty.
I’m not a big Gorey fan, but you’re right, his art was great for these books. I especially like the cover of The Sirens Sang of Murder: a group of bewigged baristers calmly watching someone plunge over the edge of a cliff.
I’ve read several of the Rumpole books, and I liked the Rumpole of the Bailey TV series. Leo McKern was great.
I’m currently reading Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding, a sci fi recommendation that I may have gotten off the mega-book-recommendation compendium thread (many blessings on whomever started that thread, can’t remember just now whom!). The description of the book noted that it bore some similarity, in terms of the crew ensemble, the personality of the captain, the adventures, etc., to Firefly, so I was hooked. About 3/4 of the way through, and so far, those descriptions are dead on, and it’s great.
I’m also reading Restless in the Grave by Dana Stabenow. I used to love Stabenow and was compelled by her characterization and settings, whether in the Kate Shugak or Liam Campbell mysteries. But this one? Meh, it’s leaving me flat so far, and it’s got Kate and Liam both. Not sure why.
Oh, and I’ve finished the poetry portion of Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur, so now I’m in the commentary. I was disappointed that the poem fragment wasn’t any longer, but the commentary is a nice brush-up on the Alliterative Morte and the full-on Morte Darthur. Makes me want to re-read the Alliterative Morte when I’m done.
