I’m reading Waverley by Walter Scott. I’m about half done and it’s pretty fun and breezy so far. It’s interesting to get a sympathetic look at the Jacobites, since in other books I’ve read they’re mostly played for laughs (e.g. Doctor Slop in Tristram Shandy or Partridge in Tom Jones).
I’m about a fifth of the way through Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, an over-and-over-again reincarnation novel set in early-20th C. England. I’m liking it better now but wish she’d pick up the pace a bit.
A friend just gave me Machine of Death (whoa, dying again - is this a theme?), ed. by Ryan North and others, a collection of short stories by different authors. The premise is that there’s a new machine which takes a sample of your blood and then spits out a very short printed description of how you’ll die - not when or where, but how: OLD AGE, CANCER, GUNSHOT, SKYDIVING ACCIDENT, etc. The answers are always accurate, but like the Oracle at Delphi, sometimes they’re ironic and/or misleading. How would you lead your life differently, or not, if you knew or thought you knew just how it was going to end? Haven’t started the book yet, but it looks cool.
Roy Jenkins’s bio Churchill also still awaits me. Someday!
There’s a choose-your-own-adventure type story from the sequel (This Is How You’ll Die) called Your Choice that I liked. I only know about it from Wondermark but I want to read both books one day.
OK, how come I’ve never heard of The Accidental Time machine before this week? I’m already three quarters of the way through it, and I love it!
I’ve mentioned it in previous Whatcha threads. Not Joe Haldeman’s best, by any means, but I enjoyed it.
Glad you’re giving Life After Life another chance, as I quite enjoyed it. And yes, eventually we stop going all the way back to the beginning! I also really liked *Machine of Death *, while it seems as if the same basic plot/theme would get repetitive, each author put enough of a spin on his/her story to keep things fresh. In fact, I just put This Is How You’ll Die on hold at the library.
Just finished Jo Walton’s Among Others, thanks to a recco by Wonderlust - it’s an enchanting (pun intended) rural fantasy YA novel set in the late 1980’s. Morewenna Phelps, a Welsh teenage girl, deals with a broken family and going away to boarding school, where she has very little access to the fairy world. She finds her escape in science fiction novels, and, in attempting a bit of magic, finds herself not only among friends, but back under threat. Told in the form of journal entries, with occasional flashbacks, the worldbuilding is strong and the characters engaging. The plot moves along well, with a few minor twists & turns. I really wish Walton had included a bibliography of all the SF novels she mentioned along the way; I jotted a few down and looked even more up on the library website as I read, but having them all in one place would have been convenient - especially as the protagonist herself mentions how much she enjoys bibliographies! Definitely worth a library read at least, if you have an interest in either the Fae and/or late 1970’s sci-fi.
Thanks! Good to know.
At the risk of coming across as really OCD, I had posted some questions after finishing Life After Life in the August thread. If you, or anyone else, has thoughts on them after you read the book, that would be greatly appreciated!
I’ve read it but August is a busy time for me and I didn’t notice your questions.
Actually, I’m meant to be busy now, so to save having to think too much I’ll merely link to some comments I made elsewhere after I had finished the book.
They won’t answer your questions very well, though.
Currently just finished re-reading The Infernal Device by Michael Kurland. It’s a steampunk-ish romp first published in 1979 featuring Professor Moriarty, dastardly plots, new-fangled submersibles, hydrogen balloons and much more! Holmes has an almost comic role and Watson is very staid. Great fun!
Which I’m still currently going through the Aubrey-Maturin series, now on The Commodore. I’m dimly aware of having read this, but it’s all a blur. Reading them all in a row makes me aware, however, how subtly annoying the Stephen-Diana subplot is. Another misunderstanding that causes them to separate! Whatever does the Doctor see in that woman, I just don’t know.
I’m also halfway into Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers, on the origins of World War I. A fascinating and deeply terrifying read that reveals, among other things, that there was no country in which not at least three factions were alternating in control of foreign policy, often without having a clue as to what was going on elsewhere and no clear plan. Why is it terrifying? Because you feel like this is probably very much what’s always happening in politics, and while I don’t see World War III around the corner, the rational-players interpretation of history seems so much more reassuring: sure, they messed up, but at least they all did what they thought best. In Clark’s reading…not so much.
Plugging along nicely with The Lies of Locke Lamora yet. The language and setting put my teeth on edge at times; I find myself wanting to tip my cowboy hat and quote The Stranger from The Big Lebowski: “Just one thing, Locke. Do you have to use so many cuss words?” 
And the ultra-crime/poverty-ridden fantasy city is a trope that’s wearing a bit thin with me, I suppose. Nevertheless, I can suspend my disbelief over that, and it does keep the pages turning. Fun stuff.
Sure - I’ll make a note and will check back on that when I’m done. I’m up to the point in the book where Ursula has just realized she’s actually pregnant as a result of her rape by her brother’s American classmate.
Still reading through The Luminaries. It’s sort of like as if David Mitchell or Italo Calvino were asked to write the script for Deadwood, set it in New Zealand, and told to leave out the cussing.
I finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. It was just all right. I may read more of the series one day.
Now on my last Flashman book, Flashman on the March. It’s just as much fun as all the others.
I’m in a library book drought at the moment, which I guess is okay because I’m going on a trip very soon. I’m going to try using the Kindle app on my tablet. As a dead-tree fan, I’m less than enthused, but at least I can read some of Stephen King’s Kindle-only bits.
I’ve made it to the second-to-last (last if you count the ones he finished) Dickens novel, Our Mutual Friend. I’m almost to the end of the first section and so far I’m liking it. There’s a definite Wilkie Collins influence with the murder mysteries he’s got going on. I’m especially liking the bitter newlywed couple as a nice contrast to the typical milquetoast Dickens heroines.
Finished all three of those. Took them back to the library this afternoon and got:
Burning Paradise, by Robert Charles Wilson. Recommended a couple of times in this thread.
The Moonshine War, by Elmore Leonard. Read it back in 1970, after seeing the movie; was reminded of it by Siam Sam.
Fellowship of Fear and The Dark Place, by Aaron Elkins. First two books in the Gideon Oliver mystery series. Discovered today that ten more books have been written since I last read one (I’ve read numbers 2-7), so I’m starting at the beginning…
It’s not bad, and I agree that it has a different flavour than some of his other books. Unfortunately (without mentioning any spoilers) it has a plot twist that’s even clunkier than usual because he changed his mind about something partway through.
I finished Waverley; I liked it, although the main character was kind of a bland guy who almost everyone loves for no particular reason. It was picturesque and funny, though. Now I’m reading The Three Musketeers and I think it will be similarly breezy.
If it ain’t clunky, it ain’t Dickens.
Hence my “more than usual” comment!
Finished: The Monster of Florence.
Reading: The Meaning of Night and having a hard time getting into it. Also reading The Rituals of Dinner which is a pleasant reread.
On my Kindle is A History of the Donner Party, a Tragedy of the Sierra for when I’m stuck at the dealership getting my car fixed. Again.
Finally getting my book mojo back on and it feels great.