I’m reading - and so far, enjoying - Mr Selden’s Map of China by Tmothy Brook, which just came out in Canada, all about the events surrounding the creation, storage and discovery of a fabulously accurate (for the time and source) 16th century Chinese map - including some amazing impacts on the history of international law, trade and exploration (the European owner of the map, the Mr. Selden of the title, was one of the two most important figures in development of the law of the sea - not a coincidence).
Great fun for history and geography nerds, like me.
I finished “The Quarry” last night. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t think it was his best. There are wonderful moments in it, and it’s definitely worth reading, but it wasn’t the ‘tour de force summation of everything I’ve ever loved in Iain Banks’ that I was hoping for. That’s an unfair expectation to inflict on any book, I know.
The hardest thing to get past was the narrator’s father, who is dying of cancer - he’s such an insufferable prick, that it’s hard to get past.
I’m still reading “Why Does the World Exist?”, though it’s a bit slower going. I’m not sure what I’ll pick up from Mount Toberead for a ‘lighter’ book - either “River of Stars”, the new Guy Gavriel Kay, Carl Hiaasen’s “Bad Monkey” or “A Ship of the Line”, the last book in the Hornblower Omnibus that I have. I’ll let you know which I ended up grabbing…
I finally finished Little Dorrit. It sucked. It sucked harder than a high-powered vacuum cleaner. I finished it mainly out of sheer cussedness. The heroine is a simpering goody-two-shoes nobody who does nothing except be sweet and innocent and a complete doormat to everyone. So of course she’s the one who gets the unadulteratedly happy ending while all the people who have some spark of life in them are punished for it.
The next Dickens book is A Tale of Two Cities. It’s a good thing I like that one or I’d be giving up on the Slog Through Dickens right now.
On audio, I’m now reading Clive Cussler’s Poseidon’s Arrow, because the local library net has a lot of Clive Cussler books.
This one is really annoying, in that Cussler’s heroes are unusually stupid and clueless, including Dirk Pitt. This allows them to get into trouble by walking into situations that should be obvious to just about anyone. In the past, they’ve frequently surprised villains on their home turf, and they seem flabbergasted that the villains would even think of doing the same thing.
Read Doctor Sleep, which was a pretty good book, then read Why I Jump, which is an insightful look into autism by an autistic person. Now reading NOS4A2, which needs to get better soon.
Almost forgot that I finished The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, about TR’s post presidency trip down an unexplored Amazonian river. It was very good.
I finished Under the Dome; loved it. I was even ok with the ending, which is usually where King lets me down.
I’m currently re-reading A Time To Kill, in prep for Grisham’s new book that features the main character (Sycamore Row, which gets released a week from tomorrow). It’s been long enough since I read it the first time that I don’t remember many details, so I’m enjoying it.
I want to assure you that it does, but then I liked it right away…
Just barely starting in on the new Temeraire novel, Blood of Tyrants. It’s got me feeling terribly unsettled, oddly enough–it opens with Laurence and Temeraire separated in Japan, and Laurence is amnesiac, with no memory of anything that’s happened in the books. I’m almost as edgy as Temeraire himself about this situation!
I have to say, I was disappointed in it. The author took what should’ve been a thrilling, harrowing adventure and made it plodding. I also didn’t buy that Amazon tribesman, all these years later, still remembered T.R.'s particular expedition via their oral history.
Just finished The Secret Archives of Sherlock Holmes, June Thomson’s latest collection of Holmesian short stories. Feh. Not worth the time - unimaginative and flat. She must be pushing 90 by now, and these stories aren’t nearly as good as her early ones (which were very, very good indeed).
Otherwise, still enjoying Game Change (about the 2008 U.S. Presidential election) and Churchill (big, lively bio about the British PM).
Yesterday I finished reading Call of Duty, by Grace Porter Miller, about her time in the WAAC/WAC/WAAF during WW II, and The California Voodoo Game, the third Dream Park novel (SF) by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes.
Next is The Moon Maze Game, the fourth Dream Park book (unless somebody checks it out before I can get to the library after work). I’ll also resume reading Sea of Gray, about the Confederate raider Shenandoah, which I set aside in order to read TCVG.
Coming soon: Duck the Halls, the 16th Meg Langslow mystery by Donna Andrews.
In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, I’ve been somewhat theming my reading appropriately, starting with Lord of Misrule the updated autobiography of Christopher Lee, published 2004, so it includes his thoughts on playing Saruman and Count Dooku. He doesn’t appear to be a terribly humble man, and is quite prone to name dropping, but he certainly has been a hard-working actor. I have a feeling there was more to his role in WWII than he let on (or perhaps, could let on); for once, parts of his tale felt untold. I wish he’d written a bit more about his friendship with fellow Hammer Films star Peter Cushing, but overall I enjoyed his autobiography at least as much as other memoirs I’ve read recently (including John Lithgow’s Drama: An Actor’s Education. I knew some of the basics about Lee before (his war service, his roles with Hammer Films & his more recent work), but gained a new appreciation for the man after finishing this memoir. There’s a couple of his films (The Wicker Man and The Three Musketeers) that I may have to check out, now.
Give me joy: I’m re-reading Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series (parts, actually…started with The Mauritius Command while on holiday in Mauritius!). I’m thrilled all over, and currently on The Thirteen-Gun Salute (which, as I dimly remember, brings another turn in Stephen Maturin’s financial fortunes). O’Brian is such a brilliant writer, and it’s not just the stories either (which are sometimes actually a bit so-so…): a couple of days ago, while still on The Reverse of the Medal, I think, I hit among a sentence that I reread three times just for the joy of its construction. I’ve forgotten it now, but more’s the luck, as then I will be able to rediscover it a couple of years from now…
I wish you joy with all my heart! It’s almost Thanksgiving, and time for me to start another Aubrey-Maturin audiobook. I’ve read the books, but I’ve been listening to one every year with my husband during the long car trips we make over the holidays. We actually did two during the last season because it was too sad to stop at the end of The Reverse of the Medal, so we continued into The Letter of Marque, and now we’ll begin The Thirteen Gun Salute. I’m looking forward to my husband’s reaction to the fate of those bastards Wray and Ledward.
I’ve just finished another Phil Rickman mystery novel, The Lamp of the Wicked. It’s about the aftermath, or maybe you’d say fallout, of a real-life English serial killer of the 1990’s, Fred West. It was a good book, notwithstanding some nonsense about people being allergic to electricity, but I’d have been content to go my whole life without knowing anything about West, serial killers not being one of my favorite topics to read about. Fictional ones are bad enough; this novel sometimes felt too much like a true crime book.
I also read Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness, by Alexandra Fuller, which is a followup to her riveting memoir Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, about her childhood in colonial Africa in the 1970’s-80’s. This one isn’t as good, but worth reading as a supplement to the first book. It goes into more detail about the lives of her parents.
I read Christopher Brookmyre’s novel A Snowball in Hell. I’ve read 8 or 9 of his books now, and they are all crude and violent (and clever and funny), but this is the first one where the violence and cynicism really disturbed me. It features a series of revenge fantasies against some commonly disliked figures: an inflammatory political commentator, reality TV stars, etc. It’s meant as dark comedy, and it’s a clearly crazy villain doing the nasty stuff, but there was something too… gleeful, maybe, about the way it’s written, as if the author enjoyed the fantasies too much. Probably I’m oversensitive. There’s a love story to counterbalance the ugly elements, and Brookmyre can do heartwarming pretty well when he wants to.
Just over 1/2 way through the Dan Simmons book (it’s 200 pages longer than I said it was) and still going steadily, if a bit slowly. A bit like climbing Everest!
Also been listening to the unabridged Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter, which I first read when it came out in 1979 and which is still great fun. I thought I had kept my original copy, but apparently not. Morlocks control H. G. Wells’ Time Machine and intend to use it to invade Victorian London, but a scheme is afoot to wake King Arthur to repulse them!
One thing someone might know; I’ve always pronounced his name Jeter with a short ‘e’ at the beginning but the audio-book reader pronounces his name Jeeter. Now I’m wondering if I’ve had it wrong for all these years…
I’m reading it too and I can’t say I’m enjoying it, though it isn’t entirely the author’s fault. I guess I’m just not entertained by pain, death and child torture, evil tusked women and nursing homes. Wrong book at the wrong time.
I adore John Lithgow, and hadn’t realized he wrote a memoir; thanks for mentioning it!
This makes two books now that I’ve added to my reading list because of you, in just this one thread. I feel like I should buy you a cup of tea or something.
I have never heard of this, and it sounds like it could be so, so awesome … or a complete train wreck. Dare I hope it is incredibly awesome? I must find out for myself.
My pleasure - I’ve gotten so much from these threads that I feel it’s only fair to share!
Another seasonally thematic read - I picked up The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black from the local library after reading about it last month in Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog.
I’m no fangbanger, in fact, I tend to get a bit :rolleyes: regarding the modern/YA take on vampires. Nevertheless, the worldbuilding in this novel intrigued me - not only the Coldtowns where vampires and the infected (along with starstruck wannabes) are quarantined, but the fact that once bitten, you aren’t necessarily doomed. If the infected can be kept from consuming human blood for 88 days, they are safe. They can consume regular food (and, oddly enough, vampire blood) during this time However, their overwhelming craving usually overcomes the best intentions of family and friends.
Tana was an occasionally infuriating protagonist - making stupid, teenage decisions, for example, but still projected a strong, indomitable spirit. Gavriel had an intriguing backstory, and I can totally see how younger readers would swoon over him. I can also see something like the Eternal Ball and the Coldtowns overall becoming an internet media hit, with live feeds and umpteen bloggers discussing the “Cold” lifestyle.
I enjoyed the novel for what it was - while I probably won’t be returning to it specifically, I may see what other Holly Black novels are available thru the library.
