I’m reading Robert B. Parker’s Ironhorse, by Robert Knott. It’s a ghostwritten book about Parker’s Western lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. It’s pretty good so far, and the author seems to know a lot about trains, although I was surprised at one minor detail. Two well-to-do young women (in their twenties) riding a train in the 1880’s are depicted as wearing white dresses, which are clean. Wouldn’t the dresses get dirty on the train? And wouldn’t women who owned other, non-white dresses, wear them on the train?
Thanks. I really enjoyed the movie Appaloosa (starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen), based on Parker’s book of the same name, and I’m glad to know there’s more written about those guys.
Here’s a link to a list of all of the Cole/Hitch books, the first four by Parker, and the second two by the ghost writer. I didn’t know about two of the four.
I’m still on that island I said we were going to, about halfway through A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin, and enjoying it immensely (enjoying the island too). But I have a question about some of the titles people use. There are lords and kings, but then there is something like “Ser Such-and-Such” instead of “Sir Such-and-Such” and “Maester Such-and-Such” instead of “Master Such-and-Such.” Not having seen any of the TV episodes, I was wondering whether these have the pronunciation of “Sir” and “Mister” and the spellings are just quaint or if they’re pronounced differently.
Actually, I meant if they take the pronunciations of “Sir” and “Master.” Thanks in advance!
Sounds to me like ser is pronounced on the HBO series as “sare,” and maester is pronounced “mayster.”
Just finished The Big Crowd by Kevin Baker. It’s fiction, based on William O’Dwyer, mayor of NYC from 1946-50. Baker does an excellent job with the time and place, and with the minor characters (especially the gangsters), but the major characters (mayor and his DA brother) were flat and boring.
Even so, I’d recommend it, for post-war NYC flavor and history.
Just started Life After Life by Jill McCorkle. It’s centered around a nursing home where a woman helps people cope with aging and death. It sounds sappy but so far, it’s not.
This month I’ve finished up listening to the last book of the Hunger Games Trilogy: Mockingjay. I really enjoyed the series.
I had a 6 hour road trip this week and listened to World War Z. Great book and fantastic performances by the cast.
I’ve just started listening to Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It is hilarious as well as reverent. Her writing style is easy to read and extremely informative. I will check out her other books based on my enjoyment of this one.
Just started Bryant and May Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler, which is so far kind of amusing.
Thanks. It felt like he would have had a reason for altering those titles just a bit. Especially since he has used “Master” as a title once in the book so far, for some sort of metalsmith who was clearly not up there with the learned Maesters. He also uses the -ae configuration in names a lot, so it’s anyone’s guess how those are supposed to be pronounced. If in doubt, in my mind I just go with the long E as in Aesop.
I look forward to seeing the TV series but don’t want to read through the entire book series before doing so. I’ll check to see which seasons correspond to the individual books.
I’m currently reading a YA novel, More Than This by Patrick Ness. It’s about a boy who dies, then wakes up in a very strange place. (Careful with that Amazon link, it’s pretty spoilerific from what I could see). Anyway, I’m riveted. I’ve liked everything I’ve read by Ness so far, and this is shaping up likewise.
Still finishing Butcher’s “Fool Moon” and Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (The Annotated version), but I took a break for H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror, just for the season.
I attended the Boston Book Fair in and around Copley Plaza and the Boston Public Library last weekend, and resisted buying books. But I had to pick up a copy of Anthony Sammarco’s A History of Howard Johnson’s: How a Massachusetts Soda Fountain Became a National Icon, which just came out. I’ve seen it in local bookstores and at the publisher’s booth at the BBF, so I had to pick it up:
I’ve finished ‘Bad Monkey’ and ‘River of Stars’. That’s the first adult Carl Hiaasen I’ve read - I read ‘Hoot’ and ‘Scat’ with the kids many years ago. He has a very Donald Westlake-esque sense of humour. I wouldn’t want to read through them all in a month, but they’re very entertaining books.
I loved ‘River of Stars’, and I think it’s the best thing that he has written yet. I was leery of it being a sequel to ‘Under Heaven’, and I was quite happy to learn that it isn’t. Just as ‘Under Heaven’ is based on the Tang Dynasty, this is based on the Song Dynasty, and while there are passing references to events in the earlier book, they are purely historical within the context of the story. I get the impression that Guy Gavriel Kay got hooked on Chinese history when doing the research for the earlier book, and his passion for the subject caused him to write another. I’m certainly tempted to make up for my complete lack of knowledge on the subject from reading his work.
And now, I must finish ‘Why Does the World Exist?’ before I have to give it back to the library. My light reading overwhelmed my heavy reading yet again this month…
Just finished More Than This, which was mindblowing. I don’t think Patrick Ness knows how to write a bad book. I had a couple of minor quibbles, but all in all, I would recommend it.
Onward now with Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the end of the Lane. (Marketed as an adult book? Huh.)
Yes, I think they just didn’t know how else to market it since the protagonist is an adult male flashing back to his childhood. I loved it though, and it’s definitely up to Neil Himself’s usual standard, IMHO. 
I’ve got three going: Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, Phil Rickman’s The Wine of Angels, and Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season. I’ve been dragging through The Wine of Angels; the pacing has been quite slow. I’ve got about 250 pages left, and things are starting to pick up a bit, but I haven’t enjoyed it as much as I’d hoped. The Name of the Wind has been engrossing thus far, but I’ve had to put it down mid-chapter so many times, it’s hard to remember precisely where Kvothe left off. Nice world-building, and I’m only about a third of the way through or so.
I didn’t mean to start **The Bone Season **while I had the other two brewing, but I found myself without a book over breakfast yesterday, and now I can’t put it down. I’m a sucker for books set in London anyway, but a dystopian London where clairvoyancy thrives in underground crime syndicates despite its death-sentence punishments? Fascinating, especially since the pace is good so far and the feel spooky, gritty, and dangerous, just like I prefer my October reads.
Once I’ve cleared Mount Fantasy, I need to take another crack at The Pickwick Papers.
I’m reading the Bone graphic novels with my kid. I’m liking them as much as he is! They are great. They are one of the few I’ve found that can be read by kids and adults alike with real pleasure. 
Sort of as if you crossed Pogo with Lord of the Rings - by turns humerous, fantastic, suspensful. Creates a truly bizzare and fully realized world, with great artwork.
My 13-year-old likes the Bone books, but they didn’t hook me. To each their own.
It’s clearly aimed at kids. I was surprised to find I liked it, as most stuff my son likes, I don’t.
I’m reading Tad Williams second Bobby Dollar book, Happy Hour in Hell, the first being The Dirty Streets of Heaven. Previous reads I liked recently were Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, And the Mountains Echoed by Khaleo Hosseini, and The Sky Unwashed by Irene Zabytko. Also “rereading” by audio the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series. I like book juggling. 
I finished Sum of All Fears in honor of Tom Clancy’s passing. Then I read The 5th Wave, a YA novel my daughter recommended. It was OK - not as good as The Hunger Games, but better than most.
Also TV Babylon, an older gossip book by an author I can’t remember, but it was not particularly interesting. Now I started Aftershock, Andrew Vachss’ latest. I don’t know if I like it - I am wondering if Vachss can come up with any protagonists except the brooding loner, abused by the system, who kills people. This one is a former member of the French Foreign Legion, investigating a school shooting.
Then I have to get thru a Vince Flynn novel (Protect and Defend) in time to grab the latest Insurgent/Divergent/Whatevertheheckgent novel, also from my daughter.
Regards,
Shodan