I just today started reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Started today on Hombre by Elmore Leonard. I don’t usually read Westerns but someone here mentioned it and it sounded interesting. Also, Stephen King speaks highly of Mr. Leonard, so I’ve always meant to give him a shot.
The Pendergast novels are a longtime favorite of mine, but they do have some tiresome aspects. I’m totally bored with the continuing soap opera of Pendergast’s family history, and I hate Constance and Diogenes with a passion. Also, the sadistic element where Pendergast has to nearly die in every installment is just ugly.
And I like Pendergast as a modern Sherlock Holmes a lot better than Pendergast as a James Bond-style one-man army.
Finished Hombre, a very quick read. It was just okay for me.
Next up: The Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin’ Dixie Out of the Dark. Read this if you’ve ever felt embarrassed to be from the South.
I’ve read three or four Elmore Leonard novels, always convinced this’ll be the one I like. They’re never terrible, but I just don’t get the love for him.
I suppose he invented the Justified universe, and that’s one of my favorite shows of all time, so I’ll give him credit for that. I just wish his books grabbed me more.
Oh good, I was afraid it was going to be just me. I did like the movie Jackie Brown…
I loved it. Utah is just an Western Southern state is soooooooooo many ways.
I read that recently, and liked but didn’t love it. Some memorable characters and scenes, though. I found the ending kinda disappointing, but will be interested to hear what you think.
What did you say the title of the Dickens book was again?
Harris’s Fatherland is a great WWII alternative-history crime thriller, and his more recent Conclave is an interesting but farfetched novel about the near-future election of a new Pope. He also wrote the very good nonfiction Selling Hitler, about the Hitler diaries hoax, which will have you shaking your head about how stoopid people can be when they think they just might get rich.
Lloyd George said that Churchill would skin his own mother (a mistress of King Edward VII, as it happens) to make a drum on which to beat his own praises. Check out Roy Jenkins’s Churchill for a terrific one-volume bio.
I read Hombre recently myself, and agree it was just okay (as was his earlier Escape from Five Shadows). His Westerns just don’t do it for me, I’ve reluctantly decided.
Should’ve added, I just finished the 1956 Robert Heinlein novel Time for the Stars, about telepaths keeping starships linked with Earth as they look for other habitable worlds. Still one of my favorite Heinleins, although I noticed his less-than-progressive views about women more this time 'round.
I’ve now begun David McCullough’s 1972 history The Great Bridge, about the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
re The Liberal Redneck Manifesto
Oh yeah, now I remember how I found out about these books! 
I should read this, but it does sound pretty embarrassing, so maybe not. And since I moved away long ago, I hope I can be excused.
There’s a chapter where he’s trying to get a semen sample from a bull and I couldn’t breathe, I was laughing so hard.
Guilty! 
I’m just starting The Terror, since I started watching the mini-series that is based on it.
I’m also starting SM Stirling’s Black Chamber, which is an alternate history of WWI. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of it. So far, I’m really liking it.
I’m also reading the novel version of The Shape of Water. It was started as a separate project from the movie. It’s been an interesting read thus far. There is definitely more background included. If you liked the movie, I would recommend it.
Last one for now. I finished The Woman Left Behind by Linda Howard. Sometimes I love her stuff and sometimes it’s flat out ridiculous. It enjoyed this one. It’s about a technical expert who is embedded with a military squad. Minimal romance. It’s mostly about what you can achieve if you want to, and more importantly in this case, if you have to.
Just finished A Civil Contract, by Georgette Heyer. Not bad, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. There was less conflict in it that I’d anticipated.
Next up: Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett.
I finished The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling by Lawrence Block. Aaaaaand at the third retelling of the same base plot -burglar breaks in to a place where there’s a murder, burglar is framed for murder, burglar has to clear himself- the series is feeling a bit stale. I’ll give it a few more before deciding whether I want to continue or not. I DO like Bernie, but I don’t like Block’s habit of not telling the audience what the main character knows until he reveals it to the assembled suspects.
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)
I’ve read Fatherland. Liked it. Conclave is next up after Dictator.
Sorry?
I said, The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account). Let’s pay attention here!
All right, gentlemen, don’t make me put you in separate corners! 
I guess when you’re being paid by the word, it behooves you to come up with the longest title you can get on a dust cover.