I finished Nemesis by Jo Nesbo a couple days ago. I’ve been at a cabin on the St Mary’s River without internet for a few days. The cabin was nice and Nesbo still has pacing issues, but the book was good overall. I think **Red Breast **was slightly better in terms of plot and characterization, but I’m becoming more and more of a fan with each book.
Thanks to you and DZedNConfused who recommended this book last month, I’m reading it to my 8yo at bedtime and in car trips, and we’re loving it. It’s the most Terry Pratchett book that he didn’t write.
I just finished Phantom Pains, the second in a series about a borderline-personality-disorder woman who joins a secret police force that deals with faerie. I continue to find the faerie stuff a lot more plausible than the BPD stuff, which seems tacked on and too much like therapy records or something. But I quite enjoy the faerie stuff; it’s fluffy and fun.
Now I’m reading The Bear and the Nightingale, which is off to a great start.
I’m not reading it yet, because I’m only about a quarter into Ron Chernow’s excellent George Washington biography, but today I did buy the hardback copy of Michael Connelly’s newest book just out, The Late Show. The wife will read it first. I mention it because it is a big deal for me to buy a hardcover, and Connelly is one of the few authors I would do that for. (It helped that Barnes and Noble was offering it for 30% off.)
You’re Welcome. Ursula Vernon channels Pterry very well. follow her on Twitter, her life is crazy personified
I read over a hundred pages of The Possible by Tara Altebrando this morning because I had no other reading material with me. Therefore I feel justified in both ditching it and telling you guys that it sucks. The worst kind of YA, with a bratty main character, and dumb cliches like her best male friend being in love with her, but she’s in love with some other guy she barely even knows. There was some telekinesis plot as well, but it was going nowhere fast.
Finished
A Fête Worse Than Death, by Dolores Gorden-Smith. Cozy historical with very strong Golden Age echoes. Good plot, people dropping dead left and right, minimal characterization.
Bloodline, by Felix Francis. Thriller very much in the Dick Francis vein, which means you learn a lot about someone’s job as he gets beat up a lot. 
Enjoyed.
An accurate analysis… I have learned a lot about various occupations such as survival training, glassblowing, booking, catering and of course jockeying from the Francises. 
While he gets run over, shot, tied up, and thrown in a frozen river!
Awesome! I am finding it so engrossing.
I’m finishing up George R. R. Martin’s Tuf Voyaging, which I picked up at a convention. I’d heard about this book for years, but never saw it in stores. The cover painting and interior illustrations show a bald portly man who looks kinda like Varys in Game of Thrones, and he has the same precise speech patterns. Think of this as Varys in Space. It’s good, but not as great as I’d expected, based on the hype. Not Martin’s fault – it’s just the spectre of raised expectations.
I picked up a copy of the Jefferson Bible while in DC recently (properly the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, edited by one Thomas Jefferson). This is another book I’ve wanted to get for some time. It shows what happens when you let a philosopher, Deist, freethinker, and politician loose on a religious text at the dawn of textual criticism. Jefferson basically excised all the mysticism and supernatural out of the four gospels, re-arranging it to suit his idea of Chronological order. Like some concordances I’ve seen, he still manages to repeat at least one incident. He also has Jesus coming to Jerusalem at the beginning of his ministry (as in John) and at the end (as in the synoptics). An interesting read. The Smithsonian carefully photographed the entire book, photoreproduced it, warts and all, and bound it in a replica of the binding Jefferson had his own only copy done up in.
I also started re-reading Thea von Harbou’s Metropolis, which was written before her husband Fritz Lang made his classic silent film of the same name. I’d read it before, but since then we’ve had a succession of every-more-complete restorations, which I’ve watched innumerable times, so I expect my reactions to be somewhat different this time.
I’m reading Underground Airlines. The discussion of the upcoming show Confederate drew it to my attention. Not bad so far. Kind of like Fatherland in that it’s a mainstream novel that happens to be an alternate history story vs. an alternate history novel, if that makes sense.
The Frozen Hours: a Novel of the Korean War, by Jeff Shaara. Shaara does his usual good job of mixing history with fictional dialogue and both historical and composite characters.
Agreed 100%. I read it a few years back and was underwhelmed: fine enough SF to pass an evening or two, but nothing memorable or even particularly clever. Everything he does in that book Scalzi does better, and I’m not a giant Scalzi fanboy either.
Started Auntie Mame, by Patrick Dennis, on the metro home. Very entertaining so far.
I’ve gushed about Tuf Voyaging here before - it’s a favorite of mine (and Cal, Martin has even said the actor who plays Varys on Game of Thrones would probably make a good Tuf). Sorry it didn’t meet your expectations, though.
Just finished Grace and Power by Sally Bedell Smith, an interesting look at the Kennedy White House, its staff, courtiers and hangers-on. I’m also close to the end of Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser, which is just as good as I remember. An excellent, erudite short intro to the man from Mount Vernon.
I needed something light weight and fun for a car trip yesterday so I downloaded a couple entries in Lindsay Buroker’s Flash Gold Chronicles; Flash Gold and Hunted. The character dynamic is very similar to The Emperor’s Edge series, but the plot is less complex. The action is as wild and the adventures as whacky and overall was a great read during a long car trip.
I’m reading The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah. Probably best not to go by me, since this book has a zillion 5 star reviews on Goodreads, but IMO it is a very bad book (cliched, poorly imagined, melodramatic) on an interesting subject (women in occupied France). I’m only a little over a hundred pages in so maybe eventually the story will compensate for the writing. Not betting on it, though.
Oh, I loved this one, and it’s with great difficulty that I won’t put any spoilers here. (Much better than the movie, in my opinion.)
Finished What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, by Randall Munroe. A lot of very intelligent fun. Recommended.
Just started River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey. An alternate history, based on the idea that the U.S. imported hippos which became an invasive species in the bayou. The author notes that this was an idea actually proposed in Congress, but which didn’t actually happen.
Finished Auntie Mame this morning while home sick as a dog. I laughed a ridiculous amount at this book.
Now I’ll have to watch the movie again. I remember adoring Rosalind Russell in it, though I can see why she’s not the perfect casting. The idea of Lucille Ball starring in “Mame” makes me feel both depressed and stabby.