My apologies for not posting in here for a long, long time.
I’m currently reading Naomi Mitchison’s The Corn King and the Spring Queen. It is really fantastic historical fiction. It starts in Scythian (or near-scythian) lands and covers early Greece as well. I know I will be sad to finish it.
I think you’re right - it’s parked on the street in the alternative future in which the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant melted down, Maine has been annexed by Canada and Hillary is President (no cause-and-effect there, I’m sure!).
I’ve got several books on the go; about half way through So Anyway, John Cleese’s autobiography (which is also quite good for the chapter I’m currently writing) and Stephen King, March ou Creuve. I’ve also been dipping into the Modern Toss ten-year anniversary annotated collection. I’ve got the Classics Magpie but find it a little patronising in places, interesting premise otherwise.
I’m still reading The Magician’s Land, book three in Lev Grossman’s trilogy, but this seems like an appropriate thread to mention that I got one of the new Kindles – a Voyage – for Christmas.
(I already had a Paperwhite, but I’m a gadget junkie and I love upgrades!)
So far it’s worth it just for the smaller size and lighter weight alone. The page turn buttons are also great, but the way I hold the Kindle when I’m reading in bed (while lying on one side) requires me to lift one of my hands no matter what. The buttons are definitely more convenient than having to tap the center of the screen, though. And I could see requiring no hand-lift at all in other reading situations. They tout improved screen resolution, but frankly I don’t see a difference. And the auto-adjusting backlight isn’t a feature I’m interested in, so that doesn’t add value for me.
All in all, I’m very happy with this new Kindle. 
Finished The Client, by John Grisham. An 11-year-old sneaking a smoke out in the woods near Memphis witnesses the suicide of a Mafia lawyer. But before the lawyer does the deed, he tells the kid crucial information the FBI would dearly love to know, and now the Fibbbies and the mob are both after him. Very good. One of his early works.
Next up is one more Grisham: Bleachers. It’s short, and when I finish that I plan to tackle The Stand, by Stephen King.
We’ll soon be upcountry for a while, so here’s wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
I finished Matthew Gregory Lewis’ The Monk. It is absolute trash. Absolutely *wonderful *trash. The abbot of the Capuchin monastery is tempted into sin by a young lady who has disguised herself as a monk. He goes wild with lust and abducts a virtuous young lady after murdering her mother. Meanwhile a nun at the nearby Convent of St. Clare is discovered to have betrayed her vows with a young nobleman. When she disappears her brother and lover tear the city apart trying to find her. There’s lots of breast-beating, hair-pulling, and speechifying as well as scandalous lust and anticlericalism. It also features such excellent passages such as:
“Let me return to the house, which I have quitted I know not how, but stay here one moment longer, I neither will nor ought!”
and
Warmth of passion and natural penetration, of which latter, unfortunately for both him and Antonia, he possessed an ample share, supplied a knowledge of the arts of seduction.
:eek:
I told you it was freaking awesome! FYI: According to a book I read about the beginnings of porn, this was the first (or one of the first) pornographic book published.
(I’d check my source again but that was one of the most boring books I’ve ever read)
Try Fanny Hill next, if you like old-fashioned porn. The oldies really are the goodies 
I am reading Techniques of the Selling Writer by by Dwight V. Swain, which is a heckuva book for a book-reader to read. Explains the exact setups that readers expect, the way to keep them on the hook, the way to keep them reading. Lots of psychology going on here… I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone, whether they write or not.
Just finished The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and enjoyed it tremendously. I’d agree with the earlier comment that it’s scope is not as epic as Cloud Atlas but I still find Mitchell’s literary vision breathtaking. The connections drawn to his other works are always delightful Easter eggs to uncover, especially the foundation of Prescience in the final chapter. I badly want Holly to end up as an Atemporal, and the final sentence buoyed my hopes for that outcome, though it could read the other way just as easily.
Downloading Hugh Howey’s Silo series to Kindle for my flight back from vacation tonight.
I vaguely remember reading The Monk in a college class. Pretty racy, for its day. There was another book from around that era, I think, called The Mentor or maybe The Pupil, about an older man teaching a young aristocratic woman about sex; haven’t been able to find it since then. Might be too obscure. Anyone know of it?
I’ve started John Scalzi’s Redshirts (a Christmas gift) and am enjoying it. Perfect for any irreverent Trekker.
Over the weekend, I tried to read Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal, but it was weak. It makes me sad to see all the gushing reviews comparing it to The Help. This one felt like it was dumbed down for people who don’t read very much. (If you read and liked it, I’m sorry and don’t mean to insult you, but that was my honest opinion).
Currently reading [http://www.amazon.com/Silence-Dead-Simone-St-James/dp/0451419480/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419860473&sr=1-1&keywords=silence+for+the+dead+simone+st.+james]Silence](http://[URL=“http://[URL”) for the Dead by Simone St. James and enjoying the heck out of it. If it finishes as well as it’s begun, I’ll definitely read more by this author.
January’s thread is up, make yourself at home!
January Whacha Reading Thread
I just finished A Princess of Mars, the first installment of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series. I enjoyed it, but am not in any hurry to read the other 10 books.
I just resumed Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, which I’d abandoned a few months ago.
It’s still December, so I thought I’d post here.
I just finished reading The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter and Endgame in the Balkans by Elizabeth Pond. Currently, I’m reading A Pictorial History of the World War II Years by Edward Jablonski and The House that Ruth Built by Robert Weintraub.