The Coming Superstorm by Art Bell et al (2000)
Quite prescient.
I liked the Fuzzy books by Piper, haven’t read any f the others, though I do have some of them.
I finished The Concubine’s Tattoo by Laura Joh Rowland. It is so hard to rate this, on the one hand it was a beautiful recreation of Edo Period Japan and on the other hand it was a hot mess of tangential storylines, deviant sex, complex backstories…
I remembered half way through why I don’t like Laura Joh Rowland’s book when she went off on a tangent for the third or fourth time. Honestly, I did not need to know all the inner thoughts and childhood of ALL these characters, in truth only Lady Miyagi and Yanagisawa’s childhoods really have bearing on the story, everything else could have been cut and no one would miss them.
Possible spoiler but: WHY on Earth did you create Reiko if you planned to make her a damsel in distress after all. WHY spend all those words on her being an accomplished swordsman, fearless fighter and tough girl if Sano had to rescue her in the end. The only reason I didn’t throw the book at that point was it was a library book…
I’m 2/3 of the way through washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fisher on audio. Very good book on the events leading up to the attack on Trenton, and about the painting as well.
I’m taking a break from Twain’s autobiography to read The Year Without a Summer: 1816 by historian William K. Klingaman and his meteorologist son, Nicholas P. Klingaman. I know the basics, but this is an uncommonly-well-0researched study of the events, which I need to know about for next month.
Finished Andy Weir’s The Martian, really enjoyed it, and now I wanna see the movie again!
Also finished The Battle of New Hope Church by Russell W. Blount Jr., about a portion of Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta campaign. It was meh.
Still enjoying The Churchills in Love and War by Mary S. Lovell, which as I wrote before is more family gossip than political history, but well-written and pretty interesting.
Also making some progress in John Scalzi’s sf novel Fuzzy Nation.
Small world! That’s been on my stack for a few days to take on the road while visiting my in-laws in Vermont over Christmas. I’ve heard good things about it (and it won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for History).
Finished Agent 6, by Tom Rob Smith, the third of his trilogy featuring Soviet secret-police agent Leo Demidov. In this one, Leo must hunt down the mystery man, known only as Agent 6, who turned his life upside down. Starts briefly in 1950, most of the action takes place in 1965 New York, then 1980s Afghanistan and New York again. Good. The weak link in the trilogy would probably be the second installment, The Secret Speech, although that one’s good too.
Next up, I’m finally going to start Stephen King’s Dark Tower series with the first volume: The Gunslinger. The wife got me a set of the first four for my birthday six months ago, but I’ve been taking my time getting to it.
Recently finished Library of Souls, the last book in the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children trilogy. I wasn’t real impressed with it.
Currently reading a book called Adam Carolla, if I recall correctly the title was In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks: And Other Complaints from a Middle-Aged White Man. It – I’m not sure what to say about it. It was given to me as a birthday gift by a friend, so I really want to read it because of that. And it’s not really bad, it’s just that every time I read it, I feel a bit stupider. So it’s one of those books where I have to alternate it with another book to avoid losing too many brain cells.
Finally, I’m reading *Strong: Nine Workout Programs for Women to Burn Fat, Boost Metabolism, and Build Strength for Life *by Lou Schuler. It’s really not the best book to alternate in, as it’s a big of a meathead book. I mean, it’s non-fiction and educational, but not really intellectual. Anyways, I’m reading it now because I really want to finish it by New Year’s because I think I’m going to start following the workouts in it next year. I adore the author, I think this is the fourth book I’ve picked up by him. He’s a fitness writer, which sets him apart from all the athletes and coaches who write books when they really should just stick to sports. His writing is engaging, and easy to follow, and I always learn new things from him.
I started today on Fender Lizards, the new one from Joe R. Lansdale. My library purchased this at my request, and I am right down happy about it.
Any word on when George RR Martin’s next Game of Thrones book will finally come out? I’ve read the series to date – and at the end of the last one is an excerpt from the coming installment – and watched the series to date. Considering how some of the story lines on TV have diverged so much from the books, it may be difficult to remember when reading future books what’s happened in the past in the books and which was the TV version.
I finished both The Year Without a Summer* and Washington’s Crossing.
I finally picked up a copy of Pickthall’s translation of the Koran, but haven’t started reading it (along with the others) yet. I’ve read two of my background books on Islam.
Back to Mark Twain’s Autobiography.
Don’t know about that, but I gave Pepper Mill a copy of the newly-released a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for her birthday. She devoured it. It’s a lot shorter than the other books, partly because it’s full of illustrations.
*I made a series of notes from it last night; I’m going to be discussing it on a panel next month.
I’m on Christmas vacation with lots of time to read. Huzzah!
Just tonight I finished The Churchills in Love and War by Mary S. Lovell, which as I wrote before is more family gossip than political history, but well-written and pretty interesting - a very good read. I hadn’t realized before what a drunken, arrogant, philandering, spendthrift lout Randolph, Winston’s eldest son, was. When he had a portion of his lung removed, his on-again, off-again friend Evelyn Waugh said, “Leave it to modern medical science to remove the one part of Randolph that wasn’t malignant!”
Finished Star Trek Fans and Costume Art by Heather R. Joseph-Witham, a slim volume which wants to be a sociological text but reads more like a long, amateurish magazine article. Not recommended unless the subject passionately interests you.
Also finished John Scalzi’s sf novel Fuzzy Nation, about first contact with an alien race and the ensuing courtroom battle over its sentience. Funny and fast-moving, with some great twists and turns, as a very bad megacorp gets a very satisfying comeuppance. A nice mix of sf novel and legal thriller.
Next up: a re-read of Scalzi’s Zoe’s Tale, a retelling of his novel The Last Colony from the perspective of the hero’s wise-beyond-her-years adopted teenage daughter.
Short answer? Don’t hold your breath: The Winds of Winter - Wikipedia
That’s on my stack; I’ll probably start it this week. Whaddya think of it?
I just finished re-reading Black Ajax by George McDonald Fraser. A freed American slave migrates to London in the early 1800s and sets the boxing world on its ear. One of the supporting characters is Buckley Flashman, the rather disreputable and alcoholic father of Sir General Harry Flashman.
As usual, Fraser teaches us much about things we didn’t know we needed to know and are fascinated to learn. He even includes a glossary of slang, mostly boxing, from London of the early 1800s.
I just finished re-reading Magic In Ithkar 4 byAndre Norton. I am about to start Monk’s Hood by Ellis Peters. I have seen some of the Cadfael television episodes and enjoyed them. In particular, The Sanctuary Sparrow and [A Morbid Taste For Bones](http:// A Morbid Taste for Bones - Wikipedia).
I started #3 – The Escape – a few nights ago.
U.S. Army CID investigator John Puller gets ordered to investigate the unlikely escape of a prisoner from Ft. Leavenworth – and how an unidentified dead body wound up in the prisoner’s cell. The twist? The escapee is John’s brother, a former officer who was convicted of treason and national security crimes.
Book #2 could stand alone, but with Book #3 I think having read the first two in the series would be helpful. John’s relationship with his brother is fleshed out a little in the earlier books, as are some elements of his brother’s character. Not to mention that the reader gets to know John. There’s nothing someone wouldn’t understand if they hadn’t read the first two books, but the background info definitely helps inform the characters and some of John’s decisions.
Finished *Fender Lizards…*short and lite. I enjoyed it though. Looking forward to the next Hap & Leonard book which is out soon.
Started today on Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, about some kids going to an exclusive school in England. I think I know something spoilery about this one, but doubt it’ll bother me.
The books are SO MUCH better. The BBC production made Cadfael rather mean at times, he is an ex soldier so he’s tough but never outright mean. The BBC series also cut out the relationship between Cadael and Hugh, which is a strong central thread of the series.
I’m currently reading Shell Shocked by Howard Kaylan. It’s subtitled ‘My Life with the Turtles, Flo & Eddie, and Frank Zappa, Etc.’ and is full of stories and anecdotes about all sorts of people - throwing up over Hendrix, hating Ray Davies’ production of one of their albums, being a complete arse (and owning up to it in the book), doing huge quantities of drugs with the other rock star ‘elite’… and I’m only half way through! Currently I’ve reached where he’s in the Mothers of Invention and getting stoned with John & Yoko!
It’s a fun read about the excesses of the rock industry from the mid-60s onwards. And the legal hassles!
I finished reading Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit. I thought it was one of his better novels; the characters were memorable, the comic situations were funny, and the serious plot wasn’t inordinately stupid. It was also interesting to read the part that outraged and insulted the U.S. when it first came out; I suppose it’s not very polite to suggest that a country is full of racists, overeaters, violent bullies, patriotic blowhards, exceptionalists and people who like to sit with their feet propped up on the furniture.
Finished The Gunslinger, by Stephen King, the first novel in his Dark Tower series. It was okay, but I’m not seeing the cult appeal. On the other hand, in a new Introduction in my copy King admits the series does not find its voice until the second novel.
And with that in mind, next up is the second in his Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three.
Some things never change, I see.
The Explorers Guild: Volume One: A Passage to Shambhala by Jon Baird and Kevin Costner (yes, that Kevin Costner). It’s the first of apparently 5 volumes about an explorers’ group at the time of World War I searching out the lost parts of the world. The book’s pages are brown, like it’s really an old book, and it’s half text and half graphic novel. The illustrations are by Rick Ross.
Hey! We resemble that remark.