I finished The Secret of the Underground Room by John Bellairs yesterday and in spite of a couple of out-of-the-blue deus ex machina moments it was pretty good. The suspense was gripping and the pacing kept my attention.
Finished Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye: True Stories from the Case Files of Warren Olson, as told to Stephen Leather. Very good. The scenarios all feel quite familiar. It is said that farangs (Westerners) often seem to check their brains in at the airport upon arrival, and indeed that often does seem to be the case. Lots of true stories from Olson’s case files, with names, nationalities and even in-country locations changed. I think being a private eye in Bangkok would be fascinating.
Funny too, but I noted the very first case in the book, “The Case of the Double-Crossed Dutchman,” was used as a chapter in the aforementioned Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon, by Leather. And I mean word for word, start to finish, Olson morphing into Bangkok Bob. I believe Olson and Leather are friends though, and I’m sure Leather had permission.
Next up: The March, by EL Doctorow, about Sherman’s march to the sea in the Civil War.
I just picked this up from your recommendation and I am really enjoying it so far. Thank you.
For me, I just finished The Immortals. I was expecting a fluffier urban fantasy but this book is a bit more than that. I liked it but there is a minor plotline that I felt irrelevant through the book. I still liked it though but am still struggling with how to classify it.
Oh, that makes me happy! You’re welcome!
This has been on my list for awhile. I’ll be interested to know what you think. I confess I’ve read no Doctorow, although my sister is a fan.
I’m already a fourth of the way into it, and it’s good. The only other Doctorow I’ve read is Billy Bathgate, years ago. I remember it being okay. I’d like to read Ragtime, but my library doesn’t have it, and I’m trying not to buy more books, seeing as how I’ll soon need to be getting rid of so many of them.
I just read Terry Pratchett’s The Shepherd’s Crown. I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend some more time with Pratchett’s wonderful characters, and the overall flavor of the book was lovely, but there wasn’t much plot. I really do appreciate Pratchett’s worldview that we’re all the same underneath and we can all get along OK if we just assume that everyone’s doing their best.
Next is either My Brilliant Friend or A God in Ruins. Anyone have a vote?
Try interlibrary loan! I get, read and return a lot of books that way, and save big bucks on the older and out-of-print stuff.
Two recent YA reads, both were very good.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. Despite the clunky title, I liked this book about a teenager who is outed at his high school. It’s really very funny, too.
I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demitrios is a YA romance, set in a tiny, middle-of-nowhere town, between a recent graduate ready to head off to college, and a young Marine returned home after being wounded in Afghanistan.
Started this morning on Tiny Beautiful Things: advice on love and life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed. When I picked it up at the library, the librarian said, “Oh my gosh, I loved this book! I cried the whole way through.” I wasn’t sure that was an auspicious sign, but now I’m thinking someday I’ll see someone else reading this book and say the exact same thing. 
Just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. As with the previous two books, I really, really, enjoyed it. Not only does it have just much humour and inventiveness as the previous two instalments, but the relationships between the older characters (Lupin, Dumbledore, Snape, etc…) is fleshed out a lot more, we’re introduced to the brilliantly spooky Dementors, and the whole thing is wrapped up with a neat little time travel paradox that wouldn’t be out of place among the best episodes of Doctor Who! Five stars!
Having gone through the first three books in about ten days, I’m going to take a break from Harry Potter for a week or two. I’m about half-way through Revival by Stephen King, and about a quarter of the way through Huckleberry Finn and so far I’m enjoying them both, Huck especially.
I am delighted you are enjoying this so much! They are wonderful books. I know with all the Potter-mania, it seems like hype must be unjustified, but they would be solid youth fantasy choices even if they had never become a whole cultural mania.
I’m afraid that doesn’t work over here. We belong to the private Nielson Hays Library. We pay about US$70 a year for membership, and they don’t do any type of interlibrary loan. But I should be in Hawaii in just a few months.
Just one more reason to love the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
Just finished ‘Revival’ by Stephen King. I’ve always been a King fan, and I’ve read nearly everything he’s written, but Revival is definitely one of his best. For me, it’s up there with classics like The Shining, It, and the Dead Zone. In my opinion, it’s the best book he’s written in nearly 20 years. Not to say the others were bad, of course, but Revival is something quite special. I don’t want to say anything about the plot in case I accidentally spoil any of it (and this is one of those books where you don’t want to run the risk of spoiling anything). I’ll just say it’s a beautifully characterised, frequently shocking[sup]*[/sup] 370 page long exercise in creeping suspense which is both flawlessly executed and has, in my opinion, a Lovecraftian ending far more disturbing and effective than anything Lovecraft himself ever managed to come up with. Five stars.
[sub]*So to speak ;)[/sub]
Continuing my Edgar Rice Burroughs streak with Beyond Thirty/The Lost Continent, which I’ve never read before.
Re-reading Clive Cussler’s The Blue Medusa on audio, having re-read Rocketship Galileo and The Gold Bug (read by Vincent Price!) already.
Philippa Gregory The Red Queen but I think I should’ve read The White Queen first.
I just finished a really good post-apocalyptic book: The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller. It’s about a guy who survived the flu that killed off almost everybody else nine years ago, and now he’s camped out at a small airport in Colorado, uneasily teamed up with a trigger-happy survivalist type who seems disturbingly comfortable with the end of world. This isn’t a happy book, obviously, but while it’s not as cosy as that strangely cheerful post-apocalyptic novel Station Eleven, it isn’t so terribly bleak, either.
I’m in the middle of Rehnquist’s history of the Supreme Court, the updated edition. It’s pretty interesting to view American history from the Court’s perspective.
I recently read Ross Poldark, by Winston Graham, the first of the long Poldark saga. I liked it pretty well, well enough to pick up the second book. I’ve heard mixed reviews of the mini-series, and some doubt that the new one is better than the 1970’s version.
I read Lois McMaster Bujold’s new Vorkosigan book,* Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen*. I didn’t exactly dislike it, but it’s my new least favorite Vorkosigan novel. When I saw the first rumor about this one, I thought it was a hoax. Then I wondered if Bujold could pull it off. I’m not sure she did.
I finally got around to Chris Hadfield’s book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, which is just as cheery as you’d expect from Hadfield. It has some nice details about his career and his three space missions. He has some interesting commentary on how astronauts, who are “without exception, extremely competitive” adapt to working as a team rather than pushing their way into a leadership role.
I also highly recommend Jeffrey Toobin’s The Nine, a great behind-the-scenes history of the Court since the late Clinton years.
I finished Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters, which is a straight forward mystery in spite of the salacious title. The protagonist is supposed to be headstrong and brassy but in truth is really obnoxious and self-satisfied and Peters commits the one sin I LOATHE above all in the mystery genre: the sleuth has information that the reader is not given until the climax. Bad writer!