Finished: A Point of Law by John Maddox Roberts. Roberts is definitely tiring of Decius, this book was completely phoned in. Interesting if you are interested in Ancient Roman law and how it differs from any law since then, but so lacking in action that the characters literally sit around and talk out the plot.
Curently Reading: (because I have the attention span of a grasshopper)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgarov. Satire and farcical, I’m not sure what the point is yet, but I have a ways to go yet… if those darned Russian names don’t strain a brain muscle
Beggars, Cheats and Forgers by David Thomas. Picked it up today in Barnes & Noble. I went IN to use the potty and those scurrilous blackguards threw tables and tables of marked down books in my path! I barely got out with my life much less my wallet.
Just finished two books, The Opium War by Julia Lovell and Ring of Fire IV edited by Eric Flint.
The Opium War is something I’ve been plodding through for months, not because it isn’t a good book, but it is …dense…and I haven’t had the time to devote to it that it deserves. Excellent on the lead-up and causes and the details of the First Opium War, less so on the Second War and I am not sure I agree with all the conclusions she draws for 20th century and current history, but I still recommend it if you want deeper knowledge of this particular event.
Ring of Fire IV is a collection of stories set it Flint’s “1632” universe, where a small W. Virginia town is transported back to 1630’s Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. What happens next has filled about eighteen novels and dozens of short stories, and these are the ones that Flint has chosen to add to the “canon” line. With a huge amount of the writing dealing with 1635-1636, it can get confusing, but most of the stories are well-written and enjoyable if you’re into this type of fiction.
Just started “The Fireman” by Joe Hill, which was released today. Sort of post-apocalyptic (disease spreads that causes people to spontaneously combust). Only a few chapters in, but really enjoying it so far. I’ve greatly enjoyed every Joe Hill book I’ve read (Horns, NOS4A2, and one I can’t remember the title of – something like Heart-Shaped Box).
I have a few thank you’s to dole out. In this thread, DZedNConfused, **amarinth **, and **Finagle **suggested I read Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys, even though I was immensely disappointed with American Gods. And indeed, Anansi Boys is everything I was hoping American Gods would be. I’m 100 pages in and thoroughly enjoying it.
I’m also currently reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. I think the author comes to some premature conclusions, but overall, i find the book interesting and highly readable, and I would recommend it.
I finished - but only because I had to, for a book club - Michael McGerr’s A Fierce Discontent, a history of the Progressive movement in the U.S. McGerr has a very dry style and tries to make up for it, it seems, by finding synonyms for “said” (people in the book “insisted,” “declared,” “argued,” etc., but never just “said”). He also made two factual errors that I noticed, which makes me suspect there were others. Unless the subject passionately interests you, I’d say give this one a miss.
I also just wrapped up Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins, who’s continuing Robert Parker’s Spenser detective series. It was pretty good, but the ending left a lot to be desired - a key character does something totally implausible, which left a bad taste in my mouth.
Having now seen all eight parts of 11.22.63 on Hulu, I’m re-reading some favorite bits of the Stephen King novel on which it’s based. Some significant differences between them; I think I prefer the book.
I’ve also resumed Randall Munroe’s What If?, a collection of XKCD columns, which is good farfetched-science fun.
Earlier this month I finished David Baldacci’s The Last Mile, book #2 in the Amos Decker series. I enjoyed the first Decker book so much that I pre-ordered this one, and I wasn’t disappointed. Interesting plot about a guy on death row who is literally moments from execution when someone confesses to the crime he was convicted for, plus I really like the Amos Decker character.
I’m currently ~35% of the way into Marcia Clark’s Blood Defense. I’ve never read anything by Clark before, but it was one of last month’s Kindle First options and I tend to enjoy legal thrillers so I figured I’d give it a try. So far it’s ok, but I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll keep reading it tonight or start The Fireman – which, as iiandyiiii mentioned, was released today (and which I also pre-ordered).
I’ve loved every Hill book so far, too (and yes, it was Heart-Shaped Box). The more I think about it, the more I think Marcia Clark is going to lose this one. And the next book I’ve pre-ordered is expected to be released on 6/7 (End of Watch), followed by another just seven days later (Stiletto), so Ms. Clark might stay on the shelf for a while.
Forgot to mention, I’ve also begun an audiobook of Thurston Clarke’s JFK’s Last Hundred Days. It feels a little padded, but is interesting overall. Clarke argues that Kennedy had grown markedly, as a man and as a leader, in the last year of his life. This was due to his grief over his short-lived infant son Patrick, while also succeeding in the Cuban Missile Crisis, taking a brave stand on civil rights, and winning ratification of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty despite strong opposition in Congress.
I finished reading Barry Lyndon by William Thackeray. I thought it was going to be about a picaresque rogue like Tom Jones or Peregrine Pickle, and it started out that way. However, once he gets into torturing Lady Lyndon (with stalking, blackmail, beatings, emotional manipulation, threats on her children, etc.) it got a lot less funny; he turned out to be an evil, destructive, manipulative glutton. I still thought it was an interesting, well-written book, however.
On a side note, I first read Vanity Fair and then – for no particular reason – I proceeded to read Thackeray’s other books in reverse order from when he wrote them. I wouldn’t recommend that.
Finally finished David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks. It was really dense, and at times it bogged down a bit. But overall, I was deeply engaged with it. Not flawless, but still five stars at Goodreads. I wouldn’t mind if all books swallowed me up like that! (Glad I read Slade House first though).
I have a tee-tiny bit of reading time left this week before I pick up The Fireman at the library, and go on a short trip during which I will get no reading done :mad:, so I’m burning it off with We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory. It’s about a group of people in therapy, chosen because they survived some sort of supernatural horrors. It was the shortest thing in the TBR pile.
If you like the Daryl Gregory, his recent YA novel, Harrison Squared, is about the childhood of one of the participants in the therapy sessions in We Are All Completely Fine.
Currently enjoying reading Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard by Lawrence M Schoen. It’s set in a galaxy entirely populated by different Uplifted and ‘humanised’ animal species and the elephant-men have the short end of the stick. It was a Nebula contender this year but lost out to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted.
Also starting to re-read Branch Point (1996) by Mona Clee. It’s a time travel novel initially set in 2062 as three Bunker-born people who have never been outside before go back 100 years in time to try to prevent the catastrophic nuclear war that the Cuban Missile Crisis became…
She only wrote two novels, I think, but I wish she had written more.
Finished Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King. Very good. It stands on its own, but I’m very glad to have read King’s Dark Tower series first, as the first entry, “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” makes a bit more sense that way. That one features Ted Brautigan, a character in the seventh and final volume of the series. In that volume, Ted makes a passing reference to the events in this story and says that’s a tale to tell another day. Well, this is another day and this the tale. But it’s not completely necessary to have read the Dark Tower series to enjoy it.
Next up is Perfidia, by James Ellroy. A Japanese-American family in Los Angeles is brutally murdered amid America’s entry into World War II.
My 22 year old opinion of The Master and Margarita was right, the book IS a slog and dreadfully boring. I will finish it because I’m stubborn but yeah, it’s not working for me.
I’m reading The Finches’ Fabulous Furnace, by Roger Wolcott Drury. My husband loved it as a kid, but couldn’t remember the title, only that the “furnace” was a volcano in the basement. One day in a used book store, I found it.
Slowly reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. It’s basically an autobiography about her, growing up in an insane family, and her own mental illness. It’s funny to the degree that it’s unsafe to read in public. My wife got me a signed copy of her second book, Furiously Happy, for Christmas. I decided to jump back and read the first one before I started that one.
I finished Dark Money, which was every bit as depressing as I had feared. Back now to continuing with Sea of Glory, by Philbrick, which is light reading by comparison.
