I’ve been on a Stephen King kick lately; I’m mid “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” right now, after reading “Duma Key” and “Gerald’s Game,” and “Just After Sunset.” I do love a Stephen King short story.
That’s what I posted after I finished it. It would be better if all the flashback stuff was at the beginning and about 2/3 of the history was cut out.
I thought Locke Lamora was overly long, though the parallels between the past an present were often enjoyable, as was the New Crobuzon Lite setting. I got tired of all of the characters after awhile, though. If the next books are picaresque rather than having character development, I’ll pass.
Finished Conjure Wife today. In a word, blech. In this book, all the women in the world are witches. But for the most part they have nothing better to do with their powers than help their husbands get promotions, and the husband telling the story is a sexist douche. I know it was written in 1943, but ugh.
Next up, Small Gods by Terry Pratchett.
Small Gods, for me, is one of the slower Discworld books. It’s one of the few I hve no interest in rereading. That’s not to sy it ws bad, but it just didn’t hook me. Now your experience could be WILDLY opposite! 
Really enjoying Robertson Dean’s narration of I Am Legend and Other Stories - it was especially creepy listening the other morning while watching the lunar eclipse! I’d recently seen the 1964 film version (The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price) and while not 100% accurate to the book, is very true to the overall feel/tone.
Recently finished Mary Renault’s The King Must Die - a retelling of the early life of Theseus. I didn’t know nearly as much about this mytho/historical figure as I’d thought and really enjoyed her portrayal of a conflicted youth in search of his father and his place in the world. The section set in Crete with the bull dancing was very compelling.
I’d previously read and enjoyed her The Persian Boy and will probably eventually work my way thru her other Greek/Middle Eastern historical fiction, as she truly brings these characters to life.
Picaresque is a good word to describe it. There is no character development at all.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked the historical parallels and the world-building that Lynch did, but by the end all the little flashback digressions were interrupting the action. It’s like the final battles in an action movie being interrupted by a history lesson just when things are getting good.
I love this book, and have a great 1960s paperback edition that is obviously trying to market it in a very salacious way.
I’m currently reading An Experiment in Love, by Hilary Mantel. Though it sounds like one, it’s not a romance novel - it’s more an investigation of a life, looking at the missed possibilities, etc, etc. Mantel is an absolutely incredible writer - seriously, the woman could make watching paint dry a beautiful and poignant experience. It’s one of those books where after every sentence you read, you keep thinking “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean!”
Is it this one?
I don’t usually pay attention to book covers unless I’m getting a series and then I want all the books to be the same edition so they all match. I’m having a hard time finding the last two books in Evangeline Walton’s Maginogion tetralogy because I’m specifically looking for the hideous 1970scovers.
It’s not that one, but very much from the same era.
The cover text on mine says:
*Brave, aggressive, tough, proud, and highly sexed, Theseus faces danger after danger and overcomes them all.
His adventures will take you into a world of primitive orgies, sparkling jewels and gleaming bodies – and with Theseus you will live through the hot fights and swift passionate loves of pagan times.*
Well all right then…
I’m rereading Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom books in anticipation of the newest release next week - Clariel - The Lost Abhorsen. It’s been interesting re-reading, book 1 wasn’t as good as I remembered; I feel like the author gets caught up in processes and forgets about his characters for chapters at a time. But I am much happier with the characterization in book 2. Lirael and Sam are great, beautifully drawn, and flawed in all the right ways.
I heard this review on the radio the other day. Has anyone read “Florence Gordon” by Brian Morton? I’ve not read the author’s works before, I wonder if they’re for me…
Small Gods was my first Terry Pratchett book. It was love at first chapter.
Just about to start Jo Nesbo’s third Harry Hole book, The Redbreast. I’m hoping for a steep improvement on the first two.
I’m on page seventy-something and inclined to agree with you that it’s slow.
I’ve always heard good things about it, so I expect I will find some…
I finished Glory in Death by JD Robb, it was quite interesting in spite of me working out the killer (without cheating) some 100 pages or so ahead of Eve.
My main critique is Ms Robb really wants to write a cozy and gritty series. The murders and the characters are straight out of the classics, like Rex Stout and Raymond Chandler and then she throws in some fluffy as if apologizing for daring to write a hard boiled mystery. I’m certain that at NO time in the future will the Bar Association ever allow a woman being questioned in a murder case be represented by legal council in the form of her daughter. Holy conflict of interest, Batman!
I’m reading The Oxford Illustrated Minor Works of Jane Austen, which is the juvenilia, letters, Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon. I’m beginning to suspect I have a little problem. 
This might be of interest, koeeoaddi: "Jane Austen and the Navy" - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
I’m on the home stretch of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. He’s visited Israel and celebrated Passover. Good stuff.
This afternoon I finished Death of a King by Tavis Smiley and David Ritz, about MLK’s last year of life. I learned a lot about how difficult that time was for him (especially as many allies turned away from him for his opposition to the Vietnam War, and he was seen as irrelevant by Black Power activists), but the book itself wasn’t all that well written and had a very flat tone.
But enough about Thailand. I finished 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles C. Mann. An excellent sequel to his 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Both books are very good, but I probably liked 1493 a little better. Couldn’t really say why. It’s not necessary to have read the first book to read the second one.
Next up is Silas Marner, by George Eliot.