Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread - October 2014 Edition

Cafe Society
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I’m currently reading The Piano Tuner by David Mason. I’ve started it a couple of times before (I got it 10+ years ago when it came out in paperback) but never read beyond the first 50 pages. But this time around I’m rally enjoying it and I’ll be finished soon!
It’s set in 1886 as the British Empire pushes deeper into Burma and is about a London piano tuner who goes to a remote fort upcountry to tune an influential army doctor’s grand piano!

Next up may well be Jonathan Carroll’s new novel, Bathing the Lion, which should turn up later today! :slight_smile:

82

Got a couple of quickie reads in over the weekend:

Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth: And Other Pop Culture Correspondences by John Moe. Spotted this on the New Books shelf at the local library & it looked to be right up my alley. As advertised, it’s a look at the lives of pop culture characters based on various types of correspondence - ranging from Yelp reviews of Cheers and the Bates Motel, a US Marshall memo on the “Wanted: Dead or Alive” status of Jon BonJovi and a list of Jay-Z’s 99 problems.

I had several laugh-out loud moments (NASA’s termination letter to Elton John), but they felt a bit front-loaded. There were a couple of items I didn’t quite get, due to not being familiar with the source material, but that’s going to happen with any collection like this. Overall - there’s a lot of clever moments (and an occasional bit of pathos) - and I’ve added it to my Christmas wish list.
On a totally different note, I was rather creeped out by The Bird Eater by Ania Ahlborn. I chose this as my March 2014 Kindle First selection, but hadn’t gotten around to reading it til now. Seemed appropriate for the Halloween season :slight_smile:
We follow Aaron Holbrook - now in his late 30’s - as he returns to his rural Arkansas hometown. He’d been taken from it when his nearest relative/substitute mother Edie, died in what appeared to be a household accident. Aaron is damaged goods himself, trying to recover from the loss of his 7-year old son (also in an accident) and the subsequent distancing of his wife. Aaron discovers that his childhood home - suddenly abandoned - has become the local “haunted house” … for what we learn is a very good reason.

I’m not a big horror reader (other than Stephen King) - and there were a couple of pretty gruesome moments in this novel that I could have done without, despite their serving the story. Ahlborn keeps the suspense going fairly well as we learn the past history of the house. Needless to say, things do not go well for Aaron or the friends he reunites with, despite their best attempts to save him. It seems a bit odd to say I enjoyed this kind of book - but it was worth the read.
If this sounds like your thing, it’s currently going for $1.99 on Amazon Kindle (and probably Nook/iBooks/etc.)

83

Finished Halloween Tree this morning. As a story, it didn’t work so well for me, but I can enjoy Bradbury’s writing just for the mood. He is always a pleasure.

Starting today on Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, a flufftastic horror novel set in a furniture store.

Politzania, those both look interesting!

84

I, too, finished The Halloween Tree today. I feel it needed a few more pages to flesh it out (apparently from what i heard he had planned a full story but the publisher made him cut it up and “kidify” it).

I found that as a weary adult I enjoyed it much better than I did as a teen or twenny. I can feel the motivations of the boys more now. And as always, I do enjoy the mood of the tale.

85

Yep, I thought that was the point! :slight_smile: I work with a lot of privileged young people, and I recognize a lot of the same characteristics, like the tendency to make stupid assumptions, and poor decision-making skills.

Unfortunately, I didn’t much like Clariel - it suffered from a similarly unlikable main character, without the relief of other protagonists. I also found it surprisingly difficult to place in the timeline of the Old Kingdom world. The author’s end note says there’s another book in the works, set just after the events of the third book. I guess I’ll read it. I might even reread this one someday, if only to see if I like it any better the second time round…

86

Started The Poet by Michael Connelly. I can tell it’s an early work, the style is rather clunky and word laden. I can see it is not going to be a quick read.

87

Lee Child’s .** Personal** just got it from the library.

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Me too, eenerms; I’m about half way and enjoying it a lot.

89

To borrow a concept from the world of professional wrestling, Sam didn’t get the right kind of “heat”–it wasn’t the “i kinda identify with this guy but wish he’d stop being an idiout” kind of heat, or even the “love to hate” kind of heat. It was the “get the hell off my pages and out of my book” kind of heat. I really do skip his chapters when I return to the books.

That’s disappointing. Characters seem to be Nix’s strength, which can be a bit of a weakness as well, when he decides to draw a less than likeable character.

Meanwhile, I’m fairly well into The Last Ringbearer, and enjoying it. Yeah, it’s obviously a fan work, and a fan translation of a fan work. It’s a bit clunky at times, but the ideas are more than interesting enough to make up for it–especially when you’re dealing with an author as well-read and intelligent as this (and a translator who has helpfully included an appendix to cite all of the quotations and allusions).

Also today, my copy of McIlvanney on Football arrived, looking delightfully English from its cover (which somehow recalls Monty Python) to its pounds sterling price tag. It’s on the bookshelf for now, but it’s very much queued up for next. Shame it won’t have any satisfying Man City tales of victory to make up for our [del]loss[/del] tie in the Champions League tonight.

90

Finished it…easy read.

91

A week or so ago I finished The Silkworm, the second Cormoran Strike novel from Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling). I’m ready for the next one. :slight_smile:

Instead of proceeding with a Ray Bradbury novel, as I thought I would, I decided to finally start Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes. I’m currently somewhere around 30-40% into it. I’m a King fan, but hadn’t read anything by him in a while: I’d forgotten how much I enjoy his style. So far, though, this seems to be a straight-up thriller…no “horror” yet.

92

Misnomer, may I also recommend King’s relatively recent 11/22/63? A nonsupernatural time-travel thriller - a Maine teacher from 2011 tries to prevent JFK’s assassination. Good stuff.

I’m down to the last 40 pages of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. Very funny, and oddly touching in places. Still digging it.

93

Finished *Horrorstör *and quite liked it! There were some gory parts, which isn’t really my thing, but somehow here it didn’t bother me. It had the tone of an 80’s slasher flick like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th. I’ll keep an eye on this author.

Next up, The Bees by Laline Paull, which I’m hoping is sort of like Watership Down but with bees. :slight_smile:

94

I just finished Roz Chast’s graphic novel about taking care of her aging parents, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant. The first half had me falling out of my chair laughing and the second, curled into a ball sobbing. Probably the most memorable book of the year.

95

It’s been on my list for a while. I also still have to read Doctor Sleep, and I’m planning to rent A Good Marriage sometime. And I just added the upcoming Revival to my wish list. :slight_smile:

96

So, I put down The Bone Clocks for the time being. It hasn’t’ grabbed me yet, and I have other books to read. I’m sure I will pick it up again, but right now I have just finished Jack Glass by Adam Roberts. Three mysteries set in space, where you know the killer is, but that just makes these mysteries all the better. Plus the world building is excellent, and his mixing of “Golden age science fiction with golden age mystery” is really cool!

Up next, Without You There Is No Us , by Suki Kim. It recounts her time as a visiting instructor at a private academy in North Korea, catering to the sons of the Elite.

Also, The Dick Gibson Show. Purchased on the recommendation of Harry Shearer. Don’t know much about this yet.

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FYI, “A Good Marriage” was previously published in the collection “Full Dark No Stars.”

It is possibly my favorite Stephen King novella ever, but I would still be disappointed if I had purchased it not realizing I had read it before.

98

Actually, as far as I know it’s only been published in Full Dark No Stars: I’m talking about the movie version with Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia. :slight_smile: It was released earlier this month, and is available for rent on iTunes.

99

…started reading books on my phone. Finished Germania by Tacitus and am now reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Gutenberg.org is a good source for some classic reads.

100

I’m doing a re-read of the Little House series, so far Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and Farmer Boy remain top-notch.

I read Ruin and Rising, the last of a trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. YA fantasy/romance series, I liked this a lot because the setting is medieval Russia. Well, not Russia in the books, but like a Russia with magic, so it’s pretty awesome. The romance angle is a little overwrought, but eh, it’s YA. The first book was a little bland, and I picked up the second book in a lukewarm way, and was surprised. It’s one of those series that takes a bit to pick up steam.

Because I saw it mentioned in last month’s thread, I picked up* Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception* by Claudia Hammond, which was pretty good but I agree with the assessment that it’s a little culturally biased in a way that the author doesn’t seem aware of. Also, the entire book was framed around this premise that when one goes on vacation, the time passes quickly (I agree) but when you return home, it seems like you were gone for a long time (what? I never feel like this.) But it had a lot of interesting parts despite this.

I read John Waters’s Carsick, which was okay but I didn’t realize that half of it was fictional short stories, and I’m not a huge fan of his fiction, so I skimmed, okay, I skipped, most of that. I’m much more interested in his personal observations (coupled with his endearingly crabby personality) so I liked the memoir section much more.

And finally, a book of short stories by Rivka Galchen, American Innovations. This was one of those books that I immediately forgot all the details of as soon as I was finished. It’s been getting good reviews, there’s not really anything wrong with it, but apparently it didn’t grab me at all.