Just finished a re-read of The Passage and The Twelve in anticipation of the concluding book being published soon, and hoping that HBO or Showtime will give these books the miniseries treatment, way too much going on for a two hour movie.
Diving in to The Bone Clocks with great excitement and anticipation…
I finished reading “The Iron Heel” by Jack London. What an odd book. The first half is like an alternate universe version of “Atlas Shrugged” and then he quickly runs through a bunch of (alternate) historical events and culminates with a gruesomely-described massacre. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, though.
The first book in J.D. Robb’s “In Death” series, Naked in Death is interesting less in the mystery, which was well written but hardly original, but in the author’s issues and politics splashed in bright colors through the whole book. In a world of the not so distant future, guns and tobacco are illegal but prostitution is not only legal but a licensed profession! Eh? What? Funny thing tho, someone was still killing whores…
Also someone PLEASE tell Ms Robb that humans do NOT breathe through their skin! They have lungs for that, you would think in a world of super computers, space flight, flying cars no one could possibly murder someone by PAINTING THEM! Paint will not make you “smother to death”! You breathe through your NOSE not your skin!
I blame Ian Fleming.
Finished 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann. Very interesting.
Next up is 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Mann’s sequel.
As for myself, I’m holding out for 1494: Columbus’s Electric Boogaloo.
In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Five/Columbus sailed the ocean jive…
I think Mann only does odd-numbered years.
How odd…
rimshot
This is what I’m reading now.
In a world of the not so distant future, humans have been replaced with amphibians.
nm
Forgot to mention that I read about 80% of All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By.
Started off with a bang and slowed to a plod. I didn’t like any of the characters. Some specific things irritated me: [spoiler]One character describes the leader of an African tribe by asking, “Have you read She, by H. Rider Haggard? Well, this woman was like Ayesha.” I’m thinking, yeah, that book was good.
Another thing: When Dr. Holley is on a private train under odd circumstances, he meets Early Boy and knows him right away. But it’s not explained to us until quite a bit further on. I’m like, is Early Boy a celebrity or something? What are the odds these people could possibly know each other?
Too much detail, like the love life of the Red Cross woman. Admittedly I didn’t read the whole book, but I bet we never needed to know that and it bored the crap out of me.[/spoiler]sigh Anyway, a greatly acclaimed classic horror novel, but I just didn’t get it.
YAY!
I hope you like it. I think she did a really good job of creating Elizabethan London, from a teenage perspective.
Ribbit, ribbit…
I finished The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport. So sad. The czar was an asshole and the czarina a nasty bitch but their poor girls hardly deserved to be shot. Also thank god we have the damned MMR shot. All four girls got measles and it was terrifying. Tatiana temporarily lost her hearing. Maria had days of 104 fever. Anastasia dealt with pressure in her ears so bad they had to puncture both of her eardrums! Olga had pneumonia. The poor girls were miserable for months. So much unnecessary suffering.
I wonder what would have happened had they been allowed to grow up. Given the obvious possibility that all girls were carriers for hemophilia, would they have been sought after as brides for European royalty? Would the girls have been allowed to marry Russians? The author speculates that the czar would have eventually allowed his daughters to marry high ranking Russians. If Alexei had died young, would the crown have passed to Olga, the eldest Romanov? Would the monarchy have survived had there been no problem with hemophilia? Alexandra’s cousin was Ena, Queen of Spain. She was also a carrier of hemophilia. Her solution was to keep having sons until she had one that was healthy. She and her husband were eventually deposed but her descendant sits on the throne of Spain today. Would a similar experience have happened had Alexandra keep having children? Or was the monarchy doomed once the revolution started? Would the revolution had started in the first place had Nicholas been a better leader?
Questions, questions, questions . . .
I read this review of it just a week or two ago, if you’re interested. The reviewer usually only reviews old books he picks up cheap! Usually sf or crime titles.
Still enjoying The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter…
Just finished Ted Sorensen’s Counselor, about his years working with and for John F. Kennedy (U.S. Senate and White House) and later involvement in liberal causes, as well as his longtime international legal career. Very interesting. Lots of good behind-the-scenes stories about working for JFK, who was, he concedes, not perfect but was nevertheless a great man who accomplished far more in office than cynics now credit him for. The book ended with the author’s cry from the heart for a return to JFK’s ideals of public service, peacemaking, and America as a force for good in the world.
Skimmed Alexander Rose’s Washington’s Spies (inspiration for the AMC series Turn), which was all right, but not good enough to read cover to cover.
Still reading The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs, and enjoying it.
Started Lost Light by Michael Connelly today. So far very good, he’s done a get job of getting the backstory out to the reader without bogging down the book.
I did like King of Shadows, thanks for recommending it! Even though I read the last couple of chapters with tears in my eyes. 