Picked up at the library Mary S. Lovell’s The Churchills: In Love and War, a very readable, gossipy account of Winston Churchill’s noble family from its earliest days. It’s pretty good, although it jumps too soon from the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough in the 1600s to Winston’s own parents’ courtship in the 1870s.
I finished reading Jane Eyre (which always reminds me of the SCTV sketch Jane Eyrehead). The writing was better than I hoped but the story was a bit sillier than I thought.
I always have to skip that glurgey bit about the noble schoolmate who dies, I just get the giggles reading it.
That part I didn’t mind, but hearing about Jane and Rochester’s “radar love” made me roll my eyes a bit.
Finished the Cabell, on to Poul Anderson’s The High Crusade, which I’ve somehow missed reading all these years.
Yeah, I always find out exactly how far I can roll my eyes back in my head at the long-distance call scene. Although it is nice to see her drop St. John like a sack of rocks immediately after. Pompous ass.
Finished this one this past weekend. Weird, hilarious, and absolutely unnecessary. Very much the same plot as Dirty Job, same cast of characters (not a bad thing), but it lacked the emotional punch of the first one caused by the death of Charlie’s wife, and the final confrontation with the forces of darkness seemed like it was written almost as an after-thought – as if Moore woke up one day and thought “Whoops, ran out of dick jokes. Time to end this one.” Biggest complaint: The second book raises a bunch of new questions but doesn’t answer any of the questions lingering from the first book. e.g.
The bad guy was essentially defeated by the “Irish” hell hounds. But we don’t know, and never find out, why the hell hounds were absent for most of the book. Why did Sophie’s powers go away? Or did they? Why did LF need Sophie at the end to work his mojo? Who or what was behind the whole Death Merchant business in the first place?
Yeah – I’m practically at the end now, and have been wondering the same things.
I have to admit, as well, that the Stories of the Ghosts Trapped in the Bridge add nothing to the plot, slow the book down, and feel like “filler” – as if Moore was coming up short in his word count and needed to add something to reach his minimum. Not that they aren’t interesting, Moore-an stories, but they seem totally dissociated from the rest of the book.
I’m sorry to hear this. A Dirty Job is in my top ten favorite novels. I will probably wait for the paperback release in that case.
I finished Vicious Circle by Mike Carey… and I think I am finished with the series on the whole. The first book was charming and enjoyable, this one was just depressing.Tto me it felt like a carbon copy of a Harry Dresden novel, right down to the limp punching bag hero who saves the day but loses everything.
Finally finished Salman Rushdie’s 1991 essay collection Imaginary Homelands, which was a bit of a slog at times but generally witty, erudite and interesting. The last chapter is about radical Islam and freedom of speech, and still quite timely.
I also picked up and zipped through Andrew Knapp’s Find Momo Coast to Coast, a charming photo book of a man driving across the U.S. and Canada in a VW microbus with his border collie. The dog hides - sometimes quite skillfully - in every shot of offbeat roadside attractions as well as better-known tourist spots. Anyone who likes dogs or “Where’s Wallace?” will savor this book.
Today I finished The Shepherd’s Crown, by Terry Pratchett. It was just okay. There’s an endnote that kind of explains Sir Terry’s writing process, and this book understandably wasn’t able to receive the full benefit of that. Too bad, because there were some things I’d have really liked to see fleshed out.
Next up (provided I can get to the library today), The Hollow Boy, third Lockwood & Company book by Jonathan Stroud. Nice cover!
I have Holllow Boy waiting for me at the library as well! The Shepard’s Crown is in my bag waiting patiently, because I started Dragons at Crumbling Castle instead today. Terry Pratchett’s early stories with some tweaking, they are for very young children but I still enjoy his humor, no matter the age.
I’ve started on** The Year of Living Biblically** based on all the glowing Whatcha Reading recs.
So far I have learned that there is a hip-hop version of the Bible. :dubious:
Finished The Cold Six Thousand, by James Ellroy. The title refers to the $6000 paid to Las Vegas Police Sergeant Wayne Tedrow Jr. by the Mafia to kill a man who had been causing trouble in a casino. Tedrow tracks him to Dallas and arrives on the day of the Kennedy assassination. He gets caught up in the assassination cover-up for the next five years. In the book, JFK’s killing was purely a Mob hit, with assistance by the Dallas Police Department – Officer JD Tippet, who in real life was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, in the book had been tasked with killing Oswald after the event, but that went horribly wrong. A couple of rogue CIA and FBI elements were involved, but the agencies themselves were not part of the conspiracy, although J Edgar Hoover had guessed correctly that it was coming and decided it was in the best interest of America to move on and just let Oswald take the blame. (None of this is a spoiler, as it all happens in the opening pages.)
It was okay. I did not realize it was the second of a planned trilogy, being a sequel to Ellroy’s American Tabloid, unread by me and which featured many of the same characters. I don’t think you need to have read the first one, this one stands on its own. It was okay but had this hard-boiled noir style that might grow old if I had to read it all the time. I don’t mean a cool noir style like Chandler or Hammett – this one’s unique.
Next up: The Martian, by Andy Weir.
That should have been JD Tippit.
Including by me. Loved that book!
Stephen King later made passing reference to one of them in 11/22/63, in a nice tip o’ the hat to Ellroy.
I read 11/22/63 not too long ago but don’t recall the reference.
Dwight Holly is the “rogue FBI agent” who kills MLK in the alternate history that unfolds after JFK survives Oswald’s assassination attempt in Dallas.
I’m reading Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny by Holly Madison. I never watched Girls Next Door or read Playboy, so I wasn’t real familiar with the author, but it looked like a fun read. Not only is it fun, but I was surprised at how well-written it was until I learned that the author used a ghostwriter to help her write the book. It’s nothing intellectual, but if you’re in the mood for reality TV in book form I’d certainly recommend it. Only problem is, the book is 352 pages, and 352 pages straight of fluff is too much for me.
So, to satisfy my craving for something more intellectual, I picked up The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. I’m only about thirty pages in, so I can’t offer much of an opinion yet. The premise is that a young girl suffered from seizures, but her parents and the hospital had very different opinions as to the cause of her seizures and how to treat it effectively, given the vast differences between Hmong culture and American culture. I’ve wanted to read this book for a while, but have always been hesitant to, because my mother died from cancer without ever receiving any medical help, because she was part of a religion that didn’t use medicine. The subject of the book sounded disturbingly close to the events I experienced, so I hope I don’t get too worked up about my own experience to effectively learn about this little girl’s experience.