It seems a lot of Moore fans hated Sacre Bleu. I found it utterly hysterical.
The interplay between Lucien and Toulouse-Latrec was some of the best I’ve ever read. I adored that naughty little man.
But the rest of the book was one over extended unfunny penis joke, in my not-even-remotely-humble opinion. More Toulouse-Latrec, LESS Colorman, in fact no Colorman and I’m good.
“Blowing a kiss” to AuntiePam and thank you for shouldering the mantle. Volunteerism is blood work.
Finishing That Day the Rabbi Left Town by Harry Kemelman. Simplistic but balm to a weary soul.
I am so looking forward to this! I re-read all of the books last year, so I’m ready for it.
The Golem and the Jinni was really good. The writing was lovely.
I’ve started C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner. It started out great, and has gotten a little dull, but I hope it picks up because there are lots of these, and I need more science fiction to read. I have gotten out of the mood for hard sci-fi - what I really want these days is space opera, but I want it well written, something like the Vorkosigan books.
My last couple of reads have been somewhat heavy and somber so I am reading Andrew Gross’s No Way Back, which had me hooked in the first chapter.
I’ve got several other “light” books on order - Wolf by Mo Hayder (a British dark horror writer I adore) and a couple of Jo Nesbos.
snicker
I finished Ellery Queen’s The Greek Coffin Mystery. I think my problem with the Queen books is that the ones I started with were the much later ones from the 1960s and 70s when they really did just suck. The earlier ones from the 1930s are so much better. I was thrilled because I thought I figured out the killer in this one, but it turned out to be a red herring. Well played, Mr. Queen, well played.
Nero Wolfe novels have the same problem.
Conrad and Cherryh both underwhelmed me when I tried their books. Cherryh, in particular, I expected to like, but was sorely disappointed. The writing of both is IMHO very dry and plodding.
I’m trying to get through Terry Pratchett’s latest but I keep running out of steam. It’s not that it’s badly written so much as that the Discworld has settled down to this alternate history of the industrial revolution and it’s just not as fun anymore. Where are the wizards? The witches? The magic? Heck, I’d settle for some dramatic tension.
Inconsistency is my biggest problem with the book. We already know that the Discworld produces magic items galore, including flying broomsticks and has magic that can teleport people across the world. But the climax of Raising Steam has the protagonists racing across the topography of the Discworld in a steam locomotive with the fate of nations in their hands. So in the context of the rules that Pratchett laid down in the past, the characters don’t seem to be playing by them.
It’s also just not that funny compared to previous books. We’ve heard most of these jokes told before.
So, meh. I’ll finish it, but it’s not going to be re-read like the earlier books in the series.
I finished The Martian by Andy Weir, which was fairly good but could probably have worked as well as a novella.
Having read that, and the four Kim Stanley Robinson Mars books recently, I’m now dipping into The Rim of the Unknown, a collection by Frank Belknap Long, a friend of H. P. Lovecraft, although most of this collection dates from the 1950s. Still with the Mars theme, the first story I read was Mr. Caxton Draws a Martian Bird, which I was quite impressed with despite it’s now impossible setting…
And it has a great pulpy cover, showing a giant insect carrying off two barbarian-looking humans, which is a fairly accurate representation of the final story in the collection, The Last Men!
Matt Taibbi’s the Divide about the disparity of our justice system between the rich and the poor. A good if angering read so far. I would also strongly strongly recommend his earlier book Griftopia. It is rage inducing (especially about Wall Street in general and Goldman Sachs in particular)and can’t be accused of bias since it throws stones at the current Administration too as much as anyone else.
On the other side of the coin, my enjoyment of the Amazing Spider-man 2 inspired me to pick up The Superior Spider-Man Book 1 trade paperback. I had heard good things about it and my understanding is that series has a definitive conclusion so I decided to give it a shot. Book one was good so I bought two more. The premise is that apparently in the mainstream Spider-Man comic, Doctor Octopus took over Peter Parker’s body. Rather than use it to do evil, he is trying to be a hero but in his own way. It is interesting.
Yes, most definitely the language is vulgar. The situations are too, come to that, but they were very, ah, explicit in Fool as well.
I felt exactly the same way, Finagle. Broke my heart too because I came prepared to like it and didn’t. Your criticisms were spot-on.
Yes. Moore has definitely been letting his inner twelve year old run free these days.
I am reading Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong by Juliet Macur. All I can think is a) Lance is a shit and b) so fucking what? – everyone else in the sport is also a shit as well. Declare the damned thing a non-sport, tell everyone to just go enjoy themselves on a bike and move on.
I just finished two very enjoyable books: The Tenth Gift, by Jane Johnson, and The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, by Edward Kelsey Moore.
In The Tenth Gift, a modern day woman, Julia, receives a very, very old book as a gift. She discovers that the book contains the handwritten diary of Catherine, an young woman who lived 350 years earlier. We follow their stories as Julia tries simultaneously to untangle the problems in her own life while becoming swept up in Catherine’s. It doesn’t go as anyone expects.
In The Supremes, we meet three women, life-long friends, who live in a small town in Indiana. The characters are very well drawn, complex, funny, human and utterly unpredictable. Great supporting characters, too. I felt like I was parting from three of my best friends when the book ended.
I’m almost through Serpent of Venice, which I am enjoying every bit as much as Fool, or Lamb. I enjoyed Sacre Blue as well, if nothing else for the lesson on the history of pigments. I always learn something from Moore’s books, even if it is a new and interesting insult. My present favourite is " You Mendacious Fuckwit!"
I’m also ripping through Micheal Lewis’ Flash Boys, which is giving me conniptions as to whether or not I should just pull my RSPs and hide my money in a mattress.
Also: Douglas Coupland’s Player One which I just started; Living Off On Our Own by Ted Carns, which is my bedtime read (or was until I got my hands on Serpent) about living off grid and making it work. I’m not sold on the religious slant, but he has some great take aways and his stance on living with Nature instaed of against it is giving me ideas to percolate for later when we get an acreage.
I’m also trying to get through The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky, but I am having to reference a lot of my Uni math books and it’s a tough slog.
Finally heard of, and therefore, read Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison. It was delightful. I recommend it to anyone age 12 and over.
I’m now reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I recommend it to adults who understand that they are what they eat.
Oddly enough, Conrad wasn’t exactly a stereotypical Englishman … he was a Polish author (originally, a Polish sailor) writing in English, who settled in England and eventually obtained English citizenship. English was his third language - he was fluent in Polish and French from childhood, and only learned English as an adult! 
As for his alleged “racism”, that comes mostly from Chinua Achebe’s essay, and it is I think totally unfair … it is like calling Jonathan Swift a cannibal because of “A Modest Proposal”.
Read half of Christopher Barzak’s One For Sorrow this morning, and am now ditching it. I see reviews comparing it to Catcher in the Rye. I think they’re trying to say that the main character is annoying and his motivations make no sense.