I read this on Friday. I didn’t think it was nearly a good as the earlier books in the series, but still “readable,” which to me is like calling a wine “drinkable” – damning with faint praise.
I’ve got a big stack of books that are currently being read. The book that goes along with me in my various backpacks is John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany. It’s brillant. A co-worker told me she couldn’t stand Irving’s plots, because they were so insane (her words), but I like it.
Then there’s 1815: The Roads to Waterloo by Gregor Dallas, which is also very interesting. I’m carrying around with me for whenever I’m looking for a change of pace from Irving Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower, a history of the twenty-four years before World War I, this to complement my reading of her astounding The Guns of August, which I finished last autumn. I’ve also just read her incredible A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, which had been G.R.R. Martin’s recommendation for anyone interested in the Middle Ages. Finally, for class I have to read Diamond Grill by Fred Wah and A Chorus of Mushrooms by Hiromi Goto, both of which leave me cold. I need a better class…
I’ve always felt the same way as your co-worker about John Irving. On the other hand, I had no problems with Forrest Gump, so there must be something more to it. Possibly it’s that Forrest Gump was meant to be a comedy, or at least amusing, and John Irving is meant to be taken oh so seriously.
Yeah, but the second novel, The Scar, is way way better.
I’m starting the third [not counting King Rat] Mieville novel, Iron Council. It looks formidable.
Um, not entirely. He’s absolutely writing for humor in spots – like the part about moving the car in the middle of Owen Meany.
In the same vein as China Mieville’s novels are those of Richard K Morgan. His first one out, Altered Carbon is breathtaking, the second, Broken Angels not quite as good. The two are the start of a series with a protagonist named Takeshi Kovacs, who is sort of a twenty-sixth century Philip Marlowe.
Another great novel by Morgan is Market Forces, set in the very near future. Wow, the guy can write!
Yeah, in spots…but then by the end of the book, you’re supposed to be moved or get a message or something. It doesn’t work for me because I’m still going, “But that wouldn’t have happened!”
As I said, I’m not totally sure why I don’t get it, and it’s been quite awhile since I tried it, so I’m not even equipped to argue my own position. Sorry for the hijack!
My Amazon order is in the next town over as of 6:53 this morning. I don’t know if it made it onto the truck today. It consists of:
Blackwater - The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
I’m most looking forward to Five Skies.
That is a fantastic book. Also, check our Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich.
I’ve also found the story of Adolf Eichmann to be compelling…
Sophie’s World. It’s pretty good, though somewhat jarring to go from lessons on the history of philosophy to try to figure out the plot.
I am currently reading and enjoying *Sacred Games * by Vikram Chandra. Next up are *Boomsday * by Christopher Buckley (mentioned above) and *Special Topics in Calamity Physics * by Marisha Pessl.
There are no hijacks in a "whatcha readin’ " thread, merely discussions of books and authors. blissful sigh
I’m not an uncritical fan of Irving’s, but I have enjoyed several of his books very much – they do operate at their own level of seriousness, though, and I can definitely see not caring for how he goes back and forth between the silly, the surreal, and the sobering.
Well, I wish I could properly oblige you…actually, I just wish I “got” the books! 
Right now, I’m re-reading the Harry Potter books so that the backstory is freshly in my mind when Deathly Hallows comes out in July. I’m also halfway through Tolkien’s The Children of Hurin, and I’m also a few pages into Ravij Chandrasekaran’s Imperial Life in the Emerald City. I tend to juggle two or three books like that.
Now that I’m done with the required geek reading, I can get to my fun geek reading.
I’m reading Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex. It’s an interesting look at Yiddish from a cultural and religious perspective. I’m learning a lot about my own worldview, and that of my ancestors.
Before that, I read The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson’s wonderful book about the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and H.H. Holmes’s murders, which won the Edgar award for best true crime book. I first got hooked on Larson when I read Thunderstruck, his book about Marconi’s invention of wireless radio and its role in the capture of Hawley Harvey Crippen and Ethel le Neve. Now I want to read Isaac’s Storm about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.
Robin
Well, in THAT case…
The other day I was enjoying a solitary hour at the library (blissful sigh) and found myself in the A’s. I saw some Margaret Atwood books. “Hm,” I thought. “Now what was the title of that one Atwood book I liked? Lady Oracle?” No, that was something else. “Alias Grace?” No, that’s about a Victorian murder. Well, what was the title then? It’s the one about the woman who has a secret double life; she has a nice family, and she writes torrid romance novels on the sly, having learned the art from an Italian gentleman who writes nurse novels. The story opens with her having just left home and run away for no discernible reason that I can recall. Amazon is no help with this conundrum. Help me out here, folks!
Wiki says Lady Oracle’s main character is a romance novelist. You’re sure that’s not the one?
I just finished *The Stolen Child * and now I’m working on In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made (which, I’m sorry to say, is so poorly written/edited as to make one wonder why it was so well received).
catch 22
I just started The Name of The Wind.
It is an auspicious beginning and has the promise of a good story from a true story teller.