Just finished The Bond Street Burlesque by Raymond Paul. I got it out of curiosity since it’s sort of a mystery based an an actual 19th century crime. It’s pretty good, but I found that once I started it, I already knew the case - a problem with being an historian type. He apparently has two others also based on actual 19th century crimes which I may delve into an a rainy day.
also just finshed the Dirty Dozen by Natheson. My only review is “eh”.
That means I have to find something new today, but my regular library day isn’t until Tuesday, maybe I should just unearth out my collections of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman to re-read until then…
I got two new books for Mother’s Day and just finished the first of them – Borderlands of Science by Michael Shermer. I’ll start (and finish) the second – Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin – today. I also have a book-on-tape that I’m “reading.” That one is Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time*. It’s a historical mystery about Richard III, I always wanted to read it, and got it on tape to listen to while I run every morning. The running thing is very recent, and I figured having a book to “read” while I do it would keep me out there every morning. It’s working so far and the book is every bit as good as I’d heard.
I have a tendency to start new books before I’ve finished the old ones.
Reality is What You Can Get Away With, Robert A. Wilson Frauds, Rip-Offs and Con Games, Victor Santoro Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden A Quick and Dirty Guide to War, James Dunnigan
I’d have to recommend either the Illuminatus! or Schrodinger’s Cat trilogies. Extremely good books.
–sublight.
“I like football, and porno, and books about war…”
At the minute I’m reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I would recommend 1984 by George Orwell, The Saga of the Exiles (four books) by Julian May, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, and so many more I couldn’t mention them all here. Those were just the first to come to mind.
None taken, jarbaby - I know how that feels. I didn’t like the book at first and it took me a long while to actually finish it. Four years in fact. But that’s a whole other story for another thread.
Another book I picked up at work today - Up the Agency by Peter Mayle. On the inner workings of an ad agency. Brings back memories for me. Great fun.
I just started Passage by Connie Willis. I’m enjoying it a lot. I recommend anything by Connie Willis: The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, The Bellweather…
Just finished “Day of Infamy”. A collection of personal stories about Pearl Harbor. Should be interesting to compare it to the movie. Don’t have it in front of me, so I can’t tell you the author’s name. Same guy wrote “A Night to Remember” about the Titanic.
Just finished To Reign in Hell, by Steven Brust. Sort of Paradise Lost meets mid-list heroic fantasy. Not bad, but compared to Brust’s Jhereg (think Tolkien writing The Godfather).
Next up, probably finally get up the courage to tackle that Umberto Eco book I’v had lying around for a few months. The title escapes me, and I’m pinned in my chair at the moment by my cat, so I can’t look. Something about an island…
i’m in the middle of THE ARCHITECT OF DESIRE by suzannah lessard right now. wow, can this woman write!
i am in various stages of THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD by david mccullough, THE GREATEST GENERATION by tom brokow, and AT DAWN WE SLEPT by gordon w prange. for very needed comic relief i am getting through DAVE BARRY IS NOT TAKING THIS SITTING DOWN.
Reading ** Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates** by Tom Robbins
Just finished ** Potshot** by Robert J. Parker—Spencer!
Recommend ** The Accidental Tourist** and ** How Stella Got Her Groove Back** for by-the-pool-wouldn’t-be-caught-dead-with-a-romance-novel reads, although Johannah Lindsay and Jude Deveraux write HOT. Not for fainting maidens!
I’ve got In a Sunburned Countrybut haven’t started it yet (I got behind in return my “so-not-send” card to Quality Paperbacks, so it arrived in the mail the other day. :rolleyes: ) Based on the comments in this thread, I’ll probably give it a go.
I’m about seven eighths of the way through Gibbon *Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,*which I’ve been reading on and off for four years (look, it’s well-written 18th century prose, but it’s not a page turner).
I’m just starting The Least Dangerous Branch (mainly when the Board is slow and I’m waiting for it to load :().
And I’m re-reading Literary Mayhemby Myrick Land, a marvellous chatty book about great literary feuds of the past three centuries (the Pope-Colley Cibber feud is probably the best, although Dr. Johnson’s comments on Lord Chesterfield are a hoot.).
