[QUOTE=BethCro]
I feel I’d be enjoying the book more on a winter’s day than sitting by the pool.
[/QUOTE]
That’s how I’m feeling about a couple of Steven Erikson’s books – big fat fantasy, dark and violent, loaded with detail and plot points that might be important later. You have to read every. single. word. I can’t read fat, dark, violent, dense books in the summertime.
My current non-fiction read is Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandraskaren (about life in the Green Zone during the 1st year of the US occupation of Iraq.)
My current fiction read is The Terror by Dan Simmons (about an 1840s ship trapped in the polar ice while trying to find the Northwest Passage.)
Ironically, the first book is much more terrifying than the second one. 
In the New Read pile:
Jamaica Me Dead - Bob Morris (just finished)
Bermuda Schwartz - Bob Morris (just started)
Jimi Hendrix Turns 80 - Jim Sandlin (truck book, on Chapter 8)
In the Re-read pile:
Thud! - Terry Pratchett
Lord Valentine’s Castle - Robert Silverberg
Unto The Breach - John Ringo
In the “Waiting for Amazon to deliver them” pile:
A Deeper Blue - John Ringo
The Sunrise Lands - S. M. Sterling
Vorpal Blade - John Ringo
[QUOTE=silenus]
In the New Read pile:
Jamaica Me Dead - Bob Morris (just finished)
Bermuda Schwartz - Bob Morris (just started
[/QUOTE]
I think those are the punniest titles I’ve ever seen. And that’s saying a lot.
[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
That’s how I’m feeling about a couple of Steven Erikson’s books – big fat fantasy, dark and violent, loaded with detail and plot points that might be important later. You have to read every. single. word. I can’t read fat, dark, violent, dense books in the summertime.
[/QUOTE]
I’m glad it isn’t just me. There are so many ‘serious’ books chosen each time this thread comes about, I usually don’t participate. I’ll read trash, long as it passes the time.
I often get the Dopers summer best reads in the winter, in paperback (dad doesn’t understand, I need books!).
I’ll check out Steven Erikson in the winter - not fond of fantasy, but I definitely need a change from crime/thrillers I can figure out ‘who done it’ within the first 75 pages.
Just finished Something Rotten the fourth and last (so far) Thursday Next book, and am in the middle of The Big Over Easy the first Nursery Crimes Division book. Both by Jasper Fforde.
And still working on the book I’m reviewing. Guns, Germs and Steel is lined up next.
Just finished The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang and started The Candlemass Road by George MacDonald Fraser. (Except our summer ended already. April here is like August there. We’re into the rainy season now.)
[QUOTE=Khadaji]
If you have trouble finding the sequels, check under “Jim Butcher” instead…
[/QUOTE]
:smack:
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi]
I’m also reading Random Harvest, by James Hilton. It’s about the life of a post First World War industrialist/politician who woke up on a park bench in Liverpool after the war, not knowing how he got there and with the memory of his war years a blank. So far, it’s keeping my attention.
[/QUOTE]
I may have to read that since it’s one of my guilty pleasure movies and I am doing retro books this summer. I have a 3-in-1 collection of James M. Cain since someone here had recommended ‘Mildred Pierce" a few months back. I am stunned at the subjects in the book such as rape and incest. "Postman Always RingsTwice’ was good and I have “Double Indemnity” is next.
I also found a small cache of smaller, more obscure Tim Powers books on Amazon that I’m following up on. Reading is so cool!
[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
I’m tempted to try her fiction. Have you read any of it?
[/QUOTE]
Not yet. I might.
Hmm. I think I’ll read The Art of Detection, by Laurie King, this week. I keep eyeing it, and I’ve read all her Mary Russell novels. It’ll probably be good.
I just finished King Dork by Frank Portman and I though it was great. It had the most clever turns of phrases; I really loved the writing. Someone here recommended it, I think, though I can’t recall who.
I need to stay out of this thread. I just ordered King Dork, and while looking at that book, was distracted by *this and bought that one too!
*The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party
I’m one of the few people who wasn’t terribly enthused about Octavian Nothing. I didn’t feel good about that book.
Well now ya tell me! 
[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
Well now ya tell me! 
[/QUOTE]
I know. :smack: Sorry.
Buuuuut, I do seem to be unusual in not loving it. And I didn’t hate it! Honest!
[QUOTE=silenus]
IIn the “Waiting for Amazon to deliver them” pile:
A Deeper Blue - John Ringo
Vorpal Blade - John Ringo
[/QUOTE]
Same here. The problem is I can read them faster than he can write them. I’m not sure how to solve this problem.
I’ve just started working my way through John Ringo’s Ghost series, as well as Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. Hopefully those will carry me thru the next month until the final Harry Potter book hits the stands.
[QUOTE=Rick]
Same here. The problem is I can read them faster than he can write them. I’m not sure how to solve this problem.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe if we used a whip?
Nightingale, just a word about the Ghost books: They get better. Ghost is ok. Keldar is much better, and Chooser of the Slain and Unto The Breach better than that.
I just bought Literacy and Longing in L.A. yesterday. I need something light to tide me over till the last Harry Potter book comes out. Speaking of which, I need to dig up the other 6 HP books and look them over ASAP.
[QUOTE=silenus]
Nightingale, just a word about the Ghost books: They get better. Ghost is ok. Keldar is much better, and Chooser of the Slain and Unto The Breach better than that.
[/QUOTE]
I’m glad to hear that. I’m about two thirds of the way through Ghost, and have been getting a little tired of Ringo’s gratuitous BDSM passages.