Still reading Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell. I *will * finish it, one of these days. In the meantime, I’ve reread Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, The Princess Bride and the **Harry Potter ** series. Yesterday, I read **Ten Big Ones ** by Janet Evanovich. Today I’m back to Mssrs Strange & Norrell. I will not skip to the end - I will not skip to the end - I will not…
How was it? I’m afraid to read it because I don’t know if he goes into drawn-out accounts about some of the troops starving and freezing to death. Honestly, that would depress me for days.
Right now I 'm reading Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture, by Nicholas Basbanes. It’s fairly interesting, but really, really, really long. It will probably take me until Friday.
I would recommend that you not skip to the end. It’s a long book, and maybe not everyone would find the length worth it, but skipping to the end won’t work.
I was tempted to skip to the end of House of Leaves, and then I realized that I couldn’t even find the end of the damn thing and I took it back to the library.
You managed to misquote me – I’m currently reading 1776. I’ll let you know when I finish it. So far, it’s pretty good.
Did McCullough watch the musical 1776 and feel that he had to do something about it?
His bio of John Adams manages to reproduce a great many of the quotes used in Peter Stone’s play (Sherman Edwarsds did the music), even when the quotes seem to be obscure. You can almost feel his glee in pointing out improper context or when the line was attributed to someone else. It’s like he’s sayiong “Nyah! Nyah! The play got it wrong!” He never mentions the play in the Adams bio (although I’d think it was relevant, being one of the few popular depictions of the patriot, and probably where most non-historians pick up their impressions of him). I don’t think he does in 1776 either. But it’s awfully suspicious that he chose that title.
Thanks to the person who recommended Heart of the Country by Greg Matthews- I got it from Amazon last week and am halfway through it. Exactly what I was looking for!
I just went to the library last night!! I have four of the McNally books from Lawrence Sanders, I got three Sara Paretsky V.I. Warshawski novels, one Robert Parker Spenser book, and O’Reilly’s Those who Tresspass.
Just finished Laura Lippman’s To the Power of Three – a popular novel, good but not great, about a school shooting involving three girls – the princess, the jock, and the artsy one – lifelong friends, who are found locked into a school bathroom with a gun, one dead, one dying, and one shot through the foot. The story goes back and forth in time to explain what happened and why.
Worth picking up if you see it; probably not worth searching for.
Currently reading Conqueror’s Moon by Julian May. It’s a fairly good swords & sorcery adventure, but May still (IMO) tends to put too much exposition in, without enough showing the same information in dialogue and action. I’m enjoying it nonetheless.
I too am reading 1776 but have not yet read John Adams. That’s probably next if I feel like more history.
If you are a Civil War buff, as I am big-time, then anything by William C. Davis is worthwhile. I just finished The Orphan Brigade. It’s about Kentuckians who fought for the Confederacy. Since Kentucky never seceded but remained neutral, they were not allowed to go home for the duration of the war. Davis does tend to write almost exclusively about the South but I think he’s a little more even handed than Shelby Foote, much as I loved his trilogy.
I also just finished Stephenson’s trilogy. It was incredibible. Pirates, Louis XIV, counterfeiters, Peter the Great, alchemy, the Royal Society, the Stuart kings, William of Orange…what’s not to like?
I’m looking forward to the new Modesitt Legacies book. He’s kind of like going into a favorite restaurant and ordering your usual. You know what your going to get but you know you’ll like it.
A new Flashman? YAY!!
I’m currently halfway through Something Rotten by the excellent Jasper Fforde. Great fun. At work I’m flicking between a few kids books - mostly The Bailey Game by Celia Rees and Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I’ve misplaced my copy of A Suitable Boy wich is driving me mad - I have about three hundred pages to go, and if I don’t find it soon I’m going to forget who everyone is!
And, like a lot of others have mentioned, I’m about to start rereading the Harry Potter series. Six days to go, eeee!
Me too! I’m about halfway through it too–I can’t believe I’d never heard of it before I read this thread. Thanks, AuntiePam!
And thanks also to whoever recommended Shikar-I ordered that off of Amazon also and I read it in one day-couldn’t put it down. Wow. Now I’m wishing he’d write a sequel.
Warner isn’t writing a sequel, but he is working on another novel, partly due to renewed interest in Shikar and encouragement from fans on a horror message board.
