Like Antiochus, I just finished “Angels and Demons” I thought it was ok, although I mostly liked it just for all the Rome highlights. I’m going to take it next time, just to see if any of the places he describes are as he describes them.
Right now I’m reading one of the “Area 51” books. Can’t remember who it’s by. I tried reading “Moby Dick”, but really just can’t get into it.
Just finished Callahan’s Legacy and Callahan’s Con - both by Spider Robinson. He’s definitely written better - time to let this franchise go.
Just started Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie - a collection of short stories, based on his Native American experiences. So far, quite good.
Hope to pick up Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences from the library on the way home…
Seabiscuit - not real deep but pretty informative and entertaining.
I have two books going right now. One is Charlotte Grey by Sebastian Faulks. I’m about half way through and it’s very good, though not quite the masterpiece that Birdsong was.
I’m also reading Kitchen Confidential, Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain. It’s very funny, an autobiography /rant. Despite the opening warning,*“There will be horror stories. Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices…” *, reading it still makes me hungry. I have to stop every so often, go to the kitchen and saute something.
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy.
Just finished:
Never Forget by Thom Racina. Hated it. Blah.
Now reading:
The Standing Dead by Ricardo Pinto
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers (not much like the movies!)
A Murder of Promise by Robert Andrews
Julie
Filth by Irvin Walsh. Very disturbing.
Currently reading Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (short stories by Ambrose Bierce). Good stuff.
Also reading Bone and Dream by Lake Sagaris. It’s a travelogue/historical non-fiction about the Atacama (sp?) desert in S.America. It’s really lacking any narrative force at this point, but then I’m really only about 90 pages in.
Hah! I’ve started Anna Karenina. So far I’m enjoying it, but I’m only 100 pages in.
To The Nines by Janet Evanovich
It is 9th in her Stephanie Plum series. Laugh out loud funny.
I recommend reading them in order. Though each book can stand alone, there is much to be said for the building relationships between Stephanie and the two male leads, Joe and Ranger.
I finished the Reichert books. Wow. I was just blown away.
Reading now: In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman. I’m not much of a SF person–and C.S. does like the Apostrophed Names…of the FUTURE!–but I’m just loving it. I loved the Coldfire trilogy, too.
Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste: The Lester Bangs Reader. It’s a sequel to Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung and includes the one missing essay that I wished had appeared in that collection: Bangs’s brilliant, agonized attempt to come to grips with Miles Davis’s early to mid-‘70s output (here titled "Kind of Grim: Unraveling the Miles Perplex,’ while the version that I tore out of some SoCal tabloid zine back in 1976 is titled “Miles Davis: Depression as an Art Form/Vinyl Therapy by Lester Bangs”).
Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland.
Just finished the ninth by Janet Evanovich … I think she’ll run out of numbers and ideas before Sue Grafton runs out of letters.
It’s OK.
I’m a severe conservative and can’t stand the betty. She has a point to make and isn’t afraid to beat you over the head with it.
Ngaio Marsh - The Nursing Home Murder (1930s classic whodunit)
Elizabeth Peters - The Golden One (latest in Aemilia Peabody series; this has seen better days; well into the decline now)
Cervantes - Don Quixote - I just saw “Lost in La Mancha” - in which Terry Gilliam fails to make a movie. Tragic and funny malorganisation.
Secrets of the Flesh – a carefully researched biography of Colette
A book on shopping in Paris
Le Divorce
*Boyd[/]
By Robert Coram
and
In the Heart of the Sea
By Nathaniel Philbrick
God, don’t I hate late night typing…
In Progress, but very slowly:
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to read for “fun”, since the semester just started.
But on the bright side, one of my courses is a Comparative Literature course in Science Fiction. So I’ll be reading about a book a week (except for a few where we’ll be watching films).
Just finished:
The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
Just starting:
The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Coming soon:
The Left Hand of Darkenss by Ursula Le Guin
Tea From An Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan
Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer
White Light by Rudy Rucker
Virtual Light by William Gibson
Did “Sourcery” by Terry Pratchett (3rd time) over the weekend.
Finished “Alice in Wonderland” (1st time) on Tuesday.
Halfway through “The Hobbit” (~5th time) now.
Will probably do “At the Mountains of Madness” by HP Lovecraft (2nd time) next.
Holidays are great.