Auntie Pam – I’ve read Arnow’s “The Dollmaker” many times. Love it. I grew up in Ky, but in the suburbs; still I have a special affection for the Southern mountain region. Even if I didn’t I’d love the book.
I just finished This is Your Life by John O’Farrell. It was hilarious. I will be looking for other books of his the next time I go to the library.
Book prices are insane. I actually hate when people give me gift cards for book stores because I hate paying crazy prices, even subsidized crazy prices. Although I do shop the online clearance at Barnes and Noble a lot.
I have started Dexter In the Dark. I really liked the first Dexter, the second less so. So far I’m enjoying the third.
Isn’t it wonderful? Hunter’s Horn and The Weedkiller’s Daughter are excellent too. I have Seedtime on the Cumberland but haven’t read it yet.
I haven’t seen the movie with Jane Fonda. Have you? I’m half-tempted, but Fonda wouldn’t have been my choice to play Gertie. She’s too tiny and delicate.
Finished Brother John in about an hour. I swear I don’t know how an author has one good book in a series and the other two are just dreadful. Really almost seems to have been written by a differnt person. I’m on a Recluce kick now, so I’ll probably read more in that series. Although now that I’ve seen the movie, I might get around to reading The Ruins.
I did read The Ruins, and I’m hoping someone will start a movie thread. I never go to the movies, but I’ll be interested to see what people thought about it and what things the moviemakers got wrong (and right).
Finished Rabbit Is Rich, by John Updike. Very good. The third in his Rabbit series and so far the one I liked best.
Now I’m reading over some more info in our Lonely Planet Thailand about the North, seeing as we’ll be up there in a month.
I just picked up and started The Somnambulist today and am enjoying it quite alot. It is working better for me than it seemed to for you, Khadaji, but I do understand what you meant with your comments on it.
I also bought* Anansi Boys * by Neil Gaiman and will start it as soon as I’m done with this one. I imagine I will enjoy it.
And, I did want to mention to **Elendil’s Heir ** that the Mad Scientist’s Club books are still very much in print. You mentioned them in this thread and in the March thread. They are all available in hardback with the orginal artwork from a small publisher called Purple House Press or they can be found on Amazon as well. They seem to have quite a few older children’s books they are trying to keep in print. A pretty cool selection of books I remember from my childhood.
I read Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar. I’m at a loss to explain what anyone thought was so great about them. Trout Fishing is at least poetic, in a schizophrenic, hippy-trippy way; Watermelon Sugar is just drivel, IMO.
Re-read The Problem of the Soul by Owen Flanagan. Not much to say; with me, he’s preaching to the choir.
I’m just getting started on The Canterbury Tales. I’m doing it the lazy way and reading a translation (Coghill’s, for Penguin). A read a good part in the original back in college, and maybe when I get done with the translation I’ll go back to it, at least in part.
Thank you! I guess that’s been since I checked a few years ago, then.
I thought the same when I read them. I also read The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, and possibly others. They were all pretty much the same book as far as I could tell, and that book was a steaming pile of crap. In case you’re wondering why I read so many of them, my husband recommended them to me back when we were dating. I married him anyway, but ugh!
I browsed the book wall, and chose to re-read Ancient Shores. I’ve re-read it probably a half a dozen times since I bought it. It’s a good read with what I think is a fairly realistic aproach to how events would actually play out in that particular scenario. I classify it as more fiction than science fiction even though it has some overtones of that.
The Ruins is next on my list. Although the first time I couldn’t get past the first 4 or 5 pages. Hopefully now that I’ve seen the movie it’ll hold my interest a bit more.
Finished Dexter In the Dark. Liked it much better than the second, not as much as the first. The quality of the writing has returned to the level of the first. Didn’t care for the new story arc.
Dexter’s Dark Passenger is a demon who is a child of Muloch an ancient God who once inhabited King Solomon. Although I am a fan of fantasy, this ruins (for me) the premise.
Next up: Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) I have a signed copy, but I also bought a copy to read (since I have a bad tendency to eat while reading.)
I am a huge fan of Butcher.
I may also start Psychoshop on the side, because usually I have at least two books running (I’ve been swamped at work, so I’ve been making due with one.) Written by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny. Zelazny finished it after Bester died while writing it. I don’t know Bester, but I often like Zelazny.
Yuck, that sounds awful! I don’t read serial killer stuff as a rule, but I read the first Dexter book because of the novelty of a “good guy” killer. I liked it well enough, but now I’m glad I didn’t continue with them.
Next time I do an Amazon order I’ll get the new Butcher, too, probably along with the new Charlaine Harris book that releases on the 6th.
My whole family tends to read while we’re eating. I have to make sure the youngest one isn’t reading a library book at the table, because he’s the messiest child I’ve ever seen.
I’m almost done with Tolkien’s The Children of Hurin. Good stuff.
I finished reviewing northern-Thailand stuff for our upcoming trip. Tomorrow I start A Small Town in Germany, by John Le Carre.
Just finished The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton.
Am currently working on:
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Cloud Atlas
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The Undercover Economist and
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The Brothers Karamazov
Gave up on Un Lun Dun
Finished Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) and quite enjoyed it. I have one small complaint, and that is Dresden calls his new apprentice “grasshopper.” It isn’t that clever, knock it off.
But other than that, it was a fun read.
Next up: Psychoshop.
And probably Ideaspotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea. I must always be working on something and even though none of my past ideas were successful, the truth is they added to my skills and experience. So I’m off to look for my next great idea.
Finished Cloud Atlas. So much love!
Starting on Brothers Karamazov-I know I’m going to like it, since I liked Crime and Punishment (though it took a long time to finish). At the same time, I really really want to locate Tim Powers’s “The Anubis Gates”. I went for the Bantam Classics translation. I know the Voholonsky/Pears translations get a lot of play these days but it was $10 cheaper!
I’ve also got some John Jakes potboiler I promised someone I would read (California Gold).
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach, was a fascinating read. A very cheerful book, considering the subject matter. The only chapter that was really disturbing was one towards the end about “Decapitation, reanimation, and the human head transplant”. It wasn’t the decapitated human heads that bothered me, but the descriptions of the related experiments on living animals.
The Catiline Conspiracy (SPQR II), by John Maddox Roberts, didn’t improve over the first book. It was a nice, readable history lesson but wasn’t a very good novel. It also had the most misleading blurb I’ve seen on a book in a long time.
I’m almost done with Georgette Heyer’s A Convenient Marriage, and I think it’s going to be one of my favorites so far. The Unknown Ajax was also very good.