Would that be “eclectic” or “electric”? Both are good!
Eclectic. One on a 15th-century pilgrimage, one on a Victorian prostitute, one on a 20th-century mother of eleptuplets, now one on Appalachian witchcraft!
I’ve read a couple of Nero Wolfe novels (Too Many Cooks and A Right to Die) and am now plowing through A Game of Thrones, a gift from my wife and daughter. In the evenings, I’ve been going through thelast two volumes of Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History of the Modern World.
Finished Thirteen by Richard Morgan. It was okay, but he really needed an editor.
Just got Machine Man by Max Berry, the guy who wrote Jennifer Government. I’m really looking forward to this, with Reamdeby Stephenson up afterward.
I recently finished The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly and A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard.
I am currently reading My Grandfather’s Son by Clarence Thomas, State of Fear by Michael Crichton and P is for Peril by Sue Grafton.
Not too long ago I tried reading Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard but couldn’t get past the 4th chapter. Just got boring, and i usually like Elmore Leonard’s books. :eek:
I just finished The Magician King, the sequel to “The Magicians.” I enjoyed it, finished it in two days, glad I read it, but it wasn’t as good as the first one.
I’ll probably start a thread about it in a few days. Now I’m going to finish up The World in 2050.
Read The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki and Hitler Slept Late and Other Blunders That Cost Him the War by James P. Duffy. Wasn’t too impressed by either; Jarecki had a political ax to grind and Duffy’s history was very superficial.
Reread The Uplift War by David Brin and Against the Tide of Years by S. M. Stirling. Both obviously enjoyable enough for me to reread.
Continuing my recent SF streak, I’ve been reading a bunch of old short story collections I picked out of a dollar bin (Star, Galaxy, that sort of thing). And I’ve started Stephen Baxter’s Time’s Tapestry series.
Just read Mark Millar’s and Dave Johnson’s 2004 graphic novel Superman: Red Son, set in a what-if alternate universe in which the young refugee from Krypton’s starship crashes in the Ukraine and not Kansas in the 1930s; in time Superman thus becomes a Soviet superhero. Pretty clever, and beautifully drawn. There’s also a nifty twist at the end that made me grin.
I just finished rereading the first and reading for the first time the second two books in The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless; I have a library hold for the fourth in the series, Heartless. It’s set in a steampunk alternate Victorian age, with werewolves and vampires thrown into the mix. While called “supernatural”, the werewolves and vampires are considered to have a scientific explanation however, not to be “magic”. Interesting and amusing. The kind of series where the heroine is attacked by a vampire and responds by rapping him on the head with her (weighted) parasol and a reproach of “Manners!”
I read the first and thought it was funny and fun though not really to my taste. I’m glad the series holds up.
Just finished What Ifs? of American History, ed. by Robert Cowley, which was so-so. The best essay, by far, was by Robert L. O’Connell, about the Cuban Missile Crisis spinning out of control and a two-day nuclear war between the US and the USSR in Oct. 1962. Well-written, chilling and plausible.
I’m now starting Steven Pressfield’s The Afghan Campaign, a novel written as if told by a young Macedonian soldier in Alexander’s army in the 330s BC. Not bad, but not blowing me away, either.
Have you ever read any of Greenhill’s alternate history series? They’re a series of “non-fiction” alternate history collections, edited mostly by Peter Tsouras. Or if you’re looking for something more political than military, Duncan Brack’s Prime Minister Portillo… and other things that never happened: A Collection of Political Counterfactuals and President Gore… and other things that never happened: A Second Collection of Political Counterfactuals.
I’ve read Greenhill’s American Civil War, Nazi Germany and Cold War alt-hist books, but not the ones you mentioned. I’m a sucker for alt-hist when it’s well written (which it far too often isn’t).
Finished Ghost Story, by Jim Butcher. It was good, but it also seemed like it was too long. A weird complaint to have about a book I just claimed to enjoy, but there it is. I guess I’m just interested in the characters and I want to know what happens to them, but first I have to slog through endless descriptions of battles and explanations of how the magic works.
Now on to Johannes Cabal the Detective.
Finally finished A Dance with Dragons. I liked it, but I can see how those who actually waited 5 years between books could be put off.
I also started *The High Crusade *by Poul Anderson over the weekend. I’ve never read Anderson before. This is a sci-fi/fantasy story where knights of medieval England are invaded by aliens. I only got about 30 pages in, but it’s interesting.
Finished Muder of the Century, and started on The Poisoner’s Handbook, which was recommended by others earlier. It’s kinda strange reading them back to back; the first book deals with an 1897 New York murder case, and the second with poisons in early 20th century New York, so there’s a bit of cross-over. One person, a chemist named Witthaus, appears in both books, and the same case is even mentioned in both (a physician killed his wife with morphine and used belladonna eyedrops to keep her pupils from contracting, a telltale sign of morphine poisoning. Witthaus demonstrated the technique to a jury by killing a cat).
Read Holman’s Witches on the Road Tonight yesterday, and just finished Chelsea Cain’s The Night Season, about a serial killer in Portland, which is flooding. My first book of hers. I liked the characters and a truly bizarre method of murder. A popcorn book.
I guess Cowboys & Aliens is now considered a flop, so don’t hold your breath for Knights & Aliens.
I just finished The Steel Remains, by Richard K. Morgan (who is most popular for his sci-fi trilogy that begins with Altered Carbon). Morgan has apparently decided to try his hand at sword & sorcery. This is beginning of another gritty, dark fantasy series, with plenty of bloody action. One twist: the main protagonist is a gay warrior, and the story is set in a world that persecutes (as in executes with spikes) gay men. Morgan’s a good writer and I liked the book well enough, although not as much as I liked his science fiction.
Now I’m reading a biography, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style, by Ian Kelly. Brummell will be familiar to fans of Regency fiction: he was the fashion icon of Regency England, the man who’s responsible for the modern men’s suit.
I rather liked that one. Lots of *Frankenstein *metaphors wrapped together.