I just finished “Under Heaven” by Guy Kay and loved it.
He writes ‘almost’ historical fiction. I say almost because although the novel takes place in what is obviously China in the Tang dynasty, he tweaks the setting and introduces elements of fantasy-i.e. this world has two moons.
The writing is wonderful and I couldn’t put it down.
Deleted because it was a double post.
Almost finished with The Fate of Katherine Carr by Thomas Cook. It’s the third I’ve read by him, and like the other two, it’s about an old mystery or secret. In this one, a writer whose son was murdered several years ago is investigating a disappearance.
One mystery I can’t figure out is why his books are called “Otto Penzler” mysteries, because there’s no Otto Penzler in the books.
Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes.
It’s OK, nothing outstanding so far (I’m only up to 1964) but a decent biog of P McC. I’ve read a shit-ton of books about the Beatles over the years, so there’s not much that’s news to me, but on the whole I’d say it’s one of the better individual Beatle biogs.
Finished Heartsick by Chelsea Cain and now starting Cold Vengeance by Preston and Child. koeeoaddi, I understand your rant and you’re totally right, but I mostly just go with the flow. Wheel of Darkness pissed me off the most, and after that I just decided I’m reading them for the entertainment value.
And I definitely liked Still Life with Crows, though there were a lot who didn’t.
Just finished it last night and though I’ve been stomping around the house all morning shrieking with outrage, goddammit, I’m still probably going to read the next one.
Finished Demons Not Included: A Night Tracker Novel a very mediocre urban fantasy. My common complaint of a little too much ookie sex and a little too predictable of a plot means that I wish I hadn’t bought all three at once. (When will I learn?)
Finished Ancient Awakening (The Ancient) another urban fantasy (this time with a male protagonist, finally.) This was OK, especially given that I paid 99 cents for it. Demons return to the earth every couple of hundred years or so (on a cycle) and The Ancient is reborn to battle them. (Not reborn so much as returned to earth.) He can be killed and can die, but apparently will be sent back when he is needed.) I may purchase more in the series, but only if I continue in my current situation where I have too much spare time during my day job.
Named after a publisher and mystery bookshop owner: Otto Penzler - Wikipedia
Read the first one of these but was disappointed. The Victorian conceit is good, but I’m not sure how many more “slightly paranormal human female proves irresistible to the studly Creature of the Night” romance novels the world really needs. There was too little mystery/adventure and far too much bodice ripping and heavy breathing for my taste. The last couple of pages in particular were just embarrassing.
Bloodroot was great & I recommend it. Quit reading Bone Harvest…about as exciting as watching vanilla ice cream melt.
About halfway through The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. I reread The Proud Tower a few weeks ago so I guess I reading these in reverse order.
Just started How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. Looks interesting and I’ve enjoyed other books he’s written.
Finished The Poisoner’s Handbook last night, and ready for something lighter. Dove into the beginning of the Craig Shaw Gardner’s “Cineverse” series this morning; it’s a humorous adventure series about a person who uses a cereal-box-prize decoder ring to enter a world of classic B-movie tropes. The first book is Slaves of the Volcano God.
About a quarter of the way through Stephen King’s “The Stand”. I like it so far, even if it’s disturbingly gory at points. I also read the first 30 pages of Hemingway’s “For whom the bell tolls” and nearly fell asleep. It’s pretty vague, but from what I can tell, someone is going to blow up a bridge at some point. And there’s a guy who has a bunch of horses for whatever reason. When a book fails to bring compelling characters or a hint of an interesting story in the first two chapters, I don’t relish the thought of another 500 pages of boring crap.
There were parts of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” that had me literally on the edge of my seat, turning pages as fast as I could read. I can’t remember if I thought it was dull in the beginning, but I do know that it gradually sneaked up on me, took over my life for how ever many days it took to read it and wound up being among the best books I ever read. Just sayin’.
Stauderhorse, read the long paragraph about a page or so into Chapter 37 and get back to us. One of the best-written sex scenes ever - kinda like the shower murder in Psycho: shows nothing but engages you fully.
Read a fun cyber thriller called Daemon by Daniel Suarez - tech dude dies which kicks off a latent program to take over The World!!
Also read former Intel CEO’s book Only the Paranoid Survive - incredibly well written and insightful…if you really care and dig into business strategy.
Reading Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad - won a National Book Award (maybe a Pulitzer?) last year? Well written but so far a bunch of narrators whining over missed opportunities now that there in middle age.
That…was a lot of "now"s. I wouldn’t have even known that was a sex scene if you hadn’t told me. This book has way too vague of a writing style for my taste; I actually like to know what the characters are doing at any point in the book. I get the feeling this book isn’t for me.
In continuing my classic sci-fi journey, I’m half way through *The Forever War *by Joe Haldeman. I’m liking it a lot. I think I read an abridged version a long time ago because it’s very familiar but seems like this version has more battle scenes. It’s supposed to basically be Viet Nam set in outer space, but for someone like me who was not alive during Viet Nam, it’s just a cool space war story.
I just finished the Trilogy with Vortex, which was fantastic. IMHO the books keep getting better throughout. I liked SPIN but I actually thought it was the weakest of the three books.
Just finished Light from a Dying Star by Mary McGarry Morris. A summer in the life of a teenage girl who has information about a murder which, if she tells, will be a problem for her family. Nice pacing and realistic dialogue but ultimately unsatisfying. Something was missing.
Just started Dove Season by Johnny Shaw, which I’m loving. A 30-year-old man goes home to the Imperial Valley because his father’s dying. Dad’s deathbed wish is for him to go to Mexico to find a certain prostitute. It’s noir-y but with heart, and the main character is someone I’d like to know in real life.
It’s published by Amazon Encore, which is new to me. Apparently Amazon publishes previously self-published books that they think didn’t get enough attention.
I just finished Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds. It’s a hard sci-fi space opera: far future setting; galactic exploration at sub-light speeds; long-lost alien civilizations. I’ve seen the book highly recommended, but I was disappointed with the writing. The plot held my interest well enough, and there were lots of cool science and technology concepts, but the characterization was weak and the dialogue was terrible.
Afterwards I felt the need for a vastly different genre, so I’m reading Mansfield Park. The movie has been on cable lately, so I had been thinking about it. So far I like Miss Crawford, the heroine’s competition, better than I like the heroine, Fanny Price.