Finally getting going on The Evolutionary Void, the last of the space opera trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. I’ve really, really enjoyed this series so far.
I´m working my way through a cookbook called How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman.Which makes me wonder: has there ever been a book that combined the novel and the cookbook? I´d definitely buy it.
I just startedBonecrusher by Cherie Priest today, and so far it’s a pretty good read at just over 100 pages in. Steampunk novel set in late 1800s Seattle area-- a little alternate history (Seattle has been walled in because of a poisonous gas, the Civil War is still going on) and zombies to boot. I’m also a fan of the dark brown text in the book-- it’s visually interesting without distracting the reader too much away from the story itself.
On an opposing view, I didn’t like it at all because it distracted me to the point that I couldn’t get into the story.
The Grayfriar: Vampire Empire, Book 1 I just picked it up last night.
alt. history involving a Vampire (nonsparkly kind) invasion, Victorian times, steam punk and other stuff. It looks promising.
Recently, I finished:
City of Glory by Beverly Swerling. Fun, if light, historical fiction set during America’s War of 1812. A page-turner that’s a good read for the melodrama, if not the deep historical research.
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Dreck, if not quite as drecky as some of the supernatural YA books out there.
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. This is the third McCarthy novel I’ve read and I’m always newly surprised at how impressive he is. This is a hard book to read, but worth it.
I’ve started…
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy on audiobook. At about 24 hours, I’ll be listening for a while. So far, I’m mightily impressed.
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie, the last in the First Law series. If you like epic fantasy in the style of George R. R. Martin, give these books a try. Great reads… and the series is FINISHED.
I just started on Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life (and the darn thing is already overdue at the library)! It’s in Conroy’s overwrought, dramatic style, which reads almost like parody, but hey, I like it. (TheMerchandise, I liked Prince of Tides a lot too. My favorite is The Lords of Discipline).
The Lords of Discipline is very good indeed, but my favorite of his is The Great Santini. My sister once took it along on vacation with the rest of my family and insisted on reading long tracts of it out loud, it was so good. My parents and I all liked it so much that we then each read it ourselves when she was done! Conroy’s nonfiction book My Losing Season, about playing basketball for the Citadel during its integration turmoil in the Sixties (which was a major plot point of The Lords of Discipline, as well), is also excellent.
I just read Time Gate by John Jakes aloud with my 11-year-old son. Jakes, better known for his historical fiction, wrote this sf time-travel story (about scientists trying to prevent a presidential assassination and WWIII) in 1972, and it’s definitely cheesy and dated now, but still fun. I’d read it as a kid and wanted my son to experience it too.
Loaded ‘Songs of the Dying Earth’ onto the Kindle as well as ‘Zones of Thought’, an omnibus by Vernor Vinge containing ‘A Fire upon the Deep’ and ‘A Deepness in the Sky’.
Have started with Songs and leave Zones for next
Finished Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1) a darkish fantasy by Stacia Kane.
It is set in world where ghosts and an after life has been proven and a new religion The Church of Real Truth based on this proof has replaced all others (no need of faith if you have proof.)
Chess Putnam is a debunker for the church - a person whose job it is to put down hauntings or debunk them as fakes.
She is a flawed hero, a drug addict, smoker and thrill seeker, who gets involved with putting down ghosts at an abandoned airport. (Her drug dealer forces her into this service.) Meanwhile she discovers a plot to destroy the church and gets involved with the head of gang (rivals to her drug dealer.)
Kane portrays most of the men with an odd speech pattern - I’m not sure if it is meant to be from New Orleans or Jamaica, but it was annoying.
I would not likely read the second if I had not been given both books for my Birthday.
I love Penman. She’s working on a book now about Richard the Lionheart, picking up his story after the death of Henry II in her novel Devil’s Brood.
It’s been a slightly disappointing reading week. My latest Inspector Lynley mystery, A Traitor to Memory, was subpar. I read Blood Oath, by Christopher Farnsworth, and while the vampire was kind of interesting, I didn’t care for the writing at all. I’ve started Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island, and it’s cute enough, but this is my first Bryson and I’m finding it very putdownable.
However, I did like the second book in Ruth Downie’s new mysery series set in Roman Britain, called Terra Incognita. These aren’t quite as good as Lindsey Davis’s Falco books, but I’m enjoying them.
I’m thinking either The Devil’s Brood or The Sunne in Splendor next. Do you have any preference?
They’re both good, but obviously I’m partial to the books about Henry & Eleanor. Devil’s Brood is the third book in the trilogy, so I wouldn’t read that one without having read the previous two books: When Christ and His Saints Slept (which begins with the sinking of the White Ship and covers the resulting civil war between Stephen and Maud) and Time and Chance.
The Sunne in Splendour is a standalone book, Penman’s first novel. Penman is firmly in the camp that believes Richard III to be innocent of the murders of his nephews.
I always thought that position was a trifle odd - after all, removing rivals to the throne when they are in your power is hardly an unusual thing for a medieval king to do. There are many historical precidents, not least of which being King John and Arthur, which is sort of similar - Arthur is in John’s power, conveniently disappears - and Penman has no probs attributing the murder of Arthur to John.
I think I’ll try the trilogy first - after all, three books is better than one … 
Penman’s portrayal of John is still the most sympathetic that I’ve ever seen. John is the king that everybody loves to hate, yet in the Welsh trilogy Penman chooses to let us view him through the eyes of the daughter who has good reason to love him.
Between Penman and Tey, I’m halfway convinced of Richard’s innocence myself.
Yeah, but even Penman’s sympathetic John isn’t potrayed as being above a little dynastic murder.
I dunno - many another medieval monarch did away with kiddies who were dynastic rivals (Henry VII had no probs doing in through judicial murder a bunch of possible rivals), so I just don’t see it as being a big deal. I think trying to find Dick the Third innocent is a reaction to the overblown anti-Richard Tudor propaganda - I think he probably did them in, or rather ordered it done (he had motive and opportunity), but that it just wasn’t that unprecidented a thing for him to do. You had to be a bit nasty, if you wanted to be a medieval usurper. 
Just finished “Welcome to Lovecraft,” the first volume of Locke & Key, a graphic novel series - scary, supernatural and violent - set in Lovecraft, Mass., with several allusions to HPL’s writings. Well worth a read. The story’s by Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son, and the very good art is by Gabriel Rodriguez. I just learned it’s going to be made into a series for Fox, which could be cool. Or not. But check out the book, in any event.
Finished Mawson’s Will and highly recommend it. Blew through Jump-Off Creek in a day and a half, and have now started Bryson’s At Home. It’s an interesting read, but the font is killing me. It seems small and all scrunched together and I’m getting eye fatigue within 30 minutes. For a fast reader, this is a bad thing.
Finished The Soprano Sorceress, by LE Modesitt. I didn’t like the main character and her massive anti-man chip on her shoulder.
Also finished Wolfsbane, by Patricia Briggs. Kind of slight, but enjoyable.
The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay will be my next read. Also Godel, Escher, Bach is on queue.
I’ve just finished Christopher Brookmyre’s novel Be My Enemy, or Fuck This for a Game of Soldiers. It was crazy and hilarious, as usual. Brookmyre is a brilliant writer. This is his fourth novel with the same protagonist, set in modern-day Scotland, but I think all of the books would stand well on their own.
Over the weekend I read Christopher Moore’s The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. I enjoyed it very much, and now I want to go and read all of his other books set in Pine Cove.
I got out my O. Henry story collection the other day and read “The Gift of the Magi” to the kids. (Also “The Ransom of Red Chief”, while we had the book out.)