I am reading Slaine: The Exile a mind-candy fantasy. It can’t be called good, but it is an easy read and not too bad. It is the kind of book that I often leave in hospital waiting rooms when I’m done with them. I figure someone might be visiting a loved-one and find themselves in need of something to read.
Furies of Caldron by Jim Butcher. I got this for Christmas 2004. I really like Jim Butcher, but this was in my queue since when I got really sick in 2005. I couldn’t read in the hospital (the painkillers really ruin my concentration) and it stayed in my “next queue” until a week ago. For some reason every time I looked at it I turned away. Perhaps it has come somehow to be linked in my brain to the bad times. Anyway, out of the blue I decided to try it. Anyway, now that I’m reading it, I’m liking it. I have already bought the second in the trilogy and will probably buy the third soon. This is Jim Butcher’s first step outside of his Dresden Files (which I really like) and shows that he is a good “classic” fantasy writer too.
I am re-reading Sati If god exists, to me she would be like Sati. I haven’t read this book in a while and it was a real pick-me-up when I picked it up.
I am reading a book called Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg…it’s her first novel, although she has written 3 memoirs, which I have not read but are supposed to be pretty good. I am really enjoying it…it’s kind of weird, but compelling. It’s about a woman who gets a job with a literary agent. She gets a submission over e-mail that comes one chapter at a time, and as she gets them, she starts to realize that it is the story of her life, including secrets she has never told anyone (according to the book flap…I haven’t quite gotten that far yet.) She, of course, is trying to figure out who it is, and there are several people who I’m sure will be suspects. Keeps you turning pages!
I’m reading Praise the Human Season by Don Robertson. If I were king, I’d make everyone read this guy. After saying that, Stephen King liked him so much that he published one of Robertson’s books himself, The Ideal Genuine Man.
Human Season starts in 1971. It’s about a married couple in their 70’s, Howard and Anne. She has cancer and is terminal, he’s had a couple of heart attacks. They decide to take a road trip to explore “the apparatus” – I think this is Howard’s term for “what’s life all about”.
The book is partly Howard’s journal of his life, and partly what’s happening now. Robertson isn’t afraid to get sentimental, but he’s not wearing rose-colored glasses either, about himself or his life. It’s very readable, and I’ll probably need tissues when it’s over.
I have to laugh though. Howard’s nearsighted and won’t drive the speed limit because it makes Anne nervous. She’s dying – he isn’t going to argue with her. Next time I’m behind a couple of old farts on the road, I’ll be more understanding.
I am about 3/4 of the way through Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire and I am finding it hard to get into. I loved Wicked but this one is boring me.
Earlier today I started The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford. I can’t wait to see my friends in the funeral business because this book paints a very unflattering portrait of their profession but it is very good and I haven’t been able to put it down.
Next in the waiting-to-be-read pile is World War Z: An Oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Can’t wait to get to this one cause I looove zombies.
Nearly done with “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.” I’m about 50 pages shy of finishing and its kept me hooked for the past week or so. There is/was a thread about it and I highly recommend it. It’s essentially a collection of short stories of personal accounts during the fictional “Zombie War,” linked by the narrator who interviews people who were at or involved with important moments.
Despite the title, its not COMPLETELY about zombies. A lot of time is spent talking to people who had key positions in government and how they actually responded to the threat, and them looking back on the consequences. But most of the Zombie stories themselves are both fascinating and chilling.
Was reading Freddy and Fredericka (a thinly veiled satire of Chuck and Di), a rollicking comic romp – and realized that if the scene with the prince running around naked, tarred and feathered, and with a fried-chicken box over his head, around the outside of the palace, during the tourist-thronged changing of the guards – if that evoked no more than a polite smile from me, this puppy wasn’t worth reading.
Plus, got two boxes of books in the mail yesterday – so started The Accidental Masterpiece, which has been on my wish list since it came out, and recently got remaindered.
I’m about halfway through The Voyages of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin. It’s interesting to see the state of his thoughts on extinction, speciation and taxonomy in the 1830s.
I haven’t done much reading lately, but last night I was able to whip through this one in one sitting: The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry. It’s a kid’s book, I think, but like any other Dave Barry book, there were parts that had me laughing right out loud.
That reminds me: I finished Peter and the Shadow Thieves not long ago. It’s the second Peter Pan book by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson. Another kid’s book, but nice and thick, and a decent read.
I’m finishing up Majyk by Accident by Esther Friesner and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem in anticipation of Arisia 2007. I’ve got more Friesner (she’s the Guest of Honor) and Lem to read after that.
I just finished Kelley Armstrong’s Industrial Magic, the fourth book in her Women of the Otherworld series. They’ve all been pretty good, and there are a couple more to go.
On the plane last week I read Rachel Caine’s first Weather Warden book, and I have the rest of those on order.
I still have Martin’s A Feast for Crows to read. I’ve been putting it off because once I finish it I’ll be stuck waiting for the next one.
Water for Elephants, and Saving Fish from Drowning. I generally don’t read two books at a time, but I started “Saving” on a flight, and never finished it, although it is worth finishing. Then before I could finish it, I got “Water” from Amazon, and started it. “Water” is really good, and I plan to finish it before I go back to “saving”.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift; I’ve been reading this off and on for a few months, and I’m enjoying the back half of the book more than the beginning.
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin; I really, really like her style of writing and her approach to connecting the lives of Lincoln’s presidential election opponents. I’m having a hard time deciding whether I’ll read another of her books next or if I’ll read the Library of America’s collection of Lincoln’s writings next.
I recently finished *Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit * by P.G. Wodehouse. I love Wodehouse.
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World. It is pretty fascinating, the writing style is really good and engaging so far. The battle over AC versus DC as the primary mode to electrify the planet. Don’t tell me how it ends! My money is on AC.
I have all these really good, thought provoking books sitting around waiting for me to read them. Instead, I just cannot seem to keep myself from going through Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books like they’re the last bowl of candy in the world. I’m seriously concerned, because it takes me less than an evening to go through one and even trying to pace myself I’ve still eaten the first six already.
