Hmm - had this one on the list, but after seeing your thoughts & being bit disappointed with the first 2 Maze Runner books (The Maze Runner & The Scorch Trials) … I’m not sure anything I read in this genre for awhile can survive being compared to the Chaos Walking series. 
I’m savoring Patrick Ness’ The New World - a freebie Kindle short story that’s kind of a prequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go
Okay, I lied… I got started on Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, but I misplaced it and in the meantime, started reading J.P. Donleavy’s The Ginger Man… which is a lot more fun!
I’m sure I’ll get to Koestler eventually.
The Confession was confusing, as I’m sure it was meant to be, but the number of people pretending to be each other and who had killed each other and who were not really dead was just too much.
Now reading The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney, about a half-Gypsy private investigator looking for a Gypsy woman who disappeared seven years before. This is her second novel; her first, The Tenderness of Wolves, won a Costa Award (formerly a Whitbread Award). This is outstanding so far.
Finished The Two Towers, now moving on to The Return of the King. I had forgotten what a quick read the books are.
Cheap great book alert! The Kindle Daily Deal for today only is Jim Lynch’s The Highest Tide. A bargain at $0.99! This is a yearning, literate bildungsroman set on the Puget Sound. I absolutely loved it!
Finished *Kill the Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel *the second in the Sandman Slim series.
It wasn’t as good as the first, but I still enjoyed it and will read the next.
Finished The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel. I have read and reread Conan Doyle enough times to say that I would have spotted that this was not written by him - but it was pretty well done anyway. I liked it enough that I will read any other Holmes’ books by the same author (if any come out.) This was, perhaps, a little darker than Conan Doyle’s, but was well crafted and mostly stayed true to the characters.
I will again recommend June Thomson’s short story collections, starting with The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes. The best pastiches I’ve ever read - almost as good as Conan Doyle’s best, I’d say - true to his style, and very good mysteries too.
Just finished Jay Mechling’s On My Honor, about Boy Scouting in American society, and it was pretty good (despite too many digressions for touchy-feely sociology jargon). I’ve returned to George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons after several months, and have found it surprisingly easy to get back into the groove.
Reread *The Art of Racing in the Rain *by Garth Stein. Still awesome. This book has caused a large number of dogs to be named Enzo.
I said I would read The Snowball until I got my hold for A Clash of Kings from the library. It arrived rather quickly - I’m almost done with it, then I’ll go back to The Snowball.
Finished it last night.
Apart from the need for a little more editing, as noted above, I was pretty unhappy with the final chapters.
Sadly for everyone, the exact details of what actually happened were never fully established, so there will always be unanswered questions about the case.
So, in the last chapters, the author speculates. That’s fine, and it’s clearly established that he’s speculating. However, he then comes up with what he claims to be an authentic “lost account” of the “only victim who survived” and leads us up to the point where the victim is helpless and dying.
And then stops. You know, how this person managed to live to tell the tale is actually a pretty important part of his story, don’t you think? You’re just going to leave him hanging there, dying in the clutches of a serial killer, and not actually mention anything at all about how this person survived, are you?
So either the author doesn’t know how this “witness” got away, or he does and he’s not saying. Sorry, but if you want me to believe that this is an authentic account of the only victim that lived, you’re going to have to let me know how that was achieved. Because otherwise, I’m going to have to conclude that this “witness account” is bullshit. Extremely frustrating.
…so I then moved on to The Surgeon of Crowthorne (Published in the US as The Professor and the Madman) because I know Simon Winchester is a quality author and the book is a bit of a classic.
That one looks good; thanks for the recommendation.
I just finished David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, which accelerated slowly but once it got up to speed, was a book I never wanted to end. Really great–I’m going to read some of his other stuff.
Looking forward to reading Elizabeth George’s latest–I’ve been a fan for years. wonderlust, I agree with Eleanor of Aquitaine that all of the stories are free-standing, though there are some story lines that develop over the series (like Havers’ relationship with Hadiyyah and Azhar), and some major events have later repercussions. Also, many people think the early-to-mid stuff is better than the late stuff. I personally always like to start series at the beginning so I don’t miss anything.
Thanks for your comments. I keep meaning to get to* Cloud Atlas*, so I’m moving it to next up.
I’m like you, wanting to start at the beginning of any series, but I’m learning to be realistic about the chances of ever reading all of them. I’d hate to miss the best of them. Despite that, I’ll probably start at the beginning.
I’m trying to figure out how, after spending 2 days culling about 300 books I’ll never read from my shelves, my shelves remain full!
They spawn while you sleep.
I’m keeping a book-journal this year. I got into a discussion with a friend who said that she had almost read 30 books last year; I said that was surprisingly few for someone as smart as she is. She replied that she often gets too busy to keep up with her reading, which I could sympathize with. ‘How many books did you read last year?’ was her challenge - I couldn’t answer. When I have the time to read as much as I like, probably two books a week. When I’m too busy to spare any time, like last October through December, maybe one or two a month. Anyway, net result - we are both keeping book-journals this year, and we’ll compare notes in early January of 2013.
So far this year, I’ve read (or re-read) -
I, Claudius by Robert Graves - an old favourite and standby;
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (which was delightful - Flavia De Luce is a truly wicked creation!) and
The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll, which was fantastic! What a warped mind!
I just started Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard this morning.
For purely budgetary reasons, I’m also trying to restrain myself from buying any books, at least until I can honestly say I’ve read everything in the house. I’ll see how long that particular restriction lasts!
Sounds like you and your friend should sign up on goodreads.com.
Some of his writing is the scariest stuff I’ve read. He does indeed have a warped mind. I’m so glad he does.
Good on ya! I’ve kept a book journal since 1994. Since then I’ve read about 40 books a year, on average.
So I just fininished the Wool books 1-4 by Hugh Howey, and I can’t wait for the next installment. this is a post apocalyptic story about a community that lives in a Silo about two hundered storeys underground. the air outside is toxic, and punishment is meted out through expulsion to the outside worlds. I’m not doing this story any justice, I just wanted to say I haven’t been this sucked in or enthralled by a world in a long, long time. Each book is a short story, and book five comes out next month.
I must be on a post apocalyp[tic kick, because up next is Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot.
After that it’s Longitude byDava Sobel and Gun With Occasional Music by Lethem.
Since I had yesterday off, I read about half of The Satanic Verses. So far I’m intrigued: I like Rushie’s version of the connection between angels and humans, and I’m enjoying the way he’s used a few images and turns of phrase to link these seperate stories together.