Lately I’ve been doing more re-reading than anything, mostly later Heinlein novels (last read twenty years ago) as a friend just discovered them. I finally noticed that Heinlein was about three years older than my grandfather. Kinda threw me for a loop. “Papa could have been thinking about the world like that?”
Just started “The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove” by Christopher Moore. I thought I’d read everything, but this one seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle.
After that, “Monster” by A. Lee Martinez. It’ll be the sixth I’ve read by him and I cannot recommend his work enough. Every book is a new experience. Light, smart, funny and each book a complete departure from the ones before. Werewolves and witches and ogres. An automated noir detective. A Sorcerer’s slave. Interesting stuff, and funny. The first is “Gil’s All-Fright Diner”, but they can be read in any order.
If you like Arthuriana generally, permit me to recommend Thomas Berger’s Arthur Rex, a witty, funny, engaging, somewhat tongue-in-cheek but basically respectful retelling of the tales of Camelot. I discovered it in high school and re-read it every decade or so. Berger’s probably best known for Little Big Man, but Arthur Rex is very, very good, too. Highly recommended.
Also forgot to add… I just finished, for my book club, Henry James’s 1903 novella “The Beast in the Jungle,” which I found very disappointing. The plot:
A nebbishy guy in early-1900s London thinks he has some great destiny ahead of him, and confides this to a quiet, beautiful woman who is not quite of his social strata but who obviously loves him. They grow old and she eventually dies of some vague illness, with him never having realized her true feelings or asked her to marry him. Finally he realizes that his destiny was to have been her loving husband, but he let the opportunity slip through his fingers. D’oh!
It’s on my Amazon wish list, marked “sdmb” – you may well have been the person to recommend it whenever that was. (It’s deep on said wish list ) I think it’s currently out of print, though it was at least a year ago that I checked.
Thanks for the tip – I’ll definitely get around to it, though I’ll probably wait a while. (Does anyone space out things they love that there are a finite number of? I’m that way with Dickens novels, though my sister and I were talking about Bleak House the other night, and I think I’ll Kindle that. I like having certain things in reserve for the future, rather than greedily blasting through a particular author’s works or all really good novels on a particular theme at once.)
I’m about halfway through The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov which is one of the weirdest and best books I’ve ever read.
After that (once my husband has finished it, and if I get a chance to read it once the new baby arrives) I’m going to read Stephen King’s The Stand- irishfella is loving it and wants to be able to talk to me about it.
I think that is enough to keep me occupied for the next wee while…
It probably was me; I’ve mentioned it on the boards before. It’s out of print but you can pick up a copy either from Amazon or Alibris.com; they’re out there. Or get it through interlibrary loan. Once you’ve read it, PM me or start a thread - I’d be interested to see what you think about it.
irishgirl, you’re in for a treat with The Stand. One of King’s very best: ambitious, scary, thought-provoking and even funny at times.
Jeff Guinn - “Go Down Together: the True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde”. I’ve always been fascinated by them. Not much in here I didn’t already know, and sort of repetitious. All I can say is, they spent most of their time driving very fast, great distances, thousands of miles, in dozens of different stolen cars. And they both were real clothes horses, buying fancy outfits and having them dry-cleaned. With the price of gas, the cost of things, and the sheer number of cars on the road - such a crime career would be impossible to repeat today! They would have to rob Ft. Knox just to break even. Not to mention everyone cell phoning and twittering…
Just finished Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was. I quite enjoyed it. He brought everything together nicely in the end.
Number Ten Ox and Master Li set out to solve the mystery of the children from Ox’s village ages 9-13 falling ill. They go on to investigate a much-older mystery.
I’m reading Rip It Up And Start Again, by Simon Reynolds. It’s a history of the various post-punk bands and labels. It’s a rollicking good read if you’re interested in the period.
) I think it’s currently out of print, though it was at least a year ago that I checked.