I just finished Founding Father, by Richard Brookhiser, about…surprise! George Washington. A small book which I started a few months ago and put aside after my dear cat chewed the better part of the cover off.
I’m reading Skippy Dies by Paul Murray and am thoroughly enjoying it
Just beginning Flashman’s Lady. It ought to get a lot better after he finishes describing this tedious game of cricket!
Twice Have the Trumpets Sounded - an acount of the second season of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival by Robertson Davies and Tyrone Guthrie.
I’m listening to this on audiobook right now. I’m enjoying it too and finding it marvelously bizarre.
I’m now midway through Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men.” Surprisingly, it was never required reading in any of my high school or college classes, and I’ve never seen either of the movie versions (though, knowing a bit about Huey Long, I can sort of see where the story is going).
Just finished The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives, by Leobard Mlodinow.
Terrific and readable book about how different concepts in probability were developed over the centuries. The “randomness” turns out to be more encouraging than you might think – for one thing, you’ll be less inclined to think famous people are anything special after you read this book. And, it includes several well-explained, fun “paradoxes” (really, examples of how our brains have evolved to make certain kinds of mistakes).
I bought a copy of that book, but I had put it aside until I had a chance to actually read Jane Eyre first. I’m looking forward to it now.
That one has a lot of Elspeth in it! It’s kind of shocking to see Flashy actually concerned about the welfare of another human being.
In honor of the holiday I watched the musical 1776, and now I’m reading American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph J. Ellis. It’s good, but I’m wondering if I should have read a straight Jefferson biography first. Most of what I know about him has come from reading about John Adams.
I just picked this up as well. Looking forward to starting it soon.
In the meantime, I finished A Game of Thrones last week and have moved on to A Clash of Kings. I’m loving the series so far.
Last night I started reading Game Of Thrones (for the first time).
I’ve got this one, and will read it right after I finish “All the King’s Men.”
That’s a great book! Concise but well-researched and lively. May I also recommend:
James Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man - Also a great bio. Read this to see just why Washington was so vital to the cause of American independence, and then how he practically invented the Presidency.
Garry Wills, Cincinnatus - Examines Washington as a man shaped by, and who became an icon of, the Enlightenment.
David McCullough, 1776 - Follows Washington as a determined and inspirational military leader during the darkest days of the Revolution.
Richard M. Ketchum, Victory at Yorktown - Explores Washington’s greatest triumph, in the 1781 battle which virtually ended the war.
Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton - A magnificent, highly readable profile of the brilliant but deeply flawed man, a key Washington advisor, who did more than anyone else to lay the groundwork for generations of American prosperity.
The Handmaids’ Tale is one of my favorite novels. And I simply adored The Count of Monte Christo. I picked it up during one of my “I must read all the classics that I never have” periods and was surprised just how must I enjoyed it. I generally struggle with a lot of the “classics”.
Wow, this sounds great. What do you think? Did/are you enjoy(ing) it?
I’m currently unemployed and have been reading all those books that I’ve bought and never read over the years. Nothing particularly outstanding but several that I would not recommend! I had two Dorothy Dunnett novels and started but still can’t get into either. She’s just too dense, girthy for me, I guess. I have, however, re-read most of my Gary Jennings and Margaret George novels for my historical fiction fix. Just finished a novel called Ahab’s Wife that was quite the struggle to get through…usually I would just give up but out of boredom…
I’m about to start The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Don’t know a thing about it!
Finished *Black Wings. *Madeline Black guides dead souls to the door (think Reaper from Dead Like Me, only not exactly.) But it turns out she is more and is soon embroiled in a fight with demons and other foul creatures.
It was light and quick moving and I will read the next in the series.
I’m re-reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I’m about halfway through The Waste Lands, the third book in the series. I think this is my third time through the whole series, but I think I’ve read The Gunslinger four or five times now. Every time I read it it makes a little more sense. The first time I read The Gunslinger I was scratching my head and asking myself “What the hell did I just read?”
Forgot to add: also finished Web of Lies (Elemental Assassin, Book 2). This is the second in the Gin Blanco assassin series. It too was a light and quick read and I will keep reading the series.
I finally decided to pick up George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. I’m a little more than halfway through it, and I think I have a new “go to” author, but have heard horror stories about how long it takes him to complete a novel. At least I’m able to enjoy the ones he’s already written while he writes the next one. 
Yes. It’s well written and the subject matter is interesting. It seems episodic when you start but settles down into a narrative before too long. The featured reviews on the Amazon page are pretty accurate I’d say.
I’ve just finished A Treasury of American Folklore and am now reading a stack of Nero Wolfe novels. After that I’ve got a box full of books to read, including a Game of THrones that waas given to me as a gift, and Henry Kuttner’s Mutant, a fix-up of his “Baldy” short stories.
Also just started The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which is OK so far. I tend not to like books about the South during the Civil Rights era because they’re usually so cliched and obvious (yes, I know that racism is bad and that black people were often treated very poorly), but I’ll keep at this for at least a little while longer.