OK, I know that I am VERY early, but starting tomorrow I will be out for a while, possibly a week, and so I am getting this started.
I am reading The Kingmaker’s Sword. It is book one of the Runeblades trilogy. I have had it for years and did not read it. Sometimes that happens. I’ll buy a book and for whatever reason others will catch my eye and it will sit and sit - and sit. And then I’ll pick it up and find - like I did here - that it is enjoyable.
I’m about 3/4 through A Game of Thrones. I really like it. I already bought A Clash of Kings, so I should be starting it fairly soon. I’ve also got some Punisher trade paperbacks still to read.
1945 by Robert Conroy. Bought in frustration at Turtledove’s In at the Death STILL not being out in paperback…
It’s enjoyable so far.
I am reading I Lost It At The Movies, a collection of the early film writing of Pauline Kael. It is one of those things where I: 1. really enjoy reading what she has to say about movies, even when I don’t agree with her, and 2. realize that in some ways, she is a raving lunatic and find that oddly fascinating.
Also, The Police at the Funeral, another of the Margery Allingham classic British mysteries. It’s formulaic, but pretty good reading if you like that sort of thing.
I have these three out of the library right now:
Life in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lilith’s Brood by Octavia E. Butler
Spiritgate by Kate Elliott
I have 100 pages left of London by Edward Rutherfurd, after which I’l see which book strikes my fancy. Its a nice mix of Fiction, Dystopia and Fantasy to choose from before school starts up next week.
After those are up I’l dredge through last months thread to see what was interesting and recommended!
Chiming in early so I’ll be subscribed to the thread. But come next Sunday (June 1), I’ll still be on John Updike’s Rabbit at Rest, which I started yesterday, as I reported in the May thread.
It’s been sitting on my shelf for two years, but I’ve finally started on Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell…it’s a philosophical book about the way the human mind makes up its mind about things at a blink of the eye.
I just finished up Bread and Dreams by Jonatha Ceeley–it’s a good take on mid-1800s New York, lots of accuracy in the little details–and Lindsey Davis’s A Body in the Bathhouse: she’s always hilarious. Next up, I have to finish The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell before I return it tonight, and work on Nefertiti by Michelle Moran.
I just finished Valor’s Trial last night. Another enjoyable book, although I’m not sure I liked how the author ended it. I went back to the Recluce books for a while since I read that one entirely too fast. I devour new books when I get the chance, so I’m purposefully slowing myself down a bit. Otherwise I’ll fly through the other two new ones I have and be left with nothing again. I also need to take a look at the recommendation Eleanor gave me in the last thread.
Reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and really enjoying it so far. It bounces back & forth between memoirs written by Brigham Young’s 19th wife & a modern 19th wife of a polygamist who is suspected of killing her husband. I don’t know much about Mormon history so I can’t say how accurate it is but so far it’s been a very interesting read.
I guess we’ve abandoned the May thread? Okey dokey.
Miss Margaret Ridpath and the Dismantling of the Universe by Don Robertson. I’m gonna give away the plot because I doubt anyone will read it.
Most of the action happens in the 40’s and 50’s. When the book starts, Margaret’s sister and her husband and another BIL are talking about her. Margaret is dead, and so are a few other people. They’re trying to decide if Margaret was brave.
Flashback to the beginning. Margaret is a very attractive woman (with a large bosom). She’s afraid of silly things – bees, horseradish, and canoes – and she thinks this makes her different, somehow abnormal. She sees other people as made of iron and herself as made of tinfoil. She just doesn’t get that everyone has insecurities. To compensate, she lives an orderly, dull life. She takes a job as a bookkeeper at a clothing store and she becomes very good at bridge.
Margaret falls in love when she’s 50. She breaks a tooth at a bridge tournament in New York City. One of the men in the tournament is a dentist and he takes her to his office and pulls the tooth. He says he loves her. He’s seen her at tournaments for years and has always loved her. He’s married. Margaret and Irv have a long, satisfying affair. They’ve been together for ten years and Irv takes her on vacation to London. Margaret feels safe and strong and secure. He decides it’s time to leave his wife and they decide to marry. He dies of a heart attack on a park bench.
Shortly after that, one of Margaret’s sisters dies and the sister’s husband professes his longstanding love for Margaret. She thinks it’s disgusting but she gives up and has an affair with him.
At this point, Robertson introduces us to a psychopath named Lee and his followers. I skipped a lot of this – it was ultra violent and kinda disgusting. Lee and his gang don Nixon masks and decide to rob a bank. Margaret is in the bank. Lee shoots a bank guard. Margaret picks up the guard’s gun and starts shooting at Lee and the gang. They shoot back. Margaret is hit and bleeding. She kills three of them and follows Lee outside the bank where she shoots him twice in the face. As she’s dying, she tries to decide whether she was finally made of iron.
Robertson spends a lot of time with a couple other characters – Wanda Ripple and Pauline Jones – troubled women who end up as caretakers for Margaret’s widowed mother.
I liked the book but it could have been shorter. Too much of it was taken up with Margaret’s introspection, what Irv called navel gazing.
Just finishing up Consider Phlebus, by Ian Banks. It’s my first culture novel that I’ve read, and I really liked the Space Opera-ey goodness. I’m definately picking up Matter this week sometime.
Also on the shelf…Darkmans, by Nichole Barker. I just love the fact idea of history just being a joke repeating itself thought the eons.
And, I just picked up Ficciones by Borges. This one might even make it to the top of the pile, it just looks so fascinating…
Yep, my apologies, as I mentioned in the original post, I will be away (leaving in about an hour) for up to a week. I wanted to get the thread started.
Ficciones is perhaps the best collection of short stories ever written.
HEY.
Oops. Sorry!
I left a lot out.
(I really am sorry. I knew you were a Robertson fan so I should have put that in a spoiler box.)
Ya know, I read these threads periodically, but don’t think I contribute that much. Okay, here goes - this is May stuff, but since this appears to be the current thread, I will put it here:
Bob Dylan: Chronicles, Volume 1 - reviewed in this SDMB Thread - brilliant
**Howard Zinn: The People’s History of American Empire ** - note, this is not his more-well-known book. This is a *comic-book-form *of some key chapters or sections of that book. If you haven’t heard of Zinn’s book, it is a description of the U.S.'s rise to power - often on the backs of indigenous people’s or under-developed countries that couldn’t resist. The comic book form makes it easy to read - the messages can be tough; you have to be willing to let go of the U.S.'s preferred narrative - that we are the land of the free and our model of government is superior, etc. - when laid out without that narrative, our rise to power was similar to many other country’s course throughout history…
**R.Crumb and somebody else: Kafka ** - an illustrated biography, including brief comic-book depictions of some of Kafka’s most famous works. It was about Kafka and illustrated by Crumb - what more do you need to know? It was fascinating - I just finished in a day or so ago - and I learned more about Kafka’s life and how the Jewish storytelling tradition factored into his approach to his stories, but as always, Crumb’s illustrations stand out.
**Tony Bacon: The Illustrated Encylopedia of Electric Guitars ** - Amazon link here - something every guitar geek should not be without…
Currently active in the queue are:
The Reavers - George MacDonald Fraser His last book is a hilarious tale of derring-do in 17th Century Scotland. Quite funny.
Forthcomings - Megan McCafferty The fourth Jessica Darling novel.
Next up are:
Grantville Gazette 4 - Eric Flint More in the **163_ ** Shared Universe.
In the Courts of the Crimson Kings - S.M. Stirling - The “sequel” to 2006’s The Sky People.
Caliphate - Tom Kratman - A futuristic techno-thriller.
I’m currently on the 6th book of the Wheel of time series, the Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan.
So far I’m digging the series, but hugely long series are my weakness. Sword of Truth, the Dark Tower. Any other lovely long series out there?
No prob, AuntiePam. It’ll be a while till I get to it, so I’ll have forgotten your precis by then anyway. I have too many other books clamoring for my attention right now!
I finished *The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square * and now consider myself overeducated on the history of slavery in the New World. I get that this information is crucial to understanding the culture of the city, but I didn’t need to be reminded quite so many times that Slavery is Bad. Did the author really think his audience would be picking this book up to read a defense of slavery? Otherwise, quite fascinating, especially the parts about cultural influences on music.