I thought about it, but I haven’t read the book myself. The reviews were all pretty bad. Hell, I didn’t like Cornwell back when she was supposed to be good.
I was worried that you’d come back and say you thought it was great. I’d have had to scratch you off my list of Dopers Whose Book Recommendations Can Be Trusted.
And that would plunge me into the Valley of Despair. No, take it from me, it’s Shite. I’m so grateful to myself I got it from the library instead of buying it. I can’t return it fast enough: I may have to make a special trip just to ditch it.
Finished Of Mice and Men today. Picked up The Blue Castle at the library.
When I’m done with that, I’m going to find Ladies of Missalonghi to compare-n-contrast.
I’ve finished A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell. Break my heart, will ya!
I looked at some reviews at Amazon. There were a few 1 and 2 star reviews, which surprised me. Readers find the damnedest things to bitch about. “Too many characters! I couldn’t keep them straight!” And one who complained that a major character was introduced toward the end of the book, which didn’t happen. If you think Simon the British paratrooper was a major character, you weren’t paying attention.
Started The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and I think it’s quite good. A bit more “literary” than I expected, but it’s not the annoying kind of literary – more the “author pays attention to words and their meanings” literary.
I’m about 1/3 of the way through it. Most of these people are going to die, aren’t they? I’m fretting about it already, and my husband is saying, “So why, again, are you reading the Holocaust book?”
Your husband is wise. I asked myself that same question every time I picked up the book.
I hate to use the word (it’s so Oprah), but it really is an uplifting story. I wasn’t sorry I read it, and will probably read it again.
I finished Solomon’s Jar, the second in the Rogue Angel series. It wasn’t bad. A little action, a little mysticism. Kind of a female Indiana Jones. I guess it will be my filler series, for when I have nothing else.
Was going to go for something a little more deep, but picked up Soon I Will Be Invincible. I have had my eye on it for a while, but was reluctant because of just how terrible the similar-themed book Those Who Walk In Darkness is.
So far it has caught me and I think I will enjoy it.
Finished *Life’s Little Annoyances: True Tales of People Who Just Can’t Take It Anymore * by Ian Urbina; then read *This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor * by Susan Wicklund; just finished *Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home * by Kim Sunee (whine, whine, whine). Next up, Oxygen by Carol Cassella. Haven’t cracked the cover yet.
Finished the book on the Mitford sisters. I’m now 2/3 of the way through Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic by Irene Gammel. It is newly published. So far it is a very thorough examination of the influences in Montgomery’s creation of Anne and other major characters along with the physical settings. It even contains photographs of the young female model who influenced Montgomery’s physical description of Anne, along with the story of what became of the model. That, in and of itself, is interesting.
I had to cry a little when I finished The Book Thief the other night, and then I laughed at myself for thinking a book set during the Holocaust could turn out any other way.
Saturday I started to read Final Exits: the illustrated encyclopedia of how we die, by Michael Largo. At first, I was really liking it and reading bits of it aloud to my husband. After a short time, the frequent typos started to get on my nerves. Then I ran across a sentence which stated that cruise ship companies literally bend over backwards to please their customers. When I got to the part about the people of Jonestown drinking Kool-Aid, I was all out of patience and had to say fuck it. It was a good book idea, and for a while I could read with a grain of salt, but if no one cared enough about this book to get this shit right, I don’t care about it either.
I’m currently reading the last of the Garnethill trilogy, Resolution by Denise Mina. So far, this is the best of them, because it’s less about the crime-solving and more about the problems in Maureen’s life, which I find more interesting.
I liked Soon I Will Be Invincible. Wasn’t what I was expecting at all.
And the Rogue Angel books are very hit or miss. Some are ok, some are blah. The last two were just awful.
I’m on the third book of the Lost Fleet series. I somehow left Armed and Magical behind when I went on vacation, so had to start re-reading the other series instead.
I’m reading The Eternity Artifact by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. despite warnings from a coworker. I’m enjoying so far.
I’m also reading "Howard’s End by Forster just because I feel I should.
I’m currently reading The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Graves. Ah, two-thousand-year-old gossip. Good stuff.
Is that Robert Graves by chance? If so, his Claudius the God is next up in my queue after I finish my current read. (Read *I, Claudius * a few years ago.)
That was a…strange…book. I liked it, but can’t re-read it. Which is unusual for me.
Thanks to Delphica, I’m reading March by Geraldine Brooks. It won the Pulitzer in 2006. “March” is Mr. March of Little Women, which I’ve never read but it doesn’t matter. It could be the story of any man. Well, any man who’s inflinchingly honest about his shortcomings – there aren’t enough of those! I can see why some Little Women fans might be unhappy with it though.
That’s my outdoor book. Indoors I’m still reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by somebody Wrobleski (sp?). It’s a coming of age story set in the 1950’s and later, about a mute boy in a close-knit family that breeds dogs. Apparently it’s like Hamlet. News to me, I don’t know any Shakespeare. Some of the Amazon reviewers complain about the abundant detail but I love it. I can feel the snow and the cold and see the dogs’ breath – it’s like I’m in Edgar’s skin.
Back to The Baroque Cycle eventually.
finished Julian Barnes’ Staring at the Sun. Don’t bother. It starts out as a quirky and interesting character study and goes nowhere. The last section contains a lot of philosophical blather which is inferior to even the worst threads in GD. It does have an interesting idea of what the internet might have become. (It was written in 1983)
I’m starting Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. Good so far but I’m really only a few pages in.
I just finished *Letter to a Christian Nation * and am on the home stretch of God is not Great. Then I need to get back to Philip Roth’s I Married a Communist.
Currently reading The Horror in the Museum, which is a collection of stories either collaborated on or other people’s work heavily revised by H.P. Lovecraft. Meh. The two I’ve read so far are more like story fragments.
I picked up from the library Parenting beyond beleif. a resource for parents who wish to raise their children without religion.
So far, I am liking it.