Just got Michael Connelly’s *The Scarecrow *from the Library. Page 3.
Still reading The Strain, but I picked up Dan Simmon’s The Terror as well.
It was recommended to me by a friend, so I didn’t do my usual research or read reviews before starting it. I was quite surprised to find out it’s a historical horror novel! I read the first page and was all “Wha…? Northwest Passage? Ships? 1848?” But I got into things quite quickly.
Just started on The Well-Dressed Ape: a natural history of myself, by Hannah Holmes. From the Library Journal Review:
So far, so good. This is one of those books that causes me to stop and read interesting bits aloud to anyone who may be nearby.
Started The Leather Maiden by Joe Lansdale and put it down after a few pages. I’ve enjoyed Lansdale’s books for many years, but either he’s changed or I have. He uses too many similes. Sometimes an adjective is enough. I dumped his last book quickly too (Lost Echoes) – it started with two men in bed with a dead woman.
So I picked up Winter’s Tale and was immediately entranced by the horse.
I picked up Silent In the Grave by Deanna Raybourn after Twickster mentioned it in this thread – great recommendation, I liked it a lot and agree with the assessment that it is a completely unrealistic genre book, filled with characters with 21st century views living in the 19th century … but still very fun if you can suspend your disbelief on all those points.
One funny side note – I find myself wondering if Deanna Raybourn is the author’s real name, because if it is, I don’t think the poor woman had any choice but to become a writer of historical romances. Her name reminds me of the “glamour” names my friends and I used to make up for ourselves when we were playing at being actresses.
I also finished a very cute girls YA book, Audrey, Wait about a teenage girl whose ex-boyfriend writes a song about how they broke up, and then the song takes off and becomes a pop hit. This was a good, funny quick read – fairly mindless, a little bit like the Princess Diaries in tone.
Got the background covered. And this book so far looks to be entertaining as well as educational.
I finished “Night” already. It was very good, but was also very short and left me wanting more. I understand that it must have been a very difficult book to write, but I found myself wanting more details about him, his family, and more reflection about what he had experienced.
I decided to pick up “For Whom the Bell Tolls” next. I hope I don’t hate it, as I don’t usually enjoy books about war. But since it’s Hemingway, it can’t be all bad, right?
“Winter’s Tale” is continuing to interest me. Can’t wait to get some more of it read today.
I just finished One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It was complete and utter crap.
It’s about the aftermath of an EMP device being detonated over the US and it’s effects on a small NC town. To say it’s a tad unrealistic is pushing things. The EMP knocks out practically everything, including every car built after about 1980, battery powered toys and gas-powered generators. Yet later, there are working gas-powered generators. And dozens of people die after one day because they don’t have air conditioning in their houses and had to walk a few miles from their broken down car to their home. And… and… and…
Honestly, I don’t know why I finished it.
Now I’m reading a YA novel, Hunger by Michael Grant. It’s a sequel to Gone and continues the story of a small CA town where everyone over 14 has disappeared. It’s awesome so far.
I finished “Winter’s Tale.” After loving about the first two-thirds, the last part got to be a bit much. About 500 pages in, I was ready for it to be over. I still liked it overall, but thought a lot of fat could have been trimmed to make it a tighter story. I skimmed quite a bit toward the end.
I’m now starting “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” It’s another one that has been on my “to-read” list at Goodreads forever. I’m trying to clear some out, but keep adding more!
It is part of a trilogy … you may wish to read Dawn and Day. They are more thematic than actual sequels, though.
Finished that, then read *Still Life *by Joy Fielding, just finished Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography. Still Life: Woman is hit by car, lies in coma, hears people talking and learns what happened to her.
Her husband had a hit put on her and now is planning to finish the job. Can she wake up in time to thwart the plan? Signs point to yes!
Hound Dog: These guys are 76 years old and have been writing songs together since they were 17, and never had any kind of falling-out. They were 19 when they wrote “Hound Dog!”
Carter Beats the Devil. Somehow I missed this book, although it was a pretty big deal now that I’ve looked it up. I saw a book recently with Charlie Chaplin on the cover, which caught my eye, and *that book’s *the “next novel by the author of Carter Beats the Devil.” So I got that, and so far it’s pretty cool. About a magician in a slightly altered history where President Harding died at a show of his. It also has elements of magical realism - a little bit.
I’ve been reading The Wizard of Oz …the book! Yessir. I’ve never even thumbed through it before. It’s very spare and innocent and most definitely a children’s book. It appears to be written for, hm, fourth graders.
It is charming, though. Did you know the Tin Man was once a real man, and his body was replaced, piece by piece, by tin? True! The Wicked Witch cursed his ax and it cut off his body a piece at a time.
I didn’t know that. Thanks! I will check them out. More books on the list …
I LOVE this book. I’ve been waiting for Glen David Gold to write another novel for years.
Glad you liked it!
Also, if you like that sort of thing, I strongly recommend Primo Levi. I’d start with The Periodic Table. It’s about more than simply the Holocaust - really, it’s a work of indescribable beauty as well as horror.
http://www.amazon.ca/Periodic-Table-Primo-Levi/dp/0805210415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246051738&sr=8-1
I’m so fickle. I put down Winter’s Tale in favor of The Leather Maiden. It’s turned out to be quite the nifty little thriller. I dumped it earlier because some of Lansdale’s similes annoyed me, but I was just being bitchy. A wise man once said “Read it – don’t grade it.”
I read The Lady and the Panda by Vicki Croke, based on Gulo gulo’s recommendation, and it was really engrossing - story of the American women who brought the first live pandas out of China. It should some with some sort of warning label on the cover, though, because the pictures in the book were so cute I was involuntarily shrieking like an 8 year old girl.
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell was also good, as expected. Ye olde colonial days.
Marcelo In the Real World by Francisco Stock, this was only so-so. YA novel narrated by a teenage boy with Asperger Syndrome. Interesting premise (his dad essentially bullies him into agreeing to be a summer intern at dad’s law firm) but overall it felt a little ham-handed.
Currently in the middle of American Eve by Paula Uruburu, the story of Evelyn Nesbit and the Stanford White murder, which is pretty crazy.
I hope you like it as much as my wife and I and our respective bookclubs did! FYI, the movie is due out Aug. 14 and will star Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Here’s the trailer, which has some minor spoilers: Apple TV - Apple TV