Totally agree. What a great book. I’m one of those that missed it in high school and didn’t read it until I was older and didn’t have to. Thank god. I was blown away (and I know I would have hated it in high school just because it was popular and critically acclaimed).
Mockingbird fans should see this recent documentary, about Lee’s writing of the book, her tangential involvement in the making of the movie, her friendship with Truman Capote, and her eventual decision to withdraw from the public eye. Very interesting: Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (2010) - IMDb
Two of my favorites! I could recommend other Haldeman books, if you like. A very talented writer.
Just finished S.D. Perry’s Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Avatar, Book Two (nothing to do with the James Cameron movie), a pretty good followup to the end of the DS9 series. Also just started, on the recommendation of Little Nemo, Then Everything Changed by Jeff Greenfield, about three turning points of late 20th century American politics - JFK 1960, RFK 1968, and Ford 1976.
Finished *The Enterprise of Death *by Jesse Bullington, one of the oddest books I’ve read in quite a while.
A moorish slave is caught by a necromancer who forces her to learn his trade. He sets her free only for her to find out that he has cursed her and she must find a way to break the curse before 10 years is up. (Too much more would be serious spoilers.)
As I said, it was one of the oddest books I’ve read in a long time and while it is true that the author has obvious talent, the word ookie doesn’t even *begin *to describe the numerous sex scenes. Even if were to take out my preference for less sex in my fantasy, I still would not have been comfortable with *theses *scenes.
I won’t recommend it and won’t read more of his work.
I’m starting to believe fantasy novels should have an ookiness score. Sex with zombies? Five ookies and up, depending on the state of decay!
Just finished Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz. A very good read, enough so that I’m anxious to dig into others by the same author, esp. **Confederates in the Attic **and A Voyage Long and Strange.
The book is a travelogue and a work of historical research detailing the author’s retracement of Captain James Cook’s voyages in company with his hard-drinking sidekick, Austrailian Roger Williamson. The style reminds me of Paul Theroux with a sense of humor. Good detailing of Cook’s legacy and some poignant commentary on the effects of European settlement on indiginous populations.
SS
Only 5? Or is ookie scale logarithimic like the Richter scale?
I’ve gotten about halfway through The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and it’s turned into a bit of a chore. The prose is pretty, but the pacing is slow (despite the blurb on the cover describing it as a “page-turner”). I’ll finish it regardless, but I hope it picks back up pretty soon.
Finished Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, Book 5).
I won’t go into much detail - I’ll just say it was as good as the rest of the series, which I have enjoyed; mind candy though it is.
Finished The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder. Very good. About why these particular five people happened to be the ones to plunge to their deaths when an old rope bridge, built more than a century earlier by the Incas, gives way in old Peru. Such a slim, unassuming-looking little volume, and yet it ranks 37th on the Modern Library’s list of the top 100 novels of the 20th century.
Next up: Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy.
I’m reading Tom Sawyer for the first time. It is fun, but leisurely. I’m finding it very hard to reconcile Tom’s behavior with what I know about kids, though, although obviously it’s a very different time and place.
I also just read the first chapter of Tom Sawyer the other day, where he has picked a fight with a new kid for absolutely no reason. Tom would be in juvi right about now in this day and age.
I just finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell on a long road trip. What an incredibly powerful and painful read! This one will be rattling around in my mind for a long time.
I read it in my youth and much of his behavior rang true for me. The parts that didn’t, I made allowance for, assuming a different time.
I should make time to reread it - it has been more than 30 years.
Russell’s writing is fantastic and I liked that book very much, despite the fact that I don’t think it’s very good science fiction, and despite having some trouble suspending disbelief. For instance:
It’s ridiculous that anyone would make those assumptions about Emilio. It was obvious from the beginning that something very bad had happened to him, and that he had not in fact prostituted himself for the fun of it.
I love Lippman. I’ve read all her books. It’s amazing that she’s not better known.
I got an advance copy of e² when it first came out and enjoyed it; my library doesn’t have e. If it’s funnier, I’ll make more of an effort to find it.
Now reading Tunnel Vision, an old V.I. Warshawski book by Sara Paretsky, just because I picked it up for a buck, and then am going to start on an advance of The Reservoir, a fact-based mystery novel set in Richmond in 1885.
I had to read *The Sparrow *in college and I remember disliking it, but I can’t remember anything about it other than Jesuits in space. Maybe someday I’ll pick it up again.
Inspired by the fact that I’ve been playing LA Noire on XBox, I’ve been reading Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, and now The Little Sister.
Phillip Marlowe rocks.
I finished the sequel, “Escape from Hell” last week and I really enjoyed it.
I started From Colony to Superpower Saturday night. This one is going to take me a bit longer to read.
I’m in the middle of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, about a Hmong family’s clash with modern medicine when their daughter is treated for severe epilepsy at a California hospital. It’s just brilliant. Probably the best book I’ve read so far this year.
I loved that book. The sequel has also stuck with me for a long time.