I’m currently enjoying Flashman in the Great Game.
I am finally reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Now, I’m an atheist and I’m about 12% in (according to the Kindle), does it ever get good? I mean, I guess he’s preaching to the choir but it just seems almost just random rambling so far.
I’ve just started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She was a black American woman who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, but cells taken from her tumor (without her permission) became the first immortal human cells to be grown in a laboratory, and they are still alive and in common use today: the HeLa cell line.
Finished Pack Of Lies the second in Laura Anne Gilman’s Paranormal Scene Investations series.
This one was much slower than the first and I had a hard time finishing. The last quarter picked up some and it ended OK - I’ll probably read the next in the series, but if it is as slow as this one, I will put the series away.
I enjoyed it. It’s written from the POV of a journalist interviewing survivors of the war. It’s been a while since I last read it but I think there were analogues of Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and I think Oprah among the people he interviewed but most of the others were combat vets and regular people recounting the horrors they went through. He travels all over the world since it was a global zombie war (the first zombie, Patient Zero, was from China) so it’s not so American-centric.
I don’t really like ‘serious’ zombie stories because I can’t take them seriously so for me to enjoy this book is saying something.
I’m just waiting for the inevitable movie adaptation or HBO mini series.
I’m going to have to second* In The Garden Of Beasts*. I am about 2/3rds of the way through it and its ongoing narrative about an American ambassador and his family living in and politically dealing with 1933-34 Germany that is presented in a captivatingly mundane way that starts to grab you when the observations of the gradual implementation of nationalism laws and the persecution of Jews robs this priviledged family of their preconceived notions about their self-preservation and their dealings with friends, romantic interests, etc.
Two thumbs up so far!
Gave The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton about 100 pages and dumped it. It’d be a good beach read, if beach read means the only book at hand and you don’t feel like walking back to the hotel for something else. Too much repetition (Nell doesn’t know her family!) and the constant time-shifting added nothing to the story. It should be used to build tension but it was just annoying.
Started Dodworth by Sinclair Lewis. Saw the movie awhile back and wanted the whole story.
I just finished a pair of old Ellery Queen mysteries, and am now in the middle of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.
(For the past year or so, I’ve been alternating between mysteries and books on the Modern Library’s Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century.)
It’s going okay now, but I swear, when I first started… for the first time since high school, I found myself wondering, “Do they still publish Monarch Notes?” When the narrator is a retarded man with no concept of time, it’s initially tough to figure out who people are and WHEN the actions described are happening. It gets easier as you go on.
I’ve been hitting that list on and off for a few years. If you’re wishing for Monarch Notes now, wait until you get to Henry James!
Finished Hexed the second in the Iron Druid series. I very much enjoyed it. I think fans of Jim Butcher should give this a go - it has the feel of the Dresden books and I look forward to the next installment.
Justice; What’s the Right Thing to Do? very densely written, so much so I have to watch the lecture on YouTube then read some of the passages again. That being said, it is very darn interesting. He has shot hole into my simple understanding of Libertarianism. By the time this is over, I doubt any theory of justice will hold any water at all.
I’m reading Nesbo’s The Snowman right now. I really liked his other three U.S. releases - The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil’s Star - but so far, The Snowman is the creepiest. He does a good job of building suspense. I’m disappointed that *The Redeemer *was not released in the U.S., though. It’s the book in the series that’s between The Devil’s Star and *The Snowman *and, apparently, some pretty big character developments happen in it. I’m considering buying an actual paper book from the U.K. so I can read it and figure out what the hell happened to a couple of my favorite characters.
ETA: it cracks me up that the division head or chief or whatever he is is named Bjarne Moller.
I had a glorious week of vacation where I did little but do little repairs on the apartment, listen to thunderstorms and read. I finished:
A Room with a View, by E.M. Forester. I’m familiar with the movie but never got around to the book, which was just delightful. I do prefer the movie’s ending to the book’s however, although the book’s ending is probably more realistic.
On the Beach, by Nevil Shute. I love post-apocalyptic fiction so felt like I should read this one. I didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it. It was a little one-dimensional. I don’t think I’ll be recommending it to anyone.
The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott. After 30 pages, I was going to give up on this book, thinking it was a bit too silly. I’m glad I stuck with it, because it turned into a quite enjoyable YA novel. I’ll pick up the next in the series as I find them.
I’m currently reading The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fford. While I like it mostly, I think it also seems a little too… proud of its cleverness.
Just zipped through James May’s Lego House, about the full-size, all-Lego house he, friends and volunteers built in Sept. 2009 (James May and his full-size Lego house nobody wants | Daily Mail Online). Very cool. What a shame they tore it down after just five days!
I thought On the Beach was very powerful. The last scene with the young parents poisoning themselves and their infant was particularly chilling. But in the awful logic of their post-WWIII world, it made heartbreaking sense.
The Eyre Affair is my book club’s next book. Haven’t started it yet, though.
I started the series and was really enjoying it. Then some where along the way it just got tedious. I may pick it up again some day.
Re-reading the original James Bond series by Ian Flemming, wonderfully nostalgic.
I ended up giving up on The God Delusion, it just seemed too slapdash put together. And while I agreed with the points, I couldn’t get through the style.
I just startedFeed (Newsflesh Book 1) by Mira Grant It’s setting up some obvious plot points that I hope will be twisted around. Part 2 was just released so I thought I’d pick up this one and see if part 2 will be worth it. The style is pretty good so far though.
I recently purchased “Duma Key” by Stephen King at a rummage sale. I read it through and didn’t find it scary in the least bit, but still thought it was a good read because I enjoy King’s writing style.
I received a copy of WesleyThe Owl and have been enjoying it. However, I’m nearing the end of the book, and it’s about an animal: the inevitable awaits.
I bought it a year ago, picked it up and put it back down. I do intend to read it though - it just didn’t catch me that time. (Sometimes a book will catch me, sometimes it is better to wait until later and try again.)