I’m almost done with The Redbreast and like it enough that I’ll read more from him. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t pick up on the Bjarne Moller joke until you mentioned it.
That scene did make me sniffle a bit.
My main complaint with the book was that all the characters in the book seemed to share the same basic personality traits and the same bizarrely positive outlook on their inevitable future. While I don’t necessarily feel that society would instantly break down in the face of impending doom, I think a few people would go crazy and run amok. I just didn’t feel like I was getting the full picture of the situation.
I’m partway into Brothers Rivals Victors by Johnathan Jordan, which is about the often contentious relationships between George Patton, Ike Eisenhower and Omar Bradley before and during WWII. Yes, another WWII book, but its been really good so far. There are a lot of written correspondences that shed a lot of light into each man’s private feelings towards the other men.
A great read for any WWII buff.
It’s been awhile, but I thought there were at least passing references to people drinking far too much, driving very recklessly, committing crimes, etc. as a way of showing how nothing mattered anymore and they were all gonna die anyway.
“The Last Empress,” by Hannah Pakula, which is a biography of Madame Chiang Kai-shek.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/books/review/Mirsky-t.html
It’s really good.
Continuing my run of SF, I’m rereading David Brin’s Uplift trilogy. I’m currently on Infinity’s Shore.
I’m also reading The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield by H.W. Brands.
Ha! I’ve seen Fisk’s tomb in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Brattleboro, Vt.
I’m reading that now, too. Flashman is a lot of fun.
I read Chindi by Jack McDevitt. I was in the mood for pedestrian sci-fi, and this filled the bill.
Reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog because my wife liked it. It’s entertaining, especially the parts written by Paloma, the young girl. I’ve known people very much like her.
Also, I’m about halfway through Crime and Punishment.
I just listened to this on audiobook. The readers are excellent. It was an interesting take on the proletarian autodidact concierge and the young girl, both closet intellectuals who have a severe reverse snobbery for the Parisian bourgeoisie they respectively work for and belong to. The last part gets very good, but I didn’t like the ending. The book was worth it just to come across the great phrase “this secular rosary known as the remote control” and to hear for the first time about the pastry known as nuns’ farts.
Started today on a non-fiction book, The Secret Lives of Hoarders : true stories of tackling extreme clutter by Matt Paxton. I think it’s a really fascinating subject.
I’ve been reading the Max Liebermann mystery series by Frank Tallis, about a psychiatrist who helps a police detective solve crimes in 1900s Vienna. Started with A Death in Vienna, then I read Vienna Twilight, now reading Vienna Secrets; one more from the library at home. I think I have them out of order, but they all have different names under their original publication in Europe and it’s hard to tell. All kinds of historical detail and Mahler and pastry and coffeeshops and Freud.
Finished The Redbreast. I enjoyed it and would probably rate it something like 3.5 out of 5. One thing that bothered me was that one major plot thread went completely unresolved. I assume it gets wrapped up later in the series, and while I appreciate the author’s choice on an intellectual level, it was still annoying.
Headed to the beach this weekend and needed a good long page-turner, so I finally gave in and picked up A Game of Thrones. I’ve watched the HBO series, so I don’t expect any real surprises, but I enjoyed the show enough that I’m sure to like the book, as well. I’ll have to decide later whether I want to continue with the other books and spoil the HBO series, or wait to read them after the shows air.
I’m going to be at the beach with family the week that the new Song of Ice and Fire book comes out. I hope nobody objects when I spend two solid days under a beach umbrella reading it. I’d be reading a lot anyway, but probably not as intensely with more typical beach books. It’s also more dragon-y than I would usually read around the in-laws.
So what’s the over-under on this book being any good? I’m thinking that a book that’s been delayed for nearly six years and that has been edited and rewritten so many times is going to have some issues. Particularly because it’s 1500 pages and didn’t get to the publisher until late April. Can you edit and proofread a 1500 page book in less than a month? I’m kind of getting a “Phantom Menace” vibe.
To get back to the OP, I recently finished “Shades of Grey” by Jasper Fforde. I liked it quite a bit as it had the standard Fforde quirkiness/absurdity (similar to the first Thursday Next book), but omitted the dreadful Book World twee-ness that scuttled the TN series. The basic conceit is that of a future Britain/Wales (that is not precisely post-apocalyptic, but “Something Happened”) in which society is stratified according to what colors you can perceive. Violets are at the top end of the spectrum and greys (who can’t perceive any color) are right at the bottom. Unfortunately, the book is the first part of a planned trilogy and the next won’t be out for a while.
I’m also re-reading American Gods by Gaiman – I remember very little of it from my first reading, however, the impression I did retain is being reinforced – this is a very slow-moving book. Not uninteresting, because Gaiman is a good writer, but the pace is glacial. It’s interesting to compare to Tim Power’s ‘Fault Line’ series (Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather) which is similar in atmosphere and pacing (although Powers is never truly happy unless he’s slowly torturing one of his characters).
I have no idea if it will be any good or not. You’re right that a month isn’t long enough, so I would guess that his editors started working on the completed portions of the book earlier.
I haven’t been participating in these threads lately, I had a baby and it turns out you don’t have that much reading time (WHO KNEW?) at first. But now that our lives have evened out a bit, I figured I’d jump back in.
Just finished: The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal, by Lily Koppel. Non-fiction with a fascinating backstory - Koppel, a reporter for the NY Times, found a diary written by a teenage girl dating back to the late 1920s in a dumpster in Manhattan. The diary itself is a great description of New York City during that era; then it turns out that she tracked down the diary’s author, an elderly woman (well, obviously) still living. If anyone is a fan of the novel Marjorie Morningstar, it’s exactly that time and setting.
Currently reading: Always Been There: Rosanne Cash, “The List”, and the Spirit of Southern Music by Michael Streissguth. Interesting - a look at the recording of Rosanne Cash’s most recent album which is a tribute both to her father and to country music in general, but the author is driving me crazy, he’s too much of a Johnny Cash fanboy.
Congratulations on the new baby, delphica!
Babies can tell if you’re trying to read while you hold them, and they don’t like it.
I finished Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, by David Simon (of The Wire fame), which someone on this board recommended. It was a fascinating look at the inner workings of the Baltimore PD’s homicide squad. An excellent read.
The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond.
And I finally caved and started reading Lord of the Rings.