I started today on Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A.J. Jacobs. He’s an author who comes up with interesting projects (in this case, to investigate various plans to achieve good health). I can see already this is going to be annoyingly “lite”, but I still want to hear about the health stuff, and it will make a nice change of pace before I plunge back into horror anthologies.
My impression of Moby-Dick is that the true object of the novel is to write about obsession … in a way that demonstrated the very obsession that he was writing about.
Slaughterhouse Five was much better at 33 than 19. Now I’m starting Packing For Mars. I’ve tried Mary Roach before, but Stiff made me queasy. I’m having no such problems with Packing For Mars.
Just got one of the original Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason novels: The Case of the Negligent Nymph (one outing of the series was based on that)
Not that it matters, but I now see that The Reversal, written in 2010, is not his latest. The previous one I read, The Fifth Witness, was written last year.
Borrowed John Scalzi’s new novel Redshirts from the library yesterday afternoon and finished it today. An entertaining story although obviously not a deep one.
I read Fallen Angels, sequel to Angel’s Flight, which I mentioned in Post #35, and now I think I am done with this author. The style is annoying (Gosh! Gee whiz!) and, much as I wanted to read about Hollywood in the '20s, she doesn’t have any insights that half an hour of research could have given me.
Then I read another book called Fallen Angels, this one a crime novel by Connie Dial. Total coincidence that they had the same title; I keep a list of books I’ve read good reviews of, and it just so happened these two had the same name. This one was a good police procedural but I wasn’t on the edge of my seat to find out who the killer was. She’s written two other books and I would read them if I happened to see them but I won’t seek them out.
Then read The Death Instinct by Jeb Rubenfeld; historical fiction about the 1920 Wall Street bombing. I had stayed away from his previous The Interpretation of Murder because it was too much Freud and Jung, but I might get to it someday. I don’t mind historical characters in side roles but I’d rather they stay there in fiction.
Now reading Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces by Cory MacLauchlin. Had to get it on interlibrary loan and I’m only on Page 9. I’ve been waiting for this since I heard it was coming out.
Oh, I did not know there was a new Kim Newman out, awesome.
I just finished <i>The Wilder Life: Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie</i> by Wendy McClure, which I enjoyed a lot. It’s a very light and engaging memoir in which the author tells about rediscovering her childhood love of the <i>Little House</i> books, and embarking upon a pilgrimage of sorts to the various historical sites associated with Laura Ingalls. I would say this is especially fun for anyone (I’m assuming mostly women, but hey, whatever) who grew up reading the <i>Little House</i> books obsessively.
Oh, I have that on my Nook and can’t wait to read it! I was all of one day into “Gone With the Wind” when I decided to read “Twisted Tree” by Kent Meyers because the author gave a presentation here last night and I planned to go (but ended up not being able to go because my husband had to go buy a stupid car and I had no one to watch my daughter). Anyway, I liked it. It was in a similar vein to “Olive Kitteridge” and “Winesburg, Ohio.” Now back to GWTW if I can keep myself from reading “The Wilder Life” first. delphica, it’s been a long time since I’ve read the LHOP books. Would you recommend reading them again before reading “The Wilder Life?”
delphica, you’ll want to use brackets and not <> to italicize words.
Man, I always do that, comes of flipping back and forth during the day between sites that use other formats. Grrr!
Finished Keeping It Real based on a recommendation here.
Either the person was having me on, didn’t understand some of my earlier comments or I didn’t catch what was being said - but it didn’t float my boat.
The Long Earth. I’m about 1/3 of the way through, and I’m liking it a lot.
I rarely read fiction any more, and Pratchett is the only fiction writer I’ll always read.
The Long Earth is reminding me of what I liked about SF when I used to read it; an interesting and imaginative premise, with enough realism to allow a suspension of disbelief about the wacky stuff.
While it’s more “serious” than the Discworld books it still has plenty of the gentle humour and charm that makes Pratchett such an enjoyable writer. The characters are interesting and likeable, the premise is cool, and I’d recommend it. Of course, it could still go awry, but thus far it’s very enjoyable.
I guess I can see that. I finally finished it - Moby Dick shows up for the last three chapters. I enjoyed most of the book, especially since the Aubrey-Maturin series has left me disposed to like a nautical setting.
I’m about halfway through Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson. It has a post-apoctalyptic/dystopian setting, but it’s largely a cheerful story, so far. I’m enjoying it very much - I don’t know why I haven’t read more from Wilson, after I enjoyed his novel *Spin *.
I have just started James Reston’s Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536. I’ve enjoyed Reston’s other books, including Warriors of God, about the Third Crusade, and The Last Apocalypse, about the rise of Christianity in Europe around 1,000 A.D., so I’m optimistic about this one.
I’m reading Stephen King’s 1982 short story collection Different Seasons. I’d just recently seen (after years and years of being told I really ought to see it) The Shawshank Redemption, which I enjoyed, and wanted to read the story which inspired it. Now I’m reading the other stories, and am currently most of the way through “Apt Pupil,” which was also made into a movie.
Having watched The Shawshank Redemption brought home a particularly funny sight gag in the recent Moonrise Kingdom. Regarding how the boy exits his tent early on. 
With a rock hammer?
Watch the movie. It’s excellent, and you’ll see. 
I just finished this one myself. Now we only have one more family member who has to read it before we go see the movie. I was very impressed with how the author handled the vampires in this book.
I’ve also just finished Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos. Next up is Good to Great by Jim Collins. Looks like another round of business books.