I finished Replay by Grimwood and am now starting Chaos by James Gleick.
If you like these two, you’d probably enjoy Horwitz’s book on Captain Cook, Blue Latitudes, which is both about Cook and about Horwitz’s adventures retracing his steps. It’s a good read.
Did you like Replay? It seems to be a doper favorite.
Yes, I liked it. I read it in basically one day. I haven’t done that in a long time.
I still haven’t gone back to Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, but other things kept me busy in the meantime. I read The Sirens of Titan over the last weekend (barely making it a March read), and loved it. I need more Vonnegut, but since he pops up every so often at used bookstores, I’m loath to buy anything of his elsewhere.
I’m still on Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, going, as before, chapter by chapter with many different reads in between. One of these (bedtime reading) is Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, which I am enjoying, even if the interspersed stories-within-the-story (you know what I’m talking about if you’ve read it) annoy me sometimes. If I had wanted children’s lit, I’d have bought some! In actual children’s lit, I’m re-reading The Hobbit (taking large jumps whenever fancy strikes).
I’m reading - and enjoying - The Line Upon A Wind, about the war at sea (Napoleonic era). Very fun, very sympathetic to Nelson, whose life would definitely make a great mini-series in that it has everything - ferocious battles won through superlative genius, a great sex scandal (and love story), dying at the moment of victory, etc. If it wasn’t history it would not be believable. 
Thanks for mentioning this, I’ve put it on my wish list. I read a biography of Nelson last year that was not at all flattering.
After finishing the slightly unsatisfying book on Katherine Swynford, I picked up the first of Thomas Costain’s 4-volume series on the Plantagenets. These are famous, but so far I don’t like his writing style very much.
I’m about halfway through “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” Interesting but not gripping.
I’d like to read the unflattering one - I definitey get the impression that Nelson was capable of being either amazingly sympathetic, or incredibly pompous and egotistical - there is a famous account of his one and only meeting with the future Duke of Wellington (they met by chance in a waiting-room), and apparently at first Wellington thought Nelson was an arrogant ass, full of himself almost to the point of absurdity - but after Nelson found out who Wellington was, he changed his whole demeanor, and they got along very well.
On the whole, the most sympathetic part is that apparently Nelson was a believer in leadership by inspiration and not a believer in the horribly harsh and arbitrary discipline common to the era. He seemed to have very much a “rock star” sort of charisma.
And of course who can resist Nelson putting the telescope to his blind eye and saying “I can’t see the signal” for recall?
I am also reading **Tales of Despereaux ** to my kids at night.
Everyone is thoroughly enjoying this story and no one wants to stop.
Wonder how the movie is.
It was The Nelson Touch: The Life and Legend of Horatio Nelson, by Terry Coleman. It focuses on examining controversial issues in his life and career. To give you the flavor of it, the author closes with a quote from Earl St Vincent: “Animal courage was the sole merit of Lord Nelson, his private character being most disgraceful, in every sense of the word.”
Ouch!
He certainly could be egotistical by all accounts, but the only “disgraceful” things I’ve read about him doing were dumping his wife in favour of Emma Hamilton and more significantly the nefarious goings-on in Naples, where he had a bunch of rebels hung after a truce.
I’m in one of those places where every book I pick up sounds wonderful – I suppose it’s a good problem to have. I’m in the middle of:
[ul]
[li]The Collected Short Stories of Graham Greene (I’ve read several of Greene’s novels, and decided to try his short fiction – it’s great stuff, as expected)[/li][li]Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories / Letting Go by Philip Roth (this is a Library of America edition with the two bookend novellas surrounding the five short stories)[/li][li]*Watchmen *by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (I read it twice in college and I’m trying to get another reading in before seeing the movie this weekend)[/li][li]Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (I’ve never read it, and was about 30 pages into it when the siren call of *Watchmen *lured me)[/ul][/li]
I’m also itching to pick up Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (one of my all-time favorites) after having discussed it with a friend earlier this week, but four books is probably enough to juggle.
I have begun Drood, with mixed opinions. It seems to be a well-crafted plot, but so far I detest both *Dickens *and the narrator. Both are getting on my nerves. We’ll see how I like it in the end - it is a very long book.
In between for lighter reading (and because I have a signed copy of Drood and won’t take it everywhere) I am reading Simon Greene’s latest Nightside release Just Another Judgement Day. It is light and easy and I am enjoying it for what it is.
The Kindly Ones by (somebody) Littell arrived today, so I have temporarily put aside The Brothers K.
The Kindly Ones was originally published in France, won a bunch of awards and got a lot of attention. The narrator was/is a Nazi, he’s unrepentant (he tells us, but I’m not so sure), and that’s all I know so far. I’m avoiding reviews.
Finished Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, by George MacDonald Fraser, the “Angel of the Lord” being what many of John Brown’s supporters referred to him as. Harper’s Ferry, 1859. An excellent read, as Flashman always is. In the second appendix, Fraser points out: “When one considers the oceans of ink that have been spilled over Little Big Horn and the Alamo, the comparative neglect of the question: ‘Why wasn’t Brown stopped?’ is almost as baffling as the mystery itself.” Indeed, his intention of attacking the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry in a bid to foment a general slave uprising was widely known, including by members of the governemnt as early as 1857, and yet they couldn’t be bothered even to post a single sentry there.
Next up: Under the Volcanoe, by Malcolm Lowry. Will start it probably tomorrow (Friday).
Really curious to see what you’ll make of this one. I haven’t seen so much outrage at the NYT since American Psycho.
I loved this book.
I’m currently reading The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. As this happens in the very first chapter and is the premise for the book I don’t count it as a spoiler. The main character gets into a car accident and is very badly burned. The descriptions of the injury and its subsequent treatment almost turned my stomach. I can’t remember ever having as visceral a reaction with a book as I have with this one.
I’m off on hols next week and will probably finish it in the middle of the week. So I think Cannery Row by John Steinbeck will be my next read.
I’m also reading Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians.
Tweener and above adventure book.
A young boy named Alcatraz is in foster care his whole life and on his 12th or 13th brithday he receives his inheritance from his parents ( whom he has never met) a bag of sand. Within hours he is leading a rebellion against a cult of Evil Librarians that control the world!11!1!!
A fun romp.
Glen Cook’s The White Rose. Which I’m rationing myself to about two chapters a day, with. A first. (I think it might just mean I’m getting old)
Also, The Conquering Sword of Conan collection. (What can I say…I’ve been in a bad mood, lately.)