Finished *The Mostly True Story of Jack *by Kelly Regan Barnhill (which I’m pretty sure someone mentioned last month.)
This is an excellent modern-day fairy tale. It started a little slowly at first, but was compelling and very satisfying. I will read her next when it comes out.
I just finished Good Book by David Poltz. A book that I would recommend to anybody and everybody. Not only extremely informative on the Old Testament, but really, really funny.
GET THIS BOOK AND READ IT NOW!!
I just finished reading The Book Thief. It was the first book in memory that made me cry. (Of course, it’s a WWII book narrated by Death, so you can’t expect unrelenting cheer, but it’s just so moving and so well done.) I wonder if Markus Zusak’s other stuff is as good?
I’ve been waiting for this to come out! And of course, now that it’s out, I forgot to download it, but instead started on the next book in C.J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake series, Heartstone. Which is a fabulous series (I know there are some other fans on the SDMB).
Finished reading Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute last night. Everybody’s favorite necromancer gets hired to go to the Dreamlands, there to find the manifestation of fear and kill it. A Lovecraft-love letter of sorts, with lots of cameos and for something like 80% of the time, intriguing. It gets very confusing in the end, though, and cliff-hangerish. Weakest installment of the series so far.
Starting The Technologists by Matthew Pearl, about a secret plot solved by the first graduating class of MIT, in 1868. Only on Page 17. I’ve liked his previous books.
Thanks to TheMerchandise, I snagged the library’s copy of Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy and read thru it this weekend. I quite enjoyed the story, and thought Jacky was a strong, well-drawn character - I’ll probably continue on with the series, and appreciate **Parenchyma’s ** advise to not overdose on them; tho I may check out the audiobook version of the second book, if the reader is good. I found myself thinking of Polly “Oliver” Perks from Monstrous Regiment as they faced similar circumstances.
I’ve also worked my way thru the first 3 John Carter/Barsoom stories: A Princess of Mars,** The Gods of Mars** and The Warlord of Mars. The first novel is the best of the three, as it introduces both our protagonist, John Carter, as well as the world of Barsoom. While there isn’t much individual character development, Burroughs’ detailed descriptions of the environment, the creatures and the inhabitants of Mars - the truly alien green martians, and the basically human red martians - make for an entertaining read. The other novels pale in comparison, being more of the same - think “travelogue with swordfights”. John meets white, black and yellow martians, all of whom are relatively human in appearance, and equally warlike and savage. The fight scenes take up more and more of the content of the novels, and while exciting, grow a bit old. I’m glad I read them, but probably won’t continue the series.
I’m curious to see how much of the source material ends up being used in the John Carter Disney film due out this weekend. It looks as if the white martians/tharns from the second & third novels make an appearance…
I started 11/22/63 by Stephen King but I keep getting distracted and going back to Washington Square by Henry James. I already saw the Jennifer Jason Leigh period drama so I know the story and really, not much happens, but I’m still enjoying it. The snark by the author towards the characters is amusing although I doubt it’s a comedy.
Ha, I picked it up too, for the same reasons, and I’m enjoying it on audiobook. The reader is fabulous. However, this was the only one of the series my library has on CD, so I very likely won’t continue.
Still working my way through The Book of Cthulu.
I finished The Lady in the Tower - enjoyable, but somewhat dry. I think I’d get more out of it if I reread it, more slowly this time. I still have a problem keeping the people I’m less familar with straight, when everyone’s referred to by their titles. Like Northumberland or Wessex or Ormond - I’m all “who is that again?”
I picked up the book my sister-in-law is reading, Still Alice, on Saturday and read most of the second half of it. It’s a quick read, and fairly poignant. The main character struggles with Alzheimer’s, and the book is reminiscent of Flowers for Algernon as she slowly loses herself. It’s a bit heavy handed, and perhaps not the best written, but engaging enough.
Sunday, I started The Hunger Games for a reread and read about half of it. Fun book. I’m still not certain whether Katniss’s…distance (for lack of a better word)…works, but it’s still a good book. I think Haymitch is right - she’s got no sense of self, only a firm grasp on what she’s not. So that doesn’t really work for me.
Looking for an excellent U.S. history book for kids?
I just got Worst of Friends from the library, a book about the on-again, off-again friendship of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The moral of the story - quite apropos in a campaign year - is that political foes can disagree without being disagreeable, and that a deep friendship can, and should, transcend the issues of the day. An engaging story and lively, funny illustrations. It’s by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain, illus. by Larry Day, the same team that gave us the wonderful George Did It (about George Washington’s reluctant rise to leadership) a few years ago.
I’ve just started A Hundred Years of Solitude for school. Hopefully I like it.
I finally had to put down Shadow’s Edge. Brent Weeks is a very poor writer and I cannot recommend him. I wanted to pick up an easy read outside the fantasy genre so I’m a few pages into And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.
He’s my favourite too. He won me over with his reading of Sophie’s World.
With all the conflicting reviews I saw for that, I decided to try The Marriage Plot instead. I’m more than halfway through and still waiting for something to happen.
I’m doing Wicked as an audiobook. The Broadway show was fun and clever, the book is an epic which keeps developing and then dropping subplots, so I’m finding it a bit of a struggle.
She IS really good. She has a really great grasp of accents and voices.
Yes, her name is Katherine Kellgren. I wrote her name down so I can keep an eye out for her work in the future. Thanks for the recommendation!
I have to finish Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay before the 23rd so I can be prepared for any Easter Eggs in The Hunger Games movie. Promise not to spoil anything!
Already finished the first two of Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series (Dauntless and Fearless). I tried to get started on Weber’s Honor Harrington books with On Basilisk Station a while back, and these struck me as much better. Reminds me a bit of the old TSR game Star Frontiers.
I’m also in and out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Not sure when I’ll get time to devote to actually sitting down and getting through some chapters.
I’ve been digging heavily into the woo and the weirdness lately, so here goes:
Just finished Alex Owen’s The Place Of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern. Though it certainly has its critics, it’s a solid bit of scholarship and a fine work. Recommended.
A couple of essays from the Acta Masonica Scandinavica, a yearly volume of studies in Scandinavian Freemasonry, written and published by Freemasons themselves. Mostly about the anti-Masonic discourse in the late 19th century.
This dissertation from the University of Texas about the relationship between the Nazis and the German Freemasons. (Long story short: The Nazis hated Freemasonry, but were often cool with individual Freemasons; in turn, the German Freemasons generally went out of their way to adapt to the new regime.)
This other dissertation (in Danish) from Aalborg University about Cay Lembcke, the founder of the Danish Nazi party, and his early work in establishing the Danish section of the Boy Scouts.
Two books about Johannes V. Jensen, a Danish Nobel Prize winner (literature, 1944), and his pro-British, colonialist, white supremacist views.
Plus Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism, a fine anthology edited by Wouter Hanegraaff of the University of Amsterdam.
Finished The First Rule of Ten: A Tenzing Norbu Mystery (Dharma Detective). Tenzing Norbu is an ex-buddhist monk - he grew up in a Tibetan Monestary reading forbidden Sherlock Holmes books at night.
He leaves the monastery to become a cop in LA and then leave the police force to become an PI.
Despite the premise, there is little about it to remind you of Holmes - but it is still a fun read with a mixture of mystery with a dollop of Buddhist teachings thrown in. I will read the others when they come out.
Have you ever read The Rosicrutian Enlightenment by Frances Yates? I quite liked it, though of course it deals with an earlier period; all about the real-world impact of hermetical orders in the 17th century (surprisingly extensive). The general thesis is that the movement was more or less accidentally sparked by what would these days be termed a work(s) of science fiction that many were, for various reasons, willing to take seriously …
Haven’t read that one yet, no!
Sure sounds interesting, though:
I’m well aware of Mrs. Yates’ huge contribution to the field - it seems clear that her radical re-evaluation of the role of the woo in European history paved the way for guys like Hanegraaff and his crew down in Amsterdam.
They’re not drooling fanboys, of course - they often go out of their way to show that our understanding of the woo has progressed dramatically since Yates’ day - but they all seem to agree that she was an important pioneer.