That’s Hedley.
Finally finished the marathon that was The Berrybender Narratives. I usually don’t mind historical novels too much, but McMurtry really took license with history in this clunker. I’m now reading Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen, also by McMurtry. It’s autobiographical and well-written and a huge improvement over that other beast.
My great-grandmother died when I was about 8, and for many years my grandmother told me stories about her, including when she woke up with a pillow over her face, “white slavers” trying to kidnap her. My family wanted me to write about her life oneday, but I was too little to remember it all and bear the responsibility of holding the family memories. But the stories were important to me, growing up in the 50s and 60s, when Pippi Longstocking was the only girl who had adventures.
The Liveship Traders trilogy, by Robin Hobb, has a girl who grew up working on her father’s ship as a main character. I really liked it.
Thanks for the link, through which I was able to find it on Kindle. I’d tried to find the first Bloody Jack book on Kindle earlier, but a few of them seemed unavailable due to listing the author variously as L.A. Meyer and Louis A. Meyer.
I was not so much bored with Stephen King as it was that Washington Square got under my skin first and I had to get rid of it before I could commit to 11/22/63. I liked it enough that I might try Henry James again although it may not be a good sign that he himself didn’t seem to care for Washington Square
Finished 11/22/63 tonight, one of King’s better books in the last ten or so years with a lovely ending.
No it isn’t, though I have difficulty not saying “Hedley” myself. I have the book on my Kindle, waiting for me to get around to it.
I am currently reading Caligula: A Biography by Aloys Winterling. I was aware that the stories of Caligula’s wacky exploits were exaggerated; this book is making a good case for him being, in fact, quite sensible.
It took me a loooong time to get through the Augustus biog I started last month. Great book, highly recommended, but big. It’s worth it, but it’s a bit of a project. This Caligula book is pretty breezy by comparison.
(Psst! He was making a Blazing Saddles reference. Geez, this younger generation. No sense of high culture. ;))
I know that, that’s why I have difficulty referring to Hedy Lamar as Hedy and not Hedley. Which I thought would have been obvious, but that’s the interwebs for ya.
However, as my 47th birthday starts to loom on the horizon, thanks for assuming I’m a youngster. 
Decent characters but formulaic. Now starting Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers, who wrote* On Stranger Tides*, which was adapted into one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, not that that’s an endorsement. Vampires among the Rosettis, including Dante Gabriel’s undead wife.
I finished Starmana couple of weeks ago. Overall, very good. Gives you a really good idea of what the early Soviet cosmonauts went through with their training, and the intense pressure they were all under. However, it seems to gloss over some of the true catastrophes that happened, or omits others entirely. And while the forward talks about how incredibly difficult it is, even now, to get to information about anything that happened in Soviet Russia, there’s suprisingly little about the politics of the 60s and 70s. There is some, but I think I’d have liked to have seen more as I found that bit really interesting. But Gagarin’s a really likeable and interesting character; it’s a pity he died so young.
Started and am nearly finished with Battle Royale, a Japanese version of The Hunger Games. It’s very similar in setup–a dystopian authoritarian government sacrifices 42 fifteen-year-old boys and girls in a battle to the death for their own amusement and to keep the populace down–but also very different in feel. It’s more bloody and violent, and also more overtly political in that the characters (among themselves) speak out more freely against the regime. (At least in-game; they’d watch their words much more closely outside the game.) There’s a little more active subversion of the system by the kids before the game starts, along with descriptions of what happens to similar adults when they go too far outside accepted lines. It’s good.
Finished Pandemonium. It was just okay, but Ms. Oliver hooked me with that cliffhanger ending, dernit. I’ll read the final book when it comes out and look forward to more from this author. (Although I enjoyed her standalone book so much more. Why does all YA fiction have to be a series these days? To sell more books, duh.)
I also finished my audiobook, Bloody Jack. I really enjoyed this one very much. It had me running out to the car every day in great excitement to find out what was going to happen next, and it tackled a few subjects I was surprised to see addressed in a kid’s book. However, without the reader, I’m going to pass on the rest of the series.
Currently, I’m reading Ritual, by Adam Nevill. This is the rare book I picked up without recommendation, and I’ve never heard of the author. It turned out to be a real page-turner. It’s about four men who get lost in the woods during a hike, then the scary stuff starts. It’s got a Blair Witch kind of vibe (except that things actually happen).
My new audiobook is The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, read by the incomparable Jim Dale.
Finally finished Reamde – this wasn’t what I was expecting, based on the author’s other novels, I was expecting this to be more of a novel of ideas, and it was really essentially a thriller. Of course, it was more witty and clever and had more geek-appeal than other thrillers I have read, so there’s that, but still …
Almost done with The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery by d.T. Max (I picked it up after Antigen mentioned it in last month’s thread). It’s so interesting, although one small jarring part is that one of the key researchers in the field was also a convicted child molester, and I feel like the author was a bit stymied as to how to work that information in there. It’s a book about science, so it’s not like a whole THING about the child abuse, but at the same time, it would be weird not to mention it, because dude, seriously. So I feel like both the author and I are sort of “wtf?” about this.
Only 47. Pffft. Young punk.
Finished The Fifth Witness, Michael Connelly’s sequel to The Lincoln Lawyer. Very good. I think someone in here earlier described it as “boring,” but I found it very interesting. Possibly the lack of shootouts and such and the details of court procedure make it seem less than exciting to some, dunno. But I recommend it. An anti-foreclosure activist in danger of having her own home taken away may or may not have killed one of the executives at the bank that is attempting to foreclose on her.
Next up: The Cider House Rules, by John Irving.
Thanks! I’ve loved Tim Powers for a long time. Lately, he’s been writing “modern” fantasies, but I may prefer the stuff set in earlier times. Especially with a literary bent!
Just started Company of the Dead by David Kowalski. What if a time traveler tried to save the Titanic? How would history be changed? It’s a big honking book…
Finished Raven Calls (Luna Books) by C.E. Murphy the latest in her Urban Shaman series. This one takes place in Ireland and Joanne Walker meets Celtic mythology.
If you’re reading the series, this is a good addition to it. If you haven’t read the others, you really need to before trying it.
Still working on The Magicians, which has gotten better. I’m only about halfway through, since I can only read it in small snatches at a time on my phone.
On my Kindle, I’m working on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and so far enjoying it quite a bit.
I’m three quarters through The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, and I fear I’m not as transported by all the magical, whimsical, atmospheric doings as I should be.
Prisoners of Twilight by Don Robertson. Robertson has written several Civil War novels. They’re all from the POV of common soldiers, not generals or politicians. The novels are very dark and gritty and they feel realistic, and make me wonder why Civil War movies have generally been “clean”, almost romanticized. We’ve seen the dark side of WWII and later wars, but I don’t think anyone’s made a realistic Civil War movie.
The opening battle in “Cold Harbor” is very gritty because it was filmed by a foreign director. But you’re right, Americans view the Civil War as very romantic.
Cold Harbor or Cold Mountain? I’ve seen Cold Mountain and you’re right, it’s quite gritty.
Big news! For anyone who hasn’t read them yet, Patrick Ness’s “Chaos Walking” trilogy is on sale right now as the Kindle Daily Deal. You can get all three books (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men) for 99 cents each! Linky link link!