I’m finding it to be a bit of a whirlwind. Its written in a way that’s…hmm, hard to describe properly.
Cross has a great part in the animated superhero comedy Megamind, providing the voice of the Will Farrell character’s minion (named, uh, Minion). Very funny.
I like it. The wife loves it. Her motivation for reading it was the Peanuts comic strip. Really. Snoopy was always making reference to it.
I reread it a year or so ago, when our local library did it as the annual “Big Read.” One thing about the writing style that really jumped out at me…You’ve read admonitions from (self-described) Writing Experts that you should NOT write with adjectives and adverbs? And that you should NOT use adverbs to describe dialog? (As in, “That’s a silly rule,” Ulf said disparagingly) Why, I believe I’ve seen advice just like that right here on this very board… Anyhow, Gatsby is full of these descriptors. I tried for a while, just for fun, to find a page that included dialog and had no adverbs. It was all in vain.
Sure worked for Fitzgerald!
Some examples of the above:
“How do you get to West Egg Village?” he asked helplessly.
“Do they miss me?” she cried ecstatically.
“Never heard of them,” he remarked decisively.
“You will,” I answered shortly.
“You live in West Egg,” she remarked contemptuously.
“You did it, Tom,” she said accusingly.
“I hate that word hulking,” objected Tom crossly.
“Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently.
“And I’m not even close to halfway through the first chapter,” Ulf added appreciatively.
Well, now I’m 250 pages in, and I’m still not sure if I like it. 
I was expecting, obviously, the gruesome ritual human sacrifice, but so much sordid material in addition to that is a bit over the top for me. I’m not overly squeamish, but I’m finding this unpleasant. I mean, if you’re going to have a book that features the cutting out of people’s hearts and the ritual smothering of babies, maybe it’s a bit much to also throw in child abuse, incest, forcible castration, and a lady who murders her illicit lovers and orders statues made from their skeletons.
:: chuckles ::
Those zany Aztecs. What are you gonna do?
Just 20 pages into Armistead Maupin’s new Tales of the City book, Mary Ann in Autumn and I love it already.
I’m finishing up Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series – just three books to go. :
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I can’t remember if O’Brian ever described Maturin’s “portable soup”. Can someone tell me what it is?
From here: It’s an ancestor of the modern bouillon cube: a stock based on meat bones with a few vegetables and herbs, first browned, then simmered a *long *time, then strained, skimmed, and cooked again for a *long *time, until it reaches a very high degree of concentration and a correspondingly low volume.
I love these threads. Just requested I Drink for a Reason, Freakonomics, and The Great Typo Hunt from the library.
I just finished The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt. It was fascinating and, I think, really well written.
I’m reading Anthony Trollope’s Rachel Ray and enjoying it so far.
Currently reading Jim Butcher’s Side Jobs. I’m away from home this week, and Stephen King’s newest will be waiting there for me when I get back.
John Keegan’s “The Faces of Battle.” Great study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme written in the 1970s by a Sandhurst instructor. It’s been referenced often enough on this board that I figured I’d give it a read.
Overall, I like and recommend it. However, Keegan’s goal with this book was to argue for a new style of military historiography as well as actually present some military history - he spends the first part of the book doing an in-depth discussion of military historiography itself, and that really drags in places. There’s enough good stuff in there that I can’t recommend skipping it, though.
Thank you!
O’Brian’s descriptions of food (?) eaten by the sailors and officers makes me alternately drool and puke. The portable soup though – I could eat that. Maybe the plum duff. Not sure about the “puddings”.
I have that cookbook, Lobscouse & Spotted Dog: Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels of Patrick O’Brian. It’s entertaining to read, but there’s very little in the book I’d actually eat.
Pfft. That’s a slow Tuesday in Bangkok.
Finished Anathem, which I liked a lot, but felt it was a bit incoherent in spots. A slight drop-off from Cryptonomicon, but on par with the three Baroque Cycle books.
Just started the first of Earl Derr Biggers’ Charlie Chan books, The House Without a Key. I’m about a third of the way in and think it holds up well against Chandler and Hammett. There are five more Chan novels by Biggers and I’ve put all of them on my Christmas list.
Just finished Wonderful Tonight by Pattie Boyd, who was married to both George Harrison and his good friend Eric Clapton. Pretty sad story in a lot of ways. Weird to know that that era was 40-50 years ago, and all of those people are elderly now. :eek:
Heh. Reminds me of one of David Letterman’s old Top Ten lists, “Top Ten Ways to Entertain Yourself While Visiting New York City.” One was, “Get a hotel room overlooking Times Square. Take out the Gideon’s Bible from the bedside table, look out the window, and cross off the Ten Commandments as you see them being violated.”
I finished This Mighty Scourge, a series of essays on the Civil War. Very interesting, although the assumption of prior knowledge between essays varies wildly. One essay on Harriet Tubman is great for those who may have heard about her last in elementary school history classes, while one essay reviewing seminal Lincoln biographies is really only illuminating for Civil War buffs.
I read Santa Olivia, by Jacqueline Carey. She’s the author of a series of sprawling fantasy novels. From the blurb on the back of the book, I was expecting a fluffy book about a half-werewolf crime-fighter. I was quite surprised to discover 1) that this book was about boxingand 2) that it had a really great coming-of-age message. This would be a great book to recommend to teenage readers, as long as your don’t mind your teenagers reading some swears and sexual descriptions.