Trickle Up Poverty by Michael Savage. Its excellent!
Thanks. I may see if our library has either of those first.
This is the first one of his I’ve read. Although Saturn’s Children had its moments, I don’t know that I’ll be picking up any others.
I finished over the Thanksgiving holiday:
Curious Cats by Mitsuaki Iwago - A funny, clever picture book of cats, by a very talented photographer.
Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem - A surreal, satirical, hard-boiled detective novel, described on the jacket blurb as “Philip K. Dick meets Raymond Chandler,” which isn’t too far off the mark. A disappointment overall, though.
The Second Plane by Martin Amis - a collection of essays about 9-11 and its aftermath, plus two related short stories. The best essay is “On the Move with Tony Blair,” following the then-British PM around on his various foreign trips; Amis has a keen eye for the absurd while being sympathetic towards those whose lives are inevitably changed, usually for the worse, as they lead democracies in a 24/7 news environment.
I’ve been reading his Merchant Princes series. It’s an interesting idea - a woman finds out that she is a member of a family that has the genetic ability to travel between alternative dimensions. The family uses their ability to secretly trade between dimensions and they have a lot of money and power. But because their power is based on a genetic quirk, they don’t face any real competition and they’ve become bound in tradition. The woman, who grew up outside the family, is able to use the power more flexibly and outmaneuver her family.
Like I said, it’s an interesting idea. But it’s a six volume series. Stross will spend pages describing a committee meeting or a trade agreement or somebody setting up a corporation or filing for a patent or walking through the woods. You wish he would just get on with the story.
Yup, that’s Stross. I think I’m done with him.
Just dipped into Stephen King’s short-story collection Skeleton Crew today, after seeing several of its stories praised in a Dope thread and elsewhere. “Word Processor of the Gods,” “The Reaper’s Image” and “The Jaunt” were best.
Finished Cruel Zinc Melodies. I had just finished the most recent Garrett novel by Glen Cook and it just seemed like I had missed the previous book.
Turns out: I had read it, it just wasn’t very good. Sure, I still enjoyed it because I like Cook’s Garrett novels - but this one just wasn’t that memorable and I was kinda disappointed with the ending. He had too many sub plots going and it seemed to me that the main plot was wrapped up too simply in the end.
During our holiday traveling we finished the audiobook The Fortune of War, by Patrick O’Brian, and started The Surgeon’s Mate. These are set during the War of 1812, and my husband the American history buff is having a little trouble sympathizing with the British Navy for their losses to America’s brand new “little navy”. Jack and Stephen are aboard the HMS Java when she strikes to the USS Constitution, but then they are also present when the HMS Shannon defeats the USS Chesapeake in an extremely quick, bloody action.
Elendil’s Heir, I was at the bookstore over the weekend and I thought of you when I spotted Ron Chernow’s new book on Washington. If I remember correctly, you were looking forward to it.
Finished Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars. I was far more pleased with it than I have been with his other recent stuff. For one thing, there were next to no supernatural happenings.
I’m now on to Bill Bryson’s At Home, which I can tell is going to be as good as all his other stuff. However, it’ll probably be a bit of a slog for me at my current reading rate of fifteen minutes every other day or so.
Just started a new audiobook this morning, George MacDonald Frasier’s Flash for Freedom.
Almost finished with The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe. Just picked up The Best American Noir of the Century edited by James Ellroy, which I’ll start next.
Yes indeedy. I’ve already dropped a hint to my wife for Christmas.
Heh, I’m a Flashy fan, and the only time I’ve ever been tempted to use a false book cover-sleeve was when reading that one - the cover of my edition depicted our hero wielding a bullwhip towering over two semi-clothed African women, one carrying manacles. It looked like some sort of hardcore racist fetish porn. 
I was looking at all the covers for this book on Goodreads. I can’t find the one you’re describing, but there’s a 1973 cover that looks like a Boris Valejo painting - two naked, buxom women cowering at the feet of Flashman, who is brandishing a couple of firearms. The sub-title says “A novel of outrageous adventures and lusty wenching”.
The cover on my copy wasn’t so bad, if you didn’t look too closely, but I was careful not to let anybody read it over my shoulder.
Woah. That’s not the cover I remember - it’s a lot more prono-looking than the one I have! 
Here’s the cover I was thinking of:
Alas, one must sign in to see that image.
With an image search I found it here. That is hilarious.
Oddly, in both pics Flashy is wearing a distinctive red-and-white striped shirt. Coincidence?
About halfway through the final Aubrey-Maturin, Blue at the Mizzen. High hopes for Aubrey to be awarded the coveted blue flag – the title sorta gives it away.
Omigod… does he turn French?
Yep, I just jam the audiobook case down between my car seats…