I accidentally read half of Juliet, Naked last night, Nick Hornby’s latest. It’s good! TOO good… I am trying to read slowly and savour it, as it isn’t particularly long, and it just flows so easily. Not finished yet! Hornby is so familiar with the slightly-too-enthusiastic music fan, and can write them into great believeable characters.
I also picked up the new Niffenegger, she of Time Traveler’s Wife fame, called Her Fearful Symmetry. Just dipped into the first chapters, but so far it feels a little twee and maybe overresearched. You know how some authors have to cram every fact they learned into the exposition? A bit like that. The scene in Highgate Cemetary gives step-by-step instructions on how to get to the specific mausoleum, which just feels unneccesarily detailed.
The Merchandise, are you going to finish the Sabriel books? There are actually four, and I’d heartily recommend them all - although the fourth, Across the Wall, is cute but not a must-read for me.
araminty, I will finish the Sabriel series, but not right away. I’m happy the first book felt so complete and wrapped up… the only thing I was really left wondering about was the fate of the cats.
Khadaji, I’m happy to report that Sandman Slim has the same feel as Green’s “Nightside” series, but Kadrey is a better writer than Green. (As much as I guiltily enjoy John Taylor’s adventures, the writing is pretty wretched at times. Also: how many times per book does he actually announce “I am John Taylor”? Dude, we get it.)
I still read his stuff, but Green is really a mediocre writer IMO. I would buy Sandman Slim myself, especially now with this feedback, but I like to give Mom something to buy for me for Christmas.
I’ve just finished When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. I thought it was wonderfully written but at times quite frustrating. Once I settled into the fact that the narrator was unreliable I enjoyed it more. But a lot of times I still wished he’d shed a little more light on a couple of minor events. Which I suppose, was exactly what he was going for.
Pleased to hear it! A word of caution, the next two books, Lirael and Abhorsen are much more like one book in two volumes – make sure you have the third book on hand as you finish the second.
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies by Ginger Strand
And I managed to do some reading in September, but was terrible about checking in with the Sept. thread.
All Other Nights by Dara Horn, novel set during the Civil War, a Jewish soldier in the union army is recruited to serve as a spy in Confederate Jewish society. I liked this a lot, although what is keeping me from loving it is too much cutesy quirkiness, it feels forced.
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice who I think is Tim Rice’s daughter. Anyway, it’s a novel set in 1950s London, and it’s very readable and girly and romantic. I enjoyed it, but I already know I like 1950s-esque romantic girly novels. Despite its page-turning qualities, overall it made me want to read the classics that it’s referencing.
The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch, which was shelved in YA at my library, but I think it’s really intended for adults even though it’s a coming of age story. A young boy living in the Pacific Northwest starts discovering unusual marine life in the tidal flats near his house. This was really nice and contemplative, although not a lot of action. It’s especially good for people who love beaches and the ocean and marine biology.
I’m working my way through the Song of Ice and Fire series. It’s pretty decent. I’m maybe halfway through book two.
It reminds me a LOT of Ken Follett’s “Pillars of the Earth” novels - cast of hundreds, medieval political intrigue, etc.
I’m enjoying the series, though it can get a bit hard to follow all of the characters. I do like how though it is a “fantasy” series, fantastical elements are very sparse. It’s more like (at least as far as I’ve read) a medieval political novel (think War of the Roses) with a few fantasy elements suggested at.
Finished Losing my Religion, by William Lobdell. I had posted earlier that it wasn’t grabbing me, but it got better. I wished I could get my Mom to read it. However, in the end I decided to just let her be.
Then I read The Man who Folded Himself, by David Gerrold. It’s about time travel. I was over halfway through by the time I realized I’d read it before, but it was still pretty good so I went ahead and finished it anyway.
Finished Velocity by Dean Koontz a couple days ago. About to start The Good Guy, also by Koontz, and I also got The Depths of Time by Roger McBride Allen from the library yesterday. I’ve never heard of the book or the author before, but the awesome cover attracted me and the description drew me in.
After hearing so much about it, I’m reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s a good-ish book, but at the same time, I’m not a huge fan of the author’s writing style.
I’m also reading The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison again - it reminds me a lot of Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, one of my all-time favorites.
Another read is The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time, which has been a fun read.
In addition, I’m reading Bloodfever by Karen Moning. I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by this series so far. Normally, if I’m going to read genre fiction it’s romance. I tend to need a little bit of an escape given all the reading I do for work (generally, the equivalent of 3 or 4 newspapers a day, plus our media clippings, plus whatever legislation I’m tracking and whatever I’m editing). However, this particular series, which I think is classified under romance, really should be classified under fantasy. It has had no sex so far (actually, no romantic relationships) and is all action. Normally I hate books about faeries - I generally think they’re boring and formulaic. But this author really does a good job making them interesting. I think it’s because most of the faeries are evil and grotesque, like something you’d find in the movie Alien. It’s awesome. And the story line is more complicated than I was expecting. Unless it goes steeply downhill, I plan to read the whole series.
I’ve been re-reading Raymond Chandler. I’ve finished The Big Sleep a few days ago, finished *Farewell, My Lovely last night, and about to start The High Window.
I’ve also been reading aloud to my wife, R L Stevenson’s Treasure Island. We finished last night, so I guess that counts for October, and we’re going to a play version tonight… so finished the read-aloud just in time!
Finishing up In Conquest Born by C. S. Friedman. Interesting book, decent read.
Got a trip coming up, so I picked up The Company by K. J. Parker, and The Outlaw Bible of American Essays by Alan Kaufman for the flight out. I’ll pick something for the flight back while I’m there.
wonderlustWar for the Oaks is probably my favorite book of that type, as well as my favorite view of Minneapolis. Helped with homesickness when I was in Omaha.
overlyverbose, you find faerie fiction more formulaic than romance? I’m genuinely curious, my understanding is that romance has requirements like X has to happen by page 30, unless you do Y, which allows you to go up to page 100 before X. (I can’t recall what X was, and my notes from that discussion are at home).
Just finished The Killings of Stanley Ketchel by James Carlos Blake last night. A terrific novel loosely based on the life and times of the middleweight champion of the early 1900s.
Last week I read Pandemonium, by Daryl Gregory; a fantastic tale of an alternative America where people are randomly possessed by outside personalities popularly known as “demons” (although they are not the hellish minions of Satan from Christian mythology). Usually the “demons” leave after a while, but in one man’s case he carries the intruder into his adulthood. Easily one of the best reads I’ve had this year.