I finished The Mediator series by Meg Cabot today. I was concerned when I heard that Cabot had orginally planned for there to be eight books in the series, but was only allowed to write six due to poorer than desired sales, but the series ends on a perfect note. Which isn’t to say I wouldn’t read the follow up book people say she’s talked about on her blog, but that I’m content with where it ended for the girl who sees ghosts and her ghost boyfriend. I wish these had come out when I was a teenager, because I think I’d of loved them even more
I have the latest book in the Dresden Files to finish reading, and I’m hoping to do so by Halloween, because I don’t usually get much reading done in November. Not if nanowrimo is going well, anyway. Does anyone know when the next book comes out? I’m bummed to be all caught up on the Mercy Thompson and Sookie Stackhouse books, and now I’ll be putting Dresden on that list too…the bad thing about getting caught up is waiting for the next book(s)!
About to start on The great typo hunt : two friends changing the world, one correction at a time, by Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson. Non-fiction about two guys road-tripping around fixing signs, menus, etc.
If you haven’t given up on Berger completely, both his Arthur Rex (a clever, fun retelling of Arthurian legend) and Little Big Man (wry Wild West revisionism, made into an excellent movie with Dustin Hoffman) are worth a look.
Just started Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age 1792–1815: Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics by Robert B. Bruce, Iain Dickie, Kevin Kiley, Michael F. Pavkovic, et al. 2008
I know what you mean - I hate it when I catch up with an author!
The Dresden Files books usually release in April. His book of Harry Dresden short stories comes out tomorrow, though, called Side Jobs. I’ve already read many of the stories in other collections, and Butcher is really good at the short story format.
You might like Mike Carey’s Felix Castor books, starting with The Devil You Know. They’re a bit like Harry Dresden in London, although they are darker and not as snarky.
I’m reading Bujold’s *Cryoburn *now. This book comes with a CD that has electronic copies of ALL of the Vorkosigan books, plus the Vorkosigan Companion, in a variety of formats. The CD is marked: “This disk and its contents may be copied and shared, but NOT sold.”
Hhhhm. Perry Moore’s Hero, though not uninteresting, is a bit of a slow read. It’s not that I’ve given up on it, but I’m putting it on backburner.
For a change, I’ve started reading Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon. It continues my mad love/deep exasperation relationship with Pynchon. On the one hand, I’m completely astonished by the language and the imagery, especially the way in which Pynchon’s faux-1760s English reads completely naturally. On the other hand, I’m dumbfounded by what he’s trying to say. I catch the occasional glimpse here and there alright, but I don’t think I’m really getting it.
I’ve also read Dungeon-Crawlin’ Fools, Start of Darkness and Don’t Split the Party, Rich Burlew’s Order of the Stick books 1, -1, and 4. Why those? Because 2 & 3 are frickin’ out of print and way, way too expensive for me to get, and 0 is still awaiting delivery. Oh well…
Just finished Half Baked: The Story of My Nerves, My Newborn, and How We Both Learned to Breathe, by Alexa Stevenson. Anyone who has struggled with infertility and/or with a complicated pregnancy and/or a baby in the NICU will enjoy this book. The subject matter is pretty grim - she lost one of her twins in utero, and the other was born almost 15 weeks early - and yet the book is absolutely, totally hysterical.
I think I’m within fair use just to quote the first paragraph, to give you an idea of style:
Just read Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie, a great, behind-the-scenes book about a teen superhero movie I’d really enjoyed earlier this year. Interesting interviews, cool concept art and sly hints about a sequel.
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, recommended by some Doper at some point. (Sorry, don’t remember who or in what context – just had the “sdmb” annotation with it on my Amazon wish list.)
There’s a tiny little island that honors the man who wrote the “quick brown fox” pangram [technical term for a sentence that uses all 26 letters]. There’s a statue to him in the main town. When the pangram’s letters start falling off the statue one at a time, the leaders forbid people to use any fallen letters, with draconian punishments for those who err.
Combination of *very *clever wordplay and a political fable – fun, quick, read. Recommended.
Just got Lois McMaster Bujold’s new novel Cryoburn, which I finished in a day. And I’ve been working my way through Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim books.
I read that one over the summer and had the same reaction. I had never before appreciated the sheer scope of the Great Nazi Art Theft or the hard work required to recover even a tiny fraction of the stolen works.
Currently reading Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. Or trying to, anyway. I’m only about 75 pages in and it’s a chore.
The hardcover edition I’m reading is also 750 pages, but with not TOO small type and bigger pages. I figure it would come to 1500 pages in a normal paperback if a regular font were used.
Aztec is big, but a surprisingly quick read. And no one who’s ever read it has afterward complained to me that it was too big. Don’t let its size put you off.
