I finished both "The Reader and “Lonesome Dove” yesterday. Both were great. It took me a while to read “Lonesome Dove” but it was definitely worth the effort. I normally wouldn’t read a western but I’m glad I stepped outside of myself a little bit and gave it a chance. “The Reader” was a very quick read. Even so, I thought it got a bit dull during the trial. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it as a whole. I still think I’ve read it before, since almost all of it was very familiar. (Have not seen the movie yet, so it’s not that.)
I started “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane but haven’t gotten far enough in to tell whether I like it or not. I think I’ll also start “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. I want to read both of these before seeing the movies being made about them.
I’ve just started Let the Right One In.
I just finished the last book in Michael Flynn’s *Firestar *series, which I enjoyed very much. It was begun in the 90’s as near-future hard science fiction so it’s rapidly becoming alternate history. It’s about a private initiative to get humanity into space, spurred on by a billionaire businesswoman who is secretly terrified that there could be an asteroid on a collision course with Earth and we won’t have the technology to intercept it.
I’m back in the 19th century with A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells. Basil March and his wife are relocating from Boston to New York where he’s going to edit a magazine. I’m enjoying the look at New York City, particularly their search for a place to live. It’s like House Hunters without the annoying comments about natural light, granite, and stainless steel appliances. 
Something I’ve noticed about 19th century novels is a different use of some adjectives. “Ironical”, “tragical”, “fantastical”, where we’d just say ironic or tragic or fantastic. Weird how language changes.
I just finished Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory” and I would agree with many of the customers on Amazon. Not his best work but a heartbreaking one nonetheless.
As an Arizonan, I’ve had Pat Tillman’s name crammed down my throat without really paying attention to anything other than his supposedly being a ‘hero’. Whatever the definition of that word, Tillman was a complex and interesting guy who thought he was doing the right thing and ended up being totally disillusioned and then shot by his own outfit.
As an American, this book just re-fueled my hatred of our own axis of evil (Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld). You certainly can tell where Krakauer stands on the issues and I enjoyed that because, with me, he was preaching to the choir.
The events Krakauer discussed surrounding the rescue of Jessica Lynch and the death of Mr. Tillman made me realize just how FUBAR the military can be. No offense to any of you who have served, but I had no idea how often fratricide occurs. The spin that was and has been put on these wars is also almost unbelievable and shocking to the uninformed.
It was an enlightening and yet depressing read for me.
At the moment I’m re-reading “Oryx and Crake” by Margret Atwood, because the sequel “The Year Of The Flood” was released earlier this week. I picked it up from the library today This sequel is billed as more light-hearted than the first book, which has me nonplussed - how do you do a happy dystopia? Guess we’ll see.
I’m still on my recent science fiction kick. I’ve been reading a lot of short stories but I’ve also started Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross.
Finally finished Out West: A Journey Through Lewis and Clark’s America by Dayton Duncan. The author retraced the steps of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and interweaves his own adventures and the people he meets with the original expedition, and with the history of the area during the intervening period (Oregon Trail, Sitting Bull). This was originally written in the '80s, which I didn’t realize when I bought it a couple of years ago – there was an afterword updating it to 2000. There weren’t huge differences during those 20 years – the farm crisis got no better, for instance.
Interesting, but not a strong recommendation.
I’ll sneak in another post before the month ends.
Finished:
The Rookie: The Incredible True Story of a Man Who Never Gave Up on His Dream by Jim Morris ~ Morris spoke at a conference that my husband was at and he got this for me. A decent read.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver ~ Much better than I was expecting. I really enjoyed the different voices of the daughters as they told their chapters.
Oh No! We’re Gonna Die: Humorous Tales of Close Calls in the Alaskan Wilderness by Bob Bell ~ My husband has been working in Alaska for a few months and had to get this for me. I just can’t believe that the author made it safely through so many misadventures.
Ambush at Corellia (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy, Book 1) by Roger Macbride Allen ~ Still getting my Star Wars geek on. These three aren’t very good.
Assault at Selonia (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy, Book 2) by Roger Macbride Allen
Showdown at Centerpoint (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy, Book 3) by Roger Macbride Allen
The Human Predator: A Historical Chronicle of Serial Murder and Forensic Investigation by Katherine Ramsland ~ The author follows murders in a chronological fashion. A couple of errors caught my eye but otherwise an ok read.
Winter’s End by Jean-Claude Mourlevat ~ Young adult ARC about four teenagers who revolt against their evil government. Starts out great, about half way gets preachy and trite.
Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg ~ Basically this is about the effects of removing predators from a healthy ecosystem. Highly recommended.
Still reading:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith ~ Haven’t picked this up for a couple of weeks. Lost interest for now.
Travels with Doctor Death by Ron Rosenbaum ~ the first couple of chapters have been boring. I’ll give it one more.
I’d like to hear your feedback when you’re done. The movie didn’t wow me and I’m hoping that the story is better.
I also took that step and really enjoyed “Lonesome Dove”. I also enjoyed “Comanche Moon” & will continue with his books.
(And to update on our break-in: My awesome landlord tracked down the thieves but the cops wouldn’t do anything about it. I guess they don’t care about some extra guns on the street. The thieves still cruise by the house every so often, probably waiting for me to go away for a weekend so they can come grab more stuff.)
This sounds interesting – just put a hold on it at the library.
I am taking a break from the Geo. Martin books for a minute, and reading www:wake by Robert J Sawyer. I’m only 60 pages into it. The protagonist is a 15 yr old blind girl who gets an experimental signal processor implanted onto her optical nerve in an attempt to cure her blindness. It reads a bit like juvenile fiction so far, being mostly from a teenage girl’s viewpoint. Nevertheless it’s compelling, well-told, and entertaining.
I’ve been on a Lincoln kick this month. Started by reading Team of Rivals, then A Short History of the Civil War. I’m now half-way through April 1865.
April 1865 sucks, IMHO. It’s bad pop history, hyperbolic and riddled with errors. Send me a PM, if you like, and I’ll send you the book review I wrote for the Civil War roundtable I belong to. Team of Rivals, however, is excellent.
Little Nemo, I just finished Saturn’s Children a month or so ago and found it kind of hard going, but with some cool ideas. It was a very uneven book, I thought. Not sure whether or not I can actually recommend it.
pm sent.
Gulo, I finished Let the Right One In. It was okay. There’s just no glimmer of light in this story at all. I was more interested in Oskar and his problems than any of the vampire stuff. Out of all the possibly disturbing things in this story, I gotta say, the thing that affected me most was how much Oskar’s mom loved him and wanted to look out for her son, and it didn’t seem to make much difference. (I have a boy that age myself).
I’ve just started Losing My Religion : how I lost my faith reporting on religion in America–and found unexpected peace, by William Lobdell. It hasn’t grabbed me yet, and it’s overdue at the library so it better get good fast or else! It’s to be expected with this sort of book, but whenever the author says something like, “there was a hole in my life” or “I felt this amazing sense of joy and peace as I prayed”, he loses me a little because I just can’t relate.
This month, lets see…
Book of Secrets by Chris Roberson was ok - a fairly run-of-the-milll thriller with ancient artifacts and secret societies…
The Magicians by Lev Grossman was pretty good, although it seemed pretty aimless for the first half or so. A college for incipient magicians a bit like Hogwarts, but they’re all geeky high school graduates, so a bit older and less bound by rules. A fictictious fantasy series a bit like Narnia also features.
Day by Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne a diary-style story of zombie apocalypse! It’s a page turner with lots of action, but not really much else.
Slide Rule by Nevil Shute, author of On the Beach and A Town Like Alice, etc) This is his autobiography up until just before WW2, when he’s starting to earn good money as an author Much of the book describes his time helping design and build the R100 airship (which was successful but scrapped when the rival R101 crashed, killing the politician in charge of the UK airship programme) and after that, when he was struggling to start and run an aeroplane design and manufacturing company on a shoestring. A bit too many details of this, but a good book otherwise.
I just started this yesterday. So far, pretty awesome.
Not at all what I expected. Not sure where those expectations came from as I don’t think I ever read anything about the author or the book. Maybe “Cormac” made me think of Dylan Thomas, or something (who I probably also have the wrong impression of).
I recently had a similar experience with Flannery O’Connor. Not a man, you say? Wow. I read Wise Blood. Also very much not Dylan Thomas (as far as I know). Good book, I guess. I’m not much for short stories, but if anybody has a recommendation, I’d be game.
Anyway, there’s a The Road movie in the works? If I like the rest of the book as much as the first 50 pages, I probably won’t want to press my luck with a movie.
Just started Nick Hornby’s new one *Juliet, Naked * which looks like being fun. I have been browsing and will continue for months in Spice Notes and Recipes by Ian Hemphill. It is 500 pages of encyclopedic information about spices in a beautiful book that is just fun to pick up for 10 minutes. It follows me all over the place. Right now it is beside my chair, in ten minutes it will be on the bedside table.
I’m really liking it so far, too. I’m about half-way through. And yes, there’s a movie coming out Thanksgiving week. Viggo Mortensen plays the father. I saw a fall movie preview on CBS Sunday Morning a couple of weeks ago and thought it looked pretty good.
Finished The Magic Cup by Andrew M. Greeley, a thouroughly dull and uninspired telling of tale of King Cormac MacDermot and his quest for he magic princess and the magic cup that will confirm his right to be High King of Ireland. Although I have enjoyed some of Greeley’s work in the past, this time I found his dialog repetitive and tedious. Traveling with Cormac is Bridget a “humble” slave girl. As is his habit, Greeley paints her as a strong Irish woman with a quick temper. Much of the dialog between Cormac and Bridget consists of them first fighting, then making up, demonstrating to the reader the quicksilver temperament of the Irish peoples. In the end, this was a relief to finish - I give it a D+.