Finished The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers. I thought the writing was exceptional, with gut-wrenching descriptions of the Depression, but the ending was puzzling and anticlimactic. I’ll be looking for the author’s previous book, The Last Town on Earth.
Finished Dark and Stormy Knights [Paperback] an urban fantasy anthology. It was mediocre in general, but you get some interesting back stories on some minor characters in a few.
Started The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment [Paperback] a book I bought years ago, but for some reason never picked up. I’ll report on it once I’m through.
I am currently on a Vermeer kick, so have branched out slightly from that subject matter and am currently reading I was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century’s Greatest Forger.
It’s the story of Han van Meegeren [Wikipedia] passing off a lot of his own paintings as Vermeer’s in the first half of the 20th century, and includes a fascinating description of the techniques he had to use to pass them off as a 17th century painting. He was only caught because they thought he had sold his “Vermeer” paintings to the Nazis and he was up against a charge of treason in 1947. He admitted he had forged them to avoid a death sentence.
I have recently realized that I DO like non-fiction – if there is enough of a “narrative” or “story-like” quality woven in. This does that wonderfully.
That’s the way I felt. I don’t know who it was I had Wouk confused with. Maybe Irwin Shaw.
I had the same experience when I first watched Rififi a few years back. It was made in 1955 so I was surprised to find out after seeing it that director Jules Dassin was still alive (at the time - he’s since died).
I just finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I enjoyed it despite its many flaws.
I’ve moved onto Crime and Punishment now. I read half of it years ago and really liked it, but exams got in the way and I never went back to it. So I figured I’d go back and start it again.
I recently read a different book about van Meergeren, which I liked a lot (see the August "whatcha readin’ ") – don’t think I need to read a second book about him though.
Currently reading Dan Simmons’s Drood, which has gotten mixed reviews in these threads. Slow start (understandable, considering what a doorstop it is) – I’m about 100 pages in and he’s just getting started. Not sure what I think about it yet.
Right now I’m reading ***Adolf Hitler - My Part in his Downfall ***by Spike Milligan. I think it’s supposed to be funny, but humor doesn’t translate well. I’m reading it in the original British, but my first language is English, so I think I’m missing a lot.
I finished 52 McGs, obituaries from the New York Times by Robert McG Thomas Jr. He wrote about the non-famous, the guy who claimed to be the model of Minnesota Fats, Wrong-Way Corrigan, and Fred Feldman, the first helicopter traffic guy in New York. Many are hilarious (while being respectful.) I got it free from a Half Price Books booth at our local arts festival, best free book ever.
I just finished rereading “The Book of Three” by Lloyd Alexander, because all four books in the series have been staring at me from their place in a bookshelf in my bedroom for years. Better than I remembered. Before starting the next, “The Black Cauldron,” I’m reading something completely different: “Beginnings of Modern Science,” a collection of excerpts from Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, etc. I got from the Irvine CA library sale.
Just started Cloud Atlas and my impression after about 30 pages is …whoa./awe
I just finished The Passage by Justin Cronin, and have now started The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I have to get Filthy Lucre: Economics For People Who Hate Capitalism by Joseph Heath back from the library again, but not until I’m closer to finishing my current book (I like reading non-fiction that teaches me stuff, but they go slooooowly).
Finished Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay, last book of the Hunger Games series. I didn’t like it as much as the first two, but it was still good.
I’ve just started Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, as recommended in (I think) that recent thread about the mindsets that keep people in poverty. It’s interesting enough, but so unrelentingly tragic that I don’t know if I’ll go on.
I’m reading that now, too… it seems to be Oliver Twist meets* Ocean’s Eleven*. Not sure if I like it yet.
I read my first book on a (borrowed) Kindle over the weekend. (Blameless, by Gail Carriger - very silly paranormal steampunk/romance, but I was amused.) It took some time to get used to the page transitions - the screen reverses, goes black for a second, when you turn the page - but otherwise it was perfectly comfortable to read. It was in a red leather cover that was attractive, but also heavy and awkward, so I ended up taking the Kindle out pretty quickly.
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Kind of distracted because my dog is sick.
I read the first two in this trilogy(?)
I like his writing, but every time I read him I am disappointed with the ending. I may not read his next one (it may already be out.)
My book club read that a few years ago. It failed my 50-page rule. A tragic book, yes, but for me it was also unbelievably frustrating that the family kept making such bad decisions, laying the groundwork for their kids and grandkids to do much the same. Grrrr.
Yeah, I like horror stories, but this is just too much!
“Road Dogs” by Elmore Leonard. Jack Foley, Cundo Rey and Dawn are back from previous novels with fast talk, double crossings, with the usual Leonard knack for dialogue.
Heh, the first two pages of that has as many ideas in it as most whole novels. 
[I’m thinking of the part about the fellow hunting for teeth on a Polynesian beach to embarass the woman who ruined him professionally …]
I’d put that on my top-ten-ever list
From Wikipedia: “In 2009 it was announced that the Wachowski Brothers had bought the rights to the novel, and that writer/director Tom Tykwer would be working on a screenplay.”