Have you read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfus? Delicious Epic Non-Heartbreak. Beautiful writing.
Making steady progress and on schedule! King James was an interesting guy - politically canny and well-informed theologically; not just the foolish fop I’d thought, although he had many other faults. All of the bare-knuckle Church of England fights between the conservative bishops and the radical (for their day) Pilgrims make for fascinating reading.
Finished Carter Beats the Devil. I like it a lot. It might have been a tad longer than necessary at 632 pages, but I certainly didn’t mind.
I’ve heard quite a mixed bag of reviews on The Magicians. I’d be interested to hear what you think of sequel when you get around to it, too.
Halfway through Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn. The writing didn’t catch me at first, but the concept of Allomancy drew me in. Now it’s dragging a bit, but I’m hoping it revs up soon.
Just finished Gibson’s Neuromancer (on the mean-to-read-someday list) and War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, which was entertaining if predictable. Some of the racial jokes were surprising to see, but I guess some things were easier to publish back in the 80s. 
Seconding this. Well written, artfully paced. Sets the bar a little higher than the sequel managed to reach IMO, but The Wise Man’s Fear is definitely well worth the read too.
Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. Right now I’m on Foundation and Empire.
Finished reading through the relevant sections of the Lonely Planet New York, New Jersey & Pennsylvania guidebook.
Now I’m going to read through Lonely Planet’s Washington, DC guide.
The Time Traveler’s Wife is damned depressing.
Just finished Those Across the River, debut novel by Christopher Buehlman. Holy crap, was it creepy. About a WWI vet who inherits a house in Georgia from his aunt, and goes down there to write a book about his great-grandfather, who was a plantation owner killed by his slaves, whom he treated most cruelly. Finds the house is in a bizarre little town with peculiar traditions linked to
werewolves
I had no idea that was going to be the case until I got to it in the book. I read a recommendation from a bookstore and reserved it at the library because of that, but I thought it was going to be about
voodoo
Really eerie. I will be waiting for his next book.
It’s not real.
I recommend I Slept With Joey Ramone for Ramones fans, but with a special pair of glasses that unskews Mickey Leigh’s (Joey’s brother’s) bias.
Started American Lion. Won some Pulitzer something or other.
The City & The City by China Mieville. I’m about 1/3 through it. I’ll finish it, but it’s been very easy for me to put down so far. Mieville spends entirely way too much time describing, well, the cities, and not nearly enough developing any human characters. I’ll let you know if it gets better.
I just read the first couple of books in Alexander McCall Smith’s “Isabel Dalhousie” mystery series. It’s set in modern-day Edinburgh, and Isabel is a wealthy single woman in her 40’s who edits an ethics journal. A lot of the content is her philosophical musing. The books are quiet and cozy, nearly soporific, but I like the characters well enough. So far the series isn’t quite as charming as the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.
I was just reading about Smith, and the Really Terrible Orchestra which appears in the second novel is a real group that he co-founded, and in which he plays the bassoon. "We’re only too happy for people to practice. I do myself, but it will never make a difference. No one good is ever going to join us. And if they did, they’d be hugely outnumbered. Children would raise the standard, but we don’t let them in for that reason. It would be too embarrassing. And though people say we have ambitions, what is ambition? When a piece speeds up, it’s ambitious enough for me.”
Yeah, I just started this, and already it’s a downer. I’m not sure I’ll stay with it.
I finished Don’t Lets Go To the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller, which was fascinating (but also somewhat depressing). Memoir written by a white woman who was raised in (then) Rhodesia. Her parents were British ex-pat farmers. I liked it because she took a very “telling it like it was” approach – she doesn’t dwell on what was wrong with the situation – that’s obvious, and provides lots of details about what life was like for her family, and her daily experiences in Africa. It was maybe a little crazy, some of it was difficult to read about on a parenting level, a little like The Glass Castle, although not quite as dire.
I just finished ***The Big Sleep ***by Raymond Chandler, and am starting ***The Secret ***Agent by Joseph Conrad.
I’m still alternating between mysteries and Modern Library “100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century” selections.
I will be interested in your thoughts - I found the idea (the first spy/thriller/terrorist book of the modern era; delves into the mind of the agent, etc.) a lot more compelling than the actual execution of the book. I love some Conrad, but this got tedius, IMHO. But it represents a milestone in the genre…
I just finished **Everything Matters! **- a fella is informed *in utero *about the exact date of the end of the earth. The book is his journey and how the book’s title is reached as a conclusion. Kinda Forrest Gumpy, with a bit of the movie Sliding Doors tossed in at the end. Not my cuppa.
Just finished The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America by Maury Klein 2009.
About to start Blood, Iron, & Gold: How the Railroads Transformed the World by Christian Wolmar 2010.
It certainly has its ups and downs, running the emotional gamut from exhilarating to delightful to sad to heartbreaking, but I really, really enjoyed it. I strongly encourage you and delphica to read through to the very end. (The movie’s not nearly as good IMHO).
I know it probably didn’t seem to be in the cards at the time you dropped it, but the book’s “pace” picked up considerably in the days leading up to “The Night of the Long Knives”. And, of course, during the “night” itself.
I quite enjoyed the whole thing, though. (I, too, am a “history guy”)
Agreed. And in your mind, you can abstract out how the 30’s guy can talk to his long-time love who is currently 6yo and not be totally squicked out by seeing it on the screen in front of you…
I did.
It’s damned depressing.
I just picked up Louise Penny’s newist Armand Gamache mystery - A trick of the light. Anticipating this for a long time, hope I’m not disappointed.