I’m re-reading the Black Company series by Glen Cook. I’m not a real big fan of the fantasy genre, but Cook does it up gritty and real. Good stuff.
I tried to read The End of Faith by Sam Harris, as it was recommended by a very good friend. I think I sprained my brain.
I’m a fan of Cook and really enjoyed that series. At least the first 3. Even the second 3 weren’t too bad. But for some reason he lost it in the latter parts of the series.
I’m reading that one for the first time, and I’m enjoying it so far.
I told Mr. m I couldn’t believe I was married to someone who had never read Catch-22 and he said the same thing about my never having read Foundation. He’s starting on his reading assignment as soon as he finishes his current book (The Historian, which I’m eyeing as my next book in queue).
Just finished **The Straight Dope **. Now I’m reading Crimes Against Logic. Up next is either The World Is Flat or Triumph of the Straight Dope.
Hop on Pop. I’m almost done, too.
Following the Equator by Mark Twain.
People don’t pay enough attention to his travel novels.
Just to warn you, the series turns almost exclusively erotica/porn by about… drat. Cerulean Dreams? I just read the latest one, and it was
Almost all bloody boring relationship talk with extended sex scenes. The had thirty page conversations. No action
I just read Kushiel’s Scion, which was fun, and I think I’ll read Finding Serenity, a collection of essays about Firefly next. Plus Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here For The Food. I might read The Idiot, too, to give my brain some actual food.
Just finished Lost Daughters of China, Under the Banner of Heaven: a story of violent faith, and Matrimonial Purposes. Hated that last one.
Next up is probably Ground Beneath Her Feet and Guns, Germs & Steel
Justice Denied by Robert K. Tanenbaum.
When I finish it, I plan to get his others and slog through them. I shouldn’t say “slog”, I’m really enjoying his writing…
It’s very fitting that I should come after you in this thread. I’m reading Robin McKinley’s Deerskin for the first time. Damn. When people said it was disturbing, they weren’t kidding!
Also reading Juliet E. McKenna’s Southern Fire, Kris Neri’s Dem Bones’ Revenge, Peter Tremayne’s The Haunted Abbot, Julia Spencer-Fleming’s To Darkness and to Death, and another book I can’t remember title or author for.
Oh and a couple of poetry anthologies.
I just started “The Mask of Nostradamus” by James Randi. I just finished “Hiding the Elephant” by Jim Steinmeyer. It’s a very entertaining look at the history of illusions in the 19th and 20th centuries.
I am re-reading the Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood. The main themes of the book is about how big corporate marketing & advertising has seeped into our subconscious, and as a result, how modern day people pick & choose mates (husbands, wive, SO’s, etc.) as if they were shopping at the supermarket. Amazingly the book was written in 1969, and is only much more relevant today. (I can only wonder what Ms. Atwood thinks about online dating services.)
I hate to say it, but her latest book, Danse Macabre, is going along the same path as Cerulean Dreams. Lots of erotica stuff, lots of talk, not much action. No more murder plots either, which is why I started the series in the first place. Disappointing, but thats how it goes.
Yup, that’s Danse Macabre. Pretty damn boring.
jsgoddess, yeah, Deerskin’s disturbing but very beautiful. McKinley caught hell for writing it because everyone had her pegged as a hppy fairy tale author. You can search and find her comments online. Very interesting.
I read that a month or two ago. (Remainder at B&N?) Definitely entertaining.
Lissla and Tamryne -
Thanks for the heads up on that - I’ll just start borrowing them from a friend that I found out is reading the series, instead of buying them. This way, I won’t feel bad about abandoning the book if I don’t like it - If I pay for one, I feel I have to read it no matter how bad or boring it is.
Olive
Remaindered, yes, but from Powell’s Bookstore here in Chicago. Possibly the greatest bookstore in the world.
I could live in Powell’s. But do they still have a storefront in Chicago? I thought they were all in greater Portland.
They have three locations in Chicago. Actually the Portland stores are “sister stores” to the Chicago ones because they were started by the father of the man who started the Chicago stores. (Chicago came first)