Finished Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs. This is set in the same world as her Mercy Thomson series, but with a new focus on different characters.
I enjoyed it. It is a light and quick read, but moves quickly and I like the characters.
Went back to work today, so my reading will likely slow a little.
Finished The Black Hand. A return to form after The Hellfire Conspiracy, which I think is the weakest of the series. We learn a couple of tiny facts about Barker . . . this thing could play out forever!
Now reading Charlatan by Pope Brock, about John R. Brinkley, the quack doctor who made a fortune in the 1920s by implanting goat testicles into thousands of gullible farmers, captains of industry and bank presidents! Engrossing and hilarious.
I’m really loving this book, although I don’t know how much of it has actually penetrated my little brain. I’m thinking about getting out some colored pencils and drawing diagrams to help me remember who’s who. I rarely buy books these days, but I would like to have this one as a reference. Bob rocks.
Due to a few recent Stephen King threads, I’ve been revisiting some of his works. Right now I’m reading Skeleton Crew and *The Dark Tower *simultaneously. I haven’t read Skeleton Crew since I was 13 and the stories are a lot creepier than I remember… I don’t think I “got” them back then. The Dark Tower isn’t terrific. There are parts that really grab me, but mostly it seems longer and more convoluted than it needs to be. But I’m a completest and I will slog through.
Yeah, I’m doing a sort of King retrospective myself. My daughter is discovering him now, so I’m guiding her through my collection and discussing what she’s read. (I’ve been waiting for this all my life! 
)
I’m also listening to the Dark Tower series on audiobooks in the car. I started early in the year and I’m on the final book now. I like parts of it very much, but as a whole, not really. This time around, the flaws are standing out more. I may listen to Black House next, just to get the whole picture…
King also has another story collection coming in the fall, called Just After Sunset. I have read a couple of the stories already in other various-author-compilations. Nothing wow yet, but I ordered it, of course.
Just finished The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss, Book 1). It started slowly and I was afraid that I would end up putting it down.
It picked up some in the middle and by the end I enjoyed it. I’ll try the others.
The author (Marjorie M. Liu) is smokin’ hot too! Marjorie, if you read this and find slightly overweight middle-aged software developers hot - send me a PM!
Eighth Air Force, Donald Miller - chunky & visceral history of American bombers in Europe. Standard modern day World War II history fare.
The End of Mr Y, Scarlett Thomas - good holiday reading - not the most likeable characters (a bit perfect-for-being-imperfect) but a decent page-turner plot similar in some ways to The Raw Shark Texts.
The Last Godfathers, John Follain - I’d read his earlier history of the Corleonesi (A Dishonoured Society), this turned out just to be an update with the last ten years’ activity. Decent mix of fact and sensationalism.
Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend, Leo McKinstry - worryingly over-enthusiastic, anally detailed history, endorsed bizarrely by both Jeremy Paxman and Jeremy Clarkson. Not a keeper.
The Complete Yes Minister, Lynn & Jay - always a good read.
Looking For Jake, China Mieville - easily digestible short story collection, mostly on an urban dystopian horror theme. Occasionally the stories are a little underdeveloped, but some lovely sinister ideas.
Nemesis, Max Hastings - okay. Not a bad potted history of the close of World War II against Japan, some interesting coverage of the war in China, but a bit skimpy and disconnected.
And the picks of the last few weeks:
Un Lun Dun, China Mieville - fantastic children’s novel just as good for adults. Unsurprisingly not particularly in-depth but fantastically rich - Neverwhere meets Jumanji meets Harry Potter, sort of.
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman - had been putting this off for ages, not as good as American Gods but still a nicely imaginative read. Something about his occasional jokes and the typeface used in every Gaiman book does annoy me, strangely.
Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, G W Dahlquist - amusingly overblown Victoriana - Sherlock Holmes with sex and violence. Like a slightly more serious version of Mark Gatiss’ Lucifer Box novels.
Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman - a real tribute to every superhero and supervillain cliche, action-packed, thoughtful, with added pathos and a real sense of sympathy and comic timing (“why does nobody fear my blaster?”). Doctor Impossible is one of my favourite characters in recent reads.
And coming up now:
Number 9 Dream, David Mitchell - I’ve recently become a huge fan of his. If this is half as good as Ghostwritten or The Cloud Atlas I’ll be happy.
The Complete Yes Prime Minister, Lynn & Jay - some reliable satirical relief.
Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon - it doesn’t look as gripping as The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, as epic as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay or as gently affectionate as The Final Solution, but since I’ve liked all the other books of his I’ve read I felt obliged to give it a try.
A Game of Thrones, George R R Martin - I really don’t like fantasy novels, but a friend insisted I try it. So far very “meh”, but I’ll persevere.
Total Chaos, Jean-Claude Izzo - impulse purchase today; a hard-boiled Marseillaise cop thriller (I’m a sucker for gritty, seedy non-Anglo detective stuff - Chantal Pelletier, Pablo Ignacio Taibo II, etc).
I finally got around to reading The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins. I thought it would be some nice light reading, since with me he’s preaching to the choir. 
It was actually very meaty. If I had been a Christian, I think it would have changed my mind.
Reading *Indiana Gothic * by Pope Brock. Liked his Charlatan so much I decided to check out this earlier work. It’s the fictionalized story of his great-grandfather, who was shot to death by his sister-in-law, with whom he had been having an affair.
Finished. Correction: was shot to death by his brother-in-law, husband of his lover. Gothic indeed! I will read more of Brock’s work. Now reading *Charley’s Web * by Joy Fielding, novel about a newspaper columnist who is asked by a death-row inmate to write her True Story. (Haven’t heard the True Story yet, but I’m guessing it’s gonna exonerate the convict and find the true killer. Just a guess.) So far not up to Fielding’s standards, but I’ll stick with it.
I’m reading "Illegally Dead"by David Wishart,latest of a series about an ancient Roman detective which is still readable but is starting to become a little weak.
Also a non fiction book"Tricks of the Mind"by Derren Brown which is all about the techniques of Mentalism, ie. hypnosis.misdirection,auto suggestion,body language etc.
Tricks of the Mind… Tricks of the Mind…just the name of it is so relaxing …so,so relaxing…
Almost like sinking into a warm perfumed bath at the end of a hard day when all the tenseness just leeches out of your body oooooooh it feels so good doesn’t it?
Ooooooooooooh yes…dont fight it…its so good to unwind…you deserve to unwind
RIGHT now give me all of your money and if your female and fit fall in love with me!
I think that I might need to read the last chapter again.
Just finished Guns, Germs, and Steel. A lot of the details were interesting, but I don’t think the overall thesis was all that profound and it didn’t answer it’s central question.
I’m reading Inside Relativity by Mook and Vargesh. It’s OK, but I’d like a more detailed treatment.
I whipped through The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon. A very angry satire of McCarthyism, written in '59, when that was still fresh. Compulsive reading but very bleak, as you know if you’ve seen the original movie.
I’m halfway through Julian May’s Pliocene Exile quartet. She builds an interesting and unique world. I read it years ago, but I completely forgot it, so it’s new to me now.
Last night I finished The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark. I thought it was supposed to be a “classic novel”, but that would mean that someone read it and thought it worthwhile enough to recommend to someone else, and that doesn’t seem very likely.
I also read Deepest Thoughts: so deep they squeak, by Jack Handey. (I know, hardly counts, does it?) Anyway, I shared it with the kids and we all got a bang out of it.
Finished Charley’s Web. Meh. Not one of Fielding’s better books; too much time on the protagonist’s family and not enough on the thriller/mystery. Now reading The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. Only on Page 21; interesting so far.
I just got the kindle edition of SuperDove, the history of the pigeon. I haven’t started it yet. Oh, I picked up this week’s Rolling Stone.
I just picked up the latest Terry Brooks novel, The Gypsy Morph, last night. It’s not pretty. 
You know, I read that a few years ago and it was one of those things where going into it, I thought it was supposed to be this big deal, and after, I thought only “meh.” Maybe it hasn’t aged well.
In the car: Winston Churchill’s Memoirs of the Second World War. Germany just seized Norway.
On the piano: A History of Britain (Part 1) On the Edge of the World by Simon Schama. Just started.
For the plane: The Liar by Stephen Fry. Haven’t begun it yet; it’s for the fishing trip.
In the bathroom: The Hobbit by [del]Bilbo Baggins[/del] J.R.R. Tolkien (fantasy); The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy collection by Douglas Adams (sci-fi humor); Tiffany Twisted by Allison Tyler (unusual body-exchange erotica); Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
I’m doing really well this month (for me—often it takes me a month or more to finish just one book). I finished reading “The Manny” before even leaving for vacation. I finished “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax” after the first couple of days away and started “The Stand” (uncut version) a week ago. I’m just over halfway through it now. “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax” was a fun read. I might have to check out the rest of the series.
I was looking at the reviews over at Goodreads.com and a lot of people claimed to like it. But I noticed a lot of them also mentioned the movie version, starring Maggie Smith, so maybe having seen the movie helps.