What’s it like? I picked it up at the local opp shop last week, but haven’t started reading it yet, picking ‘riding the bus with my sister’ by Rachel Simon to read first.
RTBWMS is at first fascinating, but then sort of meanders into a self-absorbed and contrived effort to secure penance by the author I’ve found…I haven’t finished it yet, so will return with a more definitive review later. It’s a good writing style, but the motivations of the author worry me somewhat.
Birthday wishes to Khadaji and uncle squeegee!
I’m reading Serena by Ron Rash. It’s set in the 30’s in a North Carolina logging community. I’m liking it all right but the characterization could be deeper. So far, Serena’s too evil and Rebecca’s too nice. The book might turn out to be a potboiler but it’s been awhile since I read one of those, so I’m okay with it.
I am enjoying it quite a bit so far, but I only started it the other day. Knowing the premise and hearing such great reviews about it from the trustworthy folks here has me feeling like I’m on my way up the rollercoaster, and any minute will come plummeting down, laughing and smiling the whole way. I’m really looking forward to some quality time with this book 
A belated Happy Birthday to Khadaji. Was that on the 1st? That’s Woody Allen’s birthday, too.
Thanks for the birthday wishes all! Yes, I was 47 on the first of December. I always make a big fuss over it every year and this year I did not - and was genuinely touched that many friends and acquaintances remembered anyway.
I am really enjoying Princep’s Fury. I am not a writer - nor an editor - but there have been one or two passages that made me wince. Things that I thought an editor should have caught. But I’m still happy to have it and am enjoying the heck out of it.
kambuckta-
Cloud Atlas is an interesting read. The structure of the book is fascinating. The way the sections are joined kind of remind me of “Mr Show” segues. I won’t say more about it because that’s part of the charm of the book.
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly.
oooh! Do you have a list or is there a thread on this?
I started a thread but sniffle didn’t get any takers. We have a thread on Goodreads about it, too.
Cloud Atlas is on my Christmas list. Right now I’m reading one of Steven Saylor’s newer mysteries, The Judgment of Caesar. So far it’s not very good. The last couple of books in this series have been weak.
I don’t usually listen to audio books, but we do a lot of driving over the holiday season so I bought an audio version of Patrick O’Brian’s Post Captain. Our 8 hour drive for Thanksgiving took us through disk 6 of 17.
The reader is Patrick Tull, who is supposedly the only person to record all of the books. It’s nice to hear the nautical jargon pronounced correctly and confidently, but the dialog does not sound quite right to me, particularly the banter between Jack and Stephen. I think I would miss a lot of the humor if I wasn’t already familiar with the book. While listening I found myself trying to picture the written words.
I read Cloud Atlas a little while ago and now that I’m recalling it (due to everyone else picking it up) I keep getting angry about it. I can’t go into why due to spoilers, but let’s just say I’m about through with the whole dystopian future plot crutch. I’m so irritated that while I was going through my GoodReads list just now, I dropped my rating a star.
I’ve finally just finished a bunch of stuff
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, on behavioral economics. He is showing up on Marketplace almost every day.
The Guys Guide to Guy Films which I got free at a street fair.
I finished the book I’m reviewing, and am now in the process of cutting 500 words out of my first draft of the review (ouch.)
And I’m still working my way through this year’s sf magazines - I’m about up to June.
Next, either a Tom Swift Jr., a Stephen Baxter book I haven’t put away yet which is sitting there reproachfully, Robert Sheckley’s sequel to the Tenth Victim which is doing the same, or the book about Iron Chef (Japan) which I gave to my wife years and years ago but which I want to read myself.
I just finished **The Memory of Water **-- family drama which I enjoy.
I’m not sure what’s next–I have a bunch of started books I need to get back to, including Cellophane, The History of Love, Gilead, Death of a Red Heroine, The Diary of Anne Frank, Fahrenheit 451…
Reading Winter in Kandahar by Steven E. Wilson, about fighting factions in Afghanistan. This is the author’s first fiction book and I’m having a lot of problems with his writing style. He’s prone to needless exposition. His sentence structure is very basic and repetitive.
Also reading *Pet Sematary *for something easy in bed.
Just finished Scratch Beginnings by Adam Sheppard. He decided to see if he could start with $25 and the clothes on his back and lift himself out of poverty.
I am currently reading Economic Gangsters about crime and corruption and the poverty of nations and I will get back to The Devil We Know by Robert Baer about Iran when I am done.
Rob
I’m almost finished with Serena by Ron Rash. Appalachian Gothic. Best thing I’ve read in months.
Finished:
Blindness by Jose Saramago
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Joe College by Tom Perotta
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson
Danse Macabre by Stephen King
All good.
Finshed
The Leather Maiden by Joe Landsdale
Bad and predictable. As was his last Hap and Leonard. I hope he comes back to form.
Lisey’s Story
There were parts I really enjoyed but I found the structure of the novel to be too incoherent to hold my attention.
Started:
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Let the Right One in by John Lundquist
Faith Healers by James Randi
Beloved by Toni Morrison
There’s a new Hap and Leonard? ::excited: But it’s not good? ::sad:: Phooey.
I liked this. I don’t remember much about it, just that I liked it. Quite bleak though.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant Captains Outrageous which IIRC, came out some time ago but is the latest in the series.
In comparison to the other Hap and Leonards, a real let-down.
Finished. It was mild and sweet; what you would expect for such a young audience. I’d say it’s on the reading level of The Chronicles of Narnia or Charlotte’s Web (not that it was anywhere near as good). Strong female heroine.
Skimmed It’s Me or the Dog, by Victoria Stilwell.
I started on Poe’s Children, a horror anthology edited by Peter Straub, but hated the first two stories so much I didn’t even want to try the rest. I dropped the book two times as I was returning it to the book pile, and I suspect that was my body’s subconscious attempt to hurl the book across the room. The first story was about an alcoholic remembering how shittily he treated his first family, and the same things beginning to happen with his current family. At the end, the house burns down, killing his wife and little kid, complete with description of their burned bodies. The second story was excruciatingly long and dealt with a girl whose lovers turn into butterflies. I hate that surrealist shit, especially when it takes up twenty pointless pages.