Finishing up “The First Law” series. Pretty good, much in the mold of A Game of Thrones… but its only a trilogy and the damn thing is completed.
I’m dreading finishing cause I dont have any books lined up next! Where is the next great fantasy series when ya need it?
I liked both the First Law and Game of Thrones, and I also kind liked this:
A very strong first novel.
At WorldCon this year, the buzz was that Lamentation (The Psalms of Isaak) is expected to rock the fantasy world (due in Feb. 09).
thanks Malthus! Read the reviews, and it does look good. Looks like im hitting the Borders on my way home!
Just finished The Hellfire Conspiracy. Forth in Barker & Llewelyn novels. I enjoyed it. As mentioned in the past it is, IMO, an homage to Holmes without being derivative. The characters continue to grow and we see a little more of Barker’s past in each novel.
I finished Elmer Gantry, by Sinclair Lewis, and like his other works enjoyed it immensely. About the rise of a golden-tongued charlatan evangelist in the early 20th century. Published two years after the Scopes Monkey Trial, Lewis was “invited” to a jail cell in New Hampshire and his own lynching in Virginia. A film version came out in 1960, winning Oscars for Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones, plus the screenplay, although I understand the movie, unseen by me, altered the story a bit. As with his book Arrowsmith, this one has cameo appearances by several characters in Babbitt, including George F. Babbitt himself. And Lewis even makes an appearance, in the form of a character saying how boring he found Lewis’ Main Street.
So that’s four in a row of Sinclair Lewis’ that I read: Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925 and won a Pulitzer) and Elmer Gantry (1927). All excellent, with Babbitt the most broadly comic, Main Street probably the most serious but still with some humor. His work in the 1920s made him the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1930. I’d like to read his Dodsworth (1929) sometime soon.
But first I’m breaking off to read Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown, which he wrote three years before The Da Vinci Code, I believe, and features the same character of Robert Langdon. The wife and I have always been amused with how serious the detractors of The Da Vinci Code took that story. We both found it a fun read. Started seeing film trailers for Angels & Demons, again with Tom Hanks in the Langdon role, so checked the book out of our library. The wife just finished reading it, and she liked it.
Gather 'round friends, for I come bearing an announcement:
I finally finished The Sunne in Splendour. All 900+ pages of it. It took me about six weeks. I know this because I had to renew it once and the check-out time from the public library is three weeks.
Its place on the pile has been taken by Peter Dickinson’s A Bone from a Dry Sea which is only 200 pages long.
Did you all catch that the author of this series stopped by GQ to answer my question regarding a nickname in the book? here
That was pretty cool of him.
Now that’s fanservice!
Very cool. Can you give a brief idea what the books are about?
I’m reading **The War in the Air **by H. G. Wells. German airships dropping incendiary bombs on Manhatten! The Pan-Asian Air Fleet sweeping in from the West to clash over Niagara Falls! Collapse of European civilization as we know it! Plucky Cockney mechanic in the middle of it all, by accident! Fun stuff.
Also working through To Reign in Hell by Brust. Taking longer than such a short book should. The story and characters are just not engaging me, and brust seems to skirt too close to the “precious and twee” for my taste.
And still reading a collection of Solomon Kane stories by Robert E. Howard. It’s not his best work, but fun.
Thomas Llewelyn, the narrator (Watson, if you will) has just gotten out of prison and applies for a job with the mysterious Mr. Barker, an Enquiry Agent (he doesn’t like Private Detective.) The add says: Some danger Involved (the name of the first book.) I inferred that had Barker not hired him, Thomas may well have killed himself, he was that desperate.
Mr. Barker’s background is odd: He is referred to as a Scotsman, he is a strict Christian, but he was brought up in China. He knows a marshal art (and if we are told which one I have missed it.) He always wears dark glasses. He has ties to the Jewish community and the Asian.
In the fist book the Jewish Board of Deputies retains Barker to investigate the crucifixion murder of Jewish student Louis Pokrzya.
As I have said, the books are an homage to Holmes, but are not derivative. Mr. Barker has a rather mysterious history, and we see more and more peeks into it as the books progress. Both are likable characters and the books are an enjoyable read.
The latest one: The Black Hand was in my Christmas list, but Mom got it for me for my birthday. I had not yet read The Hellfire Conspiracy, so I bought it and finished it first.
Cool, thanks. I just put the first one on hold at the library.
I’m reading The Wordy Shipmates too! I never thought I would enjoy a book about the puritans as much as I am, although I haven’t come across anything Sarah Vowell has touched that I didn’t like.
I’m also reading Goedel, Escher, Bach on the recommendation of a friend. It’s slow going! But I live in the same town as the author so I feel like I should really read it while I’m here. I hope I finish before I run out of library renewals.
I’m about to finish My Name is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare. The author is Jess Winfield, one of the founding members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, who created The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) and The Complete Bible (abridged). Those of are two of the funniest plays I’ve ever encountered, ever.
I’m enjoying the heck out of this book. It’s funny and irreverent, but also teeming with good information about Shakespeare. I recommend!!
Reading Bowling Across America: 50 States in Rented Shoes by Mike Walsh. His father had always had a pipe dream about playing handball in every state; after Dad died, he decided he’d bowl in every state (he doesn’t play handball). It’s pretty funny.
I’m Khadaji’s fellow Barker & Llewelyn fan and I had two e-mails from Mr. Thomas yesterday!
Congratulations! Did you like it? << Checks goodreads >> Oh good, you did!
I did. I didn’t know much about Richard III before except that there was a controversy about whether or not he was responsible for the death of the princes in the Tower, so the book gave me a good look at what his life might have been like. I think Penman was pretty balanced in her portrayal–the afterword helped a lot in explaining the different versions of Richard. I want to slap Elizabeth Woodville, though. Gold-digging bitch.
If you’re interested in more about Richard, Alison Weir has written the non-fiction The Princes in the Tower where she argues that Richard did have the boys killed. But Josephine Tey’s mystery novel The Daughter of Time exonerates him. Both are much slimmer books. 
Damn you. Mt. ToBeRead is supposed to be eroding, not growing like the Himalayas!
