Right now I’m reading *The Fate of Mice,*a collection of short stories by Susan Palwick. They are really excellent, and I highly recommend them. I almost never particularly like short stories, but these are gripping.
Next up is Jim Butcher’s Princep’s Fury, and after that, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Horizion, the final book of the Sharing Knife series.
If audio books count, I just finished up Team of Rivals, by Doris Kerns Godwin,which was very interesting, and am almost finished with Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I’ve become a fan of Chabon, though I have to say I find his work more clever than moving.
Next up in audio is Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, and John Grisham’s The Innocent Man.
The A Song of Ice and Fire series. I read A Game of Thrones and I’m a third of the way through A Clash of Kings. They’re the most addicting books I’ve ever read.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
ETA: And I thank these boards for recommending them.
Just finished: Atomic Farmgirl: Growing Up Right in the Wrong Place by Teri Hein. About how life in a community was impacted by being downwind of the Hanford nuclear reservation in the Palouse in Eastern WA. Interesting but not very emotionally satisfying, the author seems rather removed from the subject. Girl in Landscape by Johnathan Lethem. Some straight-up science fiction from a wrtier known for non-genre work. A good story well told.
Still working on *Godel Escher Bach *and Infinite Jest.
His ancestor’s (named Leboski, IIRC) settling in Mission-Era California, and his fondness for ninepins, are mentioned in passing. Since you saw only half the movie that would suffice!
Just finished The Magician’s Book: a skeptic’s adventures in Narnia, by Laura Miller. I very much enjoyed the discussions of the Chronicles themselves, but skimmed all the biographical stuff about Lewis and Tolkein and the Inklings. It was interesting to read the thoughts of a Narnia-loving non-Christian.
Currently reading Rescuing Your Teenager from Depression by Norman Berlinger, and cutting the gloom with American Thighs : the Sweet Potato Queens’ guide to preserving your assets, by Jill Conner Browne. If you’ve read one Sweet Potato Queens book you’ve read ‘em all… I keep telling myself that, but then I go on and get the next one anyway.
I’m still slogging through The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. While I don’t dislike this book, reading it feels more like a test of wills between me and the story than any type of literary pleasure. The book is 900 pages long and, who boy, does it not need to be.
I finished *Dead After Dark *last night. I’m on a vampire kick recently. Light and enjoyable. I’m very interested in watching True Blood on HBO now.
Taking a vacation next week and I expect to be able to read quite a few books. Finally going to read All the Pretty Horses, which has been on my TBR list for ages.
The Cinema of David Lynch: American Dreams, Nightmare Visions, ed. by Erica Sheen & Annette Davison. It’s a collection of essays, one or two for each film/TV show Lynch has done. I was a fan of Lynch to start with, and this has given me an even deeper appreciation of the dear madman.
Growing Up in a Divided Society: The Influence of Conflict on Belfast Schoolchildren, by Sean Byrne. It’s an academic sociological study on (mostly) Protestant children and how living amidst sectarian violence has colored their perception of authority, government, etc. Pretty interesting stuff.
Mary Reilly, by Valerie Martin. A retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde story from the POV of Jekyll’s maid; made into a mediocre movie with Julia Roberts as the title character. This is the third or fourth time I’ve read it – it’s much, much better than the movie.
The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton – another re-read. Fabulous and fascinating.
On the table to read soon:
The Orchard Keeper, by Cormac McCarthy – his debut novel.
A Sense of Reality, by Graham Greene – I’ve read six of his novels but none of his short-story collections (though I have read “The Destructors,” which lowered my opinion of humanity one notch further). One of my favorite odd things about Greene’s writing is that all of his characters are entirely unpleasant human beings, and yet the stories are so compelling. How does he do that?
Sanford Meisner on Acting, by Sanford Meisner – just because. I don’t act, but one of my favorite actors has mentioned in interviews that he uses the Meisner technique, hence my curiosity.
Finished Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. That was seriously intense, man. Of course I was left wondering what became of those various people, and a little googling led me to the follow-up book by someone else (And Their Children After Them), which I have ordered but haven’t started reading yet.
Finished Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Luc Sante. Interesting, well written but not riveting; covers a lot of topics and so doesn’t cover any in depth.
Finished Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky. Interesting topic, dull prose.
Nearing the end of A Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland. Picked it up mainly because Garland is excerpted in Wisconsin Death Trip. Irritatingly Victorian prose, pen in one hand, thesaurus in the other; but at least it’s frank about the miserable aspects of farm life.
In the middle of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson. A good read.
Just about to crack the binding of Carrie Fisher’s “Wishful Drinking.” I can’t wait. This will be followed by Wally Lamb’s “The Hour I First Believed,” about which I am completely optimistic because I’ve loved everything I’ve read by him so far.
A couple of chapters into “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy, just because I got tagged with this meme about ‘The 100 Books Adults Should Have Read’…and I’m gonna try. I did glance at Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, but chickened out for now.
I just got sidetracked for a little while by Storm and Conquest: The Battle for the Indian Ocean, 1809, by Stephen Taylor. It is quite amazing! Very easy reading, and the occasional sacrifice to popular fiction (imaginative reconstruction of doomed passengers’ last minutes aboard a foundering East Indiaman), but altogether a joy to read. If you have read Mauritius Command by O’Brien, in the Aubrey-Maturin series, be sure to read this volume as well – it even has the horrible old Leopard.
“Of Rice and Men: A Novel of Vietnam” by Richard Galli. I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, and am just now getting around to it.
Not a typical testosterone-fueled ‘war’ novel, it follows a group of guys (in a series of non-sequential vignettes) who are tasked with “winning the hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese people by teaching them better farming techniques. As moving as it is hilarious.
“Wishful Drinking” is horrendous. I don’t get it! I thought that her other novels were wonderful: biting, caustic, extremely witty, etc. I am so disappointed!
