This morning I finished Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. The next book on hold is Robert Sawyer’s Humans. I enjoyed the preceding book in the series, Hominids.
Just finished Shantaram, the semi-autobiographical novel by Gregory Roberts. It’s the first “whoa” book I’ve read since Ishmael Beah’s Long Way Gone. Shantaram was a wonderful character study, with Bombay being one of the characters, and quite a sojourn, very wrenching at times.
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis. Entertaining new account of the creation and development of the famous educational series, filled with amusing and intriguing anecdotes.
The Routledge Atlas of the Second World War by Sir Martin Gilbert. Not really a book you can “read,” but entertaining to look at nonetheless. As he does in his other atlases, Gilbert is effectively able to map out events using only black and white- including a number of occurences I had never heard about.
I just finished nick Harkaway’s The Gone Away World. Wow. Just wow. This was an amazing book. Ninjas, mimes, post apocalyptic adventure, Kung Fu, Monsters, Killer Bees, this book has everything. And it is an amazing, rollicking read. I actually found myself slowing down towards the end, because I didn’t want it to end.
I just started rereading The Screwtape Letters, and up next is the The Philosopher’s Apprentice by James Morrow, which should bring me right up to the February release of his latest, Shambling Towards Hiroshima.
Last night I started The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness and read 120 pages before falling asleep with it in my hands. That’s the sign of an entertaining book, when I just can’t bring myself to turn off the lights and tuck in.
I just finished Only Forward but Michael Marshall Smith, which I really loved until about the last 40 pages. I still intend to read other stuff by Smith, but the ending really tapered off to meh for me.
One of my friends loaned me his trade paperback copy of Alan Moore’s *Watchmen *and I’m currently on the second issue. It’s pretty good so far.
I’ll bet you’ll love it. The movie should be out on March 6, if all goes well!
When you’ve finished it, have a look at this. I got it from the library recently, and it’s 'way cool: http://www.amazon.com/Watching-Watchmen-Definitive-Companion-Ultimate/dp/1848560419/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230920812&sr=1-1
The movie was why we were discussing it, and why he loaned it to me. We’re both comic nerds, but I’m a much more casual reader and haven’t read a lot of the seminal works.
Thank you for the link. I’ll see if my local branch has a copy.
Reading for the 7th (or 10th) time, The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. I love this book and when I can’t seem to concentrate on any other book, I pick this one up. I’m not a lawyer or in the legal profession at all, but the discussions about cases just fascinate me.
I’ve started A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
I’m also re-reading Rose Madder by King.
I am reading Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery. After that, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore is waiting for me at the library.
The Brethren is a classic, but permit me to recommend its more recent equivalent, The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin. An excellent and very readable mix of law, politics, history and gossip. Very, very good.
I just finished Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes (and it was awesome for a book about death).
Currently reading a compilation of *A Study in Scarlet/The Sign of Four *by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Next up? I dunno. I got several books I’m excited about over the holidays, but I can’t decide. Either *A Mercy *(Toni Morrison), *Atmospheric Disturbances *(Rivka Galchen) or maybe finally starting *The Man Without Qualities *(Robert Musil).
I just finished “Land Of A Hundred Wonders” and I’m still not sure what I feel about the book. I really had to push myself to finish it, which is unusual for me. I don’t think I’ll be looking for Lesley Kagan’s other books.
On the other hand, I’m in the middle of “Some Danger Involved” by Will Thomas, and the Sherlockian language…or would that be Watsonian? is enchanting. I like his descriptions, without going so in-depth as a true writer of the period would do. In teaching junior high English, that’s one thing that the kids always complain about in Dickens and the like – paragraphs of endless descriptions.
Guns, Germs, and Steel.
I started The Far Pavilions. That thing is huge. I might finish in time for Whatcha reading Jan. (10). 
I love Penman, and own several of her books. I don’t really find them depressing, though, just plausable. Things weren’t all puppies and sunshine back in the day, so I don’t expect much cheer in a tale about Richard the Third, Henry the 8th, or the last Welsh nobility.
I’m experiencing short attention span issues this month, so these are the books I’ve picked up and read parts of since New Years:
The Outlaw Demon Wails (Rachel Morgan #6) by Kim Harrison
Dead Connection by Charlie Price
Lady Knight (Protector Of The Small #4) by Tamora Pierce
Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse #3) by Charlaine Harris
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Hopefully I’ll finish at least one of them soon!
I finished Here’s the Story by Maureen McCormick a couple days ago. Now I’m reading Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor.
I finished The Hidden Land by Pamela Dean. jsgoddess mentioned in last month’s book thread that she often doesn’t know what Dean is talking about … I feel the same way, but that’s all part of the fantasy for me: my ideal fantasy alter ego can quote Shakespeare endlessly and make puns in Latin. 
I read Songs for the Missing, by Stewart O’Nan. Can a book be too realistic? This is about a teenager girl who goes missing (like one of those “missing white girl” stories) focusing on the effects on her friends and family. I was so worried about her being missing that it was giving me an anxiety attack.
I just started The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington which (I think) Sigmagirl recommended in another thread.
Ooh, then you’ll love Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary.
I adore her writing, even when I’m baffled.