Well, I threw The Time Traveler’s Wife aside in frustration so I am now finishing a Larry McMurtry book The Last Child (it was in the bargain bin) which is way too happy and nice for me.
Just finished:
Bridge of Sighs, the new novel from Richard Russo, which was EXCELLENT. It’s his usual “seemingly quiet small town with an undercurrent of churh” thing but it’s very, very good, very character-driven. Couldn’t put it down.
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (I think, too lazy to look it up) Non-fiction that sounded very promising, about the WWII occupation of Warsaw and how the director of the Warsaw Zoo and his family got involved in the Polish resistance, which I realize sounds really interesting but the writing was just for crap.
Just started:
Time Won’t Let Me, by Bill Scheft, a novel about a one-hit wonder band
A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, by Dana Reinhardt, YA fiction.
I’m slowly, a half-hour per night, making my way through The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I read it while I wait for my sleep aid to work it’s magic,so maybe that colors my opinion, but while I often find the book to be brilliant and insightful, there are not just a couple lines in it that are so awful that I have to read them more than once just in wonder and bafflement that this horrible line exists in such an otherwise great book. Such WTF moments.
I spent the first three days of September finishing up The Lies of Locke Lamora, which took me a while to get into and then was quite exciting. Certainly very different fantasy from what I’m used to. But I’ll wait a while with the follow on.
Right now, I’m reading Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, which seems very promising. Then I’ll be looking for some more canonical science-fiction literature.
I will usually let typos stand, but “churh”? WTF? That doesn’t even make sense. I meant CHURN, like a dark undercurrent.
I’ve read both books and while I think he is a good writer, I am always disappointed in the end. For those who haven’t read it: Thing Ocean’s Eleven in an alternate world.
The main fantasy aspect is the alternate world, but there is some minor magic.
For me, I was disappointed when “the sting” played out. It was a let down.
I’ve just finished Affinity by Sarah Waters, which I have to say I found a bit contrived. Which is an odd criticism, considering how much I adored Fingersmith, in which far more plot hinged around rather less probable circumstances, but I think I just found Margaret so annoying that it coloured the whole book for me.
I’ve got, but haven’t started, Darkmans by Nicola Barker. I’ve worked with a few people who have really recommended t, so I’m looking forward to starting it. It’s such a beast of a hardback though, so I’m waiting until I can curl up on the couch for a few hours in the afternoon and get stuck into it.
On the tube I’m working my way through The Apocalypse Reader, edited by Justin Taylor. It’s a wonderfully eclectic collection of short stories about the end of the world, and so far I haven’t been disappointed by any of the entries.
I’m re-reading The Hitch-Hikers Guide before I go to sleep each night – my flatmate bought home the first four books in a collected volume, and I’m up to So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. I remember not enjoying Mostly Harmless the last time I read it, so I don’t think I’m missing much by it not being included.
Has anyone read the new Pratchett? I’ve seen it for sale at work (I miss selling kids books) but didn’t get a chance to do more than skim the flyleaf. Is it good?
Just finished The Girls by Lori Lansens, a novel told in the voices of conjoined twins. It sounds gimmicky as hell but I found it absorbing and extremely well done – I strongly recommend it.
I’m reading another recommendation from the “Books you’ve read that nobody else has heard of” thread – The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant. I have never, ever used a highlighter when reading, but some of Wallant’s lines just scream to be highlighted.
I don’t usually read biography, but recently picked up Frederick Karl’s bio of George Eliot - she’s one of the few ‘classic’ authors I whisk the pages on rather than ploughing through because I think it’s something I ‘should read’. It’s really excellent; she was a fascinating woman and way ahead of her time in terms of not allowing herself to be constrained by gender specifications.
Also on my tottering read pile (if I stop feckin about on the Dope, that is), are I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier (brilliant), Stuart: A Life Backwards, Susan Faludi’s *Stiffed *and the complete Sherlock Holmes. I’ll probably end up rereading Harry Potter or Antonia Forest though. 
I have a bajillion books in my queue - why did I just go buy 5 more? 
If you are asking the folks in this thread, you are probably in the wrong place to get any helpful answers!
I finished Love in the Time of Cholera this week and am starting Chuck Pahlaniuk’s Rant. This was an odd transition, to be sure.
Just finished Killing Rommel, by Stephen Pressfield, which was good in a ‘spread out the map and show the enemies’ position hyee-ah, hyee-ah and hyee-ah’ kind of way.
I just finished “Soon I Will Be Invincible” by Austin Grossman - I loved it. The guy is obviously a huge fan of comics, to write a book that is so rich with details of the comic book world and completely irreverent of it at the same time. Written from the dual perspective of both a supervillian evil genius and a new superhero (which rather than being confusing works very well) in a style of current action intermixed with flashbacks (which, again, is surprisingly coherent), I had a lot of fun reading this book.
I’ve just finished ‘‘Chocolat’’ and didn’t enjoy it that much. I thought it would be a lot better than it was.
Hey, thanks for the heads up. I picked up Bangkok Haunts yesterday and put it in the queue. There is a small group of resident farang (Western) writers whose works receive a lot of local publicity. Burdett’s books are really the best of the lot, but for some reason he doesn’t get promoted very much, even though the local reviews of his books are all very favorable.
I do like his Wikipedia entry. “… and spends a lot of time researching in the red light areas of Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza.” Hehehe. Yeah, I should say so. 
Only managed to read about 20 pages of Brideshead Revisited in the last couple of days. Hopefully will have more reading time this next week.
I just finished Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer. I liked it a lot. I did figure out whodunnit well before the end, but I didn’t know why they did it or how the pieces came together. The way the pieces came together in the final chapters was interesting and satisfying, so it didn’t bother me that I’d figured out who the culprit was.
I intended to go back to I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, because the copy I bought has a bunch of short stories at the end. I Am Legend was fantastic, and nothing like the movie (which I didn’t think was particularly good). The short stories aren’t doing it for me, however, so I’ve now picked up Seabiscut by Laura Hillenbrand. Just started it this morning–only a few pages in–and I like it so far.
I’ve just finished Nightshade by Paul Doherty.
Its a sort of Medieval Who Dunnit about a Kings clerk/spy who is sent out of London on an apparently straightforward errand but who becomes enmeshed in a series of really gripping mysteries.
It was so good I tried to read it in one hit(Literally couldn’t put it down)but fatigue beat me near the end so it was two hits.
I’ve read quite a few books by Doherty in the past which are in the same vein .
But he started drifting off in to mysticism/horror and then started another series with a young woman as the main protagonist, which I just couldn’t get into.
So I stopped reading his books, but now he’s back with a vengeance showing just how good a story teller he is.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a good mystery.
I see this is book 16 of the Hugh Corbett Mysteries. Will it matter if I start here, or do I need to go back to the beginning first?