I’ve heard Owen’s writing described as “literary absurdist”. I don’t even know what that is.
I just finished Un Lun Dun, China Mieville’s latest book. I’m not entirely sure what I think of it. There are parts of it I really liked, but then there’s a proselytizing undercurrent that kinda irritates me.
Daniel
I’m reading My Detachment: A Memoir by Kidder, and The Seventh Tower: Aesir, by Nix.
Since 1/1/07, I’ve finished:
Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Tracy Kidder)
Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (Jenny Nimmo)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner)
Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors (Jenny Nimmo)
Not Even Wrong: A Father’s Journey into the Lost History of Autism (Paul Collins)
Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Year Disguised as a Man (Norah Vincent)
Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy (Jenny Nimmo)
The Birds of Kaua’i (Jim Denny)*
Men and Cartoons: Stories (Jonathan Lethem)
Charlie Bone and the Time Twister (Jenny Nimmo)
Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals, 1962-1966 (Thích Nhất Hạnh)
Midnight for Charlie Bone (Jenny Nimmo)
Birding on Borrowed Time (Phoebe Snetsinger)
The Seventh Tower: Castle (Garth Nix)
The Seventh Tower: The Fall (Garth Nix)
Inkspell (Cornelia Funke)
War in the Blood: Sex, Politics and AIDS in Southeast Asia (Chris Beyrer)
The Sociopath Next Door (Martha Stout)
Strange Piece of Paradise (Terri Jentz)
The Beatrice Letters (Lemony Snicket)
The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker (Editor: Matthew Diffee)
Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America (Steve Almond)
Girl in Landscape (Jonathan Lethem)
The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
Abhorsen (Garth Nix)
Lirael (Garth Nix)
Sabriel (Garth Nix)
*I was just on a quick trip to Kaua’i and saw 40-41 bird species (pending further scrutiny of a photo with a local Audubon connection).
In a previous book thread someone mentioned the 50 Book Challenge. I found several similar LiveJournal and blog sites (e.g., 52 Book Challenge, 100 Book Challenge) but thought I’d stick to the one identified. I’ve tracked books I read in their entirety for years, but I thought it would be fun not just to note them on 50 Book Challenge but to write public reviews as well. I had been under the impression that one needed a LJ code of some kind, but when I found that I could register for the challenge with no problem, I started my own LJ page for ease of clicking back and forth. I’ve tried blogging a few times, but despite keeping a reasonably extensive personal journal, I can’t get past the idea that I have little to say in an individual blog. However, I like commenting on books, so I may have found my LJ niche. In addition to current reviews I’m adding lists of books I’ve read in previous years and I’ve just linked to reviews I wrote for Publisher’s Weekly in the long long ago.
If you’d like to read or comment on my reviews, they’re at http://shoshanapnw.livejournal.com/ with brief notes posted to 50 Book Challenge. You can also find them by searching for reviews by Shoshana at www.powells.com.
The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, Inheritance, by Ernst Mayr. Pedantic but fascinating.
The Parable of the Talents By Octavia Butler. It’s difficult to read because I know something horrible is going to happen. Her dystopia is very plausible, and I’m worried it’s close to what this country’s future really will be.
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (the guy who wrote The Curious Incident…). There’s a tough act to follow – but he does, fairly well. It’s about a retired guy, George, who’s so obsessed with the thought that the eczema on his hip is cancer that he is fairly oblivious to the fact that his wife is having an affair, his daughter is getting married but isn’t sure she loves the guy, and his son is in knots about whether to bring his boyfriend to the wedding or not. It’s told in alternating chapters from all four points of view.
Not great, but nicely done and entertaining. I spent the afternoon on the couch yesterday finishing it up.
I just finished Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton. It’s the successor to Pandora’s Star, and Space Opera at its best…Right now I’m reading Erath, Air, Fire and Custard by Tom Holt. He has a similar style as Christopher Moore and Carl Hiaassen so if you like them then definitely check out Tom Holt.
Once I finish that I will commence with The Mysterious Flame of ueen Loana by Umberto Eco
My reading club’s choice for this month is Blood, Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds. I’ve already read it 'cos this was my month to nominate and I really wanted everyone else to read this book!
I’m also reading Lying by Wendy Perriam which is about a woman who decides to become a Catholic simply because she desperately wants to marry a Catholic blokie, then she loses faith and has an affair.
Then there’s Trading Tatiana by Debi Alper which is about good samaritans and teenage prostitutes. I’ve only just started that one, it’s my bath book whereas Perriam is my daily commute book.
I just finished Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay. I enjoyed it more than anything that he has done in at least 10 years.
I’m slogging through The Stolen Child It was strongly recommended to me - by apparently someone who doesn’t know my tastes. I will finish it, but I won’t recommend it to anyone else.
Sundays are my “deep” reading days and I’m reading The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief (Hardcover) I am finding it facinating, but fear that I don’t know enough of the underlying science to call BS on the parts that the author has (may have) misinterpretted.
The Seventh Tower: Aenir
The Seventh Tower: Above the Veil
The Seventh Tower: Into Battle
One more to go. They’re so much better than the Charlie Bone books it’s unbelievable that they’re lumped in the same genre. I’d have been very happy to encounter these when I was 11.
Now a little round of books about SE Asia for a class I’m teaching–mostly re-reads but a couple of new ones as well.
Update: She just got nominated for Britain’s Orange Prize (for a novel by a woman): link.
I’m reading Njal’s Saga, and enjoying it, although I’m having a hell of a time trying to keep all the names straight. “Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Joe, son of Hratki Boogerpickerson, son of Earline, illegitimate daughter of Snorri Hatwearer, brother of Thatguy…”
I probably giggled too much when Skarp-Hedin took a running leap onto the ice and slid past his enemies like Legolas on a shield, decapitating as he went.
I’ve been trying to read H.R. Ellis Davidson’s Road to Hel online, but I hate reading off a computer screen; I can’t seem to process very well unless I’m holding the text in my hands. Maybe I’ll take a ream of paper and a printer cartridge in to work and beg my boss to let me print it off.
Just finished Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin, pseudonym of Diana Norman. It’s blurbed as a medieval CSI but it’s better than that.
Currently reading The Terror by Dan Simmons. It’s about the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. Simmons has added a supernatural element, and it’s engrossing, even though we all know how it has to end.
Next up is Joplin’s Ghost by Tananarive Due.
Kern, The Wisdom of Harry Potter.
Soon: Mulholland (Ed.), The Psychology of Harry Potter (released 5/1). From the folks who brought you The Psychology of the Simpsons.
Meanwhile, the first Pendragon book.
Off my checklist: Courtesan, by Diane Haeger; The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells; The Fifth Queen, by Ford Madox Ford; The Liar, by Stephen Fry; The Harafish, by Naguib Mahfouz; The Autobiography of Henry VIII, by Margaret George; The Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant; The Lions of Al-Rassan, by Guy Gavriel Kay; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe, by Sandra Gulland.
I’m currently making my way through Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay and starting on Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco next, along with The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud.
I’d be interested to know what you think of the Stroud. I need a good new fantasy author. The last few have been disappointing.
Haruki Murakami’s Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Sōseki’s Kusamakura
and re-reading Grahame’s *The Wind in the Willows *and Pratchett’s Wintersmith.
Right now I am reading To The Last Man by Jeffrey Shaara. It is a very good read, I am enjoying it very much.
The next book in my pile is The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, although I may move it downthe stack, because I don’t want to overdose on World War I. I can’t remember what else I have in my stack at the moment. I buy books that look interesting and then can’t remember them until I go through my stack again.
Right now I’m reading Wise Blood, by Flannery O’Connor (just started yesterday), Reading Like A Writer, by Francine Prose, and I’m starting Summa of the Summa, by Peter Kreeft.
Reading is much more interesting than I thought it would be- she writes very well, and her illustrative quotations are fabulous. Wise Blood is odd and interesting so far, and Summa’s probably going to be on and off for months.
Today I finished All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. I think that’s the last reading I’ll do for a little while so I can focus on writing.
I’m reading Post Captain, the second book in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series.
I read the first one a couple of years ago and it didn’t grab me like I thought it would. I had been looking for a good series of fiction books I could really get into and was hoping that would be it. I liked it ok but not enough to run right out and get the next book in the series.
Well, as I say I finally started this second one a couple of weeks ago and I am hooked. I have barely been able to put it down. I love the period and nautical detail, the characterizations, the conversations and all. This was what I was hoping for when I read the first book.
And yes, I’ve already run out and bought the next book in the series.