Books you're currently reading???

[TheMercenary]

A history of TE Lawrence in 1916.

[wolf]

i did it, I finally finished Vanity effin Fair.

It consumed my reading time from March 28 thru May 6, 2011.

I read other books in the middle, else I would have tackled it more quickly. I did get into a big push at the end to get it over with.

912 pages in which less happens than in the average episode of Seinfeld. And there was no Soup Nazi.

I am now reading Beneath the Bleeding by Val McDermid for fun and S'Mother: The Story of a Man, His Mom, and the Thousands of Altogether Insane Letters She's Mailed Him by Adam Chester for review.

I also have Doctor Who: The Gunfighters by Donald Cotton going. I don't like his style as far as Doctor Who novelizations goes, so it's not as fun a read as most of those old Doctor Who Target novelizations, which I am attempting to read in broadcast order.

[DanaC]

I am listening to In Your Dreams by Tom Holt. I've read the book before (along with the rest of that trilogy) but ages ago. I am really enjoying it.

Love Tom Holt's slightly quirky take on the world and magic.

[Sundae]

Reading The Executioner's Song (Norman Mailer).
I have Merc to thank for this, he sent me Under Heaven's Banner, and the reviews on the cover and inside reference it alongside In Cold Blood - which I read years ago.

I have no idea how this book escaped my notice, but I was genuinely unaware of it until now. The only Norman Mailer book I'd read was on Marylin Monroe. I thought he wrote very worthy books about a political system I did not understand. There is also a possibility I had him confused with someone else.

Anyway, I'm loving it so far. I'd heard of Gary Gilmore, but I don't know what he did *. So it's still in the future for me. Like when I watched Apollo 13 without knowing if any of them survived.

*Anyone trying to tell me will be buttfucked in the mouth. By Diz.

[DanaC]

Ohhhh. I wish I was reading Snuff, the new Discworld novel....but it isn't out yet. Boooo. It's a Sam Vimes story. I love me a bit of Vimes.

According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.


And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.


He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment.


They say that in the end all sins are forgiven.

But not quite all…

[wolf]

galley for review - Fever Dream by Dennis Palumbo

I read another of his (Mirror Image) last year, this is his second novel featuring the same character, a psychologist in Pittsburgh. This one starts with a pretty spectacular bank robbery and hostage situation.

[Trilby]

The Los Angeles Diaries: a Memoir by James Brown (no, not that James Brown)

wow. Chills.

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by Brianna

The Los Angeles Diaries: a Memoir by James Brown (no, not that James Brown)

wow. Chills.

Can't find that one, even at the bookstore.

I'll keep looking though.

Currently reading Imperfect Birds by Anne LaMott.

I have a couple in queue I actually bought (oh, and I bought and read Room, pretty good) but can't think of what they are offhand.

Another Lionel Shriver my 'brary didn't have. I've liked most of her books so far.

[infinite monkey]

Just added that to my list, Bri. Thanks!

[Sundae]

Monsters of Men, the third novel in the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness.
Written as a teenage book, it is bloody devastating.
And not a teen book like Vampire Twilight Diaries either.

The first two books made me cry (and I felt the pain for days), made me question myself and my anger, made me me consider my own reaction and what I could excuse in the heat of the moment. The emotions it stirs up are murky and what you hope for might not always turn out to be the best outcome.

All that with an amazing set of characters, new ideas and a rollicking good narrative.

I didn't rate the second book so much.
The Ask and the Answer
If you read it first it might not grab you - it's very conflicted.
But the first and the last will devastate you with innocent intentions, appalling outcomes, the longevity of decisions made in haste and the sheer power of emotions.

I haven't finished this book yet.
I know it won't end happily. Not a spoiler - you know from the first book that this isn't Disney. I will cry. And then reread. And cry.
It'll be with me for a ewhile.

[Sundae]

Greedily gobbled up Monsters of Men.
And as expected, I cried.
Honest, proper crying, not just leaking from the eyes. I put it down and cried because my throat hurt trying not to. And not just at the end.

And at least reading it alone I could call out all the way through the book, "Don't trust him! Don't trust him!" Which was right, but not a spoiler, as there are many people that could refer to, at many points in the book.

And yes I will reread it.
Reread all three.

Wonderful.

Recommend to anyone who liked Pullman's His Dark Materials.
It's less complex in a narrative sense, but deeper and more emotional because the characters are better written and more well-rounded. And no deux ex machina.

[wolf]

From the corners of a wounded mind - Theodore Knell

It's poetry. Well, some poetry, some prose.

But not the usual sort of verse.

It's man poetry.

Man poetry written by a British retired airbone sergeant.

There's a lot of pain here.

If you're interested, my review appears here.

[Trilby]

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (the tale of the FIRST Mrs. Rochester before that bratty bitch Jane Eyre came in and ruined her life)

Blue Hour, a bio of Jean Rhys - messed up white Creole woman with messed up life.

This Vacant Paradise - Victoria Patterson. Very good, about the nuts living in Newport Beach, CA. and their materialistic ways.

Inside the Machine. It's a technical book about CPU architecture and instruction language. Not really a novel, but hey, it's a book I'm reading atm :p

[wolf]

Originally Posted by MrOblong

Inside the Machine. It's a technical book about CPU architecture and instruction language. Not really a novel, but hey, it's a book I'm reading atm :p

I'm reminded of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine.

Total geek porn.

I wonder what rereading it now might be like ...