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25 April 2007
Time for another reading roundup! What are you reading at the moment/have recently finished? Recommendations?
I haven't read anything recently that's blown my mind. I just read Jarhead (saw the movie when it came out), which was diverting. And The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer, plus The Finishing School, by Muriel Spark, neither of which I liked that much.
I just finished John Scalzi's The Android's Dream and enjoyed it immensely. Before that there was One Big Damn Puzzler by John Harding which is hilarious.
In addition, I read Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis, which managed to both squick me out and entertain me.
Recently, I greatly enjoyed In Cold Blood by the famous Mr. Capote and Welcome to the Monkey House (which I finished reading on the day Vonnegut died).
Currently I'm reading a collection of novels and short stores by Murray Leinster called A Logic Named Joe - Murray (aka Will Jenkins) is one of the forefathers of modern sci fi, and it's fascinating to see how many of his ideas have become such cliches in the genre!
I'm working my way through Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic, which is pretty informative and enjoyable so far, if a bit heavy on details. (It's not in print in the US, unfortunately--I had to import it from the UK.)
Books I've recently read and enjoyed are:
--Chris Adrian: The Children's Hospital (which I posted here about previously, and which I loved loved loved)
--Natsume Soseki: Kokoro
--Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (well, okay, I didn't enjoy it, but I'm glad I read it all the same)
--James M. Cain: Mildred Pierce (though I didn't like it as much as The Postman Always Rings Twice or Double Indemnity)
I haven't run out of Beverley Nichols books yet. I'm reading other gardening books to go along with those. I also just finished Bill Bryson's latest book, which was hilarious as are all his books. Then I've still got many many dvd-roms of The New Yorker to get through.
I just finished The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Liked, but not jump-up-and-down-and-wave-arms liked. I'm currently trying to catch up with magazines (a major weakness of mine--I am drowning in subscriptions but I LOVE THEM SO!!) and also reading The Rise and Fall of Alexandria by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid.
Norwegian Wood, by Hakuri Murikami (Jay Rubin translation). For the first half or more, I was resistant to its charms, but by the end I loved it.
Never Let me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, which was simply haunting. Gorgeously written and engrossing.
I've been re-reading a lot of David Sedaris, which is perfect for my current temperament and attention span. (I've been sick and cranky, so short bursts of funny suit me perfectly right now.)
Deadeye Dick, by Kurt Vonnegut. Predictably, a lot of my friends and family are re-reading KV right now. I'd forgotten how beautiful and mournful DD is.
I'm in the middle of Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. It's good but not astonishing (yet. I'll post an update if I change my mind.) I just finished Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, again good but not stellar.
Before that I had a collection of fairy tales edited by Maria Tatar. That was excellent.
I just finished Catch Me When I Fall by Nicci French. I've read all his/her books (it's a husband and wife team) and most have been great, especially the first one, Killing Me Softly.
I also recently finished a Ruth Rendell omnibus. I'm not keen on her Inspector Wexford books, they're a bit old-fashioned, but I love her other books, particular the ones she's written as Barbara Vine, which are a little darker than the Rendell novels.
At the moment I'm reading a book about the Green River Killer by Ann Rule.
Once I've finished that, I'll re-read The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I read it when it first came out, six or seven years ago, loved it and want to see if I still like it as much.
On the train this evening the woman next to me left her magazine behind. It's the first glossy mag I've read in ages (why would anyone spend £3.50 on adverts?). It's called In Style and from even a cursory glance at it I could tell without a shadow of a doubt that I am not its target readership.
Rose of No Man's Land, Michelle Tea Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture, Greg Tate, ed. Other People's Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America, Jason Tanz Beasts: A Pictorial Schedule of Traditional Hidden Creatures, Jacob Covey, cur.
Currently reading:
The Magdalene Martyrs, Ken Bruen Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, Sam Durant, ed. The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora, Irwin Chusid Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible, Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet, eds.
Waiting to start:
Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith, Donna Hogan Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, Tariq Ali Why Beauty is Truth: A History of Symmetry, Ian Stewart Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae, Michael Veal
i reread some vonnegut as well - slaughterhouse-five and god bless you, mr. rosewater. both books reminded me that there's more to life than computer books and technical manuals, and that i really need to read more.
I finally just today got The Omnivore's Dillema by Michael Pollan from the library. You probably already have some sort of opinion about his writing, though, hu gaspode?
I just finished The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno. It was ok, I would read something else by him. It was clever - it came with a decoder wheel on the book jacket and you could help the (grown up) Boy Detective decode shit.
Back and forth between John Barron's Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin (incredible stuff, even Tom Clancy couldn't have dreamed up anything this outrageous) and Andrew Greeley's The Jesus Myth (lotsa interesting, provocative stuff to poke people in the eye with at Sunday school).
Next to the bathtub is a well-thumbed copy of Hunter S. Thompson's The Great Shark Hunt -- I dip into that in bathroom breaks.
I've recently finished The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. It's the myth of the Odyssey told from Penelope's point of view. I'm an Atwood fan, and this title appealed to me. Of all of the Greek myths, I'm most familiar with the Iliad and the Odyssey, and that's not saying much. Atwood's recent novels are hit or miss with me. I couldn't get into Oryx and Crake. The Penelopaid is highly entertaining. It's sarcastic and funny.
Right now, I'm reading The Sportswriter by Richard Ford and What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman. I've wanted to read both for ages, and I'm finally getting around to it.
Just finished: Accelerando, by Charles Stross. Liked it okay.
Then I read half of each of two utterly, utterly horrible fantasy novels I got at Goodwill which were both so bad that I have managed to block their titles and authors' names from my memory completely.
Right now I'm reading Dreams Underfoot, a collection of short stories by Charles de Lint. I'm fond of Charles de Lint and I'm not up for anything complex or heavy right now so that's all good.
I'd really like to find something totally absorbing but I seem to be in kind of a dry spell right now whereby my usual book finding strategy - go to Goodwill or used book store or library, stand in front of SF/Fantasy shelf, completely forget the names of any author I've ever liked, read a couple pages of the ones that look vaguely interesting, run out of time, select at random - isn't working very well.
Recently finished Thunderstruck (very good, though not as engrossing as his previous, The Devil in the White City) and The Secret Life of Houdini (great fun; not sure if I accept the premise of Houdini-as-spy, but a very enjoyable read nevertheless).
Just read Eragon and I can strongly and whole-heartedly recommend that you stay away from this book at all costs.
Am currently reading an SF anthology.
I'm only bothering to list things that grabbed me one way or another. You're not hearing about all the dreck I've read lately.
In the subject of which, surely I'm not the only one who was haunted, almost literally, by Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves.
EJ, I have loved Rendell since I was a girl. She can be so ... pitiless.
Based on this AskMe thread, I've finally requested Carol J. Clover's Women, Men, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern horror Film from the library. I fondly remember her work on medieval sagas and Icelandic lit, so I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival.
I had been in a bit of a reading funk for the last few months and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides broke it for me. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and was peaked from the first page.
I just read finished the collected issues of 1602 last night. The Marvel characters, set in 1602 England, written by Neil Gaiman.
Not much for litgeek points, but it was pure awesomeness.
I just read finished the collected issues of 1602 last night. The Marvel characters, set in 1602 England, written by Neil Gaiman.
Not much for litgeek points, but it was pure awesomeness.
The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
Andy was one of my best friends in HS, but I never really got into that book. I liked his first novel better.
I've been rereading A Month in the Country by JL Carr, which is a masterpiece.
Also trying to finish out the stuff by Barbara Comyns that I haven't read, all of which is great.
And I've been really liking, but reading slowly, Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds. I've been looking for an absorbing space opera for a while, and this is it.
Been reading The Paganism Reader for awhile now. I'm waiting to read my first in the 33⅓ series, about David Bowie's Low. It arrived in the mail right when the weather turned so gorgeous, and it just seems wrong to read about Bowie's Berlin years on a beautiful day, so I'm saving it for the next gray and rainy spell. (Ideally, I should have read it in January and February, I guess.)
About to finish Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott. Scott is really good, wish I hadn't waited this long to give him a try.
Recently started and gave up on two political books: Hope in the Darkness by Rebecca Solnit and Black Gold Stranglehold by two right wing guys whose names I can't recall. The Solnit was just dull as dirt, though short. Black Gold Stranglehold was amusingly wingnutty for a bit as it's about how oil isn't a fossil fuel but generated continuously deep within the earth, but it got dull too. I don't think modern political writing has anything for me.
Just finished "Bodily Harm" by Margaret Atwood and was much less impressed than with most of her other stuff -- still adore "Blind Assassin" and "Oryx and Crake."
Also just finished "A Man Without a Country" by Kurt Vonnegut. Very depressing, made me decide to go out and buy reusable grocery bags.
Recently read "Company" by Max Barry, then re-read it because it is so hilarious and true and bizarre. (Also love "Jennifer Government," but this one was funnier and more skillful, I think. Also easier to relate to.)
Oh, and just re-read "Rilla of Rainbow Valley," also known as "Rilla of Ingleside," I think. Strange to get to the end of the Anne books and find that the last one is so very depressing and unlike most of LM Montgomery's works.
Currently reading "The Dead Beat" by Marilyn Johnson. Non-fiction about obits, obit writers, people who like to read obits. As a former obit writer, and a closet obit-lover, I'm really enjoying it.
Next up: "Surfacing" by Margaret Atwood. I'm expecting it to be suck.
Oh, and if you read "The Penelopiad," which is wonderful, consider checking out "The Suitors" by Ben Ehrenreich (Barbara's son). It's more pretentious and sort of ... I don't know ... hipster lit, but it's still good and yet another perspective on the Odyssey. Not nearly as funny as Margaret Atwood's work, or as insightful, but definitely puts an interesting twist on it.
A.M. Homes The Mistress's Daughter, Meg Wolitzer's The Position, a crappy novel by a classmate from Emerson who has been making noises about leaving the Mormons on his blog (better than his fiction), a collection of Florence King's book reviews. I'm having to pack up all the books I've bought since I bought the condo to make room for the painters (once the work in the kitchen is finished I'll have this done)--but there's still a bunch I want to leave out: which movies were based on, written by classmates, recommended by the book review.....
The spoiled prince's marriage to a third trophy wife was written up in In Style several years ago( his first two were written up in the NY Times); they made all the GUESTS wear white linen.
I'm reading Neal Stephenson's "System of the World" ... and I'm so bored!
I've loved his stuff, and "Cryptonomicon" is one of my most favoritest books, but I got bored halfway through the Baroque Cycle, and haven't recovered the least bit of interest. The only reason I'm still reading it is that all the rest of the books are in boxes, and most of those boxes are under our mattress, serving as a bed until we buy a new one. And also because I haven't managed to make it out to a bookstore yet.
Here's hoping the book picks up (not much hope there, I think, but who knows?) or I make it to a bookshop with English language books (or we buy a bed!) soon.
I'm reading Neal Stephenson's "System of the World" ... and I'm so bored!
I got about a third of the way through The Confusion (having waited for all three books to come out in hardcover before I started Quicksilver) and then couldn't be bothered to go any further--I decided to read a non-fiction history book instead. And to be honest, there were many pages of Quicksilver that I merely looked at, rather than read. And I enjoyed Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, and The Diamond Age.
Yeah, include me in that list of people who found Quicksilver boring. I never bothered carrying on with those books. And, like Prospero, I really enjoyed his other novels.
I just reread The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich and I loved it. Right now, strange as it seems, I'm starting A Graveyard Preservation Primer by Lynette Strangstad - nonfiction, all about restoration and conservation of old cemeteries. Yeah, I'm a bit weird.
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