Current Reads

I'm reading The Casual Vacancy. I'm only about 60 pages in, and it's fine, though I am already mixing up the hundreds of characters. But I made sure to have no expectations, so hopefully that helps.

I've been reading Elizabeth Chadwick's William Marshal books and I love them. A nice mix of court intrigue, romance, and battles.

mayram wrote:

whatthedeuce wrote:I love Kate Morton's first three novels, but for some reason, The Secret Keeper is just not holding my interest.

Oh, she has a new one out?

To be honest, I had trouble getting into all of her books even though I ended up loving all of them. For some reason, it was just really slow going to get into them and I'm glad I hung in there to get to the end because it was always worth it.

I always love them from the very start, and this one began well. It's just not moving along fast enough for me, I think. I'll probably try it again in the future because she hasn't disappointed me yet!

Reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, and so far it's really insightful. I've always been an introvert, so I appreciate her nuanced perspective. Plus she's a darn good writer.

And Where'd You Go, Bernadette was awesome, from start to finish. If you ever need a palette cleanser, it's a good choice.

I just finished the William Marshall books, too bbridges. I really liked them. Here might be spoilers - I thought Marshall was an interesting character and his wife is lovely. The main characters felt a bit too perfect, sometimes, though, and the villains too villain-y, which is odd for a book based on real people. I doubt Marshall was really as good a man as Chadwick portrayed him.

Reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, and so far it's really insightful.

I read that last year and really liked it. I found myself wishing my (extroverted) parents had been able to read it when I was growing up, they might not have spent so much time comparing me unfavorably with my (extroverted) sister and other (extroverted) kids.

bbridges wrote:I've been reading Elizabeth Chadwick's William Marshal books and I love them. A nice mix of court intrigue, romance, and battles.

I've read a few of her books and I do like them. They're good reads. She has her historical research down but she's not battering you with historical details every few lines to show how much research she has done. Plus her stories are quite engaging too.

I just finished The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Hated it.

The thing is, Bacigalupi is a fantastic writer. He creates vivid, unique characters who live in a complicated, believable world and like all the best speculative fiction writers, he takes elements of our current world (in this case, GMO food and peak oil) and extrapolates a possible, terrifying future out of them.

Unfortunately, all that talent produced a miserable story and characters I loathed (the only exceptions were Emiko and Jaidee). This was a story about selfish, greedy, short-sighted people looking to enslave an entire country to corporations that unleash genetically engineered plagues and famines that have killed untold numbers of people, all in an effort to create dependency on their products. This was a frustrating, depressing, and annoying read.

I really like fairy-tale mash ups and retellings. I like taking a story that's been told so many ways and finding a new angle. Most of the time, that angle is to actually make the heroine a more active participant in her fate. Last week, I found one that did the same thing for the heroes.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is the story of Prince Charmings. They're not actually named Charming, of course, but the bards were in such a hurry to get their stories told they didn't bother to find out the Princes' name, so they just stuck in Charming. Frederic doesn't mind being called Charming but he is a little annoyed that Ella keeps getting called Cinderella - she's not dirty or anything, she was just overworked. Frederic was raised to not seek excitement, daring, or anything that could possibly muss him in any way and is content to spend all day (well, after waking at noon and spending an hour or so getting dressed) picnicking with Ella. Ella has spent the last several years confined to her stepmother's house and doesn't find mooning around the palace to be much different. One day, she leaves a note for Frederic that she's very sorry, but she can't take it and she's off in search of adventure.

The story takes Frederic to foreign lands, where he meets up with the strong but overlooked Gustav (who was embarrassed by the story that Rapunzel saved his life), the dashing hero Liam (who is trying to avoid marriage to the bratty and dangerously tempered Briar Rose), and dim but lucky Duncan (who lives quite happily with Snow White, but wandered off one day and met these other guys) as they try to "save" Ella from an evil witch, giant and dragon.

I liked that the heroes all had their issues. They didn't get along too well in the beginning, but they really tried to work together and in the end, formed a nice team and learned something about themselves along the way.

It's a YA book and I think my 7 year old is thinking of reading it after I told him how good it was.

That book sounds great. I'm going to put in on my TBR list.

I'm currently reading Harriet Evans' A Hopeless Romantic which is about a woman who is prone to thinking each man she meets is THE ONE until she gets badly burned so she swears off dreaming of love. It was tough in the beginning because she was making such bad choices but once she started owning her actions she got a lot more likeable.

I'm really enjoying Marcus Samuelsson's memoir, Yes, Chef. Besides talking about his life, he describes learning about different flavors, and how a cook can take a traditional cuisine and incorporate new elements to create something that pays homage to the original but is fresh and delightful. I'm finding the whole thing fascinating.

I just found out that all the Oz books are available on Kindle for basically nothing. I've wanted to reread them for years and now I am. Yay!

Tabby wrote:I'm really enjoying Marcus Samuelsson's memoir, Yes, Chef. Besides talking about his life, he describes learning about different flavors, and how a cook can take a traditional cuisine and incorporate new elements to create something that pays homage to the original but is fresh and delightful. I'm finding the whole thing fascinating.

Tabby, I loved that memoir! Samuelsson is honest about the past mistakes he's made in his personal life and also spins such a great story about how he developed the flavors that influence the food he now serves at his restaurant.

I'm reading Detroit City is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American City and just came across the most hysterical anecdote about the cultural elite/young artists invading the city. Matthew Barney staged a piece of performance art connected to his Cremaster work in a glue factory, with UAW "workers" on the line assembling a viol, and in the middle of it, the author observes, "I noticed the actor James Franco had fallen asleep in the front row." Bwha. CLASSIC.

He wasn't asleep. He was performing unconsciously.

Currently reading my way through the India Black: Madam of Espionage series, by Carol K. Carr. If you like the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig, or the Royal Spyness mysteries by Rhys Bowen, you will probably enjoy these.

I believe I have that on my list, Stargirl. All I need is the proper motivation to really begin reading in earnest again.

I'm reading The Paris Wife for book club and I'm liking it a lot so far. It's reminding me a little of Loving Frank, which we read a few years ago for club, so I'm really hoping this one also ends with

Spoiler:

stargirl wrote:Currently reading my way through the India Black: Madam of Espionage series, by Carol K. Carr. If you like the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig, or the Royal Spyness mysteries by Rhys Bowen, you will probably enjoy these.

Oh, good to know! I really like the Pink Carnation series.

Unlucky Bear wrote:I'm reading The Paris Wife for book club and I'm liking it a lot so far. It's reminding me a little of Loving Frank, which we read a few years ago for club, so I'm really hoping this one also ends with

Spoiler:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no dice there, my dear. It's a perfectly lovely book without that ending though!

Damn it.

During spring break (which is over now, *sob*) I read four books: Tell the Wolves I'm Home, which was completely wonderful but heartbreaking -- and thank you to whoever recommended it!; The Tragedy Paper, which I thought was interesting and well-written... until the end, when it completely went nowhere; Me Before You, which I think was also recommended here and was one of the most thought-provoking books I've read recently; and finally, UnWholly, part two of the Unwind trilogy, which was pretty much as disturbing as the first book, but just as engrossing.

So now I'm totally itching to read something great again after finding three gems out of four books. Gotta be some kind of record for me.

Yay! So glad you liked Me Before You. It was thought-provoking and I really loved the main characters a lot.

I am reading Days of Blood & Starlight the second in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. I really enjoyed the first one, and I'm liking this one too though it's pretty relentless in the death and suffering departments. I am hoping for some respite!

MaddyCat, you've officially sold me on trying that series because after the Chaos Walking trilogy, I crave harrowing YA novels. Unless I've misread elsewhere, and it's not a YA series. Which would make me sound quite ill-informed and render this post invalid.

MaddyCat wrote:
I am reading Days of Blood & Starlight the second in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. I really enjoyed the first one, and I'm liking this one too though it's pretty relentless in the death and suffering departments. I am hoping for some respite!

I recently finished both too! First one was was really good. I like the author's writing style. I went in thinking it would just be a nice obvious Romeo&Juliet angsty supernatural YA romance set in Prague with no vampires or werewolves, thank god. I mean, I like teen supernatural angst, and I love Prague. Then OMG! BAM! because by the end of the first and continuing into the second book it all became so much more, expanded beyond the two lovers with truly great and epic world building. And tragic. Karou is an awesome heroine. Akiva was kinda blank until the second book, where we get to know him better. Can't wait for the conclusion.