Current Reads

I feel ya, eventide. That drove me nuts, too, though that conclusion felt appropriate for the novel.

Definitely keeping it on my list of books to try again then, mayram!

[quote="eventide82"]I finished Gone Girl last night and I am just so happy to have finished it because

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I loved Gone Girl, but felt the same way!

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I'm halfway through A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel's French Revolution novel. Her prose is as gorgeous as ever, and she evidently enjoys historical novels where everyone is doomed from the outset. But at least with the Cromwell trilogy he's brilliantly sympathetic, even as he does some awful things. Here there are a few too many characters, and I'm not thrilled by any of them. Danton is just a massive bellend, and while I'm fascinated by Robespierre's evolution from "Ban the death penalty!" to "Guillotine everyone!", I'm still kind of looking forward to the fact that everyone will be headless by the end of the novel, whereas I am actively dreading Cromwell #3.

I wasn't a fan. I felt it was slow and felt like nothing happened in the 800 pages that the book consisted of. (Good thing I read an awesome book about the French Revolution right before that, "Viva la Revolution", by Mark Steel, or I would have had not a clue what was going on)

It took me forever but I finally finished The Sunne in Splendour. And it was wonderful. I understand why the book has made so many Ricardians! But really so many characters were so interesting and sympathetic even if they were in opposition to Richard. Penman's Elizabeth Woodville is about 100 times more sympathetic than Phillipa Gregory's despite the fact that she is an obstacle in this book and the heroine of Gregory's.

Yup, that's how I feel about the book - most everyone is sympathetic by turns. I haven't read Gregory's books, although I'm watching the tv show and it's already annoying me it's portrayal of Cecily Neville as super shrewish mother-in-law.

Guys, Hour of the Red God was really good. It's murder mystery taking place in Nairobi around the election/fighting of the 1997 election. The detective is a Maasai man who is no longer part of his village, but has the stretched earlobes so he stands out for ridicule sometimes. I've never been to Nairobi, but I had a sense of place as I read it and I could understand the geography - something I can't always say for books placed elsewhere.

I recently read a new YA book by Carol Snow, Bubble World, that I really enjoyed. I don't want to say too much about the plot, because part of the fun of this book is figuring out the setting and how all the characters fit in with it. It's not a groundbreaking or heart-stopping story like, say, The Hunger Games, but it did have some thought provoking as well as some emotional moments. Anyway, I definitely recommend it.

The Long War, Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett, sequel to The Long Earth. I loved it, I can't recommend this series highly enough. The worldbuilding is incredible, and while there are a few exposition dumps it's not overwhelming.

I also may or may not be doing a re-read of the Anita Blake series. I plan on only going up to about book 6 or so, I think that's where it all unravels - both the story and L.K. Hamilton, by most accounts. I've read the earlier books a bunch of times, but it's just now I'm noticing how cringe-worthy even some of the first books were. I still love them though.

The Long War

I really liked it. However, I didn't love it as much as the first one. I'm not sure why. Once I get my hands back on the first one, I'll reread them back to back, see what I think then.

In other news, I just finished Ex-Heroes. The zombie apocalypse has happened, a group of survivors are protected by superheroes, though there are a few twists along the way. It's good, though I don't know if I'll read the sequels. Maybe after a break. There are some authors I can marathon, some I can't. Actually, I think I'd prefer just a straight superhero novel. While the 'now' story was pretty good, and kept me reading, I really liked the first couple of flashbacks.

I have Ex-Heroes on my kindle, I'll get around to it eventually.

Re. The Long War:

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I just finished The Shining Girls and while I liked it, I did not love it. I felt like Harper was a little one dimensional, and certain parts of the story were cliche. Also, I felt the book ended really abruptly.

Coneycat wrote:
I'm not an enormous fan of Hamish Macbeth, but should try Agatha Raisin. The prospect of having Penelope Keith read the books to me is enough to make me look for the audiobooks!

The BBC radio adaptations are funny and snarky, Coneycat! Though the books are good but should probably be listened to in order, as Agatha has a career change and a lot of annoying extraneous character have been introduced since about the 15th book. Not that it's stopped me listening to the new one each year, though! Penelope Keith kills it in either format.

I'm reading Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright. I'm only half way through it and I'm just going "How? WHAT?? How?" constantly. This shit is bananas. I don't know why a large number of these people in leadership positions aren't in prison already.

I just could NOT wrap my mind around how much abuse lots of the leaders receive as well as dole out. It sounds like some crazy ass novel instead of actual fact. I now go by the Scieno centers near my house and get creeped out knowing people were (are?) held prisoner there.

Oh, wow. I just finished Eleanor & Park this afternoon, and I was blown away by how beautiful and sad it was. Definitely one of those books that punch you in the gut at the very end. Some writers really know what they're doing.

Raksha wrote:I'm reading Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright.  I'm only half way through it and I'm just going "How? WHAT?? How?" constantly.  This shit is bananas.  I don't know why a large number of these people in leadership positions aren't in prison already.

I felt like every page in that book was filled with some new completely insane thing! It could have been titled "Scientology: Even Worse Than You Thought."

I'm reading Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson and it's pretty damn good. Some of what I thought I knew was wrong - his mother wasn't a teenage prostitute - and some was right - his uncle did send him to school in a dress once to toughen him up. What I'm liking best is the way the author has put Manson's life and actions in a historical and social context.

I'm reading Death at Seaworld and jesus this is some harrowing stuff.

I'm reading Visitation Street and don't quite know what to think yet. The writing is rich in detail and atmosphere, but I don't care for most of the characters at this point. The atory began to pick up for me though once Fadi, the Lebanese liquor store owner, came into the picture. I find him quietly compelling.

I'm reading George VI by Sarah Bradford. I'm only a few chapters in but it's a nice balance between scholarly and readable.

I finally started Divergent this morning and am on page 301. So. That's happening in my life right now.

I'm a total Marvel zombie, but I was at the library the other day and saw Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III and figured, what the hell. I actually quite liked it! I don't tend to connect with the DC heroes (at least not the main universe ones. There are quite a few Vertigo and WildStorm books that I've loved), but Kate Kane is pretty awesome. I'd like to see more of her.

Plus, the artwork by J.H. Williams III is gorgeous! I saw on Twitter recently that Brian Michael Bendis reached out to Williams (and writer Kevin Maguire) after they left DC over DC's recent fuckery, so I'm really hoping we'll see some of his work soon over at Marvel.

JH Williams III has been one of my favorite artists for decades. The man just refuses to treat comic books like some kind of limitation. Even his "gutters" - the spaces between panels - are absolute works of art. He's always done quirky little series for DC - Chase, Chronos, even Batwoman was always a bit fringe compared to the rest of the Batfam.

I don't know how I feel about him not being at DC anymore. Stupid Dan Didiot.

Yeah, his "gutters" and the page layouts in general really impressed me.  It gave the book a really exciting, energetic feel and at times it even seemed like the placement of the panels mimicked the bat-logo, without being literal about it.  It was very different and fun.

I love Batwoman, and I'm nervous about what Williams' departure from DC means for the book. I hope the character will still be treated well, although given Didio's belief that superheroes don't get happy personal lives she probably won't. Williams just needs to be given his head, without a lot of editorial interference, and he'll come up with great stuff. He's illustrating Sandman: Overture - number one, and number two.

Today I read In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan. I enjoyed it. It put into words far better than I could many of the thoughts and feelings I've been having about "Nutritionism" (thinking of food in terms of being a composition of individual micronutrients instead of as, well, an actual food that's part of a larger food chain) for years. It also plainly stated a lot of the problems and shortcomings of the kinds of research nutritional scientists either prefer or are forced by circumstances to use. Our food system and ways of eating in this country are so screwed up and it's going to take a lot more than individual effort to change that, but his advice to "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much" is a good place to start.

I love Michael Pollan's books, Raksha. I just finished his latest, Cook, which discusses four different methods that humans use to prepare their food, with in-depth coverage of specific foods. There are lengthy discussions of barbeque (of the North Carolina variety), cooking with water (i.e., braising and soups/stews and such), baking (lots of fascinating information about bread), and fermentation (pickles and beer!). I found it fascinating.