Current Reads

Hey, I'm also reading War and Peace! Except I took a break. I'll get back to it. I am determined to finish it.

I'm on the library list for The Twelve. I knew I would need a refresher, so I re-read The Passage in preparation. Good thing, because there were several parts I'd forgotten.

I just finished Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible, which is a fashion history plus dressing how-to. I liked it a lot.

Currently reading The Moose That Roared, about the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.

I just started The Historian, which I saw lying on my boss's desk and asked her on a whim if it was good and she promptly lent it to me (she had just finished it). That now seems a tad creepy considering how the story starts, heh. (Especially since she just told me to pass it on to someone else when I'm done.) Anyway, I am INTO it so far. I think I was mixing it up with A Discovery of Witches, which in my understanding is a bit more of a romancey-vampire-type story, which is not my thing, and yet I was considering reading it anyway, but feeling meh about it, and I knew this one also had vampire stuff, but...it is not that kind of vampire stuff. I hope it stays good, but 50 pages in at least, me likey.

I'm not actually done with my previous book yet, which is The Likeness by Tana French. I'm about 50 pages from the end of that one, but I decided I couldn't handle both election day AND that book and so I purposely did not read it yesterday. I plan to finish it tonight when I can contain and deal with my FEEEEEEELINGS. (I've liked the book a lot, and I plan to keep reading her stuff. I just have feelings. Many feelings indeed.)

VoudoDoll Anna Karenina is one of my top five favorite books of all time. What translation are you reading? The last one that Oprah put in her book club is a REALLY good one. I liked it more then War and Peace because it is so amazingly melodramatic and crazy.

The Historian is great and has a few similarities with A Discovery of Witches but overall has a much creepier atmosphere. The ending is a little eh but I didn't mind. It was worth the read.

LOVED The Historian.

Finished The Likeness. Whaaaaaaaatever.

I'm on to my cool vampire book now. SO THERE.

Kiran wrote:VoudoDoll Anna Karenina is one of my top five favorite books of all time. What translation are you reading? The last one that Oprah put in her book club is a REALLY good one. I liked it more then War and Peace because it is so amazingly melodramatic and crazy.

That's the one I have! I'm a hundred pages in and I already looove it. So much more fun than War and Peace. What are the other books in your top 5?

This week I've also finished Gone Girl and enjoyed it and Swamplandia! and hated it. Just hated.

Great Expectations, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Wuthering Heights, and the last spot rotates between The Great Gatsby, The Namesake, The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, and East of Eden.

Those are all really good. I haven't read Kavalier and Clay yet but I'll check it out for sure.

Instant Monkeys wrote:Hey, I'm also reading War and Peace! Except I took a break. I'll get back to it. I am determined to finish it.

Go, Instant Monkeys, go!

No lie it took me a YEAR to read that book so you go.

Kavalier and Clay is fantastic. I think you'd like it. Its epic but fun.

Live By Night is by no means awful, but it's really not living up to my expectations. I think it's because I don't like Joe. Something about the character really irks me. I'd actually rather just read about Dion and Maso, quite frankly. I really enjoyed the chapters involving

Spoiler:

, but ever since the story moved to

Spoiler:

, I just haven't really cared much what happens anymore. Lehane couldn't write a bad novel if his life depended on it, but this one just really isn't doing much for me.

I am reading Live By Night right now too and I keep putting it down for long periods of time. Not very compelling.

I took a break and read Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay and wow. Definitely one of my top reads of the year. I was so absorbed that I felt disoriented when it was over. It just got picked up by one of the Big 6 so I'm sure a price increase is imminent (I think the new version is out next week) but right now it's only 2.99, which is an unbelievable steal. Snarkers who read YA should definitely take a look.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. I can't believe it's taken me so bloody long to read this book. So far I'm liking it. I don't know what it's like to have Tourette's, but this book seems to capture it very, very well. I do get annoyed with the inappropriate interjections of the narrator, and then I chastise myself for that.

Anyways, I'm into it.

Right now I'm reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, which I was kind of enjoying, while at the same time kinda urging the author to get down to business, already. And then - HOLY CRAP! When that plot eventually takes off, it's amazing!

Yeah, I was really disappointed with Live By Night as well. I have to agree the biggest problem is that Joe is so uninteresting. I'd have loved to read a book about Dion, though. I also had an issue with a lot of the dialogue which sounded like poorly recycled Spenser/Robert Parker.

Lehane is one of my absolute fave authors so I really hate admitting that I didn't love Live By Night. Joe just seemed so moony-eyed and ambivalent throughout most of the book even as he knew he was doing horrible things for the sake of money. I wanted to reach into the novel and smack the hell out of him, really!

Spoiler:

Mystic River used to be my least fave Lehane novel (even though I thought it was actually pretty good, especially compared to the movie), but now it's Live By Night, for sure.

In the midst of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance part of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosagian series, and it is delightful. I love this series so much. And it is fun to get Ivan's story.

Putli Bai, about how long did invested in The Lies of Locke Lamora? I usually give in when a book bores me after 50 or so pages, but if someone can assure me that it's worth it, I'm more likely to slog through at least 100 before surrendering.

whatthedeuce wrote:Putli Bai, about how long did invested in The Lies of Locke Lamora? I usually give in when a book bores me after 50 or so pages, but if someone can assure me that it's worth it, I'm more likely to slog through at least 100 before surrendering.

It's weird, because it's not so much that the book wasn't interesting - the characters were cool enough to hang around with, and Lynch's world-building was top-notch. The "Gentleman Bastards" (con men) were just cooler/smarter/better than everyone else, and none of the obstacles placed in their way seemed to be much of a challenge. I kept wondering "where's the conflict?" This book can't just be about how awesome Locke and his friends are. It isn't until about the middle of the book that the true conflict emerged, and by then, I was so attached to the characters that I was really invested in every chapter. It's a weird strategy for story-telling, but it worked for me.

I'll try to keep what you said in mind whenever I get around to trying the novel. I've been notoriously bad at finishing books this year, so maybe I'll hold off on that one until 2013 when I can start on a completely fresh note.

I'm not necessarily a finisher either. I don't have a set amount I'll read before I give up, but I usually find that if I'm not eager to get back to it, or am casting around for something else to read because I'm "not in the mood" for it, it's a sure sign the book isn't working for me. But The Lies Locke Lamora was an easy read, and the characters were fun, so I stayed with it. I refuse to slog. :-)

Looking forward to trying it myself then, PB. Thanks!

Right now though, can I say just how riveting and batshit crazy Gone Girl is? I've polished off nearly 300 pages in just 2 days, and I don't wanna sleep right now cuz it's so insanely tense!

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I'm so grateful for a holiday from work tomorrow, so I can finish up the last 100 pages! EXCITEMENT!!!

I was in the mood for something a bit old-fashioned so I started James Hilton's Random Harvest about a former soldier who has lost his memory. What I should be reading is Diana Tutton's Guard Your Daughters but I want to read that while I'm all cozy in bed. The weather has finally turned cold and windy enough nest oneself in bed with a book.

I'm reading Sub Rosa by Amber Dawn. It's weird as shit and I don't like it at all, but I just keep reading it for some reason. It's about this small, mystical underground society of prostitutes. Supposedly, they're saved from the depravity and pain of the city when they come to Sub Rosa, and they become more beautiful and they're always happy and it's a life of luxury and safety. But in spite of the narrator's continual descriptions of this "truth," it's really just a bog standard prostitution narrative with a tiny dash of urban magic splashed over top. The pimps (oh, excuse me, the "Daddies") target troubled teenagers with no one to miss them, seduce them into Sub Rosa with promises of love and a place to belong, but really just use the occasional tiny demonstration of affection to keep these desperate girls under their power. Meanwhile, they take all the money the girls make, while demanding fawning adoration from their girls. And in spite of all the talk about how bad feelings are banished in Sub Rosa and the sex work the girls do is a humanitarian effort that makes their johns better people, the story is full of constant gossip and petty jealousies over earnings and male attention among the girls, and johns that are using the bodies of the girls like any other object they purchase. Tired, boring stereotypes being peddled as something special and new.

I think the only reason I keep reading is the tiny weird ass magic stuff that drops in every now and then. But I just have this feeling that whatever the resolution to the story is, it won't be enough and I'm going to hate myself for reading this whole stupid thing.


ETA: Yup, I was right. It was stupid and I hate myself.