Current Reads

Bad Username wrote:I'm reading "The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death" by John Kelly. As the title suggests, it covers how the medieval plague travelled from Asia to Europe, and the effects on populations and societies. I'm enjoying it, the author lets the sources speak for themselves, and his writing style is very descriptive. Reading about how it's transmitted from fleas to humans is also really fecking gross.

Ooh, that sounds great. I am morbidly fascinated by the Black Death; the way its effects reverberate down through history is so interesting.

I just finished 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro. It takes the concept of analysing the policial and social situation in one (very productive - he wrote Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and drafted Hamlet) year of his life and speculating about how that might have influenced his work. Speculating, of course, being the operative word, because apart from a couple of obvious references, who knows what was going through his mind, and I did find the constant linking of contemporary events to individual lines a bit of a stretch. Still, I loved the chapters about the politics of the court and the international events (I had no idea there was such a fear of Spanish invasion still - there were chains drawn across all the London streets at night!). I was less taken by the chapters about the endless revisions of Hamlet (possible because Shapiro very evidently loves Hamlet the best, and I really don't). Still, thoroughly recommended if you are remotely interested in Shakes[eare.

I am now reading The War of the Worlds, which is my first Wells, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Quite apart from the plot, which is cracking along at a better pace than I expeted, it's just so interesting to read nineteenth-century ideas about the future. Gotta watch out for those heat-rays.

Vmars123 wrote:You must not be a fan of thrillers.

I'm actually a huge fan of thrillers but that book is rubbish in my opinion.

I'm reading The Gunseller by Hugh Laurie right now. He's a wordy man.

Vmars123 wrote:re: Dennis Lehane.

I stopped reading him after Shutter Island. Now talk about a terrible book. Not only was it totally predictable from the start, it's a complete rip-off of William Peter Blatty's THE NINTH CONFIGURATION. I kept reading it thinking, "surely he's not going to rip off the entire book. he has to have some kind of twist coming up." But he didn't.

I also had a hard time with the Kenzie/Gennaro series. Standard PI cliche.

Mystic River, I enjoyed.

We're total opposites where Lehane's concerned! Mystic River is my least fave of his books (though I enjoyed it way more than the film), and I adored Shutter Island as well as the entire Kenzie/Gennaro series. He's one of the authors I always mention whenever someone asks for recs.

I'm subscribed to a newsletter that tells me daily of any low-cost or free Kindle books. I'm not sure that's how I found Angelfall: Penryn and the End of Days by new author Susan Ee, but having been disappointed so often in the cheaper indie books I download, I was completely amazed how much I liked this one.

It's basically the story of a teenage girl named Penryn trying to survive after an apocalypse caused by angels. Her mother is schizophrenic, her little sister is in a wheelchair, and despite some cliches, the characters are mostly really different and interesting. (A wingless, agnostic angel? Never seen that one before!) It's pretty violent and sometimes disturbing, but I couldn't put it down once I started it.

For 99 cents, it was definitely one of the best deals I've ever found in my Kindle adventures, and though I'm sure Book 2 will be more expensive, I'll definitely be buying it. (Sorry it doesn't appear to be available in non-Kindle form, though!)

I just downloaded it, Jude. It sounds cool -- thanks for the rec! (I've had really mixed results with the 99-cent books too.)

I read Angelfall and I agree that it is really good. It has both a strong voice and an interesting plot. Probably the best indie published book I've found on Amazon that didn't come from a traditionally published author who decided to self publish.

Oooh, mokey75 I recommended Rules of Civility! So glad you like it thus far! I read it in November I think for my book club and gushed about it here a few times. I remember loving the main character, Katey (sp?), and wanting her to be my BFF. Plus I really thought it captured the time period.

About to start The Language of Flowers. Anyone here read it?

Angelfall does sound interesting. I was a bit let down with Angelology a couple of years ago so I'm still looking for a totally engrossing Angel story. I don't have a Kindle though. Why do the Gods conspire against me???!!! Etc.

So anyway, the other night during a bout of insomnia, I read Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovitch. Now apparently, I had read it before - I get one of those business diaries every year and I write in things I have to do, people I met, books I read, etc, on a daily basis - and browsing through the diary from 2010, I'd written in that I'd read it. Bits from the first few chapters seemed familiar but I didn't remember the ending at all which was a bit odd. Anyway, it was a good enough book, easy read and entertaining enough. I hadn't read any of her stuff before.

What did bother me a bit though was the dialogue between the hero and heroine. It was supposed to be these lively amusing exchanges and there were a lot of glib replies on his part and some pop culture references. That doesn't bother me so much but I felt that these exchanges - and there were a lot of them - took the place of any actual relationship establishing between the characters. It was like Characterisation Lite and I thought it did the book a great disservice because it's a very interesting premise and the book zips along at a nice pace.

I haven't read The Language of Flowers, but it was on nearly every staff pick I saw in bookshops when it came out and it got some great reviews. I read an interview with the author about the premise of the book and how it came about and thought it all sounded very interesting.

I'm reading The Gunseller by Hugh Laurie right now. He's a wordy man. .

That wasn't a reread for me but I remember enjoying it immensely. I couldn't put it down.

I have finished the first George R.R. Martin book. Naturally, I'm hooked, and will be seeking out the others soon. My question, though (and I'm sorry if this isn't the proper place to ask it -- I didn't want to venture into the GRRM thread for fear of spoilers), is: what point in the books does the HBO series (there's only been one season so far, right?) go up to? In other words, what point in the books do I need to be at before I can start watching it?

I was sort of assuming that one season = one book, but then I realized I had no basis for that.

So far, not as many shocking deaths as I was expecting. I assume they start piling up more as the books go on.

The 1st season is equivalent to the 1st book, so you are all set for that! I think the 2nd season should be the 2nd book. After that it will get dicey, but you will probably be up to the current book by then and it won't matter.

Cool. Thanks, punzy!

QueenSix wrote:Angelfall does sound interesting. I was a bit let down with Angelology a couple of years ago so I'm still looking for a totally engrossing Angel story. I don't have a Kindle though. Why do the Gods conspire against me???!!! Etc.

I've hated most of the angel stories I've read, so I know what you mean, even though I never read that particular one. That's why I was surprised I liked this one so much, since it isn't my usual genre of choice. Is there any way to read Kindle books on your computer? I thought there was, but I could be mistaken.

And I hope you like it, Instant Monkeys! I always feel as though I'm going out on a limb when I recommend something, so it made me happy that bbridges liked it as well.

The Night Circus is off to an extremely promising start! I can only hope I enjoy the book the entire way through as much as the rest of you already have!

Reread Sloppy Firsts for the Forever YA March book club and found that it had mostly aged well. Now I've just started Secrets, Gossip, and Gods, which is about Candomble and very interesting.

I'm reading Swamplandia! for class and it's great. Sort of funny/sad in that John Irving-fucked-up-family kind of way, if a John Irving book took place in the Florida swamps and not a New England boarding school.

I wanted to love Swamplandia! since I enjoyed Karen Russell's collection of short stories so much. But it ended up being a huge disappointment for me.

I'm reading Full Frontal Feminism, which is ... just ok. There are certain points she brings up that I agree with completely, and others I couldn't disagree with more. And with those points, I get the feeling if I brought them up in person, she'd mock me or say I wasn't being feminist enough. And I just don't enjoy the style of writing.

Today I finished Arm the Spirit: A Woman's Journey Underground and Back by Diana Block. Block's memoire starts with the day in 1985 when she, her partner, their 2-week old son and four of their friends went into hiding in the face of impending arrest by the FBI for militant activities related to the struggle for Puerto Rican independence. The book then jumps back and covers her life (focusing mostly on her political activity) and how that led her to that point, then goes on to describe what life as a fugitive is like (her kids didn't even know her real name!) and how they all eventually managed to negotiate with the government to come out of hiding.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. While I don't agree with some of her methods, I'm in awe of Block's dedication to social justice all over the world and her seemingly endless energy to work toward that. Even when they were in hiding and her partner Claude and one of their friends were on the FBI's most wanted list, they still found a way to do political and community work. As someone who came of age and got into social justice work in the late '90s/early '00s, I'm mostly just jealous of her idealism and conviction that change is possible. I think for a lot of people in my generation (certainly in the groups I've worked with) there was this kind of unspoken belief that we've already lost and large scale change really isn't possible, but we have to try anyway because doing something is better than not doing something. Besides, it can always get worse.

For most of the last half of the book, I also kept thinking how freaking weird it must have been for her kids. Her son was 9 and her daughter was 3 when they finally told them the truth and negotiated to come out of hiding in exchange for some jail time for their father and the woman they thought was their aunt. I don't know if I'd have dealt with that as well as those kids seem to have, had I been in their place.

Started reading Paint It Black by Janet Fitch while in the middle of another book. Bad idea--now I can't put it down, and the other book is a library book and SHOULD take precedence. Maybe I'll just read really fast and finish the Fitch book today...

I read that a few years ago and remember enjoying it.

I'm re-reading The Stand. I got caught in the rain on Saturday night and ended up with the sniffles. So now I'm very paranoid I'm gonna get the SUPERFLU and DIE.

I read Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Captain Chesley Sulllenberger, the pilot that landed the plane in the Hudson a few years ago. It's an easy read, and I enjoyed the very direct writing style. Also...I wasn't afraid of flying before I read it, but I'm going to choose to pretend that all my pilots are like Captain Sullenberger, and I will never be afraid again. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone actually afraid of flying, because the guy's interested in airline safety so he goes over a number of earlier crashes in a "what I learned" sense that is probably fascinating from his perspective but from my perspective was a lot of "PLANES GO DOWN!".

It's a nice book, mostly because the incident that inspired it is so amazing, but it was fun to read about someone who's just very freaking good at their job. Sullenberger is a likeable narrator and it doesn't come off as bragging or showboating. In fact, it's the opposite. He's the epitome of humble.

Pandemonium showed up on my Kindle this morning, and OF COURSE it's the day I had to drive to work, so I lose out on 40 minutes of bus-time reading. It keeps calling to me from my bag, heh.

Finished Paint It Black. Whew! Onto Citrus County...I can never resist a book about my home state. Will have to get these Karen Russell books next.