Just finished Kill Game by my good friend/mentor Cordelia Kingsbridge. It's the first in a 5-book series called Seven of Spades, and while I enjoy everything she writes, this one is probably my favorite. She is soooooo good at writing romantic thillers - I don't know how I'm going to make it through the next months waiting for the next book!
Can't get over how good Margeret Atwood's writing is in The Handmaid's Tale. It's so good it almost distracts from the story. It's like the finest vintage wine and makes everything else I've read seem like £2.99 plonk.
In her book, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood describes corpses hanging by a noose with bags over their heads as 'The heads are the heads of snowmen, with the coal eyes and the carrot noses fallen out.' If that's not one of the greatest similes ever written I don't know what is.
I just started Douglas Adams's Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (like literally I just read the first chapter) And I'm loving it. I don't know what happened with Dirk Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency, but this sequel has already made me immensely happy. The whole first several paragraphs about the ugliness of airports was everything I could want. I feel like Adams got back that magic that was absent, or at least very tardy, from the first book. I'm really hoping I absolutely love this book.
I just finished the 5-book After the Cure series by Deirdre Gould. While it was tedious in places, and had a smattering of SPAG errors, overall it was a really gripping series that I couldn't put down. The premise is this: In a world ravaged by a plague that turns people into mindless cannibals, what happens when a cure is found and administered and they return to reason? And can remember everything they did while ill? (Think eating their own friends and loved ones). It was a really interesting (and REALLY dark) post-apocalyptic/zombie world. What I liked was that each book was told from a different person's/group's POV but they all ended up linking together at the end. I recommend it.
I'm currently 17% of the way into Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection. My dad keeps going on at me about how writer's need to read classics in order to get good and frankly this was the only one I could think of that wouldn't bore me to tears. Have also downloaded The Road by Cormac McCarthy and We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver to read when I'm on holiday next week.
I am reading the Lord of the Rings, for reasons twofold: to better understand the fantasy genre's roots, and because I've always loved the movies and games and pretty much everything related to the series, but embarrassingly never actually read them, so that I am rectifying. Tolkien's style is so different from how the movies and extra-curricular information would have you believe. I'm not far in (I have an exceedingly short attention span), but so far it's so much more whimsical and epic in scale than what I've imagined. I'm also reading Stein on Writing, which is Sol Stein's compilation of tips and advice for the writing industry. I enjoy his ability to keep my interest as a reader and his wisdom in the industry.
I was going to say you'll either love this or hate it, but that's not true because I'm not altogether sure what I thought of it, and it's a good 18 months since I read it. It's an amazing book, but largely because you find yourself wondering if it's a work of genius or just McCarthy taking everyone for a fool.
I really liked The Road, but I gave up on Blood Meridian partway through because I just didn't care if any of the characters lived, died, or ascended to Nirvana, so the jury is still out on St. Cormac for me.
Viking legends have fallen on hard times when, a befuddled Thor, has to fly economy class. Ah, my memories of Heathrow and being pulled out of line for an interview in Customs. One bad night and an arrest in Glasgow follows you for a lifetime. The good folks at Heathrow are damn lucky I don't have the powers of a Hammer God.
Currently reading the first book in the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. It's a fantastic read and very unique from the run of the mill fantasy novel.
Just finished Something Wicked this Way Comes. Liked it quite a lot, but less for the story and more for Bradbury's way of telling it. Say what you will of the man's writing, it's got an unusual flavor, and lots of it. Now reading King of Thorns, book two of the Broken Empire. I really enjoy this series. Sure, the main character is a horrible little shit, but in an entertaining way. Sort of. Sometimes. Really fun books, in my opinion.
Just finished In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Highly recommended if you want to read a non-fiction novel, and you're into true crime. Also dipping in and out of The Stories of Ray Bradbury, Volume 2.
Rabin Alameddine's The Angel of History. It's--I dunno, it's not often I can't tell whether I like a book or not. Parts of it are certainly very good, other parts are just meh...hopefully the ending will inspire some strong opinions.
Man Without A Shadow, by Joyce Carol Oates So far it's been hard to follow, but I don't think it was meant to be easy.
I'm reading Frank Bill's latest novel 'The Savage' Right now, the title fits the content. Like his earlier novels 'Crimes in Southern Indiana' and 'Donnybrook', Bill has gone from strength to strength. Granted, I haven't finished the book yet, though it's in sight by seventy pages and it has grabbed my by the short hairs from page one. A refreshing change too from the usual apocalyptic scenarios of zombies and vampires and who the hell knows what? The world has gone to hell after a global economic collapse, much like the movie 'The Rover,' and Frank writes about this fresh hell gorgeously. If you are looking for something to sink your teeth into, get on it!
Another reread of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel. Also, I've started dipping into some poetry by Gary Snyder, because I've been feeling all Zenny and nature-boy-like. Stop me if I start pontificating about mountains and rivers without end and all that. I'm also reading a couple of biographies of Joseph Conrad when I can find time to pick them up, and John McPhee's Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process. I don't normally read how-to-write-nonfiction books, but I enjoyed McPhee's Annals of the Former World, so I thought I'd give this a go.
I really like Gary Snyder and that whole movement From my perspective, feel free to pontificate. And I remembering discovering McPhee's Annals as a major infill of the lacunae of my literary world. I don't think I have ever read Thomas Wolfe. Probably should.
