What Are You Reading Now.

I just finished Watchmen (SO good!). Picked up The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, which I am thoroughly enjoying, but haven't been plowing through it like I have been with everything lately, since I have been writing like a maniac and reading less. It's a cruel tradeoff.

 

Red-Headed StepChild by "Jaye Wells"

My opinion so far. I hate it. I fell like the writer is trying to hard to make the MC seem like a tough girl and the humor in the scenes and dialogue are a little too embellished. If I could, I would return it. Now I am waiting for what my boyfriend will say about it after he reads it.

 

I recently finished Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner." The first third of the book was so wonderful that the rest of it was a letdown. It was over-dramatic and formulaic.

 

Just started reading the third book in the Emperor-series by Conn Iggulden.

Just after starting it I went to look up a minor character on Wikipedia, to see if Iggulden depicts him as he actually was in real life. Then I started cursing myself for being such an idiot... After reading a few lines I had come across two spoilers related to the MC! Argh!

 

Ugh, spoilers. I did this with Song of Ice and Fire. Looked in the back of A Feast for Crows where all the character blurbs are, and saw a particular character's name in brackets...murdered at (you know where).

It was two books ahead, too so I was kicking myself for nearly 2000 pages.

 

I read it a while ago and liked it very much. Yeah, the end was a little contrived, but I thought it was okay for the story. I liked his second book even better -- you might enjoy that one more.

 

I bought an anthology of 50 science fiction stories that I'm excited to start reading. It has a lot of my favorite authors.

 

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - April Genevieve Tucholke

 

@chicagoliz - I'm still debating whether to read anything else by Khalid Hosseini because the Kite Runner was so unbelievably depressing. I dunno, when it got to the end with the kid, I just felt numb. It was like the last straw for me that the book became utterly irredeemable because it was so depressing, and for absolutely no necessary reason. You could argue it's a realistic reaction to trauma, but seriously, by that point in the book I couldn't care less about being realistic - I just wanted SOMEBODY to be happy!

Now what am I reading? The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, since I saw it recommended somewhere else on this thread. She's an excellent writer, and I'm not following the story at all. Characters POV change between chapters and Morrison start with some long flowery meditation and background that it's 10 pages before you even figure out who the hell it is you're meant to be imagining. I'm about 50% into the book and it feels like snippets and scraps of different people's lives with no real meaning or connection between them (other than that they're all black and live in the same community), and nor is there really any story following any of the characters.

While I appreciate good writing, and Morrison is fantastic, I really read for the story, and The Bluest Eye unfortunately has none. It's a little meh so far. I'm reading it only because she's so acclaimed that I feel I should give it a chance.

 

Working through John Milton's Paradise Lost for one of my English classes. Fortunately, we don't have to read the entire thing, just books 1, 2, 4, 5, and 9 (of the twelve) so we can relate it to our theme of Monsters and Magic in literature from 800-1800. This is me second time trying to read it, and I could comprehend so much more of it without having to check the endless footnotes, but my goodness is it still a challenging read. I can only imagine what it was like as one of Milton's daughter's trying to write this as he spoke it to them in verse. It really is a great epic and a worthy read, that is if you like epic poems and classical illusion and such that constantly drown the narrative!

 

On Basilisk Station, David Weber. It was free on the Kindle. Takes a while to get going, but it's alright. Wish someone had edited out that magic cat though. And there's a very strange part, which says that Honor (the protagonist) doesn't know much about politics...and immediately after, she gives an in-depth analysis of the fictional political situation.

 

I'm reading Bram Stokers Dracula, yet again. It is the book that I would safe from a fire if I would have to choose just one.

 

Hmm...I'll keep this in mind about Hosseini. The Kite Runner was his debut novel, so he's bound to be better further along.

Anyway, I just finished Jojo Moyes' Me Before You after it came highly recommended to me. It's a contemporary romance and finally broke my long hatred of the genre -- anything that makes me cry deserves extra gold stars.

 

That's made it onto my radar, but I have not purchased it or added it to my amazon cart. Thanks for recommending it -- I will definitely consider adding it to my TBR pile (large as it is).

 

I'm reading The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon. It's the second in the Matthew Corbett series. The way he writes and the story he creates is absolutely beautiful. This is one of the authors that got me interested in writing, and history.... it's very historically accurate.

 

I just somehow accidentally quoted a five-year-old post. Anyway.

I've settled comfortably back into my non-fiction rut with James Monaco's How to Read a Film, Diarmaid MacCulloch's Reformation: Europe's House Divided and Owen Jones' Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class.

 

Just finished reading 9-11: Was there an Alternative? by Noam Chomsky. It was a very interesting read, I really enjoyed it. It was also a very quick, light read, which I feel rather weird saying about a book written by Noam Chomsky. Worth a read, in case anyone is wondering.

 

Dipping into some Jeeves & Wooster (again).

I also just started reading Poirot and me by David Suchet. Great read.

 

The Hogfather I am most of the way through, after that I am on to the Jack Reacher Series.

 

Just finished Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower V) by Stephen King. Ending was well worth the build up. Thinking about reading the last 100 pages again. Going to go back to The Eyes of the Dragon, which I got half way through before putting it down for a bit, while I wait to get Hearts in Atlantis.

 

Spent last night to finish the Emperor quartet. One of the most amazing series I've encountered so far.
Now I'll dive right into "The Blood of Gods", a sequel to the original story (if I'm not mistaken).

 

Just started Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine." Sort of bland so far. Hoping it gets better.

 

Botany Bay, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

I've been taking a rare break from science fiction and fantasy.

 

"Innocent Killers" by Jane Goodall-VanLawick. It's about the world of Hyenas ( one of my favorite animals) Jackals and African Wild Dogs.