Several Beta reads, and I'm still trying to get through Colleen McCullough's Bittersweet. I loved The Thorn Birds for its lush descriptions, and this is so polar opposite to that I'm having a hell of a time getting past chapter one. I even tried skipping around to try to find something interesting to latch onto, but nada. It takes place during the 1920's, so my vintage-loving self should be savoring every second of it, but never have I read such bland lack of description about such a lively period. edited to add italics and a hyphen
Finished Naomi’s Room (great till halfway point, after that it took a dive) and started Anna Dressed in Blood. I think it’s YA but I already like it waaay better than The City of Bones that I tried to read but the 1st two chapters were unbelievably bad.
I brought a Japanese book called "Owari-Monogatari" and slowly, painfully, am reading it. The Kanji in the book throws me for a loop sometimes(and I have to check if I'm reading it right), but practice makes perfect.
Past Mortems: Life & Death behind Mortuary Doors by Carla Valentine. It's equal part memoir and history in dealing with the dead (particularly in the UK, where the author lives and works) and it's fascinating. I can imagine my uncle, who fixes crematorium furnaces for a living, quite liking it.
Shantaram ~ Gregory David Roberts I don't know how I missed this. Fantastic writing, fantastic story.
I was so excited about it... About 2/3 the way through I turned against him - and didn’t want the book in the house. I can’t remember exactly why. Possibly his ‘love interest’ after he saved the shanty town...creepy... I’ll ‘think on.’
Gnargh, spoiler alert. Mind you, I've been warned he's no role model. I was the same with The Dice Man...great idea, well written but I failed to chime with the character's principles.
I'm reading two books simultaneously. The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman, when I want something serious - very useful book. And Tramps, Thieves and IT by Val Grian when I want to relax and have some fun - great plot and a lot of smart jokes.
Across China by Peter Jenkins.... CVS is holding some sort of charity, and for $2.o0 you get a book, I picked up two so far. Spanish for begginers and Across China.... but what appealed to me about them was that they are older books and hard cover.... the rest were newer novels... though there was a Patterson novel... maybe.
Sorry @Seth - not really a spoiler - I was ‘lazy-texting’ - more like ‘spiritual’ packaged as ‘adventure.’
Two things: Gormenghast by Merwyn Peake. A wonderful and fantastically written book, just as good as the preceding Titus Groan. Hard to believe I waited so long to give this series a try. The Cold Commands, book 2 of A Land fit for Heroes by Richard K. Morgan. It's a pretty good and interesting Dark Fantasy series, though it hasn't quite blown my mind just yet. I'll probably see it through to the end.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant has the most promising start I've read in a long while, and as an added bonus might be just what I'm looking for as I write my own WiP.
Well I move on from The Hellbound Heart, to Star Surgeon. Kinda a strange transition in terms of genre and tone. Though the latter is much more technical than I had assumed.
The Mist by Stephen King. I'm actually enjoying it a bit. Most likely due to its non-weapon-like size
Just finished devouring all of Karin Slaughter's Grant County books. I read her other series first, so the massive twist ending at the end of the last book, Beyond Reach, wasn't a surprise for me, but they were still really good books.
I'm about to start The Man Who Changed Everything, by Basil Mahon. It's a biography of James Clerk Maxwell, who is in the pantheon of gods when it comes to physics, and whose name is revered and reviled (because of the notorious difficulty of his equations) among engineering students.
Just finished up Astrophysics For People In A Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Sure, Neuroscience is my field, but anything space related....sigh. In high-school, I fell in love with a nebula. Gonna read two books: The Future Of The Mind by Michio Kaku and The Girl With The Ghost Machine by Lauren DeStefano. One is a kids book that I'm reading to my youngest niece while the other is my nerd fuel. I may also reread the Scott Pilgrim series.....again....because I love that series.
Just finished It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. Good book, interesting writing style, but nothing groundbreaking. Would highly recommend if you ever wanted to learn what it's like in a psychiatric ward. Started Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel right afterwards.
Polished off The Traitor Baru Cormorant this weekend, probably read half of it on Friday and feel terribly guilty for it. Now I have Lord Brocktree to indulge my nostalgia as I finally get to reading the very few books of the Redwall series of my childhood I never read. There's also The Sable Quean and The Rogue Crew. Like standing on a clifftop looking to an icy pool a hundred feet below, I'm considering taking another stab at Malazan, after my aborted attempt last year. Still weighing up whether I am in the right mindset to roll with the punches.
I just purchased Hank Phillippi Ryan's new book, Trust Me, and Peter Blauner's new book, Sunrise Highway. But Paula Munier's book, A Borrowing of Bones, arrives on Tuesday. Decisions, decisions.
I just picked up Tom Clancy's "Debt Of Honor" for $0.50 off our local library's for sale table. It's pretty much the only thing I have to read beside the internet at this point.
