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[Eric P]

Eric, you haven't sold me on Christine Falls, but I am curious to hear about Berlin Noir when you're done with it.

Meanwhile, I'm 100 or so pages into Small Favor, the new Dresden Files novel, and it's as excellent as always in that snarky protagonist, supernatural noir, shit hits the fan sort of way that Butcher is so damn good at.

FnordChan

my opinion could change radically by the time i'm done so don't take this as my official review by any means


i loved The Ruins when it started but by the time the end of the book came i the only thing that kept me going was the fact that i had so few pages left to go. I don't think I've ever turned on a book so quickly.

also, i HATED Heart Shaped Box when i started it but continued because of faith in the Horror Writer's Association's Stoker Award for Best First novel (and also he wrote the excellent Novella "Year's Best Horror", which you absolutely should hunt down and read) and it turned out to be well worth my time.

 

[Eric P]

Can you tell me about this book? Is it an anthology of writings about Harlem?

 

[Witchfinder General]

The Vintner's Luck - Elizabeth Knox

Very, very good so far.

 

[Goreomedy]

Can you tell me about this book? Is it an anthology of writings about Harlem?

It's a beautiful, sometimes haunting, photographic history of Harlem 1900-1970, with many articles from newspapers and journals that tell Harlem's story in each decade. A stunning package.

I've been researching the neighborhood like mad for a film project, and I've loved every minute of it.

 

[darkjacob]

The Diamond age by neal stephenson

100 pages in, plot and setting has me confused so far for some reason. But it's interesting.

 

[thomaser]

Finished Don DeLillo's White Noise, which I liked a lot. Now, I'm reading Slow Learner by Thomas Pynchon. A collection of his early short stories. Interesting because, well, it's Pynchon, but not essential by any means.

 

[Frester]

One of the things I don't like about school is that I have so much reading for class that when I get some free time I don't want to spend it reading But I really like my classes this semester, currently reading Why The Allies Won for my Europe in War and Revolution class.

 

[Eric P]

It's a beautiful, sometimes haunting, photographic history of Harlem 1900-1970, with many articles from newspapers and journals that tell Harlem's story in each decade. A stunning package.

I've been researching the neighborhood like mad for a film project, and I've loved every minute of it.

that sounds pretty awesome

i had the great fortune to catch an exhibit of Harlem photographs previous to the Renaissance which was just amazing. i love old photographs and the like.

i'll take a look for it

thanks!

 

[Joe Molotov]

I'm about half-way through The Divine Invasion by PKD. Pretty wild stuff.

 

[mambadragon]

Flew through this on a GAFfer's recommendation:

Now starting:

Also picked up this collection of Vonnegut material that was recently released to read alongside the Pelton book. I know there are a lot of fans here so what does everyone think of it?

 

[Deleted member 20415]

I implore everyone to read this book - The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. It's an easy and fun read - Robert E. Howard is quickly becoming my more favorite writer - his works are fast-paced and evocative.

 

[Baker]

After being 33 some years late to the party, I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the first time last weekend.

The book will be here Wednesday.

 

[Blatz]

Reading this now, quick read and highly enjoyable. This is on deck...

The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One

I read the first chapter and am stoked to pick it up again. Gotta finish "Confederacy" first though.

 

[Uncle]

 

[CajoleJuice]

I mentioned that I would buy Absolute Watchmen off of Amazon a page back, but when I went there, I noticed they were sold out, and the used copies were going for $100+. How often do they release new runs of it?

 

[Guileless]

Starting with Rousseau, the author deconstructs the tawdry lives of major intellectual figures and calls into question the influence of their ideas on modern life. For example, Karl Marx was a major asshole to the only working class person he had regular contact with, the servant girl who he relentlessly exploited (even fathering a bastard child with her and ignoring him.) Bertolt Brecht, who set up shop in East Berlin and was wholly supported by state subsidies as a darling of the Communist movement, was careful to keep the rights to copyrights to his plays in the West so that he could make money off of the royalties.

All of the people profiled had disastrous personal lives and hurt the people close to them while in service to their grand ideas about helping 'the people.' A relentless catalog of hubris and high-handedness, it goes on a bit too long but in the end is a very effective polemic.

 

[bengraven]

I implore everyone to read this book - The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. It's an easy and fun read - Robert E. Howard is quickly becoming my more favorite writer - his works are fast-paced and evocative.

Oh wow, when I saw the cover, I knew it was Howard. I picked up the first Conan The Cimmerian collection a few months ago and adore it. I want to get the next two. Seeing this made my day, I didn't realize the same folks did a SK one.

I wonder if there's a Krull collection in the same vein.

My first Gaiman book and easily my favorite. Such a great story.

 

[thomaser]

Just finished Slow Learner by Pynchon. Mixed bag, but the last story, The Secret Integration, really resonated with me. Melancholy little story about a group of boys and their friendship. One or two of the other stories seem to be kind of prequels to his novels, especially V. Definitely a good read if you like Pynchon. If not, the last story is good enough to justify buying the whole thing.

Going to read this next:

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Penguin Deluxe Edition.
It's a hulking beast of a novel, at 1120 pages not counting all the appendixes. I've had it for two years or so, not daring to start. I mean, it's almost as long as War & Peace, but I really doubt it'll be as compelling as that. So this might take a while. Seems interesting, though. Has anyone here read it?

 

[Mato]

It's weird you have Dracula as your avatar and also mention Stoker. That's what I'm reading. I'm not actually going to finish again, I've already read it twice. I'm only reading the first part of the book where Jonathan is in D's Castle. That's by far the most interesting part. I totally feel like I'm living there myself. I actually kind of wish I did.

 

[Guileless]

Every October I tell myself I will actually sit down and read Dracula, but I never do. Maybe this year.

 

[FnordChan]

As expected, Jim Butcher's Small Favor was pretty great. It's the usual schtick: our wizard detective finds himself investigating something that quickly goes from "pretty bad" to "oh shit, we are all completely fucked" and has to survive all hell breaking loose. It's the tenth book in the series, so Butcher has plenty of fun working with all the different factions running around, progressing sub-plots, and slowly (but steadily) allowing the characters to grow and change. A friend of mine summed it up nicely: "I'd be happy reading one of these a year for the next twenty years or so." I'm right there with her. For anyone interested in giving the series a shot, start with Storm Front.

Next up is Donald Westlake's Dancing Aztecs. I've had the hardcover sitting in the queue for a while, but I found the above paperback edition for a buck recently and figured I'd actually get the book read that way, so there ya go. I'm already a fan of Westlake and have read several folks praise Dancing Aztecs as one of his absolute funniest crime novels, involving an Aztec statue worth a million bucks, twelve copies, the inevitable mix-up, and the mob chasing after it. It should be totally awesome.

Mato, you should check out Kim Newman's Anno Dracula.

FnordChan

 

[ArtG]

I'm a bit more than half-way...a fairly good insight into Jefferson so far. A little slow at parts, but it always picks up.

 

[Jugendstil]

One of the best books I've ever read. It should be required reading for any intelligent LGBT teen or young adult, or anyone interested in transgressive art or literature.

 

[Trillian]

Madame Bovary

 

[Dilbert]

Madame Bovary

You have my condolences.

 

[aparisi2274]

I Just started reading this... about 50pgs in... its good so far...

 

[LordMaji]

Fear and Loathing : On the Campaign Trail '72
&
The Great Shark Hunt : Strange Tales from a Strange Time

 

[ten5ive9ine]

and

 

[FnordChan]

Fear and Loathing : On the Campaign Trail '72

Man, that's one helluva book, especially when Thompson tracks the delegate wrangling process on the floor of the Democratic convention. Crucial political reading for anyone following what's happening this year, even if it was written before (and, in fact, covers the reason they introduced) superdelgates.

FnordChan

 

[SoulPlaya]

I just finished the Grand Inquisitor portion of the book... amazing.

I can't wait till the summer so I can finish this book. Amazing read but I've still got a quarter to go.

 

[aidan]

Just finished up The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Picked it up almost solely on the reputation it has here and wasn't disappointed. Terrific.

About to start The Born Queen by Greg Keyes.

 

[captmcblack]

...get ready to be blown away

Holy shit, you weren't kidding. Snow Crash was amazing. Are there any other books like that?

 

[Cosmic Bus]

Lunch breaks at work:

At home:

 

[FnordChan]

Holy shit, you weren't kidding. Snow Crash was amazing. Are there any other books like that?

I'm not really aware of anyone else who wrote cyberpunk with a sense of humor quite like Stephenson did in Snow Crash. That said, there's always more Stephenson to keep you happy. A few suggestions, with caveats:

Cryptonomicon - Possibly Stephenson's best novel, intertwining two storylines: a contemporary attempt to establish an independent data haven by our fish out of water geek protagonist and his equally fish out of water ancestor's involvement with a WWII team who helped fake events in an attempt to keep the Nazis from realizing they had cracked ENIGMA. It takes a bit to get going, but when it does, woo boy. And, it even has an ending and everything! Very highly recommended.

The Diamond Age - Meanwhile, if you wanted a follow-up to Snow Crash, this is about as close to it as you're going to get. Unlike Cryptonomicon, the ending isn't really all there, but that doesn't keep the book from being vastly entertaining, with the same tongue-in-cheek near future mayhem that made Snow Crash so entertaining. If you want more cyberpunk, here you go.

The Big U - Finally, I have a lot of affection for Stephenson's first novel, a very mid-80s parody of campus life. In terms of coherent plotting, it doesn't quite work, but as a series of vignettes with a wild (if loose) finale, it's a hoot. If you spot a copy at your local bookstore or library, just open it up and read the prologue chapter about the Go Big Red Fan. It sets the tone nicely, is a hoot, and at all of six pages it lets you quickly decide if it's the book for you.

FnordChan

 

[Gamecocks625]

Tim Keller is the man. Great book.

 

[Guileless]

"In this casually brilliant collection of great book recommendations, Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for the Washington Post Book World, discusses titles ranging from well-known favorites such as Sherlock Holmes and Beowulf to more obscure writers such as Jaroslav Hasek and John Masefield. Dirda is a charming and exceedingly well-read host, erudite without slipping into pretension. The book creates a pleasurable but somewhat maddening sensation in the committed reader, who will be tempted to read most of Dirda's selections based on his brief summations. Dirda's greatest accomplishment, however, is rescuing many formerly illustrious masters from the dustbin of our culture's pitifully short memory."

I read this a few chapters at a time over several months. He divides the works into several categories: Playful Imaginations, Heroes of Their Time, Love's Mysteries, Words from the Wise, Everyday Magic, Lives of Consequence, The Dark Side, Traveler's Tales, The Way We Live Now, Realms of Adventure, and Encyclopedic Visions. These aren't the very well-known classics that everybody is already familiar with, i.e. no Moby Dick or War & Peace. It ranges widely from an ancient Greek up to Phillip K. Dick and Eudora Welty. The conversational tone of the author, while still sounding authoritative, helps. It's the opposite of a stuffy guy lecturing.

 

[saelz8]

Finally, after 3 years in my favorites, In Gods We Trust just arrived in the mail.

So, it's what I'm now reading.

I have Starship Troopers and Islam by Fazlur Rahman on que, as well.

 

[Kastro]

anyone know any good books dealing with space/space travel?

 

[Mifune]

I'm not really aware of anyone else who wrote cyberpunk with a sense of humor quite like Stephenson did in Snow Crash. That said, there's always more Stephenson to keep you happy. A few suggestions, with caveats:

Cryptonomicon - Possibly Stephenson's best novel, intertwining two storylines: a contemporary attempt to establish an independent data haven by our fish out of water geek protagonist and his equally fish out of water ancestor's involvement with a WWII team who helped fake events in an attempt to keep the Nazis from realizing they had cracked ENIGMA. It takes a bit to get going, but when it does, woo boy. And, it even has an ending and everything! Very highly recommended.

The Diamond Age - Meanwhile, if you wanted a follow-up to Snow Crash, this is about as close to it as you're going to get. Unlike Cryptonomicon, the ending isn't really all there, but that doesn't keep the book from being vastly entertaining, with the same tongue-in-cheek near future mayhem that made Snow Crash so entertaining. If you want more cyberpunk, here you go.

The Big U - Finally, I have a lot of affection for Stephenson's first novel, a very mid-80s parody of campus life. In terms of coherent plotting, it doesn't quite work, but as a series of vignettes with a wild (if loose) finale, it's a hoot. If you spot a copy at your local bookstore or library, just open it up and read the prologue chapter about the Go Big Red Fan. It sets the tone nicely, is a hoot, and at all of six pages it lets you quickly decide if it's the book for you.

FnordChan

Well said. And Stephenson's return to sci-fi, Anathem, (AKA Book of the Year) comes out later this year.

 

[Guileless]

I just ordered Snow Crash, along with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I am finally going to read those classics.

Over the weekend, I finished Napoleon & Wellington by Andrew Roberts. Not a dual biography per se, but an examination of how the lives of the two men affected each other. The author also argues that the popular conception of the men as opposites, with Napoleon as the impetuous Latin genius and Wellington as the cool Anglo Saxon is an oversimplification. They shared two Paris mistresses, and after Waterloo Wellington filled up his house with Napoleon memorabilia as trophies. I did not realize how much sympathy for Napoleon there was in Britain among the Whigs.

Now I am reading The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. It's an old time travel yarn originally published in 1983. Anyone who enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which appears fairly frequently in these threads, should check this book out too. It is also laugh out loud funny in spots.

 

[FnordChan]

Now I am reading The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. It's an old time travel yarn originally published in 1983. Anyone who enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which appears fairly frequently in these threads, should check this book out too. It is also laugh out loud funny in spots.

I loved The Anubis Gates. I have a couple of other Tim Powers books in the queue (Last Call and Declare) but I haven't gotten around to them yet, alas.

Meanwhile, I'm two-thirds of the way through Dancing Aztecs and it's pretty terrific.

FnordChan

 

[LordMaji]

Finally, after 3 years in my favorites, In Gods We Trust just arrived in the mail.

So, it's what I'm now reading.

What do you think of that so far?

Man, that's one helluva book, especially when Thompson tracks the delegate wrangling process on the floor of the Democratic convention. Crucial political reading for anyone following what's happening this year, even if it was written before (and, in fact, covers the reason they introduced) superdelgates.

So far I'm digging it, It covers a shit ton, but not in a dry and annoying way. I'm in April (half way through) right now. Very good book, indeed.

 

[TerryLee81]

Just finished with this one:

Original (in French):

Anyone interested in WW2 has to read this book (once it's released in English). Anyone.

 

[YYZ]

wow, Ilium just got really fucking interesting. I'm on chapter 14 now. I have to finish this book by the end of tomorrow, at least it's good so far and I'm not forcing myself.

 

[QVT]

Great Gatsby

 

[Concept17]

I'm finally reading Dune. ONly about 100 pages in... pretty good so far, but very slow.

 

[Guileless]

I remember the first third or so of Dune was tough slogging, but then it got really good.

I just finished United Nations Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey by William F. Buckley, Jr. He passed away recently, and after reading all of the coverage of his importance I wanted to read something he had written. In 1973, he served under the US Ambassador to the UN and produced this memoir. This was an interesting period: Kissinger had just been named Secretary of State, Nixon's policy of detente was beginning, Watergate was heating up, and the Yom Kippur War happened.

This was interesting to read right after Strobe Talbott's book, which is completely reverential to the UN. This was much more skeptical, and mostly focused on the prodigious amounts of hypocrisy in the Cold War era as the Soviet Union and its satellites lectured the West on human rights. He also wryly noted that sometimes before speaking, ambassadors from Cuba or Poland would literally go get their instructions from the Soviet desk.

 

[Mifune]

Finished up Lethem's Amnesia Moon. Very very disappointing.

Now I'm starting:

It's a first novel so I'm not expecting too much, but so far the prose is suitably DeLillo-rrific.

 

[yonder]

Recently I've started reading again because gaming is simply too expensive for me. I haven't read in a long time so I picked up this one based on recommendations here on GAF.

I read it in a few sittings and really enjoyed it. Perfect if you want a quick, light read. Right now I'm reading Middlesex, which looks a bit daunting with its 500+ pages but after 150 of them I'm really liking it. I'm glad to be reading again

 

[Prime crotch]

Still haven't finished Neuromancer since I've started reading Saramago's Blindness.