What are you reading?

Just finished listening to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera: The Sultans of Saturday Morning (Legends of Animation) by Jeff Lenburg, narrated by Barry Abrams. It was informative, and I liked learning about the origins of many of my favourite cartoon characters. I kept going over to YouTube to look at the earlier cartoons.

 

Classic C.S. Forester - Horatio Hornblower (currently finishing 'Hornblower and the Hotspur'). I haven't read these in quite a few years - still rollicking fun.

 

Children Of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Before that, Riverrun to Livvy: Lots of Fun Reading The First Page of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake by Bill Cole Cliett. The title’s a bit tongue-in-cheek given that page one is basically the Wake itself in microcosm and that Cliett’s book also factors in plenty of biographical information regarding Joyce as well as references to the Wake’s themes and to its many multi-level puns and portmanteau words. I found it hugely entertaining all-in-all.

 

I have just finished Plod On, Sleepless Giant by Michael P McVey which I thoroughly enjoyed. The plot is rather original IMO.

 

I just finished Elizabeth Hand's Wylding Hall. I didn't find it at all worth the hype, but at 145 pages, it wasn't much of a time sink. I'm also working through Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening. Unexpected pleasant surprise of that book is his wry, dry Maine farmer humor. There's not too much info in it that will be of much use to me. Our climates and topography are extremely different. Still, it was an informative read and I may incorporate his terracing method since my yard slopes a good bit.

 

Earlier this week I finished The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons. For one thing, I'm really glad I read it as it was a lot of fun. It's a Sherlock Holmes adventure in the U.S. Didn't so much like the whole existential crisis thing Holmes was feeling and I liked the Moriarty twist at the end even less, but for what it's worth, it's just a really well-written adventure, and it's fun to see Holmes rubbing elbows with some historical figures of the period.

 

I haven't read a novel for absolute yonks.
I used to buy books like old Penguin Classics, but never read them, just to say that I owned a particular copy.
If pushed to say the last book I actually read it would probably be "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh or "Heart Of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, easily back in the 1980s.

 

Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett. It is delightful as everyone says.

 

Old Bones by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It is the first book in a new series and centres on the character of the archeologist Nora Kelly. I liked Nora when she appeared in the Pendergast books and also in Thunderhead.

 

I'm about to start Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. I liked what I heard about it in a review on NPR a while back, then it fell off my radar with the book clubs I was running at the library. Now that one of them has been passed on to someone else (thank dog,) I have a little more free time for reading what I want to read.

Editing to say I finished it in one sitting. I really liked the style of the writing. My only complaint is that things tie up a little too neatly. For a story that had so much realism, I found that somewhat jarring.

 

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. I've read that one when it came out, 15 years ago, but have forgotten most of it so that this time is as thrilling as the first time was

 

Just finished Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. It was a delightful little read with a fable-like quality. Currently working through Julia Elliot's anthology, the Wilds, and about to start Cherie Priest's modern Southern Gothic the Toll.

 

I'm making my way through the Game of Thrones book series. I'm reading book #4 and should start book #5 in the next day or so.

 

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold. I have just finished reading about the first victim, Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols.

 

"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg.

 

I am listening to Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton, narrated by Robert Petkoff.

The story is set during a zombie apocalypse and the story is being told by a pet crow named S.T. (Shit Turd) who, along with a dog named Dennis, must venture into the outside world after their owner turns into a zombie. It has been quite funny so far.

 

I just finished Jennie Melamed's well written but very depressing Gather the Daughters. I'm about 1/3rd through a re-read of Matt Ruff's brilliant Lovecraft Country. Trying to decide on what new book to pick up next.