What Are You Reading?

Just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road. A tight, intense, dark comedy (in the Shakespearean sense of the word).
My copy had a big "Oprah Book Club" selection stamp on it. Don't let that dissuade you.

Next up is a re-read of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

Darkening Fire said:

Next up is a re-read of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

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Not read that one, but D@MN the man can write. His command of the langauge and story is just amazing. Pretty darn easy to read too.

-Mo

Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein.

Considering how into the previous Future History series I was (Methuselahs Children, Cat Who Walks Through Walls, et al Lazarus Long), I really can't seem to get into this one.

I'm just getting into A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss. It's a historical thriller, that I'm really enjoying.

Darkening Fire said:

My copy had a big "Oprah Book Club" selection stamp on it. Don't let that dissuade you.

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In celebration of his passing, I am re-reading Kurt Vonnegut. Today, "Cat's Cradle". Tomorrow, I start "Slaughterhouse Five".

Randy

MCsommerreid said:

Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein.

Considering how into the previous Future History series I was (Methuselahs Children, Cat Who Walks Through Walls, et al Lazarus Long), I really can't seem to get into this one.

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Have it. Liked it. It was kind of formulic and I read it a very long time ago so, I guess I need to re-read it just to see if I still like it.

Someone mentioned the Book Black by Ted Dekker several weeks ago. I finished this first book in the trilogy and have continued with Red.

Escapist fiction for sure, but the books are quite interesting, fast-paced and contain short chapters (so they're easy to pick up and put down). A big plus when much of my reading time occurs just before I fall asleep.

What with recent news, and a fortuitous happenstance at the library, I'm reading a recent annotated version of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

ScottS said:

What with recent news, and a fortuitous happenstance at the library, I'm reading a recent annotated version of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

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Do the annotations lend anything to the story?

The annotations are by Henry Louis Gates and Hollis Robbins. Some of them are quite good, filling in the politics of the mid 19th century and providing a lot of context for Stowe's work. They also clue the modern reader into the popular literary devices of the time. Eva's sensitivity, for example, is portrayed in a way that the contemporary reader knew from the moment she appeared that she wasn't long for the world.

Some of them aren't very useful to me. Sometimes, when bored by a section, its a little comforting to read that the annotators are bored as well, though.

Another interesting bit is that they've gathered illustrations from many illustrated versions over 150 years. The contrasting images of the same scenes are very interesting.

This happens to be from a great series of annotated books. I've read a version of Alice in Wonderland from this series, and I have a Sherlock Holmes that's next on the list.

In a similar vein, the Criterion Collection DVD for The Seven Samurai has a commentary track by a Kurasawa expert that is an absolute must hear, especially to the viewer who can't make use of the Japanese dialog anyway.

The Beatles by Bob Spitz

Only 75 pages to go until I finish "You Shall Know Our Velocity" then I will run, not walk, to get Tolkein's "The Children of Húrin".

At the moment I'm reading "Savage Wars of Peace," by Max Boot, "Carnage and Culture," by Victor David Hanson, "American Colonies," by Alan Taylor, and the last fiction that I have read was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I will say that "Carnage and Culture" is a good counter-point to Jared Diamond. If you really want to get various viewpoints as to why some societies succeed and others fail then you need to read a little of both authors. Diamond is going to give you the ecological/geographical side of things, while Hanson is going to give you a cultural slant to things. Both interesting reads. Of course, there are tons of books about this topic, but these are pretty popular and recent books.

TimmyBoston said:

I'm just getting into A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss. It's a historical thriller, that I'm really enjoying.

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Good stuff, I liked the three of his that I read (I'm not sure if he's written a 4th yet).

Currently I'm reading Born in Blood. It's about Templars and Freemasons and all that good stuff.

Rereading The Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It's a comic book, but ranks up there with any novel I've ever read, sheer brilliance.

Tomorrow I start "We Are All Welcome Here" by Elizabeth Berg. Yeah, she is chick writer, but I have enjoyed every one of her books.

Randy

rtaylor61 said:

Tomorrow I start "We Are All Welcome Here" by Elizabeth Berg. Yeah, she is chick writer, but I have enjoyed every one of her books.

Randy

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You just like it because you like the chicks.

TimmyBoston said:

You just like it because you like the chicks.

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I first read "Open House" after I was divorced. It struck a chord with me. Since then, I've read most of her books. Chick books or not ,they are well written and a good read.

Randy

Hey Everybody!

I'm down and out with a bad knee at the moment, but the good news is, it's giving me a chance to visit here at B&B. I just found this thread for books I do love my books!

The "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks is excellent if you like historical peices ( and this isn't a harlequin romance...lol ) The story is set in the year 1666...the year of the plague, when a bolt of infected cloth from London is carried to an isolated village.......

National Best Seller list...commentaries from several ranging from The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the one I liked from Publisher Weekly.....

"With an intensely observant eye, a rigorous regard for period detail, and assured, elegant prose, Brooks re-creates a year in the life of a remote British village decimated by the bubonic plague....This poignant and powerful account carries the pulsing beat of sensitive imagination and the challenge of moral complexity"

Ok....and just one more, cuz yeah....it really is that good;

" An astonishing re-creation of how if felt to be a victim and survivor of the year of wonders and horrors. Vivid in its humanity, immediate in its narrative, it confirms in compelling terms the universal vulnerability of humankind, and the wonder of survival" ---------Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's List and The Great Shame: The Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World.

Colleen