[June] What are you reading?

[Krug]

Just finished Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty. I don't agree with everything in his book, but it's a bold vision to end extreme poverty by 2025. His ego does get in the way of his writing, but he does make good points.

Started on Natsuo Kirino's Out, a mystery novel translated from the Japanese.

 

[mojo1701]

Star Wars: Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover.

Reminds me of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Terry Pratchett's "Monstrous Regiment." There's a lot to like about it, but the explicit Vietnam stuff is more silly than it is interesting to me. Why don't worlds OTHER than Earth ever bleed over into Discworld? But overall, a good work on politics, religion, military, journalism (and I say that as a journalist who has a very critical eye for how the industry is presented) and sexual identity. If he wasn't so damn funny, his books would risk being too literary and deep to find a huge audience. That's a pretty neat trick.

 

[WayneLigon]

"Down These Dark Spaceways" ed by Mike Resnick; six science-fiction mystery novellas inspired by Chandler and the like, but not done in the style. So far, just finished David Gerrold's contribution. Very good tale.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Currently reading Good Omens and the Honor Harrington series.

 

[Eosin the Red]

The Guide to Demons, Re-reading The Mideval Fortress, and I bought The British Isles by White Wolf to peruse through.

 

[MonsterMash]

Just finished The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, still reading The Confusion by Neal Stephenson and have a backlog of New Scientist magazines to catch up on. And also reading Frost and Fur to write a review for ENWorld.

 

[Wombat]

Is this the Terry Pratchett board or what? I just re-read Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum, thus giving me enough of the Witches to last me a few more months.

I am now finished The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s -- a very mixed book. It has one of the greatest short explanations of the Spanish Civil War I have ever read and shows the many false steps taken by France, England, and the United States that might have stopped the Fascists, Nazis, and Japanese, yet the book also takes a lot of sidetrips into fashion, music, and the like which, in and of themselves, are quite fascinating, but go on too long for a book that appears to be devoted to politics and the oncoming war. So it is a book with great points mixed with fascinating, but off topic, points.

After this, well, I am uncertain. We'll see what jumps off the library shelf towards me...

 

[Kanegrundar]

I've gone back to reading Star Wars for the time being. I just finised up Dark Force Rising and have moved into The Last Command. I'm still reading the Warhammer 40K Eisenhorn trilogy as well.

Kane

 

[ForceUser]

I'm struggling through Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, which is dense, relevant, and so far, tedious.

I'm also reading a New International Version Study Bible--never read the book cover to cover, so I figured I was due. Along the same lines, I'm reading John Dominic Crossan's The Historical Jesus: the Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant as well as John B. Cobb, Jr.'s The Process Perspective: Frequently Asked Questions About Process Theology.

And just for fun, I'm re-reading for the third time a Crichton thriller, Airframe. It's one of his better books.

On the horizon: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.