[May] What are you reading?

[EricNoah]

I'm juggling another book now ... Methland. Ugh, depressing. Very well written. Makes me sad and sick, and reminds me why I tend to gravitate toward fantasy and science fiction. Who needs real life??

 

[EricNoah]

Current audiobook: Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I had read it a couple of years ago, and am finding listening to the audiobook to be a very nice revisit.

 

[Mark CMG]

I'm now well into Bernard Cornwell's first (of four) Grail Quest series novels, The Archer's Tale. This author has proven to be very enjoyable.

 

[Nellisir]

I'm cursed with too many choices, and have not finished 8th Annual Years Best Sci-Fi (1990, which incidently, talk about on-the-nose predictions for the future...sheesh), but have started Cold Comfort Farm anyways. Book Sale prices on Sunday were .25 for a hardcover or trade, and .10 for everything else, so I've got another 50-60 books on top of the previous list. I may have to skip the fall book sale simply for a lack of places to put new books (would that all my problems were so wonderful).

 

[EricNoah]

have not finished 8th Annual Years Best Sci-Fi (1990, which incidently, talk about on-the-nose predictions for the future...sheesh),

Anything in particular jump out at you as being particularly prescient?

 

[Zaukrie]

Finished The Child Thief by Brom, very nice book. Likely onto Burst or Kay next....I love Guy Kay's writing, and Burst is pure fun.

 

[Nellisir]

Anything in particular jump out at you as being particularly prescient?

Argh. Apparently my reply did not post.

The Caress, by Greg Egan, is scientifically getting pretty viable. Cloning, gene mixing, chimeras, etc.
We See Things Differently, by Bruce Sterling, seems like something written in reaction to 9/11 and the Iraq War, not twenty years earlier.

 

[Nellisir]

Finished Cold Comfort Farm. Honestly, I didn't like it as much as I expected to from the reviews. It was mildly humorous in a weird sort of way, but never just out and out funny. I'd much rather reread Bridget Jones' Diary, which WAS hilarious.

Trying to finish Years Best (I get bogged down in the novellas), then either Absolution Gap or a Scandinavian thriller. I went scorched-earth in the mystery section last time (the 50-60 books) and got anything that looked interesting or that was by an author that I'd read and hadn't thrown across the room, so there's a lot of those to choose from. Plus the antique book mysteries. Who knew that was practically a whole subgenre? (Someone, usually a bookseller, gets wrapped up in some mystery/conspiracy involving an old book, and must run around the globe, or at least Europe.)

 

[Mark CMG]

Finished Cold Comfort Farm. Honestly, I didn't like it as much as I expected to from the reviews. It was mildly humorous in a weird sort of way, but never just out and out funny.

I felt the same way about Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson.

 

[Gilladian]

I just read Sarah Beth Durst's "Vessel" - YA fantasy about a desert-culture girl who has been raised to sacrifice herself as a "body" for her goddess to come down into - but then the ritual fails, her goddess doesn't arrive, and after her people (reluctantly) abandon her for her failure, she sets out to discover what went wrong. A very interesting take on what a god is, a desert culture, etc... I was also fascinated to realize, halfway through the book, that the heroine was what WE would call "black" or "african", but the author was so subtle in her description that it wasn't painfully obvious. A nice change from "LOOKIT my heroine! She's ETHNIC." And the romance (which was integral to the plot) was neither instalove nor disempowering. A good solid YA fantasy that I will reread at some point.

I'm also reading an 1817-historical mystery series called "The Captain Lacey Mysteries". He's a half-pay Captain, a veteran of the Peninsular campaign, now broke and living in London; he gets involved in a shooting incident and tries to solve the kidnapping of a young woman, leading to several further adventures. I REALLY like the portrayal of the characters; they're both accessible to a modern mind and yet true to their period.