November - What are you reading?

[Atlatl Jones]

I just finished Crooked Little Vein, a hideously twisted book by Warren Ellis. The plot is a little light, and it's basically an excuse for one hilariously bizarre and perverted scenario after another, but it's worth the read. It's like a geeky Irvine Welsh who's read too many conspiracy theories. To give you an idea of what it's like, in the credits he gives thanks to the woman who first put the words "Godzilla" and "Bukkake" together in the same sentence.

After that, I read Damnation Alley, by Roger Zelazny, and liked it a lot.

I may try Gene Wolfe's THE WIZARD next. Never read anything else by him, even with all the rave reviews.

The Wizard is the second half of a duology. Read The Knight first. I enjoyed it, but it's not an easy read.

I'm currently in the middle of The Darkest Road, by Guy Gavriel Kay.

 

[redmagerush]

Currently working on Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon and re-reading the Warhammer omnibus The Vampire Genevieve.

Just recently finished another omnibus in the Warhammer universe, The Blackhearts, that was a ton of fun.

 

[Pants]

Just finished Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.

Rollicking good time.

Might start on Vellum by Hal Duncan or The Blade Itself Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie next.

 

[Tolen Mar]

My inner trekkie leapt up and threatened to strangle me if I didn't pick up 'I am Not Spock.' I guess I'll get 'I Am Spock' afterwards, and see how time changed his opinions.

On the flip side, I picked up 'Magyck' the first book of the Septimus Heap trilogy. I wasn't impressed, but my wife read through it completely. Too childish, definately written for younger readers. My wife doesn't care to read book two.

 

[Mark Chance]

I still haven't finished Anthony Everitt's Cicero. I got distracted by The Road to Madness, a collection of H. P. Lovecraft stories that I've not read in a while. I also started A Treasury of Russian Literature, edited by B. G. Guerney and published in 1943. Not too far into it. As an interesting historical tidbit, the introduction starts by praising the Russians for their fight against the Nazis.

I'm reading/teaching Brian Jacques's Redwall to my 4th graders. The 5th grade is reading The Scarlet Pimpernel, and so I'm also reading that with my son to make sure he stays on task.

 

[Jubilee]

The 5th grade is reading The Scarlet Pimpernel, and so I'm also reading that with my son to make sure he stays on task.

Ooh, I read that last month (or maybe the month before) when I was feeling desperate for the next installment of The Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig, to come out (January!). It was surprisingly entertaining, although the author harping on about how weak and womanly the Pimpernel's wife was got a bit tedious. Seems an odd choice for the 5th grade to me.. but probably way more entertaining than most of the stuff I have (thankfully) forgotten having to read in the 5th grade.

 

[Mark Chance]

Ooh, I read that last month (or maybe the month before) when I was feeling desperate for the next installment of The Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig, to come out (January!). It was surprisingly entertaining, although the author harping on about how weak and womanly the Pimpernel's wife was got a bit tedious. Seems an odd choice for the 5th grade to me.. but probably way more entertaining than most of the stuff I have (thankfully) forgotten having to read in the 5th grade.

We're an odd school. For example, I teach Roman history to 4th graders, and all our students Kindergarten and up take Latin. We're not too far into the book. My son's just finished chapter 3. I'm a bit behind and need to get caught up.

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

I'm currently experiencing a double-barrelled blast of atheistic goodness.

I'm reading Hitchins' God is Not Great and Dawkin's The God Delusion.

I'm also reading Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth, which is a good peice of historical fiction. It's not quite as detailed, historically speaking, as other works in the genre, say from guys like Bernard Cornwell, but the characters are interesting and there's just enough history to keep me interested.

BD

 

[Psionicist]

Just finished reading Noctures, a collection of short horror/mystery stories by John Connolly. I like John Connolly - especially his Charlie Parker series - but I'm not a huge fan of short stories. The two longer stories in this collection are very good though, and I hear one of the shorter ones will be made into a movie starring Kevin Costner, of all people.

Right now I'm reading something completely different - Noble Vision by Gen LaGreca - a book recommended to me (or rather it was recommended to everyone who likes Ayn Rand, my favorite author). I have only read a few chapters but I like it very much this far! And that's saying something coming from a guy in his early twenties reading a book about a ballerina. You should check it out if you enjoyed The Fountainhead.

 

[Richards]

I'm reading The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer. In it, a scientist in the near future discovers proof that the soul exists and exits the body upon death. In an attempt to try to discover what the afterlife is life, he creates three copies of his personality in computer simulacra: one stays as-is, and serves as the control; one has all concept of mortality expunged, and simulates immortality; and one has all memory of a physical existence removed, to simulate life after death.

Then one of them turns out to be a killer. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Johnathan