On meeting a friend the other night, he said, "Oh, I know you're going to ask me, what I'm reading, aren't you?" Yep.
I guess I pretty much always ask people who I know read that question.
I always wonder what great books I might be missing.
What are you reading?
Me: EDGE OF DARK WATER, Joe Lansdale, and Peter Ackroyd's SHAKESPEARE, THE BIOGRAPHY (audio).
This a new blogger today so be prepared for issues as I have not learned how to navigate it and I see some comments are not turning up.
47 comments:
Patti - I'm just about to start Anthony Bidulka's Tapas on the Ramblas.
Margot-you must get up in the middle of the night!
Steve Oerkfitz has left a new comment on your post "What Are You Reading?":
Just started dipping into 5 Noir Novels by David Goodis-a collection from Library of America.Also finishing up two collections of short fiction. The Pottawatomie Giant by Andy Duncan and The Door Gunner by Michael Bishop.
Just finished Joe Lansdale's VANILLA RIDE this morning. Now I'm going through the Dean Koontz graphic novel FRANKENSTEIN. Next up, an Ed Gorman western and some of Seabury Quinn's Jules de Grandin stories.
Due soon from the library Stephen King's THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE and the latest "Barbara Allan" Trash & Treasures mystery.
You plan well, Jerry.
I need to read some Goodis. I do have SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER on the TBR.
I read EDGE OF DARK WATER last week, Patti. A fantastic book and I fell in love with Jinx.
I've just finished Richard Godwin's Mr Glamour and Radgepacket 6, which has plenty of really good social realist short stories in it.
I've just started Tony Black's Murder Mile and it's going down like Lewisnky.
I'm dipping into few collections including yours, Julia Madeleine's and Keith's new one.I've read most of the stories before but it's great to see how many stand up really well.
I'm reading two books right now: Rohinton Mistry's A FINE BALANCE, a Dickensian-style book about India in the 1970s; and Val McDermid's A DARKER DOMAIN, a mystery in which events during the miners's strike of the 1980s have repercussions 25 years later.
Next up: Chris Salewicz's REDEMPTION SONG, a biography of the late Joe Strummer (of Clash). I got it for a buck at the Dollar Store.
A book called "empire of the ants" by a French fellow, which was translated into English. It's literarly about an empire of ants and pretty cool.
And "Derai," a Dumarest of Terra book by E. C. Tubb.
I have meant to read A Fine Balance for years but after a friend said it was the saddest book she'd ever read, I got scared.
Charles-It must be hard to make the ants both antlike and interesting.
Paul-Black is a great writer, isn't he. I will download the others. I only have 300 downloaded ebooks on my kindle.
I just finished reading all the Edgar nominees for both Best Juvenile and Best YA.
I think I'll go find a book for adults for a change of pace (looking for recommendations here... :-)
Recently finished a compilation of short stories from Gil Brewer that's going to be published by the University of Florida. What a fantastic collection! Anyone who likes great short crime fiction is going to need to read this. Right now I'm trying to read Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd, but not sure I'll be reading much more. Not that it's bad, but not grabbing me. After that, more Richard Stark.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey Corey is a pseudonym for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Very thick at nearly 900 pages. First of a trilogy, the second volume may be out near the end of this year. It's been nominated for a Hugo (or Nebula, don't recall right now) and has been highly praised. Started it many months ago, then got sidetracked and am just now picking it back up.
Due at the library any day now is Mike Wallace's biography Between You and Me.
I hate long books and this Shakespeare one is very long. But also very good.
Just finished Joe Landsdale's "Savage Season" and from our hospice thrift store, Reginald Hill's "Midnight Fugue." Next, am looking at "Double Indemnity," also from the thrift.
Michel
Wow! Joe is popular today!
I am currently reading a book each by Agatha Christie, Tom Sharpe, Ross Macdonald (who I have just discovered is the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar), and MONSIEUR RENE by Peter Ustinov.
And his wife is the excellent Margaret Millar.
And Millar the odds-on favorite in your poll so far (I was happy to see how well Bloch did in the last poll, and that we had two Bloch posts this week).
Joe Lansdale always popular; the countryfolk of my grandfather being the only ones to make him a consistent bestseller yet. (Italy, stanno tutti bene...or, at least, better w/o Silvio the clown at the helm and consistent chart as well as VANILLA rides for his own self.)
I find with my use of "new Blogger" that the new composition/editing screen is terrible, so revert to the old one for those purposes. I don't know if I'm missing any comments so far, so will watch the spam folder carefully...thanks for the heads-up.
I have never read Macdonald before but I'm glad I picked up two books by him. I'll have to read more about Margaret Millar.
How do you revert to the old one, Todd. Hate this one.
I'm reading Eric Klinenberg's GOING SOLO: THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE AND SURPRISING APPEAL OF LIVING ALONE.
From the Design or Overview pages, look for the cog icon on the top far left of the page, click on that for the dropdown menu, and from there hit "Old Blogger Interface."
I found myself in this by finally trying to widen my columns last night, having tired of widescreen embeds getting cropped. But what they've done to the composition page in the new version is ridiculous.
Sorry! My mild dyslexia kicking in. The cog is on the top far right of the page ("stage left"!).
(I read well enough [except perhaps when, too often, exhausted], but always actually have to think about which is right and which left.)
A Canticle for Leibowitz, which is an odd but compelling post-apocalyptic novel.
George-you never fail to surprise me. You are the most eclectic reader I know.
Fleur-which did you like best?
Thanks, Todd.
Loren- Read that years ago. It's brilliant.
His wife done the fabulous job for the family and loved ones. I always respect those people who cares their loved ones or family members.
Nissan 350z
Clearly the "new Blogger" is also more wide open for spam. You're quite welcome.
Loren, your "discovery" of works of classic stature is almost as heartening as Prashant's. Keep plugging, folks. And all of you (you, too, Patti) try, say, DAVY by Edgar Pangborn sometime...even without the same weight of people who don't know anything else about sf behind it as are behind Miller's A CANTICLE. Or THE ROAD, for that matter.
And, Patti, you clearly don't know the breadth of my reading, even if it isn't shown as readily in my blog (where I mostly have time for FFBs and such).
Well, theoretically I am reading a cozy mystery, but as it is far more cozy than mystery, I put it down in favour of a blog round :)
I'm in the middle of Missing Justice by Alafair Burke, and then I want to get hold of Frank Langella's new memoir.
Have that on reserve at the library. I am at the end of a long list though.
You caught me between books. i finished Robert Crais's THE FIRST RULE last night. Next up is a re-read of James Crumley's THE LAST GOOD KISS.
Sidling in here after THE LAST GOOD KISS, a book I've meant to read for months. Don't even have a copy.
Just started Richard Wheeler's COLLECTED STORIES.
The new Blogger interface seems both over-engineered and user-unfriendly. Several days ago, my scheduled posts have all had to be posted manually. Mystified.
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. Very good presidential bio by the man who wrote one of the worst bios, the one on Reagan where Morris inserted himself into the story.
1491. Everything you know about pre-Columbian America is wrong. And if it weren't for the Spaniards (Stupid Cortez and Pizarro!), we'd have a more fascinating picture of the ancient world.
Just finished one called THE SOP by J. Carson Black, a thriller, and about to get back into THE EMERALD STORM by William Dietrich, an historical thriller.
We do love us some books!
Oops, I left the H out of THE SHOP.
Le Petit Chose, Alphonse Daudet
The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy, Gentleman, Lawrence Sterne
Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
Of course I'm lying. I'm reading the B Side of an Ace Double western and some modeling magazines.
William Hjortsberg's new biography of Richard Brautigan, all 880 pages. I rarely read fiction.
I'm in a period of reading non-fiction at the moment. Right now I'm halfway through a book on the Finnish civil war by one Aapo Roselius which I doubt has been translated into English. Not so much about the military events, as about the terror and summary executions that went with it, and even continued after the war itself had ended. Not pleasant.
Brautigan has always seemed like an interesting character. I wish biographies were less than 900 pages though.
Horrible to admit I didn't know there was a civil war in Finland. Americans live in a bubble. We can barely give you the date of our own civil war much less know about ones in other countries. This was brought home to me when we met an Australian couple in Paris who knew all about US politics. I couldn't name the head of Australia.
I didn't know about the Finnish Civil War, either, and I'm pretty informed about military history. I know Finland fought Russia and even allied themselves with Nazi Germany to maintain their war effort.
Exactly what my husband said at dinner. I am looking it up now.
I've just finished The Great Northern Express, Howard Frank Mosher's memoir of travelling across the US visiting independent bookstores while dealing with prostate cancer, and Nashville Chrome, a novel by Rick Bass that is based on the story of the country group The Browns who were as popular as and friends of Elvis in the 1950s and early '60s. I've started Tim Wendel's Summer of '68 that combines the story of the major league baseball season with all that was going on that summer. Go Tigers.
Believe it or not, I tend to read three to four books at the same time these days. Currently in the rotating line-up are:
THE ROOM UPSTAIRS by Mildred Davis
THE PERFECT FRAME by William Ard
LORD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL by Shelley Smith
My plan to read one non-fiction book per month completely fell apart this year. But I am reading a lot of short stories as well - both on-line and in the many anthologies crammign my shelves.
And just in case you think I never read NEW books I did read an excellent novel from 2011 (US edition, that is) called BOXER BEETLE by Ned Beauman a few weeks ago that I thought it was utterly original. A Nazi memorabilia collector gets mixed-up with some dangerous characters all in search of a rare species of beetle that was supposedly genetically engineered to honor Hitler. Eugenics, race talk, strange medical disorders, and the weird world of Nazi memorabilia. All done with a wicked sense of humor. It has two parallel stories - one in the present about the Nazi collectors and the other in the 1930s telling the story of the racist entomologist who created the beetle. I loved it!
Me, too. A book, a book of short stories, an audio book. I am getting quite a list of books to read here.
Kent-love Mosher. I must find that book for my son. Also have a book of short stories by Bass---Platte River.
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