March Books
 

I don't know if there's a formal roster of who starts the monthly book threads here, and if there is, just delete this because I'm not intentionally stepping on anyone's toes.

Anyway, I've been on a political kick in March. So far, I've finished Thomas Frank's "The Wrecking Crew", Jim Hightower's "Swim Against The Current" and started Rick Perlstein's "Nixonland". I've got Zinn's "People's History" and Robert Reich's "$upercapitalism" in the bullpen yet. I'm obviously working on an April ulcer..."Wrecking Crew" made me angry and depressed, and so far "Nixonland" is trending in that direction. I can't imagine that Zinn and Reich are going to make me feel better...

What are you reading as we edge into Spring?

A Child Al Confino by Eric Lamet. Yet another free nook book, because I am cheap and because I'm trying to expand my usual reading fare, with mixed results.

Thus far it's interesting to get a child's eye view of life as a foreign-born Jew in Italy during WWII, however I do wish it had been revised for clairity in several spots. The continuity is lacking, making the narrative a little difficult to follow in places. It's still a thousand times better than reading yet another paper on kinetic plots as a measure of column efficiency.

A Lion Among Men by Gregory McGuire. It's like the first two of the series, just slightly disturbing.

Maguire is really good at that "slightly disturbing" thing. It's not full-on horror or anything like that, and really, there's not much overt subject matter that would push it in that direction, but you really end his books (at least the alt-Oz ones) with your gut kind of pushed sideways juuuuust a little bit. I haven't read Lion yet (it's on the shelf because my partner bought it), but both Wicked and Son of a Witch gave me that feeling. It's kind of the main reason I HAVEN'T read Lion, yet, to tell the truth.

I've put everything down, but this week I'm off for four days because the plant is closed. I just happened to be at Books-a-Million a couple weeks ago, and they had a bunch of library books on sale for three dollars. I picked up Son of a Witch. Then obviously I had to go home and order Wicked from Amazon, because BAM apparently did not have it. I'm going to read them both this weekend, then back to school stuffs on Monday. I'll get around to A Lion Among Men at some point.

ETA: I've read them before, out of order actually. I read Son of a Witch not knowing what it was, and I was going, "Waitaminnit, you don't me THE Munchkinland? You don't mean THE WIZARD?" Looking back, it was highly amusing, figuring it out.

I'm re-reading Time and Again by Jack Finney. I haven't read it since it first came out, so it's new to me. There's some unnecessary repetition and an overabundance of description but I think it's due to Finney's enthusiasm rather than padding.

I'm in the middle of Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon. I'll need to make a library run this weekend.

I just finished reading You Might Be A Zombie And Other Bad News and am in the middle of Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich. Bait and Switch is not as interesting as Nickel and Dimed by the same author.

Today I started "Big Bang" by Simon Singh. I just finished "Hidden Empire" by Orson Scott Card. But tomorrow I off to the bookstore to reload.

Finished Killshot, quick but enjoyable read and started Eric Idle's the Greedy Bastard Diaries.

I just finished Just Another Judgment Day by Simon R. Green. It's about what you'd expect from a Nightside novel: nobody is ever going to claim that it's quality literature, but it beats watching TV.

Finished The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell, which held my interest in spite of its emphasis on literature, especially poetry, which I'm incapable of appreciating. But he draws from a variety of sources, including unpublished memoirs. This one has a permanent place on my bookshelves.

Took a break and read Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink. Interesting info and ideas from a guy who's not as funny as he thinks he is.

Finished They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell (Spanish Influenza novel). I did very little skimming, which is high praise coming from me.

Also finished Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. Really liked the parts that weren't dream/delirium sequences: those I skimmed over, which was a lot of skimming.

Now, about to start Edmund Blunden's Undertones of War, but I probably won't finish it, I'm so sick of misery and death.

I just finished reading The Kennedy Detail.

This is a behind the scenes look at the secret service detail that was in place during J.F.K.'s Presidency. If you're at all interested in the Kennedy White House or the assassination, read this book.

The book covers the time from when Kennedy was President elect, to the shooting in Dallas and the aftermath. In the past, most of the stories of the assassination have been from the perspective of third parties who were witnesses or investigators. This book discusses it from the perspective of the men who were charged with protecting the President.

There are perspectives in this book that I've never read anywhere else. Everything from the friendships the agents had with the President, First Lady and the children to the gruesome details of what happened in Dallas and the subsequent turmoil in the wake of the shooting.

Don't expect any new or revealing information about the assassination or the Kennedy administration, but if you want an inside look at what it took to protect the President and what happened in Dallas from their perspective.

This is a must read book for anyone who's interested in this stuff.

Got Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides recently and I think will be taking it to Florida for vacation this/next week. I've not read The Virgin Suicides by him (his debut novel)...anyone read this and could comment?

I don't recall all the details because I read Middlesex a while ago but I remember that I loved it.

I'm trying to get involved in my book club again (that I abandoned because I realized that all anyone wanted to talk about was their kids but now I'm bored and I'm going to try to go to the meetings again). I started to read I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg but it's a total piece of shit and I didn't finish it. The characters are so unbelievably boring.

Now I'm reading The Paris Wife by Paula McClain and I love it. The characters are very interesting. I have heard, though, that true Hemingway fans may not like it since apparently the portrait of him isn't very accurate. I don't mind that, though. I just love hearing about Hemingway and Paris and all the (soon-to-be) wildly famous people he is hanging around with.

I've only "read" Middlesex (actually listened to it on Audible during my commute), but I really enjoyed it. The writing is excellent: the author uses language to craft clever turns of phrase and almost lyrical descriptions, but it doesn't feel weighty at all. The story is engaging and a page turner. I think it's a very good vacation book.

I just finished a book of dystopian short stories that I quite enjoyed: Brave New Worlds, edited by John Joseph Adams. A few classics, like The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, and a couple that were a bit too ham-fistedly political for my tastes, but most were excellent. I'm a big fan of good short stories, and I have a soft spot for the dystopian (1984 may be my favorite book of all time), so this was a fun find.

I also just read Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Very quick read -- I started it on a work trip, and read it with all my free time until it was done. Despite being an engaging, easy read, it definitely wasn't fluffy. Highly recommended.

I recently read Little Bee as well. I really liked it. I tried to read another of his, Incendiary, but I hated the main character so much that I just wanted her to die so I haven't finished it yet. What I have read is really well done, though.

I'm reading the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs (Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed). I can't say they are great, obviously part of the recent vampire/werewolf. Toss in "which one should she choose" and a big, hefty case of Mary Sue-ism and it is fairly entertaining, if a bit predictable reading.

She has some good ideas about the mythology behind the vamps, wolves, faes and walkers. It's a damned shame it has to be so Twilighty.

Ok, after thinking a second (ouchie), one of the things I like about the books is that the character exists in our monetary world. She isn't et up with funds and when things happen that will have obvious financial repercussions, she talks about it needing to be a macaroni and cheese month. Also, the main character (Mercy) is quite responsible when it comes to the mundane stuff like keeping her job, cleaning her house, etc. Vampires aren't automatically wealthy, the werewolves all have jobs, some of them, quite good ones too. It does a good job of making it seem more real.

I had the foresight to check the reviews on the next two free books on my Nook. Normally I won't read reviews before I read a book because a) people are stupid and so are their opinions and b) non-professional reviews tend to be full of spoilers (and occasionally the professional ones give too much away, too). But I have a problem not finishing a book I've started (bowing out 3/4 of the the way through Edgar Sawtelle is still eating at me over a year later) and I have no intention of slogging my way through another "Christian" (code for "not only is there no sexin, but the characters are likely insipid and the plot is probably weak, if there is one at all") romance. Forewarned is forearmed.

Instead I'm expanding my brain with Anna Karenina. I nearly fell asleep reading it at lunch yesterday, I doubt it's going to be a quick read.

I tried to read Edward Sawtelle as well and I couldn't make it past the first few chapters. As for free ebooks, I read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It was so boring and had me wondering why this is considered a "classic."

"Last of the Mohicans" is considered a classic, too. "Classic" just means that it's old enough for the author to be dead so he can't contradict the teachers' interpretations of the novel.

I made it halfway through Edgar Sawtelle, and decided to return it to the library rather than continue with it. Solidarity! *fistpump*

"Last of the Mohicans" is the only movie I liked better than the book. This is understandable upon realizing that a) the plots share very little, if anything, in common and b) Daniel Day-Lewis does not appear, shirtless or otherwise, in the book.

I'm thinking that The Jungle may have been considered groundbreaking at the time it was written because it was an expose of the meatpacking industry. But none of that is really shocking in this day and age so it just felt dated. Plus, the writing was so dry. And then it just ends without any conclusion or closure. I really thought my Kindle was broken when there were no more pages but nope, that was the end of the book.

Sinclair actually didn't intend the meatpacking expose to be the focus of the book. He was trying to expose the lives of desperation and humiliation that American poor lived. He was kind of bitter about the reception of the book, actually, noting that "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

I agree that it was the food safety reforms that the book inspired that are the reason for its continued "classic" status, rather than incredible writing, not unlike "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which is maudlin and overly sentimental, but continues to be read and assigned because it had a seminal role in the Abolitionist movement and, therefore, the Civil War.

I just picked up the new Antionio Damasio on Sunday. I love Damasio.

I've also been using the Kindle app on the Droid to download Jasper Fford's Thursday Next books, which are lots of fun.

TIDR

(Too Intelligent ...)

Actually I love reading about such things but I just let Scientific American distill it down to article length for me first.

It is a little heavy on the clinicals, but is fascinating stuff if you can slog your way through it.

I'm reading "Fragile Things", a collection of short stories by Neil Gaimon. It's very good. It was recommended to me for one specific piece, but I either don't remember, or haven't hit it yet.

My WAG would be "A Study in Emerald." Either that or "The Monarch of the Glen."

I finished up Bait and Switch and am now in the middle of Freakonomics. It is awesome.

And apparently, this month is going to be nonfiction month, based on the track record so far.

"A Study in Emerald" was fantastic (literally), I haven't gotten to the other one, yet. I was thinking it had something to do with Mr. Nancy, from American Gods and Anansi Boys.

That would be "The Monarch of the Glen" then. I liked that one very much, and I haven't read any of the American Gods books. (yet)

I just finished Fool's Run by Patricia A. McKillip. Unusually for her, it's a science-fiction book. She was trying something different from her usual fare, and IMO it doesn't work. Avoid this one.

Thanks to the Kindle, I've just read Masters of Space by E. E. Doc Smith.

It's pretty awful. Stick to the Lensman and Skylark series.

Freakonomics is very good. If you liked it, you will like "The Undercover Economist".

"The Monarch of the Glen" was even better than "Study in Emerald". That was the last one in the collection, so I moved on to Cash: The Autobiography. Very good so far, Johnny Cash is really speaking in his own voice, and sets the stage well, so it really seems like you're sitting down with him while he tells you about his life.

Just finished "Nixonland" yesterday and started "Supercapitalism", which isn't quite as depressing as I expected, so far. Then again, I'm only starting on it so far, so there's plenty of room in the near future for depression.

Finished Bryson's "Neither Here nor There" about his travels in Europe. Not bad, but not his best. His story about almost getting lucky with a swedish girl made me laugh - they get drunk together, they lock eyes and she says to him "i'm fool of lust" [sic]. Then she passes out.

Started "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese (sp?). I'm a sucker for decade- and continent-spanning historical drama, but this one has been very emotionally draining (in one incredibly protracted sequence at least, we'll see about the rest).

I read that recently and really enjoyed it. IMHO it slows down around the middle, but not in a bad way. I especially appreciated the way the author gets inside the characters heads and makes you care very quickly about them. Mom liked it too. Funny aside - I bought it for my Nook and recommended it to Mom. Mom bought it and read it on her Nook. While cleaning the living room last week, she found a hard copy of the same book that she forget she had already bought.

Finished the Idle. Funny and moving at the same time, especially the parts about his friendship with George Harrison and his reactions to his death. Also a bit of insight in his writing processes, especially about Spamalot. Now started a SK, Hearts in Atlantis.

Anyone else into Iain M. Banks? I finally started Surface Detail.

I'm only a few pages into Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson (nonfiction) but it is outstanding.

I'm reading Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin and enjoying it very much. Unfortunate title though. And how that meme (or whatever it's called) could ever help kids spell Mississippi is beyond me. Great story though.

As for Edgar Sawtelle, much ado about nothing, IMHO. I liked the style and the descriptions put me in the story, but the ending was just silly. I know it's a Hamlet retelling, but it was still silly. Left the characters with no dignity, and the dogs weren't all that special.

Recently romped through Frederica, a Georgette Heyer romance, because Rigs reminded me how much I like her writing. Then I was reading some incredibly forgettable slice o'life library book that I had NO problem tossing aside once Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear showed up in the mail. I'm digging it a lot, although I've been wicked ill and barely able to hold up my own head, let alone a tome this weighty!

I started the month off by begining the Dresden Files series, but found the local library doesn't have all the books.

So I'm working, albeit slowly, on Tarzan of the Apes (which happened to be right there above Jim Butcher) and soemthing I picked up a while back ...

The Valiant Years. A sort of semi-biographical on Churchill during WWII that was published back in '62. It's pretty good, if heavy-handed on the pro-allied propogandism.

Out of morbid curiosity, I recently decided to read Witch World by Andre Norton. I'd been seeing references to the series for years, but this is the first Norton book I'd read.

It's way more boring than it ought to be. I mean, you have lost civilizations, witchcraft, guns, airplanes, dimensional travelers, intelligent falcons, submarines, you name it--and yet it's an utter snorefest. Avoid this one.

I've been drooling over the teasers for HBO's series of A Game of Thrones, so am re-reading the book so I won't be lost.

Funny, I'm only a few chapters in, and I'm getting lost. I really need to make a chart of the players and the connections.

ha! I just reread Devils Cub!

I'm about to start Madonna of the Almonds by Marina Fiorato. I'm hoping it will be lightweight - suitable for work. Normally in my breaks I read magazines (just about the only perk of the job) but this month they only have crappy ones upstairs.

Madonna of the Almonds was terrible. I only got 3 chapters in - which is 2 chapters more than I would have done if there were any decent magazines at work!

I rushed into the library yesterday - I had 30 seconds & grabbed a large print book called The Missing Heiress Murders by John Glasby.