Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Whatca' Reading?

I took a vacation to Valaprasio, Indiana to visit Mason's grandma and brough along a bunch of books because, even though I have revisions I should be working on, I really needed a bit of "input." I read Amy Thompson's THROUGH ALIENS EYES which I enjoyed tremendously, and I started Cherie Priest's FATHOM and sort of start-stopped Sharyn McCrumb's BIMBO'S OF THE DEATH SUN (it's become quite dated or it hasn't aged well, I think.)

Anyway, it got me wondering... what are YOU kids reading these days? Anything fun? Anything mind-blowing? Anything you want to recommend?

5 comments:

Jon said...

I just started reading (today) The Sword-edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe. It's high fantasy meets hard-boiled PI. Not bad so far.

I just finished The First Law by Joe Abercrombie and The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan. Both we noir-ish sword and sorcery fantasy books. Both really good, if you like that type of thing.

I'm still working on Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (... a little dense...) and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (fantastic)

I'm looking forward to Boneshaker by Cherie Priest and I thought the Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson was a sloppy mess of a book.

Also, Marvel comics... the whole Dark Reign storyline? A total blast.

Paul Weimer said...

Reading an ARC Of Jeff Vandermeer's latest Ambergris novel, Finch.

I'm enjoying it, but its only for people who like the "New Weird" subgenre.

Colleen said...

I'm almost done with Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, which I'm having a love-hate relationship with. His language use is ... sublime. I just can't get enough of reading his actual *words*. If there were plot and characterization to go with it, I would be in love. But I'm strangely cold to his world and the people in it.

I finished up And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer, picked up at Gaylaxicon. It was a fitting eulogy and tribute. I do hope he stops at that one, though.

And on the crunchy side of my brain, I'm reading Elizabeth's Spymaster, a nonfiction about Sir Francis Walsingham which is much more interesting to me than Quicksilver but lacks Stephenson's le mot juste.

Oooh! Stephenson writing nonfiction! I'd so buy that.

Anonymous said...

I just finished Peter Hoeg's "Smilla's Sense of Snow".

Douglas Hulick said...

I'm jumping back and forth between "John Adams" by David McCullough and a book on the Victorian underworld (blanking on the title). I very well may set them both aside to read a 17th century rapier manual, though.

I have a pile of fiction that isn't grabbing me. They're all good books, but they're just not where my mind is at right now. Maybe when Cherie Priest's "Boneshaker" arrives I'll get more fictionally motivated. Of course, there is a book on 1940s confidence games (aptly titled, "The Big Con") in the same order, so I make no promises.