Having time for recreational reading has been an issue for me for sometime. I do most of my reading on the computer of news, columns, article researching, etc, coupled with family and work (“empty nest” gives exactly the wrong impression of what it means to be between elderly parents and adult children (with small grandchildren). Getting time to stop by the ever shrinking brick-and-mortar bookstores to leisurely walk the aisles until something catches my interest is rare.
So I got a Kindle Touch at Christmas.
I carry it everywhere so that any of those chunks of found time (waiting for new tires, doctor appointments, DMV, etc) I can pull it out of my purse and pick up where I left off.
Since Christmas I’ve read all five of the Game of Thrones books, all three Hunger Games, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and The Lost Gate and am currently reading Speaker for the Dead. In the non-fiction, I’m currently reading Ameritopia and The Looming Tower. I know I should spend more time on the non-fiction, but I enjoy my mini-vacations in the fiction area. Quick fiction reviews:
Game of Thrones: enjoyable, overwritten and overwrought at times, original and quite daring in killing off sympathetic and heroic characters. I will continue to follow.
Hunger Games: good concept, decent execution in book 1, #2 & 3 much weaker. Makes me wonder how the movie will turn out. Not an author I will make a point to follow.
Ender’s Game et al. Hadn’t gotten around to reading O.S. Card but decided to on recommendations here on PW. Glad I finally did. Intriguing, original and strong writing. Going to work my way through the rest of his books.
Now to you … what are you reading right now? What recommendations do you have for all of us?
Greetings:
“Comanches: The History of a People” by T.R. Fehrenbach.
On a science-fictionly bent, here are some of my recommendations:
Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space and Pushing Ice
Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archive
John Varley, Steel Beach (quite possibly the greatest opening line in a novel) and The Golden Globe
Can’t go wrong with Neal Asher, if you’re into sci-fi.
And Julian May’s ‘Saga Of Pliocene Exile’ and ‘Galactic Milieau’ novels are excellent.
Susan Cooper’s ‘The Dark Is Rising’ series, though written for young adults and somewhat dated, is a hell of a palate-cleanser after attempting to read a ‘Twilight’ or ‘Harry Potter’ too… ;)
Currently working on “Broke” by Glenn Beck.
If you’re into Noir literature, Dennis Lehan’s detective couple of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are pretty good. See “A Drink Before the War,” Prayers for Rain,” and “Darkness, Take My Hand.”
I may soon order “Ameritopia” because the reviews are all very positive.
Lehane.
I don’t like let alone love sci-fi or fantasy literature.
I’ll be over in the true crime and detective novels section.
A warning about Card: if you read too much of his stuff in quick succession, you quickly start to overdose on his rhetorical quirks and character tics.
But I’d still recommend the Alvin Maker series (starting with Seventh Son) after you’re done with Ender and Speaker. (Xenocide is OK but definitely the weakest of the three, unless you loves you some OCD.)
For some really light fare, Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath. It’s written for kids, and you think you know where the story is going, but you totally don’t.
For brilliant writing and incisive meditations on nature, you can’t beat Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.
To induce fervent prayer for the Sweet Meteor of Death, the Melanie Phillips book I reference in today’s post.
And finally, the only book from my lit-crit days that I’d recommend for normal reading, The Back Room by Carmen Martín Gaite. Which, I doubt it will be a Kindle edition soon, but what the hey.
Here’s a delightful quick Kindle read: Life of Pi by Yann Martel. If you haven’t read it already, of course.
I was on my fourth Kindle when i dropped it yesterday. Seemed fine until I tried reading it and . . . well, it’s time for yet another kindle. I’m like a trust fund kid wrecking a bunch of sports cars.
Before Kindle #4 broke, I had read Grant’s Memoirs. Absolutely terrific. Most of the volumes covers the Civil War, and there’s nothing about his presidency. Still, a great read for anyone interested in the great conflict.
Someone here recommended Bernard Cornwell’s “Sharpe” series to me, about the adventures of a British rogue who takes the King’s Shilling to escape the noose and rises to rank of Colonel while saving Wellington’s caboose multiple times along the way. Wish I could remember who did the recommending so I could thank more personally. Anyway, it’s a recommendation I pass on frequently in meatspace, and I do so again here.
We could call it “reading”! The Decorah Eagle pair have an egg! Dad’s currently keeping the one precious warm.
currently reading “This is Your Brain on Music” so far, I wouldn’t recommend it. it strikes me as a bit too technical for non-musicians and really boring for musicians. first chapter was basic musical theory with a few bits about the neurological processes involved, but mostly theory, which I still hate.
Finished The Help the other night, it was entertaining.
Non-fiction wise I tore through all of Malcolm Gladwell’s books. The Tipping Point, Outliers, Blink and What the Dog Saw.
I’ve dropped my Fire a few times and it’s still ticking. If I’d broken four Kindles I think I’d be forced to revert to the technology where you can drop what you’re reading and the worst that can happen is you lose your place.
Check out the Ender’s Shadow series, also. I like the Bean character a lot.
I got hooked on Game of Thrones a few years ago and am thoroughly pissed at Martin for fucking over his old fans while he negotiated a TV deal. Not going to try to pick the story back up.
I read so much I mostly shop for cheap, used paperbacks, the Michael Connelly Harry Bosch books have been my latest kick, good stuff in there.
Right now have just finished Girl With the Dragon Tattoo a friend loaned me and starting the next one.
Reading Lethem’s Chronic City at the moment. It’s, uhhh, Lethemy. Have his The Ecstasy of Influence on deck.
Just finished a biography on Edwin Land that I won’t recommend by title because it was terribly written. Fascinating guy though. (Here’s just one bit of cool esoterica you’ll find. Others include the U2 spy plane or the myriad ways cheap polarization technology changed our lives.)
Check out the Ender’s Shadow series, also. I like the Bean character a lot.
Were you bothered by the incongruity between the expanded Bean and the one that appeared in Ender’s Game?
I was.
Agree with the recommendation on the Julian May series and would add Patrick Rothfuss (Name of the Wind – Kingkiller Chronicles) and Ken Scholes (Psalms of Isaak).
I’m with dicentra on Xenocide being the weakest of the of the 3. Frankly, I thought it was a little…”out there”. Still, worth reading.
John Connoly I highly recommend. Although the most recent release (the immediate title escapes me) was a little weak, his series with the detective Charlie Parker is terrific: what Stephen King would write if he wrote supernatural detective stories.
Currently I’m reading Preston and Child’s “Gideon’s Corpse”, which so far is pretty decent. I like most of what they write, both together and individually.
I’m also in the middle of “World War Z” by Max Brooks, which is really, really good.
And there I am, with the out of control HTML tag.
Also, if you’re into biography, Philip Short’s bio of Mao (yes, the commie) is good. For history, King Leopold’s Ghost is great. Those two books together make for a primer on just how high the body count can get with bad enough governence. Chilling, but important reads.
Why, yes, I am into biography, Seth. Thanks.
Rereading Shakespeare’s History Plays currently (the Arden volumes to help with the more obscure language and references). Really can’t recommend it enough to see how little human nature has changed. Also on my nightstand are On Killing by Lt. Col Dave Grossman and History of Political Philosophy by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey.
My wife recommends The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.
A book called Fatal Risk by somebody whose name escapes me is excellent. A game changer.
More broadly, The Somme by Peter Hart is an epic and sober history of a battle that defies metaphor.
I finished Neal Stephenson’s Readme and liked it. Certainly inventive.
I’ll second Neal Stephenson and suggest Cryptonomicon A little sci-fi, academic, military, start-up, crypto, and WW2. And then everything else.
I’ll third Stephenson and second Cryptonomicon.
William Gibson is always fun if you want geek out.
Just about anything by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (writing together) is good. Lucifer’s Hammer and Footfall by them are especially excellent.
Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books. For what that’s worth.
And of course, I always recommend Gravity’s Rainbow, Foucault’s Pendulum, The Catcher in the Rye, Trout Fishing in America, Portnoy’s Complaint, and The Rabbit series from Updike.
I recommend the Walking Drum by Louise L’Amour if you like historical fiction. I need to re-read it myself, it’s been a long time, but he kinda makes the case that the enlightenment began with the opening of trade routes and the rise of the merchant class. Set in the 1200’s AD. Europe and parts east.
I’d agree with both Susan Cooper and Julian May, they are some of my favorite books. In addition I’d recommend Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, and Stephen R. Donaldson as well. Anything by Donaldson is good, and most would probably recommend the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, but I prefer the Gap Cycle (warning it is extremely violent and graphically so).
Glen Cook’s Annals of the Black Company are also worth the time but tough to find as ebooks, at least on the Nook that I use.
Someone here recommended Bernard Cornwell’s “Sharpe” series to me, about the adventures of a British rogue who takes the King’s Shilling to escape the noose and rises to rank of Colonel while saving Wellington’s caboose multiple times along the way. Wish I could remember who did the recommending so I could thank more personally. Anyway, it’s a recommendation I pass on frequently in meatspace, and I do so again here.
That may have been me, Darth, together with Lazarus Long, principally due to Cornwell’s employment of my favourite literary motif of heaps of dead Froggies. Patrick O’Brian employs this device to even greater effect, hence my even greater admiration of his books.
Oh, I just finished George MacDonald Fraser’s (author of the Flashman series) memoirs of his experiences in the Burma Campaign, Quartered Safe Out Here, which is a very good read.
This is probably not for everyone but I found it quite good.
“Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper”
In a different vein I like the earlier Stephenson books “Snow Crash” and “The Diamond Age”. From Niven/Pournelle, “Inferno”. In mysteries I’ve been reading many of the “Nero Wolfe” ones and the series by Steve Hamilton which is set in my beloved Michigan.
Recently read Farm City by Novella Carpenter. I recommend it. Great writing, quirky story; topic is urban farming. Also recently finished a new biography of M.F.K. Fisher, An Extravagant Hunger. Pretty good; get it at the library. Just started All In, a new biography of General Petraeus. Not wild about the writing, so far, but eager to learn more about Petraeus.
On the topic of favorite novels, a desert-island-caliber great novel I recommend is The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin. GREAT book. Beautiful writing.
“What are you reading right now?”
I’m almost always marshaling a company of books.
Of late I’ve been on a sixteenth century binge. I’ve been reading the documents regarding the development of English trade with Muscovy via the Arctic route in Hakluyt’s Voyages. At the time Muscovy under Ivan the Terrible was pushing Muslims out of European Russia, destroying the Khanate of Kazan, and making the first incursions into the Khanate Of Sibir in Western Siberia. This is related in the History of the Taking of Kazan and the Siberian Chronicles. These events are also related in the History of the Russian State of Nikolai Karamzin (1766-1826). The last, while not the first modern work of Russian History, was the first written under the influence and with the diligence of Gibbon. It remains popular in Russia. Reading Karamzin was discouraged in American academia when I was in school, primarily because he was an apologist for autocracy. He was a pioneer in Russian prose style who influenced Pushkin. I regret to say I know of no English translation.
I’m also reading Montaigne’s Essays. The French weren’t so French in the sixteenth century, and all who call themselves moderates should read him. He is an excellent demonstration of arguing with oneself clearly.
Like charlesaustin, I’m always rereading Shakespeare. I also read Arden editions, but confine myself to the Second Series (1950-1982). While the Third Series (begun 1991) boasts a couple of improvements in format, the scholarship is a monotonous mashup of the usual contemporary obsessions with gender, race and vigorous anal sex, accompanied by overattention to production history and an overscrupulous deference to badly printed Renaissance texts. The booby prize is the two volume Hamlet, which presents three texts of the work, which is of interest to few besides geeks such as myself, along with such a heap of contemporary “thought” about the “text” that there is no room for illuminating scholarship. To make up for it, the editors constantly refer the reader to the edition of Hamlet in the Second Series, edited by Harold Jenkins! This last is well worth hunting up on the secondhand market.
Brett, in many cases I agree with you about the Arden editions. Some of the commentary in the third series makes me laugh at loud as though it must be a parody. I have about a couple of the second series and happily grab them whenever I can find them.
I’m sorry for not name checking Cryptonomicon, as I just assumed it was in everyone’s pantheon here.
His description of the protagonist’s ex girlfriends academic life was the most searing indictment of a belief set–progg, post-modern et al–that I have ever read, short of the Gulag Archipelago. That it was done obliquely, as part of character development, backstory if you will, made it just so much better.
A close second was the description–deep backstory here–of Randy Watehouse’s acquaintance’s who, rather quietly, had developed a substantial belief in what we are led to think is evangelical Christianity.
It was clear that Waterhouse, and thus Stephenson presumably, didn’t get their belief but he observed, that they had “A coping mechanism, something that allowed them to handle life and its challenges, effectively and efficiently. They were able to deal.”
I am paraphrasing amply but set against his ex-gf and her milieu it was a brilliant foil and observation.
Sorry, meant to say I have a couple of the first series. The current publishers have published a mix of second and third series with the same thematic covers.
Darth Levin mentioned Bernard Cornwell. I haven’t read his Sharpe series yet, but I intend to. I got hooked on his Saxon stuff (The Last Kingdom, Lords of the North, etc.) and am about to go purchase the 6th of the series. It’s set in the late 800s in Great Britain.
Any of the Niven/Pournelle collaborations are worth a read if you’re into the science fiction milieu.
Hey Jess, thanks for the heads up on Cornwell’s Saxon series. I’ve read the Sharpe books but somehow I had missed those. His website also revealed a civil war series I didn’t know about. Anyway, I just got The Last Kingdom on my kindle.
I think the Sharpe books came up here when someone mentioned one of the Sharpe movies was on PBS.
As always, the book was better.
Now back from church and have time to go through the stack next to my reading chair.
Recently, past 6 months or so, finished in addition to the ones mentioned this morning.
The Reckless Mind by Mark Lilla
The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe
Giants and Dwarfs by Allan Bloom
A Year in the Life of Shakespeare 1599 by James Shapiro
The Hobbit
The Price of Glory by Alistair Horne
73 North by Dudley Pope
The Closing of the Muslim Mind by Robert Reilly
Also the short paper by Hannah Arendt “Truth and Politics” which I wrote about at the pub.
Still have bookmarks in these.
Fatal Risk by Roddy Boyd
Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
Thoughts on Machiavelli by Leo Strauss
Faith and Political Philosophy, The correspondence between Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin 1934-1964
Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith
Reckless Endangerment by Gretchen Morgenson
I read Ric Locke’s Temporary Duty awhile back. I’m not that big on SiFi, but it was good.
The Hangman’s daughter, by Oliver Potzsch was a good read.
Leigh, in detective novels, I like Laurie King’s Mary Russell series.
If you like Game of Thrones, Darleen, you might like David Weber’s Bahzell series. I just finished the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of the latest one, War Maid’s Choice. One thing to remember with Weber’s books is that if Amazon doesn’t have them in Kindle format, you can purchase them through http://www.baen.com and e-mail them to your Kindle, converting where needed.
Sarah, Keys to the Kingdom is one book I try to reread once a year.
Again, Danhrin, look at Baen. They put stuff out in lots of ebook formats.
I haven’t read those yet, SDN. I like Jonathon Kellerman’s novels, his wife’s are okay, too, but his are better.
I have a tendency to reread book that I like a lot. I love Steinbeck (even if he was a commie) and “East of Eden” is a wonderful book. I like Larry McIntire, too. “Lonesome Dove” was almost perfect. I didn’t want it to end.
I have three bookcases full of classics and I’ll pull those out from time to time.
Raylan – Elmore Leonard
Ameritopia – Mark Levin
Selection Event – Wayne Wrightman
Obama, the Greatest President in the History of Everything – Frank Fleming
World War Z – Max Brod
The Blast of War – Adam Yoshida
Battle Earth – Nick Thompson
Survivors – James Rawles
The Old Man and the Wasteland – Nick Cole
Reamde – Neil Stephenson
Black Swan – Bruce Sterling
When the Women Come out to Dance – Elmore Leonard
Riding the Rap – Elmore Leonard
Pronto – Elmore Leonard
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
Containment – Christian Cantrell
After America – Mark Steyn
Hunger Games 1,2,3, – Suzanne Collins
Rule 34 – Charles Stross
The Brothers Bulger – Howie Carr
Dragon Tattoo 1,2,3 – Steig Larsson
etc.
I love my Kindle.
i’m reading the menu right now-’tis got a lil drool on it but that’s okay
also-‘free willy’-it’s about whales/ can’t wait to see how it turns out!
RI Red
You might want to try “The Hot Kid” by Elmore Leonard too.
geoffb, that’s one of the reasons I love my Kindle and Amazon loves me – people will recommend a book, I’ll order it and it shows up in seconds. Thanks, and I’ll be starting it tonight.
I’m so far behind on what is already here that a kindle would make it worse, but I’d like the speed you mention.
Now thinking about some books over the years that have had an impact on who I am (non-exclusive and in no particular order):
LOTR and The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
Starship Troopers – Heinlein
The Federalist Papers – various dead white guys
Liberty and Tyranny – Mark Levin
08/15 ( Auf Deutsch, Null Acht Fuenfzehn) – Hans Helmut Kirsch (In English, the Gunner Asch trilogy)
From Here to Eternity – James Jones
Chickenhawk – Robert Mason
We didn’t Mean to go to Sea – Arthur Ransome
The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
The Battle of Britain – Richard Tregaskis? or was that Guadalcanal Diary?
Anyway, make of it what you will. It’s cheaper than psychoanalysis.
Red every time I see a mention of Heinlein’s Starship troopers I get pissed all over again about the betrayer Verhoeven. Turning a classic declaration of earned citizenship into a fascist bug-hunt, I really would like to beat him with a Showgirl.
Froggy has an interesting story on the Prog attacks on Act of Valor.
Trailer.
Just finished:
Jo Nesbo’s fabulous Harry Hole series
Mark Nanos’ The Mystery of Romans
Just reread:
Sara Donati’s Elizabeth Bonner series
Now reading:
Karin Fossum’s Konrad Sejer series
Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender series
Mark Nano’s The Irony of Galatians
Hal Lindsey’s The Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad
In the wings:
Maj Sjowell’s Martin Beck series
Nonie Darwish’s Cruel and Usual Punishment
Mary Douglas’ natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology
I tried to read Cryptonomicon, but it never grabbed me.
leigh, you mean Larry McMurtry. I like his work a lot, too. At least, much of it. He is fairly uneven, I find; more so over time. I agree that Lonesome Dove is near perfect, as is The Last Picture Show (the movie was darned good; the book is better). Terms of Endearment is a good movie but the book is way, way, way better.
Speaking of so-called Western novelists:
Jessamyn West. All young people should read Cress Delahanty and anyone intersted in the movies should read To See the Dream, a memoir about working with William Wyler on the script for the movie of West’s book The Friendly Persuasian.
Wallace Stegner. Angle of Repose is a great novel, but unlike many people I’m not convinced it’s his master work. I like The Spectator Bird and the others featuring Joe Alston. Crossing to Safety, his last novel, is perhaps his best.