What BOOK are you reading right now?

I recently finished The Coroners' Lunch by Colin Cotterill a week ago. It's a 2005 debut mystery novel about the only coroner in the entire country of Laos in the 1970's. Very well written with a slightly anticlimactic ending. Still an intriguing and exotic twist on the police procedural.

I'm presently reading the science fiction novel Blindsight by Peter Watts while listening to the classic sci-fi Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein via audible audiobook. [Not at the same time].

I've read Cotterill, maybe even that one (don't quiz me until you give me the gist).

I liked the book.

I just started N-Space by Larry Niven. Six short paragraphs into the author's foreword, I already know I like Niven.


Tell it! Tell it, brother! (Dramatically raising my arms to heaven, religious-revival style. Though I'd be flabbergasted to see Niven turn out to be a religious revivalist.)

And with that, I'm back to reading the other 500 pages---thanks for recommending and lending the book to me, littlek!

in the last little while, i've listened to the entire series of Ladies of Letters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_of_Letters), 9 Miss Read Audio books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Read) and re-reading the Fables comic book series

Just because I'm a SciFi/Fanstasy Nerd

hmm, i've been kind of interested in his work after reading some reviews

He is completely fun. Takes the High fantasy business and makes the characters gritty and rough, in a well crafted way. Sort of like if the book were a painting it would be Impressionist.

I'm not sure how quick I'll be going back to Cotterill's Dr. Siri series of police procedurals. I loved the main character, I liked the story, I liked reading about the exotic corrupt Asian politics, etc..., I just don't feel compelled to run off and read any further adventures of Dr. Siri given the anticlimatic ending of that book. Hopefully, I'll will return to the series when I hit a dry spot and can't find other compelling books to read.
~
As for Heinlein's 1962 Hugo Award winning highly controversial science fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land is definitely one of the major literary archetype novels from the 1960's.

The first half of the book was funny and yet remained suspenseful. The latter half throws the reader into the 1960's era utopia of free love and new age spiritual religiosity gone wild.

Sexism is the prevailing mentality in most of the male character's philosophy and much of the technojargon is outdated as well. For the most part, I can ignore the already out of date technology or mentally update the technology to present day tech or better, (this book is supposed to take place in the distant future). But the rampid sexism for the first half of the book was basically a quirk of one or two of the older side character, but from the second half on, all of the male characters (even [img]Valentine Michael Smith[/img] to a very limited sense) are treating the female characters and their entire gender as the weaker sex.

I'm barely tolerating the swinging lifestyle of the latter half of the book, (not from prudishness) but because it kind of put a stop to the suspenseful nature of the story.

Plus I'm already bored by the obvious skepticism that one major side character still holds onto regarding the ... outerworldly nature of Valentine Michael Smith. Dude!! You have known the lead character for 3/4ths of the book and you're acting like a doubting Thomas despite seeing all of those events first hand. Get with the program! He was raised by Martians for Pete's sake!

Anyway, I have 3 hours remaining in the audiobook and I hope it picks up for the remaining part. I hate to give up on the book before finishing it. The first half was amazing!

I'm presently downloading an audiobook copy of Never Let Me Go, the class based dysutopic novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_RAND_000573&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

I tried to listen to it 2 or 3 times already. I'm going to give it one more try after I finish Stranger in a Strange Land.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEED71630F931A35757C0A9609C8B63&ref=bookreviews

I am finishing Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, author of Birth of Venus and (much better) In the Company of the Courtesan.

This latest book is Dunant's third Italian Renaissance novel. With meticulous detail, it is set in a Benedictine convent in 1570. This story does not have as much action as the two before, but it is written just as beautifully. Of 406 pages, I only have 85 pages left to enjoy...

Eva, did you find the private message I sent you early in July?

BBB

No, I just checked and I didn't receive it. I was on vacation from the 10th through the 19th. Please resend!

I'm currently reading "Only Yesterday" by Frederick Lewis Allen. It is a popular history of the 1920's that was written in the early 1930's. It describes what life was like in the 1920's from several points of view: Prohibition, Flappers, Celebrities like Charles Lindbergh, etc. It is interesting to compare our world today with what things were like in the 1920's. While our lives today are quite different, it is quite interesting to see how many similarities there are between life today and that almost 100 years ago!

I loved it. I read it when I was 14; for school.

Welcome to a2k, bobdutica.

The book covers the Occupation of Japan by the Allies between August 1945 and April 1952, delving into topics such as Douglas MacArthur's administration, the Tokyo war crimes trials and Hirohito's controversial Humanity Declaration. Described by The New York Times as "magisterial and beautifully written,"

Yeah, what she said

Got this book for Christmas and started reading it recently. Loving it, absolutely. It's a bit Bulgakovian...has that dark late 19th century Russian novel feel, with mysticism, devil, yet a strong dose of reality at the same time and good attention to detail and description.
Like. A lot.

I might like that too, Dag. And... a plus, it's set in Barcelona.

I'm reading an oldish Tony Hillerman, The Fly on the Wall. It's the last of my "procedurals" before settling down and reading Michael Grant's History of Rome (I can never get too much of that..). I haven't been Hillerman's biggest fan, but have liked his work more than I ever disliked it. Also just read an older Jonathan Kellerman, Billy Straight, which I was more engaged in than usual. (I've grown to appreciate the writing of Faye and Jonathan's son, Jesse, more than that of his parents.)

I did finish Night Train to Lisbon. Overall I'm glad I read it, it's a keeper for me - while it irritated me off and on during my reading, including on the last page.

Just finished the Prince of Nothing trilogy by R Scott Bakker and enjoyed it very much.

Wonder if anyone else has read Bakker.

He also wrote a book which I believe was titled "Neuropath," and which was centered on the Meat Puppet school of philosophy.

Well written narrative, but I just never bought the premise that once you grokked Meat Puppetology your life would change.

Fortunately, he doesn't force his philosophy quite so strongly with this trilogy.

Again, great narrative and characters. He really is a damned good writer. The final battle scene is superb.

What I appreciated was that he never forced underlying thematics.

I can't stand authors that insist on clubbing you to death with their "brilliant insight"

In the fantasy genre, a prime example is Stephan R Donaldson. Great imagination, good writer, but that's about it. Good God, I get it, Thomas is a "Leper!"