I’ll be interested to hear what you think. I finished Ancillary Sword yesterday and enjoyed it more than Ancillary Justice. I have yet to read 3BP. The Goblin Emperor is by far my favorite of this year’s novel candidates though.
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Oh, yes, I steamed through The Goblin Emperor after reading 3BP in fits and starts. I think it’s a good contender for my favourite, too.
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The Foundation Trilogy - recent; fabulous
Right now: John le Carre, Smiley’s People - I’ve always underestimated le Carre (for no good reason at all). He’s a fabulous read. Doesn’t put a foot wrong.
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Love all that I’ve read of Le Carre. Isn’t there supposed to be a film of Smiley’s People on the way?
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Alternating between Christine Sneed’s Paris, He Said and Doctorow’s With A Little Help for this week. The former reminds me of some of Honoré de Balzac’s work in The Human Comedy, which I’ll admit to reading only “Facino Cane” out of the other stories–I actually mean to finish that selection anthology somewhere down the line. As for Paris, He Said, it’s interesting so far, but have yet to get drawn into the plot, which is essentially a literary romance. Too early for a verdict, but I liked her debut novel though.
I have a personal bias with the latter considering it’s Cory Doctorow. Like what he was trying to do with it.
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REST in Practice and Papillon
The REST book, a good introduction to RESTful hypermedia principles, a little too much Java and .NET so, riffraff aside, a good read.
Papillon, I like the movie, decided to read the book. Its ok.
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ooohhh … gawd … I fear for it. Who can act like that nowadays??!
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I just got done reading The Man of Gold and Flamesong by M.A.R. Barker. They were fun reads, but not the radical departures from fantasy literature conventions I’d originally hoped for.
I’m currently working through Antonio Gramsci: Selections from Cultural Writings, which is pretty good, but not the direct introduction to his concept of hegemony which is what I think I was really looking for. Next on the pile is Selections from the Prison Notebooks.
My partner recommended some Le Carre novels, so I may be reading him soon.
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Of his later, post-Cold-war books, I remember liking The Little Drummer Girl and The Honorable Schoolboy, but the Smiley books are especially brilliant. Don’t miss The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, for one.
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I have been reading to read The Tailor of Panama. Enjoyed the film a lot, but haven’t read the book (I have read Our Man in Havana, which inspired it, I believe).
As mentioned above, I think there’s an adaptation of Smiley’s People coming (or at least Oldman would like to do one) - I read that as with the Beeb versions, they decided that The Honorable Schoolboy would be too expensive so they skipped that one.
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David Shumway’s Rock Star for a journal review. I’ve read a bunch of stuff on Fela Kuti recently - Including Arrest the Music by Tejumola Olaniyan and Michael Veal’s Fela: Life and Times of an African Icon, and Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway… I sort of re-looked at Interrogation Machine by Alexei Monroe…
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Yup -TSWCIFTC is remarkable, and made me realise just how got he is! THS is fantastic, I’ve yet to read TLDG.
Sorry for acronyms!
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I’ll start with the Lynda Barry (I read it a couple years ago, but I’m planning to use it as a jumping-off point for summer craft inspiration).
I glanced through Thug Kitchen at the library, not realizing it’s a vegan cookbook. The language gets annoying (cussing loses its ability to shock pretty quickly), but I’m always up for new recipes.
NG talking about weed should be interesting.
I hope the Eco book is good - I bought it for $1 at the library, so it’s not a big deal if I don’t like it.
The last two were from a local little free library. I figured that since I left about 2 dozen books there over the past couple of years, I’d be ok with taking two. They’ll go back when I’m done!
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Well, I finished The Crow Road. Much better than The Quarry was. Enjoyed it.
Next up is Something Nasty in the Woodshed by Kyril Bonfiglioli.
I picked up Don’t Point That Thing At Me on a whim when Mortdecai got such bad reviews, and I quite enjoyed it, so I’m trying the next one in the series.
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I finished The Lost Continent. It ended rather abruptly but fun if dated adventure romp.
Now I am starting on Robur The Conqueror and Master Of The World by Jules Verne.
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I agree. I listened to it on a roadtrip, but it was a little dense for that. I found myself having to go back and re-listen sometimes. Overall, though, it was worth the time.
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Just finished “Apex” by Ramez Naam, the last of his trilogy.
Reading “Days of Rage” on the 70s bombings by activist groups like the Weather Underground.
Starting “Seveneyes” by Neal Stephenson.
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Oh, I didn’t dislike Three-Body Problem. As I said, I found it interesting, and I may well re-read it at some point, to see if it flows better now I know where it was going.
Really liked The Goblin Emperor, and I’m enjoying Ancillary Sword. I don’t relish tackling the Sad Puppy nominees in the novel category, though.
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Just curious, have you read Cold Comfort Farm, the source of that title? It seems to be one of those books that most Brits have read and very few Americans. (I haven’t read it yet, though it’s on my list, but I cheated and watched the movie.)
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Just finished reading Akira by Otomo. It was fantastic! The six volumes just fly by.
Next up, Gates of Fire by Pressfield.
Maybe I’ll dust off Infinite Jest for an infinite summer go round.
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