What are you reading?

In the Name of the Family by Sarah Dunant

The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said by Robert Byrne

The Quick Red Fox - John D. MacDonald

Paul Auster's latest, which he titled 4321. Also, A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton. Both are excellent.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Room was so incredible. I laughed, I cried, I recoiled in fear. Very moving. Reading Coronado: Stories, by Dennis Lehane now.

A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard

Passenger, by Alexandra Bracken. Note to self: make sure your characters match the ages you've given them.

OK, I read some romance. I read a lot of YA. This is the second book I've picked up that annoyed me because the author (who is otherwise a competent writer) made the characters 17 then wrote them like you'd write an older romance novel. We are supposed to believe in this book where the protagonist has been transported back to the 1700s and is on a pirate ship, that a fair number of the officers on the ship are only 18-19ish. No, just no. And I'm sorry, but making a character 17 when they are written like you'd write a slightly older character doesn't help your book. The readers will not be fooled.

When you write a character they have to match the age you give them. You can have your character be a prodigy and still be young. I think Ender's Game managed that well. Every YA book doesn't have to be about prom and high school. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was excellent. The Young Elites fit their ages well, no high school, no prom. But The Winner's Curse series also didn't read like 17 and 19 year old characters. That one read older as well.

Yep, it's a skill to write a character that fits the age you give them. Romance masquerading as YA, not fooling anyone. It's a decent Romance novel, why the need to shoehorn it into a genre it doesn't belong in?


Thank you for listening.

JM Coetzee's The Lives of Animals, featuring Elizabeth Costello. And for light relief Peter James' You Are Dead, a Roy Grace crime thriller.

Just finished "And The Rest is History" by Jodi Taylor - #8 in the Chronicles of St. Mary's.

Next up is "Six Wakes" by Mur Laffery for book club.

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty. Love her stuff. Well, most of her stuff.

I've been reading Hemingway lately. The Sun Also Rises and For Whom The Bell Tolls.

The Empty Copper Sea - John D. MacDonald

Mr.Mercedes by Stephen King

Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble by Dan Lyons

Coldheart Canyon, by Clive Barker.

Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland.

Yep, you can judge this book by its cover. Raymond is the most hateful, selfish and unredeeming MC I have ever encountered. I hope he gets his butt kicked by every single other character, but so far they are all (with the possible exception of Neal) just as self-absorbed as Raymond.

Just finished Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine. Attempted to continue Elves by Graham McNeill. But I remembered why i stopped in the first place, so i've moved on. I've put Uprooted by Naomi Novik and Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb on hold at the library. Until I get them, i'm rereading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K Rowling.

I'm half way through George Saunder's new book, which I'm reading with my ears at the same time---the cast has like 200 people, (including celebs like Ben Stiller). Meanwhile I just finished Hold The Dark, which I wasn't happy with. I only read it because the GREEN ROOM director is making a film. I don't know why. Very confused.

Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook.

Well, actually, after The Quick Red Fox I wanted to read the next book in the series, A Deadly Shade of Gold, which just up and disappeared off my shelf. Poof! Started The Empty Copper Sea (as noted above) and decided to put that aside and read The Scarlet Ruse. Borrrring as watching water drip. But I'm going to hack away at it. I've read it five times; it's got to pick up speed somewhere in there.

Fifty Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Recently finished Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman and I'm now in the beginnings of A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas, the first in her Lady Sherlock series.