What are you reading?

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

and

Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Momento Mori said:

I'm three quarters of the way through Fat by Rob Grant (one of the co-creators of Red Dwarf). It's a satire on the British nanny state and its desire to force people to be fit and healthy and although there are a few moments that don't quite ring true (a teenage girl being a big fan of Monk being the main example), there have also been several scenes that have made me piggy snort with laughter.

Definitely one I'd recommend if you can get a copy.

MM

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Actually, my stepdaughter has been a fan of Monk since her adolescence. She'll be 13 this year and still enjoys House, Bones and Dexter as does her 15 (16 this year) brother.

I'm about to start reading Stalking Darkness, the second book in Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series.

Just finished Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs, Dark Lover by JR Ward, and One Silent Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Switching things up, I am reading Smack by Melvin Burgess and
1st to Die by James Patterson. First time I have tried reading a Patterson novel, and not sure what to think of it. I like the movies made out of his books, and really enjoyed the Women's Murder Club, the show that was on tv and got cancelled first season. So I decided to pick up the first Women's Murder Club book. What is with the jumping POV? Starts 1st person, then goes to 3rd omni from the first victim's perspective to the killers. Very jarring and confusing. I have never read a book that did 3rd and 1st POV.

Mad River Road. I'd started it quite a while ago, lost it, read several others in the interim, and just found it again. So, I've had to restart it. The FMC is so stupid. Then again, if she weren't, there'd be no story, I suppose. She meets some guy in a bar, he spends the night with her, and the next day she quits her job and goes on a road trip with him. Either she's incredibly stupid, incredibly naive or both.

Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapledon, a 1930 science fiction novel bound with Star Maker, the sequel, copyright 1937, republished in 1968 by Dover (at $2.00 for the combined volume). (Dover has since republished the novels in separate volumes at much higher prices.) It has been awaiting reading since I bought it in or about 1968. Very odd novel, completely defying the rule "show don't tell." it is ALL tell -- a historical narrative from the viewpoint of a far distant future. One thing for sure: Stapledon (a British philosopher who died in 1950) had no use for Americans. Frankly, I am not sure he was that crazy about anyone else, either. Got off the track in his vision of the future by positing a war between Britain and . . . FRANCE. The Germans, humbled by The Great War, sat it out. Strange and grim, the prototype of the "future history" genre, with a perspective of millions of years.

--Ken

Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde.

Just finished Charlaine Harris's Dead as a Doornail (good), starting Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Immoral by Brian Freeman.

It's a good read! I love that it's set in Duluth, MN (aka my home town) and the writing draws you in completely. I'm really liking it.

Le Collier de la Reine by Alexandre Dumas.

'Performances', The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by E. Goffman

Finished Sexuality and Socialism by Sherry Wolf yesterday, which was an amazing book. Definitely recommend it someone who's interested in LGBT issues.

Am now reading Princesses and Pornstars by Emily Maguire, which is a book that discusses modern day issues of sexism and women in a way that's pretty easy to read. It's sharp and hard-hitting right from the start.

"Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics" - a sort of history/boigraphy of mathematics and mathematicians. I give it really high marks, and I'm only now in the middle of the book getting to Newton and Leibniz. Okay, there was about four pages on the life of some guy who (IIRC) developed the generic cubic formula, and these pages had virtually nothing about math, but are about the hard, terrible, sucky, bad-luck life he lived. But that's only one percent of the book, and I've learned a lot more about math (especially who did what) than a lot of other books on math put together. Wish I had read something like this in college (which was before it was published).

Amazon has 78 reader reviews for it, 69 5-star, and nine curmudgeons who only gave it four stars:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/014014739X/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris.

Still reading Mad River Road. Lord, I hate this FMC. She's beyond stupid. Apparently the MMC has a Magic Meat Puppet. All it took was one time and she's his slave.

Come to think of it, most of the FMC's I've read about lately are irritating the crap out of me. Either too perfect or too stupid.

double post.

I'm reading the manga series Death Note. My middle schooler begged me to read the first book and I got hooked. The story threads are still tighter than banjo strings halfway through book 4. It's a great lesson in storytelling.

odiodi:
Actually, my stepdaughter has been a fan of Monk since her adolescence. She'll be 13 this year and still enjoys House, Bones and Dexter as does her 15 (16 this year) brother.

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Fair enough. Probably my own prejudice showing.

I'm now reading One Foot In The Grave by Jeaniene Frost. It's the second in her paranormal romance Night Huntress series about a half-vampire woman who hunts vampires and has a hot passion for a 200 year old English vampire. I'm about one third of the way through and I'm really waiting for the plot to start coming together because at the moment it's a lot of patchy incidents. Still, the heroine's just met up with the vampire who thought she'd abandoned him so maybe it'll start gelling.

MM

A little over halfway through with Stupid Chick and the Wonder Schlong. Apparently this other storyline, which appears to have nothing to do with the original, involving some woman and her son living on Mad River Rd in a neighborhood apparently made up of Lifetime Movie of the Week refugees, is Magic Meat Puppet's ex-wife.

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Finally finished that book and not enough characters died, imho. Not sure what I'll start next. I have a nice stack to peruse.

Four Souls by Louise Erdrich

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers (because I read the other 3 and I must know what happens to Jacob)

Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire