What are you reading?

aruna

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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.
I began this book a few weeks ago but couldn't get into it -- very slow start, a lot of exposition, begins with a description of daily life for a Chinese farmer family. So I put it away. Just finished reading it, and have to say it's wonderful. Very touching story, and excruciating to read as it goes into the details of foot-binding.
 

Baryonyx

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Kittyhawk Pilot by James Edwards

Tis another free book. A WW2 veterans account of his experienced as a fighter pilot flying Kittyhawks. I'm only a few chapters in and it's pretty good so far. Seems a bit lacking in detail in parts though but still, can't complain since it was free. I read a lot of war biographies and haven't read any by a Kittyhawk pilot yet so gives me a new perspective to read about :)

It's still available for free on Kindle btw if anybody is interested in getting it.
 

TheBuckMopsHere

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For fiction I'm reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. It's not as good as Under the Dome as far as his later works are concerned, but it's a solid yarn.

For non-fiction, I've been reading Robert Greene's 33 Strategies of War. If you're a history buff or someone who likes to draw inspiration from such, Greene is your guy. I read 48 Laws of Power a while back and it was a great cornucopia of history lessons and stories.
 

Joseph753

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I'm almost finished reading "Jung: A Very Short Introduction" -- yes, nonfiction. Is that becoming an extinct species?
 

Calla Lily

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Finished Drawn into Darkness. Light, enjoyable. FMC, MMC, and major villains = all well done. The smex scenes were good but the book wouldn't have suffered without them. Unfortunately, it seems the series switches to another FMC and MMC, like Sh0walt3r's butterfly-tattooed immortals series.
 

Steph

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Just getting started on A Game of Thrones. So far, I am pleasantly surprised. I'm usually not one for fantasy, series, or giant books, so it's a big deal that I'm actually enjoying this one. The writing is really relaxed, I feel. I might just feel that way because I just read a bunch of Tolkien and his writing is much more formal, but I'm not sure what to make of it yet. The plot is riveting, though. :)
 

Dave Hardy

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Gormenghast, slaves & Indians

I've been reading Gormenghast on and off. It is a difficult book for me to get into, as was Titus Groan, though that one really built to some dramatic stuff.

In the meantime I'm reading American Uprising (research for a WIP). It's about the German Coast slave revolt of 1811 (in Louisiana, yeah, it's got a German Coast). I'm a bit exasperated at the "he would have..." qualifier tagged onto all the author's speculation. Frankly, the author has very few facts about this ill-documented event, so he rounded it out with rather clumsily-worded speculation. Ends up like a pedantic history that wants to be grand legend, but is neither fish nor fowl. The subject matter deserved better.

For contrast I'm also reading Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz. No f***in' qualifiers for Ms. Sandoz! It's a biography written like a novel. A lot of her work was original research with elderly kin of Crazy Horse. She may not have been the most foot-note driven historian, but by God she could tell a story and make you care! :guns:
 

alexward1981

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Finished Child 44. It was an excellent book but the 'twist' ending was a little bit obvious. It also seemed to rely quite heavily on Deus Ex Machina in places.

I'm now reading 'Feed' by Mira Grant, I love zombie stories (World War Z being amongst my favourite books) so I'm expected to enjoy this one. So far, so good :)
 

Snowball2695

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Having to read The Great Gatsby for my English class.
It's not a bad book, I just love to hate any book I have to read in English.
 

MoLoLu

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Couldn't sleep last night and decided to read the boy in the striped pijamas (which had been lying around but untouched). I knew what it would be about but still cried at the end. Felt hollow well into the morning. Don't think I slept better for it.
 

quicklime

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Dead Silver by Neil McMahon.....hard-boiled noir meets modern Montana. Really like the dialogue between the MC and his friend Madbird.
 

Tnonk

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Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
It's in my favorite genre but it left me unsatisfied for some reason.
Not a bad read by any means just curiously unsatisfying.

I also just finished another old pulp short Train for Flushing by Malcolm Jameson. Interesting old pulp story that I found online.

Adrian
 

Liz_cm

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I just finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanne Clark, it took some time for me to get into but the farther I got into it the more engaging it became. I would say I didn't really start to like it till I got past 50% of the book. Although, one has to like that style/tone of writing since she is writing in a very pastiche style.

Right now, I am finishing "The Name of the Wind" by Patric Rothfuss.

After those two fantasy novels I hope to dig into Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake"...I know a complete change of pace.