What books are you reading right now?

I am middle of re-reading Name of the wind series, and the skull throne by peter v brett.

 

Bloody 'ell! The two Salvation Army stores near us have changed their book pricing policy.

The good news: Books are no longer priced higher based on their popularity, size, attractiveness, or the fickle whim of the person in charge of pricing.

The bad news:
The store nearest me dropped its good-every-day 50% off all books sale.
All HBs are $2.99. OK, I'm whining to a certain degree. I can live with this but only for rare books, books that I've really been wanting, and books that were outrageously expensive new.
All PBs are $1.99. Say what? The usual thrift store price is still .50 or less.


To answer the silent question--Yes, I am aware the institutions known as Public Libraries .

 

A little late to the game, I just finished Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open, copyright 2009. His seemingly genuine honesty is fun and admirable, as is his recall (or research). His appreciation and takes on the various players are fascinating, especially about those that are currently playing (Federer, et al). I enjoyed reading about not only the sport, but of his continued growth and and insightfulness toward the gestalt of the game, and himself. I came away surprised and fulfilled.

 

I finished U.S.S.A., and I could've easily given it a miss. The ending sucked, but did leave the door open for a sequel, which I haven't researched because I have no intention of reading it if it exists. Apparantly David Madsen has had a good career as a writer; he isn't on my list of Must Read authors. If any of you have enjoyed his works, please share. I try not to judge authors based on a single lousy book, but some books leave a seriously negative impression (A Suitable Boy, and The Hotel New Hampshire come to mind).

On a positive note....I'm about 85 pages into The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and so far I'm really enjoying it. I just hope that Zusak knows how to end a novel. Not necessarily a happy ending (I like Cormac McCarty & Denis Lehane), but hopefully one that makes sense.

 

does a cook book count?

 

Of course.

 

Yep. It'd probably take me an hour or longer to list our cookbooks. Now if only we had a really good grocery store near us, and the motivation to seriously try new recipes. Oh, wait, this isn't one of the cooking threads .

 

"The Time Traveler's Almanac"

 

I finished The Book Thief. Highly recommended.

Now I'm wanting to see the movie, basically to see how well (or not) the screenwiter Michael Petroni and director Brian Percival handled adapting an unusual book into a movie. On that note--Emily Watson as Rosa Hubermann????

 

Time to move away from fiction.

I started Out Of This World Across the Himalayas to Fobidden Tibet by Lowell Thomas, Jr.

In the late 1940s LTJ and his father Lowell Thomas, Sr (apparantly a pioneer in travel reporting) receive permission (something very rarely granted to Westerners) to travel to Tibet visit the capital city of Lhasa and meet the Dalai Lama. So far so good after 72 pages. LTJ keeps the story moving, and does a good of mixing in history and stories about other important people.

It seems that my HBDJ first edition (I think, it's not marked as such, which isn't unusual for a book published in 1950) is rare, but not especially valuable.

 

I'm about 20 pages into The Pollinators of Eden by John Boyd. In brief, a scientific expedition to a new planet, called Flora (or The Flower Planet, or The Planet of Flowers) discovers plants that have human qualities. Which includes memory, hearing, speaking, and.....sensuality. I'm curious to see just where this story goes.

BTW the art work on the cover is really cool & somewhat erotic. It was designed by Carol Basen, painting by Paul Lehr. It seems that Lehr was a very prolific SFF artist.

paul lehr artist - Google Shttps://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7064/6802511648_903462f49b_h.jpgearch


IIRC a TFPer is a plant biologist. I don't that she is active here these days, but I'm curious to know if she's familiar with TPOE.

Edit--I'll try this again.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7064/6802511648_903462f49b_h.jpg

 

A book that I somehow forgot to mention, Unveiling Claudia, a nonfiction crime book by Daniel Keyes (yes, the same author of Flowers For Algernon).

Keyes held a bachelors degree in psychology, and it came in handy when he worked with Claudia Elaine Yasko to help her remember recall why she knew so much about a triple homicide. Too many details would spoil the book.

--------------------------------

So far I'm not impressed with The Pollinators of Eden. Boyd writes it from the perspective of a woman, a female scientist, and pretty much fails miserably in that regard. It's also set in 2237, and while space travel is (relatively) common, people rely on pen & paper to communicate (seriously?). OK, it was published in 1969, but even so Boyd's vision of the future was limited.

 

Devil Dance, the latest in the Jade Del Cameron mystery series set in 1920s Africa.

 

Sacred by Dennis Lehane, his third novel, published in '97. The Ray Chandler influence is still present, surfacing here & there.

Something amusing to me. Early in the novel Patrick Kenzie says to Angela Gennaro that he hates (the original) Star Trek TV series, and denies (perhaps sarcastically) knowing anything about Next Generation. Later in the novel Kenzie uses a fake name--Deforest Doohan.

 

The Daughters Of Cain by Colin Dexter, one of the Inspector Morse novels, which were made into the popular Inspector Morse TV series by British ITV. I've only read the last Morse novel, The Remorseful Day (1999), in which Morse dies. This is the third to last novel in the series, published in 1994 and it's interesting to see how Dexter accelerates the decline of Morse's health.

One of these days I'd like to read the Dexter Inspector Morse novels, also the Lehane Kenzie/Gennaro novels, in chronological order.

 

Rereading James Clavell's Shogun, an old favorite. Just got Will Thomas' new Cyrus Barker novel, which I have been awaiting eagerly, and am greatly looking forward to reading next.

 

I promise that I'll STFU about this book after these parting comments.

The Pollinators of Eden by John Boyd sucks. It fails on several levels (see previous comments). Interestingly, the only level on which it is succeeds is as erotica. The very few bits of erotica, way too few to save this novel, that describe Dr. Freda Caron's carnal encounters with the orchids are quite erotic.

In one scene she mates with a female orchid (in great sensual detail), in another scene she mates with a male orchid and has at least three orgasms. I wonder if Boyd was a closet erotica writer, or if someone else wrote the 'sex' scenes. Interesting note--Caron has definitely has sex with one man (not her fiance), and possibly with her fiance, but absolutely no details are given, in sharp contrast to two of her encounters with the orchids.