May's What Are You Reading Thread

[Werthead]

New month, new thread.

Just finished American Gods. Pretty awesome.

Just started Sophia McDougall's Romanitas. I'm a sucker for a book with a high concept ("This is the Roman Empire. NOW") and a great quote at the front:

"Romulus will rule, and build the walls of Mars.

And he will give his people his own name:

Romans. On them I lay no limits.

I set them free from distance and from time,

I have given them an Empire without end."

- Aeneid

This book also had a brilliant website attached to it (at www.romanitas.com) but it seems to have expired now. Shame.

[Reposado]

i've actually got a stack of new stuff i'm about to read. so either the first of the bakker trilogy, or the second in the dying earth series.

also have just begun john t flynn's, the roosevelt myth.

[Xray the Enforcer]

In the middle of Lions of Al-Rassan by GG Kay.

Next up: Spin and Old Man's War and Learning the World (gotta be a good Hugo voter, ya know.)

[oneeye]

Book 3 WOT, pretty good so far, but bracing for decline. Not sure what I will read after, could be a while hehe.

[Lord Dracarys]

I'm finishing up the Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman.

I'm also reading Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett.

[Stego]

Recently finished In the Eye of of Heaven by David Keck and Dusk by Tim Lebbon, both of which I review at their respective links.

Both of which were pretty awful, overall. I'm deathly in need of a good novel.

[Nyarlathotep]

Finally got around to start on Gardens of the Moon the other day. Am currently some 250-300 pages into the novel, and I have to say that it has been a pretty interesting read so far.

[duchess of malfi]

I am currently about halfway through the latest in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, called Blue Shoes and Happiness. These books are astonishingly warm, and the setting of Botswana is always interesting and exotic. That beautiful country almost functions as another character in these books.

In this particular installment, Precious Ramotswe is on the trail of a blackmailer. She is also trying to find the cause of trouble on a nearby game reserve. Her assistant, Grace Makutsi, is trying to work out some personal problems.

These books feature well developed characters whom you would like to have as personal friends. They are not perfect people, but they are good people.

Good books to curl up with along with a cuppa tea.

[RaceBannon42]

Finished up Abraham's A Shadow in Summer. Pretty good debut novel, very interesting concepts introduced. I'm wondering where book 2 will go. This could easilt be a stand alone rather than book one of four.

Starting on Ender's Game by Card

[Isis]

Finished The House of Doctor Dee by Peter Ackroyd. Loved it. Ackroyd + London + supernatural element = quality. I wasn't really able to concentrate on the last past of the book (kept getting interrupted) so I'm sure I missed some of the deeper meanings of it, but hopefully I'll look at it again when I have more time.

Now I am working my way through Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence. The first book was okay, but required a bit of effort to get through in places. The second one appears to be more promising already, and that's just going by the first chapter.

[Larry.]

Borges, I'm mostly reading Borges. At least one book of his that I own a week: Historia universal de la infamia; El Aleph; El hacedor; Siete Noches (nonfiction - speeches over 7 nights in 1977 on literature). Plus I'll finally read in full the English translation of his fiction, Collected Fictions.

Don't know if I'll have the time/energy to read another author during this time.

[Colder Hands]

i am reading The Plan by Rahm Emanuel. it is very good so far, but i lov politics and this side of the fence. so take that into consideration. here is a link that describes it pretty well.

http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/publicaf...book=1586484125

i recommend it to any american democrats or republicans.

[SlimEagan]

I'm not proud of it, but right now I'm finishing off The Machine Crusade. I have The Thousandfold Thought on deck. After that my cousin has a couple books for me, The Godslayer Chronicles by James Clemens.

[beniowa]

I finished A Shadow in Summer, The Chosen by Ricardo Pinto, The Darkness That Comes Before, and I'm almost done with a Dragonlance book, Trail of the Black Wyrm. I haven't decided what I'm going to read next. All the books were pretty good, though I found it strange that both of Bakker's main female characters were whores. I'm also a very visual reader, able to visualize the book I'm reading, but with Pinto I had a hard time "seeing" his world. Anyone else have this problem?

[williamjm]

I'm also a very visual reader, able to visualize the book I'm reading, but with Pinto I had a hard time "seeing" his world. Anyone else have this problem?

With Pinto's book I wouldn't *want* to see his world, considering how relentlessly depressing and gruesome the whole thing is. I really hated that book, it was far, far longer than it needed to be, the plotting was weak and the sadistic culture depicted in the book didn't really fit well with the hopelessly naive main character, who seemed to have wandered in from a David Eddings book.

[Asa]

Finally found book 1 of Bakker's trilogy at Borders, so I am going to read that soon.

[Stego]

Whatever happenned to Pinto, anyway? His second book ended on a cliffhanger -- years ago.

[Hark]

I'm reading The Warrior Prophet, Prince of Nothing Book 2. So far the prose is less overdressed than in the first book, so I'm having an easier time reading it. It still hasn't grabbed me, but I read on.

I'm probably going to read Assassin's Quest this month as well. Plus on my upcoming trip to Montreal, I intend to stock up on Erikson books.

[Lord Baelish]

I've just finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay's Sailing to Sarantium. I thought it was a very interesting book, though a tad slow in places. I liked a lot of the characters and the political intrigue, though, so I will definitely be getting the second book.

I have also ordered David Keck's In The Eye of Heaven, GGK's Lions of Al-Rassan and Michelle Wests's The Broken Crown. Which one should I start reading first?

[Angalin]

Isis, if you're reading Susan Cooper's series starting with "Over Sea, Under Stone", then yes, it's not always clear where she's going in that one. The theme really starts to coalesce in the second book. Overall, a great series.

Just started John Crowley's "Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land". Very, very good. No time to describe it here, unfortunately, and can't even remember where I heard of it - in fact, Crowley was completely new to me when I picked it up. But there is a blurb by Michael Chabon, I think it is, on the dust jacket, if you need a point of reference.