What are you reading in March?

[Sun]

I'm reading A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov.

And re-reading William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.

ETA:

I'm also driving to the audio book Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, beautifully narrated by Juliet Stevenson.

[SkynJay]

I finished 'Dusk' by Tim Lebbon, which I enjoyed a almost complete lack of character development from anyone. It was dark, dark too. I will try 'Dawn" one of these days to finish of the story.

I also finished 'Johannes Cabal the Necromancer' by Jonathan L. Howard. Enjoyed it quite a bit as well. It was a reread, but I couldn't remember any of the details. Obviously influenced by Something Wicked Comes this Way, the author wrote a tale of exactly where an evil carnival would come from. Quick read. It has two sequels, and what is strange to me is the from the synopsis the second book makes an abrupt switch to Steampunk, which is not present in this book. I will pick it up and see how it works I guess.

[mashiara]

A few days ago I finished Elephant Girl: A Human Story by Jane Devin. I take it it's supposed to be the author's personal story of abuse and hardships she had to endure growing up and trying to make it on her own as an adult. The first part describing her childhood was indeed very disturbing but as her story progressed I started becoming annoyed with her as a person because she never seemed to take responsibility for any of her actions and mistakes as an adult. It became an endless litany of bad things happening and part of me kept telling me, this is just TOO much for one person, even though I know people go through a hell of a lot more. I ended up disliking the book for that reason at all, I think.

Yesterday I finished Drowning Mermaids by Nadia Scrieva. It was a free download and Angalin and I have had a thing for mermaids for a while now, so I thought I'd give it a chance. Let me just say, I was tempted to start a thread to share my experience with you chapter by chapter, so we could all roll our eyes at how atrocious the writing was -and this is from someone who's read almost all of Goodkind, all the Twilight books and all 3 Fifty Shades of Grey, so I know what I'm talking about. The author seemed to have gone wild with a thesaurus in an effort to make her sentences as pompous and intelligent as possible, while at the same time having her modern day 500 year old mermaids use slang and act like teenagers half the time. It was so bad, I just had to keep reading. I'll share just a couple of quotes with you, I should have set more aside for a giggle on a rainy day.

This poignant singing was force-feeding his senses and overloading them with bucketfuls of emotional nutrients and enchantment

she bared her breasts -unbearably round and firm collections of flesh.

Did I mention, the main character is a mermaid princess who first appears trying to make more money to arm her kingdom by working on a strip-joint and ballet-dancing while taking her clothes off?

Many more quotes that I don't have time for, but I'm still trying to figure out what "waterproof fingers and toes" mean for a human captain...

Today I started Turn Coat by Jim Butcher because I know this will be a brainless and relatively fun read. I also started (and I'm already 100 pages in to) The No-Cry Sleep Solution : Gentle ways to help your baby sleep through the night by Elizabeth Pantley, because the twins are almost 20 months old and one of them still doesn't sleep through the night, or much at all, and I am so exhausted I can barely think.

[beniowa]

M, that does sound like real gem. ;)

I finished Elliot's Spirit Gate. Decent, but I wasn't blown away. Like I said before, the characterization was good, but I had some problems with aspects of the world-building. In particular, I had a hard time believing the "rot/corruption" had spread for over twenty years, twenty years, and still no one has much of a frigging clue even when two armies suddenly show up out of nowhere. Anyway, I'll probably finish the trilogy since I already have the books. I won't put a high priority on it though.

Then I read Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter by Richard Parks. It's a collection of short stories featuring an impoverished noble turned demon hunter in Heian Japan. The stories are separate but maintain continuity so the book is really a mosaic novel. These two points together remind me a lot of Andrezj Sapkowski's The Last Wish with a generous helping of Sherlock Holmes thrown in. There are some weaknesses, notably the stories are somewhat repetitious, the main character is a little too clever, and Parks overuses some supernatural elements, but I found the book fairly enjoyable.

About to start Frankenstein and The Dog Said Bow-Wow.

[deleted01]

Almost finished The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue. I really enjoyed this novel, very interesting and different to Room. I'm not sure what I'll start next. I think it might have to be The Lies of Locke Lamora, as it's been sat on my shelf for a while. I have the first two books of The Long Price by Daniel Abraham coming, as well as Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, so I'll be getting to them as soon as possible too.

[fitheach]

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey. Excellent..

[Myshkin]

Did I mention, the main character is a mermaid princess who first appears trying to make more money to arm her kingdom by working on a strip-joint and ballet-dancing while taking her clothes off?

I've known a few strippers, and I don't think any of them made enough money to "arm a kingdom".

[Larry of the Lawn]

Did I mention, the main character is a mermaid princess who first appears trying to make more money to arm her kingdom by working on a strip-joint and ballet-dancing while taking her clothes off?

Many more quotes that I don't have time for, but I'm still trying to figure out what "waterproof fingers and toes" mean for a human captain...

Logistically, how does that work? Is it like an aquarium? Like in video stores they have the X-rated section behind the swinging doors, do they have the shark tank and the penguins, and then over there behind the screen, the stripping mermaids?

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold on Friday, and it was really good. I really enjoyed seeing the quaddies and Bel again, but the plot was way too straight forward for this to rate in the top half of the Vorkosigan books. The climax was a bit of a letdown, but the post climax wrap up was great.

Now I'm about 20% through C. Robert Cargill's Dreams and Shadows. The first 10% was really clunky, but he's starting to find his grove now and I'm enjoying it a lot more. It's billed as appealing to fans of Gaiman (and Grossman), but so far to me it feels like a mash-up of Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale and John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things.

[Zar Lannister]

I'm about half way into Dan Simmons' "The Fall of Hyperion", which albeit I was a bit skeptical about reading it, I've enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

I may actually read The Wiz because I want to freshen it up, or I may pick up a book I received as a Christmas Present: John Grisham's The Firm

[Garett Hornwood]

I've finished The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt this morning, it was an excellent first volume of Edmund Morris' biographic trilogy.

Tomorrow I'll be starting The Girl Who Played With Fire.

[mashiara]

Logistically, how does that work? Is it like an aquarium? Like in video stores they have the X-rated section behind the swinging doors, do they have the shark tank and the penguins, and then over there behind the screen, the stripping mermaids?

Silly you, why would you stick to the idea that mermaids actually need water? They can walk on land like fully functioning normal humans, their only problem is they tan a lot and their hair gets dark. They only revert to bleached blond with alabaster skins once they are immersed in water for a while. And they have one huge advantage over us mere women -no need for plastic surgery ever because

The buoyancy of water keeps our breasts from sagging. Gravity, man. If I had lived on land for five hundred years my breasts would be dragging on the floor!"

[Isis]

Now I'm about 20% through C. Robert Cargill's Dreams and Shadows. The first 10% was really clunky, but he's starting to find his grove now and I'm enjoying it a lot more. It's billed as appealing to fans of Gaiman (and Grossman), but so far to me it feels like a mash-up of Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale and John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things.

Sounds like the sort of thing I might like!

I am thoroughly enjoying Waking Beauty. The outlandish vocabulary and lush prose is very reminiscent of Liz Hand's style. Not so surprising as the book is dedicated to her. The reveal of the setting took a long time, with layer on layer being added slowly. It's dense (as well as physically heavy for reading in bed!) but I am really into it.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I think being a female geologist really helped in liking Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures. It is about a pair of female fossil hunters when geology was in infancy (early 1800's) and the religious and societal implications when one of ladies find an intact Icthyosaurus fossil. Good stuff. I'd recommend this to anyone who is interested in a historical fiction (all but one character is fictional) and would like to know more about early geology and fossils.

Up next is N.K.Jemsin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I thought her Dreamblood duology was outstanding.

[UndergroundMan]

Finished Wolf Hall. Moved immediately on to Bring on the Bodies so I don't forget characters or plot points.

[Swift]

Started Mistborn about a week ago. So far I'm enjoying it.

[Whitestripe]

Finally finished AS Byatt's The Children's Book. It took me quite a bit longer than usual to finish. Very dense. I got to have lunch with Byatt (and 8 other people) last week before her reading here, so I sort of felt I had to finish her book.

[Theda Baratheon]

Currently reading Douglas Coupland's Generation X

great stuff.

[dornish prince]

finished a reread of planetary by wellis and cassaday. just as brilliant this time around...even moreso because i didn't have the god awful wait for the final installment. if i keep binging on comics, i will never achieve my self reading thread goal. i've either gotta come up with a guideline for counting comics or quit my day job. i think that i'll count some of the larger series, like y the last man, as counting towards but planetary was only 27 issues. i guess i could count it as a novella if i'm counting y as a novel. i actually need some help here. what say you folk? what should be the distinguishing factor? a complete story of a certain length or just a completed story? if the latter, i'm gonna have to seriously bump my goal.

currently alternating red seas under red skies, the fractal prince (again) and some pre campbell anthology that was in teh amazing book deals thread.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman

I like it a lot and will continue the Eleanor of Aquitaine Series.

While I enjoyed Pillars of the Earth, I find this to be more readable, more casual? I guess. (they cover the same time periods)