What is everyone reading at the moment?

DapperDragon, look what I found in my collection of "waiting to read" books.  I purchased the trilogy at a library sale a few years ago, after I had read Kindred but, in between, other books got in the way.  Sadly, that is as true for my shaving gear and fountain pens as it is for my reading disorder.  I am hoping to get to Dawn after I finish my current read.

I just finished reading 'Jess' by H. Rider Haggard. It was a good book.

H. Rider Haggard is better known for his 'lost world' novels like 'King Solomon's Mines' and 'She'. This (Jess) is more of a tragic Victorian Romance based in SA around the time of the first Boer War. It is a nice change.

FUN FACT: 'She who must be obeyed' (SWMBO) is a phrase that was first used by H Rider Haggard in 'She', to refer to the title character - it was then taken up in the Rumpole novels and used to refer to his wife, and now we use it to allude to our better halves.

If you're in the mood for a classic adventure novel, you can do worse than any of the H. Rider Haggard novels. They're all available in ebook format for free on Project Gutenberg. One caution: His racial leanings are a little passe by today's standards, though they must have been very progressive at the time he wrote.

I just finished Forever Odd. The second in Dean Koontz Odd Thomas series. I usually don't read fiction but I enjoyed them. Not sure I`ll finish the series.

Just reread The Jungle Book By Rudyard Kipling. Jeez, haven't read that since school.

Just started Master & Margarita

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I finished Three on the drive home today. Really turned out to be a great book. I'm glad that particular whim struck me.

Just finished…

Since my last update in this thread I have finished two more books and started two.

Finished

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachael Aaron. Picked it up on a whim, and was really not disappointed. Independently published book, by a woman, focused on a mythical creature, with a title that's a riff of a pop cultural reference/axiom - sounds like the formula for a pretty brain-dead paranormal romance. It ended up being anything but.


The Dragons were pretty convincingly non-human, though not so much that I was unable to relate. But they were well drawn and consistent, and their motivations were pretty alien, particularly familially. The main character's status as a Special Snowflake, different from all his peers was actually explained instead of just being that way.

The two main plotlines worked well together, too.

Mort(e) by Robert Repino (Audio book) - This one was a bit odd. I really liked it, but it's hard to put my finger on why. I think it was just an accumulation of points that added up to something very satisfying for me.

New

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (translator unknown) - This is clearly an ancestor of 1984, and a big influence on everything from Brave New World to Fahrenheit 451. It's a bit of a slow read - in the format of a diary by a True Believer, it can get a bit wearisome at times. I'm about 1/3 of the way through, though, and things are really starting to gain momentum.


The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross (Audio book). Lastest in the Laundry Files. Great combination of humor, horror, and technothriller.

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Woulk - I break it out & revisit it every few years or so (on audio) - I enjoy all of his works - The Winds of War, The Hope and The Glory

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Woulk - I break it out & revisit it every few years or so (on audio) - I enjoy all of his works - The Winds of War, The Hope and The Glory

I really enjoyed The Winds of War and War and Remembrance as well as The Caine Mutiny, Youngblood Hawke, and Marjorie Morningstar. For some reason, I could not get into his Hope and Glory books.  Perhaps I shall have to revisit them.