What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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I have spent the last month reading The Stephanie Plum books . They are laugh out loud funny and the perfect summer reading . I also just finished "Whistling in the Dark " by Lesley Kagen . It is a nice light fiction .
 
Recently read "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson. It's about a former drug addict and porn star whose life changes completely when he suffers a severe burn. He becomes involved with a very strange woman who lives a fantasy and believes she has lived since the 14th century. I'ts gross and engrossing at the same time. Actually I read it on vacation and couldn't put it down: I finished it in one day. It's a first novel. Either this author has a wonderful imagination or he is seriously weird. The critics loved this one. I look forward to his next book!
 
I am currently reading "The Night of the Gun " by David Carr . How a reporter for the New York times could write a book this boring is beyond me . It's the perfect cure for insomnia . Bring back "A million little pieces " by James Frey . Sure it was fiction but at least it was interesting fiction .
 
Just finished Ender in Exile, published in 2008. This is a must read if you are a fan of Orson Scott Card's Ender series. It actually fits in as a story filling in details between the last two chapters of the original Ender's Game.

I am about half done with Await Your Reply, by Dan Chaon. It deals with identity theft and the desire to disappear from your life that many young people (and not so young) fantasize about. Very good so far.
 
Read "This Is Not A Game" by Walter Jon Williams during the 5 1/2" downpour that was my Outer Banks vacation. I didn't expect much, and can't exactly say why, but it grabbed my attention and I read it straight through, 5 hours until 3 am. I liked the ARG tie in and the concept of the group mind doing footwork and solving problems. I think I could see this happening in real life pretty easily.
 
harley said:
Read "This Is Not A Game" by Walter Jon Williams during the 5 1/2" downpour that was my Outer Banks vacation. I didn't expect much, and can't exactly say why, but it grabbed my attention
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I read that one recently also. Like you, I just randomly picked it up (at the library) based on the cover blurbs. I though it was a good read with some fun ideas.
 
I just finished "Feersum Endjinn" by Ian M. Banks. What a very odd book. Some parts were fairly difficult to read, as they are in the 'voice' of a dyslexic person writing phonetically.
 
mickeyd said:
1776
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Keeping with the numbers theme - Fahrenheit 451.

Re-read actually, which added a whole new dimension. It was assigned reading for my daughter this summer, and I enjoyed it when I read it ~ 1970, so decided to re-read it.

Written in 1950 about the not-too-distant future, I read it the first time 20 years after it was written, so a glimpse of that future had come to pass. Now I re-read it almost 40 years later, and it's really interesting to think about these progressions into the future, and reflect on my thoughts at the time.

Some of his views of technology were incredibly accurate, which was interesting. And there are also interviews with Bradbury ~ 2000. What really struck me with this reading was that the book really isn't about censorship at all. I got some of that as a teenager, but it really sunk in this time. In the story, people just stopped reading books on their own. They got immersed in "instant gratification" entertainment with no substance at all (sounds like prime time today?). But occasionally, someone would read a book, and things would get "confused", so they viewed book burning as just keeping things peaceful.

BTW, do not watch the movie of this unless you have read the book. The movie is just plain weird. But the scene where "Linda" (Mildred) gets to take part in that evening's "story" is actually better in the movie than the book. And Julie Christie is cute. ;)

-ERD50
 
Just finished Thomas Pynchon's new novel, Inherent Vice. I don't generally like Pynchon (except one of them either V or Lot 49 - can't remember which), just too dense and boring. I read a review of this one that said it is much more accesible than his other works so I ordered up a copy from the library. Sooo - the good: it is kind of an homage to noir, so that is fun; it is set in 1970 LA, the protagonist is a hippy/doper private investigator, so lots of psychedelia and arcane music references; The characters are a trip and the humor is light and nonstop. The bad: it is still dense, way to many endless descriptions and digressions; no real plot; no real conclusion. For some reason I read all the way through and sort of enjoyed it but I can't really recommend it. If you don't mind rambling endlessly around in a comical send up of hard boiled noir PI stories, set in Mansonesque LA, you may enjoy this thing like I did. Otherwise steer clear.
 
Several people on this thread mentioned Daniel Silva. I got two of his books, An Unlikely Spy, and Secret Servant. Secret Servant is a part of the Gabriel Allon series; I thought it was OK but no more. But An Unlikely Spy is superb! I think he wrote it, and then thought, Oh Damn, I can’t easily do sequels to this because all the characters are real with typically complex human motivations and feelings. But that isn't what I can make into a repeatable formula.

I was so disappointed when I realized that an Unlikely Spy was this first book, and that he had veered away from writing real novels that happen to be about wartime and spies.

Ha
 
Just finished Catcher in the Rye for the first time. A little depressing. I didn't really care for the little twist at the end (or it at least didn't add much to the book). Overall a very melancholy book. Although a classic, I didn't really like it as much as other classics I have read recently.
 
I read The Catcher in the Rye when I was in high school to see what all of the fuss was about, and I think I was too young to really understand it. I ought to read it again.
 
IndependentlyPoor said:
I read The Catcher in the Rye when I was in high school to see what all of the fuss was about, and I think I was too young to really understand it. I ought to read it again.
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Maybe I'm not old enough to understand it yet. :D

The best thing I can say about it is that it is short and entertaining. Also a neat historical glimpse into the world of 1940's NYC and the upper middle class life.
 
haha said:
Several people on this thread mentioned Daniel Silva. I got two of his books, An Unlikely Spy, and Secret Servant. Secret Servant is a part of the Gabriel Allon series; I thought it was OK but no more. But An Unlikely Spy is superb! I think he wrote it, and then thought, Oh Damn, I can’t easily do sequels to this because all the characters are real with typically complex human motivations and feelings. But that isn't what I can make into a repeatable formula.

I was so disappointed when I realized that an Unlikely Spy was this first book, and that he had veered away from writing real novels that happen to be about wartime and spies.

Ha
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Though I read all his stuff I do find that each book is not quite as good as the last. :blush:
 
I just read Boneman's Daughters by Ted Dekker (library book). It truly sucked. Just a normal suspense thriller, but with absolutely no character development, no sense of reality, no suspense, no thrill, not even a good idea of who the good guy was. When faced with a character who might have had to be worked on a little, he just killed them off instead. How did this guy get a publisher? I read books by Robert Parker and James Patterson, guys who are just phoning it in these days, and they are far more riveting than this was. I seriously have read better written (but less professionally edited) fiction on free online literary sites. Two thumbs down.
 
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I recently finished Easy Prey and one or two other Prey novels by John Sandford. I enjoyed it and got two more Sandford books out of the library. The problem with these is that the titles are not that specific to the plot, and I can never remember which ones I've already read.

I also read Grand Obsession and The Piano Shop on the West Bank, which are only good if you are really into pianos.

I read half of Zen in the Art of Archery, and got too bored.

I'm halfway through The Insomnia Answer which seems quite good.

Sleeping 002.jpg​



I only have insomnia once in a while, and I think this book will help.
 
Awwww.....so CUTE!
 
I too like Sandford´s Prey series and have the same problem as Trombone identifying the novels I´ve read.
 
Since we are living in China right now, reading is limited to paperbacks that other ex-pats have, or bringing a bunch back during our home leave trips. Mostly fiction that we can buy at the used book store for $1/book - need lots of them, because we both read quickly. Mainly murder mysteries, legal thrillers, spy stories. Authors we have read recently: Larry Bond, Mary Higgins Clark, Nora Roberts, John Leschroart, Scott Turow, William Dietrich, Michael Crichton, Patricia Cornwell, Scott Smith, Iris Hohansen, David Baldacci, James Grippando. As you can see, this is pretty light reading - no Pulitzer prizes here. But then, you don't often find fine literature on the $1 stand at the used bookstore.
 
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