Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy http://www.amazon.com/Rudyard-Kiplings-Tales-Horror-Fantasy/dp/1605980307 Picked it up at B&N while getting some books for gifts. I've been reading a lot from authors of the late 1800's and this looked good. Nice introduction by Neil Gaiman.
third book in the series. ive enjoyed it just as much as any other fantasy series i have read. there is one book left which is good, four or five books in a series is about my limit. i dont ever see me finishing terry goodkind's sword of truth series, or robert jordan's wheel of time series. ive read about 5 books into each, and they seem to slow down and things just get boring. anyways i would check this series out if you like fantasy at all.
The Iliad I am about half way through it. I am glad that I am reading it, because I feel like it is something I should be able to say that I have read, but it is not particularly enjoyable.
Best Served Cold was a fun read. It was faster paced than The First Law Series, which was a good thing. I also liked the ending better, although Joe Abercrombie does not write happy, tie everything up endings. This novel was also littered with minor characters from The First Law series, so I would definitely recommend reading Abercrombie in chronological order for full enjoyment of the story and its characters. I just finished up The Alienist by Caleb Carr. It's about the hunt for a serial killer in New York in 1896. Alienist refers to what psychologists used to be called back in the day. The story itself is about a police force led by Teddy Roosevelt, beset with corruption, that is unable to solve a series of grisly murders involving young male prostitutes. To combat this, Roosevelt commissions a renegade forensics team led by a psychologist and including a couple of forensic detectives. It deals a great deal with profiling and forensics but years before they became standard techniques. Very interesting stuff. The writer is a historian from New York, so it also pained a fabulous view of the city at that time period. And that picture ain't too pretty. The writing style at times got a bit too dry. It's written first person from a looking back perspective of one of the team that tries to catch the killer, so it harkens to the early twentienth\late nineteenth century as far as the tone. I would definitely recommend it. There's a sequel that I'll have to keep an eye out for. If you like this, I also have to recommend Robert McCammon's Matthew Corbett series. It's about the evolution of a Colonial American Sherlock Holmes. It's written with a more modern style, but the historical detail is spot on. Corbett is also interested in using revolutionary sleuthing techniques and is a dogged pursuer of the truth. I'm really looking forward to the fourth book coming out, which unfortunately won't be until 2012. I'm trying to figure what to read next. I might go ahead and take myself out of reading commission for a while and start reading Steven Erikson. It's getting close enough to the release of The Crippled God.
I've got The Alienist sitting on one of my bookshelves, where it's been for at least a couple of years. I don't know why I haven't got to it yet. I'll pull it out and place it in my stack that's "need to read, but still haven't managed it!" Thanks for the McCammon heads-up. I love historical mysteries. I know I've mentioned Austin's Steven Saylor before, who writes very well.
Read some Chomsky lately and was about to pick up Simon Schama's history of Britain but I am now gorging on Towers of Midnight. Sanderson is really pulling this thing together awesomely.
On a historical fiction kick. Recently finished Pinkerton's Secret, by former screenwriter Eric Lerner. It's a love story involving Allan Pinkerton, of the famous Pinkerton detective agency, and weaves a tale of his time helping the Underground Railroad and protecting Abraham Lincoln. It was excellent. Currently reading Whiskey Rebels by David Liss, predictably about the Whiskey Rebellion.
Just finished "The Cleaner" by Brett Battles, am now reading "The War For Late Night" about he Tonight Show debacle.
I'll keep an eye out for Saylor. He sounds interesting, at least his later works. Have you read any Jason Goodwin and his Yashim Togalu mysteries in the Ottoman Empire? The first book has been sitting on my bookshelf for too long... That's one of my goals for 2011: to have less unread books in my collection on December 31 than I did on January 1.
I really enjoyed his Roma Sub Rosa series. The first novel in the tale is Roman Blood. It takes place during the era that begins with Sulla's dictatorship and ends with the Empire, and all the major political players appear during the series. I'll scope out Goodwin!
It's about a pair of brothers who are calvarymen leading an expedition into Mexico in 1916 intended to hunt down Pancho Villa. They are basically the last of the 'horse soldiers' - as modern warfare and weaponry are about to enter the picture with WWI looming for the US - and the main brother senses that as he leads a bunch of inexperienced (and somewhat disturbed) soldiers on a mission. The mission, of course, goes horribly horribly wrong. Basically becomes about war and the nature of the men in it, and what it feels like as 'one century bleeds into another'. Very well written with some impressive prose. It's relatively short and something of a quick, intense read, but I enjoyed it.
I finished the Lies of Locke Lamora a while back and really enjoyed it. Now I'm a few chapters into the audio book for Red Seas Under Red Skies. As I mentioned before, LoLL was the first time I'd tried an audio book, and I got so used to the characters voices that I decided to do the same on the 2nd book. I've read where you guys have said this book is slower, and I can see that already. Hopefully it at least keeps my interest throughout.
They did a good job with Lies? Thanks for the tip. My significant other loves to read, but is incredibly busy (she's in the next room right now, working on legislation). We figured out that being stuck in the car during a commute to her offices downtown are one of the few times she has to herself these days, so audio books are great. She used to read fantasy and enjoyed it. I think she'd like this.
does anyone have any recommendations on sports books to get. i'm not sure how to really classify what exactly it is i read, i dont mind autobiographies but really anything any basketball/baseball related. for instance, i have "baseball between the numbers" numerous john wooden books, but kind of looking for something a little more new, different. i was looking at maybe "the book of basketball" by bill simmons, it also seems to be a good bang for your buck book since its like 700 pages or something like that.
I just finished the first four books of the Song of Ice and Fire series and started over on book one so I can catch all the stuff that I missed the first time through. I'm mad that I didn't wait for the series to finish before starting considering the next book might never come out. On a different note for those of you that have enjoyed Harry Potter, I'm trying to get my wife to read the books as I think that she would like it. The problem is that she tried reading the first book years ago and was turned off by some of the childish stuff. I told her that it gets better once it gets deeper into the series and I think that she would give it another try. If you were to suggest the best book to start to get into the best part of the series and not feel completely lost on what has already happened, what would it be?
