I am listening to In Your Dreams by Tom Holt. I've read the book before (along with the rest of that trilogy) but ages ago. I am really enjoying it.

Love Tom Holt's slightly quirky take on the world and magic.

Reading The Executioner's Song (Norman Mailer).
I have Merc to thank for this, he sent me Under Heaven's Banner, and the reviews on the cover and inside reference it alongside In Cold Blood - which I read years ago.

I have no idea how this book escaped my notice, but I was genuinely unaware of it until now. The only Norman Mailer book I'd read was on Marylin Monroe. I thought he wrote very worthy books about a political system I did not understand. There is also a possibility I had him confused with someone else.

Anyway, I'm loving it so far. I'd heard of Gary Gilmore, but I don't know what he did *. So it's still in the future for me. Like when I watched Apollo 13 without knowing if any of them survived.

*Anyone trying to tell me will be buttfucked in the mouth. By Diz.

Ohhhh. I wish I was reading Snuff, the new Discworld novel....but it isn't out yet. Boooo. It's a Sam Vimes story. I love me a bit of Vimes.

I just started that yesterday. I went to the bookstore. My brother had given me a gift certificate that he had for christmas, over the weekend. Would've been better had I remembered to take it to the store.

So far it's interesting.

I read that one, too, casi. I thought it was good, but A Thousand Acres was better imo.

Finished The Melting Season by Jami Attenberg.

galley for review - Fever Dream by Dennis Palumbo

I read another of his (Mirror Image) last year, this is his second novel featuring the same character, a psychologist in Pittsburgh. This one starts with a pretty spectacular bank robbery and hostage situation.

The Los Angeles Diaries: a Memoir by James Brown (no, not that James Brown)

wow. Chills.

Just added that to my list, Bri. Thanks!

Monsters of Men, the third novel in the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness.
Written as a teenage book, it is bloody devastating.
And not a teen book like Vampire Twilight Diaries either.

The first two books made me cry (and I felt the pain for days), made me question myself and my anger, made me me consider my own reaction and what I could excuse in the heat of the moment. The emotions it stirs up are murky and what you hope for might not always turn out to be the best outcome.

All that with an amazing set of characters, new ideas and a rollicking good narrative.

I didn't rate the second book so much.
The Ask and the Answer
If you read it first it might not grab you - it's very conflicted.
But the first and the last will devastate you with innocent intentions, appalling outcomes, the longevity of decisions made in haste and the sheer power of emotions.

I haven't finished this book yet.
I know it won't end happily. Not a spoiler - you know from the first book that this isn't Disney. I will cry. And then reread. And cry.
It'll be with me for a ewhile.

Greedily gobbled up Monsters of Men.
And as expected, I cried.
Honest, proper crying, not just leaking from the eyes. I put it down and cried because my throat hurt trying not to. And not just at the end.

And at least reading it alone I could call out all the way through the book, "Don't trust him! Don't trust him!" Which was right, but not a spoiler, as there are many people that could refer to, at many points in the book.

And yes I will reread it.
Reread all three.

Wonderful.

Recommend to anyone who liked Pullman's His Dark Materials.
It's less complex in a narrative sense, but deeper and more emotional because the characters are better written and more well-rounded. And no deux ex machina.

From the corners of a wounded mind - Theodore Knell

It's poetry. Well, some poetry, some prose.

But not the usual sort of verse.

It's man poetry.

Man poetry written by a British retired airbone sergeant.

There's a lot of pain here.

If you're interested, my review appears here.

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (the tale of the FIRST Mrs. Rochester before that bratty bitch Jane Eyre came in and ruined her life)

Blue Hour, a bio of Jean Rhys - messed up white Creole woman with messed up life.

This Vacant Paradise - Victoria Patterson. Very good, about the nuts living in Newport Beach, CA. and their materialistic ways.

Inside the Machine. It's a technical book about CPU architecture and instruction language. Not really a novel, but hey, it's a book I'm reading atm :p

Can't find that one, even at the bookstore.

I'll keep looking though.

Currently reading Imperfect Birds by Anne LaMott.

I have a couple in queue I actually bought (oh, and I bought and read Room, pretty good) but can't think of what they are offhand. :blush:

Another Lionel Shriver my 'brary didn't have. I've liked most of her books so far.

I got the los angeles diaries from the centerville library - doesn't your college carry it? it's really good stuff.

eta: love anne lamott. she's awesome (even if a bit christian-y at times)

I'm reminded of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine.

Total geek porn.

I wonder what rereading it now might be like ...