JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?

[evenflow]

Anne Rice's - The Road to Cana

[Darth_Anton]

Just a note for book fans, in case you didn't know, the library gives away free books almost every day. I've a massed a small library of books I doubt I'll never get to. 

[name]

Aside from my reading for class, I picked up Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs the other day at the bookstore.

It is brilliant.

[Daigo-Bah]

I recently got through as much of a 9th annual The Year's Best Science Fiction from the library, and just started a book called April in Paris.  It is a story taking place during the Nazi occupation of France, and has a German interpreter falling in love with a French girl.

[evenflow]

I finished Road to Cana and have moved on to Anne Rice's The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.

[BillCable]

Anybody got any fantasy recommendations?  With Robert Jordan dead, Sword of Truth finished, and the next Song of Fire and Ice months if not years off, I don't have squat.  I'm looking for something complex and adult.  If you've read either of the latter two series, you know what I'm talking about.

[Scott]

Check out reviews for The Belgariad series.  I'm almost through with Book 3 and it has really grown on me.  I realize almost ALL fantasy is based on the whole quest/magic object/hero story and this one is no exception as there are almost direct analogies to LOTR, but its different enough to be at least entertaining.  Its not as adult as Ice and Fire but I like it...

http://www.amazon.com/Belgariad-Vol-Books-1-3-Magicians/dp/0345456327

[jjks]

I've read Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter, so when I heard Alex Kershaw had a new book coming out I had to grab this, it's about the sinking of the submarine Tang and the trials the survivors had to go through afer they were captured. Comes out April 28th for those of you lacking publisher connections 

[JediJman]

Book two of the swarm war trilogy.  Mixed feelings about Dark Nest I - let's hope this one picks up a little after a slow start.

[Phrubruh]

I'm on my fourth Thursday Next novel, "Something Rotten" by Jasper Fforde. Great stuff.



Welsh writer Fforde's fourth entry in the zany, hypercreative Thursday Next detective series revisits the "Literary Detective" as she retreats to her hometown of Swindon, England, retiring from the tedious job (as Head of Jurisfiction) she held in Fforde's previous novel, The Well of Lost Plots. Joined by her two-year-old son, Friday, pet dodos Pickwick and Alan, and Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, Thursday realizes that there's someone missing: her husband, Landen, previously "eradicated" by the Goliath Corporation, a ruthless bio-tech conglomerate corporation. She wants Landen back. Aided by her father, she is reinstated into her old employ, the Special Operations Network, and begins investigating the machinations of power-hungry Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine and the mysterious disappearance of England's president. The fate of the world rests on the outcome of a major croquet tournament, with Thursday pinch-hitting on a lethal playing field as Landen is finally returned to reality (only to fade out again). More than a little wacky, the novel is packed with screwball details as characters get "written" in and out of the story, hybridized creatures stalk malls and Shakespeare clones start popping up everywhere. With humorous illustrations and curious footnotes sprinkled throughout, Fforde's latest will have hardcore fans roaring—but those new to the series might want to tackle the convoluted mayhem from the very beginning.

[Chris M]

This is the story of the American Revolution from the perspective of several enlisted and low grade officers.  Very interesting and a nice break from seeing the war from the eyes of the generals and leaders at the strategic level.  Gives you a nice insight into the true fighting spirit that made up the soldiers of the Continental army.

[Reid]

[Phrubruh]

I'm on the latest Thursday Next book called "First Among Sequals" by Jasper Fforde.



Full of bizarre subplots, many of which don't go anywhere, bestseller Fforde's fifth novel to feature intrepid literary detective Thursday Next (after 2004's Something Rotten) blends elements of mystery, campy science fiction and screwball fantasy à la Terry Pratchett's Discworld. With the Stupidity Surplus reaching dangerously high levels all over England, Acme Carpets employee and undercover SpecOps investigator Next has her hands full trying to persuade her 16-year-old slacker son, Friday, to join the ChronoGuard, which deals with temporal stability; if Friday continues to sleep away his future, the end is near—for everyone. To complicate matters, a malicious apprentice begins making classic works of literature into reality book shows (Pride and Prejudice becomes The Bennets), a ruthless corporation tries to turn the Bookworld into a tourist trap, and the Cheese Enforcement Agency tries to bust Next for smuggling killer curd. The fate of the world may lie in a Longfellow poem. Fans of satiric literary humor are in for a treat.

[Nathan]

History 251: Modern China, MWF 2-2:50



The cover looks like the sort of "chick book" I'd normally run screaming from, and to be honest I was originally going to skip it entirely and save eleven bucks. But it's actually a decent read. It's a sort of biography/memoir of the author, her mother, and grandmother. Between the three of them, they spanned most of the 20th century, from the warlord era, thru Japanese attacks, two world wars, communist revolutions, and so on, up to the '80s or '90s.

And it's not just a load of touchy-feely nonsense either--it actually has a fair amount of legit historical exposition.

[12501]