What are you reading the week of December 26, 2010?

[DUgosh]

Now you see her by Cecily Tishy

[eppur_se_muova]

1. "Unseen Academicals" by Terry Pratchett. I needed a break ... :)

Just finished "The Algebraist" by Iain Banks. Not a Culture novel. Very interesting in its own ways, but the characters seemed too contemporary, like today's twenty or thirtysomethings.

[daleanime]

5. Sweet....

any of the "Disc World" books are always worth the time.:bounce:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. The Insight Guide to Malaysia is my current bedside book

Since I can't travel at present, I'm reading guidebooks to places I would like to visit. I'm currently on my Southeast Asian "journey," having read The Insight Guide to Thailand before this.

I also went through a Latin American phase in which I read The Insight Guides to Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, and South America.

I will also pick out a "purse book," probably a mystery, but I haven't decided what it will be. I finished Yrsa Sigardurdottir's My Soul to Take yesterday.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. OK, my new purse book is....

The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason, another Icelandic mystery. (It's amazing that a country with fewer people than Minneapolis can produce two such fine mystery writers.)

[matt819]

34. I'm reading his latest - Hypothermia

You're right. He's very good. Bleak, like most of the Scandinavian mystery writers, but definitely worth the time.

[oldtime dfl_er]

3. Got "A Complicated Man" for Christmas

about Bill Clinton, obviously. Looking forward to reading it!

[Onceuponalife]

4. Now reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

This guy is very talented.

[mvccd1000]

6. Another Vince Flynn book

Pursuit of Honor this time. I enjoy the action, but he's letting his politics (which I don't agree with) creep more and more into his books. Might be time for me to call it quits on Mitch Rapp...

[lebkuchen]

7. Defying Hitler, a memoir

It was written in 1939 and published in 2000 by the author's son, who found the writing after his father's death in 1999. It describes how Hitler's rise to power could have happened. The author fled Germany to the UK before the war broke out.

[ixion]

8. Re-reading one of my favs: Robinson Crusoe

a book I've actually read many times, but still enjoy.

[hippywife]

9. Had to put down two this week.

One is Norman Mailer's The Castle in the Forest. Gave it 100 pages and it just kept getting worse.

The other was Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow. Only gave it about 20 pages. Too romantically sappy for my taste.

I did thoroughly enjoy Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, tho. Some very funny stories.

[GeorgeGist]

10. The Emperor's Tomb

Steve Perry.

[YankeyMCC]

11. The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy

By David Loy

[fadedrose]

12. THE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE DETECTIVE by Richard Yancey

Easy fast read, light humor, but, I'm not kidding, not enough swearing ("what the heck" just doesn't do it for me. Just 3 swear words in 77 pages).

I will read the others in the series...

[fadedrose]

26. Also read THE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE DET. GOES TO THE DOGS

I didn't really like the first book in the series, but I hated the second. Main character if alive would be canonized..

This book is just too damn clean, lacks excitement and up to page 100 was further than I wanted to go...

[pscot]

13. Bowditch' Practical Navigator

A xmas gift. I was thinking about getting rowboat, so this will definitely come in handy.

[Curmudgeoness]

15. Light reading. Lost my cat yesterday, so picked up Cleveland Amory

"The Cat Who Came For Christmas". Just seemed right.

[MaineDem]

16. Still working on "Dead or Alive" by Tom Clancy

Not bad but I cringe at the digs at liberals.

[Goblinmonger]

17. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...on my new Nook!

Love them both.

[mvccd1000]

19. Me, too!

I haven't started it yet, but I got a Kindle for Christmas... that's one of the books that was pre-loaded for me.

[applegrove]

18. I'm reading Keith Richards' biography and about to start a book by Chelsea Handler.

[sueh]

20. Just started Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Its the assigned book for my book club.

[sazemisery]

21. The Masters of Solitude

by Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin

[japple]

22. Finally finished The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It was

spectacular! I haven't have a lot of time to sit and read during this month, so it had to wait 'til bedtime; then I could only read a bit before I got too sleepy to hold up my head. I think I will read it again when I can devote long swatches of time, or maybe I'll listen to the audiobook.

[AngryOldDem]

23. "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter."

[LWolf]

24. My first, and last, James Patterson novel.

I got it in the xmas gift exchange at work. I can't even remember the title. It has Alex Cross following an African assassin back to Nigeria. I get the martyr/hero complex. I don't get the stupid. The stupidity of the protagonist's choices, the awkward, disjointed flow, the simplistic plot....

As I said, the first and last. I'll finish it because I can't stand quitting half way. Then I'll find someone who actually values drivel like this.

[fadedrose]

25. My first was my last, too

Damn book was too easy. Never needed a dictionary.

[mvccd1000]

28. His books are a lottery

You never know if you're going to get a winner. A couple of them were real page-turners, and most of the rest left me shaking my head wondering why I wasted the time.

IIRC, he uses a lot of co-authors who do unspecified amounts of the writing and receive unspecified amounts of the profit, in exchange for the selling power that goes with JP's name on the cover. I think I really liked the ones with Andrew Gross, and have not liked some of the others at all.

I believe Andrew Gross writes with his own name on the cover these days, although I don't think I've stumbled across one of his to read yet.

[fadedrose]

30. I read THE DARK TIDE by Andrew Gross...

a while ago. My note says, "not crazy about." So I guess I didn't like it.

[Little Star]

29. I use to enjoy (not love, but enjoy) the Alex Cross Series. Then...

somewhere around 2006 or 2007 when the titles of the new books changed and became Cross, Double Cross, Cross Country, I Alex Cross (in other words the titles started having Cross this/Cross that in them)the writing became simplistic and boring. I can not longer stand anything from Patterson.

I wonder what the hell happened. It's too bad because the early Cross Series books were pretty good. You'd think he had already made plenty of money by then and would want to keep his good name.

OTOH Robert B Parker stayed great through out his whole career, may he RIP.

[closeupready]

27. "Terminal Freeze" by Lincoln Child.

Enjoying it, as I have all his other books, both alone and with Douglas Preston.

[SheilaT]

31. John Dies in the End by David Wong.

Think of Ghostbusters. Now think of Ghostbusters on steroids. That's what this is, only more so. I'm only about 80 pages into it, but so far it's very good.

[fadedrose]

32. THE SHAMAN LAUGHS by James D. Doss

This is my 2nd time reading the series..forgot so much..enjoy the characters.

[fadedrose]

33. After about page 50, I remembered why

I love Doss and his Sgt. Charlie Moon, Aunt Daisy, Chief Parris,and goofy friends. I laughed so hard I cried (I remember the ending of this book, and I'll cry again, but out of sadness). Hope he's working on his next one.

[MrModerate]

35. "Excession" by Iain M. Banks, and . . .

Thomas Keneally's "Commonwealth of Thieves" about the first five years of Australia's penal colonies (not fiction, but Keneally is such a master writer that it has the forward momentum of a tightly plotted novel).

[dancingme]

36. Misery by Stephen King

I saw the movie, of course, but never read the book. Much better.

[matt819]

37. A bunch

Just finished In Harm's Way by Ridley Pearson.

Also just finished listening to Killer Weekend, also by Ridley Pearson.

Reading Hypthermia by Arnaldur Idridason. You can't go wrong with Icelandic or Swedish crime fiction. The cure for happiness. Good reads, but bleak.

Now listening to Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. About really nasty terrorists. I think it might be the first of a triology. If so, can't wait for the others. The protagonist, a former Baltimore detective with issues, is a hoot.

And, finally for the moment, I'm reading I'd know you anywhere, by Laura Lippman, about a guy in death row contacting one of victims (one he didn't kill, obviously). I kept thinking I'd put it down, but I keep wanting to read just a little more, and now I'm up to page 150. Not sure where it's going. But I seem to be along for the ride.