What are you reading?

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.
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Just finished This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust, which made me realize I need to rethink my MC's attitudes toward death, and what constitutes a "good death" in his society.

Also working my way alphabetically through a shelf of Barbara Mertz's books--have reached The Copenhagen Connection.
 

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred
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In the final sfretch of Douglas Coupland's Miss Wyoming.

If you ever want to study good, hooky openings, read Coupland.
 

Sargentodiaz

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[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]While doing research on my historical novel about 18th Century California, I came across an amazing book written in the latter part of that century by a Jesuit priest who had spent 17 years serving in an isolated mission in Baja California.[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Observations in Lower California by Johann Jakob Baegert, S.J. Published in 1772 and available online @ http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5r29n9xv;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print is an amazing work giving a first-hand account of what life was like. As an example he indicates the problem with the language of the people who lived there. In many families the husband spoke one language, the wife another. He even describes the rocks and plants – or lack of them. [/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]This is an amazing work and is giving me great insight into what my main character, Captain Don Fernando de Rivera has to contend with.[/FONT]
 

williemeikle

The force is strong in this one.
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Tim Powers' THE DRAWING OF THE DARK. Historical fantasy, Merlin, Arthur, big fight scenes, drunk Vikings, and a plot that revolves around beer. It's bloody marvelous.
 

Andieee

Potatoes gon' potate.
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Stephen King's The Shining. Thought I'd read once again one of the first horror books I've ever got my hands on.
 

Michael Wolfe

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Alice Munro's Dear Life . Her stories have so many moments I find completely heartbreaking. Might be why I keep going back for more.
 

ishtar'sgate

living in the past
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So I finished No Time to Die by Kira Peikoff. Supposed to be great for fans of Michael Crichton. It began well but for me it seemed to fade about half way through. Don't get me wrong, the writing is good and the story's fine but I was hoping to be blown away. (sigh) Guess I'll keep looking. Some day someone somewhere will compare. I hope.
 

Enrika

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Just started The Lies of Locke Lamora. It took me about 20 pages to really get into it, but once it hooked me daaamn, is it intriguing.
 

Jerboa

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Finished Watership Down the other night (then watched the film - which I haven't seen since I was a kid - and ended up being disappointed with the changes, especially the lack of Bluebell).

Now reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
 

Chris P

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Beowulf by Caitlin Kiernan based on the screenplay by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, based on the original, of course. So far, it's not different enough from the original to hold my interest. I might give up on this one if it doesn't take off soon.
 

ResearchGuy

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Midway through second volume (Folio Society edition, 8 volumes) of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Man, some of that is pretty hot stuff. Gibbon's style makes for slow reading, and often the need to re-read sentences, and the plethora of (often somewhat similarly named) emperors (and co-emperors and whatnot) can make for some confusion. Chapters 15 and 16 (the last two chapters of Gibbon's original first volume) are worth the price of admission.

Edited to add, 10/9/14, now a hundred pages or so into Volume 3. Learning much about Julian the Apostate.

--Ken
 
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Graz

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Still reading Atonement but an interesting thing with that book and Cold Mountain is that I didn't like either until about 2/3rds into them and then I really liked them. I find that interesting.
 

Chris P

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Little Mountain by Blake Mundell. A really good memoir about his divorce amid trying to get his band off the ground. It's available for free download on his blog