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Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President, by Ron Suskind. Goes in some details about the President's hopes for healthcare reform and economic policy, his team, and his (inability) to manage his cabinet, coupled with his relative political inexperience.

REAMDE is classic Stephenson so far, but it's so damn long I might have return it before I finish

The incoming Kindle Fire should help though

I think I may have burned out on Dune. I've got Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune on hold from the library, but I've barely been able to get into the first one.

Right now, I'm reading Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Its publisher was promoting it as a "next big thing", complete with midnight release parties and other events. It's alright so far.

I found the way to get through all of the 'Dune' series the first time, was be out in the wilds of North Carolina with nothing else to do. It re-reads very well, though. YMMV.

Just renewed REAMDE, whew. Glad it wasn't on hold for someone. When I get my Kindle though this monster is going back. That's like four pounds of Neal Stephenson in my bag.

Dalton wrote:REAMDE is classic Stephenson so far, but it's so damn long I might have return it before I finish

Does it have his classic "I ran out of words and must end things RFN" endings?

phongn wrote:

Dalton wrote:REAMDE is classic Stephenson so far, but it's so damn long I might have return it before I finish

Does it have his classic "I ran out of words and must end things RFN" endings?

Spoiler

I finished Night Circus (it was a very slow day at work). What a nice, touching novel - and the ending made me smile. I definitely recommend it.

I'm going to try Heretics of Dune again, although Singularity Sky by Charlie Stross looks tempting.

phongn wrote:

Dalton wrote:REAMDE is classic Stephenson so far, but it's so damn long I might have return it before I finish

Does it have his classic "I ran out of words and must end things RFN" endings?

I'm only halfway through, but ThomasP's comment is encouraging. "Anathem" ended pretty well, though, as do his collaborations with his uncle ("The Cobweb" and "Interface").

"The Diamond Age" will always be confounding.

So as part of this "Green Week" thing we do at work, there was a book "exchange" (no actual exchange necessary). I found a copy of Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" among all the pulp thrillers, romance pap and new-age spiritual horseshit. Is it any good?

It's all right. A bit anachronistic at times, and the characters aren't really drawn with great shades of grey (the main antagonist is so unsympathetic and unpleasant that he really should be twirling a mustache while cackling), but I read it through.

Guardsman Bass wrote:It's all right. A bit anachronistic at times, and the characters aren't really drawn with great shades of grey (the main antagonist is so unsympathetic and unpleasant that he really should be twirling a mustache while cackling), but I read it through.

It was quite difficult to find anything that caught my eye (not the least reason being I was carrying a bunch of stuff). Maybe I will go have another look.

Trying to force my through the Sam and Frodo part of Two Towers, I think this is where I have up on my last attempt at LotR.

It didn't help that I got a new book from Amazon today: Star Trek DS9 Avatar. Part 1. The first book of the relaunch series, which is reputed to be quite good.

Picked up something else called The Search for WondLa. Sounds familiar, apparently a children's book. Damn thick for one though.

The Prague Cemetery, Umberto Eco.

Crazedwraith wrote:It didn't help that I got a new book from Amazon today: Star Trek DS9 Avatar. Part 1. The first book of the relaunch series, which is reputed to be quite good.

The relaunch is definitely worth reading if you're a big DS9 fan.

I just finished Gregory Maguire's conclusion to the Wicked Years, Out of Oz. A good finale and his strongest work since the first novel.

I cannot wait for the semester to be done so I can focus on reading Els Witte and Jan Craeybeckx's Political History of Belgium: From 1830s Onward. I want all the details about a country so highly developed but unstable.

Dalton wrote:

Guardsman Bass wrote:It's all right. A bit anachronistic at times, and the characters aren't really drawn with great shades of grey (the main antagonist is so unsympathetic and unpleasant that he really should be twirling a mustache while cackling), but I read it through.

It was quite difficult to find anything that caught my eye (not the least reason being I was carrying a bunch of stuff). Maybe I will go have another look.

I really enjoyed Pillars. The main character is really the cathedral, the setting is beautiful and it's one of those "bigger than any of the people in it" types of stories. However, I was more attached to the characters than I thought: I tried reading World Without End, the sequel set decades later with a new cast of characters, and I'm not quite getting into it the same way.

The miniseries adaptation was really good, pretty faithful. It's got Ian McShane in it

REAMDE was quite fun, but I feel like it kind of went off the rails at the end. The epilogue, while nice, leaves quite a few strings untied, like the WOR and all the T'Rain arc. Just like him though, especially with the ensemble cast (or the Cabal, like in all of his books). And Sokolov wins the baddest motherfucker award here.

As a side note, my bag containing the book was stolen. Fortunately crackheads hate books since they can't sell them for drugs, so the cops found it on the street and I was able to return it. Can't say I'll ever see my DS again. Fuckwits.

Two fantasy series, one of which I'm tempted to actually start a thread about in the Fantasy subforum so I can figure out what I think about it after all the humming and hawing is in. The three volumes so far of K. E. Mills' "Rogue Agent" series, which are actually quite good in a sort of magic with victorian sensibilities, thaumaturgy with paperwork, government department- ish sort of way;

the other one I still haven't really settled my opinion on is Kristen Britain's "Green Rider" series, which is, well, in the fine it's quite good, atmospheric and immersive and all that, but there are obvious bits of padding, it's gone on at least one volume longer than anyone who wasn't actively trying to torture her characters would have dragged it, and I don't think she quite knows how to finish the plot.

She's one of those writers that forbids fanfic, and I can understand why; to a large extent the story is the characters- not that that's actually stopped anyone over on FF.net, and I think she's probably mainly afraid of someone trying to rescue them. (Yes, I do have something drafted in my head. It involves Space Marines.)


More seriously, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall- over the shoulder historical fiction, the rise of Thomas Cromwell; being more familiar with his great nephew, it was interesting, and much more informative than the TV series on the tudors, although in order to keep who's who straight I would say read it in as few sittings as possible.

Jeremy Paxman's book on the Victorians, the archaeologist Francis Pryor's "A History of Britain in the Middle Ages", in which he argues for much more continuity of trade and industry through the dark ages than is usually portrayed, the Irish comedian John o' Farrell's "An Utterly Impartial History of Britain" in which he argues that for most of the last two thousand years e ahve been misgoverned by idiots.

just stared (after much suggestion from my firends) The Filly with the Dragon Cutie Mark, oh wait too much time ine the MLP theads, (Though a Pony version of Lisbeth would be cool, (probably with lightning (taser) cracling around her unicorn horn)),

"The Cold Commands" - Richard K Morgan.
"Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow" - Prof. Daniel Kahnmann (Nobel prize winner).

Good, recommended books both!

An anthology: Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting: Custom Edition for MacEwan University. Edited by Pearson Education. Material taken from Financial Accounting and Reporting, 14e by Barry Elliott and Jamie Elliott, UK; and Advanced Financial Accounting, 6e by Thomas H. Beechy, V. Umashanker Trivedi, and Kenneth E. MacAulay, USA.

Oh, how I hate this shit.

I just finished Born Standing Up, Steve Martin's autobiography/memories of his comedy career. I listened to the audio book version read by him, which was fun.

Just finished Freakonomics, listening to Quantum Man (Feynman biography by Lawrence Krauss), have Inversions by Iain M. Banks checked out and need to read it, and the next one on the list is the Eisenhorn omnibus.

EDIT: Also just finished re-reading Hull 721 (the first part), because it was that good. Thanks ECR!