I'm working on The Fisherman by John Langan, a deliciously creepy book set in upstate New York.
I've been savoring this, reading it in chunks on the subway in the morning. Now I'm to the point where I can't stop, so off to the couch with coffee!
What are you reading today?
40 comments:
Don't know how I ever got here without other comments, but since you asked: "The List"
Maybe you already know the author.
I like to read books in order of publish date. And I'm working on an 'urban' fantasy set in the eastern empire of the fifth century. Mostly witches but some wizards and sorcerers.
So, JD's work is good background on what other think of urban fantasy witches. Or are his more urbane fantasy witches?
I'm reading directions on how to hang cordless blinds. A dozen different languages. I think I'll pick Korean in honor of the Olympics.
Okay, I got fumble fingers. It's "The Line"
Anna Quindlen's "ALTERNATE SIDE" Advance Reader's Edition. I'm still early on.
Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere" for the second time this week.
Love it. Love it. Love it.
The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen - middle grade.
Next up: The Magic Words, by Cheryl Klein, and Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi (for book club).
The Big Sleep. I had a hankering for noir. I now see where Lee Child got some of his technique.
I'm outlining posts for A to Z Blogging Challenge in April. Anyone else doing the challenge this year?
I'm reading Cecilia Ortiz Luna's MS for the second time. First time was to read the story, now I'm commenting. I only have the first 100 pages, and love it. I'm dying to know how it ends!
This is teaching me a lot about timing in agenting and editing. You can't do a review justice without a block of uninterrupted time. Those blocks are so hard to come by! This has been on my mind for a month. Thank heaven for snow days!
Kids have big "sophomore projects" due this week. I'll be reading reports and powerpoints later today. So much for my TBR.
Kathy Joyce wrote:
"This is teaching me a lot about timing in agenting and editing. You can't do a review justice without a block of uninterrupted time. Those blocks are so hard to come by! This has been on my mind for a month. Thank heaven for snow days!"
Truer words have not been said!
Finding a block of time for requested fulls is REALLY hard. I say that to writers all the time and now, I'm going to use your comment as corroboration!!
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate- a novel based on historical events- takes place in Tennessee- a woman steals children from poor homes and sells them to rich families. A practice that continued for decades before the law caught on. Quite haunting.
Claire—I love the False Prince. It's a wonderful read.
I'm starting LOVE, HATE, AND OTHER FILTERS courtesy of my local library, which will be followed in short order by Joelle Charbonneau's NEED. I just finished Tamora Pierce's latest TEMPESTS AND SLAUGHTER and Nic Stone's DEAR MARTIN. I've been having a really good reading (and writing) stretch lately with all of those emotional highs and lows. DEAR MARTIN shredded my heart. T&S pieced it back together. I can only hope this satisfying reading roller-coaster keeps up!
Just finished They Both Die at the End, which was just as tear-jerking as you'd expect, and about to dive into The Girl Without a Name by Sandra Block.
Punishment by Scott J. Holliday. A little reading and research to stave off the fact that there's 13 inches of marshmallow fluff outside.
Cecilia and E.M. - my book club just picked Little Fires Everywhere and Before We Were Yours as upcoming reads.
Megan - I love Tamora Pierce! As for Nic Stone, I may have to hold off on DEAR MARTIN for a bit. My shredded heart is still recovering from the amazing, but shattering, The Hate U Give (by Angie Thomas) and the movie 'Moonlight.'
I just finished (for the second time) a lovely Newfoundland book called The Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark and am now reading (for at least the third time) Little, Big by John Crowley.
Found this delicious sentence:
"He had lived his whole life longing for unattainables, and such a life eventually achieves a balance, mad or sane."
He also occasionally puts in a word I don't know, like orgulous. I like that.
I had an unexpected bounty from selling a domain name so went through my wish list on Amazon...
It's raining on our lovely snow, there are hundreds of juncos, goldfinches, blue jays and a cardinal around the feeder and the other person just heard a catbird. Ramona is happy with a lap sit.
If anyone would like The Latitudes of Melt, let me know and I'll send it.
Mainly two, although technically in the middle of a dozen (read according to mood): JACKABY by William Ritter and THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak.
Clearly, I don't have the focus of an agent.
Kathy,
God bless you! I'm petitioning my saints to send a thousand blessings your way.
Claire,
"Little Fires Everywhere" is the book I will plagiarize if given a free pass. I borrowed it from the library but I'm now seriously thinking of buying a copy so I could study it like a manual.
Just finished reading Paula Hawkins' INTO THE WATER. Well, just finished my reading time, I haven't finished the book. Only a third of the way in.
Now I turn my attention to writing. This manuscript is cleverly called ... Untitled. Which might already be taken, but I hear titles get changed all the time anyway.
ontogeny
another new word!
Watching a movie called BEING FLYNN about a writer who never published anything and essentially goes bat-[insert vulgar word for fecal matter here] crazy.
Art imitates life!
The story is interesting because (1) Robert de Niro, who plays Flynn, is arguably the greatest actor of the twentieth century (yes, I know, this is not the twentieth century), and (2) the story is true. Mainly (2).
The movie is based on a memoir by Flynn's son Nick, who is a playwright and poet in real life.
In answer to the question posted here a few days ago whether it is OK to use synonyms for fecal matter in a query, the title of the memoir is: ANOTHER BULLSHIT NIGHT IN SUCK CITY. How oculd anybody resist a book with a title iike that?
At the outset de Niro does a voice over: "America has produced only three classic writers: Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, and me. ... Everything I write is a masterpiece. And soon, very soon, I shall be known."
Whoa! This character is not burdened with a crushing sense of humility.
Spoiler alert: People who are looking for opportunities to be offended by political incorrectness will find them aplenty in this story.
The movie is made in the European style. Nothing much happens and it does not have a real ending. They just surprise you by suddenly rolling the credits.
Bottom line: not great, but worth a look-see.
I'm reading Elephant Company by Vicki Constantine Croke. My nonfiction leanings. Some segments of the story are tough on my animal loving heart, but Billy Williams was a true champion in bringing about humane treatment for these great beasts.
I'm finishing up Laurie Gwen Shapiro's scrappy THE STOWAWAY. Very different from the nonfiction I read right before it, PRAIRIE FIRES by Caroline Fraser. Getting ready to head to the library to pick up a copy of Nick Petrie's latest, LIGHT IT UP.
I also adored Celeste Ng's LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and recommend it to everyone.
I'm still reading Voyager by Diana Gabaldon. It looks like a porcupine because of many little book tags sticking out of it, but I keep marking lines I find particularly well done. It reminds me sometimes it's ok to write, "she smiled", but other times it's good to dig a little deeper and find something more evocative.
Sometimes you read a work the first time for pure enjoyment, but you can also sit at the author's feet and learn how they do things. As Diana says, "An author has no secrets about how they write. It's all right there on the page."
I'm still working on A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War Battle at Bull Run. The problem with it is it sends me down so many rabbit holes. That isn't a bad thing. He did a lot of research I would never have access to. That book really looks like a colorful porcupine.
It's a day ending in "y", so I'm writing.
Dena
Yes, I'll be doing the A-Z challenge. I'm going to make a list of things that people may object to in RC and do blog posts with references. I'll try to head some of this off at the pass. Some posts will just be interesting, I hope. Southern ladies donated urine to make gunpowder and interesting little ditties arose surrounding that practice.
I'm boring...I'm reading invoices.
The taxman cometh.
Theresa, Can't wait to get my hands on Prairie Fires. Our local Indie store didn't have it in stock last time I visited. The owner said she'd get some copies in soon.
Oh Dena, the A to Z is already back? The torture. The lack of sleep. The painful deadlines.
Yes, yes, of course I'm in.
I'm reading 'From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler'. I think I must've read it when I was very young because it feels really familiar and nostalgic. I love how simple and straight-to-the-point the writing is. No wonder it's still so popular.
I alternate between Middle Grade and Adult, so next up is My Brilliant Friend. After all the hullabaloo about the real name of the author a while back, I want to see what makes this writer inspire such devoted and loyal fans.
In the middle of "The Nowhere Man" by Greg Hurwitz. Read "Orphan X" last year and apparently was late in realizing the sequel was out. Oh, and job listings. Reading lots and lots of those. Blargh.
Dena *sticking my hand up* Yup, I'm A to Z-ing this year. I've worked out my A to Z list, but have yet to start writing the posts.
Reading...didn't have much time over the weekend (we're overrun by plums at the moment, so I spent most of my free time turning them into jam). But I did start Fatal Crossing by Lone Thiels (Scandanavian noir). Only a few pages in so too soon to comment.
Just finished Slaughter's UNSEEN and Frederick Ramsay's STRANGER ROOM.
Torn on where to go next. I have Wendig's RAPTOR AND WREN, Child's NIGHT SCHOOL and an F. Paul Wilson book.
I also have drawing to redo for a stand up paddleboard and a dry fly pattern to get settled. I might have to wait a day or two to decide when next will assuage by reading addiction.
A to Z - yep- might as well. If I live through flu. Relapse ... damn thing.
I also just finished Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere and had to return it to the library. Like Cecilia, I'm tempted to buy my own copy. I also just finished Word By Word by Kory Stamper
Next from my TBR pile-one of these three: The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon, The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, and The Evolution of Jane by Cathleen Schine.
Geez, everyone here is so deep and literary. And I am . . . not. Janet, I'm delighted to hear you've carved out time to read solely for pleasure.
I'm mostly reading, and deleting and fixing and re-reading, QUARTZ & SHADOW by some poseur named KD James. I'm at that predictable stage where it's all irredeemable dreck. When that becomes unbearable, I'm indulging in lovely mass quantities of genre romance. Perhaps not individually noteworthy, but collectively priceless.
EM, please rest and take good care of yourself. Sending strong healing vibes.
Steve, good job hunting vibes going your way.
And what is this I hear about people PLANNING their A to Z entries?!?!? You can do that? Why didn't anyone tell me? I didn't even decide to participate until the day before it started. Pretty sure that one time was enough for me. Unless I change my mind . . . on March 31.
Reading: Almost half-way through A DANCE WITH DRAGONS (Game of Thrones V)
A-Z: Perhaps. I didn't do it last year, but I may do it this year. We'll see... :)
I'm glad to say (in a way) I'm able to read again. I've started ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr.
KD, I felt the same when reading the list. I'm not literary at all. Light and fun (with a dead body or two) or a little bit dragonny are my preferred reads =)
KD and AJ
You're not totally alone. I'm reading "Alternate Side" because I was lucky enough to win a copy on Goodreads and I've never read any novels by Anna Quindlen.
Books I've read so far in 2018 are more in the thriller genre:
Open Season (C.J. Box)
Paradise Valley (C.J. Box)
Send Off for a Snitch (KM Rockwood)
First Grave on the Right (Darynda Jones)
Agent Darcy & Agent Steve in "Robot Rumble" (Grant Goodman) (This last one I bought two copies - one for my sister's grandson and one for me)
P.S. - I also read two'graphic novels". really collected issues of upscale comic books
FABLES # 5
SAGA # 1
Both are excellent
Partway through Little, Big a character reads a story that starts "Old Mother West Wind and the Merry Little Breezes" and I stopped.
Wait a minute. I know this.
Turns out John Crowley was inspired by the Thornton Burgess stories I got from my grandmother in Sandwich growing up. Burgess was born and grew up in Sandwich around the same time as my great grandmother. They certainly would have known each other.
It was a delicious feeling to think Crowley's long family saga intersected with my multi-hundred year family saga.
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