What are you reading right now?

This is where you can post what you're currently reading. You can just post a title and author if you want, but it'd be even better if you gave a brief description/review as well.

I'm currently reading the fourth book in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. It is AWESOME. It's set during the Napoleonic Wars but dragons exist and are used in aerial combat. The attention to historical detail is incredible and the relationship between Will Laurence and his dragon, Temeraire, is wonderful.

The fifth book comes out later this summer but we got an ARC at the store last week so I'll be reading it as soon as I finish book 4. Yay! Also, Naomi Novik is doing a signing with us in July. Double yay!

Hi, new forum!

I just finished reading "Life Expectancy" by Dean Koontz. It's about a baker whose dying grandfather prophecizes various things about him at his birth, including the dates of five terrible days that he will have to try and survive. Also, there are a lot of clowns. This is the first book I've read by Koontz, and I'm not sure that I'm really rushing to read a second. I loved the story, I loved the humor and the quirkiness, but this guy is SO. FREAKIN. WORDY. I just wanted to scream at him to get to the point already. Now, I have no problem with long books or a lot of description, but at times it really messed with the overall flow of the action. Does he get paid by the word or something?

Today I'm planning on starting "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck Palahniuk. I liked his book "Lullaby" and I've heard good things about "Invisible Monsters," so I expect to like it.

Uhm, clowns? NOTHX.

I just finished Tad Williams' Shadowplay, the second in his "Shadowmarch" series. TALK about WORDY. I have had an author crush on Tad Williams since i first read Tailchaser's Song back in high school, and i read everything he writes, so i was really excited to stumble upon his new series. It's looooong -- not "Otherland" long -- but still really interesting and intricate. I'm excited to see the resolution of all the storylines he's juggling by the end of the second book; i trust him to pull it all together, but i fear the final volume will be, like, three thousand pages long. Anyways, hey, tangent. Shadowplay is really good, but Gemma, you might want to wait a while to take it on if you were frustrated by Koontz' wordiness. (I've never read him, so take that with a grain of salt )

Currently reading: A Street in Marrakech, by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. She spent a year living in Marrakech with her family in 1971; this book recounts that time. She's also written several other books and is now a (possibly emeritus) anthropology professor at UT-Austin, focusing on Islamic and Middle Eastern women. Truly fascinating stuff and a surprisingly accessible style. I also can recommend Guests of the Sheik, also by her, also fantastic and fascinating.

I am currently reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, that vampire book that all the teenage girls are going crazy over, and it is so. Hilariously. AWFUL.

And I'm ashamed to admit that I kind of love it. It is like junk food for my brain. And I don't mean, like, non-baked potato chips here, people; Twilight is full-on, deep-fried Twinkie junk food.

I may have to go out and actually buy the next book so I can take it to Paris with me.

I also find the Twilight books really addicting. I actually think they are rather well-written for what they are. But they are like junk food. And I find myself looking forward to the movie more than is probably healthy.

God, when did I turn into such a 12 year old girl?

In other news, I started the next book in the Kim Harrison "Hollows" series, "The Outlaw Demon Wails."

Apparently, this is the summer of vampire fiction for me. Don't judge me!

Oh, the movie is going to be epic. I plan on going with my closest friends and giving it the MST3K treatment. It's actually the reason I started reading the books; my rule is that I have to read (or at least attempt to read, in the case of LotR) the book before I see the movie.

Oh, i totally devoured Twilight when marile lent it to me. So much fun! I can't justify buying the hardbacks of the next ones in the series, though, so i'm kind of waiting until the paperbacks drop to read on in the series. I can't wait for the movie, though.

And marile , ain't nothing wrong with a little vampire fiction. Hee.

When I was at the beach I started reading The Company series by Kage Baker. SO GOOD, Y'ALL. I've read the first three and am starting on the fourth soon. Here's an excerpt from the description on its Wkipedia page:

It's seriously such a cool, interesting series.

I just finished The Host by Stephenie Meyer while I was hanging out at the hospital (Mom was recovering from surgery). When I start one of her books, I go into it with low expectations, and then....they are just so good!

The Host is billed as her first "adult" novel, since the Twilight books are firmly in the YA genre. It's a beautiful book, and it's beautifully written. It's also a real page turner, I finished it in 3 days. I read a review of the book where it said that Meyer really understood and captured what it meant to be human. And while that is so cheesy sounding, it's actually true.

Anyway, check it out guys, it's really good.

Annie, I am definitely going to check out The Company series! Thanks for the recommendation!

This post has been edited by marile on Jun 30 2008, 07:02 PM