Book Club

[chelsea]

[maggie]

Such top shelf stuff, Chelsea! I'm gonna sound like a 12 year old as a result of my latest reading habits. Ya see, I've been on a 'juvenile' bent for 2 or 3 months now. But hear me out...

I bought my sis-in-law, who's 12, the first three Lemony Snicket books a while back and recently picked them up, read them and enjoyed them immensely. They're short, fun and clever. That led me to recall that I wanted to read:

The His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. I'd seen mention of the (3) books from Neil Gaiman and it sounded interesting but it had slipped my mind until, after reading the above mentioned box set, I found Lyra's Oxford, a companion to the series on a marked-down table. It's a small book and a short short read, but its bound very neatly and contains a map and other doodads and it firmly cemented my resolve to read the series. Especially as it constantly made me want to hop up and draw. A very good thing.

So on my bedside are Northern Lights (aka "The Golden Compass"), the first of the three books. I'm 7/8 the way through and it also makes me want to draw. Fans of Harry Potter or the like will enjoy this, but bear in mind that it's darker, moodier and aimed a bit higher literarily. Children who struggled through reading the Potter books will not fare well here. In fact, I'd say the writing is more akin to adult fantasy literature than kiderature (a term which I just now coined, I think*. heh) like the Potter books. Nonetheless, those who read it will enjoy themselves. I've already bought the second book in anticipation of finishing the first.

Also on standby for days/nights when I'm in a different mood are:
Bill and Hillary by Christopher Anderson. The story of the former president and his wife and how they came to be who they are.
The Genesis Code by John Case. For late night 'thriller' moods. A science mystery/thriller a la Davinci Code.
Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie. The current of the ubiquitous Christie books on my bedside table. Unique in that this is a thriller, not her usual mystery book.
The Third Reich Day By Day edited by Peter Darman. Part of my current research. Highly recommended (full of reference pics!) to anyone painting with a broad literary brush in their stories. My Balustrade army in Katie Galaxy is based on the early 'Brown Shirt' years of the reich.

* - Update: It seems such an obvious play on a word that I'm a little amused now that it's not more prevalent. But according to Google only two other people have come up with it before. Odd.

[chelsea]

Oh, The Genesis Code is ace! If you're getting into "kiderature" check out anything by Francesca Lia Block. She writes teen fiction, mostly aimed at girls, but I've shown her book "Dangerous Angels" to just about every person I've ever met and even the hardest and toughest of men have admitted it was the best book they've read in a long time. It's out of print, so you can't get it at book stores no more, but Amazon usually have a bunch of copies.

Seriously, if you ever buy another book in your whole life, it had better be this one. You wont regret it.

[Anomic]

[David Bird]

[Craig]

Over this new year break I'm finding much needed time to really read some books.

I'm currently reading a number of trilogies. Babylon 5: Legions of Fire by Peter David. Soon to start the second book, when my local bookshop gets the third in for me.

His Dark Materials:
I'm almost finished "the Subtle Knife", the second book in the series. This series has got some excellent ideas in it. I borrowed it from my local library. They keep it in the new YA (Young Adult) section with TPBs of XMen (but not Joss Whedon's). As soon as I'm finished SK I go straight into The Amber Spyglass. Now, I've got one up on all those kids who have read Harry Potter, and are so smart (Altho I read Prisoner of Azkhaban there's something missing ....), but, Harry's no Lyra.

The 'multiverse' is one of my favorite fictional ideas used effectively by such diverse folk as DC Comics, Michael Moorcock and Robert Anton Wilson, amongst others. The device's (Allethiometer, Subtle Knife) are both original and unequaled in fantasy lit.

According to the author's site http://www.philip-pullman.com "Lyra's Oxford" is a bridge to the next book ..... Also has recent news on the movie (Chris Weitz's name is also linked to the proposed Elric of Melnibone (2006) film).

Michael Chabon's "Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" is next on my read-list.

craig

[maggie]

[Egofreaky]

Chelsea: If you haven't read Pahalnuik's Choke yet, go do so now... It's like he'd just finished writing Fight Club and said "Hmmm, now let's right something REALLY fucked up"

At the moment I'm somewhere inthe middle of David Brim's Uplift series, and am peppering that out with Scott Adam's set of management books (currently on The Way of the Weasel)

[chelsea]

Choke was the first Palahniuk book I'd read. It's my favourite of his and I'd say it's maybe my third favourite novel? A very good book.

[Laocorn]

johnny the homicidal maniac - is pretty much all I'm readin at the moment... actually give me 5 more minutes and I'll be finished...

other then that I've got Needful Things by Stephen King sitting here that I still have to dig into...

[maggie]

[makepeace]

[Doctor Radium]

Just read:

"The Baroque Trilogy" by Neal Stephenson. Took bloody ages too as the the three books (Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World) are a hefty 800+ pages, and just too damn full of annoyingly intriguing facts, ideas, characters and some very jokes. I really did not realise that the birth of the scientific method, international currency trading, alchemy, newspapers and the rudiments of computing were all so intertwined, fascinating and amusing. Also features a fabulous bitchfight between Leibinitz and Isaac Newton over who invented calculus first, a afscinating look at 18th century London and the adventures of the great Vagabond King "Half-cocked Jack" Shaftoe plus the secrets of King Solomons gold. Great stuff but read it in bursts like I did or you risk information overload.


Midnight Tides: Malazan Book of The Fallen #5 - Stephen Erikson I'm kinda over most high fanstasy - quite frankly I just do not want another piss-poor mort d'arthur (the original was bad enough) written by an inevitably bearded American with lots of plotting skill but no characters and no believability, but there are a few authors working in the genre who have the stuff - and Erikson is one. Erikson is a trained anthropologist and it shows in his writing, with believable societies and races clashing in a truly epic struggle. Add to that some truly innovative and well written set-piece battles, terrific (and sometimes down-right hilarious) dialogue, memorable characters and a world that feels dangerously real and you have an author who really is leading the pack in a genre that despite it's rising popularity is growing increasingly stale. The latest tome draws some deft parallels with current world economic and political situations, adding a further level of interest for the astute reader. Can't reccommend this one (or any of the books in this series) highly enough.

Maul - Tricia Sullivan I'd never heard of this writer before, literally buying this one on a whim in a remaindered bookshop, but if her other novels are anywhere as good as this one then I could just have a new author in my top 10. With two, equally interesting plot strands, this novel comes across as one of the most culturally subversive novels I've read in years, packed with action, humour and the very best in designer labels darling. With it's barbed commentary on the role of women and the derranged status of men in 21st century consumer society this book treads dangerous ground - in fact it's lucky she's a woman as any man who wrote a novel like this would immediately have a feminist fatwah on their head. Be warned: there is much violence, a wee bit of drug use, a hell of a lot of shopping, plenty of sex and liberal use of the "c" word, but for those with the stomach this is well worth hunting down and it's easy to see why the title was short-listed for the prestigous BFSA award. One of the funniest, most daring and compelling books I've ever read. Head to http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/sci ... 10,00.html for a far better review than mine, with all the salient plot details.

[Doctor Radium]

Also just finished Zeitgeist by Bruce "The Chairman" Sterling. One of the founding fathers of the "mirrorshades" group responsible for cyberpunk (at least as most folks know it - don't get me started!), Sterling still manages to come up with the goods 20 years after his groundbreaking posthumanist Schismatrix sequence. In Zeitgeist it's 1999 and freakish denizen of wayout political/technical/economic/popculture scenes Leggy Starlitz has gone legit...sort of. He's managing one of the highest selling (outside of the USA) girlbands of all time G7, and prepping himself for the end of civilisation when one or two...complications step in - a Turkish heroin smuggler and terrorist who thinks he's some sort of bizarre mindmeld between Attaturk and James Bond, his previously unseen 10 year old daughter who shares his mysterious ability to never show up on surveillance cameras, a cancer ridden Soviet fighter ace and smuggler who has somehow "borrowed" Slobodan Milosivec's private (inflatible!) stealth plane and then suddenly the G7 girls start dying...oh and a disreputable papparzzi photographer has just turned up with Lady Di's festering corpse in a hatbox...Can anyone say Culture War?

There's too much going on in this feisty little paperback but then with someone of Sterling's talents this can only be a good thing. Bizarre, surreal and very insightful - if only some of the "brainstrust" t the Pentagon had read this book before deciding to send troops to Afghanistan & Iraq...

[Caleb]