What books are you reading right now?

For fun reading, I just picked up the free first book in a series about the early days of Hollywood - The Garden on Sunset (Hollywood's Garden of Allah novels Book 1)

 

While this book was certainly an interesting read, I didn't like Gone Girl. I'm not sure if it's a novel that I should've read more carefully, or put my brain in neutral from the start; I'm leaning towards the latter.



POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!!

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!!
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This' just a partial list:

The ending was the stupidest fucked-up thing that I've read in a very long time.

Buying a bar when you're unemployed and need a job and money. Doing so with the last bit of money you have. Since when does that make fiscal sense to anyone?

A person getting completely away with such a long & complicated crime. Seriously?

How the husband came up with the hotshot attorney retainer fee seemed like an afterthought. It's like Flynn suddenly thought, "Oh crap, I never explained how the attorney was getting paid, let me throw that in now."

 

A lot of people called out the movie because of the weak ending but that's because it followed the book.
The main problem is that the ending seemed really weak to me because the first two acts were really strong.

On your point about the bar, having worked in the food industry it often amazed me the number of owners I ran into who had put their last dime into a place and had no other plan.
There's a reason so many bars and restaurants go out of business every year.

On your other points, I just go along with suspension of disbelief on complicated crimes - too many books would sink under their own weight if you don't and you're right I really got the feeling that the editor pointed out the payment part so it was thrown in there.

 

I have a problem with suspending my disbelief. My wife frequently tells me, usually when I'm bitching about one of "her" "shitty" TV programs, "Just put your brain in neutral." I'm usually OK with novels, such as the apparant lack of knowledge of firearms in general and handguns in particular among most authors, but sometimes an author will write something that pushes the wrong button(s). See my comments on The Hotel New Hampshire for a diatribe .

The money factor was a weak point in the book. Amy's fund was down to almost nothing, yet they were renting a way-too-large-for-them house (OK, it was in an economically depressed area), and paying one-half for dads nursing home. Combine those with the questionable/doubtful income from the bar, along with other bills, and you get "Huh? No way."

I don't follow movies and how well they're received--reviews and box office--unless I'm researching them for some reason. I did notice that the Gone Girl movie is now out on DVD. That quick turnaround (keep in mind I haven't researched it) tells me it didn't do well in theatres.


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I've just started In Sunlight And In Shadow by Mark Helprin. His name sounds very familiar, but I haven't read any of his works. To my knowledge, since I read a lot and my memory sucks.

 

I stopped reading In Sunlight And In Shadow after 22 pages. Reading it was like listening to a romantic poet describe a woman in a flower garden, fluff ad nauseum. I skipped around to see if it got any better as the plot developed. It didn't.

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I'm now reading Ayn Rand's We The People. Rand is well known for her pro-capitalism, and WTP is her first novel. It's set in Russia immediately after the Revolution and reflects her hatred of the Communists. If her descriptions are accurate, Russia was a total wreck at the time.

 

Ooops, major screw-up by me. The Ayn Rand novel is We The Living, not We The People. It was an interesting read, but like the other Rand novels that I read there were many passages that were wah, wah, & more wah. One of the major "suspension of disbelief issues" was where Kira lived, which ties into another character being being exceedingly naive for a man in his position. But that's why novels are called fiction.

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For some much lighter reading, I chose The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta over Across The Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn. I'm only 34 pages into TAT, but so far it's pretty good.

 

Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey
It's part of the Sandman Slim series.
Lots of fun, demons, angels, the ghost of Jack the Ripper, and the usual Sandman Slim stuff.

 

The Day After Roswell
William J. Birnes, Philip Corso

So far so good. Decent read.

 

Boo, hiss. Yet another otherwise good read spoiled by a non-ending. I want to know why the editor and/or publisher didn't tell Perrotta to write an actual ending to The Abstinence Teacher. Perrotta left way too much hanging with the abrupt ending. Did he struggle with the ending and just give up, or was it his intent to leave the readers to wonder about it? Maybe it was done for a sequel (which I will not bother with because the ending sucked).

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Across The Nightingale Floor is Book One Tales Of The Otorn, a series which appears to be aimed at young adults. From the randoms bits that I've read, while trying to avoid spoilers, it's pretty well written. Hopefully I'll enjoy it. I did get hooked on, and really like, the Hunger Games triology, so the YA factor isn't an issue.

 

Her Fearful Symmetry Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Not sure what I think yet.

Started another one that has caught my interest... Very sexy and mysterious...

Tetragrammar Author: Anthony Kocur

 

The Atlantis World, part of a series available on kindle unlimited. It's enjoyable.

 

Hmmm. I'm making a mental note, since I have kindle unlimited. FWIW, I've been enjoying a total guilty pleasure trilogy called the Evermen Series, by James Maxwell. Not extraordinarily well written, but not a total suck job, and it's hard to put down.

 

There's some good ones on there... If you like police procedurals look,for "Long Beach Homicide"

 

I read Her Fearful Symmetry. IMO while the plot is intriguing, the author just doesn't have the skills to make it work. It's a novel that might work better as a movie, much like House Of Sand And Fog, novel by Andre Dubus III, film directed Vadim Perelman.

 

Just finished Jack Reacher #19 (Personal).

currently immersed in a few titles (depending on which device I have with me at the time):
- David Eddings - The Elder Gods (not sure about the genre, trying it out)
- Bentley Little - The Walking ( kind like a kinky Stephen King, I call this stuff horror/porn)
- Brian Lumley - Necroscope, The Lost Years (picking up a series that I was immersed in about 20 years ago)
- Stephen Oppenheimer - The Origins of the British (pedantically academic, but out of necessity)
- Taylor Anderson - Crusade (Book 2 of Destroyermen, recommended by a neighbour, we'll see)
- Timothy Snyder - Bloodlands - Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (yeah, a little light reading before bed)

 

Recently finished Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. Good read, the movie is very minorly based on the book (mostly just character names) so if you loved the movie you may not like the book because the story is a lot different. The book almost seemed more about comraderie amongst fellow troops than "the bug war."

Currently reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Next will most likely be In Cold Blood by Capote

 

I "discovered" Heinlein by mistake when I bought The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag really cheap, twenty-five cents IIRC. I didn't think much of the movie Starship Troopers, didn't even know it was based (apparantly very loosely) on a Heinlein novel.

In Cold Blood is a good read. It seems dated, but I had to remind myself that how Capote wrote it was a breakthrough in early true crime non-fiction writing.

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I've gone back The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. IMO Shirer got too bogged down in the negotiations between the various countries in the failed attempt to prevent Germany from invading Poland. Yes, they were very important, but could've been considerably condensed.

 

I got a collection of Fritz Lieber's "Lankmhar" stories in one volume for Christmas - quick a fun read and you can see why a lot of fantasy uses him as inspiration.

 

I enjoyed the series overall. It did stretch a little long, and was stronger in the beginning. But it was enough that I'll check out Kadrey when he puts out another work.