[Closed] Recent Reading - Part I

And I couldn't agree more. Thing is, I'm all anti-religioned out for now!... if I start reading a book like God Is Not Great, I tend to get quite riled up. This is why I suppose I'm [in]famous for being the local atheist. But it's far more a case of absolute non-religiousness than 'atheism'. I vehemently reject any God concocted by Homo sapiens, that's the point I stick to. This is why I like Paul Davies' books, he (like Einstien) thankfully doesn't give any credit to religious gods*, but still explores the idea in some very fascinating ways.

*Not that I'm insinuating the other authors do. Davies simply doesn't need to dwell on religious beliefs to get his points across.

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I don't give a flying flip about this long building affair.
The ending wasn't very climatic at all.
Also, no real characters to pull for.

Finished Shutter Island a couple of weeks ago. Can't wait for the film. Very descriptive. Lots of twists and turns.

This was my first Dennis Lehane novel. He also wrote Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. He sure loves to write about Boston.

it is o.k.
you are wiser.

That's right though, he does refer to it a couple of times in this one.

According to Wikipedia, he has written several autobiographical 'volumes':

> Strange Places, Questionable People (1998)
> A Mad World, My Masters (2000)
> News From No Man's Land (2002)
> The Wars Against Saddam: Taking the Hard Road to Baghdad (2004)
> Days from a Different World: A Memoir of Childhood (2005)
> Not Quite World's End: A Traveller's Tales (2007)
> Twenty Tales From The War Zone (2007)

Just finished the first book of a trilogy... Daugher of the Empire... by Feist and Wurst... nice read. (fantasy) Ok... so continue to read now with book two.. Servant of the Empire.

Recommend for fantasy buffs... (its not troll/elves stuff)

Finished that one to first of course.. then i started to read to rise of Mara. Also read other works of Feist.. Conclave of Shadows was nice too.

A very good writer, which writes very 'warm' 'personal' books... is Robin Hobb... I love all her work. Easy to read, engrossing.

The king is George R.R. Martin...!!! But he writes sloooooooooowwwwww. Another fantastic series is the Sword of Shadows series by J.V. Jones. Nice!

Another good read, is the Winds of the Forelands series by David B. Coe.

A series to started promising but went downhill quickly is the series by Greg Keyes. Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. The last book is quite bad.

But my top favorites are:

Martin, Hobb and Feist... and later perhaps Patrick Rothfuss (still need to start reading his books, but I think I will like it)

I read Faerie Tale which was okay.

I'd ask for recommendations but I'm well behind on a pile of books.

I'm currently reading Magic Terror by Peter Straub, 7 short stories of which I'm on the 4th. Gripping stuff, Straub is a better writer IMO than his contemporary ( and friend ) Stephen King.

Did you ever get around to Black House?

Carol O'Connell, a new author to me, wrote a book "Killing Critics" which is beginning to tie in a 12 year old killing to a present day one. Hard for me to comment as I'm only into it by 60 pages so far.
Thomas

RR: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

I have to read it for school.

your loss my friend

I have been reading like three books the past 5 months. I find that unbelievable!

A year on the Mekong - Edward A. Gargan
Yeah, before my trip to Laos, and the act that I like reading journals about trips. Now this journalist travels the Mekong from its source to the Southern-Vietnam delta, and focuses on the culture and history of the countries this mighty yellow river passes through; Nepal, Tibet, Yunnan, Laos, MyanMar (Birma), Cambodia and Vietnam. Interesting to know more about the Secret War in Laos (the most bombed country in the world, thanks to the USA), the Cambodian Khmer Rouge (somehow partly related to the USA politics with Vietnam), the French colonisation, the current 'catholic' colonisation, rice, the suppression of cultures in China (not only Tibet obviously), ... Really a good read, and enriching for the trip itself.

Another Quiet American - Brett Dakin
Bought this surprisingly enough in Laos itself, in a book store in Luang Prabang. It's about a American student taking about his two years of internship in the tourism department of Laos, in 1998-1999, in the capital Vientiane. Fun to read since we visited the place. But he doesn't keep away criticism for its communistic government, NGO's or UN/WTO and their donations which seem not to have feeling with the country or the needs, ... Interesting again to see the country from an other perspective. He concludes that since h hasn't been there anymore, Laos slipped away quicker than he thought: the country clearly hides itself away from the real world. (http://www.anotherquietamerican.com/)

Daughter of fire : a portrait of Iceland - Katharine Scherman
Hihi, you might know what the next destination is. Anyway, got this book almost for free at a sell-out at the library and I'm about 1/3 now. Old book, but fascinating!! It talks about the history of Iceland, its creation, its newer islands, its people, ... Perhaps a bit uninteresting at first, but actually well written and again, with that sense of awe, and constant nice stories or bits of information. It's a print with some black and white pictures, released short after the creation of the World's Newest Island, Surtsey. Awesome