NationStates Jolt Archive

I've recently read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's a decent novel. Funny in places, poigniant in others. Not too long either. It's about a 15 year old autistic boy who starts investigating who killed his neighbor's dog and discovers some family secrets. What have you folks read lately that you would recommend.

I've recently read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's a decent novel. Funny in places, poigniant in others. Not too long either. It's about a 15 year old autistic boy who starts investigating who killed his neighbor's dog and discovers some family secrets. What have you folks read lately that you would recommend.

I just finished that last week. Twas good.

I've recently read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's a decent novel. Funny in places, poigniant in others. Not too long either. It's about a 15 year old autistic boy who starts investigating who killed his neighbor's dog and discovers some family secrets. What have you folks read lately that you would recommend.

The Baroque trilogy by Neil Stephenson, it's very interesting. If you haven't read any of his books, I highly recommend The Diamond Age.

The Baroque trilogy by Neil Stephenson, it's very interesting. If you haven't read any of his books, I highly recommend The Diamond Age.
What are they about?

Well I've been on a douglas adams binge as of late. Dirk Gently's Holistic detective Agency, The long dark tea time of the soul, Starship titanic(not written by adams but the concept was his). I have also picked up Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels which are pretty good.

I'm about two-thirds through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Not for the squeamish or for those who don't like thick, dense prose, but it has one of the most purely evil characters since Shakespeare's Iago.

Read any good books lately?
Yep.
Recently finished Mutants by Armand Marie Leroi - non-fiction, it documents genetic causes of various mutations found in humans. Kinda science-heavy in places, but it's very good.
Science of Discworld 3 (Darwin's Watch) - non-fiction/fiction. It's great - deals with evolution. In case Darwin's name in the title hadn't given that one away.
Not so recently...we're talking Easter-time, here...I went on a classic book binge, and read Catch-22, Hitchhiker's Guide..., Animal Farm, Clockwork Orange, The Trial (Kafka), High Fidelity, American Psycho and Lolita, all in 3 weeks.
Currently reading a compendium of Edgar Allan Poe's work.

What are they about?

The Baroque trilogy is set in the 17th/18th century, it's a semi-historical series. It's really interesting, I highly recommend it.

The Diamond Age is set in the time of nano technology. An impoverished young girl gets hold of a primer intended for the daughter of a wealthy goverment official's daughter. A truly excellent book.

In fact, I'd recommend any of Neil Stephenson's books; Snow Crash, Crytonomicon, Zodiac and any others that may have slipped my mind.

Stalingrad, by Antony Beevor, Truth or Dare, by Starhawk, and Beginner's Russian, by I don't know who.

Manchurian Candidate was pretty good, as is pretty much anything by Micheal Criten (I recently finished The Andromeda Strain, one of my favorites to date). Clockwork Orange, if your into something different and stimulating. Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby are always favorites.

The Diagnosis, I forget who by, was quite enjoyable. East of Eden, also good.

I am in the process of reading The Wealth of Nations, but I have taken a breif pause to read Guerilla Warfare by Ernesto "Che" Gurvara.

Next up on my reading list is Brave New World, 1984, The Prince, and Othello (figured I'd get through the major ones)

If you're looking for something more spiritual, I've finished How to Meditate by Lawrence LeShan (a good introduction for beginners), and am reading Meditation: The First and Final Freedom by Osho, and The Experience of Insight by Joseph Goldstein. Also, The Orthodox Church: A Well-Kept Secret by Fr. George Nicozisin and Sacred Symbols That Speak, Vol 1 +2 by A. Coniaris

The Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons were entertaining, but really I don't see what the big fuss was about, they weren't all that great

just recently finished 'The Third Chimpanzee' by Jared Diamond.

very interesting and informative, reccomended and lent by my bio prof (she's awesome...) talking about all sorts of stuff with human evolution, speech and language trees, genocide, agriculture and technology, etc, etc.

Just finished 'The Science of Discworld 3 - Darwin's Watch'. Very good, particularly the first few chapters, where Ian&Jack demolishes creationism.

Also recently finished: Kim Stanley Robinson's - The Years of Rice and Salt. Which is basically an alternative history of the world from the 14th century to the present day. How's that for scope? Anyhoo, the big twist is that we follow the same characters throughout the 700 odd years, as they keep getting reincarnated together, which I thought was a really neat trick. I've also recently read just about everything by KSR, as he's my favourite author of all time.

Also, Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds. Partly a noir thriller set in an alternate 1950's France, but with a really neat twist.

The title of this post reminds me of that lame Mormon commercial.

The title of this post reminds me of that lame Mormon commercial.
Eh?

EDIT: Oh, right, I'm an idiot, I get it. Yeah, I read that too, thought it was really badly written, had little or no characterisation, and the plot was just, well, rediculous ;) .

Eh?
Mormon walks into a restaurant or diner or something to meet a friend, who is reading a book, and asks how the book is.

Friend says it's okay, but doesn't sound to excited, then asks Mormon if she's read anything good lately...

"Actually--(EXTREMELY LONG PAUSE)--I have," and hands the friend a book clearly labeld "Book of Mormon"

"What's this?"

"It's the book of Mormon. (PAUSE AGAIN) It's a companion to the bible. Another testament of Jesus Christ."

"Tell me more..."

...so then she gives her lame feelings about it...yea, you have to see it to understand.

I've recently reread the Enchanted Forest Chronicles(comprised of four books:Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking with Dragons. Meant to be read in that order.). It's a good series, really. I'll give some brief(as I don't want to spoil you too much so the summaries won't be that detailed-brief) descriptions of them:
The first book is about a princess who find her kingdom too boring, so she runs off to be a dragon's princess(which is basically being the dragons maid/cook/organizer. It's not as horrible as it seems, and neither are (most) of the dragons), but gets caught up in a plot made by wizards consorting with one of the...less-than-honorable...dragons.
The second one involves the King of the Enchanted Forest looking for the King of the Dragons(she's has gone missing. Yes, she. The dragons call their ruler by the same name, whether the King is male or female. Quite sensable, actually.) along with that dragon's princess, and dealing with some...problems...that his enchanted sword causes, along with dealing with ANOTHER plot by the wizards(hint:this and the missing Dragon King are connected).
The third one involves the King's Sword being stolen by(you guessed it) the wizards. His wife goes along with their witch friend(and the witch's many cats. None of which are black.), a magician, the King of the Dragons, and a rabbit-turned-7 foot tall floating blue donkey(for no reason other than that the magican needs the donkey to find the wizards. One of the reasons for the odd transformation of the donkey is a wizard's..."spell"...)
The fourth one wraps up what the other 3 started. I doubt you'll read this one if you didn't read the other three, so I'm not summarizing it for you.

The Collector, by John Fowles. It is an excellent read, and it most likely won't turn you into some deranged pyschopath.

That does sound pretty lame, and I didn't get it. I thought it was refering to the Bible. Anyhoo, back on topic, I really liked Kate Adie's autobiog 'the kindness of strangers'.

EDIT: I'm talking to Unblogged here, just other people posted in between.

That does sound pretty lame, and I didn't get it. I thought it was refering to the Bible. Anyhoo, back on topic, I really liked Kate Adie's autobiog 'the kindness of strangers'.
The Book of Mormon is about Jesus coming to hang out with Native Americans in Utah.

No, I'm not kidding.

LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT SUNLIGHT good good book

no.. i havent sadly. give me suggestions. i like sci fi but i like good ww2/civil war novels too

i just finished Ayn Rand's atlas shruggeed which was amazing.
I recently read Bram Stokers dracula, candide by voltaire, and the bourne identity. but atlas shrugged definately takes the cake as best book ive read in a long time.

no.. i havent sadly. give me suggestions. i like sci fi but i like good ww2/civil war novels too
I'll happily reccomend some SF, but what type of it are you into, so's I can avoid suggesting everything.

South African Dispatches by Donald Woods.

no.. i havent sadly. give me suggestions. i like sci fi but i like good ww2/civil war novels too


william gibson!!!

i really liked neuromancer, almost a classic, and if im right, he's credited with 'creating' the cyber-punk genre.

molly millions kicks ass:)

i also really liked the virtual light trilogy... 'virtual light' (damn, i forgot the title of the second one...) and 'all tomorrows parties'

i also really liked 'pattern recognition', think it's his most recent, and set in more current-time frame then the others

I've recently read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's a decent novel. Funny in places, poigniant in others. Not too long either. It's about a 15 year old autistic boy who starts investigating who killed his neighbor's dog and discovers some family secrets. What have you folks read lately that you would recommend.

A good book.

Given that you liked it, I would highly recommend Motherless Brooklyn (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375724834/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance) by Jeremy Lethem.

(I'd highly recommend it anyway, but it is in someways a more adult, much better version of The Curious Incident.)

I'm currently reading Anthony Beevor's 'Berlin: The Downfall 1945'. I tell ya, that's a f*ckin' good book if you're not disturbed by the rapes and looting committed by the Ivans.

http://www.antonybeevor.com/pictures/berlinnewmenu.jpg