Read Any Good Books Lately?
As the title suggests, if you want to discuss great (or not-so-great) literature, this is the place.

Here's a book I just finished and really enjoyed: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield It's a great story within a story in the vein of a classic gothic mystery tale - Rebecca and Jane Eyre immediately come to mind. I really got caught up in it. I drew out the experience by only allowing myself to read it on the subway. That was torture, but it also kept me from gobbling down the book in one afternoon. ;-) Has anyone else read this?

I haven't read that, but it sounds like something that I would like. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is one of my favorite books (good movie too). I just finished Lord John and The Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon. It's a mystery story involving Lord John, an 18th century British army officer, who is gay. The mystery is not that gripping, but I the book does provide some interesting descriptions of various subcultures in 18th century London.

I've heard of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, but I've never read them. Are they good? This Lord John book definitely sounds interesting. I'm going to have to check it out. ETA: I was a big fan of Daphne Du Maurier when I was a kid. I love Rebecca. I need to re-read her stuff.

I've not read any of the Outlander series. I usually see them classified as "romance" and that tends to scare me away.

Yeah, me too - that's why I was wondering. Though the female main character is a time traveler from what I've seen. Ooh, that's another book I loved: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger My commute is definitely good for reading. On the days where I manage to get out the door on time, I take the local train and read. On the days I'm late, I switch mid-way to an express and then it's Ipod all the way because it's too freaking crowded to attempt reading. :-)

I've heard of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, but I've never read them. Are they good? They're absolute rot. The only excuse I have for ever reading them is that I sneaked them out of my mother's room when I was ten years old because I was curious about the cover (typical of romance novels, a windswept heroine liplocked with her brawny savior). I kept reading, knowing they were terrible, because of all the sex scenes (I was a pervy child). Even my mother acknowledges how bad they are. ETA: What's the consensus here on the use of sneaked vs. snuck? IMO, snuck sounds better, but sneaked is technically the grammatically correct form.

I use snuck in casual conversation, but if I'm writing a paper or something more formal, I use sneaked. ETA: Misere, I was also a 'pervy' child. I used to sneak my mom's Judith Krantz novels.

Rebecca - I read the first chapter once a year for 3 years in a row. I knew how good it was supposed to be, but I just didn't get it. Then one day I read the first chapter and one page. I finished it in one sitting. (The first chapter is the courtship and all the boring exposition with Mrs. Van Hopper.) The movie was good except that one teeny, tiny little change they had to make to get past the censors.

They're absolute rot. Thank you, misere. You've saved me from that experience. I had no idea they were all Harlequin-y bodice rippers. Ugh. So not me. However, I will try that Lord John book, sauty. That sounds more interesting.

Anyone read any Thomas Mallon? I picked up what I think is his most recent "Fellow Travelers" based entirely on the cover. Started reading it without even reading the description (bus ride, you know) and loved it. It's about the McCarthy era and communist and 'deviant' witch hunt of the 1950s. Another one of his, 'Henry and Clara' is about the lives of the couple who were in the box with the Lincolns the night of Lincoln's assassination. Very well written, well-researched, not at all dry, historical fiction. I also recommend 'I am America (And So Ca You)' No explanation would do it justice.

I finished Eliot Pattison's The Bone Rattler a couple nights ago. It's a mystery set mostly in New York during the French & Indian Wars. (The first bit is set on a ship traveling to New York.) It's one of those mysteries that's sort of confusing because the "detective" doesn't understand what's going on and is pretty much at the mercy of events for much of the book. But I finished all 450+ pages in 2 nights, so how bad could it be? :) That encourage me to pull Alan Taylor's The Divided Ground out of the pile where it was languishing. Taylor's book is a history focused on the lands of the Iroquois nation during the late 18th and early 19th century - the period when New York and the United States were working to absorb that land into their borders. I picked it up in the first place because I'm distantly related to one of the guys on the cover - and that doesn't happen often! The other two nonfiction books "in progress" are The Horse, the Wheel, and Language, David W. Anthony's theory of the origins of Indo-European, and Art and Experience in Classical Greece, because I'm watching a video series of lectures on art history. The fiction reading will resume in January/February, which is when most of the new mystery novels I'm interested in seem to come out these days.

Have been rereading some of my favorite SF authors lately - Heinlein, MZB, Gordon Dickson, Larry Niven, etc. Plus for non-fiction currently am in the middle of Jared Diamond's Collapse. Edited to add Niven's name to list above

I finished re-re-re-re-reading The Skirt Man. (Shelly Reuben) I think it's good.