What Are You Reading??

not reading anything atm, but hope to get back to it soon, and hope to read some of the recommendations here. (Did I mention that I love you all?)
Piglet: I've gone through GO several times, and LOL every time. A truly weird but truly successful collaboration, given how different the 2 authors are.
AMonk, ETR: please don't spoil too much about Dodger. I am a huge Pratchett fan, but I am patient enough to wait.

One book I didn't finish this summer was the Penguin edition of The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun Simply put, I was underwhelmed. Yes, I've read some of these before in other places, and was curious enough to search out a collection so as to deepen my experience; but when faced with story after story after story, it got pretty depressing. And pretty pointless. And pretty pointlessly depressing. And pretty depressingly pointless. And I'm a Leonard Cohen fan. And a Kafka fan. I believe it would be better if my Chinese were good enough that I could read it in the original, but somehow I doubt it would ever live up to expectations.

LFD, no worries, I still have not received my copy...bloodystupidnogooduselessdipshitAmozon.cndouchenozzleoperatedshiteforbrainscompanyunabletodeliverbooksontimemoronsshouldallbeflogged...grumblemumblesnarl

Instead, I am reading the latest Bryant and May mystery...followed by a book on the history of the Yakuza...

a book on the history of the Yakuza...

details please!

It's called "Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld" by David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro. Apparently the authors spent two decades doing the research, interviewing some rather unpleasant chaps and such. It is, as far as I can tell from browsing around online, one of, if not the most, exhaustive and detailed work on one of the most secretive criminal organizations in the world.

@mlaeux would not go to Egypt right now it's a little unstable to say the least.
News from the Sinai border is NOT good.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4284517,00.html

I'm reading Mao's Last Dancer, a true story about a Li Cunxin a male Chinese ballet dancer during Mao's time. It's not bad.

Pierre Trudeau & Jacques Hebert "Two Innocents in Red China". They visited in 1960. At the time Trudeau was a labour lawyer & Hebert a journalist best known for travel pieces on Europe & Latin America. China was in the middle of the Great Leap Forward and no Western governments recognised "red China" officially. The book came out in French in 1961.

By 1968, Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada, brought the book out in English and shortly thereafter recognised China, ahead of all other Western countries except France. Eventually, Hebert became a senator; in Canada, those are appointed rather than elected.

A lovely period piece, very interesting.

 

Borkya saw the movie before we left Israel and LOVED it (was seeing every movie I could about China in that period).

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. (A Girl's Own Clockwork Orange.  )

Next I'll try Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. I'm dubious of the future world it's set in. Technological sophistication is coveted yet most technologies have failed? We'll see.

The new JK Rowling novel A Casual Vacancy

Grumble...teacheraus beat me to it...picked up "The Casual Vacancy" yesterday. So far it is good, takes a while for it to get gripping. At least I have this book whilst I impatiently wait for the new "Skulduggery Pleasant", Rankin's "The Educated Monkey", Tom Holt's "Doughnut" and both "Dodger" and "A Blink of the Screen"...

'God is Not Great: How Religion Ruins Everything' by Christopher Hitchens. Witty, articulate and persuasive rant from an atheist 'saint' 

Read Blood Meridian and I'm just about to finish All the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mccarthy

They are both good but Blood Meridian was just insanely good, after writing something like that I don't think I'd have any ambition left

George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series.

I like it when the villain is the hero.

Read Blood Meridian and I'm just about to finish All the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mccarthy

They are both good but Blood Meridian was just insanely good, after writing something like that I don't think I'd have any ambition left

I read blood meridian when I much younger, don't think that I got it all, must read it aagin.

have the whole border trilogy on my shelf as we speak. Have you read The Road? Incredible book. Absolutely terrifying.