What book are you currently reading?

[Rapier Half-Wit]

Terry Goodkind - Wizard's First Rule

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

I posted in another thread because I forgot this thread was here, and so looked in the Books/Music area, but I just finished in the past couple of weeks 2 books by Michael Crichton that I thought were really good.

Pirate Latitude and Timeline

[Sir Ironhead]

I was reading a Robert B. Parker but my cat puked on it so I have to throw it out. 

Just a guess, but I'm thinking your cat didn't like the book.

[Merlin the Elder]

I was reading a Robert B. Parker but my cat puked on it so I have to throw it out. 

Just a guess, but I'm thinking your cat didn't like the book.

Everybody's a critic!   

I'm re-reading Stephen King's Rose Madder.

[groomporter]

Soldier and Traveler: Memoirs of Alexander Gardner
http://www.archive.org/stream/soldiertraveller00gardiala#page/n9/mode/2up

An American-born adventurer, Josiah Harlan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Harlan ) is believed to have been the inspiration for Kipling's story (and the Sean Connory/Michael Caine movie) "The Man who would be King," but I can't help but suspect Alexander Gardner was also an inspiration. I first into ran a fictionalized description of Alexander Gardner in the novel "Flashman and the Mountain of Light" by George MacDonald Fraser. ( http://tinyurl.com/35w2rgu ) Here was the description that Fraser's main character provided of him:

"I noticed a an extraordinary figure lounging in an embrasure above the gate, swigging from an enormous tankard and barking orders at a party of Guardsmen drilling with the light guns on the wall. He was a real Pathan mercenary, with iron moustaches and a nose like a hatchet - but he was dressed from top to toe, puggaree (turban), robe and pyjamys, in the red tartan of the 79th Highlanders! Well I've seen a Madagascar nigger in a Black Watch kilt, but this beat all. Stranger still he carried a great metal collar in one hand, and each time before he drank he would clamp it around his throat, almost as though he expected the liquor to leak out through is Adam's apple."

The only known photo of him, taken in his 80's and eventually published in his memoir, shows Gardner to be just as imposing as his fictional alter-ego. -Still wearing tartan from hear to toe -including a matching tartan turban with a feather plume http://tinyurl.com/3x8s2es The description of the metal collar is due to one of the 14 wounds it is claimed that he sustained over his colorful career. It is said that due to a neck wound he could no longer swallow properly and that the collar provided assistance, or support when eating and drinking.

[Jade Sapphire Emerald]

I am enthralled in the Penderghast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Very good. Very well written. A mixture of sci-fi, mystery, crime and adventure.

[dbaldock]

Just finished reading Arcana Imperii: Origins, which is ...

... a Steampunk re-imagining of the classic horror figures of the Victorian Era, where Jack the Ripper and Jonathan Harker battle the forces of darkness.  A world in which Dr. Frankenstein's long lost child takes up his work, and Dr. Jekyll's formula finds a new victim.  This book introduces you to these creatures and others, all dedicated to protecting the new Industrial Age from its darkest enemies.

For a sample, the first chapter can be read on his web site.
He's also set up a Facebook page - Arcana Imperii: Origins

Its written by Ben Hamby, from Austin, TX, who plays the French King at the Texas Renaissance Festival -
(Click on the image to see the full size 4288x2848 photo)



I bought it from Ben at his booth at Comicpalooza in Houston on 28-May-11 -
(Click on the image to see the full size 4288x2848 photo)

[Taffy Saltwater]

I'm ashamed and embarrassed to admit "the Bite Before Christmas".  It's realllly time to hit a bookstore for something more edifying.  On the positive side, it was a hand-me-down from my mom; on the negative - vampires ... at Christmas.

EDIT:  At least they didn't sparkle.

[Merlin the Elder]

Javascript: The Definitive Guide - 6th Edition - a real page turner... Oy! I'm way too much of a geek!

[Rowan MacD]

 I was sooooo tickled to find two more books in the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms by Mercedes Lackey.
  Reading The Sleeping Beauty now, and will start on the Snow Queen next...The Fairy Godmother got me hooked on this series.  Funny and fast paced.

  I read The Black Swan in the Fairy Tale Series...Awesome. The Elemental Masters series is another favorite.

[Mairte]

The CASTINGS trilogy by Pamela Freeman

[Xantrawler]

Ahhh another Mercedes Lackey fan. And tell me, do you ride a white horse?

[Rapier Half-Wit]

Rant! by L. Perdue

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rant-l-perdue/1030465165?ean=9781453794401&itm=2&usri=rant

[LadyDracolich]

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking -  Malcolm Gladwell

Pretty damn good so far!

http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0316010669/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308345191&sr=1-1

[Cofeeguru]

Feed by Mira Grant. . .only a few pages in, but quickly getting sucked into the storyline.