Seth's comments (member since Dec 13, 2007)

Seth's comments from the The Next Best Book Club group.

I am starting a horror novel called Deeper, by James A. Moore, about some kind of sea monster.

P.G. Wodehouse
Ed McBain

The Dead Zone.

Next:

Latter End, by Patricia Wentworth (honest, this time--last time, I had to read Eternity Ring by Wentworth instead, because the store didn't have Latter End)

Rule Britannia, by Daphne du Maurier

TBD by Patricia Wentworth (probably The Girl In The Cellar)

Friday, by Robert A. Heinlein

TBD by Patricia Wentworth (probably Grey Mask)

The Professor And The Madman, by Simon Winchester

starting The Chameleon's Shadow, by Minette Walters.

The Watersplash, by Patricia Wentworth
From Krakow To Krypton, by Artie Kaplan
Latter End, by Patricia Wentworth
To Rich To Live, by Lawrence Light

Invasion Of The Cat-People--Gary Russell

Read Middlesex as part of a swap-suggestions deal, here at goodreads. Loved it! A few minor problems with the structure--but can second the Middlesex recommendation for a good book to fit in before end of 2009.

Recommended book: Who Made Stevie Crye?, by Michael Bishop.

The Gazebo, by Patricia Wentworth.
The Chameleon's Shadow, by Minette Walters.

The Revelation, by Bentley Little.
Nazareth Hill, by Ramsey Campbell.
Fevre Dream, by George R. R. Martin.
The Werewolf Of Paris, by Guy Endore.
Mine, by Robert McCammon.
Spawn, by Shaun Hutson.
The Tommyknockers, by Stephen King.
Ghost Story, by Peter Straub.
Roof World, by Christopher Fowler.
Sweetheart, Sweetheart, by Bernard Taylor.
Homebody, by Orson Scott Card.
Watchers, by Dean Koontz.
Nathaniel, by John Saul.
The Vampire Tapestry, by Suzy McKee Charnas.
The Totem, by David Morrell.
The Light At The End, by John Skipp and Craig Spector.
Lowland Rider, by Chet Williamson.
The Keep, by F. Paul Wilson.
The Golden, by Lucius Shepard.
Off Season, by Jack Ketchum.
The Dark, by James Herbert.
Soul Eater, by K. W. Jeter.
Dark Winds, by Graham Watkins.

Greener Than You Think, by Ward Moore.
'48, by James Herbert.
Fade Out, by Patrick Tilley.
After London, by Richard Jefferies.
The Death Of Grass, by John Christopher.
Fire, by Alan Rodgers.
Chasm, by Stephen Laws.
Fire Lance, by David Mace.
Dr Bloodmoney, by Philip K. Dick.
The Drowning Towers (aka The Sea And Summer), by George Turner.
Davy, by Edgar Pangborn.
The Long Tomorrow, by Leigh Brackett.
Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank.
The Night Land, by William Hope Hodgson.
Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.
Faraday's Orphans, by N. Lee Wood.
Swan Song, by Robert McCammon.
The Stand, by Stephen King.
The Crystal World, by J. G. Ballard.
Central Heat, by David Dvorkin.
Greybeard, by Brian Aldiss.
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson.
Blood Music, by Greg Bear.
Oryx And Crake, by Margaret Atwood.
The Devil's Day (combines Black Easter, and its sequel, Day After Judgement), by James Blish.
The Day Of The Triffids, by John Wyndham.
Ill Wind, by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason.

Some key titles I haven't read yet:

The Last Man, by Mary Shelley.
The Last Canadian, by William C. Heine.
Rule Britannia, by Daphne du Maurier.
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut.
Children Of Men, by P. D. James.
Damnation Alley, by Roger Zelazny.

I think I shall read the following, next:

The Likeness, by Tana French.
The Little Book, by Selden Edwards.
Bear Island, by Alistair Maclean.

The Bear Who Went Down The Mountain, by William Kotzwinkle.
Time Bomb, by Gerald Seymour.
P. G. Wodehouse: A Porrtait Of A Master, by David A. Jasen.

(that is the tentative plan in the coming weeks)

96 pages into The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and really enjoying it. Most likely going to read The Bear Who Went Over The Mountain, by William Kotzwinkle, next.

For Whom The Bell Tolls
Little Dorrit
Uncle Silas
Jude The Obscure
Middlemarch
The Last Man
Animal Farm
Witch Wood
Crime And Punishment
The Trial
To Kill A Mockingbird
Nostromo
Cat's Cradle

Timeline, by Michael Crichton. About what I expected after 100 pages: I'm not sure he's got anything new to add to the time-travel genre, but he does it very well.

Twisted, by Jay Bonansinga, is set in New Orleans.

An Ordinary Spy, by Joseph Weisberg, most likely followed by Incompetence, by Rob Grant. My big choice for this month will probably be The Monk, by Matthew 'Monk' Lewis.

Temple, by Matthew Reilly.
The Wandering Jew, by Eugene Sue.
The Thieves Of Faith, by Richard Doetsch.
Frost Of Heaven, by Junius Podrug.
Final Theory, by Mark Alpert.
The List Of 7, by Mark Frost.
Black Order, by James Rollins.
Walking The Shadows, by Donald James.
Labyrinth, by Mark. T. Sullivan.
The Descent, by Jeff Long.
The Heir Hunter, by Chris Larsgaard.
The Mystery Of The Dead Man's Riddle (Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators #22), by William Arden.

Let me also just say quickly that I don't think I could get anything out of re-reading The Painted Bird that I didn't already get the first time around. I loved it, in its awful way, I enjoyed it as much as you could enjoy a book like that. But I have no real reason to experience it again. I get what it's about, and I don't really need to relive it. The book is about the level of cruelty humans really are capable of, and the only way to show that, is to show it. Over and over again. To set a kid loose in hell, with a dispassionate narrator who doesn't even seem to have any human connection to what is happening either, no matter how horrible. Being in hell as goin' out for groceries. Person being eaten by dogs, just another day in hell.

The book wiped me out, I give you that. I was left deadened by it, and was glad to be released from it. But it accomplished, with me, what it was written to accomplish; it is the perfect form for what it is. And that's enough from me, I think.