For the time being at least, WAYR will be posted on Wednesday mornings.
For those who are new ... we discuss books. I list what I'm reading, and people comment with what they're reading. Sometimes a post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
Just the usual diary this week.
cfk has Bookflurries on Wednesday nights, with links to lots of other diaries about books and reading on daily Kos.
sarahnity has Books by kossacks on Tuesdays.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
On Sunday mornings, I write "Let's read a book together" - we started Guns Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond, with the preface; this week, Chapter 1.
Just finished
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. This is a combination of noir mystery and high tech SF. It's the 25th century. People change bodies easily. There have been all sorts of technical developments, but there are still the same sorts of crimes, and the same sort of private detectives, like Takeshi Kovacs. Not bad, but it got kind of confusing at the end.
The Dragon Scroll by IJ Parker. A mystery set in 11th century Japan. Pretty good. Lots of action, plots, and romance too.
Now reading
Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. This is the sequel to The Sparrow which you should definitely read first. I've just started C of G, but The Sparrow was an astonishingly good first novel, about alien contact, but also about the meaning of faith, the nature of love, what morality is, and what it means to be civilized.
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. As noted above, we will be reading this in Let's Read a Book Together on Sunday. This is an attempt to answer the question: Why do the Eurasians and their descendants have all the stuff, while the people of the Americas, Africa, and Australia have very little?
Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud by Peter Watson. Astonishing in its depth and breadth. Watson integrates everything together, writes very well, and has a great eye for the telling detail. I am re-reading this - my first reading impressed me a lot.
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore. In a little California town, a psychiatrist decides to give all her patients placebos, a prehistoric beast wakes up and terrorizes the town, while the town constable (who is always high) has to investigate. Very funny stuff.