thanks to spdwybabs for filling in last week.
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.
Just finished
Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. This is the sequel to The Sparrow which you should definitely read first. My full review of C of G is here, and my review of The Sparrow.
The Buck Passes Flynn by Greg McDonald. Flynn is a wonderful character - a Boston policeman with a large family, who also works for a secret organization known as "no name". In this one, he's investigating why someone gives $100,000 to each person in 2 towns and one department of the Penatagon. Nothing profound here, but lots of fun.
Shanghai Moon by SJ Rozan. I did not like this one as much as earlier novels in the Lydia Chin - Bill Smith series. My full review is
Now reading
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?
Year's Best Science Fiction by Gardner Dozois. In my opinion, the best of the annual anthologies.
Mistakes were made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris. All about cognitive dissonance and how we justify our own actions.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. A novel of ideas. Imagine a world, somewhat like Earth, but the monasteries are inhabited not by the religious as we would know them, but by devotees of math. Really really really a novel of ideas. Almost like a philosophy text embedded in novel.