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I really, really hated The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Bloated, plodding, lacking any attempt at characterization, poorly researched, and full of cockamamie plot contrivances.

I'm with a bunch of soldiers from the Malazan 14th. The city we were fighting in has burned down around us, and we're following a rat, underground, in the dark, the air's getting thin and we're feeling the heat. We're tunneling through piles of rubble, trying to get out. I'm claustrophobic...

I liked these too. My only complaint is that I never got a sense of time or place -- the stage was bare. It didn't bother me all that much, but it was unsettling.

Recently bankrupt and bailed out AIG just spent half a mil sending some of their executives to a posh resort in California. Is this how they're gonna spend our money? I was suspicious when we didn't see anyone jumping out of windows on Wall Street. They knew there'd be a safety net, and...

Aha! I'll remember that. So I guess I checked the right box. :)

I'm not really Stewart, but I don't know enough about the situation to have an informed opinion. At first I thought "Leave it alone -- let those companies fail" -- but then they started fear mongering about the credit crunch, and I worried about Main Street (sorry -- everyone's sick of that...

Slaves of Solitude – Patrick Hamilton – general fiction about a single woman (think "spinster") living in a boardinghouse outside London during WWII. There was no plot to speak of -- it's more of a character study. Very compelling. Elleander Morning – Jerry Yulsman – fantasy/time travel --...

This thread might not be representative. It's getting harder for Republicans to defend the Palin choice -- maybe that's why they haven't been heard from here.

It's word salad, isn't it? Gotta get all those talking points in there, even if they're not relevant to the question. She may have done well in the Alaska debates because she knows about Alaska's issues, or maybe her competition wasn't that great. I've watched some snippets of those debates...

I was amazed at her convention speech. She was snide and sarcastic but she was also assured and forceful. But everything I've seen since then -- especially the Couric interview, which should have been easy -- makes me wonder if she's ever had an original thought. She's had a couple weeks to...

Oh, it is. There's another novelization about the incident, but it's not nearly as well-written as Dash's book. This is one of the many historical incidents that I think of when people bemoan modern day atrocities. There's always been craziness. :)

Another vote for Sacred Hunger by Unsworth. Also The Middle Passage by Charles Johnson, Voyage of the Narwahl by Andrea Barrett, The Terror by Dan Simmons, and twelve big thumbs up for English Passengers by Matthew Kneale, one of the best books I've ever read. Oh, and Batavia's Graveyard by...

Excuse me while I grab a napkin. :) I like novels about small town life too. I wish there was a name for the genre so it'd be easier to find those books. Ordinary people are a nice change from cops, detectives, lawyers, etc. Have you read Knockemstiff by Donald Pollock? A bit gritty...

It's not a series yet -- the second book won't be out until next year -- but The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is getting generally good reviews from fantasy readers. I didn't think I'd like it. The jacket blurb put me off -- it made the hero sound like an arrogant jackass. But I read...

I know diddly squat about MFA programs, but many of my favorite writers have backgrounds in journalism and law -- fields where the ability to write and communicate clearly is important. Maybe good writing can't be taught in a classroom, but I'd argue that poor writing can be improved there.

George R. R. Martin -- he's never disappointed. He writes like a reader. He tells good stories with respect for his audience, and respect for his characters. I feel this way about David Mitchell too, and Ron Hansen. Pat Barker and Margaret Laurence because of their sharp observational...

I'm in a Benedictine monastery in the south of England in 1537, working with Matthew Shardlake to solve a murder. It's snowing here.

I just started Dissolution today. I like that Matthew has young Mark with him to ask questions about what's going on with Cromwell and the monasteries. The info dump doesn't seem so much like an info dump. :) I'm partial to imperfect heroes. One of my favorite books is Heart of the...

Whenever I hear complaints about email, they're talking about Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail. The impression I get from that is that these services could be more secure and more reliable.

What I don't understand is why anyone, let alone a State Governor, would use Yahoo (or Hotmail or gmail etc.), even for personal correspondence. I smell a rat. Not sure what kind of rat, but definitely a rat.