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Been a while since I have been on this thread, had to do a search to see what the last book was that I said I had read.
Finished Beatrice and Virgil and, while the ending was a little disturbing, on the whole I enjoyed it more than Life of Pi which I liked. It was shorter and somehow a little more charming. The central character is very similar in voice to Pi and I suspect is Yann Martel's natural voice, however, I thought it was a little more relatable in the more autobiographical dimensions of the character in this book. Beatrice and Virgil are wonderful.
Then I read Duma Key which is probably the best Stephen King I have read in a long while, especially the beginning bits. As with most recent Stephen King's I enjoy them far more before they get to the harum scarum denouements.
Then I read Lost Souls - Frankenstein Rebooted by Dean Koontz. Big mistake, if you read the first trilogy and kind of enjoyed it and were thinking about picking this one up I don't recommend it. It is not good. And it does not stand alone, ending in a very unsatisfactory way that tries to push you forcibly to read the next one without really giving you anything to look forward to. Definitely smells of lucrative publisher's incentive because I don't think Dean Koontz' heart is in this one.
Now I am reading It Must Have Been Something I Ate which my friend and I jokingly refer to as being in the food porn category. The writing is so, so - a pale shadow of the great columnists like Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Bryson or Mary Roach who have made their non-fiction books come alive for me. However, the food descriptions (if you are into that sort of thing) are mesmerizing and I find myself alternating between drooling and trying to determine whether there will ever be a moment in my life where it would be reasonable for me to attempt to make a Turducken. I definitely have the gratin recipe bookmarked, and the preserves both of which sound totally doable and delicious. Not done it yet, it's moving slowly.
Mel
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