Hey, that's why I want to hear your perspective.

New Pynchon book in the works.

So anyone reading/read the latest Kushiel book? I'm about 3/4 done now...

I finished Kushiel's Scion over the weekend. I liked it. It did what I needed and expected to do, which was provide with an excuse to revisit a favorite place. It doesn't compare to my deep love for the first series (especially Kushiel's Dart ), but I was surprised by how easily I was able to accept this as Imriel's story. I appreciated that I didn't anticipate parts of the plot.

Carey has some stylistic touches (continuous repetition of choice phrases) that tend to drive me nuts. I thought she had grown past them throughout the first trilogy, but I noticed them here and it occasionally took me out of the story. Maybe I had just gotten used to the style over the course of the first three books and stopped letting it bug me.

I missed Phedre and Joscelin though.

I found it odd (not reallly a spoiler) that since her voice was so similar in this one as in the Phedre ones, in some ways, that it didn't feel that different. Which doesn't sound like what i mean. Um. Imriel. Boy. V. different from Phedre. All that jazz. And yet, Carey's voice is so overpowering...but I LIKE it, so not *really* a problem, just a little odd. Generally did enjoy it, though not as much as the original books (or rather, the original book--the other two got a bit too freaky for me in places, though always interesting). This one was....easier. Which made it slightly less interesting, but I so continue to love the world she's created...Next time, more kinky sex!!

I wonder when the next book will come out. The first three seemed to come out pretty quickly, but I hate to hope "quickly" and then have them suck because they were written fast!

Picked up copies of Anthony Bourdain's THE NASTY BITS (basically an anthology of short pieces) and Bill Burford's HEAT.

Read several of the Bourdain pieces, which are amusing as usual, though he's mellowed a bit, and last night started in on the Burford, which is more of straight narrative. Just from the opening where Burford describes how he met Mario Batali, decided to go work for him, and also gives a bit of background on Batali's life and career, Malto Mario already makes Bourdain look like a piker in the excessive living department, which I find hella amusing.

I like the fact that Bourdain's show on Travel Channel comes with a parental warning. Must be all the drinking and smoking and snarking at Rachael Ray.

Must be all the drinking and smoking and snarking at Rachael Ray.

Well, he's got to have someone to whale on now that he's gone all mea culpa about Emeril.

Has anyone read Bleak House ?

How does it end? I just finished the BBC adaptation with Gillian Anderson and it was great--twisty plots and a million colorful characters--but it really sort of fell apart in the last episode. I feel like it was missing some crucial piece of plot. Lady Dedlock dies and I'm expecting Esther is going to get something out of that but nothing happens. Lady Dedlock's husband recovers from his stroke and is sad and wishes she had known it wouldn't have mattered to him but that's it. Is it supposed to echo the whole Jarndyce v. Jarndyce case? So much energy and time and lives went into the case and when it was settled any money from it was eaten up in court costs? Did I just miss the point?

I'm reading Bleak House right now!

Of course, I'm about 50 pages in, so it'll probably take a while for me to finish it.