Currently reading Run by Blake Crouch

Finished Donna Tart's The Goldfinch, and onto The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Turned out better than it started. Good read.

Let's see...I just finished the following:

Carolyn See's "Golden Days"
- Absolute garbage. One of, if not the worst book I've ever read. I don't really know how I ended up with this book. Thought it was a loaner from a friend, and figured I'd read it and give it back. It wasn't. Tragically. Based on mid-80's California before/during/after a nuclear war. Characters are poorly fleshed out and utterly unbelievable. I seriously could not finish this book fast enough.

Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken"
- Pretty good, quick read from the author of "Seabiscuit." Story about Louie Zamperini, a former Olympic runner and WWII POW. Well written with good flow. The one thing is, she picked a guy who's story was already told a number of times and was extremely well documented. That doesn't discount the quality of her writing, which is very good, but it was a very easy book to research in terms of a biographical novel.

Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael"
- The philosophical musings and teachings of the potential destruction or salvation of the planet by a sentient gorilla to an inquisitive 20-something aspiring writer looking for the meaning of life. Brings up some interesting, but basic societal mores relating to the human race and it's global impact. The plot becomes quite repetitious and a bit annoying due to that until the very end. Spurred me to once again pick up J.M. Roberts "A Short History of the World," which I'm currently about 1/4 of the way through.

This is pretty much my life.

The Jacksonian Promise: America 1815-1840, by Daniel Feller
American Slavery 1619-1877, by Peter Kolchin
A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837, by Paul E. Johnson
Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination, by Robert Abzug
The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (with a new Afterword!), by Charles E. Rosenberg

There are more, but I wouldn't want to bore you.

Sinister Entity by Hunter Shea

I recently listened to the audiobooks on both of those recently while getting some exercise and they were really enjoyable in that format.

Adding this to the top of the queue.

Next up I have been reading good things about is The Martian by Andy Weir.

I just finished two rock and roll memoirs that I really enjoyed.

The first was Things The Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) of the Eels. The second was It's So Easy... And Other Lies by Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver among others. Both were fairly easy reads but surprisingly well written. Both guys led pretty fascinating lives and experienced great tragedy. They don't have a lot in common beyond the fact that each of them moved to LA with almost nothing but he clothes on their back and a car to make the trip in but somehow found a way to make a living by making music. One guy came from a highly dysfunctional family while the other came from a tight-knit, supportive one. One guy largely left drink and drug behind as he got into music while the other developed some serious substance abuse problems as he found more and more musical success. One guy was a loner while the other guy was very social and made friends easily.

Both are worth the read if you have any interest in this kind of thing.

I heard McKagan on Jim Rome a year or so ago and he was pretty engaging. It's kind of funny because athletes say almost nothing in interviews, but McKagan was just kind of like, "I'll talk about anything. I don't care."
He was an interesting interview.

Still reading the Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.

These are some long books...

I liked Run a lot; I've liked most of Crouchs work that I've read. I have book 3 of the Wayward Pines series on pre-order. The pines series is coming to TV on Fox soon.. I'm sure they'll muck it up.

I just finished reading A.G. Riddle's Atlantis Plague. It's the second book in this series (and his career I believe). I liked the books quite a bit. It showed up in my "You might be interested in" area on Amazon and had a lot of positive reviews for somebody I'd never heard of so I gave it a shot.

Reading Dr. Sleep by King about 350ish pages in. Pretty good so far

"We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It's an early dystopian novel that provided some inspiration for 1984 and brave new world.

Still still reading them. Yep. Long books.

Just finished I Am Jennie. Autobiography of Jennie Ketcham, AKA porn star Penny Flame and her exit from the business.

Other recent reads (or re-reads) include:

The Agent - Leigh Steinberg

Columbine - Dave Cullen

Galveston - Nic Pizzolatto

The Hot House - Pete Earley

No Angel - Jay Dobyns

Yeah I liked it. Haven't started the Pines series yet but will soon.