Currently at my bedside…”Murder Can Kill Your Social Life” by Selma Eichler (a new gum shoe series I have discovered), “Loving Each One Best - A Caring & Pracical Approach to Raising Siblings” by Nancy Samalin, “Murder at the Gardner” by Jane Langton (just started this one given to me by good friend Chele)and just finished “Bloomability” by Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech, (loaned to me by my 13-year old neighbor Amanda) which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Cheryl , March 26, 2004 9:28 AM (#)

I just finished Die upon a Kiss, and am romping through Wet Grave, the latest two of Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January mysteries. Great historical atmosphere (they’re set in New Orleans in the mid-nineteenth century) starring a cultured, educated “free man of color”. Hambly’s research is impeccable, and her writing is entertaining. What I’m looking forward to — the NEXT book, which the owner of the new mystery book shop in town (I see my doom before me) has promised to lend me (advance readers’ copy).

CompassRose , March 26, 2004 9:40 AM (#)

Hi, well I have just started reading Free Culture of course! And I have also just started a new blog called hypulp.com. We document the influence of internet on print design. I hope you will swing by and discuss with us. cheers.

Paul Baron , March 26, 2004 9:49 AM (#)

Recently finished reading “Black Bird” by first-time novelist Michel Basilières. A dark, rich and humorous look at a rather bizarre family during the October Crisis in Montreal. A good read, but pales in comparison to anything ever written by Mordecai Richler. Speaking of Richler, also just finished “The Last Honest Man: Mordecai Richler: An Oral Biography” by Michael Posner. If you love Richler, this is a wonderful book. Am also going back and forth between a few other books: “Quirky QWERTY: A Biography of the Typewriter and its Many Characters”, “Alpha Beta: How Our Alphabet Shaped the Western World”, and “In The Stacks: Short Stories About Libraries and Librarians”.

patricia , March 27, 2004 9:07 AM (#)

I just finished reading a short story “0wnz0red” about hacking your own body and TCPA. Fun to see some fiction especially appealing to programmers, for a change. (Unix users will probably love it.)

Other than that I recently finished A Fire Upon the Deep and True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier, both by Vernor Vinge. The former is a SF with some very interesting aliens (“packs” thinking with sound) and tackling godlike superhuman intelligens with the concept of there being “zones” in the galaxy regulating how intelligent it is possible to be, meaning that lesser beings can exist in a kind of haven where higher beings can’t live. The latter is a long short story or a short novel and is about superhuman intelligens as well. Here however the setting is earth a bit in the future where people visualize the internet of the future as another world manipulated through “magic”. Moreover True Names was written before there really was an internet to speak of. The afterwords by Marvin Minsky are also very interesting, especially if you are into philosophy or AI.

Vaste , March 27, 2004 11:07 PM (#)

Currently: The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov. I’ve been working my way through all his books for a while now.

Soon: The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and whatever else is in the pile. It starts on the floor and is as high as my bedside table.

Su , March 30, 2004 10:35 AM (#)

Best books I’ve read recently: “Middlesex” and “Belle Canto”. Excellent writing.

Just read “Marysburg Chronicles” — cover design by Osprey? Full of typos. Grrrrr!

Kristin , March 30, 2004 2:36 PM (#)

Hey Kristen, yes, we designed the cover. Typos? That’s disgusting.

We have absolutely nothing to do with the interior of this book. I’m sorry.

Amanda , March 30, 2004 4:06 PM (#)

Just started “Middlesex” on the weekend. I can tell it’s gonna be a rich, delicious delight.

patricia , March 30, 2004 6:33 PM (#)

I’m reading Lord Halifax’s Ghost Stories but it’s slow going because the stories are giving me bad dreams.

Karen , March 31, 2004 6:49 AM (#)

Right now I’m reading Curious George.

Bailey Hewitt , March 31, 2004 6:50 AM (#)