Timeless by Gail Carriger: Good reading! Stuff gets real in this book. We’re sad this 5-book series is over, but eagerly await the next two series.
Sylvester, or, The Wicked Uncle: by Georgette Heyer. An amusing premise for a romance!
Chasing The Moon by A Lee Martinez: light and fun and very silly.
Knave in Hand, by Laurence Janifer: I don’t know where we got this, but I enjoyed it. Maybe there’s a sequel, somewhere around, like 30 years ago?
The Mostly True Story of Jack: This is a new author to watch out for. Her writing style is reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones or Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
Nurture Shock: Not bad. It’s more Malcolm Gladwell than the kind of (non-work) non-fiction I usually read (which hasn’t been much recently). Very easy to digest, not much depth though.
(By the same author: #2 has also read What Should I do with My Life?)
You’re not fooling anyone when you take your laptop into a coffeeshop. By Scalzi. We both love grade-A snark.
Wrapped, by Jennifer Bradbury: We already talked about this one in a previous what are we reading, but now #1 has read it! She loves it too and eagerly awaits new books by the author (especially if there’s a sequel!) Another relatively recent author to watch out for (we see there’s a 2008 novel as well– it doesn’t look as “frothy” though).
#2 has been reading a lot of books about horses. I’ve gotten to the point in my riding lessons where reading a book would actually be interpretable. So far, so good.
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury: a slim book, worth reading, but not worth keeping. I just don’t want to hear that many stories about boyhood in the past.
Meanwhile…
This PSA has been brought to you by Grumpy Rumblings.
What are you reading?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
April 17, 2012 at 6:01 am
The book one is so true. My husband isn’t a huge book-worm, and he didn’t read much when we met (he reads a lot more now, mostly due to my habit of reading before bed — he started picking up books too). But even when I first met him, he still had a bookshelf with books on it. Sure, they were all non-fiction. But it’s easier to amend a habit than to create one.
April 17, 2012 at 7:48 am
I’m reading Timeless now, too. I didn’t realize it was the last in the series, though. :(
I have no idea what I’ll be reading next. I have quite a few books loaded on my ereader so I can pick and choose what I feel like reading when.
I’m curious about work reading: can you do it during your work time? I’ve been trying to find some time to fit some reading into my work day, but it seems impossible. Since the end of my work day is whenever I have worked myself into a state of such diminished efficiency that I simply have to stop, doing reading “after work” isn’t possible. What do you do?
April 17, 2012 at 8:09 am
#1 says: For me work reading generally happens when I’m stuck somewhere, like on a plane, stuck in a meeting/lousy seminar, etc.
Sometimes I’ll do it when I get sick. Sometimes I’ll take a weekend day and reward myself with a fun book… so it’ll be one work article, one chapter of a fun book, one work article, one chapter of a fun book… and so on, until the pile is diminished.
And sometimes I have to do the reading under time pressure, in which case I try to set aside an hour during the day to do it, generally followed by an hour of writing. It seems to go slower when I do it at work though.
April 17, 2012 at 8:41 am
I am reading “RNA: Life’s Indispensible Molecule”, by James Darnell. The first part of the book is a fascinating history of the major discoveries concerning the roles of RNA in cellular function, including message RNA, transfer RNA as the locus for the genetic code, ribosomes, transcription, and splicing. Darnell was part of some of this history, and there is neat stuff about the personalities, conflicts, and controversies. Sadly, the second half of the book is a painfully boring, dry recitation of the more recent understanding of regulation of transcription and RNA function, and–unlike the first half–conveys none of the scientific excitement.
The funny thing is that Darnell explicitly acknowledges this, stating apologetically at the beginning of the second half that instead of engaging the history and the personalities like in the first half, he is only going to summarize the state of the field. If he knew this shitte was gonna be boring, why the fucke did he do itte?
April 17, 2012 at 11:07 am
Sometimes boring stuff is important? At least that’s what we tell our students about the less fascinating required classes…
April 17, 2012 at 9:17 am
Trying to get through Decipher, when I have the time. Lots of fun physics and mythology-type stuff.
I have to laugh at the picture. When I met my husband and first when to his place, I found a basement lined with bookshelves. I instantly decided that I was going to have to date him long enough to get through a decent chunk of the books. When he informed his brother he’d started dating me, he asked if I also had the complete works of Asimov in my library. After a while, I discovered that my reading pace is so slow that I finally relented and just married him. :-)
April 17, 2012 at 11:06 am
A totally valid reason to marry someone!
(I admit, before completely committing to my partner, I had to meet the guy I’d been borrowing books from through his brother. I think the guy thought I was crazy– his brother already knew I was.)
April 17, 2012 at 9:48 am
Just finished Timeless. She did an excellent job with the series and I’m sad to see it end. I think I want to go back to the beginning and read the whole series through without stopping.
I also just read the most recent book in Spellman series by Lisa Lutz. Have you read these books? I think you’d like them.
Up next? Good question. I am once again to that place where I’m waiting on my favorite authors to publish new stuff. Considering they all released books very recently, it might be a long wait.
April 17, 2012 at 11:32 am
I’m reading self help books about people who have multiple interests and so have a hard time choosing what to do with their lives. Or have really good careers but feel restless and bored in them.(That second one REALLY resonates with me right now!) I just finished Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher, and am now reading Renaissance Soul by someone whose name I can’t remember. Not great literature, but really useful for me given where I am right now. I’ll probably blog about them when I’m done with both and have had time to think about what they taught me. I highly recommend reading one or the other to anyone who meets one of the two criteria I put at the top of the comment. I don’t know yet which one I recommend more, yet, though!
April 18, 2012 at 9:29 am
Cloud, I’m downloading that Barbara Sher book now. I’m in the same situation as you. It’s hard to walk away from a great job/career, but I am so restless, unhappy and burnt out. Thanks for the recommendation!
April 17, 2012 at 1:19 pm
I read the Hunger Games trilogy last week when classes ended. They reminded me of the little I remember of Juxtaposition by Piers Anthony. I have to study for finals this week. One of my professors is in the process of writing his own book on the course subject. Guess what we read this semester.
April 17, 2012 at 4:35 pm
I just re-read three Dick Francis thrillers, my “reading copies” that I am now about to give away. I’ll keep my first editions. Also the Nature Conservancy’s “Atlas of Global Conservation,” and Emma Marris’ “Rambunctious Gardener.”
April 17, 2012 at 4:35 pm
p.s. I loooooove that picture/quote. LOL
April 17, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Word. John Waters rocks. One of his movies actually does, too (Serial Mom).
Reading Anne Lamott’s “Operating Instructions,” Carl Sagan’s “The Demon-Haunted World” (a re-read), and “How To Train Your Dragon” by Cressida Cowell (co-reading with DS).
April 17, 2012 at 7:35 pm
I’m reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (just finished The Boleyn Inheritance) and Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman (probably the best hedge fund manager alive) on investing in value stocks. He makes a lot of good arguments against index investing and dollar cost averaging. But he makes me afraid that the world’s heading for a big recession and I should go cash… Oh, and on my nightstand is Help! by Oliver Burkeman. He writes a good column (“This column will change your life”) in The Guardian.
I’m trying to read a maximum of one fiction and one non-fiction per week. But Daniel Kahneman’s latest just came in at the library so this week it will be three. Maybe four.
April 18, 2012 at 6:39 am
I’m currently reading Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Lawrence Otto. It is a quick read and it has been interesting to see the history of the American public’s relationship with science. I also read the Hunger Games Trilogy the weekend before my job started.
April 18, 2012 at 7:05 am
We’ve read Fool Me Twice but the one by Matthew Hughes. Quite different!
April 18, 2012 at 1:30 pm
There are several other Gerald Knave books by Janifer – here’s a write-up I found: “The lively Gerald Knave, Survivor series – Survivor (1977), Knave in Hand (1979), Knave and the Game (coll of linked stories 1987), Alienist (2001 pod), The Counterfeit Heinlein (2001 pod) and Two (2003 pod) – feature an interplanetary troubleshooter, Knave…the last of them, with Knave now married, is perhaps the best.”
April 19, 2012 at 8:07 pm
I’m listening to the First Law series…almost done. Probably the best epic fantasy story I’ve read in years… Though the Codex Alera series was pretty good.
I am truly happy with my Audible subscription. I look forward to my commute each day.