I haven't been checking on here, or on the site in general, from quite some time, so here we go. I'm not sure in what order, in the past...weeks? months? I've read: The soul slayer by Paul Doherty. This one was pretty lame, a good concept (satanic deals, superpowers in medieval England) dealt with poor descriptive power and a boring style. Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard. A surprisingly good one. Surprisingly because it's not exactly my kind of novel, for the setting (Cuba), the tone (fast, direct, almost a movie script), the time period (1898). The mayan civilization by Eric J. Thompson. A great insight on one of the longest-lived continuous civilizations, and certainly the most sophisticated of the Americas (you gotta admit, combining love for life and nature with human sacrifice is pretty tough, and the Maya did it pretty well, at least in the classical and early post-classical periods, unlike the aztecs who were just bloodthirsty). Land of turkey and the deer, another book on the mayans, by Victor von Hagen. I think I've re-read it. It introduced me to the epic story of Gonzalo Guerrero, the man who resigned his faith and identity to become one with the mayans and go against his own native Spain. The search for the maya; the story of Stephens and Catherwood, yet another book on the mayans, always by von Hagen. I'm writing a novel set in the first half of the 16th century in mayan Mexico, that's why all this. This one deals with the rediscovery in the early 19th century of the forgotten ruins and civilizations of southern Mexico by two artists/travellers. The song of Solomon, from the Old Testament. A tender and tragic love story. I leave more complex interpretations to others, I liked it for what it seems to be. Right now I'm reading, at a very slow pace, I've got a job and got not much time, The journey to the west, a classical chinese novel dealing with the obnoxious, OP mythical monkey king Sun Wukong and his partecipation in the from-real-events-inspired travels of a monk from China to India to retrieve authentic buddhist texts. It's funny, and shows how mind-boggingly complex and absurd classical chinese religion and otherworldly affairs are (I hope no one gets offended by this statement).