Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by caleb72

One of my favourite books. I don't know if I'll ever find the time required to read it again, but it placed Stephenson up there as one of my favourite authors.

Yes, it is quite something. Even when nothing much happens it's so beautifully written it keeps you spellbound.

[fantasyfan]

I read Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang by Emma Thompson. She shows some effective wit and by-and-large it's a fairly successful pre-teen book, though perhaps it could do with a little less of nudge, nudge, wink, wink authorial narration. And some strings are left a bit hanging at the end--something children will certainly notice.

Very interesting, too, is the diary which is more-or-less an entertaining "making of the film" . She alternates "Story" chapters with "Diary chapters so that the reader can simply skip the diary and read the entire narrative in sequence or vice-versa.

The little glossary at the end is most informative. I now know what "grips" and "gaffers" are and have some conception of the complex directorial hierarchy. Film credits will mean a great deal more to me now!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

*shrug*

I will say this upfront, I don't agree with Rand's ideology, at least what I see as a very rigid portrayal of what and who is right and wrong in this book.

Setting that aside, I enjoyed reading Atlas Shrugged, despite what I consider serious flaws in plot, dialogue, and character development. Her prose has been described as dense and wooden, but I would even say that she is under-appreciated as a stylist because of her very visual descriptions of scenery.

I think Atlas Shrugged is worth reading at least once, to see what the fuss is about and be able to discuss it intelligently. I plan on reading it again.

The problem with Atlas Shrugged is the words. If we removed them, we'd have a very short and easy to read book.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Just finished both Winter's Bone and The Silmarillion.

What did you think of The Silmarillion?

[JSWolf]

Earlier today I finished Among Others by Jo Walton. I highly recommend it. It was an excellent read. I really enjoyed the ending.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What did you think of The Silmarillion?

I had read it once, a long time ago. I enjoyed it more on second reading because I really had a feel for Tolkien's world and his language.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I had read it once, a long time ago. I enjoyed it more on second reading because I really had a feel for Tolkien's world and his language.

It's like reading the Bible. It really does have the "feel" of a religious text to it. Takes a while to get into the spirit of the thing. Not easy reading, but very rewarding if you still with it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's like reading the Bible. It really does have the "feel" of a religious text to it. Takes a while to get into the spirit of the thing. Not easy reading, but very rewarding if you still with it.

I've read it and found it dull. But that was some time ago.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Earlier today I finished Among Others by Jo Walton. I highly recommend it. It was an excellent read. I really enjoyed the ending.

Oh yes, a very good book and the ending actually worked. I was afraid that the books was going to have the kind of ending I do not like but fortunately it did not.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tompe

Oh yes, a very good book and the ending actually worked. I was afraid that the books was going to have the kind of ending I do not like but fortunately it did not.

The last entry (ending) was quite emotional too.

[Apache]

I just finished Steve Perry's The Ramal Extraction: Cutter's Wars.
It was an enjoyable read.
Apache

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Now on to "Terminal Freeze" by Lincoln Child, a thriller about a group of scientists who undercover something strange in a cave beneath a melting glacier in Alaska.

I very much enjoyed this - a classic "hunt to kill a nasty monster before it kills you" story. Ludicrously implausible, of course, but fun to read.

On now to "The Wench is Dead" - the 8th "Inspector Morse" novel, by Colin Dexter.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Farlight by Michael Swanson

If I've read it before, I'd completely forgotten it. Although readable, it has too much of pulp superscience in it for modern SF (which it is - written after 2001), and I won't be looking out for any more by this author in particular.

And with this book, my TBR pile has dropped below 300 for the first time since I started keeping a record of it in 2010!

Next: Dragon Ship by Lee and Miller. Not actually from my TBR pile. This one I've borrowed.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I've been reading a lot of creative non-fiction essays (cause I enjoy it and that's what I'm working on writing). Just read one by Janet Burroway last night that blew me away called "Embalming Mom" - it was definitely a different tact/style/approach than I think I've ever seen in non-fiction - somewhat surreal. I do not find it online anywhere, but I read it in the "TouchStone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction" - http://www.amazon.com/Touchstone-Ant.../dp/1416531742
...

I finished reading this book as of yesterday. I'd give it a 4/5 stars. It is particularly of interest to anyone wanting to read non-fiction with more of a narrative, discriptive, story approach which is what Creative non-fiction is about. True stories but told more in the manner of fiction.

Stories of note in this were:

The Fourth State of Matter - Jo Ann Beard
- (available here in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/199...urrentPage=all
Embalming Mom - Janet Borroway
Visitor - Michael W. Cox (very chilling)
Leap - Brian Doyle (a take on the Twin Towers Disaster)
- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...ions/leap.html
Small Rooms in Time - Ted Kooser (a memoir by a past Poet Laureate)
The Undertaking - Thomas Lynch
- (there was a Frontline Show based on this: http://video.pbs.org/video/1082075672/)
The Love of My Life - Cheryl Strayed
- (this is kind of the lead-in to "Wild" her latest best selling Story of Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail)

it also includes Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace which I've yet to be able to read and do not 'get' the fascination people have with him.

[ucfgrad93]

I am currently reading The Sundered (Star Trek Lost Era I) on my Kindle.