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

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by Stephjk

Thanks for the advice, I'm off to investigate the best one for me!

Please tell us which translation you pick and why. Thank you and happy reading!

[samhy]

This is not a what-I-am-reading post, but a what-am-I-going-to-read one. I hope it's still the right place.

I have four Jo Nesbø books on my TBR pile: The Snowman (#7), The Redbreast (#3), Nemesis (#4) and The Devil's Star(#5).
Do you know if the order is important? Can I start with The Redbreast or should I go for #1, whatever this one is?

Thank you!

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

I'm currently re-reading
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L Shirer. (1960)

I read this more or less non-stop back around 1965, in the Pan Paperback edition, which I still have, much battered about but still, amazingly, holding together despite being over 1400 pages!

Shirer was a US newspaper correspondent based in Berlin until 1940, and who had access to the vast captured German files after the war. He could easily read German, and so didn't have to wait for translations.

This was the first general history of Nazism and the 3rd Reich, and still the easiest to read; Shirer's journalism skill showing through. It is a monumental bit of research.

If you want the whole appalling story in one book, which is not a dry-as-dust historians' approach, and you don't mind that Shirer's justified indignation tends to give it flavour, this is it.

I'd hate to make an e-book out of it. There are well over 1300 source reference in the text, and probably close to 1,000 footnotes. It would be a nightmare sorting that lot out.

Shirer also wrote Berlin Diary, a day-by-day of his experiences in Germany from 1934 to 1941. He does acknowledge that he wrote it with the intention to eventually publish it, so you do have to wonder how much editing he was doing as he went along. Still, an interesting outsider's view of Nazi Germany. In the pre-war period.

[bfisher]

I recently finished Michael Dibdin's The last Sherlock Holmes Story - an interesting twist, but an unconvincing ending.

I am halfway through Douglas Lindsay's The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson. It is hilarious. It feels like the novel of a Mel Brooks script about a serial killer.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by samhy

This is not a what-I-am-reading post, but a what-am-I-going-to-read one. I hope it's still the right place.

I have four Jo Nesbø books on my TBR pile: The Snowman (#7), The Redbreast (#3), Nemesis (#4) and The Devil's Star(#5).
Do you know if the order is important? Can I start with The Redbreast or should I go for #1, whatever this one is?

Thank you!

The Bat is #1 and it is set in Australia. I started with The Redbreast since it's the first of the Oslo Trilogy (The Redbreast, Nemesis, and The Devil's Star) and The Bat hadn't been released in English yet (it's available now). I'll probably go back and read The Bat next, but I'm not sure it matters that much what order you read the books in.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by Synamon

The Bat is #1 and it is set in Australia. I started with The Redbreast since it's the first of the Oslo Trilogy (The Redbreast, Nemesis, and The Devil's Star) and The Bat hadn't been released in English yet (it's available now). I'll probably go back and read The Bat next, but I'm not sure it matters that much what order you read the books in.

Thank you Synamon
I have the same trilogy (bought today with a 30% discount ) and I think I'll start with The Redbreast too.
I have always read Agatha Christie's books as I found them, no special order, and it was never an issue.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by samhy

I have always read Agatha Christie's books as I found them, no special order, and it was never an issue.

There are quite a few cases where both Poirot and Miss Marple refer to early cases, so you could encounter "spoilers" by reading in the wrong order.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There are quite a few cases where both Poirot and Miss Marple refer to early cases, so you could encounter "spoilers" by reading in the wrong order.

That is right. Some of the Poirot novels I've read make references to previous cases which is why l prefer reading them in chronological order.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There are quite a few cases where both Poirot and Miss Marple refer to early cases, so you could encounter "spoilers" by reading in the wrong order.

Thank you for pointing this. I guess I haven't read enough to encounter those cases. Or it was so spread through the years that I have forgotten

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I will start Swift Brutal Retaliation by Meghan McCarron on my way home today.

I have a long flight tomorrow and will probably start The Short Victorious War by David Weber (Honor Harrington 3) for the trip.

I finished Swift Brutal Retaliation on April 22nd, but didn't have time to post then. It really wasn't my type of read, but since it was nominated for a Nebula Award I wanted to try it.

I am really enjoying the Honor Harrington books and will definitely be back to this series relatively soon. I didn't get a chance to even start the HH book until 5/7 due to our schedule (and flying with two kids who needed entertained).

For now I am going to read the May book club selection The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, the first of the Philip Marlowe mysteries.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

If it's even half as good as the 1946 Bogart/Bacall movie, it will be a great read! That was as much a classic as 'The African Queen!'


Stitchawl

Almost 70 pages in and I'm enjoying The Big Sleep.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by samhy

This is not a what-I-am-reading post, but a what-am-I-going-to-read one. I hope it's still the right place.

I have four Jo Nesbø books on my TBR pile: The Snowman (#7), The Redbreast (#3), Nemesis (#4) and The Devil's Star(#5).
Do you know if the order is important? Can I start with The Redbreast or should I go for #1, whatever this one is?

Thank you!

The first book in the series is The Bat. I would go at this series in order. It's quite possible for there to be spoilers in later books for earlier books. Also, character development doesn't flow as well.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by bfisher

I recently finished Michael Dibdin's The last Sherlock Holmes Story - an interesting twist, but an unconvincing ending.

I am halfway through Douglas Lindsay's The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson. It is hilarious. It feels like the novel of a Mel Brooks script about a serial killer.

I enjoyed The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson so much that I had to get the complete set.

I'm trying to eke it out by reading other books on my TBR. I've just started Laurence Ree's Hitler's Charisma.

[CRussel]

Finished Darkover Landfall, the precursor to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books. I'm going to start working my way through them again. I mostly read these as they were released, and never revisited. But now that I have many as eBooks (and the rest available to scan if I feel motivated), it's time read them again. It really was a remarkable "series" of books, and some were truly excellent, at least if my memory has any vailidity. Landfall was good, not great, but what I expected for when it was written and what it had to do.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, July/August 2013. I'm also reading the serial from the last three issues (conclusion in this issue).

The serial was OK, but I found the initial plan implausible at best. Given the problem, I could think of many much better solutions than the one chosen.

Onto the rest of the current issue...