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

[R J Askew]

I'm into LIFE AND FATE ... OK it's a pbook, but that's cool, right? It's like being in the core of an especially active thunder storm of words, action, characters, history, philosophy, history, wisdom, tragedy, wit and wonder. How can one man have seen so much, accumulated so many insights and images? The book has been rightly compared to WAR AND PEACE and is a hugely rewarding read. You can read it on several different levels. Those who love LORD OF THE RINGS wld have no trouble reading it if they take is as a preposterous fairy tale. In truth though, it is all shockingly true. I can't wait to get back to it in fact. Tis sooooo nourishing to read a great writer with a great story to tell. I have had tears in my eyes more than once. And chuckled out loud on trains more than once, too. The tears are highly unusual for me, so you can be assured that LIFE AND FATE is highly moving and rewarding read for those with the intellectual sinews to go with it. Brgds from grey old London. *bows*

(promotion deleted - moderator

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by R J Askew

Tis sooooo nourishing to read a great writer with a great story to tell. I have had tears in my eyes more than once. And chuckled out loud on trains more than once, too.

Would this great writer have name... or is that a secret?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Would this great writer have name... or is that a secret?

I suspect the book is Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

[shootingMaNs]

I just finished Supervolcano: Eruption by Harry Turtledove. I'm a little disappointed in it. I didn't get attached to a single character in the book. The volcanic eruption and effects were pretty much just a background occurrence to the story- I guess I would have liked to see more action where the volcano was concerned. It's supposed to be the first book in a new trilogy, but I don't think I'll be too interested in the next two books.

I'm currently reading the rest of The Christmas Books by Charles Dickens, and I may finally start 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by shootingMaNs

I just finished Supervolcano: Eruption by Harry Turtledove. I'm a little disappointed in it. I didn't get attached to a single character in the book. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

I seem to have that trouble with most of the Harry Turtledove books that I have read.
Apache

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I suspect the book is Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

Thanks!
I guess I could have looked it up myself (instead of being lazy), but I've found that titles are rarely as unique (not to mention as prominent) as we might think they are when discussing reading material/recommendations. So I tend to feel a bit under-equipped without at least the title and author when undertaking a search. It does seem fairly cut-and-dried with this particular book, though.

[taosaur]

I also intended to get into IQ84, but instead picked up (er... loaded) Norwegian Wood, which I'm really enjoying at about the halfway point. There are a lot of points of commonality with the other two Murakami books I've read--familiar qualities to the characters and situations, even if the specifics are different. I'm thinking the new Stephen King is up next, but I doubt I'll get into it until after the New Year.

I'm also listening to Ringworld on audio--I'll have to read more Larry Niven. His stuff never blows me away, but it's always a lot of fun: a great blend of humanity and mind-bending geekery.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by taosaur

I'm also listening to Ringworld on audio--I'll have to read more Larry Niven. His stuff never blows me away, but it's always a lot of fun: a great blend of humanity and mind-bending geekery.

His "The Magic Goes Away" fantasy is great, too. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be in ebook formats yet.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by taosaur

I also intended to get into IQ84, but instead picked up....

Just got it from the library.

[missimpossible]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I must admit, I thought that The Scar was better as well. It might be that I read it first.

Absolutely loved it! Actually, I love all of his books that I've read - he's my favourite author.

I've read about 60-70 pages so far and I love it already I had a feeling I would.

[anijh]

I read Hunger Games and Catching Fire this weekend. I plan to start Mockingjay tomorrow.

[MickeyC]

Just finished Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer and it was very interesting. Foer is a journalist who interviewed several participants in the World Memory Championships and then trained and entered the contest itself.

[poohbear_nc]

Just finished Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James. I approached it with some trepidation, fearing another "Jane Austen" girl detective mash-up or "Elizabeth Bennet - A Unsuitable Job for a Woman". But James instead displays her obvious familiarity with Austen, and her deep understanding of Austen's characters. In another thread, I complimented Anthony Horowitz for his ability to reproduce Conan Doyle's literary style in House of Silk. James has gone one better here - this is no pastiche, but rather an homage to Austen's style and characters. James seems to be channeling Austen as she continues the history of the Bennet girls in their marriages and subsequent lives. There's a murder of course, but no real detective work [which many disappointed readers are complaining about in 1 star reviews]. Instead James focuses on Elizabeth & Darcy - the impact of the murder on their lives and family. The prose is a wonderful mix of wry observation and sometimes caustic commentary on characters' actions - leavened with a deep understanding of motivation and personality. As I read along, I could hear the voice of Judi Dench in my head, savoring the wonderful vocabulary.
This is a book to read slowly and savor. Not a mystery, but a savoury delight!

[And I echo the review in the NYT Book Review - please, please write a follow-up to Northanger Abbey next!]

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by shootingMaNs

I just finished Supervolcano: Eruption by Harry Turtledove. I'm a little disappointed in it. I didn't get attached to a single character in the book.

Originally Posted by Apache

I seem to have that trouble with most of the Harry Turtledove books that I have read.

Turtledove is kind of like that. He seems to be really more attached to telling the ideas that make up the story, than the characters who live through it.

That said, I did quite enjoy his alt-Shakespearean Ruled Britannia, which I felt did a really good job of incorporating the characters personalities into affecting the changed-world of the story, and In the Presence of Mine Enemies, while a bit more "big concept"-oriented, was mostly pretty decent in that regard, I thought.

I wonder if their being standalone instead of his usual trilogy+ makes a difference.

As for me, I did a quickie read of a freebie short story, Making Room at Christmas which ties into the cozy-looking LGBT "Charlotte Diamond Mysteries" by Olivia Stowe.

It was a lightweight bit of fluff that seemed charming enough that I went and picked up the rest of the series which was on offer at "buy the first 4 @ 20%+ off, then get the 5th for free" as Rainbow eBooks' weekend special, which was my primary reason for even trying the story.

But it was really much more of a slice-of-life vignette piece which seemed to end rather abruptly with the apparent "crisis" resolved at the point where I thought there was going to be a surprise!murder found amongst the stranded guests hastily shoved into the emergency B&B accommodations, or at the very least, some stolen Christmas cookies for the retired FBI-now-amateur sleuth to show off her detective skills.

So I actually had to download the samples for the full novels from Amazon to read on my Kindle to see if it really was something I wanted to spend the < $8 on for all five books. But from the 2nd onward, they did read promisingly enough that I went ahead and splurged because it's a DRM-free MultiFormat retailer with a good offer and I'll be supporting a niche-ish specialty subgenre (as far as the non-porn versions go) I somewhat like where the author seems reasonably competent as far as stringing together coherent grammatical sentences into a semblance of an understandable plot goes (sadly somewhat rare in small-press work in certain niche-ish specialty subgenres, unfortunately).

Protip for any aspiring authors who frequent this thread: when writing a tie-in story as a promo to showcase your series, it might be a good idea to have it be a full story that's reasonably representative of what the series is actually like, plot and dénouement-wise. I imagine it would be pretty hard to sell on pure character fluff, at least to total strangers.

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Just finished Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James. I approached it with some trepidation, fearing another "Jane Austen" girl detective mash-up or "Elizabeth Bennet - A Unsuitable Job for a Woman". But James instead displays her obvious familiarity with Austen, and her deep understanding of Austen's characters. In another thread, I complimented Anthony Horowitz for his ability to reproduce Conan Doyle's literary style in House of Silk. James has gone one better here - this is no pastiche, but rather an homage to Austen's style and characters. James seems to be channeling Austen as she continues the history of the Bennet girls in their marriages and subsequent lives. There's a murder of course, but no real detective work [which many disappointed readers are complaining about in 1 star reviews]. Instead James focuses on Elizabeth & Darcy - the impact of the murder on their lives and family. The prose is a wonderful mix of wry observation and sometimes caustic commentary on characters' actions - leavened with a deep understanding of motivation and personality. As I read along, I could hear the voice of Judi Dench in my head, savoring the wonderful vocabulary.
This is a book to read slowly and savor. Not a mystery, but a savoury delight!

[And I echo the review in the NYT Book Review - please, please write a follow-up to Northanger Abbey next!]

Thank you for this, Poohbear. P D James is an author I enjoy, though some of her more recent books have been a bit overblown. I'm so glad she did a good job channeling Austen and look forward to reading the book. I don't think my "to be read" list is going to get shorter any time soon!