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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So on to Wolverine's Daughter by Doranna Durgin, bought in October 2003.

Well, I got side-tracked by two other old purchases,

Fantasy Adventures #1 edited by Philip Harbottle which I bought in October 2007 and Fantasy Adventures #2 also edited by Philip Harbottle which I bought in July 2003.

They are both miscellaneous collections of SF and fantasy, but are most notable for previously unpublished Dumarest stories, one per collection.[/INDENT]
I'm nearly finished with the second one, and then I'll move on to Wolverine's Daughter.

[CRussel]

Reading Wolf in Shadow by John Lambshead, a book I got in the latest Baen Monthly Bundle. I probably wouldn't have even read it, except that others have been saying good things about it. And they are right, it's quite fun.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I really liked Mystery at the Ski Jump as it was, as with all the Nancy Drew books, a fun and nostalgic read for me.

Flying Too High was a highly enjoyable read and I'll be going back after a short break to read the next of the Phryne Fisher mysteries.

The next one is The Clue of the Velvet Mask (Nancy Drew #30) by Carolyn Keene (Harriet Stratemeyer Adams) and I'm looking forward to it. It is written by a different ghost-writer.

Also, I'm reading a short story collection taking place in The Hollowsverse, Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond (The Hollows #10.1) by Kim Harrison.

The Clue of the Velvet Mask was a fun read as was Into the Woods.

I just began reading The Ringmaster's Secret (Nancy Drew #31) by Carolyn Keene (Harriet Stratemeyer Adams) and The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith (Pseudonym), J.K. Rowling.

[Fbone]

I read David Drake's Starliner. This reads like the author went on a cruise and then wrote a book about it adding a few sci-fi elements. "Sponge space" Please, skip this one. Rated D+ [2 stars]. Many many errors after OCR scan.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I read David Drake's Starliner. This reads like the author went on a cruise and then wrote a book about it adding a few sci-fi elements. "Sponge space" Please, skip this one. Rated D+ [2 stars]. Many many errors after OCR scan.

Was it anything like the liner section in Fledgling? That read like a description of any cruise.

[cortman]

Finished The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, and am now in the first half of Inferno, by Dante Alighieri. Very interesting so far.

[bfisher]

I finished John Burt's Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism. It was a long slog. I offer as a sample this sentence:
"it is a deliverance of phronetic practice, not the subject of an epistemic rule ..."
; Burt is a Professor of English at Brandeis

Nevertheless, I did feel that it offered some novel interpretations (to me) on the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Was it anything like the liner section in Fledgling? That read like a description of any cruise.

I haven't read Fledgling but I'm sure they're similar. It's like an episode or two of The Love Boat.

[Bompa]

I'm half way through Book # 20 of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series.
Sorry to see the series over but he does have Book #21 out there that was half finished when he died. Have to get if from Chapters soon.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I haven't read Fledgling but I'm sure they're similar. It's like an episode or two of The Love Boat.

[PurpleStar]

I finished Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. I thought it was an awesome book and I'd recommend it if you like Sci-Fi. I will definitely have to buy the other books in the series at some point. For now, I'm in the mood for some good old Star Trek. So I'm reading Devil's Bargain by Tony Daniel.

[Synamon]

My summer reads so far (some have been mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but I'll list them here for completeness):

Disgrace by Jussi Adler-Olsen, second in the Department Q series. Karl and Assad are back, this time with an unwanted assistant and a case that exposes some seriously depraved killers.

I read the rest of the Rabbi Small series (7 books in all) by Harry Kemelman. The mystery component of these books is secondary to the fascinating glimpse into a small fictional Jewish community and their unflappable rabbi.

XO by Jeffrey Deaver, the most recent in his Katherine Dance series. Fame and stalkers are the theme in this one. Plenty of suspects and a few twists and turns to stretch out the story, but Dance single-handedly figuring everything out was even more of a stretch.

Reliquary by Douglas & Child, second in the Alan Pendergast series. Many of the characters from the first book were back and this time the creepy setting was underneath the city. Kind of a urban Raiders of the Lost Ark feel to this series, fun adventure that doesn't stand up to much scrutiny.

Longitude by Dava Sobel. Very approachable non-fiction about the challenges the great minds of the day faced trying to come up with a reliable method of determining longitude at sea. Nowadays GPS helps us find our lost phone, back then men died when they got lost.

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, for the Literary bookclub. Generational epic of a family's decline.

The Litigators by John Grisham. The usual: evil companies, greed, young lawyer makes good, this time with a dash of ambulance chasing.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka JK Rowling. A well done modern take on the standard private eye story, with a healthy dose of scorn for the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The detective and his secretary were very likeable, sort of a Perry Mason / Della Street vibe there.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Now I'm reading an indie effort which promises to be a bit different - a LBGT historical drama. It's The Pretty Gentleman by Max Fincher and I'll be reviewing it for my site. It's about a wide-eyed young painter who falls for his patron and is eventually betrayed. So - here I go.

OK - I really enjoyed this one (4 - 4.5 stars). It's pacing is a bit bizarre and I really thought it was more of a coming-of-age historical drama, but then it turned into this murder mystery that climaxed in the last quarter of the book. Consequently, I can see why some would claim pacing problems.

However, I had no problems with it, and the slower paced first half I found to be quite fascinating; rich in detail about the lives of artists at the time, with the appearance of famous personages such as Henry Fuseli and William Mulready, some passages of searing beauty on the nature of the male form from the point of view of the artist, and a coming-of-age tale that falls apart after the youthful aspiring painter falls in love with his patron.

Even without the murder mystery aspect, I would have enjoyed this novel. However, if I was reading it mainly because of the murder mystery I might have had trouble with the first half of the book.

There was the occasional issue with a typo/missed word, but these were infrequent and there was one passage that changed to present tense in a way I felt could not be justified. Additionally there was one issue with a fact repeated in a scene in an illogical way. On the whole, however, the quality was fairly consistent and as stated before, some of the passages were quite beautiful. The author has a flair for the descriptive.

I'm still waiting for my library copy of Buddenbrooks to become available, so in the meantime, I'm going to try out another indie.

This time, it is The Takers, the first in a trilogy about Oz (with a dark/horror slant) from the author R W Ridley. This book won an IPPY award in 2006 so I'm hoping this is a fair indication of the quality I can expect.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Synamon

...The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka JK Rowling. A well done modern take on the standard private eye story, with a healthy dose of scorn for the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The detective and his secretary were very likeable, sort of a Perry Mason / Della Street vibe there.

to that...I'm 1/3 of the way into it...just ready to begin Part 3.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Mort came in a couple days ago along with Rain Storm (now Winner Take All) by Barry Eisler. Mort first I think, probably starting on Monday.

I really like Terry Pratchett. Enough said.

I will start Winner Take All/Rain Storm on Friday I think.