05-11-2012, 10:08 PM | #13186 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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Regarding the possibility of being offended by the themes of The Cider House Rules, I suspect this warning applies of most of Irving's books - there's usually something in them to offend someone. |
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05-12-2012, 04:57 AM | #13187 |
Say my name very fast ...
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Have Glove, Will Travel : Adventures of a Baseball Vagabond by Bill " Spaceman " Lee
A baseball book written by a counter-culturist ... yes please! |
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05-12-2012, 05:12 AM | #13188 | |
eBook Enthusiast
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"A Thousand Miles Up the Nile" by Amelia B. Edwards
I've just finished proof-reading my eBook version of Amelia Edwards's "A Thousand Miles Up the Nile". Amelia Edwards was a successful Victorian novelist when, to quote Wikipedia:
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I hope you enjoy this as much as I do and that, if you've not yet visited Egypt, this book will inspire you to do so. Posted in the usual BBeB, Mobi, and ePub formats. Amelia Edwards was the inspiration for the "Amelia Peabody" books written by Elizabeth Peters, set in Victorian Egypt. Last edited by pdurrant; 05-12-2012 at 05:43 AM. Reason: added links to MR library |
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05-12-2012, 10:06 AM | #13189 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Next: Out of the Dark by David Weber A Kobo discount code tempted me to this stand-alone by David Weber. Invading aliens. Sounds fun. Last edited by pdurrant; 05-14-2012 at 05:04 AM. |
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05-12-2012, 10:28 AM | #13190 |
Writer
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I started some time ago to read all the books from the Middle-Earth Universe by Tolkien. Now I'm re-reading The Two Towers and after that The Return of The King in order to start Silmarillion.
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05-12-2012, 10:33 AM | #13191 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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But it does take my TBR back above 330 again. |
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05-12-2012, 03:06 PM | #13192 |
Now what?
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I just finished a delightful English Country House mystery written by a Bulgarian author in English! The Hunt For Sonya Dufrette by R.T. Raichev contains more red herrings than the North Sea! It introduces a sixtyish librarian amateur sleuth who teams up with a retired member of the military club she works at. The plot kept twisting, changing, and re-forming as I read - just as you (and the librarian) had an "aha!" moment, something totally unexpected dropped in! "We" solved the mystery several times .... and then started again!
Highly recommended delightful read - and best of all - it's the first book of a series! |
05-12-2012, 03:26 PM | #13193 | |
Now what?
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Will start reading it this evening! |
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05-12-2012, 03:33 PM | #13194 |
Wizard
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I just finished the second half of A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin, as split into two for the UK paperback edition(s). It was just getting good when it ended. And now I have to wait for the next one, whenever that might be.
Next up is Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, the first of the influential Martin Beck series. I actually started it last weekend, when I was away from home and didn't feel like lugging around the hefty GRRM paperback. I don't know how good the English translation is, but my first impression was that the style is very direct and terse. |
05-12-2012, 04:07 PM | #13195 |
Wizzard
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Another bunch of stuff recently finished that I've been kind of lazy updating* the list for.
Anyway, might as well start with the stuff that's still free/on special offer: Yorkshire, 1st in the Richard & Rose series of historical romantic mysteries by Lynne Connolly is currently still free in multiple venues from publisher Samhain, but likely not for much longer. Unlike the standard for romantic suspenses, these follow the same couple around for several books and so the relationship drama takes 2nd place to the actual mystery plot, instead of being the primary focus because of the need to get the couple together and settled by the time the whodunnit is revealed. I like that R&R's inevitable developing relationship is handled reasonably gradually (and other people sensibly telling them that it's a stupid idea to court gossip and social compromise and breach of contract lawsuits by being so obvious about their feelings in more-or-less public before the complications are resolved, which they kind of ignore due to their overwhelming uncontrollable passions and incipient sex addiction, naturally) and with a certain amount of uncertainty as to how it will all ultimately work out, although I think some of the complicating factors were resolved and shunted offstage a bit too readily, unless it's something that's to come back to haunt them in future books. Anyway, this was a nicely done Georgian-era English aristocratic countryside manor murder mystery which is centred around an unfortunate carriage "accident" which substantially rearranges the living circumstances of several of the characters, who then become secret suspects to be worked around once the amateur sleuths discover evidence that shows that murder had been intended, but whose, as any number of people could have been targeted, but merely injured in the attempt. Medium recommend. I overall liked this, with the usual no-romo reservations about relationship stuff that seemed silly and drawn out, but the narrative flowed well, the historical setting was reasonably detailed and felt realistic enough, and the motivatory pointers for various suspects and the ultimate whodunnit resolved decently, even if the sleuths only really bothered seriously considering "uncouth low-class people we don't like" for culprits during discussion. I'll be looking at the rest of the series if I can pick them up during a good sale. Recently-expired deals which may go on sale again: Bought and read Nancy Kress's excellent recently-released short story collections which were offered at a discount as part of a Phoenix Pick Press tie-in promo which they'll probably repeat in a few weeks when they freebie-ize another of Kress' novellas. The Body Human: Three Stories of Future Medicine and Future Perfect: Six Stories of Genetic Engineering contain some of Kress' older short stories and novellas, many of which I already own in paper collections and have already read, though there were at least 3 new-to-me. As usual, Kress does a very good job with exploring the personal and social consequences of biotech and cognitive-alteration/brain chemistry-adjustment procedures. Themes of sibling rivalry , long-term destructive knock-on effects of short-term gains, and alternate consciousness states seem to abound. Best stories: The Flowers of Aulit Prison, one of my personal favourites and a truly excellent look at "shared reality" social contracts and criminal acts undertaken within and without, Dancing on Air about the implications of the transformation of ballet, a notoriously body-destroying artform, due to mitigating biotreatments to reduce or bypass the damage of human anatomic limitations and how far people will be willing to go for professional achievement. Also liked Margin of Error, a short, sharp, tale of desserts best served cold. There were some interesting cautionary tales about the potential future as a result of the overuse of antibiotics for frivolous reasons and the routine denial of health care access to the genetically impaired who thus become uninsurable due to potential "pre-existing conditions". Plus a rather good mystery involving the effect of trial pharmaceuticals on brain function and whether that led to certain deaths or if those were the results of somebody "tidying" up after failed trials. Highly recommended, as Kress' shorter works are often her best. Too bad these don't include the explanatory introduction notes which I've seen on the ones which were reprinted in her old Beaker's Dozen paper collection. Paulo Coelho recently persuaded his publisher for US & Canada to drop 12 of his novels to just 99 cents (price has gone back up, but to a lower level than before, I think, and he said that if it works out, he may be able to negotiate a lower regular/discount sale price for his novels from his other publishers in different regions as well, which seems to have partially happened). I scooped the lot of them at 99 cents after reading Brida, which I'd gotten for free as part of last year's Mother's Day promo from Kobo. It's one of those mystical journey of self-discovery things, which merges reconstructed New Age ancient pagan witchcrafty tradition with Christian scriptural teachings, with a dash of physics and astronomy tossed in, and was moderately interesting and reasonably well-written. Tropes about having to find your own answers and how spiritual authorities are really only just guides on your journey (though you will have to pay attention to them and not flout their guidelines needlessly for your own selfish purposes) and the usual sort of revelatory insights you'd expect from one of these. Though I still think that potential love triangles in any text should resolve themselves into threesomes instead of minorly angsting over who might end up with whom. Medium recommend if you like this sort of thing. Not really my style, but okay enough that I was willing to go get Coelho's sale books on the strength of it. * Also in the process of switching to the new Sony PRS-T1 as a supplementary reader, with the annoying discovery that it apparently ignores the opf:file-as attribute and there seems to be no way to have it sort by author last name without having to manually edit the last name to display first with intrusive commas instead of displaying properly as unpunctuated single entry. Or possibly, mess with the database using Calibre, which is something I'd rather not have my added-to-device library be dependent upon. Why is this simple basic functionality not there?! It's been in the damn ePub spec for ages. Last edited by ATDrake; 05-12-2012 at 04:17 PM. |
05-12-2012, 04:56 PM | #13196 | |
Comic book artist
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Spoiler:
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05-12-2012, 06:03 PM | #13197 |
Wizard
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It's in the back of the second paperback, by the look of it. I resisted, but now I'm thinking I might sneak a look.
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05-13-2012, 12:03 AM | #13198 |
Lunatic
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I read the first of the Ed McBain books I bought on sale earlier this year, #5 in the series, Killer's Choice.
The introduction is a hilarious description of a conversation McBain had with his publisher about creating a hero for the series. McBain's solution was to introduce the "hero" Cotton Dawes, who has a pretty bad first day in this book. The entertaining banter between the cops in these takes center stage for me, the crime is the backdrop. Twenty-nine more entertaining episodes should keep me going for the rest of the year. |
05-13-2012, 07:23 AM | #13199 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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05-13-2012, 12:00 PM | #13200 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
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