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

[HarryT]

Just finished "The Magic Engineer", the third book in the "Recluse" fantasy series by L.E. Modessit.

This series "jumps around" in time. The first book in the series, "The Magic of Recluse" is set in "modern day" Recluse. In the second book, "The Towers of the Sunset" we had the story of the founding of Recluse. In this third book, we jump forward 300 years from the founding and learn the story of the creation of the order-based "black ships" which made Recluse so powerful in the initial story.

Extremely enjoyable. I thoroughly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a fantasy series built on a strong foundation of "world building". On to the next book, "The Order War", next, but I'll read another Ngaio Marsh in between, I think.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

[...] the "Recluse" fantasy series by L.E. Modessit.
[...]
Extremely enjoyable. I thoroughly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a fantasy series built on a strong foundation of "world building". On to the next book, "The Order War", next, but I'll read another Ngaio Marsh in between, I think.

Hmm.. more to add to my wish list.

[sun surfer]

I just finished Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. What an excellent Y.A. read!

The first book was good, but this book is twice as good. If only all sequels could be!

What I love about this series too is the strong, brave female protagonist who is often saving the guys, but that she's also well-rounded as a normal girl who can also be in love and have conflicting feelings. Though the books are violent (way more violent than the film in my opinion) I still think it's a great read for teens and tweens, boys and girls, because of the way it portrays a strong female teen and the message that gives.

Spoiler:

As to the plot, this book is twice as good as the first because it's twice as inventive and surprising.

I read the first book last year so awhile ago, and had been wondering what the heck could happen the last two books now that Katniss won her games. Will the next book be her mentoring somebody? Or will some war start by book 2?

Unfortunately, just a week or two before I was hoping to start reading Catching Fire, I heard someone mention something out of the blue talking about a reality show along the lines of, "Oh, an All-Stars? That's be sort of like in The Hunger Games!" And my mind clicked two and two together immediately to realise the next games would be an All-Star match and Katniss would have to go back in.

It's so annoying for two reasons. One is that that's the biggest out-of-left-field surprise of probably the series and it was spoiled for me just before I was about to start reading it. So instead I spent the first 50-100 pages thinking "Would I have been able to guess it beforehand if I hadn't already known?" (my conclusion was no; it would've taken me by surprise)

Second, that the person talking had no reason at all to mention The Hunger Games. The conversation was about a silly reality tv show, and "All Stars" is not some exotic concept that one needs to relate to The Hunger Games to understand. All Stars shows happen all the time in real life on "real" reality shows. So for her to leap to having to relate something very normal to a plot point of a fantasy book series is strange, but ironically somehow just had to happen to spoil me right before I started reading!

Anyway, I thought the "all star" idea featuring players of all ages for The Hunger Games was very interesting, and the 80 year old lady volunteering in the one district made me tear up! (as did her sacrificing herself later on too)

Also, the course was very interesting. And the ending! I was trying to figure out what would happen; I knew something would happen before they all died. But no more District 12!

I haven't read book 3 yet but I have a feeling Catching Fire is the high point of the trilogy. Like Harry Potter, I can't imagine the final Hunger Games book can be better because it must be a little predictable - a war must come and the good guys win with some deaths along the way. Though I am interested to see what's up with District 13.

And I'd just like to say - I'm rooting for Peeta! It just seems like it's set up for Katniss to end up either alone or with Gale, and that Peeta will either end up dead or the head of a new society after this one is overthrown.

But I'd rather whatever happens, Katniss end up with Peeta. I think that's the way it should be and he deserves it dang it! (but don't tell me or give me any hints; thanks! )

[Kindoll]

I finished 11.22.63 and LOVED it.

I'm now continuing with series two of Yesterdays Gone.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by orlok

I'm currently reading The Calling by Neil Cross. It is a novelisation of the BBC TV series Luther, which is an excellent drama about a London-based police detective starring Idris Elba (also starred in The Wire). Cross wrote the TV scripts, and has now started a series based on the characer, of which this is the first, and which has just been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award.

Just finished it, and it was an excellent read - 5 stars. Very nasty, with a Detective wildly out of control but sympathetic at the same time, which leads us right up to the point where the TV series started, so a prequel in effect. #2 is due out next month, and will most definitely be on my TRB pile.

[Apache]

I just started the first Kate Shugak mystery A Cold Day For Murder. I have heard others here rave about the books and I must say they were correct. I just started and am loving it. The characters are so real.
Apache

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by Kindoll

I finished 11.22.63 and LOVED it.

Me too!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Me too!

11/22/63 is a very good book.

[poohbear_nc]

Just finished Louise Penny's latest The Beautiful Mystery - and without giving anything away from the plot - WOW! What a punch in the gut at the end of this installment. Gamache is again in top form as a detective, and as a survivor - of the recent terrorist gun-fight, and of the vicious politics in his own department.

Penny constructs the ultimate "locked room" mystery - a murder within a walled & locked monastery on an isolated island hidden for centuries from all public contact. With 24 monks - one now dead, one a murderer. Reminiscent of the popularity a few years back of the Chant CD of Gregorian chants - these monks had released a CD of plainsong of exquisite beauty that had earned a lot of money for them. And were planning to release a second CD for much needed money to repair their monastery. A brilliant mixing of facts & imagination - Penny has clearly researched (and listened to) Gregorian chants, and their history.

Unlike earlier books in the Three Pines series, only Gamache and Beauvoir are in this mystery - which takes place entirely within the walls of the monastery -- and within their own minds & souls.

As in all of Penny's books, this is a mystery of the mind & heart, not a police procedural or who-done-it. The real mystery is always how a murderer is created, and how the resultant murder affects all around them - victims, innocent bystanders, and police squad members.

Highly recommended!

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Going back to the classics with The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith.

This was great fun. Such comedy and wit. An example:

May 25. - Carrie brought down some of my shirts and advised me to take them to Trillip’s round the corner. She said: “The fronts and cuffs are much frayed.” I said without a moment’s hesitation: “I’m ’FRAYED they are.” Lor! how we roared. I thought we should never stop laughing. As I happened to be sitting next the driver going to town on the ’bus, I told him my joke about the “frayed" shirts. I thought he would have rolled off his seat. They laughed at the office a good bit too over it.

Easily a B rating [4 stars].

Next is the 3rd book in the Monstrumology series Isle of Blood by Rick Yancey. This so far has been a great YA thriller series. Almost too good to waste on the "young." The author is a former IRS tax collector who now writes horror full time.

[dreams]

I did a reread of Under Witch Moon before starting the second book, Under Witch Aura by Maria E. Schneider (MR author, BearMountainBooks). I really enjoyed these and appreciated that the characters were done well and that the story moved along so that I forgot time as I was reading. Very fun read.
amazon - Under Witch Moon:

Spoiler:

Adriel should have known that with a werewolf, it never stopped with just one body. She would have gone to the police after witnessing Dolores' death, but she wasn't certain the killer she saw was responsible for the other murders. Besides, the police didn't believe in werewolves, and they weren't going to believe she was a witch either so what could she tell them?

She kept her eyes and ears open while she tried to help her latest client escape the clutches of a voodoo witch, but things went from bad to worse when more bodies turned up. She was greatly relieved when she met White Feather, an undercover cop. Unfortunately, he wasn't convinced she was innocent of all wrong-doing.

It was going to take every spell she knew and a few she hadn't tried to solve the murders and stay alive.

From smashwords - Under Witch Aura:

Spoiler:

There’s an ill wind blowing in Santa Fe, and it’s touching every witch Adriel knows, including White Feather, who is far more important to Adriel than just any warlock. In search of answers, she delves into ancient magic, a family secret and dangerous religious rituals. Whoever is manipulating the elements appears to be after the ultimate goal: forbidden power over life and death.

Adriel will go to the ends of the earth to keep those she loves safe, but if she lures the enemy away, will she be able to save herself? Her only hope is to use earth magic to hide from the very air she breathes as she hunts down an unseen and untenable evil.

[DrNefario]

Yesterday, I finished Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers, part of my current trawl through the "Queens of Crime" golden-age detective fiction. I wasn't that impressed, to be honest. I found Wimsey quite irritating, and I didn't really get the dialects. The mystery part was okay, but there was only one real suspect, and it was resolved surprisingly early. I hope the Wimsey books get better. I have more.

I've moved on to Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance, which is part of the Complete Lyonesse collection, the most expensive ebook I've ever bought. (Although per book it probably isn't.)

Edit: I should say that Whose Body? was my third consecutive paper book. I was planning to read another paperback next, but decided I really ought to give one of my ereaders a run out.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Yesterday, I finished Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers, part of my current trawl through the "Queens of Crime" golden-age detective fiction. I wasn't that impressed, to be honest. I found Wimsey quite irritating, and I didn't really get the dialects. The mystery part was okay, but there was only one real suspect, and it was resolved surprisingly early. I hope the Wimsey books get better. I have more.

Do stick with them. "Whose Body" is weak, I agree, but the series rapidly gets MUCH better. It's best to read them in order, because there's real character development as the series moves on. Taken as a whole, this is one of my favourite series.

[Dr. Drib]

Re-reading Mark Helprin's incredible novel "Winter's Tale."

It's as good now as it was almost 30 years ago.




Don

[Kindoll]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Me too!

I've been raving about it all day in work.

I seriously loved it! Glad you did too.

I picked Ash up in HB today for 1/2 RRP. I so want to start it but am in the middle of Yesterdays Gone so my OCD side will make me finish YG first.