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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

View from the Imperium by Jody Lynn Nye

A humorous space opera that pulls two disparate thread together in a way that makes sense in the end. I'd quite like a sequel, but it is a complete story in and of itself.

Next, another recent purchase: Children No More by Mark L. Van Name

Another novel in the series about Jon Moore and Lobo — pilot and warship.

[sonofpendragon]

Although I've read them before, am restarting Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series. They blow all similar books out of the water, and am convinced that once the kids get Harry out of their system, then this series will enjoy a second and massive coming. The series is set in a post-post apocalyptic future; cities can move on giant traction set ups, and eat up other cities, or of course, get eaten; Reeve's call this Municipal Darwinism. Superb stories, characters and settings.

[Cyclops]

Now reading From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, in an old paperback!

[Ron.]

I am reading Congo

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished reading Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. The book was in turns both informative and hilarious, frequently both at the same time.

Spoiler:

Right from the dedication in the front of the book, I suspected this one was going to be special. At the very least, I thought it was quite appropriate.


Reading this book is a wonderful way to discover things about sex you might never want to know, such as:

If that's not enough detail about life on a pig farm:

I'll bet that's a mental image that will stay with you a long time.

But, of course, it's human sexuality that takes center stage, as she focuses her attention on sex researchers past and present. On Kinsey, she writes:

You will learn history:

Her own insights are provided with a healthy dose of wit:

You'll learn many wonderful things in this book, such as the fact that defecating can briefly bring your heart rate down by eight beats per minute, and that men lose their erection when they hold their breath. You will learn how paraplegics have sex. You'll learn about Orgasm-induced defecation. And you'll finally get the answer to that question which has perplexed us all for years: Can dead people have orgasms?

I highly recommend this book. I could give many, many more examples of Ms. Roach's wit and observations, but the post would grow onto unmanageable proportions. I'll close this post with just one more:

Perhaps the best advice in the entire book, no matter what your sexual orientation.

Note: When reading this book, don't skip over the footnotes. They are frequently some of the funniest parts of the book.

Started this, put it down and have yet to finish it but am definitely planning on it. Love her writing style.

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Finished Fellowship of Fear by Aaron Elkins, 1st in his Gideon Oliver, Intrepid Globe-Trotting Forensic Anthropologist series. I got this from Fictionwise for the low, low price of $1.60 during one of their previous 60% off coupon weekends and went back and bought the rest during their most recent one after having read the first half of this.

It's an older amateur sleuth series (the main plot involves said sleuth getting caught up into a suspected spy investigation) and kind of dated in parts beyond the Cold War aspects of the background. But still quite readable and fun in other parts, and some moderately clever misdirection as to to who were the actual guilty culprits.

I especially liked the little mini-lectures on philology and cranial shape as related to identifying the people who were attacking him. But then, I've always liked it when fictional academics bring their fictional academic credentials to bear on practically irrelevant aspects of "all we really need to know is these people are trying to kill you and how can we prevent them from doing so".

Medium recommend. A promising start for the first novel of what seems to have been a moderately popular series (10 books thus far republished as e-books) which hopefully gets more polished as it goes along.

Have read all of these except the last two. LOVE them. Gideon is one of my favorite fictional detectives, ever. Aaron is on my facebook, actually (as are about fifty other authors, LOL). I got a wonderful, gracious note from him when he accepted my friend request, which only made me like him more.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I tried one of his books, but I don't think it was a series. Opened with someone getting shot by a poisoned dart (more complex than that statement, but yanno). I don't know why, but it didn't grab me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for the jungle setting or poisoned darts? Dunno.

Actually I think this is one of the Gideon books, it sounds familiar. But he has two more series, and some standalone thrillers. Me, I like them all, but I can see, as ATDrake mentioned, that they might not be for everyone. Even as much as I like them, I don't count them as "comfort" books, like I do Katherine Hall Page (Faith Fairchild series, which I'm re-reading at the moment).

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I finished _All Mortal Flesh_ and Rev Furgesson and Russ Van Alstyne mystery. I'm not sure why but I really like these stories. The are cozy mysteries and move really quickly. There is a small amount of action/adventure to them as well. When I read about all the settings in upstate new york with all the cold and snow I am happy about my decision to relocate to Florida from New England those many years ago.

I have started on the next book in the series _All Mortal Flesh_.

If you like cozy's I think you should give the first in the series a try. I recommend them. If you like Christies stuff I think you will like this too. Although, I seem to like most mysteries I read... so take it with a grain of salt.

BOb

I do like these, too, BOb. Only read the first two thus far, though the rest are on my ever-growing TBR pile.

Okay, so as I mentioned, I'm re-reading my way through Katherine Hall Page's Faith Fairchild series. That all started because I won a copy of her cookbook tied to the series, "Have Faith in your Kitchen". Once I read that, I decided I needed to refresh my memory on the series. I'm skipping the ones I remember most of the plot, and re-reading the ones I've forgotten. Finished "The Body in the Bookcase" last night. Now not sure if I'm going to go on to the next book in the series or read something else for a break. Thinking now I could insert those two Gideon Oliver ones I've missed.... ATDrake, you are a bad, bad, influence!!

[thinkpad]

Started reading the fantasy book: 7 Folds of Winter by Carolyn McCray got it because of the Indie book blowout for $.99

The world of Strathos is in dire peril. The Winter God has gone mad, dragging the world into an eternal blizzard. Can a band of strangers fulfill a broken prophecy or will the prophecy break them and all they hold dear?

So far I'm not sure what to think, it didn't captivate me right away. I need to get a bit further into the book before I can say if I like it or not.

[poohbear_nc]

Just finished Louise Penny's latest book - "A Trick of the Light" - another volume in the Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series set in the mystical/mythical village of Three Pines in Quebec.

I feel like I've been emotionally gut-punched after finishing a Louise Penny novel. Her writing has such depth of character, compassion, and yet brutal honesty - that I find myself paradoxically wanting to race ahead and devour the book while at the same time wanting to delay and savor each page.

The inhabitants of Three Pines have taken on a literary life of their own - often shadowing the murder mystery with their own travails. Three Pines is a haven for misfits, but no Shangri-La! They are deeply flawed people, struggling with their relationships with one another in a hot-house microcosm, whose conflicts are accentuated and highlighted by a murder, in which they are again all suspects.

Penny allows each character to grow slowly from book to book - not only the main figure of Gamache, but also his subordinates and family, as well as the village denizens. Each book reveals more character, bad as well as good. These are human beings, capable of lying to each other, themselves, and to the reader.

A reader thus not only gets a well-plotted mystery, but another installment in the fascinating microcosm of Three Pines.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Okay, so as I mentioned, I'm re-reading my way through Katherine Hall Page's Faith Fairchild series. That all started because I won a copy of her cookbook tied to the series, "Have Faith in your Kitchen". Once I read that, I decided I needed to refresh my memory on the series.

Her name sounded familiar, and then I realized that she was the author of that cozy series I mentioned way back when there was this mini-discussion about the plausibility of totally deranged killers with no real motivation beyond total derangement after I'd read the 1st Jacqueline Kirby book.

If you don't mind my asking, does Hall Page ever change the killers from being retrospectively socially maladjusted partial community misfits/outcasts who turned out to be probably-delusional deranged obsessives w/psychotic break from reality all along, or did I just manage to luck out on the 5 of the dozen or so books I think she had out at the time where the whodunnit was simply an easily solved case of B*TCH CRA-A-A-A-ZYYYYYY!!!!!

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Thinking now I could insert those two Gideon Oliver ones I've missed.... ATDrake, you are a bad, bad, influence!!

Does it make me better or worse if I point out the 55% off Fictionwise coupon currently running in the deals forum and the fact that you can get all of Elkins' re-published e-works at approximately $1.80 per using it?

Of course, it's not like they're on special new-release sale this week, so if you think you can hold out for a 60% off coupon, this might help your TBR pile from piling up too much too soon.

PS. Three recent cozy/crime freebies you might have missed under the deluge of Dorchester books that showed up this week and pushed the free book offerings to literally 4 pages worth:

Mama Does Time (A Mace Bauer Mystery) by Deborah Sharp
The Witch of Agnesi (Bonnie Pinkwater series) by Robert Spiller
The Score (Parker series) by Richard Stark, apparently a pseudonym of Donald Westlake

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Her name sounded familiar, and then I realized that she was the author of that cozy series I mentioned way back when there was this mini-discussion about the plausibility of totally deranged killers with no real motivation beyond total derangement after I'd read the 1st Jacqueline Kirby book.

If you don't mind my asking, does Hall Page ever change the killers from being retrospectively socially maladjusted partial community misfits/outcasts who turned out to be probably-delusional deranged obsessives w/psychotic break from reality all along, or did I just manage to luck out on the 5 of the dozen or so books I think she had out at the time where the whodunnit was simply an easily solved case of B*TCH CRA-A-A-A-ZYYYYYY!!!!!



Does it make me better or worse if I point out the 55% off Fictionwise coupon currently running in the deals forum and the fact that you can get all of Elkins' re-published e-works at approximately $1.80 per using it?

Of course, it's not like they're on special new-release sale this week, so if you think you can hold out for a 60% off coupon, this might help your TBR pile from piling up too much too soon.

PS. Three recent cozy/crime freebies you might have missed under the deluge of Dorchester books that showed up this week and pushed the free book offerings to literally 4 pages worth:

Mama Does Time (A Mace Bauer Mystery) by Deborah Sharp
The Witch of Agnesi (Bonnie Pinkwater series) by Robert Spiller
The Score (Parker series) by Richard Stark, apparently a pseudonym of Donald Westlake

Umm... thinking. Well, in the one I just finished, it was the mother of the bride who did it - and she was a Cabot (of the Boston Cabots). So not a community misfit, but indeed deranged. But you're right, she does tend to pick a theme and stay with it, LOL. But at least she moves Faith around a bit, so we don't get what I call Cabot Cove Syndrome....

I already have all the Gideons that are out - got them during a Fictionwise coupon sale a few months back, LOL. So I suppose it makes you neither better nor worse. Although I took my reader with me today and tried to start Good Blood (because I didn't remember it) and am wondering after three chapters where the heck is Gideon? So far all I've got is some crazy Italian family and the cops. May skip this one, though it takes a LOT to make me not finish a book. Apparently I was a bit farther behind than I remembered, as I have Good Blood as 11, and there are 16 in the series.

[xg4bx]

Hour of the Beast by C. Michael Forsyth. i picked up a copy of the trade (and a giant poster of the cool cover art) at a horror con i was just at. its a very well written werewolf novel set on a college campus. old fashioned werewolf, not the pretty, sparkly kind.

unfortunately the ebook format only seems to be available on amazon as of right now. this guy deserves some exposure, this novel could very easily be made into a movie. its sharp, funny and smart. the author used to be a writer for the weekly world news so that gets a thumbs up from me (i really miss that rag. it was a staple of my childhood).

[gmw]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Just finished Louise Penny's latest book - "A Trick of the Light" - another volume in the Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series ...

I love it when people give their impressions of a book, especially so eloquently. This sounded wonderful, so she's going on my wanted list.

[Ron.]

I'm reading The Andromeda Strain today, I have seen the movie dozens of times, might as well read the book I suppose...

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Umm... thinking. Well, in the one I just finished, it was the mother of the bride who did it - and she was a Cabot (of the Boston Cabots). So not a community misfit, but indeed deranged. But you're right, she does tend to pick a theme and stay with it, LOL. But at least she moves Faith around a bit, so we don't get what I call Cabot Cove Syndrome...

I remember I rather liked The Body in the Fjord when I read it; enough to go and pick up another 4 books in the series off the library shelf. But I read them all in a row and it just got weirder thinking "Huh… didn't she already use the cra-a-a-a-zy killer motivation in the last book? And the one before… And the one before…"

And then when all the ones I'd gotten turned out to be like that, I started wondering if they were all like that. But that was the point where the library ran out of convenient on-shelf copies and I was never really morbidly curious enough to take the time to confirm/deny on my own afterwards. So thank you kindly for the reply. You've just solved one of life's minor mysteries for me.

Anyway, as for me, I've been feeling nostalgic and re-reading Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series in my paper editions in between other stuff.

Other stuff includes finishing yet another Fictionwise sale purchase: Growing Light by Marta Randall.

This is a murder mystery by an author who normally writes sf, and it's set in a kind of cross between a trendy New Age workplace and a doomed dot.com. Only going by the technology I think it pre-dates actual dot.coms and it is a backlist reprint anyway.

But in any case, while it was a little slow to start, setting up the eccentricities of certain of the characters and environment involved, it soon became fairly fun.

For one thing, it had some of the funniest "rival suspects suspiciously accusing each other of being murderous murderers while denying their own suspected murderousness" and "setting up the probably guilty party to be confronted with evidence of said guilt in front of an assembly of all the other parties involved" scenes I've ever read.

The basic plot is that aspiring tech writer Anne Munro interviews and takes a job she really needs at an up and coming firm. Only, her first day on the job is complicated by the murder of another coworker who turns out to be the sort of coworker that's so hated that practically everyone had a reason to do them in.

And she can't just quit, because a) she really needs the job, and b) it looks like she's been set up to be the prime suspect in the murder. So she turns amateur sleuth while trying to figure out not only whodunnit and clear her name, but also which of her fellow suspect coworkers are trustworthy enough that she can get reliable info from them, and how much she can rely on official police help when she's been fingered as the most probable culprit.

Lots of fun allusions to the mystery genre in general, with her having a "What Would Miss Marple Do?" kind of conversation with the sympathetic detective on the case.

Mild-to-moderate recommend. It is a bit quirky, and the computer technology is really dated, and the software set up is really absurd (planting according to your horoscope?), but it turns out that the last was actually a deliberate spoof and it's a fairly charming, enjoyable read if you like those kinds of things in a mystery.

[alansplace]

i just finished 'The Agony Column' by Earl Derr Biggers, the creator of Charlie Chan. it's a free gutenberg book originally published in 1914, a decade before the charlie chan books. here's where to get it:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1814

if you decide to try it, let us know what you think, it's a pretty quick read and, imho, highly engrossing.

[xg4bx]

i just finished an excellent short story by a M.R. member. unfortunately i don't know if i'm at liberty to discuss it.

i'm currently reading Clickers 2 by JF Gonzalez. its about the united states being invaded by man-eating crab monsters.

i'm eager to get to Clickers 3 because it involves Dagon and Cthulhu cultists.