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

[HarryT]

Just finished "Grave Secrets", by Kathy Reichs. This is the 5th book in the Temperance Brennan series about a forensic anthropologist; in this book she travels to Guatamala to join a team excavating the mass graves of people killed in the civil war in the 1980s, but many people there would rather that past events were not uncovered. Excellent book, as always for this series. Highly recommended.

[bopfan]

Just starting to read:

Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation Are Changing Life on Earth - Juan Enriquez & Steve Gullans

Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? - Alex Hutchinson

Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears - William Hertling

Just finished:

The Fold - Peter Clines

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by bopfan

Just starting to read:

Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation Are Changing Life on Earth - Juan Enriquez & Steve Gullans

Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? - Alex Hutchinson

Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears - William Hertling

Just finished:

The Fold - Peter Clines

Interesting reading list. How was The Fold?

[bopfan]

OK, c'mon we are not talking about high quality literature here. OTOH it was nice escapist scifi. The writing was decent; certainly head and shoulders above .... oh say a Dan Brown. I would prefer to hear fingernails on a chalkboard than have to read Brown's dialogue.

The ending of The Fold was a bit of let down but conclusions are harder to write than intros! And of course the door was left open for a sequel or two.

The central character has an interesting cognitive attribute. Nothing supernatural; but Cline does a nice job of creating a 'visual image' of that character's capability. I found that characters mental ability to be more interesting than the story itself. I wish Cline would have fleshed it out a bit more. For example an author like Stephen King would have taken the character and built an entire story, albeit much darker, around those abilities.

I am being a bit circumspect; I don't want to give much away in case you chose to read The Fold. Have you read anything else by that author?

[WT Sharpe]

Yes I have, petty recently in fact, as an audiobook. 14 was a rather fascinating tale, although a bit longer than it had to be, IMO. Nate was beginning to wonder if his new apartment was all it was cracked up to be. For one thing, it had roaches. And they glowed in the dark. And that was perhaps the least strange thing about the building. Yes, Cline's a pretty interesting writer. 14 won Audible's 2012 award for best science fiction novel.

I noticed you had a science selection in that batch, also. In the MobileRead Book Club, science is this month's category. No later than sometime after midnight I'll be posting the poll for June. At the moment, there's still time to get in one last selection under the wire for consideration.

If you're interested, go to www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread?t=274329.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next up, The D.A. Holds a Candle, second book of the series.

Finished The D.A. Holds a Candle, the second book in the Doug Selby Series by Erle Stanley Gardner. A complex murder mystery with a good story. What is particularly disappointing me is that, the D.A., Doug Selby is still working like a sleuth in the field and not as an attorney solving the case with arguments and cross examinations in the courtroom. So far, no courtroom drama or fireworks have been seen in the series, which are much expected from the creator of Perry Mason. Well, still seven books to go, let's hope for a better scenario later.

Next up in the line, The D.A. Draws a Circle, third one in the series.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up: The Postman by David Brin; I need to check off "something written in your home state" from the Something for Everyone challenge and this has been on my to be read list for a long time. I know a little about the plot but have not seen the movie, so hopefully this will be good.

As Hampshire Nanny said, excellent book. I will need to watch the movie at some point, if only to be able to say "the book is better."

Next up, since I enjoyed that one so much, is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Might as well get some more end-of-the-world reading done while I wait for some lighter books to come in at the library. I don't expect this one to be as hopeful as the last one but it should be interesting at least.

[DiapDealer]

Just started The Deaths of Tao by Wes Chu. Second in the Tao series about millenia-old alien entities that use human minds as hosts and control them in fighting a global, secret war.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm reading The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer. One of her historical novels, it's set in the latter part of the Peninsular war, just a little later than where I've got to in the Sharpe novels!

Which was good fun, although I prefer her more fictional stuff.

Next up: A recent purchase, Last First Snow by Max Gladstone. Splendid stuff.

[din155]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Just started The Deaths of Tao by Wes Chu. Second in the Tao series about millenia-old alien entities that use human minds as hosts and control them in fighting a global, secret war.

How did you find The lives of tao?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by din155

How did you find The lives of tao?

I wasn't blown away, but the mix of humor and action (not to mention the premise) kept me turning pages. "Quirky" goes a long way with me, and Chu scratches that itch. His Time Salvager series (the first book, anyway) was much the same way: slow in parts, but it also had some of the best action sequences I've read. So I find myself anxiously awaiting the second installment.

[din155]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I wasn't blown away, but the mix of humor and action (not to mention the premise) kept me turning pages. "Quirky" goes a long way with me, and Chu scratches that itch. His Time Salvager series (the first book, anyway) was much the same way: slow in parts, but it also had some of the best action sequences I've read. So I find myself anxiously awaiting the second installment.

Just started listening and I get the quirky part. Reminds me of Nights Dawn series by Peter H Hamiltonian.

[Chaiwala]

Just finished "Rising Action" by Babaoye which was kind of nuts. Moving on to "Terms of Enlistment" by Kloos which is really good so far and "Frequency" by Wells. Added "Lives of Tao" from this thread because it sounds awesome.

[elaysee]

Possibly my favorite read of this month was Kate Williams' Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch. As the subtitle indicates, it's really about the 40-odd year period of these two royals' childhood and early adulthood, and the political maneuvering around the throne. Princess Charlotte died in childbirth, setting off an "heirstakes" among her uncles that resulted in Victoria becoming the new heiress. I knew of the heirstakes but enjoyed new-to-me details.

I also read an enjoyable SF anthology, Temporally Out of Order, edited by Joshua Palmatier & Patricia Bray. The premise is in the title, objects that are displaced or interacting abnormally with time. Not all of the stories are great ones, but I felt this made a good theme. Even middling stories often had an concept worth some thought. The last anthology I read with a "sticky" theme for me was Machine of Death.

Finally, I'll mention a freebie: while I wasn't blown out of the water by Annie Bellet's Justice Calling, the first of her Twenty-Sided Sorceress series, I liked it enough to keep further installments on my reading radar. The series is somewhere on the urban fantasy / paranormal fringe - there's a likely love interest, but that isn't a focus of the book. The book was a freebie last year, and so it may be on others' electronic bookshelves.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up, since I enjoyed that one so much, is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Might as well get some more end-of-the-world reading done while I wait for some lighter books to come in at the library. I don't expect this one to be as hopeful as the last one but it should be interesting at least.

The Road was good. I guess. A little too bleak for me, even for a post-apocalyptic book, I tend to prefer a little hope in things.

Next up: The Water Room by Christopher Fowler, Bryant and May book 2.