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

[mountain_lion]

The Mortal Instruments 2: City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare

[ATDrake]

Just finished Kate Williams' Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch, which was a dual biography focusing on both the entirety of Charlotte's brief life and how her death as sole legitimate heir to the British throne prompted a scramble to secure England's succession which resulted in Victoria, who was then controlled throughout her own childhood by her mother, who had hopes of attaining power as her regent.

Frankly, the Duchess of Kent would have been far better off had she just settled for the prestige and privileges of being Queen Mother instead of setting up such a smothering relationship (Victoria had to sleep in her mother's room every night) that once queen, her daughter lost no time in sending her packing.

Anyway, this was an interesting and somewhat entertaining pop-historical-leaning read, showing there's no feud like a family feud (some of the back-and-forth squabbling between George IV and his wife Caroline of Brunswick, who was apparently the Regency equivalent of Princess Diana in popularity and "the common touch" and being the wronged wife, is absolutely amazing).

Plus in addition to the personal anecdotes and how-they-got-to-be-this-way analyses, this is also somewhat grounded with mentions of the national events and social conditions of the time, and what effect that royalty/government had on them, or they on the popularity of the royals, an extra which I appreciated.

Fun facts: before Victoria became queen, apparently "Victoria" was considered an un-English, made-up sort of name that no one but a foreigner could possibly sport. Also, before Victoria's white wedding dress and massively public ceremony, weddings were performed quietly mostly at home for just the immediate family, and the bride wore her best dress which could be any colour including black.

Overall, I quite liked reading much of this, and it was entertaining and informative, even if I'd classify it as an essentially non-serious biography/history work. Recommended if you like stuff about royals and the personal interactions which shaped them as people who then tried to make the personal political.

And the people of England should give praise that they were spared from having as their king Leopold of Belgium, notorious for cutting off people's hands in his goldmines in the Congo. Though it would have been interesting to see where England would have gone had Princess Charlotte lived to be Queen, as apparently a lot of the Victorian-ness of the Victorian Age is directly attributable to the priggish sensibilities of Prince Albert (piercings named after him notwithstanding).

[SeaBookGuy]

I have that one on my TBR pile -- my library has it as an e-book. Thanks for the review!

[bert501]

I'm just finishing this up. Very good read. Detailed and engrossing; although the actual chase doesn't begin until almost 1/2 way through.

Heart-wrenching when he writes of the journey the dying President made as he was carried from Ford's Theatre to the Petersen House where he died. Mary Todd Lincoln is (as usual) odd and in need of a good slap

Sometimes the writing veers off into an unedited morass. I understand he wanted to give life to the characters but some of the dialog is just weird. I ignored those shortcomings because there were two things that really kept me up reading: the fascinating parts Seward & Stanton played in this developing drama.

The attempted assassination of Secretary of State Seward takes up quite a large portion of the book but it is essential to the tale of the Manhunt. I've only ever thought of Seward as "that Alaska guy" lol so I enjoyed taking a closer look.

The other is the role of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. Stanton here is depicted as almost a mythical hero as he basically takes over during the assassination crisis.

Swanson brings these men to life for me in a way no history book ever has. Telegrams are reprinted, diaries are referenced, letters and newspaper accounts rehashed and I found myself just enthralled at the way Stanton held the Union together, got Johnson sworn in, coordinated the Presidential funeral and undertook a nationwide manhunt with no phones, faxes, laptops or CSI team standing by.

Photos are kind of wonky but that may just be me fiddling with my ereader settings. I've been able to Google any that I wanted a better look so not a real problem.

I give this book 4 stars. It's a different slant on well-known historical events with even some sympathy for Booth showing up in a couple of spots...

[bert501]

[QUOTE=ATDrake;1389289]Just finished Kate Williams' Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch

Your review was great. This book has been on my wish list for a while-now I have a reason to go ahead and order it LOL thanks!!

[GraceKrispy]

I just finished "The Discovery of Socket Greeny" by Tony Bertauski. It's geared towards teenagers (especially boys) and it's a fantasy/sci-fi about virtual reality and a boy who can help save the world. Fun read

[bevdeforges]

Just finished Let the Great World Spin and I really enjoyed it. It starts out with the tightrope walker who walked on a cable between the towers of the World Trade Center back in 1974. It then goes into a number of apparently disconnected stories of people living in NYC at the time. Ultimately the stories all come together (this IS fiction, after all) and the turning points of all the interconnected stories come back to the tightrope walker.

Started a little slow, but just kept getting better and better as it went on. Highly recommended.

[feenix1363]

I'm currently reading 'Against all things ending'. The final part of 'The final chronicles of Thomas Covenant' by Stephen Donalson (Stephen R Donaldson in the US).

I've been waiting for soooooooooo long for this to be released.

The Thomas Covenant Chronicles are split up into three sets of trilogies. The first chronicles of Thomas Covenant began release in 1977 (according to the authors website).

The second trilogy began release in 1980 and ran to 1983

I met the author in 2004 when he started the release of the third trilogy (very nice, very approachable man) and he explained that he'd never intended to release a third trilogy, it was purely down to demand of fans, and the fact that maturity had given him further insights into the personalities of the characters. He explained when I met him that he was not going to be rushing to complete this trilogy and that it was a labour of love, to be spread over several years for each book, but this didn't stop me craving the next installment.

This book is as well written and plotted as I've come to expect over the years. Mr Donaldson has a huge vocabulary and isn't scared to use it, though never in vain.

I'm only part way through it, but would recomend this book, and indeed the whole series to anyone interested in the 'fantasy' genre.

Mr Donaldson has his own website, managed by him, and answered by him (not simply a slick publishing house site). Easy to find with Google, you should be sure to check out the 'Gradual Interview' section where he answers fans questions on a regular basis.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by feenix1363

I'm currently reading 'Against all things ending'. The final part of 'The final chronicles of Thomas Covenant' by Stephen Donalson (Stephen R Donaldson in the US). [...]

I didn't think this was the final part - I thought these last chronicles were expected to be in four parts. (According to his website the fourth and last book to be called "The Last Dark".)

I have "Against All Things Ending" sitting on my shelf. I loved the first book in this last series and read the "Fatal Revenant" not long after it came out ... but found it disconcerting, not sure if some of it seemed out of place. So I've put off reading the third book, still uncertain whether to pick it up or wait until the last book finally comes out.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Saturn's Children by Charlie Stross. I bought this in August 2009, so it's about time I read it.

A fascinating although sometimes confusing look at a post-human world. Hopefully a pessimistic view of how humanity would treat sapient robots.

Next: City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

I sounds like interesting SF, and since I bought it in August 2008 from the now-defunct HarperCollins ebook store, if I hadn't stripped the DRM I'd no longer be able to read it. (My reader from then having died of a broken screen.)

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

..

Next: City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

I sounds like interesting SF, and since I bought it in August 2008 from the now-defunct HarperCollins ebook store, if I hadn't stripped the DRM I'd no longer be able to read it. (My reader from then having died of a broken screen.)

[Namekuseijin]

I said I would begin reading Charlie Stross' Accelerando, but turns out his high octane, barroque language alluding to far too much hitech concepts and jargon (and right on the money for the theme, btw) has to be taken slowly, lest you turn into a singularity too...

So, in between I finished reading Poe's "The murders in the Rue Morgue". Could't help but reading the original source for Sherlock Holmes after finishing his first novel. Very close in all aspects, no doubt, though I believe detetive novels are best serviced indeed from clean narration of Doyle than romantic flourish from Poe. The ignorance about the crime perpetrator also comes as quite laughable today, like it being "imense" and possessing supernatural force. I can see why people would believe in unicorns back then from descriptions alone of foreign stuff...

Btw, Feedbooks' cover for this ebook is the lamest ever, giving away the solution for the mistery in a single image. Dumb. I suggest reading from gutenberg.

Possibly I'll be reading more Dupin's adventures since I need more pages to get a whole book for my counter...

I also started "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". In case you're wondering: no, I haven't read them in high school because I'm not american...

[feenix1363]

Originally Posted by gmw

I didn't think this was the final part - I thought these last chronicles were expected to be in four parts. (According to his website the fourth and last book to be called "The Last Dark".)

Oh hell, another four years to go then yet.

[Rumpelteazer]

I just finished the first in the Jackson Brodie series, Case Histories. I don't know if I'm going to continue with the series because although I liked the story, the various intertwining mysteries, I didn't feel much for the characters. Also I didn't like the ending, too much left open and to me it feels as if Atkinson couldn't be bothered to finish the story properly.

I don't know what I'm going to read next. I was hoping that Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham I ordered from Book Depository would arrive today (was send 2 weeks ago and DHL delivers their mail on Friday) but it hasn't arrived yet. If I don't get it today I'll read Catching Fire over the weekend and hope my BD order gets delivered next week.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Just finished with the first in the Rizolli & Isles series, The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen. Isles isn't introduced yet and the focus is not on Rizolli but her collegue Moore. But is was a very good read and I'm very curious how the series will continue.

I'm a bit tired of series so the next book will be Stephen King's The Shining. I've read it several times already but it has been a couple of years and after all the detective and crime books I've read recently I feel the need for something a bit different.

The next book The Apprentice picks up after The Surgeon and is also very good. I've read the first three books in the series and all are excellent. I'm gearing up to read the 4th starting sometime in February or March.