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

[dreams]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=314

Thanks! I've never used Cliff Notes before and didn't realize how detailed they were. That's almost another book.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[...] and we're promised another sequel, Monster Hunter Alpha in August. (Well, mid-July for the ebook.)

Or right now for anyone who just can't wait for the next book. The eARC (a non-final version of the text, before final copy editing) is now available, ten weeks before the hardback appears and eight weeks before the final ebook arrives.

But it'll cost you. Baen's eARCs are $15 each. Wait just two months, and you can get the finished text for just $6, or less in the webscription bundle.

But if you just can't wait....

I confess to having bought one or two eARCs myself in the past. But at the moment, I'm willing to wait. It's nice to have the choice though.

And if other publishers want to make more money, it's things like this they should be doing — exploiting the opportunities to ebooks give for making money out of people who really want the books as soon as possible.

[dannygator7790]

Right now I'm finishing up The Mortal Instrument series. It's been a great ride so far!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

back to my Agatha Christie collection, and her 13th book, The Mysterious Mr. Quin

A good collection of short stores featuring the elderly Mr Satterthwaite, who often sees things others don't, helped by the mysterious Mr Quin. Interesting, but leaning a little too much towards the supernatural for my taste, and the stories would have been better without that element, IMO.

I think that she was experimenting with story telling in the first books, seeing what worked well for her and what didn't.

Although I rather liked Mr Satterthwaite, I hope that the supernatural element won't be repeated in future books.

Next, the third from my recent purchase of a bundle of Frederick Pohl books: The Way the Future Was, first published in 1978.

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by siraks

i know what you mean about so many books, too little time.
when you are in the middle of one good book several others pop up that you want to read, this site does me no favours. everyday i come on here i see something new i want to read.

It's much better now I'm getting more and more familiar with ignoring others' recommendation Really, what do you feel when there are Mistborn, Mortal Instruments, Water for Elephant, Gargoyle, Wuthering Heights, Books of Ember, Picture of Dorian Gray, Narnia, Song of Ice and Fire and some dozen to-read books on the list??

I'm almost done with Catching Fire. Not really as good as its prequel but readable somehow.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Perhaps work has been a little slow in the first third of this year...

But no, not all day long. But perhaps three hours a day — half an hour over breakfast, another half hour at lunch, and hour or two in the evening, and some more before dropping off to sleep in bed.

I don't watch much TV.

Oh. You're a real bookworm.

Just a year ago my eyes were glued to the TV screen. Now they're glued to the kindle's screen.

Originally Posted by dannygator7790

Right now I'm finishing up The Mortal Instrument series. It's been a great ride so far!

It's a bit too teenage for me, but I still want to give it another try because I like the author's sense of humor. What do you think?

[Lucid_Dreamer]

I'm still plowing through the Necronomicon, haha. I'm down to the afterward finally though!

[Lucid_Dreamer]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Busy with Salem's Lot by Stephen King. Almost in the middle of the book and so far it hasn't been very scary. It is interesting to see the parallels between it and Dracula though, since King was inspired by Dracula to write it.

Just wait! It gets downright creepy!

[Fbone]

Finished Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas. A poor Sherlock Holmes imitation. Nothing that happens in the first 95% of the book has any bearing on solving the crime. So there was no chance for the reader. Will Thomas' writing skills were good and I noticed only one typo. Published by Simon & Schuster who is asking $11.99 for the ebook. I borrowed it from the library in hardcover.
I'd give it a grade of C- and probably won't read anymore of the series.

Now starting The City & The City by China Mieville.

[ATDrake]

Finished all three books of Dave Duncan's Renaissance Venetian amateur sleuth mysteries, starring Alfeo Zeno (no relation to the Greek philosopher), apprentice to Fillippo Nostradamus (yes relation to the quatrain-penning mystic).

These are technically filed under fantasy, since they're published by Ace, but they're very low-key fantasy where supernatural ability is uncommon and the most magical things that happen are scrying via tarot cards and not using demons as a get-out-of-jail-free-card because that's an extremely bad idea. Also, if Nostradamus and Alfeo step over the line from respectable astrology and acceptable clairvoyance to "witchcraft", they'll be burned at the stake.

Otherwise, they're practically indistinguishable from an otherwise conventional period detective series with well-incorporated research and a handy glossary at the back. All three books not only had a murder mystery to solve, but also some convoluted backstabbing Venetian politics to untangle, which were intertwined with the whodunnit in generally fairly clever ways.

The Alchemists's Apprentice, 1st in the series, was a good introduction to the cast of characters, but the whodunnit felt kind of overly complicated with too many players contributing to the game.

The Alchemist's Code improved on the beginnings, and would be worth reading for the how-to medieval cryptanalysis lesson alone. Happily, it's also got a clever plot with humorous moments in it.

The Alchemist's Pursuit, which looks to be the final book, is the closest to a conventional murder mystery, on the trail of a serial killer with a possible revenge motive against courtesans, with a personal motivation for the sleuth as Zeno's girlfriend is herself a cortigiana onesta (the high-class educated hetaira-type variety like Veronica Franco), and thus in danger.

Highly recommended if you like clever period mysteries which are true to the background in historical flavour but original in reinterpreting setting details and have neatly intertwined political/personal plots, likeable characters, and a sense of humour. These are going on my "buy when the price drops to dirt cheap with Kobo coupons" list.

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

That sounds like something I should check out. My to-read list is getting pretty overpopulated lately but oh, well.

Well, if you do end up doing so, I think you won't regret it.

[carld]

I'm currently reading Midnight Cowboy. It's sad and surreal, and I can't entirely decided if I like it or not. I've got a ton of freebies to work through now. There's sure to be a few that I'll enjoy.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Finished all three books of Dave Duncan's Renaissance Venetian amateur sleuth mysteries, starring Alfeo Zeno (no relation to the Greek philosopher), apprentice to Fillippo Nostradamus (yes relation to the quatrain-penning mystic).

These are technically filed under fantasy, since they're published by Ace, but they're very low-key fantasy where supernatural ability is uncommon and the most magical things that happen are scrying via tarot cards and not using demons as a get-out-of-jail-free-card because that's an extremely bad idea. Also, if Nostradamus and Alfeo step over the line from respectable astrology and acceptable clairvoyance to "witchcraft", they'll be burned at the stake.

Otherwise, they're practically indistinguishable from an otherwise conventional period detective series with well-incorporated research and a handy glossary at the back. All three books not only had a murder mystery to solve, but also some convoluted backstabbing Venetian politics to untangle, which were intertwined with the whodunnit in generally fairly clever ways.

The Alchemists's Apprentice, 1st in the series, was a good introduction to the cast of characters, but the whodunnit felt kind of overly complicated with too many players contributing to the game.

The Alchemist's Code improved on the beginnings, and would be worth reading for the how-to medieval cryptanalysis lesson alone. Happily, it's also got a clever plot with humorous moments in it.

The Alchemist's Pursuit, which looks to be the final book, is the closest to a conventional murder mystery, on the trail of a serial killer with a possible revenge motive against courtesans, with a personal motivation for the sleuth as Zeno's girlfriend is herself a cortigiana onesta (the high-class educated hetaira-type variety like Veronica Franco), and thus in danger.

Highly recommended if you like clever period mysteries which are true to the background in historical flavour but original in reinterpreting setting details and have neatly intertwined political/personal plots, likeable characters, and a sense of humour. These are going on my "buy when the price drops to dirt cheap with Kobo coupons" list.



Well, if you do end up doing so, I think you won't regret it.

Yeah. My library has the first two and I have them on hold for me and will pick them up Saturday. That will make 7 pBooks, 2 CD audiobooks, 1 eAudiobook, and 1 eBook I have out from the library and 5 books from friends/relatives.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Read The Crocodile on the Sandbank, 1st in Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody, Plucky Victorian Egyptologist mystery series, which I rather liked.

But then I was expecting to like it, as I generally enjoy books with Plucky Victorian Egyptologists anyway. Although it was very surprising that about halfway through the book, I not only knew whodunnit, but also the most likely reason why (and I turned out not to be wrong about that, which is a first); the only thing I was lacking was exactly howdunnit. But it's an early book and I expect the later ones get more sophisticated with the misdirection and the clue-leaving-motivation-hiding.

And I've realized that Peters now has the classic triad of Blonde, Brunette, Redhead for her major series heroines. Too bad you'd never get them all in the same book at once, unless she wrote one of those theme novella collections with linked stories where Peabody uncovers some artifact, decades later it gets lost/stolen and Bliss goes off on its trail, and one day it ends up in an exhibit near some sort of event that Kirby visits in her librarian capacity and makes snarky remarks about while foiling an attempted murder over it.

Recommended as an enjoyable start to a promising-looking series, especially if you, too, happen to like Plucky Victorian Egyptologist adventures.

Now currently onto a different period historical sleuth series, fellow Canadian Dave Duncan's Alchemist books with Zeno, apprentice to the prophetic visionary Nostradamus (but not the Nostradamus, merely his also-prophetic great-nephew also-named Nostradamus), solving murders and intrigue in Renaissance Italy.

Quite enjoyable so far, and nice background detail on the culture of Venice at that time and the thoroughly backstabbing scheming one can expect from meddling in the affairs of a major city-state.

How about two out of three? I won't spoil it for you, but there's a tie in between Amelia and Vicky in later books. You have to really look for it though.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

How about two out of three? I won't spoil it for you, but there's a tie in between Amelia and Vicky in later books.

I expect it'll probably come in the last two books which seem to have an Egyptian motif, unless the "Memphis" in the title of the 5th Vicky Bliss refers to Elvis.

I did find a minor shout out to the Jacqueline Kirby books in my current read Silhouette in Scarlet, with one of the authors from Die for Love being namedropped. And it seems like everyone's plagiarizing "The Lustful Turk" for fun and profit now. I can hardly wait until Amelia Peabody also tries her hand at it to finance future expeditions.

Speaking of Jacqueline Kirby, finished Naked Once More, which appears to be the 4th and final book in that series.

A nice enough read, with Kirby's success as a pot-boiler author leading her to be one of the prospects for continuing the work of an author who apparently died under non-suicidal mysterious circumstances, which of course get solved during the course of the book in between dodging increasingly lethal attempts at copycat sabotage.

While not quite as fun as the middle two Kirby books, a solid and entertaining mystery in which I came pretty close to figuring out what had happened to the mysteriously-disappeared author before the reveal, though not who exactly was responsible for the maybe-murder.

Mild recommend. A okay ending to the series, but best to start with one of the earlier books to get better acquainted with Kirby's eccentricities and why she's able to leverage them so well and is so smug about being able to.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Now starting The City & The City by China Mieville.

Please report back when finished. Interested to know what you thought of it.

[omgfire]

I just finished Lord of the flies last night. It was alright but I probably would of liked it better if I read when I was younger. I don't know why I didn't in school. Anyways time to hunt for a new book, I hear Hunger Games is good but I'm not sure about it. Any advice or recommendations?