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

[tilia]

Finished Hunter's Moon. Ugh! I did not need that right know (can't really say more, since it would be a big spoiler). I'm still looking forward to the rest of the books, but I think the next one will live on my kindle for a while before I read it.

This one was more a thriller than a mystery, and in my opinion had the weakest plot in the series.

I felt like something in a familiar universe, that I was fairly certain I'd like, so I started reading the latest Mercy Thompson book, Frost Burned.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by Fbone

After 80 pages I gave up on Gridlinked by Neal Asher. Ian Cormac disconnected from the Grid and I from this book. It boiled down to psychopath chases flawed agent.

I quite enjoy his work, but it does tend to cater for the more action-packed SF crowd. The later books in the series do provide more depth if that's any help. You might also want to check out Prador Moon. It's a rather short stand-alone novel that works as a great means to see if you'll like his style.

[BelleZora]

I just finished To Say Nothing of the Dog and loved it. Reading Jerome's Three Men in a Boat first made it even more enjoyable, as well as having read Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books and Wodehouse's Jeeves and Bertie novels. Had I not read the MR book club selection, The Doomsday Book, I may never have read anything by Connie Willis and that would have been a loss.

[Dhevi]

Finished The Grim Company by Luke Scull. Quite an interesting read. Thoroughly enjoyed it. On to some similiar epic fantasy and moving to read Shadows Linger by Glen Cook.

[Synamon]

My reads for the past month:

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin. Well written, but predictable story with race as a central issue set in the southern US.

I enjoyed Faithful Place by Tana French so much earlier in the year that I did a binge of her other books: In The Woods, The Likeness, and Broken Harbour. Each book is from a different character's perspective and I had a hard time with the last since the main character was a tool in an earlier book. Of the bunch, I'd recommend In the Woods and Faithful Place as excellent thrillers with a dysfunctional family dynamic woven in.

I listened to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Wonderful blend of science and history/biography that kept me intrigued. Both science and equality have come a long way, baby.

I'd picked up Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy with a Kobo coupon a couple of years ago and finally settled down with it. Nice to see older characters as the focus, very old in the case of the Black Dragon , and the story charmed me.

I finished the Lewis trilogy by Peter May, and enjoyed The Chessman more than the second in the series, so don't stop after two. Less family drama and more suspense, again set in the unforgiving Outer Hebrides.

I gobbled up the latest Department Q book, A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen. The murderers in this series are really deranged, but the detectives are not even close to normal, so well up to the challenge. If I do a list of finds at the end of the year, this series will be near the top of the list.

My last Alan Grant mystery by Josephine Tey, The Singing Sands was excellent. I might have to toss a coin for a favourite, this was almost as good as The Daughter of Time.

Rock Paper Tiger by Lisa Brackmann was disappointing, it didn't really seem to have a plot or a point, just an aimless main character who went with the flow.

All the incompetent spies were back in Dead Lions (Slough House #2) by Mick Herron. It's hard to do cold war style spy novels now, this modern parody pokes fun at all the tropes of the genre.

I tried to give Connie Willis another go with To Say Nothing of the Dog, but again found her work overly long and slow moving. I want my 21 hours back.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Excellent conclusion to this series. I am definitely going to have to read some other books by Mr. Howey.

Now on to The Last Threshold by R.A. Salvatore, book 1,234 (approximately) in the Drizzt series. I have been reading these since 1990, so no point in stopping now. Especially when free from the library.

Took a break from The Last Threshold to read The Martian by Andy Weir - excellent story and will probably be better when the traditionally published version comes out next February. Here are my comments about it in the "epistolary novel" thread.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I finished reading both The Scarlet Slipper Mystery and Shadow Woman this morning and enjoyed both of them immensely!

I've decided to begin my third annual re-read of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series today. I had planned to begin this re-read a little closer to book 15 of the series, Skin Game's expected publication date of December 3rd 2013, but since I've noticed that my book consumption rate has slowed significantly as of late, I've started re-reading the first book of the series, Storm Front.

Originally Posted by alansplace

I finished re-reading Storm Front last night and this morning I've begun re-reading Fool Moon (The Dresden Files #2) by Jim Butcher.

Originally Posted by leanansidhe

I'm re-reading The Dresden Files series for the 4th time. Great series for anyone that loves Urban Fantasy. Some say the first couple of books were a bit slow but I've enjoyed every one of them over and over.

Originally Posted by alansplace

Me too, though I haven't been posting about it here this time around, as it seemed somehow to be redundant to do so. Instead I've posted my progress in 'The Dresden Files' thread. I think this is also my fourth time reading the series, but I'm unsure of that as I seem to have lost track of the count. Of course each re-read I do gets just a bit longer as each new book in the series gets published. I'm one quarter of the way through the 7th book, so I'm almost halfway finished with this re-read! Then in December the fifteenth book gets published

I absolutely loved my re-read of the first eleven Dresden Files books! I'd planned to go on to the end of the series with the last three books, but this point is a good place to pause as the arrival of James Potter and the Morrigan Web seems to be an omen of good fortune. So for now that pause will be filled with the new G. Norman Lippert book!

Oh, since George delivered it without a cover I cobbled one together and I've attached it to this post for anybody who wants to use it. Mouse-click it for a full-size view.

[xg4bx]

Finished The Return of the Sorcerer:The Best of Clark Ashton Smith. As much as I like Lovecraft I think I like Smith a bit more, his works are much more varied and he seemed like a much more versatile writer.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Synamon

I'd picked up Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy with a Kobo coupon a couple of years ago and finally settled down with it. Nice to see older characters as the focus, very old in the case of the Black Dragon , and the story charmed me.

I'll be re-reading this soonish (I remember I've read it years ago, but I only really remember that I liked it a lot!). I was taken with The Grey Horse and The Lens of the World which I've read this year.

[PurpleStar]

I stayed up late last night to finish Dust by Hugh Howey. I think it was the best of the trilogy. I'll have to re-read them all back to back sometime, but not before I read his other books.

Next up is another big new release by another of my favorite authors. The Third Kingdom by Terry Goodkind.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I'm still trying to work out what my next indie read is going to be, but in the meantime I've already slotted in Cain by José Saramago. I have many works by this author but haven't read any yet. This one is of palatable size and retells some of the Old Testament. I like Bible rehashes, so it was an obvious first pick.

Well - I might have exaggerated a bit by saying this was a retelling of the Old Testament. This was a delightful and farcical mash-up of different Old Testament scenes through the eyes of Cain. It's completely irreverent and funny and I enjoyed it a great deal. Is Saramago always that amusing?

I finally picked my next indie read. This is one of our own, Mel Comley, and her first Lorne Simpkins book, Cruel Justice. I have a few of her books, but have never got around to reading any. Of course, that typifies 80% of my eLibrary, but be that as it may, it's now her turn.

[BelleZora]

Thus was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell

This has been on my TBR list since reading a recommendation on a long ago MR thread. Although I'm only 20% along, it is the most charming and hilarious book I've come across since first discovering Wodehouse. Since there are only four books in Caudwell's Hilary Tamar series, I know to pace myself. It is a book I will surely re-read just for the sheer joy in the highly stylized writing rich with satire, irony, literary allusions, and truly funny Shakespeare jokes.

It is possible that you may not like it if you are not so enchanted with British humour. Although that is hard to imagine.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Thus was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell

This has been on my TBR list since reading a recommendation on a long ago MR thread. Although I'm only 20% along, it is the most charming and hilarious book I've come across since first discovering Wodehouse. Since there are only four books in Caudwell's Hilary Tamar series, I know to pace myself. It is a book I will surely re-read just for the sheer joy in the highly stylized writing rich with satire, irony, literary allusions, and truly funny Shakespeare jokes.

It is possible that you may not like it if you are not so enchanted with British humour. Although that is hard to imagine.

Thanks, this looks very interesting - definitely going on my TBR.

[Mivo]

Finished The Lisbon Crossing (a light, fast-paced WW2 thriller that turned out to be quite entertaining and only suffered from no one editing the German text bits; the epilogue was better than the story's actual ending) and tackling The Day of the Jackal. I had meant to read it for ages, but constantly had other novels interfering. Never watched the movie either, so it'll be all new.

[HarryT]

Just finished a re-read of "Magician's Gambit", the third book in David Eddings' classic fantasy series "The Belgariad". Every bit as good as I remember, and, I have to say, a very nicely-produced ebook, with no formatting errors that I noticed.