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

[mewmartigan]

Originally Posted by Apache

For me The Mote in God's Eye was excellent. I remember the sequel, The Gripping Hand, was not as good but still a good read. Outies the third in the series was written by Jerry Pournelle's daughter Jennifer and is the weakest of the three, in my opinion.
Apache

Thanks, maybe I will give The Gripping Hand a shot.

[alansplace]

I decided to check Netflix for Nancy Drew movies, found one from 1939 that was titled Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase starring Bonita Granville as Nancy. It bore little resemblance to the book it was titled after and Nancy was not at all like the....oh I'll just say that the story and the characters were not anything at all like the Nancy Drew Mysteries. The only thing I enjoyed (nostalgically) was seeing Frankie Thomas as Ted (not Ned) Nickerson as he was the actor who played the title role in my very first favorite TV show, Tom Corbet Space Cadet (1950-1955) which was based on Heinlein's YA novel, Space Cadet and was just as far off base concerning the book it was based on as was this so-called Nancy Drew movie. But I watched it faithfully anyway. By the way Heinlein disliked it so much that he had his name removed from the credits.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by alansplace

The only thing I enjoyed (nostalgically) was seeing Frankie Thomas as Ted (not Ned) Nickerson as he was the actor who played the title role in my very first favorite TV show, Tom Corbet Space Cadet (1950-1955) which was based on Heinlein's YA novel, Space Cadet and was just as far off base concerning the book it was based on as was this so-called Nancy Drew movie.

Have you noticed the new version of the "Tom Corbett Omnibus" (two "tt"s in "Corbett", by the way!) that I uploaded to the MR library a couple of days ago?

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you noticed the new version of the "Tom Corbett Omnibus" (two "tt"s in "Corbett", by the way!) that I uploaded to the MR library a couple of days ago?

, I just downloaded it and it looks great! I see I misspelled Corbett (I typed it with 2 t's at first then deleted the second t, oh well!). I've never read any of these before so it'll be a treat. Maybe I'll intersperse them with the Nancy Drew reads I'm doing. The guy on the cover of the first selection, Stand By For Mars! doesn't look a bit like Frankie Thomas!

Suburb work, as always, Harry!

[HarryT]

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I very much enjoyed reading The Password to Larkspur Lane. And I also I enjoyed reading and liked A Night Too Dark a whole bunch.

Now it's on to the 11th Nancy Drew Mystery Story, The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene (Mildred A Wirt) and The 18th (this is really the last one) of Tony Hillerman's Navajo Mysterys, The Shape Shifter.:

The last novel, The Shape Shifter (#18) of Tony Hillerman's, Navajo Mysteries was a real good read. I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed #11 of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, The Clue of the Broken Locket a lot.

This time, instead of the next Nancy Drew Mystery, I'm going to try the first novel in the Tom Corbett Omnibus, Stand by for Mars! by Carey Rockwell. Also I'm reading Dana Stabenow's 18th Kate Shugak Mystery, Though Not Dead.

[blackcat]

Just finished The Reality Dysfunction - need a break from that so now reading Oryx and Crake

[HarryT]

I've just finished "At Home" by Bill Bryson. This is a very interesting book. In it, Bill Bryson basically explores the history of why our homes are the way they are, and looks at the interesting and often unexpected history of every room in the house, and why it ended up the way it did. Highly recommended.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Few Good Men by Sarah A. Hoyt. The third in her "DarkShip" series. Looking very good so far.

And very good it was too.

One from my backlog now: Interzone #214, February 2008, bought in July 2008!

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next will be Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow, the first Liam Campbell mystery. I have enjoyed her other books so hopefully this is as good as the Kate Shugak books.

I enjoyed it, not quite as much as the KS books, but well enough. I will look into continuing the series at some point. For now it is on to Second Star to get back into some science fiction.

[cassidym]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've just finished "At Home" by Bill Bryson. This is a very interesting book. In it, Bill Bryson basically explores the history of why our homes are the way they are, and looks at the interesting and often unexpected history of every room in the house, and why it ended up the way it did. Highly recommended.

Totally agree. Found it very interesting!

[jersysman]

Just finished up Battle Cry Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson. This was a very good book on the causes and fighting of the Civil War.

I'm going to switch it up and read The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

The last novel, The Shape Shifter (#18) of Tony Hillerman's, Navajo Mysteries was a real good read. I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed #11 of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, The Clue of the Broken Locket a lot.

This time, instead of the next Nancy Drew Mystery, I'm going to try the first novel in the Tom Corbett Omnibus, Stand by for Mars! by Carey Rockwell. Also I'm reading Dana Stabenow's 18th Kate Shugak Mystery, Though Not Dead.

Hmmmm...well I ripped through Stand by for Mars! and really had a good time doing so. It was a real nostalgia trip and I even went to Youtube and viewed some clips from 1952 TV (kinescope ugh!!) during the read. What fun (and what terrible quality video)! Anyway I never even started Though Not Dead. So I'm going to be reading it now and I'll read the 12th Nancy Drew Mystery Story, The Message in the Hollow Oak along with it.

[HarryT]

I finished "Impact" by Douglas Preston last night. This is the third book in his "Wyman Ford" thriller series, and it's one to be avoided. Mr. Preston writes excellent "techno-thrillers", but this one is just silly. An alien space weapon, hundreds of millions of years old, buried in one of the moons of Mars, is awakened by a modern space probe, and threatens to destroy the Earth. Can Wyman Ford and a young girl (who just happens to be a genius) defeat it? I knew this was going to be a bad one when the aforementioned girl set up a telescope, looked at Orion, and saw... the Andromeda Galaxy! (The reason it's called "the Andromeda Galaxy", Mr Preston, is that it's in the constellation of Andromeda, which is nowhere near Orion.)

Mr Preston's written some excellent thrillers (including the two previous book in this series), but this one's just silly. Don't waste your time with it.

In case you're ever faced with the problem of having to stop an alien super-weapon from destroying the Earth, by the way...

Spoiler:

... you do so by sending it the message "WE SURRENDER" from your local TV station's satellite downlink dish. So now you know .

[NickyWithNook]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've just finished "At Home" by Bill Bryson. This is a very interesting book. In it, Bill Bryson basically explores the history of why our homes are the way they are, and looks at the interesting and often unexpected history of every room in the house, and why it ended up the way it did. Highly recommended.

I really liked that too. I like anything by Bill Bryson, really.

I think "At Home" might have been the first e-book I got from the library. If not the first, than the second.