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

[GraceKrispy]

Life has been super crazy and busy lately, but I just finished reading "The Quest for Nobility" by MR member Debra L. Martin. I wrote a review here.

[paganpete]

Reading 'The Painted Man' By Peter V Brett on ereader (halfway through and it's brilliant - as Gemmel like as I will find I think) and reading 'A Gladiator Dies only Once' by Steven Saylor (another great author) in paperback!

[Iridal]

Originally Posted by paganpete

Reading 'The Painted Man' By Peter V Brett on ereader (halfway through and it's brilliant - as Gemmel like as I will find I think) and reading 'A Gladiator Dies only Once' by Steven Saylor (another great author) in paperback!

The Painted Man was the best book I read last year! There's also a collection of short stories: The Great Bazaar and other short stories about Arlen, that I can highly recommend. I can't wait for the third book of this series to come out !

Taking a break from Harry Potter, I'm going to start 'The Crown Conspiracy' tonight. And then on to the final 3 HP books.

[tbrookside]

I had just snagged Medicus a while back. Maybe I'll move it up on my TBR list.

[paganpete]

Thank you Iridal - I will look for that one too!

[Fbone]

Just completed Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon and thought it was well written but did have a few plot holes maybe as a result of some aggressive editing to keep it under 800 pages. I would list them but don't know how to do the "spoiler" link.

Next will be The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

[Rakgi]

Finished reading The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card now reading The Hammer by K.J. Parker

[boxcorner]

Now finished reading The Secret Report of Friar Otto, by Sam Smith, which I enjoyed immensely. Intriguingly, it's dedicated to the memory of Dr David Kelly. Historical fiction, set in the 13th Century, with fascinating references to Lundy, a name that will be familiar to listeners of R4's shipping forecasts. Superstitious pagan Welsh thought it was a gateway to that other world, full of fairies and demons. The story is a reinterpretation of Friar Otto's report, about a group of 17 renegade knights who were condemned to death by King Henry III of England, for piracy and treason - they could just as easily have been accused of heresy. This Franciscan friar is assigned the task interrogating them, while they are incarcerated in the Tower of London, Newgate and Fleet prisons. His dialogues with them challenge his faith, courage and resilience, bringing him face-to-face with the absolutely appalling conditions in those places, revealing extraordinarily rich detail of life at that time.

[januaryman]

Finished "Worth Dying For" by Lee Child. I guess I'm addicted to his turbo charged fast moving novels. Sure there are few characters worth remembering past Jack Reacher, and chances are you won't even remember the plot except for a broad concept, but it surely is a page turner series.

My "Autobiography of Mark Twain" is still going strong, and I'm 39% through, my iPad tells me. Tons of highlighed text in this puppy so far. The man was a walking chest of memorable lines and observations! I read this huge tome in spurts, while doubling up with some sort of fiction selection.

My next fiction selection was to be Harlan Ellison's "The Deathbird Stories," but after reading the second tale, I just don't see why he is lauded the way he is. So I need to choose another.

[Zuly1201]

Just started reading book number 4 of the year...Always The Baker, Never the Bride...cute so far.

[jgaiser]

Since finishing "The Old Man's War" and "The Ghost Brigade" by John Scalzi, I've been a semi-regular visitor at his blog.

He has a blog category called "Big Ideas" where authors explaining the the big ideas behind their latest works, in their own words.

Yesterday's Big Idea was author Wendelin Van Draanen's inspiration for her YA novel "The Running Dream", the story of a young runner who loses her leg in an accident.

I was hooked and purchased the book last night and am nearly 1/3 through it this morning. A first person tale of pain, anger, frustration and hope. Think I'll finish it today.

[GeoffC]

I'm hoping to start The Day of the triffids sometime soon; I just have my current reading to finish first Omnibus of Sherlock Holmes - I've moved away from my earlier intention to read a couple of dead-tree books....

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I'm hoping to start The Day of the triffids sometime soon; I just have my current reading to finish first Omnibus of Sherlock Holmes - I've moved away from my earlier intention to read a couple of dead-tree books....

I read that last year - I found it quite interesting, if a bit dated. Enjoy!

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Zuly1201

Just started reading book number 4 of the year...Always The Baker, Never the Bride...cute so far.

That sounds like a fun one!

[slenderperson1]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

I'm reading "Failure is Not an Option" from Sony Connect. It's written by Gene Kranz, one of the early members of the space program who wrote the procedures for the early Mercury missions, the became the assistant flight director and so forth. He's probably most famous for being the Apollo 13 flight director.

So far, this is one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe that's hyperbole because it's fresh in my mind and I'm enjoying it so much now, but really it is that good.

He's writing from a position of authority and first hand experience in one of the most exciting projects/programs you can imagine. There's a lot of detail, so you need to really want to know about the space program, but if you are interested, this is a must read. (With the caveat that I'm only about 15% into the book, so it is possible it becomes a dud later, but I really doubt it will!)

Connect says it's "The thrilling story of NASA's Mission Control teams that guided the 'Apollo' spacecraft through successful lunar landings is recounted by 'Apollo 13' flight director Gene Kranz." But it starts out with the first manned Mercury flights, and the whole description is fascinating and mind blowing. It's almost surreal, it's so out of the ordinary. It makes you want to be a part of something that will change the world.

There's not a lot of discussion about the Russian space program, which was way ahead of NASA, but it was referred to by him in the beginning because apprently it was pretty intimidating to be racing such an advanced team with proven successes already, especially when they had been having a lot of problems getting rockets to fly right and had never put a man into space. He probably didn't know too much about what they were doing, though, because he says that the defense dept didn't really want to share with civilians on the space program how much they knew from their intelligence sources. I wish there was an equivalent book about the Russian space program also. It would be fascinating to see the same thing done by a whole other group of people independently.

If you like this book you will want to read "Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach. Sounds similar. Behinds the scenes look at training and experience. Who gets selected per psychological tests, etc. I'm only on the third chapter and can't put it down.