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

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Lusitanic

Amazing book. I'm highly peeved that this is still not available as an ebook.

[Lin2412]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

Top 5 books I read in 2014 in the order that I read them. (I couldn't begin to rank them against each other!)

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear*
The Martian by Andy Weir
Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg
Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson


Close runners-up:

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley**
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

* Leaving Everything Most Loved is the most recent book in the Maisie Dobbs series. I don't think it's a stand-alone read ... you really need to have read prior books in the series.

** The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches is the most recent book in the Flavia de Luce series. It is *not* a stand-alone read. A lot of its appeal to me was because it tied up a long story arc.

Thank you very much for this Hampshire Nanny! (and also for sharing the close runners-up!). I may need to find more time to read 'Leaving Everything Most Loved' because I just found out it's the 10th of the Maisie Dobbs series! (I love book series, but the highest number of books I've read in a series has only ever been seven. And that's Harry Potter. lol)

[Lin2412]

I'm currently reading "Bossypants" because a friend quoted something from it that I found really hilarious. It was recommended to me earlier this year but I told my friend back then that I'll put it on hold because I don't usually understand every references to American jokes. So far, this book is really interesting to say the least. lol

[covingtoncat73]

Okay. I think Wool is taking and breaking my "reader's block." It would be nice if I had a little more peace in which to read it right now (both internally and externally).

I also may have to break down and finally read "American Uprising." Good: your ancestor is featured in a book about a historical incident.

Bad: your ancestor is the villain of the piece.

Good: it is a good book.

Bad: your ancestor is deservedly the villain of the piece.

Still no word on the frogurt...

[BelleZora]

A Rumpole Christmas. I thought I had read every Rumpole book and short story multiple times. So I was delighted to find this lovely hardcover with five previously unread short stories at the Dollar Store.

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

I also may have to break down and finally read "American Uprising." Good: your ancestor is featured in a book about a historical incident.

Bad: your ancestor is the villain of the piece.

Good: it is a good book.

Bad: your ancestor is deservedly the villain of the piece.

While doing genealogical research I came across a letter written by Sam Houston in the 1830's in which he refers to my direct ancestor as 'the biggest snake in Texas'. Oh well, we can't all be descended from history's heroes.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

A Rumpole Christmas. I thought I had read every Rumpole book and short story multiple times. So I was delighted to find this lovely hardcover with five previously unread short stories at the Dollar Store.



While doing genealogical research I came across a letter written by Sam Houston in the 1830's in which he refers to my direct ancestor as 'the biggest snake in Texas'. Oh well, we can't all be descended from history's heroes.

Very fitting reading for Christmas. I can't wait to get home and resume Wool.

Ha! How cool about that letter. I shall console myself that a greatx2 grandfather, according to a 1909 newspaper article, wouldn't back down about the bad working conditions for Austrian immigrants at the Tobasco factory (he was the New Orleans consul for Austro-Hungary).

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

And, OMG, I just finished reading The Martian and I have to say, it's the best hard sci-fi book I've read all year.

I agree!

Originally Posted by alansplace

A couple of weeks back I voted for The Martian in two categories at GoodReads!

So did I . And it won the Science Fiction category.

Now finally reading The Flying Sorcerers by David Gerrold and Larry Niven, which was recommended a while back by pdurrant, I think, and someone else. Very good (and funny) so far, about an encounter with alien life, as seen from the aliens' perspective.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by orlok

I agree!


So did I . And it won the Science Fiction category.

Now finally reading The Flying Sorcerers by David Gerrold and Larry Niven, which was recommended a while back by pdurrant, I think, and someone else. Very good (and funny) so far, about an encounter with alien life, as seen from the aliens' perspective.

It is a very funny book and well worth the read. I read it again a few months ago.
Apache

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

The Case of the Bouncing Betty was, as it usually is for the Ed Noon books, a really enjoyable reading experience. Next I'll begin reading my freebie for December in the:

program, The Last Passenger by Manel Loureiro, Andres Alfaro (Translator). It concerns the Valkyrie, a German ship veiled in secrecy for decades after it was discovered adrift in 1939 with only one passenger aboard, a baby boy named Isaac Feldman. Along with The Last Passenger I'll also be reading Superheroes Anonymous by Lexie Dunne. This one I'm reading because Lexie Dunne is a friend's cousin's daughter.

Originally Posted by alansplace

I got into Superheroes Anonymous and finished it a couple of days ago. It was a really fun read and since Lexie Dunne's last line of the book was, "TO BE CONTINUED . . .", and it did in fact end in a sort of cliff hanger, I'll be looking forward to the release of the sequel to Superheroes Anonymous, the second in the Gail Godwin books, coming out in June of 2015.

Right now things are too busy around here for me to continue reading The Last Passenger right now, maybe tomorrow?

Wow! The Last Passenger turned out to be an interesting and engrossing horror novel (I felt kinda' like I was reading a Stephen King novel) with time travel thrown in as a bonus! I really enjoyed it! Next I've just begun reading the 10th book of the Phryne Fisher mysteries series, Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which just arrived from my library. I have been slowly re-reading this series and will finish sometime next year I expect.

I like HP. A lot. I finished #3 on the 9th, took most of a week off (nothing sounded good) and then read #4, The Goblet of Fire, in 2 days. Now I am reading John Rain #5, Extremis, by Barry Eisler (originally published as The Last Assassin.) When I finish this I will start Hogfather, Discworld #20, by Terry Pratchett as my Christmas week read.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

So, a quick freebie short story from Sharon Lee The night don't seem so lonely, set in Archer's Beach. About the Trenvay. Highly recommended. And now I have two new books on my new Voyage, plus another Campion. That should keep me busy.

So, I decided to re-read a favourite series, the Rivers of London series from Ben Aaronovitch. These are mostly being read as audio books, and I'm really enjoying them this second time around. Kobna Holbrook-Smith's narration is adding a new take on these excellent books.

[Gazella]

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

[Lusitanic]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Amazing book. I'm highly peeved that this is still not available as an ebook.

I'm actually reading an epub version of it so dunno about that
I'm enjoying it very much. Only read like 30 pages, but it is wonderful to be inside the head of Red.

Also reading this



And I started this one today



And some poetry as well

[DrNefario]

Yesterday I finished The Unremembered by Peter Orullian, a fairly uninspiring epic fantasy that didn't do much for me. At 800 pages, I probably should have bailed early, but I felt I was committed to read it for a challenge. It did get better, but not really by enough.

Today I finished Peril at End House, a Poirot novel by Agatha Christie. I think I might have remembered this one a bit too well from the TV adaptation, and I worked out the main part of it early, but it was nice quick refresher after The Unremembered.

Next up I'm planning to read Mirror Image by Michael G Coney, a bit of old school SF, and a pseudo-prequel to a BSFA winner I'm working up to.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by orlok

Now finally reading The Flying Sorcerers by David Gerrold and Larry Niven, which was recommended a while back by pdurrant, I think, and someone else. Very good (and funny) so far, about an encounter with alien life, as seen from the aliens' perspective.

Now The Flying Sorcerers is on my lifetime top 20 list! It's a book that I regularly re-read every 3-4 years. I adore all the puns throughout the book and its overall silliness coupled with a rather serious basic storyline.

Originally Posted by Dazrin

When I finish this I will start Hogfather, Discworld #20, by Terry Pratchett as my Christmas week read.

Really? It's #20 in Discworld? Maybe that's why I simply couldn't get into it. Hogfather was recommended to me as the first of a trilogy and I tried & tried to read it. But, since I've read none of the Discworld series, maybe the fact that it wasn't really a stand-alone contributed to my problem.