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

[SteveEisenberg]

Yesterday I also finished an unusually entertaining biography, American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon.

I borrowed the library hardback, thinking it would have higher quality art reproductions than with eInk. It does, but the hardback color reproductions were still mediocre, often failing to show details mentioned in the text. So I googled many pictures on a PC or tablet, where they were far clearer. eInk, with tablet in hand, would have been the better choice.

EDIT: Only after posting, I read the book summary in my link above. The biography is better than the summary! Exempting when Rockwell was commissioned by an ad agency, the Boy Scouts, or the government in wartime, this was rarely true: "Here was an America whose citizens seemed to believe in equality and gladness for all."

[Uncle Robin]

I've started my February prompt for the MobileReads TBR Reduction Challenge. It's very short (hence the February pick, but I think I'm going to need the extra 2 weeks to get through San Marino la storia in miniatura: la storia piccolissima.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which was OK, but a weird mix of fantasy, SF and other stuff. 3/5.

Then I read One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire. The fifth October Daye novel. The series is really getting into its stride now, Great stuff. 5/5.

Next up: Undertow by Elizabeth Bear. I bought this way back in December 2008!

It was OK to poor. I wasn't really convinced by any of the characters. Nor was the science/luck connection plausible. 2/5

Next I read To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Which was more fun than her other Oxford time-travel story! Indeed, it seemed to have been written intending to amuse, which it mostly did. I hope her obvious bit of incorrect history was deliberate. 4/5

And then there was the latest Penric&Desdemona story from Lois McMaster Bujold, Demon Daughter. Excellent, as always.

And now it's The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson. Good fun so far.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now it's The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson. Good fun so far.

And it was great. Good stuff indeed. Makes me want to do a re-read.

Next up: The Book of Lost Tales 1 by John and Christopher Tolkien. The first in the History of Middle-Earth series. Let's see if I really do want all the rest as well!

[Dr. Drib]

I'm reading some splatter novels to get my blood flowing again.

Currently reading The Doll House, a sophisticated AND humorous piece of writing by the great Edward Lee.

Recommended, especially if you're feeling somewhat....shall we say....feisty.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'm reading some splatter novels to get my blood flowing again.

I've got some splatterpunk / extreme horror on my list that I want to get to this year. Especially with all the Laymon and Ketchum that's in KU. I had a whole list of related to-reads somewhere but I got sidetracked sometime after finishing the Beast House series.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Book of Lost Tales 1 by John and Christopher Tolkien. The first in the History of Middle-Earth series. Let's see if I really do want all the rest as well!

Abandoned. Interesting, but not interesting enough for me.

Next up: The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö. The fifth in their Martin Beck series.

[CWatkinsNash]

I finished Divine Rivals. Three stars because I didn't like the way it was set up for the next book. It was a solid 5 stars all the way up to the 90% mark. Deducted one star for the cliffhanger, and then got up this morning and took away another star in lingering annoyance because I just couldn't reconcile the main character's behavior at the end with everything I'd read so far.

I read a lot of series, so I'm used to the next-book foreshadowing, lead-ins with impending peril and all that, but this was one of those "half of a story" cliffhanger things and I'm just over those for the most part. I'll sometimes make exceptions but not for this book.

Now I'm starting How It Unfolds, the first story in the Amazon Originals "The Far Reaches" collection.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I've got some splatterpunk / extreme horror on my list that I want to get to this year. Especially with all the Laymon and Ketchum that's in KU. I had a whole list of related to-reads somewhere but I got sidetracked sometime after finishing the Beast House series.

Get to it and let us all know the titles!

I've read almost all of Laymon's books. And Ketchum is a writer I like very much.

[astrangerhere]

I'm currently reading:

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson for a personal challenge. I thought I'd try to read it all in 2024, but I am thinking that it might stretch to fill 2025 as well. I am trying not to read more than 2 letters at a time.

Pointed Roofs by Dorothy Richardson. This is for my January book in the MobileRead Users 2024 TBR Reduction Challenge. It is also part of a personal challenge to read all of Richardson's Pilgrimage sequence this year. I went into it completely blind and am really, really enjoying it.

I'm also listening my way through the Brother Cadfael audiobooks as they have recently become available at my library.

[birdbrainbb]

Currently about 90 pages into Cat Sebastian's The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, which has been on my TBR since March 2022. It's a Georgian-era historical queer romance with an ex-highwayman and a soon-to-be-disgraced lord who team up to rob the lord's father, and I'm finding it very enjoyable. Sebastian is a fun writer and it's nice that many recent historicals are set in something other than the Victorian or Regency eras.

[astrangerhere]

How did you export the images of your challenge? I'm a paid member, but don't see a share option anywhere.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Get to it and let us all know the titles!

I've read almost all of Laymon's books. And Ketchum is a writer I like very much.

I will! I have read enough of both of them to know I like them very much, but I didn't fully appreciate Ketchum until I read his short story collection, Peaceable Kingdom, a couple of months ago. His novels are like walking into a room knowing that a fight is going to break out. His short stories are like being punched in the face before you've cleared the doorway. But in a good way.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I am trying not to read more than 2 letters at a time.

I did a double-take on this. Now I'm imagining taking all week to read a long word.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

How did you export the images of your challenge? I'm a paid member, but don't see a share option anywhere.

I had to ask too, as I could not find it on the website. In the app (and only in the app it seems), after selecting 2023 stats, choose view your 2023 reading wrap up, then riught at the very bootm, you should see "share summary graphic"