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

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by wayspooled

I wish I had quit with the first one. I loved Dune, I mean when I finished it - I thought it was the best sci-fi novel I'd ever read - and I can't help but wonder if my opinion was diminished by having read

I liked all of them also, but finished with "Chapterhouse". The Frank ones are hard to put down, but the Brian ones I didn't feel compelled to read.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

That's good to know. I've been meaning to pick up the series, but have been delaying it due to complaints about the later books dragging on. You are probably right about latter books being better when read straight through. I read the first 70 or so "Fables" comic books, and now that for the last two years I've had to wait a month for each new installment I find that the series reads much better when read straight through. I think I'll bump up WOT on my TBR list.

After The Lord of Chaos (#6) the books don't really have individual story arcs but read as part of a larger work. With Knife of Dreams (#11)
you finally get the feel that it is moving to the end.

[MacEachaidh]

I'm revisiting F Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack books - a series I started a long time ago and hugely enjoyed - since there are now five more books since I last picked one up (and two more yet to complete the cycle).

They're snortingly good. Espionage-ish thrillers with wry humour and an otherworldly darkness that started at the edges but is gradually deepening and taking over the centre of the story. The stories stand alone but also add together into an overall arc with a planned end-point, which I find very satisfying in a series. Highly recommended for anyone who likes suspenseful urban fantasy with a Lovecraft tinge.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by BenG

Mannerpunk is a fantasy of manners(though some would make a distinction between the two):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_of_manners

http://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/17600.html

Thanks for the links - I had no idea, and it illuminates "Swordspoint" a great deal. Thank you

[TC Beacham]

Just finished A LITTLE DEATH IN DIXIE by Lisa Turner, the first Kindle freebie I've read - very much enjoyed it.

Now I'm reading BEAUTIFUL LIES by Lisa Unger - the set-up pulled me right in.

[jgaiser]

Finished a couple non-fictions the past few days.

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz, a look at a subculture in the Southern United States that can't let go of the American Civil War. Humorous, depressing, scary and an excellent read.

Everything from hardcore re-enactors to hero-worship of the commander of Andersonville prison camp, Henry Wirz, who was hung by the North as a convicted war criminal. The story is actually fairly well balanced, though reading some of the 1 and 2 star comments on Amazon will give you a taste of some of the feelings in the south.

On a lighter note, I finished Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (Stiff, Bonk, Spook fame). I love her books and this one is another fun book. Only Mary can ask the questions that need to be asked. Like "What about sex in space?" and "How does one eliminate in space" (and we're not talking about mobster hits). And whatever you do if you read the book, don't skip the footnotes.

Also on the non-fiction reading pile is The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe and "The Civil War - A Narrative, Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville" by Shelby Foote

[rlparker]

About 1/2 way through Radium Halos (A novel about the Radium Dial Painters) --99 cents at Amazon and also available at Smashwords. Shelley Stout, the author, is an MR member.

I'm really enjoying the book so far. The story is touching, humorous and suspenseful. The author does a great job with the storytelling techniques she uses--even the tricky ones--like flashback, first-person narrative and dialect.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

... On a lighter note, I finished Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (Stiff, Bonk, Spook fame). I love her books and this one is another fun book. Only Mary can ask the questions that need to be asked. Like "What about sex in space?" and "How does one eliminate in space" (and we're not talking about mobster hits). ...

There was an interview with Astronaut Russell Schweickart by Peter Warshall in which Schweickart stated, "[T]he most beautiful sight in orbit, or one of the most beautiful sights, is a urine dump at sunset, because as the stuff comes out and as it hits the exit nozzle it instantly flashes into ten million little ice crystals." It's entitled "There Ain't No Graceful Way," and is short, fun to read, and can be found on http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/CoEvo...Graceful%20Way.

There's even a photo there of Al Bean urinating in Skylab II.

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by BenG

I'm rereading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and just finished the second book in the series

I'm joining the club , I've bought the two first books in the series from whsmith (they're having 50% off all e-books)

[FlorenceArt]

Finished The Year of the Flood this morning on the train. I guess I'll start on Ian McEwan's Atonement on the way back.

[neilmarr]

What was your impression of *Year of the Flood*, Florence? Good I hope. Best wishes. Neil

[Libby Cone]

Originally Posted by edbro

Reading IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation by Edwin Black

Extremely interesting account of how IBM worked with the Nazis to count and catalouge the Jews. IBM maintained databases of the Jews; how many, personal data, which ones were strong enough to work, which ones should be exterminated, etc.

http://www.inkmesh.com/ebooks/ibm-an...y+Edwin+Black+

I read it about ten years ago; I thought it was a terrific and scary book. Since reading it, though I'm somewhat to the left of Stalin, I always have second thoughts about filling out census forms.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

What was your impression of *Year of the Flood*, Florence? Good I hope. Best wishes. Neil

Good, but not Atwood's best. I had the same mixed feelings about Oryx and Crake.

[neilmarr]

Thanks, Florence. It's been on my to-buy list since release. I loved Oryx and Crake, so it may well appeal to me a little more than it did to you. Glad to hear, though, that your impression was reasonably good. Attwood would, I think, find herself incapable of turning out a stinker. Best. Neil

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Thanks, Florence. It's been on my to-buy list since release. I loved Oryx and Crake, so it may well appeal to me a little more than it did to you. Glad to hear, though, that your impression was reasonably good. Attwood would, I think, find herself incapable of turning out a stinker. Best. Neil

True! I'm not sure what makes me uneasy about these books, maybe it's the subject matter rather than the writing. Or the slightly militant tone of some passages.