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

[Rumpelteazer]

Finished M.C. Beaton's Death of Cad (2nd in the Hamish MacBeth series) today. I liked it better than the first in the series; MacBeth is much more likeable, probably because the story is told from his point of view instead of someone else's. The story, however, is a bit too similar to the first for my taste, hopefully the other books will differ more.

Next: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I've read many raving reviews about this series and since I'm into YA fiction at the moment I thought I'd give it a try.

[slenderperson1]

Facinating read. Can't put the book down. Totally believable and he includes websites with pictures. Now some of the pictures I wonder if they could be doctored. Like the Mona lisa alien.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Any relation to Peabody in the In Death series?

Hmm. I kinda doubt it, although Elizabeth Peters (the author of the Amelia Peabody series and the Vicky Bliss series) did do a really interesting...reference to the Peabody character in the Vicky Bliss series (they take place in completely different eras with Vicky Bliss being modern and Amelia being much, much earlier Victorian settings in Egypt.

I say "doubt it" completely kidding--it just struck me that "Peabody" in Robb's series takes place waaay in the future thus from a timeframe that Peabody could be a descendant of Amelia's...

[SeaBookGuy]

Ebooks:

I'm about 3/4 of the way through The Best Australian Essays 2010 -- with one exception (covering the fires in the state of Victoria), the first several weren't all that easy to get into, but the book hit its stride later. I got it at Kobobooks, at a good price, with discount!

I've started the 100-page-long essay The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, not a bad library book.

Audiobook:

Wild Things -- I started this YA(?) title last night, thinking I'd just listen "to see if I could get into it" ...
I couldn't put it down (shut it off) for nearly an hour! (Library book)

Print (DTB):

I'm skimming my way through the latest in Ellen Hart's Jane Lawless series: The Cruel Ever After. I was about to give up today, when an interesting character was introduced, so I'll probably make it through this one, but don't blame anyone who doesn't. (Library book)

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But we are glad of that.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I'm enjoying some Aristophanes

I just started reading the New Testament in Greek. I've already read the first five verses of the first chapter of Matthew (!!!) with surprising (to me) comprehension, although I do hope my speed picks up a tad.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I just started reading the New Testament in Greek. I've already read the first five verses of the first chapter of Matthew (!!!) with surprising (to me) comprehension, although I do hope my speed picks up a tad.

WOW!

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by kennyc

WOW!

Couldn't have put that better myself!

[poohbear_nc]

"The Maltese Falcon" finally became available for the Kindle. While reading it, Bogart's voice was in my head intoning the narrative "voice-overs" -- an enjoyable read, but if you want to grasp all the innuendos, you'll need to look up a lot of slang terms. An engaging fast read up till the end - which dragged a lot as Sam & the fat man wrangled over how to end the fiasco of the black bird.

Then I read "The Thin Man" - if you didn't know better, you wouldn't realize they were both penned by Dashiell Hammett - what a different style/tone/narrative voice. Poor Nora didn't get many lines.

Hard to pull off both noir and high society comedy.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

"The Maltese Falcon" finally became available for the Kindle. While reading it, Bogart's voice was in my head intoning the narrative "voice-overs" -- an enjoyable read, but if you want to grasp all the innuendos, you'll need to look up a lot of slang terms. An engaging fast read up till the end - which dragged a lot as Sam & the fat man wrangled over how to end the fiasco of the black bird.

Then I read "The Thin Man" - if you didn't know better, you wouldn't realize they were both penned by Dashiell Hammett - what a different style/tone/narrative voice. Poor Nora didn't get many lines.

Hard to pull off both noir and high society comedy.

I just bought "The Maltese Falcon" recently, I can't wait to read it.

[Fbone]

Taking a break from science fiction for the moment. Childhood's End by Clarke is in my future.

But first picked up Speaks the Songbird by McCammon from the library. I don't usually read 700+ page books but if it doesn't hold my interest I'll drop it.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Fbone

But first picked up Speaks the Songbird by McCammon from the library. I don't usually read 700+ page books but if it doesn't hold my interest I'll drop it.

Love McCammon. I have that book in paperback. However, it came as two separate novels. I think he combined it into one later.

Will be a while until I get to it as I'm working through all his works in publishing order.

Regards
Caleb

[GraceKrispy]

I just finished a collection of short stories- interesting reads! It's a short collection of "Twilight Zone"/Stephen King type of short stories, some better than others. Review here.

oops, just realize I never posted the title or author! It's "Raven Wings and 13 More Twisted Tales" by Frank G. Poe, Jr.

[ATDrake]

Just finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fame (or notoriety). Story was okay, but nothing really much, relating everything about Lincoln's life and death to the vampires in an explaining-the-"recovered"-diary style.

The most interesting thing about it was the structure, interspersing regular dramatized recreational recounting with faux-journal entries and faux-reportage, along with real Lincoln quotes underneath the chapter headings. And footnotes and fake pictures, which were kind of fun.

But it was done very choppily, with what amounts to jump-editing from one style to the next, which made for a rather disjointed read. Would have been better if they'd done less frequent transitions and balanced the narrative more.

I'd actually be moderately interested to see how it looks in ebook format, since this really is one of those sorts of books that would benefit from the extra formatting available with embedded fonts and the like (paper version used different styles of old-fashioned serif, typewriter, and "regular" fonts to distinguish journal entries and such).

In any case, a mildly entertaining read that's best picked up from the library if interested, but I wouldn't have spent my own money upon it.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I just started reading the New Testament in Greek. I've already read the first five verses of the first chapter of Matthew (!!!) with surprising (to me) comprehension, although I do hope my speed picks up a tad.

Congratulations! Greek is a tough language to learn - Don't worry, your speed will pick up! Have you tried this program?

http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.heslin/Soft...enes/index.php

It's free.

http://www.tlg.uci.edu/demoinfo/demo.php

With Diogenes and the TLG, you click on a word and its dictionary entry comes up. I'm not sure if the New Testament is included in the demo package, but it's worth the effort to try it out. Also:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...on:Greco-Roman

Here you can also read the New Testament with one-click dictionary look-up, without installing anything (just scroll down to "New Testament" and click on the book you want to read).

I'm so proud of you! Self-learning Greek - super tough!