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

[geaaronson]

I`m on a Barry Unsworth kick at the moment. Just finished "A Ruby in Her Navel", set at the time of the last Crusades. I have read "The Stone Virgin" and "morality play" by him and strongly recommend his novels. His work is historical fiction but the themes have direct political relevance to current international issues.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by geaaronson

I`m on a Barry Unsworth kick at the moment. Just finished "A Ruby in Her Navel", set at the time of the last Crusades. I have read "The Stone Virgin" and "morality play" by him and strongly recommend his novels. His work is historical fiction but the themes have direct political relevance to current international issues.

Welcome to MR!

Taking a break from serious reading at the moment (Ulysses-yes, still reading that one!- and What the Buddha Taught) with Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold. Nice comfort reading :-)

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by geaaronson

I`m on a Barry Unsworth kick at the moment. Just finished "A Ruby in Her Navel", set at the time of the last Crusades. I have read "The Stone Virgin" and "morality play" by him and strongly recommend his novels. His work is historical fiction but the themes have direct political relevance to current international issues.

I've read his travel narrative book on Crete, which was great.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I think we (perhaps not you and I) have had this discussion before in the "What's the last ebook you bought" thread. "Last" does not also have to mean "final" or "ultimate".



Oh, well if he said that then it does sound like "last" == "final"

BOb

Like I said, "last" for now was kind of the way he put it. On his "last" post (not final, but last one posted) he admitted that he was missing "Lou" and the gang. When he talked about this book being the "last" in the series, he definitely said he would consider doing another, but that it wasn't going to be his next project. I think he was a little burned out on the pace--writing a book a year...is very draining. Well, it is for me anyway and I'm guessing some other writers feel the strain of a deadline.

Personally I think a break from it might very well allow some great new ideas to have a chance to form--that under a "year deadline" might not really have time to cook. It's a great series. I'm really looking forward to the "last" book--but I'd much rather a writer step back and stay fresh rather than force out prose that could be ever so much better with a break/rest.

[GeoffC]

I may have to put aside my reader for my next choice of reading because it only appears to be available in tree-version...

Stephen R. Donaldson's Mordant's Need duology


1. The Mirror of Her Dreams
2. A Man Rides Through

If you've not read them, they are an excellent pair of books....

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Taking a break from serious reading at the moment (Ulysses-yes, still reading that one!- and What the Buddha Taught) with Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold. Nice comfort reading :-)

Just finished "Brothers in Arms" this morning. Not my favorite of the Bujold books I've read so far, but still a good read. Grabbed an audiobook copy of the next in series "Mirror Dance". I *really* like the narrator of the Bujold books from Audible.

[Rumpelteazer]

I just finished Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. It took a couple of chapter to get into the story but then it was really hard to put down my reader. I'm going to get the other two tomorrow and I'll buy a paper copy for my sister because I think she'll love it too.

Now I'm in the mood for a cozy mystery so I'll start the second in the Cat Who series, The Cat Who Ate a Danish Modern.

[lilac_jive]

I just got my used copy of "The Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine," which I'm very excited about and just started. Not available in ebook, which is good, it's a more visual book.

Also just finished "The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride" by Daniel James Brown. Awesome book, I knew it was a bad event but damn that must have sucked. Perfect two books for the mini snowstorm we're getting right now.

[stop__dreaming]

Currently reading; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (same author who penned Pride & Prejudice & Zombies).

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Sadly, he announced "last" on his blog a while back. He's working on a YA at the moment. He has said he is considering another Lou/Mason book. Hopefully if he decides to write one the publisher will be behind him!!!

I hope so too! And I hope it doesn't turn out to be "last".

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I think we (perhaps not you and I) have had this discussion before in the "What's the last ebook you bought" thread. "Last" does not also have to mean "final" or "ultimate".



Oh, well if he said that then it does sound like "last" == "final"

BOb

Yeah, BOb, my original post was something on the order of "Oh no, I love this series and don't want it to end!" when I realized it could mean the other.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Like I said, "last" for now was kind of the way he put it. On his "last" post (not final, but last one posted) he admitted that he was missing "Lou" and the gang. When he talked about this book being the "last" in the series, he definitely said he would consider doing another, but that it wasn't going to be his next project. I think he was a little burned out on the pace--writing a book a year...is very draining. Well, it is for me anyway and I'm guessing some other writers feel the strain of a deadline.

Personally I think a break from it might very well allow some great new ideas to have a chance to form--that under a "year deadline" might not really have time to cook. It's a great series. I'm really looking forward to the "last" book--but I'd much rather a writer step back and stay fresh rather than force out prose that could be ever so much better with a break/rest.

Crossing fingers it comes back, because it really is an enjoyable series for me!

[odeazy]

Hi folks.. Just thought I'd throw this out there, did anyone read Simon Scarrow's 'Eagle Series'? I'm thinking of starting it but just thought I'd ask on here before I make the big commitment Thanks

[Crusader]

Just finished "Carved In Bone" by Jefferson Bass. Highly recommended! I actually read the second in the series before I read this one and was equally impressed.

[ATDrake]

Finished Stupid Christmas, by Leland Gregory, one of three recent Kindle freebies compiled by him. It's a collection of Xmas-related odd/heartwarming news stories, detailed in brief blurbs. Funniest of the lot was the one that went with this holiday display:

A narrative that accompanied the image explained that Santa had lost his legs when they got entangled in power lines during an alcoholic binge and that the sadistic tree is planning on stealing the money in the Salvation Army kettle and visiting a strip club.

A December 4, 2008, article from United Press International quoted library director Darren McDonough as saying that the display would remain in place during the holiday season and to “Remember the old library saying—‘If we don’t have something to offend you, we’re not doing our job.’”

Not gonna lie, the sadistic tree part of the backstory is brilliant.

It's interesting to note that the formatting on these books seems to have gotten worse as they were released freebie. First in the set, Stupid History, was beautifully done, with chapter marks for each and every single little "story" (and there were over a hundred of them). This one is okay, layout and typography pretty good, but no chapter marks whatsoever. The third one, Stupid US History, is a Topaz.

Anyway, mildly amusing, but nothing I'd pay money for.

Currently still on the non-fiction book about cousins George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm of England, Russia, and Germany respectively, but taking a break from that to finish up reading Medicus, a current freebie Roman historical sleuth by Ruth Downie because the sequel is currently on sale for 99 cents in various stores.

I kind of want to see how she manages to wrap up the situation before I spend, though I'll probably buy it anyway, just to encourage such publisher tie-in discounts.

So far, the actual story's been mildly interesting and I like the main character, but the Kindle edition is riddled with lots of missing punctuation, some superfluous hyphens, a few substituted characters, and other OCR-type scanning errors.

[ATDrake]

Well, finished Ruth Downie's Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire. Roman Britain in the time of Hadrian, to be exact.

This was a murder mystery wherein the local doctor and amateur sleuth Gaius Petreius Ruso picks up a mysterious slave girl while investigating the suspicious deaths of several other slave girls from the local brothel and is there a connection, yadda yadda yadda…

I actually quite liked it, even though I think there were some rough patches to the writing and a bit too much trying to be clever with the coyly switching viewpoints from the author. And the mystery was a bit drawn-out for a while, then abruptly twisted in upon itself in a way that wasn't too hard to figure out (though it wasn't incredibly obvious and took a little dot-connecting).

There was something of a modern-ish flavour to the period mindset, at least from Our Hero, though not nearly as glaringly so as in Lindsay Davis' Marcus Didius Falco series, I find.

But it's her first novel and a pretty good job for all that; shame the e-book edition is riddled with noticeable and mildly distracting text errors (mostly missing or displaced punctuation and superfluous OCR hyphens rather than anything really teeth-grindingly wrong).

It was a fairly long book (over 8000 locations in the Kindle edition, though some of that was due to bonus chapter from the sequel) and the author helpfully put in a couple of historical notes about what was known about Roman Britain (not much) that she was able to use and what she more-or-less made up, which I always like to have.

Anyway, it's a freebie in several of the stores and at that price it was certainly worth my while and would have no qualms borrowing the rest of the series from the library. I just went and bought the second book in the series, Terra Incognita, which is promotionally tie-in priced at 99 cents, for 72 cents including taxes at the Kobo store with a discount coupon from the Deals forum.

Let's see if it's equally typo-ridden, but for less than 3 quarters, I'm not going to begrudge the cost.

Moderate recommendation for people who like ancient Rome, ancient Britain, or historical sleuths in general. Not the best I've read, but fairly enjoyable, enough so for me to seek out the sequels if I'm not paying too much.

But it's currently freebie, so if you think you'll be even vaguely interested, pick it up while you still can.

[jgaiser]

A completely mindless and quick read. Finished Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge in paper, this morning making 4 books for the month so far (on my way to 100 for 2011).

Things are going to slow down for the rest of the month. Work, life and the start of "The Blade Itself" by Joe Abercrombie will probably finish off the month.