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

[amward]

Just finished "Atlantic" by Simon Winchester. A big read that I just loved. He writes so beautifully and the story of the ocean is fascinating....just think.. the first European to set foot in Florida was searching for the fountain of eternal youth. There's lots of serious stuff too. Highly recommended.

[GeoffC]

Sneaking in there GonzoReiter

Welcome to Mobileread ...

[jkeene]

Originally Posted by amward

Just finished "Atlantic" by Simon Winchester. A big read that I just loved.

I bought that for my Dad for Christmas. He loved it, to the point of looking up how to get transportation to Saint Helena. Then he read another five books written by Winchester. I'm slacking, only read the sample chapter so far, but it's on my TBR pile.

[Latinandgreek]

I've finally finished "The Mists of Avalon". Lovely book, the best I've read in a long, long while. I'm now onto "Poison Study" and I'm also rereading "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

[Latinandgreek]

Welcome to MR, Gonzoreiter! I think my first post was in this forum, too.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Invisible by Kimber Chin

It's OK. But I almost stopped reading half-way, as there's little to no plot tension or really any worries at all. There's no doubt at all what the story is going to be after the first chapter. I suppose that's usual in Romances. Very light reading.

Next: hopefully something a little more interesting. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card. Another of my 2008 buys in a 100% micropay rebate sale.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I've finally finished "The Mists of Avalon". Lovely book, the best I've read in a long, long while. I'm now onto "Poison Study" and I'm also rereading "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

It's a lonngggg time since I read this, and from what I recall it was a good telling of the Merlin/Arthur legend ....

In a similar vein, I enjoyed "The Eagle and the Raven, by Pauline Gedge", which I wholeheartedly recommend - Romans in Britain - (not too sure if there is an e-book, but the paper version is a biggie....)

In the first century A.D. the Celts were Britain's fiercest warriors. They lived in tribes, to which they gave aggressive loyalty. Under the tribal code, women hunted and fought alongside men.

THE EAGLE AND THE RAVEN spans three generations. First is Caradoc, a king's son, who unites the people of the Raven and leads them against Rome. Eurgain, his wife, alone for months at a time, betrays Caradoc with his best friend. Gladys, Caradoc's warrior sister, falls in love with the Roman general who is her captor. Aricia, queen of the north joined Rome. Finally Boudicca, a strong-willed woman, carries to its conclusion the cause that is Caradoc's legacy.

[Steve Anderson]

Just finished True Grit by Charles Portis. Fantastic piece of work, highly recommended, definitely lives up to its reputation. Though I had to opt for the paperback because the Kindle version was too spendy.

[SeaBookGuy]

I've recently begun Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch, great narrative style for a work of non-fiction.

[Crusader]

Struggling to get through "The War of Flowers" by Tad Williams. Don't know why but I just can't get into it and I just want to get to the END!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card. Another of my 2008 buys in a 100% micropay rebate sale.

Whoops - I find I must have read this in 2008 or 2009. So instead, I'll read

A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card. Bought during a 60% micropay rebate sale in Decemeber 2009.

"An Ender Story". Looks good so far (but not to be read if you haven't read Ender's Game, IMO).

[Rumpelteazer]

Last night I finished Dean Koontz' Prodigal Son. The book started promising, fast and funny. But it didn't last long. Only in the last 50 pages or so does the pace pick up a bit again.
This is the first book of the series and it introduces all the characters, establishes their background and personality. But I feel that's it's only function. Of the three storylines only one is resolved at the end of the book. To me it feels like the story is originally longer and it's been cut in two.
I did like the characters, because Koontz takes the whole book to introduce them the main characters are well rounded. The story itself is okay, nothing special but I think this book's function is to introduce the characters.
What I did find annoying is how often Koontz tells the reader, explicitly, that the members of the New Race heal very fast when hurt. After a couple of times I knew and didn't need constant reminders that way.
I might get the second book of the series to see if it improves, because the concept of the series seems promising.

[Iridal]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Struggling to get through "The War of Flowers" by Tad Williams. Don't know why but I just can't get into it and I just want to get to the END!

I really enjoyed War of the Flowers. I've reread it a couple of times. I remember it took me a long time to get into the story too, but once it gets going I couldn't put it down anymore.

[Phebe]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

And the people of England should give praise that they were spared from having as their king Leopold of Belgium, notorious for cutting off people's hands in his goldmines in the Congo.

Nope, didn't happen, Drake.

This story is simply the usual determination of lefters to blame everything bad that Africans do on whites, somehow.

There was some hand-cutting-off in that area by black overseers all right, but they had done it forever and they are still doing exactly the same thing in the Forever War in that area. We have all read of the handless children after rebel soldiers go thru villages; they're just into limb cutting off in that area, they always have been.

Goldmines? Rubber plantations, surely. I have a photo of a picture in a book on Belgian colonies CAPTIONED "Father displays hands cut off from five-year-old daughter as punishment for his refusal to work." The display is on a white's porch where he has obviously gone to protest what happened, so it can't have been the whites who did it, indeed, he is hoping for redress from the whites. And it has to have been a white who took the original photograph, since the blacks wouldn't have had cameras.

Also, the photo clearly shows feet, not hands; the sloppiness of all this misattribution is incredible, in my opinion. I think we are all too easily fooled and have to be careful what we believe.

[Phebe]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Most people love it - I couldn't stand the kid!

Curious Story of the Dog in the Nighttime?

I LOVED it ---- read it twice, at once. Mean to read it again.

But I really like autism fiction. Most of it is excellent and very, very thought-provoking, about the nature of mind. One of the absolute best is Elizabeth Moon's "The Speed of Dark."

One of the absolute worst is "Rules of the House," out recently. You hate the kid, you can easily see where this murder mystery is going and what its solution is, and you REALLY hate the mother, a whiner, over-protective and weird generally who blames vaccines for everything and makes the kid eat strange diets to "improve" him; he hardly will eat anything voluntarily anyway.