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

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Finished The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee last night.

A large, well written, very readable discussion on Cancer, it's history and the ups and downs of treatment through the centuries. I highly recommend it.

My wife is reading that and she's enjoying it. I plan on reading it sometime this month. She keeps telling us things she didn't know that she finds interesting.

[jkeene]

I've finished Jo Walton's Among Others. Quite good, recommended for anyone that gets through difficult times by reading up a storm, or wants to read about someone that does. Since I'm on the waiting list at my library for The Wise Man's Fear, I've started Ian Morris's Why The West Rules - For Now. Excellent so far, and I'm only up to the Neanderthals.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I really liked her series of books that started with Chicks in Chainmail (& I hope the first one of those makes it to webscriptions eventually).

The first three Chicks in Chainmail anthologies are actually collected in a new omnibus edition called Chicks Ahoy which was in one of the recent Webscription months (Dec 2010, I think). If you liked them, you might want to try Rosemary Edghill's The Warslayer if you haven't read it already. It's a Free Library book.

As for me, finished Harry Turtledove's In the Presence of Mine Enemies last night. I love historically-based sf/fantasy AU and by all rights I should love Turtledove since he's so prominent in the field, but he's actually pretty hit or miss with me. Either his stories engage me completely or they mostly leave me flat with the nagging feeling that I ought to like them more than I actually do.

In the Presence is very definitely a hit.

Basic premise: the Nazis won and proceeded with their conquest and extermination plans worldwide, but a tiny pocket of Jews manages to survive in the present day in Berlin, by pretending to be Nazis themselves. Meanwhile, the Reich has overextended itself and is falling prey to the internal and external pressures that eventually led to the collapse of Soviet-led Eastern Bloc communism in our world (communism having been wiped out in this AU), which is witnessed in various ways by the Jewish Berliners.

Very poignant, affecting, and brilliant story told from multiple viewpoints and you can see how the society and the changes happening to it really affect the characters, from the 10-year old girl who's just discovered her real heritage and has to reconcile it what she's been taught about Jews in school as well as hearing from her sisters who are not in on the secret, to the doctor's administrative assistant who tries to cover up for a couple who comes under suspicion because their baby has Tay-Sachs syndrome, to the Fräulein Doktor Professor of Medieval English Literature who not only has to put up with "Kinder Kirke Küchen" attitudes from her colleagues but also witnesses the revival of democracy via the British Fascist Party, of all things, and many more.

Also sprinkled with "does this look familiar to you?" RL in-jokes, like the play about a producer who wants to get his theatre shut down so he can take the money and run and comes up with this horrible production involving Churchill and Stalin which becomes a smash comedy hit which prevents him from shutting the theatre down.

Excellent and highly recommended in general, but especially for people with an interest in alternate history with WWII point-of-departure, the toppling of the Berlin Wall (this is highly analogous), extrapolations of how literally backstabbing politics affect everyday life, and mostly heartwarming stories about the continued survival of persons targeted for elimination under totalitarian regimes and how they do it.

Now on Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's modern fairy-tale fantasy The Godmother's Web, which I've had out from the library way too long and am reading to decide whether to buy the e-edition from Smashwords since all her stuff there is 25% off for Read an eBook Week and I was rather disappointed with The Godmother's Apprentice, 2nd in the series. But so far, it's shaping up to be a better read and perhaps nearly as good as The Godmother, which I really liked when I bought it from Fictionwise.

[jgaiser]

Finished 84, Charing Cross Road this morning. Unfortunately it's not available as a (legal) ebook, but I had a copy in my boxed archives.

The book documents the 20+ year correspondence between Helene Hanff and the book buyer of an antiquarian bookstore in London, Frank Doel. The book starts with just a request of a particular book and continues as a friendship develops between Ms. Hanff and Mr. Doel and eventually the other members of the bookstore, their families and friends.

[kennyc]

Just Finished "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach

Excellent and highly recommended. 5 of 5 stars. It's a few years old but very informative and full of both straight and irreverent humor amongst the excellent information and detail.

I have her "Packing for Mar" ... likely up next.

[jodykihara]

I'm reading self-publishing sensation Amanda Hocking's first book, Switched.
It definitely could have done with some proofreading, but it's well-paced and engaging... I am really surprised that so many agents passed on this, especially given how hot the YA paranormal market is! Really, this is the kind of book I'd expect an agent to snap up...

[haino]

Reading "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult. I am engrossed.
Just love her work.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Finished 84, Charing Cross Road this morning. Unfortunately it's not available as a (legal) ebook, but I had a copy in my boxed archives.

The book documents the 20+ year correspondence between Helene Hanff and the book buyer of an antiquarian bookstore in London, Frank Doel. The book starts with just a request of a particular book and continues as a friendship develops between Ms. Hanff and Mr. Doel and eventually the other members of the bookstore, their families and friends.

That's one of my favourite books. I was thinking of finding my paper copy to reread it again.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

You should try carrying them home on the subway (along with the planters and soil to go with them). Believe me, that puts a damper on your enthusiasm pretty fast.

No, no, that's okay. I'll just stick with my current situation of ending up with too many plants...

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by jodykihara

I'm reading self-publishing sensation Amanda Hocking's first book, Switched.
It definitely could have done with some proofreading, but it's well-paced and engaging... I am really surprised that so many agents passed on this, especially given how hot the YA paranormal market is! Really, this is the kind of book I'd expect an agent to snap up...

Don't worry. She has an agent now. And optioned film rights too if I recall.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by jodykihara

I'm reading self-publishing sensation Amanda Hocking's first book, Switched.
It definitely could have done with some proofreading, but it's well-paced and engaging... I am really surprised that so many agents passed on this, especially given how hot the YA paranormal market is! Really, this is the kind of book I'd expect an agent to snap up...

(I volunteer at my children's school and the Media Specialist I work with just finished the trilogy. She said it was very good.
I've put it on my Wishlist.

[bZkindle]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As far as the HHGTTG series goes, I suggest reading the books and listening to the radio dramas by the BBC. The BBC radio dramas are very good. Way better then an audiobook read.

I can back that 110%! the BBC radio version is fantastic as well as their TV version.. the US movie version, er, NO.
Most of the books people list here I just don't know. I guess I read too much non-fiction. Nice to see HHGTTG- something I actually know!

Moving on to Ghost Wars by Steve Coll now.
More fun terrorist non-fiction. Sigh. I'm sooo depressed.

[ATDrake]

Finished Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's The Godmother's Web. Not quite as good as the 1st in the series, but much better than the 2nd. Might end up buying it after all.

Overall, a nice light modern-day not-quite-urban-since-it-takes-place-in-the-countryside fantasy invoking Navajo and Hopi traditions for its fairy tale tropes. Mildly recommended if you enjoy fairy-tale derived fantasies and/or Navajo and Hopi culture. Handy glossary of terms in the back.

Now going to read through the various samples of Scarborough's work from the Smashwords E-Book Week sale and see which ones I really want to get this year at 25% off.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by bZkindle

I can back that 110%! the BBC radio version is fantastic as well as their TV version.. the US movie version, er, NO.
Most of the books people list here I just don't know. I guess I read too much non-fiction. Nice to see HHGTTG- something I actually know!

Moving on to Ghost Wars by Steve Coll now.
More fun terrorist non-fiction. Sigh. I'm sooo depressed.

You go on reading whatever works for you! When everybody was reading novels they were considered plebeian and highly suspect from a moral point of view. Now that everybody is watching TV or playing video games, novels have become high brow. We tend to forget that the vast majority of novels published are no better in terms of quality than what we see on TV (or would see if I watched TV, in my case). Of course that's also true of non-fiction

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by bZkindle

I can back that 110%! the BBC radio version is fantastic

It's worth remembering that the first two radio series were the original version of HHGTTG. The books came later.