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

[FlorenceArt]

Finished Dragon Haven last night. Robin Hobb's writing is becoming sloppier with every new book it seems, which makes me sad. Still, I enjoyed it and it was a nice easy read.

Still reading The Savage Detectives, unfortunately the French translation is not very good (I hear the English translation is much better), but I like it anyway.

And regardless of the fact that I already have a bunch of books I'm reading/to be read, I bought three from Books on Board today

Love and Hydrogen by Jim Shepard
Revenge of the Lawn by Richard Brautigan
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I've read the last one once already but since I heard that the next volume should be out soon (I forgot the date), I've been thinking of re-reading the series.

[richvalle]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Well, that didn't work out as well as I hoped. Too many things going on in my life to *really* spend the whole day reading.

Finished Blood Engines, which was a fun read. An Urban Fantasy with an ass-kicking sorcerer who doesn’t wear a leather catsuit, doesn’t suffer from low self-esteem, doesn’t wallow in angst, and is almost always absolutely certain she’s right… even when she’s dead wrong. First chapter here.

Also started Consider Phlebas this afternoon. A couple chapters in and too early to tell if I'm going to like the book.

I read the first chapter of Blood Engines (thanks for the link). I'll have to give it a try.

Having just read Consider Phelbas and Player of Games I can say I liked the 2nd one better. I really do like the setting in the far future.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Finished Dragon Haven last night. Robin Hobb's writing is becoming sloppier with every new book it seems, which makes me sad.

I tend to agree with regard to her novels. Her short story contribution to Martin's "Warriors" anthology, however, I found to be one of the strongest in the entire collection. It gives me hope that Hobb may yet have one more masterpiece in her.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I finished A Game of Thrones last night. I loved it and can't wait for the tv series to be released on DVD here.

Now I'm in the mood for something easy and quick so I got the fourth in the "Cat Who..." series, The Cat Who Saw Red, by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I think this is my favorite in that series, but....

Spoiler:

I couldn't eat off red dishes for YEARS....

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I'm too stupid to know what that means.

Regards
Caleb

Not stupid just unawares

You can compare your book shelves with other Goodreads members to see if you have similar tastes. The books you both have read and rated are calculated numerically to see how well you both enjoyed the same books.

Just choose any Goodreads member, click on their book shelves, and then hit "compare books" near the top. Then you'll see a side-by-side comparison.

[ATDrake]

In a fit of nostalgia, I re-read my paper copies of Mercedes Lackey's old Diana Tregarde paranormal investigative thriller series, which was kind of a precursor to the modern style of amateur-sleuth-in-a-world-full-of-werewolves-and-vampires-and-faeries-oh-my! "urban fantasy" so popular nowadays.

They were pretty much as I remembered them:

1. pretty good for the first one, Burning Water, which was well-plotted and characterized;
   
2. pretty decent for the second one Children of the Night, which was a bit looser and more lax, but still a good story (bordering on paranormal romance);
   
3. falls apart into a hot mess in the third one, Jinx High, which was sloppy and nonsensical in places,

but still kind of entertaining if you've grown attached to the characters and want to see what happened next, although you should never start it as your first read because it would probably put you off the rest (unless you have very unpicky standards).

Modest recommend if you like the genre already. Only the first two are really worth it for a newcomer, and while not nearly in the top ranks of their field, they're entertaining and decently-written mind candy.

Also read The Robin and the Kestrel, 2nd in her Bardic Voices series, which was on the recent Baen CD included with her newest Secret Invasion, or whatever it's called.

Another nostalgia re-read, since I already own a paper copy. E-version sprinkled throughout with typo/scanno errors surprising in a Baen book, though I guess they worked from OCR since it seems to be a fairly old title?

Again, about the same as I remembered: a moderately entertaining kind-of-ranty semi-polemic about thwarting an increasingly restrictive and intolerant theological takeover of a city-state via the power of musical magic and freedom of speech and thought (and exposing the dark underbelly of the perpetrators who are total hypocrites just angling for extra wealth and power).

Apparently Lackey has lived in the US Bible Belt for several decades now and stuff like that really does go on there, so I can forgive her some of the going-on about stuff, which has a mildly frustrated tinge to it. Personally, I'd have moved out long, long ago to a galaxy county far, far away.

Like Jinx High above, it's a book that's best left to someone who's already read and enjoyed the much more entertaining and less ranty previous book in the series, The Lark and the Wren (a Baen Free Library selection), and wants to follow the continuing story of some of the supporting characters.

Now I think I'll spend some time going through the previous Free Book of the Month selections and samples from the Phoenix Pick sf/fantasy backlist reprint catalogue, since they're having a 50% off sale this month with the coupon from their newsletter when you buy directly from them (and they're DRM-free, too).

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Finished Dragon Haven last night. Robin Hobb's writing is becoming sloppier with every new book it seems, which makes me sad. Still, I enjoyed it and it was a nice easy read.

I enjoyed it too but found it irritating that she split it into two books.

[Assassin]

I guess I've cast myself in the role of an oddball. I'm actually reading a book by an economics professor, Thomas Sowell. I read his first edition of "Basic Economics" and just purchased the fourth revision in pbook. He makes the subject understandable and easy to digest. The next book I have my sights on is "Violence-A Writers Guide" by Rory Miller at Smashwords. It dispels many of the myths attached to violent behavior that find their way into books and screen plays.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I've read the last one once already but since I heard that the next volume should be out soon (I forgot the date), I've been thinking of re-reading the series.

Me, too. I'm sort of worried that re-reading the series and watching the t.v. series at the same time might be overkill, though.

[Rumpelteazer]

I finished The Monstrumologist today. I really liked it, but told my sister, who also likes YA books, it isn't her type of book.

I was planning to read The Name of the Rose next but I forgot to put it on my reader before going house/dog/cat sitting, so I started the fourth book of the Percy Jackson series instead.

[Latinandgreek]

I think that I'm going to start "Mister Monday" by Garth Nix. I'm in a YA kind of mood.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Not stupid just unawares

You can compare your book shelves with other Goodreads members to see if you have similar tastes. The books you both have read and rated are calculated numerically to see how well you both enjoyed the same books.

Just choose any Goodreads member, click on their book shelves, and then hit "compare books" near the top. Then you'll see a side-by-side comparison.

I get confused by Goodreads. I've found out there are some people 'following' my reviews. The was a surprise to me, but I don't know how to find out how many people are following my reviews.

The interface seems quite awkward and cluttered to me. I'm quite often confused by it. Maybe I'm just easily confused.

[AnemicOak]

Currently re-reading A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin and will likely re-read the rest of the Ice and Fire books, both in anticipation of the 5th book coming out soon (hopefully) and the HBO series has also given me a bug to read it again.

Just finished reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin and In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming both of which I liked quite a bit.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I get confused by Goodreads. I've found out there are some people 'following' my reviews. The was a surprise to me, but I don't know how to find out how many people are following my reviews.

The interface seems quite awkward and cluttered to me. I'm quite often confused by it. Maybe I'm just easily confused.

That info should be on your Goodreads homepage over to the right.

I don't follow anyone as I use GR just to list my books and look up descriptions and reviews. Very easy to add books to my to-read pile.

[Fbone]

Stopped reading The Crown Conspiracy by Michael Sullivan after 150 pages.

For something different I'm starting Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. This author was a Goodreads recommendation.