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

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by caleb72

What did you think of it?

Regards
Caleb

I liked it and will read the sequel, though it really wasn't a "can't put down" one to my taste.

I'm not sure why I didn't "love" it.

1. The speed is okay, however I want Rothfuss to push it a little more, the describing parts are never my favorite.

2. The characters are okay. I'd love to know more about Kvothe and Bast and even the smith's apprentice Aaron, but nothing truly impressive about that girl Denna who Kvothe falls for - she's a jerk in my opinion. Drops in and out of reach - I don't see any possible motivations behind that girl's actions, and her explanations about why she usually dissappears are nearly as hard to understand. Maybe the sequel would unveil this, but now I'm unsatisfied.

[Aladyleyna]

Have currently put The Three Musketeers (for some reason, i just cannot read more than 1 book at a time) on hold so I can concentrate on David Rakoff's Half Empty. His commentary is pretty funny at times, and there are some parts that I've found really applicable to my life, especially the positivity vs negativity and the different aspects of Negativity.

I didn't buy it though. I borrowed it off Overdrive from my National library. And since I can ploy through countless books in a month, it's really saved me a lot of money.

[DMB]

I bought a number of books in Amazon UK's Spring sale. I am just now reading Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce.

You may recognise the title as an oblique reference to the film Hiroshima mon Amour, but otherwise it has no connection with the film. But it is a funny pastiche of Raymond Chandler. You have to know a tiny little bit about Welsh culture to get all the jokes. Here is the Amazon blurb:

Malcolm Pryce's witty and scabrous comic thriller Aberystwyth Mon Amour is an original and diverting entry into the field of black-comedy writing--a genre which has enjoyed a long and healthy lineage, from Voltaire through Evelyn Waugh to the present day although lately it is pretty well the preserve of crime fiction. Making the unexciting Welsh town of Aberystwyth seem as fascinating and dangerous for his hardboiled 'tec as the mean streets of Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles is a daunting task but it's a trick Pryce pulls off with considerable aplomb.

Throughout Aberystwyth, schoolboys are vanishing without trace, and Louie Knight, the town's only private investigator, becomes involved when he has a visit from the exotic singer Myfanwy Montez (love the name!). She is the star of Wales' most outrageous nightclub, and is keen for Louie to track down her missing cousin, known as Evans the Boot. Aided by such eccentrics as philosopher-cum-ice-cream seller Sospan, Louie finds himself encountering a plot quite as labyrinthine as any which exercised Philip Marlowe. Surely Lovespoon, Grand Wizard of the Druids and the town's most powerful citizen, had a hand in the disappearances?

Nothing is quite as it seems in Pryce's outrageous and irreverent tale, which functions as a canny thriller as much as a wry parody. A good deal of the humour comes from relocating Chandler's sun-baked California locales to a parochial Welsh town, and all the clichés are ruthlessly exploded: Louie is visited in his seedy office by his sultry female client in time-honoured fashion. But it's the language, which leaps off the page, that really marks Pryce out as a stylist of no mean skill, and his bizarre refraction of Marlowe-speak is a real delight:

By the time I reached the whelk stall the drizzle had finally made up its mind and turned into rain, driving forward hard off the sea and into my face. The booth was quiet: no-one there except a kid in charge--a pimply adolescent in a grubby white coat and a silly cardboard hat. I ordered the special and waited, as the youth kept a wary eye on me; trouble was never far away at this time of night.

. --Barry Forshaw

[bevdeforges]

Just finished Elinor Brown's The Weird Sisters and really enjoyed it. The review of it in the NY Times (which appeared just as I was getting ready to start reading the book) was kind of luke warm. But I found the book delightful - nothing too heavy handed, and the use of first person plural for the narration was well done (IMO obviously - the NYT didn't seem to care for it).

Now I'm on to Postwar by Tony Judt - a long one, at about 1000 pages - but at least I have my excuse for not making my 100 books this year.

[richvalle]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Just finished David Balducci's Total Control. This is the first Balducci I've read and now have the whole series to look forward to.

Next Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

Let me know what you think of it. It's what I call a 'concept' book where much of the story is spent looking at the ramifications of the core concept of the book. But what a concept!

Decent story too.

rv

[richvalle]

Originally Posted by carld

I'm going to give Code of the Lifemaker another try. After a promising prologue it completely failed to grab my interest.

I had problems with this book as well. I think I stopped about a third of the way in. I might pick it up and try to finish it again. It was... ok, just not good enough to grab me. Too bad as I liked the planet they were visiting.

rv

[maianhvk]

I'm reading Hunger Games. So far, so good.

[siraks]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

I'm reading Hunger Games. So far, so good.

i may be the last to read it. i'm looking forward to reading it since everyone i talk to says good things about it. i'm finishing monster hunter international first then i'll get to hunger games and then the follow up to MHI - monster hunter international : vendetta

[odiakkoh]

Originally Posted by bevdeforges

Just finished Elinor Brown's The Weird Sisters and really enjoyed it. The review of it in the NY Times (which appeared just as I was getting ready to start reading the book) was kind of luke warm. But I found the book delightful - nothing too heavy handed, and the use of first person plural for the narration was well done (IMO obviously - the NYT didn't seem to care for it).

glad to hear. I just got an email this morning from the library saying its my turn with the ebook.

[omgfire]

I finished dying to live yesterday, think about starting Lord of the Flies today. Has anyone read this? Anything I should know?

[DMB]

Lord of the Flies was written at a time when a lot of people thought that British boarding schools turned out civilised young gentlemen. But of course, it's not just about schools and children. It has a much wider message and encourages us to examine our inward selves.

[DixieGal]

I'm back to Anna Karenina. Makes me feel nice and cool to read it.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I'm back to Anna Karenina. Makes me feel nice and cool to read it.

Makes me feel very good that you are reading. Glad your life is calming down a little. Hang in there girl!!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Busy slogging through Dracula. A very slow read.

Not scary and quite dull. I've read it. Better off watching the movie.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Tom,

Have you looked at these?

http://www.amazon.com/500-Kingdoms/lm/R3H5D8U5LQHSRF

I've read the first one and it was pretty good. Although, nothing as dark as the above sounds. Lackey is a Fantasy writer.

BOb

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ngdoms&x=0&y=0

Try that link instead.