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

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Thanks, BOb. I just downloaded a sample of The Fairy Godmother (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 1).

Forgo the sample and just buy the full book. It's quite good.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

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

Glad you still have books to keep you going.

[JesmondSparkler]

I have just finished E.B. Sledge's book "With the Old Breed on Pelileu and Okinawa" and have started his "China Marine".
Before that read Jean Auel's final of Earth's Children series, "Land of Painted Caves" which I found disappointing - lots of rehashed material from previous books in the series. Is seems as though really there wasn't a lot left to say.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

While being an asshat may actually *be* a mental illness […]

I think they label that as "Borderline Personality Disorder" in the DSM-IV these days.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

So I guess I get what you're saying. It's okay for a guy to steal/kill/manipulate in a book because he has PERSONAL MOTIVATION/PERSONAL GAIN--without using the excuse of: He's mental or he wouldn't have done these crimes.

I'd apply that to real life, too. There are plenty of severely unscrupulous and criminally selfish/negligent persons who feel that their own desires trump the welfare or even continued existence of someone else, without having anything at all diagnosably "wrong" with them that might be treatable with therapy or medication.

Besides the willingness to act on criminal levels of selfishness, that is, which I guess might fall under some form of sociopathy.

Anyway, Jacqueline Kirby has a very pithy quote for the occasion:

The brilliant, insane murderers are in books. In real life people kill for practical reasons.

In the meantime, finished Roberta Gellis's historical romance The Dragon and the Rose, which was supposed to be about Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York's slowly getting together, but in the end turned out to be much, much more about Henry's rapid and determined climb to power.

I think it turned out more enjoyable that way, because one thing that reading the historical idea of romance has made me appreciate is the modern-day notion of the involved parties' ability to walk away from relationships where one partner is treating the other badly for whatever reasons of arguably justifiable paranoid delusional persecution complex, even if they end up sticking around out of Twu Wuv.

Yeah, I know they eventually grow to become very fond of each other and live happily ever after until the heroine dies in childbirth 18 years later, according to the author's historical note in the end.

But there's only so much "cool and calculating hero afraid to show affection for fear his bride is part of a family plot and treats her with condescension and disdain while still shamelessly using her to get whatever he wants until she wins him over by suppressing everything about herself to please him and casting off her pernicious family influences to cleave to him alone" I can take before I get the urge to yell "If he's that determined to keep turning his back on you, go ahead and stab him, stab him in it like he deserves!"

I would probably not make a good royal advisor.

In all, not a bad book, but some rather frustrating portions that kind of bog down the interesting bits, imho. Maybe actual romance readers would actually love this one.

Mild recommend for historical interest if you're interested in the period; it does have a rather nice short author's note on the actual historical basis of stuff in the back and is competently written, even if I think there's too much emphasis on the self-sacrificing nobility and incredible capability of Tudor's mother Margaret Beaufort whose only fault seems to be ambition for her son whom she helps in any way possible, and the cupidity and avarice of Elizabeth's mother also Elizabeth Woodville, who's portrayed as greedy and incompetent and a bad mother, to boot.

They were both likely scheming schemers who schemed a lot and one of them happened to be better at it/luckier in that decisive final round of scheming.

Also finished Elizabeth Peters's The Murders of Richard III, 2nd in the Jacqueline Kirby mystery series which incidentally provides the above quote and provides a partial flipside to Henry Tudor's climb to power, which of course set him up against Richard III.

Now this is more like it: a historical re-enactment society's period in-character costume party (complete with in-character bickering), a classic English countryside murder-at-the-manor weekend and the mockery thereof, a bunch of slowly revealed secret identities and fake-out not-quite-fatal pranks which make you wonder which ones are going to end up in really real death, and the thorough skewering of a lot of faux-Christie cliché tropes. Awesomeness.

I think I liked this even more than Die For Love, which expertly spoofed a genre pro/fan convention, because this played even more into Stuff I Love to Read About and Don't Get To Nearly Often Enough.

Highly recommended for sheer entertainment value and unusual plot dénouement (I'd tell you more about what made this a rare but enjoyable read, trope-wise, but that would spoiler you for it).

Bonus entertainment if you also happen to like lively historical debates (okay, watching people squabble) regarding long-dead English kings who may or may not have been set up by their enemies for their lingering notorious reputations.

[carld]

Sat down and read Necromancer: A Novella this afternoon. I wasn't expecting much, but I really liked the author's writing style. The title is a bit misleading though. It's really an excerpt from a novel along with a short story. I was left feeling a bit incomplete. Still it's free and an excellent sample of the author's work. Now if I can just convince myself that I really want to spend $9.99 for Hold Me Closer, Necromancer.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Forgo the sample and just buy the full book. It's quite good.

Thanks for the recommendation, Jon.

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by siraks

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

heheh, I was thinking the same thing too now you're the last one left on earth that haven't read Hunger Games

I finished the 1st book of Hunger Games series in one day (which indicates about its shortness) and it's interesting. I'm planning to read the sequels soon.

[tennoel]

just finished breading the broke diaries. fun and quick read.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

For a change of pace, now reading mystery w/history again. Finished The Seventh Sinner, 1st in Elizabeth Peters' Jacqueline Kirby, Sardonic Librarian Lady series.

A little slower to start and longer to build than I was expecting, based on the pace of Die For Love, 3rd in the series which I really enjoyed. Kind of like Borrower of the Night in the Vicky Bliss series, where the series is still finding its footing in the first book and reads a bit more generically than the following volumes.

Still, a fairly good amateur sleuth mystery taking place among a circle of close friends who are in denial that one of them could be the murderer, and a clever and hard to figure out whodunnit with well-planted see-how-you-weren't-paying-attention clues.

Only objection I have is to the motivation being chalked up in part to mental derangement, since I feel that tends to be overused as an easy out; why can't the murderer just be a clever self-justifying conscience-ignoring manipulative fill-in-the-blank who shamelessly takes advantage of their trusting fellow human beings for personal gain instead?

Mildly recommended, as it's not particularly distinctive in terms of the series "voice", which is much better established in the 2nd book The Murders of Richard III, which I'm reading as my dry-weather paperback in between Roberta Gellis' historical romance* The Dragon and the Rose, about Henry Tudor's maneuvers to wrest England from Richard†, which is making for an interesting compare and contrast.

* Actually more of a mildly romantic historical, which suits me just fine, being normally a no-romo.

† Amazingly, this is being sold by Baen's Webscription, of all places rather than the usual outlets which handle Gellis' non-fantasy romances and no, it does not involve elves secretly helping Henry to the throne nor are there any actual dragons in the story, though there may be actual roses.

I read these so far out of order it wasn't even funny, as I was depending on what my library had or could get at the time. The first Jacqueline Kirby I read was "The Murders of Richard III", which just left me with more questions about Jacqueline's previous existence. So I finally got my hands on "The Seventh Sinner"..

Spoiler:

and nearly busted a gut laughing over the scene where they knock her flat on the floor.

. That cemented Jacqueline as one of my favorites. I thought she was a lot tamer in later books.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

heheh, I was thinking the same thing too now you're the last one left on earth that haven't read Hunger Games

You can add me to the list, but I do have the first one ready and waiting on my Kindle .

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by omgfire

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

I read it at school, which probably isn't the best way to appreciate it. There's (at least) one technical error in the book which you can try to spot.

Spoiler:

One of the characters is short-sighted (myopic), but his glasses are used to start a fire. This is not possible — glasses to correct myopia are divergent, not convergent, you can't use them to concentrate sunlight.

I suppose that I can remember the major plot lines of the book and some of the characters and scenes after some 30 odd years means it must be fairly memorable, which is often an indication of a good story.

It definitely takes the line

Spoiler:

that humanity is basically savage.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A Mighty Fortress by David Weber

Originally Posted by richvalle

I'm curious in how much you liked it. I like the series but I'm ready for it to end and was hoping it would in this book.

I found it to be slow. I think Mr Weber needs to move things along quite a lot faster. There's obviously an enormous amount of plot to come, and looking at how far he's got in four books, he really needs to move the pace up a bit to ever manage to finish this series.

Also, I think that a bit more condensing of the books would make them better reads.

I suspect I'll be getting the next ones in this series too, but not at the hardback release.

Next: back to my Agatha Christie collection, and her 13th book, The Mysterious Mr. Quin.

So far I've been pleased with all the Agatha Christies save one ("The Big Four"). I can see why she was (and remains) so popular.

Oh — and A Mighty Fortress was my 75th book this year. With a bit of luck I might manage over 150 books this year. Which means I only have a bit over a two year supply in my TBR pile.... and given that I still buy the occasional book (well, 39 so far this year. I'm trying to cut down, really I am) I suspect I won't have to actively go looking for books to read until sometime in 2014 at the earliest.

[siraks]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

heheh, I was thinking the same thing too now you're the last one left on earth that haven't read Hunger Games

I finished the 1st book of Hunger Games series in one day (which indicates about its shortness) and it's interesting. I'm planning to read the sequels soon.

I knew it was short, i actually was holding the pbook in my hand the other day and kept wondering about it so i grabbed the ebook and loaded it. it's up next as i mentioned. i'm pretty much done MHI, 100 pages left. i just hope it's as good as everyone says, plenty of reviews on amazon that love it so i think it'll be just fine.

[richvalle]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I found it to be slow. I think Mr Weber needs to move things along quite a lot faster. There's obviously an enormous amount of plot to come, and looking at how far he's got in four books, he really needs to move the pace up a bit to ever manage to finish this series.

Also, I think that a bit more condensing of the books would make them better reads.

I suspect I'll be getting the next ones in this series too, but not at the hardback release.

Next: back to my Agatha Christie collection, and her 13th book, The Mysterious Mr. Quin.

So far I've been pleased with all the Agatha Christies save one ("The Big Four"). I can see why she was (and remains) so popular.

Oh — and A Mighty Fortress was my 75th book this year. With a bit of luck I might manage over 150 books this year. Which means I only have a bit over a two year supply in my TBR pile.... and given that I still buy the occasional book (well, 39 so far this year. I'm trying to cut down, really I am) I suspect I won't have to actively go looking for books to read until sometime in 2014 at the earliest.

Yeah, I felt that this book was slow as well. You can tell where the book is headed and I thought we would get a lot closer to that place in this book... but not so much.

I hope this doesn't turn into another never ending series.

75 books! Wow. (Goes and counts the books he's been listing as read since he bought the Color Nook....) Looks like I'm up to about 40 since Jan.

[poohbear_nc]

I've been burning through John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson books - both Dr. Fell & Sir Henry Merrivale titles - locked room & impossible murders - quite a lot of fun. These books hold up well for modern readers. I'd gotten to the point now of figuring out HOW the murder was committed, but I have yet to pick the right villain!
Moving on to Anthony Berkeley titles - even with unreliable narrators - I'm having better luck "detecting" in these.

N.B. I'm reading the ebook versions from Langtail Press - which is returning a lot of the lesser known Golden Age mysteries to print & ebooks.