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

[GraceKrispy]

I haven't posted on this thread for many books, but wanted to share my latest read, because I really liked it. It's called "The Scavenger's Daughter" by Mike McIntyre. It's a thriller much in the line of Michael Connelly's stuff (imo). I don't give that many 5 star reviews, but this book earned one from me.

(btw, Caleb, you really do need to read the Hunger Games series-- really, you do)

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

I haven't posted on this thread for many books, but wanted to share my latest read, because I really liked it. It's called "The Scavenger's Daughter" by Mike McIntyre. It's a thriller much in the line of Michael Connelly's stuff (imo). I don't give that many 5 star reviews, but this book earned one from me.

Now on my wish list at Smashwords. Sounds great. Also sounds like a good present for my mother-in-law who just got a Kindle.

(btw, Caleb, you really do need to read the Hunger Games series-- really, you do)

I do have it on my wish list at Amazon. I can only get it as an omnibus, but it's there - waiting for me to throw down the credit card.

Regards
Caleb

[siraks]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I do have it on my wish list at Amazon. I can only get it as an omnibus, but it's there - waiting for me to throw down the credit card.

i just started it myself i'm 28% into it, according to my kobo stat bar, and it is as good as everyone has mentioned. it's still in the early stages with the getting to know people but the way it's written is well done and just gets you involved in the story. can't wait to read more on my lunch and continue after work !

a part of the book early on that got a good reaction from me.

Spoiler:

I know this may sound cheesy but i was overwhelmed quite early in this book and could picture it 100% in my mind how it would have looked when katniss steps on the stage and volunteers for primrose and no one claps, knowing she probably walked to her death but savingher sister in the meantime and the three finger salute, it just grabbed me. pride and happiness and sadness all rolled into one ... awesome. i can almost picture the scene and how it'll play out in the movie to come and hopefully everyone gets the same feeling for katniss after seeing it / reading it.

edit: read the first 10 chapters, part I as it's called and eagerly waiting to go home from work to get started on part II, guess the book is split into three parts.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Also, I never read any of The Girl Who series.

You should give The Girl With a go and maybe after that you might want to read The Girl Who.

[carld]

Just finished Midnight Cowboy. Definitely not one you'll read to lift your spirits. I'm currently reading Beyond Star Trek: From Alien Invasion to the End of Time. It covers topics like, just what would happen if a spaceship 1/4 the size of the moon actually went into orbit around the Earth, as in Independence Day. Answer: It's really not pretty. Right now the author is discussing just how hard it is to send humans to other planets. Answer: Really really hard.

Recommended.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by carld

Just finished Midnight Cowboy. Definitely not one you'll read to lift your spirits. I'm currently reading Beyond Star Trek: From Alien Invasion to the End of Time. It covers topics like, just what would happen a spaceship 1/4 the size of the moon actually went into orbit around the Earth, as in Independence Day. Answer: It's really not pretty. Right now the author is discussing just how hard it is to send humans to other planets. Answer: Really really hard.

Recommended.

I love the way you've condensed whole topics into snippits: "It's really not pretty" and "Really really hard". Made me chuckle.

Karma for you for getting a giggle out of me before work on a Wednesday.

Regards
Caleb

[ardeegee]

Just finished China Mieville's Embassytown. Centers around some of the most alien aliens I've encountered-- with reasonably alien humans.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Just finished China Mieville's Embassytown. Centers around some of the most alien aliens I've encountered-- with reasonably alien humans.

Ooooh looking forward to that one.

[Cyclops]

Blind White Fish in Persia by Anthony Smith (1953)

[fantasyfan]

This year is the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King james Version of the Bible. There are two good books on the subject of this hugely influential translation available on Amazon.
First is The Legacy of the King James Bible by Leland Ryken. He analyses the influence of the KJV in the folowing areas:

1. the King James Bible in its own day
2. The King James Bible in History
3. The King James Bible as a Literary Masterpiece
4. The Literary Influence of the King James Bible

Another work is The Book of Books by Melvyn Bragg.I downloaded an extended free sample and was impressed with the author's vigorous style and the width of his study of the influence of the KJV on Western civilisation. He makes the point that there is an argument for considering this book to have been the most important volume ever put in print regardless of one's religious belief or lack of such.

The Book of Books does have a wider sweep, presenting its ideas in broad brushstrokes, while Ryken is more scholarly and literary in emphasis, dealing with specific areas such as the contrasts between literal translations and the "dynamic equivalence" approach to Biblical translation, and the history of these traditions. I suspect that Bragg will appeal more to the general reader.

Bragg's book is 384 pages long but still rather on the pricey side at over $20--even in e-book format. Ryken's volume is of comparable length but only $9.39.

[ATDrake]

Finished another batch of Amelia Peabody, Plucky Victorian Egyptologist mysteries by Elizabeth Peters in publication order from The Ape Who Guard the Balance through to The Golden One. Or perhaps I should say, another batch of Walter "Ramses" Peabody Emerson, Improbably Talented Undercover Edwardian/Georgian Master of Disguise thrillers, which they seem to have become as the books ramped up to and through WWI.

The new formula (and these are very formulaic) seems to intersperse 1st person narrative by Amelia with 3rd person recounting of Ramses's thrilling escapades (and lovesick will-they-won't-they maunderings, which I could have lived without), plus the occasional family letters. I actually mildly like this change, since you now get multiple viewpoints of the action.

The rest of it seems to be much the same. In any given book, expect the following to occur at least once:

• The sudden re/appearance of a surprise relative, who may or may not have been previously known to be a relative. Bonus points if there's more than one per book.
  
• The obligatory kidnapping and imprisonment attempt. Bonus points for more than two per book, and if the captive is aided from imprisonment by a sympathetic but scared person who ends up very dead later.
  
• The knife-slash in the dark by an unseen assailant, which inevitably ruins another shirt. Bonus points if it happens during the daytime, in crowded conditions. Minus points for use of gun, since that kind of lacks style. No extra points if the slasher/shooter turns up dead under mysterious circumstances, because that's practically par for the course.
  
• Mysterious accidents which lead to narrowly-avoided could-have-been-fatal injury turn out to be deliberate sabotage upon further investigation. Bonus points if they happen away from those risky excavation sites, and if they take out some unfortunate peripheral person who just happens to be standing too close to/mistaken for a Peabody-Emerson.
  
• People are suspected to be other people in disguise, but it turns out that they can't be, as those other people were already in disguise as entirely different people. Subtract points if those people turned out to be Ramses, Master of Disguise, or Sethos, Master Criminal (and also Master of Disguise).
  
• People turn out to have actually impersonating other known actual people who were not previously suspected of being impersonators, and everyone was totally taken in by said impersonation thinking they were actually that person until the truth comes out.
  
• Old friends and former acquaintances who went offstage more than 3 books ago pop back up hoping to renew that friendship/acquaintance with possibly ulterior motives.
  
• Old enemies who went offstage more than 3 books ago pop back up to take revenge.
  
• Old friends and former acquaintances who went offstage more than 3 books ago pop back up and are suspected to be new enemies hoping to take revenge, having renewed that friendship/acquaintance with possibly ulterior motives. Bonus points if they actually are.
  
• Confounded young lovers bickering and angsting over each other yet not daring to show each other any feelings more tender and loving than angry squabbling, for fear of non-reciprocation. Actually, this is mostly just the one couple, but it happens an annoying amount. So bonus points when they mercifully shut up about it, even if the drawn-out angst doesn't go away until many books later and gets replaced by equally sickening lovey-dovey squabbling.

I don't advocate using the above as a drinking game if reading more than two books per week. You'd die of alcohol poisoning.

Aside from that, they were decent reads if you know what you're getting into, and interesting enough if you like undercover investigative thrillers with increasingly vague archaeological links.

Though I hope the library didn't pay too much for their PDF e-book copy of The Falcon at the Portal, as that was riddled quite a few errors, from missing punctuation to extraneous tildes to the usual scannos which prove that no one bothered to proofread, including characters being described as "inteffigent" and one unfortunate cast member being repeatedly renamed "Scum".

Now onto the post-WWI Children of the Storm, which finally seems to be getting back to the series' archaeological murder-related roots, but with the new mostly improved narrative formula.

[S Livingston]

I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by S Livingston

I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle.

Ooh. I wish I could read those all over again for the very first time.
Enjoy!

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by S Livingston

I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle.

Ah, a masochist.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by S Livingston

I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle.

I have the cycle in paperback on my shelves but I've never read it. Now I'm wishing for Kindle versions as reading paperback books that big seems like a complete pain now.