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

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

LOL I have been waiting for you to get to this point. I love when authors write themselves into their books

Sometimes that kind of thing works (Mercedes Lackey writing herself and her friends as a cameo donating to a street busker in Knight of Ghosts and Shadows); sometimes it doesn't (Mercedes Lackey writing herself in as the screentime-taking-up love interest with important secondary role to a main character in the Valdemar books).

Originally Posted by phenomshel

(Be sure and read The Copenhagen Connection if you haven't yet).

Happily, that appears to available from the library as an e-book. But after reading all the Amelia Peabodys and a good chunk of Bliss and Kirby in a row, I think I'm kind of petered out for now. Maybe next month (although I kind of want to read her Night of Four Hundred Rabbits first, if only because it's got an awesome-sounding title); thanks for the recommend!

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Do you have Goodreads or Shelfari? Bet our bookshelves would sync up pretty well, LOL.

I think you'd probably have to read more sf and I'd have to read more cozies before that actually happened. But we seem to have a decent amount of overlap; enough for a modest Venn diagram, at least.

I keep meaning to get around to creating a Goodreads/Shelfari account, if only to keep track of the umpteen books I actually own so that I don't rebuy them, but I'm afraid I haven't actually gotten around to it yet, sorry.

Anyway, to continue the theme of historical artifact-based murder mysteries, was reading The Secret Portrait by Lillian Stewart Carl which was a free giveaway during Read an e-Book Week to see if I wanted to get anything of hers during the Backlist E-Book Authors sale when she was offering selected titles at 50% off.

I ended up buying Lucifer's Crown, a fantasy, and Shadows in Scarlet, a romantic suspense which I finally decided on because it was not overwhelmingly romance-y in the sample and had two things I love in it in addition to a decent mystery element: historical re-enactment (with costumes and Ye Olde Manglede Englishe! ) and academic quibbling. Plus she'd already been pretty generous in giving away a full-length start-of-series freebie, so I was feeling mildly generous in return.

I did pass on the third mystery/romance offering, Ashes to Ashes, because it looked too romance-y for my tastes at that price, especially considering the formatting was kind of messed up with the sudden font changes throughout. Maybe next time if I get to like the main characters, who have a supporting role in TSP. And the formatting gets fixed.

Haven't finished TSP because it's now on hold while I try to finish up some paper books from the library which are due Real Soon Now.

[BearMountainBooks]

I don't read much sci-fi... because I'm particular and a lot of sci-fi can be too thought-provoking for my tastes. I'm an adventure kinda gal...I like people I can care about and just enough technical data to form a plausible story

That said, I just finished reading Nancy Fulda's novella: Backlash

http://www.amazon.com/Backlash-ebook/dp/B004Q9TIPY/

And...wow. I posted the review at Amazon, but this is totally my kind of sci-fi. It's fast-paced, full-characterization and a well-thought out plot, not too heavy on the science with a touch of end-of-world possibilities. There's a lot of story and emotions packed in here.

I went out right after reading it and bought her full anthology. Will report on that soon.

Maria

[maianhvk]

hmmm. I'm reading Wise Man's Fear this time, and enjoying it better than the previous book.

[SeaBookGuy]

I'm listening to Gillian Flynn's novel: Dark Places. Protagonist's brother convicted of murdering the rest of the family when they were kids (she escaped) ... but did he really?
I loved Flynn's first offering Sharp Objects - Chicago reporter returns to the Missouri bootheel hometown she fled years earlier to report on a series of local murders - in the process, her suppressed demons pop up like Jacks-in-a-Box. Highly suspenseful!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Agatha Christie's 13th book, The Sittaford Mystery.

An excellent murder mystery, one without one of her main detectives which is a good change. I really should have got the (satisfying) solution.

Next I read Fires of Freedom by Jerry Pournelle, which I bought in the May 2009 webscription, and I hadn't realised I hadn't read it. Well, it's an omnibus of two novels; the excellent "King David's Spaceship" I've read before, but "Birth of Fire" was a good coming-of-age and revolution story set on Mars.

Now I've gone onto another Agatha Christie (her 14th book): Peril at End House. This is another Poirot/Hastings adventure.

[MickeyC]

Just finished Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. Next Fer De Lance by Rex Stout

[GeoffC]

Working my way through Lethe by AS Sparrow .... .

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Working my way through Lethe by AS Sparrow .... .

Ah - you like it?

[Crusader]

Just finished reading Victorious, the last book in the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. Overall a very good series although it might just as well have been one long novel instead of being dragged into 6 separate novels. I read them all in one go, and the recap of the back story in each one started to grate on my nerves.

Where the series truly shines is the depiction of space battles that have to deal with the vastness of space and relativistic distortion. Very well done in that department!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

another Agatha Christie (her 14th book): Peril at End House. This is another Poirot/Hastings adventure.

And excellent it is too. I'm just very annoyed that I didn't even have an inkling of the solution before it was revealed. The clues are there!

Next, Cobra Alliance by Timothy Zahn. The first in some new novels in his Cobra universe, set thirty years or so after the end of the previous Cobra Trilogy. Very good so far.

[ATDrake]

Finished two library books about notable persons.

The first was Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, who've also done graphic novel versions of various historical/political things for quasi-academic publisher Hill & Wang.

For some reason, the "Authorized" part of the subtitle is in italics. I'd wonder if there was a spate of unauthorized versions enough to cause authentification problems, but then I remember I have a thoroughly cracktastic Edu-Manga biography of Anne Frank lying around somewhere, with comments by Dr. Slump, creator of the robot cat Doraemon.

Anyway, this was about what you'd expect from an official version. Emphasis on Anne's cheery, upbeat personality and sensitivity and perceptiveness, plus some historical context on the Nazi rise to power and how it affected her family.

A decent intro for people looking for a reasonably detailed but not particularly in-depth Holocaust-related comic book. Personally, as biographies go, Jacobson and Colón's volume in the same series on Che Guevara is done better, and their Vlad Tepes aka Dracula graphic biography for a different imprint is considerably more cracktastic and thus, entertaining. Mild recommend.

And then finally finished up a book which I'd had paused at the 3/4 mark for a number of weeks: Morgan Llywelyn's Brendán: The Remarkable Life and Voyage of Brendán of Clonfert, One of the Most Beloved of Irish Saints, which is just what is says in the very long subtitle.

This is a historical fiction retelling of St. Brendan's life from a small boy, recounted part in flashback, part in journal entries as he writes up his famous voyage.

While the prose is well-written and moderately interesting in chapter-length doses, the actual book itself suffers from a lack of well, tension. Sure, there's the "man against himself" plot as Brendan struggles a little with coming to terms with his faith, but it's all very slow and staid and frankly not very exciting, though the journal entries of the sea voyage do liven things up a bit.

Mind you, there's an awesome bit where they visit Iceland while the volcanoes are erupting* and the monks are all like "Oh noes, we have glimpsed into the mouth of Hell and the Pit of Bubbling Liquid Fire just ate one of our brethren who was not moving fast enough!!!!!"

But aside from that, best enjoyed if you have an overwhelming interest in slowly unfolding contemplative fictionalized depictions of the history of Irish Christian faith as seen from one man's gradual development of it.

Otherwise, stick to Llywelyn's much more entertaining regular Celtic historical and fantasy novels.

* Fun fact: the Icelandic volcano Hekla is called that because medieval people thought it was the entrance to Hell. Also, it killed a lot of people the last time it erupted.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Just finished Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. Next Fer De Lance by Rex Stout

I recently read Fer De Lance, and I absolutely did not see that ending coming!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Cobra Alliance by Timothy Zahn.

An interesting start to another trilogy (I think) about the "Cobra" enhanced warriors, set 30 years after the end of the last trilogy. Not really complete in itself, but it does stop at a reasonable point.

Next: F&SF Magazine, February 2002. Another of the back-issues I picked up recently in Fictionwise's 60% off sale.

[covingtoncat73]

I finished Alchemist's Apprentice by Dave Duncan. It was really fun and I look forward to the sequels.

Right now I am reading Cathryne Valente's Deathless. After finished the first third of the book, I can safely say that it is amazing. I can't believe it has taken me so long to come across Ms. Valente. She is right up my alley and really has an amazing use of language.

I'm listening to Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore on audio from the library. Hilarious fun as usual from Moore. The only problem is my iPod Nano died and I am trying to listen on my shuffle, which is not optimal for audiobooks. I'm bidding on a iPod Touch on eBay. Wish me luck.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

I finished Alchemist's Apprentice by Dave Duncan. It was really fun and I look forward to the sequels.

Right now I am reading Cathryne Valente's Deathless. After finished the first third of the book, I can safely say that it is amazing. I can't believe it has taken me so long to come across Ms. Valente. She is right up my alley and really has an amazing use of language.

I'm listening to Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore on audio from the library. Hilarious fun as usual from Moore. The only problem is my iPod Nano died and I am trying to listen on my shuffle, which is not optimal for audiobooks. I'm bidding on a iPod Touch on eBay. Wish me luck.

Valente has been hit/miss for me. I've LOVED some of her stuff and really been bored or...confused or just didn't care for others. She does have a way with language.