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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Finished books 2-4 in the light fantasy series "Songs from the Seashell Archives" by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. I picked these up @ 25% off during Read an EBook Week at Smashwords, and the recommended 1st in the series, Song of Sorcery, can currently be had at 60% off with this weekend's Fictionwise coupon.

I bought Song of Sorcery in the May 60% off sale (along with 102 other ebooks — whoops!). I'll move it further up in my non-existant reading order list.

[ReneAZ]

I have rediscovered the Anne of Green Gables series and am now into the second one (Anne of Avonlea). I had forgotten just how delightful these are. I am devouring them!

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside

[BearMountainBooks]

Re: Take the Monkeys and Run -- Very good. Enjoyed the heck out of it.

Just finished up a cozy, Sherlock kind of thing--humor, fun, funny:

Fleeting Memory by Sherban Young. No one was more surprised than me when I liked it. It wasn't billed as Sherlockian (which is a good thing because I probably wouldn't have read it.) It was way more fun than Sherlock, but it had that pastiche going.

I enjoyed it. Made for a nice way to spend the afternoon and I laughed out loud twice, despite my tendency to pretend I'm above slap-stick or silly/double entendre humor.

[ATDrake]

Finished another Elizabeth Ann Scarborough book, this time a quasi-historical pseudo-western urban rural fantasy, The Goldcamp Vampire, or, The Sanguinary Sourdough.

While not exactly a sequel (though select characters do show up again) to The Drastic Dragon of Draco, Texas, once again we follow the adventures of Miss Pelagia Harper Valentine Lovelace, intrepid pseudonymous lady reporter and suspected tall tale teller who gets to see truth that's weirder than any lie.

This time around, her recently deceased father's former mistress hires her to smuggle a mysterious coffin into the wilds of the Klondike Gold Rush (where the incomparable Miss Sasha Devine hopes to be madam of a lucrative dance hall), whose contents turn out to be not quite what either Miss Lovelace (or her Gentle Readers in the form of the e-book audience) expect, as Valentine née Pelagia is forced to hide amongst companions of dubious repute to avoid murder charges after a hapless Mountie becomes the fifth or six person to die in a state of seeming ecstasy after attempting to open the coffin.

I always get a kick out of looking at stuff set in Canada that's written by foreigners, if only because they often get it horribly, terribly, and thus hilariously wrong.

As it is, it turns out Scarbarough actually did a decent amount of historical/locale research for this and could hardly be expected to know that Canada didn't actually have an official flag of its own until the 1960s and basically used the UK flag officially and variants thereof unofficially until then.

Anyway, while not quite as good as the previous book (which after all, had dragons in it), this was still another very fun romp with unexpected supernatural creatures* in an exotic wilderness setting, a guest appearance by Jack London and a number of other historical personages and items, and a surprising connection to an encounter in the earlier book (fun fact: "Dracula" means "little dragon"; but again, it turns out to be not what you'd expect).

Strong recommend if you like offbeat "real-world" historical adventure mystery†/fantasy with more-things-on-heaven-and-earth "magical" reveals (rather than steampunky "it was always here") and a hilariously matter-of-fact sense of dry humour in the narrative.

But it's best to read DDODT first, just so the past references make a lot more sense (though you can read this one reasonably standalone).

I was rather disappointed to find a character-fate wrap-up faux biographical note for "the famous author Valentine Lovelace", which rather implies that the series was always meant to close with just these two books, because I liked them enough that I'd have cheerfully bought further ones.

As it is, I'll have to content myself with snapping up the last remaining unbought Scarborough during Fictionwise's 60% off coupon sale this weekend and hope that the re-publisher of her other books joins in the month-long Smashwords July sale with 25% off just like they had when I got this during Read an e-Book Week.

* Including not just the usual paranormal kind that you might expect in the Canadian wilderness and/or leaving ecstatic-looking drained corpses around, but also the sort that you might get if as the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail hints,

Spoiler:

one's sister is bitten by å møøse (whose bytes kan be pretty nasti).

† More in the "does anyone know what the heck is going on?!?!?" sense than sleuthy whodunnits, though there's a touch of that as well.

[benham]

Just started Carte Blanche, the new James Bond by Jeffery Deaver.

[Ditchleyportrait]

alice in wonderland
wizard of oz

[orange!]

Just finished Warwolf by T.R. Pearson. Gory and grotesque, which isn't usually my thing, but this one kept me turning pages and I finished it in a day.

Now I return to my regularly-scheduled reading, War and Peace.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by benham

Just started Carte Blanche, the new James Bond by Jeffery Deaver.

Would be interested to hear what you think of it? I have already posted my thoughts elsewhere.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Finished another Elizabeth Ann Scarborough book, this time a quasi-historical pseudo-western urban rural fantasy, The Goldcamp Vampire, or, The Sanguinary Sourdough.

While not exactly a sequel (though select characters do show up again) to The Drastic Dragon of Draco, Texas, once again we follow the adventures of Miss Pelagia Harper Valentine Lovelace, intrepid pseudonymous lady reporter and suspected tall tale teller who gets to see truth that's weirder than any lie.

This time around, her recently deceased father's former mistress hires her to smuggle a mysterious coffin into the wilds of the Klondike Gold Rush (where the incomparable Miss Sasha Devine hopes to be madam of a lucrative dance hall), whose contents turn out to be not quite what either Miss Lovelace (or her Gentle Readers in the form of the e-book audience) expect, as Valentine née Pelagia is forced to hide amongst companions of dubious repute to avoid murder charges after a hapless Mountie becomes the fifth or six person to die in a state of seeming ecstasy after attempting to open the coffin.

I always get a kick out of looking at stuff set in Canada that's written by foreigners, if only because they often get it horribly, terribly, and thus hilariously wrong.

As it is, it turns out Scarbarough actually did a decent amount of historical/locale research for this and could hardly be expected to know that Canada didn't actually have an official flag of its own until the 1960s and basically used the UK flag officially and variants thereof unofficially until then.

Anyway, while not quite as good as the previous book (which after all, had dragons in it), this was still another very fun romp with unexpected supernatural creatures* in an exotic wilderness setting, a guest appearance by Jack London and a number of other historical personages and items, and a surprising connection to an encounter in the earlier book (fun fact: "Dracula" means "little dragon"; but again, it turns out to be not what you'd expect).

Strong recommend if you like offbeat "real-world" historical adventure mystery†/fantasy with more-things-on-heaven-and-earth "magical" reveals (rather than steampunky "it was always here") and a hilariously matter-of-fact sense of dry humour in the narrative.

But it's best to read DDODT first, just so the past references make a lot more sense (though you can read this one reasonably standalone).

I was rather disappointed to find a character-fate wrap-up faux biographical note for "the famous author Valentine Lovelace", which rather implies that the series was always meant to close with just these two books, because I liked them enough that I'd have cheerfully bought further ones.

As it is, I'll have to content myself with snapping up the last remaining unbought Scarborough during Fictionwise's 60% off coupon sale this weekend and hope that the re-publisher of her other books joins in the month-long Smashwords July sale with 25% off just like they had when I got this during Read an e-Book Week.

* Including not just the usual paranormal kind that you might expect in the Canadian wilderness and/or leaving ecstatic-looking drained corpses around, but also the sort that you might get if as the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail hints,

Spoiler:

one's sister is bitten by å møøse (whose bytes kan be pretty nasti).

† More in the "does anyone know what the heck is going on?!?!?" sense than sleuthy whodunnits, though there's a touch of that as well.

STILL planning on re reading DDODT when I get time and get back into that mindset, as well as Goldcamp.
However, I'm on a whole different kick right now - reading The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman. Also just figured out (yes, thank you, I AM slow .. LOL) that the latest S.J. Parris also has Dr. John Dee in it, so assuming I don't burn out on historical fiction after this, I'll read that next.
Eyeing The Borgia Betrayal by Sara Poole, sequel to Poison (both about the Borgias and their court poisoner). Read Poison and loved it. I need to finish up with the historical fiction before the 26th, when the latest Dresden comes out!

[Ditchleyportrait]

trying to finish moby-dick today.

[DianNC]

Started reading The Passage by Justin Cronin last night and stayed up until the wee hours because I just couldn't put it down.

Got up this morning and found the thread of a few months ago discussing this book here at MR and enjoyed reading the opinions of others immensely!

Will try to sneak moments here and there on this holiday weekend to continue on with this page-turner!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by DianNC

Started reading The Passage by Justin Cronin last night and stayed up until the wee hours because I just couldn't put it down.

Got up this morning and found the thread of a few months ago discussing this book here at MR and enjoyed reading the opinions of others immensely!

Will try to sneak moments here and there on this holiday weekend to continue on with this page-turner!

I have it on Audible audiobook, and keep mean to start listening to it, but at 37+ hours I keep putting it off. Partly because I'm doing the 100 books in 2011 challenge, and partly because I know it's going to take an age to get through because of the disjointed nature of my travelling, which is when I mostly listen to books.

Would be interested to know how you get on.

[benham]

Originally Posted by orlok

Would be interested to hear what you think of it? I have already posted my thoughts elsewhere.

I will let you know.

[DianNC]

Orlok - I checked out the audiobook (downloaded it from the library), but found the narration tooooooo slow. It made me anxious and I kept wishing for a way to speed it up. Since I couldn't, I quickly downloaded the ebook and continued reading on ADE. Much faster! I've read around 300 pages so far and can't wait to get back to it!

[hildetsj]

Dooi van Rascha Peper....I am reading this Dutch book now, I read a lot of English books because they are cheaper and now I can just find more e books in English....hope this part of the world wakes up soon and get me more cheaper Dutch books for my sony 600.