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

[orlok]

Originally Posted by 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!

Oh, that's disappointing. So it's a huge book, and slowly narrated . That's going to drive me to distraction.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by dreams

I loved the classic story of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Francis Scott Fitzgerald (@ feedbooks). My friends went to the movie and, from what they told me, it was not like the book....

It's also in our library in the collection Tales from the Jazz Age (uploaded by the late RWood). Here's the link to the MOBI (.prc) edition: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21788. We also have other editions of that work.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by dreams

...Just finished Robert J. Sawyer's Hominids (volume 1 of the Neanderthal Parallax) and starting Humans. Hominids kept me turning pages and I didn't want to put it down to go to sleep.

Spoiler:

From Publishers Weekly
In this polished anthropological SF yarn, the first of a trilogy from Nebula Award winner Sawyer (The Terminal Experiment), Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth, as both sides discover when a Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleoanthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer called a Companion implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. A computerized guardian spirit, however, doesn't eliminate cross-cultural confusion permanent male-female sexuality, rape and overpopulation are all alien to Ponter nor can it help his housemate and fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder. Ponter's daughter Jasmel believes in Adikor's innocence, but to prevent a horrendous miscarriage of justice (Adikor could be sterilized), she must try to reopen the portal and bring her father home. The author's usual high intelligence and occasionally daunting erudition are on prominent display, particularly in the depiction of Neanderthal society. Some plot points border on the simplistic, such as Mary's recovering from a rape thanks to Ponter's sensitivity, but these are minor flaws in a novel that appeals to both the intellect and the heart.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

And, oh yes, you're right about Robert J. Sawyer. He's a wonderful and intelligent author. I've now read two books of his WWW trilogy and can't wait to get some stuff off my platter to which I've already committed myself so I can begin the third.

[dreams]

Thanks, Tom. Well, I just finished Hybrids by Sawyer after flying through Humans. I just didn't want it to end and want to know more.

Now, on to Old Man's War by John Scalzi (these are all pbooks I've put off reading since getting my Sony). I sure hope it is as good as others have posted.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by 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

Those were the six Anne books in print when I was a girl, but there are two more following Ingleside in Anne's chronology. The Rainbow Valley is more about the minister's children, but Anne's are there, also. And Rilla of Ingleside is one of the best books in the canon and important as a children's book with a WWI setting. Both of these books were written before Anne of Ingleside, although they come later.

[caleb72]

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've got this book on my Dark Fiction Summer Reading Challenge. I have the paperback but I've become out of practice in holding up heavy books so I'm not looking forward to the experience. Maybe I'll just buy the ebook version as well.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Promised Land by Brian Stableford

I liked this one more. An interesting alien race and situation. The series still seems to be mildly linked (through main character) stand-alone novels, rather than any kind of actual series with a series-level plot. But if I look at them like that, they've grown on me a bit.

So next up: fourth in the series, The Paradise Game by Brian Stableford

[BearMountainBooks]

Finished Ilona Andrews Magic Bleeds (book 4). Completely awesome, of course. This book and book 3 went on a bit longer than I thought necessary (battle after battle) but they are still some of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Very engrossing.

[WT Sharpe]

Just finished Hal Spacejock: Just Deserts by Simon Hayes and The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief by Francis S. Collins.

The Spacejock series seems to get funnier with every new book. I never thought a line like "In fact, they’re attacking the local military base" could bring tears of laughter to my eyes. But it did, and the neighbors probably thought I had lost it since I was alone in the gazebo when I cracked up over that line.

In The Language of God, physician-geneticist Francis S. Collins, who headed the Human Genome Project after Francis Crick left, puts forth his case that accepting the findings of science and being a Christian are not incompatible. Well worth reading, for both believers and non-believers. Those who don't like the theology will still find themselves fascinated by the science and challenged by the moral issues raised by it.

Now it's on to Decoding the Language of God by geneticist George Cunningham, who, in arguing that being a scientist and a Christian are incompatible, takes Dr. Collins to task for his claims.

And it's down the yellow brick road with Dorothy and her friends as I read the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum for the first time.

[orange!]

Still plugging away on War and Peace. I think 1805 is almost over.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by orange!

Still plugging away on War and Peace. I think 1805 is almost over.

In case you get bogged down in 1806 ...

Spoiler:

The Russians win

[orange!]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

In case you get bogged down in 1806 ...

Spoiler:

The Russians win

Thanks! Now I can skip a few pages.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished Hal Spacejock: Just Deserts by Simon Hayes and The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief by Francis S. Collins.


In The Language of God, physician-geneticist Francis S. Collins, who headed the Human Genome Project after Francis Crick left, puts forth his case that accepting the findings of science and being a Christian are not incompatible. Well worth reading, for both believers and non-believers. Those who don't like the theology will still find themselves fascinated by the science and challenged by the moral issues raised by it.

Now it's on to Decoding the Language of God by geneticist George Cunningham, who, in arguing that being a scientist and a Christian are incompatible, takes Dr. Collins to task for his claims.

For more good books on this subject, try The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and God is Not Great by Christian Hitchens. The former takes a scientific look at religion and the latter a more philosophical approach.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by cassidym

For more good books on this subject, try The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and God is Not Great by Christian Hitchens. The former takes a scientific look at religion and the latter a more philosophical approach.

Thanks. I've read the Hitchens book, but not Dawkins' The God Delusion. Often when I read books of that nature, I like to read books written in rebuttal immediately afterward. Hence, when I read The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris, I followed it with Sam Harris and The End of Reason: A Muslim's Critical Response by Bill Whitehouse.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Often when I read books of that nature, I like to read books written in rebuttal immediately afterward. Hence, when I read The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris, I followed it with Sam Harris and The End of Reason: A Muslim's Critical Response by Bill Whitehouse.

I did the same thing with The God Delusion. After I read that, I read Life After Death by Dinesh D'Souza. In the beginning he attacks Dawkins saying he had no scientific evidence for his conclusions although, in fact, Dawkins presented a lot of hard science as he also did in The Greatest Show on Earth.

Also D'Souza promised to present hard science proving there was life after death etc. But the only "science" offered was the near death experience some people have and he did not in any way use that to prove there is an afterlife.

Conclusion: Game, set and match to Dawkins.