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

[HomeInMyShoes]

I just finished The Franchiser by Stanley Elkin. Very nice. Now on to
Life and Death and Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan. This one's going to take a while.

[JRod83]

I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. I'm hoping I will be able to get the sequels soon. Until then I am reading The Soloist by Steve Lopez.

[SeaBookGuy]

After finishing up the second (of two) books by Manning Coles (Happy Returns) featuring the ghost cousins and their monkey, I looked through the publisher's list of other titles - The Chinese Chop by Juanita Sheridan looked interesting, and my library had it, so I started the book yesterday. It's the first of four mysteries featuring Chinese-American heroine Lily Wu, written just after WW II; this one's set in NYC, though I gather the rest are not. Interesting enough so far that I can see reading the rest of the series.

[Ron.]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

One of my absolute favorites.

I'm starting to enjoy it now. I am about half way through it at this point.

[aceflor]

I just finished On Canaan's side, by Sebastian Barry, which I think deserves the Man Booker Prize this year.
Beginning A Bit on the Side by William Trevor.

[WT Sharpe]

I just finished Night Life of the Gods and it had me rolling. It's hard to remember when reading Thorn Smith books that he died in 1934. His humor has lost none of its edge. Perhaps that's because he focuses on timeless themes that speak to readers across the generations; like sex, drinking, and non-stop partying.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I just finished Nightlife of the Gods and it had me rolling. It's hard to remember when reading Thorn Smith books that he died in 1934. His humor has lost none of it's edge. Perhaps that's because he focuses on timeless themes that speak to readers across the generations; like sex, drinking, and non-stop partying.

Oh yeah - he wrote Topper too - right? Wonderful stuff!

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

After finishing up the second (of two) books by Manning Coles (Happy Returns) featuring the ghost cousins and their monkey, I looked through the publisher's list of other titles - The Chinese Chop by Juanita Sheridan looked interesting, and my library had it, so I started the book yesterday. It's the first of four mysteries featuring Chinese-American heroine Lily Wu, written just after WW II; this one's set in NYC, though I gather the rest are not. Interesting enough so far that I can see reading the rest of the series.

Rue Morgue publishes a lot of mysteries that were written around WWII - or set in those years - that have since gone out of print. The WWII detail can make them a bit "dated" to read now - but I've found that the plotting and characters are strong and remain interesting. I've not yet read the Lily Wu series, but am reading Francis Crane's Pat & Jean Abbott series - also set during WWII - when women smoked and wore girdles, and men were strong and did all the heavy lifting.
Many of these titles will contain jarring racial epithets/references, but rather than offensive, merely record the usage at the time they were written.

[Badandy]

Just finished Hyperion. I enjoyed it, but what I didn't enjoy was the fact that it stopped at a cliff-hanger. Not just any cliffhanger; a cliffhanger that delays, until the next book, what I assumed the entire book was about (the meeting of the pilgrims and the Shrike).

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I just finished my 36th book for 2011, Terra Incognito by Ruth Downie. It is the second book, Medicus being the first. I got both of them for free or cheap in the "Free or Cheap for Kindle" threads.

They were really good, 5 stars. Ruso, the main character, is a doctor travelling with the 20th Legion in barbarian Britain in the year 118. He is presented with mysterious circumstances, a complicated relationship with his slave, and lots of details about daily life in Roman Britain.

The author, Ruth Downie, has done her research, but she says that she did not stick to true timelines. If something was interesting to her, it went into the story.

These books are funny, serious, educational, and very well written and edited. They get my highest recommendation.

These sound good - they've been on my TBR for awhile but I've got the "too many books, not enough time" thing going on...

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

It is a great book, as long as you remember that much of it is conjecture pieced together from a handful of eyewitness accounts after McCandless abandoned his car, and from a few physical clues where his body was found Alaska. Krakauer creates what I like to call near non-fiction. Just like Junger did with the Andrea Gail in The Perfect Storm. There's nothing wrong with that at all. I just think it's important to keep it in mind when reading.

Into Thin Air is another book of his that's great. It tells of a tragic Mount Everest Expedition that Krakauer himself was actually a member of.

He's excellent at what he does, but I just don't take his words as "gospel truth" (which is not meant to be as critical as it may sound).

Dana Stabenow would call this "Suicide by Alaska"

Anyway - I'm reading Darynda Jones' "First Grave on the Right" . It's a cute, light, paranormal romance (I guess, it's heavy on the paranormal and light on the romance, the way I like 'em). Before that it was Bitter Harvest, the latest in Sheila Connolly's Orchard series. That was a more difficult read, as the main character that I normally love, I didn't like her much in this book until the end. It was a transitional time for Meg, I guess.... I did like the ending though.
I've mainly just been grabbing the first thing off my TBR that looks good lately, without putting much thought into it.
Shelfari says I'm up to 76 books this year.

[ATDrake]

ETA: Another +1 to Ruth Downie's Ruso series. I really enjoyed them when I read the lot earlier this year. High recommend.

Finished two new "historical real person in fictionalized situation" novels from the library's New Books shelf.

1) Roman Games: A Plinius Secundus Mystery by Bruce Macbain is just what it says in the title.

This may or may not be a one-off, starring the not-so-famous nephew of the famous historian who died recording Vesuvius, who has to untangle the murder of one of the paranoid demented emperor Domitian's cronies and also figure out whether it's just a plain old revenge-killing (the victim was that kind of guy) or if the paranoid demented emperor Domitian is right about it also being a plot against himself.

Back cover said that Macbain is some sort of Classics professor at one of the university/colleges down in the States, and there's some nifty background info and glossary and historical notes after the story. Apparently this was written around a real-life incident during Domitian's reign, changed in a couple of places which the author thoughtfully notes. It also says that it's the author's first book, and he does a pretty good job of it. It's not exceptionally good, but it's very readable.

Moderate-to-medium-high recommend if you like historical Roman Empire murder mysteries that are basically decently-done Real Person Fic surrounding actual events with actual historical personages. I liked it, but I think you kind of have to like these sorts of things to begin with.

2) The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer by Lucy Weston which again, is exactly what it says in the title.

Fun fact: onomastically speaking, the name "Buffy" is actually supposed to be derived from being a nickname for "Elizabeth".

And that's really the most interesting thing I can say about this novel, which otherwise involves Queen Elizabeth I discovering a hidden heritage as a prophesied vampire slayer and confronting a leftover legacy from Arthurian times as apparently Camelot fell in part due to vampiric plotting.

It's not actually a bad novel, and the writing is decent enough, but it's really just another cheesy cash-in attempt on a fad that doesn't do anything particularly imaginative or noteworthy with the setting or the characters, which is a shame, because I like the Tudors and I kind of like Arthuriana, and it's usually cool to see them combined.

If your library also has it and you like these things, maybe an okay read for the novelty value. But definitely not worth the $17 CAD asking price that the publisher listed on the back of the paper version.

As an aside, the book's author seems to be even more fictionalized than her novel, as "Lucy Weston" seems to be an entirely made-up persona complete with fake Twitter and blog accounts to visit online, who claims to have been the inspiration for Bram Stoker's "Lucy Westenra" in Dracula and to have found this hidden manuscript diary which she turned into the novel in a special interview in the back of the book, which also has a seriously for serious reading group guide question set which acts like it's all Very Deep Literature You Should Discuss.

I give it a minor bonus point for the hilarity of that last alone.

In between, also re-read Connie Willis' Oxford time-travel set, this time using the Kindle*. There's a noticeable drop in the competence of the historians going from Doomsday Book to All Clear, especially when it comes to Wardrobe.

You'd think that having nearly lost at least one historian and almost messing up the timeline on at least one other occasion, they'd have better safety/tracking/emergency retrieval protocols in place, like arranging a long-term drop box for messages from the past and implanting locators and making sure that their people are properly prepped for their drops†.

But no, they don't, and all the competent people seem to have disappeared. Maybe everyone decent's been sent to the past on another Lady Schrapnell whim and all that's left over is the hastily hired replacements she harangued people to slot into place?

* Doomsday Book was pretty decently formatted and clean, but To Say Nothing of the Dog suffered from a mild percentage of weird scannos that obviously nobody bothered to check. And I strongly suspect that both e-books de-italicized nearly all of the "thought" phrases, given how they're usually italicized throughout my paper copy and the PDF of Blackout/All Clear that I got from the Hugo Voter Packet.

† As the narration keeps reminding us throughout, it's time travel, and they should remember that they have all the time in the world to do it, rather than keeping on rushing through to get to their assignments with inadequate resources.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So on to a freebie, Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer. Although since the special offer is geographically restricted, there's less urgency on testing this author than there was. (Sourcebooks, who publishes her books, has a special offer on this week of $1.99/book.)

That was fun. a nice mystery, although the identity of the villain become obvious a little sooner than it should. If her books were available in the UK at the offer price ($1.99), I'd probably buy them up, as such a good offer isn't likely to come along that often.

Next, a change of pace. The third volume in the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series: Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Rue Morgue publishes a lot of mysteries that were written around WWII - or set in those years - that have since gone out of print. The WWII detail can make them a bit "dated" to read now - but I've found that the plotting and characters are strong and remain interesting. I've not yet read the Lily Wu series, but am reading Francis Crane's Pat & Jean Abbott series - also set during WWII - when women smoked and wore girdles, and men were strong and did all the heavy lifting.
Many of these titles will contain jarring racial epithets/references, but rather than offensive, merely record the usage at the time they were written.

Yes indeedy! Lily Wu is asked on the phone "Am I speaking with an oriental?"

I was thinking of trying the Emma Marsh series set in 1930's Boston at some point after I finish my current two series from Rue Morgue. I admit to gasping in horror when the German officer shot poor Ulysses!

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Badandy

Just finished Hyperion. I enjoyed it, but what I didn't enjoy was the fact that it stopped at a cliff-hanger. Not just any cliffhanger; a cliffhanger that delays, until the next book, what I assumed the entire book was about (the meeting of the pilgrims and the Shrike).

When I first read that book, that wasn't a cliffhanger, that was it...no sequels expected by or suggested to me. Think about that.

I've seen Hyperion referred to as influenced by The Canterbury Tales wherein it's the stories of the "pilgrims" that matter, and how they relate and interact, rather than the purpose and events of the pilgrimage itself. I fully understand how the "cliffhanger" is frustrating, but also suggest reflecting on the book as if there were no sequels in the Cantos. This might not improve things (I'm not suggesting it'll change your mind), but I think it's an amusing exercise...you'll either scream in frustration imagining how you'd feel it ending there with no "sequel", or laugh maniacally with awe and want to reread it, or...?

But read the rest. Honestly, it's one of my favourite series.

[EDIT: I don't think I've been clear in my words above, but I mean to say I loved it so very much when I thought it was just a standalone book, not just with, but partly because of that cliffhanger. I felt similarly about Zindell's Neverness, though I believe it is officially considered standalone]

Cheers,
Marc

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by Badandy

Just finished Hyperion.

By which author? There are lots of books named Hyperion.