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

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

I read it several times already, and have this love/hate relationship with that book
.

What version did you read? I read the non-abridged version and loved it, granted the begging was a little slow. But all the sub plots coming together was awesome.

[poohbear_nc]

Just finished Christopher Fowler's latest PCU mystery "The Memory of Blood" - featuring the 2 oldest detectives in Britain. As in earlier works, this book delights in the arcana of a British tradition - this time Punch & Judy (and the Grand Guignol). But even though I am a great fan of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, this entry disappointed me. Rather than dwelling on the wondrous cast of wacky eccentric characters of the PCU, it was a very superficial work - with many characters getting only a named "walk on" appearance - and very little internal conflict with authority figures. Quite disappointing. It reads like a quickly completed rough draft that was not "fleshed out" before publication. Sigh.

[Straycat1945]

I am now well into The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and I can highly recommend it.

I am taking a break from my usual fare of Mystery, Suspense, Thriller novels, having finished most of the Preston & Childs Agent Pendergast novels; very highly recommended btw. I started with Still Life With Crows, and I was hooked.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished The Sunday Philosophy Club: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander Mccall Smith. The phrase that came to mind as best describing it is "an absorbing promenade." This book does not rush to a climax, but takes a leisurely stroll down dozens of miscellaneous side streets as Isabel Dalhousie, editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, seeks the killer of the young man she saw fall to his death. The tangents are what make this story so fascinating. Isabel is constantly reflecting upon all she hears, feels, and thinks, and weighing it in her own ethical balance.

A delightful, quiet read that I very much enjoyed. Recommended.

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by The Terminator

What version did you read? I read the non-abridged version and loved it, granted the begging was a little slow. But all the sub plots coming together was awesome.

I read the unabridged version too, although the translation because I was 12 or so at that time. And I loved it. I did some rereads immediately, stilll loved it. And then after some years, I read it again, and did not love it as much as the first time. And the last time I read it, last year maybe, I couldn't finish.

How many times have you read it?

[dreams]

Originally Posted by AlexGrama

I have finished To kill a mockingbird. Brilliant.

When I saw your post, I thought I would do a reread and made a note to dig through my bookshelves for it. Then tonight, while avoiding getting my taxes done, it was on TV. I think I learn something each time I follow the story.

Just starting Scorpion House by Maria Hudgins. (Still on my Egypt thing and surprisingly they have all been freebies.) I really liked that the beginning of the book had a short blurb to give me an idea of what the book was going to be about and I didn't have to search for it.
amazon blurb:

Spoiler:

It sounds like the chance of a lifetime, to explore the tomb of an ancient Egyptian nobleman and live in an expedition house with other scientists. All expenses paid, and her name on a paper sure to be published in a prestigious journal. But when her housemates start turning up dead, all under unpleasant circumstances, Lacy Glass has reason to suspect she’s next.
Lacy is a botanist, a pigment specialist, recruited to analyze the paint on the walls and the dyes in the linen found in the tomb. Altogether, nine specialists share the house on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor, but Lacy isn't sure she can trust any of them. The first to die is her best friend, her mentor, and the only housemate she knows well enough to trust.
These housemates include a cook who believes she's the pharaoh Hatshepsut's daughter, an ex-pat American botanist, an overbearing team leader, and a surfeit of scorpions.

[HarryT]

I've just finished a paper book. Yes, I know I should hang my head in shame, but it's not available as an eBook.

The book was "Egypt - How a Lost Civilization was Rediscovered" by Joyce Tyldesley, and is a very readable account of the history of the development of Egyptology from mere treasure hunting to its modern state as a science. It focusses on the lives of the most famous Egyptologists: Belzoni, Champollion, Petrie, Carter, etc.

An excellent read for anyone interested in the subject.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now back to F&SF...

I really liked the first two stories and the last. The others weren't to my taste. The stories I liked I liked a lot, so they made it a good issue for me.

Next up: Endgame Enigma by James P. Hogan

I bought this back in October 2009. Essentially a freebie, as it was bundled with that month's Baen ebooks. I find his later stuff just too earnest about impossible ideas, but this is, I think, one of his early books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Endgame Enigma by James P. Hogan

I bought this back in October 2009. Essentially a freebie, as it was bundled with that month's Baen ebooks. I find his later stuff just too earnest about impossible ideas, but this is, I think, one of his early books.

A very good book. I re-read it recently; it's one of my favourites, although the "USA=good, Soviet Union=evil" politics is laid on a bit thick.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A very good book. I re-read it recently; it's one of my favourites, although the "USA=good, Soviet Union=evil" politics is laid on a bit thick.

It could be worse, Harry. Here's one of the original covers.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I completed my re-read of The Girl on the Dock and James Potter and the Vault of Destinies. When I completed them I then read the 47 page PDF (I made a MOBI out of it and put it in my Kindle) of James Potter and the Morrigan Web. It was released on G.Norman Lippert's blog and includes a letter to the readers explaining that this is what he's written so far and that he's decided to postpone the completion of the project for now and that it's incomplete and unedited. It gets a WOWZERS (Inspector Gadget's terminology) from me. Now on to these three in no particular order. A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison, The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King, and Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.

If anyone is interested in G. Norman Lippert's James Potter and the Morrigan Web's status (he's back to writing it again) check out todays post on his blog on Goodreads.

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

I read the unabridged version too, although the translation because I was 12 or so at that time. And I loved it. I did some rereads immediately, stilll loved it. And then after some years, I read it again, and did not love it as much as the first time. And the last time I read it, last year maybe, I couldn't finish.

How many times have you read it?

So far I've only read it once, but after I finish Les Miserables maybe I'll read it again.

I guess it could be a bit boring the second time around with some of the parts being a little slow if you already know what happens, is that why you didn't like it? Or did you just stop liking the book?

[tecweston]

Currently Reading:

- A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin (89%)

- The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Titanic Tragedy by William Seil (61%)

- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (55%)

- Moby-Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville (6%)

- Skeleton Crew by Stephen King (28%) [on hold]

I've attempted to read Moby-Dick twice now. I've never gotten farther than about a third of the way through. This time I'm determined to finish it.

[maianhvk]

@ The Terminator: no, I guess the real reason why I stopped loving it is that I grew out of it. See, a 12-year-old kid is idealistic. But a 20-year-old one is less so, however immature (s)he is. So... a sweet revenge is what I always want, but at the same time I know it's too good to be true. And the story just gets more and more absurd everytime I read it. There's an almost the same story (The Gadfly by Ethel Lilian Voynich) and I can't help comparing the two: Gadfly is "more" extreme, it's "truer".

But... I still have feelings for the Count of MC. It's hard to just stop loving something you loved when you were a kid, right?

[ElsieC]

I just finished The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde thanks to a recommendation from this thread. I enjoyed the book, a fun read if you are looking for something light and a little different. It reminds me of Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell by Pat Murphy which I read as an audio book several years ago and also enjoyed.

Synopsis of The Eyre Affair (not a spoiler):

Spoiler:

In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde's ingenious fantasy—enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel—unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.