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

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by Gazella20

Just started The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. A slow start so far but I've read that it gets much better once the protagonist embarks on a quest which I'm assuming is going to be a strange one.

I read this several weeks ago. I thought it was wonderful. Definitely keep going.

[ucfgrad93]

I am currently reading Mere Christianity by CS Lewis.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

And I'm just about finished reading Michael Frayn's Spies which is really really enjoyable. Maybe the best book I've read this year so far.

Got this from Audible just recently, as my daughter is reviewing it for her acting coursework. May well give it a try after that recommendation .

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[...] moving on to The Iron Breed by Andre Norton.

An omnibus of two unrelated novels, The Iron Cage and Breed to Come. Both have themes common in Norton's other books: Psi talents, long lost civilisations, humans in partnership with animals or aliens, the dangers of too much knowledge and losing touch with nature.

An OK read, but nothing really new.


Next up: Grantville Gazette #46 edited by Paula Goodlett. The latest in the long-running series of short stories set in Eric Flint's 1632 universe.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

For now it is on to Second Star to get back into some science fiction.

Another good book. I will find the rest of this series some time, but my book budget is strapped for the near future, so I will need to wait for a while. I hope the rest of the series is as good and if so, I hope Ms. Stabenow comes back to this series some day.

Next is The Second Ship, book 1 of the Rho Agenda, by Richard Phillips. I am guessing this is more of a YA title, but it sounds like a decent read and is what I am in the mood for.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next is The Second Ship, book 1 of the Rho Agenda, by Richard Phillips. I am guessing this is more of a YA title, but it sounds like a decent read and is what I am in the mood for.

Amazon recommends this to me relentlessly. I've resisted every temptation so far. I would be interested to read what you thought of it.

[xg4bx]

Honor Among Enemies by David Weber, book 6 of the Honor Harrington series.

[HomeInMyShoes]

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin.

"I pictured a low timber house with a shingled roof, caulked against storms, with blazing loog fires inside and the walls lined with the best books, somewhere to live when the rest of the world blew up."

[Gazella]

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Really enjoying it so far.

It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century. Already a huge bestseller across Europe, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun and feel-good book for all ages.

[HarryT]

Just finished "Hunting Party" by Elizabeth Moon, the first book in the "Herris Serrano" series. Herris Serrano relunctantly accepts a job as Captain of a wealthy old lady's pleasure yacht after being forced to resign from the Regular Space Service following her disobediance of the orders of the bloodthirsty admiral. She thinks that life will be boring in the civilian world, but things turn out to be a lot more interesting than she'd anticipated. Star ships and fox hunting are not often found together in one book. Great fun!

This is the first step in attempting to catch up on my 15+ year backlog of Baen "Webscriptions" ebooks. This was one of the first, and I probably bought it around 1998 or so.

[DiapDealer]

Finished up Ransom by David Malouf. What a beautiful interpretation of the last books of The Iliad. Achilles' despondency/atrocity, Priam's grief, shared loss, and storytelling itself are explored in Malouf's wonderful prose. Achilles—shortly after he defeated Hector and began the defilement of his body while the people of Troy looked on:

He was waiting for the rage to fill him that would be the equal at last to the outrage he was committing. That would assuage his grief, and be so convincing to the witnesses of this barbaric spectacle that he too might believe there was a living man at the centre of it, and that man himself.

[amward]

Originally Posted by Gazella20

Just started The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. A slow start so far but I've read that it gets much better once the protagonist embarks on a quest which I'm assuming is going to be a strange one.

I loved it so much I've chosen it for my book club. It's not an action book, but the writing is beautiful, the characters well drawn and the relationship between Harold and his wife and how it changes is very thought provoking.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by amward

I loved it so much I've chosen it for my book club. It's not an action book, but the writing is beautiful, the characters well drawn and the relationship between Harold and his wife and how it changes is very thought provoking.

I agree. The writing is beautiful and simple. I'm in class at the moment and reading it on my Kindle instead of paying attention to the professor's lecture.

[crich70]

I'm reading "Forbidden The Stars" the 1st book in The Interstellar Age trilogy by Valmore Daniels. I picked all 3 of the books up at Smashwords and made my own omnibus copy of the books with Calibre.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Grantville Gazette #46 edited by Paula Goodlett. The latest in the long-running series of short stories set in Eric Flint's 1632 universe.

A better-than-average issue of the Grantville Gazette. Some excellent new stories, and some good follow-ups to previous stories.

I next read F&SF, March 2013. This was also a much better than average (for me) issue.

Then one of my other recent purchases, Thebes of the Hundred Gates by Robert Silverberg
An interesting little time-travel tale. A short book that kept my attention.

And now I'm reading
Starborne by Robert Silverberg. This month's Phoenix Pick freebie.