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

[jmilica]

Originally Posted by jmilica

I am now reading PKD's
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. So far it seems I am in for another unforgettable read and I keep wondering how on earth did I miss reading PKD for all these years...

I love PKD and I think he really knew the human condition. I can't believe this book was written in 1968, it is so fresh and relevant.
I am continuing my PKD spree so I started The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

[Geralt]

Just finished I am Legend by Richard Matheson. Good book. Nothing to do with the movie.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

That leaves me with just 5 Hugo winners to read, and next up I'm planning to read another one: Double Star by Robert A Heinlein. Good Heinlein rather than Bad Heinlein, I hope. I think I might just get all of them done before the next winner is announced. Unless I decide to vote this year, and suddenly have a lot more reading to do.

Luckily, Double Star was indeed Good Heinlein. Lightweight, fun, and under 150 pages long. The narrator seemed a bit more distinctive than the usual Heinlein fare, and it worked well. (They say you should show, and not tell, but in a first-person narrative telling is showing.)

Not really sure what's next. A break from the Hugo winners, though, I think.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Next up is Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. I've heard good things about this series, so looking forward to it.

I'm enjoying this book quite a bit, even though the translation isn't great. One often gets the feeling that the translator is a native Swedish speaker, rather than a native English speaker, though I haven't actually looked him up. IAC, I'm about 2/3rds through it, and I'll definitely be reading more by her.

[LovesMacs]

Spurred by the upcoming movie of The Great Gatsby, I decided to reread the novel. This was assigned reading when I was 15 or 16, and at the time I couldn't get into it. Second time around I'm really enjoying it. I think I just had to grow into the work to appreciate it. Doesn't hurt too that this was something I chose to read rather than being forced to read it on a fixed schedule.

[bfisher]

I recently finished James Oake's "Freedom National" - a long slog, but well worth it for the illumination Oake's provides on the emancipation process.

For a complete change of pace, I am reading Avery Corman's "The Bust-Out King", a comedy caper which reminds me a lot of Donald Westlake's Dortmunder novels.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by dreams

Now on to try Archangels: Rise of the Jesuits by Janet M. Tavakoli; An Amazon freebie from March 2013.

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by dreams

I've had this started since the 18th and haven't had enough time to read for any length of time. I'm only about page 80 and it is very interesting so far and it does keep me wanting to really get into it. I hope it does turn out to be really good.

I did enjoy the story, but not sure if I would reread it. Well, maybe, just because I did enjoy the historical facts and it was very interesting with the mix of fiction and facts about the Catholic Church: the Jesuits, the banking connections, and all the intrigue connected with the Vatican.

I've started The Last Pope: Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis I? by Bob Thiel Ph.D. and so far it is just meh.. I am finding myself skimming through parts. I've started 3/13/13: POPE FRANCIS THE LAST by CLARK MITCHELL and, so far, it is a little more interesting to read, but just not catching my attention. Thankfully, these were free. Maybe, it's time for a romantic comedy or a historical mystery. I hate when I can't decide what to read next.

[fantasyfan]

I finished Andre Norton's Star Born. In Junior High school I first began reading her books and fell in love with them. This one probably would have delighted me had I read it then. Now it comes over as an OK adventure story with a bit of an eco theme built in. There's also some reference to the dangers of an anti-intellectual Fundamentalism--which is more clearly spelt out in The Stars Are Ours which makes this book a kind of distant sequel.

The various evolutionary adaptations of humanity remind one a bit of The Seedling Stars by James Blish--though the idea isn't nearly as thoroughly developed. It's an above-average YA science-fiction novel, but I think that Norton was a great deal better in the books set in The Witch World Universe.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

The versions of the Nancy Drew Mysteries that are available in the 21st century have all been updated back in 1971. The updated material is pretty easy to identify and usually I find these updates to be mostly unobtrusive. But Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion seemed to be almost all an updated/rewritten story. I think this is a shame. I read them to experience nostalga about the 40's and 50's, not the 70's! Oh well, the next one may be better.

The General's Daughter was a really enjoyable read and I've added Nelson DeMille to my interesting author list.

Next, because my Grandson keeps asking how I like this or that about this series he recommended (Kingdom Keepers, I've only read the first one of them so far), I'm going to be reading Disney at Dawn (Kingdom Keepers #2) by Ridley Pearson and also, a freebie from Amazon I've had sitting around a while now, One Deadly Sister (Sandy Reid Mysteries #1) by Rod Hoisington.

An interesting geographic coincidence concerning my recent reading choices is that Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion, Disney at Dawn and One Deadly Sister all took place in Florida and The General's Daughter took place in Georgia!

Disney at Dawn was an enjoyable YA adventure and mystery tale taking place at the Disney World resort complex. This is the second book in the series Kingdom Keepers that I have read. I'll eventually read the entire series.

After reading One Deadly Sister, I went to Smashwords and picked up the balance of the Sandy Reid Mysteries series (3 more books) and am now starting to read Sandy Reid Mysteries #2, The Price of Candy by Rod Hoisington as well as The Quest of the Missing Map (Nancy Drew #19) by Carolyn Keene (Mildred A Wirt).

[CRussel]

Next up is Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. I've heard good things about this series, so looking forward to it.

I'm enjoying this book quite a bit, even though the translation isn't great. One often gets the feeling that the translator is a native Swedish speaker, rather than a native English speaker, though I haven't actually looked him up. IAC, I'm about 2/3rds through it, and I'll definitely be reading more by her.

Finished. Enjoyed it. Will definitely read more in the series. A bit dark (it is definitely in the Swedish Noir genre), though, so I'm going to take a bit of a break and read a pair of early C. J. Cherryh books -- At the Edge of Space, a compilation of Bothers of the Earth and Hunter of Worlds. I've had this in my TBR for well over a year, and for some reason it just floated to the top as I was trying to decide what to read. I may have read these in my youth (I read pretty much all of Cherryh back then), but if so, I have no memory of them at all.

[caleb72]

OK. Just finished Shift by Hugh Howey. Bloody marvellous! It didn't quite hit the fever pitch of enthusiasm that Wool did, but it wasn't too far away. Can't wait until Dust gets here.

Now I've got two books on the go:

Pale Queen's Courtyard - by Marcin Wrona. This is an indie book for my review site. I was pretty impressed with a steam/clock punk offering of his called The Whitechapel Gambit. However, this one is his debut novel and was a finalist in SciFiNow's 2009 War of the Words (whatever that is). It looks like it has a more Middle-Eastern fantasy feel. Interested to see how this goes.

A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine. This is one of my favourite mystery writers. And this book was her first (under this name) and it won an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1987. Hopefully it's as good as all the others I've read from her.

[WT Sharpe]

Just finished And Make Not Dreams Your Master by MobileRead author Stephen Goldin. Really enjoyed this one. It was fast paced and filled with interesting images and symbols. The villain (and his dreadful mother) were very well painted, and made the eventual breakdown of the character very believable. My only complaint was that certain elements were predictable, but even those were enjoyable.

I love stories where people enter each others' dreams, and this one had a battle royal inside the mind of a madman upon whose outcome the fate (and sanity) of 70,000 innocent dreamers depended.

It's available at Smashwords and Amazon. Check it out.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Disney at Dawn was an enjoyable YA adventure and mystery tale taking place at the Disney World resort complex. This is the second book in the series Kingdom Keepers that I have read. I'll eventually read the entire series.

I've never heard of the series before, I'm a HUGE Disney fan so I think I'll enjoy these books

Have you read his other series called Peter and the Starcatchers?

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I finished Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card last night. I was a little bit worried about it, given how my opinion of the author has plummeted in the 20 years since I read Ender's Game but I ended up liking it quite a bit.

That leaves me with just 5 Hugo winners to read, and next up I'm planning to read another one: Double Star by Robert A Heinlein.

I forgot to mention that Speaker for the Dead was the first ebook I had read in quite a long time, and I was disappointed by the number of errors it contained. It wasn't a lot, but it was too many compared to the paper books I had been reading.

Then I read Double Star in paperback, and was almost relieved to find it peppered with typos.

[Gazella]

Just started Murder on the Links, a Hercule Poirot mystery by Agatha Christie.