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

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Apache

I have just started Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo and it is one I do not want to put down. I do not usually read Zombie books per se, but I do like most of John Ringo's works. I think the last Zombie book I read was I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.
This is well worth getting even if you are not a Zombie Fan.
Apache

I finished Under A Graveyard Sky by John Ringo a few days ago. I thought it was a great read. Plenty of action and well written. I had trouble putting it down. If you like his Empire of Man Series you will like this one too.
I picked up The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith and am reading it again. Be aware that there Smith is a Libertarian and he pushes his views in this book. If you have trouble reading books with a differing political view than your own you may want to pass on this one.
Apache

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Apache

I finished Under A Graveyard Sky by John Ringo a few days ago. I thought it was a great read. Plenty of action and well written. I had trouble putting it down. If you like his Empire of Man Series you will like this one too.

Hmmm. I have that from the Baen Monthly Bundle, and certainly like the Empire of Man series. I'll add it to my TBR.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by orlok

Have you tried any of his "Wilt" books? More dark humour, about a put-upon husband who decides to take drastic action to rid himself of his domineering wife.

Another great book of his is Blott on the Landscape, this time in an English country house setting. Very funny. Was made into an excellent TV series starring M. Hercule Poirot himself, David Suchet.

He has also written a number of other standalone and short series novels, including Porterhouse Blue, which is set in a fictional English University, again hilarious. There is a follow-up, Grantchester Grind, which I can't remember having read, so it's now on my TBRL, thanks to your reminder .

Just read Wilt again and really enjoyed it. Just think put-upon husband, fantasies of murder, and a blow-up doll that almost brings down a college and the local Police Inspector, and you will get a flavour of the black humour of Tom Sharpe.

Enjoyed it enough to move straight on to the second in the series, The Wilt Alternative. And considering I have the new Lee Child, Never Go Back, waiting to go, that's quite a compliment.

[BelleZora]

I recently finished Tom Sharpe's Indecent Exposure, thanks to a recommendation by W.T. Sharpe on this thread. It was entertaining and humorous. Definitely I'll be reading more of Sharpe's black humor.

[poohbear_nc]

I am wrestling (intellectually) with Susan Howe's 'My Emily Dickinson' - an analysis of Dickinson's poems based on Dickinson's reading and the historical traditions embedded in New England. Howe, one of the foremost language poets, has a unique and powerful command of vocabulary and a very idiosyncratic prose writing style. Fascinating, but exhausting, reading.

[LovesMacs]

Almost halfway through Melmoth the Wanderer and finding it difficult to keep going. Right now the protagonist is in the middle of hearing a long tale told by the man he saved from a shipwreck, who back in his native Spain had been on the run and has now been employed as a copyist. Here the fugitive is recounting one of the texts he has been engaged to write down, something about an island in India.

There are some truly exciting parts of this novel, but there are so many long sections that don't engage me that the book is more often than not something to be endured and not enjoyed. I will probably keep reading the book, a little at a time, just to be done with it. I need to leaven the experience with a lighter read, maybe concurrently.

[Yapyap]

Started and finished Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men the day it was out, and then spent the next week re-reading it while being on holidays and going to a few book signings for it.

Sigh. I should really move on to something else now that it's been a week and a half, but I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for another book yet. Maybe something where I have no hopes for anything beyond "moderately enjoyable", i.e. where I have no emotional investment in the plots and characters and won't end up crushed and heartbroken.

[track]

Just reading Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'. Much easier than I thought it would be, although the story wanders around somewhat. Nevertheless it's one of the all time classics.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

Started and finished Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men the day it was out, and then spent the next week re-reading it while being on holidays and going to a few book signings for it.

Sigh. I should really move on to something else now that it's been a week and a half, but I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for another book yet. Maybe something where I have no hopes for anything beyond "moderately enjoyable", i.e. where I have no emotional investment in the plots and characters and won't end up crushed and heartbroken.

eek! now I am afraid to read that. Luckily I have still 3 books to go before reaching it

Rick Yancey's Alfred Kropp series is similar type of book, but everyone is usually on the mend by the end of the book. I think you would like them.

Helen

[Yapyap]

Picked Invitation to Die by Helen Smith as my next read; 13% into it and I'm not impressed so far. Also not turned off enough to quit yet (a book has to be truly dismal for me to do that), though, so perhaps this'll be just what I need, although it's currently more tedious than even moderately entertaining.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

eek! now I am afraid to read that. Luckily I have still 3 books to go before reaching it

Rick Yancey's Alfred Kropp series is similar type of book, but everyone is usually on the mend by the end of the book. I think you would like them.

Helen

As much as I'm feeling crushed right now, I'm not at all sure I'd prefer everyone to be on the mend by the end of each book, to be honest... this is basically what makes SP so amazing for me, that (especially after the first couple of books) it's really not afraid to go dark, really dark, which isn't perhaps unusual for books in certain genres aimed at older/adult readers, but definitely is for this target group.

Also, I just really adore Skulduggery himself.

I'll give Yancey's series a go some day, probably; I have his 5th Wave and Monstrumologist somewhere in my TBR list to read first though.

[BelleZora]

Over the weekend I read Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. The social commentary wore a bit thin, but over all I liked the story. I only wish I had read it in middle school when it would have been immeasurably more scintillating. Although the famously misogynistic Lawrence portrayed Lady Chatterley with insight and sympathy, I felt a bit sorry for the women in his life.

I also read The Cuckoo's Calling by Galbraith/Rowling. I loved both the book and the main characters of Cormoran Strike and Robin. The book is a credit to the mystery genre. Eagerly I await #2 in the series. At least, I hope there will be a series.

I started The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, the MR book club selection for this month, and was initially afraid it would be a slog. But after finding this study guide: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/anglop...es/svnotes.pdf, I now have a clue what is going on (but possibly not much more than a clue) and I'm enjoying it.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

Picked Invitation to Die by Helen Smith as my next read; 13% into it and I'm not impressed so far. Also not turned off enough to quit yet (a book has to be truly dismal for me to do that), though, so perhaps this'll be just what I need, although it's currently more tedious than even moderately entertaining.



As much as I'm feeling crushed right now, I'm not at all sure I'd prefer everyone to be on the mend by the end of each book, to be honest... this is basically what makes SP so amazing for me, that (especially after the first couple of books) it's really not afraid to go dark, really dark, which isn't perhaps unusual for books in certain genres aimed at older/adult readers, but definitely is for this target group.

Also, I just really adore Skulduggery himself.

I'll give Yancey's series a go some day, probably; I have his 5th Wave and Monstrumologist somewhere in my TBR list to read first though.

Well they aren't on the mend as all is sweetness and light IIRC, but usually a glimmer of hope. Pretty much on the same level as the Skullduggery Pleasant books I have read. Up to the forth nothing really unpleasant going on

I find a lot of juvenile fantasy/horror to be as grisly as adult, but in a nondepressing and not overly dark way, less stalking and introspection going on

Helen

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I'll give Yancey's series a go some day, probably; I have his 5th Wave and Monstrumologist somewhere in my TBR list to read first though.

I enjoyed Yancey's Monstrumologist series. They were quite thoughtful and dark for a YA book. The last one in the series was released today.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Well they aren't on the mend as all is sweetness and light IIRC, but usually a glimmer of hope. Pretty much on the same level as the Skullduggery Pleasant books I have read. Up to the forth nothing really unpleasant going on

I find a lot of juvenile fantasy/horror to be as grisly as adult, but in a nondepressing and not overly dark way, less stalking and introspection going on

Yeaaaaaaaaaaah. I don't think that applies to the eighth SP book any more, no. (Or to the sixth and seventh, really, but compared to the eighth one, those were all still light and fluffy.)

Originally Posted by Fbone

I enjoyed Yancey's Monstrumologist series. They were quite thoughtful and dark for a YA book. The last one in the series was released today.

Thanks, good to know! I have SO many books on my TBR list that I have no idea when I'll get to it, but I do intend to (or I wouldn't have bought the first one). My reading choices these days do depend a lot on my mood, and I've been reading so much YA in recent years that I'm currently generally in the mood for something else, with a handful of exceptions.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now onto Gold from Gemini by Jonathan Gash. Another of his Lovejoy series.

An interesting story. Lovejoy is the narrator, of course, and in his own mind is completely reasonable and rational. Despite being completely oblivious to anything except antiques.

Next up: Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo. The Zombie Apolcalypse arrives....

I've really been enjoying it so far.