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

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Ok. So I'm reading Robert A. Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson - Master of the Senate and I can't believe how big of an a$$hole LBJ was. I have to stop reading because he pisses me off so much. I just finished reading the chapters about his destruction of Leland Olds, Chairman of the Federal Power Commission because LBJ's Texas oil buddies felt they weren't making enough money on natural gas. Holy Crap. I never was a big fan of LBJ, but the first third of this book is completely destroying *any* regard I may have had.

I'll finish the book, but it's a good thing it's not paper or it would have been thrown at the wall too many times already.

Thanks for the recommendation. I had Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson - The Passage of Power (1960-64) on my TBR. I'm adding [I]The Years of Lyndon Johnson - Master of the Senate[/I to my TBR (sigh, so many books, so little time)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I've certainly enjoyed Spenser so far, just one book, and I see the roots of Harry Dresden in the Spenser character. The only thing I know about Hawk is the the TV version was played by Avery Brooks before he joined Star Fleet. I did a little research and observed that Hawk doesn't show up till Promised Land (Spenser #4)!

Overall, I think the series improves when Hawk gets there. He's way too good to be true, but he's a good foil for Spenser. And while Avery Brooks plays him as too "nice" for the real Hawk, he's still enjoyable in the part.

I've got some of the early Spenser books on my Kindle. Must be about that time.

A while back I started the HH series and gave up on it rather quickly. As I remember it seemed to be way too full of techno-babble and background filler about military hardware and objectives for my personal taste.

Well, yeah. The hardware technobabble plays to some of his hard core fans. I just skim over it. But my real complaint is that the editing has fallen down. There are way too many l o n g scenes where it's a bunch of secondary characters droning on in some meeting or other. But I like the series inspite of its flaws, and I am nearly there now. One more book to go and I'll be through the current batch.

But I think I'll take a break before I jump on that last one. Time for a quick dip back to Liad for The Tomorrow Log, which I have a new Audible version of to read alongside my eBook version. One thing no one ever accused Lee & Miller of is writing too long. I always end up wanting more.

[HarryT]

Just finished "The Forge", the first book in the "General" series by S.M. Stirling and David Drake. This is contained in the Baen omnibus edition called "Hope Reborn", which I bought in April 2000.

The book is set on a planet where an interstellar civilisation has collapsed back to about an 18th century level of technology, and the memory of the former high-technology civilisation has turned into a church, whose priests worship defunct computers.

A young man, Raj Whitehall, stumbles upon an ancient sentient battle computer in a base deep below the city where he lives, and is selected by the computer to be its agent to unite the planet and restore the fallen civilisation.

A very good book indeed, but contains a lot of graphic violence and strong language. This is part of my "read my old Baen Webscription ebooks" challenge.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Just finished "The Forge", the first book in the "General" series by S.M. Stirling and David Drake. This is contained in the Baen omnibus edition called "Hope Reborn", which I bought in April 2000.

Quite a backlog... have you stopped buying books at this point?

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Quite a backlog... have you stopped buying books at this point?

BOb

No, still buying every monthly bundle . I have them all, which I'm pleased about, because a lot of the older books are no longer available.

[bfisher]

Finished Lincoln in the World The Making of A Statesman and the Dawn of American Power by Kevin Peraino. I found it complementary to Amanda Foreman's A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War, as Peraino concentrated more on Lincoln's relations with Napoleon III, and the French attempt to set up a puppet empire in Mexico.

[ucfgrad93]

I am currently reading The Great War at Sea: 1914-1918 on my Kindle.

[mewmartigan]

I'm on book 3 of the Farseer Trilogy, Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb. I am really enjoying this trilogy and the adventures of Fitz. I'll definitely give LiveShip Traders and The Tawny Man a try as well.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

I'm on book 3 of the Farseer Trilogy, Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb. I am really enjoying this trilogy and the adventures of Fitz.

That's good to hear. I bought that trilogy in a special offer recently.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Prize in the Game by Jo Walton. The third (& last) in her series about an alternate magical dark ages Britain. (Arthurian, but not.)

I bought this one in May in an Amazon sale for £0.99.

Not quite what I was expecting, which was a continuation. But that makes sense, as the first two wrapped up the main character's story.

This book looks at how things were going in the equivalent of Ireland during the middle of the other two books. An enjoyable, if slightly melancholy, story.

Next up: Uchenna's Apples by Diane Duane. A new YA set in modern Ireland.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Uchenna's Apples by Diane Duane. A new YA set in modern Ireland.

Which was quite good, but rather to my surprise was a straight real-world YA. No fantasy element at all. I obviously didn't read the blurb closely enough.

Next up: A Cosmic Christmas 2 You edited by Hank Davis. From the November Baen Monthly Bundle. It seems about the right time to read it!


[Wow. It's not often I get posts with no-one in-between!]

[tecweston]

Haven't updated this in a few months, so here's what I've been reading:

Just Finished:

-Tales of Dunk and Egg by George R.R. Martin (I read all three novellas that have been released so far)
-Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
-The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling

Currently reading:

-The Stormlight Archive #1 - The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - 19%
-The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Grimswell Curse by Sam Siciliano - 13%
-The Princess and the Queen by George R.R. Martin - this is the last story in the Dangerous Women book and I've only read this one story, so who knows what percentage into the story I am. My Nook says I have 53 pages left though.

[Dhevi]

Reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. Accidentally read The Republic of Thieves first, not knowing it was a series. Haha. Still a good read though.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

The Godwulf Manuscript was great! Ok Spenser fans, I'm hooked! Now on to another Amazon Freebie, Timebound by Rysa Walker! It was free under a new Amazon program called:

Timebound was quite an exciting non-stop ride and I'd surely like Rysa Walker to continue The Chronos Files as a series. It seems that she has written a second novel that is currently unavailable called Time's Twisted Arrow.

Well staying on the freebie trail I've begun reading another freebie that I just got from Amazon called Blood Faerie (Caledonia Fae #1) by India Drummond.

[Ranny]

The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman here.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Timebound was quite an exciting non-stop ride and I'd surely like Rysa Walker to continue The Chronos Files as a series. It seems that she has written a second novel that is currently unavailable called Time's Twisted Arrow.

Going to give Timebound a try. The price is right, since I've got Amazon Prime.