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

[LovesMacs]

I'm almost done reading Red Plenty by Francis Spufford. I'm not sure how to describe it. The book is about several characters in the Soviet Union of the 1960s. The book is also about economics and Soviet politics. It reads like a novel though the author says that the book is really a "fairy tale" about an idea or ideas (or words to that effect). I'm enjoying the read despite my not quite understanding concepts like shadow prices and linear programming.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I just finished 'The Definitive Book of Body Language' by Allen Pease. Some interesting ideas that Julius Fast never touched on in his work. Neither are scholarly volumes, so make for interesting, relaxed reading. Ready for more on the same subject, but with more academic standing rather than aimed at sales and social settings.

Look up Proxemics, and specifically the work of the late anthropologist Edward T. Hall. Hall coined the term as part of his research in comparative culture.

Hall and his research partner, linguist Norman Trager. realized they would have to create a theory of culture to define what they were analyzing and comparing. Hall's book The Silent Language outlines the theory they developed, which is further explicated in The Hidden Dimension and Beyond Culture.

Hall considered non-verbal communication a critical part of culture, and devoted a good deal of research to it.

I consider Hall's work critical, and recommend it to everybody. Alas, it doesn't seem to be available as (legal) eBooks. Paper copies are on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Silent-Lan.../dp/0385055498
______
Dennis

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by jersysman

I started reading The Secret Pact by Mildred Wirt. It's book #6 in the Penny Parker Mystery series.

I took another break and read Tale of the Witch Doll (Penny Parker Mystery Stories #1) by Mildred A. Wirt. Mildred A. Wirt was a ghost writer of many of the Nancy Drew Mysteries. Thanks to jersysman for making me aware of this 17 book series. All 17 of them are available as freebies at amazon and are also available in other formats from gutenberg.org. Continuing my break I've begun reading The Vanishing Houseboat (Penny Parker Mystery Stories #2) by Mildred A. Wirt.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next will be Jack Reacher #2, Die Trying, also from my library.

Another fun one. Kinda feel bad for him getting left like that.

Fortunately for me my next library book came in about an hour before I left for home today, so I can start it whenever I get the chance. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch, the second in the Gentlemen Bastards series. I really liked the Lies of Locke Lamora so hopefully this is as good.

[Rev. Bob]

So far, 2014 has been a year of finishing urban fantasy series for me. Nothing wrong with that; I designed it that way by how I set up a reading challenge list. I'm currently two-thirds of the way through book 3 of 4 in Lyn Benedict's "Shadows Inquiries" series, Gods & Monsters. (I'd read book 1 some time back, accumulated the next 3, there's currently no fifth book, so I'm reading 2-4 as one big chunk.)

Naturally, book four will be next; I hope to start it sometime this weekend, and would really like to finish it before Tuesday. Book two was a bit rough because I waited so long after book one to read it, and it picks up pretty much where that left off. Similarly, three starts about a month after two, so I'm pretty well in the groove now. This'll be the third UF series I've completed this year.

After that...hm. I've got three Buy And Read Right Now books coming out Tuesday. I'll probably read Jennifer Estep's Killer Frost first, as it's couponable at Kobo and concludes the "Mythos Academy" series. Normally Kim Harrison's next "Hollows" book would top the list, but at $16* for the ebook, that's kind of painful...especially when the publisher put pretty much all of the earlier books on sale over the past few months. (Not that I minded; it was a great opportunity to digitize those old Ent corpses!) The third book is not as urgent a read, but it's a mass-market release and thus is coming out at a decent price. Book four in a series, and I've read the first three pretty recently.

* Yes, I know Amazon lists it at $13.59. I prefer EPUBs, and a 15% cut isn't worth the conversion hassle. Maybe I'll get lucky and the price will drop during the first week or so.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I'm now done with Cress, the third in Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles (YA science fiction with romance, loosely based on fairy tales), and enjoyed it a very great deal.

[...]

Really looking forward to Winter next year for the conclusion!

I've read the prequel novella, "Glitches," but haven't started the actual books. Knowing that #4 is the end, I'm more likely now to wait until it comes out and read 'em all at once.

Others have mentioned the MHI and Grimnoir series recently. I used to enjoy those, but the author's political antics have recently made it impossible for me to continue supporting him. I still have a couple of his books on my stack, which I'll read because I really dislike the idea of giving him money for no benefit, but I won't be buying more.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Since I found I had it (a freebie from a few years back), the February MobileRead Book Club selection, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

I'm slightly worried by the first few pages. There's no way a navel officer would have been out of the service in 1945, nor was there an end to rationing and shortages in 1945. Rationing continued into the 1950s!

Have I just misunderstood? Or is it really this horribly inaccurate?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm slightly worried by the first few pages. There's no way a navel officer would have been out of the service in 1945, nor was there an end to rationing and shortages in 1945. Rationing continued into the 1950s!

Have I just misunderstood? Or is it really this horribly inaccurate?

Hah! I mentioned both those points, plus two others, in the discussion thread. It makes you wonder about how accurate she is once she gets to 18th century Scotland.

[Yapyap]

I've had a little less time and energy for reading again these last few days, so I'm still on the book I started four days ago - Deadline by Mira Grant.

I read Feed, the first one in the series, back in 2012, and immediately bought the other two books, but with the way Feed ended, it took me a while to pick up the next book. I did like it, a lot, but I need to be in a specific mood for relatively slow and depressing reads, no matter how much I appreciate them.

In any case, I'm glad I waited; I can't say Deadline is a particularly cheery read either, but I am enjoying it quite a bit (even though I feel I've needed to handwave away more questionable plot points than with the first book and basically need to work harder to suspend disbelief in general).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

Hah! I mentioned both those points, plus two others, in the discussion thread. It makes you wonder about how accurate she is once she gets to 18th century Scotland.

Oh dear. So it's not a misunderstanding on my part.

I'm about 50 pages in now (she's just arrived in the 18th century). I'll give it a bit longer, but I'm beginning to think I'll be abandoning this. (I'm not reading the discussion thread until I finish/abandon it.)

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Oh dear. So it's not a misunderstanding on my part.

I'm about 50 pages in now (she's just arrived in the 18th century). I'll give it a bit longer, but I'm beginning to think I'll be abandoning this. (I'm not reading the discussion thread until I finish/abandon it.)

Now that you're at that point, I think you'll see it through. That's where it picks up a bit. For what it's worth, issybird wrote that she initially was so outraged by the errors in the first few pages that she literally threw the book across the room in disgust, but then after picking up the ebook version later at a time when it was free, not only went on to finish it, but to read the other books in the series as well.

[BelleZora]

I had some of the same problems with Outlander and was really bothered by a couple of other things. I suspended judgement and kept reading, not difficult since it is an engrossing read. I loved it overall more than I hated some of it and am now reading the second book in the series.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Now that you're at that point, I think you'll see it through. That's where it picks up a bit. For what it's worth, issybird wrote that she initially was so outraged by the errors in the first few pages that she literally threw the book across the room in disgust, but then after picking up the ebook version later at a time when it was free, not only went on to finish it, but to read the other books in the series as well.

It really is a fast, fun read. Now the fifth book did for me for a while (kind of like GRRM, but I think that one's on permanent hiatus for me), but eventually I went back.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by issybird

It really is a fast, fun read....

Fast for you maybe. I had a heck of a time finishing those 600+/- pages in time for the discussion. I envy you faster readers!

[CRussel]

It's a big book (and later ones aren't exactly shorter!) If you want to read the audio book, it's actually very well read by Davina Porter.

The book does improve past that initial point, and was a very enjoyable read. Though I admit, I haven't read it except in the Audible version.