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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which had a good mixture of stories, none of which I hated, and some I liked a lot. Above average issue for me.

Next up: LazerWarz by Mark Shepherd. Set in Mercedes Lackey's urban elves universe. Interesting so far, although a bit of infodumping going on.

And it was OK. Not great, and not bad, just OK. Doesn't really add much to the universe, and a bit too much Deus ex Machina, pretty much literally.

Then International Kittens of Mystery by Chris Dolley. A short book of story text interspersed with pictures of (I presume) his cats. A cute idea, but it didn't work for me.

And now: Medium Dead by Chris Dolley

This is looking good so far.

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Just finished The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion based on a reco from BelleZora, who never gets it wrong, and it was a very funny read.

Very happy that you liked The Rosie Project, MickyC. But as far as getting it wrong, we could consult pdurrant for another opinion. I recommended Life after Life, which he read, and later listed as a book he most regrets reading.

Based upon the recommendations from both MickyC and pdurrant, I'm ready to tackle The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I love Scandinavian noir mysteries, but have been leery of this book despite buying it last year.

[bfisher]

Just finished "The Empire of Necessity" by Greg Grandin, the author of "Fordlandia". Grandin uses the narrative of a slave revolt on the ship "Tryal" off Peru in 1805 to talk primarily about the expansion of the African slave trade in Latin America in the late 1700s and early 1800s, as well as the extermination of fur seals in in the Southern Ocean by Yankee sealers, debt peonage in early republican New England, and Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" and "Benito Cereno".

"Benito Cereno", published in 1855, is based on the uprising on the "Tryal"; Melville's main source was the memoir of the Yankee sealing captain who crushed the uprising and returned the surviving slaves to slavery and execution.

Like "Moby Dick", the narrative is not linear, there are frequent digressions which have some relationship to the main story.

Altogether, very well written and the most interesting thing I have read so far this year.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I enjoyed Gunshy, and would have read more of these. But instead, I think I'll focus on the Temple Grandin book.

Well, I'm still reading the The Autistic Brain, but it's the sort of book I read in smallish chunks. Meanwhile, I'm reading Sword-Dancer, by Jennifer Roberson. It's a WhisperSync for Voice book, so I'm both reading it and listening to the Audible version of it, depending on what I'm doing at the time.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now: Medium Dead by Chris Dolley

It was fun, but I probably won't be interested in sequels, as I can't think of any way for the absurd premise to work, and in later books that would become an issue.

Next up: Old Scores by Aaron Elkins. The third Chris Norgren mystery.

And looking like it'll be as interesting as the first two, which is to say, very interesting.

[samhy]

For work related reasons I'm reading a book on how to improve one's written communication skills. The title is in French so I don't think it's worth mentioning it.

Regarding The Hunger Games, the third book has yet to be read, I'm too swamp with work to express myself clearly in English, so it's better to keep that for later

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by samhy

Regarding The Hunger Games, the third book has yet to be read, I'm too swamp with work to express myself clearly in English, so it's better to keep that for later

Do report back with your thoughts regarding the third book in the The Hunger Games when you get around to reading it. I very much enjoyed the first two books but was overall disappointed with the final book.

[Dr. Drib]

Currently reading "Crime and Punishment" - by some Russian guy.

Totally engrossing.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Currently reading "Crime and Punishment" - by some Russian guy.



Totally engrossing.

On my list of "classics to read". I've only read one novel (excluding his short stories) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and that's The Brothers Karamazov. I also plan to read The Idiot.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Currently reading "Crime and Punishment" - by some Russian guy.



Totally engrossing.

It's the worst 'who done it' ever written but one of my favorite books.

[Yapyap]

It feels like ages since I've last reported in on this thread ... I've had some really busy times at work (and as I work from home, that tends to mean late nights and not a lot of reading time), so my reading has been considerably slower in March than I'd like.

Anyway, I followed up the interminable slog that was Red Mars with Salt of the Earth by Trudi Canavan - the newest instalment in the Doctor Who short stories Time Trips series. I'm not convinced it was a brilliant story, but it featured my absolute favourite Doctor (Three), one of my favourite companions (Jo) and was pretty decent, so I was happy. Definitely my favourite in the Time Trips series so far.

And after that I read Killer Frost - the sixth and final book in Jennifer Estep's YA urban fantasy Mythos Academy series. It's a series that I've been intensely frustrated with, mostly due to the writing (the author is incredibly fond of repetition, from endless recaps to using and re-using and overusing the same words and phrases throughout a book) but that also kept me entertained enough to go on reading.

I can't say I was blown away by this final book, but I felt it a fitting ending to the series.

Finally, and as part of my endeavour to cut down on my ent-corpse TBR piles, I picked up Joanna Trollope's modernised retelling of Sense and Sensibility, the first release in the "Austen Project" series of retellings by current well-known authors.

Sense and Sensibility is my favourite Austen book, so I was both curious and somewhat wary. I'm not really sure what the purpose of these modernised retellings is - Joanna Trollope's book was basically a straight retelling set in the 21st century, sticking as close to the plot and characters of the original as the modernisation allowed - but I've read my fair share of fanfic based on the same concept (moving the plot and characters of a book into a different era) before, so I wasn't particularly prejudiced or predisposed to hate it.

Spoiler:

I think - all in all - Trollope did a fair job. I found it a bit hard to suspend disbelief over the central premise (a family of four intelligent and educated upper middle class women, three of them adults, with a mere £200,000 in the bank, wailing about poverty and becoming homeless and not really knowing what to do about jobs or not keen on finding any, just doesn't strike me as likely in England around 2013 - or if it does, I wouldn't be inclined to feel a lot of sympathy for them!), but once I got over that, there was a lot to like about the book.

Granted, most of the things I liked about the book came straight from Austen anyway...

I also felt the book lacked a lot of Austen's subtle humour, which is one of my favourite things about her novels. But it was competently written, and the modernisation felt fairly balanced to me, not going too much overboard but also taking some risks - I've seen some reviewers complain about the occasional use of swear words, the lack of God in the characters' lives, and the idea that pre-marital sex isn't viewed as anything particularly immoral, but all that struck me as completely reasonable given that these are modern young people.

All in all, I'd rate it three stars as opposed to the five I feel Austen's original deserves, but I did enjoy it and I'll certainly give the next Austen Project books a go.

[missimpossible]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

It feels like ages since I've last reported in on this thread ... I've had some really busy times at work (and as I work from home, that tends to mean late nights and not a lot of reading time), so my reading has been considerably slower in March than I'd like.

Anyway, I followed up the interminable slog that was Red Mars with Salt of the Earth by Trudi Canavan - the newest instalment in the Doctor Who short stories Time Trips series. I'm not convinced it was a brilliant story, but it featured my absolute favourite Doctor (Three), one of my favourite companions (Jo) and was pretty decent, so I was happy. Definitely my favourite in the Time Trips series so far.

And after that I read Killer Frost - the sixth and final book in Jennifer Estep's YA urban fantasy Mythos Academy series. It's a series that I've been intensely frustrated with, mostly due to the writing (the author is incredibly fond of repetition, from endless recaps to using and re-using and overusing the same words and phrases throughout a book) but that also kept me entertained enough to go on reading.

I can't say I was blown away by this final book, but I felt it a fitting ending to the series.

Finally, and as part of my endeavour to cut down on my ent-corpse TBR piles, I picked up Joanna Trollope's modernised retelling of Sense and Sensibility, the first release in the "Austen Project" series of retellings by current well-known authors.

Sense and Sensibility is my favourite Austen book, so I was both curious and somewhat wary. I'm not really sure what the purpose of these modernised retellings is - Joanna Trollope's book was basically a straight retelling set in the 21st century, sticking as close to the plot and characters of the original as the modernisation allowed - but I've read my fair share of fanfic based on the same concept (moving the plot and characters of a book into a different era) before, so I wasn't particularly prejudiced or predisposed to hate it.

Spoiler:

I think - all in all - Trollope did a fair job. I found it a bit hard to suspend disbelief over the central premise (a family of four intelligent and educated upper middle class women, three of them adults, with a mere £200,000 in the bank, wailing about poverty and becoming homeless and not really knowing what to do about jobs or not keen on finding any, just doesn't strike me as likely in England around 2013 - or if it does, I wouldn't be inclined to feel a lot of sympathy for them!), but once I got over that, there was a lot to like about the book.

Granted, most of the things I liked about the book came straight from Austen anyway...

I also felt the book lacked a lot of Austen's subtle humour, which is one of my favourite things about her novels. But it was competently written, and the modernisation felt fairly balanced to me, not going too much overboard but also taking some risks - I've seen some reviewers complain about the occasional use of swear words, the lack of God in the characters' lives, and the idea that pre-marital sex isn't viewed as anything particularly immoral, but all that struck me as completely reasonable given that these are modern young people.

All in all, I'd rate it three stars as opposed to the five I feel Austen's original deserves, but I did enjoy it and I'll certainly give the next Austen Project books a go.

This was interesting to read, thanks I've just recently finished re-reading Sense and Sensibility and I'm about to start the Joanna Trollope version - I decided to read them close together to see whether I could appreciate the parallels between the two. I've been somewhat hesitant to start the latter though for fear that it was absolutely awful but I feel a little less so now!

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Gazella

On my list of "classics to read". I've only read one novel (excluding his short stories) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and that's The Brothers Karamazov. I also plan to read The Idiot.

If you get to any of those before me, post here and let us know what you think about them, please.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by missimpossible

This was interesting to read, thanks I've just recently finished re-reading Sense and Sensibility and I'm about to start the Joanna Trollope version - I decided to read them close together to see whether I could appreciate the parallels between the two. I've been somewhat hesitant to start the latter though for fear that it was absolutely awful but I feel a little less so now!

Looking at the reviews on Goodreads, a lot of people think it was awful.

I think it's going to depend a lot on people's expectations and whether one is predisposed to feel okay about the whole concept or not - if you think the entire idea is stupid, this probably won't be a lot of fun; if you're curious and have no inherent issues with the idea, it should be at least moderately enjoyable, I think.

Joanna Trollope is an experienced, competent writer (I haven't actually read her other books, but she seems to be popular and has been for a long time), so .. writing-wise, while it's not Austen, it came across as a perfectly fine (if not particularly deep or literary) modern novel.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by samhy

Now, I'm going to read Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor.

Originally Posted by samhy

I've just finished One Damned Thing After Another. I really liked it. To me there's room for improvement, mainly in the timeline progression (a four-year gap?!? Come on!!! The main character and her love interest must be the slower in book history then). The chapter nine felt very long.
But apart from that this is a page turner and I've spent way too much time on it today than I should have. For a first book, this is a good one. Oh and I love when the main character is a kick-ass woman
Once my review will be written I may update those first thoughts a little. I would rate it 4 stars.

Finished, and I thought it was a really fun, fast-paced read. I will definitely read more in the series. Thanks for the recommendation samhy.

Now on to Lastnight by Stephen Leather, the 5th in his Jack Nightingale supernatural thriller series.