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

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by ccowie

Well, there's a lot of lying, alcohol and misery in his books, but they're just so good! I'd highly recommend Mercy Among the Children, River of the Brokenhearted or The Lost Highway.

Sounds like the east coast of my misspent youth

I see those are available at the library

Helen

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Just One Damned Thing After Another is currently free at Amazon US and Amazon UK, and possibly at other Amazon sites.

Thanks. I got I free at amazon.ca
http://www.amazon.ca/Damned-Thing-Af.../dp/B00EUIEKA4

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I have found myself skipping and skimming large sections* of Ashes of Victory which is not a good sign. If it gets worse, I will put it on hold for a while and move on to something else. Either way I will be taking a break from Honor Harrington after this.

*The info dumps seem to be more numerous and longer in the last couple books than the previous ones. Hopefully, assuming I finish this one before I take a break, the anthologies will help me get back into the Honorverse when I decide to continue. I will be following pdurrant's suggested reading order I think.

The info dumps continue unabated in the ones written only by Weber. But not as bad as Ashes. Somewhere I wrote a review that said, basically, that somewhere in that 1000 page book was a good 500 page book screaming to get out.

The books off the main line are definitely better, IMO.

[CharredScribe]

I just finished Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko. Loved it!! Set in Nigeria, focuses on family dynamics, sexual violence, trauma and recovery, with Nigerian political history as a backdrop.

Moved onto Robert Goddard's Set in Stone. One of my favourite authors - I think I have read everything he has every published, but over a period of 12 or more years, so going back and re-reading his earlier books.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by CharredScribe

[...]Moved onto Robert Goddard's Set in Stone. One of my favourite authors - I think I have read everything he has every published, but over a period of 12 or more years, so going back and re-reading his earlier books.

One of my favourites too, and he definitely stands up well to re-reading occasionally. I think I'm missing the last couple of his from my collection, I must rectify that. In Pale Battalions and Take No Farewell are probably my favourites of his, but they're all very good.

[CharredScribe]

Originally Posted by gmw

One of my favourites too, and he definitely stands up well to re-reading occasionally. I think I'm missing the last couple of his from my collection, I must rectify that. In Pale Battalions and Take No Farewell are probably my favourites of his, but they're all very good.

I agree. His plots are convoluted so when I come back a couple of years later, the plot twists sometimes take me by surprise because I've forgotten the story's many dimensions.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by CharredScribe

Moved onto Robert Goddard's Set in Stone. One of my favourite authors - I think I have read everything he has every published, but over a period of 12 or more years, so going back and re-reading his earlier books.

Originally Posted by gmw

One of my favourites too, and he definitely stands up well to re-reading occasionally. I think I'm missing the last couple of his from my collection, I must rectify that. In Pale Battalions and Take No Farewell are probably my favourites of his, but they're all very good.

Has been one of my favourites for many years, ever since I lived in Africa (though he's English, of course, but that's where I found out about him). I only have his latest unread, and have just bought it on audiobook via Audible. I understand it is the first of a two-parter, which I can't recall him ever doing before.

And I think those two you mentioned, @gmw, are also my favourites .

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Next up? No idea. I know I have Peacemaker coming on Tuesday, so I don't really want to start anything major. Maybe an Alice Munro story or two will do?

Well, not an Alice Munro story, but I decided to do a quick re-read of Protector, the previous book in the Foreigner series. I decided I needed to get my head back in Foreigner space and remember who was doing what to whom before I started Peacemaker.

About half way through, and I think it was a wise decision, even though it means it will be a couple of days until I get to Peacemaker. I'm also really annoyed that Peacemaker is not WhisperSync for Voice enabled. Really, folks, this annoys me no end.

[Namekuseijin]

I finished and thoughroughly enjoyed The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster. A novelette first published in 1909, it's the first modern dystopia AFAIK, prior to 1984, Brave New World or Anthem. The poetic prose captured my attention and there's something to be said about the prophetizing skills of Forster, depicting a dystopian society of antisocial iconoclasts living isolated in cubicles comunicating through audio-visual tubes with their "audience" resemble so much these fakebook days...

some favorite quotes in a book where they figure aplenty:

Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.

The tunnels, of course, were lighted. Everything is light, artificial light; darkness is the exception. So when I saw a black gap in the tiles, I knew that it was an exception, and rejoiced.

Your descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain. And in time there will come a generation that had got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation seraphically free from taint of personality, which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine.

highly recommended

[Gronk]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Well, I don't know enough about you to know, BUT if you enjoy reading well written stories with strong women protagonists who think before they act, and you enjoy stories that are character driven rather than action driven, then yes. Extracted from the Amazon description:

At $2.99, it's not costing you a great deal, and might provide an entry point into SF&F that could lead to other character-driven authors.

ETA: Oh, and for what it's worth, my DW who routinely gives me a hard time about my SF reading tastes read all four of the books and enjoyed them. There's something quite compelling about Rowan.

Well, I bought The Steerswoman and I have it next up to read while I'm on the waiting list for The Martian. Interesting since I'm not an SF&F reader at all that I may be reading two of them in a row.

Meanwhile I have just read North and South which was very good and Great Expectations which was also good. I'm two thirds of the way through The Book Thief.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

I finished and thoughroughly enjoyed The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster. A novelette first published in 1909, it's the first modern dystopia AFAIK, prior to 1984, Brave New World or Anthem. The poetic prose captured my attention and there's something to be said about the prophetizing skills of Forster, depicting a dystopian society of antisocial iconoclasts living isolated in cubicles comunicating through audio-visual tubes with their "audience" resemble so much these fakebook days...

...highly recommended

That was indeed a good book, and it sparked quite a discussion in the MobileRead Book Club back in January 2010. You might want to take a peek at that thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...=Machine+Stops

[samhy]

Originally Posted by orlok

Can you confirm the correct title of #2 samhy? I bought #2 from Amazon - A Symphony of Echoes (haven't started it yet).

Vol.2 is A Symphony of Echoes
Vol. 3 is A Second Chance
Both volume number and titles are written on the cover (that is when the cover displayed at the store matches the one on the book but that seems limited to Kobo).

[orlok]

Originally Posted by samhy

Vol.2 is A Symphony of Echoes
Vol. 3 is A Second Chance
Both volume number and titles are written on the cover (that is when the cover displayed at the store matches the one on the book but that seems limited to Kobo).

Thanks. My Amazon copy is the right one .

[samhy]

Originally Posted by orlok

Thanks. My Amazon copy is the right one .

I reckon the issue at Kobo is because at first only vol.1 and vol.3 were available. When the author got in touch with someone to make vol.2 available too, that someone may have mixed up vol.2 and vol.3.

By the way, I just started Divergent since for once I want to finish the book before the movie release (just in case I want to see it on a whim).

[covingtoncat73]

The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein! It is very good so far.

I finished Fever. It was a good novel. I recommend it if you like realistic historical fiction. Anyway, it was a swift enough read for me. I'm glad to be onto something with elements of fantasy now, though.