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

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Shaman's Crossing, by Robin Hobb. Once again I've tried and abandoned a book by Robin Hobb. I think that's enough.

No idea what I'm going to read next, but I know it won't be by Ms. Hobb.

I love Ms. Hobb's Realm of the Elderling books (beginning with Assassin's Apprentice, which is admittedly a bit slow to start), but I really could not get into Shaman's Crossing at all.

[ccowie]

Had a great long weekend away with little to do, but curl up and read. It was great except for a couple of great playoff games missed.

Anyway, I too finished The Cuckoo's Calling and enjoyed it.

I also read The Last Colony by John Scalzi. This was a real letdown after the first two in the series, which I really enjoyed.

And I read The Martian. My thoughts are pretty much the same as most I've seen expressed here; great book, stupid title. It's like they don't actually want the book to sell.

I'm now reading Hyperion because I've wanted to for a long time, Under Western Eyes for the book club and A Trick of the Light, the 7th Inspector Gamache novel by Louise Penny.

[Rev. Bob]

I've been engrossed in the back of this cereal box...

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I love Ms. Hobb's Realm of the Elderling books (beginning with Assassin's Apprentice, which is admittedly a bit slow to start), but I really could not get into Shaman's Crossing at all.

That was the first one I abandoned.

[HarryT]

Just finished "Death Comes as the End" by Agatha Christie. This was her 43rd book, originally published in 1944.

This is a murder mystery set in Ancient Egypt. This is the only book Christie ever wrote that's not set in the 20th century.

The quiet lives of an Egyptian family are disturbed when the father, Imhotep, returns from the North with his new concubine, Nofret, who begins to sow discontent amongst them. Once the deaths begin, fears are aroused of a curse upon the house, but is the killer closer to home?

The novel is based on some real letters from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom period from a man called Heqanakhte to his family, complaining about their behaviour and treatment of his concubine.

Not one of the Christie's best books, to my mind, but a very interesting read.

This was, as a matter of interest, the first ever "historical whodunnit" and, as such, is the originator of what's now a very popular genre.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I love Ms. Hobb's Realm of the Elderling books (beginning with Assassin's Apprentice, which is admittedly a bit slow to start), but I really could not get into Shaman's Crossing at all.

I've enjoyed all her work EXCEPT the Soldier's Son trilogy. Nevare Burvelle was simply the most annoying turd of a protag I've ever encountered. The plot was fine, the world/culture was intriguing--so much so that I actually finished the trilogy. Hoping against hope that it would all come 'round eventually. But wow!... Nevare just stays turdy the whole way through.

[bfisher]

I finished reading "Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point" by Lewis E. Lehrman
It describes the pivotal moment in Lincoln's career, when he emerges from the chrysalis of a backwoods lawyer and county-seat politician to become a statesman and an orator for the cause of freedom. It took a while to read (30 minutes at a time on a 3.5" phone screen), but probably best digested that way

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Now reading The Chinese Shawl by Patricia Wentworth. This is #5 in the Miss Silver series and I'm enjoying it. That's good, since I abandoned #4 as being hopelessly annoying.

Finished. MUCH better than #4. But enough cozy. Next up something a bit different. I'm trying to decide just what, but I think perhaps it's time to go for something a bit more emphatic than Miss Maud Silver. Either the first of the Posleen series, A Hymn Before Battle, or the first of the Belasarius series, An Oblique Approach.

[bfisher]

The Posleen books are Very emphatic, but I suspect you'll enjoy the Belisarius series more on the long run.

[pinklotus]

I'm reading The Headmaster's Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished. MUCH better than #4. But enough cozy. Next up something a bit different. I'm trying to decide just what, but I think perhaps it's time to go for something a bit more emphatic than Miss Maud Silver. Either the first of the Posleen series, A Hymn Before Battle, or the first of the Belasarius series, An Oblique Approach.

Originally Posted by bfisher

The Posleen books are Very emphatic, but I suspect you'll enjoy the Belisarius series more on the long run.

I was very disappointed in the way he ended the series. The last book's ending as very anticlimactic. I felt like he was bored with the series and just decided to end it.
Apache

[bfisher]

I reread the first few books several times (while waiting for the next), but not the last book (The Dance of Time) - just read it the once.

[DrNefario]

I gave up after the first one.

I've also started Oblique Approach quite a few times - a long time ago - and never got anywhere with it. I think because I saw it as an emergency backup book, from the free library, and the emergency passed.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished. MUCH better than #4. But enough cozy. Next up something a bit different. I'm trying to decide just what, but I think perhaps it's time to go for something a bit more emphatic than Miss Maud Silver. Either the first of the Posleen series, A Hymn Before Battle, or the first of the Belasarius series, An Oblique Approach.

I'd recommend An Oblique Approach

[Gazella]

Currently reading Sabriel by Garth Nix.