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

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I'll certainly drop in a word or two, more if the book hasn't been discussed. Maybe I'll post my review.

It has been mentioned a few times. Nonetheless, I (and I think other science buffs) would appreciate your thoughts.

[pinklotus]

I'm reading The Good Girl by Mary Kubica, a psychological thriller.

[Gazella]

Finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yesterday. It's a smart and fun book. Very funny too, but some people claim that it's the funniest book ever written; a bit of an overstatement, in my opinion. Some of the scenes and remarks in the book did make me laugh but I still think it's an overstatement.

The story itself is very creative and imaginative. The characters were very interesting; Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Veet Voojagig, etc. but we don't get to know a lot about them which I would've liked. I really loved the scenes with the paranoid robot Marvin. He is extremely funny but oh so severely depressed! He's my favorite character in the book

[Luffy]

I just finished The Demon Haunted World. I intent to continue slogging through the other book I've been reading, Persuasion. It's a hard book to read for me. The former book was very nice and I gave it 4/5. Unfortunately, I don't remember a couple of chapters that were the most enjoyable ones for me. Still I remember enough to recommend it.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yesterday...I really loved the scenes with the paranoid robot Marvin. He is extremely funny but oh so severely depressed! He's my favorite character in the book

Love the Paranoid Android. I read all those books as a teen.

I am over 60% through The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. I am really finding myself getting quite wrapped up in it. It is rare, in adulthood, for me to find a book I am desperate to get back to reading but this is one. I wish I still had the energy to read into the night.

I would be done by now if I could sync between the eBook and the eAudio (I got the eAudio from Audible). I COULD do this and did try but this is such a wonderful, complex puzzle of a book, as is typical of Mitchell, that I have a better time following in with text.

[astrangerhere]

I just finished Haruki Murakami's newest Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage yesterday and got a few chapters into F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise.

I started a "book jar" this year where I colorcoded genres via post it note, wrote 100+ books down and dropped them in the jar. It makes me get through my TBR list. If I buy something new, it goes in the jar and has to get in line.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yesterday. It's a smart and fun book. Very funny too, but some people claim that it's the funniest book ever written; a bit of an overstatement, in my opinion.

My opinion's about the same. Frankly, as I've said here a few times, I prefer Tom Holt overall. Very similar style and voice, but still alive and much more prolific; he's written over thirty comedic books, plus a few serious ones. Flying Dutch is a good place to start, but be aware that his last several releases are unlabeled series books. One series starts with The Portable Door and has seven volumes, and the other starts with Doughnut and is currently at three books. Everything before The Portable Door is a standalone, though.

[ATDrake]

Finished Jo Nesbø's The Bat, 1st in his Harry Hole, Dysfunctional Yet Brilliant Serial Killer-Catching Norwegian Sometimes-Inspector series.

After having had this case referenced so much in the further novels as to the one which made Harry's reputation as Norway's sole experienced serial killer-catcher (much to his embarrassment), I was curious to see how things really went down.

And quite frankly, this is not the Harry Hole case you would normally expect.

This was apparently not only the 1st Hole book, but also Nesbø's 1st adult-level novel as well (he also writes kids' books, but I don't care enough to pull up his Wikipedia entry to check the bibliographical timeline if they're even listed). In certain ways, it shows as this read more like a sketched outline of a Harry Hole crime thriller in comparison to, say, The Redbreast, just two books away.

The core elements are in place: the attempted misdirection with the shrinking pool of red herrings, Harry's involvement in the case becoming very personal as someone close to him gets caught up in it, Harry's alcoholic bender* as events get to be too much for him and subsequent snapping not-quite-back-into-shape but enough semblance of one to do his job again, etc.

But their level of refinement and assembly aren't yet up to the standard set for later novels.

The Bat is very meandering, filled with lots of random-seeming stories recited to Harry from Australian aboriginal mythology which are apparently meant to provide insight and motivational Clues towards the case to the Gentle Reader on a meta-level, and Harry himself wanders around a lot initially, ostensibly seeking witnesses and interviewing suspects and whatnot, but the effect of it all is a sense of purposeless ramble before the "real" investigation seems to get underway in the back half.

It was kind of like taking a ride where the driver decides to go on what they describe to you as "the scenic route" and takes you from place to place, absently pointing out a few supposedly interesting features here and there, but then suddenly gets much more focused near the end before heading more directly to the final destination, and you realize they've just been killing time to distract you while seeming to fulfill the agenda you'd asked for, while actually indulging their own†.

That said, there are good moments, with Harry's interactions and growing camaraderie with his local counterparts, a few tidbits about his past which are revealed to the people he befriends, and the differing cultural expectations for Norway and Australia.

Not to mention, you do get to find out how Harry's last name is actually pronounced (which I mostly guessed right based on the most common sound/spelling correspondences for the Norwegian alphabet ), which his internal monologue reminds you is not to be "confused with apertures or orifices".

In the end, the case does conclude, not quite in the manner you'd expect from its occasional mentions in the further books, which give an impression of a much more deliberately personally vindictive level of involvement between Harry and the killer and the outcome. And the whodunnit is reasonable, although the motivation/reasoning behind their actions seem to be much more basic and generic than the more nuanced and complicated backstories of Harry's later cases.

Mild recommend if you're looking to start the series from the very beginning and will consider the quality hit to be compensated by that, or if you've already been following the series and want to get the backstory (or maybe you just really like seeing Australian mythological tales told to Norwegian detectives). I can see why the English translations didn't start with this novel, but one of the later ones instead, although I think that #3 The Redbreast would be a somewhat better jumping-on starting point for the series in terms of understanding the unfolding character relationships and personal developments than #5 The Devil's Star, which they opted to translate first, which admittedly has a better whodunnit case.

* Actually, this reminded me of Bender from Futurama's non-alcoholic bender, as he went "sober" and promptly suffered the consequences (which are similarly dire for robots who use alcohol to fuel their machinery). That same kind of wandering through the city comically knurd out of your mind montage effect.

† Something like this actually does happen to Harry at one point in the novel, from someone who has ulterior motives for doing so.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I started a "book jar" this year where I colorcoded genres via post it note, wrote 100+ books down and dropped them in the jar. It makes me get through my TBR list. If I buy something new, it goes in the jar and has to get in line.

That's a neat idea.

My approach depends on whether I'm dealing with physical or digital books, because the former are harder to tangibly manage. I try to put related books together in my physical TBR pile, so I can pick one up, read it, and go straight to the next without having to hunt for it. Electronically, when I load books onto my Kobo, I classify them by genre, by whether it's an anthology (or short story) or not, and by reading priority. I've got one list of about 25-30 "read soonest" ebooks, and I'll pick one of those pretty much at random when I finish a new book. The next step down is "read soon," which contains all of my unread standalones and the first unread volume in any unread series. The lowest level is "to read," which covers further reading in a series. In addition, with a few exceptions (usually by author), I remove books from my Kobo as soon as I finish reading them. The exceptions are authors who I like to reread and/or recommend to others - and pulling up a sample is one of the best ways to recommend an author.

Thus, to take a recent example, Kevin J. Anderson's released four novels and three novellas in his "Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I." series. I've read the first of each. Not bad, but not "OMG MUST FINISH NOW" material...so book 2 isn't on the shortlist, but the midlist. The second novella is there as well, because after reading the first novella I realized that it apparently takes place before the first book...so the second novella might happen between books 1 and 2 instead of after book 2. (Also, novellas are fairly short, so I tend to bundle them with a full novel when reading.) The rest of the series is in the "to read" slush pile, since I can't get to them before reading these...but once I read these, I'll bump the next of each up onto one of the other two lists, depending on how quickly I want to get to them.

That way, everything stays fairly manageable. The "next one only" rule keeps my lists from being too cluttered, the shortlist gives me several "priority" reading options at the drop of a hat, and if I want something short, I can slide over to the Anthologies list for a standalone short story or a collection of 'em.

That last option is where I've been this month, but with physical books instead of electronic ones. I've been working my way through my collection of alternate-universe Star Trek fiction. I read the second of three linked "Mirror Universe" anthologies back in early 2008, not knowing that it was important to read V1 first. (V1 and V2 each contain three short novels. V1 deals with Enterprise, TOS, and TNG, while V2 covers the Excalibur novel-only series, DS9, and Voyager. Those six works are one big saga, and V3 is a collection of short stories that span the whole timeline, filling in assorted gaps.) I'd been meaning to dig out V2 for a reread before reading the other two, but I finally gave up and tackled those, then read the Rise Like Lions novel that finishes the saga. I skipped over some tie-in DS9 stuff in the process, but I was able to fill in the gaps well enough. From there, I switched over to the three similarly-named "Myriad Universes" collections, which follow the "one book, three short novels" formula but are all independent. I finished V1 last night, so the other two should keep me busy through the weekend. The best thing is that except for the novel, all of these are chunky trade paperbacks, so finishing them makes a noticeable dent in my TBR stack!

I'm not sure what I'll tackle after that, but the final "Hollows" book came out today, so it's a strong contender. Finishing a series always gives a book a little priority boost in my eyes, and since I like the series anyway...

[ATDrake]

Finished Jo Nesbø's Cockroaches, 2nd in his Harry Hole, Dysfunctional Yet Brilliant Norwegian Sometimes-Inspector series.

Like #1, The Bat, this is another one of Harry's cases which actually takes him outside Norway to investigate the murder of a Norwegian citizen in foreign lands.

I wonder a bit if this had been The Plan* when Nesbø originally conceived the series, to have Harry wander around the world solving crime for King and Country in exotic locales, making friends enemies and influencing people (to try and kill him as well).

In any case, from #3 and forward, Harry's cases are firmly grounded in Norwegian soil, and some of the groundwork for that is laid in this, which introduces some of his future Oslo colleagues and opponents.

Like all the Hole books, Harry is decidedly a fish out of water, which is something even more noticeable later in Oslo than in Bangkok, for reasons that hit me when reading the introductory chapters to this, because many of Harry's present and future Oslo cast are often from law enforcement families (several of his co-workers have had a now-deceased father in the force), or are ambitious rank-climbing career policepersons. Whereas Harry's father is a former teacher who doesn't care for his son's atypical job and Harry himself doesn't care for the politics and position-jockeying and favour-keeping payback that high-level police positions entail: he just wants to solve crime, full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.

Anyway, in Thailand, Harry's misfit ways are more easily passed off as being the visiting foreign investigator cushioned by the co-operative locals, just as he was in Australia. This time, he's not The Only Norwegian in the area, as the local expat community appears to be heavily involved, and it was interesting to see the cultural admixture of Norwegians adapted to Thailand, as well as the view of Thai culture (as mostly seen through foreign perspective) itself.

While again, this doesn't quite have the style or deviousness of a typical Nesbø Hole book which would begin with #3, most of the signature elements are there, and it's a more tightly written, densely plotted, and better-unraveled story than The Bat.

I quite liked the local supporting cast in this, especially Harry's half-Thai American-born detective-in-charge counterpart Liz, and the briefly-seen forensics expert Supawadee, and there were interesting bits concerning international law enforcement agreements and backroom politicking on the Norwegian side to keep potential scandals under wraps.

Medium recommend. A solid installment of the series, with standalone appeal for those who might be drawn to the setting or cultural mix, even if not quite representative of what the Hole books get to be like later.

* In an author's note to one of his books or perhaps on his website, I'd read that Aaron Elkins had something similar in mind with his Gideon Oliver, Intrepid Globe-Trotting Forensic Anthropologist series, which apparently was originally intended to be more of an intrigue/adventure thriller series than the bone-handling murder mysteries they ended up being after the 1st book, and that the later Chris Norgren, Intrepid Globe-Trotting Art Forgery Detection Expert series was a kind of revisit to the original idea and did end up being the sort of intrigue/adventure books he'd had in mind to write.

[ATDrake]

Finished Jo Nesbø's The Redeemer, 6th in his Harry Hole, Dysfunctional Yet Brilliant Norwegian Sometimes-Inspector series, which also brings me to the end of it, at least in terms of my now having read all the books slightly out of order.

It was bit weird to have this as the missing link between the two omnibuses which I'd purchased and previously read, as I'd known going in a little about certain broad character fates which were alluded to in the further novels, and was waiting for those occurrences to happen, but when they did, the actual events and their outcomes unfolded in ways I wasn't expecting.

Anyway, this was a very good standalone bridge case between the "Oslo Trilogy" of #3-5 and the Snowman fallout of #7-9. It followed up in a way on the major repercussions of #5, while laying groundwork for #7 in such a way that probably readers who do the entire series in order were pretty surprised at outcomes of certain setups when they finally occurred.

As for this book's own case, it was both very ambiguous and very clever, inverting the series' usual convention of hiding the killer's identity and motive with a taunting 1st person perspective of their unclueful inner monologue, by making it clear upfront who the shooter was after and how they were approaching the target despite the police attempts at protection, while instead shifting the mystery of the crime to who was ultimately behind it and why would they even bother, given the apparent lack of motivation towards that particular person.

There wasn't all that much in the way of character development or thematic resonance in this particular installment compared to certain other books in the series, but we're kind of compensated for that by a decided glimpse into other things in Harry's world, such as the Salvation Army* in Norway, and how certain types of imported workers for hire operate, and the 101 Things A Policeman Can Do, officially or otherwise, to try and catch a killer.

Highly recommended. This is both a good installment to the series which slots well between the two mini-arcs, and a well-done police procedural in its own right. I'd have to say that it just barely knocks #8 The Leopard off the 2nd best Nesbø Hole book spot I'd given it previously.

* It was rather odd to see so much overtly religious content in a Nordic novel, although I've read that Norway does have the highest public religious observance of the Scandinavian† countries. But it's still extremely low compared to, say, England.

† The difference between Scandinavia and the rest of the Nordic countries is best summed up in this cartoon, which provides the most succinct and easy-to-understand explanation of it which I have ever seen.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: F&SF, Sep/Oct 2014 edited by Gordon van Gelder.

Which was an OK F&SF issue. I like most of the stories, and didn't hate any of them. (Sometimes F&SF goes slightly too 'literary' for my taste.)

Next up: The Hot Gate by John Ringo. Third (& last, so far) in the series that started with "Live Free or Die" and "Citadel".

Really enjoying it, so much so that I now only have 60 or so pages left.

[Luffy]

I've read more of Persuasion, and it's a chore to read the rest. But I need the lesser books to remind me of how nice the better ones can be. So I'm going to read the last 15% of Persuasion and then I'll choose another book. Haven't decided yet which one.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

This morning I completed reading Dead Game. Like the two previous Ed Noon mysteries that I've recently read this was a quick and enjoyable noir detective novel that I'd chosen as my September Amazon Prime lending library selection.

Now on to read my freebie for September in the:

program. The one I've chosen for September is the mystery novel, Tunnel Vision by Aric Davis.

I got halfway through Tunnel Vision and pushed it aside for a while. I'd tried reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice a week or two ago and just couldn't get into it. So, for some odd reason I decided to try it again right then and I got really into it this time. I just finished it yesterday, having enjoyed it a whole lot! Yesterday was the day that The Witch with No Name (The Hollows #13) by Kim Harrison became available so I've begun reading it.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up is a complete change of scenery from the American southwest to the extreme north of Canada, Arctic Wargame by Ethan Jones the first in his Justin Hall series.

Arctic Wargame was ok but I probably won't continue the series unless I get it for free.

Next up is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone which was nominated for the September book club and sounded more entertaining to me than The Grapes of Wrath (and arrived from my library first). I still plan on trying the official selection but I really can't build up any enthusiasm for it. (Yes, I know it is supposed to be a top 20 book of the 20th century but it just sounds so bleak. I read for fun, not to be depressed.)