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

[NickyWithNook]

Books I've read very recently:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Impossible to put down because I had to know what was going to happen, but at the same time improbable and sometimes silly.

Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn. Huge disappointment. Based on a recommendation, I thought this was going to be a story about someone with amnesia and a mental illness who had some huge mysterious trauma in her past I'd find out about, and I'd be held into the story because of how suspenseful it was. However, it was a YA paranormal romance. Yawn.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Wonderful. Loved it. Apocolyptic/post apocolyptic. I guess both since part of the story is during and part is after. I hope it gets made into a movie because I don't like to re-read books but I want to hear or see or something the story again.

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. Really good story about someone born intersexed who is raised as a girl until doctors discover, at 14, that he's really a boy. Lives through a lot of interesting history in Detroit. Long, and I've heard people say it's slow, but I didn't mind the length or pace.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I decided to go for The Saviour by Tony Daniels and David Drake.

I liked this one. There's still a little question of why it took so long to get to the resolution that it did. It seems to me that it could have been done long before, but perhaps there were good reasons (I can think of some myself, but I don't think any were actually given in the story.)

Next up: Another Baen recent publication, Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer.

[HarryT]

Just finished "A Caribbean Mystery" by Agatha Christie, first published in 1964. Miss Marple has been sent on holiday to the West Indies by her novelist nephew, Raymond. The usual deaths ensure, and Miss Marple investigates. An extremely good book - one of the best of the later Christies. Interesting characters, and a good plot. Recommended.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I also started White Witch, Black Curse - the seventh in Kim Harrison's The Hollows series - and am still not quite finished (although should get there today). Quite honestly, spending 12 days on it says less about the lack of reading time and more about my feelings about the book - I could have made time if I was actually enjoying it. So far, my absolute least favourite in the series and a real effort to make my way through. If this was the first or the second book in the series, I'd drop it (and the series); as I've enjoyed the first six books reasonably well and have a bunch of the ones following this one already bought, I felt I should at least finish it, in the hopes that the next books will again be a bit more to my liking.

Finally finished it and yeah, my least favourite of the series and a real chore to read.

I'm not going to give up on the series just because one book in the middle didn't agree with me, but I think I'll take a break from The Hollows for a while.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

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.)

Harry Potter was fun but I have given up on The Grapes of Wrath, just can't force myself to read something I have zero interest in.

I read Equoid by Charles Stross over the last couple days which is an interesting take on unicorns in the Laundry Files universe. It won a Hugo this year too. If you aren't familiar with the Laundry Files, I would probably skip it, until you have read the first 2-3 in the series, but if you are it is a pretty good read.

Next up is Harry Potter 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Should be fun but I will need to take a break after this in order to get ahead of my "something other than fantasy" goal.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I liked this one. There's still a little question of why it took so long to get to the resolution that it did. It seems to me that it could have been done long before, but perhaps there were good reasons (I can think of some myself, but I don't think any were actually given in the story.)

Next up: Another Baen recent publication, Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer.

I'll be curious what you think. I quite enjoyed it, once I got over it being on a completely different story arc.

Originally Posted by CRussel

I guess it's time to do a re-read of the Liaden books, in prep for the new one which should be in eArc form in a month or two. I'll got right back to the chronological beginning, Crystal Soldier. But I'll skip the two trader books this round.

Finished, mostly as an audio book. Now reading and listening to Crystal Dragon. I'm skipping the prelude section, and starting at Chapter 1. I've read that once, and that's quite enough. But the rest of the book was a pleasure, and I hope it withstands the test of a re-read.

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

Finally finished it and yeah, my least favourite of the series and a real chore to read.

I'm not going to give up on the series just because one book in the middle didn't agree with me, but I think I'll take a break from The Hollows for a while.

For me, this series peaked at Book #6. I was really interested in the demon world and its history of creation. Unfortunately the main character becomes less capable as the series progresses. Luckily I read it as an ebook and only my love for my ereader prevented me from launching it across the room multiple times.

[Yapyap]

I started and am already 75% into The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker, one of the three new Twelfth Doctor tie-in novels. I'm not entirely convinced by the Doctor's characterisation but as the book had to be written well before the first episodes of the new series aired, I assume the authors had fairly limited material to work with to get that right. Otherwise it's a perfectly fine Doctor Who novel and I've been enjoying it.

Originally Posted by treadlightly

For me, this series peaked at Book #6. I was really interested in the demon world and its history of creation. Unfortunately the main character becomes less capable as the series progresses. Luckily I read it as an ebook and only my love for my ereader prevented me from launching it across the room multiple times.

Book six was my favourite so far, too - sadly I assumed that meant the series was just getting better as it had properly found its feet!

I already have bought the next four or five books in the series though so I will eventually read on. I hope my poor Paperwhite survives the experience. ;-)

[Apache]

I just finished all three of Jay Worrall's Napoleonic Wars Historical Fiction Series.
I started with Sails On the Horizon and liked it so much I got the other two, Any Approaching Enemy and A Sea Unto Itself. If you like the Aubrey / Maturin, The Hornblower Series and The Richard Bolitho series you should like this one.
I would rate the series 4.5.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/jay-worrall/
Apache

[CRussel]

Interesting. I might give it a try, if and when the Amazon book comes down in price a bit. Or I get a really good Kobo code.

[bert501]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I started and am already 75% into The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker, one of the three new Twelfth Doctor tie-in novels. I'm not entirely convinced by the Doctor's characterisation but as the book had to be written well before the first episodes of the new series aired, I assume the authors had fairly limited material to work with to get that right. Otherwise it's a perfectly fine Doctor Who novel and I've been enjoying it.

I had the same thoughts when I read Silhouette by Justin Richards. It was also a pretty good Doctor Who novel made better by the inclusion of Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax.

The problem was just what you said: it had to have been written so far in advance of the new series to get the release dates to synch up that the Doctor character really suffers. I wasn't that big a fan of Clara in it, either; but she's starting to get on my nerves in the TV show so that may just be me!

[Luffy]

Next up is Harry Potter 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Should be fun but I will need to take a break after this in order to get ahead of my "something other than fantasy" goal.

The entire series really impresses most people who read them. Book 2 is important, but there are fans who take issue with the plot plausibility. Enjoy your read anyway.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by bert501

I had the same thoughts when I read Silhouette by Justin Richards. It was also a pretty good Doctor Who novel made better by the inclusion of Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax.

The problem was just what you said: it had to have been written so far in advance of the new series to get the release dates to synch up that the Doctor character really suffers. I wasn't that big a fan of Clara in it, either; but she's starting to get on my nerves in the TV show so that may just be me!

I haven't yet read the other two (although I want to) but yeah, I can very much see "generic Doctor with some of Twelve's physical characteristics thrown in" being a common thread in all of them.

I actually really like Clara in the new series - I gave up watching new!Who mid-season 6 and only watched the very occasional episode since then, but she didn't impress me at all in the few Eleven episodes with her that I saw. Now though ... I don't quite care for the specialness of her character, but I really feel Coleman has a lot of chemistry with Capaldi and I've been enjoying all Twelve & Clara interaction on screen so far. This is missing from the book, though, although granted, it'd be very difficult to show a similar level of interaction, with the same kind of chemistry, in a book.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Luffy

The entire series really impresses most people who read them. Book 2 is important, but there are fans who take issue with the plot plausibility. Enjoy your read anyway.

This is a reread for me, so I know what I am getting into. As for plausibility - if that's the main issue, well I guess we are ahead of the game.

This is my second time reading them and I read them the first time starting just before book 7 came out, so it has been ~8 years. I haven't even seen all the movies (1-3? only), so I don't remember a lot of the little things.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up is Harry Potter 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Should be fun but I will need to take a break after this in order to get ahead of my "something other than fantasy" goal.

That was quicker than expected. Very enjoyable.

Next up is The Black Echo by Michael Connelly, the first in the Harry Bosch series. I haven't read these before and it was available for immediate checkout at my library. Should be a good change of pace.