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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: F&SF, Jan/Feb 2016.

Which was an average sort of issue.

The I read Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson. His second novel about 'Legion', who has imaginary friends. Great fun. I hope he'll write another Legion book.

Next up: A Cruise to Die For by Charlotte & Aaron Elkins. The second in their Alix London series.

[orlok]

Having finally completed the whole Parker series by Richard Stark, I am now moving on to the short (4 novel) spin-off series with Alan Grofield, friend and sometime partner in crime of Parker, as the protagonist. The Damsel is the first of the four, and is only available in DTB format, so that's what I've had to go with. Don't like the fact I can't change the font size or backlight - maybe it needs new batteries?

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

Okay a laugh for everyone the library got back Fiber and Brimstone so I checked it out. Still waiting on Motif for Murder and the person who helped me told me the day before I put a hold on that book the person who borrowed it renewed the check out for an additional 35 days so it might be a while before I get to that book. Now for the laugh. I was reading Fiber and Brimstone and I was 2 or 3 pages in to the book. I tapped the side of the page instead of turning the page. I guess I have read to long on my Kindle. lol

I have gotten to book 11 Gilt Trip in this series and about half way finished. I am really enjoying this series. I will probably never make it down to New Orleans so this series has been a treat for me. I love most all the characters and the plot is great. I highly recommend this author and this series.

Except for book 4 (that I am waiting on from library) I have finished this series. I enjoyed this and I especially liked the recipes and scrapbooking tips at the end lol.

I received an ARC of Baby Girl by Bette Lee Crosby. I have read all books by this Indie author and I have to state she weaves a story that will pull your heartstrings. I have been warned this one is a tear jerker and I need to have tissues handy. I know I will finish this today so I am also going to start Tender Touch by Charlene Raddon. This was republished by the author. Originally published by Zebra in 1994. After Tender Touch I plan on reading the other 4 books by Charlene Raddon, Forever Mine, The Scent of Roses, & To Have and to Hold. All books were published by Zebra and republished as ebook by the author. Updates to come sometime this week.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Cruise to Die For by Charlotte & Aaron Elkins. The second in their Alix London series.

Which was an enjoyable mystery as usual from the Elkins.

Next up: Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, the third in his Rivers of London series of a modern magical police force.

[Dngrsone]

FInished Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T. O'Conner as well as a reread of The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. My daughter wants to read the whole series, but the electronic versions are as expensive as new books, so I pointed her at the Public library.

Perhaps I will get the books, one at a time, in the future, but I am not going to lay down forty bucks for the rest of the series in one go.

Meanwhile, I have started on The Oddfits by Tiffany Tsao.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

Now reading Persuader by Lee Child, 7th book in his Jack Reacher series.

Finished Persuader and a silly mystery, When Good Bras Go Bad by Gayle Trent.

Now reading Naero's Run by Mason Elliott, a freebie that I picked up in November 2015. My niece liked it so much that she quickly bought and read through the others in the series. That's a pretty good endorsement, so I think I'll be reading more in the series. I'm enjoying it so far.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, the third in his Rivers of London series of a modern magical police force.

Excellent stuff. I'm looking forward to the next ones, but I'll save them for a bit.

Next up: Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwall. This was the first published novel, but the eighth in chronological order.

There are one or two internal inconsistencies with the prequels, but fewer than one might expect. Cornwall had clearly put together a rough outline of Sharpe's history already.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I am reading the Japanese classic Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima. Mishima, who was a finalist for the Nobel Prize in 1963, is most famous for his ritualistic suicide in 1970. Confessions of a mask, published in 1949, is the first person story of a man coming to terms with the fact that he is homosexual and his narrative of his life-long masking thereof.

It took me nearly a week to finish this little guy. It was pretty heavy and more than a little depressing. It is hard to read gay narratives where the speaker feels so much self-loathing and helplessness.

Moving on to the 2015 revised and updated version of Betrayal: Crisis in the Catholic Church. The original printing of the book in 2002 inspired the making of the film Spotlight, which was excellent.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next is the second in The Paladin Prophecy, Alliance by Mark Frost.

Fun stuff although the numerous coincidences were making me chuckle. When you need rope suddenly it's there. A flare gun? No problem. I always keep one in my backpack. The story concludes in the next installment but I'll take a break. I've reached my monthly ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός limit. Rated B- [4 stars].

Next is Rhodes (Tom Swan and the Head of St George #5)
by Christian Cameron. I want to finish the 6-part series while I remember the previous episodes.

[Rev. Bob]

I finished Mira Grant's (aka Seanan McGuire's) Chimera, the conclusion to her "Parasitology" series, and am now halfway through The Martian. The movie version of the latter came in Saturday, I watched it Sunday, and I'm enjoying the novel as a deeper, richer version of the story. One thing I did not expect in watching the movie was how moved I was by the use of one specific song as the Hermes approaches Earth:

David Bowie's "Starman."

[Dngrsone]

Finished The Oddfits... meh. Glad I got it for free; not sure I want to continue the series.

Not sure what I will start next.

[charlyee]

Started reading "Tread softly on my dreams".

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwall. This was the first published novel, but the eighth in chronological order.

Excellent. Most enjoyable.

Next up: The John Grimes series by A. Bertram Chandler. I bought these from Baen back in 2007, but I lost track of how far through them I read. So I'll be starting at the first one, and moving on to the next quickly once I remember reading it, until I hit one that I don't remember.

[HarryT]

I've recently completed Stephen Baxter's "Northland" trilogy, which comprises "Stone Spring", "Bronze Summer", and "Iron Winter". As well as writing hard SF, Baxter's written a number of "alternate history" series, of which this is one - and a very good one.

The first book, "Stone Spring", is set about 7000 BC, when sea levels are rising at the end of the last ice age. A woman, Ana, leader of a small community living in the "Northland", which is the area of land now under the English Channel and North Sea, decides to fight the rising sea levels by building a series of flood defences and dykes to hold back the sea, and this small act sets in chain a whole series of historical events which change the entire future history of the world.

The second book, "Bronze Summer", is set 6000 years later than the first, around 1300 BC. The Hittite Empire is collapsing (as it did, historically), but a Hittite queen comes to Northland, the most powerful and technologically-advanced nation in Europe, for aid.

In the final book, set around 1300 AD, Northland now has steam power and a system of railways and steam ships, but something odd is happening to the climate of the world. Can anything be done about it? This is now a very different world to our own. The preservation of the Hittite Empire means that Rome never developed as a world power, and Jesus, sent to the Hittite governor of Judea for judgement, was exiled to the Hittite capital, rather than executed, where he become a prominent philosopher and subsequently entered the Hittite pantheon as a minor deity.

An excellent series exploring how minor changes can result in a completely different path to world history. Highly recommended.

[HarryT]

Finished "Conrad's Time Machine", by Leo Frankowski, bought from Baen in 2002. A very enjoyable story exploring the logical consequences that possession of a functional time machine could bring about. Recommended.

The only mystery to me is the title. There's nobody called "Conrad" in the book, and it's never explained why the book is called "Conrad's Time Machine" . The name never appears in the book itself. Anyone know why it's called this?